The last work day

Been up since 0530, nervous as hell.

Alright then, just two more days ya big woosie

Originally my employment notice had been given for this Friday, the 26th of August. I had figured on having a solid week for moving and settling down in Victoria before school started. Then it was discovered that the people who currently occupy our future home won’t be moving until the very last day possible. The day after that will be taken up by our landlord installing new carpet. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does cut that much deeper into the allocated transition period. All this adds up to a long stretch between my last day of work and moving day. People were telling me that I should spend it camping/hiking, but I’m too stressed out to have planned anything so fancy. I would have just wound up sitting on my ass in front of the computer for 5 days.

Enter my boss: Today he walked into my office and said “I can’t let you leave yet”. This was nothing new, people had been teasing me for the last few weeks about having my ankle chained to the desk… especially as D-day approached and we still hadn’t found a suitable replacement. Turns out he was serious though, the 9 weeks notice I gave just wasn’t enough, and he was promising to make it worth my while if I’d stay on until the 31st. I bargained him down to the 30th, and now I have something to keep me busy next week! Now I'll only spend the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday on my ass in front of the computer... hooray!

The new Buyer/Planner has officially been selected and I begin training him tomorrow. Half of the upstairs sales staff had applied to the internal posting for my position, but we wanted somebody with purchasing experience, even if it wasn’t in the industry. (Nobody from upstairs sales has a frigin clue about how we build things here anyways.) Now I’ve got just 5 days to get this dude all learned-up, comfortable, and familiar with the key materials planning that’s needed to keep things running. If I miss anything he’ll just have to go to my boss or the production planners for help.

Screenshot of the week

It's been quite a few weeks since I had one of these, but I don't much feel like typing words 'n such.

My brother and I with our new characters..... we're cows, and we dance.

I’m an omnivore and I’m okay

The other day I had some great sushi for lunch, but I didn’t get the standard woosie-assed little seaweed rolls, I got the real deal… the salmon Nigiri. For those of us who’s Japanese is a little rusty, that roughly translates to “big chunks of raw salmon”. It was awesome. Not very often do you come across a food that actually tastes like its really good for you, cooked food seems stripped and bleached by comparison.
While I was eating it I felt like a hungry grizzly bear, sitting in a stream and tearing into spawn-running salmon with my teeth and claws. Perhaps the bears are on to something with that diet… if I could only find a reliable source for fresh berries and grubs.

I’ve been having this odd reoccurring dream lately. It’s come back to haunt me at least a half dozen times over the last year… In it I’m sitting in a truck, either my old pickup or the work 5-ton, and the brakes don’t work. Not in the way you’re thinking, I’m not doing 100 kph down a hill with a sharp corner, I’m just trying to stay stopped. No matter how hard I push on the brakes, with both feet even, the truck refuses to stay put. It slowly rolls backwards or forwards on level ground, in a parking lot or at a stoplight. The only way to keep it close to where it should be is to constantly shift from forward to reverse every few seconds, using the engine idle speed to bump it back into position. At one point, with the 5-ton, I even got out to place wheel chocks under the back tires. Nothin, rolled right over them. I’m sure there are all kinds of meanings that can be derived from this. The best one that I can come up with on my own is that I don’t like change (duh). No matter how hard I try to keep things static, the big ol’ truck of my life just keeps on rollin. It’s sad, I know.
One of these nights I’m just gonna take my feet off the brake and stomp on the gas, I bet I could do a lot of damage.

Another weekend well spent

Warcraft, beer, Warcraft, beer, food, Warcraft, weed, Warcraft, beer.

Teamed up with my brother, Spencer and Craig for some great games on Saturday. Then on Sunday we all just took the time to work on our other characters…I leveled my mage from 54 to 56 in one day, even my fellow geeky guildmates were impressed.

There’s been a story going around the WoW community that some dude in Korea actually played till he died. Turns out it’s true, but it wasn’t World of Warcraft that killed him, it was Starcraft. Another great (and addictive) online game, by the same developers. Anyways, this guy sat in an internet café and played for 50 hours straight, only stopping to go to the washroom and catch quick naps. Eventually his heart just crapped out on him. Check it out:

Death by Starcraft

I discovered a quicker/easier way to post pics.... now I'm gonna do it all the damn time

I didn't receive a single fax at my office yesterday morning. It was strange, but I didn't mind the peace and quiet. It turned into a pain in the ass when I started getting calls; suppliers telling me that they had in fact been trying to fax me, but couldn't get through. I pulled out my old fax machine that had been collecting dust in the closet, hooked it up, and faxed myself from upstairs... nothing. Sure enough it's not the fax but the telephone line. The telecom dudes came out this morning to have a look, found a signal at the wall jack but not at the machine. So the cable gets pulled out from behind the cabinet, and here's what we found:



Bloody rodent. I wonder what plastic and copper tastes like to a mouse?

Breaking News: Yankees steal from Canucks

Late last week, in a daring operation that was apparently orchestrated and funded by the state of California, a squad of American troops infiltrated Canadian soil. Their objective, water.
The crack tactical team that was led by those cheesy dudes from the 80's American Ninja movies, crossed the border at night onboard stealth-equipped helicopters. They repelled into the trees just North of Cherryville BC, and rendezvoused with a group of enslaved Scottish engineers that had just surfaced from a freshly dug tunnel. The tunnel, that stretches over 600kms from the Northern edge of California to the Shuswap river, was lined with a massive 22ft dia PVC pipe. Retired ninja actors and muddy Scotts worked together to make the final connections, rerouting the flow of the river below Sugar Lake into the pipe. They then destroyed the old Hydro dam, allowing the lake’s entire contents to drain into the opening.
The tunnel is still defended at this end by the bulk of the Ninja team, all sporting nunchucks and M-16s. Several attempts have been made by local Mounties and the Canadian military to retake the river… but every advance has been repelled by threats from the Americans to override our communication satellites with broadcasted re-runs of 90’s sitcoms Full House and Family Matters.
BC Premier Gordon Campbell was unavailable for comment, citing a previous engagement with a bottle of Rye. However, the office of Prime Minister Paul Martin did release this quote for the press: “They’re Americans, Californians no less, this isn’t the first time they’ve stolen from us... and undoubtedly won’t be the last. But what can we do about it? Complain to NAFTA? The UN? They'd obviously find in our favor, but it’s never made a difference in the past so why should it now?”
Governor Schwarzenegger had this to say about the matter: "I'll be back, for what's left of your hockey players."

Sugar Lake, before and after.

The final act

About a year or so ago... my friend Jeff Fisher was having problems with his computer. First his hard drive went, then the mainboard. The guys at the local outlet were quoting him some nasty figure for what he'd only be using for email and surfing, so I volunteered to build him a budget machine. He shipped his old computer up from Van, I salvaged what was usable, added it to the upgrades, and shipped back a complete unit. When I asked him if he wanted the old parts back he said: "I'd really rather see pictures of it under the wheels of your truck." Fair enough. I never got around to it right away though, and it wasn't until I was readying the truck for sale that I found his old comp again. So here it is, the last goofy-assed, truck-specific thing I ever did with her.

I actually cried for a minute

Tonight I sold my truck.... as a result, I made a conscious descision to get wasted.
Now I'm drunk, stoned, and melancholy... all I've got are pictures to remind me of the 10 years I had with the 'ol girl.
I'll put those pictures up when I'm sober.

Pictures from the long weekend.

The view from the first campsite. As great as it was, we opted to move on to another when the horseflies started outnumbering the mosquitos.

"...it came in through the trees, hovered above the tent, then took off that way."

This old balloon found its way onto a stump near the creek, it was trying to tell us something.

Culverts smoke alot after you toss a few homemade bombs into them.

Spencer and I climbed up Mount Yeoward the next morning. I did take lots of pics, but my old flash card died and all was lost... so here's one of the same view, taken two summers ago.