Life

Life is defined as

The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.

The characteristic state or condition of a living organism

Sit and ponder that definition for a bit while I go and grab a coffee…

Life can throw us some fairly interesting curve balls sometimes. I sometimes sit and ponder why people make things so difficult. You have an employee sitting at his desk in an office building. He is working on something that needs to be finished by the end of the day. Already this person is in a state of stress as they try and accomplish their task. An email arrives from their boss stating there will be some restructuring in the orgainziation. Stop. Now that employee is unable to concentrate on the job at hand. They sit and ponder the email and think of all the other people in the office who also stand a chance of losing their jobs. There will always be change in any organization. There will always be people who are let go due to cost reduction based on the economy. People take news like this as the END of life as they know it. Will that person be able to find a new job? Nobody knows; it depends on so many factors you can never say yes or no with all certainty.

The company I work for is going through some changes as well. They are implementing new policies and changing the structure by which we work. There are a LOT of changes happening and quite a few coming. Everyone’s first impression is layoffs. People always think the worst of things which leads to mass chaos around the office. Even if one person takes that home with them and loses sleep, they effect the team as a whole. Employees who stand around the water cooler discussing changes in policy are causing more and more grief. Speculations are made and rumors are started. Next thing you know Lucy Lu over in accounting is getting the axe because forgot to put the new cover letter on the TPS report. Oh, and she all of a sudden has 5 kids to feed because her good for nothing husband left her last year.

Life…

Bringing your work life home with you is a dangerous game. I have a difficult time with this as my work and my home are somewhat related. I am the primary money maker in my family and if my job is affecting me, my home feels it. I try to leave as much at work as I can, but we’re ALL human. I’m reminded of a story told about a man who came home from work every day and hung something on a tree outside his house before going inside. He did this everyday; but when someone went to examine the tree, there was never anything there. In the morning the man would goto work and pick up the “invisible” thing he left on the tree. When the man was finally asked what he was doing, he replied simply “I’m hanging my worries and cares from work so I don’t take them home with me". So many times we let those cares and worries creap into our homes. I can honestly say first hand, it isn’t good for the family life.

So what is the answer?

There is no answer! Each and every person is different. We cope differently, we adjust differently and adapt differently to situations around us. Joe Samson over in Sales may find out about the layoffs and go home and kill himself. Lucy Lu will go home and have a nice meal with her boyfriend (who has NO kids by the way) and forget about it all until the next day. Everyone is different and nobody is perfect. I am not qualified to give advice, but I can tell you from my personal experience something that can really help to cope with these issues. Everyday when I get home from work I’m greeted by my family. To see my children look up at me and smile those big smiles means more to me than anything in this world. My wonderful wife who I love so much, has always been supportive of my work woes and has always lended an ear when I needed to talk. I apologize to them all the time for acting too stressed or too tired after getting home. Having someone to talk to REALLY helps when you’re feeling down. If things are going bad at work, talk to a friend or a loved one. It makes a HUGE difference when you talk to someone outside of the situation. After you try and explain the situation to them, you realize that maybe 50% of the “rumors” floating around the office are true. You begin to analyze the facts based on the gossip and you will eventually figure out the truth. Lucky Lu can’t possibly have 5 kids, she’s only 25 years old, she has never talked of them and she has NO pictures up in her cubical.

Not much of a rant, just expressing my thoughts and ideas digitally to the world as I see them. Family will always come first in my life and I will never let that change.

Cheers,

Al

Bad Weekend

So this past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. It’s hard to imagine how such a “thankful” time can turn out so bad. I had a lot of hopes/wants for this weekend, but everything took a turn for the worst.

I won’t get into the gritty details, but my problems this weekend had to do with family and the lack thereof over this special holiday. For starters, there seems to be a LOT of debate on when Thanksgiving day really is. Let me put it to rest:

On January 31, 1957 Parliament issued a proclamation to fix permanently the second Monday in October as “a day of general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.“

So my family was right, and I was wrong :) Not the first time and won’t be the last. Growing up we had always celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday. This would give us time to rest and relax on Monday. This is more of a family tradition and not (come to find out) a common one. My sister threw a nice thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and my wife and I went over to partake. My kids were at the mom-in-law’s place despite my want to have them with me that day. The kids love their grandma and I didn’t have the heart to tell them no. A mistake I won’t make again.

One thing led to another and everything ended in a pile of miscommunicated misunderstood shit. There were a few hurt feelings and a lot of empty bellies. Basically, shit hit the fan and everyone was caught in the spray.

A lot of hidden “secrets” were brought out and a lot of revelations made. Yesterday (Monday) we spent the day together as a family. We played, we laughed and made up for missed time on Sunday. I still feel this weekend was a total disaster, but I’m thankful it happened. This year, I was thankful for the truth coming out and the feelings being shared. It will help a lot in the future.

Cheers,

I want GMail

Funny, I don’t even care if I get a GMail account, I just want one because I can’t have one :)

For those who don’t know, Google has setup a new service call GMail. Like HotMail and the other web based mail services out there, GMail is offering it’s customers 1GB webspace. Unfortunatly it’s by invite ONLY and this loyal google user didn’t get one. Each person who was invited to sign-up on Gmail was given 6 invitations to give to friends. SOOOO.. if you have one you wouldn’t mind parting with (hint), drop me an email at ralic -at- shaw -dot- ca and I’ll give you the info to set me up.

I want GMail!! :)

Getting Cable

Cable Internet that is :)

Up until recently I’ve been a DSL subscriber with our local telephone company. I have rarely had any issues with them and their speeds have been fairly fast and consistant (or so I thought). I spoke with a friend of mine at work who has been using cable internet for a number of years and was telling about this new “Extreme” internet package. Up until last week, I was unaware the cable company provided static IP address with their internet (something I need to host). Their prices at first glace were quite disturbing, but after putting it all together and bundling it with my current cable bill, the price difference is on $2.00.

The quick and dirty:

DSL
2.5Mb Download
1Mb Upload
20Gig transfer limit/month
2 Static IP addresses

Cable
5Mb Download
1Mb Upload
40Gig transfer limit/month
2 Static IP addresses

It doesn’t look like much, but when you consider I’m at 2.5Mb right now and I’m getting (on average) 50-100KB/sec download there is a big problem. I’ve polled several friends of mine who are on cable internet and they average around 200KB/sec transfers when download. On good nights, they get 400KB/sec +

I do a lot of hosting on my system. Currently I host 11 domains and 36 websites. My need for speed is great :) The cable internet will be connected today. It will take a few days to propigate the DNS across to the new IPs. Once the switch is made, I’ll be making a phone call to my phone company and cancelling my DSL. I will be doing a lot of tests over the next few days. I want to compare the speeds and get some benchmarks down. I’ll post here when I get all the data collected :)

Cheers