Friday, July 29, 2005

v8.9 - Leaving on a Jet Plane

Morning Folks,

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No, I''m not taking a trip, but my mind is on Jet Planes today because my Sister and her family are taking off to visit family and friends in the East.

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Thursday, July 28, 2005

v8.8 - Smoke and Mirrors

Morning folks,

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Another day is apon us, another day behind us. Today is the day we do things that make us famous!

Or if you''re like me, you are holding your breath waiting for this day to be done and a new one to begin.

{slurp}I'm sure many of you have heard the comment "Smoke and Mirrors". This is typically used when talking about a magician performing tricks. I don''t claim to know all the secrets in magic as there are many things I have no clue how they are done. I''m pretty sure, somewhere along the way, smoke and mirrors will be used to trick the viewer''s eyes and create the illusion of magic.

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Some of us use this phrase in our jobs. You have some higher up managers drop by your office to have a chat with your team. They give you the warm and fuzzy feeling inside that only a parent can give to their child. Patting you on the head telling you what a good boy or girl you have been. Problem being, corporate executives are not my parents and I am not their child (despite what they seem to think). You pat me on the head and tell me I''ve been a good boy and you''ll be lucky if I don''t wrap your arm around your neck two times before performing some 80''s wrestling move on you (back when I used to watch it).

I hate managers more than I hate anyone. They are very good at using the preverbial smoke and mirrors everyday to put a smile on their employee''s faces and create unity and harmony among the little folk. Makes me sick.

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I heard a joke a long time ago which sums up how I feel exactly.

A corporation is like a big tree full of monkies. The Monkies on the top (Managers, Executives, etc) are looking down the tree at the company and see nothing but smiling faces. The monkies at the bottom of the tree (the regular Joe employee) are looking up seeing nothing but ass holes.

True, so true.

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I have often sat and thought about what I would do if I was ever offered a management position. I''ve talked with my boss about this as well and everytime it comes up, I respond with a Never. There is no way I would ever want to be in my boss'' shoes. If he was ever let go and the company picked me to take his position; I would resign. I''ve seen the stress of his job and have heard a lot of horror stories about how difficult it is to do something things like hire a new employee.

A couple VPs were in the office yesterday to give us the nice warm and fuzzy treatment. Yeah, they made us feel good for awhile, but it didn''t take long for reality to set in. One of the comments made was to let us know how we are growing. Since the start of 2005, my company has hired over 1,000 new employees. 1,000!!! My first reaction was to say who cares. 1,000 employees could be damn near anything.

"We hired a team of sanitation engineers to work in the office during the evening hours. We are very excitied about this prospective new team who will be joining an organization near you."

I look at our own team and see one new hire since January 2005 and we''ve lost 6 people. I don''t know about you, but that just screams something bad is coming.

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Anyway, smoke and mirrors is something we do everyday while at our jobs or at home. Smoke and Mirrors is nothing more than an illusion to hide the reality behind something. When you are at work, you find ways to do things that are not work related but you make it look like you''re working. This is the same as being a magician using smoke and mirrors.

You go home at the end of the day and you stub your toe on a piece of wood. Your child is sitting there watching and you yell out FUDGE!! Smoke and Mirrors again. We constantly hide the truth behind something else. Whether you are unusually chipper in the morning when inside you feel like a bag of shit, or when you''re at work and you smile for all your bosses but *censored* about your job in a musing or at the water cooler. Bottom line, we use smoke and mirrors every single day.

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Well folks, I need to run for now. Think about what I said. Try to find circumstances in your day-to-day life where you use smoke and mirrors. I bet you will be very surprised to see the results. Give yourself a pat on the back, you are a great magician. :)

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Cheers,

Al

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

v8.7 - I'm a Musin'

Morning Folks,

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Granted it isn''t morning for some of you anymore, it is still morning here. :)

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Monday, July 25, 2005

v8.6 - MOVED!!

Morning folks,

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Apologies for the late musing today. We ran into some issues on the weekend with my internet move and I
was without internet until early this morning. I''m back now, and ready to muse a short musing for you all.

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Friday, July 22, 2005

v8.5 - Noobs

Good morning folks,

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IT''S FREAKIN'' FRIDAY!!!

I''m excitied about it being Friday today. For starters, we are getting the keys to our new place as soon as I can get the hell out of here. Secondly, I don''t have to come back to work until Monday. Isn''t that great??!!??

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Thursday, July 21, 2005

v8.4 - Now for something a little different

Good morning folks,

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It is Thursday and I''m just about done for the week. All this packing and moving the last couple weeks has really started to take its toll. On the up side, it is good to get some exercise and feel like I actually accomplished something. On the down side, I''m much more tired out and I don''t sleep well as it is. This makes getting up in the morning much more difficult.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

v8.3 - Ground Control

Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom:
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom: Commencing countdown engine''s on
Check ig-nition and may God''s love be with you

This is ground control to Major Tom, you''ve really made the grade!
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear,
Now it''s time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to ground con-trol, I''m stepping through the door
And I''m floating in the most peculiar way
And the stars look very difeerent today

For here am I sitting in a tin can, far above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there''s nothing I can do

Though I''m passed one hundred thousand miles, I''m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go,
tell my wife I love her very much she knows

Ground control to Major Tom:
Your circuit''s dead, there''s something wong.
Can you hear me Major Tom?
Can you hear me Major Tom?
Can you hear me Major Tom? Can you ...

Here am I floating round my tin can, far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue and there''s nothing I can do

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Monday, July 18, 2005

v8.2 - Finger This

Morning folks,

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This morning''s musing may have a few added typos in it as I sliced my finger over the weekend and this damn bandage is getting in the way. If it wasn''t for the fact I''d get blood all over my keyboard, I''d rip the thing off and be done with it. :)

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Friday, July 15, 2005

v8.1 - Proverbly

Morning Folks,

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It is finally Friday and the whole world rejoices! YAY!

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Wednesday, July 13, 2005

v8.0 - Musing in vi

Morning folks,

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Trying something a little different this morning. I decided to write today''s musing in vi so I could save it as I go. This way, if my laptop crashes (like I think it will) I won''t lose my entire musing.

{slurp}', 'Well, this morning I''m quite tired. Last night our house was an oven and despite having a fan in our bedroom, we were still sweating all night. I ended up taking the blankets and throwing them off the end of the bed sleeping in nothing but a smile. Let me say, I love when it is nice outside except when it doesn''t allow me to sleep.

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The family and I are busily getting ready to move. The packing has been well underway since the first of the month and we have been cleaning and getting things semi-ready for when we are able to move in. I was talking with my oldest sister last night about the whole moving thing and how I''m looking forward to move and not looking forward to moving. My landlord-to-be seems like a real nice guy who was recently married and moved to Vancouver. We have been dealing with him over emails and telephone to get the lease agreement filled out and signed and dealing with his father here in Calgary.
Let me say, this experience has proven to be the most "interesting" experience I''ve had renting a place yet.

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It all started about a week ago when I had sent an email off asking if he had an eta on when we could possibly move in. I would like to be able to schedule mail forwarding and utilities as soon as possible as well as schedule the truck for moving before it gets too too late in the month. He replied back asking us if we would mind doing the painting and cleaning of carpets at the new place so we
could move in earlier. I had to read his email 3 or 4 times to make sure I read it right. I promptly replied back stating we didn''t have the time to dedicate fixing up our new place as we were in the process of cleaning and packing at our old place. That and the fact I work all day and Katie works some in the evenings. He was understanding and said he would get someone in there to do the jobs
needed before we moved in. This was a little weird, but I shrugged it off.

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The people who lived there prior, left the place in quite a mess. For starters, they didn''t even take all their stuff. They left the place dirty and there was a wall that needed some repairs done to it. Among the items left behind were lots of baby stuff (car seat, swing, toys, etc) and nice 32"
or 36" television. Yesterday morning, Katie gets a call from our landlord''s father asking us if we
would mind coming down to the place and helping him get rid of the stuff left behind and we could take our pick of anything left over to keep. My first thought was that TV, however, I then thought about how these people left and how they haven''t come back since to pick up their stuff. My first thought after that was these people coming to our place after we moved in and asking where their stuff
was. Of course, the last thing I need is to have these people show up looking for their things and
seeing them in OUR place. We promptly told the father we didn''t want any of the stuff and we just didn''t have the time to come down there and help him clean out the place. You can bet I was a little taken back by the request. Never in my 11+ years of renting have I ever heard of a future landlord asking for help to clean and fix-up a place before moving in.

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Later that day he called back asking us if we wanted to buy a spare TV he had. When Katie told me about the conversation, the first thing I thought was he was going to sell us that TV he took from the place. He said he payed $700 for this 27" television and would sell it to us for 1/2 the price.
I''m not one to be rude, but we bought our last 27" television for under $300 with tax and had no intentions of spending $350 on another one when we already have 3 televisions in our house. Not to mention my PC has a TV tuner card which I can watch television on my 22" monitor.

All in all, it has been a very interesting experience for us. Now you can understand why I''m looking forward to the move but not looking forward at the same time.

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So I fired up DAoC last night. I won''t say it was a grand experience, but I did make it to level 6
on my noob Skald before logging out. The game has lost all the fun it once had for me. However, being able to play with my wife is a little more important than the game at this point. I will still
keep my WoW account as I''ve found it a great way to get rid of stresses and take my mind of the DAoC anger. :) Seriously though, DAoC does make me angry. I know people have been dealing with the game for years and I''m sure someone out there is telling me to /cry more noob. Bottom line it all comes down to having fun and enjoying the game. The first thing I noticed when I went back to DAoC is how slow everything was. The characters moving around were slow, the swinging of weapons is slow and everything seems to be so boringly slow. I''m a huge troll fighter with 110 strength to start. I have a 1 handed axe and I swing it every 2.5 seconds. Ok, I have a pretty good sense of time and there is NO way that is 2.5 seconds swing time; it is more like 4 seconds. Does it make that much difference? You bet it does! In WoW, the game moves fast. I don''t sit there and slug my way across a
zone to get to a place. The zones are much larger in WoW and you could get from one end of a zone to the other in the same amount of time it would take you to do it in DAoC. I like the animations of WoW a LOT more than DAoC.

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I won''t get into the pros and cons of DAoC vs WoW right now. I will state that I feel WoW is a much better game than DAoC despite its flaws with end game and the PvP system. For now, I''m leveling another toon to 60 and am having a total blast playing. I don''t know what the future brings, but if I can seperate my time between the two games (WoW for me and DAoC for Katie) I''ll be happy.

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So it''s Wednesday. Here is a little copy paste on the history of Wednesday for you useless facts database.

Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. The name comes from the Old English Wódnesdæg meaning the day of Woden, commonly known as Odin in Modern English. The astrological sign of the planet Mercury represents Wednesday, which was Dies Mercurii to the Romans. In English, this became Woden''s Day, since the Roman god Mercury was identified with the Germanic god Woden in northern Europe.

When Sunday is taken as the first of the week, the day in the middle of the following week is Wednesday. Correspondingly, the German name for Wednesday has been Mittwoch (literally: "mid-week") since
the 10th Century, having displaced the original name: Wodanstag.

Wednesday is also in the middle of the common working week from Monday through Friday.

In the popular rhyme, "Wednesday''s Child is full of woe".

In Spanish, miércoles is used to mean Wednesday, but also as a semi-rude euphemism for never ever.

An English language idiom for Wednesday is "hump day", a reference to making it through the middle of work week as getting "over the hump".

Quakers traditionally refer to Wednesday as "Fourth Day" eschewing the "pagan" origin of the name "Wednesday".

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Ooooo, interesting. :)

There is a little story and a little trivia for your Wednesday musing. I''m going to bid you all a fond farewell for today as my counterpart is having car trouble and won''t be in on-time today. I hope everyone has a great day.

{slurp}

Cheers,

Al

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

v7.9 - My Desk

Morning folks,

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How is everyone doing this fine morning? Myself, I''m doing great. Made it to work on time, got a good nights rest and not feeling too shabby. Katie and I have been packing and cleaning and packing and cleaning for the last couple weeks. You wouldn''t believe the stuff we''ve "found" tucked away in the oddest places in our home. Hell, we even found an old Grill Cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary on it tucked behind one of the base boards. I plan on eBaying it to see if we can make some extra cash to afford this move. :)

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Thursday, July 7, 2005

v 7.8 - Extreme

Morning folks,

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Happy Thursday morning to you all. I''m looking forward to tomorrow being over already. :)

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Wednesday, July 6, 2005

v7.7 - Sleep is for the Weak!

Morning folks,

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No, I''m not late this morning. In fact, I was a wee bit early this morning due to the fact the other guy that starts at 6am isn''t in for the rest of the week. That means, if I''m late and miss a call, my boss hears about it.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2005

v7.6 - We''re Moving!

Morning Folks,

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The title says it all this morning; the family and I are moving! We found this great place in South Calgary that is perfect for us right now. Granted it is still renting, it is a bit cheaper rent than what we are paying currently and for so much more.

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