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Road trip!

A good portion of last week and the weekend was spent driving with Archie. Driving to: Calgary, and Edmonton for vacation and a bit of business. Here are some bullet points about the trip.

• We got lost going there and ended up in Osoyoos, BC. An event like this only happens when you attempt to drive from your house to a hotel in Calgary with nothing but hand written directions taken from Google maps.
• Hotels.ca should do a user interface analysis on their online booking form.
• Calgary is growing. Good coffee shops, good shopping, good people but the Dennys on Calgary trail gave me a stomach ache (and their water tastes kinda weird). Note: Stomach ache’s during a 3 hour drive to Edmonton will only expedite your trip to 1 hour 45 minutes. Thanks Sarah.
• Red lobster + Marble slab ice cream + Starbucks coffee = I’m not exactly sure what but whatever it is, it isn’t good.
• West Edmonton Mall is still huge and pretty much the same except they’ve replaced the dolphins with seals.
• Kingsway Mall is g.h.e.t.t.o. Arch and I spent 5 minutes inside and decided that the 20 minute drive to West Edmonton Mall was well worth it. During the 5 minutes inside, we counted at least 15 kids who could be mistaken for prostitutes (both boys and girls).
• People look at you weird when you buy 20 bottles of Saw Mill steak sauce.
• You can be certain that a 12 hour drive back home will suck, when you’re already bargaining/begging/threatening to take the plane on the first half hour of the drive.
• We did eventually get home safely.

Pictures will be up soon.

9:39 am 6 Comments

Ummm… awkward!

I always have trouble with giving feedback. Especially when the feedback isn’t exactly… how you say… pleasant. I find myself struggling very hard to sugarcoat it.

See, I’m the type of person that falls back on humor to cover up very uncomfortable situations. This worked really well when I was younger and less bitter. Now that I’m older (and jaded), I find that my sense of humor has gotten a lot darker. This doesn’t really work out in my favor in most cases.

Let me explain:

Me: Actually I have to say that its been a pleasure working with you on this trial period but I don’t think that you’re suited to be in our area. I could, however, recommend a few other areas that your skills would be perfect for.
Other person: But. I’m totally qualified for it. I mean, I edit all my html pages in Microsoft Frontpage.
Me: Yea, I’m sorry but I don’t think it’s going to work out.
Other person: …
Me: Hey! Look at it this way. This morning I ran over a squirrel and I heard thunder and lightning the second it happend. Now, I think God hates me and will probably be banished to the eternal depths of hell. At least you’re not me. Right?
Other person: ??

See, I’m trying to give some meaningful feedback about a person (at work). My first reaction is to put: Person is a bit slow on the uptake. The person also requires you, as the another person communicating with them, to repeat concepts and ideas continually to the point of Laryngitis. It’s not pleasant and I’d rather sit here and claw out my own spleen using my own dull fingernails. Actually, my work stress counselor said that I’ve developed a phobia of talking to/interacting with/being around other people because I’ve worked with this person for the last 2 years. It’s only been recently that my anxiety of coming to work has gone away but I believe that I’ve incurred some irreversible mental damage.

Any rewording suggestions?

3:32 pm 5 Comments

Update: 06-12-2006

I guess I’ve been neglecting this blog for a bit. It isn’t for lack of trying though but in all honesty there really isn’t much happening that is interesting enough to post here.

Let’s see. I could talk about my house renovations in progress. However, carrying computers from one room to another isn’t as interesting as say… Watching spam e-mails arrive into your inbox.

I could talk about the ever so important Web 2.0 phenomenon.. Complete with gradiants, rounded corners and yellow fade techniques. That would completely bore anyone to death. And why would anyone read my opinion, when you can totally read Zeldman’s (I was so into that dude before you were).

No new toys either.

So I’m leaving it up to you, the readers of this site, to dictate what I’m going to post about next. What do you want? Anime reviews? Hair pics (I’ll even get a haircut), body shots? Mom posts? Code snippets (oh god please not this)? A story about that smelly guy I sat with on the bus (I’ll have to hunt this one down, since I don’t take the bus. But look at the lengths I’m willing to go through here). Or how about a story that I’ve somehow repressed from my childhood? Lemme here your ideas, post it in the comments.

11:37 am 4 Comments