Shredder Blowout

garden behind a fence

Friday I stopped at Office Depot to pick up a paper shredder that was on sale. I happened to browse the PDA aisle, and found a couple deals I just couldn’t pass up. The first was an SD card based Merriam-Webster Crossword Puzzles and Word Challenges. Regularly this used to be $30 or more, it was on blowout for $2.04

The other was Handmarks version of Scrabble for the PalmOS. That one used to be $40, and now it was on sale for $6.01! Such great deals cannot be passed on.

The crossword one is great, but I had to return the Scrabble. The box I had purchased was empty! Very dissapointing. I guess someone had ripped off Office Depot in the past, and noone noticed. It wasn’t a big deal getting my money back, but it was quite a shock when I opened the box!

Pristine Film

St Ann's Academy gate

The photo club has now switched to Wednesday evenings! I am pretty happy about this. It is much more enjoyable for me to get out during the evening and shoot pics rather than on a weekend morning.

This past Wednesday was our latest meeting, and the location was St Ann’s Academy. The grounds there provide an excellent backdrop for photography. The buildings are pristine, and we had an awesome blue sky overhead for some dramatic shots.

I haven’t developed my film yet, but here are my digital pics.

Conditioner Banging

strange sign at the entrance to a marina

As if my last few days at this job aren’t hard enough, Fosters is on the roof installing a new air conditioner. This means a crane in the back lot, vehicles scattered around the parking lot, guys on the roof walking around, guys on the roof grinding, guys on the roof banging away, and guys knocking on the door to check circuit breakers so they don’t get electrocuted. All in all this is a very distracting environment right now.

Scruffy Detector

photoshopped streetlight
You know, in my life I have been fortunate enough to witness stupidity that really makes me think. Just today I was in Thrifty’s buying some lunch supplies, and while I was paying for my groceries, a scruffy looking gentleman walks out. As he goes through the security device, it beeps, and I realized that he had a large backpack on. He heard the beep, and he kept walking. Someone behid the counter called out “sir. can you come back sir”. The guy kept walking right out the front door.

The security device detectors are pretty much pointless to someone who is intent on stealing from the store. In almost all cases, the checkout counter is a good ten feet away (not talking just Thrifty’s here), so someone who is stealing can walk through it, and get out of the building before any staff member can really do anything about it.

In the case of Thrifty’s the guy walked out the front door, then sprinted away. A couple of Thrifty’s staff members chased after him, but he was gone, gone, gone.

Another time a few months ago I was in Sport Chek in the Bay Centre. I was browsing for some pants, and stumbled across a guy stuffing a shirt up his shirt. He knew he had been caught, and pretended to look at the shirt. He was acting very nervous and jittery. I walked away, pretending not to see anything, then went to find a staff member. In a flash the guy had disappeared, and before I could find someone, I heard the detector at the front of the store go off. What did the staff do? Nothing. They didn’t even notice that it had gone off. In a previous visit, after buying some shoes from them, when I walked out, the detector went off. I turned around, went back to the counter, and got the checout girl to deactivate their security device. Dude stealing a shirt gets away unpunished, yet me, the paying customer gets held up.

Their security system punishes their customers, but does NOTHING to stop or slow down people intent on stealing items.

Another time I walked out of the Bay in Mayfair mall, and again the clerk had forgotten to deactivate the tag. Their sensor went off, but I was already out in the mall. I turned around to go back in and realized that no staff member was even looking in my direction. Why bother wasting my time to go back into the store. I kept walking.

The rant is almost over I promise. One more quick little snippet.

While standing in line at Future Shop one day, someone who had just purchased a couple CDs was walking out of the store talking to a friend. Their security sensor went off, but the guy didn’t notice since he was talking to his friend. One of the clerks called out to him asking him to come back into the store, but he kept walking since he didn’t hear anything. The clerk never went after him, and she kind of just shrugged her shoulders. Good security system.

It all boils down to companies punishing their customers who follow the rules, yet are actualy innefective when it comes to punishing/thwarting those trying to circumvent paying.

I could go on and tie this in to copy controlled cds too. I can’t though. I have to go pick up Sue, then go watch the Canucks. Maybe more later though/

Resignation Interviews

a cornerstone

Some news in case some of the readers here didn’t get my email.

This past Wednesday I handed in my letter of resignation to Voice Mobility because I have signed on with NewHeights Software. I am pretty excited to be working for them, and I think it is going to be a great opportunity for me.

I shouldn’t have to say it, but I am sad that I will be leaving Voice Mobility. It has been a great experience being here, but it is time to move on. My last day at the shack is April 28, and I start at NewHeights on May 10. It is bizarre to think that I will no longer be walking into the building at 3318 Oak St. I have been coming to this building 5 out of 7 days for the past 6 years!

This is a very big step for me, and something I am looking forwrd to. I know that I have made the right decision for me. I am at the point in my career where I want to move up in the ranks, and that is simply not possible at VMI.

In an earlier post I said “when it rains it pours”. At the time I was just starting to set up my interviews. Over a period of a few days I had set up 4 interviews. I was pretty stressed about how quickly my time was taken up, and how I would have to miss work time to go to the interviews. Fortunately I was able to schedule the interviews late in the afternoon so that I could go in to work extra early so I could leave early. I was also aided in the fact that the bulk of the interviews were during the week before the Easter weekend, and the office was pretty quiet. I have a couple hours of time to make up still, but I will manage that in the upcoming week.

Sometime in the future I might write about how the NewHeights interview went. That in itself is a pretty crazy story!

Anti-inflammatory Easter

picture off the back deck of the ferry

What a weekend! Absolutely gorgeous.

As I stated last time Sue and I headed to Nanaimo Thursday night and stayed the night at my mom’s place. I always like to stop there and catch up. Even if I have to leave early the next morning, it is great to sit and talk before going to bed.

Friday morning we got on the 10:10 ferry to Powell River. After arriving at the terminal, we parked, and went for a short walk on the beach. Beautiful area. A little strange though. On the beach we saw a half buried dead sea gull, and part of a deer leg (from the lower joint down). Not sure how that got to the beach, but there it was. The crossing to Powell River, is a little over an hour, and was pretty uneventful. Once in Powell River, it was time to work. We headed out to get a load of wood for Sue’s dad. I haven’t split wood in a very long time. It took me a couple swings of the axe to get used to it again. On the way back into town, we stopped at Dairy Queen. That strawberry sundae never tasted so good! Friday night we had a wonderful Easter Dinner, and basically just relaxed after that.

Saturday I went for a bike ride that Andy had set up for me. Rob and I met at a coffee shop, then headed out for a jaunt around Wess Lake. I had brought along my Bullit instead of the Chameleon since I am most comfortable on the Bullit. That was a bit of a mistake. The trails were pretty soft from all the forest debris. Rolling resistance was very high, so when roots popped up, it was more of an effort to get the tank over them. We completed the hard climbs, and when we were on the other side of the lake Rob wanted to take me on one little side trail. We climbed up a fair distance to get to a fun descent. There were a couple nice rock faces to go down, but the real fun one was the rock drop. A nice 4 foot tall jump to a nicely sloped downhill landing. The take off was downhill sloping as well, meaning I just needed to roll up to it, and pull up to launch. Easy right? I took a few roll ups, did a side jump that wasn’t as big, then decided to go for it. As I was approaching the take off I began to realize that this was going to be a bigger jump than I realized. The ground sloped enough to make the jump at least a 5 foot drop from where I took off. Wee! Like I said, lots of fun.

After I got back to Andy and Susan’s, Susan mentioned that Yoshi had hurt himself on his walk. Poor guy had pulled a muscle or something in his right front shoulder. He couldn’t go up or down stairs very well, limped a lot, and had a hard time getting up from a laying position. He got some anti-inflammatory drugs, and soon felt better. It scared me how much he was walking around on it, and no matter how much you try, you can’t reason with a dog. I tried to tell Yoshi that just because he is feeling better doesn’t mean he is actually better, but he just didn’t seem to get it. *sigh* poor dog. After getting cleaned up from my ride I headed to a local bike shop to check it out. Woah, they had some good deals on some parts: Roach Indy FR Leg Pads for $88! Locally they are $110. Too bad they didn’t fit or I would have bought a set. On my way back to the house I could see the Snowbirds practicing over the water close to Courtenay. Very cool!

Sunday was our trip home. After breakfast we took the dogs for a quick walk to the beach, then back to the house, quickly packed and made our way to the ferry terminal. During the ferry ride, near the end, Sue and I were sitting upstairs reading, and I began thinking the fire that was on a ferry a while ago. During that fire the car deck got so hot that the tires on some vehicles popped. I was thinking about the fact that if there was a fire I would want to go down to the truck to get Yoshi. Scary thoughts. A couple minutes later the fire alarm rang. When I looked out the window, the ship was turning sharply to the right. Yikes! Then I noticed a canoe floating out in the water. The crew needed to investigate why this canoe was so far out in the water. The captain came on and explained the whole situation. A couple crew members got into one of the zodiaks, and it was lowered into the water. The zipped off to the canoe to check it out. They suspected that it had just come loose from the shore and drifted out there. The ferry took off and headed to the dock while the zodiak towed the canoe back to shore. A little bit of excitement to an otherwise boring ferry trip.

Sunday night we went for another Easter dinner at some friends.

That was my weekend, how about yours?

Easter Ferry

dirt tracks at the park

Well, today is the Thursday before the Easter long weekend. Sue and I don’t have a lot of plans, but we are going away to her dad’s place in Powell River. I plan on taking my mountain bike, and hopefully ride some trails while there.

We want to catch the 10:10 ferry to Powell River, so tonight after work we are going to drive up to my mom’s place in Nanaimo so that we don’t have too long of a drive in the morning (we would rather sleep in a little on Friday). Ahh, it will be a grand weekend. It even looks like the weather will cooperate with our plans.

Sometime on Sunday we will make our way back to Victoria.

I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend!

dirt tracks at the park

Birthday Police

Fort Rodd Hill interior

I am soooo tired right now. With the time change, the early mornings to work, and other stressing events, I am just wrecked right now. Thankfully we get a long weekend very soon.

This is supposed to be more of a weekend report style post, so here it goes.

Friday night was pretty quiet, not much happened.

Saturday morning was my PhotoClub shoot, which was pretty fun. Saturday afternoon Sue and I went shopping. I spent my birthday money on some new clothes! Yay, spiffy new pants, shirts, and shoes. After shopping it was off to Krista’s for some dinner.

Sunday we were back to Krista’s for a birthday brunch/house warming brunch. Yummy! Good food, good friends, good times! Sue and I went for a short car ride out to Keating, then back home for some sleep.

Monday when I got home from work I found a letter from the Victoria Police Department waiting for me. They want me to attend Traffic Court for an accident I witnessed a while ago. Unfortunately they wanted me at 2pm today (thanks for the advance notice), but I have an appointment at 3:30 that I cannot miss. I called the contact number to say I couldn’t make it, but the number in the letter was wrong. I looked up the right number, but the contact on the letter wasn’t working, nor was he working on Tuesday. I really hope he got my message. Not much I can do about it though, and I feel bad.

That brings us all up to today.

Blue Texture

a light standard on a wall

Saturday was the Photo Club Meeting at Sir James Douglas school here in Victoria, BC. What an amazing day! Sunny, warm, blue skies. Simply awesome. The school has had some modern renovations done to it, and is quite an attractive building. Lots of interesting lines, repeating patterns, and good texture made for a fun shoot. I haven’t developed my prints yet, but here are my digital shots.