Monthly Archive: August 2006

Open paths, closed paths

Categories:

Sat. August 19, 2006

The job hunt continues, though I don’t think that I’m going to make my self-imposed deadlines. Well, such is life. Then again, I’ve only started increasing the intensity of the search recently, so I’m not expecting immediate results.

It’s all given me cause to reflect on the paths I chose during my studies. Comp Eng has a lot of paths you can focus on. I tried turning my focus to low level electronics. I thought it would be a good field for me, however, I seriously didn’t enjoy it. I disliked the amount of math associated with the communications courses, so I avoided that series of courses. I tried one of the controls courses, but I didn’t do so well. In the end, my focus was on software and computer structures. I don’t regret because I think taking other courses would have increased my stress level to horrible levels, which says a lot considering I was already rather stressed with the courses I did take.

Anyway, my choices back then are affecting what I’m capable of applying to. A lot of adults I talk to are asking whether I’ve gotten a job at RIM yet. Well, I’ve applied, but that was quite a while back. I don’t think I’m suited to that company anyway. It seems that the majority of the classmates that found jobs there took those comunications courses that I didn’t want. Oh well–company’s loss, you know. Same story for those big-wig hardware companies. I don’t think I have good chances with them either.

So, I guess that leaves software jobs, but to be honest I’m not sure how I feel about doing programming for a living.

Well, life will take me where I need to go, you know? Just takes a bit of time.

Tags: , ,

Leave comment

Air conditioning as a luxury

Categories:

Thu. August 17, 2006

Ever since moving into this new house, we’ve certainly been somewhat spoiled when it comes to some things that we didn’t have before. In particular, I’m thinking about air conditioning. Back in the apartment, as well as the old house in Brampton, my family basically sweat out the summer months. We were fine with electric fans and the like: we had to be.

Anyway, we’re being reminded of the fact that air conditioning is a luxury. Somewhere in the system, there’s a disconnect of some sort. When we turn on the system, no air comes out of the vents. It took a while before my father believed that the system was down. The thermostat was reading 30 degrees in the house, but he just kept on saying “don’t worry, the air conditioner is on”. I tried sleeping directly under the electric fan in my room, but any part that wasn’t in the trajectory of the fan started sweating. It a few sleepless nights before I made a big fuss. So, here we are waiting for the repair man to come in. That’s spoiled.

Tags:

Leave comment

Wouldn’t change a thing

Categories:

Mon. August 14, 2006

I was talking with a friend over some of the things I’ve written on this blog. I guess, after all of the reflection, I can say a few things for certain. Firstly, I need to confirm that, yes, I may have a few regrets. Some things could’ve been handled better. Or perhaps, I wish I’d found the courage to do some things I’d avoided in the past. However, if my past as is forms the sum of all that I am now, then I can say that if given the chance to relive my life to this point, I wouldn’t change a thing. Any more or any less would just not be me. This is who I am.

This post has no tag

1 comment

Coffee cake

Categories:

Sat. August 12, 2006

Who knew that coffee cake generally didn’t have coffee in it?

Tags:

4 comments

Caving in

Categories:

Thu. August 10, 2006

I admit it. I caved.

This whole unemployed thing is starting to get to my head. There are days when I just sit at home lying on the couch doing nothing but watching the Food Network. It’s kind of harsh. I’m making some attempts to find a job. A few days ago I applied to a TELUS job, but they haven’t contacted me yet–and to be frank I doubt that they well. There was a lack of engineering jobs listed. I applied for the one that seemed to need the least experience. In the end, what I have doesn’t seem to be enough.

Earlier today, I was thinking of companies that may have openings. My thoughts eventually turned to my old company. Yeah, that one: the one that I’ve worked at for the longest time. I browsed through the careers section, and found a job marked as “junior”. If that doesn’t scream “new grad position”, I don’t know what does–well, except for those that have “new grad” in the title.

I filled out the online application form, but before I hit sumbit, I agonized over whether I wanted to work there. My heart was saying no. The few months that I’ve worked there, I was treated like an intern without much importance. I was lonely and felt unnecessary. I complained about not having enough to do and that my mind was going to waste. Is that something I wanted to return to? Well, all things considered, as a full-timer the dynamics would be vastly different, right? Anyway, I did decide to hit submit. However, as I did, I covered my eyes and screeched out loud like I was being tortured to do so.

Worst case scenario, they won’t call me up for an interview. Though it would be bad as well if I was interviewed and I didn’t get the job. That’s all part of the process though, isn’t it?

3 weeks to go before the end of the month. I wonder if I’ll meet my goal.

Tags:

Leave comment

Fat spam

Categories:

Tue. August 8, 2006

I haven’t had Spam in a long while, so upon seeing the can of the stuff on the kitchen counter I went ahead and fried it up. I kind of regret it now. After starting, I looked at the label. It was the light variety of the….”meat”. However, 1/6 of the can contained 12g of fat. Holy crap. So, if you end up eating the whole thing, that’s 72g. Now, since it was already being cooked, I figured that I might as well eat it.

Now, there’s not much of it there. I mean, it’d be easy to eat the whole thing. It doesn’t feel ridiculously heavy, you know? Still, this meat is no part of a healthy diet–not even part of a semi-healthy diet.

I didn’t eat the whole thing. I passed a few slices to my parents. Even so, I feel guilty now. The scent of spam is stuck in my clothes as a reminder.

Tags:

1 comment

Undergrad: Winter 2005

Categories:

Mon. August 7, 2006

**Winter 2005**

This period was yet another work term. This was my 7th, which is already beyond the 6 that most people got. For whatever reason, I decided to tick with my old company, making it four periods that I will have spent at the place. That’s too long to be working in one place, let me tell you. However, I’ll be honest, the big reason that I stuck around there was the ridiculously high pay. It’s not the top (I think Altera paid a big load higher), but it generates oohs and aahs when it comes up in conversation. Of course, the pay came at a price.

In the past, I’d already bitched and complained about working there for so long. Right at the beginning of the term, I’d already made a prediction that this was going to be four months of mind numbing crap. And well…yeah, it was. There was a lot of bullshit there. I mean, in some places you can ask the full timers for help and they wouldn’t give you attitude. Oh, but not there. At the beginning, there was a tool that I hadn’t worked with before. I was unsure of what to do so I was wholly reliant on people to teach me. I was asking the guy assigned to help me and he was giving me off-hand comments like “other co-ops have been able to figure it out.” Sorry, but that’s just wholly unfair. It really set the tone for the next four months.

By the end, when they asked me whether I wanted to return, I declined the offer. I wanted a change of venue. Fair enough. I’d done enough for the company. Time to move on!

To be honest, I think that’s all I care to say about this time period. Maybe I’ll elaborate on some points at a later time.

Tags:

Leave comment

Overzealous blocking

Categories:

Sun. August 6, 2006

I want to send a big sorry to Julius and Zi for having comments blocked. In an attempt to foil spammers, I added something to my blacklist trapper that was a bit overzealous. I just checked my control panel to see activity and saw that legit stuff wasn’t getting through. That was only after I tried adding a comment, and I got blocked myself.

My bad, y’all.

Tags:

2 comments

Older posts «

» Newer posts

Switch to our mobile site