Continue reading »]]> Ehhhh, well this week has had its share of rough patches. I’ve been having a tough time with work lately. I’m on a project with an imminent deadline that seemed impossible to meet. I stayed late on Thursday to try to catch up only to get blocked for unknown reasons. Apparently, I had been given an example to work from that was faulty in the first place. Wonderful! On Friday I was rather frustrated at myself during CrossFit. I was having a fair bit of trouble keeping good form on a certain move and as a result coach prevented me from going further that day. I knew I could do better. I was just not performing. So yeah, perhaps my last Facebook posts have been a bit gloomy.

I suppose I could focus on all of the negatives but there have been plenty of good things as well. I’ve managed to be rather social this week. Right after Friday’s workout I went home, changed, then headed downtown to hang out with friends for someone’s birthday. Today I started another improv class which acts as an assessment of sorts to see where we might fit in in terms of future performance opportunities. I have good vibes about this class. Right after I went home then drove up to Markham for a get together with some running friends. I swear, I’m everywhere.

Anyway, I guess the purpose of me writing all of this is just to have a self-reminder that the quality of our weeks depends on what pre-determined stance we take when we view things. Know what I mean? I suppose this means that I need to encourage positivity. I suppose that’s a possibility, no?

Continue reading »]]> I really should have started writing this post a few days ago, but I didn’t feel like forcing myself to do it. The words weren’t flowing. Well, here I am on the final day of the year and I really need to get these words out. This year, 2011, was a bit of a harder one than the last. I remember declaring somewhere that it would be a year of buckling down and riding out tougher times. I was right. That’s not to say that this was a bad year for me. I’m just likely to label it as a challenging one. Did I rise to the challenges thrown at me? I think I did.

Anyway, enough blabber. In depth text follows…after the jump!

January

When I read back through the posts I wrote during this month, nothing really stood out to me. On the surface it seemed to be a status quo month for me. I was coaching the half marathon clinic back then, and that was good. I was also taking an improv class back then, and that was good as well. I do remember the one instance of throwing my boot at a teacher. Thing is, there was an undercurrent of stuff happening that I didn’t write about, except in a cryptic post or two. Basically, I was on the hunt for a new job at the time. I had had enough of the job at my old workplace and figured that staying stagnant was serving no one. Of course, I didn’t want to announce it or make a big deal of the hunt at the time, hence the weird posts.

February

This was an interesting month for me. Geez, I was a bit of a basket case. At the beginning of the month I gave my two-week’s-notice to my previous employer. My interview had gone well and the new company wanted me. Things happened really quickly. During the period where I was wrapping things up I was feeling odd. And after my last day I was actually feeling blue. It’s hard ending 4.5 years of service just like that, isn’t it? Luckily I had my improv classes going to distract me.

It was during this month that I had the final class show for the series of short form classes that I was taking. I also had the final class show for the beated script class that I was taking. I remember both class shows as being awesome. It’s so strange feeling the kind of energy you do up on stage. The audience is there, watching, and taking in every moment. Crazy!

March

March brought me to the end of another half marathon clinic. The race in Burlington was cold and wet, but it was great. It was the first half for many clinic members of mine, and I remember feeling immense pride at bringing them across the finish line. It didn’t matter that I almost got into a crash on the drive in. Pff.

I also started my new job this month. I think immediately I felt like I was fitting in well enough. At the time we also had visitors in from the UK so we were eating out constantly. The side effects were unfortunate, but regardless I felt like we were all getting along just fine. Anything would have been better than where I was before in terms of my mental state on the job. Uh huh.

April

Back in March, for kicks I participated in a small short film project for a friend. After a day of taping we left it all to him for processing. It was our goal to submit it to a small competition to see if we could win a prize. Well, when the event rolled around in April we actually won. Sure, the audience was sort of stacked with the director’s friends but all the same it was still fun to have it recognized. Besides that, improv classes continued on. I was taking a musical class at that point and that was challenging me in ways I didn’t expect. Taking a class like that is a good way to get over nervousness. I learned that ultimately it’s worth it to take a chance because even of people see me fall flat onto my ass it’s not the end of the world.

May

Hmm…I think this month is even more status quo. I see a lot of posts about overeating. I think during that month I hadn’t run for about two months and it was starting to affect me weight wise. It was a rough period, for sure. Ugh, and I see that there was a post about the side-effects of being backed up for days. Oh man, that was HORRIBLE. Resolution should not have taken as long as it did. Damn.

I continued to bake a lot that month, including these Irish cream glazed shortbread cookies. This seems to be the month where my friend convinced me to take the baking course at George Brown. I wasn’t sure at the time, but at least the seed was planted. And why not, right? Might as well get proper training for something I like doing.

June

Yet another class show took place this month. This one was for the second beated scene class I took. It was a mafia-themed show and I played a well-intentioned butcher that was caught up in this world. The costume involved me wearing an apron over a tank top. Seemed like I looked the part. Sure, why not? Overall it was a fun show and I enjoyed playing the role immensely.

That same night I had another gig across town. So right after the show I had to pack up me gear and take the subway out to the east end. All of the students from the short form class that I was with had banded together to for a troupe. We wanted to continue playing with each other and put on shows to keep our skills up. It so happened that that was the night of our first booked gig that featured our new gameplay format. It was a success. This format has stayed with us right through until the end of the year.

Ah, and if I wasn’t busy enough June also marked the start of another coaching cycle for me. This was a big group, and it was the first time I coached the half marathon group through the summer. Interesting times.

July

Our improv group was able to find a small theatre location down in a trendy part of town that allowed us to put on shows. In July we put on our first show at that location. It was a big success. It was enjoyable for all of us involved. We were all proud to be doing it on our own terms. We knew that we had something good going so we all have been working hard since to keep the momentum.

 August

In August I attended my first ever wedding as an adult guest. This was a rather big moment for me for the obvious reason. It was also a chance for me to really gauge my ability to handle social situations. To my relief I seem to have handled myself really well. It was a beautiful ceremony, for sure.

Coaching continued. I gave a lot of the talks during that month. I learned that I always need to prepare. Winging speeches is not something that should be done–especially if people have paid proper money be part of the clinic, know what I mean? All the same, I think my honest and open approach to coaching has saved my behind more than once. Uh huh.

September

My baking class at George Brown started this month. That meant that I always had a surplus of baked goods on hand. It doesn’t mean though that I stopped baking at home. I still baked a lot of great things, which included this cake. I was asked to make a surprise cake, and I sort of went all out. This was my first time making a fondant cake and I amazed myself. This was a crazy undertaking. I was proud of these results.

In September I participated in the taping of another short film for that same friend. My role involved me being creepy and wearing weird facial hair. We taped it in the heart of Toronto, so there was a lot of interference, but it was still enjoyable. All in all we really only got one scene taped that day, but at least my part was done. Up until now, the film isn’t done. With winter here, the remaining scenes won’t get taped for a while.

October

Oh wow, so October was a huge month for me in terms of beginnings. The big thing for me was really my introduction to CrossFit. My friends from Michigan had been doing CrossFit for a while and and they were adamant that it would be a good match for my personality. At the same time, my manager told me that he was signing up for the CrossFit bootcamp program at his local box. With influence from those two sources, I signed up for the bootcamp at my box. That month was a tough one, but so rewarding–so much so that I signed for a membership. Amazing stuff, really.

This month was also the end of the summer half marathon clinic. The clinic culminated in a race along the Toronto waterfront. Again, I was so proud to have so many people new to the half marathon cross the finish line. I was also immensely proud to have attained a new personal best.

November

So…this year I turned 30. Do I feel any different? No…though perhaps I feel like I’m free of any of the shackles associated with the label of being a 20-something. Sound odd? It should–I haven’t figure it out myself.

My baking class was in full swing in November. We were producing some genuinely amazing stuff, including this black forest cake pictured here. Sure, it looks cool, but if people only knew: it wasn’t entirely difficult to piece together. There’s a procedure and all, so really the hard part if just following instructions. That’s basically how the whole class was, really.

I got to test out my progress from the bootcamp this month, too. After one month of hard work I repeated a benchmark workout that we had done at the start of the bootcamp. When I repeated it I had cut my time in half. I swear, it was like I was possessed. I knew I was on the right path. That’s why I’m still doing CrossFit today.

December

And that brings me to this month. We had one improv gig this month. We had originally planned to do a Christmas themed show but due to commitments we weren’t able to get that show off the ground. Since we already had the venue booked we decided to spread the burden of performing for the whole 2 hours by inviting other groups to perform. We offered slices of time in the theatre. That night, three other groups got time. As a result, that night was relatively stress-free for us. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

So there you go. That was my 2011 in condensed form. If I could summarize it all up: 2011 had many improv gigs, much bitching about weight, a lot of coaching people to succeed in big endeavours, and a fair bit of packing on muscle. I hope that 2012 will bring more success and further transformation into who I am meant to be.

Continue reading »]]> Oooooooh, I’m angry. I’m getting worked up. For one of our projects at work we’re adopting an agile methodology. It’s a style of development that differs from traditional ways of doing things. When done right it works well. I mean, there’s a specific structure involved in doing things, and there really needs to be a big buy in from all those involved. It requires a fair bit of discipline. I’ve worked with this methodology before in my old company. I’ve seen what in can be like, and how it really needs to have that structure. Yes, it’s meant to be agile and adaptable, and it is. Thing is, it can only be that way as long as certain rules and expectations are respected. There’s a huge amount of trust that’s needed. If you don’t end up trusting a member of your team, things will unravel really fast.

So, back to this project. We’re going through our first iteration and I’m starting to see things that are going contrary to principles. There’s been some flagrant rule bending, and it’s making me nutty. If we’re going to make the shift to agile, we need to go all in. There’s no doing it halfway. Leaving work today I was really steamed. Since then I’ve been mulling it over and forming my arguments. By tomorrow I’m going to do a lot of poking around and I really want to go in guns blazing.

I don’t want the trust within the team broken.
I want a strong team where we can depend on each other to get the job done right.
I don’t want the product owners to set unrealistic expectations.
I want to set boundaries that promote reliability.
I don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver.
I want things to be predictable like clockwork.

All of this is reasonable, isn’t it? That’s why I’m going to fight. I shall be the scrum warrior. This is a battle worth fighting.

Continue reading »]]> A bit over a month ago I spoke about planting seeds of sorts to help take my career on a different path. So today, I had a follow up meeting with my manager. He was still positive to the idea of me transitioning into something different, which is a bit of a relief. He bounced a few ideas at me and I told him what I thought of them. At this time, we seem to have worked out a roadmap. There will be a few chances to try new roles out to see if I like things, and if I fail I can save face without issue. It’s great. I’m excited. The seeds that were planted are sort of sprouting now. It still remains to be seen if this will lead anywhere, but I’m optimistic.

Continue reading »]]> As usual it seems like I’m portraying a little bit of an acerbic personality to my colleagues. See, it’s not like I’m completely negative; I have a lot of enthusiasm and intensity which is a good quality when channelled. I know some other people that remind me of the dementors of the Harry Potter world: when they enter a room they just suck up all sense of happiness that might exist. No. I think I’ve just got a bit more fire than the rest. I don’t consider that to be a bad thing at all. If I occasionally come across as harsh, I know I have so many other qualities that balance that out that I’m not terribly concerned about people perceiving me as an ogre. Clearly, clearly not true. People just need to figure out how to deal with me. Easy.

Continue reading »]]> I spent some time thinking about it in the car this morning. If I count the time I spent working through the co-op system, I can say that I’ve been working in the tech industry for about eight years. Kind of crazy. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with companies that have a great workflow. I have a sense of how a great software development workflow should probably go. So, as I’m going along if I see something that’s so obviously off-the-rails shouldn’t I speak up? I mean, I’m not saying that I’m perfect in my procedures, but when things are getting into train wreck territory something has to be done.

Continue reading »]]> Today I had an opportunity to have some one-on-one time with my manager. It was an opportunity to see how I’ve been doing over the past few months. Knowing that this meeting has been coming up, I’ve been scanning my brain to figure out I wanted to talk about. I mean, there are a lot of little things I can mention in terms of coding worries but none of it seemed urgent or pressing. Eventually we got to talking about my long term goals and I said that I wasn’t really sure what I wanted. Somewhere in conversation he mentioned something in terms of moving around the company or gaining new skills. I think that triggered something in my head. I basically told him at that point that I was hoping that I’d get out of a coding role in the future. Just thinking about it, saying such a thing to my manager felt huuuuuge. It’s kind of basically saying that I don’t think I’m on the correct path.

I code. I am decent at it. It’s not where I really want to be. On this path, I could probably continue on to take a senior role or a team lead position. That’s all well and good, but I do not think that kind of thing suits me. Why? Tech and researching new stuff doesn’t really set me on fire. That’s the honest truth. What do I want to do? I’m not sure. I stated that I figure I might be suited to something dealing with communications and other people in general. I think I’m more suited to using my soft skills. I remember posting years ago shortly before graduation about jobs that I think I would be good at. The theme running through what I listed was definitely communication. I want to give it a shot.

How did my manager react? He took it well. I mean it’s not like I’m leaving the team or anything at this very moment. He has a bit of a similar history moving around within one company. And considering that I’m with a huge corporation there’s no better place to do it. I’m just glad that I was given a chance to plant this seed. At this moment, I don’t think he’s entirely sure where I would fit in, but at the very least if I’m set on a different trajectory path I know that I will be better off in the long term. Good things are coming. I can feel it.

Continue reading »]]> Today I took advantage of one a sort-of-benefit of my job. Last night I took my work laptop home with full intentions of working from home today. I totally recognize this is a luxury. My colleagues have been taking advantage of it for a while now. I’ve been meaning to give it a go for a long time. The only thing that was really holding me back was just bringing the darn thing home. So finally I had resolved to just do it. It was going to be awesome. I’d just open it, connect to the private network and start coding away. Well, it didn’t quite turn out so perfectly. I had some issues with connections, and some applications that I could have sworn I had installed were missing. It got so bad that I was actually considering heading into office just to get the laptop set up. I put on some work clothes and was set to go, but in the end I managed to make some appropriate connections. I was able to get on the network. Unfortunately for me, the people I needed to talk to once I was connected were already gone for the weekend. And so, that’s my sort-of-wasted day. First day in terms of setup is always the worst. It all becomes easier from this point forward. To be honest I don’t think I’m going to use this option all that much but it’s certainly good to know it’s available.