Stupid Number 6

Bus, that is. I used to always take the #6 home from downtown in years gone by. So did my dad for years and years. But nowadays, it's just stupid. My dad had warned me, and I've been taking the #108 or #112 which drop me 10 mins walk from home, but only takes 10-15 mins to get there. Today I tried the #6, just to see how bad it really was. It took over an hour! Stupid Calgary traffic, it's like we're trying to be Vancouver or something.

First Day of Work

didn't start off too well, with me waking up and realising my alarm clock was set to PM not AM!! But I had still woken up early enough, glad I never got in the habit of sleeping in late. After a little rush around the house, headed to the bus, and saw it drive by about a block away. I decided to run although it was virtually hopeless, but I was lucky some slow people were getting on the bus. I don't mean slow like this was a short bus, it was a regular bus, they were just taking their time embarking. As for actual work, well I suppose most first days are like this... Get to look around the office some more, fill out some paperwork, start reading some documents. I was getting so tired by the end of the afternoon though, felt a little familiar from times I've had a real job before. But maybe I'll sleep a bit more tonight, and once I start doing stuff hopefully I'll feel a little more lively.

Resurrection

Hi,

I've decided to bring this blog back to life. Why? I don't really know. A bit lonely maybe. Hey world, I'm blogging to you, all you people are in my crew, skate punch blog's what I have to do, ninjashowdown is here, true.

So, most importantly I'm starting work on monday. I could have started sooner. I talked to Intermap, the company I did internship with, quite a while back, asking if they have work. Meanwhile I came across a posting at Point Inc which I was really excited about cause it seemedperfectly suited to me, so I applied to that. Intermap decided they did have work for me, and I assured them I was still interested. Ended up with an interview with Intermap on Monday, Nov 14, though it was more of just an info session, the job was mine if I wanted it. I also interviewed with Point that day, it was more of a real interview. I got the official offer from Intermap a couple days later, but I asked them to wait, cause I wanted to hear back from Point. So I waited, and waited. Let Intermap know I was still considering them, but still considering Point. Called point to tell them to get a move on. Point decided tehy were interested enough to contact my references... one of my references was intermap, which may not have been such a good thing. Intermap called, essentially said they couldn't keep waiting, so I needed to decide one way or another. So I called Point, and made them decide. Well, Point then offered me the job. Now it seems like it would be an easy decision from then. After all, I had been making Intermap wait over a week cause I wanted to hear from Point. Why would I do that if I was going to turn point down and go with intermap anyways? Well, I was going all stressed out and mental for the rest of the day, my decision switching back and forth.

Pay is pretty similar hourly. Intermap is a bit more, and they do 8 hr days, not 7.5 hr, so a little more work leading to more money. But that's not much of an issue.

Point's location is crap, it's way up by the airport. Intermap is downtown, thus there's more to do at lunch times and such, and it's closer to other things in the city that are important to me. But the more I thought about it, it became less important.

Main issue #1: I think I'd like the work at Point more. More related to my degree. Intermap's maybe a bit more variety, but a variety of stuff I don't know as much about and don't like as much. But the more i think about it, it's not bad.

Main issue #2: I felt like I was already kindof committed to Intermap, and it would be unfair to them to not work for them. I had come to them for work, they had looked and found something for me, I lead them on, they're kindof expecting me to work for them. I don't want to disappoint people, especially my former supervisor from internship.

Anyways, the plan for all these things is only for 6 months.

Anyways, just had to make a decision and go with it, nothing was going to happen to make me suddenly decide which was 'right'. So, I finally decided to go with Intermap. The end, time to relax and not think about it anymore.

So, you noticed I said it's only for 6 months, why is that? Well, the slightly longer term plan is to do JET. Yeah, I've been thinking of doing so for some years now, and I'm finally going ahead with it. Of course I have some doubts and fears, as well as the excitement. Wanted to spend some time in Japan, teaching english is the most straightforward access to that. Looked into private english schools, but decided JET was more suited to me. Don't honestly think I'd be that good at teaching though, but we'll see. Also, living away for a full year would be a pretty big thing for me.

If I don't get into JET, I'll still try to go away somewhere. Maybe England. Rediscover my roots, that sort of thing. Had these weird feelings stirring inside lately.

So that's what's news with me.