I've been spending waaaaay too much time at work lately. Okay, so maybe it saves me having to fight my way through traffic if I go in before 6am and head home after 8pm, but it can't be good for the sanity. Although it is insanely busy, and I probably should feel tired, the hectic pace is somewhat energizing.
I've always enjoyed a good rush. In my waiting days, I absolutely thrived on the jam-packed nights where stopping to think was not an option. Serving 15 tables of 4, 6 tables of 6 and a table of eight, which turn over (have new customers sit down for the waitingly impaired) four times each in a six hour period isn't easy by any means, but it sure was a heck of a lot of fun. I guess it takes a certain kind to thrive off of the kind of hustle that requires, but I did indeed, and I was good at it :) I still miss it from time to time. I stopped by the restaurant where I worked for 6 years for my birthday this year with some friends, and was happily mobbed by a lot of regular customers. A few of them even proceeded to tell one of the newer waiters some "war" stories of my "glory days". I won't bore you with details, but let's just say that carrying 8 plates of food through a jam-packed restaurant and getting them all to the right people without a spill with your bare hands, leaves an impression. Particularly when you do it consistently all night, lol.
While the busyness at the present job doesn't really compare to that kind of activity, I nonetheless got that old feeling of "autopilot" today. Everything becomes automatic and just seems to flow, and click into place. Accomplishing not only my job, but several other people's all in record time.
Somewhere in the midst of the day, I found the time to strike up a conversation with the facilities manager. Our building is directly on the landing path of the Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto, quite the busy hub. At 7 stories high, it definitely isn't the tallest building I've worked in, but there's something to be said when large aircraft are regularly passing about 200 feet over the top of you.
It takes a bit of getting used to, especially when your office is on the 6th floor, and every landing shakes the building. My second week on the job, I was sitting at my desk, quite into my work, when a plane came over the top. Already getting used to it, I didn't think twice until I heard something smash into the window behind me with quite some force. Those who know me will tell you that when it comes to instincts, mine are razor-sharp and I was instantly on my feet and heading for the door. When I noticed the funny looks on the faces of those who had seen me, I figured that it wasn't actually a piece of some plane's landing gear coming through the window and turned around to look. Low and behold, a window washer hung outside the window in nothing but a rappelling harness, laughing so hard I thought maybe he might fall. I don't know if he did it on purpose, or it just worked out the way it did, but I still haven't lived it down to this day.
So there I was, talking to the facilities manager when he suddenly turns to me and says "Hey, want to see something neat?". Of course! I'm not about to say no to a question like that, am I? So up the elevator we went, then up some stairs, and voila, we're up on the roof. Just as I was about to ask him what was so neat, I figured it out as I heard a rumble and looked up to see a 747 only about 300 feet above me on it's approach to the airport. From that distance, the size, power, and speed of an aircraft become very, very apparent and I loved every second of it. We were only up there for about 15 minutes before my phone began to ring and I had to slip back inside, but two landing aircraft just made my day.
Best part of it? He's agreed to grant me access to the roof so that I can set up my camera up there and get some shots of the planes coming in and landing at the airport. Should be fun :)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Work work work...
I don't know how many people out there played Warcraft II, but I used to love that game. I had it before most people I knew, and it wasn't long at all before I found one of my favorite features. Impatience led me to click on the same person over-and-over which led to them saying some pretty interesting things. The "Stop pooookiiing meeee" cry of the peon still comes to mind frequently thanks to one of the better-known features of Facebook.
Those were the days, when one of the biggest worries was whether I would make it to the next level before I had to go to school the next day. Looking at my installed programs now, I feel almost ashamed of my gamelessness. Whereas I used to have 5 or 10 games installed at any given time that would be played quite frequently, I now count two. Out of those two, only one has been played within the last 4 months, and even that one was just a 30 minute stint before I had to get up and do something or other. They're not bad games either. Steam is actually the valve game management platform, so I guess it actually qualifies as a lot of games. I suppose it will get some play time when the next episode of Half-Life comes out, but for now it sits dormant and ignored. The second game is Oblivion. A great game with fantastic graphics, which I probably should start up from time to time. I've had it for about a year now, but out of the 150 some-odd hours it would take to finish it, I've played maybe 30... The shame :(
Perhaps I'm getting older and other things are interesting me more, or maybe I'm just too busy to really get into gaming like I used to. Odd that, despite the fact that I really don't play them, I would still consider myself a gamer if asked. I suppose that if you rack up enough hours at any given point, you qualify for the title for life...
What brings up such a rant you might ask? Well, the flatmate picked up a new game today called Bioshock for the Xbox 360. The graphics are awesome, and it looks even better projected onto the wall 8 feet wide! He's vowed to pull an all-nighter and get as far as he can before work tomorrow, while I opt for the much less exciting blog post and then a few hours repose.
Of course, this weekend I'll probably sneak on when he's not around and play a level or two, it really does look that yummy.
Those were the days, when one of the biggest worries was whether I would make it to the next level before I had to go to school the next day. Looking at my installed programs now, I feel almost ashamed of my gamelessness. Whereas I used to have 5 or 10 games installed at any given time that would be played quite frequently, I now count two. Out of those two, only one has been played within the last 4 months, and even that one was just a 30 minute stint before I had to get up and do something or other. They're not bad games either. Steam is actually the valve game management platform, so I guess it actually qualifies as a lot of games. I suppose it will get some play time when the next episode of Half-Life comes out, but for now it sits dormant and ignored. The second game is Oblivion. A great game with fantastic graphics, which I probably should start up from time to time. I've had it for about a year now, but out of the 150 some-odd hours it would take to finish it, I've played maybe 30... The shame :(
Perhaps I'm getting older and other things are interesting me more, or maybe I'm just too busy to really get into gaming like I used to. Odd that, despite the fact that I really don't play them, I would still consider myself a gamer if asked. I suppose that if you rack up enough hours at any given point, you qualify for the title for life...
What brings up such a rant you might ask? Well, the flatmate picked up a new game today called Bioshock for the Xbox 360. The graphics are awesome, and it looks even better projected onto the wall 8 feet wide! He's vowed to pull an all-nighter and get as far as he can before work tomorrow, while I opt for the much less exciting blog post and then a few hours repose.
Of course, this weekend I'll probably sneak on when he's not around and play a level or two, it really does look that yummy.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
O Happy Day
So here I am. Fresh out of a battle to customize one of these darned Blogger templates to my liking. I suppose that I am a sucker for punishment. What better way to unwind after a day of battling the evils of modern technology than to not only start a blog, but make it look exactly the way that I want it to? Alas, never before has it been so difficult to be so minimalistic.
What better topic to take on in a first post, but that of Canadian spelling. I like to consider myself in possession of a strong mastery of the English language. Perhaps not to be ranked among the top of the chart, but somewhere above your average joe. One of the irksome things that I have to deal with on a fairly regular basis are silly people pointing out that I "misspell" words like colour, valour, centre, lieftenant, and so on. Of course, most of the time these comments are coming from friends, co-workers, and acquaintances of an American origin. Most of the time, they simply do not realize that for Canadians, these words are spelled quite correctly. I strive to hang on to my extra U in colour, it pleases me to use the traditional lieftenant, and brings me great joy to throw in a rumour or two ;) I suppose it would be easier to simply adopt the "mainstream" spelling of such words, but I rather enjoy this little bit of Canadiana, and plan to preserve it for as long as I grace paper, or digital media, with my words.
Turns out that somewhere along the line, however some British spellings have slipped into my written word. Thanks to Dave VE7CNV's Truly Canadian Dictionary of Canadian Spelling I've recently (very recently) come to see that realize isn't spelled with an "s" nor is customize. I'm not sure exactly when I slipped over to the British spelling of these words. Perhaps my UK-born English teacher in primary school is to blame, or maybe somewhere between my schooling and the present day, the accepted Canadian spelling was changed. A since-changed remainder of the days when Canada was a British colony? wouldn't surprise me at all. Regardless, I have now corrected the error in my ways and hopefully will continue to do so thanks to good ol' Dave.
So much of our current Canuck culture comes from our neighbors to the south. Love them as I may, our Canadian spelling is one little bit of uniqueness that I strive to conserve.
What better topic to take on in a first post, but that of Canadian spelling. I like to consider myself in possession of a strong mastery of the English language. Perhaps not to be ranked among the top of the chart, but somewhere above your average joe. One of the irksome things that I have to deal with on a fairly regular basis are silly people pointing out that I "misspell" words like colour, valour, centre, lieftenant, and so on. Of course, most of the time these comments are coming from friends, co-workers, and acquaintances of an American origin. Most of the time, they simply do not realize that for Canadians, these words are spelled quite correctly. I strive to hang on to my extra U in colour, it pleases me to use the traditional lieftenant, and brings me great joy to throw in a rumour or two ;) I suppose it would be easier to simply adopt the "mainstream" spelling of such words, but I rather enjoy this little bit of Canadiana, and plan to preserve it for as long as I grace paper, or digital media, with my words.
Turns out that somewhere along the line, however some British spellings have slipped into my written word. Thanks to Dave VE7CNV's Truly Canadian Dictionary of Canadian Spelling I've recently (very recently) come to see that realize isn't spelled with an "s" nor is customize. I'm not sure exactly when I slipped over to the British spelling of these words. Perhaps my UK-born English teacher in primary school is to blame, or maybe somewhere between my schooling and the present day, the accepted Canadian spelling was changed. A since-changed remainder of the days when Canada was a British colony? wouldn't surprise me at all. Regardless, I have now corrected the error in my ways and hopefully will continue to do so thanks to good ol' Dave.
So much of our current Canuck culture comes from our neighbors to the south. Love them as I may, our Canadian spelling is one little bit of uniqueness that I strive to conserve.
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