Doing Things Differently

Ok, so, I get off the phone with work and they say “Well, Good Luck!”  and, shortly thereafter I find out I’ve misplaced my Exit Visa to return home on the weekend. Great.

So, just when I think everything is as bad as it can get, the IT guys say “Well, it can’t get any worse right? Good luck with that”… and now I can’t get a hold of them to do my part of the swap.

Please no more “Good Luck” or similar well wishes, they’re only making things worse.

OH, and, I now get a rash from the sun-screen. Awesome.  Can’t go in the sun without sunscreen, can’t wear sunscreen, am in one of the hottest/sunniest places. Yay me.

As many of you know, my adventure to Jamaica started out early Monday morning.  What most of you DON’T know, is the hell I went through to get here.

My plane was late arriving in Toronto since someone in Atlanta had left one of the service doors open.  The plane set to leave before mine, was also delayed, but for a different mechanical problem.  My gate was in complete chaos, but the stewards told us that connections after 2PM in Atlanta would be fine and they wouldn’t change any of us.  My connection was at 2:45PM so I thought I was fine.  Boy, was I wrong.

My flight finally got off the ground, but several hours late and  of course, I missed my connection.  But, not before running to the gate and arriving at 2:45 PM. On time, but too late. Flight had departed, they had given away my seat.  So, on to the service desk. Raymundo was helpful, without actually being helpful.  I couldn’t get a flight out that night, and had to wait for the morning to get a flight to Miami, to get a flight to Jamaica. Crazy eh?

So, Raymundo gets all us strandees hotel vouchers and calls ahead to the hotel.  They have enough room for the 20 of us, and we get on our marry way. The hotel was alright, nothing special, but nothing horrible.  The nice staff there got us a ride over to a nice restaurant and we got to have a real dinner, which was nice.

I didn’t really sleep at night, but I did end up washing my clothes I had with me in the sink using the supplies from our overnight bags.  Unfortunately, because we were’nt at our destination, we didn’t get our luggage.  It wasn’t too bad though, since our shuttle back to the airport was SUPPOSED to be at 4:30 AM for our new flight.  I emphasize SUPPOSED to, because, the driver never showed up for work.  We then had to wait until 5:30 AM to get a ride back to the airport.

Once back at the airport, we all wanted good news, and we got some: we ONLY had to go through Security, since we had done customs.  We all planned to meet back up in Miami for breakfast, which was nice.  In going through Security, I got red flagged and had to go in the ’special white gloves’ line.  What fun.  I survived. That’s all I have to say about that.

Our Miami flight left on time, and we got to Miami on schedule.  We met up for breakfast, and ended up eating Burger King.  Then we had to go through Security again since we were on a different airline.  What fun.  Once again I get selected for that ’special white gloves’ line, and again I survived.

Our Jamaican flight was running a little late, but it wasn’t that bad.  At least we were finally going to make it to Jamaica. And, we did.  This is when our group split up and went our seperate ways.  I quickly found my bags, and got in line to go through customs.  Luckily, that went through without a hitch.

Now, my manager had arranged for me to have somone pick me up at the airport, so I wouldn’t have hassles.  And someone was there, with a sign, with my name (of course, spelled incorrectly).   So, I met up with them and they got me into a taxi. But, I didn’t have any money on me other than a few Canadian, and a few American.  It turned out I had JUST enough for the taxi, $30 split between US and Canadian.

I said thanks to the Taxi, got out, and went to go find my reservation.  Turns out though, the person who arranged my taxi, sent them to the wrong hotel. Sent ME to the wrong hotel.  Luckily, that hotel was nice enough  to get me ANOTHER taxi and get me to an ATM.  So, I took out some money so I could get to my next location.

It turns out, noone has receipts, or change.  So, I’m now out the taxi money, which is a pain.  But, I’m at the right hotel, so it’s good.  Or, so I think.  It turns out, since I was a day late, my reservation at the hotel had been cancelled. So, they had to make me a new reservation, and, now I was responsible for providing a credit card. MY credit card.  I had them call up my on-site contact, and he said I needed to cover the bills.  So, I then set up my room and asked about getting someone from my office to change the card to a Corporate card, and they said it could be done.

So, I get to my room and get a call: it turns out the hotel is footing the bill afterwards and I need to go down there and get everything sorted out.  I hang up the phone, and a second call comes in: the person that arranged my taxi calling to apologize.  I hang up the phone and it rings once again: my on-site contact is ready to meet me.

So, I meet up with my contact and get a quick tour of the site.  And, that brings me to now.

I’m glad I made it here alive and in one piece, with luggage.

Now let’s see what the rest of the trip has in store for me.

Oh, and, please stop wishing me luck.  Every time someone says that, something goes horribly wrong.

So, after going to the Gym the other day, I haven’t updated this, I’ve only been microblogging over on Twitter instead.  Why?  It’s been a hectic week and basically everything that I was doing to try and change into a more healthier lifestyle went out the window.

At work this week, we’ve had network failures, our email server crashed and email was lost, our phone system wasn’t properly sending people to the voice mail system so callers couldn’t leave messages, 3 servers and 4 workstations went belly up and that’s only SOME of what went wrong.

So, needless to say, during this, my nails all got ripped off, I ate meat (chicken wings), drank coke (you have to if your eating chicken wings and your not drinking beer), I did do some exercise, but that was in the form of Tennis and we lost a few balls to the road.

Tonight I plan on relaxing and going to see Don’t Mess With The Zohan and just taking it easy.  It has been a high-stress week and I really just need some time to cool down and get things back on track.

As for the contact lenses, I might not be able to get them if the next session doesn’t go well.  I gave myself a nice black eye at the last session because my eyes aren’t really that big, and I can’t get the contact to stick to my right eye; the left eye was no problem though.

As you might be able to tell, I’ve started to code a bit in my off time as well, and semicolons (;) are sneaking their way back into my typing.  More people really need to start using them in writing before they go extinct.

Hopefully today shapes up to be a nice relaxing day; I’ve already had an XL coffee and I’m waiting for the next manager to bring me another. At least the Brooklyn Spring Fair is this weekend.

Well, wish me luck! I’ve got to get Monday’s work done before I leave today.

As you may or may not already know, lately work has been getting to me so I needed some time off.  Luckily, I had saved up a couple of vacation days over the last couple of months and thought I’d love to have a nice long weekend when everyone else would be working.

In the past, I have made the mistake of taking days off only to be stuck with others taking the same days off and ruining my relaxation.  Not this time.

Starting today at 4PM EDT, I will be on vacation until I return to work on Monday at 8AM EDT.  I have a few plans, but they are all pretty loose.

Here is a list for my stalkers:

Wednesday May 28th, 2008 -

5 PM - ??  BBQ with the friends.  I will be a little loose around my diet, but will still be sticking to the vegetarian / no pop or juice part.

Thursday May 29th, 2008 -

Morning / Afternoon - I will be working on code. Pure code. And maybe sneak in a video game or something.

Evening - I will be going out with my friend Dejan for a night on the town

Friday May 30th, 2008 -

Morning - I will be doing some finances and attempt to go to the Optometrist to see about getting contact lenses.

Afternoon - I will be heading out on the town with a couple of friends to help them with their job hunt.  I have a few contacts that might be able to hook them up.

Early Evening - I will be out playing Tennis with a buddy to try and work off some sweat, we will probably also be checking out Oshawa’s Premier Fitness to see if we want to join.

Late Evening - I will be heading out to the Toronto ComingZune party for the rest of the night.

Saturday May 31st, 2008 -

Morning - If I have decided to join Premier Fitness, I will be at the Gym, otherwise I will be out looking at the other choices.

Afternoon - I will be hanging out with a couple of buddies, either playing Tennis or going for a nice long bike ride.

Evening - I will be spending some time at the mall, looking for some new clothes that fit.

Late Evening - I will be attending the Rides Again / Theory of a Dead Man concert at Le Skratch (if tickets are available)

Sunday June 1st, 2008 -

Morning - I will be relaxing and enjoying some sun.

Afternoon - Will probably be out in Oshawa somewhere doing something outside weather permitting.

Evening - Dinner at the Rentals house.

I will have my cell with me at all times and will be tuned into Twitter, so feel free to @ message me anytime if the service is working.

So, it has been about a month and a half since I started dieting, and everyone keeps coming up to me and saying how good I look and that I must have lost a ton of weight by now…

The truth?  Although I have lost about 6 inches around my waist, I have not shed a single pound.  One problem is the amount of water I retain due to the amount of fibre I eat and the amount of water I drink.

I am continuing with the diet though, and hope that I shed some weight soon, and maybe even a little before my workation to Jamaica.  It would be nice to just go out and have a nice swim while I’m there, since I haven’t been in a pool for almost 2 years now.

This week I am preparing my body to be used to getting up early so that I can go for an hour jog in the morning before work, and then do something physical at night such as Tennis, Squash, etc.

I hope to finally join a gym somewhere when I get back from Jamaica, so that I can tone up a little and possibly help my body get into a more natural shape.

I’ll keep you posted as time goes on; I’m in this for the long haul.

I graduated from Durham College’s Computer Systems Technology program over 3 years ago and have been working for a software company since.  With that said, I still think the 3 years spent at Durham were a complete waste of time and here’s why:

According to a recent Network World article, some of the skills taught at the college are a little, well, outdated.

Not to offend anyone, but in 2004, VB6 was already starting to be replaced by C# and VB.NET.  With the .NET Framework 1.0 released in 2001, and 1.1 in 2003, VB6’s days were numbered.  In 2005, the .NET Framework 2.0 release all but put the nails in VB6s coffin.

Our ‘database’ class was a joke, using an old version of Microsoft Access.  Not that access is a bad program, and I’m sure there are tons of general ideas that you can take from it… but it doesn’t hold up against the needs of today and the ease-of-use that is SQL.

Also, learning about Netware was a joke.  Often the demos didn’t work properly and the labs couldn’t be completed.  Then, add in the fact that we then had to manage properly dual-booting a machine with a single physical disk and you’re just looking for problems.

Next up, is our Hardware oriented classes that revolved around OLD IBM Compatible PCs, and the out-dated iMacs.  In these courses, there was no USB, Firewire, AGP, etc.  Heck, I’m surprised these had PCI devices and not some nice old ISA and EISA boards.

I also remember a big chunk of our CISCO classes being on IPX/SPX, and how they worked.  Ugh, big waste of time considering 90% of the world is using TCP/IP.

Needless to say, I was always a tech rebel and was always using the latest greatest and was always one step ahead of the trend.  It did me good, but I’m afraid all the others I graduated with were left so far behind they’ll need to go back to school just to catch up.

*sigh*

So, I was out playing pool at one of my favourite places in town, and since they don’t have Interac, I tried to put our charges onto my Visa.  Well, it turns out, somebody else had already maxed my card so the payment was declined.

So, I called my friends at Visa and we went over the charges I could see on the web, and the ones I couldn’t.  All the charges I could see, were correct, but there was $600 worth of charges I could not see, and over $500 of that was done by someone that was not me.

Needless to say, we then had to verify that I truly did not make the charges and that they truly were fraudulent.

Then comes the really bad part, in order to stop further charges, my Visa had to be cancelled and I have to call everyone that automatically debits from my Visa to tell them there will be a new number.  For most people, the list is small.  But, I am not most people, and I now need to make a few dozen phone calls.

I’ll give you all an update when I have more information.  For now, how my card was compromised and apparently duplicated is beyond me.

Billing Change, originally uploaded by Just2BDifferent.

On Monday, my sister switched out our Internet account from the fastest internet connection available, to the slowest internet connection available.

Well, 3 days later, and we have now maxed out the account.

Great….

So, anyone know any nice houses in the area so I can move out already?

Museum 121, originally uploaded by Just2BDifferent.

So far, the day has been about as boring as this display at the ROM.

Although I’ve been quite busy at work, I haven’t really done any ‘work’ and have just been fixing the mistakes made by co-workers last week.

Ugh, have I ever stated how much I hate Mondays?

So, a week has gone by since I turned 24, and my bank accounts still haven’t recovered.  Over the last while, I have been going out to not 1 but 4 different separate wings nights depending on who I was going out with.  Not just that, but, it has also become custom to go for a nice dinner on Friday nights and something cheap on Saturdays.  On Sunday nights, I go for lunch instead and eat dinner with my Parents.

So, if you quickly do the math - of the seven days that exist in the week, and of the three meals that should be eaten each day - only one of those meals is home cooked.  Ok, so really, this isn’t anything new for me and has been habitual since I was in high school because as a family, we never had time to cook food and were always running around trying to get things done.

Well, I have decided that I need to change my habits.  Pop and Juice should no longer be the main stay of my diet, and should both be cut out as much as I can. I have already tried to do the healthy thing on Friday lunches as it has become some sort of a ritual to be ‘veggie Friday’ at work with a few coworkers where we eat a vegetarian substitute for meat.

So, over the next few weeks, I will be gradually getting rid of all the ‘junk’ food and try and switch to healthy alternatives. If anyone wants to buy me Jamie Oliver’s book as a belated birthday present, I’d gladly accept it.

Oh, and, on the topic of cutting back: I won’t be going out as much.  I’m still looking for an affordable place to live back in a real city (Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering…  if you know a place, tell me!) so that I can get out of Bowmanville.  I plan on working on a couple of my side projects and getting them up and running, as well as completing a few 360 games that I kind of put aside and never came back to.

Anyway, if you need to get a hold of me, you know how.

Ciao!