Vancouver

Hey,

So I made it back from Vancouver alive. It wasn't the greatest trip ever but it was good to see Cici again. I think the biggest problem with the trip was that I didn't rent a car. If I had some wheels while I was there it would have been better. Taking a taxi all over the place is both expensive and inconvenient. I think I ended up spending about $150 just getting around and I only really made like 2 trips to Cici's place.

While it was good to see Cici again, hanging out with her was a bit of a let down. We just kind of sat around and watched TV the first day. The next day we ate some Chinese food and then hung out for a while. Later we played some poker and I learned that I don't really know how to play poker. Really, what the heck is a big blind? What does an option mean in that context?

Anyway, the flights sucked too. I needed to get to the airport in Kelowna by 1:15 but my ride ended up in an important conference call that resulted in us leaving much later then I planned on. We ended up making it there in time but then the security people checked my backpack and found a pointy nail file so I had to check the bag. This of course made me incredibly close to missing my flight but I made it on the plane. The seat on the plane was cramped and I had a headache from all the stress but I made it to Vancouver without further incident.

The flight back was even worse. I called the cab company and told them I needed to be at the airport before 11:45 for my flight and they said they would have a cab at my hotel at 11:15 because it would take less then 30 minutes to get to the airport. I wish I had told them to send one earlier because the cab showed up at like 11:25 and got me to the airport at about 11:50. The guy at the ticket counter was like "nope; you missed your plane even thou it doesn't leave for another 15 minutes" so I had to get switched to the next flight that left at 2:00. I got to sit in the airport for about 2 hours and buy some ridiculously priced junk food.

So if I ever go back to Vancouver by plane I will rent a car when I get there instead of trying to take a taxi or bus. I also don't think I will fly with Westjet anymore as the services was lacking it's normally pleasantness.


-Robert

lazy week

Well, I haven't done much this week. I have been dead tired every morning and so I haven't had a chance to do any exercises. I have also gone ahead and consumed lots of junk food too. Oh well, life goes on.

Work has been super busy. The guy who normally does all the debugging and quick fixes for the boss is on vacation or something and so now I have become the go to guy for debugging and fixes. It is a lot of pressure and a ton of work but damn is it fun. I also feel like I am learning a lot too.

I am heading out to Vancouver tomorrow to visit a friend for their birthday. I am flying out there instead of driving. I think it should make the trip much more relaxing. I will try to post again when I get back to detail any interesting events from the trip.


-Robert

Unscheduled Update

Hey,

I know it hasn't been a week since my last post but I felt that I had good cause to post again. I think I may have physic powers.

I was driving in to work this morning like I normally do and as I was passing through Winfield I suddenly thought about Subway Girl. I remembered my last few days at work and how I had asked one of my old coworkers who knew her to ask her what she thought of me. I never heard back from either of them. I haven't seen Subway Girl for a very long time and I don't really think about her very often so it was odd that I would suddenly remember all of this stuff.

Well, at that exact moment I saw a car pull out a few cars back and start to pass me and I thought 'I bet that's her, it would just be so ironic or cliche or something' And sure enough, as she passed me, it was Subway Girl; complete with that Foxy or Roxy decal on the back window.

It is not the first time I have had that sort of weird physic thing either. A few days ago I had a weird dream about a friend of mine who I don't normally talk to. Then first thing in the morning at work, they pop up an MSN message to me. We had a great chat and caught up about all sorts of things.

It goes back even further thou. Several years ago I went to see a movie with a friend of mine. They couldn't make it to the show but never called to let me know so I ended up watching the movie alone and expecting them to walk in the door for most of the movie. About half way through the movie I suddenly knew my car was being broken into. I don't know how I knew but I was sure that if I walked out the door I would see someone's ass sticking out of my car door as they looted my stuff.

I gave it a few seconds and the feeling passed but I remember clearly thinking that the feeling of my car being broken into was out of place. It turns out that my car was broken into sometime while I was in the theater that night and I bet you it was right when I got that feeling too.

Very odd.

This week in review

So, another week older.

This week has been sort of random. For the first half of the week I was doing well with my new life. I had worked out each morning and was limiting my computer use and junk food intake. The last few days however, I have been consuming huge amounts of junk food and playing computer until 10 or 11 each night.

I think it is something to do with my environment. It is like the deck is stacked against me when ever I try to change my life style. My dad keeps suggesting fast food for lunch and dinner and so I say 'yea sure.' Then for the rest of the day I feel like I have already given up and might as well go for it and get 'back on the wagon' tomorrow. Maybe if I could change my was so that one bad choice in a day doesn't ruin the whole day.

People on Counter Strike are also starting to piss me off. This one clan asked to use me as a ringer for their upcoming scrim. I said sure why not, and they added me to Friends. Thats when it all went down hill. Turns out that they are all noobs and started accusing the other guys of hacking and several left mid game. I said I had had enough and left after the scrim ended but they keep messaging me asking me to scrim with them again.

Some weird stuff has been happening at home too. The light switch in my bathroom broke. The little plastic lever part just snapped somewhere inside the switch and so now I can't turn off my bathroom light. I have a replacement switch now but I don't know how to install it so I need to wait for my dad to give me a hand. I guess I could try it on my own but I don't like the thought of electrocution.

I started watching that Flight of the Conchords DVD my brother got me for Christmas. Very funny show but not as funny as I thought it would be from the clips I saw on YouTube. I also watched a movie called Sunshine tonight. It is a bit slow to start and doesn't really make much sense near the end but it is still good. It showcases some cool concepts for the future like Hydroponics, computer AI and vibro-scalpels for surgery.

I finished reading Knife of Dreams, the 11th(I think) book in the Wheel of Time series. You can tell it is getting close to the end of the series and I was happy to see the resolution of a few things that were started in the last few books. Actually now that I think about it it wrapped up a lot of story arcs. It really felt like it could have been the last book, like the author new there would be a long wait before the next book.

I haven't worked on my computer game at all this week. I thought I had found some other company that had already made the same game but it looks like they are focusing on a totally different aspect of the whole monster angle. I hope to get back to work on it on Monday.

Rough start

So I am off to a bit of a rough start with these resolutions.

I have started exercising in the morning before I head off to work and that has been going ok. I didn't get to exercise on Thursday because I didn't get enough sleep the night before. I normally set the alarm about 30 minutes early so I can work out but I needed the extra 30 minutes of sleep on Thursday.

I am doing good on cleaning up the house. I have got several loads of wash done and picked up all of the plastic bags that were accumulating around the place. It is no where near done yet but I have made a good dent in it.

Posting on the blog seems to be working out ok. It does really feel like a chore at some times. I was going to try posting on Friday but I just didn't feel like it. Oh well. I will try to keep the posts up to date and most likely only on the weekends.

I haven't put a cent in my savings account yet... I should really start doing that.

I have actually made some progress with the computer game. I have started looking at open source game engines and downloaded the frameworks for the 2 big ones. I am also looking at the game concepts I want to make to see if any would be easy to make for a first project. So far I am leaning towards Monster. I think it will be both fun and easy to lay out the ground work for. I am still having problems with the story that goes along with the game. Why are you a monster and what are your working towards?

I have cut back my computer playing time some but I don't think it is at 1 hour a day yet. I think I played several hours yesterday but it is the weekend so I really don't have much else to do.

In other news, I will be going to Vancouver at the end of the month. I already have the plane tickets and I will most likely rent a car for my stay there. The other option is a cab ride to and from the airport and then bus/sky train/taxi everywhere while I am there. I think the taxi to and from the air port would cost more then renting a car for the weekend.

I still need to find a gift for my friends birthday. I am not really sure what to get them. They are into several different things but I don't know what they would want. Maybe I should ask them. I always feel that asking what they want ruins the magic of gift giving. Well, we will see how it goes.

I should really get that zombie story I have been working on finished. I really only have like the first part of the first chapter written but maybe I should just post it in chunks.


-Robert

New Years Resolutions

Well, it sure has been a while hasn't it?

Many exciting things have happened last year but I haven't really had time to write about it. Not that it looks like anyone is listening but still it is fun to look back at things I have written. I guess I will give a quick recap and then set some resolutions on paper... or screen I guess... what is the proper term in this digital age for recording something on a computer?

So since the last post I have quit working at my dead end job and moved on to a position programming. It is orders of magnitude better then Sutherland. A relaxed environment and rewarding work combined with some very pretty co workers make it a great place to work. I just get the feeling that I am not working hard enough and at some point the boss will figure out that I am not working very hard and fire me... I must be paranoid.

I also no longer see Subway Girl. My new job is in Kelowna and since I live in Armstrong I rarely stop in Vernon any more. I also think that Subway Girl has quit working at Subway. I am rather disappointed about not seeing her any more but it is probably for the best as I don't think I ever would have got anywhere with her. I have seen her driving to Kelowna around the same time I am heading into work so maybe we will run into each other at some point in the future.

I lost a friend. My best friend since high school and I have drifted apart over the last year. It started before I left Sutherland and became even more obvious after I had quit. We really no longer have anything in common. While I was working at Sutherland we could still hang out and chat about work but since I quit, there is really no common ground between us.

I had tried to invite him out several times a few months ago and he always said he was busy and he would call me when he had some free time. He never called back. Thats really not a good way to end a friendship. It is unfortunate but I will get over it. It did really strengthen my friendship with my other friends though. It seems that they never really liked him.

I have also really let my self go. For the first little while at the new job I was doing good, I was walking every day, doing some light weight lifting, and eating rather well. But then we moved to a new office in down town Kelowna. That really put a stop to any healthy living. The longest walk I get now a days is from the parking lot to the elevator and my diet consists of McDonald's and greasy cheese omelets from the cafeteria in the new building.

I guess that brings me around to the point of this post. It is New Years Day today. I play to make some resolutions and stick to them. This post will list them and I will update this blog weekly with the progress on them.

Resolutions:
- Lose some weight. 50 lbs should do it.
- Clean up the house and keep it clean.
- Post to this blog once a week.
- Start putting money in my savings account.
- Start writing a computer game in my spare time.
- Play less then 1 hour of computer games per day.

I think that should be a good start for this year. I am going to go take a shower and then install my new headlights in my Jeep.


-Robert

Another day

Today was just another day like many. I couldn’t sleep for some reason but as soon as my alarm went of I didn’t want to wake up. I had planned to have breakfast with my dad today but he wasn’t around when I got up so I ate no name waffles alone.

The first half of work was ok. We didn’t have any emails in the queue so they were offering voluntary time off. I would have taken some but I actually need the $ so I stayed. Went for a walk on my first break and continued my plan of exploring the area around work. I now know what is over the small hill at the end of the road: a small gravel filled field. I had assumed it was paved but I was wrong.

Lunch was the highlight of my day. I saw Subway Girl again. I hadn’t seen her almost all week so it was a pleasant change. She was very happy and up beat today and I really felt like she was flirting with me. I wish I had the nerve to take that leap of faith and ask her out on some sort of date. Oh well, “story of my life” right?

I also started to notice that there was a girl at work who seems to smile at me when I catch her eye. She is quite good looking too so maybe I have more options then I think I do. If only I was not so afraid of change maybe I could actually do something about those options.

I finally found out what happened to my friend who I thought was missing. It turns out he went to the coast to see his girlfriend and his phone died on him. He had actually told me he was going I just spaced out and forgot. I plan to get some dinner with him tomorrow so he can tell me all about the trip.

One of my other friends was having some relationship issues recently. She told me that she was having feelings for another guy, someone other then her boyfriend. This of course struck me as odd because I can’t think of anyone else that she sees often and so I am at a loss for who this other guy could be. The thought that it could be me crossed my mind but she already told me that she didn’t think of me in that way and we were just friends.

I did some laundry the other day and watched some movies with my dad. If you ever get the chance to watch “three blind mice” a movie about web cams and murder, don’t. That movie sucks; a lot. It is worse then “Invincible” that made for TV movie with Billy Zane.
Other then that I haven’t been doing too much. I am working on a Zombie survival short story so I will post that when I am done.


-Robert