Bobs Blog

Vancouver

2008-01-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-19T02:26:00.000-08:00

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

Contact

2006-11-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

When I was at work the other day, I overheard some coworkers talking about their love life. Normally I would have just tuned it out but their conversation was actually quite interesting.

The more attractive of the 2 girls was telling the other about her last “outing” with this guy. She indicated that he spent the night, and at this point I was going to tell her to stfu and chat with her friend somewhere else however, she then said that he still hadn’t kissed her yet.

That had me quite confused as one would assume spending the night meant that they both knew they were in a relationship and one would assume that that implies some amount of kissing. She went on to say that he did hold her hand and she thought that was so sweet. This got me thinking that maybe they were just in that first uncomfortable part of a relation ship where no one is sure what is going on and they are both trying not to ruin what they have going for them.

After that I was thinking how much physical contact people normally have with others. Now most people who are in a relationship clearly have some when they are with their partner but single people generally don’t have much at all do they? I thought about myself and aside from the occasional hand shake when I am introduced to someone new, I can’t really think of any other contact with anyone else.

My thoughts on this subject were interrupted by someone at work sneaking up on my and giving me a back massage for a few seconds while they asked me for some help. It was a very confusing experience because I was surprised by someone sneaking up on me but also comforted by the massage. All in all, it was a really a weird experience and also rather ironic considering my thoughts at the time.

-Robert

OMG Stalkers everywhere!

2006-11-12T02:33:00.000-08:00

Am I stalking Subway girl? How can you tell if you are a stalker? What causes someone to become a stalker? How can you tell if someone who you see often, but are not friends with, is a stalker and most importantly what can you do about an ignorant stalker?

The reason I think I might be a stalker is because I have intentionally gone to Subway in hopes of seeing Subway girl. Sure, Subway is the only place around that offers healthier food and the food does taste good but I really go there mainly because I know that Subway girl works there. I found myself thinking that what I was doing could be considered stalking by some.

Now, I don’t follow anybody home from work or anything but I have seen Subway girl at other places around town. Sometimes she recognizes me and says hi or honks and other times we just walk by without saying anything.

I don’t think it is really stalking someone until you drive by places you think they would be just to check if they are there. If I drove by Subway and looked inside to see if Subway girl was working before deciding if I should stop that would be one strike against me for stalking. If you know information about them but they do not know that you know, such as address, phone number, full name, etc. you might be stalking them. If you have ever gone to an event like a sporting event or festival to watch them or try to run into them and not for the event it self; you are stalking them.

Now why would someone start stalking a person? The way I see it, one might start stalking someone because they wanted to know more about the person in hopes of having a better chance of success in a relationship with them.

For example I might think that knowing Subway girls phone number would be a great step in getting a date with her. That is technically correct but if I got that number by asking the manager at Subway for it that would be stalking and would be a step in the wrong direction. It is extremely creepy when someone who should not have your number calls you to talk.

Deciding if someone is stalking you is a tricky one. You really need to make that distinction for yourself. If you see someone all the time but you get no bad vibes they might just have a similar routine to you. If you want to test maybe change your routine for a bit and see if they change their patters as well.

You could also counter stalk them or get a friend to watch them and see if they are doing things with the only real reason being they include you. If you change your routine, get a friend to watch and see what the stalker does about it. For example Subway girl could take a few weeks off and see if I still go to Subway or could have one of the other “sandwich artist” there tell me she quit and see how I react.

Most important, what to do if you are being stalked by someone who does not know they are stalking you? Ask them, seriously, if they are stalking you. I should clue them in.

-Robert

What a day

2006-11-08T00:07:00.000-08:00

So today was an interesting day. It started off badly and I assumed it would be an upsetting day and I would end up coming home and venting here. Surprisingly however, it appears that my original opinion of the day was wrong. I ended up doing very little real work and having a good time in training and meetings all day. When I came into work today someone had sat in the cubical I normally sit in. I thought that it was going to be all down hill from there. The computer I was working on had some messed up technical issue where the display only showed a part of the page it should have. For the first few hours it was looking like it would be just one annoying problem after another but then after my first break everything turned around. I ended up going into training for 2 hours until my lunch break. Training was not too interesting but it was better then working. I got to teach someone else about a new tool they didn’t know about. For some reason that made me feel good about my self. Lunch was good. The cute Subway girl was not there but I still got to talk to the other Subway girl and my sub was tasty. After lunch I did about 15 minutes of work before it was time for a company wide “Town Hall” meeting. We all took a bus to the Performing Arts center in town and had a big long, drawn out meeting.

For the first half hour or so we just stood around in the lobby talking amongst our selves. That was fun because I ran into Mike. We chatted about how things were going and how his schedule kept getting switched around. The meeting was long but not boring. For some reason the whole group was very energetic and so we had a real good time while hearing about the business plan and what we were doing to make a better place to work. They gave away prizes but I didn’t win anything. I am sure that the same guy won like 4 of the prizes with his one ticket thou… must be his lucky day.

So that was my day. Maybe tomorrow I will post something less work related.

-Robert

Resurrection

2006-11-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Klaatu varata nicto!"

Hey, I am back from the dead. After school ended I didn't really have any reason to keep blogging so I have not updated since then. But now for no really apparent reason I am back again and so I will be trying to update this as often as possible.

For those of you who do not know me, I am Robert. Most people call me Bob but Robert just sounds cooler. When I am on the net, I go by Robert. I am 22 right now and currently working a dead end job.

For the last several months I have been on a late shift that left very little time to do anything other then work, eat and sleep. Because of that I had very little social live, gained some weight and turned my life into a real mess.

I just got on a new shift and I thought I would change my life and for the heck of it I would blog about it too. So far at the end of day 1 I am feeling pretty good about my plan. My hope is that I can make it 30 days strait with constant improvement in my lifestyle.

I am just going to kind of use this blog to vent, talk about what I have been doing and hopefully do some creative writing. I am a fan of Zombie Survival so I will most likely write up some zombie short stories when I am in the mood.

If anyone actually reads this please leave a comment, I would love to know people are actually interested.

-Robert

damn 4 min late

2004-07-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

The topic of our last class was conflict. This was most helpful as there was lots of conflict going on in the groups working on the proposals. In my own group I was having a conflict with the group leader.

We talked about what we would do if our roommate put some of his food on your rack in the fridge we share. I think I would not get mad at all. It is just too small and issue to get upset over. I would probably just ask my roommate not to do that if he could help it. Then I would leave it at that. I always think that you can’t get too upset about things like that. If you really want to get mad then get mad about something big.

One thing that does anger me thou is when you tell people something and they hear something different, like I told my friend to that the movie starts at 7:10 and they don’t show up until 7:30. But that is not the worst part; they think that I said 7:30 and they keep telling me I am wrong. They don’t want to admit they might have heard wrong. It just bothers me.

Incase anyone wanted to know I am an ISTP according to both the Myers Briggs tests we did in class. Another weird thing that happened in class was when Stan was talking about the midterm and asking everyone what they feared the most, I was thinking I fear I will use lots of run-on sentences or coma spices. Then Stan asked me “Bob, what is a run-on sentence?” and I was like stay out of my head! Anyway that is like the second time in 2 days that psychic stuff has happened. It is just kind of weird.

too late this time

2004-07-21T01:43:00.001-07:00

this is on hold untill i fix it. if you read this plz forget it all

just under the deadline!

2004-07-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

We talked about our feelings on competition yesterday. I personally don’t care for it and try not to take part in it. If I have to I will try my hardest to win unless I don’t care about the outcome. Then we went over the 3 secrets of winning. What are these mystical concepts that assure success? First you must know the score. You must find out how you keep score in whatever it is you do. Along with this you must be in the right game. Second you must hang out with winners. You must determine who needs to be on your team for you to succeed and who will slow you down. Lastly you must be imaginatively positive. You must believe you can do it even when everyone says you can’t.

We also talked about how as a child there are lots of times when we are in competition with others for some reason and lots of them use humiliation as motivation. An example is a sock hop, where one group of kids is selected by another group and then the go dance. If you are not picked then you are usually laughed at.

Then it was time for the big group project. Group leaders were selected and then we played the old fashion picking teams game. Were the leaders select one person at a time in order and then the last person left is the most unpopular. After that we had free time to work with out groups and start the project. We came up with some ideas, and then started filtering unrealistic or unprofitable ones out. We ended up with about 20 that we are going to select from. All in all it was a uneventful class.

work in progress

2004-07-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Our class yesterday was about meetings. We talked about how to be likeable at meetings, how to seek revenge in the workplace, and what not to do in a meeting. I felt somewhat left out because I have never been to a business meeting. Sure I have met with friends and people from my group at school but that is not really a meeting. I guess the same kind of advice could be applied to those gatherings as business meetings.

Then we got on the subject of lunch. Lunch is my favorite meal of the day. I don’t tend to use lunch as a chance to go out and strengthen my relationships but it might be a good idea. Stan seems to really like lunch and I don’t blame him; some of the best meals are lunch specific.

I saw the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy today. I was an excellent movie and I recommend everyone go to see it. You may be wondering what the movie I saw today has to do with English so I will tell you: Ron Burgundy could have really benefited from the things we learned in class on Monday.

Ron was the best anchorman in town and he had a real superiority complex. There were several times he was in a meeting and was asleep! When asked if he was paying attention he said no, he also liked to disagree very openly with others opinions and proposals. It was very clear to me he should look at taking this course and learning the proper way to act in a meeting. Maybe then he would have gotten his way. Other than Mr. Burgundy’s lack of meeting skills it was a very funny and enjoyable movie. There is even senseless violence to keep the kids happy.

A better comeback

2004-07-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well we had our presentations today and I must say I don’t think I did well. I experienced extreme stage fright and only managed to spit out some of what I had wanted to say. I had expected to do the presentations differently; I thought that I would go up alone and there would be some need to introduce my self. I had my little speech all worked out. I would say “Hello I am Robert Smith, but every one calls me Bob, But I am not here to talk about my self I am here to introduce you all to Arluene King.” And then I would make up some stuff about how she likes to lead and she has worked for OUC for a long time.

Instead I got up there and she went first so there was no need to introduce my self. But me, being bad at thinking on my feet, still tried to and I am sure someone noticed. I could only think of what I had wanted to say first: that she was a friendly and competent person and she seemed like the type of person to get things done if they needed doing. All in all thou I think it was better than it could have been. I have been known to do some bad work.

I have not had to introduce anyone like that before and I think it will be very helpful in the future. I know other people will need help showing off their skills and qualities and a third party doing the introducing can really help them out. Hopefully I can employ the some tactic to get my foot in the door of some of the places I want to work at. I will see you all next class.

not a good start

2004-07-07T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well I had a good week long break from English. I had a chance to apply for some jobs and get some rest. Now it is back to the usual English every Monday and Wednesday.

I am back for another installment of Business communications! After passing the last course with a 55% I am hoping to improve my mark this time around significantly. I enjoyed my short break from classes and feel rested and ready to give this class my all.

As some of you may have heard from me during class I spent my break hanging around my house and playing video games. I really improved my skill at killing terrorist on Counter Strike (a Half-life mod) and I stole lots of cars on Grand Theft Auto Vice City. I also went down to the USA with my Dad to fix and maintain our lot in Paradise. Paradise is just a few hours south of the border; we have a small undeveloped lot we use for camping. Another reason we went was to light of some fireworks and spend some time together. Me and my Dad don’t get to see each other as I would like.

We talked in class about ways to get to know people and some good questions to ask potential group members. I found that when I actually tried to ask the questions to Arluene when I was trying to get to know her they seemed very interview-like and I felt awkward asking them. I ended up just talking with her about common interests and I felt I got to know her better.

Posting my blog late was probably not a good way to start things for this class. I was very busy and didn’t get around to posting until now. I will try to get all the following posts done on time.

after thoughts

2004-06-21T23:51:00.001-07:00

Well the course is over now. I just though I would be a good time to write some things that I feel need saying.

About the last few posts: as you can tell I did them all at once (except the very last it was 1 day later.) as I said in the first few, I didn’t think this was for marks so I didn’t really devote to much time to posting after every class. That is why I did them all at the last minute.

As for the topic of the last five: I ran out of class related info and needed to fill 1500 words with something. I originally had planned to keep to ranting about the course but I just didn’t have the ammunition to do it.

About the course in general: I didn’t like the “wired” class room. It was too hot. There was way too much incentive to be “distracted” by the computers. Notes were not as “note” like and I found I didn’t take notes that I though were useless. It turned out that there were a lot of useless notes the made up the whole lecture. Then it was too late to go back and take them.

About life: I think that this course will help me a lot. It is part of getting my CIS diploma. Without that no one will believe I really know my stuff. I will be taking the next course in the series: Business Communication II (2 for those not in the know… :) … ) I might even keep posting here who knows!?

Final Blog: The end of life?

2004-06-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

Damn, I had hoped that distraction would have got more of the zombies away from me. I was running for the car I saw idling on the highway. It was still four rows of parked cars and a sidewalk away. The undead were coming at me from both sides and I was stuck between two cars. I used the pistol I had from the school and shot three zombies to clear a path. It took four shots but I was through. I still had two rows to go. I ran one car to the left to get around a zombie that was in front of me. I almost had a heart attack when a zombie inside the dodge caravan smashed its head into the passenger side window. It was trapped in the van still, I was safe.

I made it to the side walk without running into any more zombies. My legs were hurting. I was glad that someone had left the keys in the car and the engine running. I ran around the car and found the driver side door open. I climbed into the driver seat and put it in drive. Thank god for automatic transmissions, I knew I couldn’t dive a standard. The car was a Honda; I think one of those newer ones. It was sporty and I wondered why someone would just bail out of this thing.

That’s when I felt the sharp jab of teeth on my arm. There was a zombie in the car. In my mad rush to get out of there I hadn’t even considered that possible. I was racked with pain as my flesh was torn from the bone in my upper arm. Then everything went black.

I opened my eyes only to realize I was still in class. Jie Lin was poking me. We were presenting our final presentation. It was all a dream. Man my arm is still sore though.

blog #12: mall rats

2004-06-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

I had already been to the house of knifes to grab a good strong axe and the health food store to get some meal replacement bars. I was heading to the Wal-Mart to get some camping stuff and good foot ware. I grabbed a nice hiking backpack and some Coleman’s camp accessories. I saw the perfect survival knife behind the glass case in the sporting goods section and knew I had to have it.

I noticed that there was some panic from the front door of the store and I knew the undead were here. I smashed the case with my nice new battle axe and grabbed my new knife. I noticed a hunting bow and some arrows on the display and stuffed them into the pack with a set of camp cook ware; you never know when cook ware will be important. I was out of time three zombies were walking towards me and I didn’t think that shooting the gun inside was a good idea. I turned and headed for the emergency exit. Just before I got to it I saw some little key chain laser gun toys and formed a plan to get back to my car. I grabbed the toy and some party ribbon stuff from the shelf to my left, and then I was out the emergency exit. The alarm went off just like the sign on the door had foretold. The loud noise attracted many zombies from out side and I had to put my plan into action early to avoid being mobbed by them. I tied the trigger of the toy gun down and tossed the little blipping buzzing gun past the front line of zombies. It worked; the zombies turned and attacked the toy. I ran towards the nearest street in hopes of finding a car with the keys still inside.

blog #11: the journey

2004-06-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

The run to my car was exhausting because in am not in good shape and was going all out. Turns out the zombies were slow and had some trouble with trying to walk through glass. I made it to my car and found it was not working so well, I had to give it lots of gas before it would even start. I quickly sped out of the parking lot and down to the corner by the school. It was too late; it seemed every one I saw was dead or being eaten. What amazed me was how even after watching others get bitten and turn to zombies, there was still groups of people just gawking at the mayhem until it came after them.

It looked like this was it, the end of the world as we know it. I had no idea what caused this to become so wide spread so fast. Most zombie experts agree that zombie outbreaks occur slowly over time. But this was at least city wide within minutes. I knew what I needed to do, get weapons and get supplies to survive the apocalypse. I headed for the local mall and they would have everything I needed.

On the way there I saw nothing but carnage; some people had panicked and drove right in to almost every thing. Ambulances trying to get to people who had been bitten or who had just turned were flipped over and burning. I saw someone in the fruit stand beating some of the things to re-death but I could also see the dozens of zombies coming after that poor guy. Once I got near the mall I found that this part of town was still ok. It seemed that the epidemic had not reached this area yet and I would have some time to prepare and get supplies.

Blog #10: the escape

2004-06-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

That’s right I was in the middle of a zombie outbreak. I had heard about this sort of thing form TV and the movies but to be right there in the middle of it was almost too much. I felt my stomach turn. I was going to be sick. That’s when Wilma tried to take a chunk out of me. My zombat training kicked in. I dropped to the ground and rolled to avoid the falling corpse. Raising quickly to my feet I and drew my Glock 9mm. It felt good to be holding a weapon, with such dire times on the horizon. My thoughts were cut short by the thing that was once Wilma crawling toward me. I had no choice. I pointed and the corpse was motion less again.

How had this happened? Why here? Why now? Surely there were other more boring things going on around the world, this can’t the only spot people were becoming zombies, could it? I didn’t have time to ponder the meaning of this right now; more of my old classmates were shambling towards me. I didn’t have enough ammo to put them all down and my only exit was blocked by the janitor who was being eaten by Hiro. I had to run. I had to escape. I saw the large window in the corner lounge thing and I had no choice. I shot the glass and jumped fully expecting to break something. But any place was better than a zombie infested school.

I hit the ground hard, but not as hard as I though I would hit. The undead were still following me. They fell right out the window; some even broke their own necks and didn’t get back up. The majority however got up and came after me again. I took off running for my car. I was hoping to get away from the corpses and warn the rest of the world.

Blog #8

2004-06-20T18:10:00.001-07:00

Wow I am way more that half way done my posting now, only 5 more to go… damn. Well I remembered what I wanted to rant about for my last post. As I recall this blog stuff was meant to be about the course and what we did after each class. That is the part that really annoyed me.

I could have lived with writing in my blog after every class if I was free to write what I wanted. Instead we have to review each and every class, for the benefit of whom; the other students, the teacher, maybe people who don’t go to OUC so they can see how cool our classes are? Really it doesn’t even matter who it was for, there is no need to waste 300 words to describe each class. I could sum it up much more concisely: I got there late it was boring we got an into groups answered a silly question and tried to guess what Stan wanted us to say to his next question, after 2 hours of that we got a break and I got some pop. Then the guessing fun started again until he reviled to us that he was talking about “the topic of today’s class” and we all felt stupid for not reading the note he posted in the discussion board 10 minutes before class. He told us the secret of power sentences and why we need them, again. At exactly 8:59 he gave us an assignment about “the topic of today’s class”. We then went home.

See I don’t need 300 words to describe that every class. That was about 100 words and I was being long winded. I would have almost enjoyed my blog if I didn’t need to talk about anything in particular.

Blog #9: zombies

2004-06-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

I arrived late, Stan had just started to tell us to get in groups with people we didn’t know, this was hard because I have worked with almost every one by now. Then Stan asked us a question, it doesn’t matter what it was, he was looking for a specific answer but the class was deadly silent. One of the more talkative people in the class offered an answer feeling confident they knew what he wanted. It was not the answer Stan had been hoping for, instead of saying so he accepted and even recorded the answer in his notes, he then repeated his question with more emphasis. Now others realized that maybe their answer was right, several people began saying what ever came to mind and all ideas got recorded but none were the right answer. After several minutes of this Stan became impatient and decided that Hiro (I think it was Hiro) knew the answer but he was just not saying it. Hiro of course, was just as lost as the rest of the class but he tried to guess the answer but failed. Fed up Stan demanded the answer again but now no one could even come up with a totally wrong answer to give. Finally, after what seems like hours Stan exclaimed that is was a trick and there was no good answer. He then talked about the meaning of some simple word like ‘reference’ or ‘relationship’ for the better part of three days. After that we were all starving and dehydrated he said we should take a ten minute break. I left to get a drink of water and was accosted in the halls by all the people from the class who felt they had learned so much and wanted to hear how I too had been enlightened, I of course could see through the shroud of power sentences and open ended questions. I knew all too well that these people I once considered classmates had truly become zombies!

blog #7

2004-06-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

My presentation, or should I say my partners presentation, because she came up with the idea and hopefully will be doing most of the art stuff, will be on quilling, I think. It was described as rolling paper and using that to make larger images. I looked on google.ca for it anything matching that description and quilling came up so I guess that is it. The description I got was actually exactly right; you roll paper into cylinders and glue it to a backboard to form larger images. It sounds interesting but hardly useful; I did get approval to present it so it should be ok. I still think that we should have gone with our first idea and shown people how to make a nice website. Jie Lin could have show HTML basics like the head and body tags and I could have shown linking meta tags auto redirects and other stuff maybe even php if I could get a server up and running. But alas, it was all for not, Jie Lin and I were informed that the first idea is always wrong. She was then very confident that the website presentation would fail and came up with our new topic. I feel bad that I might cause Jie Lin to get a bad mark on the presentation because of my bad time management skills, but I am sure with pictures from the internet and my marvelous charisma that we can pull of a great presentation. Well I am fifty words short as of the start of this sentence so I am trying to fill up as much space as possible to get to my three hundred word minimum before I run out of interesting and valuable data to present to you, the reader of this site.

Blog # 6

2004-06-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yea! I am almost half way done these stupid blog posts. Yea that’s right. They are stupid. If that pisses you off, too bad. At first I was going to only say happy and good things on here but I don’t think that is going to happen any more.

When I first found out I had to write this blog I was very upset, I came to this course thinking I would learn how to write business reports, letters, memos, and resumes. Instead I get to create a lovely on line journal. Yea! After the initial anger I realized that it wasn’t for marks, it was just to help improve your writing skill. Well that’s nice but I think I can write creatively enough.

I just treated the blog like something I could do if I needed to. I wrote in it several times in the first two weeks. Then there was the memo, that was not too bad, I just had to summarize an article on some on else’s webpage, nothing too hard. 3 blog posts and the memo we had to do and every thing was good. Then real life started to cut in to my time again and I put off writing for a few days, then a few more because if no one missed it that week why do I need to rush in to any thing?

The BAM! Third last class and now I learn that we should have had 13 posts on our blog. Well no problem it’s not for marks right? WHAT!? It is for marks now!? Why didn’t you tell us at the start of the course? So here I am typing out 9 blog posts in one day, with the analytical report still due and a presentation to do tomorrow too.

Blog # 5

2004-06-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

Wow… just wow. I just looked at my blog and realized that I only have 4 posts and I need 13. I was under the impression that we only needed to write a post after Wednesday’s class, not every class. Oh well I will just bite the bullet and write some posts. I really felt swamped when I found out that all this stuff was due at once next Monday.

We have an oral report to do, with a person we have never seen before, about some random topic, and only 1 and ½ classes to plan and prepare. I would have felt better about this if we had been able to pick a partner closer to the start of the course, in stead of 1 week from the presentation. I also would have liked it if we didn’t do it in pairs, groups just mean that there is one more chance you get the weak link. Not that I am saying my partner is a slacker, if anything it will be me that ruins our presentation, but I don’t think my laziness should harm any one else’s marks.

I also learned that we have a two page analytical report due the same day as our presentation. That was unpleasant, to say the least. I guess I should have seen it coming, what with it being on the outline and all. I just don’t like it when we have to wait, to find out the topic of our 2 page report, until the week before it is due. While we are on the subject, how do we know how to write an analytical report if we are never taught it? I am sure I didn’t miss a class but I don’t recall ever learning how to write one.

Blog entry star date 526.04

2004-05-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

This blog post should have been for Wednesday of last week, but I am slow and hadn’t finished my website review yet.

Wednesday’s class was shorter than normal, it was a nice change. We started the class by talking about thinking and tried to define it through examples. Very few people really had anything to say about it so we just kind of sat there for a while. Eventually some people had the right idea and we moved on to group work.

We were tasked with deducing the total number of toothbrushes in Kelowna. We had like 7 minutes to discuss it and then we had to tell the class about it. Our group came up with the lowest number around 200-300 thousand because we assumed that once a toothbrush goes in to the garbage it is then not a toothbrush but trash instead. Other groups had numbers in the millions.

After that we had a break and then a grammar test, I think I did very well. I haven’t checked my marks on it yet(if they are online some were) but I just think I know grammar. I have really enjoyed the long weekend, gave me lots of time to rent movies and look for new sites to review.

This week’s website review: PVPonline.com, this site is the online archive of PVP comics by Scott Kurtz. PVP is about the comical things that happen at PVP a computer game review magazine. Notable characters include: Cole the editor, Brent the creative director, Jade the lead writer, and skull the troll. Together with a few others these characters get into some wacky adventures and make jokes about the gaming industry. The site has a decent layout but it is hard to get to get to the more recent strips. All in all it gets 87 out of 95%.

Memo for English

2004-05-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2004
From: Robert Smith
To: Stan Chung
Re: Summary of Joanna Krotz’s article - Cell phone etiquette: 10 do’s and don'ts

Joanna Krotz, a columnist for bCentral wrote this article. The article focuses on cell phone use, or abuse. Cell phones ring in all the wrong places. Due to excessive ringing in Broadway shows New York laws restricting cell phone use at performances.

Ms. Krotz fears that people have no respect for what others hear of their conversation. According to Context's study most people dislike hearing others loud or personal calls but tend to have loud and personal calls of their own in public.

She then lists Mary Westheimer’s over the top story of how a presenter at a Publishers Marketing Association conference stopped his presentation to answer his cell phone. Many states considered banning cell phone use in cars because crashes continued to escalate even with the use of hands free devices.

There has been a decrease in the number of people using cell phones in public areas. Most people now consider it inappropriate to use cell phones in many places.

However, nearly half of Americans surveyed felt that using a cell phone in public rest rooms was acceptable. It seems more people own cell phones and feel comfortable using them. Krotz states that washrooms are no place for cell phone chatter.

Cell phone users must find a way to incorporate good manners into their phone use. Some people will need to take calls at all times but most people should be let voice mail get it and call back at a more appropriate time or set the phone to vibrate and go somewhere more private to start talking.

Joanna’s list of 10 do’s and don’ts of cell phone use can be found here http://www.bcentral.com/articles/krotz/165.asp

Part 2

2004-05-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is the second post on my blog, It is a little late but better late then never right? Our last class we covered power sentences which help us turn normal speaking into powerful writing. The power sentence is a tool for revision, a way to avoid grammatical errors, and a standard tool used by professionals. The format for a power sentence is:

Specific subject + specific action + specific object

We went over some examples in class; I’m not going to post them here as they would take up way too much room. We got our first big assignment, we have to write a memo in power sentence form. It looks to be changing and fun. I think we got out a whole five minutes early, I was glad. I find the computer lab gets very hot after 3 hours with the computers on.

The reason this is being posted so late is I was confused as to when we would be posting on our blog, I though it would be a once a week type of thing and I guess it is, just the first one was extra. Well that’s all I have for the class related part, now on to my website review.

This week I reviewed the site www.sodaplay.com, sodaplay was made by soda creative ltd. this site was made mostly for fun and offers the cool sodaconstructor simulator. It is a fun java(?) application that one can build little walking robots in. it is really fun and I think every one should check it out. Once open the constructor lets you create springs and masses, the basic building blocks of a soda creature. Masses can be fixed or free and springs can be made into muscles. With these in hand you can create small walking creatures or funny scenes like the hangman one I saw. I give this site 3/5 bits.

The Start of Some Thing!

2004-05-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to my first ever blog thing-a-ma-jig. My name is Robert Smith but you can call me Bob.

I am writing this for an English (business communication actually) class I am taking in the summer semester here at OUC (Okanagan University College) which is soon to become UBC-O (University of British Columbia Okanagan).

This whole OUC  UBC thing is really silly, it seems that no one at OUC saw it coming and from what I hear the head dude at north campus didn’t even get invited to the press release about the takeover!

Well back to English, I really dislike English courses but I am really going to try hard and get great marks in this class. This will be the second time I try this course, the first try was not that successful, I got like 39%, it was bad, but my teacher was new and she lost some of my assignments so I got that all sorted out and increased my mark to a whopping 42%!!! Well I still failed and now I have to retake this course.

From what I see so far I will like this class, I found the first class a little boring and dull, I hope that the next class will be a bit quicker. I met some interesting people today, I met Kevin and Henry. I didn’t however catch the name of the other member of our group. We talked about how to give good first impressions and to get noticed. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to more group work next class.

Well I am over my 300 work min. so this is the last paragraph. So in conclusion I would like to inform every one that I will make some use of this web space by posting interesting things, as judged by me.