Posts from — July 2007

So for those of you who don’t know, my former employer was purchased a few months ago, and then after the restructuring that happened after the official takeover, my position was eliminated, along with those of another 80 people. Don’t worry though, this is not an uncommon occurrence in the software industry, and besides, they gave me a great package so I get to enjoy my summer!

So now that I’ve been off for a month, my thoughts turn to job hunting. While I could always start with firing off CVs to the posted jobs that I see on various job boards, I thought I’d try a different tack this time around since I’ve got the time: tapping the unpublished job market. By this I mean companies who are looking for people but either haven’t had the time to post anywhere, or prefer not to post anywhere. This requires a little more legwork though, as I’ve got to compile a list of companies that I think are looking for my particular skills, and then type up a nice cover letter, and then fire off the CVs with the personalized letters to each place. But that’s okay, because I think it could totally be worth it in the end, as it shows a little bit of initiative, which always looks good to prospective employers, but also could lead to me finding a kick-ass, kewl job.

I’ve actually already compiled a list of companies last week when I was feeling inspired, so today I’ll work on coming up with a nice cover letter I can customize for each place. Wish me luck!

(BTW, if you actually know of any place hiring a senior technical writer, feel free to email me at the address on the Contact page of this blog. :-))

Phew, is it ever gettin’ steamy in here! Thank god I don’t have curly hair, otherwise it’d be a frizz-fest! For once summer is actually giving us the usual T.O. triple dose: heat, sun and humidity. It was supposed to do it yesterday too, but instead we got clouds & rain. I wasn’t in the city though, as I’d headed out to enjoy the beach at one of our provincial parks. It wasn’t super hot & sunny there either, but at least it wasn’t raining, and we could enjoy the beach a little more because there wasn’t a ton of sun. We were enjoying working on our tans without being broiled. Don’t worry, we both used tons of sunscreen, and we even had an umbrella too, although we didn’t really need it this time around. In fact, with the nice wind we had on the beach, I gave myself a nice exfoliation every time I put on the sunscreen because there was sand e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. haha. My feet are feeling nice and smooth, which is good since that saves me money on getting a pedicure. Did a little body surfing too, as the wind had whipped up the water quite a bit. My friend reminded me that waves on the lake sound entirely different from waves on the ocean, because they’re constant, there’s no dissipation of the sound at all, just a constant Shhhhh. Kind of nice though, almost lulled us both to sleep at one point.

No, not because today is Live Earth today, but rather, because it’s starting to smell a bit lemony, if you catch my drift. After the 1 year mark, it started acting up every 3 or 4 months with some sort of problem that may or may not have required me to go to the garage to get it fixed. Now, I’m not that enamoured of the truck anymore because it’s, well, a little too utility in its driving, but not utility enough in its functionality.

By way of being “too utility”, I mean that it drives a little too stifly and bumpy for my taking. I’m not looking for that expensive car handling that makes you feel like you’re being cradled in your favourite baby blanket while being rocked to sleep on a hammock by the seaside, but even just plain old sitting on the couch type of handling. This thing shakes, rattles and rolls when going over bumps, and I’m not that excited about that. But I knew about that when I bought it, as it is an SUV.

As for the “not utility enough”, I mean that it doesn’t have some features that any SUV should have, namely, an all-ready-to-use roof rack. Now my SUV has these black long things running on the roof that I thought was a roof rack, as my father’s old SUV had something similar, and I used it to transport all sorts of things up top. The black thingys on my SUV though, are decoration only. Can you believe that? In order to actually use the roof rack, I would have to buy these factory-only-available cross bars to screw in to the black thingys. This seems utterly ridiculous to me, and if I’d noticed that way back when, I might not have taken the vehicle. For the second item that annoys me, it’s the fact that I can’t tie down the back trunk and let something hang out the back. They actually reversed the position of the latch and clasp, so that you can’t tie down the truck door. I understand that’s so you don’t let exhaust fumes in, but considering we’ve been doing that for years with all our other vehicles, I find it most frustrating that my SUV doesn’t let me.

The latest saga is the Service Engine Soon light that came on the other day. According to the owner’s manual, when it comes on and stays on, it could mean one of two things: 1-the gas cap isn’t securely fastened, or 2-you have an emissions problem and you should take it into the garage soon for service. Considering I had recently filled the gas tank, I figured that was the problem, so I replaced the cap, and went on my merry way. The manual says that if it’s just the gas cap problem, then the light will turn off after a few trips. Well, after about 8 trips and 4 days, the light has finally turned off! Yay. I was actually going to take the truck in for service on Monday as I figured I had problem #2, but no, my truck was just being a pain in the ass. Sheesh.

Once my lease is over next year, or is it the year after? Gawd, I hope not! After the lease is up, I am most definitely NOT going to be keeping this vehicle. No sireebob!

So, with all the hubbub, are you going to watch the Live Earth concert(s)? I’m excited about all the acts that are gathering, as this type of thing is always fun. While I applaud all the celebrities trying to get us to be more aware, I wanted to play devil’s advocate for a moment and ask the question: will these concerts actually do anything? I mean, will it actually get people to change their ways, get government leaders to enact policies that will benefit rather than hurt the environment? Or is it just an excuse to watch old bands like Duran Duran, the Police, Genesis and Spinal Tap play funky music alongside new acts like the Black Eyed Peas, Snow Patrol, and Jack Johnson? Heidi Sopinka wonders the same thing over at the Globe and Mail.

While I applaud the campaign to get us to use less, I don’t think it’s enough. I mean, even if all 33,390,141 of us here in Canada changed to CFL lightbulbs, replaced our beer fridges with new fridges, turned off the lights when we leave a room, and not have the a/c turned to glacial in our homes, I really don’t think that will make that much of a difference, do you? At this point we’ve got to be a bit more drastic and get working on big business and governments to change their ways, at least in my opinion. I already use CFL lights in my house (disregarding the alleged & potential fire hazard, as I don’t use them in closed fixtures), I turn off lights or electronic devices when they’re not in use, and while I do drive an SUV, it’s a 4-cylinder one that uses less gas than my previous car, and I always make sure to run several errands at a time, rather than zip out for one thing at a time. Plus, living in the Big Smoke, I also have the option of taking public transit whenever I want, and I do take it when traipsing about downtown, and I sometimes even walk around my neighbourhood to run my errands, if the weather’s nice. So don’t tell me that I’m not doing anything. How about lobbying Prime Minister Harper to actually get Canada to live up to its commitment to the Kyoto Accord? Send him an email here pm@pm.gc.ca, if you like.

A while back (read here), I promised you pictures of all the squares I was knitting up out of my leftover Microspun yarn. I couldn’t upload the photos cuz I was on the dreaded dial-up, but now that I’m back on high speed, I can present you the squares!

I was able to knit up a whole foot of squares with the leftovers, what do you think?

(I apologize for this being the wrong way, but Photobucket won’t show it the right way, even though I’ve rotated it and everything. *sigh*)

I actually took a photo of the stack next to a ruler, however the ruler was out of focus, but here it is anyways:

Okay, maybe the whole photo is out of focus, but if you squint, you can read the blurry red numbers “1ft”.
And here is a sample of a few of the squares out of the bunch:

I’ll be sewing the lot together at some point, but definitely when it’s not hot out. I don’t want to have that thing lying around when it’s over 30 degrees out! (That’s over 80 degrees for youse Imperial system folk.) So there you have them!