OK so the last two months or so has been something of a blur for me and my free time has been limited which has precluded me from posting. Not everything that has chewed up my time is worth reporting but I’ll cover the nifty bits. The biggest drain on my time has been work. I’ve been in charge of this big project for the last couple of months and there has been a lot of demand from upper management to get it done. My team is pretty young (I think the average age is 23) which means I spend a lot of time helping them out and doing code reviews and such. I’ve had to deal with changing specs, stealthed features, and components delivered from other teams that don’t work properly. Hours were long and weekends often shorter then usual. However the difficulties and frustrations are now coming to a close and the project is getting rolled out. Ultimately they seem happy with it as they gave me a nice bonus and recently stock options. So that’s all good now. In the midst of all this I did get a one day reprieve as HR asked me to come with them to UVic to do some recruiting. I hadn’t really been back to UVic since graduating in 2000 (which is kinda odd since I spent 5 years of my life there) and I was surprised by how much it had changed. A huge multi-story building had been added next to the ELW with labs, offices, a talking elevator and shockingly classrooms. I guess the modern engineering student doesn’t have to leg it between class and labs quite so much. The trip was pretty whirlwind but I did get to say hi to some of the Profs and staff I knew from back in the day. Unfortunately the recruiting didn’t yield much (its probably the worn time of the year to be honest) but we should be able to get co-ops and grads from them sometime in the future. At times when I wasn’t working I kept myself pretty busy with various social stuff such as board gaming, hanging out with friends and playing badminton at the local community. The one large social event I arranged myself was interesting to say the least. I’ve wanted to have people over to enjoy the BBQs my building for some time now and this year I actually sent out invites. However the first weekend I chose had to be canceled (due to work). So after the postponement I chose another weekend. While work co-operated that weekend, the weather didn’t. It was sorta drizzly so we could dash out and cook stuff ok but we had to spend most of our time in my apartment. Turns out you can fit a dozen plus people in the space I have available. Which is good to know! When I die of heart attack at the age of 32 devoid of hair and fingernails you can point the finger of blame squarely at the Vancouver Canucks. They are back and although the team has changed considerably in the off season they still manage to keep me freaking out and shrieking at the TV. My various pools are a little Canuck-heavy this season which just adds to the strain. Me and a buddy have half season tickets this year so I’ll get to see even more of the action in person. Also picked up a PVR so I can record Lost and other shows (and catch the occasional HD game) while I’m watching games and such. For PPV games a group of us go to the local bars on Robson to watch. Should be a fun season! Anyhoo that’s my life in a nutshell at the moment. Pretty sweet all things considered. |