Two amusing "Internet Thingers" today.
First, although Microsoft isn't good for much, they occasionally make me laugh. This page made me laugh really really hard. Like really hard. Oh man.
Second, somewhere in the world something bad happened with ice. The pictures are really cool so I have three of them here.
This weekend was pretty cool. I was basically on my own for the entire time, which can get lonely but is also rather pleasant at times.
On Saturday I went shopping and got Kim a Valentine's present although I won't be seeing her until next weekend, stupid midterm season. I also got myself some pants that I could theoretically wear while working out...were I to do such a thing. I figure that by having them I have one less excuse to not use the facilities in the building I'm living in. Soooo lazy. I also got some more books (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Salem's Lot by Stephen King, Trainspotting/The Acid House/Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh) at the BMV downtown, not the one at Eglinton. I like the Eglinton one better, but I would have to ride a subway to get to it and that costs money and stuff. I also almost bought a whole bunch of DVDs. HMV has a 2 for $30 sale on (like usual), except that both Kill Bill movies are part of it this time, so tempting! Must hold out until the inevitable box set/director's cut edition comes out.....ahhh! Also, Coupling season 4 was at HMV, which was tempting because I've watched all the others and really want to see the last season. So does Kim because she loves it too. Bah, too many things to buy. I'm still trying to get the last Futurama box set as well, and I have a Futureshop gift card, but I can't use it online and everytime I go to an actual store they never have the last set.
No Frill's is having some sort of massive sale where lots of stuff is only $1, so I thought I would go there to get groceries this week. Unfortunately there are no locations downtown. I live near King and Spadina, which is pretty much right in downtown Toronto (the Skydome is a one minute walk from my place), and there is a No Frill's at King and Jameson (which is over 1000 numbers from here and apparently 2.6 miles according to Mapquest). So I decided to walk it since I didn't really have anything else planned today. It wasn't bad, it's not cold out or anything so that was fine. But I don't think I would do the walk at night, there was the occasional sketchy section on the way there. It's funny, because I think the average person who hasn't been in Toronto that much would be worried about being downtown at night. I'm not saying that isn't scary sometimes, but it's way worse just outside of the downtown core. There is always stuff happening downtown at night, there are always places you can go to be safe, and there is always public transit. But once you leave the core, the transit is a bit irregular and sparse and stuff is often closed so you can't go anywhere if there is trouble. So yeah, it was a nice walk in the daytime, and I got lots of cheap groceries. I took a streetcar back since the walk loaded with food would definitly have sucked.
I also watched the movie Garden State today, and I quite liked it.
Do you ever wish you could transmit your current knowledge back in time to yourself in the past?
The co-op program made me realize what it takes to get good jobs in my chosen field. Unfortunately it didn't convey this information in a timely or useful manner; it was conveyed through failure and frustration...learning from your mistakes and all that.
I have an amazing job this term at Alias. I put a lot of effort into getting the job, and I put a lot of effort into the other jobs I applied for in the same term. I wrote custom cover letters and did research and all that stuff. Enthusiasm plus effort can get you almost any job you want in co-op as long as you are even remotely competent. If Alias didn't hire me there were 7 other companies who gave me offers and 3 or 4 of them would have been pretty good. All it took to get these jobs was confidence and enthusiasm and reasonable effort. It was so simple.
I didn't know this information when I started out. Perhaps that is my fault but I am grateful that I learned it eventually, even if it had to be the hard way. However, I can't help partially blaming the Co-op department and the general attitudes of those around me for the length of time it took to come to this realization. First year co-op students are told to apply to the crappier jobs to be sure that they get something. Personally I was told some variation of this line quite a few times. I think that I started believing that I couldn't get jobs that I might like so I often didn't even apply to those that I found most interesting.
But that is not the case. Sure, nVidia isn't likely to ship a first year down to California to help write device drivers for their latest graphics cards, but if you put together an impressive package and show that you care, they might bring you down to do some testing or some other job that can get your foot in the door. You can't knock the experience of working at nVidia, regardless of the position. Even if you don't go back for that "better" job, the contribution to your resume is considerable.
Also, there are many good companies (like Alias) that actively hire first year students for co-op positions because they acknowledge that the co-op program is more than an oppourtunity for cheap labour.
Although every individual is ultimately responsible for his/her own life, I can't help but think that if I had received more encouraging and useful information in my first year, I might have applied to "riskier" jobs and made that extra effort. But the goal of the co-op department is high employment rates and the "conservative" advice works out better overall I imagine.
I regret the lost opportunities, and wish I could change the past. It's not that I haven't enjoyed some of my other placements, but the type of work I get to do at Alias feels like a privilege whereas my other jobs just felt like responsibilities. Even if I get nothing else out of my current work term (which is impossible because I already have), I am glad that I got the chance to realize what it is like to really enjoy your work.
So I have 50 Gmail invites now, that is a really large number considering that I think I've given one to everyone I know who wants one. If anyone at all wants one, make a comment indicating so and I will send you one. Here is proof:
Maybe I will just start registering variants of my name so that people can't take them from me, haha, that'll show 'em.
Today is Pancake Tuesday, the day where everyone not in New Orleans celebrates the day that God invented not only the pancake, but also maple syrup (of course everyone in New Orleans instead takes their shirt off and gets really drunk; probably not in that order though - goooooo Mardi Gras).
Since it is a Tuesday we had our "wing" night at the Golden Griddle so that we could have pancakes. It was alright, but I think I ate too much.
I think I want to buy the Ryan DVD. I should remember to do that when I get my credit card back.
Today was fun. I met Adrienne and Matt downtown and we went to Burrito Boyz for lunch. It was this tiny place near Much Music that had some pretty amazing food for cheap. Mmmm...I love food in Toronto. Then we went to Starbucks for the new "Drinking Chocolate" which is just ultra-rich hot chocolate, and was also really good.
The National Film Board has a free viewing location near my house where you can go watch movies from the archives (going waaaay back) for free. We went to see "Ryan" which has been nominated for an Oscar in the Short Film category this year. It's about Ryan Larkin who was an Oscar-nominated animator for the NFB in the 1960s and who is now a panhandler in the streets of Montreal (as the result of various addictions). It is mostly a computer-animated film made by a former employee of Alias using Maya, which is what I currently work on. So cool. The movie was really good, I hope it wins. I also watched one of Ryan Larkin's films from 1968 while I was there. It was interesting; those crazy hippies, they think up some crazy things. Haha.
After that we made the obligatory trip to Canada Computers and then went to Matt's house to have supper and just hang out.
I want to get a digital camera, specifically the Canon Powershot A95, but it sells for $460 at Canada Computers, and the cheapest I've seen on eBay is about $400. Too much I think for my first digital camera. Oh well, maybe it will come down in price by the end of my work term.
I added a comment feature to my website! And it only took a year to implement (it actually took about 2.5 hours, but I originally intended to start last February and that is about a year ago now).
Yay procrastination.
This weekend was pretty good, Kim came here to my apartment in Toronto and we hung out and did Toronto-like things for the weekend.
On Saturday we went to the ROM which was neat since I haven't been there in a long time. Kim really enjoyed the ancient Roman and Greek exhibits (she is minoring in classical studies). Afterwards we walked around Toronto a bunch and I got to see some parts of Toronto that I haven't walked through before. It was neat. I had a sub from Quizno's for supper and it was really good, I have to remember to go back there. Mmmmm...sub. In the evening we watched The Notebook which Kim has been begging to watch with me. It was pretty good.
My apartment is just a room I am subletting from a guy in a condo downtown so I have access to all of the condo facilities such as a workout room, pool tables and a hot tub. After we watched The Notebook, Kim and I decided to use the hot tub for a bit before going to bed. It was really nice because it is in a room with lots of windows on the roof of the building so while you soak you get a really good view of the city. Anyway, after we got back we got a call from security, apparently the "back board" that is in the hot tub room was off the wall and on the floor and they were concerned that someone had been injured. They called me because they knew I had been in there because you have to use a pass card to get in. The pass card transmits your room number whenever you use it and that information is logged. I know that this is useful information for security purposes, but I personally find it fairly creepy. You have to use the card to get into the building and for lots of other things too so they have a lot of information about my movements. Now I'm not paranoid, it's just that they are all out to get me.
Today Kim and I just sat around. We slept late and watched Spiderman 2. We also checked out this market-like store that is close to my house, Rabba's (the website might not be working). It is about a one minute walk from my place and carries most groceries at almost reasonable prices. It's not really much worse than the Dominion which is the next closet grocery store. They are both expensive though, No Frill's should open a downtown store, that would rock.
I'm reading "Planet Simpson" by Chris Turner and it is pretty cool. I personally like it because it shows that the Simpsons has real depth which is something too many people are unaware of. It always bothers me when people say they don't like the Simpsons because it just means they haven't watched enough of it. Or they are completely without a sense of humour. Both of which are inexcusable. People shouldn't pass judgment on things they don't know about, and the world is too ridiculous to take seriously.
My only complaint with the book so far is that the author is too hard on the Family Guy, calling it "mediocre" and "nakedly derivative." While the concept of Family Guy is derivative of the Simpsons (intensely dysfunctional family), Family Guy has many merits of its own. Family Guy helped popularize a type of humour that I greatly enjoy, specifically the blatantly absurd and random. I've noticed that new episodes of the Simpsons tend to use this type of humour more than before Family Guy was popular. Sure, the Simpsons has always been random, but Family Guy is the king of random crap. The show might not have the same depth as the Simpsons but it is still funny as hell. Maybe if it had had a few more seasons it could have become something more.
