Travel Blog: Day 1

5:15pm Whatever time zone this is.

Finally landed in Edmonton. The plane from Calgary to Edmonton was puny.  The guy behind me sneezed, and the plane took a dip during our ascent.  Never before have I been scared of flying. 

Travel Blog: Day 1

8:19 am

Well, I finally sit down. NOT on my flight. So the shocking news is that I did not leave home late.  We left in plenty of time.  But the gods of traffic chaos descended on the 403 and BAM! all lanes closed.  So of course, I got here just minutes too late to check in.  And the fee to change my flight? Another $150+tax, almost the original flight cost.  And I wore the worst possible pants.  Going through security they almost made me take them off.  The security  guy with the magic wand almost got to 2nd base. 

Standing in line at Tim's I noticed a familiar face: the Honourable Tony Clement.  I should have stopped him for a chat, but he looked like he was making a bee-line for the newsstand.  I'm guessing only to pick up the best of newspapers, the National Post.

That's all for now, I'm in for a 2hr delay, then a reroute through Calgary. Fun times ahead.

Travelling

In yet another attempt to delay the official beginning of my "adult" life, I'll be travelling to the West Coast of this beautiful country. Even though I've had plenty of time to try and figure out what I want to do at this juncture of my life, being at home hasn't proved to be the best location to do great thinking. So I'm headed away to see some sights and do some thrills, do some "communing with nature" (thats total BS, but I'll be seeing some nature sights), and spending more of the money that really isn't mine.

Here's my itinerary:

July 23: YYZ - YEG
I'll be flying into Edmonton, and visiting Holly, Colleen & Will. They're all friends from First Year (Sci 07!) and I'll be going to the IRL race (where Paul Tracy will be making his "debut"!).

July 28: YEG - YVR
Flying into Vancouver, visiting Jenn, Cody, my cousins over the week and long weekend.

Aug 5: Ferry to Vancouver Island
I'll be traipsing across Van. Isle for about 2 weeks, hitting up Nanaimo, Victoria, and hopefully Tofino/Ucluelet. I'm also going to make a mini trip into the states to Anacourtes. This will be the most relaxing part of the trip.

And then on Aug 18 I fly home.

Movies

More on the list of brilliant films that I have seen so far in 2008. (Which I believe to be one of the best years, in terms of the blockbuster films anyway). So all that time out of school has been put to good use. I've seen way too many movies. Most of them good. See the list below

In order of "greatness":

Rated: Far and above the rest
The Dark Knight (5/5)
Wall-E (4.5/5)

Rated: The Best (4/5)
Iron Man
Son of Rambow
Wanted

Rated: 3/5 & lower (in descending order of greatness)
Kung-Fu Panda
Hancock
Rambo 4
Zohan
Narnia: Prince Caspian
Indiana Jones 4
Cloverfield
The Happening

The Dark Knight

(This entry does NOT contain spoilers)

Every year I make a very long list of the summer movies that I want to see, mainly blockbusters. And each year I am generally disappointed by the lackluster performances, the cheap plot lines, and the ton of CGI used. Not so this year.

An aside, to recap my most anticipated movies of years past:
2007: Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, HP5, Bourne 3... Movie of year: Knocked Up
2006: X-Men 3, Casino Royale, Pirates 2... Movie of year: Pan's
2005: War of the Worlds, HP4, Star Wars 3, Narnia... Movie of year: Batman Begins

I just returned from watching The Dark Knight. And I am astounded. Not since LOTR have I seen an opening night audience applaud a movie as heartily as today's midnight viewing received. I usually judge a movie by its ability to make me lose myself within its action and storylines.

Tonight I lost all sense of time.

Tonight I was scared of the worst that a purely psychotic villain could expose.

Tonight I was mesmerized by a story woven so intricately that my suspension of disbelief was complete.

Tonight I witnessed a masterpiece of cinematic history.

Simply put, Heath Ledger's performance is mostly gripping. And terrifying. His portrayal of The Joker could not have been any more precise, as the perfect archenemy to the Caped Crusader. The script writers did great work with his lines; each is quote worthy. His entire being is devoted to chaos, and I genuinely feared his possible effect on humanity.

In the end, all I can say is: GO SEE DARK KNIGHT!

Motivation

Well, it is now almost the end of May. And I have yet to seriously continue my search for gainful employment. I've spend time doing "stuff": the OCE Discovery conference, cleaning/renovating almost the entire house, sorting out some personal affairs. But really, not a lick in terms of finding long term employment.
The problem I am having at the moment is one of conflicted priorities. And until those are sorted out (which always takes me oodles of time), I know that I won't be properly motivated to find that dream job that I've been looking for.
My brother (Jerome) and I have been tossing about this idea of our own startup company. Not too many details here, but the general gist of the company would be to create homes that are more environmentally friendly, with a reduced ecological impact. The real difference is that everything must be presented to potential home owners (and home renovators, to start) in phrases and figures that will actually draw them to the service, other than the "save the earth" let's be green tree hugger movement. People can be convinced by showing them the impact on the bottom line. A 3-5% increase in initial investment can result in 25-60% reduction in operation and maintenance costs. When taken to their actual dollar values, those are numbers that everyone can understand, appreciate, and want to act on. Anyway, I've divulged too much already! Unless you're an electrical engineer or mechanical engineer (particularly HVAC), that wants in...

My dilemma is the choice between three options: find a job in construction management, where I have my lionshare of experience; find a job with a consulting company where I can get experience for the eventual startup; or just run with the startup company right away. It's not as if I'm in dire need of a steady income at the moment, my mother is graciously supporting me for the summer. And there's also the "strike while the iron is hot" mentality going.

Either way... once convocation occurs next week, I'll have made up my mind. I've already started up the Monster/Workopolis searches. Yikes.

Early Lessons Learned

This is a very momentous day for me, both personally and professionally. Today marks the end of my undergraduate career. 5 long years. At times frustrating, revealing, arduous. But always rewarding. My final semester examinations could not have gone any better. I was very prepared for each and every one of them. I probably took my most despised (Wastewater and Engineering Economics) and most loved (Law) courses of my entire career here. And yet the result should be (nothing is guaranteed yet) positive all around.

The experiences I had in my Law class were phenomenal. It made me consider a career in Law. A JD is a very difficult process. I’ve seen the effort that Devin and Alphonso have put into their first year law programme. It’s not that I am incapable of it. I don’t think that I have the emotional fortitude at this point of my life to complete something like that. I do know that I would enjoy it, immensely.

What I am seriously considering is an MBA. It is often said that every graduating engineer considers it. But after having it lie latent in my conscious thought for several months, I am sincerely considering it. I feel that it is only a matter of funding at this point. If I can raise the funds, I will definitely apply. I sincerely wish that I had taken the opportunity to take more Business and Commerce courses throughout my time here at Queen’s. It took me 4 years to understand the value of these principals to my engineering background.

Today was an emotional day. Not only am I leaving behind a large portion of my somewhat “adult” life, (actually my transition into adult life) but today I learned the biggest lesson of my professional life to date. People and companies will say and do anything to keep you, at that particular point in time. I was promised the moon at the company that I previously worked for. It was always about what I would get in the future; once I graduated. And now that I am approaching that time, the promise remains unfulfilled. I would expect to receive, at a minimum, what I can get elsewhere. What other companies deem to be my worth, based on my knowledge base and experiences. However, this appears to mean nothing to my former employer. This has finally signaled to me that I need to seriously reconsider what I will be doing once I graduate at the end of May.

I sent what I would consider to be a well thought out and careful response to the offer that I finally received from them. A few of my major points:

I felt it to be both redundant and inappropriate for me to require a probationary period. After having worked for them for 12 full months, they are fully aware of my level of competence. I have also shown loyalty, in returning to them last summer, although I had a more attractive offer elsewhere.

Salary, obviously. I have another offer that stands at $5,000 more per year, from a larger construction company, but in a lower, entry level role. With better benefits. And more opportunity for growth. And more opportunities in terms of variety of projects.

I was told that there is "little to no room for negotiations." I simply cannot accept their offer as it stands, and it looks like I'll be moving on.

Regardless, the lesson I took from this: Don’t believe anything that someone promises you in the business world. Make them back it up. I should have made them extend me a written offer last summer, BEFORE I went back to work for them. Ah well, lesson learned.