Jameson’s Vintage Reserve. Smooooth.
Not in the red light district
Or maybe I am?
When you go to a cattle conference….
… they think you need more meat. Found this stuffed into my welcome bag. 
ABIC 2016
Attending a seminar on low stress cattle handling. This job gives me the most incredible learning opportunities. 😉
Cancer Coffee
Just add water.
Happy New Year!
Another year comes to a close with me on the computer and my wife sleeping soundly on the couch. I’m not sure I’d have it any other way.
I have plenty of things to be thankful for even though I have a lot of shit going on that just generally sucks. My wife continues being the best thing that ever happened to me, I get a chance to travel ( though not as much as I would like ), I work with people who I enjoy going out with and consuming soju (SSome in Calgary is great) and I don’t particularly mind going into work everyday.
These are all things that I know I should be grateful for; and I am. But like many other people I know, more would be better. More time off, more salary, more enjoyable work projects.
New Years’ Resolutions rub me the wrong way; I don’t like them. Too often people say what they’d like to change without ever actually putting a plan together for how they are going to make those changes in their life. I was one of those people for many years. Then I just stopped making them. Completely.
That won’t change this year either. I’m going to continue doing what I’ve done so far and make slight course corrections as necessary to continue pushing myself in the same direction I have since the Winter of 2008: to give my wife a life that both of us can enjoy to it’s fullest. If I can keep my wife happy, my life will follow.
I wish whoever took the time to read this the very best of 2016 and hope that you get exactly what you work for or exactly what you have coming to you.
Slainte!
How many sales people does it take….
… To discover if we need any help? Four. The answer is four. I’m getting a bit aggressive.
Next shopper that decides it’s a good idea to cross in front of me making me stop dead in the flow of traffic is going to get a punch.
How Much Is Enough?
Browsing through Reddit, as one is wont to do on a late Sunday night/early Monday morning, I stumbled on this web log posting by Erik Dietrich about personal/professional life balance and how we sometimes do too much in the hopes of receiving some form of payout in the future.
Having started a career at a later date than most, I’ve ended up doing many more hours at work than I should probably be proud of in the hopes of accelerating my experience gain. I spend many hours after work investigating tools and techniques that may assist me in producing quality results in less time. Because that’s what I expect to happen: you gain experience and you’re able to reach the same mark, week in, week out much more quickly than you would have in your first week in the same role. Which, I understand, allows you to take on more responsibility, gain more experience, make you more valuable to the company who employs you and eventually make more money, get more perks, get promoted, etc.
So when I think of the some extra hours put in since I’ve returned from summer vacation, it’s around 10 hours a week/40 hours a month/160 hours since vacation. Wow. That number kind of sucks and, when you think about it on an hourly basis, the realization of how badly I’ve diluted my annual salary is stunning.
I don’t have a problem giving more time to my employer when it’s a ‘crunch’ scenario; no problem at all. What I do have a problem with is the expectation that the amount of work I’ve been given matches the time lines in which I’m expected to deliver it.
Maybe it’s time for a New Year’s resolution: I am a person that completes their work day the same way they start it; on time.
Let’s see how long that resolution lasts. 😉
Hanging out at Start-up Calgary
Hanging out at the Launch Party.
First Two Hours of Fallout 4
Wow.. I am struck (mostly) dumb. I am in awe thus far and I’ve barely begun to play.
NOTE: This will be as spoiler free as I can possibly make this but, honestly, if you have yet to begin a play through of your own and are reading a post titled “First Two Hours of Fallout 4” you’re doing a poor job of protecting yourself from spoilers.
I spent the first 30 minutes creating my character. 30 minutes staring at my characters face, trying to get some likeness of me onto the avatar I plan on playing with for the next 50+ (??) hours. Quite satisfying to have that much control over the likeness you’ll be running around in.
The movement controls are nothing new and any FPS player will quickly become accustomed. Interface is clean with a couple new tricks that make for ease of inventory access.
Control of the weapons (well the one melee weapon and pistol that you find during your first few minutes into the game) is really comfortable. This is going to sound weird but for the first couple of encounters I thought the sights were off when I realized there seemed to be a realistic lag from trigger pull (mouse press) and the impact of the bullet. Fast moving RadRoaches (NOT A SPOILER, YOU KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO BE AROUND!!) managed to make me miss a few times before I got the hang of leading them properly.
Crafting. Geez, this is actually what prompted my escape from the game. It seems really powerful but I haven’t had a tutorial pop up that adequately described how I’m supposed to get raw materials. Maybe I missed it but it was time for some tea anyways. This will be an epic night. However, I’m going to have a very quick careful look through the first few pages of this and see how we go.
Sly, I love you. I hope you’ll still love me when I return…
From the Wasteland.