Job Interview

I had a job interview today! Take that recession!

Red Orcheestra

So Tripwire Interactive recently announced a new version of Red Orchestra coming out, and some scans of a magazine preview were recently posted on a forum I frequent.

Red Orchestra is a weird game. I've owned it since it came out and I absolutely love it. I just don't play it. It's the only game that when I do fire it up I can't believe I never play it, and how despite a few draw backs it's utterly fantastic. Yet the majority of the time I don't have any inclination whatsoever to play it. Probably the only time I do play it is when I see a friend on.

I therefor have very mixed feelings about the new version. I have no doubt it'll be a monumental game with mediocre graphics, just like the old one, yet I don't really foresee myself playing it too much. I am still excited to try it though.

Innapropriate?

For this story to have full effect I must first lay out the scene. I go to a college which utilizes small class sizes in order to promote more interaction with the teacher. The rooms therefor are the size and layout of a classroom you may have used in high school. This particular course was highly demanded, they had to open second section and there were still close to thirty people on the wait list when the semester began. Therefor the people in the room are generally very attentive to the lecture.

Now that you've got a mental image, what the hell am I blabbering about? I made some sort of snide remark to a friend during lecture which resulted in a conversation. Near the end he said "and know I know". Being a nerd, I immediately replied "and knowing is half the battle". We then both spouted the harmonized "G-I-JOE!" phrase.

When I turned back to the front of the room I realized that everyone was staring at us, and that most had obviously not gotten the reference. Apparently my nerd humour is not universally appreciated.

Free Time

So the winter semester at school finished about two weeks ago. After spending six or seven days a week dealing with school for the latter two months of the semester it has certainly been weird not having anything to do. I still work two days a week, but otherwise have had few obligations and likewise have had little to do. I’m not sure how I spent so many years being a lazy slacker. Granted I was working full time back then, however working in a kitchen was entirely different; it could be extremely stressful while I was at work, but as soon as your shift ends you have nothing to worry about.

As of now I’m just looking for full time employment to carry me through the immediate future. My sole summer class starts next Thursday which is rather exciting. I don’t generally look forward to classes but this one, a business law class, is quite interesting and is taught by who I consider to be the best professor at the college. In the meantime I’ve just been (slowly) getting done all the things I put aside until after the winter semester.

Hankering Ambitions of Culinary Glory

It's funny how life works. I spent a few years working in kitchens, generally in a more "senior" role both in terms of difficulty and position. It was something that just came naturally to me, I suppose I had the disposition to be a leader of a crew of either young and stupid or old and stupid people, and the ambition and cool head to take pride in creating delicious food under pressure.

However that was just a stepping stone in my life. I never intended to make a career of it, and likewise after several jobs and a few years of school I've comfortably set my course to being an accountant.

Yet those old ambitions just keep gnawing away at me. I don't like the stress of the job, it has already taken a toll on my health early in my young life. The job was too dirty for me and required the cleaning of things no sane person would want to. To top it all off, the pay was generally just crap. Sure I could have made some money if I'd made a career of it, but as has been established that will never happen.

But there were so many things I did love. The feeling of accomplishment when you kill a two hour whiteout without a single table coming back. The pride you get from creating what can subjectively be called art; art that tastes fantastic. The camaraderie that develops in a kitchen. Simple brotherhood that is without all the political bullshit involved in office relationships. Almost like army buddies, except while we have to deal with the stress of being "under fire", there is never actually any chance we'll be killed.

Every time I hang out with one of my old kitchen pals who are still in the industry the urge comes back. Knowing that I could still do that; be a part of that war story I'm being told. Whenever I watch a good cooking show late at night I want to be able to make food rivaling that which is being shown. I crave for the creative freedom a stocked commercial kitchen provides.

The most recent pang came after reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Yeah, as everyone who has ever worked in a kitchen and read the book will say, I could relate to much of what he said. I laughed at many of the references and thought back to how my own relatively short kitchen career compared. But what really got to me was his anecdotes about Steven the baker.

I've never had to bake at any point in my kitchen career. The most complex baked goods any restaurant I've worked for produced generally came either frozen or in a pre-made batter. After reading Kitchen Confidential I really had the urge to learn to bake; I want to make fantastic breads, superb pastries and rolls to die for. I have no idea why of all things the urge I get is to bake, something entirely different from my own cooking experience of broiling, sautéing, and other creative ways of cooking meats and vegetables.

My Granny apparently made the most amazing pie crusts. I know my mother certainly gained that skill amongst her many other top notch baking talents. However that skill never made it down to the next generation, and that is something I intend to fix. It's only too bad that none of my friends who now have kitchens have any need for a baker, especially one who doesn't know how to bake at that.

I Miss Being Lazy

Sometimes I miss the ability to have three days off and accomplish absolutely nothing.

The school semester is starting to wind up for me. I suppose the positive way to look at it would be that it means summer is coming up, and after three full semesters of being a poor, stressed student are coming to an end. Yet all I can focus on right now is the increasing work load. Group projects, tests, quizzes, presentations, and the regular homework are what essentially dictate my life schedule right now, and are the major reason I've spent the better part of my last six weekends at school. Oh and there are those silly final exam things coming up soon too. But yeah, positive thoughts!

On the bright side I managed to get into the only class I wanted to take this summer. It's a business law class and I've been waiting three semesters for the chance to take this class with this particular teacher. The only downer is that while I know half of the people who want to take the class, many can't even get in because of the huge demand for it. I consider myself lucky to have squeaked in as the last few slots filled within a few hours of my registration time.

This week was officially the start of my summer job hunt. It's something I probably should have gotten on sooner, but I'm a superb procrastinator, even if all this work and school means that ability of mine is dying. While my first choice would be the Finance department where my mother works, I'd certainly relish any accounting of finance related job that would actually put some of my schooling to the test and better prepare me for future classes.

My current job doing basic bookkeeping for a local restaurant is certainly nice. I enjoy the people I work with, and have a fantastic boss. However it suits me much better as a school semester job; I find it very easy and if need be can finish my days work in only a few hours. The downside to that is the pay reflects it.

I suppose the only other thing to talk about is future travel plans. Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and Australia are looking pretty much locked in for next January, money permitting. But the details of those can wait until later, mainly because I haven't figured them out yet.

It always seems worse from the train station

I've always found when traveling to a new place that everything about a place seems worse when you step off the train and onto the platform. It never really mattered whether I was traveling by myself or with trusted friends, or whether I arrived at night or during a bright sunny day. I would like to believe its because the stations are gloomy, but often they're spectacular examples of architecture. In fact the only negative thing I've ever had to say about train stations are the type of people that like to hang out there.

No, I suppose what has always given me a sour feeling about a city as I walk through the station towards the exit is my own fear. All I can notice are that people aren't speaking my language. I don't see the beautiful glass ceiling, only the shady looking guys leaning near cafe. I can't stop thinking about the fact that right now I have absolutely none of the local currency. I only focus on the fact that, regardless of what time of day it is, I have no where to stay, and even if I have for some reason booked a bed ahead of time I have only a limited idea of where it is and less of a clue as to how to get there.

The irony in all this is that most of the times I've sat around gloomily pondering what exactly I've gotten myself into, the city turns out to be fantastic and nothing like my pessimistic fears. After getting kicked off of a train just outside of Amsterdam, and finding out that the first half dozen people I had to deal with on reaching Amsterdam did not even speak English, I found myself wondering how Holland had become such a hyped up country. After I'd had an hour to find my hostel and start exploring I knew why, they are a remarkably friendly people, with a great command of my native language, and live in a beautiful city. Salzburg was a similar story; I walked out of the train station to find a dozen cops taking down a bunch of drunkards fighting. However Salzburg is one of the most beautiful cities I've been to and high on my list of places to return. I arrived in Krakow, Poland after dark with several trusted companions I had been traveling with for several weeks. We are all more than capable of looking after ourselves, but spent the long walk to the hostel looking over our shoulders and calming ourselves with the knowledge that we had our own improvisation weapons at hand. Anyone that has ever been to Krakow knows it is a remarkable city. I could go on and on with such examples. In fact most of the cities I visited would fall into this category, regardless of who I was with or when I arrived.

Of course there are exceptions, both positive and negative. Cesky Krumlov was an absolute pleasure to arrive in. I got to travel through the scenic Czech countryside sitting on my bag with three friends in the back of an old two car tram. We arrived to a one platform, outdoor station where the sun was shinning, and a wall plastered with posters for local hostels to quell the fact we didn't have the slightest clue where we were going to stay. However Cesky Budjovic, the city we had just departed was the exact opposite. We arrived in a big, dirty, concrete station late at night. We had no money, no where to stay, and none of our guidebooks said more than a few lines about the city. The girl at the ticket counter spoke a miniscule amount of German and was able to communicate passably with one of my companions who himself spoke German only as a fourth language. It took us a good hour of walking, arguing with the counter girl, and asking strangers to determine that the city did not have a hostel, and that we would spend our two nights in the scummiest hotel I've ever seen. Aside from a fantastic brewery tour, it's fair to say that the city did not improve upon our first impression. Sure we had a lot of fun, and maybe we only happened to stay in the crummier parts of the town during a part of the year it maybe isn't an exciting place to go, but my opinion of it wasn't particularly high.

Of all the lessons I learned on that trip, one of the best was to not judge a place by its local train station. Through my entirely unscientific and non-reputable statistical sampling I determined that train stations are never a good representation of the experience you will have in the city. Even if the station itself is a masterpiece, I found in myself that when visiting a new place I would never be in the right frame of mind to realize it until I had a chance to actually see the city for what it is and meet those who inhabit it.

Back to civilization...

So I'm back to the (other) grind. The end of tax season was extremely busy, hence breaking my promise to actually post on this blog. After a couple weeks without days off or generally much stress free free time it was done and I had to head back to Vancouver for school. On the way I stopped in Calgary for a day to visit family before the 11 hour drive back home. I left Creston on May 2nd, Calgary on May 4th, and I started school on May 5th. Right now I'm taking a full course load at school (Accounting Management Program) and as of today started my new job as Office Manager for the Byrne Road location of Cactus Club Cafe.

Life doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon. I've got at least one test almost every single week until August and I'll be working on weekends. I'm going to be the best man at my brothers wedding in July however which is certainly something to look forward too. Guess it's better to be busy than bored!

Busy busy busy

Well, I'm apparently really terrible at keeping a blog up to date. I'll try harder, honest!

Work has been quite busy. I've been working 6 days a week, and have started going back at night to keep up. Luckily taxes are due on April 30th, so in less than two weeks I won't have to worry about it all anymore! The work itself is still pretty interesting - while a large chunk of what I do is repetitive, I still get to work on new types of files, and learning new things is always interesting. Admittedly, some of the work is pretty daunting and it can be hard to find the motivation to do it, especially considering I have very little formal training and no experience to fall back on. However like any puzzle, it's rewarding when it's done.

It looks like life is going to be quite busy for the foreseeable future, even after tax season is over. My classes start at Douglas College in Vancouver on May 5th, and sometime between when I leave Creston on the 2nd or 3rd I want to swing through Calgary to visit family and still make it back to Vancouver in time for school. To put the distances in context, Creston where I live right now, and Vancouver which I call home are about a 9 hour drive. Calgary is 6 hours away from Creston, in the wrong direction, and then it takes 10 hours to drive from Calgary to Vancouver (they're in a triangle). So even though I may have 2-3 days to make the trip, a large part of two of those days will be dedicated to driving.

Speaking of school, I'm excited to go back. It's been almost exactly a year since I finished my last semester, and the thought of all the schooling ahead of me just makes me want to get on with it. I do like learning new things, and after spending six months in a farm town getting back to college life (and college girls) will certainly be nice. The downer is that the car won't pay for itself, so upon returning home and getting school organized, I still need to find a job.

On July 19th my older brother is getting married which is pretty exciting. I know that between school, work, being the best man, and having to entertain a lot of family I don't know and don't particularly like might result in a heart attack, but for my brothers wedding I guess it'd be worth it. I suppose I should start writing my toast soon.

But of course with all the stressful stuff it's important to look forward to the fun things. After spending most of the winter cooped up in an office I'm really looking forward to sailing again. My dad bought a new boat last year, a 14 foot 420 class racing dingy. I only got to go out a couple times last year but while I sit in front of a computer all day I dream about getting to be outside in the sun and on the water. I'd also like to get out and try and take my truck places people wouldn't normally take a vehicle, but that depends on other people wanting to do the same with their vehicles, and more importantly money I probably shouldn't be spending on it.

The other thing that keeps me going through the stress is thinking about where I'd like to go for my next big trip. I still intend to spend around 3-4 months backpacking, starting in Australia, then heading to New Zealand, before heading over to South America and winding my way north until ideally I end up back home. If all goes to plan I'd like to do that trip in either the fall of 2009 or spring 2010.

Anyway, time to head to bed so I can get up early and head to work tomorrow (Saturday!).

Ugh

Apparently it's flu season. Not feeling too bad, but not that great either.

I've been procrastinating in terms of this blog. Been up skiing a couple times and have some great pictures and videos from a helicopter ride my cousin took me on which I'll get up to posting pretty soon.