I just got back from Christmas Holidays in Calgary yesterday morning. I took the Red-Eye so that I got home just in time for work. I still ended up taking a two hour nap in the middle of work though. Now I need to take some time to recover from the holidays.
I have decided to keep a gaming log over at Butler, Wolf, and Bowman. Chances are that I will update that a fair amount more then I have been updating this page.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Getting our Appartment
My first night in Toronto, I stayed at the hotel IBM had provided me. It was farther away then Grant's hotel since his hotel was all booked up.
One of my first tasks was getting my apartment setup, and finishing up the paperwork in regards to that.
The IBM campus is located on Highway 7 and Warden Ave, in Markham, which is north and east of Toronto. Our apartment is at Yonge and Egglinton, which is in Toronto. The trek is anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the time of day.
When we reached our apartment building the first time, the office was closed. So we had to make another trip out there.
I think our first few days where mostly taken up be traveling back and forth between our hotel and our apartment.
The second trip out there, the office was open, but there news was not good at first. The first news was that our credit records where not good. That was a little scary because that is the reason that we lost the last apartment. We managed to work things out. In regards to the credit report at least. I may expand on this later, but suffice it to say that Fido is a less then honorable or honest company.
The next problem was with our apartment, which we were told was ready a few days earlier. It wasn't. They still had work to do on the floors. The next couple of minutes were awkward as Grant and I tried to remain calm and level headed.
But things actually turned out for the best. A higher up fixed things up for us so that we could stay in the penthouse while our apartment could be prepared. This was excellent new, especially since we had no furniture at this point, and the penthouse was fully furnished. As a result, we only had to spend a single night sleeping on the floor without furniture in our apartment.
One of my first tasks was getting my apartment setup, and finishing up the paperwork in regards to that.
The IBM campus is located on Highway 7 and Warden Ave, in Markham, which is north and east of Toronto. Our apartment is at Yonge and Egglinton, which is in Toronto. The trek is anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on the time of day.
When we reached our apartment building the first time, the office was closed. So we had to make another trip out there.
I think our first few days where mostly taken up be traveling back and forth between our hotel and our apartment.
The second trip out there, the office was open, but there news was not good at first. The first news was that our credit records where not good. That was a little scary because that is the reason that we lost the last apartment. We managed to work things out. In regards to the credit report at least. I may expand on this later, but suffice it to say that Fido is a less then honorable or honest company.
The next problem was with our apartment, which we were told was ready a few days earlier. It wasn't. They still had work to do on the floors. The next couple of minutes were awkward as Grant and I tried to remain calm and level headed.
But things actually turned out for the best. A higher up fixed things up for us so that we could stay in the penthouse while our apartment could be prepared. This was excellent new, especially since we had no furniture at this point, and the penthouse was fully furnished. As a result, we only had to spend a single night sleeping on the floor without furniture in our apartment.
Friday, August 8, 2008
My Continueing Story of Toronto
Soon after my conversation with Grant, I had my first job interview. Not just my first interview with IBM, by my first real job interview. The only other job interviews I have had lasted less then five minutes.
That could be why I did so poorly. Be the end of the interview I was stuttering and stumbling over every word. By the end of the interview I knew I had blown it.
So there was my one chance, gone. It sucked pretty bad to have so much of what I have worked for blown away in such a short time.
I waited for awhile. Hoping that perhaps I was just being harsh on myself. But I gave up all hope when Grant was offered the position, and I hadn't heard a word back.
Then i got an email from a manager in another group, offering another interview. I was surprised to say the least.
I went into this interview a little more prepared, and a lot more relaxed. The interview went very well. In fact, I was offered the position by the end of the interview. Then I got another interview, followed by another offer.
Getting the offers was felt even better after being so certain I had wasted my only chance.
So Grant and I were heading to Toronto.
We quickly decided that if we were both heading to the same place at the same time, it would be a good idea to be roommates.
We soon began looking looking for place in Toronto. We found several places online and quickly, and started filtering through them based on location and other such considerations. We found a place that we liked, and filled out an application. And everything looked like it was taken care of well in advance.
It wasn't until a day or two before we left that we were told that our application was rejected and we had no place to live. Apparently although there were places to rent in Toronto, it wasn't so easy to rent them starting out fresh like we were.
In a frantic panic I jumped online, and searched for apartments in Toronto. I followed the first link that I found. And I called the first number that came up. They had a place for us and so we sent off an application. The apartment was a better price, and a better location then the one we had been turned down for.
I thought that I would have a place to stay all set up by the time I got to Toronto, so i had declined IBM's invitation for a hotel room. I had to quickly get that fixed.
But, as I found out when we got there, it wasn't going to be so easy as that.
That could be why I did so poorly. Be the end of the interview I was stuttering and stumbling over every word. By the end of the interview I knew I had blown it.
So there was my one chance, gone. It sucked pretty bad to have so much of what I have worked for blown away in such a short time.
I waited for awhile. Hoping that perhaps I was just being harsh on myself. But I gave up all hope when Grant was offered the position, and I hadn't heard a word back.
Then i got an email from a manager in another group, offering another interview. I was surprised to say the least.
I went into this interview a little more prepared, and a lot more relaxed. The interview went very well. In fact, I was offered the position by the end of the interview. Then I got another interview, followed by another offer.
Getting the offers was felt even better after being so certain I had wasted my only chance.
So Grant and I were heading to Toronto.
We quickly decided that if we were both heading to the same place at the same time, it would be a good idea to be roommates.
We soon began looking looking for place in Toronto. We found several places online and quickly, and started filtering through them based on location and other such considerations. We found a place that we liked, and filled out an application. And everything looked like it was taken care of well in advance.
It wasn't until a day or two before we left that we were told that our application was rejected and we had no place to live. Apparently although there were places to rent in Toronto, it wasn't so easy to rent them starting out fresh like we were.
In a frantic panic I jumped online, and searched for apartments in Toronto. I followed the first link that I found. And I called the first number that came up. They had a place for us and so we sent off an application. The apartment was a better price, and a better location then the one we had been turned down for.
I thought that I would have a place to stay all set up by the time I got to Toronto, so i had declined IBM's invitation for a hotel room. I had to quickly get that fixed.
But, as I found out when we got there, it wasn't going to be so easy as that.
Monday, July 28, 2008
The beginning of my Toronto story
For the last four months I have been meaning to record my adventures and my trip out to Toronto. This is me finally getting around to it.
This all started 2 years ago with with a Computer Science course and a troublesome professor. The course was a disaster from the very first week. The professor was away at some conference and let a TA handle the class. The TA tried to explain the professors brilliant idea of reducing the grading scheme into to A, C or an F. The students nearly started a riot. Even after the professor returned and tried to calm things down, the class was hostile and the students just glared at the professor for the entire class, slipping in snide remarks and sometime outright laughing at him. The professor retaliated by making the assignments deadly and long. The hostility escalated on both sides and the class degraded into a war zone.
The course was a required for my degree, so I had little choice in taking it. Nor did I really have an option in putting it off. So I tried to make the best of a bad situation.
I managed to crawl out of that class with a passable mark. And thought I would have forever put that behind me and would never have to deal with it again.
My friend Grant, who is much more reasonable than me, started working for this professor. I thought that was strange, considering all the issues with that class, so I asked him about it. He gave a defense of the professor and explained how it was a bad situation and not really the professors fault. He went on to tell how good of a professor he was to have as a supervisor, and that he was looking for students to work for him.
It was right around this time that my parents told me they where moving. And that I was not moving with them. I don't blame them, I would want my freeloading son out if I was in there shoes.
With no real source of income, and no desire to work in something that was other than my field, I went back to Grant to ask about working for this professor. Next thing I knew, I was in his employ.
I talked my cousin into letting me move in with him, and soon I was living in the closet under the stairs in the basement apartment. I remember looking up at the spot where the spiders would crawl out of and thinking: at least the rent is cheap.
Working part time turned into a full time research grant over the summer and then into the topic for my honors theses again in the fall.
It was in the spring that things began to change. I had moved around a few times since then and was not so sure of my financial situation. Around this time my professor started to disappear. I never got the full story of what was happening, but he stopped showing up to our weekly meetings and there were rumors and whispers about him leaving the university.
By this time Grants project had moved out of the hands of our professor and had been picked up by IBM. It turned out that our professor had done some research for IBM in the past.
I met up with Grant in the halls in the spring of this year and we got to talking about out various woes. I was not getting enough hours from my professor and Grant's project was too big for one man to handle in the short time it needed to be done. If only I could find another research position to aid my funding, and if only Grant could find someone to help with his project.
A few weeks later, Grant got back to me and told me that, unfortunately, IBM would not be interested in hiring me on for this project. Instead they would like to take both of us on as interns for 16 months in Toronto.
There is the beginning of my Toronto story, stripped down to the bare essentials.
This all started 2 years ago with with a Computer Science course and a troublesome professor. The course was a disaster from the very first week. The professor was away at some conference and let a TA handle the class. The TA tried to explain the professors brilliant idea of reducing the grading scheme into to A, C or an F. The students nearly started a riot. Even after the professor returned and tried to calm things down, the class was hostile and the students just glared at the professor for the entire class, slipping in snide remarks and sometime outright laughing at him. The professor retaliated by making the assignments deadly and long. The hostility escalated on both sides and the class degraded into a war zone.
The course was a required for my degree, so I had little choice in taking it. Nor did I really have an option in putting it off. So I tried to make the best of a bad situation.
I managed to crawl out of that class with a passable mark. And thought I would have forever put that behind me and would never have to deal with it again.
My friend Grant, who is much more reasonable than me, started working for this professor. I thought that was strange, considering all the issues with that class, so I asked him about it. He gave a defense of the professor and explained how it was a bad situation and not really the professors fault. He went on to tell how good of a professor he was to have as a supervisor, and that he was looking for students to work for him.
It was right around this time that my parents told me they where moving. And that I was not moving with them. I don't blame them, I would want my freeloading son out if I was in there shoes.
With no real source of income, and no desire to work in something that was other than my field, I went back to Grant to ask about working for this professor. Next thing I knew, I was in his employ.
I talked my cousin into letting me move in with him, and soon I was living in the closet under the stairs in the basement apartment. I remember looking up at the spot where the spiders would crawl out of and thinking: at least the rent is cheap.
Working part time turned into a full time research grant over the summer and then into the topic for my honors theses again in the fall.
It was in the spring that things began to change. I had moved around a few times since then and was not so sure of my financial situation. Around this time my professor started to disappear. I never got the full story of what was happening, but he stopped showing up to our weekly meetings and there were rumors and whispers about him leaving the university.
By this time Grants project had moved out of the hands of our professor and had been picked up by IBM. It turned out that our professor had done some research for IBM in the past.
I met up with Grant in the halls in the spring of this year and we got to talking about out various woes. I was not getting enough hours from my professor and Grant's project was too big for one man to handle in the short time it needed to be done. If only I could find another research position to aid my funding, and if only Grant could find someone to help with his project.
A few weeks later, Grant got back to me and told me that, unfortunately, IBM would not be interested in hiring me on for this project. Instead they would like to take both of us on as interns for 16 months in Toronto.
There is the beginning of my Toronto story, stripped down to the bare essentials.
Friday, March 2, 2007
New To Ubuntu
I have recently made the inevitable switch from Windows to Linux. A friend of mine suggested I try Ubuntu. He raved over how user friendly it was and how it was a better user experience.
I had my doubt. Previous attempts at making the switch had been painful. There are some less then honorable companies that make things slightly more difficult due to there lack of support.
So i decided to go for it anyways. I tossed in the disk and crossed my fingers.
After a short load screen the Ubuntu has loaded up. Now this was impressive for several reasons:
First, the Windows install on the same machine was painful and required several separate driver disks in order to get to even the install options.
Second, I had not even installed the operating system yet. This took my breath away. I was able to use a fully functional version of the os during the installation process!
Ten minutes later, I had finished checking my email and Ubuntu was finished installing.
When first installed, Ubuntu does not lack much. it has everything from a bit torrent client to a full office suit installed by default. Of course any other program that you would have a fancy to can be installed with the slightest whim through synaptic.
Here is another aspect of Ubuntu that one cannot stop singing the praises of. Synaptic package manager makes installation of any program a dream. Any functionality that you can name can be found through an easy search, and installed with two clicks after that.
The thing that really makes Ubuntu worth while however is the community. No matter what you are trying to figure out, there are forums and wikis, run by the friendliest of people that are there just to help you.
I do suggest that you go try it yourself. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?
I had my doubt. Previous attempts at making the switch had been painful. There are some less then honorable companies that make things slightly more difficult due to there lack of support.
So i decided to go for it anyways. I tossed in the disk and crossed my fingers.
After a short load screen the Ubuntu has loaded up. Now this was impressive for several reasons:
First, the Windows install on the same machine was painful and required several separate driver disks in order to get to even the install options.
Second, I had not even installed the operating system yet. This took my breath away. I was able to use a fully functional version of the os during the installation process!
Ten minutes later, I had finished checking my email and Ubuntu was finished installing.
When first installed, Ubuntu does not lack much. it has everything from a bit torrent client to a full office suit installed by default. Of course any other program that you would have a fancy to can be installed with the slightest whim through synaptic.
Here is another aspect of Ubuntu that one cannot stop singing the praises of. Synaptic package manager makes installation of any program a dream. Any functionality that you can name can be found through an easy search, and installed with two clicks after that.
The thing that really makes Ubuntu worth while however is the community. No matter what you are trying to figure out, there are forums and wikis, run by the friendliest of people that are there just to help you.
I do suggest that you go try it yourself. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?
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