Living in Canada snow's a foregone conclusion.
Owning a corner house, on a non-arterial road, the streets don't get plowed. Eventually there's enough of a snowpack on the road to bring the road's surface up to the height of the sidewalk - and that's when the "fun" begins.
I'm not sure if its the area I live in (mostly smaller, starter-type homes), but inevitably, someone drives on my sidewalk. That's annoying, especially if there happens to be fresh snow out on the sidewalk. So, on top of shovelling my driveway, and my 120ish feet of sidewalk, I now have to chip away at the packed snow/ice on the corner that people continually drive on. Tonight alone, this added about another hour to my shovelling.
I understand people cut the corner. Fine. It happens.
Its when people drive.. on my lawn.. I get annoyed. Its not rocket science, there's a foot and a half snowbank. I understand the sidewalk/road thing. I don't understand the.. "huh, I'll drive into this snowbank" bullshit. It's even funnier when you can follow the tire tred, and identify the instant as they're turning the corner that they realize they're going to hit the light standard that's a foot into my lawn. Good times. Generally these are fairly wide.. truck tires. You know the type of truck. Lifted 3/4 ton trucks with massive wheels, which my wife refers to as "small penis trucks".
Last spring, I cut a flower bed in the front lawn, the front edge of which could be in the "path of destruction" for some truck this winter. Fortunately, I was able to find a rock, about a foot and a half in diameter to guard that front edge with. Just big enough to be drug along with one of those trucks, bouncing around in the undercarriage.
Should be good times for the first person driving on my lawn this winter.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Price is Wrong, Bob!.. err.. Drew.. Drew.. >.>
So recently, I've been subject to more "awesome customer service" from the retail local retail sector. Its absolutely hillarious that we, as consumers, actually allow bad customer service to exist. Quite frankly, If more people had balls, and decided to spend where they were treated as, I don't know, customers, rather than assholes interrupting someone's texting on an Iphone (while they're working), I think you'd be surprised how the general atmosphere of customer service would change.
For argument's sake, I believe there are a few factors in this ongoing problem. I think the biggest one, by far, is location.
Consider your local economy. What are the pillars of the economy? Essentially, identify the one or two things that drastically affect the quality of life of where you live. (and no... I'm not going off track, just think about it and trust me here). Where I live, its the oilfields. The production of oil is what makes the provincial economy tick. There are two factors tied to the oilfields that affect the quality of life: the price of oil per barrel and the value of the dollar versus the US dollar. Its pretty simple, the higher oil is, the more money is made here. The lower the Canadian Dollar is versus the US Dollar, the more we make in Canadian Dollars per barrel. So, lets review. For the local economy, a high oil price and a low Canadian Dollar equals unbelievable wealth, everyone has a job, labor shortage, every rigpig is driving a new lifted pickup. The minute the dollar goes par, and oil takes a nose dive, suddenly we have mass layoffs and massive government deficits. So, then the retail sector does get influenced by the price of oil, but, will still keep on going regardless. The retail sector suffers, yes, but doesn't dissapear.
Now, consider someplace like Las Vegas. I'm not certain when the last time you've been to Vegas, but the place is literally the epitomy of consumerism. Take for, example, the strip. Every big Casino has some sort of mall/shopping area. Ceasar's, Venitian, Bellagio, Aria (or the new mall beside it), Wynn are some of the biggest, many of which are comfortably within walking distance, all of which have the same stores. I'm not talking about having a McDonalds in each. You know.. Louis Vitton, Tiffany's, Kenneth Cole, etc.. the big stores. Also consider that there's three outlet malls, the Fashon Show Mall, Town Center, and I'm sure many other malls we didn't get a chance to go to within a 20 minute drive. To put it very plainly, the place is oversaturated with commercial stores. Couple this with the simple fact that the American economy is becoming more and more dependant on the retail sector and suddenly customer service becomes literally, life and death.
Now. In a saturated environment like Vegas its stupid-easy to simply walk out of a store because of poor customer service. Don't like the service, go across the street and buy the exact same item from the exact same store. In my experience, I was treated like royalty in these stores. Why? They desperately wanted my buisness. I baught a watch in Vegas, and had it sized twice. The second time was at a completely different store the next day. They sized it no problem, they cleaned it and buffed out some scratches on the band. Here, I'd be grilled for a reciept, or just simply told to go back to the store I baught it from.
Now consider the non-saturated environment where the major driving economic factor is NOT retail. Suddenly, to go to, for example, a different Best Buy location on the basis of getting stuck with unknowledgeable, bitchy, horrible service individuals suddenly isn't such a easy option. Is half an hour drive (potentially in the snow and horrible road conditions) worth not having to deal with a retard trying to sell you a product? Suddenly this isn't such an easy choice, and on the other side of the equation the retard making your blood pressure rise doesn't get punished by lower sales. The people that are geniunely bad at retail are allowed to sell and "work" without any sort of recourse - the store sells things therefore they don't care that the customers are dissatisfied with the service. I can't tell you the times I've been screwed around by various retail outlets after the cash changed hands. Three installs and 12 hours of install time to get my XM into my car. Yes, 12 hours in Best Buy. Constant run around for trying to return faulty electronics, shoes, clothing. Being asked to leave a store for calmly asking a non-inflammatory question. Being refused service because the store is closing IN AN HOUR (yeah, fuck you Canadian Tire. Fuck you.). Unfortunately, I'm not alone.
And yes, I'm sure someone working retail at this point is lighting a Molotov cocktail, and getting ready to throw it through my window, but you know, tough shit. I have politely listened to people I know working retail constantly complain and fly off the handle about horrible customers. How customers are always wrong, stupid, moronic, etc, and how those retail workiers are never, ever wrong about certain situations. I don't discount the fact that horrible customers exist; I will argue to the death, however, that there are an equal proportion of horrible customers to horrible customer service individuals.
Unfortunately, I don't live in an area where good customer service means life or death for that particular store. Well, it just means I'll have to disturb either teenagers texting while working or their managers/older coworkers (who for whatever reason haven't managed to make it farther in the workforce) with simple questions about their products, to which I'll get flippant and condescending answers to. I'm sorry to disturb your groundbreaking, earth-shattering work in arranging the shelves for my retarded question - retarded only because I'm not intimately familiar with your store or store layout, because I've only spent 20-25 minutes of my insignificant life in your store.
Yeah. I wasn't wrong in saving up to drop a few thousand in Vegas on consumer products.
For argument's sake, I believe there are a few factors in this ongoing problem. I think the biggest one, by far, is location.
Consider your local economy. What are the pillars of the economy? Essentially, identify the one or two things that drastically affect the quality of life of where you live. (and no... I'm not going off track, just think about it and trust me here). Where I live, its the oilfields. The production of oil is what makes the provincial economy tick. There are two factors tied to the oilfields that affect the quality of life: the price of oil per barrel and the value of the dollar versus the US dollar. Its pretty simple, the higher oil is, the more money is made here. The lower the Canadian Dollar is versus the US Dollar, the more we make in Canadian Dollars per barrel. So, lets review. For the local economy, a high oil price and a low Canadian Dollar equals unbelievable wealth, everyone has a job, labor shortage, every rigpig is driving a new lifted pickup. The minute the dollar goes par, and oil takes a nose dive, suddenly we have mass layoffs and massive government deficits. So, then the retail sector does get influenced by the price of oil, but, will still keep on going regardless. The retail sector suffers, yes, but doesn't dissapear.
Now, consider someplace like Las Vegas. I'm not certain when the last time you've been to Vegas, but the place is literally the epitomy of consumerism. Take for, example, the strip. Every big Casino has some sort of mall/shopping area. Ceasar's, Venitian, Bellagio, Aria (or the new mall beside it), Wynn are some of the biggest, many of which are comfortably within walking distance, all of which have the same stores. I'm not talking about having a McDonalds in each. You know.. Louis Vitton, Tiffany's, Kenneth Cole, etc.. the big stores. Also consider that there's three outlet malls, the Fashon Show Mall, Town Center, and I'm sure many other malls we didn't get a chance to go to within a 20 minute drive. To put it very plainly, the place is oversaturated with commercial stores. Couple this with the simple fact that the American economy is becoming more and more dependant on the retail sector and suddenly customer service becomes literally, life and death.
Now. In a saturated environment like Vegas its stupid-easy to simply walk out of a store because of poor customer service. Don't like the service, go across the street and buy the exact same item from the exact same store. In my experience, I was treated like royalty in these stores. Why? They desperately wanted my buisness. I baught a watch in Vegas, and had it sized twice. The second time was at a completely different store the next day. They sized it no problem, they cleaned it and buffed out some scratches on the band. Here, I'd be grilled for a reciept, or just simply told to go back to the store I baught it from.
Now consider the non-saturated environment where the major driving economic factor is NOT retail. Suddenly, to go to, for example, a different Best Buy location on the basis of getting stuck with unknowledgeable, bitchy, horrible service individuals suddenly isn't such a easy option. Is half an hour drive (potentially in the snow and horrible road conditions) worth not having to deal with a retard trying to sell you a product? Suddenly this isn't such an easy choice, and on the other side of the equation the retard making your blood pressure rise doesn't get punished by lower sales. The people that are geniunely bad at retail are allowed to sell and "work" without any sort of recourse - the store sells things therefore they don't care that the customers are dissatisfied with the service. I can't tell you the times I've been screwed around by various retail outlets after the cash changed hands. Three installs and 12 hours of install time to get my XM into my car. Yes, 12 hours in Best Buy. Constant run around for trying to return faulty electronics, shoes, clothing. Being asked to leave a store for calmly asking a non-inflammatory question. Being refused service because the store is closing IN AN HOUR (yeah, fuck you Canadian Tire. Fuck you.). Unfortunately, I'm not alone.
And yes, I'm sure someone working retail at this point is lighting a Molotov cocktail, and getting ready to throw it through my window, but you know, tough shit. I have politely listened to people I know working retail constantly complain and fly off the handle about horrible customers. How customers are always wrong, stupid, moronic, etc, and how those retail workiers are never, ever wrong about certain situations. I don't discount the fact that horrible customers exist; I will argue to the death, however, that there are an equal proportion of horrible customers to horrible customer service individuals.
Unfortunately, I don't live in an area where good customer service means life or death for that particular store. Well, it just means I'll have to disturb either teenagers texting while working or their managers/older coworkers (who for whatever reason haven't managed to make it farther in the workforce) with simple questions about their products, to which I'll get flippant and condescending answers to. I'm sorry to disturb your groundbreaking, earth-shattering work in arranging the shelves for my retarded question - retarded only because I'm not intimately familiar with your store or store layout, because I've only spent 20-25 minutes of my insignificant life in your store.
Yeah. I wasn't wrong in saving up to drop a few thousand in Vegas on consumer products.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Darwin is rolling in his grave.
Nah, this isn't going to be a social comment on creationism vs evolution, because, well, there really isn't any discussion, evolution is fact. I digress... lol
I'm convinced that as a civilization, we're building a society that works completely against Natural Selection.
Essentially, if you're not familiar with the idea, natural selection, in the biological sense, is defined by wikipedia as the following:
Natural selection is the theoretical process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations. It is a key mechanism in the theory of evolution.
This is essentially the root of the idiom: "Evolve or die", one of those sayings that gets thrown around much too often in the business world. If you extend this idea to the human experience, this is where homosapien using tools, etc, was able to dominate other human-like species. Unfortunately, as we've evolved, we've slowly grown overconfident and worked against Natural Selection. Our society, on a fundamental level, is preventing the "If you do something completely stupid, you get punished for it" aspect of many situations.
Case in point: The evolution of automobiles. One of the driving forces in the industry is to improve safety. Couple that with improved handling and acceleration, and you've essentially reversed Natural Selection. How? People can drive like complete selfish idiots, endanger themselves and others, and walk away from accidents that would rather maim or outright kill them because of these "safety" innovations. I miss the good old days of solid cars, no airbags, and sometimes seatbelts.
What brings on this rant? Heh. Winter driving conditions and stupid drivers. There are many people today that Natural Selection should have claimed, but for whatever reason, they get saved, and then flip you the bird because youmanaged to "wrong" them (also known as swerving out of their way so you don't sideswipe them.. )
I miss Natural Selection.
I'm convinced that as a civilization, we're building a society that works completely against Natural Selection.
Essentially, if you're not familiar with the idea, natural selection, in the biological sense, is defined by wikipedia as the following:
Natural selection is the theoretical process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations. It is a key mechanism in the theory of evolution.
This is essentially the root of the idiom: "Evolve or die", one of those sayings that gets thrown around much too often in the business world. If you extend this idea to the human experience, this is where homosapien using tools, etc, was able to dominate other human-like species. Unfortunately, as we've evolved, we've slowly grown overconfident and worked against Natural Selection. Our society, on a fundamental level, is preventing the "If you do something completely stupid, you get punished for it" aspect of many situations.
Case in point: The evolution of automobiles. One of the driving forces in the industry is to improve safety. Couple that with improved handling and acceleration, and you've essentially reversed Natural Selection. How? People can drive like complete selfish idiots, endanger themselves and others, and walk away from accidents that would rather maim or outright kill them because of these "safety" innovations. I miss the good old days of solid cars, no airbags, and sometimes seatbelts.
What brings on this rant? Heh. Winter driving conditions and stupid drivers. There are many people today that Natural Selection should have claimed, but for whatever reason, they get saved, and then flip you the bird because youmanaged to "wrong" them (also known as swerving out of their way so you don't sideswipe them.. )
I miss Natural Selection.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Society is SMRT
I'm amazed at the complete stupidity of society.
Yeah. I went there.
I'm getting sick and tired of the news media. Not necessarily about the particular slant, or outright lies (Fox "News") that a news outlet may spin a particular story. No. I'm exceptionally tired of the rumor/gossip/star-watching mill that today's news media boils down to.
Case in point: Tiger Woods.
To this point, he's done a very good job of keeping his PRIVATE life out of the news. Now, he's just one of the countless "celebrities" who have a very ARTIFICIAL importance in the world today. Every move he makes is scrutinized and over-hyped to the point where all other news in the world takes a back seat to what Tiger did today.
So very tired of this bullshit.
Today's society has ridiculously screwed up priorities and people are profiting and promoting them. People are making a killing off celebrity worship. What have they done of REAL importance? Who was the last celebrity to invent something that improved the life of millions? Who was the last celebrity that served in the military to keep the peace, to protect the weak, or sacrifice themselves to save a comrade? Which celebrity has done charity work and not publicized it or profited from it in terms of their image? Yeah, I thought so. These people are worshiped. These people are loved. Why? Media's created a self-sustaining, totally addicting market for people to consume meaningless information about random "important" people's lives. Rather than focusing this energy on bettering the world, even through something as simple as volunteering locally to make a difference (note that I haven't gone over the top and said: Hey! We can stop world poverty!) its wasted completely.
Society is ill, and its going to get much worse before it gets better.. if it gets better. Essentially, its going to take a "World War II"-sized event to derail this bullshit. Society is so hung up in celeb-centricity that having the trendy clothes, electronics, cars, etc, is more important than having the ability to EARN these things.
As I get older, I see a distinct rift between my generation and the current group of highschool/early undergraduate kids. I look at my generation, I realize that by and large, we haven't had our defining moment, such as a moon landing, or a world war. There hasn't been a single event that has been a catalyst for focused effort. However, the majority of people that I've gone to high school with have made something of themselves. They've gone out there and put forth effort to do something. Effort that yielded results.
Now. Especially in the last two/three years, I've noticed that the generation that grew up with the "Everyone deserves respect/nobody fails/you can be what you want to be, even if you don't bother to put in the effort" mentality has started to head out into adult society. Unfortunately, that mentality has followed them. Generally those messages are positive, but people who gave them to this batch of kids must have forgot the important caveats. Everyone deserves respect: respect is earned through actions, not given when demanded. Nobody fails: when they put sufficient preparation and effort in. You can be what you want to be: with hard work and perseverance. Someone along the way dropped the ball with these kids, not drilling into them that you actually have to work for things in life. Seems like the messages were too "front loaded" with the good, popular, happy overarching messages, without outlining the importance of hard work and effort. From personal experience in teaching labs at my University, I've run into the following situations:
1. Student does nothing in the lab. Doesn't listen to the lecture portion, doesn't do the assignment, then complains to the prof that I didn't teach *him*, and that I'm responsible for his failures.
2. Student does the lab assignment incorrectly. Acknowledges that they made mistakes. Demands full marks based on the fact that they bothered to hand in the assignment.
3. Student that I've never seen in the lab comes on the last lab period and demands that I give him the marks for the whole semester, since he showed up.
Yeah. Unfortunately, these are all true. The "Give me" generation will be in full control shortly. To quote Clint Eastwood:
"The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits."
Soon these twits will be in control. Heaven help us.
Yeah. I went there.
I'm getting sick and tired of the news media. Not necessarily about the particular slant, or outright lies (Fox "News") that a news outlet may spin a particular story. No. I'm exceptionally tired of the rumor/gossip/star-watching mill that today's news media boils down to.
Case in point: Tiger Woods.
To this point, he's done a very good job of keeping his PRIVATE life out of the news. Now, he's just one of the countless "celebrities" who have a very ARTIFICIAL importance in the world today. Every move he makes is scrutinized and over-hyped to the point where all other news in the world takes a back seat to what Tiger did today.
So very tired of this bullshit.
Today's society has ridiculously screwed up priorities and people are profiting and promoting them. People are making a killing off celebrity worship. What have they done of REAL importance? Who was the last celebrity to invent something that improved the life of millions? Who was the last celebrity that served in the military to keep the peace, to protect the weak, or sacrifice themselves to save a comrade? Which celebrity has done charity work and not publicized it or profited from it in terms of their image? Yeah, I thought so. These people are worshiped. These people are loved. Why? Media's created a self-sustaining, totally addicting market for people to consume meaningless information about random "important" people's lives. Rather than focusing this energy on bettering the world, even through something as simple as volunteering locally to make a difference (note that I haven't gone over the top and said: Hey! We can stop world poverty!) its wasted completely.
Society is ill, and its going to get much worse before it gets better.. if it gets better. Essentially, its going to take a "World War II"-sized event to derail this bullshit. Society is so hung up in celeb-centricity that having the trendy clothes, electronics, cars, etc, is more important than having the ability to EARN these things.
As I get older, I see a distinct rift between my generation and the current group of highschool/early undergraduate kids. I look at my generation, I realize that by and large, we haven't had our defining moment, such as a moon landing, or a world war. There hasn't been a single event that has been a catalyst for focused effort. However, the majority of people that I've gone to high school with have made something of themselves. They've gone out there and put forth effort to do something. Effort that yielded results.
Now. Especially in the last two/three years, I've noticed that the generation that grew up with the "Everyone deserves respect/nobody fails/you can be what you want to be, even if you don't bother to put in the effort" mentality has started to head out into adult society. Unfortunately, that mentality has followed them. Generally those messages are positive, but people who gave them to this batch of kids must have forgot the important caveats. Everyone deserves respect: respect is earned through actions, not given when demanded. Nobody fails: when they put sufficient preparation and effort in. You can be what you want to be: with hard work and perseverance. Someone along the way dropped the ball with these kids, not drilling into them that you actually have to work for things in life. Seems like the messages were too "front loaded" with the good, popular, happy overarching messages, without outlining the importance of hard work and effort. From personal experience in teaching labs at my University, I've run into the following situations:
1. Student does nothing in the lab. Doesn't listen to the lecture portion, doesn't do the assignment, then complains to the prof that I didn't teach *him*, and that I'm responsible for his failures.
2. Student does the lab assignment incorrectly. Acknowledges that they made mistakes. Demands full marks based on the fact that they bothered to hand in the assignment.
3. Student that I've never seen in the lab comes on the last lab period and demands that I give him the marks for the whole semester, since he showed up.
Yeah. Unfortunately, these are all true. The "Give me" generation will be in full control shortly. To quote Clint Eastwood:
"The guys who won World War II and that whole generation have disappeared, and now we have a bunch of teenage twits."
Soon these twits will be in control. Heaven help us.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
One down, one to go/Grey Cup.
So, I came out of my yearly advisory meeting fairly unscathed. There was some very valuable feedback about the scope of my project, that I needed a specific "end" point. That's really reasonable, since you could essentially keep going with my project indefinitely. My supervisor attempted to throw some pretty serious technical questions my way to scare me. Its kind of funny, because this goes back to some of the issues I had hinted to previously, in terms of the communication breakdowns that constantly happen between us. Its sad but true. If he'd listen to the actual words coming out of my mouth, rather than assuming that i've done nothing and that I'm lying through my teeth.. but I digress...
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH RIDERS!
Yeah... LOL
I just finished watching the Grey Cup (Canada's Superbowl Equivalent). Fairly one sided game until the 4th quarter, where the team that was losing (Allouettes) overcame a THREE SCORE deficit to win with a no-time-on-the-clock field goal.
The team that was winning for 59 minutes of the game was the Saskachewan Roughriders. The Riders have probably the most devoted core of fans in the league, if not the continent. They follow their team around, they're always loud and raucous. Essentially, any team would want fans like that, since they can essentially take away home field advantage for opposing teams. We have a 70,000 seat stadium in which our local team plays. The only complete sellout of the season is when Sask came to town. Our local crowd ranges between 30-40k, it was almost even between Eskies fans and Riders fans. The unfortunate part is that they take it --TOO-- far. If they win, and you're an Eskies fan wearing anything with the Eskies logo, you'll hear about it. They'll get in your face, yell, scream, and let you know how much "they" kicked your ass. They'll start fights, badger people, throw things at you, you name it. Their behaviour borders on soccer-hooliganary. As a season ticket holder, I've seen it all. Sask's fans are by far the worst.
Also, the hype for the Cup game was how much the crowd will affect the game. "The Thirteenth Player" type talk. Although the Cup game was not in Sask, they had the majority of the fans, and yeah, they were loud. They managed to build a three score lead in the first 3 quarters. The Als started to come back, and closed to two points, and got into field goal range with no time on the clock.
Now. Make the field goal, and the Als win, shank it, and Sask holds on. Crowd's going nuts, Sask bench is celebrating before the kick, since its a long one 46-47 yards. They line up, snap the ball, and the Als miss.
Then the flags fly. Not one, but ALL of them. Why? Too many Riders on the field.
.. ha.. .. HA.... BWWWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHH!
So, 10 yard penalty, and another try. Now its a 36 yard FG. They make it.
Sask loses.
Huh.. That Thirteeth Player really screwed up.
Sweeet sweet IRONY. I'm going to enjoy it
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH RIDERS!
Yeah... LOL
I just finished watching the Grey Cup (Canada's Superbowl Equivalent). Fairly one sided game until the 4th quarter, where the team that was losing (Allouettes) overcame a THREE SCORE deficit to win with a no-time-on-the-clock field goal.
The team that was winning for 59 minutes of the game was the Saskachewan Roughriders. The Riders have probably the most devoted core of fans in the league, if not the continent. They follow their team around, they're always loud and raucous. Essentially, any team would want fans like that, since they can essentially take away home field advantage for opposing teams. We have a 70,000 seat stadium in which our local team plays. The only complete sellout of the season is when Sask came to town. Our local crowd ranges between 30-40k, it was almost even between Eskies fans and Riders fans. The unfortunate part is that they take it --TOO-- far. If they win, and you're an Eskies fan wearing anything with the Eskies logo, you'll hear about it. They'll get in your face, yell, scream, and let you know how much "they" kicked your ass. They'll start fights, badger people, throw things at you, you name it. Their behaviour borders on soccer-hooliganary. As a season ticket holder, I've seen it all. Sask's fans are by far the worst.
Also, the hype for the Cup game was how much the crowd will affect the game. "The Thirteenth Player" type talk. Although the Cup game was not in Sask, they had the majority of the fans, and yeah, they were loud. They managed to build a three score lead in the first 3 quarters. The Als started to come back, and closed to two points, and got into field goal range with no time on the clock.
Now. Make the field goal, and the Als win, shank it, and Sask holds on. Crowd's going nuts, Sask bench is celebrating before the kick, since its a long one 46-47 yards. They line up, snap the ball, and the Als miss.
Then the flags fly. Not one, but ALL of them. Why? Too many Riders on the field.
.. ha.. .. HA.... BWWWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHH!
So, 10 yard penalty, and another try. Now its a 36 yard FG. They make it.
Sask loses.
Huh.. That Thirteeth Player really screwed up.
Sweeet sweet IRONY. I'm going to enjoy it
Monday, November 16, 2009
Back to the grindstone.
Well, back from Vegas. Vegas was fun, did some gambling, did some shopping, relaxed, and had a lot of fun.
Inevitably, its back to the grind that is my life. The next two weeks will be fairly high paced, with a lot going on, and a lot of long hours in front of my old friend, Mr. Work Laptop. I have a supervisory committee meeting in about two weeks, and of course have to produce a bit of a yearly report. I'm planning to produce a draft candidacy report instead, and using the meeting to prepare from the candidacy exam I'll be undergoing in February. I'm not terribly concerned about the meeting. I'm more concerned about the seemingly impossible attitude that I'm encountering with my supervisor and publishing.
One of my strengths as a researcher is experimental work, being able to work in the lab, perform experiments, and in this case, microfabrication, and produce devices and results. One of my weaknesses is the documentation behind the experimental work. Not so much the writing, moreso the proper way to disseminate that documentation. This problem usually rears its ugly head when I talk to my supervisor and attempt to discuss my project with him. I usually make the error of assuming that he understands the background of my project beyond the simple physics behind it. I'm not saying he's stupid - he just doesn't have the experience with the project that I do. So, any time that I attempt to talk to him about it, from his point of view, it will look like I'm either out to lunch, or haven't done my background research, because I'm expecting him to know the background.
Imagine talking to someone about driving a car, with the person never having the experience of driving. Its that kind of discussion, except that he's assuming that I have the same background experience that he does. Many arguments have spawned from this misunderstanding, largely on my part. The phrase "are you doing anything?" usually pops up, to which I do my best to turn the question on him in terms of trying to publish under him. (but that's a rant, for another day.. lol).
But yeah, Nov 27th is the first meeting. The first hurdle. After that it will be a mad dash to February, and the candidacy exam. Its going to be long days of work, experiments, simulations, and studying. Unfortunately, it just means I need to streamline my life a little bit. WoW's out. Probably extended vacation time @ Christmas is out too. Well, if those sacrifices allow me to get out of this university with my PhD before 30, I'll be happy.
Anywho. Back to talking about non-linearities in the frequency response of my device.
Inevitably, its back to the grind that is my life. The next two weeks will be fairly high paced, with a lot going on, and a lot of long hours in front of my old friend, Mr. Work Laptop. I have a supervisory committee meeting in about two weeks, and of course have to produce a bit of a yearly report. I'm planning to produce a draft candidacy report instead, and using the meeting to prepare from the candidacy exam I'll be undergoing in February. I'm not terribly concerned about the meeting. I'm more concerned about the seemingly impossible attitude that I'm encountering with my supervisor and publishing.
One of my strengths as a researcher is experimental work, being able to work in the lab, perform experiments, and in this case, microfabrication, and produce devices and results. One of my weaknesses is the documentation behind the experimental work. Not so much the writing, moreso the proper way to disseminate that documentation. This problem usually rears its ugly head when I talk to my supervisor and attempt to discuss my project with him. I usually make the error of assuming that he understands the background of my project beyond the simple physics behind it. I'm not saying he's stupid - he just doesn't have the experience with the project that I do. So, any time that I attempt to talk to him about it, from his point of view, it will look like I'm either out to lunch, or haven't done my background research, because I'm expecting him to know the background.
Imagine talking to someone about driving a car, with the person never having the experience of driving. Its that kind of discussion, except that he's assuming that I have the same background experience that he does. Many arguments have spawned from this misunderstanding, largely on my part. The phrase "are you doing anything?" usually pops up, to which I do my best to turn the question on him in terms of trying to publish under him. (but that's a rant, for another day.. lol).
But yeah, Nov 27th is the first meeting. The first hurdle. After that it will be a mad dash to February, and the candidacy exam. Its going to be long days of work, experiments, simulations, and studying. Unfortunately, it just means I need to streamline my life a little bit. WoW's out. Probably extended vacation time @ Christmas is out too. Well, if those sacrifices allow me to get out of this university with my PhD before 30, I'll be happy.
Anywho. Back to talking about non-linearities in the frequency response of my device.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
I R ANONYMOUS!
So, today the wife got some "hate e-mail" from one of her anonymously from one of her students.
I'm not going to post it, or anything else related to it, but it brings up an interesting point about which I commented on awhile ago.
People believe that they cannot be held accountable for their actions online.
This could not be farther from the truth. Even if you know how to contain your personal information online through management of cookies, downloads, etc, the majority of your online activities are monitored elsewhere.
If you happen to have an email address, even one that you pay for from your service provider, guess what? Your emails are being stored/monitored by your provider. Generally, your ISP does this for backup purposes, so, you know, when you do something to lose all your email, that they can be your savior and restore most, if not all of your email. This goes for any web-based free emails too. But these get more scrutinized, not so much for the "evil, you're going to bomb something" issues, but more for market research and advertising.
What the average person doesn't know is that in every email, blog post, forum post, tweet, Facebook what-have-you, tracking information is logged. Doesn't matter if you use a laptop, desktop, phone, iphone, blackberry, there is enough information logged to determine who posted it, from where, from what computer, and at what time. The majority of this information is hidden and cannot be blocked or otherwise manipulated by anyone other than those providing the service.
So, threaten someone online recently? Send someone a anonymous hate email? Well, you better hope that the recipient doesn't report you. Harassment is a crime. To give you an idea of how easy it is to be caught, most serious cases of email harassment are resolved, even those made "anonymously", with charges laid in less than 24 hours. In some cases, the time required to actually go physically arrest these people is LESS than the time required to determine their identity online.
Food for thought before you randomly go flame someone because nobody will catch you, huh?
I'm not going to post it, or anything else related to it, but it brings up an interesting point about which I commented on awhile ago.
People believe that they cannot be held accountable for their actions online.
This could not be farther from the truth. Even if you know how to contain your personal information online through management of cookies, downloads, etc, the majority of your online activities are monitored elsewhere.
If you happen to have an email address, even one that you pay for from your service provider, guess what? Your emails are being stored/monitored by your provider. Generally, your ISP does this for backup purposes, so, you know, when you do something to lose all your email, that they can be your savior and restore most, if not all of your email. This goes for any web-based free emails too. But these get more scrutinized, not so much for the "evil, you're going to bomb something" issues, but more for market research and advertising.
What the average person doesn't know is that in every email, blog post, forum post, tweet, Facebook what-have-you, tracking information is logged. Doesn't matter if you use a laptop, desktop, phone, iphone, blackberry, there is enough information logged to determine who posted it, from where, from what computer, and at what time. The majority of this information is hidden and cannot be blocked or otherwise manipulated by anyone other than those providing the service.
So, threaten someone online recently? Send someone a anonymous hate email? Well, you better hope that the recipient doesn't report you. Harassment is a crime. To give you an idea of how easy it is to be caught, most serious cases of email harassment are resolved, even those made "anonymously", with charges laid in less than 24 hours. In some cases, the time required to actually go physically arrest these people is LESS than the time required to determine their identity online.
Food for thought before you randomly go flame someone because nobody will catch you, huh?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Zomg Strategic Laser Chess. >.>
Yeah, I've posted a few critical things lately, probably a byproduct of a lot of frustration.
Now for something fun: STRATEGIC LASER CHESS!
I like playing board games, always have. "Run of the mill" board games like Monopoly, etc, have too much randomess for me. Essentially, strategy doesn't play much into the game and you just end up rolling dice for fun. Mind you, I love rolling dice (palms his d20 lovingly.. lol), but eventually it gets boring.
Awhile back, we started getting into what I now refer to as "Real Boardgames". Games like Puerto Rico, Calyus, Settlers. Games where strategy > randomness.
Now, I've found something awesome:
http://www.productwiki.com/khet-the-laser-game/
ITS LIKE LASERS AND CHESS HAD A BABY!
A co-worker showed me this, and I may have to try it. :D
Now for something fun: STRATEGIC LASER CHESS!
I like playing board games, always have. "Run of the mill" board games like Monopoly, etc, have too much randomess for me. Essentially, strategy doesn't play much into the game and you just end up rolling dice for fun. Mind you, I love rolling dice (palms his d20 lovingly.. lol), but eventually it gets boring.
Awhile back, we started getting into what I now refer to as "Real Boardgames". Games like Puerto Rico, Calyus, Settlers. Games where strategy > randomness.
Now, I've found something awesome:
http://www.productwiki.com/khet-the-laser-game/
ITS LIKE LASERS AND CHESS HAD A BABY!
A co-worker showed me this, and I may have to try it. :D
Sunday, November 1, 2009
H1N1, R2D2, and C3P-O!
Yeah, I know, two posts in one day... but I suppose that's what happens when I watch the news.
Ah the "news".. another skewing of facts, only this time about daily events.
Generally, I won't question the severity of certain events, nor their general impact on the world. I realize that there are serious things that happen on a daily basis that have large scale real-world ramifications. I'm not arguing that point. What I am arguing is the panic that is being fostered by the media about our old friend: H1N1.
Yes, H1N1 is a public health problem, yes its dangerous and potentially life threatening if you happen not to take it seriously. Yes, vaccines are a good thing. I hope that everyone will be able to get them. Yes, there have been issues with how the Alberta Government has handled the inoculation campaign. But, lets review:
1. The Gov't was able to initially get 400000 doses of the vaccine, and set up clinics. They asked that people who are high risk (Small children, Pregnant Women, and people with chronic health conditions) groups be given voluntary priority. Otherwise known as, "Hey IDIOTS, if you aren't a part of the risk groups, stop being completely selfish and wait your turn."
2. The media heavily covered this. Awesome. Get the word out. They seem to have the "voluntary priority" tidbit in the small little snippets they use as advertizing, but never in the main story they show. Excellent.
3. Apparently "High Risk" meant everyone, and the voluntary priority thing went out the window.
4. In order to not run out of vaccine, the Gov't decided to suspend all clinics open to the public, and to restrict the vaccine to the high risk groups mentioned above. Everyone else now has to wait 2 weeks for supply to catch up to demand.
5. Massive public uproar, whipped up by local media.
So, currently there's politicans demanding resignations and such. Massive knee-jerk reactions by random people on the news, some of which I doubt are not even close to being "high risk".
Well, I have very little sympathy for those that are upset about this situation. However, I do not have any sympathy for the Gov't in this case either. The situation could have been handled much better. I do think, however, the news media didn't help any. Not many people heard that "We have 400k doses, and will eventually be able to supply vaccine to every single Albertan", but heard "we have a dose for every Albertan NOW! and YOU WILL DIE TOMORROW IF YOU DON'T GET IT".
Yeah. The hordes of people panicking over H1N1 have brought this shortage on the rest of you. Heaven help you selfish people if the gov't runs out of vaccine and pregnant women or small children who should have gotten the vaccine get seriously ill.
Ah the "news".. another skewing of facts, only this time about daily events.
Generally, I won't question the severity of certain events, nor their general impact on the world. I realize that there are serious things that happen on a daily basis that have large scale real-world ramifications. I'm not arguing that point. What I am arguing is the panic that is being fostered by the media about our old friend: H1N1.
Yes, H1N1 is a public health problem, yes its dangerous and potentially life threatening if you happen not to take it seriously. Yes, vaccines are a good thing. I hope that everyone will be able to get them. Yes, there have been issues with how the Alberta Government has handled the inoculation campaign. But, lets review:
1. The Gov't was able to initially get 400000 doses of the vaccine, and set up clinics. They asked that people who are high risk (Small children, Pregnant Women, and people with chronic health conditions) groups be given voluntary priority. Otherwise known as, "Hey IDIOTS, if you aren't a part of the risk groups, stop being completely selfish and wait your turn."
2. The media heavily covered this. Awesome. Get the word out. They seem to have the "voluntary priority" tidbit in the small little snippets they use as advertizing, but never in the main story they show. Excellent.
3. Apparently "High Risk" meant everyone, and the voluntary priority thing went out the window.
4. In order to not run out of vaccine, the Gov't decided to suspend all clinics open to the public, and to restrict the vaccine to the high risk groups mentioned above. Everyone else now has to wait 2 weeks for supply to catch up to demand.
5. Massive public uproar, whipped up by local media.
So, currently there's politicans demanding resignations and such. Massive knee-jerk reactions by random people on the news, some of which I doubt are not even close to being "high risk".
Well, I have very little sympathy for those that are upset about this situation. However, I do not have any sympathy for the Gov't in this case either. The situation could have been handled much better. I do think, however, the news media didn't help any. Not many people heard that "We have 400k doses, and will eventually be able to supply vaccine to every single Albertan", but heard "we have a dose for every Albertan NOW! and YOU WILL DIE TOMORROW IF YOU DON'T GET IT".
Yeah. The hordes of people panicking over H1N1 have brought this shortage on the rest of you. Heaven help you selfish people if the gov't runs out of vaccine and pregnant women or small children who should have gotten the vaccine get seriously ill.
Advertizing does it again!
It blows my mind how much people rely on the media for general knowledge.
For example, the Mac "attack adds" (you know, those popular adds with "Mac" and "PC") are probably the best example of how people get misinformed, and believe that its absolute truth. Essentially, the overwhelming message that "Vista is the devil" to the uninformed masses was a slick advertising campaign. It got many long time windows users to not even bother with Vista - a definite upgrade in functionality and performance from XP. XP was the single most exploited and unsecured piece of software out there, recently over taken by Acrobat Reader. But yet, since it was familiar, and you had a good looking Hollywood actor, slickly implanting the message that Vista was evil, broken, had many bugs, and wasn't worth dealing with a lot of people didn't bother upgrading.
I've used every windows operating system. I switched to Vista when I got a new computer. Vista has been my most stable and useful OS yet. I haven't had the irrecoverable errors that had required me to reinstall 95 and XP. I haven't had the DLL errors, the constant crashes, memory leaks and what have you with Vista. The only legitimate problem that users of Vista saw was running it at the minimum system requirements. But then again, did they expect it to run well at the minimum requirements?
What's even worse, is that people who have never ever run Vista in their life would openly and blatantly argue with me that I was wrong to use Vista. Why? because Mac told them that Vista is bad.
Anyways, the campaign of misinformation continued today with a bunch of new Mac ads that could no longer attack Vista for being a "bad" piece of software. Windows 7 is probably the best piece of software that Microsoft has produced, so suddenly, can't attack that. So, what did they go after? Oh yes: "You're going to have move all you stuff, so why not move it to a MAC"
Yeah. I'm not joking. They're trying to convince people that its going to be a hassle to upgrade. Yeah... Talk about grasping at straws. But the sad thing is that people are going to believe them, because you know, TV never lies.
For example, the Mac "attack adds" (you know, those popular adds with "Mac" and "PC") are probably the best example of how people get misinformed, and believe that its absolute truth. Essentially, the overwhelming message that "Vista is the devil" to the uninformed masses was a slick advertising campaign. It got many long time windows users to not even bother with Vista - a definite upgrade in functionality and performance from XP. XP was the single most exploited and unsecured piece of software out there, recently over taken by Acrobat Reader. But yet, since it was familiar, and you had a good looking Hollywood actor, slickly implanting the message that Vista was evil, broken, had many bugs, and wasn't worth dealing with a lot of people didn't bother upgrading.
I've used every windows operating system. I switched to Vista when I got a new computer. Vista has been my most stable and useful OS yet. I haven't had the irrecoverable errors that had required me to reinstall 95 and XP. I haven't had the DLL errors, the constant crashes, memory leaks and what have you with Vista. The only legitimate problem that users of Vista saw was running it at the minimum system requirements. But then again, did they expect it to run well at the minimum requirements?
What's even worse, is that people who have never ever run Vista in their life would openly and blatantly argue with me that I was wrong to use Vista. Why? because Mac told them that Vista is bad.
Anyways, the campaign of misinformation continued today with a bunch of new Mac ads that could no longer attack Vista for being a "bad" piece of software. Windows 7 is probably the best piece of software that Microsoft has produced, so suddenly, can't attack that. So, what did they go after? Oh yes: "You're going to have move all you stuff, so why not move it to a MAC"
Yeah. I'm not joking. They're trying to convince people that its going to be a hassle to upgrade. Yeah... Talk about grasping at straws. But the sad thing is that people are going to believe them, because you know, TV never lies.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Oh, those crazy Eskimos!
I have season tickets to the Eskies. For those of you that aren't familiar with the CFL, its pretty much the same as the NFL with the following exceptions:
- 3 downs.
- No fair catch rule
- Bigger fields (110 yards long, much wider)
- Bigger Balls (actually our balls are much larger, also, pun intended).
- Recievers and Running backs can be in foreward motion before snap.
- You can return a missed field goal.
- Field goal posts are @ the goal line.
The bottom line is that there's more passing, the game is quicker, and its much more entertaining to watch. It may not have the big name players, but I feel its a less boring game to watch.
Anyways, back on topic.
Our local team, the Eskimos, has the the league's leading passing yards quarterback and reciever, also we have a running back with 1300-1400 yards, with one game to go. It boils down to the simple fact we have a yards productive offense, but a generally "unreliable in key situations" quarterback. Yeah, I said it. Ricky Ray is unreliable. I've seen 10 games this season in person. I can count on one hand his good games, games where he didn't self destruct and hope to hell the defense kept it close.
To make matters worse, the coach seems handcuffed to keeping Ray in all the time. We have essentially 3 starter-quality quarterbacks. Our second string is Jason Maas. I've seen him "bullet" pass over 50 yards. The guy has a crazy arm, and can thread it. Our third string is Jared Zabransky. If the name sounds familiar, he's the Boise State quarterback that pulled off that massive upset in (I think) the Tostita Bowl with a massive trick/fake play. He got the opportunity to play a quarter in a preseason game, and tore it up.
So, essentially, we're hanging on by a thread to make the playoffs. We've lost many games this season because, quite simply, Ray couldn't get the offense going.
Well, we'll see if Ray blows it next week. Its sad really. For whatever reason, the upper leadership (not the coach) and the media paint Ray as a complete saint, not being able to make any sort of error, ever.. even when he can't complete a play to save his life.
- 3 downs.
- No fair catch rule
- Bigger fields (110 yards long, much wider)
- Bigger Balls (actually our balls are much larger, also, pun intended).
- Recievers and Running backs can be in foreward motion before snap.
- You can return a missed field goal.
- Field goal posts are @ the goal line.
The bottom line is that there's more passing, the game is quicker, and its much more entertaining to watch. It may not have the big name players, but I feel its a less boring game to watch.
Anyways, back on topic.
Our local team, the Eskimos, has the the league's leading passing yards quarterback and reciever, also we have a running back with 1300-1400 yards, with one game to go. It boils down to the simple fact we have a yards productive offense, but a generally "unreliable in key situations" quarterback. Yeah, I said it. Ricky Ray is unreliable. I've seen 10 games this season in person. I can count on one hand his good games, games where he didn't self destruct and hope to hell the defense kept it close.
To make matters worse, the coach seems handcuffed to keeping Ray in all the time. We have essentially 3 starter-quality quarterbacks. Our second string is Jason Maas. I've seen him "bullet" pass over 50 yards. The guy has a crazy arm, and can thread it. Our third string is Jared Zabransky. If the name sounds familiar, he's the Boise State quarterback that pulled off that massive upset in (I think) the Tostita Bowl with a massive trick/fake play. He got the opportunity to play a quarter in a preseason game, and tore it up.
So, essentially, we're hanging on by a thread to make the playoffs. We've lost many games this season because, quite simply, Ray couldn't get the offense going.
Well, we'll see if Ray blows it next week. Its sad really. For whatever reason, the upper leadership (not the coach) and the media paint Ray as a complete saint, not being able to make any sort of error, ever.. even when he can't complete a play to save his life.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Not enough hours in the day.
Really busy lately, which is fine. I guess it comes with the territory, deadlines and juggling experimental work and documentation, real life and work commitments. Expectations are high, and rightly so.
Just finished editing a review paper that I'm planning to publish. Essentially its a topical review on implantable micro generators. Useful for my thesis, so its time well spent. The only problem is that the paper itself is 30 pages long. To give a better idea, as a paperback novel, my paper would be roughly 50 pages long... lol.. a non-trivial length. Problem is, editing it takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
Of course, life being what it is, wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple curveballs into the mix, just to make things interesting. Some major, some not so major, essentially just enough to occupy a little extra of my time. Essentially it ends up being an exercise in "bending but not breaking".
I stumbled upon a little tidbit of wisdom over the last week that has helped me cope a bit:
"God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
Albeit this is the prayer given to new members of Alcoholic's Anonymous... lol. there is a fair bit of wisdom in that statement.
Anywho, back to the grind.
Just finished editing a review paper that I'm planning to publish. Essentially its a topical review on implantable micro generators. Useful for my thesis, so its time well spent. The only problem is that the paper itself is 30 pages long. To give a better idea, as a paperback novel, my paper would be roughly 50 pages long... lol.. a non-trivial length. Problem is, editing it takes a lot of work, time, and patience.
Of course, life being what it is, wouldn't hesitate to throw a couple curveballs into the mix, just to make things interesting. Some major, some not so major, essentially just enough to occupy a little extra of my time. Essentially it ends up being an exercise in "bending but not breaking".
I stumbled upon a little tidbit of wisdom over the last week that has helped me cope a bit:
"God, give me the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
Albeit this is the prayer given to new members of Alcoholic's Anonymous... lol. there is a fair bit of wisdom in that statement.
Anywho, back to the grind.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Heh.. WoW. >.>
In addition to my research and being married, I play WoW.
Yes, WoW.
I have a hard time explaining this to some of the people in my group. Some don't get it, some think they're "above it" (aka, academics do not stoop to that level), and others just see it as my pastime. Some people mountain bike, ski, spend their time with various NGO's. I play WoW.
I've played WoW for a long time because its fun, and its a reasonably decent investment vs time choice. Movies can cost you upwards of 15-20 bucks for two hours, WoW will cost you that for a month. Again, its one of those "If you use it, its worth the money ideas" (Not very dissimilar from the "Having alot of cheap shoes vs having a few pairs of expensive shoes" argument.. which I'll post another day.. lol)
Anyways, I enjoy the raiding portion of the game. The best analogy to raiding would be.. for example, playing a game of football (either or) against with 25 other real people versus a computer opponent. Somehow I always end up in a leadership role in these types of things. Perhaps that's the Engineer in me surfacing, I'm not sure. In all respects, a raid functions essentially like a football team. There are various different roles. Each role is required and important. Success is directly measured by personal ability/achievement and teamwork. Leadership is important as well. I am the raid leader for my group. Essentially consider me the coach/quarterback all rolled into one. I call the plays, assign roles, etc. Generally people cooperate. The only issue is, you're not dealing with these people face to face.
This is where the situation becomes a bit muddy. Instead of being able to communicate with these people face to face, in many cases, you're reduced to text. If you're lucky, you may have a VOIP system set up, where you can talk to the person. Either or, things like body language and tone are lost. This makes communication somewhat hard at times, since you're not able to infer people's attitudes easily. You have to pay close attention to what people say and do, that's more or less all you have to go on.
The second complication is the Internet. Yes. You're dealing with the commonly held belief that the Internet is better than Vegas - that there is no blame nor accountability for one's actions on the web. This is where the majority of the issues come from, and usually from the "I'm going to to whatever I want, because I'm invincible" group of 17-22 year old males.
The third complication is the simple fact that you're playing a game. I've learned some major life lessons on how to motivate people to perform a task well when there is no monetary or tangible reward. Not very easy, let me tell you. Unlike the real world, where managers and bosses can hold the possibility of losing your job for poor performance or lack of production over someone's head, in the game there are no consequences.
Let me tell you.. its not easy leading. Its even harder to be successful at it.
On occasion I'll get people in real life ask me: Why? Why do you put the time and effort into a game?
Well, here's why:
1. Its a release. Both myself and the wife enjoy games. We both find WoW to be fun. I enjoy the raiding, she enjoys the pets (yes. your characters can have pets, she enjoys collecting them). There, I don't have to worry about microfabrication, deadlines, publications, meetings, supervisors and their randomness.. none of it. Regardless the topic, I would probably spend equivalent time split between other hobbies. The only scary thing is that WoW catalogs the time you spend online. TV, websurfing, etc doesn't.. lol.
2. The more I thought about it, being an engineer and (hopefully.. I say hopefully today, because I'm proofing a 12000 word review paper, and its testing my sanity) a future PhD, I'm getting management experience. Sure, I may not be able to claim it on a CV (actually, it would be pretty funny if I could.. lol), but I'm being given a finite set of people and resources, and I'm being asked to manage both people and resources to meet a goal. Sounds like an exercise management to me.
3. I enjoy the sociology. Yeah, odd remark. I'm sure at this point with all the "learning" about the social dynamics of how people interact online, I may be able to even consider a publication.. ok.. maybe something in a non-refereed journal someplace. .. lol. In any case, it is interesting watching the dynamic that occurs when people believe that their actions won't come back to haunt them in any way, shape or form.
heh.. good times.
Yes, WoW.
I have a hard time explaining this to some of the people in my group. Some don't get it, some think they're "above it" (aka, academics do not stoop to that level), and others just see it as my pastime. Some people mountain bike, ski, spend their time with various NGO's. I play WoW.
I've played WoW for a long time because its fun, and its a reasonably decent investment vs time choice. Movies can cost you upwards of 15-20 bucks for two hours, WoW will cost you that for a month. Again, its one of those "If you use it, its worth the money ideas" (Not very dissimilar from the "Having alot of cheap shoes vs having a few pairs of expensive shoes" argument.. which I'll post another day.. lol)
Anyways, I enjoy the raiding portion of the game. The best analogy to raiding would be.. for example, playing a game of football (either or) against with 25 other real people versus a computer opponent. Somehow I always end up in a leadership role in these types of things. Perhaps that's the Engineer in me surfacing, I'm not sure. In all respects, a raid functions essentially like a football team. There are various different roles. Each role is required and important. Success is directly measured by personal ability/achievement and teamwork. Leadership is important as well. I am the raid leader for my group. Essentially consider me the coach/quarterback all rolled into one. I call the plays, assign roles, etc. Generally people cooperate. The only issue is, you're not dealing with these people face to face.
This is where the situation becomes a bit muddy. Instead of being able to communicate with these people face to face, in many cases, you're reduced to text. If you're lucky, you may have a VOIP system set up, where you can talk to the person. Either or, things like body language and tone are lost. This makes communication somewhat hard at times, since you're not able to infer people's attitudes easily. You have to pay close attention to what people say and do, that's more or less all you have to go on.
The second complication is the Internet. Yes. You're dealing with the commonly held belief that the Internet is better than Vegas - that there is no blame nor accountability for one's actions on the web. This is where the majority of the issues come from, and usually from the "I'm going to to whatever I want, because I'm invincible" group of 17-22 year old males.
The third complication is the simple fact that you're playing a game. I've learned some major life lessons on how to motivate people to perform a task well when there is no monetary or tangible reward. Not very easy, let me tell you. Unlike the real world, where managers and bosses can hold the possibility of losing your job for poor performance or lack of production over someone's head, in the game there are no consequences.
Let me tell you.. its not easy leading. Its even harder to be successful at it.
On occasion I'll get people in real life ask me: Why? Why do you put the time and effort into a game?
Well, here's why:
1. Its a release. Both myself and the wife enjoy games. We both find WoW to be fun. I enjoy the raiding, she enjoys the pets (yes. your characters can have pets, she enjoys collecting them). There, I don't have to worry about microfabrication, deadlines, publications, meetings, supervisors and their randomness.. none of it. Regardless the topic, I would probably spend equivalent time split between other hobbies. The only scary thing is that WoW catalogs the time you spend online. TV, websurfing, etc doesn't.. lol.
2. The more I thought about it, being an engineer and (hopefully.. I say hopefully today, because I'm proofing a 12000 word review paper, and its testing my sanity) a future PhD, I'm getting management experience. Sure, I may not be able to claim it on a CV (actually, it would be pretty funny if I could.. lol), but I'm being given a finite set of people and resources, and I'm being asked to manage both people and resources to meet a goal. Sounds like an exercise management to me.
3. I enjoy the sociology. Yeah, odd remark. I'm sure at this point with all the "learning" about the social dynamics of how people interact online, I may be able to even consider a publication.. ok.. maybe something in a non-refereed journal someplace. .. lol. In any case, it is interesting watching the dynamic that occurs when people believe that their actions won't come back to haunt them in any way, shape or form.
heh.. good times.
It begins!
So yeah.
I've been considering starting a blog for quite some time. Nothing serious, nothing majorly political, more so something to catalog the things that I happen to come across in daily life that fall into the "you can't make this stuff up" category.
Hopefully the posts that follow will be just something entertaining to read.
More to come.
I've been considering starting a blog for quite some time. Nothing serious, nothing majorly political, more so something to catalog the things that I happen to come across in daily life that fall into the "you can't make this stuff up" category.
Hopefully the posts that follow will be just something entertaining to read.
More to come.
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