I need to sleep for one. I don't get enough sleep. Oh yeah, the Bus strike is now over I guess. Took them damn long enough. It's very pathetic of both sides that Big Brother Campbell needed to step in and make the sides apologize to each other. It's like when you were little and you got into a fight with your sibling and then your mother made you say sorry and you just kinda said, "sorry... stupid sister" with that last bit under your breath of course. Same deal here. Both sides still hate each other and I'm sure it's gonna be a very painful place to work with the last 4 months of animosity built up. I'm telling you, the Campbell Government is trying to break the unions... OH YEAH, the budget. I think Campbell is a moron. Have I ever said that before. So, he shells out a big-ass taxcut... Good you say... well that puts us in the hole 2 BILLION. But you say the taxcut is going to help revenues in the long run! He says that it's worked in Alberta and Ontario. Well, B.C. is NOT either of those 2 provinces. Alberta is practically swimming in oil and Ontario has TONS of industry to prop it up. B.C. has some high-tech and some resources... but nothing much really. Gary Collins figures 3.8% growth which according to most is nearly impossible. By the way, Gary Collins was a flight instructor before he hit politics. I think there should be some minimum education level to be in Cabinet Minister. Oh yeah, Stockwell has no post-secondary education and has had no real job to speak of. And people wanted him to lead Canada? WTF?! Back to the budget now, I think Campbell won't be able to balance it in 3 years. There is going to be MAJOR civil unrest in B.C. before he gets his ass turfed. He thinks that because he got a big mandate that he can do anything he wants because the people said. I don't think so buddy. With no substantial opposition to speak of, the "Liberals" can pass anything they want with practically no debate. The idea of the legislature is that the Government makes policy and brings it to the legislature for debate and approval. In our case now they are the same thing. There is no blurry line. There is simply NO line. They are the same entity. How can this be good? Campbell is asking for MORE money from the Feds for Healthcare. Hmm... umm hey IDIOT! you just cut 1.5 Billion dollars out of the budget in 1 day with your tax cut. HUH?! Same thing with Harris. He took money out the system and is now asking the Feds for more. Why not use your fat surplus and do something good in Ontario? That really pisses me off. Oh yeah, and I made about $50 more because of my taxcut. Oh yay, I am going to boost the economy when I use it to buy meself lunch tomorrow. This tax cut idea is akin to the idea that if you feed a horse enough oats that it's gonna poop enough out for you to use. Maybe some of the Commerce/Econ peope could explain to me EXACTLY how a tax cut equates to increased government revenue. I don't want some handwavey explanation that the polticians give. I want the exact system. Prove it to me.

The scarriest thing happened today at work. I realized that Civil 401 was actually useful. BJ was right. Damnit. For the last week I've been faced with an optimization problem - minmize costs. Subject to erection, trucking, production, capacity, and physical constraints. HOLY CRAP! This is exactly Civl 401. I hate it when stuff you learn at school actually turns out to be useful. It validates the prof and makes me feel bad because I must have skipped 50% of that class. Though, I got a B in it. :) Thank god for Triple Sums! Woohooo!

That is all.

17 July 2001

Is nobody taking this contest seriously? Because I am seriously kicking some major ass. There's lots to comment on as of late. I keep coming up with good update rantings at work but whenever I sit down to type they all fly away somehow.  First off, work stinks. Second off, rowing is not so bad at all. Third off, Stockwell Day is GONZO. Forth off, Campbell is most assuredly a dink. Fifth off, George Puil can kiss my bum.

Has anybody noticed that Albertans are aggressive drivers? Back to work now, well, I haven't done anything at all. There is absolutely nothing I have done so far that I can proudly put on my resume as something I have accomplished. There are approximately 6 weeks left and I still do not have a project. I can safely say that there isn't really anything I couldn't teach myself. There are some interesting things that go on at the company but of course being tucked away in my office means that I am not involved with any of it.  The concept of pre-stressed concrete is pretty simple. I think that all of you engineer readers (even the MMAT's) can figure out how it works. The engineering "smarts" involved are mainly in it's production - quality, speed, expense, etc. The design itself is pretty straightforward. Am I involved with any of that? No... not really. I got to do some calculations on a Superstore the other day. Just so you know, it was a floorring system consisting of about 600 slabs of hollowcore around 17' to 31'. Every piece is completely rectangular and has a regular loading on it. Because production is the major cost, there could be no optimization here. Every piece of basically designed before I got there because there are hollowcore standards and deviation from those standards is very much frowned upon - ie. only do it if you REALLY REALLY have to - otherwise - every piece is just like every other piece. Great... lots of brain action there. Shawn can KMA as well. I knew I should have waited to take the Associated Engineering job.

Since my days are pretty boring I've brought in a radio to entertain myself. I am now one of those pathetic people who listen to talk radio all day. CNKW to be exact. Rafe Mair sure manages to get riled up over some stuff - it's very entertaining. Anyhoo, they are always running segments on the current job actions plaguing us right now. I have come to a few conclusions in general about the things going on. I would like to beg all of you NOT to vote NPA in the next election or at least don't help Owen or Puil get in.  During a bit of a slow run on Saturday, I watched some of the Shaw TV broadcasts of the City Council meetings. You should see the disdain with which Owen and Puil treat the public and their ideas. They have no connection with us at all - especially regarding the transit strike. Tim Louis (COPE) spent some time grilling a member of the CMBC and you should have seen Puil squirm like the pathetic moron he is... ok, I should stop now.

Open caucus meetings... what a great idea! "They're real meetings" Right... So they've had just one of these "meetings" so far but conducted an immense amount of business.

1) Bear hunting
2) ICBC board firing
3) No photo radar
4) no B.C. bonds
5) tax cut
6) and much more

How much of this business was conducted in these "open" meetings? Not much... discussion? NOPE. Campbell is a politician no better than the NDP. No offical opposition status to the NDP? You know what that is? That's being petty and disgusting. Lemme see... NDP are 2 and the Fascists... opps "liberals" are 77. Hmm... are you ever-ever-ever going to lose a vote? NOPE. Close? NOPE. What are they going to debate? Who buys the doughnuts? The backbenchers are just gonna lob fluffballs are Ministers during question period to make themselves feel good. The NDP are NOT a political threat in terms of them voting you down. Their spot as opposition is to bring to light issues the Liberals don't want you to know about it? SO FRIGGIN WHAT you didn't like the previous NDP government. The Liberals RULE THE DAMN Province... they can do WHATEVER they like and you will never know about it. EVER. That's what they want.

Just in case you don't know... the tax cut took 10^9 out of the budget. Hmm... No money for the nurses?  Right... 2*10^9 deficit coming up soon? Yup - YOU BETCHA. How long to balance the budget? 3 years... Ok, let me get this straight. Give the tax break - create deficit. Take 3 years to eat that deficit up. How about this... control spending - zero out the deficit - then give tax break. Is that not a better order to do things? That tax break thing was just a damn election tactic. It will be YEARS before any benefit (if anY) will come from that tax  cut. By then we'll have another election call and we'll just "have" elect Campbell again. How nice...

Oh and I find it incredibly hielarious that the CRAP is self-destructing under the leadership of Stockboy our beloved idiot of a leader who thinks Dinosaurs roamed the Earth a few thousand years ago. Can CRAP recover? I dunno... I think Stockyboy has done some serious damage to the right-wing conservative grassroots movement crapola. This is the time for Joey Clark to sweep in and take up some of the vote by showing some serious ass leadership.

I'm done now.

04 July 2001

Am I winning yet? Yes, yes, I think I am.  Huh... I guess it's only been a week since my last update. Well, last week was probably the most unsatisfying week of work in a long time. This beats the Kvaerner and WJEC experience in terms of pure boredom and low job satisfaction which I think is one of the most important things someone can have and I have none. I don't see where I am contributing to the company at all. I feel that they are underutlizing me and really can't see why the would bother paying me to do things other people can be doing. I am not going to school to be a designer or an AutoCAD bitch. I am an engineer. Gee, what a great pickup line.

I am now on a regular rowing plan with some friends of mine from HS. it's pretty good. The 'ol body isn't as elastic as it used to be since my hamstrings hurt like a bitch for the first 15 minutes while they get warmed up - that never used to happen before. Like balding it's one of the painful inevitabilities in life and it sucks. CRAP. Anyhoo, one of the crew members is absolutely insane. I am there because I like rowing; it's good exercise and it makes me a better coach. He on the otherhand is there because I think he thinks it's a good way to a) meet women and b) get validation which he seriously needs. He wants to race at the B.C. Champs in 2 weeks at Elk Lake. All the big boys are at this regatta. I don't think so... We're mismatched in terms of weight, skill and power. We can't even damn go straight yet (4-). He wants to bump up workouts to 5x a week. Don't think so buddy. Anyhoo, he flirts like a machine and is not very good at it.

This morning I got to see my kids again. It was great. Some of them came up and gave me a hug and a wonderul smile. :) It was heartwarming... damn I wish I didn't have a crappy dayjob. 2 of them asked if I could coach them in the evenings. YES... one of them is one of those super-athlete girls... I am planning on molding them into a Jr. A Womens 2-. That would be so incrediblyl megacool. Hopefully, I can pull it off. If so, then that would probably be one of my greatest achievments. (Theirs really).

I am mulling over pictorial ideas. I have "Beauty Sleep" and "Couples That Never Happened" Suggestions?

23 June 2001

Even though it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last update - I AM STILL THE KING. The Gauntlet has been thrown down. You go ahead and try and beat me. I know you can't. Make my day! MUHAH! The past 2 weeks really haven't been too exciting. Work is painfull boring. There is always the vision that it could get better but this workterm is turning out a lot like the previous one. They keep promising me that something cool will turn up and that they know what they have me doing is a little "beneath" me, ie. they're just dangling the carrot to get more slave labour out of me. It's all pretty much the same. I just feel that I have the capability to do so much more than churn through repetitive design calcs for the spreader bars. For the uninitiated these are sometimes very large beams that they look the cranes into so they can lift panels, piles, and girders with.  Some of them are dead simple. Some of they are complimicated. A big problem is that they've already been rated by someone else and they want me to check them. My numbers are significantly lower than the previous rating so they've been riding my ass to "fix" some of the calculations so that the numbers are closer. What a crock.

I coached my last session with my VRC Jr's this season today. It was pretty heartwarming - the picnic afterwards that is. The actual rowing session didn't turn out too well since one crew flipped and recovering the boat was painful due to the rather gusty winds. For some odd reason the boys decided that they wanted to go out in a 2- for the first time for their 2nd time sweeping. I think I scared them a bit. They didn't really straggle too much; they did a lot better than Percy and I did the first time out. The had the same problems though - couldn't go straight! :) Whatever... I just hope the 2- experience didn't turn them off sweeping too much. I would give my left arm for a girls or boys 8+. I really would. BTW, it seems that Daren CAN row - just like riding a bike. So after practice we had a crew picnic at 2nd Beach. It was really quite nice. One of the benefits of having a small crew is that they're really close. Most of them like each other (imgaine that Daren). We had a great time. They gave me my very own folding/collapsing chair! You know those ones that are getting really popular. They wrote my name on the cover and signed it; it ranks right up there as one of the best gifts I've ever recieved. I feel that I might have actually made a difference to them. The messages were really sweat too. When we were packing up, I announced that I wasn't going to be around for their Summer rowing they all looked really surprized and lined up to give me hugs! That was really touching. Even the one that I had problems with looking genuiniely dissapointed. This has been the most rewarding coaching I've ever done.

It kinda makes me look even harder at my prescribed career path at present. I don't think many of you know this but I've been conflicted for many years about my career path. One of the things that I've wanted to be since I was 12 is a teacher. I also wanted to be a politician for awhile but we won't talk about that. Anyhoo, this session of coaching makes me look even harder at this career option. I can go grab a Teaching Diploma after my B.ASc. That's easy enough. I also do want to work in engineering though. At least for awhile when I'm young. The rewards I've had from coaching have far outweighed the ones I've had from work and I'm seeing in myself the desire to have teaching be my principle career. Neat huh? Betcha all didn't know that.

Now, don't you think you can get away from reading an update without a political rant. GORDON CAMPBELL and his MINIONS are morons and hypocrites. He has done absolutely NOTHING positive with regard to both the Nurses' job action and/or the Transit Strike. The Friday paper has a quote from Colin Hansen saying that he the nurses had to be legislated to end job action (read: work overtime). Two lines later he says that he finds it bad that nurses are forced to work overtime. HUH!?!?!? I don't get it. First of all, there is a SERIOUS problem if the system cannot  run without overtime hours. WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS RELIES on overtime for normal day-to-day operations?!!?!?!? THIS IS FRIGGIN RIDICULOUS. The Campbell Gov't is trying to play the PR game by saying that the nurses are jeapordizing lives. No nurse is gonna let someone die. The problem is the lack of nurses because of the lack of number of education spaces AND the shitty pay and work situation (overtime). So fix it. Give them a raise, train more nurses and rework the working schedule.  You cannot frick around with peoples lives. This is not the time to be playing hardball. I am on the nurses side on this one. I do not think they are being unreasonable with the no overtime job action.  The Gov't thinks they can win public support by painting the nurses as the bad guys who are letting people suffer. Well, you know who is making people suffer? GORDY. He just doesn't get it.

Onto the bus strike now. First of all - GEORGE PUIL - is an idiot and should be removed from public office as soon as possible. The apathy around civic elections is what got him and his band of cronie idiots elected. Next time vote COPE. :) First of all, who loses here? The people. The longer the strike goes the more difficulty they will have getting riders back. They are saving $175,000 a day in wages and fuel. Does this make sense to you? The buses aren't running. Coast Mountain is not paying drivers wages. The buses are not burning diesel. The trolleys aren't using current. Should they be saving money? YES. George - I am an asshole - Puil says that they are not saving 1 fricking cent. You know what he wants? He wants a vehicle levy AND - AND?!!!?!? a 2 cent hike on gas. This is MORE than what he wanted before. WHAT THE HELL!?!?!? Is this guy supposed to be NPA? (read rightest zealots). I hope Gordy doesn't fold on this one (he shouldn't). The main dispute? Part-time drivers and contracting out - very contentious as I understand it since it has a lot to do with job security. Well, I think some compromise is needed here. Something like Part-time drivers being restricted to very small routes or somethinig like that. Once the ridership inceases past some level then full-time drivers are needed.  Whatever the solution they at least have to BE TALKING. NEGOTIATE. COMMUNICATE. The union has approved Ready's proposal which basically states that this issue will be negotiated before the next contract (in 3 years). Sounds reasonable to me. It gets buses back on the road. With Translink saying NO and then not putting out another offer is stupid. THEY ARE NOT trying. They are having in camera meetings now since Puil can't handle people heckling him (deservedly so). Puil is going to run Transit into the ground and then blame US for it.

I think this is longest update I've ever written. I hope it has offended all of you. :)
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