Work/Play trip - Day 7

9:00
Aaaaaahhh!!!  I don't know why I'm so slow getting dressed and stuff.  Went down to breakfast at 8:30, which was supposed to be the time I was supposed to be finished eating so I could finish packing.  So I asked for a doggie bag, but they don't have any plastic utensils, so I grabbed 4 muffins, 2 French toast and 3 sausages.  Figured I'd use the coffee stirrers as chopsticks.  And I fogot my water and fruit cups.  Crap!!!  So hungry.  Greyhound stations looks as dingy as the one at home. Murasaki's down to 1 bar.  Crap, can't even listen to it while waiting to board.

13:00
Found the hotel, except the clerk tells me that there was a problem with the room so it's not ready and they booked me at another one. In another hotel!  Oh, and it's just a 15 minute walk away.  So after I finally get her to print a map and not rattle off some general directions, it's a block from the Greyhound station.  Which means I have to walk all the way back the way I came.  Great.  But apparently I'll have a "good room".  But she doesn't even know the name of this good hotel.  So I finally find it, and it's still under reservations.  And my room's up 2 flights of narrow stairs.  And the first room still had a faint smell of paint, so I ask for a different room which is bigger and has a sitting area.  But I should've looked at the bathroom size b/c it's tiny.  The shower is directly behind the door, and that's pretty much the size of it.  I can't have both elbows out w/o smashing them. And when I went to meet H, I forgot my camera, and I have to ring to be let back in, which takes 15 minutes for someone to answer the door.  I think I can guess that no one else's staying there.

23:00
We spent the day walking up the Chinatown, down to Old Port and back.  Found a ton of yaoi, so my backpack was heavy all day.  I bought so much that I filled out the membership card, but totally forgot to give it to H so she can pick me up a free book when something comes in.  D'oh!!!! ( Oct 3/10: now H doesn't live there anymore and I don't know when I'll ever get back to Montreal.  Double D'oh!!).  H has no money so we can't go into anything with admission.  Other than hockey stuff, doesn't seem to be much Montreal-specific souvenirs.  Ate at Frites Alors! which had a TinTin theme.  Wonder if they had gotten the copyright for using them. Food was pretty good, but H pointed out that I acted like an American with the waitress when she brought me a Pepsi. (I hate Pepsi).  So I tipped her really well and paid for H's meal. Saw the National Film Board cinema and it was pretty cool.  B/c it was after 17:00, we got a free hour, and got to select from 10,000 films in their catalog.  Great cheap entertainment, got to sit down in comfy chairs and lots of amazing films.  Brainwasters was disturbing, but I have to see the full poem of the "Erl-king" by Goethe.  The short was amazingly done.
After we went back to my hotel to chat.   And make plans for tomorrow.  There's no hairdryer and no floor mat in the bathroom.  No cup for brushing teeth either.  Missing a lot of stuff actually, and of course I only notice this when I'm in my pjs, so there's no way I'm opening the door for possibly non-existant night service that may or may not have toiletries.  Considering their shampoo/conditioner was in packettes, eh no. Guessing there's no amenities. And as predicted, I kept hitting the temperature control with my elbow when I was washing my hair, and there wasn't really any shelf for me to put the shampoo, conditioner, body wash I brought.  Gaahh!  And someone started smoking, so I opened the window and kept the heat up.  So tired, but we're meeting at 9:30 for breakky.

Work/Play trip - Day 6

Midnight
Woke up to find my Murasaki only @ 1/2 battery.  Guess putting it on speaker full blast didn't help. At least the room is cooled from leaving the window open all night.  And that weird smell is gone too.  I now look at the jet tub with suspicion. Seems like we haven't covered all the stuff that they wanted, w/ people starting to leave @ 11:30 a.m.  Staffing is not sinking in for me.  I'll have to play with it more, but it seems illogical w/ how you attach someone.  Well at least the Intelligence manager is now a FSWEP student.  Ha ha ha.

13:00

Went to lunch with Jane.  She seemed lonely b/c her flight doesn't leave until 19:00 and she already checked out.  Ate at the Pho restaurant again b/c it's next to the hotel.  Also could drop off all the course material and newspapers.  The drive to the Science and Technology Museum was long, and I was probably bouncing in my seat.  Good thing I got a museum map b/c it's kinda confusing, like IKEA w/o the arrows. Totally skipped past the canoes, and then went back when I was waiting for an old man to finish reading about the Titanic.  Didn't know there were so many ways to join together a canoe. Anyways, a lot of the displays were geared to kids, but it was still good. They had entire trains in there, and I tried to take a shot of one, but it involved 5 shots, and w/o a tripod or a marking line, when I tried to merge the shots together, it just looked wierd.

Actually a lot of the pics I tried to merge looked wierd.   I feel so sad I had to stand on the little kid step stool to see out the space shuttle's windows.  Took a bunch of pics of different devices and Lego display.  Spent a lot of time in the space exhibit.  I tried getting onto one of those old time bikes.  It was pretty-hard, seat-wise and agility-wise.  Took a lot of random shots, which I'm  really wishing I'd included a pic of their description plate of.  Just stuff that looked neat. Ran out of time as expected since I didn't leave the hotel until about 13:45.  Bought more gifts.  Nothing for me though.  The cool T-shirts were all in youth size.  Riding back to the hotel, I passed by a building that was for the Conference Board of Canada.  Why?!  Seems so Dilbertish.

21:00
Ate at Totoya for their all-u-can-eat sushi.  It's a bit different in that you don't order the sushi you want, but the waitress brings the trays of rolls by and you pick how many you want.  Then after you look at them all, you can request specifics for seconds/thirds etc.  So stuffed but you gotta get your $20.95 worth.  Waddled my way to the bank.  Had to get thru a bunch of people waiting for the bus.  So disgusting with people spitting on the sidewalk, dealing dope and not getting out of the way.  Thought I was going to get pickpocketted trying to get through the crowd.  Caught a cab as I walked out of the bank, so that was cool.  Finally got onto the Internet but it didn't have a USB port in the front and I forgot to charge in class. Crap.  Well, charging my phone in the room though.  Wish there was some adapter for Murasaki so I don't always have to plug it into a computer.

Work/Play trip - Day 5

13:00
Breakfast was the same stuff.  Tried the chocolate danish this time.  Not really sure what the point of getting there 15 min early.  Went into the Compensation unit, and you'd think Marilyn would stop w/ the dumb questions.  Hell no!  And then when William made a joke that a function that'd auto-calculate leave wasn't working, she picks up -my- pencil case and chucks it at him.  Highlighters fly out and Kim has to dodge out of the way.  So I hiss "Don't throw my stuff!"  Will picks up the stuff and goes to give it to Marilyn, but when he learned it was mine, he had an apologetic face.  Anyways, I'm will be so freaking glad not to sit next to her anymore.  Also disappointed that the Security field won't be used.  Like WTF?

What is this series called?

So Cecile said her niece was going to take her to the Museum of Civilization, so I asked to tag along.  But her niece doesn't get out until 17:00 and we were out by 16:00, so I was debating whether to just take the taxi to there, but I figure we could eat in the 1/2 hr.  Well the cab didn't come for 30 min, so we just took the Envirobus, then we walked to the hotel.  By now, it was almost 17:00 so I ate my bananas (as I'd finished my raisin bread at work & had some fruit sauce.  But the niece hadn't shown up by 17:40, and it turned out the niece went to the wrong hotel.  So Cecile said that she was going to meet her niece in Ottawa, and they weren't going to the museum.
Well, I call a taxi and away I went. It was free admission today (Yeah!) and the ran thru most of the permanent exhibitions.  Took a bunch of pictures of indigenous masks to use on Animal Crossing.  Yup. And took pictures of interesting clothes.  They didn't allow cameras in the special exhibits: Afghanistan, Royal Stamps (history of Canadian stamps), Northwest Company.  Which really sucks for the Afghanistan b/c it's all jewelry, pottery, carvings.  Maybe they wanted to sell their book?  But was amazing and so sad that a region w/ such a  long and beautiful history is wracked by war & the Taliban who smashed thousands of artwork.  I'm not a stamp-lover, but it was still interesting on how people developed stamps & people immediately started trying to forge or re-use them, and the govt's attempt to stop it. I just read the main text, but all the stamp examples had a clerk's handwriting that documented the attempts of creators. Spedwalked thru the NWC b/c I think I did that in history. Canada Post has a permanent exhibit. Trotted thru that one.  With 10 minutes to go, I sped thru Canadian history, got a little lost, and some looked familiar from when I went in Jr. High. Helps when you've a History degree.  With 2 minutes to go, looked up at the Canadian faces exhibit and went "Naw".  Probably would've spent only 15 minutes anyways if I had plenty of time.  Zipped thru the Boutique.  They must've thought I was crazy b/c I was whipping my head around evaluating all the merchandise w/ a glance.  They had Afghanistan jewelry, so I go Patty a wall hanging thing.  Think it's supposed to ward off the evil eye. No jewelry for me b/c didn't see any earrings.  It was a beautiful night, and if the cab wasn't coming right away, I would've check out their "Zen garden".  Didn't really see anything resembling it though.  Ate supper @ the Pho Bo Ga 777 restaurant.  I had noodle soup.  It was good.  I was the last person there, even though they close at 22:00 and it was 21:00.  Walked over to the Casino to take pictures of their Xmas decos.


22:00
Sitting in the tub w/ the bubblejet going.  My dawgs are tired.

Work/Play trip - Day 4

6:45
Didn't have a good sleep.  So tired.  Got to breakkie @ 7:30 and Becky was later than me.  But she only had toast, and I had eggs, cheese, cereal, muffin, danish, cold beef thing, tomatoes...Got everything down except for last bit of cereal by 8:02.

12:00
Such a headache, and so sleepy.  I closed my eyes thru the day.  Mostly when I finished the exercises, although also when we were navigating.  Still not thrilled w/ the recruitment module.  So much extra crap to go thru just to make a job requisition.  Oops, sorry...job opening.  Some very strange terminology. Honestly.  It feels like they're trying to make it "easier" to prevent errors but create more confusion instead.

Anyways, was trying to keep myself awake, so I opened my work email.  Aahh, so much stuff!  And then Marilyn started asking me about it, so I'm trying to explain that it's not really Outlook, but the IE creating an Outlook-like interface.  Which she didn't understand.  (Big surprise.  She asks the dumbest Qs in class).  But since she's so freaking loud, Will.i.am was waiting for us to finish. She's so annoying.  Anyways, as usual, found more L & R stuff, and my advisor confusing managers or leaving stuff behind and I'll have to clean stuff up when I get back. We finished w/ another exercise, but I just blew thru it b/c I was so annoyed w/ the email.

18:40
I took a cab to Currency museum b/c I was out by 15:40. I was going to walk to the hotel but it was raining, so I asked for a cab and swear I didn't pay in the morning. Finished it by 16:45.  Then I got turned around and went West instead of East.  I walked Sparks mall for a bit.  Popped into Zellers for Pokemon but they didn't have much except for Regigigas mini plush.  By now, I really had to use the loo so I popped into Chapters.  And yes, I got a book.  Wandered to Byward Market b/c I was hungry by now, and finally found a map post.  But still didn't make it to where I expected and one of the restaurants online wasn't on the map.  Weird.  Anyways, found that Totoyama is offering all-you-can-eat sushi on Friday for $20.  Guess where I'm going.  So I'm writing this @ Wontonmama and the lemon chicken was good.  But weird that I had to ask for rice.  Geez, it's quite Westernized in service.  And they charged me $2 for it.  *sigh*  Tom Yum Soup was good too.

20:00
Erm, why is there no CTV?  And how am I going to watch Criminal Minds?  At least I can finally see TNA.

Work/Play trip - Day 3

6:45
So do not want to wake up.  Didn't get much sleep...again.  Too warm b/c the A/C didn't work.  The others were at the restaurant at 7:00, I'm sure.  I brought raisin break, tomatoes and fruit pudding for lunch, but I still went w/ the others to the "nearby" mall.  Never would've thought of using soy sauce as salad dressing.
14:00
Moving into Staffing stuff.  It's so different from 8.0.  I don't even recognize it.  The trainer, William, went really fast too.  And then after I found a couple of mistakes on the material.  Ugh.
16:00

Went to Byward Market w/ Bhumika.  Dragged her around a bit looking for presents.  Ended up going to the National Gallery Boutique b/c the Gallery itself was closing by the time we got there.   Had dinner @ Fat Tuesdays. We weren't sure about the quality after our cutlery was dirty.  But it was delicious.  I had jambalaya.  The chicken was moist, shrimp perfectly cooked, dirty rice was yummy.
18:40
Back at the hotel.  So weird to be back so early but I'd actually gone out.  Ottawa-Gatineau is a daytime town.

Work/Play trip - Day 2

23:00
Some idiot above me started stomping around at 6:00.  And the alarm didn't really go off, so I was supposed to meet Debbie et al @ 7:15 for breakfast, but I woke up at 7:00.  Anyways still got to the course on time.

I miss People Soft, it was like it almost never left.  Seemed really straightforward, more or less.  Except there's an option to view just the record you're looking at or to see that there are more records associated with that position.  Why?!!  Just be able to see all the records instead of messing people up.
There are no eating places nearby either.  So ended up hiking with Janice to a restaurant 10+ minutes away and was late getting back b/c can't powerwalk anymore.  Well, more like keep up with her.  There's probably a reason why she was in Corporate Challenge.  So after the course, we all went to Super C to get groceries for lunch. But since I have no fridge, it ended being fruits, fruit cups and raisin bread.  The tap water here tastes like our spring run-off water.  And even the cooler water was yuck.  Had dinner with the other people who were staying at the same hotel.  Watched a lot of TV but there was no Score so no RAW.  :(

Work/Play trip - Day 1

1:30
Ugh, woke up after going to bed @ 23:00. Still thinking I haven't checked everything and I'm not sure what happened to my other pair of rechargeable AA batteries. I have 2 sets of 4 and I took a pair out of my CD player, but I don't know why since only my camera uses AA. Anyways, I got up and looked up restaurants in Byward market. I hope I can make it there. I still haven't decided which museum to go to since I'll probably only have an hour or 2 to look around. Back to bed at 2:00.

4:33
Ugh, didn't really sleep. Just closed my eyes it seems. Set my alarm for 4:45...oops, didn't turn it on though. Good thing I looked.

4:54
Oops, CD player's louder than the radio. Sooooo tired.

15:00
Got to airport on time and no problem w/ security. My seatmate turned out to work at the same building but in a different branch. He's going to Montreal for his conference. Nearly lost my Darsh. Pouch hoodies aren't secure b/c it slipped out when I was shifting in my seat. Got no sleep, but my neck is hurting from tilting to the right. Took some pics of P-chan @ Ottawa airport. It's a pretty nice airport. I had the cabbie take the scenic route, so I saw the Rideau Canal, Parliament and Byward Market. It looked farther apart on the map, but it's very walkable. There's a lot of old buildings in Ottawa but not so much in Gatineau. I went a bit crazy on the tip though b/c I was thinking of how much I gave the Edmonton cabbie so I gave him more. But my Edmonton trip was 2x longer, so yeah, it was about 40% tip. Check-in took some time since they had some issues w/ their reservation system. But apparently I go ta better suite b/c my pre-assigned one wasn't ready yet. Dumped my stuff and went to get a cab. Gaw, too tired to figure out how much change to get. And as I waited for the taxi, I wandered outside. The hotel's in a corner and kinda wierd to get into. Can't quite see where the bus stop is, although I see some come from the Lac-Leamy Casino. And I had to have the cabbie turn around b/c I forgot my camera. Went to Currency Museum b/c it's free and close to the Parliament and Byward. But the cabbie is francophone and also didn't know where it was. So I just got out and found it. It was just the next building actually. It was really interesting, and did I mention free? The exhibits were really nice and there were so many examples. Great for history geeks like me, since the history of a country is reflected in its currency. Some interesting facts: China was the first to make paper money and coins (which were based on cowrie shells & farm implements). Playing cards were used as emergeny $$ by writing values on them (fairly common occurrence actually). New France coins were rejected b/c it couldn't be used as legal tender in Old France. In 1853-1857, Canada chose to go /w the US decimal currency instead of the UK £. Armies/rebels/merchants would issue their own currency (therefore those arcade tokens are just a natural fallout), and HBC issued tokens until 1946. Newfoundland had their own curency until they joined Confederation. The whole point of issuing paper notes was to make money b/c it was likely that it wouldn't be redeemed for goods until later therefore, making it an interest-free loan. Canada started issuing coloured money in 1897, and until 1920, notes were signed by hand. Some questions that I came away with were: How do you turn beaver fur into felt? I had 2 hours and I still wans't finished reading everything, and I wasn't even examining all the coins and paper currency, or went into the Collection room. It was so dark by 5, and I walked to Parliament. There were a lot of poeple taking pictures too. The bulding look really dirty and that it had been thru a fire too. There were parts that were under scaffolding. Did more walking and there are statues and plaques everywhere. Could use some lighting in some areas. What I thought was te entrance to the subway or a bomb shelter was just a pedestrian underpass. Very pedestrian friendly.

By the time I got to Byward Market, the stalls were closing up, so I went to a restaurant instead. Found the Fish Market, and I swear when I saw their menu online, I was going to get the fish & chips. But their "Choose your meal" had an awesome appetizer and dessert for $15 more. Yes, I took pictures. The escargot was sooooo good. I thnk the basil bun was for soaking up the garlic butter and wine. The mushrooms were a bit burnt(no it really broke off as charcoal) but it still tasted so good after it soaked in the sauce for a bit. The fish was lovely. I'm not sure how gweilo eat whole fish, but I ate it the way I'm used to. Didn't take a picture of the bumbleberry pie b/c the top crust broke. But it was a delicious mix of sweet & tart. A bunch of francophones sat next to me and gave the waitress some attitude b/c she didn't know much French, so I gave her a 20% tip. Wandered some more after. But by 7, the area was dead. I thought it'd be like Whyte, but no way. Tons of restaurants. I didn't know we had a monument to peacekeepers. The bells were ringing when I took a pic of the Notre Dame Basilica. I hope more things are open on the weekdays.

20:17
Back at the hotel after finding a taxi stop. So tired, but I feel like I should be doing more stuff like going online downstairs. Just realized I forgot to bring the DS Browser. D'oh! Oh, Mythbusters!

21:39
Debbie called. We're meeting at 7:15 for breakfast and then to the building. The jet tub/shower is quite different. Not quite the time of the month to be trying it out though.

22:00
It's so freaking hot after the shower, and I can't get the A/C to work. So I'm down to my panties and using ice to cool off. I love Mythbusters, it's another episode I haven't seen! Just writing while I'm watching Discovery Channel. I heart Discovery Channel.

00:00
Gotta stop flipping channels. Criminal Minds is on, and the one where Derek's abused past is revealed. Mmmm, Shemar Moore.

Quiz: Is your Brain more Left-sided or Right-sided?

Left Sided

Your left side of the brain is more dominant than your right side. Usually, you tend to be logical and more of a thinking type. Left sided people are really reliable, and well organized. You are probably really good in school, and are probably really good at math, and/or science. You go by a routine, and dont like to have it spontaneously interrupted, unless you really need a break. You get things done, and you dont just forget about it and leave it unfinished. You'd rather be told how to do something other than someone demonstrate it. You tend to look at the whole picture, rather than details, because it needs to look good as a whole, not just in seperate parts.

10209 other people got this result! That's 17%

http://www.quizilla.teenninck.com/quizzes/15482009/is-your-brain-more-left-sided-or-right-sided

Cleaning Desk and Mind

So I've finally updated my blog on my LA trip (July 2008). It's just been sitting for a while. It was part of cleaning up my desk on the weekend. I recently bought an MP3 player, mostly b/c it's super-hard to find decently CD/MP3 players, and the 2 that I have are pretty dead. I'm back to using my older one (which had the issue of skipping, randomly stopping) for travel, and left the newer one for sleeping to b/c it had the issue of randomly repeating the same note 60x/sec until you pulled out the battery. Which was underneath the CD. So yeah, it kinda sucked. Hilariously enough, my MP3 player is from Sony who were the makers of those CD/MP3 players. Anyways, it was a result of getting a $25 coupon at their VIP event, + $20 off the MP3 player, and thinking I should enter 2001 finally. So I have the purple NWZ-S545, and have uploaded all the MP3s on my computer. Which left over 9 GB. Unfortunately Windows Media Player 11 sucks and can't play (let alone convert) any of my anime or most of my videoclips. Even though if they're .avi or .wmv. WTF?! VLC Player rules. Anyhoo, back to what I was supposed to be talking about. The store didn't have any leather cases for it, and who the hell wants to use a silicone case that'll turn my beautiful purple player into some puked-up looking thing? So I had been reusing the screen label to prevent scratches. But I lost it somewhere on my desk. Hence, the clean up.

I do have Radioshack screen protectors now, but I did boo-boo and there's dust underneath. The Radioshack/Source dealer said they eventually come off, I guess we'll see how long they last. Due to the fact that my $25 coupon only lasted that day, I had 0 research on the player. So it sat in the box for a couple of days, while I Googled. It's not bad, I did play with it a bit, and it's playing right now. I'm using it instead of Sonique b/c lots of my music are in folders, which Sonique has problems w/. The speakers aren't bad, not as good as my computer speakers, but that's expected. I'm not too thrilled w/ the fact that if you have it on music, and then switch it to pictures, you can't get back to music. Really annoying when it's on shuffle. Pretty annoyed that you can't have alarm and sleep timer on at the same time. If you set it to alarm, it immediately turns off. I've looked at some possible cases, and I'm thinking of crochetting it. The headphones will stick out of it anyways (unless it's a mega-case, in which case, how's it going to fit in a pocket?), so it just needs to be protected from scratches (a big issue apparently) and bumps. My cell's done pretty good after 3+ years.

Speaking of cell (and to think that my wrist has been hurting all day. Yesterday it was my right that would get sharp pains if I bent it a certain way. Now it's the left), I just renewed my contract. They called me for "customer satisfaction survey", which of course was the sales dept to see what they could offer. I said a new phn would be nice, but I don't like anything they had. So he was like, well I can offer you a $5CR each month. And since I'd recently looked at my plan (I'm going to be travelling soon, so wanted to know what the roaming chrg and plans were), I knew that I wasn't using that many minutes and could save so much more money if I switched. So I was like, "well how about you drop the system access fee?" (It's $6.95/month) which would give me the price of the other plan, but I'd have 150 more daytime minutes but still ppu for SMS (which I don't use much anyways). So he's like, well I can check if my mgr can authorize $10CR for 2 yr contract. So my bill's going to be lower for the next 2 yrs. I wonder if the system will forget to remove the CR once the contract's over.

*sigh* So down to the nitty-gritty. Today, one of my co-workers (someone I'd considered to have good sense and consideration) asked me if I could cover the office everyday at lunch so that everyone in their group can go at the same time. B/c it's just far too much of a hardship to not eat with your cronies every 3rd week. OMG! Get some perspective! Someone dies every 6 seconds due to hunger. Oh boo-hoo, you don't get to eat with your friends! Waah waah!

They (I'm sure it's not just her) thought that it was fair since I eat at 12:30 and they go at noon. When I pointed out that I may not eat at 12:30 all the time, due to work or such, they said that they could arrange something at that point. To which, I pointed out that we currently have a schedule where every Assistant takes turns covering the office during lunch, which helps people plan when their breaks will be. And when we're not scheduled, we can go whenever the he11 we want. I also pointed out that our Director told us that we should have an Assistant and Advisor in the office during lunch due to the fact that the RDG walked in to find an empty office. I didn't point out that the Clique never takes 30 min lunch breaks, so I'd be eating at 12:45 instead (since she's usually pretty good with coming back in the 30 minutes). But yeah, after being told that I'm the office donkey, I was so ready to leave. Even if I'm going to get training as a Superuser. It's a major tug-of-war btwn my ethics of being grateful for the opportunities I've gotten in the Dept (thus incurring a degree of loyalty) vs. the growing detest at majority of the office. Honestly, they remind me of Convergys HR. If I'd encountered them first instead of my friends at the other dept, I'd never have stayed in HR. There are good HR people, they're just not in this office!