Probation Results

I started my job working as a dispatcher back in August, though it really does feel like I've been here forever. I've gotten used to all my coworkers and I like all of them. All of them have their own little quirks and they're pleasant to be around. I've also started to get to know some of our drivers better and for the most part I like most of them.

Note that I said most. Some are really whiny, rude, or just outright annoying.

Like the guy who asked for directions, didn't follow said directions, and then complains when lost.

But this entire time I've been on probation. In these three months I've been evaluated to see if I would be worth keeping for the long term. This would mean a raise, health benefits, bonuses, statuary holiday pay, etc. etc.. I mean, I thought I was being paid pretty well as it was, so an additional bump up from this is certainly appreciated.

And then last week, my boss pulled me over into a boardroom, we sat down and then he told me he had to let me go.

Well this is certainly a downer.

Apparently I hadn't been improving as much as they would have liked over the last month or so. My boss wasn't able to provide me with any one specific event or thing. I mean, yes I made mistakes, but I tried my best to rectify them and not repeat them in the future. Really not sure what to make of this.

A little voice in my head says that they wanted a guy to for the busy fall season and get rid of him during the dead winter season. This would coincide with my boss's claims that the timing wasn't right for me. Though, that wouldn't make much sense. Train a guy only to do a few month's work.

With that being said, they're not firing me per se. If any position opens up in the Spring for the company, they'd like me to reapply and try again. Try another 3 months probation and see where that goes. And honestly, I probably will try again if nothing else pops up from now and spring.

Because I have started job hunting again.

I know some of you may be wondering why I'd be so willing to head back to a company that just booted me out. Well, for starters, the pay was great. For a guy who just popped out fresh from University, this was phenomenal especially consider that this was just probation pay. The other jobs I've looked at so far provide much less for far more work and stress.

But my coworkers were also great. If there was an issue, they'd pull me aside and show me how to properly do something. No one was passive aggressive, rude, or stupid. And all of them were genuinely surprised that I didn't make the probation. I made an effort to say goodbye to as many as I could before I left the office. I'm going to miss them, they were good people.

I'm also considering maybe heading back to University just for a single term. Maybe get working on a second degree. I'd rather not though, because my debt is still in the thousands. No need to increase it any further.

Which brings me to my next point. If there's anything being jobless has done to me, it's give me A LOT of free time. I guess I can start reliably blogging again as well as working on certain projects. Though, being jobless means I have to carefully budget my money again. Which sucks.

Also probably a good thing that I didn't quit my fast food job. I'll probably try and snatch as many shifts there as I can until I can get something full-time again or head back to classes.

I'm really disappointed though. I fully expected to get through my probation period with no problems.

Post-Halloween Disappointment

Halloween has come and gone. Normally I'm not a fan of dressing up, I preferred to look at other people's costumes. But this year I decided to try to be different and goes as the Slenderman simply because I had the bodytype and it was fairly easy to do.

The only thing I was missing for a mask or head covering to complete it. So I ordered something online at the beginning of the month with the predicted date of arrival with roughly a week until it would arrived. Prefect timing.

And so I waited.

And waited.

It's after Halloween and it still hasn't arrived.

So I'm certainly disappointed. I mean, I paid extra for it to come in before Halloween. I also booked the day off of work so I could run around on Campus. Instead, I just ended up sleeping in and loafing off. It's not bad, but I'd rather run around as a mythical entity that abducts people on the one day that it's socially acceptable. I can sleep in any other day.

I'm tempted to blame Sandy for the delays in the mail but I have no idea when it'll arrive. I got an email a while ago saying it was shipped out, and would arrive within 8 days at the latest. That means it should have arrived last Friday. And if it arrived late on the weekend or something, I should have got it on Monday.

It's Wednesday now.

And waiting.

I guess I'll just dress up next year then. Assuming I don't think of a better costume. In the meantime, I've done some thinking and realized that simply wearing a suit and a head-covering mask doesn't make you a good Slenderman. You look more like a mannequin than anything.

So in preparation of next Halloween, let's take a look at what makes the Slenderman so unsettling to so many people, and how we can translate that into a better costume.

I think I can sum it up in the various pictures and images that are used with the Slenderman.

Take a look at the picture below:

First, he's disproportionate and tall, he doesn't look normal. People hate things that look almost human but are slightly off. It's the uncanny valley effect, basically, things that clearly don't look human (e.g. a cartoon) look fine and obviously humans look ok. But it's that inbetween stage of the two that really cause us to feel uncomfortable.

Imagine how the Slenderman would move, completely ungainly and hobbling. He looks like he could almost pass as a person but it's these little differences that throw us off and that's the goal here seeing as he is some kind of urban legend monster.

To accomplish this we we're going to need two things stilts and some form of trash grabbers. If you cover the stilts up well, bam, you have an extra few feet of height. Attach the grabbers to your forearms, bam, extra arm length. Some of the best Slenderman costumes I've seen recommend using dry-waller stilts just because they're easier to walk around with. So I can look for those.

Not creepy at all.

Being abnormally tall won't be hard with the stilts. I'm over 6 feet which is a decent height but it's not rare or uncommon to see other people that tall. To make this costume go from mannequin to Slenderman, we need to make ourselves unrealistically tall. We're talking, 7/8/9 feet tall. The bigger some weird looking thing is, the more scary it is. We see this kind of behavior in animals all the time, puffing themselves up to look bigger in hopes of intimidating something else.

I'm hoping that if I'm running around like this next Halloween I won't trip and fall or anything. Remember, I live in Canada, and by Halloween, we usually have snow and ice all over the place. I remember trying to build a costume around jackets and snowpants.

Maybe I'll just be the Slenderman indoors...

Memories of China: Why Macau Sucked

This will be the last post about my China trip. I think I've used it enough as inspiration as posts and this last story is the only thing I think can be enough to form a complete post. But today, I'm going to tell you why Macau was terrible.

Now Macau is fairly close to Hong Kong, which we were staying in at the time. My cousins went last year and told us they had a fairly good experience, lots of good food but the best food was at this expensive buffet in a hotel. When they went, there was all you can eat seafood and they described the serving tables as 100 meters long.

Oh and things to see, but who cares about sightseeing when there's food to eat?

Hopefully this isn't me in the future...

My Uncle living in Hong Kong wondered why we were going. "There's nothing to see there." he said. But we disregarded his warning and went anyways. There are only two ways you can get to Macau from Hong Kong, by boat (2 hours or 45 minutes) or by helicoptor (15 minutes).

And each time you go to either place you need to pass through customs and declare goods. They consider themselves independent cities or something, I don't know the details. I just know that it's just a large hassle to get there and back.

So that's already one point against Macau. Seriously, just stay in Hong Kong.

Macau: -1/Hong Kong: 0

The instant we leave the customs building it is hot. I have never been in weather this hot and humid before. It is like stepping into a sauna when you walk outside. And I hate it. I cannot stand the weather here, I am constantly hiding in the shade or ducking into shops in hopes of air conditioned salvation. Another point against Macau.

Dad books a half day driver to take us places to see places. EXCEPT, most places are closed on Thursdays. I don't know about you, but having Thursday as your day off doesn't make much sense to me. Friday or Monday makes more sense, to extend weekends or Saturday/Sunday because those are normal days off but Thursday? Really? So our driver ends up dumping us outside some malls/scenic areas we can't go into, and the ones we can enter aren't all that amazing.

Dad really wanted to go inside but it was closed.

Things we could see were uninteresting strip malls, department stores and churches. Macau was taken over by the Portuguese for a while so there was a lot of influence in terms of food and religion. There was this supposedly old famous church that was in a fire which we went to go see.

I didn't think it was anything special. I guess the fact that it was so old and still standing was impressive? The only thing that I cared about was the basement which had old bones of past priests or something.

Coldest area in all of Macau. I loved it.

And these dead guys hogged it all to themselves.

The driver eventually drops us off at some hotels. By this point, we're all really bored but we remain in Macau because of the buffet planned for dinner. The hotels are exactly what you'd see in Las Vegas and having been to Vegas before the buildings look like cheap imitations.

The shops are all high-end, overpriced Western brand name stores. There's nothing to buy, nothing to see, and my sister and I try our hand at some slots and proceed to lose about $10 CAD. What's interesting is that the Hong Kong dollar is equal to the Macau pataka so the machines take either currency. At least people were walking around giving free non-alcoholic drinks. That was a pleasant surprise.

Anyone been to the Venetian in Vegas? They have one in Macau too.

And then finally. It was about time for dinner. Except...

None of us were really hungry.

And who wants to spend several hundred Hong Kong dollars on a meal they'll barley eat. I personally blame the heat for my own lack of appetite. So we were a bit grumpy on the boat ride back because we could have headed back to Hong Kong much sooner to do more interesting things.

I can't remember what we ate for dinner that day. But all I'm confident that it was better than anything we ate in Macau.

Overall, unimpressed.