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.

Work Updates

Things at work have gone fairly well. Well as well as things can go I guess. It's still the fall season and things are absolutely busy but it's still bearable. I'm used to doing 10 hour shifts a day and fully expect them. To leave after only 8 hours is unexpected, especially since I'm now being trained to finish up at the end of the night, i.e., stay behind and make sure everyone else gets back safely before I leave.

The joys of dispatch. At least I'm getting overtime. Also, it's dead. So I often do other things while I'm waiting for the last truck to come back.

Shhh... Don't tell my bosses....

The rest of the days are still eventful though. For some reason, no one can get my name right. I'm going to blame terrible phones on either end, maybe bad reception. Most phone calls sound something like this:

Me: Damian here.
Client: Hi Dennis, I need you to...

Or:

Me: Hi, Damian speaking.
Client: David, if you could...

Or even better:

Me: Hello, this is Damian.
Client: Janice, for my order on...

Janice.

How did you get Janice.

How.

But they don't intentionally get my name wrong. It's always funny to have them call back later requesting to speak to "Dennis" only to be corrected by my coworkers that no one by that name works here. It's gotten to the point where if a client asks for a fictitious individual, the client probably wants me.

And most clients are fairly civil. Though we still get the odd individual who is unable to control himself. For example, a few weeks back, this guy who has an order. At one point he, or someone on his site calls to delay the order. No problem. Later, we also call to let him know that his concrete is going to be late, probably going to arrive at X time, because traffic is exceptionally bad. Also rush hour. We like to give clients a bit of a heads-up when we're late.

Half an hour before our estimated arrival time, I get an angry phone call that I can't transcribe because of the language used AND because I had no idea what the guy was saying half the time. I blame his bad phone, him being angry, and his heavy accent. One part of his rant sticks out to me because for a good 10 minutes he was complaining about how last winter he somehow got a cement truck out of a snow bank with a bobcat. At least, that's what I think he was saying.

What I do know is that he kept me on the phone for half an hour until the trucks arrived and then he turned his rage towards the drivers.

He didn't seem to understand that:
a) Someone on his end had delayed the order.
b) Delaying the order made it so that trucks would be right in the middle of rush hour traffic.
c) That rush hour traffic makes things slow.

3 variables that lead to delayed arrivals. Apparently the guys he had working for him also screwed up because the following week we received pictures of the finished job and it looked like someone didn't know what they were doing.

Somehow, this was our fault because we were late. Or for some other arbitrary reason. We really don't know. The sales associate for this client also had trouble understanding him through the bad phone, angry talking, and heavy accent. This continued for about 2 weeks until we cut communications. Also because he had started making threats towards us.

Yelling "HOW OLD ARE YOU?" to one of our senior sales associates is very mature.

In more positive news, my probationary period is coming to end. Which is great. I haven't been fired yet, my coworkers seem to like me. Also, with the end of my probation it means a raise.

More money. I can get behind that.

I just need to get through the end of the month without screwing up horribly or causing any disasters. I make still make mistakes, it's expected, and luckily they're small. But they're still mistakes, and I can't afford to look careless. I just need to get by without making anymore, be super-thorough and I'll be safe.

Also raise.

Weekend Shifts

I've been blogging about my new job a lot. Because my new job is pretty much my life. Because if I'm not working, I'm either at the gym, or on my own computer for a few brief moments before I pass out on my bed so I'm barely rested enough for the next day of work.

But it's all worth it when you see that biweekly paystub.

TIME TO PAY OFF SOME DEBTS.

In my last post about my job (which was barely a week ago) I talked about how I was finally got around to be trained to do dispatch. I was being trained to literally babysit these truck drivers and when to send them out, how to work the computer programs etc. etc.. It wasn't that much harder than taking orders to be honest.

And then suddenly my supervisor approaches my desk. "Damian, you're doing fairly well. I'm bringing you in on Saturday."

Most people would cringe at the potential to work weekends. Not me. And so, I went in for my first full-time Saturday shift at my new job.

OVERTIME.

Yep. Time and a half. More than enough reason for me to sacrifice sleep and relaxation to head in to the office at 8 in the morning looking like a zombie. It was funny, because my coworkers (and my parents before I left the house) commented about how dead I looked.

Some of you may wonder why the money is important enough for me to do this. Well, if I took the day off, what would likely happen? I'd sleep in until 1PM (or later), laze about all day, playing video games and other goofing off activities.

OR, I can be productive at work, hit the gym on the way home, and make delicious, delicious money.

Money that is greatly needed to pay off debt.

Money, money all gone now.

Saturday was actually my first time day of working in dispatch as opposed to being trained. I had to answer calls, send trucks, answer the radio, and keep track of everything that was going on all at the same time. It got hectic at times, but I think I handled it well it enough. Certainly could have been worse.

But this means it's time to quit my fastfood job. After all these years, now that I no longer can work evenings or weekends it's time to end it.

Or, I can keep working Sundays.

What.

Yeah, they almost never need people to work Sundays at my full-time job. Meaning I can keep my fastfood job, soldiering through 7 day weeks. Technically, I don't need to work on Saturdays either, but I've volunteered to take as many shifts as possible unless stated otherwise.

No, I don't have a deathwish or have I become a workaholic. As stated before, overtime is amazing but keeping my fastfood job allows for a bit more cash AND allows me to have some variety in lunches. I have abused that 50% discount far too many times for me to break away from it. Plus, I'm getting sick of microwavable dinners and my own terrible cooking.

As long as I have the evenings to myself, I should be alright I think. I just need to balance things carefully to allot enough time for my projects and sleep.

And if I end up in the hospital due to collapsing from fatigue, that'll make for a hilarious set of blog posts.

Moving Up

I think I've finally gotten into the groove of working at my new job. Wake up. Turn off the alarm. Sleep for another 10 minute. Get up. Get ready. Get stuck in traffic. Be a few minutes late (but no one cares). Sit down in front of a computer. Talk on the phone all day long and help people. Head to the gym. Go home. Internet. Pass out.

It's nice to have a routine. Well, a routine in which I get paid to be tired and deal with (occasionally) stupid people.

All the time.

For those unaware, I'm currently working at my new job at a concrete company. For the month of August I was pretty much being taught as much as I could learn about concrete, and then how to sit in front of a computer how to respond to the many clients who wanted concrete orders or modifications to their orders.

I was told I was learning extremely quickly. Maybe it was just because the last order person was a complete ditz who couldn't figure out the program but I picked it up within a week. Last week they unleashed me on the phones by myself and I've been fine every since.

Which is scary, because a single error can result in massive costs on our end. In fact, the other day, someone checking over an order I made brought to my attention that I had entered in a wrong concrete mix due to a 3 character difference. And had that order gone through, it would have cost the company easily $25,000.

Oops.

So part of our training is to double check orders, and re-double check orders to make sure everything goes right. Nearly all the mistakes I make are simply due to being new and they're pretty much all caught or not costly. My coworkers are pretty nice about it, teaching and showing me how to do things properly without making me feel like an idiot.

And so for about 2 weeks I did this. Time goes by surprisingly fast, shifts disappearing quickly. I rarely have an idle moment and I don't mind. This job keeps me awake and conscious and that's not a bad thing at all.

But on the side, I was also being trained for dispatch. Meaning I would now be in charge of sending out trucks in the city, directing drivers, etc. etc.. It's more fast-paced plus I believe I get paid more to do so.

Being paid even more to sit in front of a computer? Awesome.

But the training for being a dispatcher slowly disappeared. And I resigned to sticking with being in Orders. But I was ok with it. It kept my mind active, I was still being paid well, and there's something rewarding about helping people all day. Especially when most are appreciative.

And then yesterday,  my supervisor suddenly pulls me away from my desk. Usually when he does this it's because he caught a mistake I made. Except this time I'm greeted with, "Damian, you're completely comfortable with orders now. Starting now, we're training you for dispatch."

Turns out, dispatchers do EVERYTHING on top of sending out trucks. No point of training me for it if I wasn't comfortable with orders yet. But it clear that I am proceeding far ahead of schedule. Especially since we hired someone new and I can compare my rate of progress to her.

Feels good man.

Well, we would have started. If my systems account didn't suddenly decide to die on me. So we start next week. My official dispatcher training will require me to work longer and later hours. But I get overtime so I'm not complaining.

But this means that I can no longer work at my fast food job during the evenings. I'm now occasionally working on the weekends and this will continue until my full-time job starts allocating me to weekend shifts as well.

As much as I'll miss the cheap food, I think it's time I finally move on. Plus, I make more doing 1 hour of OT than I would doing 3 hours fast food.

Work Thus Far

It's about time I talked about my job. I've been working here for 3 weeks now and I think I can give a fairly good update about things. The environment is pretty nice, everyone is fairly close knit and we joke and laugh at each other all the time. The downside is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, know about each other.

I mean, I've barely even know any of the drivers who deliver the concrete and yet I'll walk by the break room and get, "Hey, you're the new guy with the University degree!".

How much do they know about me?!

So I'm feeling a bit of pressure not to make mistakes or look stupid. I mean, I am an academic, I should be able to do my job better than most, right? Right?

Well actually if what I'm told is correct, I've moved along faster than most of the people I've replaced. I've learned the programs needed to do my job, the more important mixes of concrete, how to respond to customers and when to redirect them, etc. etc. all within the span of two weeks.

I've actually been on the phone taking orders for concrete on my own for this week and with more practice, eventually I'll be allowed to work in dispatch without supervision. Which would be great because not only is it more engaging, but it also pays significantly better.

Close enough.

Until then, I'll have to be delegated to dealing with orders of concrete. Whether it's taking, modifying, or cancelling them, someone has to be there to answer that phone. That's another perk to this job is that I can't fall asleep. Everyone wants something different, the phone is going off nearly all the time, and my shift goes by quickly.

And I'm pretty sure my coworkers appreciate the help. I remember one day when we only had one guy on the phones. Pretty sure he was there for a 12 hour shift with virtually no breaks, dealing with angry people who had to wait up to an hour to be talked to.

And while most of our customers are pretty nice and even enjoyable to talk to, we have a few notorious people who are absolutely horrid to deal with. One particular example comes to mind with a guy called Jim. The conversation goes like this:

Jim: Hi, so uh. I'd like to move my Thursday order to be on the Friday.
Me: So you want to get rid of the Thursday order and have it on Friday?
Jim: No, I want to uh, have the Friday order be like uh, Thursday, but have it 7 meters uh, instead.
Me: Ok, I can do that.
Jim: Except make it um, more. More like the Thursday one that uh, we're moving.
Me: Sorry? What do you want me to do?
Jim: If you could um have the Friday order more, but have it like uh, the Thursday.

This continues until my supervisor realizes who I'm talking to, grabs the phone from me, and later tells me that Jim is notorious for being like this,

Jim later called to change the order, again.

So asides from that things are good. I'll hopefully be having paycheques rolling in and we can begin to do serious damage to my debt. While I am supposed to just work 8 hours a day, that delicious overtime beckons, and I've been trying to find excuses to stay a bit later to learn dispatching.

That being said, my projects are taking a massive hit. It's hard to find the motivation to learn or write after a 9 or 10 hour shift while running on barely any sleep. I'll have to find a way to accommodate everything somehow.

Full-Time Work

It's about time I finally gave some details about my new job. I'm paid more than double minimum wage, get bonuses and benefits, which is pretty great considering that I managed to get a job at all just coming out of University. It's a fairly cushy desk job where I sit in front of a computer and do stuff.

What kind of stuff you ask? Concrete. I know what you're thinking. How does a Psychologist get a job relating to concrete of all things? I don't know either, but the pay is good enough that I'm not going to think too hard about it.

Also, I sit inside all day too, so I'm pretty pleased about that.

The first week mostly consisted of training. I learned a lot more about concrete than I ever expected to. It's surprisingly a lot more complicated than I would have ever thought. For starters, it has a set lifespan but we have ways of accelerating or slowing down how fast it sets. There are tons of things we can put in it to change the strength or properties of concrete because a foundation for bridge isn't going to have the same stuff in it as someone's driveway.

Oh, and if there's anything I learned, it's that mistakes are expensive. The cheapest mistake will cost at least $2000. And it's not hard to make a mistake. Maybe a driver takes the wrong concrete, drives off, and now everyone behind him is going to get the wrong stuff. Or someone forgets to clean his drum out properly and the next person to get concrete ends up with a pink driveway. Or maybe a Thursday order gets sent out for Wednesday instead.

To put this in perspective, at my old jobs, the most expensive mistake I could make would cost $10.

And let's not start mentioning the mistakes that can cost over 100k.

So what is my job exactly? My job is to take orders for concrete. So a guy will want X amounts of Y type of concrete at Z location, and I'll punch in all the details into a computer and away we go. Easy as that. Maybe a guy wants his Monday concrete moved up to later in the day, or next week. No problem I check to make sure things are alright, and off it goes.

But this is kind of boring, and if I do well, I'll get moved to dispatch. What does this mean? Now I am in control of sending trucks of concrete all over the city. I have to see what trucks are available, who wants what, and when to send it.

Sounds easy. Until drivers start getting lost and I have to give them directions, or if someone decides to cancel their order of concrete, or if trucks break down in the middle of nowehere with a full-load of concrete, or someone calls asking where their concrete is because it's over an hour late.

And then you have the new guy trying to make sense of it all.

But the people are nice, friendly, and they seem to like that I'm doing my best to try and learn as much as possible and ask as many questions as I can. I might leave for a week in a bit to do some training in another city because of how understaffed we are. Not a problem for me as long as I have internet.

Oh, and before I end this post, here's something I learned if you plan to one day build your own house. ALWAYS hire a tester or some form of quality control on site. See, most construction workers/labourers are lazy and don't really care about the project unless it's for the city (because of the constant quality checks).

This results in the labourers weakening the concrete to make it easier to work with, or pouring less concrete to make things faster for themselves. Great, now your basement is going to crack more easily or maybe the walls are going to keep flaking, resulting in a dusty house.

If you're going to spend several hundred thousand dollars on a new home, spend a few extra thousand dollars, get someone to make sure that your house is built up to snuff.

Preperations

Summer has only begun and already I'm sitting around trying to figure out things for after summer has come to an end. Can't afford to dawdle, because it's too easy to sit back, relax, and boom! All the time you suddenly had is gone. Also, it's also common for unexpected events to occur that suddenly eat up all your free time.

I wouldn't be surprised if my family decided to take another month long trip to Asia again. This time my Dad has been hinting at going to Korea. Most of us are fairly hesitant because of North Korea being absolutely crazy. But that might change and we'll head somewhere else, who knows.

In the meantime, one of the best motivational messages I've taken to heart as of late is the following:

And so I'll begin my work today. Starting with planning for my academic future. At the moment I have 3 options I'm considering: Graduate studies in Psychology, Speech Pathology, or something in Business.

Unfortunately if I want to continue doing Psychology, I'll have to abandon my province, probably head to Saskatchewan. As I've mentioned before the budget cuts have NOT been kind to anyone. Psychology has lost several support staff and I highly doubt they can afford another graduate student.

Though we fared better than Sociology and Anthropology which had to fuse together to stay afloat.

Speech Pathology is another one in which I'll probably have to abandon my province for as well and also to Saskatchewan. Again, the program in my city is extremely competitive and I doubt my GPA can withstand the scrutiny. Seriously, the only benefit I have is that I'm male, and maybe they'll let me in because of how saturated the field is with women.

Or maybe they're all sexist and that's why there are so few men.

Though I'm not sure Speech Pathology is such a good option. It would require me to take more Linguistics and while it wasn't that bad, my friend's girlfriend is a Linguistics major and she had only one piece of advice for me:

"Linguistics is terrible. Look at these notes, look at them. Don't subject yourself to this.".

Ok, so what about Business? An MBA (Master's in Business Administration) requires that I write not only the GMAT but also have 2 years of experience working full-time. Unfortunately as much as I'd like a well-paying full-time job, I haven't been that lucky. But who knows, maybe I'll run into something so good that I won't want to head back to class in the Fall.

In the meantime, a BCOM (Bachelor's in Commerce) while only a second undergraduate degree, only needs me to take Econ 101 and 102. It's only 2 years long. AND that opens me up to all the beautiful internships in the field. And from what I've seen, the Business students have no end of awesome internships.

Something that Psychology failed me on.

 This is relevant to my interests.

So I guess I'll be aiming at taking Econ 101, Econ 102, maybe a higher level Linguistics course? Maybe another Psychology course for interests sake? I don't want to take more than 3 courses, but we'll see what happens.

But the course registration site is always really iffy on the weekends so I'll have to wait until Monday to try and sign up. In the meantime, I have my projects to work on. I know that I'm vague on the works in progress but it's because I don't enjoy talking about things that aren't completed or unsuccessful. It's a pride thing.

I know I keep saying things look like they're about to work (Project Derp is especially notorious for this) and it's true. They show promise, but they all still need a lot work still before I would consider it a success. I think the best analogy I can come up with is finally being able to properly boil a pot of pasta. Good for you! But you still have a ways to go until this becomes acceptable spaghetti carbenera.

So I'll keep working on my projects, online profiles, job hunts, and my two part-time jobs. Especially my projects. I want to have an update where I have more to talk about as opposed to "STILL WORKING ON IT".

Halfway Point

It's about halfway through the term. And I have a general feeling about how well I've done this term:

Aging: ~B
Cognitive: ~B
Conservation: ~A
Social Influence: ~B

This is roughly a B+  or 3.3. That's generally how well I've done in my previous terms. But at the moment there's only one word that rings in my mind.

As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to get into Speech and Langauge Pathology. However, it appears the program has gotten a lot more competitive over the years. If you want to stand a chance, you should have a GPA of 3.7 or an A-.

So as you can see, a 3.3 isn't going to be good enough to get me in. I don't expect myself to get A's in all my courses, but at least an A- so I have a fighting chance.

I have to kick things up a notch.

Bam!

All hope is not lost yet. I still need to write the GRE at the end of the month and I really should start studying for it soon. I also should start looking to work or volunteer with something SLP related. Not only will it give me vital experience, but I could use a second job. Especially next term when my schedule will be even more light.

My only saving grace for my GPA at the moment is apparently they only care about your grades for the last 2 years that you were in school. In other words, with a bit more work my disastrous 3 year grades will suddenly become invalid, like they never existed at all.

Seriously though, if that year even touches the rest of my GPA I'll drop to a B-.

Replace Homer with some bad grades and you get the idea.

My last hope is that a lot of my remaining marks for my courses are in the form of papers and projects. Wish me luck on them, I need all I can get.

Job Hunt Update

It's about time I gave some sort of update regarding my hunt for a second job. I made a huge fuss about it and I think it's time we talk about it.

I have good news.

And I have bad news.

News.

First, I did manage to secure an over the phone interview with a company. The job wasn't anything fancy. Call center where I would do technical support sorts of things. The pay would be decent and there was even an option for commission if I was savvy enough with a customer.

Yeah, the hours would be kind of weird. Yes, the training would take about a month, but the point is. Second job, that's all that matters. I need the money. 1 part time job isn't enough to pay for anything.

And then they offered me an actual in-person interview.

Whoo!

And then they asked me the following question.

"Are you going on vacation anytime within the next 6 months".

And yes, in fact, I am. I leave at the beginning of July for 3 weeks to China.

And that pretty much destroyed any chances of getting this job. And probably any other one too.

Welp.

So I'm guessing most other jobs are going to have similar policies. I'm also guessing that I shouldn't bother looking for any other jobs until I get back. Even then, classes will be starting in a month and I'm not sure if I could balance the workload that well.

In the meantime, back to as many hours as I can snag at the fast food job. It be nice if I could get more hours but my boss has enough staff working as it is.

Yay for cashier and stuff.

On the bright side, the call center did ask me to contact them again when I return from China so maybe there's some hope. We'll see how things work out.

There has to be an Easier way.

I think I'm looking in all the wrong places. Because everyone else is getting employed this summer except me. My old fast food job doesn't count, though at the moment it's all I have.

I mean, my friend comes back from a 2 week long vacation from Japan, and within a week of him sending out applications he's already got interviews.

I still have nothing and it's really starting to irk me. University jobs haven't responded. Same with nearby campuses, government positions and the retail stores I've applied to. No one is responding. Really not sure what I'm doing wrong. Or if I'm even doing something wrong. For all I know my applications are being dumped into a junk folder.

Or a garbage can.

I suppose going away to China for a month isn't helping my case either. Who wants to hire someone to work for 2 months. Oh and it's two months split by a month long vacation in the middle. Yeah, unless I find a good temp job that'll let me do that, I'm not making my hunt any easier.

I guess I could keep working the fast food job. My boss is going to try and give me more hours. At least Theresa is in China so it's not like working more is taking away time potentially spent with her.

I smell like this after every shift regardless if I'm near the fryers or not.

But I think it's also time for a bit of a confession. Those who have read my very first blog post will recall that I started this blog in hopes of chronicling my attempts of figuring out what to do with my life. So far, I haven't been very successful.

But the secondary reason that I started a blog was to test its potential as a secondary source of income.

Allow me to explain. I know it sounds kind of silly, stupid or even like a scam. Making money off the internet always is suspicious. But there are tons of people who have managed to turn it into a living. At best, the amount of money earned can far exceeds the amount of work put in.

The problem is, how do you do that, efficiently.

And without potentially harming yourself.

This blog has earned me some money. More than I ever expected it to. However, it is far from optimal and if I were to make it more efficient, it would take away most of the fun I get out of doing this blog. I do enjoy blogging, don't get me wrong, but the way I'm doing it isn't going to pay for my tuition anytime soon.

Right now I'm doing some experimentation with other online things. I know that they can work but the goal is to get them to work for me. I might have to accept that this could be more only source of significant income this summer.

Give me money oh magical box!

And for regardless of it works or not, it'll make for a good series of blogposts in the future.

A Summer of Possibilites

Awesome, my 4 month long summer break is finally here. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. It always feels odd, not having the threat of an oncoming exam or paper breathing down your neck. Being able to sleep in, relax and goof off.

So much spare time.

Free!

Usually at the start of each month I do a recap of my progress on a list of goals I've set for myself. But let's be honest, how much progress was I going to make during finals month? But now that I have time, maybe I can get some work done.

I haven't gotten any proper exercise in weeks, I haven't practiced baking or cooking, done any book or game reviews, job hunting has gone poorly and who know what else has been neglected lately. But hopefully that can and will change in the coming weeks.

I've got a new pile of work for me now.

I've been sleeping better, so I have more time and more energy now so that means I can get back to trying to not be a scrawny twig. Oh, and that means I'm healthier or something too. Exercise is good for you, blah blah blah.

One of the things I want to do for Theresa before she heads of to China is cook her a proper meal. Usually the most I've been able to do is supplement her lunch with a simple soup or something to that nature. So it be nice to cook her something decent.

Any ideas? Some good steak recipes? I want to make a leek and potato soup, maybe a potato gratin. Thing is, I have no idea what works well together for a lunch. Sure I could just slap together random recipes together but if they compliment each other that be nice.

I don't want her eating some monstrosity like this.

The job hunt is not going well. Most research jobs are either already taken or I don't qualify for them. Same with a lot of the other jobs offered by the University. I've applied for what I can but from the looks of it the best I've got is working at FutureShop for 4 months.

And that's assuming I get an interview. I sent an application a while back, still nothing. Same with the other job I applied for. Getting a bit discouraged here because it's not like jobs are jumping at me, begging to be taken.

Very worried about this happening.

But all in all, I think I should try and relax a bit. My family has confirmed that we will be going to China again this summer. If you haven't read my first experience in China, you can see it here.

Which means that my blog posts will probably be reduced to about once every week. I won't be able to visit anyone else's blogs. Actually, there's a very good chance that I'll have no internet. I mean, I can get past the Great Firewall of China, that's no problem, but it will be a problem if I have no internet.

A nightmare come true.

But we'll see how things go. I've still got 4 months left. Let's see how things turn out.

Oh wow, 100 posts.

I had my post ready to go, the one meant for last time but Blogger deleted. Today's post was going to be about Yu. For those of you unfamiliar with he escapades you can read about them here and here.

But then I noticed something. This is going to be my 100th post. This is a pretty significant milestone if you ask me. It took me nearly 9 months to reach it but hey I did.

I guess we should celebrate or something.

 
Mother Nature celebrated by snowing again. I'm not kidding. It actually snowed again.

But I'm done all my exams now. All the papers have been handed in. I'm actually able to sleep and what not so that's great news. Actually being able to get 8 hours of consecutive rest is amazing. And I'm waking up before noon.

Ok, it's more like I keep passing out before midnight so it's sort of like I'm sleeping responsibly. I think the sleep deprivation from the rest of the year is catching up to me. But let's focus on the positives.

Yay!

So I'd like to thank everyone who continued to visit even though I've been neglecting everyone else's blogs. Now that I'm pretty much free I'm going to be able to put a bit more effort and time into my posts. As opposed to the hastily written and fairly similar ones about me being tired or covered in schoolwork.

Now you guys can watch me try and cook again, Jean and I will be trying to do some things over the break and same with my friend Adrian. Hopefully I don't waste my entire summer break in front of a computer playing Starcraft.

Master race reporting.

And hopefully I can get a decent paying job. I wasn't able to grab one last year and it would help me out tremendously if I could finally earn a bit of money. I'm still several thousand in debt to my parents.

Oh, and Theresa is gone for two weeks. Off on a Pharmacy rotation. And then when she gets back, she's going to be gone to China for a month.

Man, I'm going to be lonely.

Accurate representation of what I'll be like during her absence.

But yes, thanks again to everyone who reads and comments. Any suggestions for topics or criticism is appreciated as usual. Just leave a comment or even send me an email.

Next post will be an update on Yu. Don't worry, as of the time of this post, he's still alive.

I think.

Internship Update

Welp, it's time about time I gave an update on my current status on the internship. After weeks and weeks of hassle, trying and hoping, the internship coordinator finally took at a look at my application to see if I'd be able to join the program.

I've been through a lot, such as nearly being kicked out of my degree and the constant stressing out. And so:

What's the final verdict?

Come on...

Rejection.

Rejection because I was over the course limit by about 3 courses.

I tried to discuss this with the coordinator and from what I can understand the reasoning behind this is that if a student didn't like their internship by having enough courses they could still potentially adjust things in the future and change their degree.

I'll be honest, I don't care if I get the worst internship ever, I just want the experience and the money. I'm pretty sure most people are like that at this stage in life. But this didn't matter to her, decision is final, and that's that.

So where does that leave me?

Sigh...

Well right now I'm trying to find other internships and job opportunities within my city. See, the nice about the Internship Program that I was vying for was that there would be the contact information for several dozen employers just sitting there, waiting for me to contact, no searching for me to do. Everything is nicely labelled and organized.

Right now, I've found barely a handful of potential jobs. Not surprising that Psychology Internships are hard to find, that's why that program was created, to help students like me. I've sent a few emails and applications, not holding my breath but what else can I do? I've already been turned down again for a few of them.

At least they were quick about it.

I don't give up easily but I'm starting to reach my breaking point here. I have 1 term left until I graduate, no viable career opportunities, I had no intentions of entering Graduate school until I had something to bolster my chances but right now maybe I should consider writing the GRE and then hoping for a miracle.

But we know how many miracles I've been getting.

Yeah, if you can't tell, I'm still kind of disheartened. I was better but after I started looking for other jobs and internships I realized how sparse they were. And then I started feeling miserable again.

And then I became even more so when I realized almost everyone around me seems to be advancing their careers just fine.

Hey guys, can I join?

In one of my earlier posts, I voiced my concerns about my peers being successful while I lagged behind. And it has just becomes more apparent with each passing day. The Med students are adjusting just fine to their hectic schedules, people are getting interviews to whatever positions they applied for whether it be medicine or grad school or job interviews. Even my younger sister recently got a job working at a Veterinary clinic which is perfect for her because she's going to Vet school in 2 years.

And then you have me. The guy who got rejected from 10 different places (5 if you only count the interviews), couldn't get into a program designed for students like him and no foreseeable future options. Back in August I was hoping for some answers or reassurance by this point but now I'm even more unsure of the future than when I started this blog.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I'm not sure how to proceed, and I feel like crawling into a corner and being depressing for the next 24 hours. And I'm sorry for being so depressing. I'll try and have something more positive for Friday.