The Beyond Neat Blog

Wow, already another year has come and gone.  Another year full of heartbreak and happiness, lift ups and letdowns.  So what is so great about a new year?  Is it a new slate, or a chance to start over?  A new beginning for something exciting?  January 1st, 2008 was a very different day for a lot of people.  Some woke up and went to work like it was nothing special.  Others were shitfaced beyond belief, or maybe just spending time with family or friends.

For me, I use new years to look back on all the things I got accomplished and what I still need to strive for.  Sometimes when I look back I see more bad then good.  So much stuff I should have done differently, or thought through more carefully.  If only I had changed a few things about what I did or what I said, would that have been the better outcome?  You may not go as deep as I do but most people are quick to propose their “new years resolution” out to the world.  What they want to  change about themselves in the new year.  Drink less, stop smoking, get out of debt, get in shape…

I want to set reasonable goals for myself and stick to them through the new year and into the next.  I want to have a better 2008 then I did 2007.  I don’t want to dwell on what I should have said or could have done.  I want to think about what I DID say and what I DID do.

My complete focus of 2008 is to start taking more initiative at the things I want to do in life and what I want to become.  Here is to a hopefully awesome 2008.

…Just need to last more than 2 months

I really hate being one of those people who makes those typical “I hate life” or “everything sucks” blog but to hell with that… I had a pretty bad day and I’m gonna rant about it.

I have no idea where the fuck I’m at with my job.  I am a supervisor.  I hold a position with at least some level of authority.  Now I never started off good.  I was shit for a bit, but I worked hard it all worked out in the end.  We had a pretty tight department of only 6 people.  Then one decides to try something new in commission sales.  Good for him.

I thought we were going to be ok.  This left me in a department with 2 female employees.  Thats who I spend the bulk of my work day with.  I won’t go into details for reasons I’m sure you understand.  Let’s just say that the flight from Calgary, Alberta to Cancun, Mexico hit some significant turbulence and crashed somewhere in the ocean.  Thats right, it went from good to bad almost that quick.

Most of the problem could be that my position as a manager is not fully recognized by my staff, as I’m sure they are trying to manage me and not the other way around… I need to put my foot down, because I’m getting fucking sick of it.

If something goes completely wrong when you’re working.  Something that you wanted to come out completely different, yeah, be upset, but don’t come back and run your mouth about how much you hate that, or how so and so always does this, nobody needs to hear it.  It contributes 0 to the work, reflects poorly on both you and myself, waists your time and mine, and overall just sucks.  I understand you are frustrated but for all that is good and civil PLEASE lets take it off the floor and take about it and be calm and cool about this.  I swear, half the people in that store have incredibly short fuses and blow up way to easily.

The only way we can stop sucking is for EVERYBODY to get along and stop making every shift suck for everyone.  We have the potential to be a really hard working kick ass group, we really do but what is holding us back is the unwillingness to step outside the box just once,  to see what happens.

All I’m really saying is IF you are frustrated with something, talk to me, and we can get it dealt with in an appropriate fashion.  What’s happening now needs to stop, because we are better then where we are at, everybody knows it, but we can’t show it if we have no team.

Most frustrating work day ever.

So really, look at the clock. Yeah it’s 5:42AM as this sentence is being typed. My sleeping pattern has been so screwed up with my vacation this past July that almost all of my nights turn into mornings. This is no big deal when you are off and can do whatever you want, but when you work the next day not being able to sleep is a big piss off.

It’s my own fault, however and I will deal with it. Regarding time off I had 3 days off work this week due to a supposed stat holiday which, today, I find was not a true stat and we won’t get paid for it. So I’ll be short 8 hours on that pay day… damn.

Anyways, the best part of me being an insomniac is the fact that I get a lot accomplished. Tonight I mainly focused on editing pictures and listening to some cool music. One of these days I’ll actually have to upload a play list of my music collection thus far…. but I want to get it all good and sorted first.

Other cool happenings this week. Firstly I decided on a whim that I want to learn to play guitar. I purchased a mid-line acoustic to get myself started. I didn’t buy crap. I just hope that I stick with it and it can turn into money well spent. Time will tell. Tony also FINALLY got some vacation time, and he is currently up in nordegg videogaming it out. Good for him. I just wish that we could have made our original camping trip work. Tony’s friend Gorden and I have actually been hanging out a lot lately. Pretty fun times.

So aside from work falling down around me while I was on vacation and the stress ever building, I’m having a pretty good time right now.

As the time rolls forward to 5:53AM I bid you goodnight/day, as I venture into the wonderful land of sleep.

P.S.
I have added 10 new photos to my Flickr photo page .  I won’t waist everybody’s time and bandwidth by posting them all here, but please check them out and feel free to comment!  The intro picture is one of them.  I haven’t been ‘in the field’ in quite some time so new pictures to work on are slow at the moment, but I’ll get some more soon.  Man it’s nice having flickr host all my images…

Regarding a comment I got about the games….

http://beyondneat.com/misc.html

Not sure how long it will stay there, but hey…. change isn’t for everybody!

ALL of the old games and videos are located there *points up*

So I was on vacation, then I worked for a little bit, and now am on my second block of vacation for the summer.

Really though it started early. Although I was working and did not start my vacation until the 21st we ended up going down the Red Deer river on the 18th. The morning of the 18th, when I went to work at about 7:45 in the morning, we were hit with a spectacular thunderstorm. Myself not being a morning person has rarely seen such a fierce storm so early. I’m not kidding. Streets turned into lakes, because the sewer system just could not keep up. My car almost got stuck in a few of them. Driving was hard to because the rain and hail were coming down so intense. The night before shortly after I went to bed we, like what seemed like half of the city, lost power. It’s a good thing I set my alarms on my cell phone because if I didn’t chances are I’d be fast asleep well after I was supposed to start my shift.

But when I was off work at 4:30 and I went outside, I discovered that you really couldn’t ask for a better day. It was over 30 degrees out and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The only problem was that it was incredibly humid out. Like I’m talking rain forest type humid.

We went down the river almost as soon as I changed after work. We hit the river at about 5:30 and enjoyed floating down it for a little over an hour. We stopped at all the little islands along the way and Kim ran out to see what was on them. Some of them it turned out, were quite unique. She even came back with a heart shaped rock to give to Juan. Sweet.

We “docked” at Three Mile Bend, which is basically the last step in Red Deer where you can park a car. It’s also where like 99% of rafters get off. We packed up the raft into Kim’s car, parked what felt like miles away (I was carrying the raft) and took it to her house to dry it. We tried going to Phil’s to eat, but they were closed so we got shafted to Denny’s. Their pancakes are significantly under par when compared with Phil’s pancakes. After that, a fun night of Nintendo DS Tetris ensued and then we all went to bed.

The next day I went to work again early. Right after work, Kim, Jorge, Tyler, myself all went to the Westerner Days fair and met up with Justin a little later. We tackled quite a few rides, I bought my cool lighter like I do every year. We stayed until almost midnight when we decided to walk back to the car parked several blocks away in a nearby parking lot. I forgot my cotton candy I bought at Kim’s place. It was a sad day.

I had Saturday booked off for my vacation! It was pretty neat to actually be able to go to the farmers market. I went down with Tony and Derek met up with us there. I bought my usual mini doughnuts and peanut butter balls but I also picked up a cool cheap Schimmel puzzle. I love those. Derek also picked me a cool wolf “quillow” for a late birthday gift. Thanks buddy.

I also went and picked up my eagerly awaited Harry Potter book. No time to start reading it though because I had to pick up Maurice and meet Kim and Juan down at the fair. Justin met up with us too and we chilled for most of the night. We got to see Mezmers adult show which cost us $10 to see it. It was funny but aside from the mention of breasts and orgasims and a few swear words tossed in for good measure it was pretty much the same mezmer show. Would I pay to see it again? Maybe not if it was during the fireworks like it was this year, but yeah I guess I would.

After the mezmer show we hit a few more rides, saw Delaney working on the grounds, and then I lost $40 at the casino… all in good fun of course. But because I didn’t want to loose anymore money we packed it in at about 1:05am. I drove Kim and Juan to their car parked in a nearby parking lot. I dropped Maurice off and met Kim and Juan at Denny’s for some food. It took forever to get served because it was also the Saturday bar rush but it was fun nevertheless. Denny’s actually has pretty good french toast actually.

The beauty of coming to the fair a second time is that since you aren’t going on many rides (I went on 1) you can bring your camera and take some pictures! See down below for the ones I took on this wonderful day.

I guess that only leaves yesterday. I spent most of it reading the first 100 pages in my Harry Potter book which so far is amazing. Later I met up with tony to pick up my peanut butter balls I left at his house. Oh yeah, I also bought a PS3 which I still need to set up.

So hopefully this block of 10 days vacation is more productive than the last set. But hey, I have Harry Potter and the Simpsons movie to look forward to!

Stay tuned for an update!

For more photos and larger high quality versions (10.1MP!) please check out my Flickr Photo Page

Well I’m gonna come right out and say it. The past 10 days were mostly full of me sitting on my ass doing nothing. It really was awesome to not be working for more then 2 days. It gave me some time to reflect and relax. I wish I would have done more but hey… I can plan for stuff in my SECOND block of vacation during the 21st through the 31st!
For more photos and larger, high quality versions please visit my Flickr Photo Page

Random picture update!

So there it is, another birthday.

At a little after 3AM today, on July 2nd I crossed the line to 22. Great. We enjoyed most of Canada Day and ended July 1st with some good old fashioned Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Game Cube. It was fun. But let’s rewind and touch on what happened throughout the year. Rewind to July 2nd, 2006.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, most of my birthdays are uneventful. This was no exception. I drank a bit and chilled out with some friends. We almost missed the fireworks that year but caught them JUST in time. Tony still was living with Kim at the time as well. That day ended and the actual July 2nd was more random hanging out and what not. That was also the summer that for a few days I was able to go camping at Tony’s spot in a Nordegg campground. It was awesome. For a few days we were able to unwind, read, play Nintendo DS, and listen to music. Camping wasn’t all sitting around doing nothing, however. The first day there we hiked around a lake (that I totally can’t remember the name of) and that was pretty awesome. We also did a pretty cool hike up a small mountain which was way harder to do than I originally thought it would be and made me realize just how out of shape I am. The view from the top was amazing and paid for the whole walk. We stopped only for about a half hour before realizing that we did not bring enough water and should head back down. It put blisters on my feet hardcore but was totally worth it and I would totally love to do it again. It really gives you a greater appreciaition for nature when you do something like this. It really was an awesome experience. The last day of camp Tony’s dad came out and we realized actually how many of Tony’s relatives actually stayed out in Nordegg. It was a fun night and there was lots of drinking to be had.

Coming back to Red Deer meant that I was coming back to work and that is something that most people don’t really look forward to when they are coming back from vacation. I had a newfound appreciation for money because shortly before going camping I sold my old 1990 Toyota Corolla and bought a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am GT. It was a big step up and was a very happy day for me. The problem is that my old Toyota lasted like 3 years almost problem free. To this day I have had over 3 major repairs on this car (2 of them being brakes. This car may look better, be faster, and have air conditioning but at it sure isn’t as reliable as the old Corolla.

I’m not gonna ramble this on forever but I could type another 4 or 5 paragraphs relating to work and what I like and hate about that job. I was working there last year, and I’m still there this year. I will give shout outs to a few things though. Shane you were an amazing store manager and I’m sorry the store has to see you leave. The viewpoint team planned a lot of cool events that were a whole lot of fun. Seeing Spider Man 3 early was a blast.

The Christmas party was great fun and I had a blast there. Never will you see people from Future Shop drinking and having a good time like they were that night. All the managers doing the YMCA? That was awesome.

All in all last year was great and not so great on several different levels. Myself and most of my friends had ups and downs but we ran through life just the same. It’s cool when you look back to reflect on what has happened to you the past 365 days. I’m just glad I had a super nice digital SLR to capture some of it.

Breakups suck in general, let alone when they happen to take place just 2 days before Valentines Day. It’s like being kicked in the nuts and then being told “Oh come on, walk it off. That doesn’t hurt”. It sucked but it too gave me a new look on life and other things to look forward to. It also let me know what I was missing out on.

Friends are super important and it’s important to keep the good ones close. It’s those friends that will help you when you are down and stand beside you when you need support. Those are real friends, and ones you should respect.

Look around. You’d be amazed at all the beautiful things that pass you by on a day to day basis. When I got my SLR I looked hard at the world around me. A whole new world was opened up and ready to be explored. I try hard to capture everything I can, just to show it to a few more people.

Good old Ben. High School rocked with Vis Comm. We never actually finished anything major but ended up with a spectacular presentation of failure. And hey, we had fun while doing it eh? It’s good to have you back, even if it is only for a little while.

I need to give a shout to my parents who to this day put up with me. We don’t see eye to eye as often as we should but my family is 100% awesome and that’s what counts. I could not ask for better parents.

Tony, you are a great best friend and when you answer you cell phone, are awesome to talk to. We have had a lot of great times and I will continue to let you beat me on Guitar Hero just a little bit longer to make you feel a little better about yourself. Keep it real buddy.

Kim, we’ve gotten to know each other a lot better since high school ended and thats cool. You, Tony, and myself are like the ultimate super crime fighting team…. right?

We can’t forget Bobb. We chilled quite a bit in high school and definantily chilled in vis comm. We had a great time in school and now just need to hang out more now! Best of luck with you and Jehna.

Tyler, you are a pretty kick ass brother. We talk more now then we ever did and its pretty cool. It sucks that you are moving away in less then 2 weeks. Best of luck to your new position in Canmore!

To all the people that I didn’t give a shout out to I’m sorry. It has been a pretty cool year. Thanks everybody!

Here is to another 365 days!

I figured that I may as well make the site a little bit more of a time waister by linking back to a few of the games that some might remember. I’ll look into adding more in the future, but if you like it and/or have suggestions, feel free to give me a shout!

In a little under a week… 6 days to be exact, I will leave what is 21 and venture into 22.  This past year has been full of ups and downs (I’ll probably write about that on or shortly after my birthday).  It never really hits you until you are another year older how much stuff you missed out on.  What about the stuff you wish you could have changed?

For me, there is so much that I wish I could have done differently for all sorts of things.  There is plenty that I wish I would have done these past 300 some odd days.  All that I can do though is try and make up for that in the next 365 days.  I’m looking forward to the challenges and roadblocks that may be in my way going forward.

I’ll try to not be motivated by regret but rather try and be motivated by goals.  This has been one crazy year, and I don’t know whats going to happen when I actually write about it.  But I best be off to work.  This has been my early evening posting about almost, but not quite nothing.

I’ll be seeing ya.