The Penalty Box

I am now part of the working world, the rat race, the melting pot, whatever you want to call it. I also have this big stupid grin on my face because I have a job. Huzzah!

I didn’t really expect it to happen this fast, but hey, I’m not complaining. Pending paperwork and all that fun bureaucratic goodness, I’ll be an employee at Mediatech Internet Inc. They’re fairly big in terms of the business they do, but the number of employees is around 15. Efficiency is the name of the game. I’ll be doing web development. I suppose not having to go through so many levels of hierarchy let them make decisions faster in terms of the hiring process. I was expecting one to two weeks between application and call for interview if needed.

The other piece of good news: the Senate officially approved my degree, so I’m officially graduated from SFU. Now it’s just waiting to walk across the stage and get that piece of paper in the fancy folder.

In the typing of this post, I realized something: back when I was helping out with FroshWeek, Greg asked what the hell I was doing back on campus as a friendly jab. I suppose it was a way to help “let go” or whatever, given how much time I’ve spent with the CSSS. The ironic part? My job, although not affiliated with SFU, is located in the Harbour Centre tower, directly adjacent to the downtown SFU campus. Tadashi was right…I may never escape.

Yesterday was a birthday dinner for Anto, Jen and myself.  Anto didn’t get as sloshed as he did last year, but at least this time he got to do a proper muff dive.  The dinner was at Montana’s Cookhouse in Coquitlam, and the food was pretty good for a $10 - $20 range.  Plus, the birthday folk got to wear moose hats! Thanks to Simon who provided extra pictures.

Tonight I went to the Giants’ home opener.  The divisional, conference and WHL championship banners went up.  I think it sort of made up for Ticketmaster screwing Bishnu and me out of opening night tickets to the Canucks last year.  Man, I missed live hockey a lot over the off-season.  The game was a bit of a wash, as the Giants won 9-0.  No that is not a typo, they won 9-0.

Since the game itself didn’t breed lots of excitement due to the one-sided nature of it, the fans around me made it that much more funny.  Due to the WHL’s crackdown on obstruction, similar to what the NHL did last season, there was a steady stream of players to the sin bin, although the score did not help matters.  One Portland player was particularly razzed by the crowd.  My favourite jeer: “Hey McLaren! Junior B hockey is in Surrey!”
Even the kids were getting into it.  One kid, who couldn’t have been any older than 7, kept banging on the glass of the penalty box, yelling at the penalized Portland players.  “Suck it up!” was heard amongst other things.  Eventually a security guard had to be posted to tell the kids to stop banging on the glass of the penalty box.

I must say, the ice level seats behind the penalty box have got to be the best seats in hockey, if only for the sheer entertainment value.  I need to go to more Giants games, mainly because I can afford to buy ice level seats.  I am going to the Canucks home opener though.  This year.  Two weeks!

I keep watching this thing over and over. Weird Al’s still got it.

I had another interview today and it went fairly well. For some reason I was more nervous doing this one than the last one. I’m not really sure why, it felt like I had a frog in my throat for a majority of it. Besides that I think it went fine. About 3 hours after the interview, I received an e-mail asking me for a second interview. This was a pleasant surprise, considering I was told that I would be notified tomorrow or Monday. I’m not complaining though, as it’s one step closer to a job.

On another note, I showed up early to both interviews this week. Both times the comment “You’re early” was made. Now I was always told to show up early for interviews. Has that changed or something? 15 minutes was the mantra pounded into me, but I suspect now it’s closer to 5 or so. Maybe that’s the difference between large corporation interviews and smaller company interviews.

Oh yeah, pre-season has started. Two weeks until real hockey begins. Saturday is the Giants home opener. Hockey’s baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

‘Tis be Talk Like A Pirate Day. If ye be havin’ trouble readin’ this, take ye to this site and learn ye some pirate.
Thar be some young jim lads swabbin’ the decks at Donat Group, that ship be small but well-kept. Plenty of work to keep one’s booty chest full. I bin speaking to a few of the squires there, even the cap’n dropped by. No scurvy sea-dogs among ‘em.

Interview callbacks be later this week. ‘Tis then will I find out if I’ll be sailing with ‘em.

I really didn’t expect something this fast, especially since the company that contacted me was one I sent a resume/cover letter to on Friday.  I figured about a week to two weeks of waiting in the queue, but thar she blows, an interview for tomorrow.

I’m hoping I remember how to do this interview stuff.  I’ll need to go dig up that “likely interview questions” sheet to do some rehearsal in my mind.  I’ve always hated “What do you consider your biggest weakenss?” and other questions like that.

First post in the new blog.  I like this customizable thing.