The Penalty Box

…or, in my case, ON the weekend.  There’s a hard project deadline on Monday, and unfortunately that means going into the office on the weekend to finish up the alpha so it can be demo’d at a conference.  I’ve been working 10 hour days the past couple of days, and quite honestly I’m rather amazed at how well my team has performed.  Not that they suck, far from it in fact, but given the time frame and the feature creep, we got a lot done.  There are a few more bugs to crush, and hopefully they’ll be ironed out tomorrow.  It’s almost like those all-nighters for 300 and 361 all over again.  Not quite though, because I can’t do all nighters anymore.

After work today was a family dinner because an aunt of mine was visiting from Hong Kong.  Being the only member of my generation there, I mainly left the conversation to the elders.  Most of their discussion centred around Hong Kong politics, an area of which I have no way to contribute in any meaningful discourse.  However, as soup was being served, the conversation somehow shifted to the purchasing of underwear.  Like many people, hearing your parents and their generation broaching these subjects is a little, how shall we say…awkward.  On a scale of one to “Grandma asking you what’s new in sex,” this was moving along on the wrong side of the awkward line really fast.

My aunt: “You know, people in Hong Kong line up for those Victoria’s Secret catalogs.  It’s crazy!”

My brain: “Doo doo doo, just eating soup.  Yup, just eating soup.”

Aunt’s friend: “Yeah, it’s better than reading Playboy, isn’t it? Haha!”

My brain: “LALALA JUST EATING SOUP LALALALA.”

My aunt: “You know, I saw the fattest woman trying on a bra in one of those Victoria’s Secret stores? It wasn’t nice to see at all.”

My brain: “Oh great, like I needed THAT image when eating dinner.  Never mind, think about something else.  Uhh…the Canucks! Bleh, too depressing.  Okay, uh, how do I fix that bug? No that’s work, you’ll have time for that tomorrow.  Ah, screw it, just zone out into the chicken.”

Bah, I need to sleep.  I better not dream about fat people.

Good health and prosperity to you all this year! Have fun this year, Rats!

Ever since I started working, I thought it would take a while before I would become “one of the old hands.”  Or, in the words of one of my co-workers, a dinosaur.  Fresh out of university, first job and you tell me under two years I’d be a project team lead and one of the more experienced guys in the company, I would’ve laughed at you.  It’s weird how it crept up on me, not unlike what happened with my involvement in the CSSS.  In about a year I went from a guy who helped out a lot to knowing the ins and outs of the executive, most of the constitution, operation of the department and important procedures for student society operations.  Mind you, considering I was there 5.5 years, that’s almost 20% of my time there so I guess that isn’t unreasonable.
At work I went from the newbie who built a hockey pool tracking system to a guy who works particularly well with stats and the back end of major projects.  I never really liked being singled out in front of a crowd to be congratulated on a job well done.  Being the centre of attention is uncomfortable for the most part, which is ironic because I always liked playing in a band at a rocking good concert.  Just knowing that your co-workers/peers respect you and want you on their team is good enough for me.  Although I do realize that without my manager saying “hey, he did a good job” in a staff meeting, the higher ups wouldn’t have been aware of my accomplishments, and the higher ups are how your career moves along.  Life gives you opportunities; it’s when you’re willing to work for them and step out of your comfort zone in that you succeed.  Funny thing is, I’m pretty sure I’m still the youngest person at work.  Crazy, eh?

In a completely separate vein, I think I’ll be waiting a few months to pick up a DSLR.  After taking some advice from the photography nerds I know among friends and co-workers, I’ll wait for the XSi to come out in April and grab an XTi body on sale.  I’ll probably get an EF 50 f1.8 lens to start off because it’s a good bang for the buck lens from what I’ve read.  I’ll have to do some more research to find a good lens that’ll give me a higher f-stop and a bit of zoom.  I don’t expect the weather to cooperate until then to yield any decent pictures anyways.  I haven’t geeked out like this in a while, I’d forgotten what it was like.

Random quote of the day: “Welcome to the Armpit Express.  Please hold on for maximum safety.” - Bus driver on the 135 during the afternoon rush hour