When you have a job you don’t have much time or motivation to do work for yourself (or at least it seemed I didn’t after a while). My blogging frequency dropped off after a few months at my past job because I got busy and tired and didn’t have the motivation to keep it up, even though it’s something I enjoy. Same goes for anything else career related. So I guess being laid off has been nice in a way that it has given me an opportunity to rediscover these things.

One is definitely blogging, I’m going to do my best to keep it up as often as possible again. The other is mostly just skills in everything I know how to do. I’m keeping up with things by finally finishing a site I did for my sister, which should hopefully be launching this week sometime if I can get all the new hosting figured out (her old host’s website was copyright 2002 and has a max of 40MB storage space… EEK).

Of course, my other side project would be updating this website, perhaps doing a design of my own and getting rid of this old creeky thing. I love how illustrations look and I think it would be cool to be do an illustration of myself to put somewhere in the new design. Unfortunately for me, my patience needs a little more work to take on a project that large – illustration is so time consuming! Perhaps I should just try an hour a day to start out and see where that gets me…

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I don’t believe I mentioned this yet, but in November I was laid off from my job. It’s one of those things that you either definitely know is happening, or you just don’t see coming and it hits you like a brick wall at full tilt. For me, unfortunately, it was definitely the latter.

I would have loved to stay in Vancouver however the prospects of finding new employment at the time weren’t looking very good and Employment Insurance just wasn’t going to pay the rent AND allow me to feed myself on anything other than canned soup and peanut butter sandwiches. So in an effort to save money I moved back to my hometown of Chilliwack and picked up my old job at McDonald’s as a Swing Manager while I continue the job search.

I can’t say working at McDonald’s is my favourite thing in the world, however I learned a lot of things about leadership and customer service there and since going back I have been reminded of many of them. I’ve also been reminded of what that kind of work environment is like (like how that hot guy from Chem class totally dumped that chick from English class by text message on her birthday, like OH EM GEE) and how much I appreciate my career.

One of the most important lessons I think I learned from McDonald’s is “Give ‘em the Pickle“. The basic principle is going the extra mile for your customers. It looks different to every business, but the customer feels valued and will continue to return in nearly every situation. At McDonald’s it could be as simple as replacing food for a dissatisfied customer and adding in an additional free meal or dessert to show you actually care about the business they’re bringing to you. Giving the customer the pickle means not arguing. If they say they ordered something and didn’t get it when you are 100% sure you gave it to them already, it doesn’t matter – give them another one.

So folks, for Pete’s sake give ‘em the pickle!!!

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Canadians are robbed blind by the high cost of the things they pay for. We pay more for food, alcohol, gasoline, clothing, and telecommunications than many other countries, especially the United States. This is one of my biggest peeves about Canada – maybe we’re just too nice, that we just take what they give us without a fight.

I for one, though, will not take internet metering lying down.

The CRTC just decided to let your Internet Service Provider put a meter on your Internet.

Bell Canada and other big telecom companies can now freely impose usage-based billing on independent Internet Service Providers (indie ISPs) and regular consumers. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay more for less Internet.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP INTERNET METERING

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Being a leader is…
• being a positive example for others
• being able to walk in others shoes and see things from a different point of view
• being understanding
• being patient
• being calm under pressure
• knowing how to communicate effectively
• having confidence
• having direction and ambition
• being receptive to ideas and feedback
• being able to motivate and inspire

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve written here, but it seems Thanksgiving always leaves me with something to write about and a tad extra time to do so.

I find that there really are two starts to every year – the obvious traditional January 1st and the start of Fall. With the beginning of fall we get not only the back-to-school frenzy, but also the return of your favourite TV shows, Thanksgiving, and HOCKEY!

Seeing as that I had a few extra moments of time this Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to combine two of my loves to create a masterpiece. My love of Apple comes together with my love and loyal dedication for the Vancouver Canucks in this lovely iPhone wallpaper (which I’m more than happy to share I might add). If you click on the image you’ll be able to save the actual size version for use on your own iPhone.

On my travels this weekend I’ve also found another great gem in the city of Vancouver. The following house is quite amazing the way it’s been built and designed. I’d live there! Every time I drive past it I half-expect to see some dwarfs filing out the front door. Come on, can you blame me?

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It sure has been a while since my last real post. I sure do miss blogging on a regular basis, however it’s just been far too busy these past few months to even think about anything but work at Netgenetix. Where I left off in October we had just started ramping up for some Olympic projects at work. We ended up doing quite a bit of work considering the small size of our company (thus little resources). A summary of our work for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics:

• • Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays
  • 8 Personal Video Message Terminals
• • BC Canada Pavilion
  • 3D Immersive Theatre in the Green Room
  • 3 Glass Touchwalls in the Green Room
  • 2 E-Postcard Terminals in the Green Room
  • Introduction Touch Screen Content for the Green Room
  • CIRS Building Touch Screen Content for the Green Room
  • Project Management of the New Media Room (with interactive touch screen cubes)
• • Canada’s Northern House
  • 2 Personal Video Message Terminals
  • Green Screen Interactive Terminals
• • Robson Square
  • “Front Page News” Newspaper Kiosk

Personal Video Message Terminals are kiosks you walk up to and record a video on. The ones on the torch relay were used to record videos in each community on the relay that would be played in Robson Square during the Games. The e-postcard version used at the BC Pavilion took a snapshot of you in the Pavilion that you could add a message to and send to family and friends via email with a message. If you were there, you probably saw one – so, what did they look like? or, I have a close up sexy photo.

The 3D Immersive Theatre showcased the fun things you can do in BC as the viewer follows a family on their vacation in the province. The theatre included not only 3D visuals, but wind effects, rumbles, and scents.

The Glass Touchwalls showcased four energy efficient companies in BC in a fun game-like format. The touchwalls are approximately 8ft tall clear glass with the interactive space at about chest level (for touch usability).

The Introduction Touchscreen simply showed you the different areas of the Green Room and a little bit about each area. For example, it would tell you where the Glass Touchwalls and the 3D Immersive theatre was. We supplied the illustrated graphics and text content.

The CIRS Building Touch Screen simply allowed you to view videos on how the CIRS Building was conceptualized and how it would be environmentally friendly. We supplied the illustrated interface to navigate these videos.

The New Media Room is the area of the pavilion which featured 3 large multi-touch cubes which allowed the visitors to wipe away layers of animation for such products as the Need for Speed video game as well as watch behind the scenes clips from movies like District 9. We provided the project management for this room. Watch the video featuring “The Curious Tree” cube.

A Green Screen Interactive Terminal is a booth you can walk into and record fun videos in front of a green screen to send to friends and family. It’s great fun and the videos to choose from can be customized by the venue or client using it. Watch a video of someone using it.

The Newspaper Kiosk was a fun free way for people in Robson Square to have their photo taken on the zip line, with the Olympics mascots, or in front of the GE Ice Plaza. It uses the same green screen technology as the Green Screen Interactive Terminal except it takes a snapshot as opposed to a video and presents you with a print out of your picture on the front page of the news. See some cool people in the Vancouver Sun.

Needless to say, we were quite busy and there was a lot of overtime worked, however it was quite the experience and I wouldn’t take it back at all. I loved being involved and working on something that was for a bigger cause.

In December, we had our annual Christmas banquet for Toastmasters and I performed speech project #10 – “inspire your audience”. So, in case you missed it, you’ll find the text version on my Speeches page under “Attainable Dreams”.

Now that the Olympics are done and my year of being President at Burrard Toastmasters is coming to an end, it may be time to take a step back and look at what’s coming down the path next.

Until next time, adios.

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