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Well, I'm noticing a lot of people are looking back at their year, and recalling what happened over the last 12 months, I figured today might be a good day to look over what I accomplished, too. A cursory glance at my own journal shows that I made roughly 100 posts, which translates to roughly a post every three days. The past few months my post frequency has severely dropped due to my new position, but I'm aiming to update people more often. So, here we go:
At the start of the year I was pretty game-focused, it seems. I had Ghost Trick and 999 running at the same time, both entirely engaging games. The DS still seems to be the go-to portable console for innovative games, but the 3DS and Smartphones seem to be sneaking up rather quickly. Unfortunately, I still have quite the backlog of games that I have been wanting to play through, and I've held mostly-firm to my thought that I will not spend any more money on games until I get through at least some of the games on my current backlog.
Speaking of 999, here's a 2-minute clip advertising for an OAV for the sequel to 999, titled Good People Die. Spoilers if you haven't finished 999.
February, I was still thinking of new ideas for my own bakery, and Christine got me a Mini-Donut Maker for Valentine's Day. I also had decided that if I was was going to take this baking business seriously, I should probably take a Baking Course (with a little coaxing from Christine ;) ). I took a night course at George Brown College, which is well-known in Toronto for professional-quality cooks and bakers. My birthday was in February too, and as money's been fairly tight, I was incredibly moved by my birthday gift by Christine's friends, which covered roughly three-quarters of the cost of the baking course. After that, I didn't miss a single class for 12 weeks straight.
In March, I was still heavily into games, and Rock Band 3 and DJ Hero 2 had been out for awhile at this time, but the music game industry has been kinda dragging. Activision had decided to not release any more "Hero" games, and Rock Band 3's Pro Mode was not as well-received due to the expensive guitar peripheral. (I'll say it again and again, but I've never been a fan of peripherals, particularly Nintendo's peripherals. Anyone still use the Wii Zapper or Wii Wheel?) It's interesting to note that RB3 is still going strong, with Rush's 2112 released on New Years' Eve.
Around March, after talking with COBS Bread occasionally, I had started to get a little more distressed with my position at Bell. It was probably at this point in time that I realized that I had nowhere to move in the business since the next step for me would've been a Coordinator, and the three Coordinators were already pretty well-settled into their positions. It was then in April that there was a massive set of layoffs, and I finally had had enough of working with this company, as the higher-ups were starting to just look at our department as numbers rather than people, and they didn't see how eliminating positions only made it more difficult to progress. The fact that a union was beginning to form might have also solidified the need to cut people, but that also froze raises, which was quite annoying considering that they decided to freeze pretty much everything (i.e. purchasing new equipment, updating the control rooms) while the layoffs/union stuff was being worked out.
In relation to my distress of working at Bell, I had been continuing to be lazy at Bell since we just had to encode as fast as possible, and if any issues came up, we'd re-encode them later. I started playing games at work. I got addicted to a Facebook game called Backyard Monsters. I eventually started getting so addicted to it that I wasn't getting anything done outside of work. I even talked with one of my co-workers/colleagues and put together a video, admitting on camera that I was addicted to this game. It was very cathartic to get rid of this game.
I hadn't heard anything from COBS for a little while (from the beginning of April to mid-May) so I had started in thinking about just working at COBS as a Baker. I figured that even just getting my foot in the door at COBS would be better than wallowing around at Bell. I had a very brief interview for a Baker position on the same day that I had my Demonstration of Talent for the Manage-To-Own position, and that day felt rather good for me since I had spent a full day at a COBS store. However, it would take another couple of months before I would receive a response about a position, and this couple of months was a very low point for me. (Little was I aware this was due to them needing to find me a position.)
In June, I started looking into Smartphones. The comparison, looking into rates and phones, ended up with me not actually getting a new phone and plan until the middle of December. Now that I have it, I don't know how I ever got around without it, and I'm quite stunned that it took me half-a-year to find "the right phone". I can't say I didn't do my homework, though.
This year also marked the third time I had seen Weird Al in concert. I haven't seen any other performer this many times. What's crazier is that it happened in mid-July, about 5 months ago, and I kinda remember it like it was in October. I really should pick up that concert BluRay (especially since I now have a BluRay player). I also really love the photos that Al takes with his fans. :D
At Anime North this year, I visited the Auction (as I do every year) to see if there was anything interesting. What caught my attention was a coupon for a class at the Toronto Japanese Language School, and while I won the coupon, I didn't think much of it until a few months later. In September, I realized that I was just hoarding my money with no real goal. I thought to myself, why am I saving my money? I could be dead tomorrow. I should be living in the "now". As such, I went ahead and signed up for a Japanese Language course. I took one Conversational Japanese course about 8-10 years ago, but all of that has completely evaporated through disuse.
Of course, there's my new work position.
It started at the very beginning of this year that I started seriously looking into getting into my own independent bakery. However, it was the wisdom of OMG Baked Goodness telling me that I should get some knowledge of a bakery under my belt before jumping headfirst, combined with the "How to Start a Restaurant" course from September of 2010 where I met the Ontario Manager of Operations for COBS Bread that I started on the path. I finally started the ball rolling in March by submitting the Manage-To-Own form, and several weeks of calling and numerous interviews with different Area Managers to finally convince them that I had the eagerness and the drive to want to work for COBS, and at the end of July, I finally got a position as an Assistant Manager. Theoretically, within a year of being an Assistant Manager, they want them to move up to a Manager position, and with their want to rapidly expand within the next 4-5 years, they may have an opening for a brand-new store somewhere. I've been dropping hints to the Area Managers. We'll see where that takes us. :)
Other things I'll note here:
- I revisited my old highschool to drop off cookies. I should return there again sometime just to relive some nostalgia.
- Doctor Who's season finished up, which resulted in many people getting very upset about the ending, but overall it was a wonderful trip, and I really like Matt Smith as The Doctor. I've started casually playing Worlds in Time, created by the Puzzle Pirates team. It's still in Beta and fairly straightforward, but I'd really like to have my friends band together to fight the Autons. :D
- NBC's Community continues to be one of my favorite shows of this year, mainly for Abed who seems to realize that he's in a TV show.
- I got to see the original Ghostbusters movie in the theatre, something I thought would never happen but I am very happy that it did.
- I caught-up on reading Maximum Ride and discovered that the final novel will be released this coming year, but there is talk of a movie adaptation, of which I will definitely see just for the CG wings. <3
Honestly, it sounds like my posts have been kinda vapid and shallow, haven't they? O_o It's been a lot of game- and work- related posts. Admittedly, there hasn't been much space in my brain for much deep thought lately, and I know I kinda want those thoughts back, but I'll need to relax a bit more and not think about work all the time to do so.
Here's to a happier, focused, more thought-provoking 2012!
At the start of the year I was pretty game-focused, it seems. I had Ghost Trick and 999 running at the same time, both entirely engaging games. The DS still seems to be the go-to portable console for innovative games, but the 3DS and Smartphones seem to be sneaking up rather quickly. Unfortunately, I still have quite the backlog of games that I have been wanting to play through, and I've held mostly-firm to my thought that I will not spend any more money on games until I get through at least some of the games on my current backlog.
Speaking of 999, here's a 2-minute clip advertising for an OAV for the sequel to 999, titled Good People Die. Spoilers if you haven't finished 999.
February, I was still thinking of new ideas for my own bakery, and Christine got me a Mini-Donut Maker for Valentine's Day. I also had decided that if I was was going to take this baking business seriously, I should probably take a Baking Course (with a little coaxing from Christine ;) ). I took a night course at George Brown College, which is well-known in Toronto for professional-quality cooks and bakers. My birthday was in February too, and as money's been fairly tight, I was incredibly moved by my birthday gift by Christine's friends, which covered roughly three-quarters of the cost of the baking course. After that, I didn't miss a single class for 12 weeks straight.
In March, I was still heavily into games, and Rock Band 3 and DJ Hero 2 had been out for awhile at this time, but the music game industry has been kinda dragging. Activision had decided to not release any more "Hero" games, and Rock Band 3's Pro Mode was not as well-received due to the expensive guitar peripheral. (I'll say it again and again, but I've never been a fan of peripherals, particularly Nintendo's peripherals. Anyone still use the Wii Zapper or Wii Wheel?) It's interesting to note that RB3 is still going strong, with Rush's 2112 released on New Years' Eve.
Around March, after talking with COBS Bread occasionally, I had started to get a little more distressed with my position at Bell. It was probably at this point in time that I realized that I had nowhere to move in the business since the next step for me would've been a Coordinator, and the three Coordinators were already pretty well-settled into their positions. It was then in April that there was a massive set of layoffs, and I finally had had enough of working with this company, as the higher-ups were starting to just look at our department as numbers rather than people, and they didn't see how eliminating positions only made it more difficult to progress. The fact that a union was beginning to form might have also solidified the need to cut people, but that also froze raises, which was quite annoying considering that they decided to freeze pretty much everything (i.e. purchasing new equipment, updating the control rooms) while the layoffs/union stuff was being worked out.
In relation to my distress of working at Bell, I had been continuing to be lazy at Bell since we just had to encode as fast as possible, and if any issues came up, we'd re-encode them later. I started playing games at work. I got addicted to a Facebook game called Backyard Monsters. I eventually started getting so addicted to it that I wasn't getting anything done outside of work. I even talked with one of my co-workers/colleagues and put together a video, admitting on camera that I was addicted to this game. It was very cathartic to get rid of this game.
I hadn't heard anything from COBS for a little while (from the beginning of April to mid-May) so I had started in thinking about just working at COBS as a Baker. I figured that even just getting my foot in the door at COBS would be better than wallowing around at Bell. I had a very brief interview for a Baker position on the same day that I had my Demonstration of Talent for the Manage-To-Own position, and that day felt rather good for me since I had spent a full day at a COBS store. However, it would take another couple of months before I would receive a response about a position, and this couple of months was a very low point for me. (Little was I aware this was due to them needing to find me a position.)
In June, I started looking into Smartphones. The comparison, looking into rates and phones, ended up with me not actually getting a new phone and plan until the middle of December. Now that I have it, I don't know how I ever got around without it, and I'm quite stunned that it took me half-a-year to find "the right phone". I can't say I didn't do my homework, though.
This year also marked the third time I had seen Weird Al in concert. I haven't seen any other performer this many times. What's crazier is that it happened in mid-July, about 5 months ago, and I kinda remember it like it was in October. I really should pick up that concert BluRay (especially since I now have a BluRay player). I also really love the photos that Al takes with his fans. :D
At Anime North this year, I visited the Auction (as I do every year) to see if there was anything interesting. What caught my attention was a coupon for a class at the Toronto Japanese Language School, and while I won the coupon, I didn't think much of it until a few months later. In September, I realized that I was just hoarding my money with no real goal. I thought to myself, why am I saving my money? I could be dead tomorrow. I should be living in the "now". As such, I went ahead and signed up for a Japanese Language course. I took one Conversational Japanese course about 8-10 years ago, but all of that has completely evaporated through disuse.
Of course, there's my new work position.
It started at the very beginning of this year that I started seriously looking into getting into my own independent bakery. However, it was the wisdom of OMG Baked Goodness telling me that I should get some knowledge of a bakery under my belt before jumping headfirst, combined with the "How to Start a Restaurant" course from September of 2010 where I met the Ontario Manager of Operations for COBS Bread that I started on the path. I finally started the ball rolling in March by submitting the Manage-To-Own form, and several weeks of calling and numerous interviews with different Area Managers to finally convince them that I had the eagerness and the drive to want to work for COBS, and at the end of July, I finally got a position as an Assistant Manager. Theoretically, within a year of being an Assistant Manager, they want them to move up to a Manager position, and with their want to rapidly expand within the next 4-5 years, they may have an opening for a brand-new store somewhere. I've been dropping hints to the Area Managers. We'll see where that takes us. :)
Other things I'll note here:
- I revisited my old highschool to drop off cookies. I should return there again sometime just to relive some nostalgia.
- Doctor Who's season finished up, which resulted in many people getting very upset about the ending, but overall it was a wonderful trip, and I really like Matt Smith as The Doctor. I've started casually playing Worlds in Time, created by the Puzzle Pirates team. It's still in Beta and fairly straightforward, but I'd really like to have my friends band together to fight the Autons. :D
- NBC's Community continues to be one of my favorite shows of this year, mainly for Abed who seems to realize that he's in a TV show.
- I got to see the original Ghostbusters movie in the theatre, something I thought would never happen but I am very happy that it did.
- I caught-up on reading Maximum Ride and discovered that the final novel will be released this coming year, but there is talk of a movie adaptation, of which I will definitely see just for the CG wings. <3
Honestly, it sounds like my posts have been kinda vapid and shallow, haven't they? O_o It's been a lot of game- and work- related posts. Admittedly, there hasn't been much space in my brain for much deep thought lately, and I know I kinda want those thoughts back, but I'll need to relax a bit more and not think about work all the time to do so.
Here's to a happier, focused, more thought-provoking 2012!
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