2009 in review

Dang. Goodbye 2009.

On Location – A Peacekeeper’s Retreat From the World – NYTimes.com

On Location – A Peacekeeper’s Retreat From the World – NYTimes.com.

I love the look of this house. Just make it more family friendly and I’m set.

I am the person I hate. Sort of.

Two signs that I am becoming the person I hate:

1) When I visit Vancouver I stay at my parents and I sleep in the bed that I went to university in. I slept fine in it when I was young but now I have enormous trouble sleeping on it – 8 hours feels like 6 hours on it. The cause? I’m now sleeping on a fancy pocket coil Simmons Beautyrest mattress with a cotton-silk top cover blah blah blah that makes 7 hours feel like 8.

2) Went away to Seattle for an overnight with the girlfriend and stayed at the Pan Pacific, the #2 rated hotel in Seattle. It was opulent and decadent – the room was the type of place you’d put in your guest quarters if you were a multi-millionaire. I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels this year and have mostly stayed at nice ones and I’m now sufficiently spoiled on nice hotels that I don’t think I can stay at a budget one anymore (Days Inn, La Quinta, Best Western), at least not without complaining.

When did I become such a bourgeois douchebag?

Vancouver downtown east side slowly crawls toward gentrification

Vancouver downtown east side slowly crawls toward gentrification.

A government infrastructure project I’m actually excited about. It’s not perfect but it’s going to go a long way towards making the downtown eastside of Vancouver a habitable place for people who like to sleep on beds and not do drugs.

I get those who say that the gentrification is bad and that we’re forcing poor people and drug users out unfairly – have you looked around the area? Do you really want it to stay that way forever? I can walk through there but I wouldn’t want any of my women friends going through there – it’s disgusting.

AND it’s potentially one of the few areas in Vancouver that’s ripe for redevelopment.

Now, if we could just tear down the Georgia Viaduct and we can rehabilitate Chinatown.

Couple reshaping Manitoba community with $50M lottery win

Couple reshaping Manitoba community with $50M lottery win .

Nice people that they are, I can’t see how spending their money this way is going to make a lasting impact to their community.

$12/hr

Remember when you thought getting paid $12/hr was good money? Now I wouldn’t even pee on someone for that kind of money.

Did Nokias Stores Fail Because They Werent Apple-y Enough?

Did Nokias Stores Fail Because They Werent Apple-y Enough?

They failed because their products suck. Why would anyone pay for a Nokia phone?

Interview Advice

I’ve done my fair share of interviews on both sides of the table and I’ve been witness to some pretty surprising things occurring in them. Like the time the candidate asked me how he was doing and not in the “Am I providing you the information that you are requesting?” but the “Am I doing okay cause I think this isn’t going well?”.

In any case I can offer at least one tip (and perhaps more) for those wishing to get a job with me:

1. Go to the website of the company I work for and read the entire About Us section including our press releases.
2. Then go read about our products.
3. Then Google us. Read the news articles and Wikipedia entry for us.
4. Check out our stock price and the news around that.
5. If there’s a demo product, try it. If there’s a demo video, watch it. You should have an opinion on what you like and don’t like.
6. Go on LinkedIn and look me up and look up my co-workers. Know what it is that I do and what I’ve worked on.
7. Find out the name of a couple competitors and read some news on them.

If you didn’t do any of the above you will not get the job. If you did a few of these it’ll definitely help you but you didn’t distinguish yourself. If you did all of these and can express yourself clearly then there’s a very good chance you’ll get the job.

It’s not hard interviewees to show up prepared.