Hooray, no more unemployment! I had an interview on Wednesday, but I totally bombed that. Thankfully the employment agency came to the recuse and lined up another job interview. I was super caught off guard though. They phoned me around 8:30 am this morning, saying the new company wanted to have a chat with me. And so followed a mad rush to find the company - it's in the middle of an industrial park but not a bad bus ride - eat breakfast, get cleaned up, and then get out of the house. It's a small company, but the people seem real nice and I'll be working on their documents, formatting, proofreading, editing, etc. Though, being the lame person that I am, I forgot to ask about benefits and pay. Whoops.

I don't start until the 26th so I have one more day to enjoy unemployment before I'm gone for a week in San Francisco. I have to admit I'm sort of glad I bombed the other one. The other job sounded so boring and structured. And this new company has a cool name. Ghostpine.

In other exciting news that isn't about job hunting, the first photos from Dollhouse have been released! This first one is of Echo in the Dollhouse, which looks like a pretty set. It looks like a cross between a Zen garden and the Angel Wolfram and Hart set. The second one is a cast photo. Look, it's Helo in a suit. No sign of Amy, but since she's recurring I guess she doesn't get included. Seems the Dolls wear yoga clothing (and no shoes) when they're not out on jobs. ;-) Sadly, we won't see Dollhouse until January, but the episode count is now at 13. If you want to put a positive spin on it, the later date gives FOX, and fans, time to promote the series.

Jeez, here I am, all ready to find a permanent job, and the employment agency comes through, but it's the employer who's being less than stellar. I've been waiting on an interview since last week, but to my surprise, the employer or whoever is handling the hiring process is away on vacation until tomorrow. It would have been nice to know that. Sigh. Sure, doing absolutely nothing has been nice, but I could be doing more productive things (and making some money).

At least the employment agency has been nice about it. They already have a temp job lined up for me if the permanent job falls through. It's with one of the companies I worked for last summer, the one where I got to read books when there wasn't anything for me to file. Actually, it's the exact same job. It's easy to believe that asked for me personally because I did such an awesome job, but really, they probably only want me back because I know the job and they won't have to train someone. It's been a year though; I really don't remember all the details of the job, except the parts where I got to do nothing and the free lunches.

The one plus: I didn't fail any of my classes! Marks were up surprisingly fast this year. I'm under the impression my Chinese prof curved the marks though. I don't think I did that well. So now I'm just waiting on the university to review my grades and approve me for convocation.

But in the mean time, vacation in one week! Does anyone know what the weather is like in San Francisco around this time of year?

So last exam ever today! :-D I'll be off soon to go write that then I'm free of university forever.

I had expected to ease into the whole permanent job thing. I'm going on vacation near the end of May so there's about three weeks there where I thought I would have a temp job. I was fine with that. A few weeks work, get some money for the vacation, then chilling in San Francisco. Suddenly the employment agency's on the phone and they're offering me a real job. Whoa! I totally wasn't expecting that.

It sounds easy enough. It's with an insurance agency for high risk people and I'd be proofreading and other admin things. But I totally did not know what to say to the agency lady. I was all, "Wah? I is not done skool yet." Thankfully she was nice enough and she said I could phone her back tomorrow with a decision. Wow. A real job and I didn't have to lift a finger. Okay, so no guarantees that I'll get the job. Still got to do an interview and such, but it's mostly there for the taking.

But first, must write last exam and totally not fail.

ETA: My sister made this for me. I'm beginning to suspect she doesn't do any work while at work.

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have laughed at the weather. The city's under a weather warning now. Heavy snowfall. There's a good 25-30 cm outside on the ground. And a chunk of snow just fell off the roof with a loud thunk. Ah, spring in Calgary.

Even the birds are fed up. They flew back here from the south, expecting nice weather to have cute baby birds and then pow!


This is my neighbour's tree. Usually there are a lot of birds hanging around - crows, magpies, etc - because the lady across the way feeds them, but this is just plain weird. It's like The Birds around here. I couldn't get a picture since they flew away, but there were tons more sitting on my fence and the lilac bush. The poor birds were all huddled together and puffed up to keep warm.

I hope the weather lets up before Monday. Being late for exams would not be a wise move.

Whoo, last day of classes! I will never ever have to take another Chinese class again or haul myself out of bed for a 40 minute train ride to the universe. Now I have the real world to look forward to. Oh boy.

As is the tradition here, the last day of classes is Bermuda Shorts Day. Wear your shorts and get horribly drunk before noon. I actually saw people drinking beer before 10:00 this morning. But the joke's on them. It was only zero degrees Celsius when I got to the university and it was snowing by the time I finished my last Chinese class (11:00 am or so). I've never been one for drinking so I can only laugh at how everyone had to scurry and move the beer gardens inside.

Just two exams and I am officially done university forever. It's kind of scary and great at the same time. In university all your time is spent worrying about work and getting that one essay done before it's due. At the same time you had entire summers to just slack off if need be. Now I have to find a job and that's eight hours of solid work every day. Only advantage of that is you leave the work at the office and when you get home you can do anything. No homework to worry about. The weekends are your own, too. I'll be happy to have more time to write but we'll see how I last with a 9-5 job.

And I am so close to finishing off the last essay I'll ever have to write. I'm tempted to have a note burning once I'm completely graduated. I've always wanted to do that.

- I feel like crap. :-P I blame the weather. It's been snowing all day and it's really depressing. Either that or it's the Chinese homework I've been working on all day. Started out with a mild headache, then bam! I'm suddenly all dizzy and nauseous. Totally messed up my plans for tonight. I wanted to see Cloverfield. Though, my sister told me the camera work is kinda vomit inducing so I think it's for the best I decided not to go. And there's always tomorrow.

- It's amazing the random things you can pick up. Today I learned that in Chinese, the word "igloo" translates into "small house used by Eskimos made by layering snow bricks." Okay, it's a rough translation, but that is the gist of it. Thirteen characters to say house made out of snow. Got to love how precise the Chinese are.

- I caught one of the Reboot TV movies while I was trying not to up chuck and I was reminded how much I miss the show. It was such a great cartoon full of geeky references.

- And how cute is the little penguin telling my mood. I've seen custom mood themes out there, but I love the penguins.

Yay, I survived my week long vacation with my family! :-D Driving across Canada was nice, but being stuck in a car for like 12 hours a day was not.  Also, Saskatchewan is boring. It was flat all the way until we hit Northern Ontario. Then it was just trees. Many a pictures were taken with the digital camera so a vacation pic spam is on the horizon. I must share all the giant roadside attractions we saw. Other things also happened too, and one not so pleasant, but that can wait for another day.

Plus, people on LJ talk a lot. :-) But I missed spoilers it seems so that's good.

Whoo, vacation time starts tomorrow! I'll be gone for a week as we attempt the drive out to Sudbury and back. If you don't hear from me again it probably means we got lost or my family and I went insane while trying to navigate through Northern Ontario. ;-)

This will be my first full week away from LJ. I don't know what I'll do with myself. I'm so used to checking it like every other hour. Don't talk too much while I'm gone. :-D

I'll be back a week tomorrow, hopefully with pictures. My sister is bringing her digital camera so maybe there will be updates from the road if we find a decent internet cafe. But expect pictures of me and my family standing in front of giant roadside attractions. That's practically the whole point of the trip.

I'm leaving for a family vacation on September 1st to Sudbury. We're driving out, which should be fun and/or insane. My sister, minus her husband, is coming along, too. Since Sudbury has a giant nickel as one of its attractions, we're going to check it out while we're there. Now this has sparked a whole theme for the trip from my sister. She suggested we stop for any giant attraction we see along the way and take a picture. At first I was thinking, "How many giant attractions can there be in Canada?" A lot, apparently.

I don't know how, but creating a list of giant things to see fell to me. Since we're driving and on a schedule we can't stop for too much, but in the cities where we're stopping for the night there's some stuff.

So far I've got a big cactus and a giant Canada Goose in Hanna, Alberta; Mac the Moose in Moosejaw (Sister has already seen this but she wants another picture with the whole family I guess), a giant pitchfork and Regianld the Grasshopper in Regina (the place that rhymes with fun!), and a giant buffalo in Swift Current, Saskatchewan; the world's largest Coke Can in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba; and Max the Moose in Dryden, the Big Nickel, a giant Brontosaurus (which might be in a mini golf course), a giant steam shovel,a giant Sundial, and the Mining Heritage Sculpture in Sudbury, and a giant curling stone, giant moose hunters, and a big polar bear in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

I'll be impressed if we actually find all of these and take a picture. If we do, you know I'll totally be posting them here. :-D