Thursday, August 31, 2006

She Shoots...She SCORES!!!!!

Just got a job offer today!!! I've been interviewing with the Leader Post. I had one interview, then was informed that I was one of three finalists. Then I was asked for a quick phone interview, which went well. After that, I was informed that I was one of only TWO finalists. So, they asked me if I could make one last trip into Regina, so I did that today. After meeting with them for about 30 minutes, we were done and they asked me to just wait for a moment while they discussed in the hallway. Diane came back in and offered me the job.

Now, I also have a pending offer from the U of S. I had a message from them on my machine today, so I'll have to phone them back in the morning. So, I asked the LP if I could give them an answer on Tuesday so that I could make a decision. Basically, I'm stuck and don't know which one to choose. I have to make a decision by Monday night, so I can phone my landlord and let her know whether I'm moving to Regina, or staying where I am. So, I'm going to give you guys the important details of each job, and you can give me your opinions on which one I should take. And don't worry, what you say I should go for won't be the deciding factor for me. But it might give me an idea as to where my thinking is leaning.

Job #1 - Leader Post - Home Delivery Administrator

Description from the advertisement - Reporting to the Service Manager, key responsibilities will include providing administartive support for the District Co-Ordinator team. This position also acts as support to the Director, Reader Sales and Service, as well as the Sales Manager by providing distribution analysis in the form of sales and expense reporting, numbers forecasting and handling corporate infromation requests. We are looking for a highly motivated, organized, and detail oriented individual who is capable of prioritizing a high volume of work in a fast-paced, demanding environment with changing priorities.

Specifics that could help make the decision: Full-time Permanent job; Good challenge that uses the skills I learned during my degree; Monday to Friday 9-5; little to no training available I'd have to be willing to ask lots of questions and figure stuff out on my own; Lots of opportunity to advance within the company

Job #2 - University of Saskatchewan - Annual Giving Co-ordinator

Description - Basically, I would be hiring 20 students who would be phoning a pool of about 50,000 alumni and I would be in charge of this campaign. I would be in charge of the staff and setting goals and ensuring that we are achieving the amounts we set out to achieve.

Specifics that could help make the decision: Full-Time Temporary (I think 8-10 months); In Saskatoon so I wouldn't have to move; On the job training; I'd be part of a union; Sunday to Thursday 1-9:30; I've done supervision before; I've always wanted to work on campus; Not sure if benefits would kick in

Oh, and I haven't actually gotten an offer from the U of S. I have to phone them in the morning, but I anticipate an offer.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Still Waiting

I HATE waiting. Still haven't heard back from the U of S yet. I'm hoping to hear from them today or tomorrow at the latest. It sucks sitting at home waiting. I want to go do stuff, but don't want to leave my phone, so I'm sticking around here during business hours.

On another note, something else super exciting happened to me today. I received an invitation to join the Golden Key International Honour Society!!! Membership to this organization is by INVITATION ONLY. It is for people in the top 15% of their class and offers all sorts of perks. Scholarship opportunities, internships (which I wish I had known about sooner), post graduate benefits, conferences, etc.

I'm sooooo excited to join. It costs $90, but this is just a one-time fee and beyond that there is no annual fee to be a member. So, I'm going to join. But will probably wait until I get a job first, to make sure I can afford the $90. Haha.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

So Close!!!!!!

Well, I just got a phone call informing me that I am the candidate of choice for a job at the U of S. Basically, they'll be doing reference checks, which should take a couple of days and as long as all goes well, I'll get a job offer. So, no offer yet, but I don't foresee any problems with my references.

Anyway, let's just say if I don't get this job because of references, I'll be dropping right down into depression, and will probably speed it up by getting a job at some go-nowhere fast food place.

So, wish I had an answer now, but I guess I can wait!!!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Who's the Most Jedi?? Part 9

3263827

Explain the significance of the above number.



In His Image

In who's image? Also, name the short story that is a sequel to this one two years later.



Comment Moderation is Active

Things Are Crazy

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. Life has just gone insane. I had a real dry spell for interviews and now everyone wants to interview me!! I had three interviews last week and I have three booked for this coming week. As well as a fourth that's in the maybe stages, but I have to get ahold of someone. So, I'm in Prince Albert Monday morning, Saskatoon on Tuesday for a phone interview with someone from Kindersley, and in Regina on Wednesday. And I just got home from Weyburn!! It's all insanity.

So, I'm going to be running around quite a bit unless I happen to get a job tomorrow in which case I'll cancel the rest of the interviews. Haha.

Anyway, I won't have much time for blogging until later in the week, so as soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going to work on another installment of Who's the Most Jedi??? You guys can sit on that one for a few days.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

OH MY GOD!!!

They arrested someone for the JonBenet murder!!! It's been 10 years and they finally caught someone. I really never thought this would happen. It's just crazy!!

Now, on another topic as I don't have too much to say about JonBenet...I was in grade 6 at the time...didn't much care back then. Anyway...had my first interview of the week today. It went well but I don't expect to get the job. I didn't expect to get it walking in, but I went anyway. I just don't think I have the experience they're looking for. If there's ONE person who has a hint of insurance experience, they'll get it over me. Oh well. They said it'll be one to two weeks before they pick someone.

Good news though. The other day I phoned Joelle and was like "let's go to sev." In fact, it was last night. She had something to do, so I told her to phone me back when she was ready to go. I used the time while I was waiting to apply for a job with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Well, today I got a phone call from them!! Whooo!! So at first, we arranged a phone interview for Friday, as this guy is located in Winnipeg. So, I was just totally pumped that it was my third interview of the week. Well, he phones back a little while later (like 10 minutes) and it turns out that the Saskatoon manager is free tomorrow, so he's like "can you have an interview then before your bus leaves?" (I'm headed home so I can get to my Friday interview) And I'm like "of course!!" And then it turns out there's a conference here for the company, so he's going to see if some of the bigwigs want to come to my interview. So yeah, now I have an interview at 10am tomorrow, and I still have the one on Friday with SaskEnergy. Anyway, I'm really excited. I think I have a good shot at this job and it might be a fairly immediate start.

And for those of you wondering. Yes, the slurpee was great too.

It's Not Going to Work

So, scientists want to add three planets to our solar system. And they're even thinking of expelling Pluto from it.

Look, I'm not in elementary school any more. I no longer have anyone forcing me to memorize new planets. Don't change the solar system!!! I have the nine memorized and I still am not sure what order the first two are in. The rest I think I know. Anyway, the point is, right now I can name all nine, but if you add three more and possibly drop Pluto, I can't make any guarantees.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Stuff Happening

Few things happening:

  • The SaskBlogs meet got postponed until September 23. Not sure if I can come. We'll have to see what happens with me and the whole "getting a job thing" between then and now.
  • As for the whole "getting a job thing" - I have two interviews this week. The first is in Saskatoon on Wednesday with Saskatchewan Blue Cross for an underwriter position and the second is in Regina on Friday with SaskEnergy for a Gradworks Internship position as a Communications Assistant. Oh, and I'm being interviewed by Stephen King for the SaskEnergy one. How exciting!!
  • Going to the football game on Saturday. I figure the Riders lost the last two games. They can't afford to lose a third game, so they'll probably win.
  • Going to be driving up to Regina from Weyburn a few times. I'm a nervous highway driver and haven't driven on the highway for close to 4 years. So, I'm nervous, the but at least the weather forecast is nice.
  • Heading to 7/11 for a Slurpee right away, so that will be great.
That's about all. I really need a job soon. I'm bored and need to get back into the swing of actually doing something.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I know you all thought he was nearing the end, but he's still kicking. And he will be back!!!

HAPPY 80TH FIDEL!!!!!


P.S. Yay Communism :)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

I May Never Get It

OK, Part III of this week's "Shanna Doesn't Get It" series. Today:
A Fold In Space

I called it that, as I'm not sure exactly what I'm going for. This concept was introduced to me in that same book, A Wrinkle in Time, as a tesseract, but after further investigation, I have found out that it may have been misrepresented and it is not a tesseract.

The concept is this:

If you need to get from one place to a next, you simply "fold" space to get to it quicker. Here's how it's presented...


OK, so let's say we have an ant that needs to cross a piece of string to get from point A to point B. In the normal world, the ant would simply walk across the piece of string, which would take some time. Like this!
Now, the idea is that to shorten this time, you simply take the edges of the string and bring them together. The ant then simply needs to walk across to get to point B. A lot less walking. Done like this!


Now, the idea is that you just "fold" space and bring the two points together to get rid of the travel time.

I just don't get this. In my mind, you must have some type of magical power to do this. However, when looking this up, it is said that what the author of the book was referring to as a "tesseract" relates more to a Wormhole, which is shown like this:


However, this seems more like something that is just there, not something you have to do. The wormhole is something you stumble upon...like a small path in a forest that creates a shortcut. In what I'm talking about, you would bring the end of the path you're on to yourself and just step onto the end...you wouldn't find a separate path.

So, maybe finding a shortcut is possible in space, like the wormhole, but I really don't see the capability to shorten a trip by bringing the end location to you and then returning it as something possible.

Unless you're magic.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

I Still Don't Get It

So, here's another thing that I just can't wrap my mind around.

Unlike time travel, I kind of think this might be possible...maybe is currently there, but I can't figure out how it would work. Here's the next topic in this small miniseries:

The Fifth Dimension


I have this book, called A Wrinkle In Time and it's a good book but introduces a few concepts that I've never been able to figure out. One is the concept of a 5th dimension. Here is how the book explains the fifth dimension:

OK, so the first dimension is a line, like this one....Now, to get the 2nd dimension, you simply square the line to get a square! Like this one...

Next, you square the square to get a cube, which is the third dimension, such as the one I have here...

Now, to get the fourth dimension, you simply square the cube, and to get the fifth dimension, you square whatever the hell it is you get for the fourth dimension.

This has always baffled me. Just thinking about living in a fifth dimension is beyond my brain capabilities. Now, I went on Wikipedia to see what it had to say about the fifth dimension and I found this handy picture:



I still don't get it. How could anything happen in a fifth dimension, much less a fourth dimension. For some reason, because this book discusses the 5th dimension, I don't even give a shit about the fourth dimension. Maybe I need to understand that before I can understand the fifth dimension. I'm not sure.

Wikipedia states:
"Whether or not the real universe in which we live is somehow five-dimensional is a topic that is debated and explored in several branches of physics, including astrophysics and particle physics."
This supports my supposition that the fifth dimension is not impossible, it's just not something the human brain can support right now. I think the human brain is constantly growing and we understand things better than we did eras ago. I figure hundreds of years from now, we'll begin learning about the fifth dimension in school and it won't be such a crazy obscure idea.

I just want to understand the fifth dimension. Is this like a parallel universe??? Is there another society living among us right now, just in a different dimension?? Or is this actually an impossibility that we're just trying to make a possibility??

Monday, August 07, 2006

I Just Don't Get It

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. I'm no genius, but when something is introduced to me, I can usually understand the concept fairly quickly. But still, there are some things that I just don't get. And I won't ever. Things that aren't real, but people wish were.

They say that nothing is impossible, but I disagree. There aren't many things that are impossible, but there are a few. Here's the first one:

Time Travel

This is impossible. I love to just sit and think about time travel and read books about time travel. And no matter how many ways I figure it, it just doesn't work. There's too many variables that would be changed by a single instance of time travel. And this is what makes it impossible. Obviously no one can travel through time, but if they could, it just wouldn't work. No matter what happened, the course of humanity would change. Say you travel back 100 years and make some offhand remark. This could result in some invention being invented 50 years too early. Which would entirely change the course of society. And let's say you travel forward in time. You find out something that happens in the future then when you come back to the present, you take steps to change it. Which completes annihilates that future you just visited. Even if the future was nothing special, you would just subconciously act differently due to your trip and this would change everything.

Time travel just doesn't work. Anything that can be brought up as to why it would work can be refuted.

All I've said about it is kinda confusing, but that's how time travel appears to me. When I think about it, I go off on all these tangents trying to justify it and make it work. But it doesn't and it can't. Time travel would kick ass, but it'll only happen in books and movies.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Computers

So, I really want a new computer. And I've always said that next time I want a desktop. They're jsut so much easier to upgrade. But I've been thinking lately. I'd miss a lot of things about a laptop.
  • Having both an external mouse and the little pad mouse on the laptop
  • The smooth keyboard
  • Being able to easily tilt the screen based on the amount of light shining on it
  • How easy it is to move
I don't have the money to buy a new computer right now anyway. But I was just thinking.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Power Hungry

I know what you're thinking, and yes, I am hungry for that kind of power, but the power I'm talking about now is electricity.

Had a good old-fashioned power outage tonight. I really can't remember the last time that's happened. I don't think I've had a power outage since I moved out on my own at the very least. I found out that I have 6 tea light candles, 1 scented candle, and 2 candles that would be good for a power outage but I have no way to stand them up. I also found out that tea lights give off a pathetic amount of light. My lighters give off more light than a tea candle. Oh, and I found out that I have five lighters. Must have come in a pack.

Anyway, having no power makes me realize how much I like electricity. I am never without light except when I'm actually sleeping. I always have a light on, even when I'm watching TV. I don't completely darken my place until I'm actually ready to go to sleep.

Oh, and it's really weird peeing in the dark. The bathroom seems fine in the light. But when it's dark and you can't see in the toilet, you just image all the things that could pop out of it...aliens, alligators, etc. At least, I imagine those things.

So, anyway, the power went off shortly after 9. I quickly found my one candle that's out and lit it. Then remembered that I have 2 tea lights in this thingy I got from my godparents, so I lit those too. Then I found the rest of my tea lights and lit them. Had my computer for a short while, but the battery sucks, so that didn't last very long.

I shaved my legs while the power was out. Made me appreciate what the pioneers went through to shave their legs. And then I thought, "Did the pioneers shave their legs??" Probably not. It's on my list of things to look up. "When did shaving of legs and armpits first begin?" So anyway, I'll have to do a spot check now just to make sure I didn't miss any large areas.

I have a wedding to go to in the morning, so I'm catching an 8am bus to Weyburn. Then I was like "what if the power doesn't come back on and my alarm clock doesn't go off?" So, I phoned my parents and they're going to phone me at 7am to wake me up just in case. The power's on now, but it's late and I don't want to wake them up phoning them to tell them not to wake me up.

Of course the night when the power goes off is the night when I'm really in a TV and computer mood. I wanted to watch movies all night then got sidetracked playing games on my computer. And when the power went out, I couldn't do any of that. Then I got the urge to play nintendo. Too bad for me.

I probably should have cleaned, but I didn't want to. Cleaning sucks. Which is obvious by the messy state of my house.

The power finally came back on and scared the shit out of me. Everything turning on at once. I almost fell off the couch.

Oh, if you're still waiting for me to make my point, as I'm sure we're past the 150 word mark, don't hold you're breath. This post doesn't have a point. It's just mindless jabbering. Not even ranting, just jabbering.

Anyway, I wanted to do a puzzle, but the thing I do my puzzles on is already covered with 2 puzzles that I've finished and I haven't moved them off it yet. And I'm not ready to disassemble them yet. You see, when I do a puzzle, I like to keep it together for a while to savour the accomplishment of finishing it.

I'm really wired. I've had most of a 2-litre of Diet Pepsi. Which is dumb as I have to be up early in the morning. Oh well. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I should add some cherry whiskey to that diet pepsi. That would really make the night interesting. But I won't.

Things that are green look blue in candlelight. I'm not sure why, but the closer you get it to the candle, the bluer it looks, even when it's green. It's odd.

Anyway, that's enough jabbering for me. I'll post again later this weekend after the wedding. Oh, it's one of my friends from junior high getting married. I probably won't stay too long, as I don't really hang out with anyone in that group anymore, but I'll stay for a while. At least the church and reception hall is close to the parent's house, so I can just walk home when I want to.

Well, that's all for now!!

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Thursday, August 03, 2006

A First for Me

I don't like Frosted Mini Wheats. I don't like the sugar on them.

I think it's the first instance of my picking the healthier food over the one that is more unhealthy. I'd much rather have just plain Mini Wheats.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Role Models

I feel that celebrities do have it hard, with their private life shown to the entire world. I think they shouild get their privacy. But the fact is, they don't. And since they don't, I do feel that celebrities have a duty to be good role models. So many people look up to them and emulate their actions.

I'm talking about this, because I'm disappointed by the actions of the people in the limelight lately. I'm talking about the various impaired driving incidents we keep hearing about. Let me list a few examples of offenders:
  • Mel Gibson
  • Chad Kroeger
  • Gordon Campbell (Premier of BC)
  • George Bush (in 1976, but it's still bad!!)
What do we have to do to get it through your heads people!?!?! I know when you kill someone because of your impaired driving, it'll get through your head. But I really hope you stop before that happens.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Yay Me!!

Just went for a 2.4km walk!!

I normally walk to the river and follow the path along the top of the riverbank. This time, I did that, but also tried the path along the bottom of the riverbank. I'd seen people walking on this path, but in three years of living here, have never actually gone down there. It's a very nice path!! For most of it, you can forget you're in the middle of the city, as you're just surrounded by trees. There were some mysterious barrel thingys with wooden tops. Not sure what they're for, but I'm assuming that's where the city dumps it's toxic waste. I would have taken pictures of them, but I don't have a digital camera.

Did well earlier today too. I suck at grocery shoping. Once, I spent $7 on a tomato. Now, in my defense, I didn't even know tomatos COULD cost $7 each. So anyway, I still suck at grocery shopping. But I'm watching my cash outflow right now as I spent way too much for the first part of the summer. I had only $60 to grocery shop with and could only buy enough to fill my bookbag, as that is how I carry my groceries home. You may think I'm crazy, but I find it ridiculously easy to spend $60 and only get 2-3 bags of groceries. I had a list prepared today of what I needed and I also brought my calculator along, so I wouldn't get surprised at the till with a total over $60. I figured the calculator would stop me as I got closer to $60. So, I'm shopping and it's going quite well. I got everything on my list, in addition to one more thing. My total was around $39, but it was customer appreciation day. So, you either get 10x Air Miles or 10% off. I took the 10% off. So, my total was only $34. 73!!!! And $15 of that was just the meat I bought. So, I'm super happy that I still have $25 for groceries in the coming weeks. I shouldn't need to buy meat again for a while, so I'll just need to replenish my fruits, veggies, and milk really. Oh, and I bought a bread maker a while ago, so now I make all my own bread. I have to do it about every 3-4 days, but that's fine with me because then I always have bread that was made very recently!!

Today was a good day for me. I also cleaned the bathroom as that needed to be done. Hopefully tomorrow goes just as well!!