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1/3 sec | f/38 | 52mm
It was a chilly day at Mt. Albion. I wasn’t expecting to stay there long but I was there long enough that my hands got cold. The area started out quiet but eventually a lot of people started to show up, most of them were photographers.
1/350 sec | f/3.5 | 18mm
This is the old custom house that was turned into Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. Supposedly, the building is haunted by the Dark Lady. Passerby claim to see the dark silhouette of a woman by the window of the top floor. I have never seen her myself but I’m sure that my skin would tingle when I did.
1/180 sec | f/8 | 55mm
This cat was just sitting around on the stairs until it heard me take its picture. For some reason it wouldn’t respond when I was yelling at it to get its attention but as soon as the shutter closed, it turned to look.
1/250 sec | f/8 | 32mm
This bench is located outside of David Christopherson’s office on Main and Tisdale. I like to vote for him every year since he’s doing a good job all the time.
1/500 | f/0 | 0mm
Playing around with macro photography is fun! It’s addictive at first because of the level of detail that I’m getting so I’m hoping to continue this technique until I get bored of it.
1/45 sec | f/0 | 0mm
Alvin mentioned a little trick to easily achieve macro pictures without costing anything. All you had to do was take out the lens and flip it. It’s a bit tricky to get the focus on certain parts of an object and then there’s the matter of setting the aperture as well. I’m sure over time, I’ll get used to it.
Ever since my roommate moved in, things have not been the same. I don’t get the same amount of privacy that I once had. I don’t get to do the normal things that I get to do. And I now have to depend on someone to make sure my electricity doesn’t go out. Or even worst, that the house doesn’t get foreclosed.
When it comes to finance, my roommate is clueless about it. She’s probably clueless about a lot of other things because she’s in her own little world, unknowingly to her is a whole other world outside the front door. I don’t know if she understands the full consequences of her actions. I’ve told her plenty of times before but it seems like it’s far beyond her level of comprehension.
She lost her job about a week after I left for Hong Kong but she didn’t bother to do anything about it. I didn’t find out about it until a few days after I came back into the country. She didn’t even have the common courtesy to tell Jenn’s mom about her situation. Jenn’s mom is the one who’s dealing with her rent while I’m away. She had to find out from Jenn who’s thousands of miles away before hearing it from my roommate. That’s a very inconsiderate thing to do given the fact that these are the people who are trying to help.
When she first moved in, things started out just hunky dory. She had money for the rent and the bills. As time went by, the bills slowly started to climb while the money slowly declined. Every month I would have to ask her for the rent. Every pay day I would have to ask her for money to pay the bills. This went on from the time she moved in until now. I assume that certain things are due on certain dates so it’s known when they’re due. It’s not rocket science.
I’ve told her time and time again to conserve electricity and water because that is where all the money is going. But she doesn’t listen. She’ll load up the washer, load up the dry and take a shower all at the same time. I don’t know where she goes if she needs to wash her clothes every other day. She can’t even afford to pay for those commodities and yet she abuses them. At least, I think she’s abusing them because I don’t know anyone who does their laundry after other day. It has gotten to the point where I am only willing to pay for my share. It’s doesn’t make sense to pay for half the bill anymore when I use less than half of the resources. Before I would pay for the whole thing and then wait for her to pay me back but she has gotten too far behind on paying that I’ve stopped.
The most recent hydro bill came up to $428.66 which is fairly high considering the fact that I wasn’t in the country. Before I left, I left her a note telling her to converse because I wasn’t willing to pay for anything while I’m gone. Of the $428.66, my portion is only $77 which is half of one month’s bill. I wasn’t at home for most February so I’m not paying for it.
Ever since my roommate started falling behind on rent and bills, I recommended that she get financial assistance because she cannot afford to live in this house. According to my calculations, the best that she can do with her pay cheque is a $200 rent with utilities included. There’s nowhere in Hamilton that you can rent for that low. I took the time to find her the phone number and address of the difference government services that will help her if she applies for them. But all she has done with my recommendation was listen. She did not act on it and now she’s in trouble.
When she lost her job, I recommended that she apply for Employment Insurance. She should have applied for that as soon she lost her job but she didn’t. I don’t know why she didn’t but she didn’t. I think her best excuse was because she didn’t have her record of employment from Walmart. But countless times I’ve told her that she doesn’t need that right away. The important thing was to apply for it as soon as possible. I’ve even went as far as asking her if she applied on a daily basis. Every time I asked, her replied was always “no” which made me mad. Here I was, trying to help and she’s not willing to accept it. Well, too bad for her because went she finally went to apply for EI, she was too late.
Now she has no job, no steady income and the bills are piling up. I told her that consequences of being behind on her financial responsibilities and I hope that the threat of eviction is enough to get her to wake up. She did not pay first and last month’s rent so she doesn’t have the luxury of getting a warning before eviction. She’s taking her situation a bit too lightly and she’s just going to get herself into trouble. It’s not fair to me and to everyone who’s trying to help her. I’d hate to say it but people like her deserve what’s coming to them. If someone wants to help you while you’re down, you best take their hand.
It’s a very quiet and gloomy day at the office today. There was an announcement that the plant will be closing down next year. It’s a shock to everyone because it seems like a move that just doesn’t make sense. Why would the company pour money into the plant only to pour it down the drain? When I first started working here, I saw this plant as a place where I could retire from but now it doesn’t seem like that’s possible. The news will give everyone about a year and a half, if we’re lucky to do something about it. It’s sad news to hear but at the same time, I feel as if a heavy burden was lifted off of my shoulders. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still scary to hear that you’ll be out of the job soon but I think that a year and a half is a good length of time to be notified.
I wasn’t sure where my career was going before working here. But after working here for almost three years, I started to see it as a place where I can further my skills and improve myself. There were a few times when I wanted to jump ship because I didn’t quite understand where the company was going. I saw where the company was going but I couldn’t follow where my organizational unit was heading. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to grow professionally in my current role when the next role I could get was a manager position. I don’t think my manager would like it too much if I told him that I wanted his job.
My first few months in the company were great. My manager knew how to manage people and get things done but as the days go by, my manager slowly drifted away. Eventually, he was promoted and another manager took his place. After a year or so, that manager was replaced. The bad thing about getting these new managers was the fact that they were stationed at another location. This made things harder because when I needed to get in touch with them, it had to be done through email. Sometimes I would get a response and other times I would be waiting days, or even months for a reply. These managers have their own subordinate to take care of so my coworkers and I were always second priority. It was bad enough when he basically told me that my job can be done by any random person off the street. Apparently, he’s not here often enough to see the type of work that I do so he doesn’t know what I’m capable of. My first manager knew exactly what I can and can’t do. You can’t manage people that aren’t under the same roof as you are. It’s hard because there’s no visibility. You can’t lead if you can’t see where you’re going.
I’ve been doing the same task every day. Well, not exactly the same task but it does become a bit repetitive. When I first started working in I.T., I assumed that I would fix a problem and would hear about that problem anymore but as it turns out, the same problem keeps occurring. And this isn’t just problems that are caused by the users, these are problems that are caused by other I.T. guys. After a while, my job doesn’t seem as challenging as it once was. I even try to get training for other I.T. task in hopes that it might make things a bit more challenging but even my request for training was shot down. I’ve been applying for training for a couple of years now and I still have heard back as to whether it has been approved or not. Now, it seems like it’s pointless to ask for any more training.
A while back, there was a project that was started to save the company money. This meant that a lot of things had to be cut in order to provide a savings. It’s a weird internal structure that I didn’t quite understand. At the end of the day, the company saving money is the same company who’s doing the charging. So in order to keep me at my site, my job had to be justified. The daily work that I do justifies itself. I don’t know how much they charge for my work but they must be charging a lot and paying me a little.
I like working here because the pay is okay, job is good, the people are great and it’s close to home. There aren’t a lot of people these days who can say what I say about my job. Yes, there are a few people whom I have problems with but that’s a part of almost every job. This plant seems to be big but at the same time everyone knows who the other some is. I could walk around the plant and wave to just about everyone I see. It’s a very laid back environment to be working and I’ve never worked in an environment like this. I highly doubt and can only hope that my next place of employment will be like this. I’ve been told that my two coworkers and I will be relocated but I see this as an opportunity to move on to something bigger and better.