I am currently trying to decide if I should go to Vegas before Christmas this year. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know for the last several years I go to Vegas in December to meet up with some grad school chums.
There are a few reasons for going. First, I haven't really taken a vacation this year at all. I didn't go anywhere this summer and I didn't even travel locally. The last time I was on a plane was coming back from Las Vegas in December of 2008. I think it's healthy to get away from your normal routine, if only to get perspective on said routine. Also, with the US economy sucking bad still, Vegas is cheaper than last year and we all thought it couldn't get any cheaper. It's possible to get four nights on the Strip at a 3-star hotel, return flight, fees, and taxes included for less than $500. You'd be hard pressed to find comparable hotels in Vancouver for four nights at the same price and that's without factoring in a flight. It would also be nice to see the boys again.
There are also reasons for not going. First, this was my first year living at my new apartment. There were a ton of associated costs beyond the purchase price itself. I had to buy a TV, furniture, Slap Chops, housewares, a bed, just basically everything you need to make a home, a home. Let's not gloss over the fact that I went from being comfortable debt-free to in debt close to $200K. I owe a lot of money to people. Last year, I spent a lot of money in Vegas and didn't care one bit because I didn't really have anyone to answer to, other than myself and that dude was totally cool with it. This year, I'm thinking maybe I should use that Vegas money to pay down my mortgage. Last but not least, the Vegas package deals on Expedia fluctuate in price on a nearly daily basis. Sometimes it's cheaper by $150 but then it goes right back up again. It's difficult to know when is the right time to book.
No matter what, I better decide quick because the next few days and weeks are going to fly by.
So we have this contest at work. The details involve who can have the best holiday-themed decorated work space amongst the team. Apparently there will be judging and prizes. It all gets decided on December 17.
I'm thinking about making a real run at the grand prize (yet to be announced). You know how they have these specialty Christmas decoration stores that pop up around this time of year? Yeah, I'm thinking about going to one of those and just buying lots of big, loud, and flashy decorations. I'm envisioning many strands of blinking lights, animated Santas and elves, tinsel, coloured foil, lit up candy canes, and much more. As you can tell, I'm going for gaudy rather than refined and tasteful. There's a chance this will all backfire on me and I'll lose out to someone who decorates their area with a few simple but classic and classy set pieces. I'm willing to take that chance though.
My secret weapon though will be nearly unstoppable. I am thinking about renting a department store Santa for one hour on the day of judging. Who ever this jolly actor maybe, I would procure his services for exactly one hour where he would pose for photographs with people on my team at my desk. After getting their photo taken with Santa, people would receive a candy cane courtesy of me. I'd love to have sexy elf assistants help with the process but I believe that would be too much.
The one thing that would make this hilarious is if I decided to spend all this money and effort and the grand prize turns out to be a $10 gift card to Starbucks.
I have not seen nor read such critical reviews of a AAA title in long, long time. It's very unfortunate considering how the first three games in the franchise were above 90 in meta scores.
Since this is my blog, I'm allowed to complain about minor inconveniences. This is one of those times.
So just like we had at our downtown location, our new suburban work location in Burnaby offers an employee transit pass discount. Back in the glorious downtown days, we'd go to the front desk and then on a sheet of paper write down our name and number of zones we'd need a transit pass for.
When the transit passes were all purchased, we'd all get an e-mail stating the passes were ready to pick up. Keep in mind since the list of people buying passes was manually entered in, the recipient list in the e-mail thus had to be manually written out as well. No one really forgot to get their transit pass even if it was really busy day since there was that e-mail that reminded you. Even if you forgot to get it from the receptionist and they went home, you wouldn't be screwed. Since the security desk is manned 24 hours a day, the security dude on duty could always give your pass and then check you off on the list.
Now they do things a bit different in Burnaby. First, you don't write down a damn thing. The receptionist makes you scan your badge when you go buy your transit pass. So the information of every single person who buys a transit pass is recorded on a computer somewhere. Now keep in mind which system would probably be more capable of sending out a reminder message to pick up your transit pass. The system where all names were written down manually or the computerized system where names are recorded digitally? You guessed it. In Burnaby, they can't seem to find a way to translate the names in the computer into an e-mail reminding you to pick up your transit pass.
Today was the last day of November and because I was so busy, I forgot to pick up my transit pass. I remembered at 6pm and I knew the receptionist would be long gone but I was hoping the security dude would help me get my pass. No dice. I was told in no uncertain terms that the receptionist was the only person in a studio of over 1200 employees that could give out the transit pass. I along with several other people were told that even though our passes were just a foot away from us at the front desk, we couldn't have them. So now, I gotta pay my own way to work tomorrow morning.
The names are already in the computer. How hard is it to craft an e-mail one day a month that simply says "pick up your transit pass"? When we were about to move to Burnaby I was warned that EA Canada and Black Box do things quite differently in certain areas. I guess this is one of these things. Maybe I'll walk to work tomorrow.
UPDATE: I just phoned the property manager and it turns out that my letter was actually read. It's just taking a few days for a response to be drafted up and mailed out to me. I will keep everyone posted.
In a previous post, I mentioned how I left a letter for my strata council to read. I left the letter in a mailbox in our lobby mailroom. The mailbox is labeled as a suggestion box and a place to leave correspondence to the strata council. After going five days without any kind of response to my letter, I decided to peek into the slot of the mailbox. The mailbox still contains an envelope and I'm pretty sure it's my letter. I can't see the front of the envelope so I'm not positive it's still my letter but usually in these types of matters, my guess is right.
I left my letter in the mailbox on Sunday evening. The strata council meeting was scheduled for Monday evening. I left myself some leeway of about 24 hours for them to open up the mailbox and get all the correspondence in there. How hard is it for strata to do that? Why have the mailbox there if they're not even going to use it?
I'm going to phone the property manager tomorrow to figure out what's going on. I'm really peeved right now.
