Twenty Ten

So twenty ten has finally arrived. New year, new decade and.. new chapter of my life? After finishing my bachelor degree, I gave myself a 5 year plan: 5 years into my career, I will be living somewhere outside the province in Quebec. I consider the start of my career when I had my first professional job as a programmer at Gameloft, which places the start in January 2006. With the help of basic math, my deadline is up in January 2011, which pretty much leaves me to the end of this year to secure myself a job. 361 days remaining.

Do I still want to leave Montreal and live in another city? I will answer this with a big fat YES in a heart beat. 2009 was roller coaster year leaving a bittersweet after taste. I think I'm a point in my career where I'm ready to tackle something new and challenging. My current job is satisfying for the time being. The work environment is definitely a step up from my previous work place but the workload is, boring. I am learning new things and acquiring new skills which is always good, but if you think hard enough, you can find positive points in any working experience.

Am I ready to actually take that big leap? I am not quite sure. Sure there is a scary factor to jump into the unknown (which is a motivation on its own for me) but there is a part of me that doesn't want to leave my current workplace, mostly out of loyalty. Another part of me lacks the confidence to find another job. I fully admit I'm not the best coder out there and my experience is extremely scattered (I consider myself as a jack of all trade, master of none) which is good and very bad at the same time. I am very skillful at selling myself when it comes to interviews but asking me questions right on the spot is a whole different ball park. The realist (and pessimistic) in me tell me the market is terrible and chances of hiring somebody from out of town/province/country is slim to none. And another part of me is just too damn lazy to update the resume, write cover letters, searching for jobs, apply, etc. Once I convince that part of myself to unlazy itself, then I can do it. That should be one of my 2010 resolutions.

Retrospect of 2009

2009 is coming to an end. End of the first decade of the 3rd millenia of human kind. A lot has happened around the world, both good and bad. Habs are still struggling to win their 25th Stanley Cup (seriously, will I be alive to see the 25th cup??), the war on terror is still going on and there is no sign that it will end, a recession which created millions of unemployed citizens, the death of several celebrities (Heath Ledger, Micheal Jackson, Brittany Murphy, the list goes on). However, there was still good things that happened around the world: the first american African American president who elected elected last year, who was not only well versed but is also a huge geek (he was wielding a LIGHTSABER!) is still going on strong as a president , Google finally leveled the playing field for the eternal Evil Microsoft corporation by revolutionizing the usage of the Internet (google maps, google apps, google Android), Canada has been chosen to represent the world for the 2010 olympics.

As for me, the past year was nothing short of a roller coaster ride. After receiving my first promotion as a team lead, I experienced the worst professional "screw up", which resulted in a massive layoff at my old company and a quasi burnout. I managed to lose 10 pounds in a month, and literally started to lose my mind. After two years and a half of mental abuse from my boss, my mind finally gave in to the pressure. After seriously contemplating the idea of a three month sabbatical, my client offered me a full time position as QA analyst. Although it was a step "down" from being a programmer, it was better then blowing off all my savings. Have I regretted the decision? The answer is a convincing no. Aside from the harsh working environment, my knowledge has grown exponentially and I gained valuable skills and learned from my mistakes. I believe the step "down" is not as bad as people would thing, there is alot of knowledge for me to gain here along with meeting amazing coworkers.

Now, what does 2010 have in store for me? I don't know. Maybe I'll be living somewhere else outside of Montreal, maybe i'll be part of the Montreal Stanley cup celebration (if this happens, i'll be driving in a flying car while screaming go habs go), or maybe i'll be stuck in montreal, I don't know. One thing is certain though, it will not be a boring year (hopefully)

weeeknd in NYC (aka the failed attempted to inebriated blogging)

[This portion below was written on Saturday November 28th @ 1 something AM. I do remember typing all this, but i don't remember how come i never posted this]

So I just got back from drinking (well "just got back". My cousin just came back to her apartment so as a a good cousin/host, i was talking... so by the time i got to this state, I'm somewhat sober but  very VERY tired).Therefore shame you can't see me while i'm drunken blogging.. in person, i have been told i'm very entertaining (not to mention very VERY loud and obnoxious) .


For the 9th (10th?) time, I am back in NYC for "vacation". I usually o there to relax and have fun (mostly to catch up with my cousins. I used to be very close to one cousin but since we started HS, we kind of lost touch). This time i have experimented a bit: i went drinking ALONE. Usually, I would NEVER EVER go to a social place alone. I never know what to do, and to be honest, it looks loserish to go into a bar totally alone. But this time, with a kick in a butt from a friend,  I went drinking.. ALONE. It was quite something. It's very hard to actually start a convo if you're not  in a group, especially if it's a bunch of strangers (in my case, it was AMERICAN stranger which is even HARDER. I didn't end up drinking that much and i sure as HELL din't exect to be THIS happy. Let's just say I REALLY REALLY like this place (hint: it's owned by JT HIMSELF (yes. JT.. the n'sync dude). There was a blackboard sign that said "best drink in town", which as called 901 - bulous (something like that.. can't remember for shit... I took ONE sip in that baby and i felt like i had a shot of tequilla bfore hand... i [Something happened here. I might have passed out, a roofie i have ingested in the bar might have kicked in who knows]

All in all, this was a wonderful trip, exactly what i needed: ME time. I have always managed to find somebody to hang out with when I go travelling (local friends, or friends i travel with or family) but this time, Saturday was ME time. I got to say, it really feels GOOD. I truly adore Manhattan as a city. Granted it takes a bit of time to get used to the "confusing" subway system (compared to Montreal that is) and the "new york" style, but this city has so much to offer. Ranging from arts (MoMa had a TIM BURTON exhibit!!!) to restaurants (Iron Chef Bobby Flay and Morimoto have restaurants here along with so many other famous chefs along with Michelin star restaurants) and let's not forget about the night life, it's like a cooler version of Montreal (sorry, San Fran is still my favorite US city in my heart though). Don't be surprised if i go back in a few months!

Thien + 3 odds coffee + sunday 8am != good mix

ok, i'll try to write this blog while i'm still buzzed up on coffee.. in order to have a true experience, picture me reading this out loud, record it, and then hit the fast forward button for super fast movement and take the voice, speed it up by 1.52342 time (those exact decimal less or more will not be real experience) and you got my current state of mind. Putting happy go lucky fromage music (anything that resembles BSB, spice girls, n'sync will result a jumping dancing Thien).

so random thoughts will be the nature of this post. So watched the most pathetic Habs game i have seen so far. First of all, we were playing against our eternal rivals, the Toronto Maple Laffs.. err.. Leafs. For you non hockey people out there, there is a very big rivalry between Montreal and Toronto. I won't bother going into details since my readers consist of a Laffs hater and she knows everything about it. Needless to say, I don't like them and it also turns out to be the worst team (this is a purely and non bias point of view, i'm seriously, look at the standings, they one regulation win, 2 overtime win and the rest are losses) and we manage to win in shootout, AGAINST THE WORST TEAM. And to add insult to injury, we gave up a 2 goal lead within the last 3 minutes of the game.. shame on you habs.. SHAAAAME

Coffee is probably my biggest vice, after turret freaking goddam syndrome. I can't live without coffee. People thing I'm addicted to this wonderful substance because it keeps me awake. That statement is partially true since I need it to keep me awake but if that's the sole reason to keep me awake, might as well take crack or cocaine or crystal meth, does the same effect. I really REALLY like the smell and taste of coffee to the point that i'm borderline snob. I can sort of tell if a coffee is on a drinkable scale or not, from undrinkable (either taste like dilluted coffee, sour coffee or taste like burned coffee. I will literally spit that out) to insanely good (you'll know if i have a really good coffee, I tend to be in total extacy, with a huge smile on my face and i won't say nor hear a word. I'll be in coffee nirvana). I'm so happy I'm not catholic (even if i were, it is a known fact that I'm going straight to hell, no purgatory or anything, with 3 of my buddies. Our seats have already been preassigned, although I would request a front view of the lava pit.. where i can witness people suffering through eternity)

Ok, so the coffee effect is slowly wearing off.. back to work

je sait ecrire sant fotes et avec la bonne grammaire et syntaxe

Lately my biggest pet peeve when I read forum or comment posts are basic grammar and syntax mistakes. I'm not talking about advanced ones such as exceptions or conjugate an obsolete verb tense, but rather grammar rules that teachers teach in grade school. There is one mistake that drives me BONKERS: the usage of the "participe passé" (past participle) in French. The rule states the following: "After a conjugated verb, use the past participle". This is a very simple and easy rule to remember, ex: j'ai ecris, j'ai battu etc. However, the difficulty comes of the usage of the "participe passé" of verbs of the 1st group (those that end with "er", which is pronounced like "eh" (yes, the Canadian way to end a sentence eh :P). This "eh" sound can be written as "er" or "é" (classic homonym), but everybody knows that a word that ends with "er" is, 80% of the time, indicates that it is a verb. Unfortunately, people don't seem to know the difference! I mean people, this is taught in GRADE 3!!! I should stop reading the comments on rds.ca, not because it has the most bias views on the habs (if we win, they are all, YAY! WE ROCK! LINE 1 AND 2 ARE THE BEST!!!1ONEONEONE, but if we lose, they are ready to trade the entire team, and then fire the coach, GM and the rest of upper management) but the people who write ARE ALL GROWN UPS WHO PASSED GRADE SCHOOL. I feel sorry for today's society, I'm sure my 8 years old nephew is smarter than those nimwits

They said I had A.D... something, I dunno- CAN WE HAVE CLASS OUTSIDE?!

(if you have no idea what this quote is from, shame on you. best.show.ever)

For some reason, I love cover songs. From taking a Britney or Backstreet Boys song and adding a punk flare to a tv show passing by Nintendo theme songs (seriously do yourself a favor and download those albums, it really rocks), I don't really care. It's music to my ears and sometimes it's better than the original song. It's also because I secretly like teeny bopper music (think spice girls or any boy band) and i won't be thrown to the lions if it sounds like a punk band, something like that. To my defense, those songs are ridiculously catchy and it's an excuse to sing along when you're really drunk because you had a lot of drinks with an awesome friend.

For you old timers out there who used to party, remember the days when 6 hours of sleep is enough to recover from an all nighter of partying? Or when you came back home at 4am for 3 or 4 nights in a row and still feel like a million dollar on day 4 or 5? Yeah, I can't seem to do that anymore. Eating junk food at 3am? nope, can't do that either. Shouldn't the body learn that if you've been doing it for the past 10 years of your life, it should still be able to do it? Screw you Darwin, you lied, adaptation is a myth.

Speaking of TV shows, it has been my recent addiction. I have waaaay too many shows to follow (10 that i have to follow every week or i'll die, the rest are all fillers). Don't ask me to list them, it's too long. But is it really my fault for all the content that is available? Think about it, you are bored, it's raining outside. You feel like watching something funny? Turn on the comedy central and you got reruns of Seinfeld or Friends. You want something overly dramatic with terrible acting? Turn on ABC and you got myriads of soap opera. You want a teeny bopper show with actresses that can't act for their life? Go watch Melrose place. It's really not too hard, 90% of kids have access to cable. No cable? The internet is your best friend (torrents, streaming sites etc). No wonder why kids these days are getting dumber and dumber. I'm no exception ;)

oxymorons

There are some words which, put together makes funny and witty expressions, such as educational television, military intelligence or smart blondes (ok, not always true, but it's always funny to prove that those don't really exist :P). There are also some words that, when put together, makes something that makes absolutely no sense at all. Example:


Light beer (ex: Bud Lite, Coors Light)
Seriously, LIGHT beer? Not only it taste like watered down beer there is virtually NO difference in terms of calories. Take a look at this chart:

Bud Ice	Anheuser Busch	5.5%	148	8.9g
Bud Ice Light	Anheuser Busch	4.1%	110	6.5g
Bud Light	Anheuser Busch	4.2%	110	6.6g
Bud Light Lime	Anheuser Busch	4.2%	116	8.0g

The difference between Bud Ice and the light is.. 38 calories.. 38!!! Walk for 15 minutes and you just burned it all, take a nap (or start making out heavily) and you just burned what you saved in one drink. Plus you'll end up peeing more often if you are planning on getting plastered.


Light (ultra light) cigarettes
This is one of my favorite one because it makes absolutely no sense. What is this? a low fat cigarette? It will give you less cancer when you smoke it? Wrong, people who buy that stuff inhale the same amount of crap into their lungs. Do yourself a favor and save on words and go for the real deal.(not that i am promoting smoking or anything)


Healthy junk food
As oxymoronic as it may sound, I sometimes wish this is true. Imagine the idea of stuffing your face with chips, fries, poutine and anything that and not worry about gaining weight. Unfortunately, something that great will never happen (like having a threesome with Megan Fox AND Jessica Alba). But it seem that the junk food marketing department manage to come up with creative ways to trick consumers into eating "healthier" junk food. Take Baked Lays chips for example. The  baked version 120 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving (about 11 chips). Fried barbecue Lays harbor about 150 calories and 10 grams of fat. Sure it contains 7 grams less fat but mix that with beer and a few bags later, you've accumulated the equivalent of a big mac! yay!


It seems that cookies are no better (i gave up on this). Unless I want to eat stale and nasty cookies for the rest of my life, I'll just give up on the dream of a fat free cookie.


This caught my attention: healthy mini pizza roll! This has more than just one oxymoron: first, mini pizza.. let's be serious for a moment, mini pizza is a tease, just like how hot girls in a bar comes and seduce you and then when things get hot, BOOM, they blow you off. One bite and it's over, no more taste no more gooey cheese greatness. Second of all, healthy pizza. I have long debated with my friends and brother on how pizza actually contains all the 4 food groups: bread, dairy (cheese), fruits and veggies (if you go all dress you get red and green peppers, mushrooms and tomato is a fruit dammit!) and meat (pepperoni.. meat lovers pizza just has even more), therefore it's healthy. Unfortunately, we all know it's filled with fat and calories. There are several attempts to make it healthy but after reading the recipes, i'd rather eat cardboard than what they are suggesting.