Month: December 2013

Well, day two of jury duty selection went pretty much how day one went. I was asked a few questions but ultimately not selected in the end. I was told I could leave a bit early and that I was no longer needed again. I believe I’m exempt from jury duty for three years now but I could be wrong since I wasn’t actually selected for a trial this time.

Overall, it’s an interesting experience but since I wasn’t in a trial, I imagine I only got a brief taste of what it’s like to do have real juror duties. My only real feedback is that I wish there was a way to make it easier for citizens to be jurors. It’s an undeniable hassle involved to find ways to be excused from work, school, and other responsibilities. I don’t have a real answer to this, I just know this is a big stumbling block.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I was summoned for jury duty today. It had snowed the night before, the first show of this season. Luckily, the court-house is just a block from where I live, so I was able to walk to court. The roads were a bit of mess this morning.

There wasn’t a lot of interesting things to report today. After being processed, I waited around in a room full of other potential jurors. Some people got picked and they went away to be actual jurors. Others weren’t picked, for whatever reason, and dismissed. I wasn’t asked any questions and wasn’t selected but I was told to come back tomorrow because they might need me for another trial. I believe the justice system can be fascinating at times but today was definitely not one of them.

So during the summer, right near the beginning of the “summer of me”, I had a lot of attention from recruiters. I had just been laid off from PopCap, so people were using LinkedIn to figure out who had lost their jobs. Most recruiters were contacting me via LinkedIn messages, which means they weren’t even aware of what my e-mail address was. One company was a bit different.

About five minutes before my movie was about to start, I was standing in the concession line where I received a call on my cell phone. It was Google calling, specifically a Google recruiter. I was surprised to hear who was calling because my phone number isn’t listed publicly anywhere I know. I also didn’t send my resume to Google. My surprise last perhaps only a second when I realized it was Google and they probably know a whole lot more about me than I realize.

It then dawned on me that I actually did give my phone number to Google in some format. Because I have an Android phone, they of course know my phone number. Here’s the thing though, even though they have my number, the privacy of that number is set to be not visible to the public. It looks to me that some Google employees potentially have access to your information that isn’t visible to the public.

I never did ask the Google recruiter how he got my number. That question perhaps remained unasked because I didn’t want to know the answer. Be careful out there people!

I have returned home from the company party tonight. I was quite impressed with the venue and the selection of finger foods available. There were deep-fried risotto balls, crab cakes, an excellent cheese plate, a good selection of fruit, and other delights.

It being a Friday tomorrow though, people started to leave the party around 10pm. By the time I left around 10:30pm, there were very few people left. I even heard that there were some meetings scheduled for 9:30am the next morning, so I’m guessing people had to go home early because of that.

As I was walking out though, I did see a line of shots on the bar, so that gave me hope that a small but diehard group was determined to have fun well into the night.

The studio’s annual holiday party is tomorrow. The venue is a nice restaurant by the water downtown. As I’m still fairly new to the company, it will be one of these situations where I won’t be completely comfortable at the shindig. I’m old enough to know that with alcohol involved, it’s probably smart to remember I still have to work with these people the next day. It’s a bit weird the party is on a Thursday and that there’s a full expectation that employees are to be at work bright and early the next day but I won’t complain about that. The company is spending money to give the employees a fun evening, so I’m just thankful for that. You might recall, up until last year, it’d be a while since I’ve gone to one of these things.

Though it’s not official just yet, my technical director told me today that I’ve passed my probationary period with the studio and I’ll be made a full-time employee with all the benefits that go along with that. Though I’ve been around the block a few times now, I always have this ever so small doubt in the back of my mind if I’ll pass probation at every job I’m at. The doubt is always unnecessary since I wind up being fine in all cases but I try to never take anything for granted.

I haven’t had medical and dental benefits since the beginning of August so it’s nice to have those things again. Time to get a gold grill!

Almost every school night I say to myself I’m gonna go to bed early but that never happens. There are so many fun things to do while awake. Morning me always pays the price for late night me. Well gosh darn it, I’m gonna get to bed early tonight, if it’s by only ten minutes. Wish me luck!

Last week I didn’t use my desktop at all since I couldn’t access the Internet with it. I previously wrote how something was busted on my motherboard. A modern computer is really quite useless without a network connection. I had to buy a network adapter card to stick into my computer. This necessitated going to Best Buy to get one. Because it was raining when I went, I chose to cut through Metrotown to get to BB. It was super crowded in the mall. I dislike the subhumans that seem to hang out at Metrotown at the best of times but with the holiday shopping in full swing, it irked me even more.

Once I got to BB, it was fine as that store wasn’t that crowded at all. I was able to pick up the card and get out of there in less than 15 minutes. These cards are getting rarer by the day, since almost all network functionality is now built into the motherboard. Since that part of my computer is now busted, it more resembles a computer from 2001. I’m hoping I won’t need to install a 200 Mb hard drive next.

The Internet returned for me just in time to see that Ron Burgundy indeed did make it to Winnipeg.