Month: March 2021

One year ago, most of us were wondering how all of this was going to turn out. There was and continues to be worry and uneasiness. I am, however, excited to report that tomorrow my Dad will get registered for his first vaccine shot. If all goes well, he should be getting that shot within seven days.

Now, I could mention that in many jurisdictions around the world, people several decades younger than my father are readily getting the vaccine. It’s difficult not to ask why some places are moving faster with vaccinations than here in British Columbia. Complaining, however, won’t magically make more vaccines appear. I am just thankful that my Dad will be getting his dose of a vaccine soon. Since my Mom is a bit younger, she’ll receive her shot a few weeks after.

Once both my parents are fully vaccinated, I’ll be able to relax a bit more.

If you know me, you know I love poop stories. Did you know that in a 1990 World Cup match, Gary Lineker defecated while playing on the field? If you didn’t, then the above video describes the whole incident. How does one keep playing after that?

I guess everyone is doing it this week, reflecting on a year of living in a global pandemic. Right off the top, I recognize that other people have way more to complain about. People have lost their loved ones, jobs, and businesses. At the same time, very few people thrived during the last 365 days. I think most people just tried to cope, adapt, and survive. I fall into that category. As I reflect on the year, if I had to live it again, there are definitely a few things I do differently.

I’m tired of living in a pandemic. I know with the vaccines coming or already here for some, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nevertheless, we all had to live through this crappy year to do it. I am thankful for some things during the last year but in general, I wish none of us had to go through it.

My greatest wish is the next few months will bring some much deserved happiness to us all.

We are almost coming up to the one-year anniversary of me working from home. Some of you might remember that as soon as I started working from home, my desktop computer decided to stop working. It seems like that was a million years ago but it was actually just a year. What a year it has been.

My damn computer plagued me for about a month. Imagine trying to deal with your first global pandemic, toilet paper shortages, and also not being able to work efficiently. Well, it appears that my computer also has a sense of nostalgia. I woke up this morning to start my workday and turned on my computer. Rather than be greeted by the familiar Windows 10 logon screen, I was stuck in a BIOS screen which stated my computer had encountered a BIOS error.

I know my computer has no sense of irony or has any context of what happened a year ago but it’s hard not to think the universe has some sorta sense of humour. Reading the error message more carefully, it said that whatever settings it had before must have gotten corrupted but I had the option to load some optimized default settings and then it would try to boot into Windows again. I decided to go that route and luckily, it loaded into Windows fine.

The entire workday was normal after that. I’m hoping today was just a temporary error but I’m concerned that the error message popped up in the first place.

On Friday, I went to Ikea for the first time in well over a year. I was not there to go inside store however. I made a purchase online and then arranged to pick up my items securely in the parking lot. This was the first time I used Ikea’s collection point service and I was quite impressed.

After you pay for your order online, you’re given a choice of time windows to select when you want to go get your order. In many cases, same day pick-up is possible. I chose a two-hour window the next day. You’re given clear instructions on where to go once you arrive and where to park. My Ikea has designated spots and you cannot park directly next to another car. The spots are numbered and you click on a link on your order, where you enter in the spot you’re at. That begins the process of an Ikea worker bringing out your items.

I waited about five minutes and a masked Ikea employee pushed a cart with my stuff out to my car. They looked at my order number on my phone and then just left the cart with me. It was all very safe and very distanced. I loaded all my stuff into my trunk and then returned the cart to a holding area. It was all very quick, convenient, and safe. I was impressed at how streamlined it was. They should continue having this option even when all of “this” is over.

I am coming off a four-day weekend and had all my work notifications turned off on my phone, no Slack or e-mail. It was great. I was away from work long enough that I forgot what I was working on before the weekend started. That’s a good sign I was away long enough.

Not looking forward to going back but it was nice having the time off.

I have had some junk in my apartment and in my storage locker that I’ve wanted to get rid of for a long time. I had pieces of a mattress frame sitting in my living room for over a year. My old vacuum cleaner taking up space in a closet. I had two computer cases that I had no use for in my storage closet downstairs. A toaster oven that I had no use for. A broken hot water dispenser that I didn’t make time to get rid of.

I suppose individually, I could have posted these on Facebook for sale or taken some of them to a local thrift store but collectively that would have added up to a ton of work. Because I was lazy, I never did get started on any of that.

So, this week, I just decided to call a junk removal service. Their quote seemed reasonable and on Friday, two dudes came to my apartment to take away my junk. It was quite convenient. They called me twenty minutes before arriving. This allowed me to take all of my junk out into the hallway of my apartment, which kept them out of my home, making it safer for both me and the junk removal dudes. They took all of my junk in one trip. The whole procedure took less than ten minutes from start to finish.

It definitely was worth the money I paid because it saved me both time and effort. Both my storage closet and apartment are now less cluttered.

Did you know that tomorrow is “Employee Appreciation Day“? I did not. I didn’t even know it existed until this week. It is a thing though and my current team is giving everyone half a day off on Friday in recognition. I decided to also take half a day of vacation tomorrow as well and make it as full day off. Not only that, I also took Monday off, so it’s a four-day weekend for me!

I wonder if any of my loyal readers is also observing Employee Appreciation Day. If so, please let me know in a comment below!

As far as deepfakes go, this one where Tobey Maguire’s face is put on Tom Holland works quite well. Interestingly, if you go the opposite way, where you put Tom Holland’s face on Tobey’s, it looks way worse. I’m not sure if it’s because of the haircut or what.