pencrypted

Oh wow, this last month has been a nightmare. So many things going on, so little time.

I’ve been meaning to update this the past couple weeks, but as I said, I’ve been extremely busy, and when I did get a lul, I just didn’t have the motivation to sit in front of my computer again and type this out.

Anyways, three weeks back, Iain called me on a Saturday morning wondering if I would like to go for a spin in the new 451 at to Performance Cars - Mercedes in St. Catherines. Looking outside and seeing it was sunny out and cloudless, I agreed to go with him and he arrived at my apt to pick me up shortly thereafter. When we arrived at Perf Merc Iain was given the key to a white and silver passion cabrio and told that it was all ready. Off we went.

I must say, the car itself sounds magnificent, a very nice engine note. The acceleration is light years ahead of the 450 CDI, which should come as no shock since it has a 1L 3 Cyl 71HP Petrol engine in the back, 75% more power. However, I found the handling seemed softened a bit, and the braking doesn’t seem to be as hard as the 450. The lag between gear shifts is still there and I honestly don’t think there is any difference. It may be a faster shift, but since there is no torque up where you would shift, there is the lag as it spins the engine back up. Either way, the fit and finish is a lot better in this revision, the only thing I have to complain about there is the fact that a) it is not as quirky and b) the padding around the A pillars makes the interior feel more constrained compared to the 450. I would definitely buy one now if my 450 suffered some terrible misfortune. Oh, quick note, when we got back to the dealership, it turns out that there was NO dealer plates attached to the car, and Iain was driving it like he stole it…must have been funny to see fro someone else’s point of view.

<doddles away from writing for 2 hours>

OK! The big news, I suppose, involves work. My boss, who taught me 3/4 of what I know, has been let go. This in essence means that I am in charge of IT (which is evident by my new title of IT Coordinator). However, I must say that the day off his dismissal was the mostnerve racking day of my life, I felt bad for him, but I also had to lock him out of EVERYTHING he had access to. Usually this is no issue, since most employees have limited access, however since he was head of IT, he had access to all the systems. It took about a good 3 hours that night to ensure the doors were all locked. Then I had the busiest week i have ever seen, I don’t think I was at my desk more than 10 minutes at a time, all these loose ends to correct, all sorts of things that we are finding out. GAH.

It is just now slowly…well slowing down. But not for long it seems. Part of my previous responsibilities were to cover the processing of incoming data. This is a full time job in and of itself. The issue I now face is that the data guy will be leaving on Friday for a weeks vacation…I will then have to do his job, my job, my old boss’ job, while preparing to go to chicago in a week.

Oh yes, I need to mention about Chicago. We have been their only IT support for the last god knows how long. it turns out that NO ONE WHO SUPPORTS THEM HAS EVER BEEN DOWN THERE. We have no clue what their network looks like, nothing. So we need to go down in a week and a bit to map out everything and try and bring some semblance to the facility.

To sum up my last 2.5 weeks, I can honestly say I have never felt so needed, so useful, so stressed, and so happy. Organization is now comming to my work life, and I smile everytime I think about my job. I now have a purpose.

My what a long post for me….this is why I need to keep updated more often.

Well, catching up on all the work I missed while sick. Most importantly are some drafts of a brochure. I used Photoshop to do some mock ups of some designs that I was asked to produce, as I can work a lot faster in there than in InDesign.

After I had a few mockups I wanted to ensure that I could put them into place in InDesign. One of the effects was a chiseled steel look on some text,with a brushed aluminium background. I know, not my favourite, but none the less. Seeing how InDesign won’t be able to render it, I knew I had to put the background in as a *.tif. The text however, should be made in InDesign natively, as to aid in certain changes that will be made to it’s wording further on down the line.

Well, I set up the background image exactly as it should be, set up the text, and the went to add the text effects. Bezel and emboss worked fine, however, as soon as I added the color burn to the object, it failed miserably. Seems Indesign doesn’t like color burn, as all other transparency effects worked appropriately with the bezel. Alas, I am stuck until I figure out another way to get the effect. I don’t want to throw the text in as an image, as scaling will be miserable.

The settings below are the exact same in InDesign as in Photoshop.

Well, we finally got the first batch of snow that has decided to stick around. I can’t say I am displeased that it took this long, I love when there is snow on the ground. The only downside I can see is that people drive like absolute idiots. This was, of course, also the first real snow I had taken my car out in. It performed reasonably well, didn’t feel like i was in any danger due to traction. Only got stuck once , and that was when i stopped at a stop sign, going uphill, on sheer ice. Traction control handled the car surprisingly well, and righted any errors on my part. The only downfall to the car so far is that since it’s a diesel, it hardly heats up at all while sitting idle. Hence it is really a task to clear the windscreen of frost.

Work has been really busy these last few weeks, had two major brochures to get to print.One of them was kind of sprung on me with a two week deadline. Worked late a couple nights to get the necessary shots of the tools/machines. Overall I took over 2500 photos in the last 3 weeks. Grah! But they are finally done, and will be off to print on Monday hopefully.

Over the last few months, my friends have slowly been disappearing, I guess you could say. I haven’t seen a single one of them, minus Em, in the last 2 months at least. I let it slide at first, since they are busy with school. I can understand. But its now been TWO months. Even if i message them most do not respond. I’m just fed up with it. I would rather have friends that i can actually t alk to and have relationships with other than”XXXXXXXX is Busy”. I had originally planned on having a new years party this year again, but I have since decided against it Why would I have a party for friends who I only ever see once every blue moon, and every other time I try and catch up with them / hang out, end up being blown off. The only time in the last 2 months that it even looked like something was going to be happening, I wasn’t even notified when it was called off. Hence, I am tired of even trying to make plans, don’t feel like wasting my time anymore. It is time for new friends.

Oh, I also need to take a new photo for the top banner. Need a new wintery one.