Better Than Bottom of the Barrel.

     I've just started a new job two weeks ago. So far, I think it's fantastic; I get to answer phones and enter hours and do whatever other office things and such. It's pretty fun for me so far. There's a lot to learn already which is pretty overwhelming, but I'm sure I can survive and continue here for quite a while. I think the most trouble I'm having so far is that we don't have a proper trainer. I do think we're learning things pretty well, but we're actually supposed to have a mentor to shadow us for some time rather than an associate who also has to keep up with her own work.

     Regardless of that, I feel like I'm capable of doing what is needed of me so far. I think it's really just a matter of doing the work on a regular basis and getting to know how everything works. I think in time, things will make more and more sense as I use the system, solve problems and complete required tasks. Everything seems to be quite organized around here, I just have to learn where everything is.

     I'm looking forward to continuing to work here in the future and learning to do a great job of what they need. It really makes me happy to finally be working somewhere that pays more than minimum wage and rather than being an atmosphere of "do everything faster", it's an atmosphere of "do what you need to please the customer" (even if it takes an hour). At least... that's what it seems like to me.

     Both excitement and overwhelmed nervousness flow throughout me right now. I need to figure out how to properly reallocate my time so that I don't feel so rushed and short on time. I think the future looks good.

Have a wonderful day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

    

Upcoming Midterms

     Next week will be my first set of tests for this course. I guess I'll find out whether or not I'm truly learning anything in my classes. It's a little bit exciting to get a chance to see how well I'm assimilating information. So far a lot of the information has been a review of things I've already known or previously learned, but there's still things that I need to go over and practice before I'll feel perfectly ready for my tests. If I do well on these tests, then I'll feel much better about more schoolwork coming up in the future.

     That's really my random thought of the day right now. Besides that, I hope everybody has a wonderful day. I know I've been quite happy recently even though I've had to get up so early in the morning. Actually, I really never thought I'd ever be a morning person, but I do find it much easier to wake up in the morning now since working at the kennel.

     Anywhos, that's a story for another day. Have a wonderful day everybody. You're all fantastic! ^_^

~ Kyle

If I Can't Stream, I'll Post To YouTube

     Hey everybody! So I've really been wanting to stream lately in some of my spare time, but it's just not something that I'm able to do. Apparently with our internet and cable both on the same line, it's just not possible to get a faster connection. They've offered to put in a second line, but considering we're going to be moving in the near future, I don't think that really makes much sense. The new fiber stuff that makes InfiNet possible with SaskTel is pretty much completely done in Moose Jaw... except for the area that we currently live in.

     So, failing that, I've been recording some videos in my spare time to post to YouTube so that I still have some sort of way to share my entertainment value with the rest of the world. If you're looking for something to listen to, or watch, or whatever, consider checking out my channel on YouTube. I'm currently posting some gaming videos, but hopefully soon I'll be able to post another song. I also have plans to read a book or two and see if people are interested in that.

     I've made a page on my blog with links to the Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne parts that I've posted so far. You can check it out at  http://intronerdedliving.blogspot.ca/p/age-of-wonders-ii_5.html. Please let me know what you think of my videos!

     Have a great day everybody! You're all awesome! ^_^

~ Kyle

Montreal Pitbulls

     So I've been hearing a lot about this lately and to be honest, it really makes me a little bit angry. I absolutely love dogs. I think they're one of the best creatures in the world and I would happily have my own pack of them if I could. Hearing about this sort of thing going on really saddens me that so many people in the world really don't understand the nature of dogs.

     I've heard it said that Pitbulls are so much more aggressive and dangerous than other dogs. I would have to agree that Pitbulls can be dangerous. They were bred for certain traits such as having large and powerful jaws. Yes, this makes them very dangerous if one were to attack you, but no, this does not make them more aggressive than other dogs. A dog is not born wanting to attack and kill humans. A dog is born being able to be trained to reinforce good behaviours and to not do unwanted bahaviours. What makes a dog dangerous and unstable so that it would attack a person is being in an unhealthy environment, whether that means being abused, or just having an owner who has absolutely no idea what they're doing.

     Speaking of having no idea what they're doing... there are so many people who think a pitbull is easily identifiable just by the shape of it's head or body. This is so incredibly untrue.

Can you tell which one of these fifteen dogs is the pitbull? I'm sure some of you can, but not everybody knows exactly what to look for. And there are some cases where a dog is in fact a pitbull, but won't look like what you'd expect. Visual identification is not recommended by the scholarly community, so why people decide they should do it anyways is beyond me.

     I'm really not sure where to go with this besides the fact that this topic really upsets me. People who don't understand how dogs work are making laws about them when the scientific facts staring them in the fact tell them they're wrong. Yet they make these terrible decisions anyways. It seems like there's a lot of questionable things going on in the world right now, and I almost feel like the majority of them are being done just because people want something to fight about.

     Anybody who's reading this, please PLEASE educate yourself on how dogs work and why labeling a dog based on how they look is a poor choice. It's basically equivalent to labeling a person based on their skin colour or how tall they are. I currently have some experience working at a kennel where I've personally seen some of our best behaved dogs are in fact pitbulls. The worst dogs we have? Usually unfixed males are most aggressive, especially when near other unfixed males. The next worst dogs are ones who are clearly not trained well; ones who don't know their own names. In fact, I've been bitten at work by one one dog so far... by an itty bitty little shih tzu.

     Have a wonderful day everybody.

~ Kyle

Blizzard is dropping the Battle Net brand.

     After years and years of playing some of my favourite games on the good old Battle.net, Blizzard will be dropping the brand and changing it to be Blizzard Tech. To me, this doesn't really change much except to put some nostalgic thoughts of playing games like Diablo II online with friends and other random strangers across the internet.

     I'm always intrigued when it comes to changing up branding and seeing where things go from there. It always seems to be a bit of a gamble to me. That, and I see some brands like Coke changing it up quite often. I can't imagine having an entire brand rely on me coming up with some sales-pitch with the hopes that it captivates the target audience. There's the very real chance that it fails miserably and you actually lose customers in the process.

     In this case (for long-time customers like myself), I imagine it'll be a little bit weird for a bit. Ultimately though, I think it makes a ton of sense; and I think a little bit of weirdness is a minor concern considering new customers will have an easier time adjusting to and finding the new system.

     Really, this is simply a thought-provoking announcement to me. Something which makes me remember the past with games like StarCraft and WarCraft, and look forward to the future. Oh how I love watching the beautiful progression of technology since my birth in 1992. It's amazing to me how I've grown up with it and through it and I cannot imagine how older generations must think about it when they remember their past.

     That's all for now. Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle

Nobody Teaches You This Stuff In School

     So recently I've come into a couple issues when it comes to money and things. There's a lot of backstory to it, but I'm not going to go into all of that. Now that I think of it, I'm not really sure what I want to talk about or how to say it. All I know is that I'm just a little bit disappointed and the only thing that can be done is just to find more regularity and stability. If you have ever lived paycheck to paycheck, then I would imagine you'd know exactly how I'm feeling. Everything is going great, maybe even looking up and like you're going to get on top. Then suddenly you get a little bit messed up. The good news for us right now is that it can still be fixed, whether we get help or not.

     Usually I have a much better idea of how I want to order things and link things together, but today I'm just not really sure. I guess I wish handling money and making decisions with it was something they taught you in school. If you're really paying attention, they kind of teach you about how interest works when it comes to credit cards and mortgages. Nobody tells you how to decide which bill to pay when you can only pay for one of them.

     There's a lot of things we feel kids don't get taught in school and a lot of ways we feel like school doesn't encourage children in their true interests. Hence, Carley and I have agreed that we'd like to home-school our children. Yes, it would be a lot of work, but that's the kind of thing Carley really enjoys doing; I would also love the ability to encourage my children to put their own time into learning more about something that really interests them without it feeling like they HAVE to because an assignment is due in a week.

     I don't know, I guess today is really just more of some kind of rant or vent than an ordered idea as usual. My apologies if this isn't the usual post you like to read, but every once in a while it's nice to get things off your chest. I'll make up for this with a post on an actual interesting topic sometime soon. I know there have been some things to do with space recently that I'd love to give my opinion on (not that anybody NEEDS my opinion on things).

     Anywhos, have a wonderful day and stay awesome everybody out there! You're all the best in some way. Keep doing what you do best! ^_^

~ Kyle

First Post of September

     You know, I do this sort of thing all the time where I say "I should post more" and I then continue on to forget what I said and get caught up in everything else. However, now that I'm building a routine, I think this may actually be more of a reasonable idea.

     I'm still working at Paws Claws 'N Tails and I'm loving it. Spending so much time around all those happy and friendly dogs, and I get plenty of time to talk to myself and wander around. I absolutely love it. I would also in theory have plenty of time to go over the things that I've read in my studies. My favourite shift to work so far is the closing shift where I get to drive the dogs home. Seeing how happy people are to get their fuzzy friends back is just so nice each and every day.

     A little side-note here... Seeing as I'm unable to live-stream with our current internet connection, I'm planning to upload some recordings to YouTube in the near future. All I really need is a half-hour video every once in a while. At least that would be better as a content producer than doing nothing at all. I'll definitely concoct something and see how it goes.

     Gotta go! Have a great one everybody!

~ Kyle Welykholowa