My Canada includes smoked meat!

 
I don't miss Korea. When I lived in Korea I thought every day "I'm going to miss this with a passion when I move home". But I don't. I miss the subway. I miss dumpster diving. But I've been so focused on restarting my life in Canada after 8 years away I haven't really missed Korea. I'm happy every day I go to work. I'm busy at work. It's not like Seattle. I like being able to communicate fluently with my coworkers.

I miss my GF of course but I know I'll see her again. The only real pain I feel is knowing I'll probably never see my gf's nephew again. I mean I'll see him again but he'll be older. He won't really remember me. He was just such a cute little 4 year old boy. He used to tell his mother "I like Uncle Karl more than my own father." I couldn't speak any Korean he could understand and I couldn't understand any of his Korean but we had that "evil uncle" bond. He just knew when he was with me, I would show him 18 ways to make a big mess with tap water.

It's just very hard to place the pain I feel in my heart. I just miss how he'd spazz out with excitement when he'd see me. I miss buying him ice cream. I miss his laughter. This really sucks.

( Jina's nephew )

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and sort out my photos. Here are my last batch of Trucker Mom and Jae Hoon photos. Sigh.

( huge batch )

( library humor )

You know today I had a McFlurry. It's the first time I had a McFlurry. I'm not even sure when they invented them.

From the feast or famine file: after I signed with the Toronto company a Windsor company made me an offer. Potentially for more money than the Toronto job. And I'd be paying Windsor rents. Hrmph. I gave them a counter offer, $5000 higher and said "if you can swing that, I'll put in my notice at the Toronto job at the end of next week".

Hell, screw rent. I could almost buy a place cash in Windsor. (Of course with today's market in Windsor, don't ever plan on selling...)

The Toronto job has an unusually long probation, 4 months (well, not as bad as another company I was at that I think was 6 months). I figure, however, if a company can turf you at any time without cause during probation, you can turf yourself in those 4 months without a word of explanation either.

I was at funeral tonight and I kept bowing to people. And then at a job interview, I bowed several times to my prospective employer (even though he was a whitey).

 
The second interview was indeed the "he's not an axe murderer" interview, although it was a bit more of grilling than I expected. Long and short of it, I got the job. I start next Monday (day after Mother's Day). It's up near Steeles and Jane. I also signed a lease for an apartment at the Old Mill subway station, literally half a block away. I think the first month until I get settled I'll drive up there then explore taking the Jane 35 bus.

( apartment photos )

This was moderately funny:

I got an email from a recruiter with a tech writer position in Oregon. I think he/she was confused about something. Maybe just zoomed in on my job experience in Seattle. I wrote this friendly email back. I don't like when recruiters blow me off or I never hear anything about a job I apply for.

Hi Robin,

Sounds very interesting but I'm actually in Eastern Canada. I did work
in Washington state for a few years under an H1B visa. A technical
writer can get a TN visa if there's a job offer. However, I'm sure the
client would rather hire someone more local. I really would like to
work for a hardware company. I kind of like the idea of working for a
company that makes something real.

If the client really, really wants to hire a Canadian on the other
side of the continent, I'm game. But if not, I understand. Anyway,
thanks for the interest. If the market is such that there's a big need
to bring in tech writers under H1B or TN visas, I'm more than happy to
be considered for such a position now or in the near future. The west
coast (OR/WA) is a great place to live and work. And I seem to recall
I listen to a great podcast that comes out of Hillsboro, OR. So it
pains me I probably can't really be considered for this position.

Best Regards,

Karl Mamer

I got a second interview at a software company in Toronto (around Jane/Steeles). A good sign.

This could be

a) You're our #1 choice, we just want to pony you in front of the upper ups and ease their fears you're not an axe murderer interview

b) We can't decide between 3 people, so we want you to do a test

Really, nothing I hate more than testing. I dunno. I guess so many people BS about their abilities it's good to test skills.

Anyway, I like the a) scenario but I can't complain about b).

I'd either a) move near jane/bloor b) move near Islington/Bloor. I could either take a Jane bus straight up north or use my car and jump on the 427 to the 401 to the 400 to Steeles to the Dick to the Doc to the phd...(points if you know the reference).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalding_Gray

Geez. I really missed this one while in Korea.

I'm going through some old CDs looking for examples of documentation I wrote at jobs previous. Got to put together some examples. I found this scan I made of me being quoted in Frank magazine. If you don't know Frank magazine, well, it's really hard to explain. If you know Frank, you know as long as they're not detailing your tryst with a hooker, it was considered a high honor in Canada to be noticed by Frank.



Yeah it was in cliche-o-matic but I think I made the best use of the cliche.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_(magazine)

http://www.yrad.com/pod

Alright what do I do next? Corporate podcast consulting. It's the new Chili's. It's where business happens.

A kid in my class was trying to write the lyrics to a song called Lies by Big Bang. I played dumb. I claimed it was the lyrics to the sequel song to Arirang (a traditional Korean song). I claimed the sequel was called Arirang 2: The Quickening.

I did not expect any of my kids to get the reference.

I tried to spend a 1000 won note I had in my pocket today. Looked like a $5 bill.

Compare:

http://www.banknoteworld.com/banknotes/korea_south/KoreaSouthPNew-1000Won-(2007)-donatedfvt_f.jpg

http://www.pokeraddict.net.au/userimages/user3148_1168313835.jpg

You can see my confusion. The woman at Wendy's picked it right out and was like "what the hell is this!"

I'm watching CBC. They're talking about capturing that child killer in the forests of BC. Some tracker guy who makes Locke look like a punter who also looks like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren found him hiding out in the wilds. Anyway, the reporter live on scene sort of stumbles over her words and says "bush bush in the bush".

Suddenly Musique's "In the Bush" comes flooding back to me.

Jesus. I need a job.


The tracker:

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=450520

I mean look at this guy.

Hmmm my conspiracy skeptic podcast has exceeded 3,000 downloads. Well, ep4 (about Alex Jones and Endgame). But eps 1 and 5 are also getting towards the 3K mark.

http://www.yrad.com/cs/

In some ways I'm disappointed my Seoul Survivors podcast didn't do better. The most downloads were for ep 9 at 1,700 downloads.

( mildly not work safe )

Alright so I'm putting up my family film festival videos. It's pretty spotty. But one by my brother, cousin, and his wife is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QkSC6RayG0

Twice now it's been subscribed to by men who seem to have a sexual fetish for women getting pies in their face. Here's one of them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/giglio33012

(Probably not work safe...)

I mean I've been following the sex with cars guy for years now:

http://www.textfiles.com/sex/sex-cars.faq

(Probably not work safe...)

So I suppose I should not be surprised there are men out there into women taking it on the face with a pie.

Jesus.

If anyone is a member of that tech/job hunter "facebook" LinkedIn add me at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlmamer

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0857/almondwindmill/1.jpg
http://canadiandelicacies.com/cookies/peekfrean.jpg

Mmmmmm