Sep., A Better Month

Sep. is over and so does my Cooper Test practice for this month. This month witnessed a better month compared to the previous one for two reasons:

1- I practiced outside, not on a track
2- The number of exercises was increased to 10.
At the same time this practice had a disadvantage. That's not knowing the length of every lap of the track! I assume it's 200 m. but I can't be sure. For this reason this month's chart is depicted based on the number of the lap that I approximately ran in 12 min. which is actually the optimum time that 1.5 mile should be done. It can be seen easily that the chart could be turned to a real one by just knowing the distance I ran in every lap.
One problem I had was having a sore knee. J. H., whom I introduced earlier told me to use a sole. I got one from London Drugs and worked well but in no way helped me run much faster. Now Oct. is coming and I guess I'm going inside again. furthermore I have to start my work out.
(Photo: Linear chart of month of Sep. based on Day-Lap concept)

Employement: A Year Later

I received my annual evaluation from my superior officer last week. Doesn't seem fair to me but I didn't disagree regardless of the fact that he encouraged me to comment. I found complaining useless. I thought if I, the one who's the most enthusiast among the whole squad, gets this review, what would be the lazy bastards' who just horse around?! The good thing is now he finds me suitable to perform as a supervisor while giving me an about average score! And this is after missing at least 2 to 3 supervisory positions! I bring a comparison chart here, seen above. The categories are Knowledge, Suitability, Skills and Teamwork. The scores are Needs Improvement, Somewhat agree, Agree and Strongly Agree which are marked consecutively 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 by me. Have a look. Ups and downs can be seen! And the performance is compared with the 3-months evaluation.

(Photo: I used MS Excel to illustrate the quarter and annual performance comparison and came up with this)

Americans in Canada

If you just drive around or go to public parking lots of the big stores like Superstore, Safeway, WalMart, etc these days in southern Surrey and possibly other cities in British Columbia, you'll see many vehicles registered in the US, states like California, Washington, Iowa, Arizona and others as well. Some say they're visitors/tourists, some say they earn in the US and spend in Canada. Either one sounds delicious to me. But the truth might be far-fetched.

Many of the are the people who ran away from devastated economy and huge unemployment rate, I assume. Not knowing that Canada's situation is not much better than theirs!

I hope Canada's Economic Action Plan is working otherwise news like deficit until 2015 and " economy will start being recovered in 2013 " should be revised. The temporary-migrated Americans probably don't know that Canada's economy is completely dependent on the US's and more than %80 of Canadian products are exported to the US and while America is suffering, Canada can't be recovered. The only thing that helped Canada to stay stronger and partially unharmed is its banking system which is, happily, different and independent from the US's. Let's see if the action plan works. We're waiting and we hope the opposition give the Government enough time to exercise its plans.

Strange Dream

I'm in no word a superstitious person but the night before I had a dream that looks strange to me a bit. I can't recall most of it but the main structure is clearly visible.

I dreamed that I met my father somewhere and he was driving a very nice big pick-up truck, something like one of these new 2010 Ford F-150 that we all see the commercial on TV everyday. We were talking and he was fine. It was a very nice and comforting conversation. I don't know the topic, though. And then he got in and drove away at the end of the talk; didn't take me with him! It's been a long time since last time I had a dream of my father. It was may be 2003 when I dreamed of him last time. I don't know what that means but The Lady says that's not bad because he didn't take me at the end.

Foreclosure House

My new colleague is an American-Chinese-Vietnamese(!) fellow from San Fransisco, a former SFPD constable. He's here because he's recently married and his wife lives here with her family. I never knew someone who had a well-paid job down the States, leaving it just for a woman but love happens. He says that his pay-stub used to be as much as $6000 every two weeks(!) I wonder why he quit that job. He says the job is too stressful and talks about 20 hours straight shift, chasing suspects down the road or running after them, going to suicide scenes where someone chopped off his own head using a chainsaw.

" I bought a big foreclosure house for $250,000 by putting down just $15,000. The house originally worth about $1,000,000 and could be sold as much as $400,000 because of the slight recovery" he said. " It's rented out for $1,700 a months now" he added. He receives a total of $1,500 every month as his pension for the next 10 years. I still don't understand why he's here. How would someone who lived like that, works a security guard in a commercial building? That's what he used to do back in Aug.? He's trying to go back to policing business but he says that he has to stay in Canada for three years before they let him do that. That's again odd. I know British police officers who came to Calgary 3 or 4 years ago and all CPS asked them was to do POPAT. Other qualification exams of course will be performed but I don't think they had to stay until they get their citizenship. He said: We train Canadian police but he had no idea what POPAT is! That all lead me to not believe whatever he says. He's a nice guy after all! That's what is important.

Old Cars

We went for a ride yesterday morning and on the way back home noticed a car in the nearby Auto mall, a kind of like outdoor exhibition. Old American vehicles were on display, from three major automakers, cars as old as 1932! I pulled over and we spent few minutes there. It was amazing. I told myself that these all were belong to the golden era! The time that gasoline was cheap and Americans ruled! Ford, GM and somehow Chrysler each had a share in North American and world market and benefited a lot.

Look at them now: They are all devastated, in the verge of bankruptcy! Japanese and Korean companies have big share of the market, provide good quality and low price and become stronger everyday.

Anyways it was nice to see cars from Laurel & Hardy time to Al Capone's and others. I put a few here, hope you enjoy as well.

(Photo: Three of the old vehicles which were being shown are pictured here, from left a nice coloured Mercury, an old Chevy and a very old old one, possibly a Ford. Look at the emblems on the hoods of Mercury and Chevy, they look very alike. So I don't know if the re-builders have the same taste or this is an original thought which is a little far from reality. I hope publishing these photos is nothing against the new terms and conditions of Picasa and at the same time doesn't violate the privacy of the vehicle owners)

How to Save Millions of Dollars?

The current Government, the Conservative just was threatened by the Liberals to have a new election. It's irrational to me regardless of how the Government is doing now. That will use millions of dollars in a situation like now which we're in deficit and will remain in this shit for the next few years, some say until 2015!

I believe the NDP did a great job denying any coalition with the Liberals or anybody else. Jack Layton said that his party would back up the minority Government if the Conservatives do some of the things they have promised to do to ease life on people. Here's what the Government will do soon:

1- Extend the EI benefit for another 20 weeks (5 more months! Wow! You really want to be unemployed now!)

2- Omitting tax for home buyers. (I don't know the detail, don't ask me. I'm not buying anything!)

3- Helping the farmers who are suffering form the consequences of the recent drought.

That will keep smile on Harper's lip this Christmas! There will be likely no election after the Olympics and will save millions of dollars. Some say the election now and then is good because the creates temporary jobs and reduces unemployment rate. But what the morons don't understand, regardless of the fact that they have to give enough time to the Government to do something, is that election wastes millions of dollars of the taxpayers money which could be spent or invested some place better. The 2008 National Election in Jan. of that year cost an approximate amount of $300,000,000. Considering Canada spend millions on Afghanistan mission, no sane person would want another election.

(Photo: This cartoon chosen from mapleleafweb.com depicts the money was wasted in 2008 National Election)

The New Era of Cooper Test Practice

I had my third day of outdoor Cooper Test practice today. As I've recently moved to a new place and am no longer close to a gymnasium, I decided to continue my practices in a nearby soccer field. It's obviously very different from treadmill drills. Here wind, sun, temperature and the track are all factors. I, at the moment don't know how long each lap is but what I do is I just jog for almost 12 minutes. I might measure it soon. The track is bumpy(!), made of asphalt and weed has come out at every corner! But it's good until the time that I find a weight room, treadmill and indoor track.

(Photo: This picture of the soccer field is taken using my mobile phone. I never liked mobile phone cameras, only use them in emergencies but forgot to take that and used my mobile instead)

Good Attitude

There's this guy that I know, he's old. S. T. He's not in a good situation. He just bought an apartment condo last year, worth some $220,000 obviously pays monthly, owes over $4000 on his credit card, drives an old 80's sedan, you name it!

He's into his second marriage, consumes depression medication and has not heard from his children from his first marriage for years. They basically left him for good. He told me that once his daughter wrote him about her step father and asked him if he was going to heaven. That was the time of the guy's death. S. T.'s answer was that he had no idea. That made the girl sad and agitated. She expected him to have a positive answer on that. That was the end of conversation. The girl changed her surname to the dead guy and never spoke to him again. Then the that was the son's turn! He backed up his sister and S. T. and him are not in speaking terms ever since.

What else has happened to him lately? (Those all were not enough!) He made a few bad mistakes at work and the employer degraded him. That costs him a few hundred dollars every month which is bad for someone in his position.

But listen to this: The other day we were talking and he said that he supported two kids, one in South America and one in Africa, paying some $30 and $40 for each! I was amazed! I asked him why he was doing that while he was in such a shit himself, especially when he was in the verge of losing his job a few weeks ago? His answer was short and simple but said it all: They are in worse situation that us!

Nacho

We were thinking of something new to try at home yesterday and thought of making some Nacho. So we got a bag of Tostito crisps, we had a jar of Kraft CheeseWhiz, diced a few tomato before broiling it F. F. said lets try this pepper. It was a little green paper. looked like a banana pepper. When the top was cut, we smelled and that was really good. Then we tasted with the tip of the tongue and sensed nothing really hot. So it was cut, diced and put over the crisps with the other ingredients.

It took only about 5 minutes to get ready and that was delicious. But then after a few bites we realized that we had added a Jalapeno! It was so hot that I started sweating like a pig but I couldn't help eating.

Anyways if you need fast snack it's something really good. Just make sure that you put bell pepper instead of Jalapeno if you don't like it hot. Also it is very fattening. All that crisps and cheese, they are sources of carbohydrate and fat. Go easy on them.

(Photo: Your Nacho platter might look like this if lighting is poorly designed But tastes really good!)

Aug. of 09 Results

Sep. is here and we're going to have our fall started. Aug. was supposed to be the comeback months and although I had a good start, I was not able to make it more than six days, with one failure!

(Photo: The chart shows the results for the Cooper Test practice in the last month. The big slump is the result of failure to finish the practice at almost 08:20 because of tiredness!)

The Issue with the Internet

I just moved to a new place and that was why I didn't post anything in the last few days. There are still things to do. Boxes are in the middle of the room. But I wanted to write this:

I canceled my Internet service with Shaw and called another damn company, Telus because it's simply less expensive. I told them that I had a modem from the time that I lived in Calgary, perhaps 2004 and they said I could be connected today. So I woke up and tried to get the computer hooked up but I realized that one cable, the one which connects the Internet to the modem is missing! London Drugs, Futureshop or any other major computer store is far and I didn't want to go there. I called the bastards and they said they would send me a modem and I'll receive it Wed.! Stupid! So I turned the wireless switch on and found a few sources around, mostly secured. There was one only that I could use and here I am writing this! Fast, free of charge, reliable wireless Internet! Enjoy!