A Miserable Failure

I failed all three exams, that I wrote in one day, last week! I was close in two but what does it matter?! A fail is a fail! I know what my weaknesses are, not all of them of course and I'm going to re-write them all but the cost is too much. $139 + tax for each exam! This is the cost of stupid mistakes and laziness! I had time for each exam but if you don't know the right answer and have not studied well enough, plus you have been away from the right work for too long, the extra time means nothing! 

$437.85 plus the day that I will probably have to take plus the cost of gasoline! This is the total cost of stupidity! Not to mention the price that I will probably have to pay for any reference materail, although I have many! Having references is not important. Having a good plan and executing that is!

(Photo: No arrow even hit the target circle! Can I use this as the way I scored in my exams? It actually is not like. I gained the scores but not the wining scores! So if there were arrows landed in dark blue or blue sections, it would be a good photo depecting what actually happened)

An Interview for 21 in 2021!

I had my first face-to-face interview of 2021 in the last days of September. This guy was first unresponsive to my reply and then when I sent him the question of when-what time, he scheduled an interview and then rescheduled it. No problem. I went on time. Here was a young Caucasian fella, whom later I found out has the same surname as the company's CEO! He could be his son! With all of the information available these days on the Internet, I also found out that he is graduated from a ranking the 3rd tier(!) school in North America! 
It doesn't matter how hard you work throughout your life. If you're the son of a CEO, or a close relative with the same surname, graduated from an unknown(!) school, you can simply be a manager(!) and that's what he is. The interview took about half an hour and he was the only one attending. The job would be in Calgary and they offered me $21 an hour! I said that was fine because I'm hoping that I can get myself out of this toilet that I'm stuck in, at the moment. He didn't ask many technical question because he's not very technical himself! His questions were very general: Have you done this? Do you know that? When I mentioned two major welding standards, he seemed like he heard them for the first time but that is okay because they're not a welding-based manufacturer. He didn't even mention anything about ISO 9001:2015 while their company website indicated that they're a registered company. I guess his main concern was the ability of the candidate to be able to cover all of their needs, time-wise! 
I saw he had a bunch of resumes on his clip board and he has been the only one who I saw reading interview questions from a paper! That was interesting. I only have seen that in Government jobs.  

(Photo: My interviewer was not as attractive of this but I think my chance is not bad! Not that these two have anything to do together!)

CFLRS Notes (44): The Chinese Psychologist!

There's a big population of the Chinese in CAF! In fact the Chinese are the second largest race in the Canadian Armed Forces after the Anglo Caucasians. The third place belongs to Franco Caucasians.  The term " the " was used because by Chinese I means the Chinese how are born here in Canada or lived in Canada long enough to become a Canadian citizen and you know that once you're a Chinese who is a Canadian citizen, you can't have a Chinese passport and if you intend to go to China, you'd need to apply for visa. The Chinese Government does not recognize dual citizenship. 

I'm not sure if the Government of Canada is concerned about the number of the Chinese in their armed forces or not but with all these stories about China spying on everything, looks like they should! It's been four  years now that I was honorably discharged from the forces, based on my request, but as far as I remember there were as many as 3 Chinese in the two platoons that I served. The first one had a Chinese old man and Chinese pretty young girl. The man somehow got ill and ended up in a hospital outside the school and I never saw him. The girl, I'd assume, graduated.

We got an ugly stuttering Chinese girl in the second platoon that once, I can't recall, said that she was a graduate of psychology. We all know what that means: No degree related job, particularly for a mumbling, short, ugly Chinese girl. No disrespect but that's true. During some physical training we had to run a number of obstacles including a monkey bar. When it was her turn, she went 1/3 of the distance and couldn't hold it anymore and landed on her neck! It was beautiful scene, I'm not going to lie! She had difficulty standing up and looked like she wanted to burst into tears but somehow controlled herself! 

I don't remember what happened to her, after that. Unpleasant people are not important to be remembered! The only reason why she came back in mind was the scene, the beautiful scene(!), that she was about to break her neck! Going to CFLRS was one of my life's mistakes because I did that late. I would've had a better chance if I had started the first time I wanted and that was 2010 but I refused to go because I got married. It's useless to talk about the past now. I'm just learning from my mistakes but I know for sure that it was a right decision not to pursue a career with CAF. If you think it's for you, go ahead. Enjoy your career.

(Photo: For the ones who don't know, this is what monkey bar is. You'd need to hang, change your hands and move forward. The only difference between this photo and what we had in CFLRS is that there was no water or it'd have been much more interesting!)

Workplace Stories (23): Lunch & Learn

The horrifying(!) memories of mine from the time I worked for the so-called engineering company will probably never leave me. The animals that I saw there and had to work with are amongst the worst that I've ever seen in my life either here in Canada or in the old country.

Incompetent, stupid, pretentious, rude, belligerent(!), inconsiderate, racist, self-centered, you name it! They had it all. They were, the majority of them, would say at least 90% of them, graduates of 3rd ranked schools in Canada and anywhere else in world! Some didn't even had a degree! Lakehead University in Ontario was (and probably still is) amongst the contributors to this shitty company. There were many people, who had barely finished high school or had a degree from an unknown school, from former Eastern Block. The countries which are known European but are at the same level as Bangladesh, Burkina Faso and Bhutan! The only difference between them and the first one is Bangladesh's overpopulated! Otherwise they're as poor as the country but because they're " ATTACHED " to Europe, they think they're European! Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, former Yugoslavia and other shit-holes at that part of the world!  

With that in mind, there was this occasional even at the company that a group of employees (experts!) from different department would get together for something called " Lunch & Learn ". This was supposed to be a sort of self-learning/discussion group. Instead the motherfucker, nasty, cheap animals would order vomit-causing, cheap Pizza, start devouring(!) and bullshit each other! There was one particular motherfucker male whore whom I like to name here, Slobodan, who was the worst. A big ass-kisser to the Germans who would suck every cunt and dick to go up the ladder of success and that's what he had done! 

I was sitting to the head of our department during one of this disgusting get-together when the shit Pizza arrived. The 4th World Eastern Europeans(!) attacked and I was sitting back. The supervisor asked me if I would wanted a slice and I shock my head. I sat quietly and watched them getting that vomit-causing shit down and felt sorry for myself! The stupid thing is the meeting was called " Lunch and & Learn "!!! Not even " Learn & Lunch "!!! This proves how stupid those filthy animals were! Lunch was more important that learning! 

I felt sorry for myself that had to wait 5 years to get my immigration visa and then sit at the same table with motherfucker, nasty whores who just with a little lie and kissing a number of buts where at the same table! I wish I could kick every and each motherfucker animal in that room in the neck so hard that they would have to spend the rest of their filthy and nasty life on wheelchair and would never be able to walk a step ever again. Cheap, filthy animals are the worst and there're millions of them in Canada. I loathe you filthy cheap animals of Canada. 

(Photo: I, of course, cannot provide a photo of the cheap nasty shit [called pizza!] that those motherfucker Eastern European shitheads were devouring! Instead I have a photo of the vegetarian pizza that I made once. I made the crust from whole wheat floor and all you cans see is fresh vegetables. I also made the sauce using tomato paste and other ingredients. It was so delicious)

Why do Absurd Movies get Popular?

I finally watched Taxi Driver the other after all these things that everyone has talked about it. Not impressed at all! Were the acts good? Yes! Was the directing good? I think it was okay. How was the story? Same stupid crap that many other movies has presented that: One loner goes crazy and kills people! And the murdered ones are bad people! So he gets away and come out as an hero! They say the film was a debut for Jodie Foster. Alright. She only has a small role! Walks from here to there, talks to the character of De Niro, the crazy guy and at the end screams a few time! The story sucks big time! What's character, Betsy, intends to imply in this movie!? That Travis (De Niro) is stupid and socially akward because he takes her to a dirty movie?! And then he interacts with a presidential candidates and seems like he wants to assassinate him and then goes after pimps, bouncers and such! There's no trail or anything and he goes back to his normal life!!!

Why is this movie so important, I don't understand but what I know is I won't watch it again! If a movie is good, I usually watch it more than once and that's normally for two reasons: 1) I enjoy watching it, over and over. 2) It's not a stupid and easy and also I'd like to call it a superfacial(!) story. Taxi Driver does not fall under any of the said categories and doomed to be put aside! I think it's loved in North American culture because there's violence in it! If a movie doesn't have a killing scene, a making out or nude scene, it'd most likely have no chance at the box office!

One of the stupidest scenes in the history of cinema! The guy, a criminal goes to restrooma and leaves his gun outside! The other fella shows up and kills him with that! 

Look at movies such as Foxcatcher, Seven Years in Tibet and Valkerie. These are all great movies but because there's no excessive violence, sex scene or cursing in them, they hit the bottom! 

Another psycho who makes stupid, overrated and violence-encouraging movies is Q. Tarantino! This guy has this movie which I barely could finish it: Pulp Fiction and it's a hit in North America! Why because it has:

1) Drug use

2) Killing

3) Blood stains all over the place!

4) Male raping!

I guess people who are frustrated in their life as a result of lack of sucess, usually try to avenge someone. Some, in the US particularly, get a gun and go after innocent people. Some who don't have the guts or for another reason satisfy themselves by watching violent movies! 

(Photo, top: Scorsese, De Niro and Foster at the set of Taxi Driver)

Examinations and Inspections of the Week

I've wasted a valuable year and a a half compactly! It was from Feb.2016 to Aug. 2017! Not that the other periods of my life has never gone to waste! Most of my life has been just the true definition of wasteful but that year and a half was stupid and avoidable! I was waiting to be called to CAF and I thought I would make it through and become an officer!! What a stupid dream! I abandoned everything and wasted the entire valuable time, not knowing that I would not be able to finish CFLRS and would go back home after 5 freaking months with my tail between my legs! I was full of energy, experience and had studied a lot and although the market was bad and my occasional application didn't get me anywhere, I should not have diverted from my path. 

I really like the way CWB has established the practical test. I'm not going to write about the detail but if you actually have done some inspections using the common tools, you'd find it easy

Why am I writing this here today is because I wrote my CWB Level I Inspector examination today and it was not difficult. I have a little chance to pass and why is that because I had not studied well! I should've done this back in 2016! It was done today after 5.5 years of delay! I had studied a lot in the field during 2013 to 2016, I had written Steel Welding Supervisor Certificate exam. and had passed it (after the 2nd attempt for 1 exam. out of 5, only), a had done lots of studies of AWS and even did an online course and all of sudden: Poof! Everything was left untouched! 

I have a little hope(!) to pass this combination of exam.-inspection today and even if I don't, I will study again and I will pass. I was very reluctant even to go to the session yesterday. I knew there would be a penalty for that (I think one guy was missing today) and I was going to make an excuse but got a hold of myself(!) and said: I've talked to the mumbling, stuttering(!) supervisor and I have taken the damn day off, I've studied a bit, maybe not as much as I should've but at least I know what'd be going on and what's that I'd lose? If anything, I'd be familiar with the exam and would be helpful if I have to re-write. And I did. And I'm glad that I did. I'll wait for the result.

(Photo: It's no secret that to have the CWB Level I Inspector certificate, you'd need to do a couple, or more, depending on your application, examinations and a practical inspection. The test goes on a sheet such as the picture)

Burzum

I was watching something in YouTube a couple of weeks ago and somehow was introduced to this crazy guy who established a Black Metal band in the early 90's, called Burzum. The whole band is comprised of this Norwegian guy named Varg Vikernes. His biography is available on the net and there's no need to repeat it here but just to let you know that he has spent few years behind the bars for the crimes he's committed!

First of all I didn't know that Metal music is common in northern Europe or to be specific in  Scandinavian countries! I always was under the impression that it was a British and American thing! Apparently I'm wrong! There're bands (or there were, when Metal was more popular) from Norway, Sweden and other countries in the region, probably. Metallica's drummer is a Danish fella. These bands like other bands in other corners of the world have had their feud and in one of the related arguments or similar, Varg stabs(!) another band's member and kills him! This is not his only hanous act, he burnt churches down and he also has been charged with hate against Jews and Muslims, I think but again his biography is available and I'm not going to narrate it here.

After finding singles and albums of him on YouTube and listyening to them, I went to a Sunrise Rercords store, the only movie and music store in Canada now, to see if they have any album of his or to be exact the album that I had listedned to on YouTube: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss which means If the light takes us. The answer was no. They neither have it nor can order it for me. 

I also introduced that to my new frined, whom i went to the last hike with and I'd call him Stout and he got all excited and decided to buy CDs. We still haven't found any safe source to use our credit cards but we will. 

Perhaps I can buy it directly from a store in the US or Europe when I'm there.

(Photo: Vikernes at 18 or 19. I guess it was also the age that he got in troble by killing a guy! He spent quite a time in jail. Now he lives in France and I saw a new clip of him discussing Capitalism, which was not bad)

The Country of many Lowlife Losers!

Canada and United States, without a doubt, have both been established by people who had difficulty living in the old continent (Europe) and were looking for opportunities and better life. The history of the two country, of course is different but that was the mail reason why people came to the New World. This story still continues. The only difference is now because people are coming form all corners of the world, mostly from devastated countries, either by war, corrupt governments or sh*t economy, these two countries, particularly Canada has been turned to a massive sh*thole! Bulsh*ts such as inclusion, multiculturalism, no room for favoritism and lack of discrimination is just good for governments to spend their time on and allocate budget! All of the above and even worse happens on daily basis and is the inseparable part of the society. If there's inclusion, then why the hell do we have Chinatown in every major North American city?! Majority of the Chinese don't speck more than Hello and Hi after decades of living in North America and don't interact with anyone in any manner, by the Chinese. Is that the definition of multiculturalism and inclusion?! I even know a Chinese fella from work who is born here in Canada and he's more Chinese than the peasants who go to east of China in flocks to work in the sweatshops! Eating cheap Chinese food (mainly noodles, rice and a few pieces of vegetables or old crap meat!), addicted to gambling (like many Chinese are!), dressing like a hobo (and he's so proud of it!), greedy as f*ck! (does everything that you can imagine to make some extra bucks (currently has two mortgages!) and any other sh*t habit that other Chinese own and are so proud of it.

Many people come to Canada with nothing, either immigrant or refugee. Coning as a refugee is much easier. Everyone knows that. You only need a salable story! Everyone got one! And I don't think the Government of Canada isn't aware of the lies that people weave(!) to make it to the country! They need population and they need cheap labour. They get them both! Here are examples of the claims:

1- I am a homosexual and I like to take it up in the a*s! Homosexuality is not accepted where I lived

2- I'm Christian and I was being discriminated against, because of my religion

3- My life was in danger (very general - try different reasons!). I once met an asshole who was a seaman on a commercial ship and when they anchored at a Canadian port, used this line with a little twist! This a*shole was a grandfather at the time and after he partially settled down, started chasing Native women! I guess ended up with a Chinese!

This short story that I'm going to tell here is about a fool, cheap, lowlife, as*hole who somehow ended up in northern Alberta where people used to (and some still do) make lots of money. He buys a BMW because he had never ridden a donkey(!), let alone driving a car in his country of origin(!) and was excited by the opportunities(!) that the Capitalism has given him! He drives a car for a while and he's happy until the time that the driver door breaks and he gets stuck! At this point he checks with a repair shop, possibly a delaer and he's said that it'd cost a bit more than $3000 to fix the door! As he's a cheap, d*ckhead, loser, he decides not to fix it and just goes in and gets out from the passenger side! 

(Photo: I visited BMW headquarters and meseum in 2014. This is a very nice and old modl of the car. Just putting here for you to see as I mentioned BMW in the post. Look at the hinge, the knob and the logo on the rear left tire)

Maze Peak: A Good, Challenging Hike

I finally was able to do a really good hike after more than 2 years and reach the summit. Two years is a long time and we just wasted most of that period because of the damn pandemic which is not over yet. This was the third hike of the year and initially I was supposed to go with my Mexican buddy but he excused well in advance. He said that he would not be able to take that day off due to staff shortage at work. I somehow ended up to go with a Canadian new buddy and this was a little unprecedented and I don't know how we ended up going together but we did! I suggested him to rent a car but he decided to bring his own. Fine by me. I always like to have a rental or someone else's car when I'm going hiking because of the milage that is put on the car and also at times we have to hit a gravel road. 

He, to my surprise, came right on time, even 5 minutes earlier and that's what I liek about a hiking partner. We hit the road at about 06:35 hours and headed toward Sundre. It was such a beautuful road. All farms at both sides. Horses, sheep, catle, flocks of birds, all the natural beauty. We had a short stop at the Town of Sundre and then headed west. Maze Peak's trailhead is located between Sundre and Ya Tinda Ranch on 584 but then yo gotta turn south and follow the road parallel to Red Deer River. 

I found the trail, based on the maps that I had already downloaded to my telephone we stopped at about 09:50. We quickly geared up and started our hike at 09:57. The first part of the hike is easy but then you rech a very steep slope which is covered in shale and it's not wise to go up because you take one step up and then you slide back down and the story continues. If it had been winter and there was good amount of snow and ice and of course we were equiped with reliable crampons, we would have gone up easily and gotten ourselves up the first ridge of the hike that we needed but we had to go to the side of that part of the mountain and approach the reidge form east or if you conider it a saddle, from it's back! There it becomes a bit easy. We continued to north, on the ridge and then from there, based on the map, I was able to see the summit (which was known later that it was actually the false summit!). We took a little brteak, had a few photos, drank some water and continued. After few minutes of easy hike to north, then the path, if you can find it(!), turns to east and first you do a little climb down and then you go up the actuall mountain which is your final destination but you don't know at that point that it's not the summit. I headed up and my hiking fella, whom I like to call Dodo(!) here followed me. There are a few cairns which assures you that you're on the right path to the summit. Dodo found them very interestinmg and considering that it was his first serious hike, I told him what he calls stone sculapture(!) is actually called cairn in mountaineering terminology! 

If you look closely at this picture, you'll see a cairn on the right which intends to tell you that you have been on the right path but you can either go toward it and circle around this boulder or go to the left. Either way you will have a climb doown and then will have to continue because it is not the summit!

I eventually reached the summit at 13:27 hours, if I'm not mistaken and Dodo reached up there 4 minutes after me. The views from the top are really nice and we were lucky that there was no rain, smoke or any other annoying natural occurence! We practically spent 25 minutes on the summit. He wanted to rest and we both took a number of photos and then headed back down. Going down the mountain is easy at first and there's even a very visible path that you will follow when you get down but then it turned to a disaster! He was really tired and the route that we were taking was really steep and one slip would send us meters down. I had to wait for him for a total of more than 15 minutes and giving him direction. It was okay. What that I could not do anything aboiut was the fact that I was sure weather the path we were taking was actually the way up (for summiting!) or the way down to the car, by looking at the damn map but we took it anyways and followed the map as much as we could to not throw ourselves down the cliff! The other problem was my damn boots! 

The path, after you come back down from the summit, can be seen on the middle of the picture here. You're less than one third of your way back to the road from here

I intentionally wore this wok boots(!) because they worked in Jasper and I was worried that if I wear my regulat hiking boots, I would have problem because of my Gout but instead the boots bothered me a lot and I even thought that I'd have blisters but fortunatelly I didn't get any. We took it easy for the rest of the trail and tried to be careful and slow. He was exhusted but he made it through and he even helped me with a bottle of water which helped me to spend the last half hour esier. I think it was about 18:25, if I'm not mistaken. 

Maze Peak is relatively easy to moderate hike with some route finding and scramble which defenitely worth trying. The good think about this hike was that we didn't see even one sole the entire time! Not even one! That's the kind of hike I like. You feel that the entire nature belongs to you. All of the details regarding the hike is easily accessible and available on the web but I will add a few here:

Elevation above the sea level: About 2400 m.

Elevation gain: Nearly 1000 m.

Hike duration: Between 6 and 7 hours.

(Photo, top: The camera is looking to west from the summit here. There are all the campgroudn that people go to enjoy the outdoors. Ya Tinda Ranch should be amongst them)