Oblivion Strikes Your Vision and Imagination

I went to see Oblivion tonight. It was a long 2-hour movie and I got lost as it was ending! Story is one weakness of the movie. Normally if there is a sole actor or actress who performs in most of the scenes, it makes the movie a bit tedious because you see him or her and all! Rather than that as I said I got lost at the end because the music got over the dialogues. The scenes, the visual, special and sound effects were all amazing and the guys have really worked on it but there were a few scenes that while watching you could say that you had seen it. For example the scene that the three drones were chasing the Jack Harper, kind of reminded me of that chase scene in Star Wars, don't know which episode but everyone who has see all of the Start Wars movies, knows what I am talking about or that scene where Harper goes down the hole and sees those eyes reminded me of the creatures in the original Star Wars (1977) with robes and when he is shown handcuffed to a chair and the lights get turned on reminded me of the Waterworld sense with Denis Hopper! But I guess that is silly to just try to correlate everything to a past movie because everything reminds of something in the past in a way. I will but the DVD when the first wave of high price is down(!) to enjoy the scenes and find out exactly what happened at the end. Overall it is hard to rate the movie but it is recommended to catch if you are a science-fiction fan.

(Photo: Top Cruise as Jack Harper is a drone repairman in the movie Oblivion)

The Old Refinery Park

I was at work the other day reading Alberta Oil magazine. Short but interesting articles. In one it is referred to The Old Refinery Park. So I decided to explore it today!

Apparently Imperial Oil built a refinery in Calgary back in early 20s which was operative until the 70s. I have not yet found why it was put out of service after that but it could be due to being old technology and also environmental problems because I read about the neighbourhood's complaint and their lawsuit back in 2003 in CBC website.

The construction of Imperial Oil Refinery in Calgary in early 1920s. The silo like building at the other side of the river is or may be was another Calgry lndmark which I remeber they wanted to tear it down as well, may be a Molson brewing facility or something like that. I am not quite sure but will find out and post. Photo courtesy of Glenbow archives.

The site is located at the east side of Bow River, parallel to Deerfoot Trail and I had not been in that area before but there is absolutely no sign of any equipment after 35 years! I don't know why I thought there should had been something left from the facility but there was nothing but Conocophilips warning signs about the pipeline, a few pipe which have grown out of the ground with locks at their ends and City of Calgary guidance sign about the history of the area.

The park it self is simply a park at the banks of Bow River with benches, trails, picnic benches and that's all. It is less crowded compare to the other parks probably because it is located in a industrial area but there are neighbourhoods close by as well.

If you're heading south, the Bow River Path takes you up a hill and a row of old townhouses appear. That's where it is called Beaverdam Flats. There is a little history about this wooded valley. 

Storage Tanks of Imperial Oil Refinery in Calgary at the banks of Bow River. This photo which goes back to early 1920s is selected from Glenbow archives.

According to the City of Calgary, Natives used to come here, to this little area because they could protect themselves from the strong cold wind of the winter, graze their horse and find hunt as bison was common in this area as well. They found wood for their fire and when the cold winded down, they would follow the herd of bison and move out.
(Photo: Part of the Old Refinery Park. As you see the grass is still brown and many trees just have started going back to green!)

Awesome Pranks For Workplace: 3- The Prequel, The Found

I thought of a prequel to the previous two stories that I have said would be great to use them. This actually completes the others and makes a perfect fun. I still am looking for an opportunity to do this but the first step is to find a job because without a job, there will be no fun!

Anyhow this is the part one the trilogy(!) called The Found: You find a job and instead of giving your one or two weeks notice you ask for a leave of absence or vacation. A leave of absence for a family emergency would work because no company gives a vacation without enough being notified long enough before the scheduled date. You then go to your new job and start regularly, after a few weeks, depending on the length of vacation or leave, your partner in the scenario gives a call and states that you just have been found in a car wreckage, a result of a bad accident and you are the only survivor. You are in a Coma and no information, including ID has been found on you rather the information which led to your employer's contact information. It could be a colleague's telephone number, a business card or anything else. They just called, let's say a local authority, to get contact information for you. Regardless of the company's reaction, you remain in critical but stable condition until the time you feel you can take a day off from your new job or may be only 2 hours. You go to the previous job and play your role in the second part, The Stoned and after that of course it will come The Deceased(!)

These all three wonderful stories will make a perfect fun. It will be really interesting to see the faces of your colleagues, let's say a few months after you finish demonstrating the trilogy! Those would be good subjects for postings!

(Photo: I usually use a picture to complete my post but this time I thought it would really not be a pleasant scene to see! Someone lying on a bed waiting, without knowing, for his or her fate, is no fun. Instead I use this chart which shows a Coma time line. In fact this first part of the trilogy could also be titled Coma!)

The Pond

I decided to have a walk last night as I had spent most of the day at home and at the damn desk doing nothing positive with my time but watching clips and other shit(!) but I wanted to go when it was cool, having a 22 ̊ C temperature most of the day! So I checked Weather Network and I realized that sunset would be around 21:03. I left home shortly after that and headed to Nose Hill.

It was getting dark in the park and that's the time that people mostly or all start leaving except the silly ones who just park in the parking lots and sit in the vehicle! I never understood why someone would drive all the way to a countryside, a national park or a park like Nose Hill and just sit the fuck down in the fucking vehicle!

Anyways as I was walking up the hill from the east entrance and going toward sun, I heard waterfowl bird's noise and also probably frogs singing continuously! It was strange because I knew there was no stream, lake or pond in the park but I changed my path my way and apparently there it was! We have not had much snow and rain in the winter although it got really cold most of the time, in fact until the last week. I don't know how that much water got accumulated and made that pond. I just walked around and then continued toward south and then headed back to the vehicle. I just don't know why I did not have confidence to walk around in the dark. I keep a flashlight in the vehicle but I forgot to take it. The most you may face in a park like Nose Hill is a Coyote or a kind of Deer and they are harmless as far as I know but I went back and ended the walk just after almost 45 minutes. I didn't want to fall and break my ankle or any other part so ended it soon although I had decided to go all the way to the west side of the park. I may do that later.
(Photo: The discussed pond around the time of sunset in Nose Hill park)

Awesome Pranks for Workplace: 2- The Deceased.

I wrote about the good prank that I will probably perform it at my work, if everything is available. This one is the sequel(!) to it. In fact it could be performed independently but will be more fun if done shortly after the first one, or may be not shortly. I think if the people were given enough time to almost get out of the shock of the first one, the second strike would have a better effect.

This one is pretty simple and I'm not going to list everything. You are now dead and you have this time a close friend of a family member who comes to the office and talks about the H. R. guys informing them of your death. He or she will have to get a permission to have a some kind of shrine at your work station(!) You know with flowers, candles and a photo of you with a black ribbon put on the right top corner(!) and of course a memory book or something like that!

That should remain for a specific period of time and it should be said that it is a tradition and since providing specific food is a tradition as well, a dish of dates or any other traditional snack would be put beside everything. People are asked to pay their visit and let's limit it to 2 weeks, have some snack and leave something in the notebook. Everything is picked up after two weeks and the work station will go back to its normal situation.

Now it should be decided what the final part of this scenario should be? Should the company let know of the prank by for example you popping up!? Or should you let it be and completely forget about it and may be bump to someone from the work later and completely deny everything and tell him that you are sure that he is joking!? Or may be something more exciting should be planned!

Let's Not Meet Tomorrow!

I was at work today when the telephone rang in the morning. There was a lady on the other side of the line, a recruiter. The opening question, unlike the last time was why I wanted to leave the current job. I didn't tell her that this job is like spending 8 hours in an stinking public toilet. I simply said that the Project I was involved in was about to finish and I was looking for a new position, adding that I had realized that it was a tough market. She confirmed that it was a tough market and added that she would like to meet with me in her office tomorrow. I didn't mind that so we set up the time.

Then somehow we got to this point that I told her that I had previously had two interviews but none resulted in a job offer. She asked me what companies they had been. I didn't mind telling her that I had this interview and it turned out that she was hiring for that position too! Damn!

It appears that the company had not been able to find candidate so they contacted these guys and this guy in turn advertised it and after I sent my resume, she found it attractive enough to call me and set a preliminary interview! This means that my resume is good but I have to work harder and look more to get what I deserve.

My buddy at work sent me the invitation to this years Job Fair and we are most likely going together. I had registered even before he sent it to me but having with my politics, I didn't want to make him upset or anything and thanked him for sending it to me!