BW

I applied for a job as Quality Inspector in BW Technologies Ltd. in Nov.10.04. Last Mon. I checked my mailbox and saw this e-mail from them:

Hi,

I have received and reviewed your application but could not find your salary expectation for this position. Please respond, via email, with an expected salary range.

thanks

DarrenDarren Nippers

Quality Assurance Manager
BW Technologies Ltd 2840 2nd Ave SE
Calgary, Alberta T2A 7X9
ph. (403) 248-9226
fx. (403) 248-9470

Here's how I responded:

Hi Darren,

Thanks for the mail. The salary is negotiable. It basically depends on the nature of duties, the range of the responsibilities, working hours and what the company offers.

Regards

I consulted Ray and Kamix my friend in Toronto and we all concluded that, it would be the best answer but seems it's not 'cause I haven't received any answer yet. Mom called last night and I told her this among many things during our conversation. She said I might have to wait longer. I don't know what the hell is really wrong! How many times do I have to receive calls or e-mails or attend interviews to get a real job?

Health Care Issues

It's revealed that the 5th cause of Americans dying is avoidable medical errors and the interesting thing is a German news agency has reported it! The study shows that as many as 98,000 patients in the US dies annually because of mistakes such as mistreatment. It happened last year in Calgary too. Two patients died of a wrong injection. Health care is the biggest problem that Canadians face. Every time you go to a clinic, you have to wait at least for an hour to see a doctor and not all the physicians are proficient enough. I guess I'm lucky that I'm still alive after having nasal surgery last summer in Peter Lougheed Center! I'm thankful to them but if something went wrong, I wouldn't be here to write!

Retaliation or What?

After finding one case of mad caw disease (BSE) in Alberta last in summer of 2003, the beef industry which is one of the best industries in Canada and is located in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B. C. (More than 80% in Alberta, as far as I remember), many countries stopped importing Canadian beef. This ban cost the beef industry in Alberta almost $2 billion. The ranchers suffered the most, not the plants because the only thing they did was they laid off a few employees and slowed down their process.
Japan, Mexico and the US were among the many countries round the world which banned Canadian beef. Japan never purchases beef from Canada after that and all of Canada's effort led to a big goose egg. They even invited Japanese agricultural minister to Alberta and prepared tours of beef processing plants but he wasn't convinced! Mexico and the US (I don't remember anything about the other countries but think South Korea was one of them) eased the ban gradually but after more 15 months the US still doesn't let live cattle cross it's northern border.
The new problem that Americans face is a shortage in flu shot. Every year as winter starts Canadians and Americans get a flu shot to be insured that cold and flu won't bother them during the winter. It's so in Calgary but I never waste my time and money on that and I really hate that. It really makes me angry and I know it as one of the most stupid things that somebody may do in his or her life (I don't know why it makes me so outrageous!)
Canada announced that there is enough vaccine for all Canadians but Americans face shortage and are goin' to ask Canadians to help them.
The question here is should Canada retaliate or should they be generous and help them? I guess they will chose the second alternative.

Our Cultural Heritage

Although I live here on the other side of the globe, thousand of kilometers away from when I was born and my major concerns are here in Canada, not there anymore as long as I'm here, but sometimes I encounter something. that it really shocks me. This is I found last week on the net: Few antique precious Persian pieces were sold in Paris for thousands of Euro. I have been to some museums and have seen many things but believe that the above things are among the best I've ever seen. The thing in the far left is a bronze wine glass that was sold € 45,000 which is CND $71,55o! Do u know what you can do with that much money in Canada? It's more than an engineer's salary!
The middle one, a plate from Samanian period were sold € 52,000. It's CND $ 82,680! And the last one is a silver Sasanian plate (7th or 8th AD). It sold € 420,000! It makes CND $ 667,800. It's the price of a big nice house here in Canada!
The point is where was our Cultural Heritage Organization? They should have been there, bought them and returned them to Iran or do whatever is necessary to protect out culture. I don't know. This is exactly what Egyptians started about, I guess, 10 years ago. They returned many valuable pieces to their country, obtained from famous museums in Europe.

What Really Happened to the Boat?

What's recently been announced about HMCS Chicoutimi is completely different from what we hared at the beginning of the disaster. First it was said that there's a minor problem with the submarine and some of the sailors are injured and they will be alright in a short time. We've hared after a few days that some of the sailors inhaled the thick smoke and they were sent to the hospitals in Britain. Shortly after that one of them died of the inhalation.
Now the crew say there were never a minor fire on board. That was a major fire. Bill Graham said he wants the answer. What really happened and why there was a miscommunication?
Another thing that bother Canadians is why did Britons sell the four submarines which worth more than a billion for just $750 million? And my question is why Canadians have to spend so much money on something that they really don't need? If there's a threat to Canada which should be taken serious, it would be from Americans and Canadians will lose to Americans anyways so what's the point for having such unreliable boats?
If I wanna write about this, I may spend hours and hours behind my desk. I can ask Ray's opinion as he used to serve for Navy and study different sources as I'm interested in military topics but I'm tired now and guess it's better to leave!
(photo: Memorial service held for Lt. Chris Saunders in Halifax. He died in Chicoutimi disaster)

Winter is Here

It was Oct.03 last time I went for cycling and everywhere was very beautiful. I really enjoyed Calgary's fall. Beautiful colours of different trees and plants gave me a boost and like many times I didn't have my camera on me. So I promised me to come for a ride again and bring my camera. But everything has changed since last Sun.! It's getting cold, below zero and it's snowing. In the first day of unofficial winter more than 200 road accident was reported in Calgary which one of them resulted in a death of a woman.