Heart Mountain

I woke up at 05:00 AM this morning as I had set the watch alarm last night. I really didn't feel like going but then I thought if I do not, I will regret that later. So I grabbed my stuff and sneaked out as I didn't want to wake The Lady. I got out and that was when I realized I had forgotten the damn sunglasses but i could not go back for obvious reasons! 

Anyways my destination today was Heart Mountain where I had two failed attempts earlier due to the weather condition (Look here and here if you think that might help you to have a better hike). I was in the parking lot early and of course the first one. By almost 06:28 AM I had already started walking. It was a bit chilly in the beginning and I was trying to remember the previous hikes by looking for the signs but the last two time I was here everything was white and now green! 

I passed the two spots that I had reached in the previous two failed attempted and the path got really strenuous and that was when I thought hiking this mountain in winter, especially the last winter is stupid and very dangerous particularly if it is a solo hike and that was what I had done!

I saw plenty of these beautiful blue flowers in my hike today but was not able to take a better shot

No one was ahead of me but the footprints and other signs made it very easy to just follow the trail. I was up at the end where there was a small cairn had been built at about 08:20 AM. The view to the north where you can see Bow Valley and everything is amazing but the south side of the mountain leads to a path which goes down and then ends up about 500 m. away from where I was at but I didn't take that. I spent around 15 min. to discover everything, rest a bit and take a few photos and then headed down. 

I started seeing people coming up after a few minutes. By the time I was back to the parking lot around 10:10 AM. it was already full and there are many EARLY BIRDS who wanted to use the best of this beautiful Alberta day and hike Heart Mountain or maybe take the creek. 

Overall it was a good hike and I enjoyed that but it also made me very tired. It is either because I'm getting old or maybe lack of enough hikes is the cause of it. This actually was the first descent in 2014 which I could go all the way up and finish it. My knees are hurting a lot now, when I try to stand up and also when I was descending. I'm hoping it goes away by resting.

(Photo: View from the top of Heart Mountain which looks at Lac Des Arcs and town of Canmore in the back. Compare it to the last hike's photo. It shows the elevation difference)

Workplace Stories (14): The Certificate

It had been a very long time that I wanted to do this course and eventually one day I talked to the Screamer and explained to him the reason why I wanted to do that. I told the Repulsive Turd that there was this Continuing Professional Development which was mandatory through APEGA and he kind of bought that but said that the company would not approve of that. However he said I might want to talk to H. R. I got in touch with the H. R. lady and she said that she would have to talk to the Management!

I forgot to say that the Screamer said that the company had been advised by the head office to cut the expenses! I was about to say that a company which is in such shit situation which can not pay a $1500 course is not a place to work! Anyways I waited a few days and eventually I was notified by the H. R. lady that the management had agreed to take the course but instead of attending, I would have to take the online course. It was not a big issue although getting out of that fucking nasty office for a week, would have been a bless, had it been approved! Then the fucking Screamer advised me to reduce the cost of the course somehow and I cut the cost of the material which helped(!) the company to save an approximate total of $550 to $600. The material was available through previous purchases of the company.

I registered online for the course and shortly after I received a confirmation e-mail saying that I could go and start the courses at this web address. I, immediately after reading the e-mail, realised that the spelling of my last name was incorrect. How they could do that as I never registered over the phone and it was all printed material communicated through the web, I still don't know! It took me at least 3 to 4 e-mail exchanges to be able to have the correct name. Then when I went to start the first course, I noticed that I could not get in. It made me sending another message or two and took a bit more to be able to start studying! isn't that fucking daft!?

So here I am and studying the material alongside the available lecture-like modules and at the end of the period, when we have to submit our bi-weekly time-sheet (may be time-shit!) I asked the Screamer how many hours of study he wanted me to put and his answer is " You're not supposed to study while at work " I just said OK and left!! What a fucking asshole! So I put nothing and went about my own business, studying the whole set of modules once more before they get expired. 

I also found issues in the modules, such as grammatical errors or missing prepositions as well as technical issues that I e-mailed the organisation guy and got responses.
Eventually it was the time for exams. I tried to book exams through both telephone and e-mail and after conversations over the phone, the idiots booked me for another city!! I don't know whether the guy was drunk or on dope but that was what she did! I had to contact again to get re-booked for the city of my residence! At the examination day I was there almost on time and after the preliminary form completion and other similar administrative stuff and shortly before starting I realised that a few examinees have tablets and laptops and using them to access the materials for the open-book examinations! This had never been advised to me! Had I brought an electronic device such as those ones, I would have been able to finish the examinations faster and with less stress and mistakes. I had 5 examinations and after I finish the first one, I handed that to the old gentleman, the examination coordinator and was given the second one. Shortly after the second examination was started, which was an open-book one as well, the guy walked up to me and whispered: You didn't get enough for the first one! You failed that! I nodded but was going to say: Thanks! I really needed that encouragement and motivation! That definitely boosted my spirit and I will finish the rest with much confidence! But of course I didn't! I wrote other four examinations one after another and every few minutes he came to me to give me the good news! He did that for the next two ones and I realised that I had passed them. I didn't wait for the result of the last two and went back to the office.
I received the official result (transcript) in a few weeks and I realised that I had passed 4 out of 5 examinations. So I booked for the only one left and the booking showed 3 months gap! I studied a few times for the examination but I eventually got bored and left it. So when I went to the session for the second time I was completely out of picture. I tried my bast and got a few refreshments by searching in the book and eventually answered all of the questions.
This time it took another month to have the result back and happily this time I passed but with the teeth of my skin! I got 78% and the official transcript showed all of the examinations with their passing score. I handed the transcript attached with my invoices, a total of a little more than $1200 to the Screamer. He didn't say much surprisingly and gave it back to me signed. I, in turn, gave it to the accounting guys and hopefully I get the money in a week or so. The drawback is because I didn't practically attend the course, I am not eligible for the certificate, I guess but we'll see. Even if I do not get the certificate it worth spending time and the effort.Question here whether anyone could say what organisation it is?!
I have not heard yet from the HR woman. She was supposed to get me to her office and have me signed a paper which says I would have to pay the course fee back if I leave within a certain time! Can you believe this? What an organisation! Jerks! 

Lilac Festival

There is this Lilac Festival in Calgary that apparently has been going on for a long time. This year we decided to check it. So went to 4th St., SW around the area of 25th Ave. This neighbourhood is among the ones which was heavily damaged in the last June's flood. Many of the businesses were closed for months, including the local Shopper's Drug Mart, Earl's and few others. I guess it took almost 6 month to Shopper's to reopen. The others were not in much better. There was a small bakery which made Puffs. That one never re-opened. I guess there's another business in its place. 

Anyhow this years festival was a kind of help to the local business to try to get back on their feet and the crowd was amazing. I guess the majority of the benefits went to the restaurants and food truck and similar food providers because every where you would go, you saw people getting something down! 

There were also street dance and some music but of course all amateurs at low quality and even high school kids. Apart from a few, I did not see many people paying much attention to the musicians! The centre of focus was on food and then shopping! 

We did not try anything because there was not something special which caught our eyes but people were in lines for Doughnuts, Corn on the cob, Hot Dog and all kind of healthy food that you might not find any other time of the year. In fact it was the food truck heaven. There is this restaurant in the neighbourhood that we wanted to try last weekend and it was closed, an East Indian one, they had a small place for themselves at the side of the street in front of their place. There two men and one woman. The men were so scary that they reminded you of the Dark Ages headsman! No smile with dark and dirty cloths and gazing at you like you are the next one who's going to be executed! The woman did not look much better. They had samples of their food which were asking $2.5 for a tiny portion, probably the size of a small saucer! I just backed off and happily there were not many people going there either. I have read many stories of poor customer service of East Indians and experienced a few but this would have been probably the worst, had we gone to get something! Will I go again to the festival next year? Absolutely not, if everything is the same. 

(Photo: I bumped into this couple and I tried to get a photo. This girl apologized her because she thought she was blocking my camera but I told her that I was taking a photo of the guy in turban because I liked his outfit! The Sikh guy was a nice one, most probably one of the many who either were born here or came when he was a little kid but his brain apparently had stopped working years ago as he thought he was so special and unique! All of the Sikh Punjabi guys believe so! I wonder when they will claim their land here in Canada just like the way they did in India and called it Khalestan! The fact is they have a good chance here in Canada unlike in India. Here all they need is to grow their population, something that they are very good at and build a few more temples and then call for referendum. Over there the Indian Army will beat the shit of all of them like they did when they occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar! 

I went too far and I will probably have to talk to these guys later but I asked the guy if this colour meant anything and I added that I knew Orange was their sacred colour. He denied but showed me another colour at the inner side of his cloths, some creamy yellow but I didn't hear what he was saying because we were close to a small group of singing girls that you can see them in the photo. When we went back home and I was transferring the photos to the computer I got the idea: His turban and robe-like dress was specially made for the festival because they were both Lilac!)

Phone Interview in May

I had one interview, better to say a phone interview, last week. It was not promising because I haven't heard anything from them yet. The interviewer was a recruiter with strong British accent who made me ask her to repeat her a few times. besides that I was not at a comfortable place and had to run here and there to be able to stay away from the people around. 

It is understandable that companies cannot just hire someone to do their hiring needs but the interviewer should have a technical background or should be accompanied by a person from the employing department to be able to fully assess the candidate. She was just reading the questions and probably making notes. I did not have many good answers, I have to admit, but I usually dislike phone interviews. This is my 4th phone interview out of a total of 7 that I've had in the past 10 months or so and all have gone in vain. I felt almost very comfortable in 3 of them and I was confident but I didn't get any result from them either. 

Godzilla 2014 Sucks Big Time!

I start this post with these two sentences:

Do Not Waste Your Time and Money on Gozilla 2014. This Movie is True BULLSHIT from Beginning to the End!

We had 4 movie discount cards from the bars that The Lady had purchased this month. Each couple of bars are good for a free movie unless it is shown in 3D. For 3D movies you have to add $3 which is fine. We spent the first two on Neighbours which is a comedy and we laughed and enjoyed. The next two was spent last night on this bullshit new version of Godzilla. A true waste of money and time! After just 35 minutes I could not stop looking at my watch!

This movie has gathered a bunch of actors and actresses with different background. First there is this guy from Seinfeld, the dentist Tim Whatley who has his role for the first half an hour and then dies ridiculously! He shouts a few times and cries a few other times and that is it! Then we have this Japanese actor Watanabe whose role in Letters From Iwo Jima is never forgotten. Here in this movie all he does is gazing at a corner with wide open mouth and eyes! At times he says something that is hardly understandable because his strong Japanese accent overcomes his poor English! There are two women, one with a British Accent and one American who are both horrible and there is this guy a tall typical muscular American guy who delivers a terrible performance as well! So this is about acting which all suck! 

The story is even worse! They create two more monsters that this Godzilla guy, this time fights them to save the City of San Francisco! So basically similar to Terminator who was a bad guy in Terminator 1 and a good guy in Terminator 2, Godzilla is now the hero for the people!! Special effects and sounds are horrible as well. Godzilla tries its best to scream but doesn't deliver much awe or shock! I don't know what else to say but stay away. 1 out of 5 stars for the movie and that is because these guys tried but failed. I really like the 90s Godzilla. It is a fantastic movie and I even bought the DVD later but you cannot even compare this new version to the old one.
(Photo: I didn't want to use any photo from the movie but the story of Godzilla itself is fine and enjoyable. That is why I am using one of the models here)

Fort Calgary

The Government of Canada has this new wonderful program for the new citizens that they are given a pass which entitles them to discounts and free admissions to a few of the attractions around the country. The Lady received one a few weeks back and based on that we decided to use it for the first time yesterday. 

And what a coincidence it was when we chose to go to Fort Calgary: We had a two wonderful hours plus it was the 141st birthday party for the RCMP. so we joined the celebration. 

The admission to the fort is $12 which worth it for someone who is into the history of the City and likes watching and reading and occasional listening. We were lucky that the birthday party was going on. We got the chance to take photos and have a little chat with the retired officers especially one who had served in B. C.

Fort Calgary is the birthplace of this city. We were told by one of the retired gentlemen, the retired members of the RCMP, that the high fence around the fort was once taken down to use the wood and lumber for building dwellings and that was the start of a city that we live in today. Of course there is a whole lot more history behind that but 1875 was the beginning of the City. There is also lots of history about the North West Mounted Police which later was renamed to Royal Canadian Mounted Police because as I stated earlier the city's beginning was from the fort which is similar to a military force base. 

Only two out of many buildings of the developed fort are left today: The one which the exhibitions are in there and another one at the other side of Elbow River and is a restaurant and under renovation. 

(Photo: Today's Fort Calgary by Elbow and Bow Rivers. The main building and the restaurant are seen but this is the plan for the place. This entire plan which includes Fort Calgary renovates and develops what is called the East Village)