Sight seeing again...

While a lot of people opted to go to Victoria for one saturday, 4 of us went instead to Stanley Park since we wanted to catch Tall Ships Event at Victoria the following weekend. Stanley Park is a huge piece of land by the bay that is just so beautiful. You can walk around it, but it'll take you hours, or you could go ride the free shuttle (only for the summer) which will take you about 45 minutes to get around. But you have to stop at various stop points so that you can see the view, hang out, have picnics, etc.



Afterwards, we dropped by Burrard Street to check out some nice city sights. Burrard street is part of the downtown Vancouver area. My friend wanted to see it as it reminded him of Passeo in Makati. And so we did. And we even saw one Lamborghini parked just by the street! Practically every person who walked by it looked at it, or even took a picture of it. It was beautiful.



The following weekend, Tall Ships Victoria naman. Victoria is just so beautiful. I'll reserve that for another post later on.

My first encouter with Mac Book Air

One of our officemates went to Best Buy earlier to buy himself a new laptop!!! Laptops here are very very cheap! If I didn't have one already, I probably would've bought one. Anyway, while looking around, I found this:



Mac Book Air is so thin, you're almost afraid to just place it anywhere. I think it's gonna crack if you accidentally sit on it! But it really looks pretty. It costs around 1900 CAD, a bit pricey, but specs are really good. Although, I don't think I'm going to buy one, nevertheless, it still looks really really pretty.

welcome to vancouver

I've finally arrived in Vancouver, Canada. This is my first trip outside of the country and my first trip alone on a plane! Travel time was around 11+ hours, a direct flight through PAL. Since I was late checking in, I had no other choice but to sit in the middle, between a lady on her thirties, and a grandmother aged around 80. We ended up talking and getting to know each other. The lady there is on her way to Ottawa to start a new life as an immigrant. She had to leave her husband and son in the Philippines (but will soon follow anyway). On the other hand, the old lady's on her way back to the US. She's been there for 30+ years and she and her husband just goes to the Philippines for vacation every now and then.

Anyway, here's a nice picture I took of Vancouver's beautiful airport:



So far, my aunt has shown me a couple of places to go to like supermarkets, etc. I can't grasp all of them anyway. I can't remember what route she took and all.

Vancouver is clean, has wide roads, and is such a nice and quite place to live in. The weather has also been cooperating. It's pretty much summer time here already. Although sun's rays' pretty hot, the breeze on the other hand is very cool. Unlike in the Philippines, mainit na ang araw, and humid pa. Lots of Asians here as well. More than the whites, I think.

Anyway, it's 1:30 am right now. Can't really sleep. Getting a slight headache.

Tomorrow's my first day at work and it will be the first time that I'll be taking their bus (sana d ako mawala!). Hope everything goes smoothly.

Geeky article

Here's an article from Coding Horror that talks about the greatest invention (according to the author) about computer science (aside from the computer itself). Check the site here.

Visa's here!

My visa's been approved!

Yesterday's driving

Chase picked me up from work yesterday so he can practice his driving skills. He's been driving for quite some time now, but have not yet experienced driving in EDSA. And so yesterday, that's what he experienced - nightmare at EDSA. EDSA near SM North yesterday was sooooo traffic. I almost had a heart attack while he maneuvered his car through that ugly traffic. We even had to take a u-turn at one point instead of going straight, because if he did go straight, we would have been ticketed! Biruin mo, at one point, napasigaw talaga ako ng "Chase!!!! tigil mo!". Muntikan na kasi mabangga yung katabing fortuner. Haha I think my nervousness added even more to his nervousness!

Amidst all that trouble, thankfully, he got me home safe, and he was able to get home safe as well.

Work Update

I have recently resigned from my current company, and my last day of work will be this coming end of May. I formally filed my resignation last April to my manager.

There are people who resign because they hate their work, they hate their company, their peers, managers, etc. Then, there are those who resign for the main purpose of wanting something more, maybe a better opportunity outside. As for me, my decision was geared on the latter reason.

You see, I did not apply to any other company since the start of this year. I was content with getting back to the office, not being deployed, and working on a nice little project there. But when a recruiter who contacted me last year, asked for my resume again, at first, I told him I wasn't ready to go look for a new job. But once in a while, he would ask again, and that I should just try it out, see the possibility. And so, I gave in, and gave him my resume. So I did went through the whole interview process, got the interview delayed further by almost three weeks, and the result ended up pretty good actually (to my surprise). I got an offer, the project was interesting, and I felt like I can be part of something here.

But I didn't sign right then and there. Although I didn't bother looking for another job to compare its offer to that, still, I had a very tough decision to make. Should I stay (I am contented anyway), or do I move on? It took me a while to decide.

What I liked about their offer was the experience that they will be able to provide for me. That's one of the reasons why I didn't bother checking out what the other companies can offer.

And so after a lot of yes no yes no moments, I finally talked to my manager about my plans, submitted my resignation, and signed on to the other company. Maybe it's just the first job jitters and all, but making that decision was hard. But as I always tell myself, it's time to move on.

I've been working for my current company for three whole years. They have provided me with experience I don't think I could ever get from somewhere else (or maybe I can, who knows?). Now I know I haven't been the best person when it comes to this company. I've had rants. But in the end, when I look back, this company has become my comfort zone.

But as I say to myself, in order to grow, sometimes we need to take risks. We need to get out of that comfort zone and try out something new. And this is just what I did. And I am really excited. :)