New! Online from the SJ!

That being Saint John, New Brunswick. I've moved, filled out tonnes of paperwork, and start my new job tomorrow morning. The move went fine, although here's a little tip - driving a 14-foot U-haul in a strong crosswind is a bit tricky. I had some trouble getting a carpool, and not owning a car myself and the plant being about a 30 minute drive from Saint John proper. I finally did find a way, although it involves a 25-minute walk, a 35-minute bus ride, and then a 30-minute drive. It will do until I can find something a bit more direct (or can get approved to lease a car of my own). Right now I'm happy to be starting because I'm interested to find out exactly what I'm going to be working on.

Also, I recently signed up for facebook and as addictive as it is, it has already proven useful by re-uniting me with a college buddy whom I hadn't seen of heard from for the past two years. Which is, well, awesome.

Sweet Relief!!

After job hunting for almost 8 months and staying in a crappy part-time job 3 and a half months longer than I would have preferred, I finally got the phone call that changes everything. That being the one that an offer is on its way.

The company is Atlantic Nuclear Services Ltd., a Fredericton, New Brunswick-based consulting firm. I'll be working at Point Lepreau Generating station near Saint John for at least the first 2-3 years, I haven't gotten the details yet. I had a co-op job for 8 months at PLGS and it was about the happiest I've ever been. Really sweet job, good money, too.

My fiancee and I will be moving out next week, the truck is already booked and packing well under way. I'm hoping to get an apartment lined up soon.

As a Nova Scotian by birth I can't express how happy I am to be able to go back to the Maritimes. Many young engineers have to go out to Alberta for a few years (usually to accumulate experience and pay student loans) before they can seriously look at moving back, so I fell very fortunate.

An Exercise in Frustration

This has got to be one of the most frustrating weeks ever. I've been waiting to hear back about a job opportunity that I was first contacted about the middle of last week, this is complicated since Easter is coming up and many people are out of the office this week. Also, my girlfriend is three provinces over visiting her sister. Between her being away and waiting for the phone to ring (a huge frustration at the best of times) it has been a very long week, despite the fact that it has really been a short week, if you follow me.

Between being intensely bored I have been doing some reading and working on a 1:72 scale model of the Merkava 1, an Isreali main tank. The hull and turret are basically together, that leaves the tracks, which are the glue-together variety and which I find very hard to assemble since they tend to fall apart because the bond created by the still semi-liquid glue is very week. Mostly they just fall apart on me, which is why I prefer the old single-piece 'rubber band' tracks, especially at small scales. I would like to experiment with the tracks of the newer Dragon kits though... supposedly they click together, you shape them around the suspension, followed by a quick wash with liquid cement and they're ready to go. Sadly, only available on the more expensive 1:35 scale kits, and then only on the latest issues.

Also paid bills today. Thanks to online banking the actual payments are painless, although figuring out how best to divide up a very small pie is not.