So it’s that day of the week that no one really loves. It’s going alright for me so far, I start work later than usual due to an after hours meeting scheduled with a client.

This weekend was relaxing, thanks to finally collecting a pay cheque after a couple of months of being unemployed in my primary career. I took Jen to a local pub we frequent that has good burgers & fries, and a nice selection of beer on tap. On Saturday we did a little clothes shopping and I scored a great wool winter jacket that’s more office friendly compared to my (very awesome) Ripzone Trilogy snowboard jacket.

On Sunday I laid out the wedding album for Johnny & Michelle. It took longer than I had originally expected, but it is the first book I’ve done via page spreads. Setting up my template/guides was essential to getting the look I wanted with easy to deploy asset placement. Tonight I might setup a Photoshop action to batch export low resolution .jpg files for them to review, but I might wait until Tuesday when I’m doing a normal 9-5hr work day.

I’m looking forward to getting out with my camera a bit more once it warms up. I’d like to pick up another light stand/strobe for my kit; but my camera gear purchases have been delegated to lowest priority for now. Mid to late summer I should be able to get a bunch of stuff I need / want so I can do more advanced work.

With the new employment at Maple Works Technology, working on Spiral has become very low priority due to other projects and having a fiance. I’m hoping to have a spring beta.

Jen and I went to the national park this morning for a walk in the sun, with cameras in hand. It was very relaxing.

So today was the first day I submitted a bug fix on the project at work. It was a pretty simple sanitize situation, but it raised some project alarms which I can’t really get into. Regardless, I ended up submitting to the wrong branch and had to rollback the change (sad face). Doing this via console was a new experience for me, because I’ve never used Mercurial for my own projects and didn’t realize a commit without a comment would open an editor window to write in [which I escaped]; causing a lock. Removing the lock took a minute, and was a first for our team.

I’ve also spent a little time documenting the “how to” information in our wiki, which is also a first for me. I’m finding that syntax interesting and not very descriptive when writing it. Oh well.

Next week should be more productive, and I’m looking forward to it.

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure. I arrived at work before anyone else, but I didn’t have a key or number code to get in so I ended up waiting for someone else to arrive. Eventually a team member arrived and I was shown the facilities, and got a coffee. The day went by relatively quickly with some paper work, a meeting and some testing on a QA machine for the project (to familiarize myself with the web app).

Overall I like the place. The various programmers seem like nice guys, and the management is easy to talk with. I’m looking forward to getting the next iteration of my project complete and anything else I’ll be working on; the projects seem varied and interesting.

It’s a complete 180 from my last long term job.

Shot in Jamaica at a resort wide buffet.

Yesterday I finished processing the photos from Johnny & Michelle Optis’ wedding in Jamaica. Man, what a wonderful couple! They have amazing chemistry, and it really comes across in the pictures. I’ve put a select bunch of the photos in my Weddings sample gallery.

Prior to Christmas I had a pretty long interview at Maple Works. I thought it went well, considering I hadn’t eaten anything that day and was peer reviewed for approximately 2.5hr about code, best practices, etc. I made a few mistakes with answers, which I felt would hurt my chances of getting the job so I offered SVN access to code in an effort to prove what I couldn’t communicate verbally (that day) wasn’t an indication of quality or experience.

It worked out.

Yesterday I received an official job offer, and I’m extremely excited to start next week. I haven’t felt this good about a job in a very long time (not counting my recent DND contract, that was a good experience).

I was less than impressed with the way my previous long-term client/contract responded to a reference check; replying they didn’t have the “10-15 minutes to write an email”. Thanks guys. I gave you 8 years (10 total on the project), and you can’t spend a few minutes replying to simple questions about my work ethic. The more time passes, the happier I am that I’ve moved on from that job and sorted out my career path with a clear end goal that seems more attainable every month.

Other than that small hiccup, things went forward and I couldn’t be happier.

The trip to Jamaica was fantastic! I’ve never flown internationally so to the various customs lines, airport security checks and everything else that makes flying a pain in the ass really didn’t seem so bad. I think we lucked out big time, because earlier in the week someone tried to hijack a plane in Detroit, and another incident happened a few days after we arrived back in Canada. We fit into the window of awesomeness while it was there!

The body shock of going from -20c to +25c in a few hours was nice and relaxing. On the way home, it was less enjoyable (but what can you do when you live in Canada and it’s the middle of winter?). At the airport in Montego Bay we were pleasantly surprised to find a Sandals suite with a Red Stripe tap. It set the stage for a week of free beer!

The first few days at the resort were beautiful. There was sun, shade, lots of great food & drink, and most importantly there was no loud people. That changed the day following the wedding, when a large amount of young people from the USA arrived and proceeded to act like the resort was some kind of university dorm. One of these new arrivals brought a chest cold with em that hasn’t left me yet; it really sucks.

A few days of rain followed which put a damper on things, but we tried to make the best of it and spent an afternoon in Ocho Rios walking around markets.

The flight back seemed shorter, but we also had obnoxious french children behind us. One of them seemed to be out of control, who kept kicking Jen’s seat until the father switched with the child in an effort to lessen the embarrassment the child was generating.

Overall, I enjoyed myself and I’m looking forward to the next time Jen and I go back to Jamaica.

I’ve got a week of blog worthy material and almost 1000 engagement & wedding photos to process & publish. It’s gonna be a busy weekend!

Tonight I relax with Jenz.