almost time to vote!

Well as most of you know, the federal election is almost upon us. I normally do not give much thought to elections, but there is something wrong about this Harper character. So just to spite the election call by the conservatives and NDP I am voting Liberal.

I just saw an interesting article in the Ottawa sun today.
"A blast from the past, 'Liberal conspiracy’ theory reveals Stephen Harper’s"By Greg Weston.

The article was interesting, the point that was great was this, Harper was asked about a Conservative majority and the response (from Harper) was These are his exact words: “I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a true Conservative majority. The reality is we will have, for some time to come, a Liberal Senate, a Liberal civil service — at least the senior levels have been appointed by the Liberals — and the courts that have been appointed by the Liberals. “So these are obviously checks on the power of a Conservative government ... and limits on our ability to operate that a Liberal government would not face.”

Wow, crazy, so the government may turn out to be conservative, but that’s okay, because EVERYONE in the government is liberal. So can we expect a shakedown?

There is my political rant, I say vote Liberal, just to put it in the face of the idiots who called this dumb election a year and a half after we voted them in.

PS a colleague of mine keeps saying that him mom likes to say that Harper looks dumb, well at lunch today I saw a picture of him on the TV and yes he does look like an idiot.

MikeG

ahhhh the fun of looking for a Job

Well I guess I have been neglecting my Blog responsibilities lately. So here is another update.

So obviously a large part of my energy and spare time lately has been spent looking for a job. I am not sure if I am close or not, but I have a great experience I want to tell you all about.

DND job. Can anyone say charades?

I recently had an interview with the Department of National Defense. The job, pretty crazy requirements, I must have really wooed them on my qualifications letter (which I usually keep copies, but now I can not find it). This interview was in Ottawa on January the 5th. I go to the interview, arrive a couple of minutes early and start. So 845 I am sitting here with 3 gentlemen from DnD, they give me a half an hour to go over this 6 pages of questions that they are going to ask me. Two of them leave, the other takes a nap. Half an hour later the two come back, by this time, I am only half way done these questions, and I am thinking I should just walk out of here and cut my losses, there is no way I am qualified for this job.

Well the questions start, at this point I am wishing I memorized that study guide they gave me more because each question is worth a point, and if I do not say the exact yet word, I do not get the point. I am just sweating bullets, and they start asking me, so I try my best, at this point I understand what is being asked but I forget or do not know the key words, well these three gentlemen try there hardest to help me with out saying the words. This goes on for the next oh 4 hours, until we are done all 6 pages of questions. The next hour and a half is spent on another question sheet about my suitability at DND and my previous experiences. This I think I did pretty well on. (yes you did the math right, thats over 5 hours!)

There were several times during and after the interview when I had to literally bite my tongue to not say “sounds like, first word, two syllables….”.

Well at the end of the interview they ask for my references, at this point I am thinking I bombed this interview, no more government jobs!

So two days ago I receive an email from one of my references, this guy Jim from DND calls him for a reference check. After speaking with Mel (experience in the wackiness of Government) explains that this means that I made the eligibility list.

This is great, from thinking I scraped that interview to actually made the list, wow, now I am a little scared to find out how I did. From speaking with Mel, the top person on the list gets the job, if they decide to decline it, it goes to #2 etc…

Well, I am suppose to get a letter, so I guess we will just have to wait and see (ya I know I can call someone and find out how I did, but I like the suspense)

For now its just keep truckin away to find a job in good old O-Town.

Wish me luck!
MikeG!

about that time.....

Well its about that time, it has been awhile since my last post. Since then I have not had much of a break, but here it is now..... ahhhhh that was nice, now BACK TO WORK!

So what's new since my last post, well lets see..... well there was that little trip to Switzerland...

Oh ya that! Well that went well for the most part, well not that good I guess, because the otherday I got "the message". The message was that they are offering the position to someone else. I guess it was for the best, because that would have been a tough choice to pack up and move everything to another continent.
So for now I can be happy that Mel and I got to go on their dime. The trip itself was nice, except for the nightmare of traveling that close to the holidays, avoid it if you can!

As Mel explained in her post, the water is amazing! Right from the tap, yum, that is what I miss most about Switzerland, oh that and the fresh cheese, and tasty chocolate (as I snack on a few pieces.... YUM).

Then there are the views, WOW, crazy, lets just say its nice there. Here are some much deserved pictures, (Mel gets most of the credit for these, but hey I did get her the camera, so I should get some credit)

The view from Lausanne

view from around the lake

So for now its back to work looking for a job back in Ottawa, I still ask, does anyone know of a job for me???? PLEASE!