Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Vague feedback months or years later...

So my boss pulls me aside the other day to tell me that Human resources have gotten complaints from prospective interns that my interviews are 'too rough'.

I haven't interviewed since February it's now late April. And after talking more to my boss, he says he's not even sure it was a complaint from February it could have been from even longer ago.

Well how much more vague can you be? Do you know if the students who complained were those who didn't get hired and did it not occur to them that perhaps the student complained because they didn't get hired?

I'm not sure how I can be too rough, other then by being "awkward'.  I mean I don't grill them on their knowledge anymore because feedback I'd gotten from the students I hired is that since most of them could not answer half  of the questions they left the interview feeling they did miserably and were shocked they were chosen.

So we ask them about their favourite classes, and the first operating system they used. What PC or laptop they own and if they can tell us the components. We also ask them about previous work experience and I generally ask them why I should chose them instead of another classmate of theirs I'd be interviewing.

I'm not sure how that's being rough.

Should I be calling them in and offering them coffee, and then asking them what they hope to be doing during the internship and telling them it's going to be ok.  Or perhaps I should hold their hand and whisper sweet nothings to them so that they don't feel it's an interview. Like WHAT THE FUCK? A job interview is supposed to be stressful. It's not supposed to be a fucking picnic!!!!

All I can say is that anyone who finds ME too rough, had better develop some balls because they will never survive as engineers. They think I'm rough, wait till they run into one of our owners. He barks at people.

I keep forgetting that this is the snowflake generation and these kids think that the world has to be their friend.  I don't know how any of these kids will survive at work.  I can see them going to HR to whine that their boss looked at them funny or worse gave them a tight deadline.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Unexpected week-end

This week-end is turning out unexpected.

I had planned to help my gf pick up some of her things in Oromocto. We took my truck because I have a trailer hitch and other friends were willing to lend us their trailer.

Sadly the trailer had 2 shorts in the electric connection for the lights and my friend had to spend almost 2 hours fixing it.   We haven't unconnected the trailer in fear it would  break again, we've been going around with my friends daughter and her car.... 

We got to Oromocto at 4am Saturday morning. Never saw so much roadkill in my life or so much blood on the highway.

Yesterday when my eldest realized I was in Oromocto she asked her bf if he was up for a roadtrip so in about an hour I will be meeting up with my daughter.  I'm soooooo excited. I haven't seen her since Christmas.  Also meeting her first serious bf. It's meet the rents for him :P

Wasn't even sure if I'd be here in 'Mocto or if we'd be in Freddy....But taking the day as it comes.  Still in 'Mocto as I write.


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Leopard Van Doren Vans





I was at the Vans store in Carrefour Laval on Saturday and picked up these funky sneakers to add to my Vans collection.  Two of the guys at work even noticed them today! 

Amused in Ottawa

Visiting a friend in Ottawa and saw this and it had me amused. I know I know, doesn't take much :)


Saturday, April 19, 2014

Unexpected purchase

So went to Village des Valeurs with my friend and her son yesterday and managed to pick up 1.5 M of a nice hibiscus stretch knit print, for $4.99 and a few patterns for 99cents. While they were already cut, all the pieces were still there. One pattern was even for a costume. 

Will be making a dress out of this hibiscus print. How can you go wrong with a  $5 piece of fabric?

Other then that, I had  a date yesterday, from someone I met on POF.  Not usually the type I go for, but so far so good. Lunch went really well, and spent 5 hours texting last night.  Maybe I have found a companion for camping this summer.    He enjoys canoe camping and we share many interests. He even has ADD and has nicknamed me Big Bang Theory Girl. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

I have proof.

I've been poking fun at  people who feel the need to drive Hummers in Montreal. Because it's such a mountainous and dangerous city!!! I've also been poking fun for years at people who double park their Hummers in front of Yagel Bagel.   It's like every Hummer comes with a sense of entitlement!


Monday, April 14, 2014

When is it going to SPRING already?

I mean I had some crocus on the lawn already, but it's grey and gloomy and cold. Where is the promise of spring?

This is obviously a winter that will end just when summer starts .The spring won't have sprung.  I spent all week-end sewing and even rearranging my sewing supplies.  I had an entire box of ribbons and lace and it was  ahuge mess. Now all the ribbon is wrapped around cardboard and it helps me visualize what I have.

I finished a dress yesterday. I have 3 others in various stages of sewn. One I just need to make the 10 button holes and sew 10 buttons and hem it. Another I just need to sew the sleeves and hem it, and the third, I just need to make the bodice, add the zipper and hem it.

Wednesday, April 09, 2014

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Lay down fabric and they will come!

Ziva the Diva

Jethro, representing

Pixie is sleeping on green seersucker, while Jethro hangs out with the dragonflies!

Thursday, April 03, 2014

Walked through the Forest

Photo from my walk through Bois de Liesse in mid afternoon today...


Did you want to kill them yourself?

This rant is to the Miss piggy looking woman driving a burgandy Honda accord, that followed me down Anselme lavigne and then onto Sources blvd around 9 O'Clock this morning.

Next time instead of honking because I chose not to plow over 2 women who were crossing the road, feel free to go around me and kill them yourself.


Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Onboard intel network adapters revisited with Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2

I'm still working on that clone system with the Asus P8Z77-V Premium motherboard that has the two integrated intel adapters, the 82579V & the 82583V. When I got to Server 2008 R2 I got the same issue. It would refuse to install any intel driver, from the Intel 18.8 Network CD.

I blew a gasket and decided that there has to be a workaround. So I remembered that back in the day of the first plug & pray OS' that we used more the "Have disk" method of driver install. It's painful, but sometimes it works.

So from Server 2008 R2, I clicked on the unknown network device, and got to the menu that says "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" . Then you have to choose network adapter, and then 'have disk". This will point to your system32 folder. I pointed it to the Intel 18.8 CD.  I knew the name of the adapters so I looked for them. I found the 82579LM.  Installed the driver for that. And lo  and behold, I suddenly had access to the local network.

So today I went to revisit Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2. I followed the same procedure and installed that driver on both network adapters. And it worked!!!

Of course windows did warn me that this driver was not written for my OS or hardware and did I want to put this driver on, and I did.  I've used this method before to catastrophic results where the system either just plainly restarts or blue screens and then your OS is hosed.  This was not the case today.

Server 2012 R2 with both network cards using the 82579LM drivers
This solution may not be a good fit for someone using a Server OS as a Server with lots of systems accessing it, but this is good enough for a test machine, where we want to have a Server OS installed to see if our drivers work in that system. We can install the software we need and the drivers we need. We're not looking for speed or perfect network solutions.

This entry is a follow-up of this blog post

Note despite the fact I wrote this on the first of April this is not a joke. This actually did work. [Hence the photo]