It's the dawn of another year.
I'm at the "1 more year" point for school.

And I'm trying to decide what the plan should be for this year.
I'm still working out the final wording of the resolution, but it's going to follow along these lines:
Never turn down a good thing, make better use of my time,
and work hard to push my boundaries beyond that line that defines what "can be done"... and "what's too hard" or "impossible" for someone like me to do.

Actually, now that I look at it.. that wording isn't too shabby....

I wonder if it's going to come true...
apparently according to russian tradition, after I make the wish I have to slip a piece of chocolate into the champagne bottle. If the Chocolate floats, it's going to come true... if it sinks... well..

So... umm.. shit! It's Christmas

It finally set in today. This has been the third consecutive Sunday that I've spent in the office, but today I returned home to find the house completely decorated and ready to go for christmas.

So, in accordance with this sudden change in living I think I should go over my Christmas anti-checklist.

• No christmas presents bought- Check
• No preparations made to move home - Check
• No Christmas Clothes bought - Check
• No Christmas Plans made - Check
• It's freezing cold enough to be christmas - Check
• Homesick - Check
• Feeling Urge to get Drunk every night on George Street - Check
• Project Work Not Completed - Check
• Haven't gone to Church the last 2 weekends - Check
  

So Shit, I have about 10 days, well really 7, because nothing will happen on the last couple of days, and some will be lost to packing.. but either way, I don't have enough time left to do anything.

So I'll take some time (which I'll regret later) out of my feverish typing to make a new type of excuse I like the sound of...

I'm sorry mom.. I was busy making a million dollars... but it was for someone else.
So at least that's the christmas spirit in part... right? :)

"Co-op Students contribute more than they cost"

That's the infamous line of self-promotion from the highly repubtable Dalhousie Univeristy School of Engineering.

Well now I understand just how scorchingly true it is.
On all my previous jobs I always politely noted that I wasn't being paid enough to do the useless (or never to be used useful) stuff I was doing. Whether it was lifeguarding or working on some "critical" development projects for the goverment, my contributions never had a dollar figure that I could compare with my salary.

I've just returned from cold, dark, and very northren Alberta. The transit time itself could have seen me in Prague enjoying a nice riverside dinner with a beautiful blonde had I flown for the same amount of time.

While it's colder than any cold I've ever know up there, it was rather warm where I was. I toured a facility that burned more natural gas everyday than the city of Calgary. The purpose, all to produce steam to heat up oil and make it flow. The scale of the project was incredible and as I struted along with my branded hardhat, just happy to be there, the operators suddenly turned to me, "So what's your take?"

I gulped, suddenly ambushed for my opinion. Maybe that was the warning sign that I was taking on a level of importance and perhaps even a level of reputation beyond my tracking.

Today the economics for my project returned, the model finally finished running. For 2 weeks of solid work, I have essentially generated 1000 times my cumulative 4-month salary in profit for the company.

The most astounding part perhaps is that the idea for this huge cash pot just kinda blurted out all at once, with no particular real thought behind it, between sips of my coffee on an overly extended break while I was complaining about something or other (I believe it was the lack of heat in the office).

Now I'm sitting here, floored... really wishing the company would grant me a 1% bonus on the net profit of my project. Which of course, has recieved every green light for progression in near record time.

Bartending is a lot harder than it looks. Well classy bartending anyways.

Last night as part of a team building event with my Colleagues, our employer shut the doors at noon (catastrophic failures be-damned),boxed us up, and shipped us off to the School of Bartending Fine-Arts.

I wasn't really looking forward to the bartending part. I had assumed they were going to show us how to mix drinks, something everyone has learned in everyone else's parents basement throughout highschool. However, I was looking forward to the drinking part.

But when we got there, I was a little surprised. The focus of the course was not actually on mixing drinks, but on the style you make the drinks with.

With no alcohol consumption yet to be hard, we learned the basics of tossing and rolling Liqour bottles around our necks, backs, arms, and the oh-so-hard flip toss of the bottle (plastic trainer bottle at this point) and the subsequent catching of it at the proper rotation with the drink shaker.

Soon the plastic stuff was removed, we were divided into teams and the bottles were flying. Ice was flying around like Huge Hail Stones, and people actually sheilded their eyes as I threw my batch of Martini's together.

All in all, with my new bartender's license, I've not attained some valuable clout for Christmas Parties :)

Either way, By far the best part of the night was after the schooling was over, we herded out of the place and into the closest bar, where we ran up the company tab on a "supplemental team building event" :)

Previously secret, now Drunken stories began to get tossed back in forth, each and everytime shocking the entire crowd. "You're leaving ?!" "You got Hit by a CAR?!" "You got an offer WITH SHEL!?"

I braced at this last one, I was sandwiched between 2 of the companies lead recruiters for my department, the person in charge of interveiwing sat across from me, and a bunch of other highly respectable types, including my mentor all stared with their jaws slack.

"TAKE IT!" They seemed to scream in unison, demanding more details.

I laughed, instant relief and gave the details. Congratulations circulated, and soon it became obvious, that out of everyone at the table, only very few did not have plans for a relocation in the short term.

It was a little sobering.