Impromptu Portrait of Oscar, a photo by MikeBrowne on Flickr.

One of our kitties!

Jazz Landing, a photo by MikeBrowne on Flickr.

Carol and I went to the airport to watch planes land after work. I took this photo there.

This week my long and arduous job search came to an end. I applied for a job with Shaw Cablesystems. I’ve been a customer for many years using their digital television and internet services. I have always had good experiences dealing with the company and its representatives so when I found out that Technical Service Representative (TSR) jobs were available there I pounced on the opportunity.

I received a link to the job by a friend. The link had an online questionnaire around my technical knowledge and an “apply now” button at the bottom. On the next page I set up my account for the Shaw careers database filling out all of my information and copied and pasted a plain text version of my resumé into the form provided.

On the same day I got a phone call about coming in to Shaw Tower for a screening interview with a Talent Supply Coordinator from the HR department after which I scheduled for back for a second interview the next day with two supervisors from the Technical Service department.

I had to bring my passport (which I seem to have lost on the way home) and my driver’s licence so a credit and criminal record check could be done on me.

After the second interview, which I thought went well, my interviewers told me that I should to wait for a call one way or the other.

The phone call with a job offer came a day later. It included an amazing benefits package that starts right away, not the least of which is an employee discount on the old cable bill. Nice! Every bit helps.

The whole hiring experience was extremely pleasant, professionally executed and efficient. At no time was I made to feel I was just a number.

The offices in Shaw Tower are beautiful and modern. The people I met were all friendly and accommodating. That’s a corporate culture I can get used to.

I start training on Monday. I am looking forward to this new adventure.

If you’re in Vancouver and might like a career at Shaw you can attend the Shaw Tower Open House tomorrow. Here are the details —

We have three questions for you:

• Are you customer service driven?
• Do you have a passion for sales?
• Do you love technology and innovation?

If the answer is YES, then come to our open house and bring a friend!

Shaw Tower is opening its doors on Saturday, July 24th from 2 to 4 p.m. and we are looking for enthusiastic people to join our Customer Service and Technical Service teams.

There’s never been a better time to join the Shaw family as we continue to grow and expand our business.

So, if you know anyone who would be interested in applying, please pass along the information below.

Details

• When: Saturday, July 24
• Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
• Where: Shaw Tower, 1067 West Cordova Street, Vancouver
• Open Positions: Customer Service and Technical Service Representatives
• What to bring: Your resume
• What to expect: Be prepared to have an on-site interview with one of our Customer Care Supervisors

IMPORTANT: These jobs are all PART-TIME and only guarantee 20 hours per week. Our call centre operates 7 days a week from 7 AM – 11:30 PM. All candidates must be available to work anytime within these hours.

Our new addition to the family is adjusting well, after a rocky start. He was a bit skittish and hid behind the couch and hissed at us for the first week. He’s warming up to everyone, especially Oscar. They can be found either playing together, hanging out under the dining room table or cuddled up together on the small couch or the bed.

Oscar, seen here in the foreground, really loves his new little brother, Donner. Yeah, that’s him with the giant eyeballs at in the background.

No, we didn’t name Donner. He came with that crappy name. Apparently, he was a “Christmas kitten” at Katie’s Place so they named him after one of Santa’s reindeer. We haven’t been able to come up with anything that fits him any better. It’s sort of appropriate as Carol is a huge fan of Christmas.

I snapped this shot this morning with Carol’s camera. Hopefully I’ll have my own DSLR soon. The old Canon Powershot G5 just isn’t cutting the mustard. I’ll steal Carol’s when I can, but it’s kind of tough to wrangle; kind of like taking a rifle from an NRA member.

As soon as there was the slightest bit of snow on the ground me and the other hooligans in my neighbourhood donned our snowsuits, toques and idiot mittens and went sliding on toboggans, sleds and/or crazy carpets. The hill of choice was next to the duck pond in my home town. When sliding we had to be careful that we didn’t end up on the ice of the pond if it had not frozen completely solid.

Crazy Carpeting picture by Canadian Veggie on Flickr

We saw this kind of incident numerous times. There were never any drownings that we heard about. It usually ended with a crying kid splashing his or her way home in a snowmobile suit that now weighed as much as they did as it was drenched.

There were other obstacles; trees, for example.

One time in particular I hopped onto my dark green crazy carpet an rocketed down the hill. I promptly lost control of the piece of plastic I was sliding on and flipped around backwards. Being a smart ass I waved and grinned stupidly at my friends standing at the top of the hill. They were yelling something at me.

I realized what it was they were yelling as I hit the stand of trees 3/4 of the way down the hill back first. It still smarts sometimes when I have walked a long way, so I might have cracked a rib that day. That was over 30 years ago.

Idiot mittens indeed.

Here’s a video of someone riding a crazy carpet who did not hit a tree:

I’m not sure why this popped into my brain today, but it was there so why not share? Now I want to go crazy carpeting again.

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous

And I am listening to Volaré in Italian (of course).

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous

Yum! Thanks @carolbrowne!

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous

Posted via web from mikebrowne’s posterous