a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

she's got him figured out...my niece. If only she uses her powers for good...

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

kind of blurry and I'm not sure why but it looks like ther is some kind of reflection off the lens...

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

I was experimenting with my K1000, tripod, remote cord and my Vivitar 283 flash-gun. (Yes - nothing I own is new.)

It was after midnight and I snapped half a roll experimenting with apeture and shutter-speed. This is the only photo that turned out.

I’m sure they do it in Califoria too.

When you quit and give notice they choose instead to terminate you on the spot and ban you from the building.

It’s why people tell you never leave anything at your work place when the day ends – you don’t know if you will be able to retrieve it the next day.

XO

I am looking forward to it.

I kind of wish my old workplace would have walked me out though. I’m really finding it hard to get through the two-weeks notice I gave.

In a recent job interview I was asked: Where do you see yourself in five years?

I know it’s a stock HR School question. The right answer is likely posted on the internet somewhere. It is obviously meant to illicit a response that tells the interviewer more about you than you would have indended.

How ambitious are you? Are you here for the short term or the long?

Where does jack see himself in five years?

fit, debt free and a father.

You can wright it down.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

darlene and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

my beautiful sister paula

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

cousin matt - smoking.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

nephew joel babysitting niece sage

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

jade - the spectacular.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

jasper likes water

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

paula drinking beer in the park with aunt maggie - the anglican preistess

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

cousin danny - who darlene says looks like george cloony with cousin jenny's husband aaron

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

street shot: katie, danny and chris

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

beautiful stepsister michelle and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

stepbrother-in-law chris, darlene, sisters and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

I deleted this photo by accident, it's one of my favourites.

The title makes it sound much racier than it was.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

Cats - look what she's done to my screen!

The trouble with cats is they live forever - long after they cease to be cute. They age into these irritable, demanding little monsters...

This one - Hero, takes three different medications a day, but only if you can overpower her first. Mind the claws - she'll use them on you if you try it. She also has special dietary requirements; she eats catfood made from green-pea and duck .

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

Jade was attacked by a rottweiler at the dogpark a couple weeks ago. My wife was walking her at the time. It blindsided her without provokation when Jade wasn't looking. The creature went for her throat, missing the jugular vein by only a few millimeters. Jade didn't run though - she stayed and fought the rottweiler off.

Next day and a thousand dollars later she was back at the park, rambunctious and happy as ever. No fear, no recriminations as unimbittered toward the world of dogs and men as ever.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

Jade was attacked by a rottweiler at the dogpark a couple weeks ago. My wife was walking her at the time. It blindsided her without provokation when Jade wasn't looking. The creature went for her throat, missing the jugular vein by only a few millimeters. Jade didn't run though - she stayed and fought the rottweiler off.

Next day and a thousand dollars later she was back at the park, rambunctious and happy as ever. No fear, no recriminations as unimbittered toward the world of dogs and men as ever.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

Jade was attacked by a rottweiler at the dogpark a couple weeks ago. My wife was walking her at the time. It blindsided her without provokation when Jade wasn't looking. The creature went for her throat, missing the jugular vein by only a few millimeters. Jade didn't run though - she stayed and fought the rottweiler off.

Next day and a thousand dollars later she was back at the park, rambunctious and happy as ever. No fear, no recriminations as unimbittered toward the world of dogs and men as ever.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

Birthday last week.

Jade, Hero and I celebrate with a little quiet contemplation.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

dar makes dinner for friends.

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

darlene and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

my beautiful sister paula

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

cousin matt - smoking

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

nephew joel babysitting niece sage

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

jade

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

jasper likes water

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

paula drinking beer in the park with aunt maggie - the anglican preistess

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

cousin danny - who darlene says looks like george cloony with cousin jenny's husband aaron

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

street shot: katie, danny and chris

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

beautiful stepsister michelle and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

stepbrother-in-law chris, darlene, sisters and the depth of field

a_whole_new_jack posted a photo:

I deleted this photo by accident, it's one of my favourites.

The title makes it sound much racier than it was.

- interestingly, I was kind of targetted for this job. I’d gotten feelers from them a few months ago but I wasn’t really ready to move at that time and I didn’t follow up on them. It took alot of beating my head against the wall before I asked myself if the risk of the unfamiliar was a risky as the situation I was in.

and as it turned out, dealing with it as I did – honestly with my current boss, has taken most of the risk out of it. He says the job is waiting if it does not work out and that for a person of my ‘caliber’ he has an open-door policy.

I am so glad to have discovered that in this world of smart-alecs and ‘players’ being honest counts for something.

And if Mr. Wren has passed along any insites on how to adapt to a new corperate culture after leaving one he was familiar with I would love to hear them.

People will always tell you to ‘be yourself’

Every boy knows Sun-Tzu said know your enemy, know your self and you cannot lose.

Sinatra would say, I faced them all and I stood tall – I did it my way.

but how many people know their self at all?

This week I got a new job, today I gave my boss notice.

I’m not sure how to articulate this – at my old job I’ve always felt I was being pressured to alter my methods. I don’t really see I-to-I with my boss or supervisor. I think my way is the right one, I didn’t get the sense they agreed.

When I was interviewing for my new position I got the sense that it was my way was the reason they hired me – and offered me significant incentives to join them.

When I went to my old boss and told him about my offer I suddenly got a very different perspective. Normally they escort you out when you give them notice, especially when you go to work for a competitor. Instead my boss said he regretted that he could not match the offer but that ‘for an person of my caliber he had an open door policy’ and if it didn’t work out my job was going to be waiting. Further – I am the first person they have ever asked to stay the full length of my notice-period and he said it was only because he ‘knew I was a person of great integrity’

Here is the lesson I have drawn from this experience:

Be loyal. Keep your word. Speak the plain truth, especially when it isn’t what you think your bosses want to hear. Treat each person with respect. Make the hard decisions. Don’t try to shift blame.

Remember: anyone can be a good samarai to a good master. Only a true samarai can be serve a bad master just as well.

I have made a big decision. A big move. I got a new job.

Steadily the demands of my job have grown ever-more all-encompassing. The hours I work in a day have stretched out to the point where an eight-hour day seems like a half-day. The number of days I put in during a week have pushed into my time with family and robbed me of the things that make life more than drudgery. When I am at work the chaos and frantic pace leaves me feeling like I’m trying to bail out a leaking life-boat with a holed bucket.

Some time ago my company decided there was too much ‘fat’ in the operations department and cut staff and resources. My boss told me that in a management meeting one of the big-management guys had described his plan to ‘cut the B&C players and dump their work on the A-players.’

I suppose I should be pleased they consider me an ‘A-player’ but the fact is the way things have gone I had to wonder ‘what’s in it for me?’ – especially since wages have been stagnant for the last several years and the B&C players who rode out the attempts by the company to make them quit walked out with severance packages.

So, about two-weeks ago when I was called in early on a Monday after just finishing a week with twenty-hours of overtime I decided to take a look around and see if there was somewhere else that might hire ol’jack.

I had a great meeting with another company and they called me in for a second interview at which they offered me a job. Straight days, twenty-five percent increase in pay. Their office is clean, calm. They are well-organized. They were interested in my ideas and liked what I had to say about dealing with people, planning and communication.

So – how about that?