Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

I have posted the story and photos from my business trip to Beijing, China. I was there for 10 days to provide training and knowledge transfer. I also met some of Rosa’s extended family.

The trip story is here http://myredbmw.net/travel/beijing-dec-2011/.

The photo gallery is here: http://gallery.myredbmw.net/v/Travel/Beijing2011/.

As of last week, everyone in my former team had secured positions in the 4G business unit except myself and my manager. What really pushed me over the edge with stress was that I was told that the management team “might want to keep me”, but in 2.5 months no one told me what my new position would be, or when it would start. It felt like I was the last one being picked for a high school baseball team and not even my own team wanted me.

I was told that I was wanted in CDMA because of my experience and skills. But with no formal offers, it felt hollow.

But it has been settled now. I will be a EMS Release Tech Lead for the rollout of a new Ericsson program. It is a position where I can exercise both technical side and project management skills.

I am feeling much better now. In fact, I am really very happy because I consider this new role to be a bigger challenge and a real growth opportunity.

I moved to Ottawa during the last week of January 1997. I drove up in my dad’s Chevy Tahoe filled with all my stuff. There was a snow storm in Quebec, so it took two days to reach Ottawa.

For the first few days, I slept on my friends couch until DJ left to move in with his girlfriend. I took over his portion of the apartment and rent. It was good times. We ran our internet connection on an AMD486DX40 in the basement, played Duke Nukem 3D until 4am, watched Jackie Chan-o-thons at the Mayfair Theatre and listened to The Cardigans and KMFDM.

Has it really been 15 years? A decade-and-a-half?

I think of how much time that is by comparing to my childhood up until I was a teenager. That’s a long time. I think back to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, where I lived until I was 7. My best friend was Steven, who lived next door, and then just down the road when both of our families moved.

Then in November 1977, my family moved to New Minas, where my parents opened a McDonald’s restaurant. Three more schools – New Minas Elementary, Port Williams Elementary, and finally the move to Horton District High School.

All those friends I met and with whom I have fallen out of touch. All the adventures. All the class mates and teachers. From my birth until I could get my beginners drivers license – 15 years.

And that’s how long I’ve been here in Ottawa.

So much has changed here too: 4 apartments, 2 houses, a marriage, and a racing career. When I moved to Ottawa, it was just sparking with excitement. Corel, Rebel NetWinder, Linux Chix, and Microserfs. It was the tech bubble. I knew more people in Ottawa than I did in Wolfville, where I had graduated and worked at Acadia University. It seemed like everyone from the Acadia Computer Science program went to Ottawa after graduation.

Now, I hardly know anyone from that era. The bubble burst at the turn of the millennium. Everyone I knew closely has moved away. Nadine (moved to Nova Scotia), Dana (moved to San Diego), Christine and Kevin (Nova Scotia), Nick and Bev (Nova Scotia and changed career), Rob and Deb (New Brunswich), Peter (New York); Julie is still still in Ottawa married with kids.

Of the 15 years in Ottawa, I’ve been with Rosa for seven. For all that has changed, for all that might have been lost to time, I have gained so much that is valuable to me: my relationship with Rosa, my most precious treasure.

In November, it was decided that my CDMA project would be transitioned to a new team in Beijing, China. The decision came very quickly, and by December I was in Beijing to handle the initial transition training. The training was very well received. It’s a good team there.

This transition means that I need to find a new position. I thought it would be easy in a huge multinational company with around 100,000 employees.

Most of my teammates have received and accepted offers from our 4G/LTE business unit, and I had hoped to move as well. But so far, I have not received any offers or interviews. I was told I might be kept back in CDMA but I haven’t heard what that might be either.

I’ve become very frustrated and anxious with the lack of information and offers. I’ve sent my resume to a few jobs in Montreal, but they have not replied yet.

I’ve become so anxious about my future and the lack of information. Yesterday, I reached a point where I was physically ill with stress. I am concerned that the uncertainty is impacting my health.

Then this morning I was greeted with an email from HR congratulating me for 15 years of service. I started at Nortel on February 19, 1997. I can choose from a list of nice service awards (gifts). I think I will take either the Hipstreet iPad case with Bluetooth keyboard or the 3-person Coleman tent. It’s been an emotional roller coaster.

Back in April, a course was offered at work, “Preparing for the PMP Exam” from Learning Tree. About 40 people from Ericsson took the course, including myself. It was a 35 hour (1 week) course that offered to help students pass the PMP exam. It was offered the opportunity on the condition that I make an effort to write the exam, but on my own time and out of my own pocket.

Since then, I have been very busy and did not continue studying. But in the last two weeks, I have been highly motivated. The PMP Exam is changing after August 31st; I wanted to take the exam before the changes, which will impact about 40% of the questions on the exam.

First I had to sign up at PMI.org and start entering my work history. As I have a B.Sc (Computer Science) degree, I had to document that I had 4,500 hours of previous project management experience. There are web forms and paper forms – I chose to use the web forms as it was quicker. Entering the data took a few days, as the forms were long, and I had to go back and review old emails to get the correct timelines. I also contacted three previous managers (plus my current manager) to ask if I could use them as references.

I submitted the form once it was completed. It can take about 5 days for the data to be reviewed and either rejected or accepted. My previous experience was accepted. About 30% of the submissions are audited and the references are contacted. In my case, I was not audited.

My first mistake was to then sign up for the exam and pick the schedule. I should have first bought my PMI membership. I thought that by signing up at the PMI web site with an account that it was part of the PMI membership sign up, but it is not related. If I bought my PMI membership first, the exam would be less expensive. The exam was $633.

I choose the last available day before August 31, which was Monday August 22. That gave me just over a week to prepare.

Unfortunately it was a difficult week. I have been filling in for my manager and one of our key designers. The team received a very difficult issue, which I had to debug over many long hours. It meant that I could not start my studies until Wednesday when the root cause was found for the issue.

I studied for hours each evening, re-learning a chapter per day. I rewrote the practice exams and even downloaded some free exam apps for my iPhone. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday studying.

This morning, I found a quiet meeting room where I did the last hour of studying and had my lunch. The exam is at Prometric, which is in the East end of Ottawa, nearly in Orleans. I left extra early in case of traffic problems, just around noon.

When I arrived, the staff went through the procedures and time line. I was not allowed to bring anything into the examination room. That meant no paper, no pens or pencils, no cell phones, no pagers, no money, no food or drinks (including water), and no watches. I was given a locker with a lock where I could put my stuff. I had to show two photo ids when I arrived, and keep one of them with me during the entire exam. If I had to leave the room (for food, drink or washroom), I would need to sign out and before going back in, I would have to show my photo id again. Also before entering the room, I had to show my pockets were empty by turning them inside out.

I was allowed to start anytime, as there was a free computer, but I was not obligated. I spent another 10 minutes studying and having some last minute chocolate for energy.

When I was ready I was shown the demonstration on how to use the computer exam system. There were about 7 people in the room already writing various exams. I was given two pieces of blank paper and two pencils and a pair of headphones to prevent noise distractions. If I needed more paper, I would have to turn in the other two pages – I could only have 2 pages at once. I immediately wrote down everything I could from memory on the blank paper.

The exam starts with the 15 minute tutorial; I only needed 5 minutes. Then the exam starts. The exam has a 4-hour timer. I finished the 200 questions in about 3.5 hours. I ran through the exam once, answering everything I could. I also marked about 1/3 of the questions to review again. I did not answer a few questions as I could not find the best answer.

Once I completed the first run through, I went back to the review screen and attempted to answer all the questions I did not answer the first time. I did this a few times until everything had an answer. Then I worked on the questions I marked for later review. I kept running through the list of marked questions until all were clear and I had selected the best answer for everything.

With much trepidation, I clicked the submit button. This was the point of no return. If I failed, I would have to spend another $633 to write the updated exam…

But I passed! The results are displayed immediately. It does not give a score or a list of questions that were wrong. It only shows pass or fail.

After the exam, there is a 10 minute computer survey about the exam and the Prometrics facility.

I left the exam room, signed out, and turned in my used papers.

Then I happily drove home through rush hour traffic with a big smile and a feeling of accomplishment.

Ericsson BBQ

After the lunch, door prizes were given out. I sat down on the grass while the winners were randomly drawn.

The earth started to vibrate. It started like a truck passing along Carling Avenue, or like a plane taking off, but there was no planes or trucks around. Everyone started looking around to see what was the cause before it sank in that it had to be an earthquake.

The ground vibrated strongly. It was not like the ground was moving up and down or side-to-side. It was like a very strong vibration deep below. As the shaking continued, I tried to take in all of the experience. It was exhilarating. The earthquake lasted about half a minute. There was no sound as we were in the middle of a grass field and there was nothing to move around and cause noise.

Reading about the quake later, I found that it was strong enough to break windows in the Ottawa City Hall, break chimneys around the city, and it destroyed a bridge closer to the epicentre. The epicentre was just over 50km from the former Nortel campus. It was an magnitude 5.0 quake. It was the largest quake to be felt in Ottawa in 65 years.

About 10 years ago, when I lived in the Glebe, I was awoken by smaller quake. I had a glass jar of change on a table in my bedroom. It was the coins shaking in the glass jar that woke me up.

There are forces and powers in nature that are awesome and humbling if you spend time thinking about it.

Mountains near Rancho Cucamonga

During the day Monday, I debated what to do: should I see a doctor or just get some rest and wait to see if I would get better.

After talking with Rosa, I decided to see a doctor. I had to call my (business) travel insurance provider. They sent me to a care facility in the city. I went and the doctor looked me over, listened with his stethoscope and prescribed some antibiotics and cough syrup.

Two hours later, I went out to supper with two co-workers, Roddric and Theirry. I ordered a pound of snow crab legs. I normally would not order them because of the mess and cost, but I thought I should treat myself – the company would cover the meal. I love crab.

I was still not feeling well though. I started to eat but had only eaten a single leg before I started feeling much, much worse.

I stopped eating for a moment but I was still getting worse. I was feeling light-headed. I waited for it to clear, but it just got worse. I knew that something was very wrong, and told my co-workers that I was feeling light-headed. As I was seated on the inside of the both, I could not sit down to get my head between my knees, so I slid down in my chair to lower my head.

So then I fainted…

When I came to, Roddric had already called an ambulance. I was immediately coherent and I told everyone the current date and that I knew were I was and that I had passed out. My face streaming with sweat for some reason, even though I did not feel hot.

The ambulance and a firetruck arrived in less than 5 minutes. The paramedics asked me what happened and looked me over. They checked my blood sugar. They hooked me to a portable EKG machine I think. They offered to take me to a hospital and after thinking about it, I agreed. I hoped that my travel insurance would cover the costs, but decided that my health was important and that if they did not, it was still the right decision. The paramedics would not allow me to walk to the ambulance in case I passed out again and hit my head. They strapped me to a stretcher and pushed me outside through the crowded restaurant. I hated that. I was embarrassed.

The ambulance trip took about 10 minutes. I was wheeled into the emergency room.

The doctor came to speak with me after I had been checked-in. He told me that they would run some tests. Everyone asked me if I had a seafood allergy, which I do not. I was hooked up to an IV drip, had my blood taken, and a more extensive EKG taken. A chest X-ray was also taken.

The tests confirmed that I did not have a heart attack or stroke, and did not have low blood sugar. But the doctor was not able to determine the root cause for me fainting. We doubted that I had had a reaction to the antibiotics either.

The doctor explained that the fainting was caused by vascular dilation, meaning that all my blood vessels dilated open. This very rapidly decreased my blood pressure and drained blood from the brain. I felt the process starting when I felt lightheaded. He said that this was the body’s way of ensuring that the person lay down, and it is a involuntary reaction.

He also thought that I had a virus inflection, so the antibiotics would not be effective. Unfortunately, there are no medications for viral inflections. I just have to wait it out.

I was supposed to go to work at the customer switch for the maintenance window starting at midnight. My co-workers called my manager and director back in Ottawa. The director said that I was not to go into the switch, and that someone had to stay with me in case I had another problem. I made a compromise that I would connect from my hotel room and that one co-worker with a backup room key was just down the hall in case I needed something.

I was able to talk with Rosa from the hospital for about 15 seconds before the batteries in the cell phone died. I told her that I was fine. I was so worried that she would be worried about me when I was already feeling much better.

It was an interesting experience. I’ve never fainted before. I remember the sensations as I started to pass out, and I’m glad I had enough sense to say something and attempt to lower my head before I blacked out.

I still have to deal with getting over my illness, which is not really diagnosed. I just need lots of sleep. I’ll keep up with the antibiotics though, as they should not do any harm.

Saturday morning I woke up quite early, as I am still adjusting to the 3-hr time difference. I packed up what I needed and went down to the car. I had an iPod Nano with some podcasts and audiobooks, hat, jacket, sunscreen and the Eyewitness Travel Guides Top Ten Los Angeles. I brought all my camera gear as well, including my Amod AGL3080 photo tracker.

I stopped for breakfast at McDonald’s and was on the highway around 7am.

Dennis Hopper's star

My first stop was Hollywood. It took about an hour to drive there (Los Angeles is huge – more about that later). I parked the car and started walking down Hollywood Boulevard. My first stop was the Art Deco style Pantages Theatre and the Capital Records building. From there I walked down the Walk of Fame towards the Kodak Theatre (where the Oscars are currently presented) and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I could see the famous Hollywood sign in the distance on the hills to the north. The sign is smaller than I expected. As with the Statue of Liberty, the photos I’ve seen are shot in such a way as to make it look bigger than in real life. It’s also because it is actually quite a distance from this part of the city.

In front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre are the handprints, footprints and signatures of famous Hollywood stars in concrete tiles.

After walking back to my car, I drove south from Hollywood Boulevard to Sunset Boulevard, where I drove westward. I drove by the Viper Room (where River Phoenix died), the Rainbow Bar and Grill and the Whisky a Go Go (where The Doors were the house band). From there, the road leads through Beverly Hills, past UCLA, Bel Air and into Santa Monica. Lots of nice homes, but I didn’t spend much time looking around as I did not want to get lost.

Once I reached the Pacific Ocean, I took Highway 1 south with no particular destination in mind. Driving by kilometer after kilometer of beach, I decided to pull over and take a walk. I could see a pier in the distance.

Santa Monica Pier

It was a great day for walking along the beach. From where I parked, it was about a kilometer to walk to the Santa Monica Pier. I did not realize until I arrived that Santa Monica Pier is also the west coast terminus of Route 66. The Pier had an amusement park, including a roller coaster and Ferris wheel. There is a trapeze school as well. Many people were fishing off the end of the Pier. I walked around for about an hour, taking lots of pictures before I stopped for lunch – deep fried shrimp – and then headed back to the car. I decided to walk on the beach instead of the sidewalk. At first it was nice walking barefoot along the sand, but the sand was unbelievably hot. I walked along the edge of the water to cool my feet  before crossing the beach to the parking lot.

I wanted to head south to Long Beach. I thought it would be easy to get there. Lacking a good map, I had no idea how difficult it would be.

I followed along the coast for as long as I could before I had to start taking other streets, due to the marinas in Marina Del Ray. I took Washington Boulevard, thinking that it looked big and I thought it was heading south. After driving for what seemed like an hour, I drove by the Sony Pictures Entertainment studios in Culver City, which allowed me to find out where I was the tiny map I had brought. All that driving and I had barely moved on the map. This is when it really hit me how big Los Angeles is. Almost an hour of driving and I was maybe 10% of the way to Long Beach. The only way to get there would be to get on a highway.

I found the 405 and 110 and it still took about 40 minutes to drive to Long Beach.

The map I had did not show Long Beach, so I had to guess my way around. I was looking for the Queen Mary. I thought, “Hey, how hard can it be to find a huge ocean liner?” Stupid question. I was still not grasping it how big the city is! I stumbled upon the SS Lane Victory, a World War II Victory Ship, so I stopped to take a look. I found out that it still functional and is used for tourist cruises!

The Port of Long Beach is stunning in size. The Port of Long Beach and the nearby Port of Los Angeles combine to be largest port in the world (109km of waterfront and 43 km^2 of land area in total). It goes on for mile after mile. I had heard that the rows of giant cranes along the many waterfronts inspired George Lucas in the design of the AT-AT Walkers in The Empire Strikes Back.

I took a bridge and highway east until I could see signs for the Queen Mary. I got off the highway, followed the signs to the entrance to the parking lot, but for some reason all the cars were being waved back onto the surrounding streets. I thought perhaps there was a problem, so I circled back around. This time I was allowed into the parking lot, but was soon directed back out again. I was driving around in circles, all controlled by the parking attendants. I circled around once more and again was directed back towards the exit. I stopped at one of the parking attendants to explain that I wanted to stop and see the Queen Mary. I was told that the parking lots were full. Oh, that would be why I was directed out of the facility. I was told that the facility was being used for the 7th Annual Iron and Ink Tattoo & Kustom Culture Festival. Oh, that would explain all the goths, biker dudes and pink-haired punks.

RMS Queen Mary

I explained that I only wanted to take some photos of the Queen Mary. I guess the parking attendant liked me because she let me try to find a place to park for free. I thanked her and found a spot next to a light standard (technically it was not a parking spot). I walked through the crowd to the bow of the ship. I felt awkward because it was obvious that I The RMS Queen Mary is a fine example of an Art Deco ocean liner of a time when liners were the only way to travel between continents. Incongruously, there is a Cold War Soviet Foxtrot submarine moored next to the bow. I was not able to get on the ship (or sub) to look around due to the festival. I wish I had been able to go onboard.

After that, I decided to head north again to see the Hollywood Bowl. Once I got there, near suppertime, I was mired in a traffic jam. I found out that it was a jam to get into the Bowl, as it was the Playboy Jazz Festival.

I gave up and drove north past Universal Studios, and into North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks. I gave up randomly driving around and decided to head to see Griffith Observatory, which was a good choice.

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory overlooks Los Angeles. It’s a fantastic example of the Art Deco style. It’s still a functioning observatory, and I went inside to see their coelostat (solar telescope). I was starving, so I stopped at the cafe. I bought two peanut butter and jam sandwiches and a huge Rice Krispy square. That really hit the spot. I sat on the patio eating and watching the sun set by the Hollywood sign. At one end of the patio was a photo shoot – an Asian girl in a cocktail dress posing on the stairs while her boyfriend (?) snapped away. An assistant was holding the rest of the equipment and flash.

I went back to the roof to watch the lights of Los Angeles in the growing darkness. I waited about an hour for night to fall and then started shooting some longer exposures of the expanse of the city, bright against the clouds (or is that smog?).

I walked back to my car with some difficulty. It was pitch black and my knee was felt like it was burning – my body was telling me I walked too far for one day. It was a long day and I arrived back at the hotel around 9:30pm.

Today, Sunday, was a little shorter. This was because I needed to get some sleep before heading into the customer site at midnight for the start of the maintenance window.

Again, I stopped for pancakes at McDonald’s, filled the gas tank and headed back to LA.

Hollywood Bowl

My first stop was the Hollywood Bowl. I had no problems getting in and parking at 8am. I grabbed my camera and walked into the site. No one stopped me, as I think everyone thought I was part of the event staff.

Next I went north to the start of Mulholland Drive. It winds along the top of the Hollywood Hills. There are some fantastic views north and south over the city. All along Mulholland you can see spectacular homes. I stopped at one viewing area and took a short walk (my knee started to hurt again) though the hillside. Lots of people were out walking their dogs along the dusty trails.

Once I reached Interstate 405, I drove south (past the Getty Center) and down to Venice Beach. Venice Beach is just south of the Santa Monica Pier. I parked and started to walk along the infamous boardwalk. I was expecting it to be a complete freak-show, but to be honest, it was actually nothing like its reputation. Perhaps Sundays are quieter.

There were lots of artists displaying their works, a few buskers, a dozen shops offering “free medical marijuana tests”, clothing stores and tourist traps. There was a fantastic skatepark, where I stopped to take lots of pictures. I could also practice my french with another tourist who was visiting from France. Next were the streetball courts, where there were multiple pick-up games going on.

Further down was Muscle Beach, although there was no one training when I walked past. I bought some ice cream for lunch and then started to head back.

Venice Beach Drum Circle

I took some more pictures at the skate park and then came across a drum circle. I sat and watched the drummers for a while. Everyone was having fun. One older guy in a muscle shirt and surfer shorts was whaling on his drum while a Che Guevara look-alike was in his own groove on a shaker.

I started back to the hotel around 4pm. It took longer to drive home because it was close to the Sunday rush hour.

Iron Man 2 is a fun movie. Lots of action, great costume design, great special effects and so forth. Scarlett Johansson is gorgeous.

But, just like the first Iron Man, the dialog is awful. Cring-inducing. Tony Stark’s character needs to be over-the-top, but the dialog doesn’t sound crisp for that purpose. It sounds like it was written by a 14-year-old.

When we got home from the theatre, there was a police helicopter flying circles around a local field. A police car showed up, but it did not have the light bar on. I’m not sure what is happening, but it is obvious that they are watching something.

So I’m watching the detectives.

This is the live entertainment I don’t get to see living in Canada.

Horrible Carling Place Sign

But the sign is really hideous. The former Nortel Carling Campus is a beautiful location, with interesting architecture, surrounded by forests with wonderful walking paths. I like working at this location because of all of these reasons.

First, I don’t like the name. It’s too similar to “Carleton Place”, the town just outside of Ottawa. It is a non-descript, meaningless name. The name could have been more apt, like “Carling Campus”, which sounds like a place of higher learning. Or perhaps “Technology Park”, which echos places like RTP and includes the nature around the campus, even if the actual name is a little boring.

And finally, the font. I can’t believe the height of design for the sign was an Arial font. Arial is the most boring font in the world. It is completely without character (no pun intended). It is the font of last resort when there are no other fonts available. It is classless and boring to look at. A 6-year old could have designed the sign. I could have designed the sign better than what we got. Instead of spending $100 to hire some Algonquin College Graphic Arts student to do a nice sign (and support the local schools, which is a good news story for the papers), someone decided it was more important to give hundreds of millions of dollars on executive bonuses.

I am so incredibly disappointed in what Nortel will come to represent in the future. It’s a horrible misrepresentation of Nortel that more people will remember the bonuses to executives instead of to pensioners than for the technology that made the company as important as it was a decade ago.