James Sapara’s Personal Blog

Right, much time has passed since my last post. Here’s a summery of the exciting stuff that’s happened since… well… since I can remember it.
Read the rest of this entry »

So I’ve been in Regina about 12 days now. My living arrangements are working out good so far. I’ve been busy at work with a project migrating a mysql on linux to mssql on nt2000. I’m planning on doing some reno’s to my friends basement in the near future as well. Make it a little more habitable. Thats all for now.

So after accepting this job in Regina on Monday I have since gotten FOUR job interview requests. Some of them are even at places I know I would want to work at. I also wouldn’t have to pack right now. Really, I don’t care about the moving that much. What I care about is working for a place that values me for what I’m worth. Someplace that going to pay me what I’m worth. Read the rest of this entry »

I am once again about to join the ranks of the employed. I’ve actually been in the process of getting employed with this specific company for a few weeks now, but I wanted to keep it on the down low. Last time I had a job interview people were asking all the time about it, not that I mind; but, it’s alot of effort to repeat the same story about the interview, the company, etc to everyone I know. This time I kinda just got the job then started talking about it. Seems to be working out good so far. On the downside, I have to move to Regina, which is 250km south east of Saskatoon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I’ve gotten my new car I’ve been bitchy in matters relating to my car. It all started with the process of agreeing on an amount for the car. They were giving TV’s away for FREE with all car purchases. Simply amazing, but I didn’t really want a $200 TV… So I said, “Give me the value of the tv off the price. I don’t want it.” They whod and hawd about it and said they couldn’t. Again I said, “Look, I can drive to Alberta and buy this car for less or you can give me the value of TV off the price of this car.” Sales guy goes to the manager and comes back with great news… they took $250 off the price of the car. Yay!
Read the rest of this entry »

So I decided to get a vanity plate for my car (I’m so VAIN!). My first choice was ICU 812, which was free according to the kind people at the registration office. So I filled out the form, paid the fee and sent it away. A week later I get a call from Barb. The plate I choose is part of the standard plate pool and cannot be assigned (free, but not available for me to just take ). So I tell her I’ll phone her back with some idea’s.
Read the rest of this entry »

I got word from TinyEye today that I have the job. I start in the first week of January. Ever since Monday I’ve literally been sick with anxiety. Feels great to have the wait over.

So today I have confirmed what I suspected happened all along with my mail. I am partly to blame for not looking into it myself earlier, but it’s still a bit disturbing. Turns out Canada Post “transcribed” my forward address incorrectly at some point at the forwarding depot in Winnipeg. That means, they typed it into a computer correctly, printed it off and then typed it back in… but the second time around they typed it wrong. I had actually assumed my handwriting was to blame, but as the representative told me over the phone, the billing record reflects my correct address.
Read the rest of this entry »

So sometime last week I got an email for a job interview at TinyEYE. They’re a company located in the industrial part of Campus ( U of S ). The interview itself is on the 1st of December. I don’t know a whole lot about the company, other than they make software that connects Speech therapists to their clients online. Defiantly sounds cool, but so far it’s sketchy on details.

They have request some sample code and works for them to see at the interview. That’s always tough to do for someone who do contract work for companies ( who thus retain the right to the code ) and when I’ve worked jobs with NDA’s. Typically when I do projects on my own time, they’re related to improving something at work… so those also get snatched up by those places. Needless to say I’ve been working like crazy to get what I can to show them. I have a few light samples of code, but nothing to complex. I’ve started writing a relatively complex application that I will hopefully have mostly completed by then. At least they’ll be able to see some recent code and how I design stuff.

I’ve kinda ranted about this to a few people, so I thought I’d blog it too! I’ll try to keep this as clear as possible. So it’s the week after I got laid off in Winnipeg. I’m packing like a mad man and getting everything arranged for the move. I email my boss my forwarding address in Saskatoon. I also get mail forwarding to Saskatoon from Canada Post. Oky, so then I move on like the 27th of October to Saskatoon. On the 1st or so my boss mails my last pay cheque and record of employment (RoE) to my Winnipeg address. Was a little concerning, but I figured mail forwarding would catch it anyways. I could handle a few days delay.
Read the rest of this entry »