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A few thoughts on the current state of Canada and US relationships

 It is easy to demonize the current US president for a myriad of reasons. Some have called him by the alleged tint of his skin (orange), some have called him a threat to democracy and used words like dictator, fascist etc. I am not going to delve into all that. He is, as far as I am concerned, the legitimate leader of a large country, duly elected by a majority of their voting population. What those people where thinking while voting for him in a majority, I question. But that is not the point of this post.  I live in Canada. I am a citizen of the country. I get to vote for an MP in my riding federally. The party who elects the most MPs is usually invited to form government by the head of state or (now) his representative. Our democratic norms are pretty simple and straightforward. There are plenty of things to criticize our electoral system for and the governments that come as a result. Anyway, all of this to say, we in Canada do not get to vote for a foreign leader. But we d...
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Summers are getting hotter in Vancouver

This shouldn't be a shock to anyone, but summers are getting a lot hotter here than it has been since I started living here. It used to be that in summer, it would be in low to mid 20s and reliably sunny between mid June to about mid August. Perhaps the sunshine stayed till September. Somewhere along the way, there would be rain as well. But that was 2+ decades ago.  In the past few years, there has been many days where wildfire smoke dominated the skies and air. Rain is rarity now in the summer. And it has started to get hot. It is not unusual for days when the highs are over 30C.  This is starting to cause homes to get very hot. Most apartment buildings in Vancouver are covered in glass. While it makes for great views, it also turns apartments into little ovens. My apartment faces West and it regularly goes over 30C by the end of the day. And it barely cools down overnight. The outside is a lot cooler in the evenings. A few years ago, we had something called a heat dome - ba...

Happy Birthday Canada

I have celebrated more than 20 Canada Days in Canada. While this nation is far from perfect and we have so much further to go, there is hope. We are a nation, at 153, looking at the future with a mixed record: we have immense prosperity, peace, safety and a relatively good standard of living for most . We are welcoming to immigrants, refugees and guarantee people with a wide range of rights. We are a leader in respecting people's human rights and punch above our weight internationally. We are also a country that is in the midst of a reckoning right now. We have systemic racism, we are at war with the environment - we are actively digging things out of the ground to sell to the rest of the world. Climate change is ravaging our country - we have floods, fires and drought.  Our past and present deeds towards indigenous people is shameful. We have a long way to go yet, but there is hope. In the midst of a pandemic, with social upheaval to correct past wrongs, or at least make amen...

New (work) adventures

I mentioned in my last post how bad decisions by the powers that be have made the people who work with me want to leave. I helped them along by putting in my 2 weeks notice. I have been thinking about a change from them prior to the announced move to the suburbs, but that decision merely made it much easier to go out, reach out to my contacts and apply for jobs. The process itself was not that hard; as I alluded to previously, the tech market is quite good in Vancouver and folks with my skill set are lucky enough to be in demand. I have new UI technologies to be exposed to and a new company and technology stack to be exposed to. There are at least 3 familiar faces there that I know of and many more people who know people I know. I did apply to a few places and talked to quite a few people, recruiters and other wise, and after interviewing at 2 places, accepted the job I found to be the most acceptable. The most interesting thing since the change is the knowledge that many othe...

How to make a good thing go bad quickly in tech

I haven't written a work related post in what seems like ages. I am currently living through the aftermath of a third M&A in my career. The company I currently work for is in its third incarnation - from a small tech startup 15 or so years ago to something that was sold to a large software company - one of those lumbering giants that have their hands in all kinds of technology driven fields - where they invested sufficiently in it to grow it in its current location - to now finally being acquired by an even larger technology company - one that its hands in all kinds of technology fields.I came along post the second phase but I have seen 2 other US tech company acquisitions, one that made me quit fast and the other that took me around the world but made me leave anyway. The difference from the previous take-over of the current place and this one is stark. While there was a lot of churn up top in the previous acquisition and differences in what you paid for benefits etc, for...

Thoughts on the new year

A year and a bit later

It has indeed been a while since I wrote anything of note. Not because I don't have so much to say. Not because I didn't want to. I just decided that it was better to try and live rather than write about it.  So what have I learned? Some people are incredible at this life thing. Me, not so much. I am living life well enough. Successes, failures, trial and tribulations. Most of it is fun. I still do what I do, and I enjoy it for the most part. Now, I am hoping to get back to writing more. Writing all kinds of things that I have somehow given up on doing. Let's see if that really happens.