Tag: cyber security

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 96: Vancouver, BC – The Locked Away Keys

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a meeting rught when he got to work and it was a good one. It was security related and had a good outcome and discussions.

Most of the day for Curtis was setting up Macs for people and giving them out, among other things.

He had a team meeting just before lunch which was also great and productive.

In the afternoon, Curtis gave Macs out and dealt with some tickets. Right at the end of the day, he went into the IT store room and then once he left it, he realised he locked his keys inside! He will need to see if there are any other keys around but that was annoying!

Curtis left work and met Kim on the way home.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent the morning doing little tasks and finally completely catching up on her voicemails for her phone.

For lunch Kim went up to the roof and sat with colleagues and had a nice catch up and soaked up the sun.

In the afternoon Kim started the afternoon by checking in on the project. Then her manager came over to set up a meeting to discuss the direction the project is going and what needs to be done next.

She then took a call to talk about the filming that will be happening next week and get a better understanding of what the scout will be looking for tomorrow. This was great because it clarified the timeline and Kim was able to make a plan ahead of time as to where to go and show the scout tomorrow.

One thing Kim had been putting off for a while is a deep clean of the whiteboards. Kim popped out to get some bail varnish remover, picked up the post on the way back and was ready for action!

When Kim got back to the office she spent the last few hours giving all the whiteboards a good scrub and they came put looking beautiful!

Pesto Chicken

We got home and were so hungry, so we made our dinner.

We had pesto chicken along with hasselback potato and a balsamic salad.

We watched some YouTube, Curtis made lunch and then we finished with the latest episode of Suits.

We had an early night as we have not slept well these last couple of nights.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 82: Vancouver, BC – First Whitecaps Game

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started the day with a meeting about security which lasted around 30 minutes.

Curtis then had a few tickets to do and there were a steady stream of them coming through throughout the day.

Curtis started wiping and setting up a mac, but it was saying it would take 7 hours, so he cancelled it and will start it again in the morning.

Curtis had another 30 minute meeting with his team to discuss everything related to the team and their projects.

Curtis ate his lunch and then kept busy until about 14:30 when the tickets ran out!

Curtis jumped onto some project work, writing some guides as well as making changes to and sortinf out the new wiki page.

Kim’s Day

Today on the course they covered exposure to heat and cold injuries, bleeding and minor injuries.

The the heat and cold they covered things like frostbite, hypothermia, heat stroke and heat exhaustion. It turns out that this sounds exactly like what happens to Curtis when he overheats, so it was great for Kim to get a better understanding of what’s happening and how to help.

In the bleeding section they covered the different kinds of bleeding, how to control bleeding and how to work the apparatus available to better control bleeding.

In the minor wounds they went over sprains, fractures and dislocations. What was funny to Kim was that the 2 examples used she has suffered from herself! The scenarios were rolled and sprained ankle and then a wrist fracture! Kim was a great injured person and had a wonderful fake limp for having a sprained ankle!

Again with each segment there was a demonstration and then a practical for people to try. It was a really good day!

Baked Potatoes

Curtis got home to Kim finishing off our baked potatoes! Curtis had baked beans on it and Kim had tuna, mayo & sweetcorn.

We watched a video or two whilst we ate and then we got ready to go out!

First Whitecaps Game!

Curtis got free tickets to watch a Whitecaps FC game from work!

The game was a cup game against a new team from another league, Cavalry FC (based in Calgary).

We walked down to the arena, entered and went and bought a drink. Kim got a Nude Vodka and Curtis got a beer. we just got the one, especially with the prices they were!

We went to our seats which were in an amazing location and then the crazy stuff started happening. A song was played which is clearly the Whitecaps’ song, but it was awful and steam started shooting out from everywhere, too.

After that fiasco, it was the national anthem followed by the start of the game.

We really enjoyed the game and it certainly got better towards the end ehen the Whitecaps were losing and trying to get back in the game!

Unfortunately, and to the dismay of the fans, the Whitecaps lost, 2-1.

We went home via a bubble waffle place so Kim could try one as we walk past it every day.

We walkes back home over the bridge and were reminded how beautiful the city is at night!

As we were approaching home, there was a man playing the community piano (which is close to our apartment building) with many people standing or sitting around and listening. He was pretty good!

We got home around 22:00, relaxed and then headed to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 75: Vancouver, BC – Too Much Food, Too Early

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work and had a meeting which is regarding security and compliance. It was a good meeting and helped clear up some things he was wondering as well as notify everyone about certain things they needed to be aware of.

Curtis made a big order from Apple which he had to get sorted out and speak with the accounts team about.

At 12:15, Curtis had someone coming in for an interview with some people in another office, so he had to meet them, get them into the boardroom and setup their video meeting.

Curtis had a laptop to configure but also had a meeting starting at 14:00, so he didn’t do that right away, but jumped into his meeting.

His meeting was again, very good and informative. It was over an hour long but it was with the full team about the plan for the year as well as completing the document that the whole company will see regarding the teams plans and goals.

After the meeting, Curtis continued with setting up the laptop and then even managed to start another.

He had a few tickets to do and tidy up some things admin wise and then he walked to meetin Kim from work.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by going through her emails and sorting all of those out. Then she got a request for catering request for later in the day so she put that through.

Kim then spent some time organising the travel for a visitor who is coming over in a few weeks. They confirmed their preference on flights so Kim booked that and was looking in to arranging his accommodation. It was Kim’s first time booking travel on this system so lets hope they make it!

It was then time for the social team meeting and discussed some of the things they will be putting on over the next few weeks.

When she came out of the meeting, she was met with a delivery man who was 30 minutes early, which was strange. It was then horrible for Kim to sit next to lovely smelling food for about 40 minutes!

One of the action points Kim assigned to herself was to create a Pride Bake Off for the Vancouver Pride Festival that will be happening in a few weeks. Kim has challenged her colleagues to bake or make anything and they will get extra points if it is a rainbow! Kim is very excited to be organising this and even made posters.

The quotes for the breakfast coming up came in so Kim evaluated them and proceeded to order which is great.

Just as Kim was about to leave she got an email request about catering tomorrow so she called up and got that all sorted.

Nothing-ness

After 2 busy evenings, we got home and did nothing.

We had dinner right away, which was enchilladas with salad like yesterday and then we got caught in a YouTube void and watched a load of videos.

We watched the first episode of Season 9 of Suits and then a Vikings.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 74: Vancouver, BC – Parry Planning & Password Hunt

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work at 08:50 and had a meeting at 09:00 to be informed about a new company initiative.

Once Curtis was done with this meeting, he was able to actually start his day.

Curtis had a couple of plans for the day. He got a large order approved, so he wanted to get that done, but the start of his day was interupted with a possible security risk, so he had to jump on that and provide all users with an update, explaination and a fix.

Once that was done, Curtis setup a laptop for a new user remotely. The laptop setup took a while firstly because Curtis struggled to get access to it but then because once he did, the internet connection was slow, but he got there in the end.

The printer got jammed, and really, really, jammed by someone. Curtis spent a while trying to sort the jam out and then he helped the person print as they were using card rather than paper.

Once that was sorted, Curtis spent a lot of time trying to figure out or find the password for a machine which is used to play music around the office, but he wasn’t having any luck, so he decided to try and crack it with software instead, which didn’t work!

After all of this, someone just texted Curtis’ predecessor to ask for the password. Once Curtis got it, he made sure to document it.

Late afternoon was mostly filled with admin and Curtis still didn’t get the large order sorted!

Curtis left work at 16:55 and walked to meet Kim.

Kim’s Day

Today when Kim left she managed to remember to take everything with her! When she got into work Kim organised the kitchen and then set herself down to go through her emails.

Kim then spent some time going over the summer party to do list before the meeting she had later on in the day. She also spent a lot of her morning with ad hoc tasks like sending out a reminder to let Kim know if you are brining a plus 1 to the party, creating parts of a poster for a possible competition Kim is planning on running and general more daily admin stuff.

The meeting for the summer party was with two of Kims colleagues. They sat down and went over a run through of what the afternoon will look like and did an hour-by-hour sketch of what the plan is, who is doing what and when things are happening.

During the morning Kim had chased for an email about a catering quote she requested yesterday for a meeting next week. Kim hadn’t heard back, so to ensure that they do get food Kim has now reached out to another company. This means that she should have 2 quotes tomorrow and should be able to make a better decision on which company to proceed with.

In the afternoon Kim was inundated with calls. The only problem was that thy were all from the same company tasing for the same people, how were either busy or did not have phones. At one point Kim had taken 6 calls in 20 minutes and also had well over 10 missed calls between 12:30 and 2:30. The calls started coming through once ever 20 – 40 minutes and then at one point, Kim was on the line explaining that they can’t be put through to anyone when the same number was calling again! It was madness! After this, Kim did a lap of the office!

Towards the end of the day Kim was working out how to book travel for someone who is coming to visit the Vancouver office. This gave Kim a really goo insight on how to use the system.

Enchilladas & Housekeeping

We had enchilladas when we got home (after a stop at the supermarket). Kim made these with our leftover chili so it didn’t take long and was delicious!

We got a lot of housework done, vaccuuming and taking the bins out, mainly, as well as cleaning down the sides.

By the time we finished it was already 20:00 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watched YouTube videos/TV.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 47: Vancouver, BC – Security Meeting & Dog At Work!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

As soon as he arrived at work, Curtis finished off the laptop cloning he started yesterday. It all went well and he returned the laptop to the user who was very happy to have more space.

Curtis joined in on a security & compliance meeting which he was interested to join, though the meeting didn’t last long at all.

Curtis then completed a few tickets and just before lunch he started to wipe a laptop and image it from fresh.

After lunch, Curtis continued getting the laptop sorted and was having some issues with it, so it took up a lot of the afternoon.

At the end of the afternoon, Curtis got out a new laptop and added some more RAM to it, followed by setting it up so it can be used in the future.

Kim’s Day

Kim did the usual when she got into work, breakfast and a catch up. Then suddenly Kim heard the jingle of a collar, she looked up and saw a cute tiny dog! This little dog spent the whole day at the office and visited Kim twice!

Kim then headed into her first social team meeting! It went really well and the team planned a lot of fun things for the coming months.

Then half an hour after that meeting, Kim went into a meeting with marketing and IT to discuss the next plans for the project. It was great to get a different viewpoint of it and direction on where people see the project going.

Kim then went back to her desk and actioned some of her talking points from the meeting.

Then Kim organised some food that had been delivered. Then pizza arrived that Kim hadn’t planned for! There is a weekly Thursday pizza order and kim was panicking thinking she had ordered 3 times the amount on the wrong day, then the delivery man realised he was on the wrong floor! Thank goodness for that!

It was then eventually lunchtime! Kim had to return the shoes she bought yesterday as they are just a size too small. Kim did that and then headed back to eat her lunch. For lunch Kim made a ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce and salad cream sandwich. This doesn’t sound exciting, but nowhere sells salad cream and its the first block of good cheddar Kim and Curtis have found in years!

Kim then got back to her desk and continued with general admin and then a few visitors came in so Kim ensured they had water and coffee.

Towards the end of the day Kim had a catch up about the project and ironed out some more details about the plan.

Costco

We went to Costco after work today as we have a Pot Luck at our apartment building tomorrown evening so we needed to get some things for that.

Appointment & Baked Potatoes

Kim went to an appointment in the evening and Curtis went to the shop to get some potatoes.

Curtis made the best baked potatoes ever, which were seasoned very well! We had beans and cheese on top of them, which was perfect!

We watched some TV and then headed to bed.

Curtis has his exclusive ‘thing’ he is doing tomorrow…He is very excited!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 45: Vancouver, BC – Successful Project & Exciting Week!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work and had a message from a colleague saying the CEO was having some IT problems, so Curtis said he would deal with it when the CEO arrives at the office.

The morning was busy for Curtis and he didn’t stop until around 12:15!

He fixed the CEO’s issues as well as completed an offboard and he allowed install of the new version of Windows 10.

Curtis had lunch and then just after, a new espresso machine was installed so Curtis had to try it out! The coffee was alright but could have been better.

Curtis got invited to something very exclusive and incredible…He is very excited and that is on Thursday evening, so stay tuned for that!

Curtis wasn’t as busy in the afternoon but did write a guide. Once that was done, it was time to head home.

Kim’s Day

Kim got into work a little early and started right away. She was anticipating coming into a few emails in regards to the project that went ahead over the weekend, but there was nothing! It was a huge relief, the project was successful and now Kim can move on to the next phase, which is great news.

Kim started her day by catching up on emails and the normal Monday stuff. Kim then had a new hire building tour to go through. It was fresh in Kim’s mind as she only experienced it herself just 2 weeks ago! A colleague came along and pointed out things Kim missed, but it went very well overall.

Kim was then tasked with booking multiple lunches and a dinner for some meetings next month.

Then, Kim spent some time tinkering away with the project. Then the weekly fruit order came in so Kim packed it away and then went back to general reception duties.

At lunch Kim went up to the roof and caught some sun. It was so nice to get in the fresh air in the middle of the day.

When she got back to her desk, Kim spent more time between the project, answering calls and other small admin tasks.

Towards the end of the day, Kim was asked to FedEx something out. This came at a great time as she was able to have her colleague help her before she leaves at the end of the week. Kim did the online booking and then they went to drop off the package.

When she got back, Kim only had 15 minutes so continued with some admin tasks and making notes of things to pick up tomorrow.

Today was a slower day, so a bit of a gear change from the past weeks, but its the first full and relatively normal week, so its to be expected.

Evening Walk

We actually both left work and met each other on the way home.

We walked home together and when we got home we setup our new toaster and kettle!

Kim went for a short walk to get outside for a bit and then when she got back we had an amazing chicken ceasar salad for dinner.

After dinner we watched some YouTube videos and then an episode of Black Mirror and one of Lucifer.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale