PAUL MUDHAR dot COM

Yep..  OMG!  I just hit the BIG “4-0″….  but as they say now…  40 is the new 20…. So just to let you all know I feel great even at the age of 40… Even though Mark Philippoussis chose Amanda the 25 year old…  Who wouldn’t.???

My wife is 13 years younger than me, and that was not out of fluke either…. My parents want grand-kids…  So to accommodate that I needed a younger wife that could deliver (at least Basketball team) and keep up with the stress of having kids… I have no real limit on how many children I want the more the merrier is the attitude I will be going forward with. My wife also has no problems (yet) I mean we talk about it all the time and she even had some palmist tell her how she will have as many kids as she wants. 

It was back in early 2004 that my parents started bugging me about getting married again (Yes again, long story tell you another time if you don’t already know the details)  anyhow they asked me if I was ready..  I replied you want to have Grandchildren??  Then you might want to find someone young enough to have them and also willing to get to know me and marry me before we talk about any children. My god we went through quite a few girls in that time..  hell I even had a choice of hooking up with a woman that was STILL married with a child already too, apparently her husband was a bad ass that beat her and had a drinking problem…She wanted me to SAVE HER!!  I was like WTF!!??  I’m looking for my future wife, not to SAVE” someone from their current marriage, needless to say that conversation didn’t last long. As did many of the others because all they seemed to want to know was if and when I wanted to marry their daughters… and I was like Hold on a minute…  if I agree to anything! it will be to get to know them more first…  perhaps for a year or two even..  and they wanted to have grandchildren by that time not just to be getting into a marriage.

After many women and girls, Oh and who can forget the “PAT” my brother-in-law came back with pictures of, I swear the pictures were not of any female that i could see.. but after those bad episodes of meeting and greeting I finally did come across my wife Kamaljit (Mira as she is known at home now) She and her family were the first to agree in allowing she and I to communicate for as long as we wanted to see how we got along…  little did Mira and I know how well we would connect and well…..  the rest as they say is history, but I will tell you the full story sometime later too maybe you can remind me. right now it creeping up to the 3rd year and we are still awaiting for some papers from Immigration Canada’s New Delhi office for her to obtain her Permanent Status Visa to Land in Canada.

So where was I.??  Oh Yeah!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!

Just a short but to the point post. Some of you know I went to India in Nov 2004 to get married. and My wife’s immigration to Canada was denied!! We then appealed that decision!

Now after a long 2 ½ year waiting process. I am Happy to announce that the Appeal was approved.. within 25 minutes after the star of the hearing. it went something like this….

All that was needed was my testimony on the witness stand.
as soon as my consultant finished asking me questions….
the Judge says, “Now the Immigration council will cross examine you”……..
he stood up………
Started Packing up his Briefcase…….
and says……..
“No I’m not going to ask anything, I approve the Appeal, Congratulations!”….
the Judge looks over at me and says,
“This is your Lucky day….. I also approve your appeal, this concludes the hearing”
that was 25 minutes into the whole thing…
w00t!! say it with me one time. w00t!!!

On Friday April 13th…  yeah tell me about it Friday the 13th…. I finished my level 3 Classes for my Steel Fabrication Apprenticeship..  with a 94% final mark.  I tied for top marks with 2 others in the class.  From what I had heard about level 3 being the hardest of the four levels, I found it to be quite easy compared to the many that said it was the hardest. I am also proud to say I helped a few others in the class get a final mark in the 90’s as well.

Level 1 was more of an introduction to the many things we would learn along the way in the four levels and Level 2 we seemed to learn a lot more, and had more content. Which brings me to Level 3, which I found to be more of a review of level 2 and just other ways of figuring out our math. Back in level 2 we were introduced to the Pythagorean Theorem to figure out lengths in Trusses and Hoppers. We also used it to solve some trick questions too. Level 3 re-introduced us to Trigonometry. A look back at my earlier post about Trigonometry will tell how I found it quit easy for the math we use in Fabrication. Not only did I find it easy for myself I was able to help others to understand it and get a better grade than they might have gotten without my input. A thank you goes out to those who admitted my input helped them out, they know who they are.

I have level 4 to complete before I can write the I.P. (Inter-Provincial) exam that will certify me as a Journeyman Steel Fabricator to work anywhere within Canada, (Some say all of North America and perhaps in Europe too) but I’m not going anywhere so my Canadian certification is enough for me. I am planning to take it in November of this year (2007) if I can still get a seat. One day I hope to maybe become an Instructor at B.C.I.T. Who knows when, but that is one of my goals I wish to reach. The fact that I am still an apprentice doesn’t help me realize that goal for perhaps another 5 years.

Maybe a mind fart isn’t all that bad after all!! I did get the results of my Plate development test from yesterday, I assume not only was my fart odorless but it couldn’t have made much of a fart-like-sound either. After all the complaining and worrying I did over yesterdays test, I was very happy to receive a 93%.

Four drawings… each worth 10 marks each. I was very pleased to see my 37/40 marks and we also learned that the instructor doesn’t hand out 100% to anyone. So to base his highest possible mark to be a 9 1/2 out of 10, the highest anyone could have received was 95%. With that said did I get 93% out of 95%.? if that holds true I did way better than I thought I would. A 2% off of the highest mark he would have handed out to anyone sounds like a great accomplishment to me. I just wanted to let you all know (to the ones that care to know) and share with you the results so far. Our first weeks shop project was also marked and I have my marks for that too. I will take some pictures of that and make a new post for it soon too.

Now I am wondering how he will mark the math test we have scheduled for the end of next week. or the first week of April. I’m glad April 1st is on a Sunday so no April fools will be made of us in class….  WHEW!!! does a 100% mark in the math test mean 100% or just 95%.?  hmmmm….  I hope I can remember my Sac(k) of Tab (Cola) on the CBC. I curious if that has anyone wondering what I am on about?…. Ok it’s time to go Study for the Safety test on Friday. Thanx for dropping by.

Did I get your attention.?? Well WOW!! When did this happen.?  OH YEAH!! it was today!! What a great idea!! Canada coming into 2007 finally!! they talked about it (it seems) for years!! but today we finally have Wireless Number Portability (WNP).  What a great way to increase competitive pricing and packages within the Cell Phone Market in Canada!

Oh! I have looked into going to another Cell Phone provider for a few years now.  Especially since I have and will plan to visit abroad more often. Mainly back to India and when I am there my Telus Phone doesn’t allow me the same freedom as does a phone from say, Fido or Rogers their GSM System which uses a SIM Card (Subscriber Identity Module)  is what I would need to have local cellular phone service visiting India or other countries using GSM. Not forgetting to mentionBell Canada. but both Bell and Telus are on a CDMA System. which seems not be too widely used in India as it is within North America. Sure they have companies that use the CDMA System in India but none have any support for a Phone from Telus and most likely Bell. Besides who would want to pay the Roaming Charges when over seas using your local number from Canada within India. I have been there done that..  will never do it again!

I’m not saying I dislike Telus I have been with Telus now since the mid 1990’s and I first had service with them in the early 1990’s too with a pager and 3 cell phones.  But where I am not happy is with the limitations in the Phone we are offered with Telus. the Asian and European Markets get WAY better phones with WAY better service plans than we do currently in Canada. I was about to say “better service plans than we do currently in North America”, but I know the US Markets have way better plans than we do in Canada. I could go on and on about what I don’t like about each of the Cell Phone Companies I mentioned in this post but I will save that for another post. For now I will leave it on a good note and close with…..

WE FINALLY HAVE WIRELESS NUMBER PORTABILITY IN CANADA!!

p.s. Now lets get the companies competing to keep their customers and see if we can’t reduce that 60% higher rate we pay for similar service than in the USA and even more than what they pay in Europe and Asia!!  For more information on this Please visit Wireless Number Portability in Canada.

I’m Back at B.C.I.T. for my Level 3 Steel Fabrication Apprenticeship class.  This is the first time I have been in a FULL Class of 16 people.  I thought being the first day we’d just have some introductions on what to expect with The level 3 part of the apprenticeship, but we started working on Line development excercises like right away. 

Seemed a little complicated at first but it really wasn’t once you got into it.  I was hoping we’d start any Shop time in the 2nd week of the 5 week Program, but as luck would have it we’re in the shop on Friday.  My Thumb still hurts and is all swollen so i don’;t know how that will affect my performance in the shop part this time around.  So far so good for the first day back I passed with 90% mark in Level 1 and 91% mark in Level 2 I’d like to keep it within the same range possibly in the mid 90’s if I can. Anyway wish me luck  🙂 The Thumb is doing fine….  Will have more updates next week when the Stitches are removed

Who remembered to turn their clocks ahead one hour last night or this morning when they woke up.?  I used to like the old First Sunday in April you “Spring” Forward an Hour and the Last Sunday in October we “Fall” Back an Hour. now we all need to remember it’s The 2nd Sunday of March that we Spring forward and the 1st Sunday of November that we Fall Back.  The History of DST was quite interesting to read up on, while I knew about some of the facts and reasons about DST the stuff I didn’t know was intriguing (to me anyway). I have a few links for you guys to see if you find any of it as interesting as I did.

So for my US  and other parts of the world friends you may want to have a look at this site (most were about the US when I googled DST) This site had many pages about other parts of the world too. For my Canadian friends have a look at this site and this link. It’s always funny when time changes an hour and some people show up to work an hour late, but I guess the debate is on if a longer DST period is better for our environment or not.

I know my country of birth India only has one time zone in all of India and it also stays on Standard time all year round. I’ve often wondered why they don’t change with the world too. Maybe the answers are in those links I provided.? I better go through all the pages just incase everything I want to know about DST is mentioned. Remember to always SPRING Forward and FALL Back during the correct Sunday of the Proper month from now on!

I had a job interview last Friday… and I received the call yesterday that I got the job… I’m in my 3rd year of my 4 year Red Seal Journeyman Steel Fabrication Program.. I start Tuesday Nov. 14th, 2006. It’s a Structural Fabricating Shop named George Third & Son.

I should finally be able to complete my Apprenticeship. The last place I worked to try and complete my Apprenticeship laid me off when it got slow, but I don’t buy that.  It was supposedly a Union shop but you could tell it was more a make shift Union, and was used mainly for bidding on Union Jobs.  I mean when you are the members of the “The Local 1” of the Union and You are the only members or Local to boot, I was not impressed.

So wish me luck in my new job and hopefully in about a year and half I will have completed my Apprenticeship and I will have more leverage on what jobs I want to have and where I want to work. Till then Thank you Rod at George Third & Son for accepting me as a new Apprentice.

thanks for reading…  🙂