CF, Author at The Outlier Model

The Hidden Costs of Stress

CF / February 24th, 2014 / 5 Comments

Sooooo… After falling off the face of the Earth for about 8 weeks, I’m back! I think I could fill a book with everything that happened in those weeks. But suffice to say – it was a rough period of many personal changes for me. I spent the last 2 or 3 weeks catching up with my life and I’m only just getting back into the groove of things. I’m getting back to writing, and I realized quite...

Posted in: Philosophy Tagged with: $100 grocery budget, budget, forgetting to pay the bills, late fees, money

Why I am a mentor

CF / November 20th, 2013 / 9 Comments

Yesterday, I took my two student mentees out to dinner. I have two girls – one senior student who is about to do her first 8 month work term as a software developer and a second student who is just starting the computer science program. For an hour and a half, we chatted over Japanese foods and tea. The topics ranged from your regular pleasantries (“What are your holiday plans?”)...

Posted in: Career and Work Tagged with: mentoring, video game design, video game industry, women in computer science, women in technology, women working in male careers

Making a power play at work

CF / November 18th, 2013 / 14 Comments

In the software development industry, things can change fast. Usually, it’s just projects and deadlines that change, but sometimes it’s personnel changes as well. A recent wave of personnel changes has recently triggered a lot of upheaval in my department at work. Two of our main back-end developers quit, two new people started and the whole team got shuffled around to different work...

Posted in: Career and Work Tagged with: ambitious women, asking for a raise, negotiating a raise, vancouver jobs, women in the workplace

Understanding home insurance

CF / November 11th, 2013 / 6 Comments

With two properties, one of which is a rental, Brian and I have to deal with a lot of insurance. It’s kind of a pain, but a necessary pain. There was a point in my life where I had ZERO insurance – as a student and a renter just a few years ago, I didn’t see the need for the extra cost of insurance on an already lean budget. Well, an apartment fire and loss of my apartment sure...

Posted in: Home Tagged with: earthquake and flood coverage, home insurance, rental insurance, understanding how insurance works