Hello there. I'm Michael. I have a pretty wide set of interests and hobbies, some of which people might consider lame. I like to think those people are just boring and can't find ways to keep themselves occupied. At any given moment, I could be drumming, rock climbing, golfing, designing a website, gardening, or watching film and television while reciting lines. Beyond that, I could be doing any number of small projects such as building a scale model of one of the power plants I've worked at, building my own speakers, designing and crafting my own desk, or figuring out ways to get a six-pack without doing any work (impossible, this one!).
I'll be spicing things up around here, but this will do for now. I guess the take-home message here is that I'm quite content to fly solo (and even prefer it most of the time). I'm not sure I've used the word "bored" to describe my state of mind at any point in my life, save for hours spent in dental offices as a kid.- Grow plants and trees from seed
- Develop and design websites for my personal projects
- Inefficiently learn how to drum properly
- Climb rocks
- Get drunk while golfing
- Read books about science
I work for a Canadian company known as Northland Power. We develop, build, own, and operate clean and green power generation projects. My role within the company has been ever-changing over the past few years. I first started out working at our Kingston CoGen facility as a summer student worker doing grounds maintenance, minor wood construction, lots of painting, and loads of other oddball tasks. This was back in the summer of 2007.
After another year of school, I then moved on to our under-construction Thorold CoGen facility where I took on the role of document control. I would return to that position for another summer. Upon finishing up my university program, I had made a strong enough impression with Northland that they wanted to hire me on full-time.
I would take on the role of operations control, which involved developing a management systems manual following the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 standards. Naturally, I became involved in several other side projects that all link to it. After several months of this, I was then moved from our operations division to construction. My primary focus here turned to developing a corporate health and safety manual (still in the works) to serve our operating facilities. However, due to my past roles in the company, it was requested that I zip on out to Saskatchewan for a couple of years to work at our North Battleford thermal facility currently under construction. I fill the role of project administrator and have several other tasks that draw from the experience I’m gaining out here.
