Intelligent Projects

When my parents split and I lived with my mom, then both, then just my dad, I was 6, and it forced my to go through adversity at a very young age.
It was a shock, one cushioned by living with my mom prior, then moving to where both lived, and then to where just my dad and I lived, brought about an adaption of culture to the new scenario. No one has perfect lives, we all have heard stories of those people who have it really rough then rise above and those who had it great and rise above, but I always felt I was in between those areas, yet so deprived in certain areas, such as fatherly mentoring and fatherly concern. I recall my Dad's famous line when I asked him something of importance, I would ask is it ok if i go play with someone up the road, he would always reply, "I don't care," and that response resounded with me, to the point where I eventually stopped asking. You see it came to me, after a while, that he did not really want to be involved in my life, he was simply being there for me, because, of some force, part love, part responsibility, perhaps fear of paying child support, I do not know exactly, but it was not out of sincere deep love for me as a creature he co created and wanted to deeply help to be part of this world together. We shared time together, food, our presence, but rarely our thoughts, or at least his thoughts on matters of importance to me. It was and still is ultimately, him not caring, for me. Although this is sad, out of the ashes the phoenix rises.
I was always bright, smart, and determined to dive head first into things that were challenging, although my self esteem may have been weak, as is the case with most children, my heart was and still is a fire of desire to achieve all that comes my way. Nonetheless, I had very little positive reinforcement, while simultaneously, I also had no restrictions, living somewhat of a self governed life from the age 6. For example, I can recall at 6, having to make my own lunches and perhaps not being as disciplined as any 6 year old would be, needless to say Chips were a common thing I consumed. Another example, it came about that walking to the bus stop every morning was taking up too much time, if I recall, it was roughly a 45 min walk for me. I was doing the math in my little young brain, and it occurred to me that cycling would be more efficient. So i decided, I wanted to ride to the bus stop then and lock my bike up and then unlock it when i got dropped off and ride home, each day. So I asked my dad for a bike and he gave me my moms old bike she had left there. So it was so, I rode every morning to the bus stop, where our road met the main road, and I saved time and effort, becoming a more efficient and stronger 6 year old. But it didn't stop there. I calculated that with all the stops the bus made along the way, and all that wasted time that could be spent moving, if I were to cycle all the way to school, I would be able to really save time and the headache of all this stopping and going. So I did, I rode about 5 km each way every day, to and from school at age 6. That was 10 km a day of riding, and I was 6-7 years old. When my mom found out about this, she was alarmed, and flawed me to school the whole way basically behind me on my tail, but by this time I had been dong it for so long that it was silly for me to have this convoy behind me, like I was terry fox. It still made me feel special, but not in the way I needed. I wanted a congrats, not doubt or insecurity in my path I etched. As I look back, I was different then other kids, I always sought the most efficient way. A product of my environment, to overcome inefficiencies.
I do not recall anyone else travelling the distance by bike as I did at that age or even anyone older then me. It was unheard of, and today as I look at my 4 year old daughter, I do not know if she will have it in her to do what I did at 6-7, but we will see!
This desire to be efficient coupled with a limitless capacity based on a father who provided life, but no mentoring, planted a seed of desire inside me to truly overcome all within my own capacity, or that which I learned of based on the will to overcome adversity. I chose a path of distinction, not because it was the easiest path, but because I felt I was granted the ability to be different, so I embraced it. I was young, eager, and determined to do whatever it took. Perhaps a deep longing to have those who did not care about me, to care more, and to shine in ways that one would not normally shine. To be noticed by those who did not notice me and be admired for my path.
I took these tools I had created, my strength and endurance into my life further down the road, and when it came about that we lived on Finlayson Arm Rd, in Langford BC, up a mountain, I decided my cycling skills could be put to the test once again. I repeated the path once again, where I rode to the bus stop, then figured the trip up the Malahat every day on the bus was too long and time consuming, so I decided to ride to school, and back home again after. The ride home was up one of the most steep and windy road that I know of in Victoria BC. It was tough, I can recall doing the switch back method, where I would ride up, then back, then up and back just to work my way up these hills, but I did it, I did not give up and I overcame that mountain. My legs were strong, and when I decided to play football I was always good at it, with my second season granting me an average of 3 touch downs a game, playing running back, and I was distinguished. Later on after 7 seasons of football we eventually won the BC championships in 2001 and I still have a ring from that triumphant time.
Because I rode to school, I was there much earlier then the rest, and in one instance, having the extra 45 min a day allowed me to have an advantage over my fellow students in a competition we called Sim City 2000. It is a computer game and the object is to build a city and maintain it, it required many different parameters to consider, such as civil engineering, power supply, taxes, and parks and recreation for the people, it was and is a fairly simple yet complicated game. Our competition was simple, who could make the most money and have the largest population without using codes or cheats. So each day I would come into the computer lab about 45 min earlier then all the rest. I would setup my game and do some adjustments and what not, make sure the people were happy and no disasters had taken out my city. And then I would leave it, go play and come back in 30 min to check how it was. After a while, when I came back that my city, I noticed maybe some tornado come through or some degradation happened in the industrial areas, and maybe some people were unhappy, but that as long as I kept taxes at such a rate that people could afford, and I made lots of parks and fun things to do, my population would always grow and therefore so too would my budget. This meant that I could return after 30 min, have to destroy and rebuild some areas that were ruined or abandoned, but that I would always have a large amount of money to do this with because despite the hardships my city faced, people kept coming and filling up my budget larger then I needed to put out to fix, maintain, and grow abundantly. I can recall coming back to the screen one day, seeing all the disasters that happened in my city and all the ruin, but that my money had grown so vastly and that my population was also larger then before. It would say on the screen, how much people were upset and how bad things were, yet, the facts were my city was richer and larger then ever. So I would fix everything, put in huge parks, high residential, commercial and industrial new growth areas. I would erect massive monuments, state of the art buildings for amusements for people to see, everything of awesomeness money could buy in the game, and then let it go, and come back and the same thing would happen each time. I would have some damage, some unhappy people, but a even larger budget and even larger population, so I would repeat and repeat and this grew my city into a force beyond all else. No one else had a chance. I ended up beating everyone badly, I was in the billions for my budget by the end and my population was so large I was in my own class, and everyone thought I had been using the codes. Well the only code I used was the formula of success based on what I discovered by letting the game run on its own. By setting stuff up, and letting it grow, and fixing what went wrong when I came back, my city grew so fast. I couldn't tell everyone how I did it because it was so simple, yet I wanted to so that they didn't think I was cheating. It was tough, and I may have gone down in the record books for some as a cheater, but in my books I knew what I knew, through my desire to be at school earlier then the rest, and out of experimentation, my cycling self pushed through to victories in other areas.
After I graduated with merit and honours, I went on to work as an auto Service Writer, Partsman, Surveyor and Machine operator logging up north.
Later on my desire to chisel my own path led me to Mexico, where some more self discovery took place, and then to taking philosophy at Camosun College in Victoria BC. I was baptised catholic and raised protestant through my moms actions, and her's alone. So when I lived with my dad I had a void of spiritual longing to be filled, that re manifested itself in my life at times when I lived with my mom and step dad in my later teens prior to graduating. So being of faith and of curiosity led me to philosophy, which translates into the love of wisdom. Philosophy planted seeds in me towards politics and law which led me down a path of political science, law, history and social sciences at the University of Victoria.
After University I was determined to become a lawyer, but as I researched it more and more, it became less appealing to me. I enjoyed the LSAT prep and the conditional approach to analyzing material, however the whole 16 hour days and lack of compensation for it all didn't really appeal to me from my perspective. I also had the near idea of having a family and was seeking to settle down with something that was sooner then another 5 years away. So I fell into the trades as a fall back which allowed for me to develop skills beyond my academic and provided a financial basis.

I cannot emphasize enough that my tenacity has always been rooted in the desire to be more efficient, and the desire to be efficient is at the core of my creation based on my environment of upbringing. When I attended Camosun college I decided to get involved in student politics. I ran for Sustainability Director, and I won favourably. I set out to establish a budget for the position which required a referendum voted on by the people. It went through passed and now those who sit in that seat have the ability to enjoy that fruit.
Skill Profile
Firstly I would like to say that I am highly capable of learning just about everything I have ever encountered. The roles I have played have been diverse. From being a private school janitor, to Sustainability Director, my willingness to seek knowledge in every area I lack in has no limits other then time. For example, digging into how rocket engines work, led me to discovering the significance of vortexes that led me to calculated existence, one can see that there is an equation in nature to explain all things, the golden mean, or the Fibonacci series. My desire to know energy led me to Tesla who I admire beyond all others. Reading about Tesla taught me how his adversity brought about his greatness. How an inquisitive mind can overcome the boundaries of the present reality, transcending to the point where you sit in your own realm.
Nonetheless, despite my interest in many things, I am better at some task then others. While growing up, I always had the desire to see how things worked, which meant taking everything apart. This taught me how things, such as computer chips connected to one another and interacted. Later when I built my own computer and over clocked the CPU, this was a result of the need to see the inner gears turning. Later when I decided to live off the grid on solar and a generator, this was also rooted in my longing for efficiency and independence coupled with my electrical curiosity. I learned even more about energy and how it works, to the point where I designed my own solar controller, which switched from a 12 to 24 volt systems based on hard wired switches, which at the time were automatic, and expensive to buy, but now are cheap. When I later came to the opportunity of working for an electrical company, I did, it taught me further what I already knew, or had discovered along the way. My inner desire to be more efficient roots in the desire to have more energy for things that matter most, verse things that waste time and energy. However working a career as just an electrician I found to be slightly boring and under stimulating. So after a short period, I moved on to other things.
I explored painting because I was always good at it and enjoyed cutting in straight lines with no tape. I worked for a few painting companies over the years and developed a professional standard of craftsmanship and methodology. Please see my articles on painting estimating and how to paint smart like a pro.
Later after my beautiful daughter arrived, I decided to embark upon a journey with a childhood friend's Dad who had taught me construction over the years growing up, but now we had the opportunity to work together, as mentor and protégé. We worked alongside building higher end residential improvements, mainly exterior but some interior. Things like staircases down banks to the ocean, or concrete very large concrete stairs, with curved steps. We built lots of concrete structures, (walls, retaining walls, patios, footings, foundations, walk ways, pads; and cedar to go on top. Cedar stairs, fences, arbours, pergolas, were amongst the builds in places like west Saanich, Saanich, Sidney, Broadmead, Royal Oak, Oakbay, Esquimalt and Victoria. We did not venture out in the Westshore, Sooke or Langford areas too much. During this time I also used my machine operating skills to develop land for our builds using different mini excavators and the bobcat.
After doing exterior home improvements for some time, I moved on to residential home building, and renovations. I worked for a few different companies. Building foundations, which I knew, then learning framing, sheathing, wrapping, blue skin, windows, doors, and siding, to add to my arsenal of potentials.
After building for some time for others, making them well off and leaving myself no real profit to gain from, I decided to embark on building for myself. I worked as a subcontractor for a handyman group in Victoria BC for a brief period, only to be exploited for my tools, expertise, and estimating capacity, as well as salesmanship, in return for one headache after another, I ended that and moved on to my own business. That is when I opened Intelligent Projects in 2016, focusing on Residential Construction, mainly exterior renovations, concrete, cedar fences, walkways, gardens, etc.
Under Intelligent Projects I was able to do some jobs that harnessed my skill sets, but seemed to be for people who only wanted a cheap price, not really quality work, which conflicted with what I have been geared towards and fundamentally tore me up in my vision for the company. So I took a step back, and re-approached it.
I then decided to cater to the Handyman market because of my diverse capacity and ability to really amalgamate myself into multiple roles. Here as a Handyman I took on jobs that do not fit into any one category because they require multiple trades to accomplish, yet are too small to get each tradesman out to do. Things like installing an overhead fan over a kitchen island that required cutting out a section of the ceiling to vent the ducting. To then patch up the cut and make it all perfect again. All this required, drywall work, texturing, and painting, electrical, and framing. Other jobs required things like fixing a squeaky floor, or removing a wall, adding in a cupboard, and adding in a railing. One home required adding a railing onto concrete stairs but to do so with the old holes used by an old metal railing. This was a challenge yet done perfectly. There are jobs like finding a stud so someone can hang a picture, or fixing a leaky sink, or oven drawer, that people consider odd ball jobs, that I have been able to help people with. There is a certain satisfaction with helping someone where they did not know who to call. So ultimately it is my goal to help people fill those gaps where they are not able to fill them any other way.
Now I do my best to help those who need help. I look forward to helping you too.