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A Litany of Adventures - LiveJournal.com
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Man it's quiet in our office today. I haven't seen a single "boss" person today, and I don't expect to either of my two, or Foop, due to off-site meetings and people getting a jump on the long weekend. (Long weekend - yay!!!!!)
S is going on the annual "fishing" trip with the guys from the barbershop. No fishing occurs, usually; it's called a "fishing trip" because they stay at a fishing lodge in the mountains. I don't know that anyone even maintains the pretense by taking a rod and reel anymore. There's a lot of cussing, puerile humour, and a fair quantity of alcohol consumed. S is taking his 12-string guitar, for to entertain the masses.
My plans? Well, no big plans. I'll be home, so I'll probably do a bit of cleaning so that last weekend's herculean efforts don't fade too quickly. And I'll probably drag out the sewing machine and make that yoga mat strap I bought the stuff for. And I might try out the yoga DVD I bought.
Heck, maybe I'll even get some writing done!
Me me me me me
Your Noble British Name Is:
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Lady Patience Madeline Crabbe
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1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father's middle name)
Stirret David. (Heh; I'd be better protected if it were the other way 'round)
2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Rusty Wallace. No, just kidding. Dick Trickle. KIDDING! Burnie George. For realz.
3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
BarWe
4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Tiger (married to Blue Duck)
5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Jean New Westminster (married to James Halifax)
6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Pink Mojito (see icon) (Married to Red Beer)
7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Weon
8. GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Vanilla Bourbon Cream
9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet's name last pet's name, current street name)
Ollie Tiki Phoenix (Ollie is actually the out-laws' cat)
10. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
Splendor Chocolate
11. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Shumba Bluebird
Hey, look what I got in the mail the other day!
Thanks, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sietske! I'm glad you enjoyed the exhibition. It looks amazing.
***
Chatted with Boss C about strategy for the Naming of Rooms. (Why is this bringing to mind "the naming of rooms is a difficult matter; it isn't just one of your everyday games..."?) She had some good suggestions, and since she prefers not to be involved herself, is happy (grateful, even) for me to take the lead on it.
Next step will be to present to the management team, "as a courtesy", to let them know that the plan's afoot and to ask their support. And, as Boss C said, "hope to heck that Bella isn't there that day, or she'll take the whole thing over". Which is exactly what I was thinking (not without dread) the night before. Do we have her sussed or what? Srsly, given the opportunity of any input, she'd be wanting to put some kind of political spin on it, and would be suggesting that we open the competition to the entire organization (rather than just our local part of things), or invite the general public to be part of it, or try to tie it in with some event going on at the City, or name the rooms after major donors or something else completely contrary to my vision, which almost but not quite has the rooms all named after species of fish found in these parts (because this used to be the centre of the west coast fishing industry in Canada), or birds or sea animals, or local neighborhoods; something that takes a larger view and reflects and honours the community we live in, and not just the place we work and the work we do.
I am really hoping we don't end up naming the rooms after people (several people have - not always jokingly - suggested naming the rooms after former CEOs or long-service employees). Because if you didn't happen to like a person, you're hardly going to want a room to be named after them, are you? And in our place, having an oft-used meeting room named after a disliked former CEO or retired manager or physician is not at all unlikely to feed the bad feeling and "us versus them" mentality that takes over the front-line staff in bad times.
I work with a woman who inserts extraneous "that"s into her speech and writing (emails, mostly). I have never heard (or seen) anyone do this before, and I'm not sure where it comes from. I think it becomes more pronounced when she's rushing or stressed, but of course it's not the kind of thing you can ask someone about without seeming impertinently inquisitive.
For instance, she'll say, "could you please let me know when that we receive that package?"
And now that I think about it, I think the extra "that" often comes after "when".
Have you ever encountered this?
Really really really bad luck
Is coming to Canada from Kenya as a student, and having a helicopter fall out of the sky on top of you as you cross the street to mail a letter in a small town in the mountains.
This happened yesterday. The three people inside the helicopter died, too, and my sympathies go out to their families. But that Kenyan student... that's the one that's sticking with me.
About meeting rooms (work-related, of course)
When I started working at my current workplace, we had meeting rooms with names - Park Room, Westminster Room, Gilbert Room, blah blah. Then they built a new wing, and in it five new meeting rooms in a cluster. These they called rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, and yes you guessed it, 5. Not inspired (some - like me - might say downright dull and the product of "can't be bothered" thinking), but not hard to work out, because Rooms 1&2 combined into a single room, as did 4&5. Once learned, easily remembered. Just don't get confused by the fact that we also have Room 3A and Room 3B, and they aren't even next to each other, let alone being anywhere near Room 3!
Fast forward about seven years, and more renovations happen. What was the suite of meeting rooms gets incorporated into one of the growing departments, and meeting room space is established elsewhere. There are no combinable rooms, and nothing as large as 4&5 were together. But there are five of them. So they are called meeting rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I, a lone voice in the wilderness, suggest that a change of name might be a nice way to mark the change of venue. I get stared at, and told that "people are used to the meeting rooms being numbered". As if that's as much as we can expect of the lesser beings we're surrounded by, and I should stop having such highfalutin expectations of mere humans.
Fine. Bollocks to that, I ain't gonna fight entrenched dinosaur thinking. If you think "because we've always done it that way" is good enough and aren't open to change, I'll just muddle through, because I haven't the time to fight about something nobody else seems to care about. And muddle I do, because (a) I don't get out to meeting rooms very much and (b) I can't keep the new rooms straight in my head because (c) they keep changing which ones are which, what with all the renovations still going on around them. Used to be that Room 1 was the smallest, and Room 3 was the largest, but over the last twelve months, there have been minor adjustments as room 3 got swallowed up by something else and room numbers shifted.
So today we get an email from the guy from central roombooking sends an email to those of us who have read/write access to the roombooking calendars, announcing a couple of changes.
- What was Room 1 is now called Room 5
- What was Room 5 is now called Room 6
- What was the Computer Training Room is now called Room 1 (we're hoping this will reduce break-ins and technology thefts)
I am not even kidding.
My reply all: Wow I wish our meeting rooms had names. Or at least that we didn't keep reallocating the same numbers to the meeting rooms. So much easier if they were called Steveston, Ironwood, Brighouse, Hamilton, and Garden City, or similar. [Those are all neighbourhoods within the city.]
Tyke Lass's reply all: Good idea! We could have a competition to name them, maybe! I'll start: Hyacinth... Daisy... Rose... [Those are the sisters in "Keeping Up Appearances"]
Me: How about Kirk, Spock, McCoy...? [If you don't get this reference... well, I don't know what to think about that.]
That started a flurry of supportive replies (for the idea, not for either suggested naming scheme), so I floated the idea to our facilities guy, whom I've known since my earliest days in the place, and we had a chat about it this afternoon. His primary concern is that the directional signage that points people to places throughout the building (including meeting rooms) has been updated and is being replaced next week, so it's too late to change it - this time. Secondary concern is the amount of space that words will take up on these signs (I know; lame excuse). He doesn't see the problem, but he's not unwilling to go ahead with naming the rooms, as long as he's not the one making the decisions.
So I said I'd take the lead on that. So tomorrow I'm going to float it to whomever will listen, and work out whether (and how) we can make the Name The Rooms competition into a fun cultural event for the workplace. Because, played properly, it could be a lot of fun, especially if we can get front-line staff voting on it. Could be fun, eh? Guidelines: suggest ten names that might be suitable for the eight meeting rooms, and explain why you chose those names. Get a screening committee to shortlist six to ten sets of names, and open the voting (electronic and paper, time-limited) to all staff. Do this over the course of a month or two, and then announce the winner. Get name signs made for the rooms, but leave the numbers on, and start to use the meeting room names as well as the numbers. Then, in four to six months when the interior directional signs need to be redone, eliminate the use of room numbers and use ONLY their names.
Muah ha ha! Tomorrow, the world!
Shakespeare meme
Sniggled from all over the flist (y'all know who you are).
Your Score: Much Ado About...You scored 20% = Tragic, 60% = Comic, 39% = Romantic, 23% = Historic
You Scored Much Ado About Nothing! First published in 1600, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most enduring comedies, and probably his most performed to this day. Much Ado About Nothing tells the story of two pairs of would-be lovers and the hysterical events that happen surrounding the wedding. As Claudio and Hero prepare to marry, Don Pedro and his friends, bored with the length of preparation time, take it upon themselves in the meantime to play matchmaker to Benedick and Beatrice, two sharp-tongued would-be lovers whose love for each other is masked by the "merry war of words" in which they are engaged that both of them are too stubborn to lose. Based on your results, we believe you to be a quick-witted, light-hearted romantic who is probably very charming and charismatic. While your stubbornness may sometimes get the better of you, we are confident that you always eventually come to your senses and do what's best. You probably have a lot of friends and we like you too!
</lj-cut_>Bard on the Beach</a> season. (Shakespeare plays = fabulous; Shakespeare plays in tents near the beach = the best.) This year's season includes Twelfth Night (which I've seen many times) and three plays I've never seen: King Lear, The Tempest, and TItus Andronicus. We've got theatre plans for four weekends this summer - yay! Or, will do, when I've booked the tickets.
Went to the theatre with Tyke Lass today; a matinée of I, Claudia. It was excellent, and I see by Wikipedia and IMDB that it's been made into a movie starring the playwright, so yay for Canadian playwrights! Claudia is an almost-13-year-old who seeks refuge from the pain of her parents' divorce - and the unwelcome discovery that her father plans to remarry - in the boiler room at her school. It's a one-woman show, and there are four characters in the cast - Drachma, the school custodian, Claudia, her grandfather Douglas, and Claudia's stepmother-to-be, Leslie are differentiated by masks. Nothing is simple for anyone: Drachma is an immigrant from Eastern Europe, Douglas is a widower in failing health, Leslie is a smart woman with a good job, a bad reputation, and parent issues, and Claudia is an engaging kid with an ill-fitting school uniform, an uncomfortable existence between parental homes, and an not quite enough emotional maturity for her reality.
The play is funny in places (though not as many places as the woman in the next row seemed to find) but mostly poignant and touching. The playwright seems to have really got inside the skin of Claudia, and I'm wiling to bet that every woman in the audience cringed in recollection of the awkwardness of that particular age: the gawkiness, the ugliness, the changing body and the growing mind.
***
After the play, I went to the drugstore to stock up, and ran into three people I know. Met Diana, whom I worked with briefly 14 years ago, in the toothpaste aisle; then ran into my massage therapist in the shaving aisle, and finally met Liz, a current workmate, in photos. Crazy!
I bought a few DVDs today: two yoga vids, and one for meditation. Will report back (under a filter) when have tried them
I think we're about to go for a curry. Yay, shahi paneer calls to me!
Meme from semioticwarrior and enjae
36 questions: Some old information, some new information.
1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
Yes
2) What was your dream growing up?
The constants were "to travel the world" and "to write the Great Canadian Novel", though at various points I also wanted to be a ballerina, a teacher, a nurse, and a veterinarian.
3) What talent do you wish you had?
I wish I had a tolerable singing voice. Because I love to sing, but I suck.
4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
Surprise me!
5) Favorite vegetable?
Broccoli
6) What was the last book you read?
Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult. It was good.
7) What zodiac sign are you?
Sagittarius
8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
My ears are pierced. *yawn*
9) Worst Habit?
Procrastination
10) If you saw me walking down the street, would you offer me a ride?
Sure! Or I'd park the car and walk with you.
11) What is your favorite sport?
I can get into anything if you take me to a game/match/race/whatever. Just don't ask me to sit still to watch anything on TV.
12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
Highly optimistic, tempered (now, at my advanced age) with realism.
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
Probably start talking!
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
My brother died in 2003. That was awful.
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
I can cross and uncross my eyes individually. I didn't know this until my brother asked me if I could, and when I did, it really grossed him out!
16) Do you have any pets?
A few stuffed moose; nothing animate.
17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
OMG, what are you doing here? Get your butt in this house, and would you like something to drink or eat?
18) What was your first impression of me?
I'll tell you when you repost this
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
Neither. Sometimes funny, sometimes annoying.
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
My metabolism. Oh wait, I could change that. My innate laziness then.
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
Probably both. To undesirable effect.
22) What color eyes do you have?
Green.
23) Ever been arrested?
No.
24) Bottle or can soda?
Could I have water instead, please?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
Put it against the mortgage on the holiday property. (Any other year, the answer would have been "go on a nice trip!")
27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
Home. No, really.
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
Yes
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
Read.
30) Do you swear a lot?
Yes. More than I wish I did.
31) Biggest pet peeve?
Stupidity
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
Fun.
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
Heavens, yes!
35) Do you believe in God?
I believe in something, and I'll call it "God" for understandability's sake, but I doubt that my God is the same as anyone else's.
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
Sure!
Friday Update
I started to post the Friday Fives before I left home, but forgot to hit "post", so doing it from work. (Bad, slacky Wendy).
From ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) thefridayfive:
1. If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours?
Wow. That would probably depend on what my source of doom was going to be. If it were inescapable apocalyptic disaster, I can imagine that I'd spend a fair bit of time railing against fate and trying to get to a safer place, to defer the inevitable as long as possible. If it were disease taking me over, I would hope that the weather was good so that I could spend the day outside in nature, hopefully surrounded by the people I love. And that's enough of that kind of thinking for one day.
2. Do you think that life has meaning? Yes.
3. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites? Hmm. I don't remember a single item standing out over all the rest. But my bike and my roller-skates got a lot of use. And books, of course. Always books.
4. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb? Right over left.
5. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it? Mere ignorance is easy to overcome with patient instruction. It's stupidity that's the challenge.
***
From the altfriday5:
1. Would you describe yourself as a patient person? - *spits water all over monitor* - Hah! I mean, no. But I'm working on it.
2. When you are impatiently waiting for something positive (anticipation) or negative (dread) whose arrival you can't control, how do you manage those feelings? I try to balance obsessing about whatever's imminent with distracting myself with work or other activity.
3. What about when you have some influence on the arrival/timing of the awaited event? Same as above.
4. Have your impatience-managing techniques or approaches changed over time? How? Improved, I hope! I tend not to waste energy on worrying about things over which I have no control.
5. Have other people been helpful in learning different ways of handling this sort of thing? Well, yes. Because how else do we (as a species) learn anything, if not from each other?
***
From fridayfiver:
1. Who do you adore? - Nobody. I mean, I love many people, but I haven't tipped over into adore for a lot of years. Not having children or pets is a signal disadvantage in this way, apparently.
2. Who adores you? - Nobody has told me they do, at least not lately. But I'm OK with that. Love is enough.
3. What's in your pockets? - Lint. :(
4. Who can you talk with for hours? - S. Dana. Tyke Lass. My flist, especially the PCG's and the Dwiggies.
5. What sounds great today? Sunny and 16 degrees C! Also, tomorrow is Saturday. Also, the office is quiet today.
S and I went to the Travel Clinic yesterday to get the first of our shots for Africa. I've had Hep B and an adult Polio booster, but had to get Hep A, Typhoid, and a Tetanus booster. Two jabs.
S had to get the Hep A/Typhoid shot, a Hep B shot (first of three), and Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio. Three jabs. His arms are sore today. Mine are fine (so far).
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