Below are the 8 most recent journal entries recorded in cwf's LiveJournal:

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2005
11:04 am	Not to be a downer... ...but is anyone else having an unusually depressing winter? I found out last night that my Dad's old business partner, who was a good friend of the family for several years, passed away Monday at barely over 50. My parents are travelling, so as the `senior ranking member' of the family in town, I'll be heading to the funeral sometime later this week. During the round of duty-phonecalls after getting this news, I spent some time on the phone with my highschool sweetheart's mother, during which we talked about the 3 family friends of hers who have died so far this year, in addition to the 2 acquaintances we have in common besides Dad's partner who have now died (one of whom was Mom's church's minister), *and* she told me about how they had to have their dog put down. Now honestly - was there something about this year that said it was supposed to be so apocalyptic? I'm feeling a little bit blindsided. It seems to have been an `if it *can* go wrong, it *will*' kind of month so far - is anybody else seeing this too, or am I just lucky? C Current Mood: bemused (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 23rd, 2004
2:00 pm	A Poll So, I'm in the midst of sending out 300 individualized letters via e-mail while listening to the same music I always listen to at work, and I'm simultaneously thinking two things - #1 - `boy, this sucks', and #2 - `boy, I need new music'. I'm looking for a good fairly mellow but work-inspiring album to buy with my shiny new $30 HMV gift certificate. Any suggestions? C (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 17th, 2004
11:58 am	Skills that I apparently don't have Apparently, somewhere along the line I have lost the talent for gracefully taking shit from people. I'm not great with shit that's justified, I'm even worse with shit that's *not* justified, but the worst kind is the kind I just took from my boss - the quasi-justified shit. I just got a call from my boss in Chicago - `This e-mail just went out and it should *never* have gone out without being proof-read by X first! She's really upset, as am I!' When I responded with `I'm sorry, I thought from your voicemail this morning that I should have X's assistant send out the e-mail ASAP', she said `Absolutely not - it was *perfectly clear* when you & I and Y sat down yesterday that X needed to see the e-mail before it went out!'. I have two things to say to this: a) She & I & Y - we never sat down. That would have required her sitting down, or giving me instructions of any kind on the many things we had to deal with - and of course that never happened. b) Even if we had, I can't believe she would have given me that instruction - after all, there was nothing like it in the voicemail this morning. But, see, here's the problem - my righteous indignation runs out a little when I realize that I probably should have known anyway. Never mind that I didn't get instructions from her, nevermind that X's assistant should probably have checked with her boss before sending, nevermind that probably a lot of this `get C in shit call' is just for appearances for X standing right next to her - if I'd been more heads-up it probably would have worked out better. What I'm left with is the bane of all workers' existence - the anger/frustration/guilt combo-pak. How does that get resolved? It doesn't. GRRRR! Current Mood: discontent Current Music: I don't want to work; I want to bang on the drum all day (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 13th, 2004
9:57 am	When Corporate Speak goes wrong Some (myself included), would suggest that Corporate Speak is never *right* - after all, these are the good folks who brought us `can you action that by end-of-day', and my personal favourite - `yes, that HVI is TOM - let's run it up the flagpole and see if the cat licks it up'. However, I think where things go *really* wrong is when the people in our communications department try to invent hep new phrases for boring items. Witness today's example - the top headline on the central employee intranet site today is an imprecation to try to keep people's mailfiles (in Lotus Notes) at a reasonable size. This is a noble goal, but `BMO 101 - the skinny on your bulging Lotus'? Just doesn't do it for me. I mean really - my first thought when I read it was - `Hey - this would fit nicely into </b></a> c (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 12th, 2004
12:07 pm	Guess who'll end up going to Royal Military College? I think these kids will - clearly they've already got the `we do more before we're 16 than most people do their whole...well, something' - you get my point. Check out this website - my friend Krista from work is an advisor with a Junior Achievement group, and this is the product they've put together.  They're here at FCP selling them today - and they're going like hotcakes.  I think the price is $20-25 - looks like the kids are doing good work. Here's the link to their website - if you're in the 416 area code and feel like doing something nice for some kids, go take a look - www.bowlywood.com . (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 17th, 2004
12:43 pm	O God...I'll be sacked. Wow - am I ever having a Bridget Jones identifi-athon the last few days.  Serves me right for watching it on Valentine's Day.  However, I am moving *right past it* and into my weekend update (which is much the same as furrypinkcowgrl 's.) Friday Night:  Crisis after crisis at work - ended up going to my boss's place in Rosedale to deliver a document - met her adorable children and oooh-ed over her gorgeous house, and delivering the `I feel like something's going to go terribly wrong with this' message (which, in retrospect, was a Very Good Idea because something did and now I look prescient).  Then discovered that my previous `it almost doesn't matter what you order at an Indian Food restaurant' attitude was, in a word, wrong.  It hurts me that we ate at a place where `Wow, that really looks like a log', and `This kind of smells like my own vomit - is that bad?' were the best descriptors of the food. Then watched `Romeo & Juliet' - I am *so ashamed* of my little Leonardo DiCaprio crush.  First this, then Justin Timberlake - am I turning into seth_the_baum ? Saturday was good - bought some Aveda, some shoes (picture Betty Boop meets Jackie O), an excellent dress which is very not me but very pretty anyway, and some makeup.  We had sushi (another one of the not-stunning gastronomical delights of the weekend...it's too bad, this place is usually good) & a few drinks, and then out for the `Date for Heart' event. The event was fun - certainly more dignified than my last expedition to Shark City - to sum up, furrypinkcowgrl  kept the heels on (both) her shoes, nobody fell over, and I didn't get a phone call the next day for `Sarah', from a man who shall only be known henceforth as `wRong'. I appear to have made a mutual match with T, whose 5-minute conversation with me consisted of mostly talking about roller-blading and music - he's a guitar player.  It was a nice departure from `so, what do you do' - and involved a completely random story about roller rinks (from me) after which he still said that he'd like to talk to me again - so we'll have to see where that goes. After Shark City there was the Croc - 'nuff said.  I'm not proud, but at least I came home alone (only to pass out, upright, leaning against furrypinkcowgrl on the Red Couch, in the midst of eating leftover pizza). Sunday was fun again - was able to sleep in till about 10:00 and then remain prone for a few hours, making it a stunning improvement over my last few hangovers.  Visited with A's folks in Barrie (let me tell you, Barrie's not the greatest place to go with the stupids - there was *hilarious* moment where both A and I became temporarily illiterate...good times, good times), then headed down to the Oak for a few hours of bridge & conversation with the folks. And that would be it - back to work early yesterday, left work late, forgot one tiny (and yet extremely crucial) detail, and have spent today doing the `O God, I'll be sacked' routine - wish me luck. Current Mood: anxious Current Music: Out of Reach - Bridget Jones' Soundtrack (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 13th, 2004
11:16 am	Ego Sum Mercator Graecus Here's a quest for those of you out there who: a) suffered through a latin class or two (canis in via latrat!), and b) have stronger web-fu than I I want to create a crest/coat of arms for my department - haven't yet decided what the images in the middle will be, but I want the latin quote at the bottom to read: "Every day another fire drill". Granted - there will likely be no actual word for `fire drill', but I think there must be a decent proxy. I have two reasons for needing this info - the first is that I just think it'll be hilarious. The second, though, has very much to do with my conversation with P yesterday afternoon: C: How's your Latin? P: Uh...`Bono Est?' C: Because, you see, I want to make this crest - I can probably figure out `Every day', and `fire', but the `drill' bit may be a bit more challenging. P: Really? How much Latin did you take? C: Just Grade 10 - not all that much. P: Geez - I took 3 years of Latin, and there's no way I'd be able to figure that out. Wow. So now it's imperative that I find out. Any takers? Suggestions? (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 12th, 2004
2:44 pm	Breaking the Seal I guess it's time to officially post my first entry. I've been doing my best to just lurk around pipesdreams' journal, but have been driven back here by the gentle reminder that by not getting off my ass and putting people on my friends list, I am beginning a campaign to slowly alienate the whole world...sorry, guys! More to come later - after all, I *have* just broken the seal. Current Mood: amused Current Music: The Great Indoors - John Mayer (2 Comments |Comment on this)