...and Starbucks has its Christmas drinks out.
I'm rejoicing at the availability of Peppermint Latte once again, of course. But still, it's not even November yet!
It did give me a good idea for a marketing gimmick for the company. I'm going to see about setting up a registration drive at my favorite mall in the near future.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
"Bowling" for the right to call it that
In these lean economic times, bowling is my one extravagance. Maybe I shouldn't really call it an extravagance, actually, as it's pretty cheap compared to most other ways I could be spending my spare time. But it feels like an extravagance for whatever reason. And I will bowl a 150 one of these days...but I digress.
The last time I went bowling, there was a party of three in the next lane. University students, I think. And they were bowling very, very badly. I'm not talking about people who are just learning how to bowl and are still hitting a lot of gutter balls (that still happens to me more often than I'd like!). They weren't even really trying. They were just tossing the balls every which way and not even always rolling them hard enough to make it all the way to the end of the lane. (Yep, just like Mr. Burns.) They did seem to be having a good time, so more power to them. But I do wonder why anybody would spend money on something like that!
The last time I went bowling, there was a party of three in the next lane. University students, I think. And they were bowling very, very badly. I'm not talking about people who are just learning how to bowl and are still hitting a lot of gutter balls (that still happens to me more often than I'd like!). They weren't even really trying. They were just tossing the balls every which way and not even always rolling them hard enough to make it all the way to the end of the lane. (Yep, just like Mr. Burns.) They did seem to be having a good time, so more power to them. But I do wonder why anybody would spend money on something like that!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Halloween isn't the only scary day in October
The good news about October thus far:
1. My work visa, which was set to expire in November, was renewed for two years. There was no reason to expect that wouldn't happen, but still, that it did is obviously good news.
2. I may have scored a big investment in our company. Last Friday we were one of five startup companies who were invited to address a meeting of a local investors' group. (The group claims we were chosen from a few hundred applicants - sounds like an exaggeration to me, but why should I argue the point?) Each company rep was invited to give a ten-minute presentation to the group, after which we left the room for half an hour or so before being invited back for lunch. At lunch, the event organizers notified us as to whether or not any investors were interested in us, and if so, we could expect to hear from them in the next two weeks. This time around, only two of the five companies got any interest from any of the investors - and we were one of them.
The bad news: the boss has been on a tear about something or other, and has been really ungrateful for all that has gone well as a result. I don't know just what he's upset about (I do have my theories, but it wouldn't be appropriate to post the details here), but it has made for a very unpleasant week when we should have been celebrating a job well done. The other day he actually accused me of "forgetting" to include certain information in our presentation to the investors, when in fact I had deliberately omitted it because the organizers had told me the investors wouldn't consider it relevant, meaning it would have been a waste of time. We had ten minutes, period, so it made no sense to include anything I was specifically told I didn't need!
I explained this in what I believed was a reasonably diplomatic manner, considering how absurd his complaint was. Believe it not, his response was that "the other presenters" did include the information he had referred to.
That's right, they did.
Of course, they did not get any positive responses from the investors.
We did.
But I should have done a presentation more like theirs.
Even Dilbert can't touch that. Geez.
1. My work visa, which was set to expire in November, was renewed for two years. There was no reason to expect that wouldn't happen, but still, that it did is obviously good news.
2. I may have scored a big investment in our company. Last Friday we were one of five startup companies who were invited to address a meeting of a local investors' group. (The group claims we were chosen from a few hundred applicants - sounds like an exaggeration to me, but why should I argue the point?) Each company rep was invited to give a ten-minute presentation to the group, after which we left the room for half an hour or so before being invited back for lunch. At lunch, the event organizers notified us as to whether or not any investors were interested in us, and if so, we could expect to hear from them in the next two weeks. This time around, only two of the five companies got any interest from any of the investors - and we were one of them.
The bad news: the boss has been on a tear about something or other, and has been really ungrateful for all that has gone well as a result. I don't know just what he's upset about (I do have my theories, but it wouldn't be appropriate to post the details here), but it has made for a very unpleasant week when we should have been celebrating a job well done. The other day he actually accused me of "forgetting" to include certain information in our presentation to the investors, when in fact I had deliberately omitted it because the organizers had told me the investors wouldn't consider it relevant, meaning it would have been a waste of time. We had ten minutes, period, so it made no sense to include anything I was specifically told I didn't need!
I explained this in what I believed was a reasonably diplomatic manner, considering how absurd his complaint was. Believe it not, his response was that "the other presenters" did include the information he had referred to.
That's right, they did.
Of course, they did not get any positive responses from the investors.
We did.
But I should have done a presentation more like theirs.
Even Dilbert can't touch that. Geez.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The nobel prize
See here for my favorite reaction so far.
Since there is no Jimmy Carter or Nelson Mandela waiting in the wings this year, that reason sounds as good as any to me.
Since there is no Jimmy Carter or Nelson Mandela waiting in the wings this year, that reason sounds as good as any to me.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Generation gaps within a generation
I'm used to making music-references that go over the heads of people my own age. (The all time champ was the time in France when a friend came to a party with a painted-on mole on her face..."Just like Cindy Crawford," she explained. "Yeah," I replied, "and Peggy Lee had one too." Of course, nobody else in the room knew who Peggy Lee was.) But for some reason, I never see them coming, no matter how many times things like that have happened in the past.
So was I reminded yesterday while Gyle and I were waiting in a taxi queue outside a mall. After we'd been waiting a few minutes - which can seem a lot longer when you're outside on a Singapore afternoon and you want to go home - she commented on the cab shortage by singing. "Where have all the taxis gone...you know that song?"
I replied that I did, but it sounded to me like she didn't have the tune quite right. It took a few minutes of comparing notes before I figured out that I was thinking of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and she was thinking of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" Oops.
So was I reminded yesterday while Gyle and I were waiting in a taxi queue outside a mall. After we'd been waiting a few minutes - which can seem a lot longer when you're outside on a Singapore afternoon and you want to go home - she commented on the cab shortage by singing. "Where have all the taxis gone...you know that song?"
I replied that I did, but it sounded to me like she didn't have the tune quite right. It took a few minutes of comparing notes before I figured out that I was thinking of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and she was thinking of "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" Oops.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
