Imagine the following situation:
You are getting ready to give a presentation to your entire client and potential client-base. You have the new powerpoint that you just put together all ready to go and you are 5 minutes from starting. This is the oppurtunity to really make some large sales and you need to make a good impression - especially to those who have never heard of you before today. Wouldn't you take a another quick look over the Powerpoint to make sure everything looks right and you have no spelling mistake?
Now lets take it to the real world example - spam. I understand why people spam - if you send out 100 million messages and only .00001% respond that is still 1,000 responses at little cost to you. And I am not even talking about the porn - I am talking real world products that I can see your average housewife opening the email and saying "boy - I could really use something like that" just like they do while watching the Home Shopping Network. But this is your big chance - your oppurtunity to make a good first impression. So why do I constantly get messages with the subject "Just check this ounx" (ad for a diploma mill) or "Lnnleumn look at this-removes rinkles and produces youngr, tighter, thickers skin". Maybe I was just looking in the mirror this morning thinking to myself how old, loose and thin my skin was looking and how I would love for it to be younger, tighter, and thicker. But I can tell you I sure as hell wasn't thinking that I want it to be "youngr, tighter, thickers" - so what's the deal? Are they just lazy? Haven't they heard of spell check?
Walked into my office yesterday to be greeted by this incredibly bad odor - smells like an animal died or something. Only problem was that my office was such a mess it was impossible to begin to narrow down under which pile of papers or computer parts the smell was originating from. So I swallowed my pride ("genius is in direct relationship with the level of disorder of the users personal workspace" - some guy with a really messy office) and started cleaning. The only problem is that I now have a pretty orderly office and still can't find where the source of the smell is! Help!
First off - apologizies for not writing more often - work has been crazy and I have been doing too much travelling. When I am not working I am trying to spend the little free time I have with the family which believe it or not takes precedence over this blog.
Back to the subject - I was flying into BWI last night and when we land and are taxiing I see I have a ton of new messages on my cell. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But then my phone rings 1 second later and it's my brother.
"So what's going on over there" he asks.
"Ummm nothing, just landed, why?"
And then I see why he's calling - about 15 ambulances and firetrucks plus a bunch of cop cars are surrounding a plane as we are getting near the terminal. Turns out it was a flight from Houston that got in 20 minutes before us where a bunch of people were sick. I have no idea why I decided to take the Continental flight home instead of the Southwest but it looks like that was a good choice.
It's weird because the news was quoting "officials" that 4 people were critical and 6 in serious condition as it was happening. So if we can't trust the news for accurate reporting who can we trust nowadays? :)
Yesterday I went Jet Skiing for the second time in my life - it was a lot of fun. By the end I was doing some incredible turns at pretty fast speeds. I got the thing up over 50 (not sure if that is measured in MPH, knots, inches, or what) and it was really moving. My boss just got the jet ski and lives on a lake down in Texas so whenever I am down here (which has been too often lately) I can use it - the lake is huge and above 80 degrees all year round so looks like I'll be getting plenty of practice!
Does anyone know when the new season of Carnivale starts on HBO?
After 2 days spent in the country I have a much deeper appreciation of the song and the entire Southpark movie. I think in the entire 36 hours I was there I met only one person who wasn't rude, obnoxious, or indifferent. And if it wasn't for that one person I would have ended up spending 40 hours in the country - the last 6 within 4 km (that's less than 3 miles) of the border. We were stuck in an incredible backup waiting to get back into the US because obviously noone wanted to stay any longer than they had to in Ontario. After about 1.5 hours we got off the highway for a bathroom break only to discoverr that the intelligent Canadian police close all of the entrance ramps back onto the highway when traffic gets bad. So we were stuck on a side road with no where to go except 5 km back in the wrong direction to an open exit. We begged a young cop to let us back on and he wouldn't, but after seeing how desperate we were he whispered before his partner could see him that there was a shortcut and quickly explained how to go. We followed the directions and knocked off at least 3 hours of waiting if not more (of course it did involve crossing 12 lanes of traffic headed the wrong way but no one got killed so it's all good). If it were not for him we would have missed our flight and been stuck in Buffalo. As it was we barely made the flight. Bottom line is that while the wedding we went to Toronto for was awesome, the remainder of the Canadian experience was nothing to write home about (although definitely worth writing up here!)