People that work in almost every office I've ever been in....

The loud talker/laugher - usually a woman. Talks loud enough in an open office area that people 10 cubicles over have to hold their hand over their other ear when talking on the phone just to be able to hear their own conversation. She also is usually the one you can hear from the other side of the building when she is laughing.

The quiet talker - also usually a woman. Usually size 2 or less and seldom wears make up. These women are very polite and friendly but will seldom initiate a conversation.

The sleazy politician - always a man. He walks the line on appropriateness of conversation... never bad enough to get fired but his HR file probably has a pile of complaints about him. He's outgoing and good at schmoozing customers but most people in the office see through his charm.

The crazy cat/dog/kid/grandchild lady - this woman has so many pictures of her cat/dog/kid/grandchild on her walls that you can't see what colour the paint is behind them. When a new employee is introduced to her she makes a point of introducing them to her cat/dog/kid/grandchild via the pictures on the wall. There is a lot of employee turnover in this lady's department.

The international guy - this person (or group) speaks English as a second language. Usually, but not always, their education was taken in their homeland where they also learned English. Their technical skills are excellent but their communication skills are lacking. They speak their mother tongue at home and although they will socialize with the English speakers at work, they don't say much as they aren't comfortable enough with the language.

The party planner - this is always a woman. The unofficial social co-ordinator of the group. She will organize all team lunches, signing of cards, and flowers purchasing for condolences for the loss of a loved one. This is never in the job description but someone will take on the responsibility anyways.

The technical guy - almost always a man. Even if everyone is doing the same job and has the same qualifications there will be one stand-out geek, Mr 4.0 GPA, that everyone goes to if they are having technical/programming issues. In all of my IT jobs there has been this guy but I'm not sure if this happens in other industries/jobs too.

Some less common office folks that are sometimes seen.....

The joker - should have been a stand up comedian
The suck-up - so obvious even the boss makes fun of him
The princess - keeps a mirror and full make-up kit at her desk
The coffee drinker - drinks 3 pots a day without anyone's help
The new kid - fresh out of university and just thankful to have a job

Did I miss anyone?

Too funny/bizarre/creepy not to share

http://www.frakincool.com/pictures/ginos-love-spray-tan/

Enjoy :)

Lunch anyone?

No one told me when I started working at the U of L that the entire Students Union food court (where I get my lunch every day) would be shut down for the last 2 weeks of August. There aren't that many places to buy food there anyways (a Subway, a taco place, a smoothie & pita place, and a chinese place with various deep fried offerings) but at least I had choices!

So for this week and next I either have to hike to the fitness center and join the line up (of all staff members who regularly eat elsewhere) at the Tim Horton's or I have to hike even further to my car and drive somewhere to get lunch. Of course there is the secret third option of bringing my lunch to work but, for a bunch of reasons I won't get into here, that's not a good option for me.

Ok, so I know this is a fairly small issue and one probably not worth ranting about (especially since everything will be back to normal on September 1st) but I had to come up with something to blog about. It was either this or Facebook profile pics and what I think they say about a person.

NBC vs CBC Medal Count

This is how NBC ranks the countries competing in the olympics with regards to their medal count.... (see their actual list here)

1. Ordered by total number of medals
2. If there is a tie in the total then the tie breaker goes to the country with the most golds
3. If there is still a tie then the tie breaker goes to the country with the most silvers
4. As you would expect, then it is the number of bronzes
5. If there is still a tie after that then they rank them in alphabetical order

I'm cool with that system. It's simple, it makes sense, and at the end of the day, I think the total medal count means more than which medals they are (ie. a country with 10 silvers should rank higher than a country with just one gold).

This is how CBC ranks the countries competing in the Olympics with regards to their medal count.... (see their actual list here)

1. Ordered by the country with the most golds
2. If there is a tie then the the tie breaker goes to the country with the highest total number of medals
3. steps 3-5 are the same as above.

I find this to be a very confusing system. It means, as of the time of writing, that Thailand with 1 gold medal total is ranked #27 of the countries and that Hungary, with 4 silvers and 1 bronze, is ranked #47. This seems so wrong to me.

The irony is that Canada, at least in the 2008 summer Olympics, is not a real gold medal nation. Our athletes have reached the podium a respectable number of times but seldom is Oh Canada played while they are standing there.

So, as of 1:36pm MDT, on Canada's own CBC website, Canada is currently ranked as the 17th country due to only 2 gold medals. However, our neighbours to the south have ranked Canada as 13th due to our total haul of 13 medals. I'm all for humility but CBC is taking TOO humble of an approach with respect to our Canadian athletes. I say change the ranking system to reflect what the US does and go by total number of medals. WE'RE NUMBER 13! WE'RE NUMBER 13!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

Of course I reserve the right to retract this post and change my allegiance to the CBC system if Canada gets a flurry of gold medals which ranks us higher with that system. ;)

It is 2008, right?

Yesterday I was driving home from work when a car commercial came on the radio. They were promoting various models of Kia cars. Their big "claim to fame" was how fuel efficient the cars are. But they promoted it by saying how many miles per gallon the various models can get.

Miles per gallon! Canada switched road signs to metric in 1977 and gasoline sales switched to metric in 1981. It's now 2008. I have no idea what a good miles per gallon number is an no one under the age of 50 should. Even those over 50 have had lots of time to get used to the "new" system. And I don't care enough to do the conversion.

So, Kia, if you want to communicate with anyone born since 1960, may I suggest switching to the metric system? It's pretty cool. Everything is divisible by 10 :)

Excuse me for being the grammar police but....

I really can't believe how much stuff gets into print with obvious grammar mistakes. Spelling isn't much of an issue due to spell checkers but grammar checkers are somewhat less reliable and someone with a 3rd grade grasp of the English language is required to proofread some of this stuff for accuracy.

Think I'm kidding? Last weekend I found my old Grade 3 English & Math notebook. Besides some really funny notes (like "I hate Mrs Mirkovich" - my teacher, and "I hate Louisa. She always cheats!" next to a tally scoresheet... I guess I had some anger issues LOL) and noticing an early affinity for math (in the whole book there were only 2 small math errors in pages of problems - hooray for young me) I found hand written phrases such as:

The girls went to the pool. THEY'RE going to swim THERE. THEIR swimsuits are red.

This was in 3rd grade! There really is no excuse for grown adults to not have a grasp on the whole their/they're/there, your/you're, it's/its situation. I'm not an English major by any stretch but these are the basics!

Back to my original story.... yesterday I picked up the mail which included a junkmail newspaper called "The Lethbridge Journal". On the top of the front page, above the name of the newspaper, was an advertisement. It's a free paper so that's to be expected. The advertisement was for a car dealership. The tagline (which they have used for as long as I can remember) was printed as.... "Your going to drive away happy!"

I threw the whole paper away.

Hooray... the Olympics are finally here

I don't talk about it much but I LOVE the Olympics. I prefer summer but get almost as excited about the winter events. Wherever there are representatives from all over the world competing for their country in a sporting event, it's exciting. If I could take 3 weeks off work and plant myself in front of the TV for the duration I would. It's sad but I really would.

The Olympics are more special than any other world championship competition because they encompass so many different events within a 3 week period and they only occur once every 4 years (yes, I know they are technically every 2 years because they alternate the summer & winter but for any given event the competition occurs every 4 years).

Supposedly the athletes are all amateurs in their respective disciplines but I don't think that really means anything these days. When basketball players are making millions of dollars in the NBA, I don't think anyone can profess that they are "amateurs" at their sport. However I'd argue that the weightlifters and fencers can claim amateur status given that I don't think there is much money to be made in either event.

I can get excited about almost any of the sports.... they are each exciting in their own way. My favorites are generally gymnastics, diving, and various track & field events. But I'm open to watching any event and am hoping there is TV coverage devoted to some of the more obscure ones. When was the last time you saw women's wrestling, handball, taekwondo, or a good old fashioned kayak race? The TV announcers are usually pretty good about explaining how things are judged and scored so even if you are completely unfamiliar with the competition it's fairly easy to follow along. Which is good because... what the hell is a modern pentathlon????