Teetering on the brink at the moment when ALL I WANT TO DO IS SCREAM!!! Trying to get some work done but been forced to move to another floor only to have constant distraction from the sales team who are busy chatting/playing with Facebook/doing a McDonalds run when my team actually have quite a lot to do. I'm in a post-festive miserable phase- missing family, thinking about the year closing and what I didn't achieve, sick of seeing other people I don't really get on with and fed up of enforced festive glee.
I shouldn't feel this way. I got spoiled at Christmas (there is pretty much nothing left on my Amazon wishlist) so I have lots of new things to do, see and try. Dearly Beloved is excited about his flying lesson so his present went down well. Survived 10 hours of my out-laws but still have them round tomorrow night. And I've forgotten about New Year! Another evening with his maiden aunt and Jools Holland. Last year we moved venues to our new home as I couldn't face an evening with the ashes of the dead cat in a little box on the coffee table again....not a great sight each time you reach for the Quality Street.
Maybe this is all down to illness. Been off due to cold and pulled muscle already this month and I'm going slowly mad from my skin flaring up and the cold is coming back a little so under the weather. Some leftover tranquillisers from my injury to my neck in my bag (used as a muscle relaxant)....very, very tempted
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
in the bleak midwinter
Yes, I've been gone awhile. Lucky you can manage without me, isn't it?
I'm a very poorly bunny at the moment-winter has kicked in and knocked me senseless with the latest strain of cold virus attacking pretty much everyone I know. Had an unpleasant few days sweating through every set of bedding I own-had to decamp to Dearly Beloveds bed earlier while duvet covers and pillowcases were festooned around the house drying away...in lieu of the christmas decorations I have had neither the inclination nor the enthusiasm to sort out yet.
Lots been going through my mind-here's a teaser/trailer package of what I'll be blogging about soon:
-climate change. I'll be vacillating between the attitudes of 'Bored now' and 'OMFG'.
-purging. Getting rid of stuff,thoughts and people you don't need in your life
-the tv series 'Bones'. Why I love the characters and an opinion about the much-blogged-about-already Booth speech about the difference between having sex and making love
-christmas. I'm usually way more excited about it, honestly. Office party and Victorian christmas fair coming up
I'm a very poorly bunny at the moment-winter has kicked in and knocked me senseless with the latest strain of cold virus attacking pretty much everyone I know. Had an unpleasant few days sweating through every set of bedding I own-had to decamp to Dearly Beloveds bed earlier while duvet covers and pillowcases were festooned around the house drying away...in lieu of the christmas decorations I have had neither the inclination nor the enthusiasm to sort out yet.
Lots been going through my mind-here's a teaser/trailer package of what I'll be blogging about soon:
-climate change. I'll be vacillating between the attitudes of 'Bored now' and 'OMFG'.
-purging. Getting rid of stuff,thoughts and people you don't need in your life
-the tv series 'Bones'. Why I love the characters and an opinion about the much-blogged-about-already Booth speech about the difference between having sex and making love
-christmas. I'm usually way more excited about it, honestly. Office party and Victorian christmas fair coming up
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Facebook? Facedesk more like...
I didn't disappear, I just got Facebooked. After getting over the embarassment of discovering my mum had signed up for Facebook before me (damnit, I used to be an early adopter), I've been catching up with old schoolfriends, indulging in nostalgia and joining groups with amusing titles...even if they don't go much further. There's only so much you can do with a group called "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet". On the plus side, I've ended up with one of my photos being used for a flyer for my favourite clubnight, which is deeply cool. Slightly edited from the original but I still feel rather "speshal".
Not long to go til I spend 3 weeks with my family, at home. Can't wait!
Not long to go til I spend 3 weeks with my family, at home. Can't wait!
Monday, 13 August 2007
Under the milky way tonight
Spent a pleasant Saturday evening in the company of the Solent Amateur Astronomers, a special open day to view the Perseid meteor shower. Perfect conditions-clear and no moon (which apparently will rather make a mess of viewing next year). They showed us Jupiter and 4 moons through the 14 inch Meade Telescope, and the Andromeda Galaxy through some binoculars. Also saw very clearly a band of stars of the Milky Way, and the Space Station whizzed by twice while we were there, extra bright apparently due to the shuttle docked with it.
And another of the occasional series I like to call 'song lyrics stuck in my brain'-this time The Beautiful South with Dumb
"The sun, the sky, the moon, the stars, Jupiter, Neptune and Mars, all these things I clearly see"
And another of the occasional series I like to call 'song lyrics stuck in my brain'-this time The Beautiful South with Dumb
"The sun, the sky, the moon, the stars, Jupiter, Neptune and Mars, all these things I clearly see"
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Foot and mouth freakout
OMFG. Pirbright Laboratory, housing the government's Institute of Animal Health and a private company named Merial Animal Health 'may' be responsible for the latest outbreak of foot and mouth.
It's being described as a possible lead, but I point out 2 rather significant comments in the BBC article today' "The strain of foot-and-mouth identified is not one normally found in animals but is used in vaccine production and in diagnostic laboratories." And "The strain of the disease identified was used in a batch of vaccine manufactured on 16 July by Merial."
The lab is 3 miles from the farm where they killed all the animals yesterday. I'm having flashbacks to the ugly pyres of 2001. Gordon Brown is apparently promising there won't be a repeat of that horrible episode.
Perhaps not. But since it's your lab that couldn't contain the virus, I may take that with a pinch of salt.
Having recently watched the tv series of Stephen King's The Stand, I'm becoming rather more concerned about how we are looking after all those nasty germs we have stored in secure labs. I love a good post-apocalyptic scenario but NOT FOR REAL.
On a more pleasant note, I've just made my first bananaloaf in the breadmaker, so I'm off to give it a try now. Lion-marked eggs so hoping that it will be a safe snack.
It's being described as a possible lead, but I point out 2 rather significant comments in the BBC article today' "The strain of foot-and-mouth identified is not one normally found in animals but is used in vaccine production and in diagnostic laboratories." And "The strain of the disease identified was used in a batch of vaccine manufactured on 16 July by Merial."
The lab is 3 miles from the farm where they killed all the animals yesterday. I'm having flashbacks to the ugly pyres of 2001. Gordon Brown is apparently promising there won't be a repeat of that horrible episode.
Perhaps not. But since it's your lab that couldn't contain the virus, I may take that with a pinch of salt.
Having recently watched the tv series of Stephen King's The Stand, I'm becoming rather more concerned about how we are looking after all those nasty germs we have stored in secure labs. I love a good post-apocalyptic scenario but NOT FOR REAL.
On a more pleasant note, I've just made my first bananaloaf in the breadmaker, so I'm off to give it a try now. Lion-marked eggs so hoping that it will be a safe snack.
Monday, 30 July 2007
steal my sunshine
It's not raining.
In fact, it's sunny. Even the most pessimistic of the ten-day forecasts doesn't mention the merest hint of precipitation. Oddly, my blog about preparedness was just hours before another massive flood in the UK, forcing thousands of people from their home and causing numerous variations on the joke that Stratford should now be referred to as IN Avon. And the deliciously ironic image of a swan gliding past the pub sign for The Swan.
Apparently this has been the wettest summer on record. This is the UK-we're talking CENTURIES here. And Europe is suffering a massive heatwave, causing hundreds of deaths and massive forest fires. It may not be global warming, but I don't think Mother Nature is overly impressed with us at the moment- I think this demonstrates the lack of balance in our relationship with the natural world very clearly.
I did thoroughly enjoy another news item this week about patio-heaters, the latest greenwash issue with retailers promising to stop stocking them. This is despite the increased demand from pubs now that smokers are banished outdoors (and on that point I quote Balki Bartokomous in saying "and now we are so happy, we do the dance of joy"). The one country-pub owner interviewed suggested that the people arguing against their use did without the airconditioning they happily use daily before being critical about the occasional use of patio heaters.
Had a conversation in the dark depths of winter with a relative from bright,breezy Cape Town who didn't understand why we kept talking about the darkness and dampness of the British climate.
Simple. Rubbish weather and darkness sucks. Particularly AFTER Christmas when you have nothing to look forward to, just the promise of weeks more dark days and rain. The national psyche is very much informed by the weather. I found myself responding to the fabulous forecast this morning- ironed a skirt, put in my contact lenses and applied make-up before leaving the house. I certainly wasn't alone in responding- there was gloss everywhere today, accompanied by a smattering of heels and a smidgen of decolletage. Office workers emerged at lunchtime blinking, mole-like, at the brightness, swarming local restaurants and scooping up sandwiches to enjoy in the park.
So it's going to be lovely for days on end.
What am I going to moan about now?
In fact, it's sunny. Even the most pessimistic of the ten-day forecasts doesn't mention the merest hint of precipitation. Oddly, my blog about preparedness was just hours before another massive flood in the UK, forcing thousands of people from their home and causing numerous variations on the joke that Stratford should now be referred to as IN Avon. And the deliciously ironic image of a swan gliding past the pub sign for The Swan.
Apparently this has been the wettest summer on record. This is the UK-we're talking CENTURIES here. And Europe is suffering a massive heatwave, causing hundreds of deaths and massive forest fires. It may not be global warming, but I don't think Mother Nature is overly impressed with us at the moment- I think this demonstrates the lack of balance in our relationship with the natural world very clearly.
I did thoroughly enjoy another news item this week about patio-heaters, the latest greenwash issue with retailers promising to stop stocking them. This is despite the increased demand from pubs now that smokers are banished outdoors (and on that point I quote Balki Bartokomous in saying "and now we are so happy, we do the dance of joy"). The one country-pub owner interviewed suggested that the people arguing against their use did without the airconditioning they happily use daily before being critical about the occasional use of patio heaters.
Had a conversation in the dark depths of winter with a relative from bright,breezy Cape Town who didn't understand why we kept talking about the darkness and dampness of the British climate.
Simple. Rubbish weather and darkness sucks. Particularly AFTER Christmas when you have nothing to look forward to, just the promise of weeks more dark days and rain. The national psyche is very much informed by the weather. I found myself responding to the fabulous forecast this morning- ironed a skirt, put in my contact lenses and applied make-up before leaving the house. I certainly wasn't alone in responding- there was gloss everywhere today, accompanied by a smattering of heels and a smidgen of decolletage. Office workers emerged at lunchtime blinking, mole-like, at the brightness, swarming local restaurants and scooping up sandwiches to enjoy in the park.
So it's going to be lovely for days on end.
What am I going to moan about now?
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Be Prepared
"Let's get ready Sydney" is a campaign to have the residents of the Australian city ready to evacuate their homes or places of work in case of an emergency. Most news reports are slightly cynical (possibly because the Lord Mayor revels in the moniker Clover Moore), quoting the suggestion that you evacuate your cat in a cotton pillowcase. Having met some cats in my time, I suppose this is because they won't tolerate synthetics next to their fur. I am impressed that Sydney has had the forethought to arrange safe sites in the city.
I admit to a morbid fascination with major disasters and contingency planning. I watch disaster movies about volcanoes and asteroids, check the US FEMA website , I know the CDC have traditionally been headquartered in Atlanta and love the word 'vector' in relation to viruses (though not in relation to school science- trying to work out stupid things like where the guy in his boat will end up when trying to cross the river depending on the current-FIND A BRIDGE, mate, you'll only have to walk on the other side anyway-I could've passed science if it involved common sense)
Having cheerfully given up some of my flextime to attend a lunchtime lecture on coping with pandemics, I arranged for the people in my department to get emergency contact cards to store in their purses and wallets. Also felt extremely smug in a recent powercut caused by workmen in our road (after 9pm, a shock in itself!) by being able to grab my keyring featuring a small, bright LED torch (and a 1gb usb memorystick, y'know, just in case) to get to the candles and matches drawer which also contains tinfoil used to reflect additional light and prevent spillages of wax onto surfaces. My habit of carrying a giant bag containing...well, everything in the universe, also paid off when I arrived at work on a dress-down day only to be advised I was needed to attend a meeting offsite. Ten minutes later I was ready to go: hair serumed and kirby-gripped into submission; face made up with mascara, eyeshadow and powder; perfumed and accessorised with ring and necklace to upgrade my look a little!
The idea of getting a Go-Bag ready is eminently sensible, a smaller scale version of the BOB (bug-out bag) which should contain the essentials to get you through 3 days of an emergency- terrorist attack, natural disaster or what have you-so I recommend a look at the links. A little preparation can go a long way. If you can't even trust a huge company like Cadbury's to protect public health, then who knows what the efforts of people who DON'T like the public and AREN'T trying to make a profit of us might achieve.
Oh, and you can still donate a pint to John Smeaton, the Glasgow Airport baggage handler who nutted the nutters trying to set the airport on fire. Nice symmetry, that, the man nipping out for a crafty fag. Not CLEVER terrorists to annoy the average Glaswegian...as his site says "Those hapless al-Qaeda boys were to find out that Glasgow has no respect for international terrorism. Nobody gets between 10,000 Weegies and a £99 week in Ibiza booked on Thursday night through Barrhead Travel.
And most of all, no-one messes with The Polis. Not in this town."
I admit to a morbid fascination with major disasters and contingency planning. I watch disaster movies about volcanoes and asteroids, check the US FEMA website , I know the CDC have traditionally been headquartered in Atlanta and love the word 'vector' in relation to viruses (though not in relation to school science- trying to work out stupid things like where the guy in his boat will end up when trying to cross the river depending on the current-FIND A BRIDGE, mate, you'll only have to walk on the other side anyway-I could've passed science if it involved common sense)
Having cheerfully given up some of my flextime to attend a lunchtime lecture on coping with pandemics, I arranged for the people in my department to get emergency contact cards to store in their purses and wallets. Also felt extremely smug in a recent powercut caused by workmen in our road (after 9pm, a shock in itself!) by being able to grab my keyring featuring a small, bright LED torch (and a 1gb usb memorystick, y'know, just in case) to get to the candles and matches drawer which also contains tinfoil used to reflect additional light and prevent spillages of wax onto surfaces. My habit of carrying a giant bag containing...well, everything in the universe, also paid off when I arrived at work on a dress-down day only to be advised I was needed to attend a meeting offsite. Ten minutes later I was ready to go: hair serumed and kirby-gripped into submission; face made up with mascara, eyeshadow and powder; perfumed and accessorised with ring and necklace to upgrade my look a little!
The idea of getting a Go-Bag ready is eminently sensible, a smaller scale version of the BOB (bug-out bag) which should contain the essentials to get you through 3 days of an emergency- terrorist attack, natural disaster or what have you-so I recommend a look at the links. A little preparation can go a long way. If you can't even trust a huge company like Cadbury's to protect public health, then who knows what the efforts of people who DON'T like the public and AREN'T trying to make a profit of us might achieve.
Oh, and you can still donate a pint to John Smeaton, the Glasgow Airport baggage handler who nutted the nutters trying to set the airport on fire. Nice symmetry, that, the man nipping out for a crafty fag. Not CLEVER terrorists to annoy the average Glaswegian...as his site says "Those hapless al-Qaeda boys were to find out that Glasgow has no respect for international terrorism. Nobody gets between 10,000 Weegies and a £99 week in Ibiza booked on Thursday night through Barrhead Travel.
And most of all, no-one messes with The Polis. Not in this town."
Saturday, 14 July 2007
random wafflings
Studying for one of the exams for my professional qualifications next week, so clearly I have been spending a lot of time online :) I've only recently started using Youtube regularly, and it's been entertaining.
As a user of Sky Plus (and it's a big cuddle from me for the inventors!), it's quite hard for marketers to reach me via tv ads as I rarely watch live tv. If I do, it's usually on the BBC so no ads during the shows, and I'll generally pause and do something else and fast forward through ads if I am watching live things anyway. The Series Link button rocks my world-I love recording the whole series of a show at the click of the green button!
There have, however, been a few ads lately that have been able to get my attention. The Skoda Fabia advert with the tagline of 'full of lovely stuff' cheers me greatly by featuring the Sound of Music of the soundtrack, and hundreds of kilos of cake to make a model of the car itself. Irn Bru have caused great consternation and fanned an emo v goth war with their Goth Holiday ad. Mum comes in to give the 4 miserable black-clad youngsters some Irn Bru, prompting them to dash off to Blackpool in their hearse for a rollercoaster romp and a swim. Oddly engaging. The Sony Bravia ad where they went paintmad in a dodgy Glaswegian estate was gorgeous, with a glorious spoof interview from a distressed resident. My current fave is the campaign 'It's in our hands' from the learning and skills council where painted hands create every image of the ad. Sadly I can't find it on Youtube and the site itself is shockingly low on images from the ads, since it's their biggest marketing effort ever.
There is, as ever, some truly awful marketing around. I've joined the Ridiculous Marketing Nonsense group on Flickr to which I am tempted to post a screenprint of a recent email ad sent to me by Baileys (the drink, one of the Diageo brands). Considering the recent flooding, resulting in a number of deaths and thousands of people losing everything they owned and being forced from their homes, I was rather surprised to get a cheery mail from them suggesting Baileys was a great drink for the long, hot summer forecast, quoting Science Daily saying "UK Summer shaping up to be a scorcher" and the Telegraph saying "the Hottest year since 1659".
I wrote to them, enquiring in the politest possible terms what the hell they thought they were doing and suggesting their marketing team have a paycut since they could clearly afford FAR too many drugs. Their rather sheepish reaction?
Dear ..., We apologise for the distress that this email has caused you. The email was designed when the forecast for this summer looked like it would be the hottest on record. Subsequently, in view of the poor weather we have all been experiencing, we decided to change the email. Unfortunately due to a processing error an old version of the email was sent out instead. We understand that this email was inappropriate and in light of recent events, in very poor taste therefore we would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence caused and will ensure that this error is not repeated.Kindest regards,The Baileys Team
I suggest they ship a load of Baileys to the people in need of some gesture of kindness at this horrible time.
As a user of Sky Plus (and it's a big cuddle from me for the inventors!), it's quite hard for marketers to reach me via tv ads as I rarely watch live tv. If I do, it's usually on the BBC so no ads during the shows, and I'll generally pause and do something else and fast forward through ads if I am watching live things anyway. The Series Link button rocks my world-I love recording the whole series of a show at the click of the green button!
There have, however, been a few ads lately that have been able to get my attention. The Skoda Fabia advert with the tagline of 'full of lovely stuff' cheers me greatly by featuring the Sound of Music of the soundtrack, and hundreds of kilos of cake to make a model of the car itself. Irn Bru have caused great consternation and fanned an emo v goth war with their Goth Holiday ad. Mum comes in to give the 4 miserable black-clad youngsters some Irn Bru, prompting them to dash off to Blackpool in their hearse for a rollercoaster romp and a swim. Oddly engaging. The Sony Bravia ad where they went paintmad in a dodgy Glaswegian estate was gorgeous, with a glorious spoof interview from a distressed resident. My current fave is the campaign 'It's in our hands' from the learning and skills council where painted hands create every image of the ad. Sadly I can't find it on Youtube and the site itself is shockingly low on images from the ads, since it's their biggest marketing effort ever.
There is, as ever, some truly awful marketing around. I've joined the Ridiculous Marketing Nonsense group on Flickr to which I am tempted to post a screenprint of a recent email ad sent to me by Baileys (the drink, one of the Diageo brands). Considering the recent flooding, resulting in a number of deaths and thousands of people losing everything they owned and being forced from their homes, I was rather surprised to get a cheery mail from them suggesting Baileys was a great drink for the long, hot summer forecast, quoting Science Daily saying "UK Summer shaping up to be a scorcher" and the Telegraph saying "the Hottest year since 1659".
I wrote to them, enquiring in the politest possible terms what the hell they thought they were doing and suggesting their marketing team have a paycut since they could clearly afford FAR too many drugs. Their rather sheepish reaction?
Dear ..., We apologise for the distress that this email has caused you. The email was designed when the forecast for this summer looked like it would be the hottest on record. Subsequently, in view of the poor weather we have all been experiencing, we decided to change the email. Unfortunately due to a processing error an old version of the email was sent out instead. We understand that this email was inappropriate and in light of recent events, in very poor taste therefore we would like to apologise unreservedly for any offence caused and will ensure that this error is not repeated.Kindest regards,The Baileys Team
I suggest they ship a load of Baileys to the people in need of some gesture of kindness at this horrible time.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
happy birthday to me
Managed to turn 31 without having a major wobbly today, due in no little part to barely leaving the house. Did get a bit distressed yesterday since I discovered upon attempted check-in that I had booked my father into the wrong branch of the hotel,necessitating a 2-junction trip and slingshot return taking 18 minutes on the M27 instead of the 3 minute stroll back home. And this was AFTER waiting an hour in the queue to get into the tethered hot air balloon in Bournemouth, rather exceeding the quoted wait time of 25 minutes. It should have been a good indicator- only 10 people were being allowed up per 'flight' due to the wind. I thoroughly enjoyed my previous trip, wandering around and taking pics. Photos for this time? I don't think so. Held on for dear life while it swayed from side to side. And my father doesn't really do heights at the best of times. Dear, sweet terra firma, I shall not leave you again.
Got fab presents from my family today as well as lots of calls and texts which made me happy. Dearly Beloved got me little treats to make up for the fact that a major portion of my gift has yet to be delivered. I'm particularly delighted with my light-up, colour changing umbrella and some serious chocolate. Supplies of my favourite garlic and herb seasoning and vanilla lipbalm from home have made me look forward to my trip in September.
Shopping tomorrow to choose a present from my father- nothing quite like a high-pressure purchase following a detailed list of suggestions *sigh*
It's not like my Amazon wishlist is a secret or anything...
Got fab presents from my family today as well as lots of calls and texts which made me happy. Dearly Beloved got me little treats to make up for the fact that a major portion of my gift has yet to be delivered. I'm particularly delighted with my light-up, colour changing umbrella and some serious chocolate. Supplies of my favourite garlic and herb seasoning and vanilla lipbalm from home have made me look forward to my trip in September.
Shopping tomorrow to choose a present from my father- nothing quite like a high-pressure purchase following a detailed list of suggestions *sigh*
It's not like my Amazon wishlist is a secret or anything...
Sunday, 24 June 2007
singing "Can't stand the rain"
Really, truly, definitely had enough of rain this summer. Just spotted mushrooms growing in my lawn as it's absolutely saturated and there has been no sign of sunshine for days. The most optimistic high temperature forecast over the next 10 day period is 18. That is not a high. That is, in fact, the overnight temperature from a few months ago. I think global warming has got itself a bit confused. In order to help with this (and to cheer myself up) I've now switched on every entertaining lightsource in my home. Current count is: lava lamp, plasma ball, pink fluffy curtain lights, purple/multicoloured/blue sets of fairy lights and my colour-changing Belkin USB hub.
Had the past few days off work while studying for a professional qualification, which is lucky as otherwise I would still be cringing under my desk in embarrassment. Following the mailstorm problem at work, I got another email checking if I still needed access to Sytem A as it was sometimes known by different names. Replied by saying despite my previous flippant reply stating I'd never heard of it, I did actually look at it and worked out it was something I had never used and would never require.
And a few days later what do I get? ANOTHER email with EVERYBODY in the distribution list placed in the TO field again, asking if I still needed access.
Me being me (I'm the woman who only opens her mouth to change feet), I email our CIO expressing my disappointment at the project as I had already answered twice, and they'd made the stupid mailing list mistake again.Luckily this time only 2 replies went to everybody on the list as most people had remembered what happened last week.
Just to put this into perspective, our CIO had had a busy week. He's been in Montreal and Moscow, and has presented Bill Gates with a retirement gift from the group of CIOs he fraternises with regularly. So I felt EXTREMELY sheepish when I found out he'd been in touch with the project manager who was then made to ring me to apologise and explain the situation, and promise it wouldn't happen again. He emailed me a few minutes after the call, having made the project manager report back after grovelling to me. I did say I felt a bit bad about moaning but he praised me for raising the issue.
Still stayed bright red and cringing for the rest of the day....
Had the past few days off work while studying for a professional qualification, which is lucky as otherwise I would still be cringing under my desk in embarrassment. Following the mailstorm problem at work, I got another email checking if I still needed access to Sytem A as it was sometimes known by different names. Replied by saying despite my previous flippant reply stating I'd never heard of it, I did actually look at it and worked out it was something I had never used and would never require.
And a few days later what do I get? ANOTHER email with EVERYBODY in the distribution list placed in the TO field again, asking if I still needed access.
Me being me (I'm the woman who only opens her mouth to change feet), I email our CIO expressing my disappointment at the project as I had already answered twice, and they'd made the stupid mailing list mistake again.Luckily this time only 2 replies went to everybody on the list as most people had remembered what happened last week.
Just to put this into perspective, our CIO had had a busy week. He's been in Montreal and Moscow, and has presented Bill Gates with a retirement gift from the group of CIOs he fraternises with regularly. So I felt EXTREMELY sheepish when I found out he'd been in touch with the project manager who was then made to ring me to apologise and explain the situation, and promise it wouldn't happen again. He emailed me a few minutes after the call, having made the project manager report back after grovelling to me. I did say I felt a bit bad about moaning but he praised me for raising the issue.
Still stayed bright red and cringing for the rest of the day....
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
PEBKAC of the highest order
You might have heard of mailbombs and DDOS attacks such as the one recently suffered by the Telegraph , but have you ever heard of a company having their mail server fall over due to employee stupidity?
Yesterday morning in the early hours, the 'Role cleansing team' emailed every employee to check if we still needed access to certain systems- one email per system. Sensible people like myself clicked 'reply' and gave the answer. Super. Then some less clever people hit 'reply to all'. This is not normally a problem except.....the role cleansing team hadn't used the BCC field for their distribution lists. They'd used the 'To' field. So EVERYBODY got the reply. Then some people (like myself) got a little annoyed, and started (unlike myself) sending out emails going 'don't use reply to all'. Then started getting more annoyed as the deluge increased as people started logging in for 9am, and there were 30 emails in 2 minutes in each inbox. And started sending pissy emails slagging people off for being stupid -neatly missing the point that each person logging in would be starting from the top of their inbox so wouldnt be ready the pissy emails yet, so all that was doing was clogging up the system.
I was getting rather shrill by this point(longer-standing colleagues call this 'going hypersonic' and remove sharp objects from my immediate vicinity when this happens). Replied to a couple of people who thought themselves funny by replying to all saying 'Okay' to the messages saying 'don't reply to all', pointing out it may have been funny the first time but originality was what counted.
So this is 9.15, and I have 67 pointless messages.
So do the other few thousand UK employees.And the offshore employees. I'm spluttering and waving my arms about and emailing the role cleansing team and the IT service desk about blocking the mails.
Then someone from a northern office sends out a picture of a circus ringmaster with a banner saying "The best show on earth" with our company name added below.
I laugh.
Then it gets silly. More emails pour in by the second- genuine responses to the original email, threats and pleading from the frustrated/confused about a possible virus, jokes, car adverts, panicky messages from offshore team managers as their teams could no longer access Lotus Notes, pictures of the Grand Canyon, invites to the pub and on and on and Ariston.
By now the entire floor is abuzz with comments and yelps from late arrivals trying to open their inbox. No chance of doing any sensible work. I reply to an email by someone from Bangalore enquiring after the weather, a Liverpudlian complimenting her choice of Iron Maiden album cover and another person in Bishopbriggs advising him to shut down Notes and go for a coffee.
By 9.40 we were up to over 200 emails.
Servicedesk managed to stop it. Our CIO posted a sheepish apology in his intranet blog, explaining what had happened and promising that distribution lists would be placed in the correct field in future, and that email training would be rolled out to explain the difference between 'reply' and 'reply to all'.
For a company that introduced 'Pay as you drive' telematics and has a digital flood map of the UK that accurately plots risk to within a few feet, it was a pretty poor performance.
And now it's time for the first in an occasional series I'd like to call 'Song lyrics I have stuck in my brain'. Today, it's the final line from the Hungarian Eurovision entry (I love high camp, I'll blog about this in future) 'except an evanescent, unsubstantial blues'
Yesterday morning in the early hours, the 'Role cleansing team' emailed every employee to check if we still needed access to certain systems- one email per system. Sensible people like myself clicked 'reply' and gave the answer. Super. Then some less clever people hit 'reply to all'. This is not normally a problem except.....the role cleansing team hadn't used the BCC field for their distribution lists. They'd used the 'To' field. So EVERYBODY got the reply. Then some people (like myself) got a little annoyed, and started (unlike myself) sending out emails going 'don't use reply to all'. Then started getting more annoyed as the deluge increased as people started logging in for 9am, and there were 30 emails in 2 minutes in each inbox. And started sending pissy emails slagging people off for being stupid -neatly missing the point that each person logging in would be starting from the top of their inbox so wouldnt be ready the pissy emails yet, so all that was doing was clogging up the system.
I was getting rather shrill by this point(longer-standing colleagues call this 'going hypersonic' and remove sharp objects from my immediate vicinity when this happens). Replied to a couple of people who thought themselves funny by replying to all saying 'Okay' to the messages saying 'don't reply to all', pointing out it may have been funny the first time but originality was what counted.
So this is 9.15, and I have 67 pointless messages.
So do the other few thousand UK employees.And the offshore employees. I'm spluttering and waving my arms about and emailing the role cleansing team and the IT service desk about blocking the mails.
Then someone from a northern office sends out a picture of a circus ringmaster with a banner saying "The best show on earth" with our company name added below.
I laugh.
Then it gets silly. More emails pour in by the second- genuine responses to the original email, threats and pleading from the frustrated/confused about a possible virus, jokes, car adverts, panicky messages from offshore team managers as their teams could no longer access Lotus Notes, pictures of the Grand Canyon, invites to the pub and on and on and Ariston.
By now the entire floor is abuzz with comments and yelps from late arrivals trying to open their inbox. No chance of doing any sensible work. I reply to an email by someone from Bangalore enquiring after the weather, a Liverpudlian complimenting her choice of Iron Maiden album cover and another person in Bishopbriggs advising him to shut down Notes and go for a coffee.
By 9.40 we were up to over 200 emails.
Servicedesk managed to stop it. Our CIO posted a sheepish apology in his intranet blog, explaining what had happened and promising that distribution lists would be placed in the correct field in future, and that email training would be rolled out to explain the difference between 'reply' and 'reply to all'.
For a company that introduced 'Pay as you drive' telematics and has a digital flood map of the UK that accurately plots risk to within a few feet, it was a pretty poor performance.
And now it's time for the first in an occasional series I'd like to call 'Song lyrics I have stuck in my brain'. Today, it's the final line from the Hungarian Eurovision entry (I love high camp, I'll blog about this in future) 'except an evanescent, unsubstantial blues'
Thursday, 7 June 2007
things that make you go squeee!
Amused myself greatly on the bus this morning by freaking out a teenage boy. He was listening to Papa Roach on his mp3 player a little too loudly. So I sang along until he got the message and turned it down :)
On arriving at work, nipped to the Ladies to attempt to tame the curly mess that is my hair this morning. Zebedee came in and said it was looking good and I should keep up with growing it longer. Bless her little cotton socks! Hadn't been getting much in the way of positive feedback on what is a major life change for me (apart from the occasional comment of 'wow, your hair's grown a lot'-never followed up by saying anything good about it).
On arriving at work, nipped to the Ladies to attempt to tame the curly mess that is my hair this morning. Zebedee came in and said it was looking good and I should keep up with growing it longer. Bless her little cotton socks! Hadn't been getting much in the way of positive feedback on what is a major life change for me (apart from the occasional comment of 'wow, your hair's grown a lot'-never followed up by saying anything good about it).
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
capitalism
The unveiling of the London 2012 Olympics has not gone down well. It had made me feel quite nauseous, but has had a worse effect on people with photo-sensitive epilepsy.
Must head to the capital soon- haven't seen TheRealLJ since my hair was 6 inches shorter. Also have Jamie T's song Sheila stuck in my head, which is annoying- he sounds like the kind of chav I'd take pains to avoid on a late bus home. The new video featuring Bob Hoskins is wonderfully creative, however, for which I forgive him many things. It's almost as incongruous a pairing as Christopher Walken in the Fatboy Slim video for Weapon of Choice.
While messing about on Youtube, I found Hemel op die Platteland by Fokofpolisiekar. LOVE the song since I nabbed the free mp3 earlier this year but think I may volunteer myself to act as stylist for the band. Long hair and stripy jumpers? It's been done
Must head to the capital soon- haven't seen TheRealLJ since my hair was 6 inches shorter. Also have Jamie T's song Sheila stuck in my head, which is annoying- he sounds like the kind of chav I'd take pains to avoid on a late bus home. The new video featuring Bob Hoskins is wonderfully creative, however, for which I forgive him many things. It's almost as incongruous a pairing as Christopher Walken in the Fatboy Slim video for Weapon of Choice.
While messing about on Youtube, I found Hemel op die Platteland by Fokofpolisiekar. LOVE the song since I nabbed the free mp3 earlier this year but think I may volunteer myself to act as stylist for the band. Long hair and stripy jumpers? It's been done
Sunday, 3 June 2007
homesick
Just been watching an episode of Cooked, a show about a guy cooking his way around 4500km of South Africa with a group of friends. It's being shown on one of the less appealing of the 600+ channels that are fed into my home-you know, one of the ones that chooses a random assortment of shows and repeats them every 4 hours for days on end. Cooked is normally sandwiched between a biography of Matt leBlanc and Thomas Cook last-minute offers.
I'm feeling utterly bereft! Everything is so familar and yet so far away.The soundtrack is littered with The Usual, Hog Hoggidy Hog and Kalahari Surfers.People wear kikois as skirts during the day and shawls at night. Justin drinks 'spoek en diesel' and borrows a pan from a local householder since he's forgotten his-making his request hanging out the van to someone in a house that is never erxpected to be anything but a single storey. They make pap with Snowflake flour to go with the waterblommetjie bredie.
Then I get a text from home that makes me want to go home and cuddle my family.
It's only a few months til I go home. I'll get some Steers chips and buy some of their salt to bring back. I'll go up the mountain and look for whales in Hermanus and go to the Waterfront to stock up at the Aromatic Apothecary (and hope the fabulously-named love, revenge and cappucio is still there). I'll revel in being with my family, in my hometown. Doesn't get much better than that
I'm feeling utterly bereft! Everything is so familar and yet so far away.The soundtrack is littered with The Usual, Hog Hoggidy Hog and Kalahari Surfers.People wear kikois as skirts during the day and shawls at night. Justin drinks 'spoek en diesel' and borrows a pan from a local householder since he's forgotten his-making his request hanging out the van to someone in a house that is never erxpected to be anything but a single storey. They make pap with Snowflake flour to go with the waterblommetjie bredie.
Then I get a text from home that makes me want to go home and cuddle my family.
It's only a few months til I go home. I'll get some Steers chips and buy some of their salt to bring back. I'll go up the mountain and look for whales in Hermanus and go to the Waterfront to stock up at the Aromatic Apothecary (and hope the fabulously-named love, revenge and cappucio is still there). I'll revel in being with my family, in my hometown. Doesn't get much better than that
Saturday, 2 June 2007
so last millennium
Back in the '90s, when I first went online, the world was a very different place and people now communicate and connect very differently. I used Yahoo Messenger, ICQ and IRC, chatted with people who shared similar interests and even met up a few times. back in the day, only knew one person with a cellphone. Now, I only know one person who doesn't have one- my partially deaf, housebound Scottish grandmother. And there are a myriad ways to engage with people now- Skype helps you talk to your family far away, blogging reaches an audience of none or thousands, you can send the photo you took on your mobile in seconds or share it online. Technology also helps people engage with their environment in new ways- so you can hide things for people to find (like near the local Tesco), cool down in the south by getting sprayed or if you live in the capital, join an impromptu pillowfight.
I've only just acquired a mobile with a colour screen and camera/mp3 player/games etc. Bit of catching up to do...
I've only just acquired a mobile with a colour screen and camera/mp3 player/games etc. Bit of catching up to do...
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