Be careful what you say
May 16, 2008 – 12:56 pmWhen a manager says to you: “Can I ask you a personal question?”
And then 2 minutes later, another manager says, “Do you want an intern?”
–
Laughing out loud is not recommended.
Stunt Doubles
April 30, 2008 – 5:14 pmSo if any of the following people are searching for their long lost twin, you should know that they’ve been spotted either in Philly or Belgium.
- Brian P.
- Terry B.
- Tarleen S.
- Lavon S.
- Sarah B.
- Allison T.
- Suzanne A.
- Jenny S.
- Nisha A.
After the third one turned out NOT to be related to the person I knew, I stopped talking to them. 
Also, people look at you oddly if you do back bridges in the US Airways gate in Philly, who would have thought.
Belgium
April 29, 2008 – 3:06 pmThings that I noticed/learned in Brussels.
- It’s very easy to spend a lot of money on chocolate.
- Pretty girl chocolatiers will give you free chocolate if you flirt with them.
- They sell waffles everywhere. Even in the subway.
- It’s entirely too easy to accidently ride the subway for free.
- I don’t know French or Dutch, and it’s a problem.
- People here speak Freutcish, and it’s also a problem. (French-Dutch-English)
- Internet is very expensive and very slow.
- It rains a lot.
- The drivers in Belgium are far far worse than anything I’ve ever seen in the US. With one exception, everyone can park straight here.
- The roads were designed by a drunk Scotsman.
- The dollar is very very weak against the euro.
- Soda without corn syrup is fantastic. (not new, just restating)
- Soda is very expensive.
- Beer is very cheap. And strong.
- People protest everything in Brussels. And they’re creative about it too. Don’t like the tax on tomatoes? Farmer Joe brings his tomatoes to the street outside Parliament and throws them at birds roosting on the building. Picket signs are old news.
- A child saved the city by taking a piss and now they have statues of him everywhere.
- It rains a lot.
Email Etiquette
April 17, 2008 – 11:47 pmSo do me a favor. Before you send me an email, make an effort with it, please?
I recieved the following a few weeks ago:
Subject: hello
hay
u want 2 do lunch later?
~J
I almost didn’t bother to respond to him, but my conscious got the better of me. He broke many of my email rules. So many that I considered marking it as spam for the hell of it.
- The subject tells me nothing about the contents of the email.
- It’s not obvious from the excerpt above, but it was sent from an email address that he doesn’t normally use, and thus I didn’t recognize it right away. The signature, “J” tells me nothing. That’s alright if I’m in a long email chain with somebody, but for an initial email?
- Would it kill somebody to use proper English?
- The number 2 is just that, a number.
- If you can’t spend the 10 extra seconds to type out “You”, don’t send me an email. (Could take that long on a crackberry, I’m trying to give benefit of the doubt here!)
More of email etiquette here and here. My favorites include:
- Don’t Use The Forward Button. Ever.
- Nothing is more wasteful than to reply to an e-mail by including a complete copy of the original with the words “I agree”, “Okay” or “Ditto” at the bottom.
- Use of upper-case words is the equivalent of shouting in some one’s ear. ONLY use upper-case words when trying to make a point (such as I just did). Even at that, you should be careful with who you are exchanging messages.
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m guilty of many of these. Heck, today, I was guilty of many of these. But what’s that line from Family Guy….?
“You know what grinds my gears?”
Bad email etiquette is the answer of the day.
Note: I did reply to him, I did have lunch with him, and I failed to mention the anguish that his note caused. Maybe he’ll read this.
Food on the brain
April 17, 2008 – 12:38 amAdded some new recipies to night to Ted. Check them out.
