construction debris
I have a bad history when it comes to killing companies that I once worked for. Sounds bad, doesn’t it? But I take heart in knowing almost all of them collapsed after I left, rather than a week after I started or something.
To wit:
- COMMIT to a Healthier Brant, a smoking cessation initiative in downtown Brantford that hired me as a summer student the year after high school, at a generous $12 an hour rate, no less. Funding ran out a year after my contract there was over. (And the executive director died a year or so after that. Yikes.)
- Sunrise Records closed their downtown Brantford store months after my temporary Christmastime employment as CD-slinger. Downtown Brantford really fucking sucks, if you haven’t figured that out already.
- Jumped ship from CD Plus on Bath Road in Kingston, my first full-time retail job, after a surprise inventory was called and management went all “don’t worry about it, you can trust us”. Closed its doors after a change in ownership about a year later.
- Internet Kingston, proud family-owned local business, became WTC Communications as I fled the spectre of a buyout by a larger telecom. Nearly ten years later, one person remains of our team of eight or so.
- In the midst of my plans to move to Ottawa, excellent marketing firm Insite Communications is purchased by a local kook popularly nicknamed ‘Disease’, locking out staff and leaving everyone standing around in the parking lot wondering what the hell. I am blissfully unaware, off on a day trip to mark my 24th birthday. Yes, I lost my job on my birthday. I moved to Ottawa and watched from afar as former staff fled their pity contracts offered by the Disease.
This opportunity to reminisce brought to you by my last place of full-time employment, downtown Ottawa TELUS Mobility dealer MobileAXS, which finally tapped out this week to years of mismanagement, lack of vision, diminishing dealer benefits from TELUS and two consective summers of construction on Bank Street. This was always my fall-back, in-case-of-emergency option for gainful employment if I really needed it, so I am disappointed that the store is gone. (I actually really enjoyed most aspects of the job when I managed that place, from about 2002 to 2005 or so.)
Farewell, dirty-carpet-no-air-conditioning-or-heating-never-anything-in-stock-unreliable-hours-kind-of-smelly 135 Bank. Who will be my dealer of choice now, slinging no-fees-added wireless services and at-cost accessories my way?
big banff
Koo-koo nutty times.
My house is officially listed, two showings on this first day of sale. No problem, except for the busy work schedule that requires my attention – it’s kind of hard to code while I’m killing time at Chapters across the street. (Also kind of expensive.)
Saw a place for sale nearby yesterday afternoon. I was early for my meeting with our realtor there, so I kind of hung around, peeked into the windows, checked out the back porch, wandered through the neighborhood, and met the potential neighbor lady walking home from wherever.
She was probably around my age, friendly, had some good things to say about the people nearby, even though the house itself is in an area of town some might consider kind of sketchy.
“You know, there’s a lot of ethnics around, but it’s good, I don’t mind at all!” she says.
Is ‘ethnic’ an appropriate descriptive term for the wide swath of people who aren’t quite white? Seems derogatory, but maybe it isn’t. I don’t know.
Anyway, probably not buying that one. The search begins, and continues.
it’s not as if
Internets! Hi!
I’ve been spending too much time with your work side, old friend. Configuring WordPress for enterprise-type use is something I always said could be done, but I had never actually, you know, done it. (Salesmanship 101. Say yes to the job and then figure it out later.) So that’s been a challenge, but one that I’m finding my way around.
Hey, what’s up with people warming up to jogging pants again? Our friend Cooney left town the other day to try her hand at a job that requires their use, and I’ve noticed people wearing them in public just recently. Like, respectable people, who probably shower most mornings. It’s strange. And not in a good way.
I’ve decided to ditch Bloglines and use Google Reader instead, but I had a bunch of things bookmarked for future use that I need to clear out of the old thing first. Like these:
- this silhouette tutorial for Photoshop seemed like something I might find a use for at some point. I’m not sure.
- likewise, Renkoo could be useful one day. It’s a sort of online event planner, for the social life I hear people have out there.
- Long Time Lost is a neat tool that will try to dig up old friends and other people whose names you might remember from somewhere. You make a list of those folks and the site will look around for you, trying to find traces of those people online. And if those people happen to find the site and make an account themselves, they’ll automatically be informed that you were looking for them. Which is fine, but you know, maybe I’m too cool to actually acknowledge that I might be looking for someone, right? So there’s that.
- the search for diapers that don’t last longer than me continues. gDiapers came across the wire the other day – looks like a system that has potential. And they deliver to Canada!
More to the point – how do I get softer Jello shots? We’ve had a wine tasting, perhaps a Jello booze tasting is in order. Recreational and educational.
skool (sic)
Last-minute shoppers, unsure of what to get Dan for Christmas this year, will be chagrined to know that this item is out of stock. Back to the drawing board, everybody!
fbbldfgrgllbbsz
Can’t talk now – insane. Social life nonexistent. Work and family responsibilities making Dan go koo koo. Cup runnething over. Guns N’ Roses coming to Ottawa.
Regularly scheduled programming to return. Very model of a modern network TV show.