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Sunday, December 08
Come and gone.

O: came Friday and left this afternoon. Here are the highlights of our weekend:

  • Brunched at Lattitudes. I had a pear pancake and O: had eggs and stuff (uninteresting to me).
  • Visited my favourite bead store. I bought about 50-60 beads. Their stock has dwindled sharply.
  • Played the Nascar board game. There were 7 or 8 people playing. I was the slow-pokiest. I came in last.
  • Had dinner at the Royal York pub.
  • Watched a couple of movies. They must not have been any good since I fell asleep through both of them and can't recall what they were called.
So, now that I'm all alone in the apartment. I've been walking around sighing loudly and have put off eating dinner. It is now a little after 9. I think I'll just have some cereal now since it's a little late to be eating anything heavy.

Must go prepare for another work week. Only 13 more days till I get to see O: again.
posted by o: on 12-05-02.

Wednesday, December 05
t-1 day.

O: is coming tomorrow! Well maybe, if his car is fixed in time. I'll hold off my woo hoos till I am certain that I'll see him tomorrow.

At work, we had a town hall sort of a meeting today where GM (the Grand Pooh-bah) from the new owners came down to speak to us of future plans and hopefully make us feel all warm and fuzzy. GM seems to be quite an adept public speaker but not so knowledgeable about geography. Three times during his spiel he said ".....North America and Canada...." All hail our new fearless leader!

posted by o: on 12-05-02.

Wednesday, December 04
Pet Peeve.

It annoys when companies whom I already subscribe to, send me flyers on their "great" deals. I somewhat expect for the competitors to call me and try to lure me away from my current providers, but, when the providers start calling and sending me mail every week, it makes me livid. Bell Sympatico (BS) is a prime example of this. BS is already my internet provider, and somehow, they feel this gives them the right to send me a letter once-a-week through snail-mail to tell me what plans I could switch to for an additional $2/month or so. They don't stop at that, they also email the same information to me once a week. I wonder if I should respond in kind by sending their customer service department an email once-a-day to tell them that I might consider their upgrade offer and request a rep. to contact me. Then when I do get the call (which I doubt very much I'll get), I won't bother to pick up the call. Hmmmm...or maybe I should forward all the mail that I get to the BS Office of the President.

On a differnt topic, I tossed and turned all last night. I was all achy and feverish, just as the doctor said I'd be. I'm still quite tired and sore, but I think the fever is gone.

And now an educational note, I took the World's Smallest Political quiz. My results are as follows:

Your Political Philosophy:

According to your answers, your political philosophy is left-liberal.

Left-Liberal

Left-Liberals prefer self-government in personal matters and central decision-making on economics. They want government to serve the disadvantaged in the name of fairness. Leftists tolerate social diversity, but work for economic equality.

Your Personal Self-Government Score is 80%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 20%.

1,659,455 have taken the quiz so far. Results compiled on Wed Dec 4 05:27:02 2002

Libertarian 36.6%
Left-liberal 18.2%
Centrist 29.9%
Right-Conservative 7.2%
Authoritarian 8.2%



The rest of the site is also seems interesting. I have book-marked it and one of these days, I will read through the material posted there.
posted by o: on December 4, 2002.

Tuesday, December 03
Woe is me.

I am sad. And, my arm hurts. These two things are not related. But, they could be if I wore my heart on my sleeve.

I had my physical today. My doctor gave me a booster shot, which makes my arm feel like it's made of lead. She told me that I should also expect fever-like symptoms and an achy body for the next couple of days. This would explain why my arm hurts.

And now on to why I am sad. Today, my company conducted it's third round of lay-offs in the last 10 months. I survived the lay-offs once again, but I had to watch more of my co-workers leave. This one seemed to be the saddest of all so far. I feel bad because this one was the largest percentage wise and because it was so close to the holidays. My company is down to one-fourth the size it was in February this year. I have watched as my team has been downsized to 1 person (me) from a team of 11.

Some of the people who were let go today are in tough financial situations and have just had a child or are expecting one shortly. Others let go are older folks who may find it tough to land another job soon. I hope that they at least got a decent package.

This is not the end of downsizing by any means, we are expecting more in the next couple of months as the Merger & Acquisition process continues with the new company. I do realize that this is just part of the way business works and better that the company lives than keep some of the employees and than go bankrupt. But, it is still sad to watch people leave who have become part of my everyday life.

On a funny (somewhat morbid) note, a co-worker compared the survivors' stint at the organization to the format of a TV show called Fear Factor. Apparently, the 350ish employees who survived the downsizing today have made it to the next round. The next challenge is now to eat rats or something close to that. ;)

Oh yeah, the P.C. term is rightsizing not downsizing. And, the term for what I am feeling is Survivors Guilt not "sad."

There was a positive aspect to my day. I finally have heat in my car, which also means that I can now turn on my defoggers and they will work! It was getting rather tiresome to drive in the freezing cold car. All that was needed was a new valve, half an hour at the mechanic shop, and $80.

Now, check out today's site: Gweep. So there. G'night now.
posted by o: on 12-03-02.

Sunday, December 01
First day of the last month of the year.

Lazy Sunday. To start my day off right, I drank two cups of chai. Then I put in the proper amount of flaking on my futon while watching a great deal of awful Indian TV shows.

I managed to finally get off my butt at 3ish to get some groceries. I got right back into my jammies upon my return from the grocery trip and went back to flaking.

My brother is on his way to Paris today. He left London on the 3:00 PM flight. He starts his new job Tuesday. He will be working with Danone. I wonder if he'll get free food. ;)

Small accomplishments for today:
  • 2 loads of laundry
  • I showered. I washed my hair. I maximized my "in-jammies" time.
  • Spoke to my family in India.
  • Called Shamaz. Same bad connection again.
  • Put Little Drummer boy MP3 back on my main page.
  • Uploaded my Bored page.
  • Yawned gazillion times.
  • Fantasized for the bazillionth time for a job where I get paid to flake out on my futon in my jammies, read books, drink tea, and occasionally update my web page.
Must go sleep now and go to work tomorrow. And maybe the following day too (if I am not laid-off). Heh heh.

p.s.: click here to take the jammies personality test.
posted by o: on 22:42 12-01-02.