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09/19/2006
Got walloped by postage prices...
Recently I picked up a novel that my friend had been looking for - a typical (used) paperback, not that thick. Your average pulp novel kind of thing. I decided to send it to her right away, so I put it in a bubble envelope, the size that just nicely fits a paperback novel, or letter-sized paper folded in half. On that same trip to the post office, I also sent someone else some badges (including a badge scarf) in exactly the same type of bubble envelope.
The book package wasn't that heavy - 182 g, and was only slightly thicker and slightly heavier than the envelope containing the badges and scarf. (And remember, they were in exactly the same kind of envelope). BUT, because the badge package barely squeaked through the 2 cm slot, and the book package didn't quite fit, the book had to be sent by regular parcel post. The result? It cost $1.05 to send the envelope with the badges, and a whopping $7.80 to send the 182 g paperback from Ottawa to Winnipeg, which is far more than I spent on the paperback itself!
Now let's think about this for a second. I could buy a ticket to Winnipeg for $122 in the next couple of days. Now to be fair, there's a lot of tax on plane tickets (another beef of mine, but we won't go there). Let's say the ticket would cost $180 with tax. That's around 23 times the cost of sending that book, or in other words, buying a plane ticket is equivalent to sending 23 182 g packages by parcel post, for a total of 4.2 kg. At that rate, Air Canada is a much better deal, and I could go visit my friend in person while I was at it. Given that my friend's books-wanted list is 18 items long, if I miraculously managed to find them all, it's basically worth it to stockpile them and just go visit her to drop them off! I know, I know, I'd have to pay for return airfare too, but that's not part of the delivery technically. :-)
I just couldn't believe the price difference a few millimetres of thickness made. Makes me wonder how Canada Post figures the price. I think there must be a point not far off this where it's cheaper to courier!!
17:45 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
09/09/2006
Buzzword-itis
I'm not sure how it got started, but I think it's about time that companies stopped using impressive-sounding (yet meaningless) buzzwords when they talk about themselves. Instead, they should just say what they do. Be blunt, for heaven's sake. I shouldn't have to read through paragraphs of mission statement, goals, values, vision, etc., only to find that at the end, the only things making sense were the words "the", "and" and "is". I swear, if I ever see the words "value-added", "paradigm", "outside the box", or "innovative" (or its derivatives) one more time, I'm going to scream. "Value-added" is the one I hate the most. I originally thought there must be some other meaning to it, but apparently, something that's value-added means it's had value added to it. Oh, how clever. Where's a punching bag?
I'm not sure if the dot-com bubble led to out-of-control buzzword use, as an army of cloned vapourware companies all tried to one-up each other. Whatever the case, I think the single-best thing a company could do these days is dispense with the fluffy vocabulary and just say, "We produce software that does [whatever]." As the old adage goes for creative writers, show, don't tell! Don't say you're innovative or value-added - just show us what you do and we'll decide for ourselves. And if you're not that innovative, put your energy into making your product better, rather than wasting your resources on refining smoke-and-mirrors talk that never made sense in the first place.
The same goes for job descriptions. I think I ranted about this earlier. Companies, you might as well leave out the requirement that your potential employee be brilliant and a hard worker. I mean, that's what everyone wants. Nobody will ever advertise that they want someone who's a lazy bum with the IQ of a tree. I'd like to see what it is that makes your position (and your company) unique and interesting. And, of course, I mean you should describe, not just say "Our company has a unique and interesting job for you!" One step up might be: "Photocopy like never before! Sharpen your boss' pencils with the ancient lost art of Japanese pencil-sharpening! Make coffee in the Mayan tradition - grind it yourself, by hand, before everyone else gets to the office, using fresh rainwater that you stood outside collecting all night!". The best option, of course, is to have a job that is actually (*gasp*) interesting for your employees, no matter how recently they left school. :-)
One can only hope!
01:20 Posted in Job Hunting | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
09/05/2006
I can't believe Steve Irwin died...
It almost seems surreal that Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter) is dead. At least though, he died doing what he loved. When I do my soul-searching, imagining what sort of career I'd like to have, the first criterion has always been, "The perfect job is one where I get up in the morning and can't wait to get to work - to have the sort of enthusiasm Steve Irwin has!"
His loss is definitely our greater loss, and my thoughts are with his family in this rough time.
22:48 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
09/02/2006
Glutton for Punishment
OK, I officially need to learn to say no even when people are giving me Bambi eyes. This summer, I played a concert with Sinfonia Ottawa, which actually went quite well. We played things like Mozart, W.F. Bach, Graupner... normal, sane stuff. No Bartok this time, thank goodness.
However, a number of the people from Sinfonia are from another community orchestra, who apparently lost their principal cellist this summer, so they're looking for a new one. In general, principal cellists even of community orchestras tend to be professional musicians, so imagine my surprise when they asked me if I wanted to do it. Part of me thought, no way, are you kidding? The other part of me though, was thinking, hey this would be an interesting challenge. Eventually, I told them that if they were really, terribly, utterly desperate, I would do it.
Now, I'm wishing I'd just said no! Yesterday, they got back to me and said, great! And by the way, the conductor wants to hear you play so can you have a piece ready to play for the conductor at the next rehearsal? (= in 4 days from now.) Ack!! This is a reasonable request, but I wish I'd known about it just a little earlier so I could have either started preparing earlier, or had a better reason to say No. :-)
The good news I guess is that in a strange way it's a win-win situation. Either the audition goes well, or if it doesn't I'm off the hook as if I'd said no in the first place! The bad news is that the nerves have already set in, which isn't fun.
Oh, I've got to stop getting myself into these situations...
13:10 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this