My husband and I were talking recently about how when we first started looking for work, my friends and I really didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what we wanted. The pattern seemed to be this: apply for all kinds of jobs; take the first one offered to you; count yourself lucky. Gradually, [...]
Monthly Archives: November 2008
Threats from my ISP
This week, I received what I consider to be a threatening e-mail from my Internet service provider: “In the next couple of weeks, when you log into your Bell Mail [an aside: always known as Sympatico; are they changing it?] using your Internet browser, you’ll experience a simpler, cleaner design, along with many new features [...]
Inclusive language
Some of the writing I do for Big Client #1 goes to American readers as well as Canadian. All along, the articles have gone on separate pages, so we stuck to American spelling with things written specifically for the U.S. page and Canadian spelling for the Canucks. Now the pages are going to be combined, [...]
Freelancer follies
While Jake and I were out walking the other day, a bird crapped on my head. I’ve heard it’s good luck and maybe that’s true. In my mail that day was payment of an invoice that had been outstanding for months. In my e-mail, promise of more money. Most freelancers aren’t the best at bill [...]
More praise for Sesame Street
From Babble, “the magazine and community for a new generation of parents” (and I have no idea how I came across it), a link to the 50 best Sesame Street moments. The one my two guys and I enjoyed when they were little is #49: “It is I, Captain Vegetable, with my carrot and my [...]
Message in a bottle
Hello, all you lurkers! Over the past couple of weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to find out about several people who are following my blog. Even if you aren’t necessarily saying anything, it’s nice to know you’re out there. When my friend Gloria launched her Escarpment Views blog, she said, “Publishing a magazine is a [...]
Lovin’ Lee Valley
Christmas catalogues are starting to drop into the mailbox about as fast as the two maple trees next door dropped all their leaves last week. Today’s specimen: Lee Valley Tools. The company is based in Ottawa, but they have a dozen locations across Canada and a thriving mail-order business. I love these guys for two [...]
When sales are down
In a recent column talking about the panic generated by the state of the economy, Andy Wibbels said, “You only have so much control of the chaos swirling around you – how can you batten down the hatches and still lay the groundwork for something new?” His answer: “When sales are down and leads are [...]
Random misspellings
From the “glad I didn’t write that” files, some errors spotted recently in prominent places: …aged to a natural petina (patina) …receive a complementary gift with test drive (complimentary) …being completely wreckless with your future (reckless) …his tenant was on the lamb (lam) …prepare your pallet (palate).
Get gutsy for a good cause
November is Crohn’s and colitis awareness month, or as the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of Canada likes to call it, “Get Gutsy Month.” (There is a similar foundation “of America” but they don’t appear to be going gutsy this month.) So this is my public awareness message for an autoimmune disorder that hits not just [...]