Sitting around here is so pointless when I could be just as unproductive and not get paid on some beach. We just indirectly confirmed that no money will be paid out this week despite the manager trying hard to not admit it. The VP of sales just left for ten days to Costa Rica so now only one person with cheque signing authority is left. And since the only other person with authority is in Texas, there just isn't enough time for cheques to be couriered down and back plus the 48 hours needed to transfer funds into the canadian account. Good grief!
I wonder what deals I can find to any sunny hot place. Another friend just left for Cancun and a few others are in Hawaii. I've been told there's some good deals for trips booked within two weeks of departure. Packages which couldn't be flogged off at the original higher prices. So getting back to the list of options. The alaskan cruise for september is out. They wanted about $2k for a single person where as if it were a couple, it would be half the amount. My friends are looking at another three day relocation cruise down the coast except this time its to San Francisco. My other friends are organizing a road trip to San Francisco back to where I went last year except that this year it won't be just five of us heading down. It looks like the whole gang of twelve to eighteen may be in. Not sure if I'm in for that and both these options are still way off. I'd like something sooner.
An old highschool friend just came back from south america and wants to do some trips in B.C. to various mountain ranges. They are to fairly remote places so a helicopter ride might be required. This is also a very tempting offer.
A weekend jaunt to Toronto to play poker in the city? Another option is the vegas trip with some guys in May. Beaches and tropics are nicer especially after getting rid of de duffed up edd and nose. Go to Costa Rica and run into the VP of sales? It would be just like old times when I went with him on a business trip to Caracus. Get to know the venezuelan locals and meet the ex-pats. What's the cheapest short excursion available?
So much for the increased energy levels. After the swim the other night, I slept like a log straight through until 11:30 am. My upper abdomen kind of hurted all over and I felt like I had just waken up from a blackout. If I had a dream, I would have no recollection of ever dreaming at all. I quickly got up and left for work. Or rather, went to the Elephant Castle to meet my coworkers for the usual thursday lunch. After chitchatting, eating, wondering what to do about the company and playing a couple of games of pool and fooseball, I finally got into work around 2:30 in the afternoon.
The manager just walked by to say that there will be an update regarding the payroll issue on Monday from the head honchos down south. I look forward to it with little or no enthusiasm as do some of my fellow coworkers.
Beam me up Mr. Spock!!!
Last night I started reading a book called "Tools and Tactics for the Master DayTrader". It's basically an ad for the Pristine.com trading method seminars. And while flipping through the first few pages, I came across the page where the authors dedicate or thank their family. Now don't get me wrong but come on now, unless your partner loves math or has a passion for this kind of jargon, what wife or familiy would care if their husband dedicated a stock trading text book to them? The book itself isn't even that good having been filled with so much fluff that they could have cut it down to a thin little paperback instead of a seemingly official looking, 385 page long so called text book.
I once took an advanced calculus class in first year university(don't ask me why. I was young and stupid) and the textbook was written by the professor. It was small and to the point but again, dedicated to his wife and kids. Now you must be thinking, ghee, what a thoughtful and heartfelt gesture from him right? To give his wife a bunch of formula's which she' may not even have the slightest comprehension of its meaning and use. Send her some flowers for no reason at all and she'd probably like that better. It's kind of like a tv commercial which is being aired right now about a family who thinks that their son is going to buy the mother a basketball for christmas. Because in the past, that's what he did and everyone made fun of him for it, except this year. The son will actually buy something which the mother will like as opposed to a 'basketball'.
Someone died today behind our office building. Rumour has it that they got ran over by a car or truck. My coworker found out when he went out to buy some lunch and saw an ambulance and police crew standing there and on the ground was a body covered by a police coat. During the last couple of days, I had been thinking about how fast people drive around our business complex, including myself. And its true, it's crazy around here. The Fedex delivery trucks are all in a hurry. The supply trucks are all in a hurry. Everyone's in a hurry. My other coworkers and I went out for our usual thursday lunch and as we drove off, we followed the ambulance out of the parking area. It's emergency lights were off meaning that there was no need to rush to the hospital. It was too late.
On the way to the restaurant, it rained. A large Mercedez sedan slowed down in front of me on the main road. The driver drove like he didn't realize there was a whole line of cars behind him as he took his time looking into every parking entrance for a store or empty stall. Then at the next major intersection, I watched a person attempt to beat the intersection lights before having to come screeching to a halt as the traffice was stopped on the other side. His car skidded a few feet befored bouncing off the back end of a volkswagen. Both drivers got out after a minute as cars filled up the intersection. We pulled into a plaza parkade not too far after the intersection. They had recently changed the driving directions so that you were made to drive around the whole main level circuit before entering the ramps to the other levels. The car in front of us didn't know where they were going. The man sat there, put on his left turn signal against the arrow sign, watched an old couple walk by and once they were far enough to his right, he turned right to follow them. I followed this car around the circuit and watched him look around everywhere really, really slowly before finally passing him as he had staked out a leaving car. I don't know what it was today, be it seemed like it was just a day of really bad drivers everywhere.
And on a slightly similar topic, have you ever seen people picking their nose while driving? God its disgusting. Maybe it would be better if they covered their activities with their other hand like asian people do picking their teeth with a toothpick in a restaurant. If only those people would realize that it's not like they are alone on the road sitting in traffic. I wish I had a handycam for all those times that I'd seen someone do this so that I could post it on the web or submit it to the local television station or some late night talk show.