Thursday, July 30, 2009

You Keep Forgetting I'm New

A slight problem at work, I think my superiors keep forgetting that I’m new. Not just new to this city, but new to the planning profession in general. Several times lately, we’ve been in meetings about important projects, and someone looks at me and says, “Have you done the such-and-such yet?”

Blink. Blink-blink-blink-blink.

Oh, was I supposed to do that, then?

I didn’t know that. Because I’m new…to everything .


Another work issue:
I’ve had to listen to tapes of myself speaking at meetings, and I’ve noticed a disturbing speech pattern of mine in these situations.

It goes like this:
Normal speed, normal speed, normal speed, really…slow…at…end…of…sen…tence.

Example:
“Item n, the Commission agreed to recommend adopting language similar to that used in [other city] concerning the screening of compressors, and we should meet with [gas company] to get more information on this top…ic. And then you’re approving the language suggested by staff concerning noise levels. All we have from [the gas company] is what we gave…to…you. Concerning the screening of compressors, I have a suggestion there, borrowed from [other city], and this would be added to the proposed section a…bove.”

It doesn’t happen with every sentence, but it does happen often enough to be noticeable. Bother.

Also, I almost fell out of chair yesterday. This was at home, so only JLR saw me.


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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Good job, Masterpiece Mystery. You totally screwed up again.

Why, why , WHY did I spend an hour and a half of my precious little free time watching that horrible excuse for an Agatha Christie?

And will Masterpiece Mystery ever get it right? Ever?

I beginning to doubt it. I don't think I will be watching anymore of their Christie adaptations. They've messed it up too many times now.




Is it too much to ask that they at least pretend to keep the same plot? Or characters? Or motives?

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

No Incidents Lately

Hello. There have been no incidents to report lately. There have been several misses, several almost-run-in-to-wall moments and similar moments, but nothing major to report. Well, that's not true. The other day I was shaking my spill-proof (I thought) drink container, and green tea came splashing out. I don't think I spilled anyway--no, wait. I did spill on myself. Okay, so there has been one incident.

Also, I keep accidentally choosing "print" instead of "print selection" at work so that instead of printing a 2-page excerpt from the city code, I print an entire chapter. So now I have several complete copies of the planning and zoning code in a desk drawer at work. But other than that, everything has been incident-free, really.

And that's because JLR is having all of the incidents. I declare, that woman has spilled more and dropped more in the past couple of weeks than I've seen happen to one person in a long time. While I hope it gets better for her, I hope that when it does get better, she doesn't pass it back to me.