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Buttons
March 16, 2007
Oilers may not win another game this season
I understand it supports breast cancer. In the macho world of sports though, there's a bit of humor in it.It takes a man secure in his masculinity to wear pink.
January 23, 2007
T-G-I-(almost) Wednesday
First and foremost, Happy Birthday Dad!--
Thanks to Al for the link and the nod. He was my first real contact with life at LBS and meeting him and his lovely wife was one of the things that really strengthened my resolve to attend school there. Thanks again for that.
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Tomorrow will be an interesting Wednesday for me. First off, I'm attending a lecture by Steven Pinker about his upcoming book - The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.
From the Lavin Agency Speaker Profile:
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human NatureThe first book of Dr. Pinker's I'd read was How the Mind Works. It was great because not only was the subject matter was incredibly interesting, but it gave scientific details and how they relate to the larger picture. I've always been interested in the bigger picture and how smaller factors contribute to the whole system - it explains my major in Pharmacology. The writing is also accessible to both sciencey and non-sciencey people, so I'd suggest it to anyone.
In this preview of his new book (to be published in 2007), Steven Pinker shows how our words reflect the thoughts we think, the emotions we feel, and the relationship we have with one another. This sweeping and entertaining lecture ranges over a number of topics that lie at the core of our understanding of human nature but are also very much in the news.
Why do people frame their abstract ideas in concrete metaphors—and is skillful use of metaphor the key to winning elections? Why do people swear, and get upset when other people swear? And why do we veil our bribes, threats, and sexual come-ons in innuendo and euphemism, instead of blurting them out? As with the lectures based on his other books, Pinker covers profound topics in science and philosophy with a light touch and with deft use of examples from everyday speech and popular culture.
The Blank Slate and the Language Instinct are also pretty good, but they struck me as a bit more technical than How the Mind Works.
Afterwards, some of the Toronto admits are getting together (for the first of many get togethers - I'm sure). Considering the type of people I've met from LBS so far, it looks like it's going to be an interesting time already.
November 24, 2006
Boyz n the Hood
I'm beginning to wonder where we've planted ourselves in moving to the project. In the past two days there have been two higher profile incidents within a stone's throw of our area. The first involved a high speed shootout on the 401 after an incident at a "social club" at Finch and Dufferin. The second, I heard this morning on the radio. Apparently the police were going into an apartment complex that had caught on fire a little while back to bust five grow ops they knew about. They ended up finding finding 22(!) of them.How concerned should I be?
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I talked to someone recently and she echoed my sentiment about hiring practices for companies to bring in motivated talent. She told me of some of the perks that her husband had on the job because it actually costs the company very little.
In the interest of fairness, I can concede that company HR departments have a difficult position as well. It takes a lot of work to ensure that people across an organization are equally compensated. It's like buying airplane tickets. Though I'm ultimately powerless to do anything about it, I know I'd be slightly peeved to find out that the person in the seat next to me paid a few hundred dollars less for his ticket.
I do still wonder about the state of things though when a company asks employees to pay for morale celebrations when it can also afford to collect already grossly spoiled sales staff from across the country for national meetings at posh resorts. It's really not the money, rather the principle of the matter. The treatment of sales across Pharma is intrinsically at a higher level than that of other functions in the company - Top sales talent tends to require top of the line rewards. It's also a function of brinksmanship between companies, like the bloated salaries in professional sports. I'd like to see better acknowledgement for other functions though. There has to be some method of rewarding other functions in a way that is equal to the treatment of sales. There is a symbiotic partnership between sales and "support": One cannot survive without the other. That should be recognised.
This equality is probably incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to realize right now given how the industry has been structured. If nothing else changes however, I'd like to at least feel that sales deserves the rewards they're given. After hearing about the state of our bonus based on sales targets and head office savings though...
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After working for a bit with Lotus Notes calendars, I've found that it's actually productive to have things scheduled. I've tried Google Calendar, which I find great in spite of the lack of support for different time zones. Now that I have my Mac (that I'm in love with, by the way - more on that some other time) iCal is serving my scheduling needs well. The only issue is I can't access my calendar from outside of my Macbook Pro. I'm hoping for big things from Spanning Sync. I'm kicking myself for missing the sign up for their private beta; I hope they release a public one soon.
Maybe someone from Spanning Sync will see this post and find it in the goodness of their hearts to grant me access to their beta? I promise to be an incredibly active participant in the testing, On top of singing their praises, I'd report every single bug I run into to make sure their software is as amazing as I would hope it would be.
