Internet

Have you noticed how much we rely on the computer and internet nowadays?

Our computers and mobile devices, be it a tablet or a smartphone, they seem to be with us all the time now, and we don't know what we would do without them and how we survived before them. I guess some people still survive without a computer and the internet, and they manage.

I know that I rely on the internet and my computer for my work because it is difficult to send documents without either of them. I do a lot of correspondence via email with my clients, be it answering an email or sending documents they are going via email, which involves the internet.

There are companies that their entire infrastructure is in the “cloud” so they really need the internet to be working otherwise they cannot function. Yes, a cloud can be in the company, but there are some people that reply on everything being off-site. I always laugh when I hear someone say that they would be able to work even if the internet was down if they had all their files were stored in the cloud and only available through the internet. These are some of the things that we deal with and have to smile when I hear this conversation. These are the people that will only realize that they cannot work when the internet is down when it happens to them.

Yes, the internet is a very important part of most people's daily life now, but you can still function without it. Maybe it means if you need to ask someone a question, you might have to call them to get the answer, but that still works.

So, in some cases, it is nice just having a little bit of time without the internet every once in a while. See, I even wrote this blog while being without my internet, so I still got something done. I will have to post it onto my blog once the internet is back, but at least I got it written.

Note: Our internet and cable were down for 14 hours.

Food court frustration

Recently I walked over to a mall to have some lunch. I decided that having lunch at 11:30 was probably a good idea to avoid some of the business people that also want to eat in the same food court. Well, I was frustrated with what I saw upon my arrival.

It looked like there were a couple of meetings being held in the food court. One was a group of ladies and the other group which was rather large were a group of mean. Well, it wasn't really a meeting, but rather a gathering of friends/people. So here it is just before lunch and there were approximately 20 men sitting and taking up 28 seats and only a few of them had coffee cups in front of them. I know some of the coffee cups were empty because one of the men knocked his over and nothing came out. A bunch of the other men never lifted their cups to drip their coffee during the time I sat and ate my lunch.

The ladies at least were only taking 8 seats for the 8 of them, which was nice. On the other side of me were 3 men sitting at a table for 4 which was no problem but was frustrating was there were using another table for 4 to hold their 2 bags of groceries and their empty coffee cups. Yes, they had finished whatever they had and were just sitting and talking. By this time, people were looking for tables so that they could eat the lunch that they purchased in the food court, but there weren't too many available tables.

I finished my lunch and headed off, so it was almost noon by the time I left the food court by the men were still sitting at the tables with their empty coffee cups. It really bothers me that people can sit in a food court at lunchtime taking tables when they either purchased something a couple of hours ago or haven't purchased anything from the food court. I am not sure how this food court actually survives because of the lack of food purchased as the different vendors. 

The other issue is that this food court is near a school, so parents pick up their kids from school and walk over to the mall and let their kids eat in the food court. I don't see anything wrong letting them eat in the food court, but what does bother me is they are not eating food purchased in the food court but food that the parent has brought from home. This school is within about a 10-minute walk for all the kids that attend it, so why can't the parents take the kids home and let them eat their lunch where it was made.

After I finished the rest of my shopping in the mall, which wasn't a lot, I walked back by the food court.  You guessed it, all the men were still sitting at the tables with their empty cups. So, it really doesn't matter if you complain to the malls because it doesn't seem to help. If the people sitting in the food court know the cleaning staff or security, there is nothing done, but if you are a stranger, they encourage you to move on.

Food courts are to be used for eating meals that are purchased there, and please be considerate about how long you spend at a table. There are others who also want to purchase something and enjoy it.

Distracted driving

Here in Ontario, there is a law that you cannot use a mobile device while driving a vehicle, otherwise you will be fined. I think that this law is great because you do see so many people talking on their mobile devices or reading and/or sending messages which are dangerous while driving.

Last week, on the radio, they were talking about an undercover cop that was at an off-ramp to a highway. He was holding a sign wishing everyone a good day or something like that. He wasn't begging for money or anything like that, he was just walking along the ramp. Of course, he was looking for people that would start looking at their devices once they stopped at the light. If he spotted someone, of course they would get a ticket for texting while driving. People were mad about this happening, but so many people just don't pay attention to where they are.

Hearing about this cop made me pay a little more attention to our surroundings when we were driving over the weekend. Now, the interesting thing is I spotted a cop standing beside his vehicle in a gas station lot just off the road at an intersection. He looked like he was looking for someone, and of course he was. The light was red for us, so we had a sit for a couple of minutes until the light turned green again. During this time something seemed to catch the attention of the officer and just before the light changed he walked out and waved a vehicle over into the lot. I guess he was watching for people using their mobile devices, and he did get someone, I think.

Last Saturday, I then saw two individuals on their mobile devices. One was a man who was clearly looking at their device while driving along a road. He wasn't just doing it while at a traffic light, but while driving around 60 km along the street. I noticed him because he seemed to like the centre line instead of staying in the middle of his lane. He proved he wasn't paying attention when a light changed to amber, and he drove right through the light. It was upsetting to me because this man had children in his vehicle while he was doing this. He may have been getting directions, but the amount of time he had his head down was what caught my attention.

The second individual was a lady that was on her mobile device. She was checking it at every traffic light and in some cases was a little slow in pulling away from the intersection. She wasn't as bad as the man, but you could tell she was on her device.

People have to understand that driving takes all of your attention, not just a portion of it. Your mobile devices should be put away while you are driving. If the message or call is so important, pull off the road and deal with it. Your message isn't more important than my life or even your life.

Dinner home versus out

Last Friday, we decided that we were going to have a very nice dinner at home instead of going out.  The dinner was Chicken Parmesan, which I really like.  It was nice to have something like this at home and have to admit it was very reasonable to make for the two of us.

While we were eating it, we were discussing the cost of making it at home versus the cost of having the same meal out.  So here is the comparison that we did.

Home:
  Chicken schnitzel - 2 pieces                  $3.98
  Pasta (only used part of bag)                 $1.00
  Tomato sauce (used half a jar)              $2.48
  Grated cheese                                        $1.00
  Cost of food                                            $8.56

And the time to make it, but it meant that we were together, and it didn't take even half an hour for the dinner to be made.

The two of us having the same meal out at a restaurant   $37.70 before taxes and tip.

So the savings was $29.14 which really shows that when you have meals at home it is so much cheaper than paying for the same meal at home.

OK, we didn't have someone prepare, cook and bring the meal to the table for us, but we were able to have a nice evening at home without listening to screaming kids in a restaurant.  We also didn't have to drive to and from the restaurant. 

We have been eating more meals at home lately and have been enjoying them.  Of course, it doesn't mean that we won't eat out, but it is nice to see that with a little planning we can have a similar meal to what we have out for a fraction of the cost.  Now to see what we have for dinner tonight.  After writing this entry up I think we may have this meal again very soon.

New desk for home office

new desk

This last week I have been trying to get organized in a new work area or at least a new work setup.

I have been working in an area that wasn't comfortable for me for a while and last week we decided that it was time to get me a new desk, so off we went and got it.  Getting the new desk did mean some major changes in the area that I call my home office.

The first thing was getting the old desk out of the area and figuring out how I was going to set up the new area.  The desk was easy because it attaches to a book case, so it meant I got spots where I can file things easily.  The arrangement is actually 8 squares where things can be filed, which makes it a lot easier. 

My desk faces out a window, which is nice because it means that I can see what is going on a little bit.  I do live 10 floors up, so I don't get to see a lot of people, but at least I can see up the street.

Thank goodness my DH and business partner understood what I really wanted in my work area because it did mean two trips to Ikea in three days.  We got the desk on one trip and then once I could start thinking about the organization of the area, I realized that I needed boxes and some drawers to put all the stuff that I had into. 

It has taken me a week to feel like I am finally getting settled.  There are still areas that I need to finish organizing, like the filing system behind my computer, but that won't take too long.  The 8 squares are now organized and have changed since the picture a little bit.

I now have a place that is my own, and it is set up the way that I want.  Well, it's set up the way I want it right now, and who knows what it will be like after I use the area for a month or so.  This area is where I do my writing as well as where I do my work, so it is a place where I can hide. 

Now it's time to get some work done.

Delegating or Attempting to Delegate

Over the last while, I have been dealing with a challenge and running in to issue every time, I attempt this. 

I have an individual that keeps asking for more work because she wants to help me get some of my tasks completed, as she knows that I have lots of things on a rather full plate/platter.  At the end of February, I decided that I was going to sit down with her and start giving her some tasks so that she could help me get these projects moved ahead.  I wasn't planning on giving her major tasks, but at least things that would help me out.

I had my plan all in place, so we met, and I said let's sit down and start working on these projects together.  Well, the meeting sure didn't go as I planned because of course every time I tried to talk about something she interrupted with something she thought was more important.  I would then restart what I was saying so to make sure she was listening.  Then the biggest thing happened, the phone rang, and she answered that which it is part of her job.  The phone call resulted in an hour of her running around and going to other things relating to the phone call, even though I continued to ask her to get back to our meeting.  After she got everything done for the phone call, she put the chair back that she was sitting in for our meeting and went back to her desk.  I asked her to come back, and she said she would as soon as she sent a quick email.  Well as you can probably guess the meeting was over, and I never did get to give her any of the tasks that I had wanted to give her.

One big issue that I am seeing is when she takes notes, she writes them on scrapes of paper instead of in a notebook.  Of course, these pieces of paper have lots of very short notes and when she thinks she has everything done on it, she recycles the piece of paper. 

This week, I think I hit a total frustration point when I got an email from her asking me about an attachment.  The attachment was a note saying what a cheque was for.  She then in her email asked me what the cheque was for.  All of this was talked about last time I tried to talk to her because I told her I was expecting a cheque and where the cheque was to be deposited.  There may have been a note made about this cheque, but on a piece of paper that has since been recycled.

I am dealing with this challenge of someone wanting to help me but not listening to what I have to say, so I am now going to be writing the tasks down for her in email so that she can see what she has to do for me.  Maybe delegation through email will work better than delegation through discussion.  I will still attempt to have the discussion, but will reinforce it with an email.

Delegating is a challenge at the best of times, but when someone doesn't listen, it sure makes delegating a bigger challenge.

Writing

I posted at the beginning of the year that I wanted to write on average 500 words a day for the entire year. Of course, people laughed when I said that, I asked me why I would want to track my word count for an entire year.

For me, I have had challenges writing and not knowing what words to put on a blank page, so decided that just writing might help me. So I worked on this goal last year and just managed to write the 500 words a day for the year with some difficulty. The end of the year was a lot better than the beginning of the year for word count. Of course, this means that a lot of my writing is just for me, but at least I am finding that I can write blogs and other required writing a lot easier now.

There are people that call themselves writers and say that they are going to write, but you never see anything that they write, so do they write. For me, making myself accountable even just to me has helped me improve my writing habit. Now, if I don't write during the day, I get upset because I find that even just putting words in my journal helps me feel better about things.

We are face different challenges and for me, it was writing. I have a friend that said in her first blog that she was going to write twice a week on her blog, and that was almost two years ago. Yes, she has posted blog entries, but in these two years there has been 9 blogs instead of the two a week as she stated that she was going to do. Last year we were at an event, and I told her that I tracked my word count each day, not including emails, and she kind of laughed at that idea. She keeps saying that she is a writer, and I haven't seen anything that she has written. Maybe she is a want to be writer and hopes that the more she talks about writing, the better chance she has in starting to write.

So writing is something that I enjoy doing and yes, I do some writing for work as it is part of my job, but the other part I enjoy is working on my blog entries and just writing in general.

Off to do a bit more writing.