QUESTION

I’m just wondering how many of you out there have a myspace page. The reason I ask is that I think myspace pages represent the worst in web design on the Internets. It boggles my mind how popular myspace is.

Have you seen a myspace page? First, it allows users to embed a song that plays automatically when someone visits their page. That’s just awful. And the backgrounds people choose for their pages make it impossible to read the text. The formatting in general makes it a usability nightmare. If Jakob Nielsen were dead (and he’s not), he’d be spinning in his grave right now.

So let’s see ’em. If you’re on myspace, let’s take a look. I’ll show you my myspace page if you reciprocate.

THE WEATHER

If you live in the Lower Mainland, you no doubt were aware that we got hit with another snowstorm last night. I, for one, cannot remember a time when Vancouver has had so much extreme weather. Between the rain, the gale-force winds, and the blankets of snow, this has been a pretty miserable winter.

I wouldn’t mind it all, except for the fact that the weather causes a lot of problems city-wide. When it gets windy, the power goes out. In the last three months, I think the power has gone out more times than in the last three years combined. The last incident happened last week, where the power was out in my area for twelve hours. There was no heat, no hot water, and no Xbox 360. The wind also caused trees and light poles to topple. On one very particular windy day, it took me two hours to get to work. Who ever heard of traffic delays due to wind? Also, when it gets windy, they tend to close down the Lions Gate bridge. That means all traffic goes to the Second Narrows, along Hastings Street, which is of course, the route my bus goes along. It all makes for a great commute home.

Back to the snow though. This morning, my bus never came, leaving me to stand at the bus stop for about half an hour. The only thing that made it half-bearable was that I shared the bus shelter with this very attractive young lady. I finally had to take the Skytrain instead, which was actually not crowded at all this morning. I only was late perhaps 25 minutes or so to my surprise. While the snow seems to have stopped this evening, temperatures are supposed to drop way below freezing level overnight. The resulting ice should make it awesome for commuting and walking tomorrow morning.

How much longer will this weather last?

WELL NOW WHAT

I was about half way through writing a post when I realized I might get someone in trouble. I was telling a story anonymously about a friend of mine. Then it dawned on me, that however small the chance, his girlfriend might be reading this. Actually, it’s a really small chance but I’ve learned over the years that it’s amazing who’s reading my blog.

I don’t want to get him into trouble. Is he breaking the law? No. Is he cheating on his girlfriend? Definitely not. Is he making me ask myself questions? I don’t think so.

So I got nothing else to write about. How about this weather eh? Wind storms suck. The Canucks are doing well lately, isn’t that interesting? How’s your mom doing? Good… good… I’m getting a haircut tomorrow. Right…

Ok, good night folks.

NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE FOR OURSELVES

So I’m sitting at my desk this afternoon when I get an e-mail from one of the production coordinators on our team. She wants to know if anyone on our team wants new business cards and to fill in the form if we do.

I just stared at the e-mail for a bit. This is an opportunity to get business cards from EA. If you’ve been with us since the beginning, you know business cards have a certain influence on my life. I outlined it in an earlier post. Essentially, everytime I’ve received business cards, I’ve quit my job within 45 days of getting them.

Mind you, I’ve only got business cards twice in my life but I’m batting a thousand so far. So you can understand my conflict when I got the e-mail. On one hand, I don’t want to tempt fate because I really do like my job. On the other hand, EA business cards would be really nice.

I think this is an excellent chance for me to break this crazy cycle. While I certainly was entertaining thoughts of leaving those two previous jobs when I got the cards, I have no such thoughts this time around with EA. I believe I’m going to go for it!

I’ll check in with you about 45 days from when I get the cards.

BABY GAP

I went shopping for baby clothes for the first time ever tonight. I didn’t have a lot of time to be creative, so it was straight to Baby Gap. If I say so myself, I’ve been blessed with a good and classic sartorial taste, so it was in this belief that finding clothes for a three month old baby would be both easy and fun.

Upon entering the store, I realized I was the only male in there. I was surrounded by female sales staff and mommies of varying ages. I was also amazed by the myriad of choices that newborns and toddlers have in clothing. There was so much to choose from!

A sales person must have sensed my wonderment because she asked me I needed help, at which point I confessed it was my first time shopping for baby clothes. She explained the sizing structure to me, which basically separated newborns, 6 to 12 months, and so on until you got to toddlers. Actually with the inclusion of Gap Kids to normal Gap, you could be clothed by Gap Inc. for the rest of your life.

I must have gone over every piece of newborn and 6 to 12 month clothing in the store. Everything seemed so cute and tiny. There was a jean jacket like mine, except it was tiny. There were a pair of jeans like mine except it was tiny. There was a dress like mine, except…

All of the clothing seemed cute but like all clothes, some choices are better than others. I knew this, but looking at it all, I couldn’t discern what looked better on the target baby. My worst fear was buying some items in a clueless manner and then having the Mom refuse to clothe her daughter in them.

I won’t say what I bought in the end, just in case the father reads this but I think they’ll like it. I’m especially proud of one item I got. I think it’ll look really sharp on her. She’ll have to grow into it but that’s ok.

And I learned something today.

NEW PET PEEVE

As most of you know, I’ve been working in a high-rise office building for about five months now. This is the first time I’ve worked in such a location.

After riding the office elevators day in and day out I’ve developed a new pet peeve. People who take the elevators for two floors or less really bug me. Come on people, the stairs are clearly marked on every damn floor of the building. Would it kill you to walk up a single flight of stairs?

The worst offenders are the ones who get in on the ground floor and then press the “2” button. What the hell is their problem? Are they so inconvenienced that a single flight of stairs would ruin their day?

Don’t even get me started on the people use the elevator to go down a single floor. These lazy office bums won’t even let gravity assist them down the stairs. It’s gotten to the point where I start to roll my eyes at these 1fers or 2fers. I’m afraid one day I’ll actually make a comment aloud to some of these people.

So what’s it to me? Let’s say I get on at the bottom and I’m going up to 12. Everytime one of these 1fers get on my damn elevator, that’s like 10 seconds for them to get on and then another 10 seconds for them to get off. If I get just three of these up to 12, I’m over a minute beyond my normal travel time.

Now, don’t think I paint everyone with the same broad brush. I’d like to think I have perspective on issues. Very often I see people get on the elevator with stacks of documents or boxes in theirs arms and if they do need to go up or down one floor, sure that’s very reasonable. Sometimes people have mail carts or trolleys, so yeah, the elevator is the only way to go. One lady even got on cradling several large books in her arms and she actually apologized for going up one floor. No apology was needed of course but I appreciated the sentiment. I only wish the corporate suits with nothing in their hands would be more like-minded.

And that’s what grinds my gears today.