Notifiblog: Sorry for the absence!

Happily, I've been busy with financially-compensated work.  No complaints what-so-ever!
Okay, so there's this American footy game coming up this weekend.  The way I see it, it's the last hurdle before NBC starts showing at least one (HOCKEY) Game of the Week​ for those of us who subscribe to neither cable nor satellite services.  (We spend that money on going to live Portland Winterhawks games.)

Rutgers and Princeton Universities played the first intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869.  Click this link to see who won!

The lovably nearsighted Quincy Magoo was a Rutgers man!

Jim Backus, the voice of Mr. Magoo, was reportedly expelled from the Kentucky Military Institute for riding a horse through the mess hall.

You didn't think I was going to go on and on about American footy, did you?

Cheers!

Notifiblog: Horrors! The pictures do NOT translate to the Worldwide Version?!?

Big dur on my part:  I finally gave my own Worldwide blog (http://notifiblog.blogspot.com) a test from home.  Of course the photos don't show up on the blog: they're referenced from the local computer.  Soo...I get to learn how to add pictures to my big-girl blog!
While I say dur like it's a bad thing, I see it means other things to other people.​

In French, it means hard or harsh.  Think durable! "It's Tough to be a Baby!" (Song by French singer Jordy Lemoine)

In German, A-Dur means, "A major" -- as in a diatonic scale!

You do know, though, when I say dur, I mean duh.  Speaking of duh, this loser (photo of Charlie Sheen not inserted here) was born the VERY SAME DAY I was.  Yes, same year, too.  Sometimes I just want to do one of those slap-upside-the-head things on him for being such a mess-up when we share the very same birthday.  Oh, except according to this wikipedia.com article.  They're putting him at two days older than I am. Hmmm...?

Notifiblog: We Portlanders Talk Funny (but we're so CUTE about it)!

I grew up in Portland, Oregon, but my dialect actually comes from my Mum, who listened to hours of American radio in her quest to drop her Canadian "accent."  Here in Portlandia, we tend toward a very flat dialect, but we do have our own charming pronunciations.

Gunna (spelled gonna, but definitely pronounced gunna):  used to indicate intent to perform some action in the future.  "We're gunna go to a Portland Winterhawks game on Saturday, and then we're gunna go to a Portland Timbers match on Sunday."

Twunny:  the number after nineteen and before twunny-one.  "We spent twunny bucks on microbrews last Friday night, and it was worth it!" (Note: this word also occurs in Lolspeak.)

Yerz:  not mine. "I think this umbrella is yerz."

By the way, most real Portlanders really DON'T carry umbrellas, unless we need to keep the microbrews from getting rained on.  FYI.

Notifiblog: It's Wednesday, Again!

Here we are, smack dab in the center (or centre, if you prefer) of a typical work week in my world.  Wednesday is the weekday that reveals who are the "glass half full" people and who are the "glass half empty" people.

I say it depends what's in the glass!
Before there was plastic, there was glass.  We put potable beverages in glass--and declare with immobile certainty they taste better that way.

Glass protects us from ourselves. I want these frames when my time comes.  Which should be any day, now.  Everyone in my family--including those to whom I'm related only by marriage--wears glasses or contact lenses.  Every one of 'em.  Except some of the smaller kids. Anyway, they remind me of the ladies of The Far Side.  Anything worth doing is worth doing outrageously!

Of course, we hockey fans have a special relationship with plexiglass.  The photo says it all:  the glass is protecting the players from that little kid. 

Thank Ceiling Cat for glass!  And Wednesdays!

Notifiblog: Too Much Holiday Yesterday! (Sorry, no entry yesterday!)

Whew!  Inauguration Day.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday.  Hockey game.  All too much.  Happily, I was working!​  As in being PAID to spend the holiday happily amongst coworkers.  Doesn't get much better than that, IMHO.

I'm still stuck on the cold weather.

Hoar frost or "radiation frost" is my latest discovery. 

ERMAHGERD!  I just learned that what I call "frost feathers" is actually called "window frost."  Gnarly!

As you may already know, I'm no fan of spiders, but when the web is unoccupied, I can't help admiring their web work.  We discovered a web on The Handsome One's truck this weekend that was even cooler looking than the one in the photo!  Phobia alert: photos of spiders at this Wikipedia article about spiderwebs.  (Too bad the photo doesn't show up here: it's a really cool UNOCCUPIED spider web with frost on every strand.)

I guess my relationship with spiders is similar to my relationship with cold, frosty weather.  I can be fascinated by either from a distance.

Notifiblog: January is National Blood Donation Month (Worldwide Version)

I know I've gone on before about blood donations, but it's a passion for me.  ​January, I learned this morning, is National Blood Donor Month.  Due to the flu epidemic, many regular donors are forced to cancel their appointments.  If you're healthy and you meet a few other requirements (such as not having travelled in a high-malaria-risk country), you can donate!

Whether you donate whole blood, double apheresis red cells, or, as I am privileged to do, platelets, you can save a life by giving up just a little of your blood to help another human.

Yes, there are needle pokes, and it hurts a little.  But ony for a few seconds.  Imagine how long it hurts someone who loses a loved one due to a lack of viable blood.  I think we can all count to forever.

You can be a Super Secret Hero for someone.  Or, according to statistics, for THREE someones.  One pint of blood can save up to three lives.

Please consider giving blood donation a try if you've never tried before.  If you want to try sooner (as long as you've met the deferral period for your donation type), start by checking out www.redcross.org.

Thanks.
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Notifiblog: It's A WHAT Point? (Worldwide Version)

This morning, I heard some blowhard on a long-running American morning infotainment ​show repeatedly interrupt another guest to call some issue a mute point.  She meant moot point.  But maybe she had a point:  if it's a moot point, maybe we should all shut up about it!
But the above is a moot point: 

Today would be Frank Zamboni's 112th birthday!  Now THAT's important.  (There's going to be a hockey tie-in, you know.)

Frank Zamboni invented the well-known Zamboni Ice Resurfacer, which can be viewed in action between periods at ice hockey games.

The Jacuzzi "Roman Bath" (1968) for private use is another invention known commonly by its Italian-American inventor's surname.  (Did you see that coming?)

Have a smooth, relaxing Wednesday!

Notifiblog: Baby, It's Cold Outside (Worldwide Version)

Actually, this morning felt ever-so-slightly warmer than yesterday morning did.  Recently, though, I was inspired to change my computer's ​wallpaper to what I like to call "Ice Feathers."   Ice can be pretty amazing when you're not trying to walk or drive a car on it.

Have you ever seen ice feathers on a car's windscreen?  Beautiful.

In the realm of cool kid science projects, one can demonstrate displacement--and that ice dropped into a glass of water displaces exactly its own volume and no more.

And, of course, one can't have ice hockey without ice!  Did you see that coming?  You know I manage to make it about hockey whenever possible, right?  Photos of fighting hockey players make good blood drive posters.  The bumper sticker/t-shirt slogan goes, "Give Blood:  Play Hockey!"  (In my favorite hockey fight photo, Portland Winterhawks' Luca Sbisa lands a good right on Spokane Chiefs' Kyle "Dives More Than Greg Louganis" Beach.)


Keep your stick on the ice!

Notifiblog: Organize Your Home Day! (Worldwide Version)

Today, January 14th, is National ​Organize Your Home Day!  But how does one celebrate something you probably do every day?  And why are we celebrating it on a Monday?  Why not on a weekend day?  I must try to find the ancient texts and get back to you on that.

Here's a dandy idea!  Clean your house, take pictures when everything's perfect, and then publish an authoritative (by which I mean make stuff up, but present it as if it were researched fact) book about it!  This way, you get both motivation and payoff.

You can get a maid!  First you take a million dollars, and then you hire someone who is endearingly annoying with her scripted wisecracks and a voice that is reminiscent of cats fighting.

Hazel got her start as a single-panel cartoon in The Saturday Evening Post.  She was drawn by Ted Key.
Which leads (somehow) back to National Organize Your House Day.  Magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, can be strewn about and then organized.  Remember to take lots of pictures for your book!

Notifiblog: All-Day Meetings Are Our Friends! (Worldwide Version)

I'm in an all-day meeting extraveganza of sorts.  It's a great opportunity to see in-depth how the application I think I'm helping with documentation works.  What I've seen thus far of this tool is pretty slick, IMHO.

This photo (not shown due to my experience deficit) represents the type of breakfast one might find at an all-day meeting.  Not in this one, though:  our company is not-for-profit, and we save our customers' money by keeping our meetings low-budge.

We're using our online meeting tools to meet within a four-state area.  Nice way to save on travel, eh!

The rules of this meeting are being reviewed right now.  I'm breaking one of them: "No multitasking."  But I really AM listening!

Notifiblog: The Czech's in the Post (Worldwide Version)

One of The Handsome One's exes is actually FROM Texas, and she's part of the "Texas Czech" community.  Along with his association with her (she's really nice!), he learned some handy-dandy Czech words and phrases--even if we're pronouncing them wrong.  And even Karolyn and her family have Anglicized some of them to fit them in with English grammar.

trucovat ("TRUEsovaht") - sulk​.  When used in "Czechlish," it's perfectly fine to say something such as, "The steak was cooked perfectly until Debbie started trucovatting that it was underdone."

pusa - kiss.  According to what I see on Google Translate, it appears this word for kiss is informal...a sort of greeting peck on the cheek so to speak.

roztomilý - cute.  I have no idea how to pronounce this (yet), but I was so curious about what the word for "cute" is in Czech, I had to include it here!  In Japanese, it's kawaii and can imply a whole subculture of cute, which includes 40-something-year-old women who carry Hello Kitty backpacks and wear Hello Kitty wristwatches.  Which is to say, ME!

This next bit will probaby make people who actually understand Czech ROTFL:  Pojďme udělat maximum dnes!  (Intended: "Let's do our best today!)

Notifiblog: Let the Rain Fall on Your Face! (Worldwide Version)

There's an accepted stereotype about native Oregonians--usually referring to those of us from the NON-desert side of Oregon:  we aren't particularly bothered by rain.  I think it's true of a lot of us.  I LIVE that stereotype.

"I hope Karma slaps you in the face before I do"  J2 needs another snarky t-shirt or bumper sticker!  This was one of the items Google images provided when I entered, "Let the rain fall on your face," today's theme.

The song, Singin' in the Rain (1927 and/or 1929, depending on source) had to have been inspired by Oregonians. 

As early as 1929, Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards sang the song, accompanied only by his ukulele.  This was long before the famous routine done by the inimitable Gene Kelly.
Leave your brolly behind!  Let a little rain fall on your face and sing a little song!

Notifiblog: It's (NOT) Pants! (Worldwide Version)

One of the funniest English phrases I've encountered since I began hanging with the British Origami Society crowd is, "It's pants!" This means something akin to when the Hawai`ian kids on my dorm floor used to say, "It's junk!"​

When they mean the kind one wears, they call those "trousers."  IMHO, regardless of what we call them, the best ones have pockets for EVERYTHING.  Even an iPad!

Pants are great for keeping us warm, socially acceptable, and intelligent!


When I was a kid, I had to accept on faith that the telling of falsehoods would cause my trousers to combust spontaneously.

Still, it took me a while to get that Progressive insurance commercial with the "Other Company" guys' trousers aflame.

No lie: this Monday shall NOT be pants!

Notifiblog and the Blustery Day (Worldwide Version)

It's cold (to us) and windy out there!  Brings back vague memories of "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day."

Gopher wishes Pooh a happy "Winds-day."

When Pooh and Piglet arrive at Owl's house to wish him a happy Winds-day, Owl asserts the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr" and not a particular holiday.

Tigger stirs up a little trouble by giving Pooh ideas about Heffalumps and Woozles, who steal honey!  The segment in Disney's 1968 animated featurette appears to pay homage to the Pink Elephants on Parade segment in Dumbo (1941).

Notifiblog: The Spit-Take (Worldwide Version)

Have you ever seen one of those old movies where the innocent man is being led to the execution chamber, and they have him all strapped and ready to go when a (usually red) phone, conveniently located INSIDE the execution chamber, rings?  And it's the governor, granting a stay of execution or even a full pardon? 

Shane Shown is playing the role of governor for us today, and I've been granted a stay of execution!  (Spit-take goes here.)

We were all having to clear the 6th floor so it can be leased to another tenant.  4PM was our deadline.  I was still packing the last of my stuff and finishing the last of what I wanted to accomplish when two pings arrived from Shane Shown and Nicki Gill (HR)...at 4:10.

Today is my first day working for Shane.  He's asking for some training documentation/user documentation stuff.  Exactly what I really did before I became a famous Clarity Wrangler.  The assignment goes until the end of April (or until the work is done or the funding is cut, more likely!), but in the meantime, the magic words were uttered to me: Full Benefits.  I'm still an FTE and I didn't have to (foolishly) give up the insurance benefits that would have lasted until early March, per my severance package.

So, I'm not wrangling Clarity, anymore, but I'm still here!  Back for more fun and games.  And hoping to get on with Internal Communications later.  Still got that big dream!  And still getting to write for Cambia!!


Shin-nen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!
(Happy New Year!)