Month: January 2002

So this morning I took my usual route to work. Headed out of the apartment, across Cutten Road, where I then turn left at the stop sign behind Pappasito’s, in front of a different apartment complex, and head towards 1960. (I know most of you have NO clue what I am talking about, but just play along…) So, I am sitting there singing along to my Sarah Evans CD, and I come up to the stop sign. I stop, and then I notice this white Explorer pulling out of the apartment parking lot *right* in front of me. Literally. Like 5 feet away. As I look up I realize it’s the owner of the FC (that would be Former Company or whatever else you want to think FC might mean) in the Explorer. Well, the owners – the husband and the wife. I think I let out a little scream. So the Pure Evil ™ thought crosses through my mind that if I punched on the gas right then and there I could truly ruin their morning. Considering I had an 11am meeting with a wonderful client, I simply giggled about my Pure Evil ™ thought, and wondered if they even realized it was me. They cleared the intersection, I turned left … and then as I turned right onto 1960 I ran over some pieces of concrete that had broken off of the curb. I could tell that it wasn’t a good thing, but I had no idea how bad it was until a block or two down the road when I realized my steering wheel didn’t seem quite right, and there was a strange sound …

Yes, by the time I got to the office, one mile down the road, I had a flat tire. And when the tow truck driver came out to put on my spare (yes, I am a wimp) he said it didn’t look like the kind of hole that could be repaired; I am going to need a new tire.

See what happens when you have Pure Evil ™ thoughts? Nothing good. Now if I had spunk like Candi, I could have at least made the most of the moment to truly enjoy it, done something to really grab their attention or something like that. Oh well, I did get a nice laugh out of it all to start my day, and at my meeting the client ended up having more revisions to their site for 2002 then I expected, so it all ended well.

In my hunt for a copy of that PowerPoint presentation mentioned earlier, I stumbled across Burningbird. Uh, how is it that I miss these awesome sites? Yeah, could someone please explain it to me? Oh, time. That’s it. There isn’t enough hours in the day. But you know what’s really sad? Shelley has linked to my site. See, I normally find those people who link to my site because I see them in my logs. Oops. See what happens when you are working hard?

Any other sites out there that I have overlooked that are wonderful and amazing and I really should be reading? Anyone?

More details about the rise & fall of Enron. Now here is what I don’t get. November 8, 2001, “Enron says it overstated earnings dating back to 1997 by almost $600 million.” How can it possibly take you four years to figure out that you have overstated your earnings? That just doesn’t make sense to me. Nothing like a little creative accounting to make things look good, huh? Gee, I sure wish the rest of us could get away with that! And there should be a special place in hell for management who tries to get away with things like telling their employees that “OUR PERFORMANCE has never been stronger; our business model has never been more robust. … We have the finest organization in American business today” just 2 months before the company’s hidden financial problems surfaced. “In an Aug. 27 e-mail, Lay announced the details of an employee stock option program which spoke of “a significantly higher price” for Enron stock in the future. Selling for $37 a share in August, Enron stock now sells for 68 cents. The stock was at $83 a share a year ago.”

And considering the fact that Ken Lay and the other Enron executives donations made the company President Bush’s biggest financial supporter through two governor’s races and the presidential election, don’t tell me that they weren’t expecting some special treatment. Granted, they might not have gotten any special treatment, but they certainly expected it. And the story isn’t over.

It’s 6:15 at night, and I still have a proposal or two to write and things to get ready for my trip to Atlanta on Thursday. Going back to meet with the client that signed their contract at the end of December for the online content management system. The same client that I went to see back in November. And this time we are doing the 7:20am flight again. Ugh. But we are not rushing back to Houston that afternoon – instead we will return late that night. Oh, this is going to be a crazy week, I can tell that already…

Whenever I see services like SmarterChild, I wonder (often out loud) if they will work with Trillian. I am not about to give up the ease of having all of my IM interfaces rolled into one. Then my next question is, would I use it anyways? Do I have a NEED for it? Or am I just a gadget-junkie who wants to play with all the toys? Hm. I’ll have to test it with Trillian later. (Link thanks to Mike McBride.)

Update: I added SmarterChild to my buddy list in Trillian. He can indeed talk to me. For the excitement of the moment, he told me what the Libra horrorscope (yes, “horror-scope”) is for today. I guess he can tell me lots of other things too. Maybe I’ll test that out later. Maybe after I do all of the other things on my list for today…