Thinking of you

I ran out for a very late lunch break today and while passing through Atrium on Bay, my good friend DA popped into my head as he works in the building and I hadn't seen him for a long time. I run back across the street to return to the office and I get a tap on the shoulder and there's DA. We had a nice catch-up and promised to get together soon. The power of thinking of friends.

My Mom's crazed namesake

I was rather shocked to see my Mom's name (under a picture of a smirky 43 year old Wisconsin woman) on the front page of the Metro today. My Mom's namesake had been involved in a bizarre lover's quadrangle resulting in a rather humiliating outburst of female revenge on their lover. Come to think of it, my cousin shares my Mom's name and is much closer in age and looks to the crazy lady ! A rather unsettling coincidence.

The Shepherd's Song

We were talking about jazz tonight and Dad was remembering going to to see "trad Jazz" in Britain in the early 60's. Dad got one of his favourites out and played us some Acker Bilk. We then bounced around music genres for a long time and I then played one of my favourites of the day - Pete Doherty. So as Pete's singing, I pick up the Acky Bilk CD and I'm scanning the song titles and just as I'm reading the title of track - The Shepherd's Song, Pete sings "as simple as The Shepherd's Song". Wow.

Joe

I had to do a double-take on the latest comment on my Flickr pictures...the name of the person providing the comment (also from Toronto) was almost the same as my next door neighbour. The best coincidence is that the second picture in his photostream is of a baby (born July 4th) and our neighbour brought home his new son yesterday (born July 3rd).

Branded golf shirt

Without really thinking about it, I donned a bright green golf shirt this morning for work. I got it a while back from a charity golf tournament. The logo is simply the company name and not really recognizable outside the financial industry. It has a few snags and a splattering of chalky dog medicine from this morning, but it does the job.

This morning I'm going through my flagged inbox items, seeing if there was a follow up I'd missed or needed to try again. So I give this guy a call and finally reach him and get some updates. As we're talking I realize, hey, I'm wearing a shirt with this guy's company name on it !

So, I have a few logo'd shirts, not surprisingly some overlap with companies I do business with. However, to pick this day to call this one person (which I hadn't tried in quite a few months and only ever talked to once in about the last 5 years), the same day I pick the shirt (and a have a few different shirts), well that's a pretty interesting coincidence. Maybe wearing it and subconsciously seeing the logo made me seek out that old email ?

Sidenote - this financial services company recently purchased a software company, my contact was actually at their offices this morning. Without going through stacks of old business cards, I'm pretty sure the acquired company was one I'd targeted for a new job a long while ago ! Small world.

Role Models

I was in the waiting room of my physiotherapist's office and a father and son walked in from the elevator and the son was wearing a t-shirt with Role Model written on it. I couldn't see the logo or a clue to the inner meaning, but fair enough, maybe this kid really is a role model, say for other students at his school. Anyway, I was enjoying reading a novel called No Time for Goodbye as I'm waiting for my appointment, and a few pages after I see the kid, I read "I'm not the best role model". Which is rather an understatement coming from this criminal character in the book. Just as I'm writing this I remember a clever mass email I got around to reading today from my brother-in-law in Manitoba. It was entitled Who is your Role Model ? It goes something like this...

Each of us is the result of the influence of many people. However some individuals have played a significant role in our development, They are often called "role models" that we consciously or unconsciously imitate. Perhaps you know who that person is, or perhaps you don't. The world renowned Sir Trevoir Rigelsworth, Ph.D, has given us a simple way to determine our role model. It is easy and only takes a minute and it may surprise you.

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL???*

Be sure not to peek! You don't want to skew your answer.
Try this - it's really neat ..
Don't look at the answers:

1) Pick your favourite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3 then

3) Add 3, then again Multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the Calculator....)

4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number....

5) Add the digits together


Now Scroll down ..............



With that number, see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein
2. Oprah Winfrey
3. Mother Teresa
4. Randubius Raji
5. Bill Gates
6. Johann Von Stueckenberg
7. Brad Pitt
8. Babe Ruth
9. PJMixer
10. Barack Obama

I haven't done the math, but the simple logic is there somewhere, but these games are still a fun.

Loyalty ?

My wife was blogging and ranting about customer loyalty today (Bell vs Rogers). I stopped in at World's Biggest Bookstore (not sure if it truly is, but it is the closest bog book store to my office, and it is big and has a great selection) after work and the first book that caught my attention was Loyalty Management.