When I ended a note to a with “hope to hear from you soon”, the word “soon” jumped out at me. I have become the world’s worst letter writer (admittedly I am probably tied with many many people for that title), and am incapable of getting my act together to write (or in the rare advanced cases finish) a letter. When I started out with email, a few days response time was standard (nobody read it that often anyway) but there has always been, at least for me, some strange pressure to respond the moment I receive the message. This became impossible at work, and even at home before that. I unconsciously prioritize, and then often forget about, emails that I have every intention of responding to. So when I myself say “soon”, I’m not even sure I know what I mean.
Spam and keywords
I was previous amused by the effect of keywords on my (temporary) readership, and should not be surprised that such traffic spikes also result in increased spam. I’m particularly irritated by this one (for which I’ve removed the name of the site out of desire to not give them any free publicity):
Hey all,
Thank you for your suggestions they are great! I have been using a site called (beep) to brush-up on my Spanish…I need to become fluent for my career! With (beep), you can learn a language naturally by conversing with native speakers via video chat. It’s a great way to practice a new language and you can also make friends from all over the world. They offer flashcards, videos and the forum for free. The video tutoring does have a small fee but you pick the tutor and the price!
What irritates me?
1) If my suggestions are so great, why I am nothing more than a part of “hey all”?
2) I bet you need to brush up for career using (beep), seeing as how you work for (beep). By misreprenting yourself as a user, when it is clear that you are an employee, you only serve to irritate. Maybe this has worked for others, but not a chance for me.
What’s sad is that the site may even be interesting, and I might potentially be interested, but this sort of contact turns me right off, and in the proliferation of great (free) alternatives, you can bet that I won’t be there to tout your service: free, small fee, or otherwise. Sorry (beep), I believe a little Seth Godin quote is in order: “You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience. ” But I promise you this: when I talk about it, you can be sure I will avoid giving you any free publicity.
Rocks and trees, and trees and rocks, and rocks and trees, and trees and rocks…
Actually, it’s just about rocks, but typing the word reminded me of a great song by the Arrogant Worms about what Canada has going for it (also: water)…lyrics here for the curious. So, about rocks: at the end of June I will once again be working at Euromineral, or, more specifically, EuroGem which is just down the street, and part of the event. Here’s another one of those random things that I fell into in my time here, and fell in love with. At work they think I’m a bit crazy to take a week off work to work, especially one so physically (and sometimes mentally, depending on how happy – or not – the exhibitors are) exhausting. The truth is, it’s great to stress about something else for a week, and works like a kind of brain reboot, in a way that a normal vacation wouldn’t. That may be the workaholic in me, although I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the 5-weeks-a-year holiday (minimum) that I know enjoy. Actually, if it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t be able to do EuroGem (and still get home to see my family and friends every year or two). So if you happen to be in the Alsace area at the end of June…
…if you don’t like shameless promotion, stop reading here…
…and you like rocks, minerals, fossils, jewels or jewellery, check out Euromineral at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, near Selestat (as well as, although less so, Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse…you get the picture). There are, of course, tons of other things to do and see in Alsace at this time of year, but I won’t be working at any of them 
Babbeling away
About a month ago I talked about Babbel, which combines social networking and language learning. I maintained my addiction almost daily, with a goal of finishing all 53 lessons in German before my trip to Munich. I am happy to report that it was a success, although since we spoke English most of the time, I got little chance to show off my new vocabulary (that and I seem to have a particularly hard time putting things into practice). The phrase I remember most easily was due to the fact that I had started Spanish lessons, and at first had trouble thinking not thinking it in German: Ich brauche drei Zitrone…Necessito tres limones…there are not many occasions to tell someone you need three lemons, so I was particularly amused when a poster in the hotel had a picture of three lemons on it!
Anyway, for several weeks I maintained (or only briefly lost) the top spot for “the last 7 days” in German, but since my trips I have slacked off, and am now 47th for the last 7 days. To be fair, I can get myself back into the top 5 with a couple hours of work (and even integrate the 4 new packages of words and phrases), but I also need to shift into the Spanish to meet my goal of doing all (now 57) lessons by the first week of June! Thank goodness for the 4-day weekend…Let’s hope I can swing it!
Oh the places you’ll go…
When I left Canada, worried about how long 5 months was going to feel so far from home, I really never imagined what was in store for me.
In the past few years, I have enjoyed French toast in France, English muffins in England, Danishes in Denmark, and now I can add tapas in Spain, and pretzels in Bavaria.
To be fair, I had been to Spain (Barcelona) before, and actually that is where I wrote my name in the sand, as you could see at the top of my blog until I changed the design on a whim today, but I did not know about tapas at the time. Well, I had the good fortune of another trip to Barcelona, this time for work. With a Monday meeting, we (me and a colleague) headed down on Sunday, partly for the cheaper tickets, and partly to actually enjoy the trip a bit more…it worked. Walking around all day was tiring, but I was amazed at how a few minutes walking on the beach soothed aching feet! There I managed to catch my first cold+sunburn combo of the year (at least a once-a-year occurrence since I came to France), but neither were very serious. I suspect that a fair number of the hundreds of people baking in swimming trunks and bikinis are worse off than me right about now!
Monday we had our meeting, after which I headed off to Munich for another meeting with different people. I have been to Germany a fair number of times (I live close enough to do some grocery shopping now and then for stuff I can’t get in France) but this was my first time in Bavaria. Definitely the best pretzels ever, especially so hot out of the oven that we couldn’t even touch them when the arrived at our table. Alsatian pretzels just don’t have enough flavour.
Wednesday I was back in the office (and not without more meetings), so I was very relieved when Thursday (Labour Day in Europe) arrived. I knew I needed the break, but didn’t realize just how much! So I’m particularly lucky that I took Friday off as well.
So this is me making up for lost time, writing a few posts, catching up on my reading, and just generally enjoying a few days off work!
Spring has sprung, the grass is green, and baby fish are hiding in the filter unseen
I’m such a poet. Well, a week or two did go by without new babies hiding in the filter, but 15 new ones this weekend pretty much make things average out. With our 3 oldest babies out in the wild, we still have 40 or so others now in two separate baby boxes. Getting the latest 15 out of their hiding place in the filter was a bit of a challenge though. As soon as we opened the tank, they slid themselves between the filter foam and the glass, and any attempts to pull the filter away from the glass just sent them further down. Pretty smart for days-old fish!
I’ve tried getting a couple of photos of the fish, but no luck so far. Aquaria are not very camera friendly. I’ll see what I can do though…
