(No) phone survey.

I answered a call. After I said the company name, then my last name, the guy on the other end gave his name and company name. He said something about telephone research and surveys and such, with noises from a rather large call-center in the background. And before I could cut him off he just said he thought he had dialed the wrong number – and hung up.

Good boy!

Sales is an art.

As you all know I am looking for sales reps. However, if you know the art of sales this well, you are too good.

Im lousy when it comes to remembering birthdays.

And it seems putting them in my calendar is of no help, either. Sorry, Luke!

I’m corrupt.

47.8% sexually corrupt, that’s only 52.2 % pure (oh, and 15% weird) – found over at secretgeek’s blog

Rant on stupid anti-spam measures.

Tried to email a client, whose ISP is rejecting my mail on the sole ground that the hostname of our ISP’s MTA doesn’t contain the words “mail”, “mx”, “smtp” or “relay”. – Now: should we go looking for an ISP who uses one of those words in their MTA hostname, or should I recommend to the recipient of my message that they go ISP shopping?

Update: The client tried to email me. Message ended up in my spam folder. Their ISP’s MTA neither has a proper PTR record nor does the hostname they use in HELO point to the correct IP.

Comrade.

While walking from a training room to my office today, engaged in a conversation with a co-worker, I heard somebody holler my last name. When I stopped and turned around the guy said, “It is you. I was sure I knew that voice.” After a second I knew who he was, too. Though I don’t think I would have recognized him by his voice. – We were in the same unit during basic military training, 10 years ago.

Too lazy.

I answer a call from an applicant. Says he had talked to “a lady” about an interview. He’s wondering why she hasn’t called back yet. – I ask who he had talked to. – Says he thinks he might have taken a note but must have lost it. – I tell him he probably talked to Kate. – Doesn’t seem to ring a bell. Is she in? – No. But if she said she’d call back she will. – Oh well. Now he wants to know which company he just called. What it is we do. Our address? – My jaw drops. I regather myself. I ask him for his name, then end the call.

I send Kate a note. Position still open.

Bring your own coffee cup.

During a phone conference briefing for an upcoming date at a client’s location I was told that, if possible, I should bring my own coffee cup. They just recently moved to the new building and lack cups. – I’ll be glad to dig out the old aluminum cup I used for coffee back when I was in college.

On short notice.

Years back I built a rather large web application for one of my clients. Next to their own “premium” content the site relies heavily on a number of external web services. After the site was launched there was an occasional update now and then, nothing substantial and never time-critical. Until now. And now it’s both substantial and time-critical.

One of the web service providers will terminate the service within a week from today. There is an alternative available, but it uses a totally different data structure. We had actually replaced some of the old services over the years, but they all used an industry standard format, as widely accepted and in use as e.g. RSS. And it’s not as if they were just switching to Atom, that would be nice.

I’m under no legal obligation to jump, yet I would still like to do this job (they pay good money, and they pay timely). It’s just that I don’t see how I can fit over a day of programming into my schedule before next wednesday. – I’ll have to talk to my fiancée, I suppose; do the work over the weekend, then take her out to a sushi place.

Punctuation.

How many commas can you cram into just one sentence?