Grumpy Blogs about life, dreams and Work

Calling all travel junkies - Another hotel booking Engine

Since I know you Travel Junkie spend most of your day at work planning your next vacation, take a look at EasyToBook.com.

True Story.

A VP of Marketing chewed a piece of gum at her desk.  The owner of the company came in and wanted to meet.  The VP said excuse me and wrapped the piece of gum in a Post It Note.  Incredulous, the multimillionaire boss said, “That’s an expensive wrapper for a piece of used gum, don’t you think?”  The boss was 100% serious.  The VP, being good at stupid diplomacy said, “Oh, sorry.  I don’t do it all the time.” The moment passed and they discussed spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisement for their luxury product.

Thinking about this, wouldn't it be nice if there was a Cheap Fairy?  The sole purpose of the Cheap Fairy would be to come out of nowhere at a moment like the one above and slap the cheap bast*rd in the face.  In the instance above, the Cheap Fairy would have to pummel the boss for a decade of so.

This is a true event.

A European company that sells expensive kitsch to America, and the world, is having a bad couple of years.  One day last week they made the difficult decision to lay off most of the American staff. This is how it happened.

The day began as every day.  People filed into work, settled into their rat holes, I mean, cubicles, fired up their computers, opened emails, got a cup of coffee, etc. Everything was business as usual.  Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise an announcement came over the PA. Who knew the company had PA system? After a couple test “coughs” and blowing on the microphone the announcement began.

“Your attention please. Everyone return to your desk and remain seated.  We are having lay-off’s today. To assure a calm and orderly dismissal of employee’s no longer needed, we request that you remain seated until summoned.”

6am – Sunday – Yuppy Town.

Woke with enough anxiety to kill an elephant this morning.  The lungs also hurt from to much smoke.  My shoulders are tense and there is an inability to focus on one particular thought for very long.  This is all due to dread of failure and the struggle to succeed.  Been busy the past week with business and Mammon.  The endless combat.  I just need a couple million in the bank in liquid assets so I can retire and go back to being a bohemian, or not.  So Bee can retire as well. The golden hand cuffs sure are shinny and pretty as they amputate your hands.  Look Ma.  No hands.  Squirt. Squirt.

A prospective client sent an information request.  I followed up with a phone call.  Turns He wants to build a web business for his wife to keep her busy.  She can’t decide if she wants to sell lingerie or children’s clothes.  I recommend kids clothes for a ease of marketing and to avoid the “adult” stigma associated with lingerie. Don’t get me wrong, I love Victoria Secret Models as well as the next Ogre, but from a marketing POV, kid clothes would be easier.  Anyway, the Ace on the other end of the line was having trouble walking, talking on his cell phone and opening a door “Hold on a minute, I can’t seem to multi-task today.” I heard keys and a door open. The man got back on the phone and proceeded to ask questions about how to start a business and declared that that everything his wife touches turns to Gold.

While on holiday, Choo-Choo shared a story from his work.  Some hypocrite tree-huggers have been raising a stink about his railroads diesel fumes.  At first Choo-Choo received many incentives from the state and local government to help spark economic growth in the region which has been declining for years.  He restored the abandoned railroad station and created numerous full time jobs which has helped increase tourism and industry in the region. Technically speaking, if you compare railroad emission vs tractor trailer emission, railroads produce three times fewer emissions.  But, now that there was a stink being raised, the state and town officials were being hands off...