breakfast at AOL

okay so it’s not quite Tiffany’s but it is free. The first Friday of each month we get a batch of pastries and croissants put in each of our 5 kitchens. The idea being that we should go to a kitchen on another floor to meet others and have a mini power breakfast getting to know our colleagues.

Two points here, if we go to another floor then who is goint to greet the peeps who come to our floor? Also who is going to be on the other floors?

Another mind numbingly painful ‘aoltastic’ plan was the implementation of Picture ID cards for extra security. Now this for most companies means the company name or logo and a picture with your name and department. No problems? Okay well not here at AOL towers. No we have a plain white ID card with your picture on it, your name on it and in big big letters ‘STAFF’ now that couldn’t be more descriptive if they tried could it? Well okay it could.

Next we have the pi?ce de r?sistance – If found our ID cards should be returned to ‘Galeco Communications’ in Reading. Probably in an attempt to prevent terrorists stealing an ID card in the pub and then breaking our security front door seal and … okay here I stumble because it’s not like we have much worth stealing/destroying.

So now I no longer work for AL I work for Galeco. Confused?

Okay so I want to know who out there has ID cards for work with their company name on them.

ID Cards

Does

your work ID have your company name or logo on it?


Yes – Logo and/or Name

Yes – including address

No


Current Results

GayOL

I have a few minutes whilst my PC is virus checked for a new variant of the NIMDA virus so sped on over to salon to read a few articles I have bookmarked but never gotten around to reading. This story about AOL chat rooms being the sauna’s of the 70’s is fairly true to life as much today as it was when this article first appeared 2 years ago.

always on for some

I have just posted a rant comment on poor Jonathan’s site. In actual fact the rant was directed at BT but it was brought about by this post.

I *used* to have perfectly working DSL until a line fault with BT when they came to fix the line fault they said I was too far from the exchange and couldn’t tell me why it had been working perfectly up until the line fault. So they removed it 🙁

Uncharitable people would think it was because this was a competitor service [AOL] not BT’s own service…

I woke up this morning

I woke up this morning thinking I had had a bad dream – unfortunately I knew it was real. Seeing the pictures this morning of the rubble that was once the World Trade Centre I just felt numb.
Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund – Amazon
Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund – PayPal
Donate Blood – UK
Donate Blood – US
Emergency Information – On AOL Only

It was the Crusaid Walk

It was the Crusaid Walk for Life yesterday and I walked with the team organised by AOL and had a really good day. The route was a little wierd – sending 5,000+ people down back alleys and underpasses was not especially well thought out but It was all for a good cause. Had lots of fun and made a few pit stops along the way and bumped into a few people I haven’t seen since last time – or various other yearly events like Pride and Mardi Gras.
Spence came around afterwards and we caught up as I haven’t seen him in ages and then I headed off out to Clapham for dinner with Nic & Vianney, Andrew&Andy then off to the 2 brewers where the four of them decided to end my singledom. It was not the best night for doing so however and the only bloke worth interest was with someone else :o(

jacs recently wrote about gay

jacs recently wrote about gay men and women trying to
var naviagtorstring
navigatorstring = navigator.userAgent;
if (navigatorstring.indexOf(“AOL”) > 0)
{
document.write(“” + “build the perfect body“);
} else {
document.write(“” + “build the perfect body“);
}
and it made me realise just how body conscious gay men and women tend to be. I think I may look for a gay running club – I think I’m doing pretty well on my own but unless you train with other people you have no idea. Besides I may meet some new friends too.

the farscape marathon is on

the farscape marathon is on sci fi at the moment which is a huge dose of Ben Browder for your money :o) hurrah!

okay so if it isn’t people looking for nude pics of connie then it’s people who hate her that end up at my site. I wonder if it is Connie or if it’s AOL they hate – seems they actually hate ‘Connie AOL’ – a new brand from AOL Time Warner?

just got kind of freaked

just got kind of freaked by the
var naviagtorstring
navigatorstring = navigator.userAgent;
if (navigatorstring.indexOf(“AOL”) > 0)
{
document.write(“” + “activebuddy“);
} else {
document.write(“” + “activebuddy“);
}
when it came back with this little advert at the end of my movie review. “Tip: I know the Bible, from Genesis to Revelations. Type “what are the books of the bible” and I’ll list them.”

Just been smurfing a little

Just been smurfing a little as I have a bit of slack over lunch and a desk now too. So wandered on over to rateyourself.com and took their groups personality quiz. I always like to see how these things pan out – every test you take seems to make you something else. Although my previous employer had a test during the interview process and I have a copy of the results and it was scarily accurate down to exactly my management style, how I like to be managed, how I perceive myself and my team. Anyways I digress but then you are reading it and no one is forcing you to…
It turns out from this particular test that I am a diplomat – which most of my work colleagues could have told me without me having to fill out the form for the test!
“Sometimes leading, sometimes following, you choose your positions wisely according to the situation at hand.” I know this is why it takes me an hour to get around tesco’s anyway.

I am feeling kind of home sick today – well not really but I would like to be at home and relaxing rather than have to go back to the hotel again. I am getting so used to being in the hotel that the other night I took my shoes off whilst sitting in the conservatory bar and had a drink or too. Wandered off to the elevators later carrying my shoes and only when I was in the elevator and some woman glared at me I realised I was actually in a hotel not my lounge and other people may not take too kindly to my walking around in socks.
Another sign that I have been staying in a hotel too long is I have all but forgotten what cash looks like – I keep charging things to my room. I looked for a card to open the car too [i’m kiddiing with that last one] seriously though it would be kind of nice to not have to worry about keys :o)
It seems like I am the only constant out here at the moment, since dave, dave, dave and hugh left and then danielle and mags arrived and left and sheena and rachel and shaun have arrived and then rachel and shaun are leaving and graham is arriving – I am feeling kind of spaced out – but am getting to know a lot [an awful lot] about my work colleagues.
I have suggested to my boss that we move into DC for friday and saturday and stay at the park hyatt again as it was such a nice hotel – she thinks this would be a nice idea but I am thinking I may just change my flights and come home on friday or saturday night rather than stay in DC and then have to fly sunday and go into work first thing monday after a flight.
Also going to be flying to Dublin next wednesday night too so may need a day [or two] before work on monday to try and get used to new time zone, my flat, the flatmate etc….
That actually is the only thing I am not missing – the flatmate that is 😉 missing jack though – bought him a little bandana and some chew toys from Old Navy the other day – resisted the twee doggy tee shirts with ON branding though.

I have had to buy a new bag to put all my purchases in – spent a lot at abercrombie natch and also bought some DVD’s and books and picked up a few items for friends and colleagues who asked me and of course some GAP scents for andrew since they stopped selling it in the UK ages ago. Oh and some AOL branded goodies too for people back home who think it is cool since they do not work for the company. In fact so much so I had to check today on the Virgin Atlantic website what my baggage allowance was – I think I may have used my 70 kilos [32 kilos per bag x 2 plus 6 kilos for hand baggage] – which is kind of scary when you consider it. but since I am only 59.8 kilos myself I reckon I should be allowed more baggage allowance than everyone else :o) Either that or I will just beg to be upgraded to Upper Class who do not seem to have to worry about baggage limits…