Ranting

What on earth makes us think that customers wish to read pages and pages of our company's history (when we ourselves can't read through it)?

What makes us think that as long as we fill a proposal with gobbledegook and make it 100 pages long (thereby rendering it completely unreadable), it's alright to paste the exact same paragraph and diagram in multiple sections?

What makes us believe that proposal writing demands the unconditional surrender of both, the English language and logic, so that under the header "Project Management Methodology", we are compelled to write, "This section explains ____'s Project Management Methodology"?
And what makes us think that "project management methodology" as a part of a sentence is deserving of proper noun status?

And finally, why does nobody responsible for writing these proposals ever think about these things?

I think that the Indian offshore IT industry is in severe need of good communicators who:
a. Can write in short, clear sentences.
b. Approach communication from the customer's perspective, asking not "What do we want to showcase?" but "What would the customer like to see?"
c. See the function of communication as clarifying a point, not obfuscating it, and weigh content by substance, not by the pound.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh.

Puppies!!!

So Puffle had pups. 7 of 'em. We now have, therefore, 10 dogs at home. This is my dream come true! It's like Santa's making up for lost time, for all the years over which I wrote to him, begging for a puppy because I had been "a good girl this year"! Of course, the fact is that I'm not home now, so :(

But still. Isn't this awesome?

Now let's all say it together: Awwwwwwww!

PS: Much as we'd like to keep them all, we will have to find homes for the pups. If you know of anybody in Calcutta who's looking for a Labrador Retriever and who will meet our high standards in fit-to-be-honoured-with-one-of-our-babies-ness, please let me know.

Free Hugs

This is awesome. Here you go - with a hug attached.

Courtesy of N.

Home Life

A long day of delayed flights, pointless trips, power outages and cancelled meetings. I arrived at Charlotte at 2:30 and took the 3:10 flight back. One would think that people would wisen up and get generators or something.



Back home, to work for the next couple of hours, while Pollini plays Chopin's Preludes & Etudes just for me.



Meanwhile, here are some pics.

Murphy Lives!

So I finally gave in and decided to buy some furniture, so friends could choose to sit somewhere other than on the floor. After weeks of research and a couple of trips to IKEA, I purchased the stuff and arranged to have it home delivered. Couldn't wait to set it up.
But...
(And you just know that there's a "but" to this story, right?)

Murphy is laughing hysterically from his perch, somewhere. Because

a. Instead of the chair-sized futon I wanted, IKEA sent me (and charged me for) a sofa-sized futon. But just to taunt me, the cover they sent was for a chair-sized mattress.

b. My sofa arrived in three boxes - frame, cushions and cover. But, without hardware, without instructions, and most importantly, without arms or legs. IKEA informs me that "the arms and legs come separately, you have to buy them separately." Naturally. How stupid (slapping side of my head in self-flagellation) of me not to have specified that I'd like the arms and legs with the sofa too, that I don't want to just lean the frame against the wall.

Aaaaarrrrggghhhhh.

A Week In The Life

Sunday
Late night conference call.
Monday
Early morning conference call.
Work till 7:00 p.m.
Late night conference call.
Tuesday
Early morning conference call.
Work.
Flight to Cleveland.
2-hour drive to Erie.
Late night conference call.
Wednesday
Early morning conference call.
Meetings.
Late night conference call.
Thursday
Early morning flight to Cleveland
Run km in Cleveland airport to different terminal for connecting flight due to depart in 20 minutes.
Work.
Late night conference call.
Friday
Morning meeting an hour's drive away.
Work till 3:00 a.m.
Saturday
Work 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

This is not a life, it's a disease.

Snow and Sunshine

For no other reason than that it's wonderful to be out on a crisp day like this.