1:20 p.m. - 2004-02-15
White Collars
My oldest son arrived yesterday, babies in tow, for a visit. Lots of play time and I read a chapter of "the Prisoner of Azkaban" - 3rd book in the Harry Potter series - out loud for them. I was having difficulty speaking up, because my lung was still a little bit sore. I searched the Air Canada website and found a section dedicated to discussing medical issues Flights just to see what they advised for avoiding further problems. Turns out that the problem is a lower air pressure than normal - rather than higher as I had postulated - and the recommendation is to bring one's own oxygen. Certainly. I also found out that the width of the seats on our flight were 17" - how does one get that fixed?
It was strange at the workshops we were in at training. Everyone kept complaining they couldn't hear me. Now THAT is something I had never heard from anyone before no matter how large the group. I am not loud, but I know my voice carries well - otherwise how would six boys have been able to deny that they hadn't heard my directions for chores, while at the same time showing up for supper on time. On the last day of classes I was even given my own microphone - not that I talked THAT much. The whole issue really had me stumped but now I understand it, I guess.
When I arrived home I found that I had over 300 e-mails waiting for me. A lot was spam, but all the e-zine subsciptions I had were piled up waiting for my reading pleasure too. Five e-sites of note stayed with me. The first is from one of the space watch services. Apparently there is a comet coming very close to earth now visible near Venus in the western sky. It will be closest in May but then it will be below the equator. Comet. Next up was a site that collects photos from people who travel on the airlines. Subject - the food. They solicit photos from travellers so others can see what they are likely to be offered to eat Food. Two sites had investigative overtones. The first is a site where Canadians can contact security agencies like the RCMP to report white collar crime such as fraud, embezzlement, securities violations and other similar activities Crime. The second site has to do with internal memos leaked to this webmaster from major companies all over the world. Want to know if layoffs are pending in your company? Check here. Memos. One of today's newspapers carried an account of the capture of one of the chief terrorist leaders in Afghanistan by Canadian troops Taliban. Given the daily bombing attacks on troops there it is good to know that some progress is being made in that direction. However, the caution is that Afghanistan has been occupied by various large and powerful nations for nearly half a century and each has left defeated because of the prowess of the guerilla fighters who live in and strike out from the mountain hideouts all over the country. Complacence isn't wise.
Today is set aside for dealing with my finances and those of my staff. We have to submit claim forms and I have to set budgets for the work we need to do next. During our training, the lecturers apparently invited our staff to drop into our homes anytime they wished to practice working on our computers. My AC told me about this during lunch the second day and looking at me with a bit of a grin said - "Did they let you know they were issuing open invitations for access to your home?" No they didn't - let's hope they aren't issuing any other such invitations either - what next offering people access to our bank accounts too. Fortunately I have staff who respect my time and personal life, but it is an issue that is becoming more of a concern.
In other workshops that day we were instructed to give staff going door to door to enumerate voters, copies of the List of Electors to show to landlords so they could verify names and direct our staff to the apartments where residents have changed. Now first of all, the list is deemed protected and confidential - everyone who has access to it must swear an oath of secrecy and affirm that they will not divulge it for any other purpose. When those names are collected - either directly or through Canada Customs (income tax forms)- it is in writing on the forms that the information will be used only for voting purposes. Secondly, a new Federal privacy act - PIPEDA - came into force on January 1 that also forbids such actions. Even the oilpatch - which doesn't even spring for training for it's staff on critical technical information for its staff - has spent huge sums of cash paying high priced law firms to come in and train every staff memeber, including lowly contractors and temps, about the provisions of the act. Yet when I raised that in the session where we were instructed to release the Electors List into the public domain, I was told that we were to follow instructions given until advised otherwise. I gave them a day to consult with their lawyers and got the same response the next day. And governments wonder why the general population have so little confidence in them. I won't be instructing my staff to do that nor will the Electors' Lists be made available to anyone who isn't approved office staff or voting day staff, but it looks like I'm in the dog house again over legislation. Oh well. Where is the website for those issues?
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