Digital vs. 35-mm

I covered the Georgian men's basketball team's exhibition game against the Ryerson Rams on Friday night and discovered that once I get my digital camera, covering sporting events will be much, much different.

Why?

Consider the following:

• With digital, you have a much better idea of light quality because you can see pictures right away. Although, I had no problems with lighting


• With digital, you don't run out of film. I thought ahead and bought a second roll, but I blew the first roll about seven minutes into the first half


• My 35-mm is way, way cooler than the digital. Aesthetically, I mean


• I imagine it will be easier to follow the play with a 1.8" LCD screen than through the viewer of a 35-mm


• With digital, you can take as many or as few pictures as you want; you don't need to worry about getting to the end of the roll to get it developed


• With digital, when you're trying to burn through the last six exposures on the roll in the last 15 seconds of the game and the God damned Rams tie it with a buzzer-beater, you won't be stuck with only one picture for the entire overtime period

All in all, though, I got some good pictures. I may post some later, haven't decided.

Psssst...

The lady next to me is talking to her e-mail. And she...is...pissed.

Mmmm...medium-rare Mike

I am off to find the blood donor clinic (I think it's in the gym; it'd make sense) to give blood for the first time in over two years. I last gave blood, according to my handy dandy card, on July 9, 2003. Of course, on July 22, 2003, I got a tattoo which knocks you out of the blood-dealing business for a year.

Now, I'm sure you're asking (yeah, like you care), why didn't I go sometime in the 427 days between July 22, 2004 and now? Because Canadian Blood Services has not been willing, until now, to work with my schedule. Come on people! I'm 80% of the way to a mug!

Alright, enough stalling, time to find the vampire clinic and kill a quarter of my gargantuan break today.

Various Barrie-related subjects

I just called a guy about an apartment that Carley and I went and looked at last week, but he wasn't home and doesn't have an answering machine. Hopefully he has call display. I finally get up the nerve to call the guy, and he's not home. Dang it. Dang it all to heck.

On other Barrie notes, I am beginning what is, by far, the stupidest assignment I have ever done.

It is for my Personal Selling (AKA three-hour block/doodle) class. It's too stupid to even explain; you have to read it yourself:

Assignment #1
Interviewing a Salesperson

This is an individual assignment where you will discover the challenges and opportunities facing professional salespeople.

You will identify your interviewee by
name.
job title.
company/organization.
Provide a description of his/her selling situation – the type of selling done, where it happens, and the type of customer.

You are to identify
the major components or parts of his/her job (for example, prospecting, researching, making presentations, training, service and follow-up).
what part or parts of the job are enjoyed most, and why.
the part or parts of the job are found least interesting, and why.
the aspect of the job that is most challenging.
what he/she believes are the most important attributes and skills for being successful in the job.

Your findings will be submitted in a formal, written report that is comprised of
· a cover page,
· a summary of the interview
· the report itself (please double space).

Professional appearance is very important.

As well as your findings, your report will contain:
a list of the questions you prepared before your interview to insure that you cover everything that you need to and also to assist you in appearing prepared and professional. This will not be a formal questionnaire.
a copy of the letter you have written to your interviewee after the interview thanking him/her for his/her time and consideration.
the salesperson’s business card.

These items will be included in appendices, which you will have referred to in the body of your report.

Due date: Wednesday,September 21, 2005 (12 noon)

(This assignment is worth 15% of your final mark)

The last part was edited by me, for the record. I just made it bigger and redder. That was worth 15% of this post.

Auto Show…be gone!

Today is the final day of the auto show. Thank merciful, bile-spewing Satan, it's over. I have now missed both of my business finance classes because I have been more than 25 minutes late and, really, there's no point in going at all once you've missed half the class. Plus, they're both at 8 am, so the extra sleep would have been really super.

Now, I've complained about this before, but for some reason, this year's edition of the auto show is bugging me even more. Perhaps it's because last year I really didn't have any early classes - whereas this year, it goes 8, 8, 9, 10 - or maybe there's still a little pent up hatred from last year, but this year has really pissed me off.

For those that decided not to follow that link up there, let me explain the magic and mystery of the Georgian College Auto Show to you:

It is a week-long show that takes up three of the largest parking lots in a school desperately in need of more parking and that closes the main entrance to the school. Which means, not only are there scalpers on the side of the road selling parking spots to the highest bidder, every bit of traffic has to funnel through two traffic lights to get into the sole remaining entrance.

SIDENOTE: Speaking of the traffic lights, for those that live in Orangeville, picture these traffic lights like Broadway at noon. You know, where you can get five cars through per green light because of how poorly they are timed.

SIDENOTE, THE SECOND: The cars at the show are all new cars, no classics, just the late '05 and '06 models. So, basically, what you're telling me is that you've closed down half the school for something that could be accomplished by driving along Maple View Road, stopping at the dealerships, and looking around?

So far, I've been trapped driving around in the parking lot one night because I was foolish enough to make sure a girl got into her car alright, and then got stuck inside of road blocks (I drove through one that was conveniently taken down, and then put back up once security noticed), and have missed two classes.

The first day, I saw the huge (seriously, 100 cars, easy) lineup at my exit, so I decided to bypass it, turn around at the next exit, and approach it going south on the 400. Apparently it was too early, because I forgot that the Duckworth exit is the last civilized exit on the 400, so I wound up driving halfway to Milton before I could turn around.

I probably wouldn't have fared much better had I waited in the lineup, as I did today, waiting patiently as drivers let other people in front of us because those other people didn't really feel like waiting. Then I got behind a graduate from Boris' House of Soviet Driving Instruction, who didn't really see a need to pull up close behind the person in front of him and instead left about two-and-a-half car lengths of room while people tried to cram into a left hand turn lane behind us.

All this, and, knowing this school and its impeccable accounting record, it's probably losing about $1.5 million.

Almost Made It...

I promised myself before this semester started (specifically, the night before) that I would make this a doodle-free semester. You see, I have a problem with getting bored in class, and doodling on the nearest piece of paper, thus completely, for the most part, ignoring what's going on in class. I made a pact that I would not doodle this semester.

That promise lasted six days. It would have been seven, but, obviously, Labour Day doesn't count.

I just got really bored in my Personal Selling class, seeing as it's three hours long, it's the last three hours of a six-hour block, and my class really has nothing pertinent to say (not the class itself, the people in my class).

It started off as a crude weapon, then because a mouth (kinda like Duckman's beak). From there, it became a dense cityscape, with what may or may not be the CN Tower in the background. I say may not, because I do not recall ever seeing the Bat Signal emitted from the top of the CN Tower. The city is also being overrun by what appears to be the bastard monster of a checkerboard and scaffolding. It may also have teeth, I can't tell what they are. Oh, and it's snowing. Or raining maybe. Nope, it's definitely snow.

Dear Georgian,

Why could you not purchase a softcover version of my Statistics textbook? Did you really have to buy the hardcover version which you are reselling for $120? Because I'll bet it would have been $30 cheaper and a lot lighter otherwise.

All the best,

Mike "$550 Less Rich" Fish

Check out this week's Post Secret.

Barbarino, where for art thou?

"Welcome back to Georgian College! Where's your first class today?"
"Um...I think it's in there..."
"The washroom? Let's see...yep, that's the right room number. Have fun!"

Kids' Letters from Camp

You must understand, this makes me very happy

Success!

Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill holding.

I don't think they're really sorry.

At least they're apologizing for the delay. They couldn't say that unless they were really sorry, right?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are still in a holding pattern.

Now for my favourite part of the show

I am now going to try and call Fido to cancel my cell phone. It has nearly been four weeks since I bought my new cell phone, my Fido phone has been dead for three weeks, and yet, I can still not get through to cancel my service. A little recap for those that I haven't complained about this to:

• Called 7 times to the number on my Fido invoices


• 3 "We are experiencing technical difficulties"


• 2 Disconnected


• 1 "Oh, I'm sorry, that division is not open on weekends" *dialtone*


• 1 "Oh, I'm sorry, this is actually the number you have to call"

I have now called the new number six times, and sat on hold for nearly an hour. The only time I have actually managed to outwait them (it's hard to do it when you're trying to do it at work and you actually have, you know, a job to do), they hung up on me. I was away from the phone (honestly) just initialling a piece of paper when they came on. The girl next to the phone picked up and told them she'd grab me, I just stepped away for a second. Somewhere in the eleven seconds it took me to get to the phone, they hung up.

And here is the absolutely brilliant part. I was on hold for so long because of an "unexpectedly high number of cancellation requests". I'll leave that with you.