Office Max!

Even more resourceful was his insistence on keeping the family pencil factory going while he struggled for sustinence in the woods. Why pencils? Well, he was a writer, and this was the middle of the 19th century, before typewriters came on the scene. In those days pencils were big business, and siting one close to sources of timber and charcoal was a surefire guarantee of success.

He used to push so hard when he would write that you could read the indentation of what he wrote like 3 pages down! Funny thing is, Ben holds the pencil the same exact way Darryl did! Pretty cool. I love seeing the ways that Ben is like Darryl.

On sale at Best Buy on Nov. 1st is the Office Space (Special Edition Gift Set)

If this is anything like the stuff you get over at www.redswinglinestapler.com, I’m alllllllll over this. We bought a friend in the office their fan kit for a going away present when he was promoted, and it was great. You can only get this through bestbuy’s website though, apparently. Here’s the link.

I finally realized it was over when I visited you last week. My expectations were low. I knew I wasn’t going to see anything amazing, either in product or price. I just wanted a memo pad, the kind with a spiral binding on the top that sells in the school supplies segment of a supermarket for 59 cents. I went to the notebook aisle, and there was a messy pile of “premium” memo pads that were too bulky to fit in my note holder. Mixed in with it was a single, Staples branded notebook with a yellow cover. I took it up to the front.

Now, if I was using the new Froogle Mobile, I might have discovered that the price difference was negligible and that I should just walk out the door with my new purchase. Even better, I might have found out that Office Max, which was right next door, had the bag for less. As a searcher, that’s one nifty tool.

So what’s the thing customers like about Microsoft products? they’re not cheaper, they’re not better, they’re merely more nearly ubiquitous. Walk into your local Best Buy to look at a digital camera and the clerk will assume you have a Microsoft PC. Try it: go to any consumer electronics store and ask for the Linux software that goes with whatever they’re selling -you’ll get nowhere unless you’re a masochist who enjoys being condescended to by a snotty clerk.

So very early on I decided that a fax machine was a worthwhile investment. I went with the Brother Intellifax 2800 plain paper laser fax/copier. It has been supplanted by the Intellifax 2900 which is the same model lineage with a few more features.

Off to Office Max we go! Pull up to the store…”OH look! Lots of up-front parking!” YAY! Park the car and head in with our buggy. We’re ON A MISSION! Find notebooks for 49¢…get 2 cases, that’s 48 notebooks! YAY! We find staplers, paperclips, pencils, elastics, scissors, stickers, pens, and a whole buncha other stuff on sale. No crowds. No kids darting here and there like heathens! YAY! We’re feeling great about all of our purchases. I even purchased a computer book for myself. Lovely shopping trip. Got a gob of stuff for $150. Shove the items in the trunk and we’re off to home to wallow in our array of school supplies. We are feeling good!

Since it is Labor Day weekend, my labor is to pull a clean sweep on my office, specifically the closet. It’s chock full of said office supplies, various cables, music, electronic gear, and a plastic sword. So far I’ve managed to pull it all out into the middle of the room so that the place does look like one of the hapless souls on TV. I’ve got a picture here, and hopefully will be able to post an "after" shot by mid-week.

You know I have nothing against Microsoft….. but the current CEO is a complete moron. I was over at www.digg.com messing around when I came across this gem: John Battelle’s Searchblog: Ballmer Throws A Chair At “F*ing Google”. Here is a quote from the article:

The emphasis on midsized businesses is interesting since the big news at the event is the launch of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 and Microsoft Office Small Business Management Edition 2006.

At any rate, Hubby still has a small office there, mainly just for his computer to check grain markets and stuff like that. She does the same thing to him - shoots out of the house and sits there randomly chattering while he's trying to work. It doesn't matter if he's on the computer, or if he's out in the shop, she wants to talk. About Everything. She chatters like a magpie about people he doesn't know, doesn't care to know, and could care less about. He said once she uses more words to say less than anyone he's ever met. That's pretty accurate. But, hey... WYGD?

My boss has this habit, every now and again, of sitting right next to me - at a table a few metres away - eating his lunch. It’s highly annoying - and sometimes nerving….. I think its his way of getting away from his office space… erm… Its nice weather outside - go sit out there… I dunno!!

Bette Francis, director of human resources for Strategic Products & Services in Cedar Knolls, N.J., started conducting Google searches of job candidates six months ago. So far, she hasn’t found anything bad. The blogs she has seen have given her insight into the candidates’ communication styles, work ethic and expertise. “It’s another piece of information,” she said.

Today in the President’s office I was assigned my first real duty (besides the innate duty of taking the mail and answering phones) of making copies. I know the special copy code! And it was de ja vu because I used to use the big copy machine at Lindsay. So let’s just assume I had absolutely no trouble figuring it out.