Quiz me do!

I found a new website the other day and it’s just my kind of thing. A gazillion quizzes made by various people and in different formats. There’s a daily email quiz with random questions which I’ve been doing rather well on.

The registration is pretty straightforward, it’s free and you can compete against me (well, compare your scores) if you follow this link to the site. It’s called FunTrivia, which about sums it up.

Right, I’m off for another round of film questions.

How to make a Manx cat

Some sad news, I received from Anni – the wonderful, wonderful woman who’s looking after my little kitties while I’m away:

Am taking Ed back to the vets today to have the rest of his tail removed 🙁

He is still frightened of it, and chewing and scratching at it. I did try taking the collar off him – a few times – and even let him outside, in case part of it was boredom. But even out in the garden you could see he was petrified of it. So the poor little sod will become a manx cat today.

Also – how to make me feel like a very bad mommy! KK has lost some of her fur around her back legs, where she has been licking away at it. She didn’t seem distressed when i touched it, so she wasn’t in pain. I took her to the vets too, and he asked me if she had fleas. I said no, I hadn’t seen any, nor had I seen any flea dirt (which is all completely true). He picks her up and says “Oh look, there’s one on her leg,” and there was a bloody flea! Seems she is allergic to flea bites, so they are both on that stuff you put ont he back of their necks. I felt awful!!!

Easier than typing it all in for you lot! I’d just like to say that Anni is in no way a bad mommy! Fleas are a bugger to spot – I worked in a vet’s for a year or so and I know this for a fact. Ed’s tail isn’t her fault – just one of those things.

The fact that she’s getting so worked up and worrying about them tells me that she is the bestest kittie mommie in the world and I can’t thank her enough for looking after the pair of them for so long.

Anni, thank you.

Want a job – don’t post your "sickies" on Facebook

Fears As Online Info Used To Vet For Jobs screams the usual tabloid-esque Sky headline. It’s not quite that bad but I can say that my current employers do indeed trawl Facebook and the like looking for information on prospective employees.

The thing is, it’s common sense. If you go posting stuff in a public forum along the lines of “I went out on a right bender last night. Must have had 18 pints. Sick as a ****** this morning, so I rang in and told them I had ‘flu” then you’re asking for trouble. People are still in the mindset that what they post online has some kind of confidentiality. Well, it doesn’t.

Using the above example, someone could (and should) be disciplined by their employer if they were found out. I can guarantee they’d go mad about work “spying” on them. But had the same person said those words out loud in the work canteen and been overheard by their manager, would they be as annoyed at the “earwigging”? Or more at their stupidity at being caught?

I also find it hard to believe that 60% of 14-21 year olds think their online data is somehow transient and can’t be dug up in the future. Leave stuff on a blog and it’s there to be found, even if you delete it. There are numerous websites archiving the internet and they can often even have old versions of web pages that have since been erased or altered.

Basically, don’t be a ****. Whinge about your work. Complain about your manager. Point out the flaws. I personally don’t think anyone can complain about that. After all, you could do the same thing at the pub. For some reason companies react very badly to people badmouthing them on web pages, but don’t have a problem with you telling all your friends by mouth.

Thing is, this is a two-way street. If companies would listen to their staff then perhaps they wouldn’t feel the need to badmouth them on Facebook or wherever. Conversely if someone does mouth off and a manager finds it online, why not take them aside and discuss the problem instead of the kneejerk reaction of sacking them forthwith?

I may be a while…

Apologies to those of you waiting for posts or to catch me on MSN / Skype. I’ve just been sooooo busy the last week or so I’ve not had the time. MSN hasn’t even been clicked on because if I do, I know I’ll end up talking to people instead of getting stuff done.

I will continue to update when I’m in Chamonix around work. I know I have web access because I’m in charge of it… I just don’t know what my spare time will be like and so on. Do stay tuned and do continue to email – I always reply!