Of Goblins and Horses

One of the resident eccentrics at Izzie's Friday morning public speaking group brought in this tasty little snippet

Izzie likes it so much that we had to share.

Sales Follies: Don´t Ride A Dead Horse!

-The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse,the best strategy is to dismount.
In many sales organizations, the heavy investment in existing sales practices makes dismounting unfeasible, and these creative strategies are adopted instead:


Providing motivational seminars, tapes, and group sessions, to encourage riders to stay on their dead horses longer.

Threatening riders with termination when they can´t get their dead horses moving.

Providing riders with stronger whips.

Determining how more successful organizations ride their dead horses. Then, adapting those methods as the company´s new "Best Practices."

Determining that riders who don´t stay on dead horses are lazy, lack drive, and have no ambition - then replacing them.

Appointing an intervention team to reanimate dead horses and assure that all riders are in compliance with approved riding standards.

Awarding professional certification plaques to riders who learn the best techniques to stay on their dead horses for long periods of time.

Reclassifying dead horses as "living-impaired."

Directing management to find new and better ways to inspire riders to charge their dead horses into battle.

Teaming several dead horses together for increased speed.

Donating old dead horses to a recognized charity, thereby deducting their full original cost. Then using the savings to buy new dead horses.

Proving that the reason for diminished sales results is a combination of macoroeconomic circumstances and increased competition from other dead horse teams.

Developing contests and incentive plans to reward the best dead horse riders.

Enacting a strict dress code so that their riders look "professional."

Prohibiting riders from purchasing and riding their own live horses since that is not in accordance with the company´s time-tested methods.

Promoting the most persevering of dead horse riders to manage and train new riders.

Or maybe folks would rather read the
( Plain English Version )

Moonshine and Monsters

Izzie slinks by for a quick squiggle before slinking off to do a bit of moon watching.
Was cloudy all day and we did not expect to be seeing the moon at all.
Tomorrow of course will be the usual moonshine picnic. Fine weather is predicted and not the downpours we have been having in the last week or so.

Was supposed to be baking some bread tonight but the Izzie has gotten lazy. Instead went and turned on the TV for our weekly fix of Supernanny. Oh the joys of Schadenfreude.
It’s strange - other than this one show - Izzie is simply not interested in the google box. Cyberia is so so much more fun. At least in Cyberia you get to tell your own story and read those of people you know instead of watching some one else’s made with the sole purpose of trying to make you buy something or at least to be dissatisfied with one’s lot in life no matter how good it is.

But Supernanny gives Izzie the joy of confirming her beliefs that hell is other people’s children. Being a parent is such a responsible and thankless task and also so damned expensive - it’s amazing that anyone still does it.

Today, the Izzie popped by the Lair to check if it is still there. Also had to find our way to that nasty net cafe. Silly Izzie slipped up on the constant vigilance and did not keep a check on the prepaid online hours. And at the stroke of midnight - well a couple of hours later - we got turned into a pumpkin.

Obviously we could not get back online with the Preciousss to put in our new code for the next prepaid batch of six hours so had to go someplace else to do it.

Also pottered over to the university shop where we got the Preciousss from. Was looking to see what nice toys were there. Told them about the arse holes in the Apple marketing department rejecting our claim for that $$200 student rebate on the Preciousss and Pipsqueak. They did confirm that 31st March is in fact the validity date for 2004 student cards so that therefore the Izzie should have gotten the rebate. If we bring in our rejection letter and stuff they will ring the buggers for us. Mind you - that is the nice sales assistant - not the sourpuss that the Izzie seemed to get lumbered with all the time who would have been far more at home in some East German department store.

So - where there is life, there is hope.

Oh and other news. Vernon and Petunia have safely arrived in Amsterdam. Amazingly it was not raining. That would be a first. So they were out walking when the Izzie rang and we got to speak to the Frog Princess ma and pa instead. They were impressed with Izzie’s attempts to corrupt her ickle niece with those nasty toys - a satanic pink bunny and Gollum like frog with snaky forked tongue. Oh and even a packet or two of chocolate frogs.

Green Slime

Izzie has just finished making her munchies for tomorrow's moonshine picnic.

Got 3 bags of basil at the markets on Saturday. Got the stuff growing in Petunia's garden but not at a rate to satisfy the Izzie's insatiable appetite for certain things green.
But since we also had some bunches of spinach, had the bright idea of mixing the two to make a batch of pesto yesterday. Will make the real unadulterated stuff tomorrow.

The usual tradition is to use big fat triangle Italian style bread rolls what they call panini here. But this time we dared to be different since we still have half a loaf of rye bread that needs to be finished.
So, the Izzie piles on the green slime, with smoked sundried tomatoes, shaved kiwi parmesan cheese (as good as the Italian stuff and half the price) avocados from the tree in Petunia's garden and all topped off with a stack of basil leaves (which Izzie uses like lettuce) and another recently acquired addiction - za'atar. Izzie has both the Israeli and the Palestinian versions so it will be interesting to see which one tastes better. And now we have discovered in a supermarket in Fremantle - big 500g bags of the stuff from Lebanon for a ridiculously cheap $$3.80. They claim that the main ingredient is thyme and it is obvious there is sesame seeds in there too. But we will not open the packet until we need to refill the old ones.

The only things we need to acquire now is our 'lembas bread' and camembert cheese. The bottle is already taken care of. In fact, these days some of the stuff in the weekly junk mail outs are so sinfully cheap. It is no longer even necessary to buy 12 or 6 bottles to get the good deals. Jacobs Creek are now offering 4 bottles for a mere 25 silver sickles which is pretty damned good considering it was not that long ago that one would have to pay ten for a single bottle and 8 if you were lucky in a sale. These days you can get much better stuff than that for ten silver sickles