Chrissy received a promotion, and a raise for the new year. Good to know that her values - including her Oracle skills - are appreciated by her employer.

Other then her, I'm employed by a company that enforces equal opportunity employment. This means that being a white male, affiliated with SQL Server, doesn't get you a promotion. Neither does it justify a raise.

Now the challenge: Find the two mistakes in aforementioned statement.

Glad to know that I'll be a member of a protected minority, soon. And if I'll be retired before that happens, I could still accept Chrissy's offer. At least she'll get a hire-a-friend bonus.

Norm enhanced his season's greetings with an Einstein quote, while Scott sent the perfectly fitting message from his cubicle in 122. Joining both, and listening to David, inspired the following dialog:

Weight Control to Major Tom: What have you done lately to enhance your BMI into the next adjacency?

Major Tom to Weight Control: Everything.

Weight Control to Major Tom: Can you grow, for achieving normal parameters?

Major Tom to Weight Control: Will stretch.

"Krawatten sind für Männer das, was High Heels für Frauen sind." (Christian Louboudin, Designer)

Und Schuhe sind für Frauen die Voraussetzung wofür? .... ( Stojan weiß es :-) )

What was supposed to be my annual birthday party turned into a farewell event. Although the invitation had not mentioned any specific purpose - or because of that absence - everybody came. The house was so crowded that we actually ran out of glasses, an issue which had never occurred before.

100% response quote, 100% attendance quote: I wish any of my marketing managers would have ever achieved something similar. But that would be an unfair comparison - the guys only did their job, as good as they could.

Anyway, it was a really pleasant evening. Unpurposeful it turned into an IT Summit: Dell, HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems, all sitting at one table - invited by Microsoft, and under the mandated protection of KFOR. Funny coincidence.

This was the last event in a long series. The tradition of these very private networking meetings dates back 15 years, and I hope my guests loved them as much as Karin and I did. Now it'll be up to the next generation to define the rules of that big game called 'business'.

Farewell, my friends. Hope to meet you in the Pacific Northwest sometime in the future.

It's been a cumbersome - and pretty expensive - endeavor. But today, just before my annual IT network party starts, a courier delivered the L-Visa for myself and my significant other. As a result, I'd better start packing my stuff now: Goodbye Lenin!. Now: Sailing to Philadelphia. Then: Into the West ...

I'm wondering if I will be eligible for electing Arny for president before I retire. Maybe he needs to marry Jackie first. At least that combination seems better then the couple currently running (or was it ruining?) Germany.

I'm supposed to attend a new management program. As a mandatory preparation, I have to provide my bio and additionally request four words from some peers. The app for capturing the bio crashed, with a fatal error, and the peers are unable to open the form for providing the words. Very funny, but normal when you replace brains with automated systems.

On the same day I was approached by the Chair of the Operations Program Management Discipline Leadership Team, who informed me about ... something I don't understand. Although I've no clue what that was about, I really love that title of the guy. Pretty close to supercalifragulistic.

Nobody had warned me that April Fool’s Day was to be re-scheduled in Redmond and that I’m part of the pilot.

Oh, you're wondering about the title of this post? That's easy: I'm making a fortune by filling out forms that nobody reads. The content must not be meaningful, and I have to reach out to as manypeople as possible. If I impact others and convince them to also fill-out forms - in time - I will be promoted. One thousand induhviduals sending their forms under my supervision may get me the title of Senior Chair. Help!

Holger Appel meinte gerade (Auf falschem Terrain, FAZ, 18. 12. 2007) zur Intervention der Bundesregierung bei der sog. "Rettungsaktion" für die IKB:

"Die Zeche für den verfehlten Einsatz zahlen die Steuerzahler. Die fünf Milliarden Euro Staatsgeld sind weg."

Irrtum Herr Jourhnalist: Das Geld ist nicht weg, es hat nur jemand anders. Seit Jahren immer wieder der gleiche Fehler. Geld verschwindet nicht einfach so - höchstens Schwarzgeld. Kann man nicht endlich ein Quentchen BWL in die Standardausbildung der Journalisten aufnehmen?

Abgehsen davon: Ist es denn wirklich so verwerflich, dass die Bundesregierung mit Ihrer Sparpolitik auch die Bemühungen amerikanischer Häuslebauer unterstützt? Hatten ihre Vorgänger ja schließlich auch mit russischen Häuslebauern getan.

Trying to head for the airport, for commuting back home. Traffic situation is a mess - actually that's nearly overly optimistic, given the momentary status. I hadn't seen Black before - and Red already takes more time then I could afford if I'd want to catch my flight.

Getting this information on my cellphone is nice, but doesn't really help.

C'mon, guys - move!

Craig Wilson wrote an amusing and thoughtful piece (Life can work out, even with you head in the clouds) in yesterday's USAToday. Worthwhile reading, my favorite quote:

"For some odd reason, they seem to think I might have the 'answer'. I want to tell them that that most times I don't even have the question. Don't they know the older we get the less we know?"

42 - that helps a lot :-)

The big hairy boss recently attended a great management training. I don't know if that's related, but a few days ago he let me know that I won't need to attend the whole conference, definitely not spend all my precious time.

Today, first day of the conference, just after lunch, he borrowed my car - and hasn't returned yet. That's a good way for making sure the peon contributes some value to the conference: Reduce the number of alternatives :-)

"Once you start looking for money, you stop thinking about education."
Mohamed Shaik, quoted from 'News In Depth', The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 2007

And for some unknown reason, this entry (and another one) wasn't published by E-Mail on the original date :-(