Automatically Awesome

There were some IT changes at work yesterday and now the company servers will automatically add standardized signatures to the end of all employee emails. Here is what mine looks like:

I think I have always made my own email signatures before. Even though there is the whole 'common look and feel' rules for the Federal Government, I am pretty sure I just typed my own up. However, they have never been as pretty as this new one! (The social media icons included are live links and you can click the logo to go to the company website.)

Grammar Thursday

Compound Adjectives: Hyphenate two or more words when they come before a noun that they modify (adjectives), when they act together as a single idea. (Hyphenation is not optional punctuation in these cases.)

For example:
Our in house team of programmers
--- Should be: Our in-house team of programmers 
globally recognized development corporations
--- Should be: globally-recognized development corporations

Please Please Please Don't Text While Driving

This new campaign is from the USA, where the Ad Council collaborated with the office of the State Attorneys General and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to work at Texting and Driving Prevention. I was very happy 5 years ago when Ontario put a Anti-Texting While Driving law on the books, here are the details:

Ontario's ban on hand-held devices while driving took effect on October 26, 2009. The law made it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cell phones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices. The use of hands-free devices is still permitted, and drivers may use hand-held devices to call 9-1-1. 'Hands-free' use means that apart from activating or deactivating the device, it is not held during use and the driver is not physically interacting with or manipulating it. Actions such as dialing or scrolling through contacts, or manually programming a GPS device, for example, are not allowed.

In Toronto the police often do 'blitzes' where they focus on a morning to catch as many distracted drivers as they can, fine them, and send a message. I don't know how effective this tactic is, but I am happy that something is done occasionally about this very serious issue. Especially as the American campaign details that research that shows: You're 3x more likely to crash if you text while driving. The scary thing it also mentions is that a recent survey showed that 42% of young adult drivers are very/somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving. You can't! (I don't care how good a driver or texter you are - it is not safe.)

Tips to help you stop texting while driving:
- Silence is golden.Turn notifications off. The less you hear your phone, the less tempted you'll be to respond while you're driving.
- Out of sight, out of mind.When you're in the car, put your phone where you can't get it. A place where you won't even be tempted to look for it. No phone. No texting.
- Set that shit up. As soon as you get in the car, set up your hands-free and/or driving mode features and check that it is functioning properly. If your car doesn't come with Bluetooth, portable devices that attach to the sun visor are available. (Jason has one for the Yaris.)
- Designate a texter. Give your phone to a friend or have them use their own. Passengers get the privilege of texting while in motion.

Thoughts On A Tuesday

If I have to borrow someone's deodorant, as soon as I put it on, I no longer feel totally myself. Somehow, a small percentage of my identity is tied to my regular brand.

I think birds hold dead people's souls.

Most people I know who grew up in an urban centre don't know how to use high beams properly. Also, it seems like the flashing light to mean 'advanced green' is being replaced by arrows on traffic lights.

Announcing A New Professional Chapter

I made the decision in January to look for a new job and leave the BIA. I took my time, over 6 months actually, to find a good place and time to go. I wanted to focus more on communications and marketing again, but this time at a company instead of the public service. I was looking for better pay, an inspiring environment, and challenging work - in short, I was being picky. I still worked my ass off applying and interviewing at places but I was making a point to find something perfect.

And I did!

Because of a maternity leave vacancy, and some networking connections I have in Liberty Village, I was given the opportunity to interview at an amazing company that I have admired for years - Forrec. "Forrec is a planning and design firm that specializes in the creation of entertainment and leisure environments worldwide." Our focus is on Theme Parks, Water Parks, Entertainment Centres, Resorts, Retail & Mixed Use, and Museums & Science Centres. There are around 100 employees in Toronto (the office is in Liberty Village, and includes a pool table for employee use) who specialize in architecture, landscape, interiors, graphic design, and general creativity. I started on July 24 and have joined the marketing team for a year. I am completely enthralled thus far, and love it more everyday!

My Dad's Songs, P!nk

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.

My dad likes all types of music. So tons of songs remind me of him. Including this one:

P!nk - Perfect

He had a lot of P!nk's songs, but I always liked hearing that this one was on his playlist.

NOTE: After publishing this post, I noticed that I started it in the present tense again. However, it appears that I switched it for the past in the short second section of text. Normally I would correct spelling/grammar upon noticing errors after posting - but I am not going to with this one.

Dogs On A Caturday

Jason and I are looking after 3 dogs this weekend. (The littlest one is James', the black one is her brother's, and the larger one is her parents'.) Instead of invading Two's space for three days, we are spending most of the weekend up at James' parents' cottage near Collingwood, which they have graciously lent to us so we can look after the dogs somewhere that has a good yard. It is really quiet and relaxing.

Back To Blogging

As you may have noticed, I took a small break from Always Standing. My last post was July 7, and I decided to take the rest of July off as the summer started to get very busy and I developed a bit of writers block. I made a mental note to start blogging everyday again in August. (Mum says I should have announced this sabbatical.) I hope all my readers tune back in!