Online Training Makes for a Chaotic Day...

Well, we never did get our bad weather here in Cincinnati. The freezing rain was gone by morning due to some extremely gusty winds that dried up all the moisture. This was good news for driving, bad for the very distant hope of a snow day. The winds, while quite nice to listen to while tucked up warm in my bed, disturbed the pups who bolted awake anytime a gust hit the house during the night.

We also had a slight emergency when the fibreglass cover over my outdoor pipes unsecured itself from the house and started to blow across the yard. I ran out in my boots, pajamas and coat and secured it but, needless to say, at 5:30 a.m., this meant I wasn't going to get much more sleep.

It seems that many of my friends to the north had bad weather and thus had a snow day. I tried not to envy them as they posted on Facebook. I could have used a snow day just because I had completely forgot until I got to the office that my boss had signed me up for online training not long after I started and the training was...today.

This meant six hours of my day were to be spent listening to a lady walk me through a PDF presentation about how to be a recruiter. If I'd have done the training when I first started, it would have been very helpful. However, having been in the job for over three months now, much of the training was more of a, um, "well, duh!" type of situation.

It also didn't help that I had to keep the phone receiver glued to my ear for periods of up to an hour and a half without a break. My ear is still hot from listening to the lady talk. What made it worse was that there were these periods when we had to read some of the worksheets before we could move on. It really only involved skimming. I did this in two minutes. The lady gave us eight minutes of radio silence before we could move on.

On the plus side, I could multitask. While I was training, I scheduled one candidate for a follow-up interview, got feedback from another candidate about his interview that happened this afternoon and also got the good news that one of my candidates had been offered a position.

This, on a normal day, is considered pretty good activity. I'd say that since I was multitasking, it was pretty darn good activity.

After the training finished, I had a ton of work to do including talking to my candidate who had the job offer. She's an Indian lady who is very nice but as is quite typical in her culture, defers to her husband. This meant that I had to talk to her husband and tell him every detail about the job as well as negotiate her rate with him. He ended up agreeing which means his wife will accept the job. This was my first time dealing with a husband. I've been told it will happen many more times.

I finally left the office late only to discover it was snowing. I took time to turn my face up and greet my favourite white frozen substance before I got in my car. I'm glad I did that because by the time I got home, I had an email from my boss with a new job opening and a strong suggestion that I start working on it tonight. He also sent it to my fellow recruiter. Thus, since I got home, I posted the job on Monster.com, posted it on my Linked In profile and contacted seven potential candidates.

I'd like to think I'm done now. The pups are feeling neglected. My Szechwan chicken stir fry needs to be prepped and cooked and, well, I'd quite like to sit down so I can enjoy "Friday Night Lights" and "Top Chef."

When I look at my day, it's probably a very good thing it wasn't a snow day, really. Even though the idea of sitting at home, doing very little but enjoying the excuse to do very little sounds nice, there's something to be said for having a good, productive day at work. There's something else to be said about having to come home and work for a little while and not minding.

I find this to be a pleasant realization. I find it even more pleasant that I can say after three months of learning and working, I actually love my job. It's been a long time since I've said that and it feels really good. It definitely makes up for not having a snow day.

Since it's still winter, I could still get my chance at a snow day. However, Punxatawny Phil might contradict that since he saw his shadow today and this means we should get an early spring.

Ah well, that would make a lot of people happy so I won't complain. I love spring as much as winter in it's own way.

Besides, no one said it didn't ever snow in the spring.

Happy Groundhog day!

Groundhog Day!

We're almost halfway through the week already.That would feel more like an accomplishment except the week is moving very slowly so far.

Today was Groundhog Day. I find that to be an odd tradition. A groundhog is woken from a coma-like state just to be thrust outside to see if he sees his shadow. When he's done, he's put away again. I heard that PETA was trying to stop the tradition and replace the groundhog with a robotic one.

Now, while I really don't get the point of Punxatawny Phil, the groundhog, it's a slightly more logical tradition that getting out a robot.

Ok, when I say logical, I say logical in the way that traditions often are; They don't make a whole lot of sense as time evolves but we still hang on to them as they slowly change over time. Take Christmas, for example. Aside from the obvious Birth of Jesus celebration, Christmas is a hodgepodge of traditions from all over the world, the trees, the yule logs, Boxing Day....when you dissect it, it isn't really a cohesive picture other than the fact that it is Christmas. Same goes for Easter, really. How else can you really tie a giant Bunny that leaves colourful eggs to the death of Jesus?

What it really comes down to is that Groundhog day isn't a real holiday. We don't send cards and to me, that's a pretty good marker of whether something is worth commenorating. If Hallmark doesn't make a Happy Groundhog Day card then it's not a true holiday. Though, by now, they very well might.

In truth, it's a pretty silly holiday. It's a legend- the groundhog sees his shadow and there's six weeks of winter left. Well, it's February 2nd. Traditionally, in Pennsylvania as well as most other places that have seasons, winter generally lasts at least until April, sometimes longer. Thus, we really don't need to wake a sleeping groundhog to tell us this. Especially given that there's always a shadow, as long as there's light coming from somewhere. It might be faint but there's usually a shadow.

So, while I feel like Punxatawny Phil probably could be left to sleep for, oh, say, six weeks longer instead of being forced into the light, it doesn't mean that I support the idea of a robotic Phil-The-Groundhog.

It seems a little silly to me, to be honest. The groundhog is a figurehead, a tradition. It doesn't really mean anything. Even if the groundhog didn't see his shadow, I'm going to take a wild guess and say it's likely there's still at least six weeks of winter left.

Which means that Phil could probably retire and we'd all be ok. We could still call it Groundhog Day, I suppose. Retiring the tradition would probably be slightly more dignified than celebrating Animatronic Groundhog Day. I mean, what if the animatronic version broke down and hundreds of children were watching? Even if it's as realistic as some of those creepy Fur Real pets you see in stores, the batteries could die and when the batteries die, so does the groundhog. Score one for Peta who protected Phil from being woken up but left thousands of children scarred for life because the groundhog "died".

Ok, that's the worse case scenerio, I admit. But it could happen.

I suppose what I'm really getting at is that if we are reduced to an animatronic groundhog, it would be a little pointless. Where's the meaning in that? With Punxatawny Phil, there's the ability to see a furry little critter with somewhat-scary-teeth who sleepily stumbles around for a moment, once a year and lives to celebrate his ongoing fame. He has a personality, even if it is a slightly zombie-like one. Animatronics are not the same. Trust me, I've been to Disneyland and ridden Pirates of the Caribbean many times and even though the animatronic figure looks quite like Captain Jack Sparrow and has Johnny's Depp's character's voice, it's NOT Captain Jack Sparrow and it's just not the same.

So, in defense of Phil, I say if PETA puts enough pressure on to replace the organic creature with a robotic version, it's probably not worth Celebrating Groundhog day. An animatronic version isn't that far off from being a computer in which case, why don't we just design an animation of Phil going out from his hole, seeing his shadow and returning to slumber? It'd be about the same thing.

You probably know that, shockingly enough, Phil did see his shadow again today. Just like he seems to do every year. I don't really wait with bated breath to find out if he will. To be honest, I almost forgot it was Groundhog Day until I heard about PETA's protests. My favourite part of Groundhog Day is the Bill Murray movie. My favourite moment is where Bill Murray, on one of his repeats of the day, enthusiastically recognizes his old classmate who is very annoying with a "Ned? Ned Ryerson?" and then punches him in the face. It's not as violent as he sounds but it's the joyful glee you see in Bill Murray's eyes as he does so that just makes you laugh. Most of the movie makes you laugh. There's nothing funnier than Bill Murray when he's in one of his insane moments of sanity like he was in "Groundhog Day" and "What About Bob."

I should probably watch that movie again. If I recall, they have a real groundhog in the movie, even if it's probably substituted for a fake one during the stunt scenes. If not, I'm sure PETA would have been on the case and the scenes would been dubbed with an animatronic version.

Happy Animatronic Groundhog Day just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Happy Wednesday!