Better late than never...

Although some may argue that and say never is much better. But oh well.

Julien is quite into his stock commodity research. He's always busy with graphing, sorting, downloading, searching, renaming and other strange and boring things. He got an e-mail on the 18^th that sent him into complete and utter despair. It turns out a place he purchased data from (at a non-exorbitant price) was shutting down. Someone had unexpectedly died (the cheek of it!) causing it's demise. He was very crushed indeed. Hard to believe data could be the cause of so much pain and anguish. However, that being said, it can also be the cause of total euphoria. The story follows...

All of you may not have been aware that the 18^th of February was a very very special day indeed. You probably went about your lives totally unaware of the importance that date held. I know I did. That is, until Julien grew extremely excited and informed me rather ecstatically of my total ignorance. :o)

It turns out that CBOT's (The Chicago Board of Trade) 2^nd incorporation had its 149^th birthday. Now Julien isn't sure, but he thinks it may have been spot on 2pm, which suits me fine because I like the number 2. However, I must add that he read that somewhere and isn't sure if the place was an authoritative source. So it could be wrong. Julien's much more pedantic and obsessive friend believes it was actually formed at 10:27am. Which I don't like because it reminds me of high school. 10:27am was when we went to morning tea. Albeit morning tea was great and all, but it was short and I'd rather not have been on the school grounds in the first place.

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Anyway, now that you're all feeling so much smarter (I know I am) I'll get to a very pressing topic. This is something that simply must be said. I can't keep silent anymore! Pens! WHY oh WHY do pens go missing all the time? There's something about a pen that just attracts people. It's like it has it's own gravitational pull and anyone within 2 meters of it will be sucked right in.
At work on Saturday when I left at 2:30pm, there were at least 5 pens lying around doing nothing in particular. When you needed one you just grabbed it and all was good.
When I returned at 6:30am on the following morning the only pen I could locate was the one tied by a portion of ribbon to our huge order book. When a customer came in and needed to sign their invoice for said orders, I had to hold this massive monstrosity up while they used the pen attached.
This method was proving extremely frustrating and a complete waste of time (as I had to stand there and hold the book while they signed instead of busying myself with other tasks). So at my first available chance, I went on a mission to find a pen.
I spent like 5 minutes rummaging around until I finally found one. I placed it on the register where it proceeded to sit, obviously feigning innocence when really it was plotting who it's next human target would be.
So Ruth and Jen arrive, followed by little Michael and Gabby. The pen is still there. Doing nothing in particular (or so you think). About half an hour passes. A customer requires their order. I hand them their invoice, turn to get the pen and....
GONE! No where in sight! Just completely vanished! I was pretty irritated. So it was back to the massive order book.

Later that afternoon I went somewhere with a pen. I sat it on the seat with my books and departed. I actually thought as I put it down, "Maybe I should put it behind my books." But no. I stupidly left it on top.
When I came back, wouldn't you know it? Gone. No more pen for Chikory.

This happens all the time. People are always on a search to find a pen. It doesn't happen with pencils, or pacers, or nikko pens, or texters, or even colouring-in pencils; Just pens. It's always the pen. What is it about pens? I don't understand.

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Now it's about time someone realised the importance of hygiene. I'm sick of going into public toilets and having to battle not to touch the taps, doors and the soap dispensers. Those places are a breeding ground for all sorts of evil diseases just waiting to infest your body and kill you from the inside out. I hate 'em. I'll avoid them wherever possible

At school they didn't provide us with any soap. If they had bar soap, the kids would flush it down the toilet. If they had pump soap, the kids would waste it and squirt it everywhere. So during high school I always had my own bar of soap in my school bag. I much preferred to go to the office to wash my hands though. It took longer, especially when you had to go during class. My fellow posse-member Katherine and I would go down there (you had to go with someone else because it was dangerous otherwise, or so the rule was), do our thing and then walk up to the sick room located at the main office. Mrs Smith would always be sitting there in the admin room next door and we'd say "Hi Mrs. Smith." She knew we were just being hygiene-conscious and was totally cool with our tooing and froing. So she'd smile and say "Hi girls." Then we'd wash our hands, leave and say "Bye Mrs. Smith." and we got a "Bye girls." in return.
Good times. Found memories....

Anyway. Have a squiz at this article:



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And now for something funny. My mum's British and this is her down to a 'T'. I've also inherited this trait (like you hadn't noticed).



Heh...