Weekends are Fun

• Thursday afternoon I flew to Halifax, then took a chartered bus to Cape Breton, for our annual Sales Conference. I'm not in Sales, but the Operations team was somewhat involved this year, so I got to go. Woo!
• Thursday night: drinking and dancing and ice-breaker signing of "yearbooks" so we could meet each other. The person who got the most signatures would win an iPod Shuffle.
• Friday: bus out to CEO's cottage in New Harris, bus almost gets stuck on the dirt road. In a big tent with no Powerpoint at all, vendors present, customers tell us what they want, we eat and enjoy the sunshine, and the CEO's dog barks a lot. That night, a lobster or steak supper, depending on one's preference. Yummy!
• Saturday: Operations splits off into our own group to talk about making ops better, then I run "The Amazing Race" for ten people. Great fun. Too much sun. Operations people are smart and finish my puzzles too fast. The winners have never seen the show. That night, a barbeque and awards ceremony for the top sales teams, etc. The very last thing awarded is the iPod. I win. Wooo!
• But the iPod is apparently on order, so all I get is a promise.
• The buses are loaded up, and I walk around for stragglers so that nobody gets forgotten and stuck 9.1 km from the hotel. I find no one, but am told that my iPod is just a short run across thje property. I run and get it, then run back. Lo and behold, I straggled. The buses were gone! So I sat and chatted with the CEO's daughter, and she promised to drive me to the hotel shortly on her way home (Sydney, 45 minutes away). I joined the party in progress when I got to the hotel, and nobody it seemed had missed me. :-)
• Sunday: up early, bus to Halifax International Airport, fly to Toronto, bus to Park'N'Fly lot, drive to Kitchener, pass out.

I'm tired now.

Survey: Was I Out of Line?

Situation: A non-close friend emails me, several of my friends, and several of his friends, with the current "boycott the gas companies" chain letter that's going around, encouraging a boycott to push gas to a cheaper price. I Reply All, with a short but polite rant about it not helping, and introducing the concept of Peak Oil. Acquaintance "really resents" my use of his email list. I apologize for his discomfort, and ignore all responses to my email (despite really wanting to get into it).

Full response text:

Sorry everyone, but I'm really happy to see high gas prices, and you should be too. Here's why:

- the world is running out of oil
- the air is being destroyed by smog from your cars and SUVs!
- and yet we still pay less for gas than we do for bottled water.

Many scientists agree that the world has reached what's called "Peak Oil," which means we've used up half the oil on the planet. Consumption is still growing 2% per year, which means we all have to think up *replacements* for oil, not protests. When it's gone, it's gone.

More info: http://www.thesharpener.net/?p=41

Cam

Emotions: I'm really pissed off by his response, but because of that mood I know better than to write back and fight him.

Questions: Did I do wrong? Did I react correctly in the end? What would you have done?

Why didn't I just ignore it? Because I've found that in the past few years I've gotten less and less activist and caring, and I ignore things too much. I miss being strongly in favour of or against things, and actually pushing viewpoints and debating things. Those debates drive leapfish round the bend, I'm certain. :-)