ISO of a good employee, and sweet irony

As it turned out, the bad 20% overwhelmed the good 80%. So we are now in the market for a new assistant.

I turned to Craigslist, and while figuring out how to write a good listing, was entertained to read this in a job ad placed by another company:

"HS dilpoma required, BA/BS degree preferred. Must have extremly strong verbal and written communication skills - spelling, punctuation and grammer;"

The vagaries of international mail

China and the U.S. are among a handful of countries that have linked up their postal systems, so that a package from China can make it to the U.S. in a miraculous 3 days (less time than it takes the U.S. Postal Service to deliver something coast to coast here), and for not a lot of money.

The system works well most of the time, but sometimes not.

This week, not.

My current stressful situation: An important customer is freaking out about the color of a hat they have ordered, because they are worried it will not turn out to be the shade of teal they need it to be. We had the factory in China send out a sample on Friday, and it should have gotten here on Monday or Tuesday.

Unluckily, it got stuck at customs in Shanghai. By comparison, another package sent to us by the same factory on Monday is already in Los Angeles - and scheduled to be delivered today. The factory will send out another color sample today, but with my luck I bet it will not arrive until after the main shipment of 20,000 hats.

=*(

A new emoticon

Born as a result of a typo while trying to type the more well-known =(

I give you ... "crying face"

=*(