Veteran’s Week takes place from Nov 5-11 and this year Veterans Affairs Canada is asking Canadians to Make remembrance more than something you feel. Make it something you do. (2011 theme was How will you Remember?).

Shamelessly stolen from the Veterans Affairs website:

“Your challenge is to make remembrance more than something you feel. Make it something you do. There are many ways you can show that you remember and honour our Veterans.

• pin a poppy above your heart;
• attend a local Remembrance Day ceremony;
• follow Veterans Affairs Canada on Twitter;
• download the “We Remember” mobile app;
• listen to Veterans talk about their experiences;
• create a mashup and share it on the Veterans Affairs Canada YouTube channel;
• visit the Veterans Affairs Canada fan page on Facebook, write on our wall and share how you remember;
• change your Facebook profile picture to a poppy, write on your wall about how you remember or create your own remembrance fan page.”

In 2010 I decided to donate funds to friend’s Movember campaigns based on the number of poppies I saw people wearing as I randomly walked through Edmonton. In 2011, I expanded my list of charities to donate to (Movember, Kids Need to Read, Boomer’s Legacy, WoundedWarriors.ca and CaliCan Rescue Foundation). I haven’t yet decided who the beneficiary of my 2012 poppy count will be.

As always, I’m donating $0.10 to each charity for each poppy I see people wearing as I wander around Edmonton & Ottawa from the Poppy Campaign’s launch date until November 11.

I will be counting poppies on my way to work, at work, and running normal day-to-day errands (shopping, bill payments, etc.).

I know 10 cents per poppy doesn’t seem like much, but I’m since I’m planning on counting poppies for approximately 20 days and will be attending the Remembrance Day ceremony at the War Memorial in Ottawa this year, I expect the dollar amount to add up quickly. I’m optimistic; hoping to see far more poppies in 2012 than I did during my previous counting experiments in 2010-2011.

Why no donation to the Royal Canadian Legion you might ask? My husband and I are Legion members and donate to their programs throughout the year. I also have an annual tradition of purchasing a new poppy each day of the campaign. And Honestly? I suspect that the Legion’s poppy campaign will benefit more from my poppy purchase traditions than from my poppy counting project.

– side note –
In 2010 I also decided to try and collect photos of poppies on people’s jackets from the date the poppy campaign began until Nov 11. Instead of randomly photographing strangers, I asked friends and family to send in a picture of themselves wearing a poppy. Sadly, my collection was tiny and the project was a bust. I received less than 5 pictures of people wearing poppies.

I think I need to reconsider how I’m collecting the poppy photos.

After a day off to re-think my fundraising strategy – I’m back. I’ve decided that my personal goal is to try and reach $880 before anyone else on the team. In order to get there I’m going to need every one of you, my loyal blog readers (that’s at least 5 people, right?), to donate a few shekels to the cause. I’d ask my “Facebook friends” but apparently they’re already sick of my daily #movember status updates and not as friendly as they make out to be.

I’m also silly enough to agree to wear a fake moustache at work at the end of the month (or perhaps even while at a convention in LA in a few weeks) if I surpass the goal.

There might even be pictures.

Highlights of today’s begging post:

1. My goal is to raise $880 (more is always welcome) for Movember before the end of the month.
2. If I raise the $880 before any other member of my team, I’ll get a fake moustache and wear it to work.
3. If I raise the $880 before Nov. 20, I’ll wear the fake moustache at a convention in LA where friends and strangers will have ample opportunity to heckle me.
4. If you haven’t already please donate to the cause. Help in the battle to wipe out prostate cancer.

I’m going to pretend the glass is half-full today and assume I can make the goal. Cause I know y’all love me and support my charity works. That said, anyone know where I can get a fake moustache in Edmonton?

Some would say I’ve yet to meet a charity I didn’t like. While that may not be 100% accurate, I do seem to be getting involved in fundraising and volunteer work more often these days.

This month my efforts will be focused on Movember. What’s Movember you ask?

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues – specifically prostate cancer.

The money raised in Canada goes directly to Prostate Cancer Canada. Prostate Cancer Canada will use the money raised by Movember for the development of programs related to awareness, public education, advocacy, support of those affected, and research into the prevention, detection, treatment and cure of prostate cancer.

– Blatently stolen from the Movember website at http://ca.movember.com/about/

Like most women, I have no desire to grow a moustache. We pay good money to get rid of even the suggestion of a moustache. And, like my follicle challenged team leader, Landon, my husband is equally unable to grow a decent moustache. Not for lack of trying on his part. I believe the end result of his most recent attempt was nicknamed the “70’s porn ‘stache” for good reason.

You can donate to moi or my Movember team using your Credit Card or Paypal account. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Let the men wear their moustaches with pride and send me all your cashy money 😉

Once upon a time I had a very incompetent co-worker. One who spent hours each day talking to friends on instant messengers or surfing the internet, took 3-10x longer to complete assigned tasks than her brand new co-worker, and couldn’t follow written or spoken directions. My boss, co-workers and I did everything we could think of to get her work to meet the bare minimum standards. We were unsuccessful. Finally, my boss had a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with her and discussed her performance. She quit immediately. We could say it was in a fit of pique but honestly it was probably to pre-empt being fired by the boss.

So, now that my office mates and I have found new jobs and my former boss is gone, who does the department hire to fill in for D for the final few months of the project? If you guessed the sweet but clueless former co-worker treat yourself to a cookie.

I feel for D who must spend the next few weeks trying to train her. The re-hiring justification is that since she used to work with us she knows the software and processes. For the moment, let’s ignore the fact that she never learned much beyond the basics of the old LMS we were using and took weeks to complete a 4 hour assignment with less than 70% accuracy. The program converted to a new LMS a few months back. One that she’s never seen before. Every process in place when she was working for the dept. was refined or replaced with the advent of the new LMS.

I think they’re in for a rude awakening if they think she’s capable of doing even 10% of what D or Big Momma R used to do.

None of us should be surprised by this hiring decision as it’s a perfect representation of all that’s gone on in the past, but I have to admit, the absurdity of the situation is making us giggle on our way out the door.

You just can’t make this stuff up.