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Needing a change from your current job?  

Please see the following job posting from Scootaround!

Senior Customer Service Representative

Our client is the leading provider of mobility equipment solutions to the travelling public in North America. They are searching for a professional and energetic Senior Customer Service Representative to join the Airlines Department at the Head Office in Winnipeg. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing superior customer service to clients within a team-oriented environment. This individual will use their superior communication and problem resolution abilities to be the first point of contact for this industry leading organization.

The Role & Objectives

The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated track record of providing exceptional and timely service to customers. The successful candidates will be responsible for effectively managing client accounts by responding to and finding solutions to client inquiries and keeping client files current. The Senior Customer Representative will also:

·         Prioritize client inquiries and address concerns in a sensitive and solution-oriented manner to meet expectations

·         Liaise and follow up with clients, airline passengers, manufacturers and vendors regarding all open claims and facilitate the claims process to resolve claims in a timely manner

·         Accurately obtain and document details relating to client claims and enter this information in the reporting system

·         Research appropriate suppliers and technical resources and negotiate with vendors to provide clients with viable options and out-of-the-box solutions to meet their needs

·         Promptly prepare purchase orders, work orders and invoices

·         Prepare and analyze detailed status reports and other claims reports

·         Operate the corporate pager on a team rotation basis to ensure optimal customer service at all times

·         Perform other administrative duties, as required

The Candidate & Qualifications

·         A minimum of five (5) years of customer service experience working directly with customers in an account management environment

·         Must be available to work 1:30pm – 10:00pm (Monday to Friday)

·         Creative approach to complex problem solving remotely

·         Strong proficiency with Internet Research and MS Office (Excel and Outlook) is required

·         Exceptional time management and communication skills (written and oral) is required

·         Experience communicating and negotiating with vendors is an asset

Our Client Offers:

·         An excellent benefits package

·         Fun, flexible, team-oriented environment

·         Comprehensive wage structure including hourly rate, shift premium and performance bonus

How to apply:

·         Please submit resume, cover letter and salary expectations to:  hr@scootaround.com

·         Only those selected for an interview will be contacted

Tobler - One???

One of the most iconic chocolate bars out there, and arguably the most recognizable as well, is the Toblerone bar.

Toblerone has a distinctive triangular prism/pentahedron shape.  It also reminds a lot of people of mountains.

Any way you look at it, this is one delicious chocolate bar!!

But, did you know that we've been pronouncing it wrong all these years?  That's right, it's been mispronounced for generations, and will likely be mispronounced for many more.

The correct way to pronounce it is TOBLER-ONE (Tow-blurr-won).  I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true!

Here's the story behind the name.....

Back in Switzerland when this chocolate bar was created in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, there was only one way to make it, with milk chocolate, nougat, almonds and honey (main ingredients).  Most people loved it instantly, and the saying of the day was "this is the one and only chocolate for me,"  Thus Mr Tobler adopted the Tobler-One mentality and name (minus the dash of course).

It wasn't until a few years later that other variations were added to the line.  But the name also offered a unique way to distinguish between the different variations.  Toblerone was almonds, Toblertwo was peanuts, Toblerthree was hazelnut, and Toblerfour was oats (I know, very odd).

It was around this time as well, when some new trading laws came into effect for Switzerland.  These new variations would not be allowed to be exported due to these laws, but the original recipe was still good for export.  Thus American and Canadian chocolate lovers were introduced to the Toblerone bar, but only this one kind. The North American people hadn't known of the variations on the original recipe, and therefore didn't put any thought to pronouncing the "one" at the end of the name.

And so it goes today, as people mispronounce the Toblerone name on a daily basis.

But don't worry, the current owners on Toblerone, Mondelez Internationa Inc are not complaining about our mispronunciations, as records sales in the last few years have put any thought of a Toblerone educational campaign out of their heads.

I wonder what their next variation on the traditional recipe will be?

I think Tobler may have also invented making up stories as well.  Not sure, but the above story may be evidence of that.  Or not.  Or maybe. Or whatever you want to believe or not believe. Yeah.

And as usual, here's some video links to take you out....


Chocolate Scrabble

Settlers Of Catan Cupcakes

Ducky Boys - From The Wanderers (1979)

Laterz

Smarter Than The Average.....American?

So, you think you've got some smarts in that thick skull of yours?

Well, let's see if you're smarter than the average American.

Take this quiz from Pew Research Center, and see if you are!

TAKE QUIZ HERE

Also, I've had the opportunity recently to see some YouTube videos featuring someone I know, Mr Paul McNair.

Paul has played in numerous bands over the years, and has finally made a few "Journey" videos.

He's such a talented singer and musician, he deserves to have a break and make it big some day!

Take a listen, and you'll see what I mean, and you'll be an instant fan!

Paul McNair - Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

Paul McNair - Faithfully - Journey

Paul McNair - Lovin', Touchin' Sqeezin' - Journey

There are 2 other videos - Stone In Love, and Separate Ways - but for some reason I can't get them to link properly to my blog.  So they'll have to wait for another day.

The others should keep you busy for a while though.

Laterz

Blackberry Z10

I had the opportunity to watch the live video stream of the Blackberry Z10 launch today. Thought I would let you know what I thought.

I like it.

Blackberry has introduced some new features with the Z10 which seem to be quite creative.

Here's some of the new features:

- Blackberry Hub - This is sort of a home base for all of your important apps, and social media. All are running in real time, and by swiping your thumb, you can see any one of them and switch to it. You can also see a list of the most recent items that have come in (twitter feeds, emails, text messages etc).

- Texting - BB has a "flick"feature where you can touch a letter and flick a word up into your chat. This would make sentences faster to type, and easier when you are on the move. BB has also added a translation feature for the texting, where you can translate what you typed into a number of other languages almost instantly.

- Blackberry Balance - You can switch between a "Work" and "Personal" section of your Z10. This means you can isolate apps that are only personal or work related in their respective sections. This will make having a work phone, and a personal phone unnecessary going forward.

- Blackberry Messenger - Blackberry has turbo-boosted their BB Messenger by adding a video chat feature, and something called Screenshare. Video Chat is pretty self-explanatory. Screenshare allows you to share your entire screen with the person you are video chatting with. I like that feature a lot.

- Blackberry Remember - This is kind of like a a bookmark tool and calendar all in one. Create folders, store items, and easily turn anything you're looking at into something you need to "remember" at a later time.

- Camera - The BB camera now has it's own effects section built in, and will allow you to edit photos to crop/tilt and save them once completed.

- Storymaker - This one is pretty cool. You can select any number of photos, videos, songs etc. Then Storymaker will merge them together into a multimedia presentation. Looks like a lot of fun. Remember all those wedding videos the Maid of Honor put together to show the happy couple over the years? Well this can accomplish that task in minutes. I can see this feature being very useful to people.

Blackberry also announced Alicia Keys as their new Creative Director. She came out and told her story of how she used to date Blackberry, then broke up, and now is back. She seemed very excited to be part of the company. Time will tell how she makes out in her new role.

Blackberry also mentioned it already has over 70,000 apps for the new Z10. It has apps like Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkedin , Kindle, Skype etc. And it's got Angry Birds of course. Plus it has the 8 major movie studios on board with content. And it has all of the major music labels on board.

My first cell phone was a Blackberry Pearl back in 2007. I thought it was awesome! But compared to cell phones today, it was a brick.

I like the Z10, and Blackberry is also comeing out later this year with the Q10 - which will have the classic BB keyboard for thos who still love the tactile version.

Here are the Specs for the Z10:

2.58 inches wide, 5.1 inches long, 0.35 inches thick
10 Hour Talk Time
Weight - 135 grams (just under 5 ounces)
Display: 4.2", 4 point multi-touch LCD display, 1280x768 resolution at 356 PPI
Software: Blackberry 10 OS
Memory: 2 GB RAM, 16 GB Flash, Hot Swappable MicroSD slot (up to 32 GB)
Processor: Dual Core 1.5 GHz

It also has 4G LTE, WIFI 4G Mobile Hotspot, GPS, Rear 8 MP Auto Focus Camera (5x zoom 1080p HD video), Front 2 MP camera (3x zoom 720p HD video), Bluetooth 4.0

In addition, it has Micro USB Slot, Micro HDMI Slot, NFC Antenna, Headphone Jack, Power/Standby Button, Microphone, Phone Speaker, Sensor Array, Notofication LED, Speaker Port, Pause/Play/Voice Control, Volume/Track Control.



You can watch the whole hour and a half video of the Blackberry Z10 launch at the following link: Z10 Launch



Now, as a competitor of Blackberry, Samsung has come out with an OLED display phone......which is flexible! Crazy! Check out their short video here:

And not to seem outdone, Nokia also has a prototype called the Kinetic which is also a flexible phone coming soon.

That's all for now.

Laterz.

Refreshing Coca Cola!

Because Coca Cola Rocks, and Pepsi does not....

Here are a few videos to help you choose the former to quench your thirst!!!























GO COKE!!


Laterz

Quit Wining.....

Recently I came across a cool picture of a winery. I dug a little deeper, and it turns out this was a picture of a place called Milestii Mici, in Moldova.

Moldova? Really? Who goes to Moldova? Who knows where Moldova is?

I don't mean to make light of an entire county, but news stories about Moldova are few and far between in my neck of the woods.

So when I came across this picture, and found out this place was in Moldova.....I had to continue digging.

Milestii Mici has the biggest wine collection in the world (1.5 million bottles conservatively). It's passageways and cellars are in the neighborhood of 150 kilometres (160 Miles) long.

That's just crazy!! If someone asked me how long the biggest wine callar was, I would tell them 1 mile long at most. I could envision a mile long corridor, underground, lined on both sides with crates and alcoves of wine no problem. I could think about, and really convince myself there mustn't be any other wine cellar as big as this one.

But I would be very, very wrong!

My wife's family comes from a city about 2 hours from my current location. So as we pack up the vehicle and head out on the highway, all I would see out of both sides of the windows, the whole way there, would be wall to wall bottles of wine!

Now, according to Wikipedia, just less than half of the entire length is currently being used.

Oh well, instead of 160 miles of wine, we've only got 75 miles worth.

Check out this video of this crazy place:



So who cares anyway? I'm probably not going to travel to Moldova in my lifetime. I probably won't get to see these vast tunnels of wine. So why do I care at all?

Well that's the beauty of the internet. It allows you to dream of vast tunnels of wine in Moldova. I don't really even need to goto Moldova now, since I've had the grande tour via on-line pictures. Reality-be-damned, I have JPEGs to light my path! So don't get down because you haven't travelled to far away places. Travel can be very expensive, and not necessarily as rewarding as you'd hoped. You can take a trip on the internet for far less money, and you won't have to worry abpout the hotel forgetting your wake-up call the next day.

And, here's a few videos to take us out....

Chad Vader Day Shift Manager "Surprise Inspection" S4 Ep8


Gangland - Crip Or Die ( HIstory Channel )


STAR WARS DETOURS™ Trailer


Elf-Funniest Moments


How data Network works WARRIORS OF THE NET (Full Version)


Laterz

Run For The Border!

As a Canadian, and more specifically, one that lives within an hour of the U.S. border, we tend to think things are less expensive in the States. And while in the past this may have been partially true (lower prices but a lesser valuation of the Canadian dollar meant things weren't always actually less expensive), it certainly has more truth today.

Today the Canadian dollar is trading above the U.S. dollar, so all of the lower prices across the border are definitely something to look at.

Now as a new father, I am more aware of the value of a buck these days. And I am learning how to stretch what we have.

That, along with the more recent changes to the dollar amounts we are allowed to bring back with us (duty-free), means that a run for the border, and subsequent shopping spree, is going to happen more frequently.
br> If we stay in the States for more than 48 hours, we can bring back $800.00 worth of merchanidise duty-free. And if my wife's perusing of online catalogues is any indication, we will be close to, or above that amount for sure.

Combine the shopping with some nice retaurants, and some entertainment (if time permits), and you've got yourself a short gettaway weekend worth the trip.


I'll leave you with a few things I've found on the internet recently that make me chuckle.



Laterz

World Of Warcraft!

Been looking at a lot of WOW (World Of Warcraft) things online lately. I never got into the game, but seeing some of the videos, and reading some of the info about it makes me wonder if I am missing out.

Today, since it's crazy hot out (and I will use that excuse here today), I will simply leave you with a few WOW videos for you to enjoy.


The Craft Of War: BLIND




Shake That!


28 Patches Later



Laterz