Nataly

I used to have a boss that would take everything on himself, support his troops, et cetera. You could always count on him - he had the respect and admiration of everyone below him (but not above). Of course he never got far in his career, sadly... I've also had bosses that dump everything on their subbordinates. You can count on those people to do whatever it takes for their own career advancement, even if it means stomping on others to get there. Sometimes it works, sometimes people see through this and *nobody* respects them... Shame to see that some people make it on the back of others... And that some people sabotage their own careers for the sake of subbordinates (who aren't always worthy of the sacrifice)... I hate office politics... Even though I know they are a necessary evil... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

First off, glad to hear you decided to go to HK

^^ This. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I used to *love* Christmas as a kid... We didn't get much in the way of presents, but it was the one time per year we got to see uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents... We'd play board-games and card-games and exchange jokes - it was great fun. Now that people have stopped "hiding" all the family tensions "for the kids" the whole thing is a lot more of a chore Would be really great if the cycle could start again when (if) we all start to have kids... Some of my best childhood memories are of Christmas spent with family. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

The only people who are likely to ask questions are the ones who know you well enough to notice you weren't wearing it before and suddenly it's there... You won't have to explain to perfect strangers, nor to your closest friends - the first won't care; the latter will already know. So the question is: are you happy to give a relatively personal response (or an outright lie) to people you're not that close to?? "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I am probably the one with the least amount of jumps to brag about... A big, fat, ZERO in 2012... Nope... This year, I concentrated on: - Buying a place on the French Riviera - Becoming an independent consultant - Getting better at tolerating the French!! Reckon I should *at least* take up paragliding so that I get some time in the air... Not quite the same, but I'm in a good area for it, apparently. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I agree with this. Working things through (or not) is a very personal decision, and depends not only on circumstances but on the people making the decision. With the limited information we have, it's impossible to give relevant/precise advice, except for some of what has already been voiced so far: think about how *you* feel and whether you are *both* prepared to work through it. If you do decide to work on it, maybe you can see this as an opportunity to revisit the relationship as a whole - not just this single incident... Try to both think about what does and doesn't work in the relationship, and what needs to be done to "correct"/improve this. Take each-others' feelings very seriously. Unfortunately, I'm not saying anything excuses his behaviour, but he might turn around and accuse you of neglecting him, not being supportive enough, et cetera, et cetera... It might seem crass for him to say *anything* negative about you at this point, but he might have some valid issues with you too. Here is the most difficult part: if you really care about this relationship, you will need to make huge efforts to take in his point of view as well... Hurting him back or "punishing" him or ignoring the things he needs from the relationship is not a recipe for relationship success, irrespective of what he has done... It might make *you* feel better, but it will almost definitely hurt the relationship further. If you choose not to stay together, well, then do whatever helps you heal... If you try to make it work, know that sadly, it's NOT up to him to grovel and apologise and fix all the damage - because even if he bent over backward to do EVERYTHING possible to fix things, it also takes quite a bit of effort on your part to accept his apology and forgive him and move on... Whatever you decide, it's not easy. Hang in there. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Of course each situation is different, but generally speaking I think cheating on someone is very disrespectful, and it's a huge betrayal of trust... Does he know he broke the relationship? If he does not appreciate/realise just how much he hurt you, it's a bigger problem than his infidelity. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Soooooo true!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Each year-end naturally prompts me to reflect back on the last 12 months… Sometimes in search of explanation, sometimes to digest what has happened, sometimes with a view to a hopefully better “next year”. LESSONS LEARNED… FEELING GOOD/BAD Winning streaks make you feel great, and bad luck makes you feel like a loser, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s better to play a long game… At least it evens out the highs and lows a little! MONEY The more you have, the more you spend. You never really have “more money.” You just have more expensive crap you don’t really care that much about. If on your death-bed you are disappointed that you never owned an Aston Martin, I bet you led a very disappointing existence indeed… DOING WHAT YOU LOVE It may not bring riches, but it’s very likely to bring you happiness… Personally, I would rather pursue happiness than cash. CHANGE It never turns out to be as dramatic as you imagine. In fact none of life’s trials and tribulations are as impossibly difficult as you might think. Or maybe I just have a wildly overactive imagination… WASTE I know a certain amount of waste is inevitable… I just feel very strongly that in life you should try to leave things in better condition than you found them. You should give a little more than you take, you should appreciate things that are rare and precious, and you should take care with the people/environment around you. Not everyone agrees with this philosophy, but if some people waste more than they should, some of us have to waste less in order to strike a balance. And isn’t balance one of life’s greatest achievement? ON FINDING BALANCE The older I get, the more I think this is important. Excess of any kind I can think of is unhealthy. I know this is a grossly simplified statement, but I really believe balance is the key to happiness, peace and serenity (if such things exist!)… ON LOVE Well, it’s a beautiful thing. Not the blind, ignorant, passionate lust you feel as a teenager, but the deeply rooted affection you feel toward someone when you know they are just as human and flawed as you are, but you wouldn’t change a thing about them. I don’t have that many people that I really truly love, so they are all the more precious to me. They bring a richness and a joy to my life. I am lucky to have them and I hope that they know just how much they mean to me, and just how much I respect and appreciate who they are. ON LIFE IN GENERAL I over-stress. I know I over-stress. I hope I will someday properly realise there isn’t that much worth stressing about. And then I hope all that useless stress and negativity will go away!! Because the worse thing I do when I’m stressed is take it out on other people. And that’s never good So if I did have a resolution, it would be this: less stress and less negativity. Hopefully one good thing will lead to another and another and another... Hopefully the impact will be felt a little farther than just in my life... In conclusion... HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! May your 2013 be better than your 2012 – even if 2012 was as AWESOME as mine was! Hugs and kisses and all that crap!! xoxoxoxo N@ "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I love my parents, but I sure am glad they are safely on their way back to Canada!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

In what way has sexaholism been devastating? Has it been due to your choice of partners? Or the damage done to them? Just curious... No need to answer if it's too personal. My *.holic? Probably workaholic. Also not good because I don't much care for what I do for a living - it would be easier to understand if I worked in something I felt really passionate about!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I've never met a woman who seemed to actually think they could "improve" their man... I *have* met a lot of women who second-guessed themselves and kept thinking *they* were being intolerent, and actually the thing(s) they can't stand about their man is not as bad as all the wonderful things about him... I've certainly seen this in abusive relationships, where women think "but aside from his anger issues, he is all the things I want in a partner"... It's not black and white... Certainly, I constantly go back to all the things I love about him, and I freely admit that this line of reasoning often means I am tolerent of things I should not let pass... But then again, I can also be a massive pain in the ass, so if he is also being tolerent, at what point are you no longer making "normal" compromises and suddenly being a "doormat"? Where do you draw this invisible line?? Personally, I struggle with this. My boyfriend is AMAZING, but some aspects of his personality *really* bother me. Are they deal-breakers?? I don't know. Can he change them? Not likely. Anyway, changing those aspects of his character would imply the loss of some of his great traits as well, and some new and different things I wouldn't like... Ya can't just take away one thing in isolation... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

They are friendly games, not "tournaments"... The only person who takes poker seriously is my bf, and even he knows *these* games are just fun (as opposed to when he plays online, for significant amounts of money). It's just like someone said: for €10, you spend a great evening with friends and beer, it's cheap and fun entertainment. Since I started, I make it to about every other game, so I estimate that in total I've played about 10 games or so. People give terrible pointers (or no pointers at all), because most of them only play these games and don't even really have a strategy. My learning curve hasn't been all that great because I'm more interested in having fun than winning. The stakes were higher the other day, so clearly *everyone* was more interested in winning, but none of the other 14 people threw a hissy fit when they made the mistake of going all-in pre-flop with only ok-ish cards. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

At my skill level (which is not very high), one of my biggest assets is that people think I don't know what I'm doing (they're not entirely wrong). So I'm all too happy to play up this fact in the hopes that I get enough good hands (or enough good bluffs) to come up on top. It's not a great strategy over time because I'm not that good at bluffing and not that lucky either. Last night I got some extremely lucky breaks, I got a couple of decent bluffs in, and I threw off a couple of people into making some bad decisions. I shouldn't have won, statistically, but I did. And dammit, considering my skill level, I'm pretty happy with how I played. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Thing is, I know he knows all the odds of the game and I also know he thinks I bluff all the time with absolutely nothing to bluff with (nothing on the table that could amount to anything). The truth is that I almost never fold in the beginning because I want to see what is on the table. I almost never bluff when there is something too obvious on the table (it's too obvious). I tend to bluff on hands that are unexpected because I also tend to win on hands that are unexpected and it throws people off. I'm very good at having an AWESOME hand and slowly suckering people into going all-in, thinking it's their idea... They assume I have no fucking clue what I'm doing... The truth is that on average, I *don't* play well, but after playing the same people for a while, I know some of them will play big if tempted the right way. I tend to lose a lot of small bets but then clean-out players who think they have a better hand or just think I have nothing at all. Personally, I think against a weak player, they make big mistakes, and sometimes I manage to use this in my favour. He's right though... Statistically, I shouldn't have won... But also, he shouldn't have gone all-in when he did. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Every week, we play poker... We put in €10 and at the end the winner takes 70% and the second best gets 30%. I have been playing for about 5 months now... I'm not very good, but sometimes with a bit of luck I come close-ish to the last players. Last time I won, much to the annoyance of my boyfriend, who claimed loudly that I played terribly and ended up being very lucky. This time, as it is the last game of the year, we played with more people, for more money... I won again, and again my b/f is being a sourpuss because I supposedly played a rotten game but still somehow managed to win. All night all his friends kept saying "Nat, do you realise you've won??!". And I down-played it... The truth is that of course I had some very lucky hands... But overall, I think I played fairly well. And I'm totally delighted to have won after soooooooo many losses... Why can't the b/f just be happy that I won??? "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

18:00 http://mcetv.fr/news-express/1912-nice-une-partouze-geante-pour-feter-la-fin-du-monde "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Damn You think you got it bad I maxed out my cc. Who cares?? What use will money be when you are dead??! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

here in Europe they are organizing huge orgies , for example in Nice (not to far from Nataly's place) I *swear* I didn't organise it!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Another question from our e-card person. How does she then attach the swiffy file to the e-mail? (Sorry if this seems like a dumb question.) "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Our e-card person has just said: "I’ve seen this one. Unfortunately it allows only files up to 1024kb and this one has 1300

Our company is trying to send out an e-card with a video in the message, but the video is flash, and this means that iPad/iPhone, et cetera cannot read the video Some google research tells me HTML5 format is the way forward, but how do I imbed/convert the file so that it's appropriately small and viewable by people receiving it on their phones/androids/computers... HELPPPP!!! (Please give instructions in a dumbed-down version so technophobes like me can follow!!) "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

It takes some getting used to, but it is delightfully playful and full of humour - I *love* this about the English

"I'd love to stay and chat but I'm having an old friend for dinner." "You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?" "Man, I'd like to put my face in there. Right in there. Tartar sauce. My hips are cold. Tartar sauce. That's when you know its cold. I like eating pussy. Tartar sauce. A lot of guys don't. Well maybe they do. Maybe that's just black guys. Tartar sauce. What happened to the guy who was trying to fly around the world in a balloon? Did he make it? I should put some espionage or stolen plutonium in my novel. Tartar sauce. Spice it up. Neil Young. Fuck, its cold. Neil Young. Wh-why am I thinking about Neil Young. Neil Diamond. Neil... Theres not a lot of famous Neils. Is this Wednesday? I wish I had two dicks. I thought the whole family was going to learn Spanish together this year. That never really happened. I haven't had a Spanish omelette in a long time. Here we go." "Dave Spritz: I got the job. Robert Spritzel: New York? [Dave Spritz nods his head yes] Robert Spritzel: That's terrific. That's a remarkable income. That's more money than I ever made, that salary. Dave Spritz: Yeah. Robert Spritzel: That's quite an American accomplishment." So many lines from Caine's character in The Weather Man... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss