Christmas Events

Posted: Fri 31 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Festering Season, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Bah, Humbug I’ve just been reminded of another of the down-sides of being in a “proper” job… The Christmas Do.

Over the years as a contractor, I’ve been able to avoid even being invited to office Christmas events, and that state of affairs has suited me fine. In fact, it’s pretty much the way I plan to keep on doing things.

But today I got invites to not one but two Christmas meals in work. I don’t plan to go to either – a useful excuse being the 40 minute drive home – unless forced, but I’m sure there’ll be other things coming up.

Bah, Humbug indeed.

Parking Policies

Posted: Thu 30 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness | 2 Comments »

I swear, I’m never going to understand some people.

In the new job, there’s a large staff car park – which is fine, there’s a lot of staff. There’s no space reservations, or team/department delineations on who parks where – it’s just “find a space and use it”. However, most mornings I’ll see people either:

  1. ‘Having’ to park in ‘their’ space (and/or getting annoyed because some inconsiderate soul has parked in ‘their’ space)
    or
  2. Driving round the car-park (sometimes twice) in order to find the “best” parking spot – despite driving past any number of empty spaces in order to find one closest to the office.

Me, I just use the first space I see. It’s simple. I’m capable of remembering where my car is in the car park, and going back to it when I leave the office.

So I just don’t really understand these little obsessions with having one’s own parking space, or with trying to find the absolute closest available space to minimise walking (one assumes) when you’ve already driven past umpteen empty spaces.

Just bizarre, in my (oh so) humble opinion.

In The Cloud(s)

Posted: Wed 29 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky | 2 Comments »

Is it just me, or does all the guff about “Cloud Computing” just sound like all the old thin-client and server stuff, updated for t’internet?

Maybe I’m a Luddite of sorts, but I have to say, I prefer my data to be somewhere I can control – not in the hands of Google, Microsoft, Amazon et al. If I want my data available “whenever, wherever”, I’ll put it on a USB stick/drive, and use it that way, thanks.

That’s all.

SkyTV, Carbon Neutral?

Posted: Wed 29 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, General, Green, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

Travelling behind a Sky TV van (sorry, their proper name is BSkyB, but who remembers that?) I noticed that they’re now saying that Sky is “Carbon Neutral”, according to the Carbon Neutral Trust.

And that’s just left me incredulous. Thankfully, I’m not the only one – as can be seen here, among other places. From that story, the following :

Sky’s carbon footprint has been calculated by measuring the CO2 equivalent emissions from its premises, company owned vehicles, business travel and waste to landfill. It claims to have lowered its site-related operational emissions by 47 per cent in the last 18 months and has also negotiated discounts for staff wanting to buy low emission hybrid cars

© Tech Digest 2008

So it’s not actually taking into account all the Sky boxes that are left on Standby overnight, let alone the Sky+ boxes etc. – and until it does, I for one would dispute the true “Carbon Neutral” status of Sky.

Dead Set

Posted: Wed 29 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Dead Set, Writing | Leave a comment »

I’ve been a fan of Charlie Brooker for a number of years now, so seeing that he’d written a series for E4 called Dead Set, I was always going to watch it. And knowing that it was based around zombies attacking the Big Brother set, well, that was just extra impetus – particularly when one bears in mind his normal acerbic views on the losers who take part in Big Brother.

The first episode went out on Monday, and it’s on every night this week. I caught up with the first episode last night, and it’s brilliant. Well, so long as you can suspend disbelief about zombies, of course.

I also love the way they’ve done the credits online instead of at the end of the programme – that’s another stroke of genius.

Bring Your Brat To Work Day

Posted: Tue 28 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Work-related | 1 Comment »

It must be half-term – there are a couple of people in the office who have obviously not been able to sort out child-care, so they’ve brought them in to the office instead.

Which, it has to be said, is really fucking annoying.

I’m not anti-child (well, not too much, anyway) but having kids blethering away in the background does not make for a decent un-disturbed atmosphere. Sorry, but it just doesn’t.

Shirts and Ties

Posted: Tue 28 October, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

After the first week in the new job, I’ve already been able to stop wearing bloody ties.

Basically, so long as I’m vaguely smart (i.e. decent shirts) then I can get away with not wearing a tie. Yes, I’ve got one in the drawer of my desk just in case, but for the most part I can get away with not wearing one.

I’m not the only one who doesn’t wear one – but I’m definitely in the minority. Not that that matters to me, I’m used to it.

All the same though, it’s good to not have to wear the damn things – I’ve never been a fan, and really can’t see that changing. I don’t mind wearing them for interviews or business meetings, but as an every-day piece of ‘clothing’, I just don’t see the point.

← Older Entries