Birth Rights
Posted: Wed 11 April, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts 8 Comments »I have to admit that I find myself feeling quite unsympathetic towards Natalie Evans, the woman who has just lost her case (for the fourth time) to be able to make use of embryos created with her partner of the time before she underwent treatment for cancer.
Now yes, I’m sure that it’s ‘preferable’ to have a child of your own, and all that jazz, but at the same time she appears (in this case) to be quite obsessed with the matter – to the extent of wanting the child of a partner she’s split up with, because they’re the embryos that are available. I can kind of understand wanting to have your ‘own’ child, but that- to me, anyway – is going too far, to attempt to legally force your ex-partner to become a father, even though he no longer wants anything to do with you. To drag it out for six years makes it sound even more obsessive.
In my own cynical mind I also suspect that any child this woman had borne would be an utter hellspawn , because she’d wanted it so much, its every whim would be catered for. Of course, that’s just me being cynical, I’ve no proof of it.
Nagging
Posted: Thu 29 March, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Technology 3 Comments »While I have to admit that in general we’re both pretty pleased with the TomTom satnav unit I bought earlier in the year, there is one thing that I wish I could change.
TomTom operates in what I refer to as “Goldfish Mode”. Much the same as the voiceovers in Masterchef (Sorry, Masterchef goes Large, god help us all) and Dragon’s Den, TomTom assumes you have- at best- a memory span of thirty seconds. Which means you get instructions like
“In 500 yards, turn right at the roundabout, first exit.“
You get to about 100 yards from the roundabout.
“Turn right at the roundabout, first exit“
You get to the roundabout, and start to go round it
“Take the exit“
It drives me insane, and a lot of the time I find that it’s actually distracting, because you start to wonder if you’ve missed something relevant.
All I want is an option on the menu that says “Just notify me of the directions ONCE” that I can tick, and not be treated like I’m a bloody idiot. I know, lowest common denominator and all that bollocks, but jesus, just once, can’t something also have options that aren’t for that low-end user?
Take the Hint
Posted: Wed 28 March, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Weirdness 1 Comment »While we were away last week, Radio One were doing a big promotion about getting someone to join the cast (pardon the pun) on Castaway, the BBC’s latest attempt at ‘reality’ TV. Within the promo, there was one person from the existing cast who was quoted as saying
If I walk into a room with ten people in it, eight of them will hate me within ten minutes
Now maybe I’m missing something, but if that were me, I’d try taking the hint, and realise that perhaps I’m not the nicest person on the planet. I’d do something to change it.
But no, this nong sounds quite proud of it…
Dropping Calls
Posted: Thu 22 March, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »Sometimes you just have to wonder how people have managed to live so long.
It’s amazing to me, the number of people who still seem amazed that calls to/from their mobile phones drop out when they’re on the train. Every time the call drops, they take the phone away from their face, and look at it in amazement, as if it’s never happened to them before. Ever. Not even ten seconds ago.
And even then, they don’t get the concept. They call back, start talking again, and bong, the call drops. You’re in an area of shit reception, you moron – it won’t change in the space of ten seconds. (OK, in fairness, it might – but the odds aren’t good, let’s be honest) As always, it’s not rocket science – but it might as well be.
Even more traumatic, of course, is when they call back, and the phone won’t connect. It has no reception, you moron – look at the little icon with the radio mast, it’s got no fucking bars on it! But that’s a horrific concept straight out of the eighteenth century, isn’t it. No mobile coverage? Where are we, the moon? No. Norfolk. The county that motorways forgot.
Late Amendments
Posted: Wed 14 March, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Photography 2 Comments »Gah, there are times when I’m such a twonk, it’s unreal.
I’ve just redone some things on my photography portfolio site, having decided (once I’d uploaded a whole bundle of photos at one size) to change the image sizes so that the site looks better. And now, having re-uploaded all the photos that were there before, and some extra ones as well, something else has just occurred to me.
Fortunately, this one isn’t likely to involve me having to redo all the uploads, and I can change things around primarily using PHP.
But it’s still one of those blinding moments of “Ah! That’s an idea! Why didn’t I think of it earlier?” that can be awesomely annoying, even when they are a good idea, even if it’s one I should’ve had like two months ago.
Crosswords
Posted: Tue 13 March, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »When I’m travelling on the train, at least once a week I sit near a person who does various crosswords. They’re nothing heavily brain-straining (Actually, that’s just my estimation of the things – I’m sure other people do find them more difficult) as we’re talking about the crosswords in magazines like ‘Take A Break’, ‘Bella’, or whatever.
Anyway, what makes me think every time is that this person gets out a crossword-solving thing (Kind of like this device) where they type out the letters they’ve got, and it returns a list of possible words. And they do this for a good three-quarters of the crossword.
Now maybe this is just me, but where’s the fun in that? If you’re going to do the crossword, fine, do the crossword. If you’re at the end, and completely stumped, fine, use something that’s supplemental to your own vocabulary, brain and/or literacy level.
But somehow using something like that device to answer all the questions, rather than figuring them out for yourself, well I don’t know, but to me that just seems like cheating. But maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.