New Year’s Eve

Posted: Tue 31 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Change, Charm School, Cynicism, Festering Season, New Year, People, Resolutions, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

ScroogeUnsurprisingly, I don’t really do New Year’s Eve.  Partly it’s that whole “Everyone else does it, so I don’t” thing I’ve written about before on here, but primarily I just don’t quite get the whole concept. OK, we go from [old year] to [new year]. Big whoop.  I get it – or at least more so – with birthdays, the anniversal thing of being another year older. (Or, more pessimistically, the celebration of having got through another shit year)  But celebrating a new year leaves me cold – let alone the whole ‘resolutions’ thing.

I suppose it makes sense in a “The new one will be better than the old one” spirit of hope and optimism over [x] years of experience, although one assumes that leaves most people really quite disappointed.

I’ve never been a fan of it though – I did too many New Year’s Eves working in pubs, dealing with pissed idiots singing “Auld Lang Syne” and being all ‘love thy fellow man’ at midnight, and kicking the shit out of each other by quarter-past. New Year’s loses its happy glow when you’re sat (for the third year running) waiting for an ambulance by half-past.

I know, I’m a grouchy old sod. I accept that about myself, and try to stop it from affecting others, and their decisions.

All the same, I’ll be quite contented tonight to be at home, just doing my own thing.

Have a good one, wherever you are, and whatever you choose to do.

New Tyres

Posted: Sat 14 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised | 4 Comments »

Today, the Slab has had two new front tyres, from eTyres.  As I’ve written previously, I’ve done a goodly number of miles on them since getting the Slab, and I’ve no idea how long they’d been on the car before I got it.

While I’ve not noticed anything particularly wrong with the previous ones, I also don’t/didn’t trust them as much as I should. There’ve been little niggling ‘well, that doesn’t feel right‘ moments that’ve felt like momentary loss of grip – particularly at very slow speeds – and my previous history of tyre loss isn’t positive, so I decided it was time to get replacements.

For those who don’t remember, so far my tyre losses have both been fairly explosive blowouts, and both times in the outside lane of a multi-carriageway road. (It turns out I didn’t write about the second one, which was in August 2012 – I must’ve had my mind on other things!) In both cases, I can certainly tell you that adrenaline is somewhat brown.

So yes, with that kind of history when it comes to tyres failing at the most inopportune moments, I figured it was best to be pre-emptive and get them changed sooner rather than later.

The Slab is a front-wheel-drive car, so for now I’ve left the back tyres alone. (Yeah, I know, they’ll be the ones to blow now) I’ll probably change them early in the new year though – and I did get the nice man from eTyres to check them, just in case they were more chuffed than I suspected.

I’ve no idea yet whether the change will make/ have made any difference, but I certainly feel happier for having had them changed.

Marketing/Branding Bollocks

Posted: Fri 13 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, Creativity, Cynicism, Design, Marketing, Sweary, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

According to this article, Pantone (they’re ‘the colour people, don’t’cha know?) have decreed that this purple is “the colour of 2014”. (And fuck off, Americans, it’s ‘colour’, not bloody ‘color’)

pantone_18-3224_Radiant_OrchidNow, I like purple as much as the next person – I’d go so far as to say it’s probably my favourite colour. But

  1. This is not proper purple. It’s a kind of wanky lilac, at best. Hell, they’ve not even called it Purple – it’s “Radiant Orchid”, which might as well be a name made up by Dulux.
  2. You know, there are people who get paid for coming up with this kind of shit
  3. And there are people whose job it is to come up with names for paints. I truly hope they feel fulfilled and happy in their work. I’d want to be killing people.
  4. How the blue, blazing, fiddly fuck do you have a “colour of the year”, for shit’s sake?

All told it’s just marketing bollocks of the highest order.

Clearing Down

Posted: Mon 9 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, People, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from last week’s “Neighbourly” post about people getting rid of rubbish as part of the communal set-up of where I’m living now…

Normally on a Friday someone will empty the bins in the office, make sure it’s all sorted and ready for Monday morning. We don’t have cleaners etc., it’s supposed to be a team effort. So – who does it?

Put it this way. I wasn’t in the office on Friday.  My bin – and all the others in the office – are overflowing with rubbish this morning.

Thanks guys, way to build a team…

(And yes, when I got home at 10pm-ish last night, I was the one putting out the bin at home, too. *sigh*)

Christmas TV Clash

Posted: Thu 5 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, News, Television, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

ScroogeI don’t know why, but somehow it’s ‘news’ that major TV programmes will clash in their scheduling over Christmas this year. (And every year in the last 30 or so, I’m sure)

Now really, are these clashes something that will even affect most people any more? Since the advent of the video-recorder, we’ve been able to watch one programme and record another to view later. With DVRs/PVRs (Sky+, Freeview Boxes, TiVo etc.) it’s even easier, with two (or even three) recordings able to happen at once.

So – why is this a problem?  I know not everyone has such a set-up, but I’d guess that the great majority have something that can record a programme.  Plus there’s also all the VOD stuff (BBC iPlayer, ITVoD, 4OD et al.) allowing us to catch up later on anything that we do happen to have missed.

The only thing I can think of is that it screws the viewing figures for people watching [Programme X] right now, and viewing figures like that still seem to be the main reference point for how succesful a programme was. (And surely that has to change or be updated, with all the developments above?)

But still – does that make this newsworthy? Or should it really read “Newsflash : TV Schedulers Screw Up Again“?

Displaying Ignorance

Posted: Wed 4 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Education, People, Stupidity, Sweary, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

In my current workplace, there are a couple of people who seem to be almost proud of their general ignorance – which drives me crackers.

I don’t care if you don’t know something – even if it’s something simple – but don’t wear it as a badge of pride, for fuck’s sake. We’re an IT company, you should know at least how to Google stuff and find out – rather than broadcasting round the office that you don’t know (as per one recent example) what a mouth ulcer is.

The only thing that drives me more mental is when these people – so happy to show that they don’t know shit – then feel the need to talk bollocks about something other people in the office are discussing, even though they so blatantly know fuck-all about it. It’s funny in a way (and sad in many more) when they start spouting stuff that (again) a simple Google or Wikipedia page will tell you is wrong.

I don’t get why anyone would want to broadcast how little they know about something/anything. Sure, I will always say “I don’t know”, when I don’t, but that is usually followed with ” but I’ll find out”.  I know, I’m an info-geek, I want to know about stuff, and I know lots about a whole range of useless shit. I know that, and accept it about myself.

I realise other people aren’t like that, and I get it. What I don’t get is why, if you don’t know something, you don’t look it up online – in an IT company, don’t forget – rather than making yourself look/sound like a total ballbag to everyone in the company.

Maladjusted

Posted: Tue 26 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

As the nights have drawn in, obviously I’m driving home in the dark.

It amazes me how many people drive with either one headlight out (and in some cases both, which utterly baffles me) or really badly adjusted lights.

There also seems to be a newer trend for people driving on dual-carriageways and motorways with their full-beam headlights on, and refusing to dip them.

To me, lights at this time are just one of those essential things, and I try to make sure that they’re as safe and sorted as possible. I just don’t really get why so many other drivers don’t seem to think that such things are important.

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