English
Posted: Fri 10 October, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky Leave a comment »Apparently, facebook is now available in “British English”.
Now, if that’s that case, does Facebook class its original version as being in “American English”?
I’d rather see the definitions “English” and “American English”, but I bet that one won’t take off.
Twats.
High Finance
Posted: Thu 9 October, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »The more that the ‘credit crunch’ continues, the more I realise just how much I don’t understand about finance, and the way it supposedly works. (Although “works” is a pretty loose term for it, in this context)
For example, I simply don’t understand how a country can continue to operate when it has a National Debt of over 10 trillion dollars. I can’t see any world where that makes sense. But maybe it’s just me being simple.
And I don’t understand how local councils can complain on the one hand about their ever-shrinking budgets, and how they’re going to have to make cutbacks to services every year, yet they can also afford to invest millions in an Icelandic bank. (For example, our local council has £12 million there, yet keeps on bitching that it hasn’t got any money, and that services have to be reduced)
I must be simple. I just don’t get how this can be seen as a working system…
All Caps
Posted: Mon 6 October, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky, Thoughts 1 Comment »Why is it that, even after more than 25 years of (even vaguely) generally affordable computers/computing, there are still people who think it’s acceptable to send emails written all in capitals? And particularly to do so in a business context.
I suppose that these people have just spent the last quarter-century living in a hole in the desert (or in Antarctica) with no clue about email etiquette, manners etc.
(Oh, and for anyone who thinks it’ll be funny or clever to leave a comment written in all caps, believe me, it’s neither.)
30-Second Nativity
Posted: Thu 2 October, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Festering Season 1 Comment »
I love this story from the BBC about a competition to tell the Christmas story in 30 seconds.
It’s one of those things where it’s just such an easy target.
My version?
Single mother gives birth in Bethlehem.
Refuses to say who the father is.
Hype ensues, and the world has religious wars for the next 2,000 years.
Job done.
Motivating a Change?
Posted: Tue 30 September, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »Now, call me cynical, but I suspect that this story about the death of a Barclays executive will result in the government bringing in more laws regarding street drinking, ‘binge drinking’, anti-social behaviour and the like.
After all, it doesn’t matter so much when it’s “just” normal voters members of the public, but when the COO of a sector of an organisation like Barclays dies as a result, one suspects that there are likely to be some lobbying and higher-level conversations than you’d normally see…
Three Hours
Posted: Sat 27 September, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving 1 Comment »Last night’s drive home was – to be blunt – an utter fucker. I left the office at 4.30, and got home at 7.30. Three hours for a journey that usually takes an hour.
And why?
Because some bell-end Audi driver had screwed up in his judgement of time/space, pulled in from the outside lane to the middle carriageway of the A14, and collided with a truck. The damage? The rear bumper of the Audi had been pulled off.
But, because the Audi-driver was a bell-end, he and the truck driver decided to stop and exchange details. In the outer two lanes of the A14. Neither of them had the common fucking sense to pull over to the lay-by that was in clear view less than half a mile away, oh no. Instead, they had to block two lanes of high-speed rush-hour traffic by being – and let’s call a spade a fucking spade here – cunts. And stupid cunts at that.
The traffic jam that resulted from these two fuckwitted bastards went all the way back past Cambridge – if you look at this map, the accident happened where the red circle is (top right corner) and the queues eventually went back to Milton. (if not further) Impressive, isn’t it?
And all because two drivers are fuckwits. I seriously hope the police/courts take the licences off both of them – admittedly, no criminal offence was actually committed, so it’ll never happen, but sometimes, just sometimes, you really wish there was an offence of criminal fucking stupidity. These two would’ve earned it.
The Joy of Driving
Posted: Fri 26 September, 2008 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts 1 Comment »And, in a related(ish) post to this morning’s one, the BBC has a story about 10 ways to rediscover the joy of motoring.
It makes for interesting reading, and I can see that most of the points are quite smart and relevant. Then again, “Limit your commute to quarter of an hour” is pretty unfeasible for me at any time in the foreseeable future…
