Mountains From Molehills


So Richard Keys & Andy Gray made comments, “off air” which were inappropriate.

I agree they should get their knuckles rapped but should they lose their jobs ?

This is typical of the overreaction that is forced along by media hype. The media hype foists these people on us in the first place and makes then into celebrities. And then the first sniff of some wrong doing and that same media hype pushes them off the pedestal.

Talk about a self fuelling debate. Now the media turns this crappy discussion into being a newsworthy item. It is now being shown, dissected and discussed on all TV news programs and most of the radio news broadcasts too.

To be quite honest I am sick of it. This debacle has already taken up too much of my life.

Nuff said

2010 Was a Rough Year!!!!


But not everyone is as lucky as I am……

The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

I ordered a burger at McDonald’s, and the kid behind the counter asked,  “Can you afford fries with that?”

CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked  “Insufficient Funds,” you have to call them and ask if they mean you or them .

Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

McDonald’s is selling the 1/4  ‘ouncer’.

Parents in  Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children’s names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

BP Oil laid off 25 Congressmen.

Congress says they are looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal.  Oh Great!!   The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

And, finally…

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan ..   When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Video Games


It is ridiculous to claim that video games influence children.  Nonsense!

For instance, if Pac-Man affected kids born in the eighties, we should have seen a bunch of teenagers who ran around in darkened rooms and ate pills while listening to monotonous electronic music

Dear Parents


Dear Parents

  • Jasmine was in a relationship with a dirty homeless boy named Aladdin
  • Snow White lived alone with 7 men
  • Pinocchio was a liar
  • Robin Hood was a thief
  • Tarzan walked around without clothes on
  • A stranger kissed sleeping beauty and she married him
  • Cinderella lied and snuck out at night to attend a party

You can’t blame us. We were taught to rebel since a young age

From a link on my granddaughters Facebook page !!!

 

Pooling Resources – Flaming Good Idea


Sorry about the heading but I couldn’t resist it.

It seems that there has been a bit of flack aimed at Redditch Borough Council who have proposed that the excess heat generated by the local crematorium be used to heat the local swimming pool.

This innovative idea will potentially save them, and the tax payer, over £14,000 in heating bills each year.

It is being said that some folks might find the idea of  heating the pool due to the death of a loved one as being a “bit eerie”.  What is it with this country. We seem to go out of our way to be squeamish about the one sure thing in this life…..or rather out of it. I am sure that most folks would only be too pleased to think that their last action is going to benefit other people.

So come on Redditch Borough Council, full steam ahead. Be the first in the UK to implement this scheme and hopefully lead the way to other councils using this wasted energy.

Read more here

What Does Santa Do After Christmas Night ?


Earlier today I had a phone call from my newest bestest buddies.   You know, the ones who call me several times a day, ignoring the fact that my number is registered with the TPS. Ignoring my many requests to remove my number from their list. The bestest friends that ring my number then refuse to speak to me.

Well this time they actually responded to my tentative “H-Hello ?”

They introduced themselves and, well, I’ll admit I got a little irate with the caller. When he told me who he was representing I let rip and bludgeoned him verbally. I then ended the call with a light-hearted parting comment …..  “and make sure you bloody do !!!” ,  having once again requested that they remove my number from their system and to which he responded ” ….. I surely bloody will !!!”

Still percolating I thought I would dial 1471 and see if there was any clue as to their number so that I could call them and complain. It was when I listened to the automated message from 1471 that I began to feel the disquiet and a measure of guilt washed over me. I discovered that Santa has a day job. After all he only works one night a year. You too would go crazy if you didn’t do something for the rest of the year.

So you see, Santa works in a call centre representing  “The National Survey Centre” and he has his own personalised number. The message I heard when I dialled 1471 was ……

“You were called today at 14:07 by 0h 0h 0h, 0h 0h 0h, 0h 0h 0h, 0h 0h 0h. To return the call………”

 

Conference Call Chaos


One of the side effects of home working is the increased number of telephone conference calls that you have to endure.

When you work for a company such as the one that I do then many of the calls are international and the challenge is trying to hold calls at a time that is suitable for all nationalities.

A consequence is that for some folks the calls are before they travel to the office, so they take the calls from home, whilst others take the calls while travelling home from the office.

Today I experienced perhaps the most bizarre of these calls.

On this call there was

  • a crying baby as well as a barking dog courtesy of a US based colleague
  • there was background traffic noise from a colleague who was on his mobile while travelling home in Hungary
  • another colleague sounded as if he had fallen asleep although I convinced myself that he had on a headset with the microphone to close to his nose. Leastways I was giving him the benefit of the doubt
  • from another colleagues phone we were overwhelmed by the sound of an automobile alarm which was outside his office window
  • just to round things off I thought I would contribute to the chaos of this call, or rather I should say my neighbours cat did. He/she/it sat outside my conservatory window yowling.

I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. Mind you any crying would probably have been due to hysteria.

Goodbye Susannah


Susannah York
Susannah York Pictures

British actress Susannah York died on January 15, aged 72.

She was, along with Julie Christie and Sarah Miles, one of the most memorable faces of the 1960s and pin-up for “boys” of a certain age.

Although she appeared in many many films throughout her career my strongest personal memories are of her performances in Tom Jones, Kaleidescope, The Killing of Sister George, Gold, They Shoot Horses Don’t They and Oh What A Lovely War.

Susannah, Thanks For The Memories.

One Of Lifes Mysteries


Tried to start my car today.

No joy. Grrrr.

It transpires that the battery is flat. Now that’s a stupid phrase because the solid black lump that is at least 15″ x 12″ x 9″ (in real money) is anything but flat. To mention that your battery is flat is to invite some wag to ask “What shape should it be then ?”.

actually the more important question is “Where did my electricity go ?”

I recently filled up my battery, charged it for several hours. I haven’t driven my car for maybe 2 weeks and yet somehow all my electricity, so carefully stored, has gone. My car was locked and the alarm set so I know no one could get in. So how has this theft come about ?

In the meantime I am having to refill that black lump with more of my expensive electricity. I have checked to see if there are any holes letting my electricity seep out but there  are none that I can see.

This is a total mystery to me.

The Round Up


Anyone who has read my previous posts regarding Facebook, or farcebook as I prefer to call it, know what my thoughts are regarding what I believe has become a pariah of our techno-world. So I direct your attention to the   silicon.com Weekly Round Up newsletter – 15th January 2011

For those of you who cannot be arsed to follow the link you can, without their posh fonts and hyperlinks, read it below………

Do you sometimes feel intimidated by other people’s Facebook friends lists?

Does an impressively large number of friends make your tiny circle of mates seem insignificant?

Relax. Just because you only have ten friends on Facebook, doesn’t mean your life is a failure – although connecting with silicon.com  would undoubtedly be a step in the right direction.

And as for those show-offs who apparently have hundreds of best-friends-forever?

Don’t worry: chances are they don’t know many of their ‘friends’ and are simply adding strangers to make themselves appear more popular than they actually are – the social media equivalent of stuffing a pair of rolled-up socks down your trousers.

Research has revealed that many Facebook users don’t know as many as one in five of their Facebook friends.

There is that old saying that ‘a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet’ – but too much of that kind of  thinking and you’ll be one of those characters who smiles at people on public transport while patting the seat next to you.

The study, by phone-comparison website goodmobilephones.co.uk, asked 1,500 Facebook fans how many of their friends they had actually talked to via the site, and the majority admitted they had never spoken to at least half of them.

In addition, the majority admitted they no longer knew at least 20 per cent of their Facebook friends. A surprisingly honest four per cent admitted they didn’t know at least half of them.

The majority also admitted they only talked to about 20 per cent of their Facebook friends, which means Facebook is a great way of connecting with old friends you haven’t spoken to for ages – and then ignoring them.

When asked why they had kept ‘friends’ online who they did not know, over half admitted they did ‘so as not to appear rude’. Almost one in four wanted to artificially boost the number of friends they had, so it’s perhaps not surprising that two thirds of the Facebookers surveyed admitted they had accepted a complete stranger as a friend in the past.

This is the reason the Round-Up is proud to cultivate a small Facebook friends list that only includes close acquaintances.

At least that’s the excuse the Round-Up’s got, and it’s sticking with it…