Place of Stuff

Coverage of the recent Olympics has made me realise that despite the fact that Political Correctness is widespread and pretty much ingrained in Western society, there are still 2 groups of people that we can still be patronising and rude to without any comebacks. I don’t know if this is a loophole or whether the groups aren’t deemed worthy of our protection. Oh, and before I go any further, use this at your own risk! I am not liable for any damage you receive…..

This whole thing was prompted because of a cheesy BBC slot. A reporter was asking the locals in Beijing whether they recognised certain London landmarks - Big Ben being the main one. None of the people on camera could name them. Cue the reporter looking at the camera with a wry look. Oh dear, people in China can’t recognise landmarks from a city more than 5000 miles away. Those ignorant Chinese people! But let’s flip that around. I’m relatively intelligent and know things about foreign countries. I doubt I could recognise any landmark from China apart from the Great Wall and maybe the Forbidden City. Does that make me mockable? Would anyone in China reading this be rolling about the floor in tears because the ignorant round eye doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of their places of interest? Or would they, and I think this is more likely, just say “OK” and forget about it? Because it doesn’t matter and I’m sure the Chinese have better things to do with their time than memorise landmarks. Unless there’s a Chinese version of Jeopardy, of course.

Secondly, and this really really annoys me, is the use of a short phrase which is employed to encompass a whole range of people. “Simple folk/people”. As in “I would love to live in a rural area among the simple folk”. This isn’t restricted to the UK and is used to describe people in small villages/towns and rural areas. Basically, using it means that those people couldn’t possibly understand the horrible pressures that traders and bankers and accountants have in the City, because life is so much easier in the country. Let’s forget that farms are going to the wall every day and that suicide rates among the farming community are on the rise because farmers are seeing their livelihoods disappear and land held in their families for generations are being sold so the family can survive. Forget the bankruptcies and having to negotiate the minefield that claiming subsidies entails. Forget the fact that abattoirs are closing regularly and new regulations mean that farmers have restrictions on transporting the animals to be slaughtered so end up with a lot of dead livestock rotting on their lands. Their lives are just so simple.
Continue reading ‘It’s Safe to Insult Certain People. Apparently.’ »

Now that you’ve read the title, the text should be of no surprise to you.  Yesterday I gave blood again, this

National Blood Service

was my twentieth donation and it took me less than an hour.  I’m too much of a scaredy cat to donate bone marrow and I’m not nearly clever enough to be a doctor, so this is what I do to do my bit.
Continue reading ‘Give Blood Regularly’ »

Another short post!  I have begun looking for a new job.  Nothing against my current employer, I just need a change after almost 10 years.  My search is UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

My CV is up to date and neat and tidy and my hair is combed.  Now I just need someone to offer me an interview……

Anyway, wish me luck.

None of these things is worth a full post on it’s own. So here are some random thoughts:

• Recycling - until the council forced us to seperate our rubbish out I had thought that a collection every two weeks wasn’t enough. Now I realise that 75% of our rubbish is paper/cardboard so two weeks seems about right.

Continue reading ‘A Few Random Jottings’ »

FAO: Mr Chodsley, CTO

Dear Mr Chodsley,

I am writing to you, as my section head, to tender my resignation and to give you the reasons I am doing so in the hope that you will be able to use my comments to further improve the companies image and policies. Having worked here for 10 years in a variety of capacities, I feel that I am well placed to give my insights on the workings of the company.
Continue reading ‘Re: The Recent Outrages’ »

Feel free to emphasise any of the words in the title.

No, this isn’t another “Seinfeld post“, at least, I hope that’s not how it comes out. Firstly, an apology: I do not consider myself qualified to write about blogging, beyond putting down my own experiences. If you are interested in the mechanics, there are far better sites out there who can talk knowledgeably about SEO and link farming (or pharming) and the best ways to get your blog seen by readers, some of them are on my Links page and others are not. Seriously. I think my all time highest view count was 200 and my most searched terms are “lesbians” and “donkey sex”. So please, get your blogging advice elsewhere.

OK, caveat over with. Anyone who may read this site will realise, ever so quickly, that it is totally random. It really is a place for me to just drop whatever is in my head onto the page. I have never hidden this and, in fact, take a sort of perverse pride in it. It also accounts for the fact that updates are only semi regular and ideas I say I’ll come back to I never do. But, recent posts on Untwisted Vortex made me think a little more about what I write about and about what others write. In particular, this post. And, by the way, if it looks as though I’m providing a load of links to one site then don’t worry - that site has a lot of good ideas and I read it every day, so it’s only natural that it will be on my mind.
Continue reading ‘What Do You Blog About (And Why?)’ »