American Idle

So I was watching the US version of Idol on cable tonight. Let me tell you this - it is the most boring looking show in the world. bland bland blannnd.

At least the Australian version has some depth and layers to the lighting design. The US version has no leds or big effects lights like the local one with the High End Shotguns they had last season. They did however have some flashing neon.

For a country of so many people you would thing they could find someone with enough imagination to make it look good.

Modern communication

I work in an office and use all kinds of technologies to keep in touch - mobile, sms, skype and email.

Sometimes I'll ping people in the office a quick Skype message to ask how they are going or for a quick clarification on something.

Sometimes I use it to have a conversation that might be too awkward to have face to face. I did that this morning when I noticed a collegue who seemed a bit down, but I knew if I asked him face to face in an office he would probably just go - 'yeah I'm ok'. So I sent the message and got nothing back. So now how do I talk to him without mentioning it ?

Do we both ignore it and pretent it didn't happen, or do I wait till he goes somewhere and ambush him ? Hmmm, not really confortable with that.

Maybe I should just mind my own buisness, but as a friend I want to know if I could do anything to help. Sometimes I thing how great it would be to work in an office in the 60s where there were no faxes or emails or even phones. I could spent my day writing letters and reading mail people sent. Life must have been so much slower and more controlled instead of the constant blast of data and communications we are under now.

There was a promo on TV recently that stated that a child by the age of 8 had been exposed to more information that our great grandparents were exposed to in their entire lives. Thats a scary thought.

Starbucks on the decline

I was reading the paper the other day (well the online version) when I noticed an article about the declining fortunes of Starbucks.

In the US you can sit in a Starbucks branch and look out the windows and see another branch. Seems they have over saturated the market and are now paying the price. and the coffee is crap and over priced.

I was discussing this with a coffee conisour friend and he was telling me they roast the crap out of the beans so that even the 12 year old 'barista' behind the counter can pour a 'good' coffee.

I hate to name drop, but it reminds me of a story Britney Spears sound engineer once told me. In the US he would drink Starbucks coffee, not because it was good, but because it was consistent.

One of the things the article brought up was that places like MacDonalds are now raising their game in the coffee market and people no longer need to go to starbucks and pay a fortune for a decent cup of coffee.

I was in the airport this morning for a little domestic jaunt and noticed the massive queue at Maccas. Most of these people were getting coffees even though there are perfectly good and not to expensive coffee outlets all around them.

Its interesting to see what we consider to be the big fast food joints branching out in to other directions such as the McCafe concept or the Gloria Jeans of the world who basically copied the Starbucks model but customised it to fit with the Australian cafe culture.

I guess if nothing else Startbucks made everyone lift their game and raised the standard of cofffee in these more traditional outlets where it was only ever an add on and was mostly a drip-o-lator that had sat for too long and boiled itself into a bitter mud.

Energy Saving Part 2

Just logged in to do another post and read what I have written about that hotael room before.

Forgot to add that it also turned off the outside light in front of the room, so if you came home after a few beers it was relativly difficult to get your key into the slot.

Energy Saving at what cost ??

I am currently in Melbourne for reasons that are far to messy to go in to.
I am in a lovely hotel room in Mornington (more about the room shortly), but it has one of the wierdest setups I have ever seen.

It has one of those 'put your room key in the slot to turn the lights on' things on the wall. Cool I'm fine with that.

But I also discovered that the rocket scientists who put it in wired the Alarm Clock to the same circuit, so when you leave the room the clock goes off, and when you come back you have to reset the time and alarm time on the clock....

There are also some bollard lights in the garden that seem to be on 24/7. So they make up for all the power saved by turning the clocks in the rooms off.

Very Odd.

We can laugh about it now

While at the hardware store yesterday I noticed they had a selection of knick-knacks for sale in the little office bit. Now I love a bit of hardware, so had a quick look about. There I saw the best example of point of sale signage i had seem for some time:

Box Cutters - as featured in 9/11 - $3.50 each.

Laugh - I thought I was going to cack my pants !!

Joy of GPS 2 - the revenge

So having had a successful run with the GPS I had to go into the city with a work chum to look at some hardware.

She had a map from Whereis.com that failed to mention the right turn you have to make across the City West Link is not only illegal, but also suicidal.

So after a bit of swearing and creative driving I whipped out the GPS and punched in the address. It seems the address we were going to is in every suburb in Sydney. I though I had the right one in Liechart, but it seems not. Much embarrassment as we pull up outside some block of flats expecting a industrial unit. Quick change of direction and - boom - there we were.

So I guess the moral is if you are going to use the GPS you need to know where your going...

Joys of GPS

I was driving to work the other day with my phone in the charger thingy in the car. I though it might be fun to play my favourite game - Turn on the GPS and ignore what it tells you.

I love the way it dynamically re-works the route. I also think it would be cool if instead of telling you to turn around or take the next left it told you that you are a bad driver and don't listen to instructions.

Anyhoo, yesterday I did something weird and actually went where it told me to go. I am a creature of habit when it comes to driving to work. I have a route an ethnic friend showed me that winds through back streets. If anyone knows a short cut its a crazy Macedonian...

So puting my faith in the unit the GPS took me in another direction completely, but strangely enough I got to work 5 mins quicker. I choose to believe it is due to it still being school holidays and the league of 4WD mothers or Camry driving oldies are not out and about yet.

I took the same route this morning and it does feel quicker. I might keep going this way and see if I can shave 5 mins off my travel time.

Its sad I know, but its the little things in life that keep me going.

Crazy Microsoft Templates

I was just sitting down to write a report, so i went to see what Templates Office 2007 had that might sex it up. here are the default templates in Excel now -
Billing Statement - Makes sense for business types
Expense Report - Yup I can see a use for that one
Loan Amortization - OK if you do finance stuff
Sales Report - of course
Time Card - yeah whatever
Personal monthly Budget - lets work out how much we could buy if we got a pay rise
Blood Pressure Tracker - WTF???

I think it says a lot about the modern workplace if they have a handy dandy template to track you stress level and predict when you are going to explode or die.

More Gen Y trashing

Whilst still trauling Wikipedia I found this re Gen Ys

Business owners in Australia feel that members of Generation Y were found to be "demanding, impatient and bad at communicating," according to a 2007 survey.

The survey found that almost 70% of those surveyed found their Generation Y workers to be dissatisfying, with poor spelling and grammar and no understanding of appropriate corporate behaviors.

However, the survey also showed most employers praised the energy and charisma of their Generation Y workers.

Gen X - Generation Whatever..

Just doing some facts checking to see the dates for Gen Y and also to make sure I was actually a Gen X when I came across this great quotelet in Wikipedia -

'In France, the term Génération Bof is in use, with "bof" being a French word for "whatever," considered by some French people to be the defining Generation-X saying.'

Generation Bof ! I love it. Get that up you Gen Ys !!!

BP and the Ethanol scam

A while back BP introduced a fuel called E10 - its 10% ethanol and its always about 4c a litre cheaper. Problem is that I have never been able to buy it. Every BP I go to is out of stock. I have a feeling thats its not due to popularity, but due to them wanting to look like doing their bit, but then forcing you to buy unleaded instead. Bastards !!!!

Fuel Prices

This is one of those post i have been meaning to do for ages, but every time I sit down to do it something else happend that drives the story and expands it a little bit more.

Todays case is that oil has hit $100 per barrel. All those nice oil people thought it was best they should pass this on ASAP to us poor motorists, so fuel went up be 10c today.

When I was originally going to write about the scam of fuel prices it was just after the ACCC has handed down a reeport that said there was no obvious examples of pricing fixing or cartel activity. Its just convient that all major world events that affect the petrol price happen on a Thursday and then calm down on a Sunday. Regular as clock work.

The ironic thing was the week after the fuelk companies hiked it by 10c in the week before christmas for no apparent reason. And it wasn't even a Thursday.

Mmmm. I can see a pattern here and its not pretty. So fill up on a Monday or Tuesday, unless you are me and forget..

Everyones a winner... except when they are not

One thing I have noticed is that the US based Kids TV channels have this annoying habit of making out that no one is a looser any more and everyone is special and a winner.

Even in the website games on Disney you dont have the Wrong answer, you are told that thats a great choice, but try again.

Is that why we have the Gen Y brat 'I want it now' generation ?? Its my right etc. No its bloody not !!! Sit down and shut up. And turn that stupid freaking phone off before I ram it up your arse......

Moving on we had a dance show for my daughter before Christmas where her group was 2nd on stage. its all very cute etc, except when its 42degrees in a tin shed in bumble-f**k nowhere and the kids are running amuck. Thing is we were told to stay to the end as everyone gets a prize. Cool we thought, she'll love that.

Problem was three hours later I had to explain the Child number 1 why she didn't get anything. And I wasn't the only one. Sure for the older agegroups there were skill based prizes but for the three years olds there was nothing. Not even a token bag 'o' lollies or a $1 Well Done badge.

I met another mother the next day whose daughter is in the same class and she said the same thing - unconsolable sobbing on the car drive home.

So maybe the kids as so whipped up to thinking they are going to get everything and be winners that they can't cope when they get nothing. Or maybe its just cruel to promise and not deliver...

Spoilt little girl put in her place

I was at Westfields shopping mall in Bondi with the family on the thursay after Christmas (I don't know why I did it either.. seemed like a good idea at the time).

Anyhoo we were waiting for a lift with a bunch of other pram pushers and lazy bastards when this young girl wandered past. She looked about 19 and was dressed up in the Hollywood prima donna slut way with the big sunnys and a 'up yours' attitude. She had token emo boyfriend in tow with a selection of big keychains and saggy arsed jeans. She had a dirnk from the food coart and proceded to produce a wrapped straw for it. She then ripped the wrapper and just let it fall to the ground.

So what did I do ? I went - 'scuse me - I think you dropped your wrapper...'. She looked all embarassed as she had to bend over and pick it up in front of a gaggle of people. I could feel a smug ha-ha from all the non - Gen Ys who were waiting for the lift and though to myself its another victory for us old bastards !!!

So word up all you young Gen Ys !! We see what you do and we keep score. So you want to sprint up the corporate ladder, start by being good people and cleaning up after yourselves...