VOIP Phones – The Bane of Productivity

March 12th 2010

I should never have installed Skype on my PC. Thanks to the advent of VOIP phones, people who previously would never have bothered calling me due to the cost involved of making a phone call and would’ve sent a text or an email instead are now talking to me all the time.

On the one hand, it’s great; I’m in touch with my friends much better than I was previously, I talk to people that I don’t see very often rather than just texting or forwarding funny emails, and generally I feel like it’s enhanced my relationships with my friends and family. On the other hand, everyone having VOIP phones has seriously hampered my productivity.

Ecards – Saving Bacon Worldwide

March 9th 2010

I’m probably a bad son, grandson, friend and generally a bad person, but I am the most forgetful person in the world when it comes to sending cards, which is why I generally tend to send Ecards at the last minute.

Here’s how it goes: people get upset when they don’t receive their cards on their birthdays or Christmas or Mothers’ Day or whatever – that’s understandable – but I always think ‘it’ll be OK tomorrow, I can do it then’ and it ends up turning up a day or so late. Most people will forgive this, but my mother is not one of them. This could potentially get me killed, so I send her Ecards. She’s not a fan of them, but at least they get there on time.

Product Designers – the Curse of the Hermit

March 9th 2010

I have hermit-like tendencies, or more accurately, I want to. I spend most of my life just wishing that I could be left alone but thanks to product designers coming up with new shiny toys that keep me in touch with the world I don’t think I’m ever going to get there.

See, I really want to be left alone, but I seem to have some kind of genetic defect that makes me go ‘Ooooh, shiny’ whenever I see gadgetry and I instantly cannot live without it; iPods, laptops, netbooks, BlackBerry’s, Xbox’s, Sky HD, you name it. Pretty much everything has WiFi on it these days too, meaning that I’m always connected.

Essentially, until product designers stop making shiny things that I want, it looks like I’m going to be stuck in the real world surrounded by people and not in my glorious hermit republic. Ah well, it’s still the dream.

Themed Parties are the New Black, Apparently

March 8th 2010

I really wanted to have a weekend to just decompress, not see anyone and just get left the hell alone; unfortunately that never really happens. Some friends of mine decided on Friday evening that they were going to hold a gathering on Sunday afternoon, and that my presence was required. Sunday afternoon to me means barbeque (not in this weather, but you get the idea), films, a couple of beers and generally chilling out, nothing too strenuous. Certainly not murder mystery themed parties, but that’s exactly what this gathering turned out to be.

The Boiler Service Tantrum

March 3rd 2010

Living with people can be really annoying, but it’s even more annoying when you live with people who are constantly whining over stuff that’s got nothing to do with you – like the fact that they spent all day waiting in for the boiler service guy to turn up. Last time I checked, I wasn’t the boiler service bloke, but somehow it’s my fault that he didn’t turn up till 4.30.

Wedding Venues – The New Blind Date

March 3rd 2010

Apologies for the lack of regular updates for the last few days. There’s a story behind it though: I had a couple of days off work and my friends have been dragging me around wedding venues due to my ‘critical eye’ which supposedly will help them pick the right place.

Car Hire – the Alternative to Risking Public Transport

February 26th 2010

Normally I’ve got little time for driving – you can’t read if you’re driving and you can’t get in the car after a couple of beers the way you can with a train or bus (and if you do, you suck and you should remove yourself from the human race right now), earphones are usually a bad idea and some of my best phone conversations have been had on a train. Plus, the roads tend to be full of morons, which is why I’m glad I sold my car, but this weekend I’ve got quite a long journey ahead of me and I just don’t trust public transport to get me there on time, so I’ve gone the car hire route.

Schadenfreude Over Chauffeur Hire

February 25th 2010

I’m not usually a fan of social networking or anything like that, and I’m certainly not too big on Facebook (or Failbook as I like to call it), but what I am a fan of is that terrible, terrible joy you feel when an ex-girlfriend adds you and you find out that A) she’s got fat, B) the guy that she dumped you for has moved on to a younger/ skinnier/ dumber model or C) that the guy she left you for is so broken down that he’s paying for chauffeur hire every time they go out on the weekend just to shut her up.