Posts from ‘Play’
too many people
Today i went up to Dublin hoping to get a few things for Christmas. Didn’t happen. It was uncomfortably busy and this time of year everyone is very business like.
There were also dozens of charity collections scattered all over the place. Small armies of them. Some are genuine and not in your face, others are not so genuine. If i hear about ‘The Hanly Center’ one more time… these guys are what i call undercover charity workers. Just like an unmarked garda car, they blend in and then pounce from close range.
Anyway, this reminded me about charitybypass.com – i must do something more with it and try to keep it alive.
Earlier today, Paul Gogarty got a little carried away with himself in the Dáil…
Politicians usually crack jokes and take swipes at each other without doing any real damage. It’s almost as if they’re all pals and ‘act’ for the cameras and because they’re paid to.
But Gogarty obviously didn’t read today’s script and despite his party being in government, he made it clear he’d go down on the sinking ship, but not defending his comrades who ran it up on to the rocks in the first place.
Whilst that clip will haunt him for the rest of his career, on the plus side he’ll also become an instant e-celebrity in Ireland. Expect to see that clip to get edited, remixed & thrown around in emails for months to come 
edit: there’s some up already!
What do you do if an entire public sector goes on strike indefinitely?
- You can’t sack them all, because they can simply sign on for social welfare and end up getting paid by the state for not working.
- You can’t negotiate because there is nobody to negotiate with – only a brick wall which holds thousands of people behind it.
- You can’t let it happen for any length of time because it means the state starts losing serious money and stops functioning.
- You can’t change law to engineer a fix because you need the consent of other parties who won’t support you because they want you out and enjoy watching you in this mess.
photo credit: University Radio Falmer
That’s the situation our current government will be in shortly if everyone sticks to their word. The 2010 irish budget is announced tomorrow and as a government, they should be finished, surely – but then again the people have voted for these guys not so long ago… Under normal circumstances, a manager gets sacked when a side loses too often. What did we do? We offered them a 4 year contract when we were so obviously failing to perform.
It’s at times like this where you also have to question the value of unions. Even if they defend their members and get what they want, they’ll ultimately lose it in other ways or else pass the cuts on to people who have no representation or influence. Nobody can beat the government and that’s the way it should be, unless of course the government is corrupt (we’re not quite there yet).
If public sector wages don’t get cut by 6% and save €x billion, it means spending will be cut further which in turn leads to job losses and lack of job creation which in turn results in less revenue for government and increased social welfare costs.
Look at it however you want – unless we borrow, more jobs will be lost and cuts will happen. We won’t /can’t borrow, so that means cuts will happen and if they don’t, it means jobs will be lost. If any of us were in the government’s position, we’d probably do the exact same. Anything else is too attacking and too risky and won’t get support.
We’d look to borrow first. But we’d be refused loans. We’d then look to cut spending. If we couldn’t cut any more spending we’d try to work another job or work longer hours (for more income). If we couldn’t do that, it’s KO and rather than ‘look’ at spending cuts, we’d just have to cut them ruthlessly based on what’s least important, which is the equivilent of cutting jobs for the government. Start off with part timers, contract workers, look for people who’ll leave voluntarily… etc…
Sympathy is a word which cannot have any meaning if you’re balancing books. You make the decisions and stick by them and accept the consequences. If the government cave in now, they’re showing great weakness. They said they would make unpopular decisions for the good of the country, so i fully expect them to cut ruthlessly and in doing so derail the train they’ve pilotted for so many years. Starting tomorrow, we can sit back with popcorn and watch the fireworks go off…
This week i just have a few hours of college on Thursday & Friday, which of course means i have the next 3 days off
photo credit: ~FreeBirD®~
I love having time off from college because it allows me to catch up on college work (and ensures i can’t get any more), plus it usually means i have a bit of time to get working on client websites or my own projects.
Here are some more perks of a day off;
- I immediately gain 2 hours on a day off because i’d normally spend 2 hours per day driving to and from college.
- Don’t have to worry about getting parked.
- Don’t have to worry about wifi.
- I get to wake up whenever i want (generally get more sleep which means i’m motivated / ready for the day ahead).
- Don’t get sleepy or bored (happens a lot at college in lectures, free classes etc..)
- I choose what i listen to / when i work (at college i don’t really have that choice)
- I have dual monitors / decent PC to work with at home (at college i just have my netbook)
They’re just a few things that spring to mind. A lot of it is all physchological of course… a bit like a football team playing away from home. It’s always easier / more comfortable at home in familiar surroundings.
Simply knowing that i have to drive to and from college is enough to tire me mentally. It’s not easy, especially this time of year when it’s dark & cold. Because i have to focus 100% of the time for about 2 hours per day on driving, surely somewhere along the line i pay for that by not being as alert in lectures as i could be. I’ll never know of course, but i am very aware of what’s good for me and wht isn’t, even if i can’t prove or explain why.
In terms of work, i work much better at home and am probably much happier working at home simply because i’m in control and call the shots on everything.
Pingdom published an article last week on males -v- females in social networks.
photo credit: wingalls.photo
According to their research, 16 of 19 sites they looked at had more female users than male users.
57% of facebook users are female and 59% of twitter users are female. The stats surprised me at first but when i really thought about it, i could see why. Girls typically place more weight on online social relationships than males (in general, in my experience – feel free to disagree). I believe there’s a risk of being alienated from peers if you’re not online (ironic of course how things have changed over the last decade).
Quite often i’ll hear females talking about friends and will i /won’t i add them on facebook or if i send them a comment does that give a wrong impression, if i don’t reply does that look rude etc… i don’t think us males spend as much time thinking about that stuff….
I know when i get a friend request i accept if i vaguely know them, reject if they’re spam or too good to be true. If i don’t know them but they sound genuine / aren’t spam then i’ll probably accept too. And that’s it. I almost have a black and white process model like i do for a lot of things online. Purely to save time – i’m not too worried about reputations or feelings – if i was i definitely wouldn’t be updating this blog.
Anyway, it seems bebo is being taken over by females. 66% of bebo users are female. So whilst we’re slowly being outnumbered by females online, males still hold all the top jobs in IT and generally set up and own the world’s biggest websites.
Of the 19 sites researched, i’m guessing few, if any, were set up by women (i’m too lazy and it’s too late to go off and do my own research!).
