Will’s View

Some people say it’s power that gives people responsibility, others say that responsibility comes with age. Well I don’t think it’s either, I reckon responsibility is a big set of keys.

Let me explain:
At one of my jobs I am a ‘venue technician’ or something of the sort, and in order to go around and do our job we need a big set of keys. The keys get us into a lot of places within the venue, and allow us to open and close the venue for customers. Now there’s no feeling quite as delightful as walking around a crowded hallway or foyer with a huge bunch of jingly keys. Everyone knows you are important (otherwise why would you have so many keys?), and the jingly-ness just re-enforces that they are work keys, because who on earth would wear their house keys around on their jeans?

In addition to this sense of power and coolness, if one walks around with an air of purpose and determination (the secret for bluffing your way through most things) then people will get out of your way, because they can see that you’re a Busy Person. Busy People mustn’t be delayed or impeded because they might be late for their Important Engagement, or you may stop them from doing their Essential Task. And we can all imagine what that might be. It must be important, because why else would that person be wandering around with jingly keys and an air of purpose?

Well, that’s how I feel at work, at least.

--> Some people say it’s power that gives people responsibility, others say that responsibility comes with age. Well I don’t think it’s either, I reckon responsibility is a big set of keys. Let me explain: At one of my jobs I am a ‘venue technician’ or something of the sort, and in order to go around and do our job we need a big set of keys. The keys get us into a lot of places within the venue, (More...)

Over the last week or so I have been studying in the Law Library (as, it seems, have most of the third and fourth-year engineering students). There are a couple of silent levels on which –in true library fashion– you are not allowed to talk, or squeak your chair, or eat crisps. Okay that last one has more to do with the no-food-in-the-library policy, but you see what I’m trying to say.On one of these oh-so-silent floors, there are usually two or three mobile phones that go off every hour. Usually followed by an under-hushed “I’m in the library” or something similar.

These calls are usually over in thirty seconds or so, and everything returns to normal. But not so on this one fateful day.This time the person answered their phone and continued to have a quiet discussion with the caller on the other end. Usually it is the loudness of the person answering the phone that one has to worry about, but this time it was not the case. The person who answered their phone had the volume in their phone up so loud, I could hear what the person was saying, word for word!

That sort of complete disregard for one’s surroundings and the other people with whom you are sharing the space really annoys me. Not only that but the darned conversation went on for about 2 minutes before their friend told them to take it outside.I know, I could have done something about it etc. etc., but I was also somewhat interested in everyone else’s reactions, and was wondering whether anyone else would pipe up and tell them to take it elsewhere. What have mobile phones done to the world!

--> Over the last week or so I have been studying in the Law Library (as, it seems, have most of the third and fourth-year engineering students). There are a couple of silent levels on which –in true library fashion– you are not allowed to talk, or squeak your chair, or eat crisps. Okay that last one has more to do with the no-food-in-the-library policy, but you see what I'm trying to say. On one of these oh-so-silent floors, there are usually two or three mobile phones that go off every hour. (More...)

Given that it’s exam time, I’ve made a couple of subtle changes to my site, mostly in the form of adding cool plugins and hacking them. The main changes are: you’ll see that little sidebar on a lot of pages now, just to add some consistency, or something; the ‘related posts’ thing after a post’s full text; and the ‘where did they go from here’-type thing after the comments. The general idea is to bring some new life to my old posts, seeing as they seem to have a discernible lull in activity once they are more than a week or so old.

--> Given that it’s exam time, I’ve made a couple of subtle changes to my site, mostly in the form of adding cool plugins and hacking them. The main changes are: you’ll see that little sidebar on a lot of pages now, just to add some consistency, or something; the ‘related posts’ thing after a post’s full text; and the ‘where did they go from here’-type thing after the comments. The general idea is to bring some new life to my old posts, seeing as they seem to have a discernible lull in activity once they are more than a week or so old.

Something similar to this happened to me recently:

Me: Hey housemate, can I borrow some of your pasta?housemate: Yeah sure.Me: Sweet, cos I did last night and I was worried you’d be pissed off if I used some again tonight.

Read the rest of this entry »

--> Something similar to this happened to me recently:

Me: Hey housemate, can I borrow some of your pasta? housemate: Yeah sure. Me: Sweet, cos I did last night and I was worried you'd be pissed off if I used some again tonight.

(More...)

[Disclaimer: This may be incredibly lame, and only appeal to the engineers out there, but here goes]

Whilst waiting for an interview with a certain zinc, copper, coal and almost-anything mining firm, I was struck by the irony that I was being interviewed in a building made of predominantly glass and steel.

This lead me to think: What if irony were somewhat like entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics. That is to say, globally, the amount of irony around was constantly increasing. Ignore, for the moment, that I’m being a complete nerd; imagine if everything became gradually more ironic.

All BP employees would fill their petrol cars up with Shell diesel by mistake. CFOs of large companies everywhere would go bankrupt. And George Bush would say something witty. Okay that last one is not ironic, but it is just as fictional. I think the theme song for this parallel world (because all cool fictional worlds need their own theme song) would be Alanis Morissette’s Ironic. Because it’s not really ironic. Which is ironic. See?

Okay, that wasn’t as funny as I imagined it, I may revisit this one and make it funnier later. When irony is cool again.

--> [Disclaimer: This may be incredibly lame, and only appeal to the engineers out there, but here goes] Whilst waiting for an interview with a certain zinc, copper, coal and almost-anything mining firm, I was struck by the irony that I was being interviewed in a building made of predominantly glass and steel. This lead me to think: What if irony were somewhat like entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics. That is to say, globally, the amount of (More...)