pushing the sky

I’m sure you’ve heard by now of the Mumbai terror blasts and shootings yesterday – the situation still continues today, with a seige at the two hotels targeted still underway. Over 100 are dead, scores injured and the damage both physical and psychological as yet uncounted.

I’m usually one to argue in favour of civil liberties and ensuring fairness, but right now, the only feeling I’ve got is that these scum deserve to die.

The crime is simple: indescriminate murder of innocent civilians in their ordinary places of work and play. There is no defence for this crime, and the callous nature indicates that the perpetrators are dangerous to society and clearly mad – without any respect for human life.

Their shallow claim to a justification is that the anti-terror task force in India is unduly targeting Muslims – apparently oblivious to the irony of their very actions.

The freedom that these people have been allowed in India’s tolerant society and democracy has been abused and exploited. These people, their associates and all who sympathise with their actions deserve whatever they will get in vengence for their contempt for human life. Bastards.

According to Apple’s service department, laptop batteries are considered “consumables”. Any use you get out of your MacBook battery after 1 year, the warranty period, is “a bonus” that you should be “grateful for” (their words!).

I don’t ask for much, but for a battery to go from holding 98% of maximum charge to holding zero to not being recognised by the system at all in the space of a week 13 months out from its last replacement (in-warranty and at Apple’s cost) is ridiculous. I’ve got a 4 year old Dell laptop that still holds 2 hours of charge and the battery is the one that came in the package.

A battery is not a ‘consumable’ – especially not at $200, an appreciable fraction of the cost of a new system – but an integral part of a laptop, and for Apple to claim otherwise is selling these things under false pretenses. The Next Byte store was sold out of MacBook batteries – and that’s not exactly something you’ve got people lining up at the tills for.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Apples remain some of the best looking systems and Mac OSX is so many miles ahead of Windows, I’d never even consider buying one again. All I ask is that Apple build a reliable fucking system I can use for more than a year.

I find myself in agreement with those who call for Apple to license Mac OSX – Apple make some great software, OSX and the iLife suite shining examples of such – and their design studios’ skills are to be respected wherever industrial designers gather. But clearly, they have fuck-all clue about building reliable hardware, and I wish they’d let someone else just have a go at building something with a little more quality control.

That is all.

Ed note: this no longer applies to new MacBooks, since Apple now build it in (i.e. non user serviceable) and push the expected lifespan as being in the order of 3 – 5 years; if you have any issues, shout very loud.

I’ve got a new thought: instead of sending off that email flame to the intended recipient, send it to yourself first.

Read it an hour later, and try to figure out whether it’s just that they are a pompus ass, just don’t get it, and have ended up winding you up; or whether you’ve actually got a point that your multitude of thinly vieled swearwords actually conveys.

How do you deal with frustration over email? I have a much abused stress toy that’s going to get thrown out the (perma-closed) window one day.

Today… today was just about the worst day I’ve had at work, ever. It’s the kind of day where you genuinely think of throwing in the towel, and wonder what it will achieve. Getting out while the going is good is no longer an option because the going is no longer good.

Mondays are never the best of days, but today was a particularly malicious one. When you start off the day with your work being questioned and undermined despite your best efforts, you’re not much inclined to respond kindly, and so it was bright and early.

The rest of the day then preceeded in terms best espoused by Murphy’s Law. You may not believe, but it will goddamn get you, and it will all come at the wrong time, and it will come in a clusterfuck.

And then I get a call, at 7:30, me on my way home hoping to wind down, asking if it would be reasonable for me to work Hong Kong hours. Of fucking course it’s not reasonable, but if I say No point-blank, that’s not exactly going to make me popular, is it?

My phone will now remain off outside of work hours. I’ve had enough.

If you’re unloading or loading a truck at 1AM at night in a residential zone… something a little sus is going on, no?

You’re lucky however that people would far prefer you to hurry up so they can get to sleep, rather than actively trying to do anything about it. Just shut the hell up while you’re doing it, alright?

-_-;

Ever found something that you’d always heard about, but never managed to track down for real? A feeling of satisfaction fills you as you realise that now, finally, you can find out exactly what everyone was blabbing about all these years. You might even expect it to be good, because, well, everyone talks about it, don’t they?

You even feel a little guilty, because once you pretended you knew, and while you got away with it, you wanted to be sure next time they couldn’t catch you on the hop.

So: now you’ve found it. And naturally, you’re going to indulge yourself, because if it’s as good as everyone has said it is – and that’s a lot of people, so the effect is cumulative even – it doesn’t matter how much time, money or effort it takes. Finally, you too can join the all-knowing club. Satisfaction is imminent!

But when you, it falls flat. In fact, it falls so short of the hyped impression you had you wonder if you got the right one. No, the packet says it’s the right one, the core bits show it’s the right one, but…. oh dear. You’ve fallen into the hype trap!

In fact, it’s so bad, you’re now inclined to go back to those very people, the hyping majority, those overpowering sheep, and throw it right back at ‘em. Argue! Disagree! Dispel the myth!

Find out if one of them has been lying about it themselves!

Blade Runner? That’s the one for me. Bah, silly waste of time.

I genuinely feel sorry for the English; it’s not like they’re that bad, actually. Any other side in the world, they’d do fine (probably), especially if they put this much effort into it. It’s just that the Aussies are just that little bit more arrogant, that little bit more self-believing, that they’ll put in those last hard yards the English just can’t scrounge up, and they beat them.

I think it’s cricket that’s suffering; I don’t really want to watch it any more, if every script ends with “Australia wins”. I can’t stand how arrogant and unsporting they are about it.

It would appear that I cannot simultaneously have a decent umbrella and a good scarf.

Went and bought a good umbrella yesterday, for the London trip, and in the perfect way to top off a day that had just gone downhill from about 7:30 in the morning when I found out where I was staying (though it really couldn’t have gotten any better there, could it?), I left my scarf on the train when I was coming home. To much gnashing of teeth.

Bloody hell yesterday sucked, after about 8 o’clock.

So I went to the hairdresser-place-thingy on Saturday, and they were too busy. Fair enough. Made an appointment for Sunday, 12 o’clock, nice little free slot in the middle of the day that I figured I could rope in some shopping around. Come Sunday, 12 o’clock, there I was and there was a single chair occupied. I was told that they were running a bit late, and if perhaps I could come back in 20 min to half an hour? Sure, why not.

Only it ended up being 1 o’clock before I got my haircut, and there was nary an apology in sight. I had to be the angry customer, which I always hate to be (because you know you look like an asshole), but 1 hour? That’s unAustralian, I tell you. And I got the blame-shift reply, because she “wasn’t the person who made the appointment, sorry.” Oh sure blame your fellow employee who isn’t there. If someone makes an appointment, they’d better make it in good faith, and a simple sorry doesn’t suffice for an hour’s lost time. These people annoy me.

Suffice to say, next time I’m up for a new barber/hairdresser/thingy.

Also, today, had to do something at the Indian Consulate, which is always going to be a marvellous experience. I know well enough that Indians rarely have the concept of customer service in their minds, but it was a bloody joke there. To start with, they only open from 9:00 to 12:30 for “accepting submissions” – given the number of people there, it’s fairly clear they need to adjust this, because in no way was the demand met. My theory goes that these people still want to live by the Indian standards for opening hours, but they’re forced to open an hour early.

The next thing was the absolutely straight-faced following of the bureaucratic process. There were people who needed to get their visas approved by Thursday because they were flying on Friday, but were told that “nothing could be done” to speed the process. There was this dull, unflinching look in the eyes of the people behind the counter that said “I do not humour people.” You know those forms that need you to fill things in just-so? These people needed you to talk to them like that. I have a sneaking suspicion that, those automated voice recognition systems that don’t recognise what you say unless it’s exactly in the tone it wants? THESE PEOPLE I TELL YOU. And then there was the people with “just a quick question” who didn’t wait for their number to appear, and invariably ended up taking 20 minutes to go through all permutations and combinations of the question. GET IN LINE, DIMWIT.

I saw more than 3 people leave in anger because the bloody stupid bureaucratic process had to be followed (extended because tomorrow and Wednesday are holidays in India – Independence Day – and the Australian consular staff also manage to get the day off. Sweet deal, getting both Indian and Australian holidays off eh?). This is not endearing these people to India, and that’s just the people who’re already set to go there. What happens when they tell their friends? More people not inclined to go through this process.

This wouldn’t annoy me half so much if it wasn’t for the people who decided they were going to have a conversation with the teller, and proceeded to do so loudly in Hindi, somehow assured they wouldn’t be understood by the general crowd, like they’d expect anywhere in Australia. Um. There’s a roomful of people waiting on this person to clear off, and 80% of them can understand they’re discussing where they grew up. If the unnecessary plasti-glass barrier wasn’t there, I’d slap ‘em.

Probably why it is there, actually.

Dear all new people catching the train,

Yes, I realise that the price of petrol has gone significantly higher, and it’s now much more cost effective to catch the train than sit for an hour in traffic. Welcome to the public transport system, we’re (kinda) glad to have you here – more money in the form of more tickets can only mean good things for all our heavily subsidised public transport. However, as a regular train user, I would be neglectful if I did not bring to your attention a few things… just to keep us all happy. It’s for the good of all, you understand of course.

Ways to make everyone’s journey easier:

• Don’t wait until the last minute to get up and run for the doors.
• Wait for people to get off the train before getting on. The train will wait.
• If someone who knows the timetable is running to make their train, don’t stand in their way.
• Your bag/purse/laptop/newspaper does not deserve a seat. Neither does your umbrella, espcially so if it’s wet. The floor or your lap is perfectly acceptable.
• Reading a broadsheet newspaper in morning peak is a no-no, unless you’re a master of newspaper origami. A master.
• Don’t stand in the stairwell. Don’t stand in the door when people are trying to get out – hop out, hop back in, the train will not leave with you standing just outside the door.

Ways to avoid potentially looking stupid:

• Work out which way the ticket goes into the gate first. No-one in the morning peak will appreciate you trying to work it out at the gate.
• Ladies, the train is not a powder room. Applying lipstick is acceptable, basic facial make-up is borderline. Do not pluck eyebrows, apply mascara, or use a battery-powered curling iron to maintain that hairstyle. It’s really not a good look. Guys… no, don’t do it. If you’re doing to apply any makeup at all, do so in the privacy in your own house.
• Don’t try to change from comfortable clothing into businesswear halfway in. I don’t know what you did in your car, but this isn’t an overnight flight or something.
• Do not eat your breakfast on the train unless it is small and manageable. This means no cereal. Under any circumstances.
• Follow the cue of regular passengers when it comes to picking the door to stand in front of, if you’re in that much of a rush.
• Don’t loudly complain on the phone that you’re “surrounded by people” on the train. Public transport, buddy.
• In fact, just don’t use the phone for anything longer than a 2 minute call. We don’t necessarily want to hear what Louise got up to last night, as saucy and unbelievable as it might be.
• Occasionally though we might. Just not in the morning though. That’s just distracting.
• Remember: left side of the stairs, please.

Simple things here people!