h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Happy Birthday, GDZ! ---------> One free day without any worries, to be enjoyed with J, your kids, or both.

Happy b'day, GDZ and congratulations (a bar exam? haven't I passed many of these ? ... ) Irv

I'm at the end of the blog?

Congrats and commiserations.

I didn't get the job. I was qualified but they chose one with better experience with web. *Sigh*. This is the second time that happens.

In my opinion the communication worker should be good at collecting, sorting and wording/illustrating the content of the communication - and somebody else knowing their codes could make it work.


It is, in Denmark at least, almost obligatory that a journalist should be able to take phothographs, make versions for print, radio, television and web of all their stories - and work the mechanics of the cameras, microphones, mixerpults, live pictures and web sites as well.

I've done it with local radio, and the first few months, at least, the journalism suffered because I was focused on all the buttons and levers.

It take fours years to become an educated journalist. The same for a photographer, a sound technician, a live cameraman and (I think) a good webdesigner. Now the medias want amateurs to operate what they have not chosen as their specific trade. Have they no respect for the public who has to read, listen to and look at what comes out of it? And have they no respect for craftsmanship?

No, they love 'platforms' although it is the same story with the same (few) sources which reaches the different platforms. In my opinion it hurts democracy to limit the amount and quality of informations in this way.

[p]

Oh, Tartaronne, I'm sorry.

The galloping disease of 'anyone can do that' has got everywhere, hasn't it? Most places of business, judging from job ads, expect someone they've hired to do, say, web page developing to also be able to, say, write well, edit their own copy, lay out a page for print publication ('oh, hey, we'll just print the web-page, OK?') and in extreme cases design all the art work. This is why so many corporate web-pages, while functioning well as web pages, look terrible, are appallingly badly written, and the leaflet accompanying it, should you get one, is illegible, as the snazzy graphics and type-face have not translated well and now the words are hard to read and the colours are muddy. No one believes graphic design and copy-writing are skills. They're stuff anyone can do - anyone can write, can't they?

Hah.

Which is why I gave up being a proper proof-reader and copy-editor. No one would hire me, they didn't see the point. Whenever I see a government or corporate report in which the chairman is coming across as a somewhat retarded twelve-year-old who fell into a box of long words, I jump up and down on it. They could've hired me. I'd've made him sound like an intelligent adult. That was my job. But no. Because anyone can write, and the spell-checker will catch all the mistakes.

HAH.



Ahem. Sorry about that.

Morning All

Happy birthday GDZ, well done England, what a game of rugby and even better well done Les Frogs. Imagine being on a plane this morning, flying back to the Southern hemisphere, with both the Aussie and Kiwi teams on board. One shoudn't gloat, but, yadadedada, yadadedada swing low sweet charriot, sorry.

Affeciandos of the Archers will notice I am in the Atelier and not listening to the omnibus edition. In the first half hour all we have heard is: homophobia, rape angst, breast re-construction and an arrest scene straight from Dixon of Dock Green thirty years ago. "Allo, allo, allo now then Sir, come along with us, don't struggle there's a good lad. Ok sarge bang im up and give him a female lawer just to spice fings up". Pathetic and very symptomatic of where the BBC is headed, down the tabloid pan <\rant>

*applauds Ag's rant*

for Irv and GDZ.

Wot about my rant?

Sorry, WA, your rant appeared as I was posting, and my feelings about the Archers are ambivalent, I'm afraid. Tabloidification seems like a bad thing (he says, knowing that his new word will probably wind at least one Salonista up), but I don't feel I have any right to agree or disagree with your rant since I haven't listened to it for many years.

<>

If only... and if only said final ended with a ridiculous margin of victory for Scotland over Englandshire.

<>

Strangely enough I'm quite happy with the "-ification" of things. It's just the overuse of "-isation" that bugs me.

Anyway, I hurt. Lots. Five hours of pretty intensive longswording, grappling, running about, etc. causes much acheification of ones body. But I learned stuff, which is the main thing.

Umm... happy birthday GDZ, congrats Irv, ummm... general hurrah to all those who need one.

I know nothing about plumbing except I understand ceramic disc taps have washers that last longer than conventional rubber ones.
My kitchen taps, perhaps as old as 40 years, have come to the end of their life as replacement parts don't seem to be available.
I hae bought a set of ceramic disc taps and will be getting a plumber to fit them and fit a new stop cock.
The work top and cupboards in my kitchen were built by me and are painted wood which is good as can just repaint white everyfew years. The work top was extended and retiled with better tiles around a year ago so don't really want to fit a new sink as will require recutting tiles and maybe even rebuilding cupboard as stainless sink is 40 years old too, however it is good condition and looks OK. An ultra modern sink and taps would look slightly not right with painted cupbords so bought taps that are more modern looking than old taps but not too modern looking like some.
I went to Wicks for taps but couldn't find out if the taps were ceramic or rubber washer so went to Homebase who knew. The taps may have been a little cheaper in Wicks however the Homebase ones felt a little better quality so bought them there as want them to last for years and years.

I second the boycotting of the Archers this morning - I went off and watched Eurovision nul-pointers instead.

I'd listen to the Archers rather than tutor my children this morning Why is it that the teachers tell me how great they are, but they turn into little mental vegetables at home? I can state categorically that I am not cut out for pedagogy.

I am calm, all is well with my world


and for all in need or thusly deserving.

*dives back into the melée*

I don't think I have the right sort of mind for soaps. After a while I really stop caring - give me story arc! Give me character development! Give me satisfying denoument! Give me a cricket bat to take to THAT particular incredibly annoying character!

I am spending the afternoon joining Facebook, which means, it seems, banging head on key-board while wailing 'it's too big! I'm lost! I'm lost!'

If I find any of you, can I be your friend?

Good grief. Leave the salon for a day to have a dinner party and Irv passes the bar, Zomnker has a birthday, Lil has a critter sideshow in the middle of the night and we get some excellent rants!

Passing the bar on the first try is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations.

GDZ, I hope your birthday was a lot of fun. Belated wishes and a wee pressie filled with good fortune and happiness for the upcoming year. And a travel voucher for a weekend away from all problems, to be used whenever necessary.

Tartaronne, I'm sorry about the job. And I agree that all of the forced multi-tasking these days is breeding mediocrity. And I sympathize with your frustration at having the actual journalism shoved into a corner. That's the story of my life. I have to spend so much time on administrative tasks that there isn't any time left to be a librarian. Jack of all trades, master of none.

My mouth problem is back with a vengeance. A couple of days of eating bread like a normal human and the entire roof of my mouth is blistered. I was planning to fix chicken and noodles today for lunch, which is a good thing since it's soft. It will give me an excuse to eat mashed potatoes, which I love but almost never fix.

My dinner party was fun. I thouroughly enjoyed it. Lady and Lord C were here from Kansas plus a few of her old classmates. My table was gorgeous, the food was excellent, and the conversation was entertaining.

The meal was plain old country food, nothing fancy. We had chips and salsa as an appetizer. Easy and something everyone likes. Then a spinach salad, which is my favorite and gave me a chance to use my expensive new salad bowl and salad plates. Grilled porterhouse steaks, baked potatoes and an unplanned vegetable brought by one of Lady C's friends - some sort of spinach and cheese casserole which was delicious. I was going to fix a green and wax bean combo, but didn't when the spinach showed up. Asiago bread and cherry cheesecake made with fresh cherries. I was already in trouble with the mouth so skipped the bread.

I love my new room arrangement. Having the table in the dining room meant we could all fit around it without being crowded. What a concept!

Right. Everything is set up now for company. Who is going to be first?

*matina brings in a chocolate sheet cake with fudge frosting for GDZ's birthday*


Tartaronne, sorry about the job miss! I don't know where prize-winning news photographers come from, any more, what with the collapsing of job descriptions such as you describe: at the local paper, the reporter brings a point-and-shoot digital camera to whatever she's covering, and that's it. The only decent shots in the paper are unpaid contributions from the locals... like me.

And meanwhile, my work dries up as places like Wal-Mart offer photo-fixing at ridiculously low prices. The fixing is carried out by young people who've done an evening course in how to use Photoslop, and the instances I've seen are a butchery. But hey, it's a lot cheaper than using me! It's a great irony to me that, even as I'm downsizing my own bidness and going over to the stability and comfort of a salary, ~that's~ when I start to get larger attention for the quality of what I do in re Billy's image.


It's proper cold this morning. My winter shoes are in the mail, but I've just learned that I've been given a clothing allowance by my employer and must use it to purchase a uniform! The only thing not required for my grade is the smokey bear hat. I guess this is the start of my uniformication.

Congrats Irv!

Happy Birthday GDZ!

for Tartaronne.

Does anyone know how to get the computer to do double line spacing in Word? My Russian version is defeating my usual scroll through the options and figure it out approach to word processing...

It's under format and paragraph.

Just watched Clint Eastwood in "For A Few Dollars More". While the film might not be historically accurate, Eastwood has a certain menace and stage presance that suits him well for cowboy films. Although over 20 years old the film hasn't dated too much and is still an enjoyable romp.
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I just watched a car advert in which the idea is the car is smart and the Dog Bot stupid. However the car is boring and forgetable while the Dog Bot amusing and memorable, unlike the car.

Excellent rant, Ag! I can't tell you about the number of times I've seen a little museum or community event spend money on putting together a website or brochure and don't use some of that money to hire someone who can actually *write*. And because of that, all their earnest efforts come off as hopelessly amateurish, and if the writing's really crappy, totally confusing to the average visitor.

I particularly hate the wandering apostrophe. I know, I know, we're only human, everyone makes mistakes. But for heaven's sake don't spend precious time, money and effort into putting up a 20-foot billboard advertising "Home of the World Famous Huckleberry Treat's!!!"