Journal Entries
Ennui
Posted Jan 5, 2008
I have just written A30529118. I've submitted it to PR because if there is any kind of article for which the EG was intended, it's this kind. It celebrates the mundane, and asks us to consider in an almost anal level of detail, the kind of activity to which we'd usually never give a second thought. It's totally practical and praiseworthy in that it might stop someone from getting burned, poisoned or worse. It would probably be published nowhere else, and for that consideration alone is the ideal h2g2 Edited Guide entry.
It is also the most tedious thing I have ever written. As I scrape the bottom of the barrel, h2g2 achieves the zenith of its original purpose yet again. I thought I had a pretty good grasp of what the word 'ennui' meant, until now.
Discuss this Journal entry [22]
Latest reply: Jan 5, 2008
Ah, the irony of it...
Posted Dec 23, 2007
Went for my biennial health check with BUPA not so long ago. I got given a hearing test. The results showed that I was beginning to lose sensitivity at very high and low frequencies. This is a Monk family affliction, along with hypertension and migraines.
It wouldn't be so bad but I was noticing the other day I was beginning to have problems when listening with a friend to a comedy sketch that I was playing back on my PDA. He could hear the quieter dialogue easily, but I had to ask him to tell me what it was.
At least now, when someone calls me a 'sacntimonious twerp who listens to no-one else', I have the best excuse going.
Discuss this Journal entry [11]
Latest reply: Dec 23, 2007
Funny eh...
Posted Dec 13, 2007
...that U114627, of all researchers, should complain that 'they've been bullied off site'.
Them that dishes it out should be prepared to stand and take it. But then that's the hallmark of a bully: unable to withstand the treatment they so indiscriminately mete out to others.
Discuss this Journal entry [28]
Latest reply: Dec 13, 2007
A Dish Best Served Frozen
Posted Dec 6, 2007
A number of years ago I was self-employed. I was just starting out, I had no money, when I attracted the attention of a small multimedia firm. They wanted me to work for them. They paid me the first month then failed to pay me after that, so I walked out. The stress had affected my health so much I decided that I should cut my losses rather than go through the additional stress of legal action, although I was threatened with that myself for walking out dspite the fact that I hadn't breached any contract first.
The guy who ran it was, quite frankly, a little bully who seemed to get his kicks from suing other people. He couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag, however. I had a feeling that the company was hopelessly run, so I monitored its performance through the years through Companies House. I was quite gratified to see that, having just reviewed last year's accounts, it made a loss of £42K, and the year before that a loss of £52K. This means that over the years, shareholders have had to put in over £300K to keep it afloat. Yet *someone* keeps on pouring in money...
Tell me, is it wrong to feel good at watching someone stupid and venal dig themselves so deep into a hole that they end up burying themselves?
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: Dec 6, 2007
Here's an idea I'd like to try out on you
Posted Nov 18, 2007
Many people, including some of the most die-hard stalwarts of h2g2, have become disaffected with it. They've become disaffected most with the PR process, not because of the process itself but because of the material going through it.
I had an idea for a collaborative entry that could help make the place a little more interesting. It's a project called '100 Great Inventions'. We've all had times when we've thought 'I wish I'd thought of that!' I suggest that everyone who is interested pens a piece on something that they thought was a great idea. Not only will it describe the idea and how it came to fruition, but it will allow the author to put something of themselves into the article, arguing for why *the rest of us* should care about these ideas.
I've written some entries myself that could help get the ball rolling:
A3320939, A2116766, A762662 . They don't have to be *physical* inventions either: how about women's suffrage, or the NHS?
Any takers?
Discuss this Journal entry [13]
Latest reply: Nov 18, 2007
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Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman
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