Happy New Year!

2012 might be the Year of the Dragon, the year of the Farmer and the year of Reading (that is all I have discovered so far ... there are probably more); but I just want it to be THE YEAR of NO FIREWORKS!

I have had enough fireworks!

I don't even mind when they burn up thousands of dollars to celebrate every tin pot little celebration. Well, I would prefer that the money were spent on something more useful and perhaps a little longer lasting. And the smoke, smell and cloud left over is not that pleasant. Also it seems to remind those drongos who have been storing their own fireworks (illegally of course), to bring out a few and see how many people in the suburbs they can annoy. The RSPCA love them too; the fireworks and the drongos - large numbers of lost terrified dogs to console.

Ah well, by tommorrow afternoon, the fireworks, like the hangovers, will be forgotten for a few weeks. And, of course, there is always Australia Day soon to keep the pyrotechnicians in business and the drongos occupied.

Words that aren't

Do you ever have that feeling that the advertising / spin world has really developed a new language. Not just buzz words but a whole new language. In the last few days I have come across quite a few examples.



Help: When you travel overseas with your Telstra mobile you will receive a text message advising you that technical issues can be reported to Telstra’s 24x7 helpdesk … and provide the number. A couple of years ago, that meant if you had a problem with any part of the Telstra system they could help you ie finding an Australian phone number and you didn’t have immediate computer access, they could connect you to the Australian directory services (for a fee, but they could connect you). Recently I needed to find a phone number for Medibank Private and after running the gauntlet of recorded messages, finally got an operator in the Philippines, who tried gallantly, but then advised me that she was sorry but she couldn’t find me the number for that bank! At that stage I said thank you and hung up because I was almost choking myself stopping laughing.



Solutions: When you are staying in a hotel and the airconditioner is not working properly or there are no towels in the bathroom; one used to call housekeeping or reception or an operator. The phone was answered by a real person and you were connected to the person who could help you. Not now – you press the Solutions button on your phone and hope for the best. After pressing several more numbers you may finally get connected to someone who will neither, have a solution, turn up to fix the airconditioner or supply the towels. Best idea, wander the halls and find a housekeeping trolley and get your own towels (and pick up a couple of extra coffee and sugar sachets while you are there as they never leave enough of those!); the airconditioning, forget that until the next day…

Have you found this to be the situation?

It is the time of the day when you decide it is time to sit down and have a quiet five minutes. You are home from work and maybe you have dealt with the immediate urgent issues; but you would perhaps just like to sit and have a coffee or a cool ale.

Refreshments are arranged, you are just relaxing in the comfortable chair, chatting, catching up with your significant other and ... ring ring or whatever the current ringtone jars through the peacefulness ... yep, you guessed it ...






www.swamp.com.au







the bloody telemarketer ...... aaarrghhh!

Warning for all young drivers … but will they ever listen?

An article in our local newspaper over the weekend caught my eye.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24875701-5001030,00.html

I read it with interest, including some of the comments on the blog highlighted in the middle section, and then began to think about it …

How do the people working close to the coalface of road safety get their message through to those who are scoring up high in our road statistics lists? Can anyone get through to them?

Or do we just have to wait for the theory of survival of the fittest to filter through the idiots and we will, hopefully, be left with some with brains to continue the generations.

It is just tough to think that there are going to be lots of innocent people along the way who will suffer unnecessarily, but that was going to happen anyway I guess.

Cynical? Yep, I freely admit that.

An answer to the problem? Hmm … difficult really; and I guess if it had been easy, there wouldn’t be the enormous problem, would there? Someone would have worked it out already!

However, I will go right out on the limb and say that I think that it is us who have to take a certain amount of responsibility for it. Yep us … you know, me and you, not the other guy who is not in our backyard.

Why? Maybe we needed to be a bit tougher training our kids. Maybe we needed to not give them everything “we didn’t have” and let them work for it, like our parents let us do.

There is also the issue of the cars now … a heck of a lot faster and more powerful than they were a while ago. They go just as fast in younger, inexperienced hands too. And it is not the speed that usually does the damage, it’s the sudden stop.

Well, anyway I hope the one young driver mentioned in the article takes hold, with both hands, of the chance he has been given, and makes use of it. Otherwise, he or one of his mates will soon add to this year’s statistics.

Red pen too aggressive, Queensland teachers told …

For a moment, when I read this, I wondered if it was April 1!

Deputy Opposition Leader Mark McArdle was referring to a document proposing "strategies for addressing mental health wellbeing in any classroom".

The part he highlighted (excuse the pun): "Don't mark in a red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different colour."

"Given your 10-year-old Labor government presides over the lowest numeracy and literacy standards of any state in Australia, don't you think it's time we focused on classroom outcomes rather than these kooky, loony, loopy, lefty policies?" Mr McArdle asked. Ummm … good point perhaps?

Premier Anna Bligh called the question trivial at a time of "such economic peril".

I must admit that I agree with one of the commentators who muses that they are not sure which is the most worrying; the fact it was a report commissioned by the government, it was brought up in parliament or that the Premier dismissed it as trivial.

If you have time, read at least some of the comments; you will either get a laugh or a jolt of fear …

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24745013-421,00.html

Reminds me about a post I did back in September.

http://smouldering-mushroom.blogspot.com/2008/09/will-we-perhaps-see-reincarnation-of.html