Do you want some more?

A few weeks ago I read this interesting article. What I liked about it was not that it just summed up my feelings about giving aid to the third world, but that it was also from a native and it had a solid logic reasoning. How long do we (I'm using "we" in the first world sense) have to keep giving "aid" to the third world with no difference in the long term outcome before we start to question what we are doing? The charitable side of me would like to think that we keep giving aid in the same way because even though we realize that we are only helping some people directly and in the short term it's better then nothing, isn't it? My cynical side suggests that it's because it's easy to give money and wash our hands of the problem having assuaged our guilt. Of course why we feel guilty about it is a whole different debate ....

Back in the flow

Well after spending the last few months sitting around gaming and watching various movies I'm now, finally, back in productive mode. So for those of you who are subscribed to my blog be prepared for a lot more posts!

While I'm on the subject a lot of people have expressed interest in what my plans are at this point. Basically I'm going to make a concerted effort (no, really!) to get a job this week. If I don't look like I'm getting somewhere by the end of the week I'm going to take some more time off and go to Germany for a language course, then come back and continue to look. It's a source of amusement for me that now when I've decided to go contracting some really tempting permanent roles have been shown to me, one of them that might involve moving to NY at some point. While I've said I'm going contracting, and I intend on doing so at this point, I won't disregard these interesting roles. I'll keep you all posted.

Resignation

Well this is a much belated post that I told myself I'd write in the immediate days following my resignation from Betfair while I had nothing to do at work. As it turned out though I was flat chat in the following week and since then have been on "garden leave", that is paid to be at home and consequently not that interested in writing blog entries :)

Betfair was the longest I've ever been in a job and was certainly the job I've enjoyed the most in all my career. I think in retrospect that I was very fortunate to get the manager I did who understood precisely how to manage people like me and by and large just let me get on with things. Of course it was also important that some of the most interesting and talented people I've ever had the pleasure to work with were also at Betfair and it was probably that fact that kept me there so long. That said it is time for a change, Betfair has run out challenges for me and after talking about it for seven odd years I've finally decided to go contracting. Part of the delay on that front is that it was non trivial here in the UK to organize my visa such that I was able to contract, but now I have a HSMP visa which allows me to do that there was nothing stopping me. So after a month or so off, I'll be joining most of the ex pats here in London and joining the contract market.

Farewells always seem slightly odd to me, I've never really understood the need for them that well. I'll keep in touch with the people that I want to and for those that I don't want to well I don't really care what they think anyway so a farewell just seems redundant, if you'll pardon the pun :) When I expressed that opinion though to some of the guys at work I was told that the farewell leaving drinks is actually not for me but for others, apparently they still need an excuse to go out and have a few drinks, so not wanting to be a party pooper I'll organise something shortly and see how that ends up.

A new table!

A few weeks back I got an excited phone call from my land lord (In fact I don't think I've ever had a phone call from him where he wasn't excited, I think it has something to do with being a hair dresser) saying that he had a new table and chairs for me and would I mind if he went into my flat to replace my old ones with the new set. Given that he has been reliable in the past and has done me a couple of favours over the years I said I had no problem with him going into my flat while I wasn't there. He thanked me and said I'd love the new table set and if I didn't he'd remove it and bring back the old set. Win win situation or so you'd think.

As I came home that night I looked into his hair dressing salon (it is underneath my apartment) and he saw me and waved frantically at me. I stopped and went in and proceded to get a garbled story about a mess, tables not fitting and him having to do some work to get the table into the flat, I followed him with a bemused expression as we climbed the stairs together. At the top of the stairs i started to get a picture of what had happened.

For anyone that has ever had to move house or apartment I'm sure you'll be familiar with the situation where you buy some piece of furniture, commonly a lounge, assemble it and then when you go to move out find that you can't fit it out of the room that you assembled it in. This was the reverse problem on a bigger scale. Clearly my land lord had gone out and bought, or more likely via some other means had come into possession of this new table and chair set, decided that he didn't want it and he'd fob it off on me, the problem though was that once he got it to the top of the stairs leading into my apartment he discovered that it didn't quite fit through. Now here is where I, in my naive state, would have thought that he'd have given up, called me to say he'd do it another day, or disassembled the table. Clearly hair dressers think differently to me. He proceded to remove the door and then the door frame leading in to my apartment. Unfortunately after all that effort he discovered he still had that  problem at the top of the next set of stairs, so being undeterred he removed that door and frame as well, and finally lo and behold the door into the kitchen was also problematic, but by this stage he'd gotten door frame removal down to a fine art and in a jiffy he had that obstacle removed.

I now have a really nice new table and chairs, it only took a weekend or two to get my doors back.

Poetic Justice

As i sat there last night with the remains of a "easy to open" packet in my hand I contemplated the following.

Wouldn't it be poetic justice if you were somehow able to get the people in charge of picking stock for the supermarkets to actually try and use the stock they themselves pick. The case in point was with ham. Now unlike the rest of the civilized world it is next to impossible to buy fresh meat from a butchers in London, instead you need to go to your local supermarket and buy packaged meat. Now I've noticed a trend with this packaging, it boldly proclaims that it is "easy to open" or "Resealable" and presumably that is a big selling or marketing point for said product. Of course as anyone will attest, trying to open said products is next to impossible, invariably ending in frustration, swearing and little bits of plastic sheets all over the kitchen. I mean seriously what moron uses glue with an adhesive strength stronger then that of the damn plastic sheet in the first place? So I for one would absolutely LOVE to get the stock choosers down on the floor, and see them trying to open their damn products.

Who runs the Internet?

I'm just going through all my data at the moment and attempting to once and for all bring some order to the chaos. Amongst the chaos I found all my old bookmarks. Funny how the entire concept of bookmarks has just about vanished these days, the days of the google. Still I found one link which was useful and thought I'd throw it up here in case any of you readers were also curious about who and how the Internet actually runs. Who makes the decisions? This article should clear it up for you.

Education

An ongoing topic of discussion for me, one which had particular relevance with my ex who was a teacher and whom I got into a lot of debates with on the subject. Having just read this article Lesson number six struck me, as it was a better phrased expression of my own belief. Having gone to a selective high school, I was always a bit biased, but it's still my firm belief that putting children in an environment that looks at talent in a positive manner, rather then trying to chop it down ("tall poppy syndrome") is more important then giving then a fully rounded societal upbringing. Of course there is nothing preventing the two, but it seems to be the case that it's normally one or the other, for example the majority of the schools that get the best academic results in Sydney are single sex schools.