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Jun. 11th, 2010 10:01 am- 10:56 GAAARRRHH FLATPACK FURNITURE!!!! DAVE DENIED SMASH AS DOES NOT HAVE SCREWS TO ASSEMBLE!!!! #
Jun. 11th, 2010
30 Days of Meme - Day 5
Jun. 11th, 2010 07:26 pmYour Favourite Quote...
...Why does this always have to be my favourite? And especially with quotes, there are quotes about everything, for every occasion. Some are wonderfully sweary things that sum up how you feel about banks/plumbers/polticians/etc.
(I speak from bitter personal experience this week with this one. - a rant will follow...) Or they could be attempts to sum up a small fraction of the human condition in a few words. And some of the best are just damn good jokes, such as The Museum of Everythings's wonderfully surreal announcements:
"Children are welcome, but please put them in the bags provided"
Others are misquotations or misattributed- for instance while it was said about him, centuries later, Voltaire himself never said or wrote:
"I deplore what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
So there are lots of good quotes that I like. The astronomer Fred Hoyle once said "Space is really quite close. Its only 100 miles away if your car could go straight up." which is both fun and informative.
Darwin's closing words from On The Origin of Species, always strike me as somewhat uplifting and epitomise the simplicity, and (given the timescales involved) great power of evolution.
I shall leave the last word to Hugh Miller, a Scottish geologist, religious thinker, science communicator, and newspaper publisher who lived and worked in the years before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" has a wonderful quote that sums up the magic of fossil hunting for people before and since.
...Why does this always have to be my favourite? And especially with quotes, there are quotes about everything, for every occasion. Some are wonderfully sweary things that sum up how you feel about banks/plumbers/polticians/etc.
"They couldn't find their arse with both hands and a map".
(I speak from bitter personal experience this week with this one. - a rant will follow...) Or they could be attempts to sum up a small fraction of the human condition in a few words. And some of the best are just damn good jokes, such as The Museum of Everythings's wonderfully surreal announcements:
"Children are welcome, but please put them in the bags provided"
Others are misquotations or misattributed- for instance while it was said about him, centuries later, Voltaire himself never said or wrote:
"I deplore what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
So there are lots of good quotes that I like. The astronomer Fred Hoyle once said "Space is really quite close. Its only 100 miles away if your car could go straight up." which is both fun and informative.
Darwin's closing words from On The Origin of Species, always strike me as somewhat uplifting and epitomise the simplicity, and (given the timescales involved) great power of evolution.
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
I shall leave the last word to Hugh Miller, a Scottish geologist, religious thinker, science communicator, and newspaper publisher who lived and worked in the years before Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" has a wonderful quote that sums up the magic of fossil hunting for people before and since.
In the course of the first day's employment I picked up a nodular mass of blue limestone, and laid it open by the stroke of a hammer. Wonderful to relate, it contained inside a beautifully finished piece of sculpture;- one of the volutes apparently, of an Ionic capital; and not the far-famed walnut of the fairy tale, had I broken the shell and found the little dog lying within, could have surprised me more.
RAAAAAHHH DAVE SMASH!!!!
Jun. 11th, 2010 07:57 pmIs it me or are banks crap?
I mean really, really crap. And incompetent. Really incompetent. And somehow at the root of it, it all becomes your fault. This week my banking has turned into a complete farce. Sometime in November I registered for online banking, but as is the way with these things I never actually used it since then. I don't think I can even recall the passwords. (This is a long running problem I have with almost all computers). But anyhow, around this time I stopped receiving bank statements for this account.
Last week my card expired. I have not been sent a new one. I pop into Branch A, which is convenient for work. Money is withdrawn and they have a look at my account. There's some kind of block placed on the account, so that they won't send any post to the address I've given. They can't get anything sent to them (which would be convenient), but they can get the new card sent to Branch B, where my account is actually located, and I can pick it up "in two to five days".
Monday rolls around - four working days later - and off I go to visit Branch B (taking time out of work to do so I might add). The card is not there, and "it takes five to seven days to arrive". Fair enough, I think, so I leave my number so they can call me when it arrives.
Friday now, and still no card. So I phone the bank. Only I don't. I actually phone the support centre because I dial the wrong number, but they say they'll call the bank and pass on my message. I decide to try a different number, get the same people, and leave no message. Several hours later I've heard nothing, and as I'm going to need some cash for the weekend, and beyond try the branch number again- if they've got the card I'll get it. If not I'll go to the cashier up the road.
Its not the branch, its the call centre people. And I can't speak to the branch. However they give me the very useful information that "We don't send cards to branches for security reasons". Oh, because Branch A said they could only send it to Branch B? What's happened? It turns out that Branch B did indeed receive my card. But destroyed it because they don't send cards to branches for security reasons. So why did Branch A do this? "I don't know, which branch was this? We'll send them a note..."
The upshot of this is that I send them a letter confirming that I live in place X, and I'll get my card. In the post. To address X.
Revenge is a dish best served in letters from someone's boss.
I'll let you know how things go with the screws, but I think someone's pissed off with being ignored by their supplier....
I mean really, really crap. And incompetent. Really incompetent. And somehow at the root of it, it all becomes your fault. This week my banking has turned into a complete farce. Sometime in November I registered for online banking, but as is the way with these things I never actually used it since then. I don't think I can even recall the passwords. (This is a long running problem I have with almost all computers). But anyhow, around this time I stopped receiving bank statements for this account.
Last week my card expired. I have not been sent a new one. I pop into Branch A, which is convenient for work. Money is withdrawn and they have a look at my account. There's some kind of block placed on the account, so that they won't send any post to the address I've given. They can't get anything sent to them (which would be convenient), but they can get the new card sent to Branch B, where my account is actually located, and I can pick it up "in two to five days".
Monday rolls around - four working days later - and off I go to visit Branch B (taking time out of work to do so I might add). The card is not there, and "it takes five to seven days to arrive". Fair enough, I think, so I leave my number so they can call me when it arrives.
Friday now, and still no card. So I phone the bank. Only I don't. I actually phone the support centre because I dial the wrong number, but they say they'll call the bank and pass on my message. I decide to try a different number, get the same people, and leave no message. Several hours later I've heard nothing, and as I'm going to need some cash for the weekend, and beyond try the branch number again- if they've got the card I'll get it. If not I'll go to the cashier up the road.
Its not the branch, its the call centre people. And I can't speak to the branch. However they give me the very useful information that "We don't send cards to branches for security reasons". Oh, because Branch A said they could only send it to Branch B? What's happened? It turns out that Branch B did indeed receive my card. But destroyed it because they don't send cards to branches for security reasons. So why did Branch A do this? "I don't know, which branch was this? We'll send them a note..."
The upshot of this is that I send them a letter confirming that I live in place X, and I'll get my card. In the post. To address X.
Revenge is a dish best served in letters from someone's boss.
I'll let you know how things go with the screws, but I think someone's pissed off with being ignored by their supplier....
