Where are my manners?

You aren't born with manners, as a baby the first words are more likely to be mamma or go goo than 'please' or 'thank you' (If you're first words were please or thank you consider yourself a child prodigy)  Parents teach kids manners, if they don't their kids learn by copying the other kids in the playground.  To be honest I was dragged up pretty well but there was a stage where my manners were sadly lacking.  It is very rude to swear and when I worked for the civil service it was a way for staff to let off steam, I even learned to swear in Dutch - which ticked off my manager no end because she couldn't tell if I was swearing or not.  Since most of my jobs - except that one - involved a degree of interaction with the public I'm sensitive to bad manners and at the moment we're not doing the next generation any favours. 

Take this morning, standing in a queue at the post office.  Mothers on cell-phones ignoring their kids, people pushing into the queue to get forms for various things, in one case the guy was so keen he stood on the foot of the woman in front of me, a woman who was so interested in her cell-phone conversation that she was ignoring the questions of the clerk trying to serve her. With our busy and increasingly isolated lives we get less and less chances to talk to real people.  Good manners cost nothing so the next time you're out and about turn off your cell phone and turn on a smile, you might make someone's day.

(I'm always polite to our customers, I've come to know a lot of the regulars by name.  We do our best to make everyone who walks through the door feel welcome.) 

Are we slaves to our Sat Navs?

For reasons it isn't worth going into I'm about to upgrade my iPod to an iPhone and this brings up an interesting dilemma.  I've been hankering after a GPS in my car for years and now I'm about to get one.  The concept of being able to plug in an address and be directed to it instead of having to reccee places before I go to them or using google streetview really appeals to me.  I hate getting lost, and worse being late for important things because I was driving round in circles unable to find a tiny unmarked side street.  Not that my navigation is terrible, but knowing exactly where you're going is one less thing to have to concentrate on especially in down-town Salt Lake, where lunch time commuters wander around the streets like a flock of lemmings.

Did you know in the UK alone 300,000 crashes were blamed on satellite navigation aids. In a quote from UK tabloid The Daily Mirror

One top academic argued mindless motorists were at fault for perceived problems with satnavs.
Psychology professor Cary Cooper, of Lancaster University, said: "When you see pictures of a lorry being lifted out of ditch with a crane, it's difficult to understand why drivers follow a satnav even when it's clearly wrong.
But some people are easily persuadable and will follow instructions, whether it is their wife or a computer telling them where to go.
Some people like to hand over control and don't want responsibility, even for something as simple as directions.

If you google 'sat nav accidents' there are many, many pages of stuff just like this.  Having read plenty of these articles I have come to the conclusion I will let my GPS offer advice on my route - which I don't have to take if I don't want to- and will always keep a map handy.


www.engadget.com/tag/gps+accident/
http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/gps_related_accidents/
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/papers/GPS/Johnson_Shea_Holloway_GPS.pdf

Why is doorstep harrasment still legal?

Ever heard the phrase an Englishman's home is his castle.  I used to think that was a really grown-up (ie boring) thing to say.  Now I have a home of my own I can see what it means. I - the co-homeowner - decide who comes in, I don't even have to open the door if I don't want to.  My friend - the wise girl I was discussing this subject with intends to put a notice on her door that basically says, 'if we don't know you we won't be opening the door'  Which throws up all kinds of problems - all those packages you have to sign for that won't get delivered, publishers clearing house cheques, the passer-by who has just spotted your garage is on fire....    My parents have an airlock between them and the front door so they can open the door shake their heads and close it again without a word being exchanged.  Unless its the JH's and then Mum hides under the table until they've gone - I am not making this up!

I tend to take direction well, a sign saying 'NO TRESPASSING' will stop me in my tracks.  So will a sign (like the one on our front door) that tells you to read it before you ring the doorbell.  People who ignore that sign and aren't people we know or a appointment that we have set up, or parcel/pizza delivery are likely to get an earful from hubby (if he's home) or me.  But ignore it they do and then they wonder why  I'm so short with them.  It could be because I was buried inside my washing machine trying to extract the filter, balanced half way up a ladder, had just got my head around a concept and the doorbell sent my thoughts flying to the four corners or the fact that the doorbell scares the hell out of my cat. And when I do open the door they launch straight into their sales pitch.  The words "I'm sorry to bother you," would go a long way in this situation.

If I am in the front garden however, I'm fair game.

Update : Privacy film on the window at the front door, you can see them and they can't see you. People still ring the doorbell they just don't get an answer unless we know them. Simple but effective.

Is it time to say goodbye to Facebook?

Have you noticed that just recently a lot of companies are riding roughshod over us the consumer.  They tell us what we want, they tell us to pay more for services which frankly aren't worth the money.  They try to tell us what to listen to, what to eat, how to dress.  The most recent and vocal of these - 'you'll grow to love it - stop complaining' companies is Facebook.  FB has become a part of my life.  I use it to keep up with my friends all over the world.  I have the FB app, I check it all the time.  But get this FB I am the boss, I dictate our relationship or so I thought.  With each new update I renew my privacy settings.  But this last update - the one that sorts stories into an order of importance that's done by an algorithm is quite possibly the beginning of the end -for me at least.  FB wants to move in with me, it wants to tell all my friends what I'm watching or listening to.  It wants me to give it a timeline of my life long before FB was an idea for an exclusive ivy league network.  FB sit down and listen, its not you it's me.  I value my privacy, my guilty pleasures, my pandora playlist, youtube videos ect.  I'm announcing a trail separation.  If you haven't come to your senses in a month, I'm afraid it's over.

10/10 Moved the facebook app to the second screen on my iphone and found I don't feel compelled to check it.  I'm thinking I'll stay with FB but only at the weekends unless someone messages me direct.

When one size doesn't fit all

There's an old saying that 'sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me' which increasingly seems to hold less truth.  Listen to the media, pick up any magazine, or watch any talk show and they're all about how a person looks.  It's all about the size zero - but is that healthy?  Speaking as someone who never has been and never wants to be a size zero I would say not only is it an unhealthy obsession it's downright dangerous. My husband recently lost a lot of weight - around 70-75 llbs - it took him a year of diet and exercise to get to just under 200llbs.  That wasn't his target weight but he can maintain 200llbs and still eat normally.  According to his BMI he needs to lose another 10 llbs - only losing that much more would make him start to look skeletal..  With that dramatic a weight loss some people thought he was ill, our next door neighbour was convinced that he'd taken some slimming aid.  My BMI target is 120llbs I'm ten over that but if its a choice between counting every calorie to lose that extra poundage or eating normal healthy food and remaining a size 10 I know which I prefer.  Every body is different, we all have a golden ratio when it comes to weight our own personal number - your body will let you know what yours is.

Why do today's tennis players come with their own sound effects?

Lets get this out of the way up-front.  I love tennis, I've been to Queens Club and watched Wimbledon every year and I can't believe how long it has taken me to notice this.  If you google Murray v Nadal (US open semi final 2011) and compare it to say Stich v Edberg (Basel final 1993) there is one major difference - a lack of grunting.  Seriously, compare the two.  The Basel match you can't take your eyes off for a number of reasons - the players, the almost balletic shots and the grace, strength and power behind them they make their battle look effortless.  Murray v Nadal on the other hand you could be chasing a peanut across the floor and you'd still know who had just hit the ball because of their grunts, groans and moans.  The women are just as bad, Seles v Sabatini Miami 1991, Seles actually does a double grunt a sort of 'ahh- uhhh!' each time she hits the ball.  Sabatini just grunts.  Right up to date 2011 Wimbledon final Sharapova v Kvitova, Sharapova screams into her serve.  Compare this with Virginia Wade v Betty Stove Wimbledon 1977 final, not a grunt or a yell in sight. 
We know you're putting your all into each shot - just lose the sound effects.

How is this not a monopoly?

In 2008 the only two satellite radio companies - Sirius and XM merged.  Being two separate companies means they were competing against each other, the corporate way of keeping each other honest.  But when you merge two companies together and they are the only ones who provide a certain service isn't that plainly a monopoly ie there is no alternative service that you can use?  Well the FCC and Justice Department clearly didn't see it that way as they ruled in favour of the merger and up until a week ago I didn't really have a problem with it and then they took BBC Radio 1 off the air, with no warning, just a recording on C15 where it used saying that if you want music similar to that found on Radio 1 we offer the following stations.

That's when I found out how abominable Sirius XM's customer service is.  We cancelled the house subscription and to keep us they offered us 2 then 6, then 12 months for free.  The customer service rep was convinced that 'in time we'd grow to love the other stations and forget about Radio 1'.  I don't want other station I want Radio 1.  So we cancelled.  But we found out that 21 million other listeners who only have Sirius/XM subscriptions in order to listen to Radio 1 (timeshifted so that the morning show is in the morning etc)  are out there and they are ticked off.  So I joined the FaceBook campaign and duly sent off my carefully composed e-mails of complaint to their director of programming and what I got back was a form letter, saying 'thankyou for your concerns, but we think you'll like these other stations much better than Radio 1.  I sent back a reply saying that I had a subscription for one reason only R1 - a link to my home that I listen to for the DJ's the music, the whole package.  I got the same form letter back, over and over.


So a week later we still don't have R1.  The Facebook campaign has had some reaction. R1 is coming back but Internet only which means you can't listen to it in the car and for the pleasure of listening online you have to pay Sirius/XM $12 a month in addition to your subscription.

I would really like to thank Sirius, due to their arrogant attitude and appalling lack of customer care we investigated other solutions and found one that for a one-time payment (just less than the cost of a yearly subscription to S/XM) gives us a time-shifted service on any show we want to listen to and also steams Pandora and Radio 538.  Bye, bye Sirius/XM - customer lost.