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Musings & Cruft -
English
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Tuesday, 22 September 2009 12:21 |
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Liegate, Bill Gates, Crashgate, garden gate, Expensesgate, Sachsgate, Bloodgate and Selectiongate. Okay, there might be two ringers in there but you should have spotted the connection by now.
Why the continual suffix of "gate" to signify something is remiss or news worthy? Some possible attachment or attempt to associate with the original and rather significant event? This is a cheap (and rubbish) way of generating a headline or meme purely for the purpose of proliferating an apparent news story of somewhat limited value. Watergate was the source of this but the meaning appears to have been very much lost in the years following, as this was the highlight of conspiracy and dirty tricks within the political arena. Since then we've had nothing in the same stratosphere and the diluted value of this prefix lessens each time its milked in the press. A gate is a barrier or obstacle, so in this sense the word adds nothing to the story. Either way, let it end and start being a little more creative with the headlines before you try my patience any further. |
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Musings & Cruft -
English
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Tuesday, 15 September 2009 00:00 |
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Warning flags on a recruitment agency. They offer me "a C# Deveoper" and tell me they are an organisation "focussing on computer degree and Msc candidates" and the candidate "likes your location should you have any roles in" ... no I didn't miss a word of that last quotation.
Which these are only three snippets from an email that was otherwise reasonably formed, lack of punctuation permitting, it's damning stuff. In addition, the CV they attached wasn't even completed! Attention to detail and quality is what marks you out as a potential source of job applicants for me. That is how a relationship is formed and nurtured, so ensure a good start is made at the very least. After professing a specialty in a particular area, we could reasonably expect things to be presented better than the above ... try capitalising where applicable, spell checkers and proof-reading your writing before clicking that all important "send" button. Your mail is moved swiftly to the spam category, my mail client is now trained to filter out your plaintive cries and no more shall you darken my metaphorical door with your lurking presence. |
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Musings & Cruft -
English
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Tuesday, 30 June 2009 00:00 |
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Listening to Disposable Teens by Marilyn Manson, and wanted to clarify one of the lyrics and scuttled across to a handful of lyric sites to cross-check. In the process I discovered the line "I've got a face that's made for violence and porn" which has been much loved by me and bellowed repeatedly in the car on the drive to work for years, is actually "I got a face that's made for violence upon" which is nowhere near as cool. The original mishearing was a great contradiction or offered an interesting juxtaposition. Now I'm left with a disappointment and a vague feeling the song will never be quite the same again ... perhaps sometimes it's simply better to live in happy ignorance. This must be how all the Hendrix fans felt after mishearing "while I kiss this sky". |
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Musings & Cruft -
English
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 00:00 |
"An old man turned ninety-eight he won the lottery and died the next day"
Appalling luck. Hopefully his family will be reimbursed correctly due to the contractual validity of the situation.
"It's a black fly in your Chardonnay"
Bad party or simply an unkempt garden? Better maintenance would ease this problem or perhaps opt for a pint of Guinness where it wouldn't be as evident.
"It's a death row pardon two minutes too late"
Bureaucratic oversight and condolences to the bereaved widow.
"It's like rain on your wedding day"
Merely inclement weather and just one of those things over which we have no control. Consider moving guests indoors toward the bar to compensate.
"It's a free ride when you've already paid"
Checking availability of others before making plans for travelling.
"It's the good advice that you just didn't take"
Stupidity. Nothing more and nothing less. Also expect the line of "I told you so" to be appearing in the not-too-distant future.
"A traffic jam when you're already late"
Lack of planning does not constitute bad luck. The error is merely compounded by said jam and there is no grounds for complaint.
"A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break"
Poor choice of smoking venue and technically means it can't now be a smoking break anyway.
"It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife"
A series of bad purchasing decisions without thought for necessity or quantative analysis before investing in additional spoons.
"It's meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife"
Consider either adultery (see: You Oughta Know) or spending more time out on the social circuit instead of penning lyrics that define unfortunate circumstance as opposed to anything remotely approaching irony.
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Musings & Cruft -
English
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 13:14 |
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I’ve just been talking to a US-based sales team and said “can you mail over the details, as we’re snowed under at the moment”. The lovely girl was immediately concerned for our welfare here and worried we wouldn’t be able to leave the offices tonight due to the snow. Note to self; turn of phrase is critical in conversation. |
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The ESX 4.0 Server is VMware's customised operating system (a linux-based distribution) that is installed onto a server to provide an interface between the virtual machines and the physical hardware. It also consists of a small VM called the Service Console that is used to...