But deep down I wish I had:
1) thought of it
2) had the money/contacts to do it
 

While the young lady in question would look more at home in Camden market than the Oxford Circus high street, the article in question did address the ethics of dress sense for interviews. But to what end remains somewhat unclear.

Instead of showing how people can hide tattoos, take out peircings and tie back their hair, perhaps they should have been disuading people from these forms of body decoration altogether?

I used to know a chap with huge ear loops, nose ring, eyebrow peircings and all sorts. Even with them all out, he looked a right thug, even if he was one ofthe loveliest guys you could ever meet.

But, in an interview, often conducted by rather close minded people, he stood no chance of landing himself a decent job. I believe he still works in a call centre, safe from the public view.

This BBC article also comes as the Independant reports on a quite pretty girl supposedly discriminated against for having a prosthetic limb. However, from reading into the story I could only conclude that she was actually rubbish and her having a prosthetic arm had little to do with her dismisal.

However, like the tattoos and peircings mentioned in the BBCs interview article, perhaps she should have concealed her prosthetic in the same way?

The truth is that we can never get away from prejudices and first appearances, especially when an employee is a representative of a company to the general public (aka: the moronic masses).

I work in an office away from the public. But if I came in one day with tattoos and peircings there would be a reaction, even from my open minded work colleagues.

So to appear 'normal' I've never had tattoos, peircings or strange hair (although it is rather spiky). This means I've been accepted to interviews, got jobs and rarely experienced lifely problems of acceptance.

I'm still my own person. I listen to weird music. I have geeky interests outside of work. I don't have to dress in an outlandish manner to be myself. So why do people continue to do so, then expect to be welcomed by all when they challenge the social norms?

Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.
 

 Unlike this girl, who apparently fell asleep in the tattooist parlour and instead of 3 stars on her face got 58.
Interesting that he has a photo of her in his portfolio looking relatively happy despite her trying to take him to court.

Makes me presume that she got home and realised what a terrible mistake she had made.
Or the horrified look on her Mother's face lost its rebellious appeal?

I also wonder if there is a legal age limit on tattoos.




 

Despite terrible reviews and a trailer that gives the whole thing away, I'm going to see Terminator Salvation this evening.

Will it be a 'salvation' for the franchise?
Will I be 'salivating' at how good it is?
Or will I not bother going to see the 2-3 movies scheduled to follow this one on account of just how bad it is?

Find out tomorrow!
 

Another person I know has embraced the evil that is Fit Flops. First my mother, then my friend's wife and now a friend from uni who does HR by day and wants to be a fashion designer by night.

Even in the office at work, many of the women are wearing fit flops instead of actually getting some proper exercise. Do they work though? Well, not from what I can see at least...and I've seen quite a bit I can tell you.

I think this fit flop craze can go in the bin along with diet pills, electric shock exercise (like the Abdominisor 5000) and other ridiculous devices and shoes made in the developing world for 1p and sold for £100 in the west.

Or perhaps I'm just sore because I wish I'd thought of it first?
 

Saturday was brilliant.
Met up with a lady I haven't seen in 4 years. Feelings were still strong for both of us, but the distance is an issue -which is interesting, because before it wasn't. But let's see what happens there.

We had a great day out in London together with some London Dungeon followed by sitting out on the South Bank with a cold drink, taking in the scenes and then enjoying some truly exceptional food at a tiny price. All this from a very classy looking riverside pub. This place was a real find and I'l be sure to remember it for future days out and dates. Went back to her aunt's place where she was staying in London for the weekend, where I got cat-attacked! Actually, her 4 cats were very friendly, I just wish I didn't have a cat allergy.

We sat up on the roof of her block of flats in Euston chatting and drinking Dr Pepper, which was bizarre, but really nice. Then it was time for me to catch the train back to Cambridge.

Sunday was a nightmare!
Spent the day helping my father to write a reply to his arsehole of a boss, prepare a grievance letter and rewrite his CV and get him used to applying for jobs again, as well as a little interview technique.

By 9pm it was pub time and god, I needed it.
Back to work today for a rest. lol

 

Now, I was scheptical about the rave reviews this film has been getting. But when I left the cinema, I was in a state of shock at just how good the movie was. As someone who is terribly critical about films, I give in 10 out of 10. There were 2 bits I feel could have been omitted, even if they were for just a brief second, but they didn't spoil the film in anyway.

I was concerned about Simon Pegg being cast as Mr Scott, but like the rest of the characters in this film, you are not looking at the actors, you are looking at the 'characters'. Beyond the first 2 seconds when you see Simon Pegg as Simon Pegg your mind does not contemplate who these actors are, or even that they are actors at all. When you see Dr McCoy you do not see the actor, you see only Dr McCoy. He looks like McCoy from the original series, he acts like him, he even has the token phrases (without sounding in the slightest bit cheesy) and so for all intents and purposes, he IS Dr McCoy.

The casting is brilliant throughout as are the sets, special effects and technology. As a result, it's all very believable, even the 70s style uniforms, the while corridors and the white bridge, which looks like something out of an apple catalogue.

Perhaps, were it not for the runaway success of the apple mac, ipod and iphone in recent years then the white surroundings may have been harder to accept.

I'd best not speak about the film anymore for risk of spoiling it. But here are my final thoughts:
1) Go and see this movie, even if you HATE Star Trek
2) Considering the new designs of the Romulans, the Klingons will be truly monstrous should a sequel be made
3) Normally, if I praise a film, I pray that they never make a follow up as it would ruin a perfect record. But I'm eagerly anticipating a sequel to this exemplary movie.
 

Star Trek: 10/10

Well, the papers have revealed that Little Alfie isn't the 12 year old father of a child with some 15 year old council estate slapper with a face like a dropped pie.

Or as my mate suggested: "She looks like she fell out of the Ugly Tree, hit every branch on the way down, then the whole damn thing fell on top of her!"

Normally I don't quote David Cameron, as he's a bit of a Blair clone, much as I oddly have faith in the guy. Perhaps he's too posh for my liking, but what he said was spot on; "Children having children is a worrying thought."

So now that the real father has been revealed to be a 14 year old lad out of a possible 500 who took it in turns it seems to ride the village bicycle are things any better? Well, they're 2 years better I suppose.

The thing I don't understand is that these are relatively good looking young lads. What the hell were they thinking sticking themselves in THAT!? Seriously, this girl is not pretty. I might even go so far to say that she is the anti-erection incarnate, causing shrinkage faster than a bucket of cold water.

This story continues to begger belief.

eBay blogs are the next big thing it seems. The news page for eBay blogs is already chock full of spam, pointless comments and cheap crap made by people who must be on the dole or too stupid to stack shelves in Tesco. Instead they make random trinkets out of bits scavenged from the bins...or so it seems. Although occassionally you do get a cracking deal, provided its not sold out by the time you get there because you don't live your life 24/7 on eBay.

Scything criticism aside, I think that promoting an internal blogging networkd is a great business idea, because eBay is then holding on to their spending traffic for longer. And by 'spending traffic' I mean the people who are addicted to eBay and can't resist spending the £100 pounds that has just been transfered into their PayPal account on something else that they want.

Some eBay profile pages like this one have been around for years with no real purpose other than being available as a professional shop front for an individual or business with some html knowledge. Meanwhile, other eBay profiles like this one are expansions of the new eBay blogging sensation. They're quite similar, but still, eBay hasn't linked all these things together, making navigation rather clunky.

Like so many of eBay's marketing schemes, this was a nice idea, but has been poorly executed and not managed, maintained or moderated in any shape or form. But when you have countless billions of people generating even more billions of dollars every day, who cares whether it's secure, moderated or telligable so long as it's pumping revenue into the owners' pockets?
 

Well, that pretty much speaks for itself. However, it's quite evident that Wolfram Alpha is not intended for the everyman of this world, or if it is, then they've really screwed up.

Wolfram Alpha is designed for physicians, mathematicians, biologists and other equally intelligent bods seeking access to facts, figures, graphs and other statistics.

For the average joe who wants to find a new pair of trainers, the quickest route to Nottingham from London or film reviews, Wolfram Alpha is very likely to redirect the user to useless information via a choice of options derived from the entered search term.

Finally, IF (that's a big if), Wolfram Alpha really wanted to take on Google as they foolishly claim, then there's one big problem. As Google took over the world of search, it also taught us all How to use search.

So how could another company begind to conquer Google when the world has been spoon fed exactly how to use Google at its most basic level?
 

It's science! lol

LOST has had be gripped from the very start and while I did skip one series because the whole damn thing was dragging, LOST has really picked up the pace again with the last two seasons, especially this season.

The thing that really gets me about LOST is that were it not marketed so very well, it would have been dumped in the Babylon 5 bin as something great for its time, but mostly ignored, but for a cult following that's foaming at the mouth with fanboy excitement.

Yes, as Simon Pegg once said "Babylon 5's a big pile of shit." However, LOST certainly isn't. Probably because it's been shot like a movie and shot incredibly well. Plus, the dialogue is awesome, as are some of the characters. Some of the characters you hate, but it's all a means of balance and believability.

I think the real beauty about LOST is that we believe it. In fact, it's all presented so well that we've accepted an immortal man, time travel and a smoke monster. But is this because all explanations have tried to remain realistic and scientific? Perhaps when some whacky shit does go down and we're told that the Egyptian gods did it, Aliens did it or something equally supernatural, then all credibility will go out of the window.

The US watched the final two episodes of LOST's penultimate season last night. I have to wait until Sunday because I don't have time to download it. Here's to what Sunday night brings. I'm gonna be wrecked for work on Monday...
 

A group of my friends have embraced their teenage hobby of Warhammer 40K and while I was reluctant at first, they forced me to play a game (forced I tell you!) and I quite enjoyed it.

So after being given a bunch of models to paint by a friend so I could get back into it I've played a couple more games. Had no idea how to paint the models, so I asked here for help. I'm still baffled and having butchered a perfectly good tank kit, I might sit and think on the matter for a while.

But, as a bloke in his late 20s its actually a very enjoyable little hobby and compared to other pursuits, its not quite as wallet crippling as I once remembered.
 

I was planning to have an epic rant about brand and why people are so dedicated to it, but it seems that an HBC blogger has beaten me to it. However as this enthusiastic and grinning marketing entrepeneur (or so he claims to be) has given brand a positive 'branding', it provides a perfect opposition to my impending ramble regarding why people seem to be so close minded when it comes to shopping for all stuff great and small.

So why first of all is everyone barking about brand?
I remember when I was at school that only Nike trainers would do, then it wa Adidas, then the triple stripe black trouser for sports came into fashion. Okay, I'll admit that those were kind of cool, but why are people so dedicated to brand? Is it a habit we get into, a sense of trust or elitism?

I think it could be all three. For example, if someone pointed to me and said "What trainers?" then I'd instantly think Skechers (which I'm wearing now) or Merrell after hearing lots of recommendations about how comfortable and long lasting they are. But at the end of the day you do get what you pay for regardless of brand. I mean, I have a pair of £15 Nike trainers. They look like £15 and they certainly feel like £15. Whereas if I'd forked out £60 for an awesome pair of trainers from any brand, then they'd be brilliant...or at least I'd hope so.

At least in being non-hip and non-trendy I can find decent clothing that's reasonably priced, like the smart/casual shirts from Guise which only cost £15 while the same shirt with a recognised brand will cost £50 for the exact same thing. Same materials, practically identical design, but different logos. Would you pay £35 for a logo? Seems most people will.

Maybe this goes a long way toward explaining our debt culture with people spending more than they can afford or paying out full whack when there are bargains to be had and without sacrificing comfort or quality?