The Ranting Room

Geck0 wrote: Today's rant: Fallout Boy and Panic! At The Disco They sound exactly the same!  This is just too freaky to even contemplate!  Two awful bands and they both sound exactly the same. Terrible bands, quite simply terrible.

I second this.

Ghandi 2 wrote: stan the man wrote: Yeah it is really quite disgusting.  The worst of all time though is the fact that more people voted for American Idol then for the Presidential Elections.  Uh..That's not true. Each show gets around 200 million viewers, but that's worldwide and not nearly that many people actually vote. Unless you can find some actual numbers to prove your point, which I could not.

Plus multiple votes are allowed on AI.  Of course, with Diebold on the scene, they were probably allowed in the election as well.

This thread needs to be brought back, so my rant for today is:

Ayrton Senna

Or to be more specific his sportsmanship and the lasting effect its had on professional drivers around the world (I'm aware that this probably wont be too popular with our Brazilian members but bare with me). Senna believed that he could do anything to win becasue God meant for him to win, this ended up with him weaving infront of a following car when he made small mistakes in races (like missing a gear, that hasnt happoned for a long time) and culminated in his dispicable driving into Alain Prost in 1990 Japanese grand prix. For those that dont know, they were fighting for the title and Prost beat him off the line at this race, Senna decided not to brake or turn into the first corner and instead rammed right into Prost. As a result Senna won the title and the FIA let him get away with it.

Since then Schumcher has taken this attitude and still uses it, he has won one title by driving into a competetor (Adelaide 94) and lost one when the same move backfired on him (Jerez 97), he was the pioneer of the choping across the bows of another competetor at the start of races and has had no problem with even forcing his brother, amongst others, towards a concrete wall in "lift or we both crash" move. In the last couple of years he has taken to forcing rivals onto the grass at nearly 200mph (320ish kph) (Spa 2000, Silverstone 2003), and at Monaco on Sunday he deliberatly stoped his car on track at a slow corner in qualifying preventing anyone from being able to beat his poll time. Thankfully he was chastized for this though and sent to the back of the grid.

In short, I bloody hate this unsportsman like behaviour that has been brought into the sport, its unnecassery.

Today's rant - Managers!

31st May is the end of our financial year; for the last 12 months we have been working our asses off to attain results we can be proud of, and I believe we have succeeded.

Most of the time our esteemed management team are right behind us (all the better place to be when the flak starts flying - that way, we poor sods get hit first), supporting us all the way... sorta.

Today, though, one particular manager is ranting & raving, making sure we've done this, checked that, received the other, allocated the rest & generally acting like a complete @rse, 'cos it's his first year-end as manager, and he finally sussed it's his ass (not ours) on the line if all goes breasts-up - when it's absolutely obvious all has gone better than expected (as everyone except him knew it would), all of a sudden, he's all sweetness & light, inviting us all out for drinkies - unsurprisingly, most (if not all) of us remembered prior engagements.

What is it about management (and we're not talking senior management here - they all knew they could trust us to bring in the bacon - we're talking about "middle-management") that makes them believe that being an utter titty 99% of the time is perfectly acceptable, so long as the other 1% of the time is devoted to patronising their staff members, all of whom will forgive said manager as soon as they receive a drink in a crappy pub, during the drinking of which, all will shuffle from foot to foot to see which colleague (or co-worker, to you colonial types across the pond in la-la land...) will leave the pub first, thereby causing the kind of stampede seldom seen outside a wildebeeste migration, when those at the back find out those at the front have been eating the best grass & poo-ing on the rest.

And you know - just to add insult to injury, at least twice on my blue @rsed fly impressions around the office, I passed said middle-manager's desk & what do I see on his PC screen?

Spreadsheets?
Reports?
Important Word documents?
Database breakdowns?

No

Ebay!

He's selling his bloody jet-ski on Ebay, phoning one of the bidders, also bidding on something-or-other, for which he then has to leave the office for an hour to pay for & get fitted...

But it's OK...

"I'm on my mobile if head office need me"

Sooooo - that's all right, then.

Ah, P-C - Good old Directory Enquiries was replaced as it was free to the users and therefore a loss maker; the powers that be realised here was a golden commercial opportunity to rip off the consumer, whilst at the same time convincing the wobbling masses the change is better for them, as it introduces competition...

To take a couple of your questions -

1 - WHY do none of the telephonists have ANY local knowledge?

Well actually, they do; the problem is, their idea of local knowledge mainly covers the areas surrounding Mumbai or Delhi, which is where some (not all) of the 118 companies are based.

2 - WHY when I asked for a number do they try their darnedest to connect me (and forget to mention that they will charge me through the nose)?

At 33p per minute, you need to ask? Here we see companies offering a direct connection service which the wobbling masses will consider a benefit (this way they don't need to put down their pizzas & take their eyes away from 'Trisha' to use their podgy little fingers to actually do something so energetic as dial a number), and probably never even think to question the amount charged when it appears on their phone bill.

3 - WHY did I just have a conversation with 118118 where I was told that SWINDON (fairly large town) DOES NOT HAVE A POST OFFICE and maybe I should try a larger town nearby?

See answer to question #1 above...

You also mentioned... "When calling for the number of the British museum about a year ago I was asked "what town is that in?" and then told without a street name and number they couldn't find it!"

Here, you made a classic mistake (easy, I know) - 118118, as is obvious from their TV advertising campaign, are used to dealing primarily with (yes, it's them again) our old friends the wobbling masses, most of whom cannot (a) spell museum or (b) squeeze through the door to access a particularly interesting exhibit of, say, "The History Of Pizza", so it is unsurprising The British Museum does not appear on their database.

I hope the above goes some way to assuaging your anger

Argh, sorry to hear that P-C.

Always rake the lawn before mowing or strimming!

Or, get the hubby to do it when he's returned.

My mother has had the same strimmer wire problem too.  I forget where she got some though.

I hope your leg gets better.  I guess you'll have to wait 'til monday for first aid now.

And yes, lunchtime closing, what's that about?  Weird.

Jim Garten wrote: I just don't want David bloody Beckham rammed down my throat 24 hour a day!

      Speaking as a red-blooded Chick Jim......................neither do I!

I totally agree Jim, I enjoy the beautiful game as much as the next bloke, (and probably more than the next Chick) but over kill is taking over........and it's driving me mad!
In a supermarket on sunday, buying some veggies......... over the tannoy (like her life depended on it) came this shrill voice, "Make sure you have enough Alcohol for the football, case deals in aisle x, mega case deals in aisle y.....Please ensure you DO NOT run out of Alcohol for the football"

What's that all about???
Am I unable to enjoy the footie without getting bladdered? Does that mean I have to stuff booze down the throat of the kids in order for them to enjoy a footie match?
We wonder why young englishmen behave so badly with one (or 6) too many beers inside them during these footie tournaments when all around them thery are being fed these kind of messages.

Blinking stoooopid.

P-C

Blacksword wrote: In the last ten days, some piece of sh!t has purchased £150 worth of Mobile phone top up vouchers using my card details, reported it to the bank and they've stopped my card thankfully.

Nice of them to report it, though...

Sorry, Blackie, couldn't resist

Luckily I've never (yet) been the victim of these s, but it's infuriating that given the amount I use my card on line, it's probably just a matter of time.   

sleeper wrote: This thread needs to be brought back, so my rant for today is: Ayrton Senna Or to be more specific his sportsmanship and the lasting effect its had on professional drivers around the world (I'm aware that this probably wont be too popular with our Brazilian members but bare with me). Senna believed that he could do anything to win becasue God meant for him to win, this ended up with him weaving infront of a following car when he made small mistakes in races (like missing a gear, that hasnt happoned for a long time) and culminated in his dispicable driving into Alain Prost in 1990 Japanese grand prix. For those that dont know, they were fighting for the title and Prost beat him off the line at this race, Senna decided not to brake or turn into the first corner and instead rammed right into Prost. As a result Senna won the title and the FIA let him get away with it. Since then Schumcher has taken this attitude and still uses it, he has won one title by driving into a competetor (Adelaide 94) and lost one when the same move backfired on him (Jerez 97), he was the pioneer of the choping across the bows of another competetor at the start of races and has had no problem with even forcing his brother, amongst others, towards a concrete wall in "lift or we both crash" move. In the last couple of years he has taken to forcing rivals onto the grass at nearly 200mph (320ish kph) (Spa 2000, Silverstone 2003), and at Monaco on Sunday he deliberatly stoped his car on track at a slow corner in qualifying preventing anyone from being able to beat his poll time. Thankfully he was chastized for this though and sent to the back of the grid. In short, I bloody hate this unsportsman like behaviour that has been brought into the sport, its unnecassery.

I agree with the Senna rant. I always think that he gets off rather easy for Suzuka 1990, partly due to what happened at Suzuka 1989, and partly due to the tragic events at Imola in 1994. I will always respect him, though, due to his amazing talent. He is easly one of the top 3 drivers of all time in my book. Schumacher, however, is just something else, and that's a bad something. Adelaide 94 is still Schumi's fault, no matter how many excuses the Schumi fanboys make.

"Hill cut through the racing line!"

Yes, he was trying to get through after Schumi went off. He had no idea if Schumacher's car was fatally damaged, which it was, and this was in his mind, the only chance to get by. By the way, why should have Schumi even tried to contest the racing line with a broken car?

"Schumacher's car wasn't damaged!"

Yes it was. NEXT!

"Hill didn't deserve the WDC"

Cry me a freaking river.


Monaco 06 was fun to watch the Schumi fanboys attempt to defend his move as a "Driving Error"






Suzuka 89 [Prost (blue helmet) and Senna (Yellow helmet) collide, likely Prosts fault]


Suzuka 90 (Senna punts off Prost intentionally at a high speed corner)


Adelaide 1994: Schumacher flies through the air after cutting off Hill, causing Hill to retire due to suspension damage, and giving Schumacher the WDC.


Jerez 1997: Schumacher attempts to take Villenuve out of the race, fails, and loses the WDC


Monaco 2006: Schumacher stops on the racing line with seconds left in qualifying, and Alonso on a hotlap






Edited by billbuckner - June 06 2006 at 21:44

I read somewhere that the purpose of the flags on cars is to enable the emergency services to pinpoint more quickly the location of the obese and the stupid in the event of an accident............