» Rubbish Towns

Barrow-in-Furness
Just down the road from me.

The people who live there love it (and keep 'Love Barrow' as a slogan) - I think they're the only ones who do!

Home of some of the roughest and most badly looked after pubs and clubs in the country (Google 'gaza strip barrow' for some fine examples on a notorious beat-em-up street), some nuclear subs, a dock museum, a couple of commercial parks with the usual Tesco, Currys etc and a dead town centre full of shut shops.

And lots and lots of roadworks and building sites. All the time.
If they'd stop trying to "improve" the place all the time by digging holes in the road, putting up big empty buildings etc it might stand a chance.

Their answer to a dead town centre high street is: new seats, new trees and a few new fancy lights. And maybe another statue or two. Funded by the businesses that they're busy starving...

Best part of Barrow is the A590 leading out of it.
(Thu 29th Oct 2009, 13:07, More)

» IT Support

"You do all this technical stuff, right?"
What I always hear as an IT support person is that dreaded phrase: "You're technical, so you can fix...." (insert non-computer object here). The lights. The microwave. The toaster. The vacuum cleaner. Even the occasional non-electrical item (the toilet or whatever) because "well you're technically minded so you must know how to fix it".

Worst thing to do is to get dragged into it and fix it with Google (almost anything can be done by Googling it). Confirms their misconception that an IT person also automatically knows how to get the loo to flush.
(Mon 28th Sep 2009, 13:09, More)

» PE Lessons

They gave up
Hated it of course... it's THE place for arrogant twats and bullies - and those are just the teachers.

But in the final year we won. In Year 11 they finally got the hint - I and a couple of others were a lost cause, definitely not interested and by this point obviously never going to be, and certainly not going to be world class football/rugby players. Our PE teacher that year agreed to concentrate his resources on making those who were interested/good at it even better, and allowed us to sit in the changing rooms doing homework from other subjects.

We honestly did, half the time (and pissing about the rest of the time, as you'd expect). It was brilliant - homework was an arse, but much less of an arse than PE and far better when we could do it in school time instead of at home.
(Sat 21st Nov 2009, 1:00, More)

» I don't understand the attraction

Google Wave
Seems all I ever hear about on the Internet at the moment is people itching to get invites to this thing.

Because exactly what the Internet needs is yet another chaotic Web 2.0 social networking and collaboration wiki type thingy, and another attempt by Google to take over the world.
(Wed 21st Oct 2009, 20:08, More)

» I don't understand the attraction

TV 'arsehole' personalities
The entire nation seems to love watching all these things where an ordinary person sets themselves up to be bullied and degraded by some arrogant twat who thinks he or she's perfect.

The numerous cooking shows with arrogant chefs
The numerous dancing competitions (currently the big hit)
X-Factor and the like
Dragons Den
The Apprentice
The Weakest Link (the one that started it all, although ironically it seems more tongue in cheek these days)

Why is everyone so fascinated with watching someone being bullied, often to the point of tears, on live television?
(Tue 20th Oct 2009, 14:12, More)