Myth of the Short Week

Public holidays. Who doesn't love them? Well, aside from retail employees that don't get paid penalty rates (poor bastards).

From one point of view, a public holiday can be viewed almost as a public service. You get to take a day off from work without the need to make up excuses (lies, really) or feel the guilt of taking a sickie. It's even better when that public holiday falls on a Monday or a Friday; the genus of what is commonly referred to as "a long weekend".

When the public holiday approaches, an air of excitement permeates the atmosphere around the workplace in anticipation of the glorious day. The knowledge that a "short week" is fast approaching raises spirits and acts an a verbal lubricant, drawing forth a torrent of discussions regarding plans for the day off.

However, amid the sea of positive energy lurks a handful of people that seem somewhat out of place. They're not necessarily dreading the coming public holiday and the short week that it invariably brings. They may even be looking forward to the day off. However, they don't seem to share the same heighten level of excitement or enthusiasm for the approaching "short week". They know, as I do, about the myth of the "short week".

The myth of the "short week" is simply that a shorter working week is better than a standard working week. That, in the case of a long weekend, the short week consists of four standard working days and three days of fun and relaxation. Reality, at least from experience, tends to work a little differently.

In the case of a long weekend, in theory there are four standard work days and three days off for the weekend, as previously stated. However, in practice the four working days are by no means standard. It's almost as if the workload of a standard five day week has been crammed into the four days, bringing with it an elevated sense of urgency akin to what you might experience when you're informed at the last minute that the allotted time for a major project or task has been cut down to 80% of its original time frame. The public holiday, now acts as a buffer, an extra day in which recovery from the elevated workload and accompanying stress that tends to follow close behind may take place.

In the end, more often than not, the elevated workload over the shorter working week tends to negate the additional day gained as a day off.

Still excited about the approaching short week? Wait until to you have two short weeks, back to back, as was experienced most recently with the weeks on either side of Easter.

I think I might be coming down with some rare, unknown but short term virus. *cough* *cough*

The Xbox 360 Anti-Climax

There is blissful fantasy. Then there is the harshness of reality. Rarely shall the twain ever meet. This example is by no means an exception to the rule. I speak, of course, of my recent purchase of an Xbox 360 Core pack.

Fantasy: Purchase the Xbox 360 at a bargain basement price along with all the trimmings.
Reality: Purchase the Xbox 360 at an unprecedented low price (for the local area anyway), though still not worthy of a parade of pigmy elephants. Trimmings are very minimal - an extra controller (a must have really, though it was wireless) and a VGA video cable (excellent buy).

Fantasy: Buy a large handful of stellar titles to waste away days of your free time until you pass out from exhaustion.
Reality: Buy a small handful of cheap, nice-but-past-their-prime titles and waste away hours of your free time until you get bored and move onto something else.

Fantasy: Buy a hard drive to vamp up your bargain console to the class of the Pro pack.
Reality: Buy a memory card at RRP (really rip-off pricing) and keep the console well within the Core pack class.

Fantasy: Buy a new copy of Halo 2, along with other classic Xbox games and play for hours on end.
Reality: Buy a second hand copy of Halo 2, find out that you should have spent the extra on a hard drive instead of the memory card (you cannot play it without one) and then wipe the sweat from your brow when you realised you've dodged a bullet by limiting your original Xbox game purchase to a single title.

Fantasy: Go overseas to Hong Kong or Japan to purchase desired Xbox 360 accessories at real cheap prices.
Reality: To be continued....

A Touch of Ego

I've never thought of myself as an egotistical person. I presume most people wouldn't either, whether they were indeed egotistical or otherwise. However, in the interest of my own entertainment (and perhaps the stimulus of my own ego) I've had a quick look around to see who or what else in this world (or at least on Google) happened to share my namesake.

There is the conductor of an orchestra named after him, who is most noted for his instrumental work Eye Level. (Naming an orchestra after himself? This one totally smacks of ego).

Then there is the seemingly well known yoga and Thai massage instructor.

The photographer that seems to have a thing for monochromatic photos of structures (natural or man-made).

A doctor of Food Sciences in the UK who uses the Dr. in his title to full effect (another one for the ego list?).

A golf course in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

A park with a band shelter, water fountain and caboose (train?) located in downtown Conway, Arizona.

Lastly, a "Lead Support Engineer" that worked on the Academy Award winning film Happy Feet, who interchangeably goes by the rather snobbish title of Simon Park II or III, depending on the source. (II? III? Who does he think he is? Man, talk about one hell of an eg-

Hey, wait a second...

The New Snail Mail

It's a amazing how much time is wasted trying to communicate via email. Imagine, if the you, the following scenario.

You pick up the phone and make an inquiry with an automated system. After a brief period on hold, your query is then redirected to a customer service representative whose unexpectedly prompt receipt of your call catches you while you're singing along with the on-hold music.

The customer service representative addresses your inquiry and proceeds to present their own questions in order to better understand and service your request. You proceed to answer this person's question with a fair amount of detail and wait with baited breath for a response.

Initially, there is no response. "That's fine. They're probably gathering their thoughts" you say to yourself. However, the short pause soon rolls into an uncomfortable silence, which in turn, draws itself out to the point where you start to question the quality of your carrier's service.

You decide to take the initiative to break the silence. As your previous discourse was rather detailed and lengthly, you summarise the points you've raised, in case you had overwhelmed them with information and caused their brain to experience a blue screen of death. You also make sure to ask for a prompt response as time is somewhat of an issue.

You wait patiently...

A week passes and still no response. In your frustration, you decide to dispense with the phone and walk over to their office to speak with them directly. Oddly enough once you meet with them in person, your inquiry is dealt with within minutes and you have all the answers you need to proceed. They were aware that you were waiting on the other end of the phone but they felt that they needed to see you in person and that you had enough metaphysical prowess to read minds.

Seem somewhat ridiculous? This is what happened with a recent inquiry made via email to a travel agent. In hindsight, it would have been better to have just called them from the start.

Who'd have thought that email would end up being the new snail mail?

In summary:
Email = ...
Phone = instant results!

Next time, I'll stick to the phone.

New Toy Syndrome

I don't know if an actual syndrome exists but if it gets hits on Google, that's gotta mean something. Right?

Anyhow, this blog is certainly in the new toy phase. Don't know how long it's going to last but like any good new toy, you make the most of every moment until you break it and either blame a younger sibling and/or pass it off as an heirloom-of-sorts to them.

Poor, poor siblings...

Coupling Brunch with Friends

Went out for brunch at Bar Baba with a couple of friends. Weird sounding name, at least to me. Sounds a lot like "barber bar" or the ramblings of a some crazed (and perhaps hungry) madman.

Anyhow, food there wasn't too bad. Coffee was good enough to have without sugar. Not at all bitter. I tend to be a sugar coffee person for the most part, so that's saying something. It was, however, a tad on the weak side but the foam made up for it.

Brunch was Eggs Benedict on English muffins with smoked salmon, along with freshly "squeezed" orange juice. Well not so much as squeezed as pulverised. For me, there's always a moment of hesitation when I'm faced with a cup of frothy juice. Just seems so unnatural.

Getting back to the food, overall it was quite nice and reasonably priced. Some people might find it under seasoned i.e. without enough salt. I'm perfectly fine with it. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised that the salmon wasn't a salt bed, like most smoke salmon that I've had tends to be (even at the swanky places).

Nice, friendly service capped off the morning. All in all pretty nice but not something worth writing about.

Well okay, may at least worthy of a mention. I'll save the marching band and parade of pigmy elephants for something real special.

Worked in a few episodes of Coupling on DVD. Pretty funny show, especially the giggle loop (how many times have I been caught in one of those!)

Well, why not?

So what's the deal with this blog anyway?

Right now, I have about as much of a clue as you do.

Guess it's like one of those things that you always hear about that sounds interesting at first. However, very soon afterward it is gently moved to one side for more stimulating pursuits. It sits at the back of your consciousness for ages slowly gathering dust. Every now and then it comes to the fore but it is always met with a "Hey, it's not going anywhere" or a "Maybe later".

However, this time around, something is a little different. This time around, some unknown trigger is activated and the once dusty, nigh forgotten relic is uncovered once more. For some reason, this time you say "Well, why not?".

Well, this is the "why not" moment. Maybe one day I'll have an answer to that question.

Incidentally, if you're wondering about the blog title, it's borrowed from the name of a popular Japanese Anime/Manga series. Some people I know would consider this an apt title. For me it's just seems more interesting than just "Simon's Blog".