Okay,the bit about blokes at the end of this is from a couple of weeks ago... I started writing it then thought it was bollocks, so didn't post it. But it would seem I saved it as a draught, so it's still here... And now I'm a bit drunk (as is my wont) so I'll leave it as a tag to this post. (As is my wont? what the fuck am I talking about?)
Work is as boring as ever... I'm back on night shift now after a month working twilight. I'm much happier with this. Twilight is okay, but night is better. Actually, twilight sucks ass, but anyways... I don't know that I have a lot to write about right now. I was outside having a smoke (yes, I started again... it's bad, but I like it a lot...) and I was thinking about my trip to Sydney last weekend. Being in Sydney was reasonably cool - there were things to do and see that were interesting, and spending time with my parents and sister was great. But I really didn't like the whole travel deal. Airports suck, and spending 45 minutes going through customs is really crap. And hearing that Sydney airport is one of the busiest in the world doesn't really make standing in a queue any better. I think it sucks that the world has become so messy that the customs and quarantine procedures are a genuine necessity. Going through customs into Sydney, I turned my cellphone on to get a number out of it for the incoming traveller card. And some horrid little security person came by almost immediately and told me to turn it off. I hadn't seen the signs about not using phones and cameras and whatnot in the customs area, because there were huge queues of people obscuring them. Shit, I had written a whole bunch more, but some how I've managed to delete it. Stupid fucking laptop touchpad... Bollocks!
Anyhoo... basically i was on about how messed up the world is, and how religion has a big part to play in that... Not God, but religion. Because belief doesn't lead to acts of horrific violence or whatever without some degree of organised guidance. I believe in God, and in Jesus (although I don't know why) but I wouldn't do anything that went against my basic concept of decency. But other motherfuckers seem to think that killing people and doing basically evil things is okay if you're doing it in God's name. But come on, it's one of the ten commandments - Thou shalt not kill. And yet murder in some form seems to be the primary system of delivery for any religious fanatics message. The attacks of 9/11 were carried out by people whose faith is based on the old testament, with whatever Mohammed had to say added to it, and the retaliation of the USA was lead by a man who calls himself a Christian. So where does Gods basic word come into either act? Thou shalt not kill... Seems pretty fucking simple to me.
Blurgh, I'm tired, and this doesn't seem to make as much sense on screen as it did in my head. The rest of this post is whatever I wrote about blokes a couple of weeks ago. Take it as you will. I don't even know if it was finished, but I can't be arsed reading it to see if I need to add anything. If it doesn't make sense, or if it just tapers off, you can interpret it any way you fucking like...
Good night!
Okay, so it's been a while, but anyways...
There are noticable differences in generations with the blokes at work, but a certain similarity in themes... When there are mostly the older blokes in the smoko hut, the conversation tends to be based around sport (of course - the universal bloke topic of interest - rugby or league for preference) and cars. With the younger blokes, these two topics are covered, but you also get a good helping of home theatre and stereo discussion, and console games.
The older blokes will talk about home theatre and what not too, but in a different vein. The younger guys are all about the best gear, the best set up, the biggest noise, getting the most out of any equipment they consider buying. The older blokes tend to discuss price, getting the best deal, and where to go to maximise things like cash discount. Then they sit around and complain about the state of things today, and talk of better days, when you'd get a substantial cash discount from a guy in a little store, and he'd come out and install things for you free of charge. Whereas today you have to pay freight on things from some places if they are too big for you to get home yourself.
The car discussions are the same. Old blokes talk about maintenance, doing your plugs and things, making your car run as well as possible without taking it to a garage and paying someone else to look after it for you. The young guys talk about what additions are needed to make their car go faster, like turbos and shit. Old blokes are practical, the younger ones are all about fun...
I also find peoples attitudes about things like computers interesting. There is a guy at work whose computer shat itself, so he called a company in the yellow pages to get it fixed. They picked up his system, had a look at it, then quoted him $320 to replace the hard drive, as this was apparently the thing that was fucked. When they brought it back, they told him that the motherboard and CPU were knackered too, and that it would cast an additional $250 to replace these items. He told them to get fucked, that they had quoted a price of $320 to fix it and that was all he was going to pay. Now, I found this whole thing fascinating. I've never had to deal with a computer repair company,as anything that might go wrong with my PC I'd fix myself. But it really made me realise that your average bozo doesn't know shit about computers. For starters, $320 is a fuck of a lot to replace a hard drive... and quite frankly, if the motherboard and CPU were knackered you'd have to spend cash on just the parts. Saying that the extra cash was beyond the quoted price and that you expect the system to be repaired for the quote seems unrealistic to me. On the other hand, the odds that the hard drive, CPU and motherboard would all fail at once are pretty fucking remote, and it does sound a bit like the company was trying to fleece this guy. I think that really, the only sensible course of action is to become reasonably good at fixing the damn thing yourself, so you don't have to rely on anyone else. It really isn't that hard. It also occured to me that I could start offering my services in this area for a modest fee, and see how much of a client base I could build just from morons at work.
Shit! I've just deleted another big chunk of stuff! Fuck this, I'm going to quit before I start to get really angry and smash my fucking laptop...
