Shut up. Be happy.

Let me prefix this post by saying that generally I agree with what’s to follow. Rules are rules and such. Where I disagree is the general disdain and (apparent) inability for those with the authority to communicate with the people who, duh, pay for their right to be so condescending.

[Updates below.]

A few years back I took the liberty –as those with a capitalist slant are prone to do –to start a sole proprietorship (SP) in Slovenia. The process was poop simple: head over to the tax office, provide the necessary ingredients, set up a bank account and voila!, you’re good to go. The only odd point I encountered was that they wouldn’t accept my ever-so-English sounding “Elements” as a name. I sarcastically substituted the s with an i and was done with that xenophobic argument. I don’t earn a lot of money through the SP; enough to basically pay the (ever increasing) taxes and costs of running the business itself with the taxes involuntarily directed to the local mayor’s office –the lower case m is intentional –I digress for a later rant. Anyhow, I could do with a bit more money through the SP, but hey, it’s something.

Read the rest of this entry »

Up yours Telligent.

Here’s a screenshot (format matters) of an email I received this week from Telligent.  There’s no pretext, just a boot and a bunch of self-promotion.

I wasn’t a user so I’m not so offended, I just find this message a tad brutal. If I need a social network for my enterprise-of-one, I’d probably use theflowr.

Up yours Telligent.

Warm regards,

Dennis

Break Like the Wind – On Fart Jokes

When I was in high school I came up with a great way for institutions to deal with flatulence. No longer would there be shame in passing gas, and banished would be the reputation-ruining accusations that killed your chances of getting a girlfriend. Gone would be the standard accusation of “He who smelt it, dealt it,” and the tinny rebuttal of “He who denied it, applied it.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Banking woes…and learning to chill

You never call your bank to say, “Great job, guys! Thanks for not screwing up.” I know this because I used to work at a financial institution fielding 90 calls a day as a Client Services Representative. It was a brief stint to pay off my student loans and both I and the financial services industry survived.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hot on the Press

This is Catharsis.

This was a place where I wrote a complete (thesis) response about a certain set of requirements in old English. It has been redacted based on completely nonsensical grounds. I digress, and digress for the last time.

I’ll keep this short yet still cathartic: please, people, don’t waste other people’s time with nonsense. If you don’t know what you’re doing, start the conversation with “I don’t know but …” and not some unjustified list of demands. On that note, I hence forth ignore demands. Questions and concern are accepted at par.

Catharsis over; off to higher ground.

Thanks.

Consumption Junction

Let’s start with a basic equation:

3 * 2000 = 1 * 6000.

We agree? Great. Let’s move on …

Read the rest of this entry »

European Summer Lunacy

Janssen Pharmaceutica is based in Beerse, Belgium. Each year, throughout an entire summer month, the production and research division is shut down; it’s crickets from conveyors to labs. The original reason was probably due to regular maintenance; the story as of my last stay in 2000 was due solely to it being vacation time.

Read the rest of this entry »