The Queen song as you have never seen it (or heard it) before.
Tips on Resume Creation
If you want to make a positive impression with your resume or cv I advise against starting the document with a quote from a Nazi party member and SS Officer. I know that the US is thought to be politically to the right of Europe, but I am pretty sure that associating yourself with an is not the best way to get a job. Bearing that in mind I was shocked to see a resume today with a quote from SS-Sturmbannführer Wernher von Braun
The reason for this politically insensitive act is that the man in question is looked upon in a better light here in the US than in the UK. Back in the UK Werner von Braun is remembered as the man who was responsible for using slave labour to construct rockets that were used to kill British civilians. Here in the US he is seen as a key player in the success of the NASA Space Program.
In 1960 he appeared in a television documentary called “I aim at the Stars”. It has been suggested that the subtitle of this piece should have been “But sometimes I hit London”
Then to illustrate that is not just being British that makes me wary of this man here is the Tom Lehrer song
Commercialization of Christmas
I saw this sign in the aisle of a local store yesterday.
The purpose of these signs should be to tell customers what items are on the marked shelves. This one seems less than useful, for I had no idea what Licensed Holiday meant. Are Licensed Holidays those that we actually get away from work as distinct from those like Columbus Day which are regular office days?
Looking at the shelves provided an explanation. They were stocked with Santa hats and Christmas stockings emblazoned with the logos of sporting teams – for nothing says peace on earth and goodwill to all men as effectively as American football.
Innovation on TV
I have just started watching the “new” ABC show “V”; based on the not very good mid-eighties show of the same title. AMC are broadcasting a six episode mini-series remake of The Prisoner; the excellent British show from the Sixties. I have the DVR set to record the repeats, as I missed the first episode last weekend. The episode titles echo those of the original show, but I wonder how well it will capture the atmosphere that was at the core of the 1967 version.
This lack of originality is not even original. Recent years have seen the very sucessful remake of Battlestar Galactica, the gold standard for remakes as it is head and shoulders above the original. There was also last year’s enjoyable but ultimately disappointing remake of the UK show “Life on Mars”
Insultingly Bad Movie
The first Blu-ray disc that we had from Netflix was the truly terrible Transformers:Rise of the Fallen. A movie without character or plot; endless hours of robots hitting robots is no substitute for real film making. On our new Blu-ray player and our 65” screen it looked gorgeous, but a stinking pile of poo in high-def smells just as bad.
Not only was the film an insult to our intelligence, it was an insult to my country of origin with several shots of the Union (British) flag all showing the flag hanging upside down. They spent $200m and did not even bother to conduct some basic research into the correct way to fly the flag.
No article about Transformers would be complete without a picture of Megan Fox
Time for Concern
I watched the second of this year’s Doctor Who Specials; darker and scarier than the one at Easter. I was left with a fear that I cannot vanquish, but not because of the events of the story. After the episode we were shown a trailer for the forthcoming Christmas episode and given its title; “The End of Time”. The classic series does not have a good record with stories that include the word “time”; four of the seven stories that do are among the very worse. I give you “Time Monster”, “Timeflight”, “Timelash”, and “Time and the Rani”. The opening promise of “Invasion of Time” is dealt a terrible blow by the last two episodes, so only “The Time Meddler”, and “The Time Warrior” emerge unscathed from the show’s curse of time titles. I hope that the Christmas episode goes with the minority
People are Strange
Google has a feature that will suggest searches based on what you start to type. Thus if you type “Norw”, terms such as “Norwich University” are listed. The suggestions are based on popular search terms entered by other users. So far this seems fine, but there is something rather unsettling about the suggestions. I thought that I knew people were strange, but I realise know that my experience is very sheltered – there are people for whom strange is not a sufficient adjective.
Type “why wont”
Google’s first response with “why wont my parakeet eat my diarrhea”
Type “is it wrong”
Google responds with a whole set of unsettling suggestions
Type “is it ethical” and the suggestions are far less redneck
Rich Man’s World
I made passing reference in my post lat week on the Damn Yankees victory that they outspent other teams on salary. I had not realised at that time just how large a spending advantage they had.
A few figures for the 2009 season
| Yankees wage bill | $201,449,189 |
| Second highest wage bill |
$149,373,987 |
| Second highest in AL |
$121,745,999 |
| Average wage bill |
$88,513,173.13 |
| Minimum wage bill |
$36,834,000 |
So the Yankees pay over five times the salary of the team in MLB with the lowest bill and nearly half as much again as their nearest rival in the American League.
Seeing these salary disparities, it says much for baseball that this last decade has not been dominated by the Yankees; they had not won the World Series since 2000, nor made an appearance in the final since 2003, when they lost to the Marlins.
It is also clear that even in 2009 money does not guarantee success as neither the second nor third highest wage payers (The Mets and Cubs respectively) made post season. It does help as five of the eight teams that made post season were in the top ten of wage payers. From the bottom ten spenders only the Minnesota Twins made post season.
The Eight Day Week
A local store has just added a new day to the week, as evidence by the following sign in its window:
Up for the Cup
Tomorrow is the first round of the FA Cup, a chance for teams from minor leagues to compete against Football League sides. There is no equivalent tournament in any major US sport; Mahoning Valley Scrappers will never take the field against the Damn Yankees in any competitive game.
I have not, in the past, paid too much attention to the first round, as teams from the top two divisions in English football do not join until the third round, which is played in early January. This year my team, Norwich City, have slipped into the third tier; known rather confusingly as League One. They have been drawn away against Paulton Rovers, from a village of a little under 5000 people. Paulton get the chance to play against a team who were in the Premier League just a few years ago in a match televised live on national TV. They play in the Southern League Division One South & West. That places them five divisions below Norwich City; a David to Norwich’s relative Goliath.
For once I do not want the underdog to triumph.
