A lot of my work involves visiting client sites which are not in my home city, and as a result I spend quite a bit of time in hotels. Getting a good night’s sleep in a strange bed is never an easy feat to master on the first night, but this really isn’t helped by the pillow arrangements on offer. My heart sinks when I see the carefully positioned laminate asserting ‘hard or soft – the choice is yours’. On reality this means one choice feels like sleeping on the floor without a pillow, and the other like lying on the lap of Jabba the Hut! That there is two of each only serves to confound the issue – the only choice being the manner in which you get a crick in the neck. There really is no substitute for your own bed, duvet, and pillow…
Route planners
Back in the days of the Tom Tom, I would regularly mock those who set the route planning for destinations which they could drive to blindfolded (figuratively speaking, naturally). There were two types of people who did this – those who just wanted to play with their new toy (with a sub-category of those who would debate the validity and shrewdness of the voiced directions); and those who would simply use the estimated arrival time as a target to beat. I can neither confirm or deny whether I fall into the latter category.
Well, I shall mock no more. I had inadvertently hit the ‘home’ button on the screen when setting off home from a weekend with family. Something I don’t normally do on familiar routes. At the very last minute (think 50 yards from the junction) I noticed the software was deviating me away from the well-driven route. I am grateful I obeyed, I can assure you! The road I was about to enter had an incident ahead and was shut. Now, this is a major road with numerous trade parks and outlets served by it for a good few miles. The end result was total gridlock, with drivers trying to exit car parks to join the road being stuck for five hours! My bladder would NEVER have held out.
I’m a convert. I vow abject obedience to the software in future.
Sort it out LinkedIn…please
I decided recently to (try to) upload videos created for my YouTube channel to LinkedIn. I’m not intending to rehash old content here…more the realisation that no Social Media platform will make posts too visible if they take users away their own. Makes perfect sense once you’ve been told this!
I give up.
No video format, layout, or size would upload – even after following all the troubleshooting steps suggested. I duly raised a support ticket. I took pains to explain the issue – and that I had diligently followed all the suggested ‘troubleshooting’ steps to no avail. The first disappointing response came back pointing me to the steps I had stated I had already followed. I replied politely that I had followed all the steps to no avail. Or rather I tried to reply…apparently the email address used to send the update to me ‘wasn’t a primary email address and wouldn’t be read’ (I have never heard such nonsense in my life). So I logged back in to LinkedIn, navigated to my Case, and saw my case had been closed as it was ‘solved’.
I replied a little less politely that the case was to be reopened, and pointed out (in a little more pointed and blunt manner) what I had already done. When the reply to that update came, I was wise enough now not to reply to the email, and read the update on the platform. To my dismay it was once again closed, but did provide a lovely précis of the file and media features LinkedIn has to offer. I reopened and replied (in a little more pointed an blunt manner still) asking them to actually read what I had written.
The latest reply has just arrived…and as it is a repeat of their very first response, I can make no comment at this time as to the nature of my response. I may sleep on it…
The Colour of Ink Matters
Having FINALLY found and purchased a fountain pen, I took great delight in buying the finest blank ink and black ink cartridges for it – a pen to savour and save for my creative writing alone. It was only after the pen and ink arrived with me back home that I noticed something interesting in an online article. Apparently the colour of ink matters, and there are two conflicting trains of thought on this. The first asserts that the colour ink one uses says more about one’s character, and the other is that different colours of pen ink promote different attributes and styles. As black ink appears to denote/promote rigidity, superiority and a fixed mindset, I choose to believe the latter… and have now ordered ink of a colour more aligned with creativity.
All that black ink will come in use one day, I guess…
