Wednesday, June 30, 2004

We has gotta get our hands on thees burgas!

Big Burger Challenges Gustatory Gladiators

POSTED: 12:42 pm EDT June 30, 2004
UPDATED: 1:01 pm EDT June 30, 2004
CLEARFIELD, Pa. -- Denny's Beer Barrel Pub has a challenge -- the six-pound Burger Challenge.

The Clearfield, Pa., eatery this week invited big eaters from around the country to take on its biggest burger.

Here's the recipe: six pounds of beef, one large onion, two whole tomatoes, ½ head of lettuce, one and ¼ pounds of cheese, top and bottom buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish and banana peppers -- all topped off with some pickles.

The folks at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub says no one has been able to eat the six-pound burger in the required three hours.

Competitive eater Eric "Badlands" Booker has tried it three times. On his last attempt, he stayed at the restaurant for seven ½ hours and ate the whole thing.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Info taken from NBC51.com

StarPutz

I hate this, this is plain stupid.

This morning i wake up feeling like shit as usual, because i have to get my sorry ass out of bed and to work by nine am. So I take the shower, throw some clothes on, and head out, still half asleep, thinking how horrible this day is going to be. Oh yeah, by the way, I was woken up not by my already annoying alarm clock, but by guess what? a JACKHAMMER rattling away outside my window. GOD DAMN IT!

So anyways, I'm walking to the subway feeling like shit, when i remember that Starbucks is opening today at Odeon, I remember because it was posted on the store yesterday. So I look over and sure enough, the place is lit up, all ready to go. And what better than a nice Mocca Frappuccino to start up the day! So i walk over there and step in, 10 euros at hand, when some Dorky bastard comes up to me and tells me they ... ARE NOT OPEN YET! It's 8:15am, and they open at... 8-fucking-30!!!! So I bitched at him, well I mumbled something obscene at the guy, cuz i was still asleep, and walked away PO.

Here's what i don't get. They open a Starbucks in a prime location right in the middle of the Latin quarter, and the fuckers open at 8:30, when about half the fuckers craving coffee at that time have already taken the subway to get their sad asses to work.. Wouldn't it be a little more logical to open at like 7:30, so they could attract the full monty? I mean jesus! what the hell! Maybe Starbucks, that good old US corporation, has had to deal with our Socialist way of having unions, who knows. In any case I am pissed off. Fucking pissed off. Maybe I'll go over there and bitch.

That's it ! We're moving !

Signed the papers today, and 1st of august we're outta here.. yes-sir-eeeeee bob !

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Gmail....

I've heard a lot of rumors out there on gmail and it's manner of setting up advertising according to email content, and a lot of people have been bitching about privacy etc. Granted it's a bit less privacy than we're used to on other mail services... or is it? I mean at least Google is honest about how it's planning to sell advertising, but no one can say that Hotmail, or Yahoo, or any other web-based mail hasn't been doing the same for years. I mean do you really think that your hotmail account is for your eyes only? Don't you think there are a couple techies having the time of their lives looking at your private life! Come ON! God knows I'd be looking at inboxes all the damn time - if I could. So I think this whole polemic on gmail and how it's so "bad" for us is full of shit. If you're stupid enough to put your CC information in a banal email, then you deserve to get riped off. I figure email is about getting a message from A to B as efficiently as possible, and gmail does this better than any other web based email I've found. I've had a gmail account now for a week or so, and i find the interface user friendly, efficient, and I actually haven't noticed the advertising yet, so screw it. To me, A) I can send an email in a couple of seconds; B) I've got shitloads of space to store those emails; C) it's free, and; D) the interface rocks.

And to all those not happy about gmail, here's some advice - DON'T get a gmail account!!! It's that fucking easy! and stop bitching, you're fucking annoying me.

Naps..

I think that we should have a designated nap time, like in Kindergarden. Do you guys remember those? I mean work should be like kindergarden, you come in, spend a few hours and play with toys, learn a new letter and number, eat, take the NAP and go home. I just remember how damn good it was, to be laying down in that big classroom, with all the blinds down so it was nice and dark, and laying there on your damn rubber mat, you would just dose off for an hour.. that was nice.

I think it would be pretty damn sweet if you could have an hour nap after lunch. I mean you're full of Flamkeuche or Cote de Boeuf, had a bit of wine, some coffee.. your body needs a bit of time to absorb those calories - I mean it's healthy damn it! For our own HEALTH, we should demand a nap time at work. The way it is right now, we're forcing our already fucked up bodies to digest fast (a cigarette doesn't help, you need da sleep), and we still have to pretend we're actually doing something useful. I mean no one is efficient after lunch, I for one am drousy and wouldn't mind curling up in the space under my desk. I mean technically I could do it and not get caught, no one would notice... apart from the occasional snoring...

Plus they just added a new tint on our office windows, so if you turn off the lights and close the blinds a bit, it would be just perfect for you know what ...

fuck.. here we go, back to work.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Ding-Dong - The Brits are gone !

Congratulations Portugal.
Looking forward to meeting you in the semi's..


ps. Yeah, yeah - I know I said that soccer is a lame-ass sport.. and that still stands, however Euro cup and World cup excluded.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Metallica

Went to the Metallica concert at Parc de Princes last night.. kinda spontaneous, as we drove out the venue without tickets.. The concert had just begun, and we were told that we could not buy any tickets.. Then this small hustler came along, and asked if we wanted to purchase a couple of tickets..
Moments later, we are having great seats in the stadium ! Class..

Metallica, as always, ROCKED ! I haven't seen them since back in the mid-nineties at Gentofte, Denmark. I stopped buying their albums after "The Black Album" - luckily for me, they played a lot of old stuff (eg. Seek & Destroy, Master of Puppets, Battery) - The best track, was clearly "Enter Sandman" the whole stadium just went at it - crazy fucks dancing pogo like there was no tomorrow..

Monday, June 21, 2004

Search queries

I was looking at our site statistics.. (not much to look at really) and found the top search queries for our blog:

* Google zubrovska vodka
* Google ghettoclock
* Google treat turret syndrome
* Google jours ouvres jours ouvrables week days
* Google dvdchezvous
* Google nomatica comments
* Google chicken cacciotore

Personally, I like "treat turret syndrome" and "ghettoclock" - I hope they found what they were looking for..

Gmail

I got some Gmail invites, if you want one - leave your email addy in the comments..

Update: That being said, I don't trust any mail where I don't have root on the incoming mailserver ;)

I still got a couple of invites left.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

It's been a while

Sorry there old Ghettoblog, i've been neglecting you as of lately. I promise i will post some goo on you more often from now on.

WHASSUP everyone! well it's the SAME OLD SHIT! sleep, work, eat, sleep, etc, etc, but we can't complain, we could be growing turnips for .20cents a day in a remote village of Zaire.. Things are a lot more supportable when put into perspective.

Anyways, just wanted to say, I found a pretty good Tech forum, it's really more of a little community, and you can get some useful help off it. If you don't know it, go check it out at www.tek-tips.com, get yourself a login and password, and start posting.


Taking a couple days off next week for "Fete de la Musique" - usually quite a bit of fun in Paris, seeing people high on X and Coke dancing to some crossbreed techno/deathmetal reggae can only be fun. Planning on having a couple drinks, and walking around the city, providing it doesn't pour down.

I'll be back on here some more, don't get lonely blog, we haven't forgotten ya (fucking fad these blogs).

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Friday, June 04, 2004

Ghetto^2

They salesreps at our office are using these headsets with their telephones, and recently we ran out.. We purchase batches of them every now and then.. Those industry standard don't come cheap though.. They are about €100 a pop ! Yeah, a ridiculous price for something pretty basic..
The last couple of months, we have changed a lot of them around the office (I don't know what the hell those salesreps are doing with them). Last week, we ran out of new headsets..
We requested upper-management to purchase some new.. Bad call.. When our CEO saw the price on those headsets, he made an unpredictable move.
6 months ago (or so) we tested out Skype for inter-office calls, and for that purpose we bought a shitload of cheapo pc-headsets (those for a couple a euros a piece) -
Yeah.. That's right.. I trip to Castorama later, and Dim and I are sitting and removing mini-jacks from the pc-headsets, combining the them with the connectors from the other headsets.. Electrical-tape, choc blocks (thanks Lasse) and a lot of patience.. A real MacGyver solution..

Result: A working headset for our phones, ugly as hell - for less than 2 euros a pop.

Pictures to follow....

Arrived !

Well, what do you know. My SD-512MB flash card from Nomatica arrived yesterday.. Well, actually "La Poste" tried to deliver it last Saturday, naturally the office was closed, so they failed in their attempt.
We called them Monday; they told us that since they couldn't deliver it on Saturday - the package would be shipped back to the expediter.
[Enter rage]
After calming down (with beer and food - the only thing that works) - I decided to have Dim calling them again (I was not calm enough) - this time, we actually stumbled upon a savvy postal employee (apparently they *do* exist) - and he opened a "reclamation" with the sorting center etc etc.. That got things moving, so all is good now. Actually they even called me this morning, to confirm that I did indeed receive the package. Bravo Mr. Postal Employee..

Vacation time, what the HELL.

Ahh the summer is coming, and that means vacation for the lucky few of us who : a:) still have some dosh in order to do something other than sit in the apartment and b:)have the days off.. So it is with great joy that i am going (ceterus paribas) to the south of France in August for 2 weeks, and bringing my chick there.

Well check this out, when she went and asked for her vacation time, they told her they would count the Saturday she was taking off (yes, that saturday, the WEEKEND day) as a vacation day...... So lets get this straight:

- She works Monday through Friday, 7 hours a day, for a grand total of 35 legal working hours.
- On her paychecks, she gets 2.5 something days off a month, for a grand total of 30 days off per year - the legal 5 weeks vacation in France.
- and no, she doesn't work and hasn't worked any Saturday.. and has not had any absences for not being at work on saturdays.

So this is beautiful! I just imagine myself in this situation, where i work all year, monday through friday, and when it comes to taking vacation, they count my saturdays in my vacation days! Isn't the weekend supposed to be free time where you don't work? WTF! When asked about this little rule they have (which in the end helps them out, because you can take less work days off, hence work more for SHIT pay), these people said that it was an internal rule that the director (that bitch) implemented, so they couldn't do shit about it. Well guess what..

I've been investigating the French Law.

And you know what, what they are doing is LEGAL.
You see, French companies can actually calculate your vacation time two ways: 1) by the days you actually worked (jours ouvrés) 2) by the days you COULD HAVE WORKED (jours ouvrables). the latter means that even if you don't work on saturday, they can count the saturday in your vacation time...

NOW THIS IS FUCKED UP.
The only day they can't take off you is Sunday..... I mean i know this is a lot of fuzz over one day, but imagine how PO you would be if you have to take your saturday as a day in your vacation, when usually it's your weekend anyways and you don't work. And I mean you could try to just take the week days, but you are FORCED take your saturday as well, you have no fucking CHOICE.

I am really starting to hate this fucking place..

But then I looked at my paycheck and saw there was a slight difference.
I get 2.08 days off a month for a total of 25 days off a year. Those days are
Monday through Friday (5 days)
She gets 2.5 days off a month for a total of 30 days off a year. My assumption is that from the beginning, they gave her vacation time on her saturdays, which would make the extra day vacation she gets a month (25/5=5 days of work/vacation; her 30/5=vacation based on 6 working days, hence Mon - Sat.)

I still don't understand why they do this, whatever, fuck it, it's Friday and I don't care, I'm on my weekend in a couple of hours.

That's my bitching for today. I'll have more later - the fumes are still hot.




Thursday, June 03, 2004

Busy..

Very busy pretending to work, so not much happening here... I'll write some stuff tomorrow.. I swear.. (I really do)

Also, I'll kick that lazy boy Dim, so he'll hopefully write something tomorrow as well !

Btw, Ben is back !!! FB here we come..