Sunday, April 05, 2009

Amazon is sick


I recently went on Amazon for the first time in a while. The front page now has a clever feature where it recommends things you might like to buy. Anyway, so I'm captivated by a claim by the shoemaker Sketchers that their new Women's 'Shape Up' trainers can help you stay fit just by walking in them. So I click through.

After learning that the trainers actually just make it harder to walk (actually, it read, "Designed to improve your life by changing the way you walk, Shape Ups feature a unique, soft kinetic wedge insert and dynamic rolling bottom to simulate walking barefoot on a giving surface that gives, such as sand") I returned to the main page.

Except, now Amazon thinks I'm obsessed with exercise, fitness and leotards. Every one of the options points towards women's fitness products or shoes. More to Explore? Fitness videos with Davina McCall. What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? Women's shoes. Customers with Similar Searches Purchased... shoes. More shoes. Even the bestsellers list was a list of, shock, shoes. It was like the God of Shoes had somehow infected my Amazon experience. Did not like.

Not to be outdone, I decided to use the system against itself. One quick search for The Complete Bond Collection should sort things out.

But no. Still shoes. Always, the shoes. And for some strange reason, lots of Wii games, as though people who watch a lot of Bond also like to waste time playing on a Wii...

Amazon, what happened to you?

UPDATE: Okay, so after half an hour of searching for nuclear weapons, dumbbell weights and the Kama Sutra, my Amazon page looks like it just drank four pints, ate a packet of Cheese and Onion, farted, got in a fight, drank a protein shake and playing PlayStation for two hours. I dare anyone to have a more masculine Amazon page.

Friday, March 21, 2008

A cycle of decline

ONE WOULD imagine that during the long political cycle between elections, in the constant tustle for supremecy in the polls and struggle to inspire confidence among their own party, the conduct of the leader of the opposition on a bicycle is unlikely to be the clincher for most voters. And yet the apparently 'flouting' of the traffic laws by David Cameron on his bike, reported today by the Mirror (and later seized upon by the BBC, Telegraph and The Times, among others), prompted criticism from the head of Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, and even a debate in the media about whether Cameron was a hippocrite for breaking the rules while advertising his 'green' lifestyle.

Although the BBC balanced their story by mentioning that it might be an advert for how difficult it can be for cyclists in London, the fact remains that the importance of this 'news' story has, as is so often the case with political reporting, been hopelessly overblown.

But, he ran a red light! It's breaking the law! Big deal. I'm sure the vast majority of motorists in this country have done the same. Yes, I'm fully aware that he is the opposition leader, and that his being in the spotlight means he ought to have more care in public. But the fact is, I find the whole story ridiculously pedantic and trivial, and I'm disappointed the BBC found it necessary to devote time to the matter, and the fact they included this at the top of their front page.

Whereas at the bottom of the page, tucked away under the Politics heading - Jack Straw's announcement that more prisoners could be released earlier to reduce overcrowding in our jails. I question the priority given to these two stories.

The only bright side to this whole affair is that the Guardian chose not to bother covering it. Good for them.

(Please Note: I'm am not a Guardian reader, nor a Conservative.)

Monday, March 10, 2008

Coffee Machines Break My Spirit: Part 3

After the extraordinary level of disgust already endured at the hands of the Cafette 'Coffee' machine - in the form of White Coffee and ChocoMilk - I try my hand at the innocently named Decaff Coffee. With all shred of the chemical caffine flavour removed, surely this should be heaven compared to the grotesque taste of the others.

I make my first mistake before I've even paid for said drink: by sipping the black stuff before I've added milk. I've never been a fan of black coffee anyway, let alone that made from age-old powder fermenting inside a machine vat. Bitter. Rancid. Lip-curlingly awful. These are complements in the land of the Decaff Coffee. I pay for the drink - a complete travesty in itself - and quickly find a pot of UHT milk to (hopefully, desperately) null the flavour.

People always say that two wrongs don't make a right. Black, Decaff Coffee is wrong. Very wrong. UHT milk is also very wrong. But, somehow, together they actually make each other bareable. As unbelieveable as it sounds, I am able to consume the rest of the drink without so much as a flinch. I do have a rather sour aftertaste, but other than that, it wasn't as terrible as I imagined it could be.

That's the good point. Unfortunately, by adding UHT milk, and because of some strange cancelling-out effect, White Decaff Coffee tastes of nothing. Absolutely zip. Nadder. Void of taste. I try several times to pick up some flavour without success. So although the coffee was bareable, that was only really because it didn't taste of anything.

Sigh. I feel as if I am doomed never to find a decent, nay, a half decent cuppa from this cafette. However, hope may be on the horizon. I have spotted the existence of a SECOND coffee machine. I feel a head-to-head coming on...

Decaff Coffee Rating: 5
In a word: Passable

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Running, out of pens

I have decided to start running. Every morning for a month (as a start) I will go running before breakfast, in an attempt to improve my fitness and general wellbeing. A lot of people will be thinking, "Oh sure, you say that now. You wait 'till it's bucketing it down outside, then we'll see whether you go running every morning before breakfast." You know what, you're almost certainly right: I'm extremely unlikely to actually succeed with this. But knowing I probably will fail - instead of trying to convince myself I'll see it through - actually makes me want to try harder, to prove myself wrong more than anything else.

Besides, when it comes to the actual running, I quite enjoy it. I think the major challenge is getting out of bed half an hour earlier than usual each day - that in itself would be an achievement, even without all this running lark.

The intention is to get myself into good habits. Since starting this journalism course, I've found myself walking a fair bit each day (to and from the department is a few miles round trip) but, without regular football (until recently) or tennis, I do almost no hard exercise. So, I hope, by doing this I can make good habits that I can take with me to work experience and beyond into the world of work, and not lapse into what has happened while at Cardiff.

In other news, I always find myself running out of pens, so I've gone and bought more pens than I can possible lose in the next year. Nice.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Coffee Machines Break My Spirit: Part 2

I can't believe I'm doing this. I even predicted this would be a mistake not two days ago, a chocolate Nostradamus, if you like. But I'm here, and I'm drinking it all the same.

The ChocoMilk.

I now understand why they didn't call it Hot Chocolate. Because it's not. It's not even chocolate milk, because that at least would be BASED ON MILK. This drink is based entirely on sugar. To the extent that it doesn't even have the consistency of milk. Instead, it has a gloopy texture not dissimilar from syrup, but much, much sweeter.

I tastes rancid. Instead of having a light chocolately flavour, it tastes as though someone decided to reinvent chocolate for vegans but didn't get it quite right, so that the canny vegans said, "Oi, we're not drinking that shit," and so this was the only remaining market; sealed inside a container where you don't know what you've ordered until it pours (read: falls) out the machine. It's like a chocolate subsitute substitute. To be fair, after a while I don't really notice the taste so much, but then that is because my vision is blurring as my blood sugar levels spiral out of control. Who needs sky-diving when you've got this thrill?

Seriously though, it's almost painful how sugary it is. For some inexplicable reason I also bought a Choc Chip Cookie, also laiden with sugar, and am now floating about two feet off the ground. I am pleased I got it though, at least it's oaty flavour took the edge of Sugar Mountain.

Ironically, I now feel like a coffee.

Yet my curiosity gets the better of me: tomorrow, it's the Expresso...

ChocoMilk Rating: 3
In a word: Sugar

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Coffee Machines Break My Spirit

I enter the cafe. It's more a cafette, if such a thing exists, just large enough for the daily papers, chocolate bars and a fridge cabinet full of almost-off sandwiches. Oh, and the Enemy.

I know it's my fault. I should have prepared my own coffee. If I was at all organised I would have got up 20 minutes earlier, made my own sandwiches, and then made some GOOD coffee in MY flask. I'd have also showered as well. And wiped the toothpaste off my face. And woken up.

So here I am, me and the 'coffee' machine. I take one look at the choices and instantly it's damage limitation. What will be least disgusting option? I cast my mind back to last week's infamously bad decision. Cappuccino? From a machine? Made with UHT milk that has probably sat in there for a fortnight? What was I thinking! Safe to say that I have never had coffee that tasted so strongly of feet.

Then there's 'ChocMilk'. Budget cuts must have meant that they omitted the 'olate' during the production of the machine, except now it sounds like something an American kid would ask for, and does not imply any sort of temperature to it at all. 'Expresso' is tempting, although knowing this machine it would be so concentrated as to be more of a pellet than a beverage.

And don't even get me started on the 'ExpressoChoc'.

So I go for the default option, 'White Coffee'. The name has no suggestion of a 'milk' element, and neither does the coffee - we're in UHT Land again, people. I gulp it down, reveling in the way it burns my throat and tongue saving me from tasting the stuff. The sediment from the machine is grit in my teeth, the foamy head irritating my lips and the bitterness of the freeze-dried brown powder coats the inside of my mouth. It takes a huge effort not to hock it up into a nearby bin.

Tomorrow: I try the ChocoMilk.

White Coffee Rating: 4
In a word: Horrible

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Funnies from the past

Looking through my old livejournal page, I discovered a rather funny email attachment-type post about terrible similies. I thought some of you may appreciate it:

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Actual Quotes from Leaving Cert 2003 English Essays.. genius

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, kinda' like, sorta, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Ballina at 6:36 pm travelling at 55 mph, the other from Claremorris 4:19pm at a speed of 35 mph.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.

Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for while.

"Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a student on 50cent-a-pint night.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" ad.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Mary Harney, Tanaiste, in the first of her several points of Dail debate made to Bertie Aherne, TD, in the Dail Committee hearings on the suspension of Ray Burke TD. the ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing.

She was as easy as the Indo crossword.

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef.

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.