Something I learnt at university has really been ringing true for me the last few days. It was within my Communications courses that I learnt about Senders, Receivers and Messages.

You see, the Sender can send the intended Message, but this does not necessarily mean that the Receiver receives the intended message in the intended format. I know, confusing, but think about it. Sometimes the message gets skewed - there might be noise that changes the meaning of the message, or the Receiver might receive the Message with preconceived ideas or life experience that prevents them from receiving the Message in its intended form.

Thanks for your comments to my last post. It’s good to know people are reading. Well, at least dropping by. But you know, I wasn’t criticising anyone’s decision on the matter. It was a rant about annoying people at both work and in my personal life who make decisions on serious matters based on narrow-minded and ill-informed opinions and I find that sort of behaviour very frustrating.

I don’t generally make a practice of criticising the choices people make, so long as they are well-thought out decisions based on their own research and experience. Not based on the scare mongering tactics they choose to listen to, or the experience of one person amongst a world of millions.

I’ve learnt a lot in the process. Sometimes it’s just better to rant and not seek feedback and no matter how you intend the receiver to receive the message, sometimes it just might not make it out the other end in the same format. Kinda like Chinese Whispers, right?

Would you like some fries with your salt?

Firstly, let me recount this story to you. This afternoon, I skipped out on work by about an hour. I figured I was owed from the long hours produced last week and subsequent stress it caused me. So, I caught the train home (my new lot in life, since my wheels have gone to their new home) and then picked up the car at the station and drove to the supermarket. Standing in line, wishing I was standing in the Super Duper Express line, instead of the snails pace, I’m ageing as we speak line. When I finally got to the register, I started to unpack my stuff, giving it to the displeased service girl, as she went through the motions (and let me tell you, she looked like she’d have more fun passing a motion), when one of her colleagues walked over with what I can only describe as a turd-sized piece of sweet potato. She asked my motionless service chick whether the customer was allowed to cut a piece of the sweet potato off the whole piece and buy that. My chicky-dee didnt know the answer and advised her to speak to the manager, and rightly so! So, the other chick called for the manager of the fruit and vege department to come to the service desk. By this stage, customer was getting a little more than pissed about the situation and started giving her grief.

As I was leaving with my paid purchases, the last thing I heard come out of his mouth was “Havent you got better things to do than be petty?”

Irony is a bitch.

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The weekend in review, mostly in order:

• Went to the movies on Friday night and saw Children of Men - very good, very Orwellian.
• Helped a friend whose car had died and drove her home
• Went to the motorbike store to pick up a part for Glen’s bike and take a test ride of my one true love - the Suzuki Burgman 400, only to arrive in pouring rain and realise it just wasn’t going to happen
• Ten minutes later, as we were leaving, the sun began shining. Just wasn’t meant to be
• Drove to inlaws place with Clio in the back. She slept the entire way
• Spent a few hours at inlaws, Clio romped with Jake, the german shepherd. It was love
• Came home and collapsed from exhaustion
• Fed animals, microwave died
• Cursed the microwave
• Next day (Sunday), purchased a new funky microwave, kettle and toaster - had to buy in threes!
• Toaster is faulty and going back next weekend. Grrr.
• Mowed the lawn and did all good things related to housework.
• Watched some TV
• Went to bed, shortly thereafter freaked out by what can only be described as either a plane breaking the sound barrier nearby, or a very low flying 747 plane over the roof! Freaked out too much to sleep properly.
• This morning discovered it was a 2.9 earth tremor in nearby Caulfield. Grrr. First earthquake related type event. Never want to relive.

Anyway, sorry for the crap update. Really tired and headachy. Need to relax without a PC in front of me. Talk more later.

Office Politics

Today, I sat at my desk, viewing a whole wad of documents that I needed to print. I was conflicted, do I sit and print one and rush to the printer to claim it, before it gets sucked into the abyss of other people’s printing, never to be seen again, or do I print the entire lot and hope to God that they come home safely with me, and not in someone else’s pile?

I was conflicted. As I sat there thinking about what is best to do, I thought how irritating it can be to see someone just pick up paper from the printer, without looking at it and wandering off to their desk. It is one of my pet peeves working in an office.

People just don’t get it, they have no concern for anyone around them and think that the printer was put there for their own use. It’s just maddening.

Then there’s the people who print reams of paper, leaving no room for the rest of us with one or two pages to send through. So, you invariably stand there waiting for a whole pile of printing to get done before you pick up your half page document.

And then there are the people who stand behind you huffing and moaning and groaning at the printer, whilst you photocopy or print something. They have no patience or tolerance and act as if you are there getting a tan! I love standing at the printer, staring off into space as I mindlessly wait for my documentation to come through. I am sure I have better things to do.

So, I sat there at my PC, agonising as to whether I should print one document at a time, or send all of them through to the printer, finally deciding to send all of them through and make a quick run to the printer. As I rushed to the printer, I realised that no one else was hovering around, waiting for printouts, so snatched up my printing and scurried back to my desk.

As I sat at my desk, feeling smug and very efficient, I worked my way through the pages. This took me about 30 minutes to review. When I got to one of the final pages and saw Joe Bloggs name at the time, imagine my surprise when I realised the one thing I strived not to be, was who I was – a hypocritical document thief!

You just can’t win, can you?

So, I did the only honourable thing you can do in that sort of shared office supplies situation – I scurried back to the printer, dumped the offending page on the printer and ran like a bat-out-of-hell back to my desk before the owner could trace the missing page to me!

Ironic, isn’t it?

This was a true story brought to you by the letter H – Hypocrite and the letter N – Naive Fool.

Idle Songs…

Hello, my name is Samantha and I’m a self-confessed Australian Idol fool.

No seriously, I’m an idiot. I know that. I accept it though. I have made my peace with it. I know that every Sunday night, I have no social life, I make sure that dinner is over and done with by the time it starts. I know that Monday morning, before any work begins, the Idol banter begins, “Who did you like?”, “Who are your top 3?” and “Who do you think will go?”. The conversation goes like this for 10 minutes before I think about switching my machine on and actually doing some work. Yeh, that’s what I am paid for!

Tonight was the first elimination. It was to be expected, but you know, I’m losing interest. It’s too formulamatic. Too predictable. Too boring. And yet, I still watch it. Foolishly, you might say!

So, who’s going to venture a guess as to who will win this year? The baldy-rock dude? The pretty centrefold boy? The opera-come-contemporary female singer? The Irish dude with the twinkle in his eye? The country chick? The little girl who is more reminiscent of a deer caught in the light of a car than a singer? The dude who reminds you of Maurice Gibb?

I promise, this will be the last time I shall discuss Idol. I am finding myself boring. I dare not re-read this entry for fear of becoming embarassed by my unashamed devotion to the idol-order.

Woe is me.