Rebranding at work

Management consultants are the source of most evils at work.

At work, we are currently suffering a rebranding implementation. And bullshit level has gone through the roof. Luckily, my line manager, despite his faults, is good at dealing with his – he constantly takes the piss out of it. We have a lot of laughs in our office. We are the Finance and we see the real truth – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Sales are down for some time which leads to not so good bank balance. The managers/directors are mainly doing this rebranding to divert the attention from the problem so that they don’t have to deal with it.

Our company is divided into two sorts of employees, the real staff and then the rest. The real staff went on a conference abroad to go through the rebranding; apparently it is more then just changing the stationery and letterheads. Sadly they filmed the conference and tomorrow we are all going to have to sit through that bloody film.

This afternoon a memo was sent out from one director, which sales figures are non-existent this month, and after my line manager had stopped laughing at it, he let us read it too.

Here are some points from it:

* Every month, the person that has “adjusted” best to the new values of rebranding gets a price. The company is not a fast food joint, we are suppose to be a professional company. I would like to nominate our CEO every month – maybe then I would get a decent pay raise.

* There is now a standard way to answer the phone, both internal and external calls.

* All desks have to be cleaned and tidied before you leave work, only think to be left on your is a print out of tomorrows tasks. Not too bad after 3^rd thought, I get paid to tidy my desk. But problem with the to do list – I don’t use them. I use Outlooks Task & Calendar function to remind me. Oh dear – I am in trouble now.

* Standard font to be used on the email. NOOO and it is not my beloved courier so I will definitive ignore that one. The ironic thing is they have decided to use another font for letters. This other font is ok when you have printed it on paper but on the flat screen is looks shite and unreadable.

* We are a “Good news company” so only wins etc will be communicated to the organisation. So when we loose a client, there is absolutely no discussion why this happened.

Here comes the killer punch line, considering the above is restrictive, the company is using a smart causal dress policy which will demonstrate that we are smart and innovative.

Only company branded pens, papers and litterateur is to be used in client meetings. And what are all those directors/managers using their Mont Blanc pens going to do?? When they loose the pens, all staff emails are being sent around to ask if anyone has seen their pen. Oh by the way, all staff email is to be kept as minimum since emails takes up a lot of resource in IT.

I am so not looking forward to tomorrow’s bullshit session.

Legally robbed!

Today I had the very distinctive displeasure of renewing my annual season ticket for zone 1 and 2. £856:00 is the price of the pleasure.

£851:40 (856:00 - 2 x £2.30 vouchers received for delayed trains) has now been robbed from my credit card. Last year, it was £808 so for another £48 and I have received sweet f*ck all more for the pleasure of travelling on the London Underground.

This is 5.6% increase and last time I checked the annual inflation in the UK was around 2%-mark. Since the so very stupid PPP (Public Private Partnership) is in place, part the increase will go to some stupid shareholder who probably drives to work.

Look, I don’t mind shareholders and capitalism except there is no place for them in PUBLIC service. Hint – it is public service. I actually think that the rental paid for the phone lines should be public owned instead of BT having monopoly of it. It is the public’s property, paid for by public money.

AND there is more really annoying thing – I just go two stops on my way to work. In the summer time, I walk home. But since the price structure of London Underground, I actually don’t save any money by walking home after work (I take the tube to work in the morning, there is no way that I will go up 30-40 minutes earlier).

Damn Tony Blair and his stupid for PPP initiative – he just had to push it through even though most Londoners didn’t want it. No wonder why Ken Livingstone got elected Mayor of London instead of TB’s crony Frank Dobson. At least, Ken tried to stop the PPP idea.

I will get equally pissed off again when I will read my credit card statement.

T H I E V I N G B A S T A R D S ! ! ! !

Go Madonna Go ....

Lizze bitches about...: Cut out the middleman: part 2

Lizze bitches about...: Cut out the middleman

To keep the discussion going ...

Is the press in your country as free as you think?

Thanks to The Economist and their emails that I subscribe to, I found this information. The ranking of countries free press by Reporters Without Borders.

I am sad to see that my native country is so low on the list!!

Rank Country Note
1 Finland 0,50
- Iceland 0,50
- Norway 0,50
- Netherlands 0,50
5 Canada 0,75
6 Ireland 1,00
7 Germany 1,50
- Portugal 1,50
- Sweden 1,50
10 Denmark 3,00
11 France 3,25
12 Australia 3,50
- Belgium 3,50
14 Slovenia 4,00
15 Costa Rica 4,25
- Switzerland 4,25
17 United States 4,75
18 Hong Kong 4,83
19 Greece 5,00
20 Ecuador 5,50
21 Benin 6,00
- United Kingdom 6,00
- Uruguay 6,00
24 Chile 6,50
- Hungary 6,50
26 South Africa 7,50
- Austria 7,50
- Japan 7,50
29 Spain 7,75
- Poland 7,75
31 Namibia 8,00
32 Paraguay 8,50
33 Croatia 8,75
- El Salvador 8,75
35 Taiwan 9,00
36 Mauritius 9,50
- Peru 9,50
38 Bulgaria 9,75
39 South Korea 10,50
40 Italy 11,00
41 Czech Republic 11,25
42 Argentina 12,00
43 Bosnia and Herzegovina 12,50
- Mali 12,50
45 Romania 13,25
46 Cape Verde 13,75
47 Senegal 14,00
48 Bolivia 14,50
49 Nigeria 15,50
- Panama 15,50
51 Sri Lanka 15,75
52 Uganda 17,00
53 Niger 18,50
54 Brazil 18,75
55 Ivory Coast 19,00
56 Lebanon 19,67
57 Indonesia 20,00
58 Comoros 20,50
- Gabon 20,50
60 Yugoslavia 20,75
- Seychelles 20,75
62 Tanzania 21,25
63 Central African Republic 21,50
64 Gambia 22,50
65 Madagascar 22,75
- Thailand 22,75
67 Bahrain 23,00
- Ghana 23,00
69 Congo 23,17
70 Mozambique 23,50
71 Cambodia 24,25
72 Burundi 24,50
- Mongolia 24,50
- Sierra Leone 24,50
75 Kenya 24,75
- Mexico 24,75
77 Venezuela 25,00
78 Kuwait 25,50
79 Guinea 26,00
80 India 26,50
81 Zambia 26,75
82 Palestinian National Authority 27,00
83 Guatemala 27,25
84 Malawi 27,67
85 Burkina Faso 27,75
86 Tajikistan 28,25
87 Chad 28,75
88 Cameroon 28,83
89 Morocco 29,00
- Philippines 29,00
- Swaziland 29,00
92 Israel 30,00
93 Angola 30,17
94 Guinea-Bissau 30,25
95 Algeria 31,00
96 Djibouti 31,25
97 Togo 31,50
98 Kyrgyzstan 31,75
99 Jordan 33,50
- Turkey 33,50
101 Azerbaijan 34,50
- Egypt 34,50
103 Yemen 34,75
104 Afghanistan 35,50
105 Sudan 36,00
106 Haiti 36,50
107 Ethiopia 37,50
- Rwanda 37,50
109 Liberia 37,75
110 Malaysia 37,83
111 Brunei 38,00
112 Ukraine 40,00
113 Democratic Republic of the Congo 40,75
114 Colombia 40,83
115 Mauritania 41,33
116 Kazakhstan 42,00
117 Equatorial Guinea 42,75
118 Bangladesh 43,75
119 Pakistan 44,67
120 Uzbekistan 45,00
121 Russia 48,00
122 Iran 48,25
- Zimbabwe 48,25
124 Belarus 52,17
125 Saudi Arabia 62,50
126 Syria 62,83
127 Nepal 63,00
128 Tunisia 67,75
129 Libya 72,50
130 Iraq 79,00
131 Vietnam 81,25
132 Eritrea 83,67
133 Laos 89,00
134 Cuba 90,25
135 Bhutan 90,75
136 Turkmenistan 91,50
137 Burma 96,83
138 China 97,00
139 North Korea 97,50

Lightweight, I am

I don’t drink very often but yesterday I meet up with an old friend of friend. We had fun and talked a lot. I had three drinks (only three drinks!) and guess what, I feel like I had 30 drinks. My body & brain is not used to alcohol anymore. I am (was?) completely detoxed from alcohol.

At uni, I was out parting a lot but I also feel that I have done of all that

Google Fight

Good fun!!

Google Fight

FilmTitleQuiz

There is a FilmTitleQuiz email doing the rounds and we in our office have tried to solve it.

I got 42 out of 60 but now I am absolutely stuck. I googled the quiz and I found a list of answers on Angie Pedersen’s blog. It does take the fun of it and I will keep on trying to see if I can answer some more. But at least, I know where to find the answers :)

Warning about Tesco downloads!

Tesco downloads are NOT compatible with Apple iPod – and I learned it the hard way. I didn’t read everything before starting the whole fu*king procedure.

Tesco downloads is shit anyway. I chose to download Madonna “Confessions On A Dance Floor” yesterday and Tesco method is really crap. I picked the whole album and I had to download each track individually (!!) This leads to the songs not being in right order on the computer.

Another really bad thing is how the songs are named. It is “Madonna Hung up (album version), Madonna Get Together (album version)” I had to re-name all the songs.

Well at least I have paid the bloody licence so I can now go and download it again from bit torrent.

I have to say that the music industry are fu*king stupid and certainly not helping themselves. Serves them right that bit torrent use has exploded. I don’t want to pay towards the stars lavish lifestyle. Now when I have choice not to and I am glad for it.

I have read in the news today that an example is being set and that 2,000 bit torrent users are being prosecuted. Unbelievable – let just alginate your own customers just because the industry is fighting the windmills.

This is a fight to be lost by the music industry.

Monday again

7 minutes to lunch.

At least this Monday morning-lunch has been calm. I think everybody in my office is a bit tired and just want to be quiet. Not many words have been spoken.

And I am glad for Sam’s emails and txts which made the time go a bit quicker.

For my lunch hour, I am going to watch an episode of Hex on my PSP

When in Japan,

When in Japan – do what the Japanese do – I got myself a gadget. I bought a PSP, much thanks to my boyfriend. I also bought one for a colleague. She saved £50 (USD87) and got a better spec then what is available in the UK, as I understand it.

I am not a gamer but I am truly into Bittorrent and with boyfriends help I converted episode 7 of Ghost Whisper (great show, by the way) to my PSP. I took the gadget with me to work for a show & tell *hehe*

My colleague liked it so much that she is having second thoughts if she is going to give this PSP to her son for his birthday.

My boss didn’t like that he wasn’t tell us ‘girls’ the latest development in the tech area and started to mumble that he has seen the new Ipod video, which was ignored.

At lunch time, I got some food, turned on my PSP watched the episode and COMPLETELY blocked out work for my lunch hour. I LOVE it – this is going to be a regular thing to do on my lunch hour. My normal website viewing can be done during work hours, if there is time.

Thank you Sony, for creating a great gadget for watching Bittorent on my lunch hour.

I cannot wait until I can go back to Japan to see more of the country and to do some shopping!!

Random blogs

Inner Sense

Random blogs button is addictive. I found this blog and laughed out load.

Good stuff.

Chemicals

I am worried that some chemicals are allowed in some countries but not in others.

I drink Diet Coke as other people drink tea or coffee. Tea/coffee is more social acceptable then Diet Coke. I get some stick over it when I start a new job etc but after awhile the issue dies down.

Diet Coke and Coca Cola light is not the same and taste differently. I prefer Diet Coke. But Diet Coke is not sold (allowed to be sold?) the Continental Europe and what I heard ages ago is that Diet Coke has a chemical that Coca Cola light has not.

Diet Coke - UK style

China is more of a Pepsi country and I had problem finding Diet Coke. In fact they sold Coca Cola light and it didn’t taste very nice. In Japan, they sold Diet Coke and I was much happier. (Except for the very last day, but that is another blog entry.)

Coca Cola Light - Chinese style

Diet Coke - Japanese style

In Japan, they also sold Haribo gummy bear including the GREEN gummy bear. These green bears is not included in the UK Haribo gummy bears but I know it is included in the rest of Europe.

I would like to find out more about this since these products that I eat and drink regularly. If anyone should has any info, please add your comments!

Cut out the middleman

I was browsing through random blogs and I came a across the blog Clean fun, by Mohamed in Egypt. He was inviting readers to ask him question about Islam. I think this is a good idea since living in the West, the followers of Islam is currently the ‘enemy’ and I doubt a balance picture of Islam is being presented. I am sure that the other way around the Western Society is not being portrait well in their countries.

But this is why the internet is so good, it cuts out the middleman and it is up to us to learn more. There will always be differences but it would be so much better if we all could get a long better. I would like to go on the Tube and not wonder when the next bomb will go off.

The backgound of Mohamds and my discussion is on his blog posts "The right Islamic Religion rules" and "a Question" and on my blog post "Ahh :)"

This is my comment:

Mohamed,

I don’t share your belief that a/the God created the universe. I respect the way that you believe the universe was created. I would like to receive the same respect back. I do not think that you are the enemy, a bad guy etc – in fact I like your openness and invitation for a discussion.

I do think you are wrong when you write “You can't condemn a religion through the mistakes of it's followers.”

Firstly, I do not condemn any religion and I wrote you that my opinion is that the world would be a better place with no religions. But do I think that is a likely outcome – no. Too many religious people around for that to happened.

Secondly, it is only way to judge a religion / society / philosophy is by its followers and their actions. We are all representative of something and our actions are being judged.

Communism worked fine on paper but as soon as the plans are executed by people it goes wrong – in my opinion. The judgement is based on the outcome of the plan.

For Islam and its followers, my opinion is that a huge majority of the followers are good and peaceful people. But there is an element of extremism with in your religion (which you probably would say is not true followers of Islam) and it is up to the respectable people within your community to weed out the bad elements. You are closer to the problem and should be able communicate to them so that they understand.

For the “Western Society”, we are also being judge of how we treat people and problems in our society. I think we have some fantastic freedoms that we are taking for granted. But we are not without fault and we do push our why of thinking on other countries and cultures. There is little respect for any other culture. One country is too dominant within the Western Society but we are closer to the problem and have to try to influence it for the better.

Backstreet Dorks

After listening to this fun video a few times – it is starting to annoy me. It is not my kind of music but the Backstreet Dorks lipsink is fab.

This clip is not going to stay long on my blog.

Super

Backstreet Dorks

Ahh :)

After Re-publishing, the photo went *phew* For a few moments, I thought I was stuck with it.

I might add it back later but I have always been wary of having my photo on the net.

Sure now ( I think)

The photo is off (for now)

Not sure ...

... if I want to keep my photo on my profile or not. I have to think about it.

Our Hotel in Tokyo

Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel - a very nice hotel and I really recommend it. Expedia lists this hotel. It is the centre of Shibuya. There is an Airport bus directly from Narita Airport to the Cerulean Tower Tokyo for 3,000 Yen. A bit pricy but it is the better alternative. Otherwise there is an Express train (Note: No Bullet train) but you have to changes to a tube train and then carry your luggage/taxi to the hotel.

Oh COME ON - I just had to take photos of our Japanese loo!!

Pictures from Tokyo

The time table of Tokyo Tube. Completely amazing and the envy of a Londoner. You can set your watch after the Tokyo tube.
WOW x 1089E5683

On the most trains, this screen was above every door shows you the next station in Japanese then Korean and then English. When you approached the station, it also shows you where the exits are.

It will hurt you if you caught in the door (sorry for the bad picture)




The Tokyo Tube map - it looks worse on first sight then what it really is. The Tokyo tube system is easy to follow and logical. If you changed your mind during a trip and decide to go to another station - don't worry about the fair. They have Fair Adjustment machines at each station. Really, really good idea. You are presumed to do right, the complete opposite on the London Tube network.

Flats for rent.

It will hurt you if you get caught in the lift door at a department store.

Neat little trolley at the Narita Airport (Tokyo) after you have gone through all the controls. You don't have to carry your hand luggage. For all those Airports that don't have these trolleys - GET THEM NOW!!