Premier League Quote of the Week

In a regular feature that, like all my "regular" features, will probably fizzle out after two or three posts, I present to you a genius quote from the past weekend's Premier League.

The following came from Mick McCarthy, manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers after his side's defeat at Sunderland:

"All of us thought that we could go on and win the game but unfortunately we lost it in the process."

This is a real quote, btw. Really.

Dr. Strangelove Actually

Found this great site that has movie mash-up posters. Here're my favorites:

First, the best one:

This really is quite appropriate:

I love the quite subtle umbrella:

How much better would Empire have been had it been directed by Kubrick:

I'd love it if Jack Nance has been in Hairspray...:

...and finally, 'cause it's just funny:

There's more here

Tapping The Wire

Further to my previous post about The Wire, here's a special Charlie Brooker did for the FX channel. It's a fascinating 1/2 hour look at the show, including interviews with the creator, David Simon, some of the main cast members and famous fans.

The Wire - Best TV Show Ever made

I found this video whilst browsing YouTube. In it, Charlie Brooker, lead television critic for the UK's Guardian newspaper, does a pithily excellent job in explaining just why The Wire really is the best show on television. What's even more telling is the fact that he made this video without having yet seen the fourth season, which is regarded by most as the best season of the show.

Anyway, here's the video. It's well worth watching if you want to learn a bit more about The Wire and it's only four minutes long.

Books: Moab is My Washpot

Just finished reading Stephen Fry's autobiography Moab is My Washpot. Being a Stephen Fry fan, I knew I'd probably like the book and wasn't disappointed.

The timeline of the book is Stephen's life from birth to age 18. While for most people this may not be long enough to justify the writing of an autobiography, Stephen's tales of English public-school life (for those not in the know, in England "public"school actually means private school. I would explain, but I can't be bothered) are amusing and interesting enough to keep the reader entertained.

The 21st century's answer to Oscar Wilde in terms of dry wit (if not literary genius), Stephen's writing is consistently hilarious, thought-provoking and more than a little embarrassing (for him, not you).

His tales of the minutae and traditions of attending public school are a mix of the sad and the funny, as are his continuous grappling with his own sexuality and propensity to thieve at every opportunity.

In short, entertaining, well-written and a good insight into one of England's most beloved popular culture figures. Recommended.

Looks like it might be good...

Just came across a preview for HBO's new comedy show Bored to Death. It stars Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson and looks like it'll be pretty funny. Click here to see the trailer.

Alex Ferguson - Asshole (fact)

Here's a great example of why I fucking hate Alex Ferguson so much. What an asshole. Be happy with the fact you have one of the best teams in the world and are the current league champions. This kind of shit is what makes people hate Man U, when really, they should just be hating you.

Democrats are the new Republicans

Though I'm a huge Bill Maher fan, I don't always completely agree with him. In fact, over the past few years, I've posted just three of his closing monologues from his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher.

This latest clip, from the 19 June show, is absolutely right on the money as he accuses Democrats of not really being Democrats anymore. They've moved so far to the right as to now be a sort of centrist-right party, while Republicans have also moved so far to the right as to be, for want of a better word, lunatics.

At 3:16 in the video, Maher outlines exactly what a Democrat SHOULD believe in, in the traditional sense of the word Democrat. As he correctly states, these aren't radical ideas and a large portion of Americans already agree with them, while even more would agree if they were presented/argued properly.

But enough. For the third time, I completely agree with everything he says in this clip and think it's a shame that he's seen primarily as a comedian, rather than a serious political commentator (though this may be starting to change). Watch the video.

Zombies. Yes, that's right. Zombies.

Does this look great, or does this look great?

The New Job

So yesterday I started a new job with telecommunications company Vodafone. It's the largest mobile phone service provider in the world and it's a company I've wanted to work for since 2004.

My role in the organization is that of "Real Time Business Support Manager".

I work in the Credit & Collections sector of the company. In other words, we deal with the contracts consumers and businesses have with us to provide their mobile phone service. Everybody from regular consumers, to small businesses, to large companies such as BMW or Johnson & Johnson, to government agencies such as the National Health Service, the cops, etc., get their mobile phones and service through Vodafone.

Specifically, I work in collections. When people or companies don't pay their bills on time, the information comes to us and we try to get them to pay their bill.

In my role, I look at the processes of 1.) how we try to get them to pay their bill, 2.) of why they don't pay it on time, and 3.) at what point during the collections process they will usually pay their bill. I have a team of three credit experts who work for me and together we look at all of the above data and we try to come up with ways to save the company money and provide better service for our customers. For example, I'll be given a goal by my boss to reduce costs due to late bill payments by x% and then my team and I try to find ways to reach this goal. If it looks feasible, we'll implement.

I also have to analyse data myself to see if I can identify ways to provide better service and/or reduce costs.

So basically, it's a role that encompasses management, IT, marketing, finance and business. I have quite a lot of experience in a lot of these areas (though not all) and so it seems like it's a great fit.

Now that I'm out of the USAF, I think I've finally found a company and line of work that I want to stay with for the long-term. I see my future working for Vodafone and in the IT/telecoms sector.

Vodafone have offices around the UK in Newbury, Banbury, Nottingham and Stoke. I'm based in Banbury which, as luck would have it, is about 20 mins. from my house in Buckingham! I'll have to travel to the other three location approximately once a month each, but I'll also be able to work from home four to eight days a month. The company issued me with a brand new Dell laptop and Blackberry.

The Banbury office is actually a complex of two huge buildings in a business park in the English countryside. Each building has its own staff restaurant and Wiis and XBoxes are dotted around the two buildings for the use of the staff. There's also free drinks and free tea or coffee which is great.

My boss works in the Stoke office (about two hours north), but has told me that she'll let me decide my own hours, when I work from home and seems very smart and really nice. I am part of a team of three managers who work for her and the other two guys are also very friendly and helpful.

In short, I think I may have found the perfect job. There are great prospects for moving up or moving to other sectors within the company such as sales (getting companies to choose us for all of their organization's phones) or marketing. Financially, it's great money. I get to wear whatever I want (which after years of business suits and military unifroms is quite liberating). The people I work with and for seem to be genuinely nice and it's close to home.

What more could you ask for?