Category: Unmitigated Loathing

Avatar Pet Peeves: Soap and Towel

We did an episode of A Breath of Fresh Beans a while back about pet peeves. You know, things that wind you up beyond all reason that other people probably don’t know or care about. In the podcast I think mine was to do with people putting those metal letters back to front in cast iron gates, and Phil at work tangling up all the phone cords.

Anyway, another one occurred to me the other day – one that’s annoyed me to an admittedly ridiculous degree for several years now – and I thought I’d share it here so that you can be certain exactly how skewed my priorities really are.

A few years back some of the toilets at work were refurbished. There’s now a big mirror above all the sinks, underneath which is concealed soap and paper towel dispensers. You know the sort of thing. To help you find all the hidden bathroom accessories there are little labels on the mirror to show you where they are.

Here’s what they look like.

There are only these two labels, and they each appear about three times across the width of the mirror. I mean, come on, you’ve spotted the first problem already, right? The “soap” one is in Helvetica and the “Towel” one is in Futura. Bloody hell, guys, you’re only making two labels, can you try to pick the same font for both of them?

Then there’s the word “Towel”. For some reason they’ve made the T and the L bold, but not the rest. Look at the thicker the stroke width on those letters compared to the others. Why would you do that?

It would surely be easier to get it right than to get it this wrong. When you open your graphic design software to make two grey circles with a word inside each, it would surely be easier to get the font the same across both of them, instead of three different fonts mixed up in two words. How do you even manage that level of ineptitude?

Anyway, I know you don’t care, and I know it doesn’t matter, but it absolutely boils my piss, and I thought you should know.

Avatar Four Word Reviews: Strike

It’s that time again. Time to slide another unwanted CD into the player and see what fate has in store. This time around we are meeting The Baseballs, who are presenting us with their debut album “Strike!” from 2009. I hadn’t heard of this album, or this band, before, but a look at it and a bit of cursory research suggested this Four Word Review wouldn’t be too bad. Some are painful, of course, and others are just a bit of fun. I was dismayed to find, however, that this was a genuinely unpleasant experience, and in this review I’ll be attempting to work out why.

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Avatar Job interview questions

I’ve been asked to be on the panel for some job interviews tomorrow, which will be a first for me. (This is at work, not just randomly by some bloke in the street, you understand.) I will be one of three interviewers grilling prospective candidates for a job in my department.

Having never done this before, I thought it was best to prepare in advance, so I’ve spent some time researching interview techniques and writing questions. I thought I’d share them with you now. Obviously, if you’re one of the people who will be attending interview tomorrow, please don’t read them.

  1. Who the hell do you think you are?
    This question is about power. It destabilises the candidate immediately, and establishes my position as the “alpha”. Ideally I will not actually let them finish their answer before moving on.
  2. You think you’re good enough to work here do you?
    While the candidate attempts to answer this question I will avoid taking notes, and will instead attempt to stare them down.
  3. Imagine the Queen is on a state visit to our office. She approaches and asks you to make a custom mains cable for her in our workshop, which has a standard UK 13 amp plug at one end and a pair of crocodile clips at the other end. She says she’s going to use it on “traitors”. The cable will be double insulated but not earthed. What are the safety, legal and employment implications of this situation? How would you answer her?
    As a follow up question, ask whether the double insulation makes it a Class I or Class II device for PAT testing purposes. Ask also if their response would be any different if the Queen intended to use the cable on “horses”.
  4. As a new employee your most important task will be making drinks for everyone. Tell me about a situation where you had to take a large and complex drinks order, and what you did to ensure there were no mistakes.
    If the answer to this one is too confident, try slowly shaking head while the candidate speaks.
  5. Do you have any questions for us?
    Should the candidate attempt to actually ask us anything, sternly remind them that this was a yes or no question.

My approach to this process is based around the fact that, should anyone I interview get a job and then turn out to be a waste of space, I will be responsible. I will therefore be aiming to slam the door in everyone’s face to make sure none of them get in on my watch.

Good luck to everyone who has applied.

Avatar Yes I can hear you Clem Fan-microwave

We own a microwave. Big deal right, who doesn’t? Ours was far too expensive. I’m not bragging, this isn’t beacuse we wanted a fancy brand microwave oven combo thing from a fancy brand, but because we wanted one that didnt ‘explode when you use the cleaning setting’ (Hotpoint/Whirlpool/Indesit) or ‘frequently burn your arms on the metal posts on the door’ (Siemens/Bosch/AEG)… and also because we had the cheek to try and get a kitchen fitted during a brexity pandemic, and all (some of) the other ones we could have bought were unavailable.

The device itself is excellent, it cooks food the way you’d expect it to and it looks nice in the cupboard above the oven it matches. The problem is that THE DAMN THING NEVER SHUTS UP!!!!1!!1!1!!!!

I would say its safe to say that almost all microwaves (even ones combined into an oveny thing) give some sort of audible alert to let you know its finished. From the humble ding of a bell, to the frankly unnecessary tune of a midi melody. That said, ours makes a little “bee-boop” noise when its finished. Fine. That’s enough, I know you’ve finished. So why does ours insist on beeping every 15 odd seconds until you open the door?!? It’s a microwave, when it stops doing its thing the cooking is no longer happening, not like an oven where leaving the thing you’re cooking in there will cause it to dry up and burn due to residual heat or whatever. The only danger is that the thing I was cooking/warming will go a bit cold. Shut the hell up! Just stop.

I know this sounds like a non-issue, but I often use the microwave whilst cooking to part-cook things, or cook rice before frying etc etc. I don’t always need the thing I’ve microwaved ‘right now’. Its fine for it to sit there for a bit…. STOP SAYING “BEE-BOOP”.

I’ve looked in the settings… twice. I’ve even emailed the customer services team who say it cant be changed, and then checked the settings a third time anyway.

Whatever, queue the derision…

Avatar Cruel, cruel irony…

In my time, I’m well aware that I’ve been known to be an annoying pedant:

  • I’ve been the guy to point out when people have flags upside down.
  • I’ve been annoyed that people don’t cook toast properly (justifiably in your case Ian!)
  • I’ve been someone who re-arranges people cutlery draws to put them in the correct order.

Anyway…

Last week we bought a new cutlery set. Our old one was getting tatty and the shiny bits were starting to wear off, so we popped down to Freeport and bought a new one.

Sometimes life just conspires to give you a metaphorical middle finger…

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