Those of you who read my posting about the Norton Anti-Virus Software people a few weeks ago will remember that I was promised a refund of my incorrectly debited fees in respect of this. I am delighted, and slightly relieved, to report that my credit card statement received today contains the aforementioned refunds.
Bankers’ Bonuses
I have to declare my position here, as an ex-bank employee. As always, there is a bit of story, of someone who joined a bank straight from school as a clerk (called a management trainee, but a clerk nonetheless). I didn’t go to university because I couldn’t get a place and assumed I was stupid (which makes me realise there’s another whole posting about that as well!). So I stayed at the bank, and learned what to do, and made slow, steady progress. Eventually I left the branch network because I was fed up with it and knew that centralisation was coming, and I moved into the head office in London. There I learned about payment processing systems, and computers, and about designing computer systems, and quality implementations (ISO9002 and all that), and lots of other things. In the end I turned out to be quite an expert in lots of areas, and when I left I had a much better job (and a much better salary) than I ever expected when I started.
But I was never an executive, and although I did get the staff bonuses when they were paid, I never received the vast sums of money, the like of which are now being discussed in the media at the moment. I’m quite disturbed by the fact that the whole country will be paying for the bail-out of the banks by the government (using money from you and me) caused by the government’s (and in particular our Prime Minister’s) incompetence and lack of control. The idea that we (the British taxpayer) should be funding huge payments to small groups of people to prevent this business from going overseas leaves me completely dumbfounded. I just don’t understand the logic of it at all.
A Mixed Approach
I’ve written previously about my technological challenges, and it’s very interesting to see how things are going here. One of the approaches I’ve decided to take for 2010 is to go back to a paper diary system. I’ve dug out my old filofax from wherever, and got the right pages, and have just spent an hour updating ready for the New Year. In the past I’ve tried a combination of wall charts, on-line diaries (Airset), using Microsoft Outlook, and a common use desk diary which we keep in the hall table. I’ve found electronic systems quite tedious, despite feeling that what I’m doing now is a retrograde step. So I will have to see how it all goes.
On a similar line, I have been persuaded by the local walking club to create them a website, which they wanted in good old HTML, which has involved me going back to Dreamweaver, which I used to use on the drama group’s website before we moved away. I remember that I’d actually got quite good at Dreamweaver (eventually!), in a basic, non-tecchie kind of way, but I’ve found the re-learning stage actually quite difficult. Using wordpress for this blog and a couple of other sites which I manage has rather spoilt me, and of course at my advanced stage in life, learning anything new does require a little extra effort, and patience has never been my strong suit. I await the final text of what is required from the club committee, and once the website is up I will post a link to it here from my blog.
Techno-Fear
I’m trying to understand what is happening with all my social networking applications. I have a Twitter account, Facebook, Google Wave, and have been updating these with TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop. Now Posterous has come on the scene, and I think I can use this to update the others. I’m afraid that now I’ve got any number of applications updating each other, that I might end up in a circular, whirlwind like situation, with posts circulating for ever between applications. The trouble is that at the moment I don’t really understand what I’m doing. Hopefully clarity will come in time.
Reading Material
As a boy, and a younger man I was an inveterate reader. I was rarely seen without my nose being buried in a book, and this situation continued into my teenage years. Generally the quality of what I was reading was quite ordinary, but it all helped to feed my capacious ability to absorb and retain information for general knowledge.
As I got a bit older I came to a point where I decided that I should be reading better, quality literature. I bought a copy of Tolstoy’s “War & Peace” and duly ploughed through that, although I remember missing out a lot of the essay bits which the book seemed to have. I also bought a copy of “Crime & Punishment” by Dostoevsky, but have to admit that I could not finish it, running out of steam on about the third day of remorse after the murder. I also, to continue the Russian theme, got copies of Solzhenitsyn’s “Cancer Ward” and “The First Circle” and enjoyed both these harrowing novels.
As I have got even older I have found my ability to concentrate on books quite challenged, and have struggled to get started with “serious” fiction. I have a copy of Henry James’ “The Ambassadors” which I have started at least three times, a copy of Eliot’s “The Mill On The Floss” which I gave up on, also D H Lawrence’s “The Rainbow” – only 100 pages read, and so on.
I’m trying to make a fresh start as Christmas approaches, and am changing my approach. I’m in the middle of Anthony Beavor’s “D Day”, and will have finished that by next week, when I plan to start the Booker Prize nominated “The Glass Room” by Simon Mawr. I think trying to read biographies and history books will help this situation, and will see how things go.
A Bit Of An Update
Living here in the North-West of England we are in the general area which has been affected by the recent dreadful flooding. I’m pleased to report that so far we have been specifically unaffected by this, apart from having to drive through some standing water in the local lanes to get into town. The amount of water in the River Kent, particularly last week, has been quite frightening.
What has been interesting about this has been the reaction of friends and family to our situation. The other day we had a telephone call from my wife’s very elderly Aunt (who NEVER telephones) to see if we are alright, and I received a very concerned call from friends in London asking if there anything they could do for us, and also emails from people who we don’t know very well but who were expressing an interest in our fate. It’s really quite surprising. What is also interesting is that some members of both our families who really should have phoned us have remained completely silent. Some things never change, although it has reminded me that I do need to bite the bullet and make a couple of calls which I have been putting off.
One of the other effects of this situation is that my parents have cancelled their visit to us, which was supposed to take place later this week. I mentioned in a previous posting how anxious my Father gets over things he can’t control, and on top of this my Mother has become slightly unwell also. So after several telephone calls back and forth over the past couple of days they’ve decided that they’re not coming, which is a shame, and I don’t expect them to come to the house here again. We will have to find a slot to go down to them early in the New Year, as there just isn’t the time for us to visit them before Christmas.
Hearing Update
Those of you who are foolish enough to visit this blog regularly will know that I have been giving updates on the situation relating to my hearing.
The latest chapter in this story came yesterday, when I attended the local hospital here for a hearing test, and then to meet the consultant. The conclusion he came to was that, whilst in general my hearing could be described as appropriate for a person of my advanced years, with a slight deterioration at the high frequencies, he did think that my left ear was slightly worse than it should be. So I am now to be sent for an MRI scan to check the workings of my inner ear, (and presumably the rest of my head as well). If nothing is found as a result of the scan I’ll just have to put up with this loss, which is at the high frequencies, and which I’ve not noticed anyway. The consultant said that if they gave me a hearing aid it would amplify everything and drive me mad, so I seem to be stuck with this situation anyway, and presumably the prospect of needing a hearing aid when I get really decrepit. If there is a further problem then I’ll get called back again. So I’m making progress, and will report further.
Are Norton Symantec Good Boys?
My heart sank. I’ve come back from my time away to my credit card bill. Included on it are two charges from the Norton Internet security people, Symantec. When we moved here I had to change ISPs, and the new one provides free security and virus stuff etc via Mcafee as part of their deal, and I was sure that I had cancelled all my previous subscriptions to Norton Symantec. So I spent a merry hour this morning rooting through my records to find the email I had sent to them and the reply from Symantec confirming it. With a heavy heart I logged onto the Symantec website expecting pain and suffering in my efforts to sort this out. I eventually discovered the chatroom area where you are supposed to give details of your problem, and after a wait of about thirty minutes (not bad at this time on a Sunday morning) I was connected to their analyst, a chap called Anuj. After about ten minutes of typing back and forth I was told I would get a full refund and no further charges would occur. I was actually quite impressed, but will have to wait for my next credit card statement to clarify that my funds have been refunded. It looks as though what I had anticipated to be a problem has sorted itself out. Good old Symantec and their analyst, Anuj.
Even An Old Brain Is Interesting
I’m back from my trip to Morocco now. I had an interesting time with my guests, who I think mainly enjoyed themselves, although a number of them were unwell with stomach problems for a little while. This is, of course, to be expected when spending time in a hot place.
I was presently pleased with my use of the French language whilst away. Ever since I had lessons at school it has been something I have been able to do, although I have felt that my vocabulary and grammatical construction has become a bit restricted over the years. During the time I was away I have obviously opened up that bit of storage in my brain where all this language is stored, and towards the end I began to realise that I was recalling French words from somewhere which if asked before I went away, I wouldn’t have been able to remember. Even the grammar was getting better with listening to other people over there. I’ll need to try and keep this up.
Question Time
I dipped in and out of last night’s BBC programme. I don’t always watch it, usually preferring “Newsnight” on the other side. I thought, that for such a highly charged programme, it was quite devoid of any depth and real policy, although I must congratulate the BBC on their audience selection, as a lot of them were quite savage as they went for Nick Griffin. He did himself no favours, although I suppose he could make a living running courses on evasion and vacillation. The trouble is, are those people who are likely to vote for the BNP likely to watch a mainstream political programme? I’m sure they would prefer the X factor or the like. I wonder whether this furore will have died down by the time I come back.
