Preying on the desperation of others

I'm not a fan of lotteries.

I understand how many people get very excited about the idea of winning the lottery. I also know that clearly some people have benefited from playing the lottery by winning big.

I don't know what it is specifically. I guess it's partially the idea that for some people the lottery is their one big hope to escape from the drudgery of their life situation. Clearly this would be true if they had a realistic chance of winning the lottery. But therein lies the first problem. The chances are well and truly stacked against you.

I saw a lady in a shop recently buying a whole load of lottery scratch cards, at least 20 of the things. She paid and didn't even leave the counter in the shop. Out came the coin and she was scratching furiously there and then.

That's mad in my view. It shifts the balance of power and influence from the person to luck. You know, the sense that by my own actions my future is doomed to end pitifully however if only I could win the lottery then everything will change.

That's the second problem. Even if you were lucky enough to defy the millions to one odds against you and win the thing, would it change everything? and would you want that?

What do people do with their winnings? Clearly some take good advice and put it somewhere safe and take time to think about it. Others don't. Some blow it all on some foolish endeavour, a street party, a fleet of cars, a helicopter. How quickly people forget why they dreamed of winning the lottery. Nobody ever bought a lottery ticket with the express view of throwing a street party. But it happens.

Winning the lottery does change everything. Above all it changes the relationships between people. The parity between friends and relatives is shattered as the lottery win changes the balance of power and wealth. Despite the best efforts of people to keep doing their day job and depite utterances that "the money won't change me" the sad fact is that it does.

There is a third issue. It's to do with the messages of those operating the lotteries. But it's not just lotteries. Those sending out the messages that everyones' lives will be improved have an obligation and a duty not to raise the hopes of ordinary people only to cruelly dash them later. I guess lottery players know through bitter experience that losing is part of playing the game.

But what about if you were suffering from HIV? What would you think if someone offered you a hope, the news that a cure had been found and that your HIV would be cured? Wouldn't that be like winning the lottery?

Imagine if that had happened.

Well it has, in Gambia, and it's a really curious and sad story. I'd love to believe that it's true but call me cynical, I just can't believe it. I think it's shocking that the hopes of millions of ordinary people have been raised by what is surely a bogus claim.

Or what about the guy in China who operated a scheme that sucked in 3 billion Yuan convincing ordinary people to "invest" in a giant ant breeding project. There is no project. The person at the top of the scheme was sentenced to death recently.

The desperate continue to be the fodder for the schemes and prognostications of those with power and influence. It's sad that the shrinking world just seems to make this easier and more lucrative.

Mr. Castro. Your Limo has arrived

No not Fidel. Elliot Castro.

Hard to believe how life sometimes turns out. Sometimes people get themselves into a hole because of a moment, a turning point in their life in which one bad decision spirals out of control through a series of reinforcing consequences. Expecting bad things to happen, instead things work out and the sense is that there may not actually be any consequences.

And time passes and the hole gets deeper and deeper. Until there really is no going back. And then you get caught.

So I've been reading today about Elliot Castro. A Scottish 24-year old man who has been living a life of deceit and fraud since he was 16 it seems. It all started with some little things, forging train tickets, getting in to night-clubs while under-age, and stuff like that. Then came a moment of truth, finding himself alone in a stranger's bedroom while at a party he spied a credit card on a table. He chose poorly.

Things then went from there, from a few petty transactions to stealing the credit card details and personal information from customers calling the callcentre where he worked.

It just went on and on.

He was caught eventually and jailed for two years I think. At his trial the police confirmed that the only item recovered from a 4 year spree of spending other peoples money was a Rolex watch. Everything else was spent mostly on business class airfares, hotel suites, limo hire, food and drink. A traceable path but nothing tangible to show for it.

It's hard to know if the guy is remorseful. He was living his dream of travel and purchasing power. Now he's in a cell. Would he be likely to go back and do a regular job?

Read about the story in The Guardian and about his sentencing in the News & Star.

He's working nowadays as a DJ hence the photo in the first link. He also has a myspace page.

I'm left with the distinct feeling that it was just too easy to do what he did. People are so trusting and others are completely remorseless about abusing that trust. The real question is whether the focus should be on making people generally less trusting, or on better policing of the kind of fraud perpetrated in cases like these.

And it all began with that credit card on the table. It could have all been so different.

Mirrored friends

I have the impression that friends tend over time to dress alike.

I was watching groups of people walking around at my local shopping centre tonight and was struck by how many pairs/groups of friends (I assume they were friends because they were shopping together and apparently happy with each others company) dress almost indentically.

Certainly the women I saw all were wearing different variations on the same theme. Same for the men. All pretty much wearing stuff along the same lines.

So why do we do that? Do we dress the same as our friends because we want to be comfortable with one another, or do we make friends with people who dress like us?

It's not an earth-shattering observation. It's just curious that for all the variety out there in terms of clothes, image and so forth that people who flock together all pretty much dress the same way.

What happened to all the rebellious dressers?

Simon Cowell vs Bruce Springsteen

Love this article on the BBC website.

It claims that Simon Cowell, yes the guy from those reality TV shows where he specialises in "straight talk" feedback to wannabe pop stars, believes himself to be grossly underpaid.

And on what is he basing this claim?

He's basing on the fact that he is responsible for greater record sales than Bruce Springsteen who happens to be signed to the same label.

The claims come from a TV programme to be aired this weekend in the US.

I especially love the line in this BBC piece..

The music producer is responsible for signing the winner of American Idol, which he called "the biggest artist on the planet".

So could it be true. Could the winner of American Idol actually be the biggest artist on the planet? On what basis?

And does Simon Cowell deserve to be paid more than Bruce Springsteen?

Well let's just say that Bruce Springsteen has been playing since 1969 and touring since the early 1970s. He's still here and deserves respect.

The winner of American Idol 2007.. well we'll have to wait and see. Previous winners and runners up have had mixed fortunes pretty much wherever these types of shows are aired on TV.

And then there are those like Springsteen that do it the old-fashioned way. They play the records, do the hard work and worry about their hair only when it's falling out.

You've got to love the marketing power of shows like these to "create" superstars with the lifespan of a firework.

Enough of the morbid posts

That's 2 posts of the morbid variety in a matter of days.

Enough of that.

In-flight conundrum

So what would you do if the person in the seat beside you died while on a flight half-way across the world?

It's hard to imagine but according to an article in today's Guardian newspaper it happens on average 10 times a year for British Airways.

The plan?

Well if someone dies on a flight they move the person to available space. In the article above the tactic chosen was to sit the person propped up in First-class.

This is one of those situations where it's hard to win on any level. Some passengers are of course understanding and practical while others are self-oriented and don't want to be impacted even slightly. Then there are the relatives or those travelling with the unfortunate person who has died. They are grief stricken and in the case cited in the Guardian, a relative was wailing for a good portion of the flight.

And nowadays the planes are often full on long-haul flights.

So what do you do?

30+ thousand feet up in the sky and we seem to have strayed a long way from our sense of human compassion and understanding. That's sad.

Granted you or your employer may have paid thousands for your first-class seat but it still doesn't preclude from having to show compassion and decency.

MS under attack from the Scobleizer

Yep. This is interesting.

Robert Scoble, over at his Scobleizer blog posted an interesting piece on March 16. In it he critiques some recent Microsoft activity, specifically some comments about Google and how Microsoft sees the competitive landscape in the future.

Mr. Scoble used to work for Microsoft and indeed it was during that time that he came to fame as a major figure in the blogosphere (if you like that term). He proved I suppose that you could work for a big corporation and operate a blog and it need not bring harm to either party.

He left some time ago, can't remember exactly when, and is generally favourable I think towards his former employer.

But this stance seems perhaps to be changing. It's interesting.

What's perhaps even more interesting is that the piece has been picked up by the London Times on their website today. So it's not just a case of Scoble's regular readers seeing the piece. It's getting pretty wide readership via The Times today.

Victory but no longer sweet

Last night Ireland's cricket team made history by causing one of the biggest upsets in the history of cricket. Ireland, a second-tier side in the world of cricket defeated Pakistan in a game at the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

Pakistan, a former world champion and currently ranked #4 in the world, was expected to brush the Irish team aside, partly because many of the Irish players are part-timers.

As it played out, Ireland dug in for a second famous result in a week and Pakistan were not only beaten but were dumped out of the world cup.

This result was not received well back in Pakistan, with stories of effigies of the players being burned in the streets and demands of the goverment to freeze the bank accounts of the players. You can take some of that stuff with a pinch of salt. It's only a game after all.

However the result was set aside with the news that the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found uncoonscious in his hotel room. He died last night aged just 58. That is a really sad end to things.

Woolmer was clearly devastated and shocked by how things had gone on the day but this news really puts the day into perspective.

A great result for Ireland yet a really sad end to what should have been a wonderful Saint Patrick's day.

I'm sure anyone reading this in Ireland would feel a great sense of condolence for Bob Woolmer and his family for what has turned out to be a really sad turn of events.

Gustatory amnesia

What do you call it when this happens?

You are in a great restaurant eating a great meal, something with a really unique and enjoyable flavour. You are struck by how the unlikely combination of ingredients actually tastes fantastic. You revel in the discovery and you endeavour to come back again and have this particular dish again.

You finish up, climb in to the car and head for home. Some 10 minutes later you are struggling to describe the taste of what you have just eaten.

I call it gustatory amnesia. I experience this from time to time. I mentioned that my wife and I would be going out for dinner now that my business school finals are done.

So we went to a wonderful restaurant near our home. I tried a bunch of stuff I would not normally have plumped for and it was amazing.

I was struck by that feeling as I was driving away from the restaurant. That was a fabulous meal but what the heck did it taste like. I know it was hot, you know spicy hot, but that's about all I can tell you.

It could be related to the way some people forget other people's names, often just moments after being introduced.

Maybe there are some mental exercises I can do to help me remember what my food tasted like.

I could always bring a little notepad and jot down some comments. That would definitely give the restaurant owner something to think about.

Fulfilling the stereotype

A couple of years back I attended a training programme at a business education centre near Milan, Italy. There was about 40 other people attending with me, with many having travelled there from various parts of Europe, The Middle East and North Africa.

There was another guy travelling with me, a Dutch colleague who was working in the same building as me at the time.

When I arrived I checked in and then went to take the lift to my bedroom. At the lift waiting was another Irish guy. He was from the same company as me but from another division. We struck up a conversation and he seemed like a decent guy.

We went to our respective rooms, and later that evening I met my Dutch colleague and we walked to a nearby restaurant for something to eat.

As things turned out, the group of 40 or so was split into two separate classes so the other Irish guy was in the other class meaning I didn't see much of him.

Over the course of the week there was a fair bit of stereotyping of Irish people. I had numerous comments from people about how I must be gasping for a Guinness, how I must be going to go completely mad drinking once the evening comes and so forth. It's not me to be honest.

And I happen to think that the stereotype of all Irish people as complete unbearable drunks is so far wide of the mark that it barely justifies comment.

The week passed and these comments declined to be fair. Then on the last evening there we all went up to a local bar, a small little bar with room for maybe 30 people. The bar was completely packed when my Dutch colleague and I arrived, packed with people from the training programme.

There was a loud raucous noise when we arrived and there was a load of shouting and drunken singing. I mean really drunken singing. I remember the look on the face of the barmen and some local villagers as we came in. The barman was out from behind the bar with a little sweeping brush and pan, sweeping up broken glass from the floor where someone had dropped their drink. There were two older guys from the local village, kind of crouched down against the edge of the bar and looking very uneasy. They left very soon after.

I edged my way along the side of the throng and made it to the back of the bar. From there I could see the source of the noise. Standing on a high stool in the middle of the horde, screaming at full volume was this other Irish guy. He was completely plastered drunk. What's worse he was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of the company (my employer) emblazoned across the front so there was no doubt about who these people worked for. Classy.

Then it all kicked off. The people in the group started shouting at me "hey you're Irish too. Get up there and sing us a song". The idiot standing on the bar stool was now demanding that I belt out a few bars of "Limerick you're a lady" or some such.

Now I was a mean singer in the school choir but I am no barstool performer. I told him to forget it. But he wouldn't let it go. In front of all these other colleagues he started to berate me publicly, calling me all sort of stuff because I wouldn't humour his drunken demand. Remember I only met this guy 4 days previously.

The abuse was then directed at the Dutch guy, believing him to also be Irish.

About 10 minutes later we both got the hell out of there.

It bothered me for a time afterwards to be portrayed earlier in the week as a de-facto Irish drunk. It's simply not true. It's a gross and inaccurate stereotype perpetuated all around the globe it seems. But then all it takes is a few idiots to disgrace themselves and the stereotype is reinforced. Psychologists would call it "information-seeking bias" and it really is.

This week the BBC published an item in which the Irish are now declared to be the worst binge drinkers in the EU.

Following that stories are starting to surface about the possible problems with the annual Saint Patrick's day parade in Dublin, with young people being implored not to drink too much. Recent parades have resulted in terrible scenes of drunkenness and disorder in the capital city.

And so it goes that the window of the world shines light on the Irish and their love of the drink. Why is it that stereotypes like this are so hard to refute? And why does the myth of all Irish as drunks have to be reinforced by the actions of a few idiots.

It's a shame.

Strategic yet punchy bass

I was watching TV on Wednesday night, flicking through the channels when lo and behold I found myself on the hour passing channel 505, QVC from the UK.

A show was just starting featuring Bose audio products. There was an excited QVC presenter on there, gushing about how exciting the next hour was going to be. Alongside him was a representative of the Bose company ready to describe the marvels laid out on the table in front of him.

There was some pretty impressive stuff on display. They had some in-ear headphones for an iPod that cost £69 (that's about €100 / $100), one of those wave radio things, a dock for your iPod, and some stylish noise cancelling headphones.

So. A table full of high-spec hi-tech gadgets and so forth. A person from Bose itching to tell all about why these are great products. So what question did the QVC guy start with?

"What's your mission statement?"

I know. Maybe the guy was reading In Search of Excellence or something like that over the weekend but that was just lame.

Who cares about the mission statement. Tell me how these things are going to make my iPod sound awesome, or allow me to listen to my favourite DVDs and hear the characters breathing. That kind of stuff.

Then again I think sometimes I tune in to QVC to witness this very kind of thing.

BBC stuff on YouTube. Hmmm

I was browsing YouTube this evening, searching for clips of The Mighty Boosh. I don't exactly know why but I find this show hilarious.

It is a strange kind of humour though.

If you search YouTube for "Mighty Boosh" you can find some entire episodes on the pages of individual users, and you can also find links to the BBC's page on YouTube.

The BBC page however only has short 2 minute (or so) clips from various episodes.

I think the idea of shows being available online directly from the owners is super smart. But it's not really progress to only have 2 minute long clips in my humble opinion.

If you have 2 minutes to spare though I could recommend looking at the "I'll put a move on you" clip. This will give you a good idea of what kind of humour this is.

The coolest jumper ever

In Ireland we have the concept of the Jumper. In other countries they have sweaters, pullovers or some other fancy term. Here in Ireland it is the jumper.

It is made of wool, sometimes good and sometimes not good such as when they mix in all kinds of other stuff to make it stretchy or resistant to Guinness stains.

There are special occasion jumpers, the most notable being the Christmas Jumper. There is a scene in the Bridget Jones film where one of the fellas is wearing a real Christmas Jumper. Clearly they have the Jumper concept in the UK too.

But still not anything to beat the Irish Jumper. Read on.

So I was in Heathrow airport a couple of weeks back, well maybe 8 or so weeks back, and there was this fella walking up and down in the departures lounge. When I saw him first I thought he was a bit locked perhaps but actually he wasn't. He just had an unusual sloping kind of walk.

Anyway what struck me about him was his Jumper. It was breath-taking.

It was bright blue. The kind of blue that you see plastic barrels made in. The kind of bright blue that just doesn't look like anything in Nature. It was royal blue only nuclear intense.

Along the front were the words "UP ROSS".

As he passed I noticed on the back there was a football pattern knitted into the back of the Jumper along with what looked like a goal, only a GAA goal. A GAA goal (some people are not going to be happy with this) looks like a cross between a football goal and a set of Rugby goalposts.

Then as he came back and walked past I noticed all down one arm of the Jumper was the word ROSCOMMON in capitals.

So from this I deduced the following. This fella was a GAA fan and was from Roscommon. Fair play to him wearing his colours with pride I say. Roscommon is a county in Ireland (map) (info) and the county colours of the GAA team are blue and yellow.

Now of course the easy thing to do would have been to go and buy a replica shirt, as pretty much everyone else does.

This guy in my view has shown real dedication. God bless the person who sat down and knitted that Jumper.

If there was a Jumper of the year award then this is without doubt the Jumper of the Year 2007. Shame I didn't have a camera.

p.s. Just saw this ad on an Irish web forum:

"does anyone hv a knitting pattern for a christmas jumper for a teenager"

Deadly.

p.p.s. I also saw this. Not sure if this is a prize winner.

Up close to heroes

I went out tonight with one of my old college friends for a coffee and chat at a hotel out near the south coast. I won't name the hotel if you don't mind.

He and I have been meeting up, on and off, for a good few years now and with the exams and everything in recent weeks I haven't seen him in a while.

Anyway, we usually go to this same hotel because it's quiet on a Sunday evening, they have good coffee and it's kind of a routine now.

So we were out there tonight, chatting about this and that and then his face lit up. What was he staring at? Well not what but who. This is who.



This is Peter Stringer, a player from the Ireland Rugby Team. He was part of the team that yesterday won the Triple Crown.

I realise at this stage that most of you reading this will have no clue about Rugby, the Triple Crown or how the heck any of this matters.

Well, in these parts where I live Rugby, specifically the Six Nations rugby tournament, is a big deal and one that many people like to follow. The tournament involves teams from 6 nations (duh) namely Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France and Italy.

So we were sitting in the hotel sipping coffee and shooting the breeze (or something like that) when this guy walked in. He was wearing his training gear or whatever it's called (rugby shirt and jogging pants) and then right after him a whole load of other Ireland players arrived, clearly looking for their dinner.

Some of these lads [1][2][3] are big. I mean 6' 8" or 125 kilos/275 pounds kind of big. This mate of mine was just flummoxed. Yep, that's right. Look it up. Flummoxed.

He was like a kid that's just met Arnold from Diff'rent Strokes and David Hasselhoff at the same time. OK, bad example.

So, I sojourned to the restroom to answer the call of nature and when I came back, smelling all Gilchrist & Soames, there he was chatting to one of the players. I didn't catch what they were chatting about, but boy was he chuffed.

It was great. He's been having a rough time of late and this little chance encounter with some of his contemporary sporting heroes really light up his week.

They all went off to dinner, we finished up and then hit the road.

It's good when life throws up these little moments.

See. Sometimes good things happen too when I leave the house. It's not all mysterious.

Time for a makeover?

Ah what the heck..

it's spring time and maybe time to shake up the look of this blog and to try something new.

For some reason I'm big on fonts and have some that I really like. Others just look crap.

So I decided to give this whole new customisable blogger thing a go.

I know that those of you on wordpress will doubtless tell me that you have been able to do this sort of stuff for ages over there but I'm not on wordpress. Yet.

So, this is how the MoM is going to look for a little while anyway. Unless someone comes to tell me that it's harming their health or something.

Oh and another thing. I took the day off work today. I always take the day after the exam off. It's a tradition now.

Everything goes digital... except memories

I have a bunch of old video footage of the boys from when they were both tiny babies. It's on 8mm video tape, recorded on my trusty Canon camcorder.

I bought this camcorder about 4 years ago when it dawned on me that babies grow up fast and that it would be nice to have some key moments on video.

I didn't go in for that whole "bring the camcorder into the labour ward for a good close up of those early moments". It's just not the norm here.

Instead there's some brilliant little clips of our oldest son when he was doing all those firsts, first word-like sounds, first steps, first smiles and so forth. All great stuff.

Now I might have mentioned before but I'm one of those people who does thorough research before buying anything powered by electricity or petrol. So I did my homework and decided on this Canon camcorder, a G2000E.

I suppose the fact that I worked as a salesperson for almost 8 years while in school and college selling this kind of stuff was also in my favour when it came to picking something out.

Anyway, the camcorder was bought and before you could say "how do I turn it on" I was away and filming. All kinds of stuff. Smiles, crying, laughing, coughing. The whole kit and caboodle.

The problem is 4 years later I have hours of footage and now I want to have it on DVD or on my computer because that's the easiest way to view it.

And it's difficult to get the analog video onto digital. OK the principle is simple, but finding the right device to convert the old films is tedious. There are piles of devices out there that supposedly do a great job of converting but my personal experience is that 90% are lousy.

So, if I'm going to convert over those old films from the camcorder I want them to look great when they are burned onto DVD.

I think I'll be asking around in case anyone has a good recommendation for a good product for this purpose.

In the meantime I'm stuck with the analog tapes on my trusty old Canon camcorder. It still works like new.

The hard part is over...

I've never been so good at taking exams so to have taken my final business school exam today feels really super.

Back in school in the eighties... yes that long ago... I was only really interested in a couple of subjects and found all the rest a real chore. But of course they had to be taken and had to be passed. And they were.

Then ditto in college (college in Ireland means third-level education such as university or technical institute). I found just about all the important subjects really tedious and really hated taking the exams.

I managed to convince myself that I'm just not good in the exam situation.

That all changed though with my business school experience. I am now in my third year of my studies and have done pretty well if I say so myself so far.

Over the course of the 3 years I've managed to convince myself that maybe the problem wasn't me. Maybe the problem was that I just didn't find the subjects engaging enough (definitely true while at university) or I just wasn't motivated and organised enough (definitely true in secondary school).

So at 12:30 today I arrived at the exam venue, calm and serene and ready for the test. At 1:15pm the invigilator uttered the immortal words "you may turn over your paper" and at 1:30 I started writing. 3 hours and one very weary right hand later and the exam ended. I handed up my paper and gathered my stuff.

It was a superb feeling to be done with that.

I'm not completely done though. I have 2 more pieces of work to complete between now and year-end, one minor and the other major. But the key point is that the part I always imagined I'd struggle with, the exams, is now complete and I've done pretty well I guess.

I'm going to take a break from the studies for a couple of weeks and will be looking to watch a few movies (Napoleon Dynamite, Walk the Line, and The Wind that Shakes the Barley are the ones lined up right now). I might even try to catch that Borat movie now that all the fuss has died down.

I'm also on the lookout for some Steely Dan for my iPod.

Ah yes, some free time and some clear thinking space lies ahead, at least for the next few weeks.
Oh and I plan to take my wife out for dinner on Saturday. She has been a rock. My incredible supporter and chief motivator, whether she knows it or not. I know she'll be reading this one of these days soon so a million million thanks for making it possible for me to push myself to complete this program.

Dinner will be good, as a first step to repaying all the hours of time granted to get the reading, writing and studying done. I guess there'll be some ironing and washing to do too :-)

Thanks to all who sent messages of support, you know who you are. I appreciate it so much to think that you are rooting for me to get this done.

Ok. Off to bed and let the weekend begin.

Byeeeee.

studying

no time to post anything.. too busy studying