ROOM 101

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webberg
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

Paul, I think you're right. I have a Blackberry that I use for work and turn off at 7pm Friday and on again Sunday evening. In that time I hope that the battery runs out as well. Perhaps I'm just a Luddite as my kids seem to be surgically attached to their phones. We joke with our eldest (17 - boy) that he feels unloved unless his phone goes off every 4 minutes!

Having your phone handy is fine. Having it in your hand and on display drives me nuts! :?

Also I hate people who encroach into my space especially in situations where there is a defined seat such as train, theatre, football stadium. I've paid for the seat and the space it commands and I don't want anybody else in it. Just this morning I was on the train and the numpty next to me kept digging me with his elbows! Eventually I got up and stood in the aisle. he gave me a few curious looks but said nothing and I hope he was bright enough to realise why I moved.

Perhaps I'm sensitive but I do like to maintain a personal space and get very uncomfortable when people stand close.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by Paul Victory »

webberg wrote:Also I hate people who encroach into my space especially in situations where there is a defined seat such as train, theatre, football stadium.
I'm with you on that one.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by Shang-Chi »

webberg wrote:Also I hate people who encroach into my space especially in situations where there is a defined seat such as train, theatre, football stadium. I've paid for the seat and the space it commands and I don't want anybody else in it. Just this morning I was on the train and the numpty next to me kept digging me with his elbows! Eventually I got up and stood in the aisle. he gave me a few curious looks but said nothing and I hope he was bright enough to realise why I moved.

Perhaps I'm sensitive but I do like to maintain a personal space and get very uncomfortable when people stand close.
Hear hear, exactly. That is why you pay. You pay for the intimacy, not for the seat. You do not take the seat with you when you get off, do you. :lol:

If somebody dug me with his elbow repeatedly I would say: Please stop that, mister! (He must have felt that he was stronger than you, and therefore in a position to bully you and get a way with it!?)

I also just hate when people choose a seat next to me if there are free elsewhere!?

To your information. In Japan the intimate sphere is an arm's length from the body! Any closer and you can push the person away. Exception Rules: 1) You are not allowed to complain when you are standing close in a train full of people. 2) If it's a very good friend!
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by plummy »

All Rom-Coms - bleurgh!

Edit - apart from Love Actually which I really like
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by Paul Victory »

Paul Victory wrote:
webberg wrote:Also I hate people who encroach into my space especially in situations where there is a defined seat such as train, theatre, football stadium.
I'm with you on that one.
Funny this came up. I was at a seminar last Tuesday evening and I sat in the front row, which was nearly empty. Someone was in the 1st seat, I sat in the 3rd seat and someone else in the 5th seat. After the talk started, some eejit came along and sat in the 2nd seat and proceeded to dig his elbow in my direction for the entire seminar. I woudln't mind so much if there hadn't been so many spare seats further down the row.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

Interesting study done on personal space. Generally for men this is about an arm's length. For women it's around half an arm's length.

Anybody inside that space has to be trusted and if we don't trust them the synapses in your brain are preparing you for flight or fight.

Different cultures though have different distances. Northern europeans tend to be as above. Southern Europeans have a much tighter space as "theirs" and so don't worry about being encroached upon.

Asian and Far Eastern societies are also much less bothered about personal space and perversely think that if you stand too far away, you are being rude and offensive.

I used to teach a negotiation course and one of the techniques we used in order to unsettle an aggressive character would be to move closer and closer to him/her until you were encroaching into the personal space. It's amazing how unsettling that it.

Equally we would sometimes get people to move away (physically or metaphorically) in order to draw people into a "circle of trust" and this would help the communication process.

I'm fascinated by this sort of thing as an observer but hopeless at dealing with it when practised on me. :D
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by Gregor Andrews »

The personal space one would definitely be top of my list. Especially here in Spain when walking along the pavement and the oncoming pedestrian refuses to move into 'their half' of the pavement. Aaarghh. Makes my blood boil.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by hewitt »

I want to ban Steve Kean from the face of the earth if possible.The man is clearly insane. :roll:
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

Just spent a frustrating hour on the phone with an insurance comapny (shall remain nameless) and the idiot man kept saying,

"As I was saying to yourself.."

The word is YOU.

Even after I corrected him and asked him to stop he carried on. :oops:

By the way Jason, my colleague here who is the other Blackburn fan, has some very stringent comments to make about Mr Kean.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

And I would include here all and every website that says

"Sign up here for your free ticket to paradise"

which you try, in a misguided moment, to do only to find that you have to register.

Is it me or does anybody else have issues about sending personal information into the ether where anybody can access it.

I also object to a company selling books (who shall remain nameless but have the initials of Amazon) who then pass on your information to "selected" business partners. Those selected partners then send me irrelevant crap for several months and will not allow you to leave their sticky embrace.

This shoudl be reversed. If a company wants to send me information, they should ask my permission and respect my request to leave me alone! #-o
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

And also...

What's the obsession with Facebook and other "social media".

We were out for dinner on Saturday with some friends of roughly the same age (I'd like to say mid 20's but actually about 30 years beyond that).

They all (7 of them) had to "check in " on Facebook that they were in a restaurant (who cares) and that they were with other people (I got some very odd looks when I asked that I was not named) and then they spent every 5 minutes checking whether their Facebook friends had left a comment.

Absolutely pathetic.

Personally I do not necessarily want life shared on the net and certainly don't need to tell everybody where I am and what I'm doing.

Get a life people!

When I mentioned this later in the meal (drink had been taken which had robbed me of my usual tact but unfortunately not the irritation) I was told that "social interaction" was important. I agree, but I argued that interacting with a bunch of people represented by a few typed words, at the the expense of somebody sitting next to you rather defeated that argument.

Anyway, it's not social interaction, it's sitting at a table, typing.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

And also..

Those of you who have seen previous posts are aware that I'm not a fan of the monarchy.

It's nothing personal and I certainly do not wish any harm on the current crop of unfortunates who have positions in the corporation known as the royal family, but I do have very strong feelings about rank and privilege that is an accident of birth rather than earned.

(As somebody once said to me, the fact that somebody's ancestors were better sheep stealer than mone should not give them any advantage).

Consequently the hype around the "celebrations" on the BBC in particular is doing my head in. Whilst I suspect that the majority of the population in the UK is at least a passive supporter of the monarchy, we don't need the comings and goings of a privileged and pampered few to be the subject of massive expenditure and hype. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is really meant to reinforce the appeal to non UK visitors and is simply the latest expression of the massive and very competent PR machine behind the royal family to secure their position.

And no I don't beleive most of the sound bites put out by the PR machine and repeated without thought by "supporters".

For example, I think that "working hard" as the current incumbent at the head of the family is regularly reported as doing, should mean more than 3 days a week for 5 months of the year.

If I suggested to my boss that this was the benchmark to be measured against I suspect a P45 would be on its way.

Tin hat now on - fire away
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by plummy »

Not going to argue with much of that Webberg. I agree about the history of the monarchy - somebody picked a fight and won a few hundred years ago and suddenly they are a lord with hundreds of acres of land. That then enabled them to use the local plebites as slave labour to enrich themselves even further at the expense of human rights and dignity etc. Carry that forward to present day and you have something so entrenched it can't be "untrenched". Having said all that, they are very very useful for tourism and a extra days holiday now and again.

Re mobile phones - hey drive me insane. I went to a wedding reception on Saturday and watched 6 young adults sat round a table. None were talking to each other, they were all either txting, surfing the internet or at best grasping their phone like it was a source of oxygen - get a life!? - absolutely!!!

I am now at my wits end over the perpetual, endless, merciless over-use of the word "fantastic". I now count how many times it is used as the "one size fits all" adjective to describe anything from moderately good to great in a sports or BBC live program. 7~10 times in 30 minutes is not uncommon and if I play the "how long will it take before I hear it game" I will regularly get to as little as 2~3 words once I have selected a new channel. FFS - TV people - get a bloody dictionary or a thesaurus
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by Peter_S »

webberg wrote: Those of you who have seen previous posts are aware that I'm not a fan of the monarchy.
You might change your mind if you get to know them better. Maybe you should friend the royal family on facebook :lol:

At least that's what I think they call it. I never have used it. I am not medially social :roll:

And to go on, why would people spend all that money to get front row seats at sporting events, and then spend the entire time on their phones? :shock:

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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

Because for them it's about being seen rather than watching.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by JonathanA »

plummy wrote:I am now at my wits end over the perpetual, endless, merciless over-use of the word "fantastic".
I'm with you here Dave, but for me the word is iconic. Overuse, incorrect use, unjustified use.

And...

Why do people insist on video recording at gigs using their mobile phones:

1. The picture quality will be rubbish
2. The sound quality will be even more rubbish
3. Technically it is illegal
4. Pity the person behind you who has paid £50 for a ticket and ends up watching the concert on your 5" screen because they can't see round your arms.
5. Chances are there will be DVD in due course that you'll be able to pick up for a few quid.

Please...
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by plummy »

Kirsty Allsop (UK TV "presenter") and her ridiculous over excitement at anything to do with crafts and crafting. I've got no problem with the arts and crafts trade but for Pete's sake calm down dear.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by paulgould »

The abysmal BBC rugby reporting team(excluding Eddie Butler) - starting with the front-line presenters like John "Look Mum I'm on TV" Inverdale and Gabby Logan who seems to think that if you ask the same stupid question twice it becomes less stupid.
The 2 co-hosts/experts were both ex-Ireland players - why not have one from each of the competing camps, like on Sky Sports?
As for the idiot co-commentating with Butler on yesterday's Ireland vs SA game - he must have said about fifteen times "South Africa are there for the taking" and little else.

However, it could have been worse - it could have been Clare Balding in charge, as it has been on previous occasions.

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Re: ROOM 101

Post by webberg »

Why do people wander along on pavements v..e..r..y .... s....l....o....w....l....y reading/typing texts or otherwise playing silly buggers on their phone!

Show some consideration and step out of the way of people with more important things to do!
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by plummy »

Anyone crossing the road whilst texting (ESPECIALLY if pushing a kids buggy/pram) should be fined for jay walking - it'd soon pay off the national debt.
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by JonathanA »

paulgould wrote:As for the idiot co-commentating with Butler on yesterday's Ireland vs SA game - he must have said about fifteen times "South Africa are there for the taking" and little else.
But it was true. At least it was true in the first half. :lol:
paulgould wrote:The 2 co-hosts/experts were both ex-Ireland players - why not have one from each of the competing camps, like on Sky Sports?
True, and what's more they both made the same [overly optimistic] prediction. :roll: Where was Francois?
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Re: ROOM 101

Post by plummy »

That bloody inane slow then accelerating hand clapping EVERY ****ing time a tennis player challenges a call - just WHAT exactly is the point of it. One starts and every has to follow........it's STAGGERINGLY annoying #-o
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