Category Archives: wtf?

it’s for girls!

11 Monday Apr 2011

Posted by in fitness, health & happiness, wtf?

≈ 10 Comments

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Sled, you’re going to love this one.

My gym has recently opened this new workout room For Women Only, which opens off the shower & changing room. Goodness knows what it was before – storage? nothing? This photo shows about 2/3 of the room – there are three other machines to the left. Apparently users of this facility will be given a half-hour routine which will focus on weight loss and getting in shape (so what are the other two floors of machines for?) and, of course, there will be no big smelly men around. Oh, and it’ll cost an extra 5 euros a month.

Current female members can try out this new facility free of charge until May, so I went upstairs this morning to check it out. It was not only small – and purple and pink! – but it also didn’t have most of the machines I use. I couldn’t imagine it being comfortable when full, which would be about six people. So it looks like I’ll be saving that 5 euros a month.

graffiti

10 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by in art, culture, wtf?

≈ 15 Comments

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What do you think of graffiti?

In general it just looks like vandalism to me. Okay, every once in a blue moon you get a Haring, Basquiat or Banksy, but you know… hardly ever. Mostly it’s crappy blobby spray-painted messes that only serve to make neighbourhoods look shabby.

I guess when a building is abandoned, like the one in the before & after pics on the left, and its windows have already been covered over with layers of tacky posters, it’s not any worse to have a couple of guys from a local gallery come and paint that over with their website logo. But many shop and restaurant owners would have to repaint their properties on a weekly basis just to have clean walls for a day or two.

So I was surprised to come across Alexandra Del Bene the other day while on my way home from a walk around the Alameda. She was busy with spray cans and paint brushes painting the window protectors of the Santa Marta Bar (home of Sevilla’s largest flamenquín!), but it looked to me as if she were doing a job and not just a hit and run burst of “artistic expression”, so I stopped and asked if she’d been commissioned to paint the Santa Marta. Turns out that a lot of people have been commissioning her to paint their storefronts so that they won’t get vandalised by roving so-called “graffiti artists”, who curiously don’t vandalise Alexandra’s stuff. I guess it’s a sort of professional courtesy?

Alexandra showed me her business cards, which are decorated with pics of her various projects, and it turned out that one – a candy store – was just around the corner, so I also got a snap of that one. Anyhow, we had a nice long chat and it struck me how much more interesting life is when you stop and talk to people instead of just walking by.

more stupid movistar crap

02 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in home, internet, work, wtf?

≈ 14 Comments

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So remember how I moved house and was told – hey no problem – that my internet and tv service would be transferred in less than two weeks? Yeah right. It took almost four weeks, and even after that the “technico” had to come back a couple of times to sort out the television service.

Meanwhile, I have been on the market to upgrade my lovely iPhone to the latest model… which I almost got to do last Christmas except Movistar fucked that one up, as their “offer” closed before there was any stock available in their stores. And so I was happy to find that in my friendly neighbourhood Vodafone shop they took down my name on a waiting list and called me just a few days later to say they had an iPhone4 for me, all I needed to do was stop by and sign the papers to transfer my custom over to Vodafone.

And now comes the icky part…
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*?”@#! movistar

17 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in home, internet, work, wtf?

≈ 20 Comments

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I’m going crazy with this.

On the morning of January 25th, the day after signing the contract on my new apartment, I called Movistar to arrange a transfer of service, including landline, internet and television (Imagenio). I know I did this because I have proof – the reference number they gave me (11193S). Since then it’s been a bloody nightmare and I’ve lost not only valuable work time but also HOURS of my life calling and calling these people to get them to keep their word. Which was… that at most the transfer would take two weeks because it included the television service. We are now going on week four and, while they did finally come a week ago today to install the internet, I am still without any television service. And I am furious at the way I’ve been treated.

So I got on Twitter and the people handling the Movistar tweets there have assured me that my order has been prioritised – the order I was told this morning didn’t exist (!!!) – and that my service should be installed today. Well, it’s going on 3.00pm and I still haven’t heard from anybody.

Meanwhile, my ISP has weirdly blocked one website. I cannot access it from either computer at home, either using the router or my iPhone as a modem. But everyone else can access it, and I had no problem when I tried the computers at the gym the other day. So clearly an ISP problem. But after more than half an hour on the phone today talking to this and that technician I was put on hold yet again… and then my call was disconnected!! And nobody has called me back.

I am borderline hysterical thinking about this. The screw up with the transfer of my phone line, internet and tv service is compounded by the shitty way I am being treated every time I call them. And now for two weeks I haven’t been able to access a website that I am supposed to be working on. There is a glimmer of hope that the twitter connection is going to come through, but time is already running out on today…

facebook panic button

13 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by in internet, websites, wtf?

≈ 19 Comments

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This morning someone on Twitter commented on this BBC article: Facebook Urged To Add Panic Button, asking people if they thought it would be effective. And there was some discussion about education being more effective than just “yelling panic”. Though apparently other panic buttons (unfortunate name) take people to a site “that details how to handle cyberbullying, hacking, viruses, distressing material and inappropriate sexual behaviour“, which sounds quite educational to me.

First of all, I was very surprised to find out that Facebook has no means of directly reporting offensive or inappropriate material. As the world’s largest “chat room” this seems irresponsible in the extreme. Every other forum or MU site I visit has a complaints button so why not Facebook? And while education is crucial, I think that a clear and easy way of contacting the people running a public site like this should be required “basic equipment”. There is a “report/block this person” link on the left-hand side of the page, but I think this just stops someone from viewing your own page. According to the article there is no actual means of reporting specific complaints to Facebook.

What are your thoughts on this?

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