Conrad Is Officially A Terrible Person

But We Knew That Already, Didn't we?
Normally I enjoy a bit of delicious schadenfreude when reading the Comments section over on the BBC's sports pages, where fans of the ballfoot game shriek abuse at each other.  O how they shriek!
     However, of late I have been enjoying a different kind of guilty pleasure; that of reading stories of revenge on Youtube under the "Reddit" tag.  Art?

The Reddit logo.  No,I have no idea why it has a crank-handle sticking out of it's head

     There are too many to list or go into details about, but one does get the sense that walking out of a job and straight into another one is pretty easy over in South Canada.  Also, managers who expect a single employee to do the jobs of at least three other people, in addition to their own role, are setting themselves up for a fall.
     Okay then, one example.  The teller was an IT systems engineer, who normally had a ninety-minute commute around the region he was responsible for - we here in This Sceptred Isle frequently forget just how freaking enormous South Canada really is - 

This kinda thing

     Then the neighbouring region's engineer left, so he was expected to pick that work up, too, which meant a four-hour commute rather than an hour and a half.  Bummer!  He then had a big project for a client in this neighbouring region and, rather than spend 8 hours per day travelling, he requested his company put him up at a local hotel.  They refused.  This is typical idiot management, trying to avoid spending money in the short-term.
     Well, our narrator got stuck in traffic for four hours after a major multiple-vehicle pile up on the <ahem> interstate (South Canadian jargon for a motorway), and when he reached the work site, the client tore into him for being late.
     "Fine.  I quit," he told head office.
     Cue panic at head office, because the narrator had written all the instructions for the system he was setting up, and he took these with him.  His manager had to drive out to the site, and then proceeded to make such a bodge of the job that the client sacked them and went with another IT company.
     So, for the want of a couple hundred "bucks" (as I believe is the South Canadian term for money) they blew a contract worth hundreds of thousands.

This would apply to those managers ...

     There's a lot more than this, and why, you may get to hear some others that are especially hilarious or humiliating.
     What ho, motley!  Shall we sit on the sofa and binge on Netflix?

Back To "The Battle Of Britain" By James Holland
Perhaps that ought to be James "One-Man Publishing Industry" Holland.  He does like to write looooong works, does Ol' Jim. TBOB is about two inches thick in paperback, which is about par for his standard works.  Also, I have to be careful about putting it up as an acronym, because of that execrable rubbish in cinematic form "The Battle Of The Bulge", so don't go confusing them, right?  Art!

Dunno why they quote that hack Hastings

     One thing Jim does is look at the other side of the hill, in that he has detailed descriptions of the Teuton aircrew and pilots and what their experience was.  Not good, you could say.  They were operating non-stop from day one, and the only way they stopped flying was if they were dead, or a prisoner.  It's hard to credit but the Luftwaffe didn't rotate pilots or aircrew out of action as did the RAF; this inevitably led to fatigue and exhaustion, and it's a moot point how many of the Luftwaffe's losses were down to those factors.  Because their intelligence about the RAF was mostly smoke and mirrors, it was always a case of "just one last big push", from June until October, suffering an attrition rate that was unsustainable in the long term.  By the autumn the losses of experienced aircrew and pilots was so bad that Staffels were being filled with utter novices, who didn't get the chance to be eased-in to combat and who thus didn't last very long.
     Interesting stuff!

Ooops.

The Last One*
After yesterday's Grand Carousel, we now have the very last of the list from Den Of Geek about really challenging Lego kits:  the Death Star.  Art?

There you go.

     As you can see, this version is the Mk. II, meaning an extra level of detail thanks to it not being completed: if it were then all you'd need would be a skeletal support for the exterior panels.  This hot puppy has 3,449 pieces.

     And it can be yours for only £550.00.  Second hand.  And nearly all the pieces are the same shade of grey, which is probably not good for either your eyesight or sanity.  Of course, given that you might be stuck indoors for another three months, an excellent gift for those with entirely too much time on their hands.
More Cliche Book Covers
We've already covered the Brooding Thriller and Heavy Literary Attempt, so now let us look at what the Beeb's citric sense of humour has fixed upon when it comes to Fantasy novels.  Art?

I wonder, who could they possibly be making fun of here?

     As they say, a sword is one of the go-to, if not downright stereotypical, images for fantasy novels, alongside dragons or washing machines shields.  And they prove it by showing three novels with just that title design, which, if Art will put down his plate of coke -

Proof.

   
Finally - 
After posting this I shall stroll down into Royton and see what the greedy and the selfish have left upon the shelves at the Co-Op.  Let me guess: no potatoes, no onions, no rice, no pasta, no mince, no bread, no eggs.  I would be quite happy to be proven wrong but it seems nobody is taking a blind bit of notice when the Odious Bodger begs people not to panic buy.  Hom. Sap. - you're going to get a nasty surprise when I take over.  O yes indeed.



*  No cheering!