Working hard or hardly working

The other day when I was at work I was at my computer cruising around facebook and reading news articles about football. Basically wasting time.
Moments earlier I had made the decision that I wouldn't be doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

As my luck would have it though my boss decided to walk past me literally two minutes after I made my decision to stop working.
He could see clear as day that I was on Facebook.

Instead of confronting the situation head on and confessing my plan to kill time for the rest of the afternoon regardless of what he thought, I quickly closed the window down and opened up some actual work to make myself appear busy.

This was a shameful attempt on my behalf. But it was easier to pretend as if I was actually working, rather than apologise for not.

I reminded myself of a fat kid on cross country day at school. One who would sprint away from the pack when the starters gun went off, then as soon as he turned the corner and was away from the eyes of the crowd would slow down to a walking pace.

He'd then continue at this speed for the remainder of the course until he came to the home stretch again where everyone would be able to see him. At this point the cunning fat boy would resume his sprint to the finish line and give off the illusion that he had just gone around a 3km cross country circuit at full speed, and hence, was trying really hard the whole time.

He doesn't fool anyone though. He's come dead last by some margin and it's obvious to everyone watching the race what the fat boy has done. He thinks he made it seem like he was putting in maximum effort the whole time when infact the little porker spent 95% of his time walking in a running race.

You see, it's easier for the fat boy to sprint away in front of people and then rest when they're not looking as opposed to starting and finishing the course at a steady pace.
He's going to come last regardless of the way he approaches the race, but sprinting in front of the crowd leaves him with some dignity still in tact.

Now the interesting bit in the story for me is that both myself and my boss are the metaphorical fat boys in a cross country race when we're at work.

He'd caught me not working, but instead of confessing to that I just opened up some work and unconvincingly gave off the impression that I was doing my job.
It was easier for me to pretend to work while he was watching, just as it's easier for the fat boy to run in the race while people are watching.

It's the explanation of our actions that people aren't bothered doing.

Now the bit that makes my boss the fat boy too is that he had without a doubt seen me screwing around on the internet and could have punished me or had words if he'd wanted.

But he's just as lazy as I am. So instead of saying "Back to work Brad", or "Don't let me catch you doing that again" he just stared at me.

Then what happened next was almost telepathic between the two of us. We stared at each other for a moment as if to mentally say "Let's both pretend this never happened."

I wasn't bothered apologising, or even appearing remorseful, and he wasn't bothered appearing to care that I don't do my job properly as he doesn't do his any better.

He then walked away and I carried on bludging for the remainder of the day as I imagine he did too.

We'd reached a mutual understanding without even having to exchange words and if I'm not mistaken this saga should make for a much happier working environment when I return from my holidays.

Lazy Song Writers.

What's going on with the music industry at the moment?

Every year there will be a minimum of 5 christmas themed movies that come out in the festive season, and any semi decent T.V show will have atleast one episode dedicated to the Christmas period aswell. The music industry though, they've decided to rest on their laurels. They had a couple hits with 'Jingle Bells' and 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' so now they think the public won't want anything new.

It's been years since a memorable christmas tune has come out, yet none of the song writers out there seem to be bothered by this.
As far as the music industry is concerned it's perfectly acceptable to rattle off a handful of classics early on and then just retire, give up and think, "you know what, they've got 7 or 8 songs now, that'll do.... How many more could they want?".

Well I'm glad you asked music industry, because the answer is lots more. The movie makers in Hollywood didn't stop after Tim Allen rocked the silver screen in 'Santa Clause' so there's no reason for you to think that we will all be happy singing 'The Little Drummer Boy' and 'Frosty the Snowman' for the rest of our lives.

All these carolers and child choirs our their that I see spreading Christmas joy have a pained looked on their face. And it's not one of embarassment at the fact they are singing in public places, often poorly. No, they are sad because year after year they have to sing the same old worn out songs. They're crying out for a new song. Perhaps one about Rudolphs long lost cousin Rupert, who has really sensitive hearing, or 2 red noses that are twice as bright as the one of Rudolph.

See that, I've just come up with a knock out idea for a song on the spot. It wasn't hard to do, I was just willing to put in the effort. All it needs now is for a songwriter to add the lyrics, tune and melody before it's a classic.

I call on others to follow my example of impulse thinking so many many more great christmas carols can be born this year. We all deserve them.

When you hear your kids singing about 'Rupert the two red nosed Reindeer with ultra sensitive hearing' you'll know who to thank, so for that my Christmas loving friends, you're welcome.

Merry Christmas :)!!!