ArchivesBy Author: Phil
Farewell UCB
Another contract completed and it’s time to move on again. I’ll miss the team and the interesting work but not the pre-dawn commute to beat the traffic. 
Feels a bit weird to be largely unemployed again…the last 2-3 contracts have been largely back-to-back and have all been pretty busy, so I’ve not had a lot of time to focus on other things. It’s going to take a couple of days to get into another groove.
Ah well, on we go…
+13My South Park Character
Courtesy of one of my work colleagues at UCB-Celltech in Slough, is my very own South Park Character (the whole team has one).
It’s been reworked with Su’s help (she thinks that I’ve downplayed the grumpiness element of my character, but it’s my character and I can have what I want! 
)
+13Reciprocity on Republicans
A few days back, a particularly dim Republican God-botherer called the “Rev.” James Dobson (interestingly, an anagram of his name is:”Demon Ass Job” ) asked his so-called “Christian” parish to pray that torrential rain would disrupt Obama’s acceptance speech, at the Democratic convention in Denver.
But it seems that the Lord got a mite pissed off with that request.
+22Remembrance
August the 20th is always a tough day. It’s the anniversary of my brother’s death and I always phone home. It’s hard to hear your mum cry from 7,000 miles away and not be able to give her a hug.
David McKenzie (1968-1994)
David was born in October 1968 with Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines and of course has a major effect on virtually every aspect of it’s victim’s life. At the time, there wasn’t a lot known about this disease even by doctors and he was mis-diagnosed for the first two years of his life as suffering from colds, flu, suppressed immune system, asthma and God knows what else, before a canny GP referred my worried parents to a consulting professor at Auckland Hospital, who was delving into CF and recognized the symptoms.
+70Olympics
Anyone who knows me will tell you that in general I couldn’t care less about the Olympics.
While I can appreciate the commitment and self sacrifice that individual participants make in order to be the best they can be (and if at all possible, the best in the world), I loathe the inevitable dirty politics, shady dealings and backhanders that are now so interwoven into the whole spectacle, that they’ve actually become part of the fabric.
When was the last time we had an Olympic games not marred by drugs scandals, huge cost over-runs, civil right clamp-downs, forced relocations or environmental issues?
+15Employee Benefits on a new scale.
Judging by today’s police raid on a cannabis factory in Nottinghamshire, the union of illegal drug producers has scored some major concessions recently.
The ex-chicken factory apparently had separate rooms for staff quarters – each with their own flat screen TV. There was even a fully equipped gym!
All they needed was a profit-sharing scheme, a couple of team building junkets and an annual BBQ (complete with bouncy castle for the kids) and they would have been the envy of downtrodden workers throughout the country!
Maybe I need to negotiate extra benefits when my contract comes up for renewal.
+16British businesses (specialising in being naff)
Yesterday, I had a light-hearted dig at a number of American chainstore franchises, which I think are pretty naff. A possibly-American reader, identifying himself only as “Dave”, took slight exception to this and pointed out that on this side of the pond, we aren’t much better.
While Dave seems to have missed the joke (that Australians occasionally have surprisingly good taste – honestly, it’s no fun if you have to *explain* it!) he’s absolutely right.
+19