Douche bag drivers

Apologies for the lack of posts things have got a bit crazy at work.

I was inspired this morning to write a post on douchebag drivers which most likely will be a recurring theme. They invade our roads, make us cringe and can cause some serious physical and emotional harm. This article will focus on vehicle choice. Today's edition is the choice of vehicle.

1. Petrol guzzlers: I hate cars that have stupidly low fuel efficiency. If you have a feasible purpose for a monster truck that's fine, but if it's to inflate your ego rethink what you are really doing to your image. Do you really want to come across as the type who's happy to contribute to the degradation of our planet? This morning I saw one of these monster truck ute abominations with a sticker "Diesel powered petrol guzzler". It's bad enough they drive such an inefficient car, but to be so brazen to acknowledge their abuse of the environment. Hopefully mother nature delivers some sweet karma by dropping a nice big branch on it.

2. Modifications: Modifications have their place however they should be done tastefully and within reason. Call me old fashion but I think people are better off spending their money on a safer and more reliable car than sinking money into something that will very likely depreciate the value of a car. It particularly irritates me when people spend way more than their car is worth. At the end of the day the amount spent won't be retrievable and will probably reduce you're ability to sell the car later on, all it really says about you is that you make poor investment decisions. Point in case below, no matter how much was spend on the below car you can't escape the fact it's an excel:

3. Luxury cars: Again these have their place but as their title suggests they are a luxury item and should only be purchased if it is within a persons means. It sickens me the sense of entitlement some people have to expensive cars and take ridiculous loans that they can't afford on something that will depreciate significantly in value. Like the girl I saw on some reliable current affair program who was already heavily in credit card debt but managed to get a BMW financed. Don't get me wrong car loans have their place, they simply shouldn't compromise someones ability to lead a stress free life (although said girl wasn't stressed she had a fool proof plan of meeting a man to fund her lifestyle). It almost highlights you're not quite "there" yet....having to give up your car is a bit of an anti-status symbol. On a positive note thanks to Japanese ingenuity we have nice cars at much more realistic prices for the common people :D

How the Japanese do things better: breath mints

If you have a piece of gum or breath mint it's generally polite to offer one to who ever you're with.

With gum this is easy enough but mints are a different story....in Australia at least. Thanks to the standard mint container opening size it's difficult to tip one out without getting more than you bargained for. The other alternative is more awkward as it involves touching multiple mints leaving the question who takes the mint from the container? The person who will eat it? Or the person who has to eat the rest of the mints?

I hate the packaging for a number of other reasons:
- Mints tend to rattle around in the container making an annoying noise
- The dimensions just aren't convenient
- The metal container seems like it could be used for something else which makes you not want to throw it out.

On a recent trip to Japan I discovered a solution to this problem: Mintia. It's awesome slim line design slips effortlessly into your bag or pocket, with the tiny mint size meaning you can still carry 50 mints. The size of the mints vs. the size of the container, coupled with the fact it's made of plastic, means no annoying rattle. Best of all is the dispenser that offers you the solitary mint you need. They also have great names like "dry hard" and "wild and cool", with alternative flavours such as grape (warning grape is addictive - I ate a packet in a few hours), orange and calpis soda. There's even a wide variety of covers available for the more image conscious.

Some may call this anal, I call this appreciating good design. If you're not convinced just refer to the image below. On the left we have the beautiful slimline Mintia packet politely offering you a mint, on the right the ugly step sister eclipse. Enough said.

Umbrellas: Weapons of Mass Hinderence

Wet weather gets us all. It is the bringer of life and the destroyer of stress-free commuting. Umbrellas are a necessary evil, unless you want to wear a poncho and be open to ridicule from your friends, which require a level of self-awareness when operating one.

To the naked eye, umbrellas are harmless and easy to operate. However there are some inept people who manage to turn umbrellas into weapons of mass destruction due to a lack of care and social awareness, just itching to take out an eye where possible. Yours truly happens to be slightly above average height and during wet weather, the footpath becomes a battle field with extreme vigilance required to ensure I can continue to see clearly out of both eyes.

Self-awareness is a trait that isn't bestowed in people but it can be learned. When walking in the rain with an umbrella, remember to keep aware of who is around you and move when appropriate. I'll cut you a deal; keep your umbrella out of my face and I won't need to send your umbrella flying!

Scary trend: how to look out for your loved ones in hospital

Before commencing this blog I would like to acknowledge that nurses have a difficult job, and are often stretched beyond capacity. The story I'm going to share with you is a result of a system failing rather than an issue with specific individuals.

It is rather personal and therefore hard to write about, however I think it's really important as many people learn from our experience as possible so they can look out for the well being of any loved ones, particularly the elderly, that may end up in hospital.

The back story is that my Grandfather was admitted to hospital just over three weeks ago. I was visiting with my mother when we noticed he wasn't in good shape and needed medical attention. After a trip in an ambulance and  four hour wait in emergency while they stablised him there was nothing more we could do we went home and returned the next day and noticed that he wasn't able to eat or drink anything. Disappointingly it doesn't seem to routine to make sure a patient is getting enough fluid or nutrients and he'd gone a whole day without anything to eat or drink. After we raised concerns he was moved onto thickened fluids and blended foods which seemed to go down well at first. His initial diagnosis was a chest infection, which was treated with IV antibiotics, and congestive heart failure which was hoped to resolve once the chest infection was cleared.

He was making good progress and was transferred to another hospital and was moved from IV antibiotics to oral antibiotics. It was at this point he started to decline again with his chest infection returning and rapid weight loss. Its believed at this point he's had a series of mini strokes affecting his ability to swallow. To our horror we discovered he hadn't been able to swallow his antibiotics and couldn't take any food or fluids in any form. Rather than taking action to get him back onto IV antibiotics he'd been marked as refusing to take them leaving him open for the infection to return.

After talking to the doctor my mum has organised to have him on IV fluids and antibiotics which have perked him up again. He is due to have a feeder tube into his stomach which should get him the nutrients he so desperately needs to recover.

It really scares me that if he didn't have family checking on him regularly there's a good chance he could have died from dehydration or starvation. A number of conversations with medical staff throughout his stay have implied we should let nature take its course rather than doing everything possible to save him because of his age. When my Grandad says he doesn't want to fall asleep because he's worried he'll stop breathing I don't see that as any indication he wants to give up the fight, so neither should we.

Apparently this scenario is scarily common. It breaks my heart to think how many elderly people have been let go simply because there was no one there to fight for them to get the right basic care they need. It seems like a very cruel form of enforced euthanasia. While I am in full support of euthanasia, whenever someone decides they don't want to suffer anymore they should be able to elect to go under their terms. If someone wants to keep fighting and living they should be given every chance society can afford them.

Fridge rules: almost finished food/drinks

One of my pet hates is a useless amount of something left in the fridge. Today's example is soft drink shown in figure a. I just don't understand the frequency of such useless amounts being left behind. It's such a let down after seeing the bottle and thinking yay lemonade only to be left unsatisfied as a mouthful just doesn't cut it. Compounding the irritation of the almost empty container taking up all that space. A tidy fridge is a happy fridge.

Resolution: if you're pouring a drink and there's a trivial amount left just drink a bit then empty the bottle into your cup. Use your logic with left over food. You may just save someone close to you feeling bitterly disappointed. If you are on the receiving end have an adult conversation about it. Failing that tipping soft drink on their head will get the message across.

Figure a

Social media advice: Vaguebooking

Social media advice: Vaguebooking

The gist of it
Many of you will agree how frustrating it is when someone posts something really vague on Facebook:

Example a:
Vaguebooker: sigh today just couldn't get any worse

1. Enabler: :( that sucks you deserve so much better
2. KindOfCares: what's wrong??!?!?
3. Vaguebooker: "oh you know just one of those days. It's a bit difficult to explain
4. OneUp: Yeah it sucks my goldfish died cause I sat on it :(
5. Troll: I just found a video of you....

Example b:

Vaguebooker: Arrrrghh some people XD

1. Enabler: I hope whoever has wronged you rots in hell
2. KindOfCares: who has upset you?
3. Vaguebooker: Just some people really let you down :(
4. OneUp: yeah I know tell me about it. Like today this lady told me I couldn't put my handbag on the train seat. I mean seriously doesn't she know Gucci when she sees it?
5. Troll: I didn't know it was talk like a pirate day?

Example c:

Vaguebooker: so much for my life plans

1. Enabler: i hope u find them again
2. KindOfCares: what's happened? did you loose your job?
3. Vaguebooker: Just some people really let you down :(
4. OneUp: OMG TELLL ME ABOUT IT!!! So I thought I got this new job so I brought myself these sweet ride and then I realised I read the letter wrong. IM SO SILLY :D
5. Troll: I didn't know you had any

What it really means

I have a theory that these kinds of posts are targeted a specific person or small group of people.

If you ever find yourself wanting to go there step back and ask yourself do you really want to be that person? Try talking to a good friend about whatever is bothering you instead. Get their advice and remember real friends don't let friends vaguebook. If this doesn't do it for you try talking to whoever you have the issue with and resolve the issue once and for all. Failing that and you REALLY have to vague book make a custom list of just the people you want to see it. That way no one else will think you're lame :)

Some more specific examples of motivators with advice:

• Your "Good" friends are out on the town without you
• Advice: Perhaps if you stopped being whiny and a proactive friend people will want to invite you places. You have to earn being in someone inner circle, if you've tried and it hasn't worked move on to people who are worth your time. 
• You got rejected  dumped by some guy/girl
• Advice: What do you seriously think will happen here? They'll turn around and realise in fact you're their dream partner because you complain on FaceBook? More than likely they'll breath a sigh of relief knowing they've dodged a whole host of vaugebooks about them. Suck it up princess and move on.
• You were stood up
• Advice: Just reschedule like nothing happened and say you have a present for them! Don't show up and they'll have the gift of knowing being stood up sucks. And you're smarter than them.
• Your ex is parading their new partner around
• Advice: Chances are they have moved on won't even notice you're upset because they're too pre-occupied getting busy with their new biatch. Cut your loses and move on.  Don't whatever you do hire yourself a good looking escort and share your selfie's with the world with a few good "we're so hot", "best couple everrr" or "we're so awesome" comments thrown in for good measure. Your ex probably still won't care and it will get expensive keeping up the act.
• You had a bad day at work and want your boss to feel bad
• Advice: You get paid to be at work so it's expected that it will be hard from time to time. If you have a genuine issue with work speak to your manager about it. Either that or send them something random in the post like some socks. The ensuing drama of deducing where it came from will keep you amused for hours.

Public transport advice: Pole edition.

Public transport advice: Pole edition.

As a frequent user of public transport people leaning on poles is one of the many things that never fails to irritate me. What gives someone the princely right to prevent 5 or so other people having something to stop them falling over? Sure there are handles but for the vertically challenged these aren't really an option as the result is an awkwardly stretched arm/ripped shirts and depending on location the thrusting of cleavage into an unsuspecting victim's face.

Worse still are the nimrods who lean on a pole you are ALREADY holding onto. Surely this can never happen you say? Well I'm sorry but the world isn't such a lovely place. One day a generously proportioned lady proceeded to crush my hand while I was making my way into work. For the normal person this would be uncomfortable to have a fist in your back, but for the socially unaware/overly padded this seems to be a non-issue. I tried to get my revenge by digging my ring into her back but she still didn't notice or she was a masochist and was enjoying it -_-

Moral of the story: be aware of your fellow travelers needs, don't be selfish it's ok to share your pole with other people. Together we can make the world a nicer place :) If you don't I may, in my self-appointed social justice agent role, trip you over as you leave the train.

Mission statement: reduce and eliminate socially inappropriate behavior. No jerk is safe.

This blog has been created to educate modern citizens on what is and isn't socially appropriate, with an overall objective of equipping them with the self awareness required to maintain their street cred.

Our team of bloggers will provide real life case studies and lessons to coach and mentor people to better themselves to avoid unsavory labels such as space invader, giglet, harlot, creep and douche-bag.