Nofuture.org.uk

A timely strip from Dilbert this weekend. Honestly, the majority of my week was spent modifying PowerPoint slides so that they more accurately represented our status as it should look, without actually changing the underlying data. This week I made some PowerPoint slides that have no particular use.

MCV today released the results of a survey into salaries in the gaming industry. Perhaps naively I figured there’d be big money in developing video-games, however I got a surprise when I read that the average salary for those working in development is only £31,964. I know my work isn’t directly comparable to the gaming industry, but at the end of the day it’s the same skill set, and the final deliverable is still a piece of software — so I’m officially better than average, and a bit less disgruntled about my own job despite no meaningful pay rise for the past 2 years.

Depressingly, people in “marketing and publishing” reported that they earned £12,500 more, on average, than those in development jobs — I’m definitely in the wrong profession.

Good marketing doesn’t make a good product, but that’s the world we live in — style over substance. Why invest in making something of such high quality that people will want it when it’s easier to convince people they want it through marketing. Just take a look at all the biggest selling products these days – Wii, iPod, X-Factor winners — perfect examples of style over substance!

Maybe I should post today’s Dilbert on my manager’s door. I’m so bored with my current project, it’s monkey work I could do in my sleep but someone has to do it I suppose. I’ve been wondering how to bring it up …

It hit me today that I’ve been at IBM for five years now; and when I looked at my performance reviews I see three years in a row with the top rating, and 2 years with the second highest rating. Despite all this my career hasn’t exactly progressed very much. I guess it’s my own fault though, I foolishly thought that if I excel at my job I’d be rewarded with increased pay, bonuses & eventually promotions. As it turns out, I haven’t done too bad on the first two, but when it comes to promotions it’s most definitely a case of “you don’t get what you don’t ask for”, and as much as I hate blowing my own trumpet, it appears that if I want to get anywhere in this business I’m going to have to do just that.

While I was contemplating “where is my career going?” yesterday I decided to start building a CV on Monster.co.uk to see if perhaps I’d be better served looking at a new role in another company. What I certainly didn’t expect was for my phone to be ringing every 20 minutes with agencies offering me various roles and/or requesting my CV for the files. Some seemed to have not even read the information I’d put on Monster before calling. By the end of the day I had pulled my contact details from Monster as it had got to the point where I couldn’t actually get any work done for all the phone calls!

One or two interesting roles were mentioned, whether anything comes of them is another matter. As I explained the the few agents that seemed to have at least read my Monster profile I wasn’t looking for any job as I already have a very good job; I’m looking for something special.

“I like the idea in “Archives of Pain” I took from Michael Foucault, when he advocates a return to nineteen-century values of execution and capital punishment. You know. It appeals to me, but you shouldn’t only bring back capital punishment. It should be compulsory that your body be kept, have oil poured over it and be torn apart with horses and chains. It should be on TV, and four- or five-year-olds should be made to watch it. It’s the only way. If you tell a child: “That’s wrong”, he doesn’t really learn. But if you show a body being ripped to shreds, after Blue Peter, he’s gonna know.”

- Richey Edwards

Oh how I was looking forward to a day off, but it was not be, having already taken a morning and an afternoon off to receive the Brice’s Laptop it was another day at the office for me. What made it even worse was that Gran Turismo: A Spec was released today, so I bought it (& Half-Life: Blue Shift) in the morning and had to wait until 4 to actually play them; knowing that on Saturday morning they, along with everything else I had in the house, would be gone.

Bought a book, Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau. This, and the rest of Everything… will be my entertainment next week.

People tell me I should get out more, but the TV is my best friend / Cynicism is the only thing that keeps me sane

- Mr. Carbohydrate (Manic Street Preachers)

Two new guys in the office, makes a change from looking at Andrew’s ugly mug anyway;)

Still reading Everything (a book about Manic Street Preachers), still not past the half-way mark, but I hope to finish it this week (fat chance). Call me Mr. Carbohydrate.

House to myself all weekend (as usual), started to pack all my gear up for next Saturday when it’s all heading back to Maidstone. I shall not be looking forward to an entire week with no TV, PC, PS2 or stereo. Argh, I might actually have to have a life for a week!

In the world of football, it looks like Liverpool have finally got rid of Houllier’s biggest mistake; Christian Ziege – on his way to Spuds, by all accounts.

There is no greater stupidity than for people … to marry and so surrender themselves to the small miseries of domestic and private life

- Karl Marx

Great, got my IBM forms today, not so great they have to be returned by the 16th (i.e. 3 working days) or they assume I’ve rejected the offer, nice to see they’re giving me time to consider my options, read through the package etc.

When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got something pure that no one can take away. As soon as you’ve got something, some cunt’s gonna come and take it off you.

- James Dean Bradfield

Day off work today – feeling really ill, I think I’ve spent to much time in front of a computer screen this week. Did some cleaning around the house & went for a walk, felt a bit better after that. Haven’t been on the computer all day, definitely the first time I’ve been able to say that in a while.