Planet Sillicon

BP crashes and burns

By blog on Jun. 20, 2010.

Anyone got any marshmallows?

Seriously, this oil spill disaster is going to be almost as bad for the company as it has been for the environment. I’m at a loss as to what to say, okay well no I’m not, I’ve got a lot to say, and here I go.

Can you believe that that unmitigated, worst natural disaster ever for the US, event was caused by one of the world’s wealthiest companies trying to make more money!? Quite frankly, I would like to see the financial news for BP get a hell of a lot worse than being dropped from the BBC index of world’s largest firms. I want this company to really have to fix this, and be monitored a lot more closely from now on.

I think they paid far more attention to their independent financial advisers instead of who they should have listened to, their independent ecological advisers! I’m rather angry at the financial and ecological disasters hitting the world thanks to too many big companies being overly concerned with banking more money for themselves. If you check your current account, and see more money than you would need to live comfortably for the rest of your life, then you sure as hell should settle down and not take huge risks, make poor choices and take unwarranted short-cuts.

If you watched the responses from Tony Hayward to the US Senate, you’d be forgiven for reasonably assuming that the man did absolutely nothing at all. His response to so many questions was ‘I had no involvement with that part of the company’ or ‘I was not involved with those choices’. I mean, what part of the company was he involved with? Golf? Lunch? Naps? Bah! What a wanker!

I hope oil companies take a lesson from this and don’t attempt to earn themselves more money in the future at the potential cost to the environment and people who’ve got to live near those places that could be affected.

This and That

By blog on Sep. 13, 2009.

This is a rather rambling post, I’ve no clear intention on topic, just to sort of catch up with what’s been going on.

It’s been really busy in the past few weeks, my SO has still been suffering with that back pain – and being really strong and soldering on, in spite of what is agony almost every morning for her – so we’ve been getting very little or disjointed sleep. She’s been able to manage about five to six hours most nights, and we’ve taken to napping in the afternoons a lot of the time, too. We know what’s going on, and it’s just a matter of her strengthening her back, at this stage, but apart from that, there’s not much to be done. Hot showers and a back massage seem to help a little, relaxing those muscles. It’s just a pity that she’s better at massages than me.

Work has been hectic, but being able to work from home has been a Godsend with my SO so under the weather. I can make sure that she’s well taken care of, and still get all my work done, no matter what time I’m awake or asleep. I’m really enjoying working from home, and no longer having to commute to work has been fantastic! I’ve gotten an hour or two extra in every day!

All my financial interests have largely been put on hold. I’m still keeping watch on all those investments and offshore financial services, which seem to have some alright rates at the moment, but I think I’ve decided against investing in international real estate. I just don’t want the trouble that could come of it, I mean, invest in Panama real estate, for example… Nah, not for me. I would hardly ever see the place!

Anyway, that’s an odds and ends post there, now hopefully they can be a little better put together!

Still very busy

By blog on Aug. 30, 2009.

And I’m not fond of it! I want more relax time, but there always seems to be more that needs my attention before I can relax.

For instance, I had a friend approach me to help them with some finance stuff, because they were looking to create an investment portfolio and they knew that I was interested in that sort of thing. I think basically he wanted to have some idea before he met with an accountant so he could sound the guy out. By no means am I an expert, but when you have friends that can tell you anything about something as… open to misuse by others, as money, then you make use of their expertise when you can!

I pointed him in the direction of a few good sites and said I would help more when I had the time, or he could go ahead and investigate all this himself. I wanted to help, but I didn’t have the time to sit down and help properly, and I didn’t want to help half-assedly. He came back to me today to say that he had found a good offshore financial service, and that he was going to be investigating it further. He offered to pass along what he found, too.

I found it really refreshing to see someone really doing their homework before investing anywhere, especially as, like me, the guy is busy! If everyone was as careful with where they put their money, then I think a lot of people would be a lot less worried in general life. That’s just the way it seems to me, anyway. There are things that are way beyond our control, like what happened to the international finance markets, and that is always going to be the case, but if we are careful with what we do have control over, then I’m guessing we would be able to accept easier those situations that weren’t our faults, and have a lot less situations where we could have done something differently to gain a better outcome. I’m rambling now, I know it. That’s it then, enough.

Thankful for the weekend

By blog on Aug. 15, 2009.

I am so thankful for the weekend right now, because it has felt like a mammoth week and I am exhausted!

Most of this comes from the severe lack of sleep I’ve had, due in large part to my sympathy towards an ailment my SO is currently suffering from. She has a back issue, currently, so she can’t sleep properly, and keeps waking up with severe pain somewhere between four-and-a-half to six, very occasionally seven, hours after going to bed. Now, I like a good eight hours, but when I see her getting up, I can’t let her go off to deal with it by herself, I want to help, so I get up with her and help her any way that I can.

That’s fine, that’s part of a relationship, and I know she’d do the same for me. I’m happy to help her whenever I can. The issue arose this week, however, of a colleague from work asking for my assistance to open a bank account specifically for offshore finance investments and the like. He’s heard me talking about such things in the past, and thought of me when he decided to get into that sort of thing.

Normally I wouldn’t mind helping him out, but it would mean doing it on the weekend, and I think this weekend I want to do little apart from sleeping and playing Plants vs Zombies. So I set him on the right path, at least, and told him he can either go ahead with it whilst I’m finding the right time to help him out, or he can investigate banks by himself and go ahead on his own steam.

Thankfully he understood that I’m not intending to be rude or mean or such, but that I’m really just suffering, like my SO, after a week of very little sleep! Alright, now I’m off for a kip, then I’m going to play more of that addictive little game. I can’t get that song out of my head, either… I may be starting to lose it.

Not sure about the tracks

By blog on Jul. 14, 2009.

I happened to be looking up some Zelda info in the past few days, and I ran across the video of Nintendo’s soon to be released, Spirit Tracks. I’m put off by the train aspect, because it seems so limited compared to the boat used in Phantom Hourglass, but the video does also show that the dungeon play looks more like the last game.

Link looks to be spinning a Deku leaf or something like it in some of the video, and Link also gets to control the Phantoms last seen in Phantom Hourglass. But still, this whole train thing seems overly steam-punk and not in the spirit of the Legend of Zelda games that came before it. It’s so gimmicky and unappealing. This image kind of exemplifies what I feel was the driving force behind the choice. In case you are interested in the train aspect, here is a big ol’ wallpaper that has been released for the game.

I think I need to stop panning the game now, because, quite frankly, I know I’m going to play it, and I’m probably going to love it too. Whilst I can’t see myself getting into the train thing, really, I can see the rest of the game being a heck of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Phantom Hourglass, I like playing the Zelda games on the DS, I like using the stylus for much of it. The Wii Zelda was also a lot of fun, but I am pretty darn concerned about the lack of Mastersword – or any sword – rumours floating around about that one.

Anyway, I’m off now, I said I’d go to the movies with that estate agent friend I mentioned in my last post. See, if I go to the movies then I don’t have to spend the next few hours talking about UK property, or which of the numerous property blogs out there are the most accurate – yes, he spent twenty minutes one day talking about property blogs! I can’t fathom how he can talk so much about fast house sales… I don’t find it interesting… nearly at all. I mean, I find finance stuff interesting, but housing stuff is just… not compelling to me. That’s why I’m off to a film!