Holy flippin’ Mexico!

I have just found a little news article on The Ultimate Easter Show Showbag here! Yes my dear friends, The Hoff Showbag!

The Hoff has been a source of almost constant fascination for my friends and I for the last few years, so much so that 2 years ago I actually purchased The Hoff’s biography for one of my friends for Christmas. Now we are planning a road trip to the Easter show to purchase as many Hoff showbags as we can afford! It’s almost garunteed to be the ultimate work outing ever!

The showbag contains:

• 1 Hoff T-Shirt
• 1 Hoff Wig
• 1 Hoff Ceramic Mug
• 1 Hoff Love-Dice (?)
• 1 Hoff Stubby Cooler
• 1 Hoff Headband & Wristband Set
• 1 Hoff Air Freshener (?)
• 1 Hoff Bottle Opener
• 1 Hoff Non-woven Carry Bag
• 1 Hoff $ Bling Necklace (?)
• 1 Hoff $ Bling Ring

Brilliant!

(Pic from: The Daily Hasslehoff)

Bad day in the office…

After what has been two consecutive bad days at work I am writing an agressive rant directed at the ticket buying public, specifically those who purchase their tickets directly from a theatre box office (especially one which currently has a show in residence) WARNING: The following rant contains heavy use of italics.

If you wait untill the day of the show to purchase tickets don’t expect to get within the first 10 rows of seats, it’s probably not going to happen, especially if you happen to show up on a Saturday. I sometimes feel that some people have convinced themselves that they are so important that box offices everywhere set aside the best seats in the house in the hopes that such greatness with deign to grace the theatre with their presence. To all who think like this, I am here to tell you that this is not the case. To be perfectly honest with you, if you show up on the day of a show and actually get seats at all then you’re very lucky, because performances can sell out, and often do. If a performance does sell out it is not the fault of the box office staff, if you aren’t organised enough to book your tickets in advanced then you have no right to blame us, it’s your own fault, and no ammount of yelling and stomping is going to change that.

When you book tickets for a show there are NO refunds, NO exchanges and NO cancellations, end of story. This is company policy. The box office may waive this rule in very special  circumstances, but if we do, then we are doing you a favour. We are not obligated to change your tickets for you, we won’t get into trouble for saying “no”, so if we do refuse to change your tickets to a different date because you can’t give us a good enough reason why we should, don’t try to argue with us, it’s not going to change the situation. Realising that you’ve got a wedding on the day you’ve booked tickets is not a good enough reason for us to exchange your tickets, remembering that you’re booked in for another show on that date is not a good enough reason, booking tickets for a friend to find out that they’ve got a prior engagement on that day is not a good enough reason. Your disorganisation does not constitute an issue on our part, lots of people manage to sort themselves out before they buy tickets, so it’s obviously not that difficult.

If you happen to be lucky enough to catch us on a good day, with a valid reason for us to exchange your tickets, don’t stuff us around. If we have agreed to change the date for you then just pick a date you can go, and take the seats you are given. Don’t say things like “ohh, I can go on any date I just want the best seats” because anyone who has worked in a box office for more than a week knows damn well that this is seldom the case, and as we are doing you a favour it’s just polite to be concise and not waste our time, as believe it or not, we have other work we could be doing. As far as getting the best seats are concerned just remember, beggars can’t be choosers. As I’ve stated before, we don’t have to do this for you.

If you’ve successfully booked tickets over the internet, good for you! You’ve conquered technology! Did you remember to check the time and date you were booking yourself in for?  Did you remember to read the instructions and warnings carefully before you completed your booking? If the answer to either or both of these questions is “no” then you’re a moron and I have no sympathy for you. Again I will state, your disorganisation does not constitute an issue on our part. Furthermore, don’t insult our intelligence by suggesting that the computer booked you the wrong date/time, because it didn’t. It was you who selected the date and time from the dropdown menu, the internet doesn’t change the details you select, don’t blame technology for your own idiocy, you’re only making yourself look worse.

When you’re booking tickets for anything check the time and the date, don’t just assume that you’ve been booked in for the right show. If you book over the phone make sure you ask the seller to confirm the date before they process the booking, and again after the booking is confirmed, and then you recieve the tickets in the mail check again! Write the date and time down on a thousand little post-its and stick them up everywhere around your house or office if that’s what it will take for you to remember what you’ve comitted to. Because I don’t know about anyone else in my place of employment, but I am sick and tired of dealing with irate people who show up on the wrong day, or at the wrong time, especially if they come up to the box office in an angry huff and say things like “Well, I wasn’t told that the show started at 7pm!” or “Of course I didn’t look at my tickets, I only took them out of the envelope two minutes ago!”. Honestly, those aren’t even excuses, that’s just you stating to the world that you are disorganised and stupid. If you show up for the wrong date or time that’s your own problem, not mine, and to all those patrons recently who have tried to blame me and the rest of the staff for their own incompetence, I want you to sit back and think about this: Do you know how dumb you have made yourself look? Not just to the box office staff, but to the ushers who heard you screaming your lungs out and demanding a refund because you didn’t pay attention when you booked. If you feel a little embarassed about it now, you should, I feel embarassed for you too.

Alright, I’m not feeling as bitchy and aggravated as when I started this, but I really do with people would think before they do things, and treat people who work in customer service with a little respect, it’s not like we actually want to be selling you tickets!

Thankyou for your time.

The little things…

I am very amused by very small things, my good friends. I’ve been well aware of the fact for quite some time, but every now and then something so small and petty will amuse me so much that it will bring my own simplicity to the fore of my mind.

For example, today I walked in to work, quite aggravated that I had to deal with not one, but two shows in one day (Wednesday matinee’s are surely the most hated of all shows for people that work in theatre) And that the previous day we had completely run out of tea bags, so I couldn’t even drown my sorrows and keep myself awake. To my suprise, my good friend Emma had bought a fresh supply of tea bags! Not only had she splashed out and bought our favourite kind (the Lipton Black Label ones) but she had bought in bulk, it was not so much a box of tea bags, as it was a cube! 200 tea bags (they will almost certainly be gone within a month) contained in a cube! It beggars belief! It did come as a relief to know that I was not the only person amazed that Lipton would deign to package 200 tea bags in a cube, as it turns out, the reason Emma bought the cube in the first place was because of it’s shape and the fact that it contained a seemingly unreasonable ammount of tea bags within. However, as I did point out, we went through 100 teabags in just over 3 weeks, so I’m pretty sure (with two shows running simultaneously) we can whittle down the 200 in almost as short an ammount of time.

I am similarly amused by the fact that I have recently encountered a person who looks exactly like Penfold from Danger Mouse! Meeting this person was like being introduced to a beloved, yet long forgotten childhood imaginary friend. Again I was relieved to know that I was not alone in my judgement of this person, my beautiful colleagues shared my opinion, and thus we have dubbed this person “The Mole”. I realise it’s a cruel nickname, especially when the person in question can be quite lovely.

Finally, I am amused by the friends I work with. We’re such an odd group of people, we all have different things in common, but we’re it’s such a diverse group none the less. We all come from different backgrounds, our ages vary dramatically, we all have different interests and aspirations, and yet we are a fairly tight knit bunch (or at least I think so) Although I know I take my job for granted, I constantly whinge about having no money, and having to actually work occassionally, but I really am lucky to have the opportunity to work with the people that have become my good friends. Especially when I consider, before I started this job I had no one I would have called a friend, and now I am in the midst of a large group of them, and I love them all!

Well, that was a rather mushy ending to this post, don’t you think? I certainly do. I’ll try not to be too heartwarming like that too often, it could result in me breaking into song.

It’s Good News Week

No, it’s not a show about christian values (har-dee-har-har!) It’s Australia’s greatest comedy telly show, Good News Week! Please don’t flame me if you don’t like the show, it’s not my problem that you don’t get the jokes.

When it was announced that GNW would be coming back to channel 10 I was ecstatic! I could hardly believe it, for years I had lamented the quality of TV in this country and wished aloud that GNW would be brought back. I had also bemoaned the fact that when GNW was in production way back when, I was too young to get most of the jokes (I understood some of them though, but the political gags went right over my head) and too young to be able to be in the audience to witness the filming of the show. Finally that particular injustice has been undone, I have finally been to a filming of GNW!

And it is airing now, watch out for it, Ross Noble and Akmal are genius, I laughed till I cried.

I am feeling fat and sassy!

I’m on a bit of a youtube bender at the moment. Having previously stated quite loudly to anyone who would listen that I dislike youtube, I’ve come to realise that it’s not such a bad thing (I admit that there are little things that do still frustrate me about it, but I’m coming to terms with them) It does frustrate me that I can’t use it at work (Flipping firewalls!) Although I also see it as a positive thing, because if I were able to watch videos at work I would almost certainly spend my entire day doing nothing else. It would also mean that I would have nothing to look forward to when I get home.

This particular video is one that I first viewed when I was about 15 or 16. It really is as old as the interwebs, but I still really love it, my friend and I used to greet each other at school with quotes from this video (Eg: “Tuesday is coming, did you bring your coat?” or “I am the queen of France!”) I decided to look for it on youtube, just to see if it was there because I was speaking to a friend at work on Friday about things we used to do on the interwebs when we were younger, discussing Homestar Runner and so on.

These videos inspire me to go forth with my multimedia course idea, for one day I will create amazing animations and post them on the net and become… Queen of the interwebs!! …Or something to that effect.

I just get these terrible headaches…

Having just re-watched one of my favourite series Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, I’ve found myself humming One Track Lover by Todd Rivers (Matt Berry) so I thought I’d look it up on Youtube, supposing I’d find the song accompanying a humorous AMV or something, but what I found was so much better! I love this remix, it’s hilarious, and so well done!  I really do love the song too, it sends me into hysterics every time I listen to it!

Darkplace is such a genius series. I’ve never seen anything like it, especially on television here (although it was played on ABC, but no one seems to have heard of it) And I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s seen it, although I am hoping to get my friends to watch it, as I’m confident they will understand the humour, and it will possibly explain a lot of the things I say (Sometimes I find myself quoting Dean Learner without realising it) It really is a brilliant series! I reccomend it to anyone with a sense of humour!

Man chokes to death on cupcake

Possibly one of my favourite headlines this week! (Here)

All your blog are belong to us!

Finding this screen shot has made my day, it combines so many of my favourite things, The IT Crowd, Richmond (I love Richmond, his random appearances never cease to amuse me) Poor grammar and retro gaming. I can’t wait for The IT Crowd Season 2 DVD to be released in Australia (if it ever will!) I am considering buying a region 2 copy, so impatient am I. I will be able to watch it on my TV but not if I want to use my laptop (The accursed thing is now locked to region 4 and I haven’t been able to find a patch to override it, curses!)

Reality is for wimps!

There is a lovely young man who lives 2 doors down from me. I must say it always suprises me every time I run into him, that he will stop and chat. He actually goes out of his way to make conversation with me.

I know I’m sounding like a social retard, but I am unaccustomed to people actually wanting to talk to me! Perhaps I’ve lived in the city alone for too long, but I have never had a neighbour who would acknowledge me at all, let alone stop me on the street to ask me how my week has been! It really is amazing to see what effect this has on my mood too. Tonight, for example, I was feeling quite dull and decided that I simply could not be bothered cooking dinner for myself, thus I found myself trudging down the street to purchase something to eat which would involve no preparation on my part. Halfway down the street I glanced up and there he was, waving to me with an almost indecent amount of enthusiasm. What ensued was a lovely conversation about what we’ve both been up to and then we went out seperate ways, but the whole thing left a huge smile on my face.

He even listened patiently as I recounted my adventures in the comic book store today (i.e: Being the only girl, and having all the men in the store glancing around to see what I was reading [Note: I was reading "I Killed Adolf Hitler" by Jason]) He was also kind enough not to laugh when I told him about the computer game I am one day hoping to make.

Which leads me to another (not so) interesting highlight of my week, I have, after much careful deliberation, decided on a  course I wish to take. I want to do a Multimedia/I.T. class at TAFE. The course I have found encompasses everything from web design to animation and video editing, to games design and general I.T. It’s a rather different direction when One considers that up untill 2 months ago I was certain that I wanted to become a translator, but I feel that since I’ve probably got a few years up my sleeve to play with, I can afford to have a few career choices as well. The only drawback I have identified with this idea is that it will involve me moving back to the Central Coast (or the Mount Druitt area, but that’s not going to happen) which I really don’t want to do as I swore when I moved away from there that I would return as seldom as possible (For those who don’t know the Central Coast, it’s like the western suburbs of Sydney by the sea, sans the cultural diversity) Yet although this is a major drawback, it does have a positive side. If I were to move back to the Central Coast I would be able to save money so that by the time I finish my course I could travel (and possibly permanently relocate myself) to Europe. So in the end I think that spending a few years in a crappy location to save money and do a course so that I can leave Australia would be worth it.

Progress!

Loobyloo Falala land

Good evening to all.

My name is Syrup (Although i also answer to: Sirp, Sirpy and Soupy) And this charming young fellow, to whom I am gesturing (Although you can’t see it) is called Bluebear. He is my co-conspirator, mentor and platonic life partner. I am 22 and a half, and he is probably around 24, although on his acting portfolio it says he is 16. His portfolio contains many other blatant lies, but that is another story for another time.

I decided to create a blog on this fine evening to assuage my boredom, as it is Friday, and I am 22 and living alone in the city. It’s only natural that I would be lying in bed (sans human company, avec laptop) trauling the internet for laughs and creating blogs willy-nilly. It’s youth gone wild I tell you! The fact that I actually have far too many internet related commitments has only just dawned on me, but I have always been spontaneous, I live in anticipation of further spontaneity. Further frivolous blog creating which will undoubtedly lead to frivolous blog neglecting. Expect very little from this blog, dear friends, and ye shall not be disappointed. Or maybe you will, but only a little bit.

 I do have a Facebook, which I check frequently. However, before all the Facebook haters out there start pummelling me with a barrage of assorted rotten vegetables, I spend most of my Facebook time deleting spam from my account (friendspam) and all those silly, pointless “applications” that people keep sending me, possibly because they feel I could glean some sort of enjoyment from them, possibly because they too have people spamming them with pointless applications and they feel that passing said applications along to other people will help them vent their frustration, I don’t know, I’m not a psychiatrist (more on that later) Also, I have a lot of free time at work (or, more specifically, I am easily distracted and quite adept at putting work off till a little later)

I have a MySpace, but of all my internet hobbies it is the most neglected. I seldom check it, I can never remember the reason why I have one, and why I have never deleted it, and yet it remains. I could never get into the MySpace craze, it always felt too young for me, it made me feel old and obsolete, like MS DOS. I fear that a majority of regular MySpace users are too young to remember the good ol’ MS DOS system, ahh, those where great days, staying up till 1am playing Lemmings with the sound turned down so your parents wouldn’t hear that you’d snuck out of bed. I digress, MySpace has also caused me slight emotional pain by being so simple yet complicated! Everything you do is automated for you so that there is absolutely no thinking involved, yet it caused me to think a great deal whilst I tried to discern exactly why it’s “the greatest thing ever” according to my younger brother. All in all, MySpace frustrates me still, so i avoid it at all costs.

My Livejournal (I have 3, but only actually use one) is pure nonsense. I love it, but I have had it since I was 17, and it’s starting to bring me down. Time for a change, I say!  Or at the very least, time to expend some energy typing something that is a little more coherent than the rantings of a drunken club goer during mardi gras (One doesn’t like to be too ambitious) Even if it’s only a slightly more coherent it’s a good start.

We all have to start somewhere.