NOT amused here. I’m losing hours and hours a week to crap IT support. One hour after i put down the phone to one of the support team earlier today I got this:

Last time I got this error was a month ago. I’m still waiting for the tech support call back (got someone else to fix it). I think this is telling me that the weekend has started.

I just spent a couple of days in Chicago – I stayed in a new hotel for me – the Indigo. It was close to the office and cheap as chips ($72 dollars a night – I’ve paid more than twice that for B&Bs in the UK).  In any case it was pretty clean and bright and comfortable but two things troubled me:

1) how the recenptionist answers the phone.  It starts off with the usual 10 minute preamble of “good evening and welcome to the Indigo Hotel, Schaumburg blah…blah….blah”. Then “how can I INSPIRE you?”. Retch.

2) the sign that suggests you might want to save the planet (as opposed to saving the hotel money) by recycling towels was a Haiku.  Too much.

Help Us Save Water
Use Your Towel More Than Once
Mother Earth Says Thanks.

The bedroom was pretty good for 72 bucks though.

Apparently there’s an election bout to happen here – who knew?

actually for a no-resident alien it has been an interesting process to watch. Firstly I was surprised at how much people on the same side took chunks out of each other – seriously undermining each other and pointing out how the other was unelectable (I mean you Hillary and Obama). You’d expect this from the opposition but not from someone on your side.

I’m also soooo bored with all the Palin-mania. She’s often described by the media as “folksy”. I’m not sure quite what that means but I think it is American for “total liability”. Some of the more entertaining parts of the election coverage have been her trying to answer media questions without a script whilst trying to form a sentence.

It has all been about image and presentation and the policies hardly come into it. Event the wives have been wheeled out – all blowdried and hair laquered  – with copywritten speeches. Actually even with the presidential hopefuls, much of the talk about the debates has been how they came across not the substance of the policies. The best bit of the debates is always the post mortem – where all the pundits explain why it was that their chap won.

Personally I think Obama will win it. Mostly beause McCain is a multiple cancer patient in his 70s and his back up option is Palin.  Scary.