Archive for 'daily life'
Slaves.ie – my thoughts
Posted on August 6, 2011, under daily life.
On Thursday, 4/8/2011, www.slaves.ie went live, thanks to the nice design work of James from Forbairt.ie. The idea to bring some attention to the increasing numbers of requests for unpaid interns in Ireland. Here are my thoughts on this project.
Myself, Michele & James, over an online discussion thought it would be a good idea to have a website to bring attention to the increasing trend of companies requesting people to do, what seems on paper at least, a job you would expect someone of experience/skill to perform. These jobs are often pitched as an opportunity to get experience or a start in an industry, but the employer is not willing to pay these people for their time.
Some employers even say that they’ve hired many people after these types of intern postions. But this carrot dangling really doesn’t justify someone receiving at least €8.65 per hour, the current minimum wage in Ireland. If you perform a task, that potentially someone else is paying for, i.e. a client of your employer , and you just get ‘experience’, there does seem to be some level of exploitation here.
Collins Dictionary, via thefreedictionary.com, defines the word slave as
slave [sleɪv]
n
1. (Law) a person legally owned by another and having no freedom of action or right to property
2. (Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) a person who is forced to work for another against his will
3. a person under the domination of another person or some habit or influence a slave to television
4. (Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) a person who works in harsh conditions for low pay
5. (Engineering / Mechanical Engineering)
a. a device that is controlled by or that duplicates the action of another similar device (the master device)
b. (as modifier) slave cylinder
Because of #4 I feel that the word slave is an appropriate word to use. The harsh condition being the fact that you don’t receive any wages for the work performed.
There has been some debate over the last 3 days about this topic, it even trended on twitter at one stage. It’s great to see that in some way slaves.ie has aided this debate. Some people were offended by word slave, to that I am sorry, that was not the intention. Others seem to have used it to pull some punches at companies, this was also not the intention of the website.
Irish Unemployment
With the rate of Irish unemployment hitting 14%, there are lots of capable people out there looking for work. It’s sad to see that people feel like they have to take these positions, as that’s what it’s now come down to.
Recently the Irish government launched an initiative to get people on the dole, into jobs. JobBridge allows employers to advertise these internship positions. The employers only have to pay their workers €50 per week, but they will continue to receive their unemployment benefit. People seem to be happy to apply for these positions, and I think it can be a win-win situation for both the intern and the employer. Where things could get dodgy is when these intern positions should in fact be full time positions. JobBridge define an internship as :
The aim of the National Internship Scheme is to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers wishing to learn new skills.
I hope they don’t have too hard of a time policing these jobs. JobBridge is a great idea, and I would love to see it succeed.
Internships are great
Personally I’ve only good things to say about my experience with internships. But they were all paid, I was able to learn and earn at the same time. It showed me that the employer valued an intern enough to give them a wage. I was given responsibility, but I was also given the opportunity to learn something new. If I wasn’t paid I don’t think I would have been able to do one for 5 months while living in Germany for example.
I do wonder about these employers who don’t offer wages in return for work, I mean we all have to survive, pay rent, bills and eat every now and again. Expecting someone to work for free won’t help them in any of these tasks. Some even say they are creating jobs, but without an employers PRSI contribution I don’t think this qualifies as ‘a job’.
Both Michele & James have also expanded on their thoughts on this and are worth reading.
Hitting goals
Posted on July 2, 2011, under daily life.
After talking about loosing some weight at the start of 2009 and again in early 2010, I can now report things are going a little bit better in 2011. Similar to 2009, I came back from a month long visit to the US with a few extra pounds. In fact I was about 83.5 kgs, and for someone my size it was really too much. I was helped along with a few friends to get me started with swimming & going to the gym. And then after a while increasing the frequency of excerise from 1 to up to 3 times a week. I try to get at least one session in, whether it’s a run or a swim, or some Gaelic Football. The main idea was to do something physical to bring myself to a sweat.
Detoxing
Before starting with the exercise myself & lauren did a 3 week detox. This was pretty hardcore, no coffee, no alcohol, certain fruits that were high in sugar (like bananas) and lots of organic vegetables & chicken. This was particularly good for removing that extra water weight, as diet low in salt and other foods that people can have allergic reactions to. If you are interested in reading the plan drop me an email.
2011 Results
The gray dots are some of the measured points, and the blue line is the average weight and predicted time I shall hit my goal. My current goal is 75kgs, which I should hit in the next few months. Right now I’ve lost a total of 7.78% of my initial body weight.
The other day I carried a 5kg bag of coins that I was hoping to bring to the bank, and I was amazed after caring just how heavy an extra 5kg’s was. Try it yourself ! I was able to clearly imagine the extra stress and strain a few Kgs can put on your joints.
Some motivation
This post isn’t meant for me to say how great I am, rather to be more of a motivational post. The hardest part of anything is starting. Once you get going, and start to see the results, you’ll find that your body will start to crave the adrenaline rush that you get from a tough workout. You just have to stick with it enough to create the habit.
For more motivation I suggest you have a look at this video about a kid learning to cycle a bike for the first time.
Hat tip to one other great lad who’s progress I’ve been tracking this year.
Revenue.ie : Phishing attempt
Posted on January 10, 2011, under daily life, irishblogs.
Just a quick warning to people who might see the following email in their inbox titled “Recalculation fiscal activity for 2011” supposedly from Revenue.ie. 
The email appears to be sent from confidential@revenue.ie, but this is just spoofed (email spoofing is just too easy). The text of the email says
Dear Applicant:
Please note that you can apply for tax refund, today we have sent your tax file number (TFN): 2 7 9 0 2 1 6 8 1 5
(See the tax privacy note in the Taxpayer’s declaration on page 8 of your tax refund) and is valid only 24 hours for security reasons.
Please take a few minutes of your time to complete the form, for your safety please do not reveal your TFN number to others.
In order to complete, please follow this link:http://www.revenue.ie/refunds
The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential and as applicable, copyright in these is reserved to Irish Tax and Customs.
Unless expressly authorised by us, any further dissemination or distribution of this email or its attachments is prohibited.Sincerely,
Irish Tax and Customs
and it has a link to
http://www.znovuzrozeni.cz/images/form_payment.pdf.html
and not the official http://www.revenue.ie/refunds website. If you have received such an email, according to their security advice, you should forward the email to them.
The idea of such an email is to trick companies to fill out their personal details, such as credit card details, which will probably be used against them. The phishing site is very, very poorly done.
If you have filled this out, you should call your credit card company and cancel your card, and contact the revenue commissioners.
Tweet Up in a Brewery #tub2
Posted on August 23, 2010, under daily life.
After the success of the first tweet up in munich, we rested for 4 months and now recovered and regrouped. Not that there is a need to celebrate new things, we will will still do it.
The background : A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up. It’s open to everyone, the language is generally English, but most of us speak-the-german too. Think of it as an open coffee club meeting with beer !
Details of TUB2
Date : Wednesday September 15th 2010- UPDATE 14/9/2010 : Because of the U-bahn strike, we have to move this to Thursday 16th,
- Time : 18:30 (6:30pm CET)
- Location : Unionsbrau, Einsteinstrasse. (near Max Weberplatz)
- Transport : U-bahn : Max Weberplatz
Map :
HashTag for the event : #tub2
Attendees
Total Attendees: 9| # | Name |
|---|---|
| 1. | Carlo |
| 2. | Hans |
| 3. | Adrian |
| 4. | Mike |
| 5. | Mario Witte |
| 6. | Dave |
| 7. | mat |
| 8. | Rob |
| 9. | paul |
Signup
The event have ended - no more registrations are allowed.Note date changed.
Tweet Up in a Brewery
Posted on May 4, 2010, under daily life, Living in Germany.
A few English speaking tweeters in Munich have come together and decided to have an informal tweet up.
Details of TUB1
- Date : May 11th 2010
- Time : 18:30 (6:30pm CET)
- Location : Augustiner Keller, Arnulfstraße 52, 80335 München
- Transport : S-bahn / Tram Hackerbrücke
Map :
HashTag for the event : #tub1
Note : If the weather is bad we will meet inside, in the basement / keller if it’s open. Otherwise we will be out in the beer garden.
Attendees
Total Attendees: 7| # | Name |
|---|---|
| 1. | @savagepaul |
| 2. | @Carlo (Zottmann) |
| 3. | @natfriedman |
| 4. | @weimann |
| 5. | @aptmunich |
| 6. | @RobLoBue |
| 7. | @mikewest |
Signup
The event have ended - no more registrations are allowed.The world outside my window
Posted on January 8, 2010, under daily life, irishblogs, Living in Germany.
Just back from 2½ weeks in Ireland, and while the weather was quite bad at times, i.e. lots of ice / cold / snow, it was still great to be back. I’m not going to comment on how the County Councils could run of of salt and grit, or fail to have adequate material dispersed on the roads, because, well it doesn’t happen every year.
Generally I am a fan of the “bad weather“, snow really makes the city streets quieter (it absorbs the sound), like the brightness in the mornings, and the feeling of a few flakes landing on your tongue as you walk down the street. I’m a big fan of the mountains and skiing and I’m really looking forward the season ahead. I’ve missed a bit of the season already, so I’m eager to hit the slopes.
I didn’t mean to ramble on, what I wanted to do was share the view from the office today :
now it’s time to get that snowboard waxed …
Another motivational speech
Posted on August 7, 2009, under daily life.
Here is a quite a cool promotional video for the Heineken Cup. It’s a bit like Al Pachino’s in Any Given Sunday Speech, but it’s adapted to rugby.
I quite like this idea, how would your organisation do a motivational video like this ? Do you feel passionately enough about what you do ? Can you instil this passion in others ? If you and your team were to tell people about what you do, how would the people feel about what you do afterwards. Would their opinion change ? What is your mantra ?
Whether you are a professional rugby player or a programmer (like me), you need to be passionate about what you do. It doesn’t have to be something glamorous or humanitarian.
If you are not passionate, then maybe you are doing something wrong. Life is too short to be miserable every day or not loving what you do. You don’t need to love every part of what you do (like having to fill out and pay taxes) but, it’s the overall feeling of enjoying what you do that is important. 
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