Life and pondering the merits of a NO REFUND CULTURE
Modern living
Modern living: Going to Uni the modern way. Jealous? Moi? – Oh yes…
Aug 23rd
It’s that time of year again – exam results are out and thousands of young folk are either jumping for joy or have had tears of disappointment and are then furiously trying to work out what to do next. I only know one lucky stick who is about to start the journey to University – so congratulations to Ms Sophie Briggs (who we saw at the weekend) who will be going off to her chosen University. Sophie’s experience of the exam results / ‘have I got into my chosen Uni?’ day(s) was very different to mine…
- She logged into a website (UCAS) and was able to see if she had got into her chosen university:
- Answer ‘yes’
- She then trundled off to her (now former) educational establishment to get her grades (which were by the by as she was already in to chosen establishment)
- She was able to send a multiple recipient text / twitter / instant message to her posse to let them know
- People got to hug and kiss / hug and cry / hug and get away from the annoying successful ones as quickly as possible
- Get down the pub via a co-ordinated mobile phone around
- Deal with the hangover
How the world has changed…
When I got the results of those per-Uni exams (circa 1990) we had to:
- Dash off to our educational establishment to get our grades
- Get through the nightmare of people hugging and kissing / hugging and crying / hugging and then trying to get away from the annoying successful ones as quickly as possible by…
- Get down the pub
- Then overcome the fretting if our grades didn’t quite match-up to your preferred university’s requirements (mine fell a bit short) while continuing to avoid the folk that met the mark
- We then had to…
- Deal with the hangover
- Spend two days waiting before calling our preferred University to see if we had got on (I did – University of Bath said ‘yes’ – thank goodness otherwise Hena, Charlotte, Rhian-Mari (RM), and Ed would not be my Uni friends and now permanent fixtures in my life – the thought of life without them makes me shudder)
- You then spent days on the family home phone calling all your friend’s mums (your friends were out) and leaving messages that ‘all good – I got into Bath’
So… the Internet has made that little window in our lives more streamlined and efficient. There is still the drama though (and the hangover) which is fabulous.
Now very few of my friends (I don’t think anyone did but my memory isn’t what it was!!!) had to go through the ‘clearing’ process which is the mad panic to secure your place. Now according to those that know these things this year is a difficult one. Demand here in the UK is much higher than usual – five people for every spare place rather than the usual average of two.
Now I am not sure of the 2009 approach to clearing – but on face value it seems to be the same as circa 1990. The lists of spare places are published in the weekend newspapers in supplements and those who need to get on the old fashioned blower.
This post was prompted by both catching up with Sophie and also flicking through The Independent on Sunday UCAS university clearing supplement. There seem to be a load of great courses up for grabs and I am sure the phone lines that people have to call are burning hot.
I haven’t looked at university courses since pre-circa 1990 so I was amused, amazed and at points jealous of the type of courses that the young folk of the UK might get to study – times have changed my friends (A LOT). Now I studied good old fashioned Biology (and I absolutely LOVED IT) and my Chad studied French and Italian. My core gang also studied French and Italian plus RM – Physics, Hena – Business. The graduates of 2012 / 2013 here in the UK will be leaving with the solid degrees of the past, but their comrades will also be leaving with degrees of the ‘now’. Here are the, from the Crump perspective, modern, crazy, and fabulous list of degree courses that just wouldn’t have existed (or at least small town Neil Crump would have had no ideas or interest in) when I was a fresh faced young thing pre my coming of age in the early 90s:
- Acupuncture
- Adventure
- Auctioning (circa 90s an auction was for posh people – eBay what?
- Bioinformatics
- Casino operations
- Computer Games
- Cosmetics (This would have been a good one for me!)
- Crime Scene Investigation (Rhian-Mari would have loved to do this one)
- Cybernetics
- Databases
- Disaster Studies (I would love this one based on my pre-Chad relationship experience)
- Digital Media
- E-Marketing
- E-Science
- East European Studies (no-one cared in circa 1990 – now we have fabulous holidays there)
- Editing
- Energy Science
- Ethics (This was probably around, however in the 1990s the syllabus would have been pretty thin!!!)
- Football (where there is money there is a quality degree course!)
- Folklore Studies (it probably existed but no one would have cared pre 90s – we do now)
- Games Design (again where there is a multi-billion dollar industry there will be a degree)
- Globalisation
- History of Ideas (I want to do this one – BRILLIANT)
- Independent Studies (no idea [!] what this would be but I am gonna look into it for you, but you can do this in Suffolk and Sunderland)
- Information Security
- Innovation (hells bells – I wanna study this one as well – you can study this all over the bloomin’ place)
- Internet (in the early 90s this was not even a word I had even heard of!!!)
- Lighting (pre-energy efficiency bulbs, pre-LED in my day – this is definitely one for me)
- Multimedia (in the 90s there were about three different types – getting multi would have been very easy – any old juggler could have done it)
- Security / Defence Studies (this did probably exist but never before has this felt so [I wish un-] necessary)
- Sustainability
- Wine Studies (why in hells name hadn’t I seen this / realised this course existed when I was a lad!)
- Wireless
- WWW
Well there is my skim list through the list of fascinating degrees up for grabs. The world has changed, a lot lot lot, but do you know what… Sophie and the class of the University of Life 2009 are going to have the same experience of nearly 20 years ago. It’s the most amazing time of your life (whatever you study) you change (I think for the better) meet and make friends with amazing people, wow wee I am so jealous (in a good way). So Ms Sophie – go for it… have fun, look after yourself (please, please, please), let us come up to Keele and spoil you for a couple of weekends and above all remember it all..
Trust me 20 years on you will be able to relive it all with a smile on your face :+)
(Very edited [;+)] comment from Bath posse are required [ ;+)])
Modern living: Being ‘yes and…’
Aug 15th
…rather than ‘no but…’.
I am back from my holiday in Cornwall, where we visited the most westerly point of England (Lands End – which is a tacky tourist hell hole) as well as the most southerly point (The Lizard – which is lovely and the cafe there does a great lunch). I stayed at my sister’s house (while she was away in France on a family holiday – thanks Elaine x).
Now the danger of a holiday in the UK is the weather not being up to scratch. I appreciate this is a very British topic but there is a good reason for this – our weather changes a lot in a season / a month / a day / an hour. This summer we have had days when we have literally had beating hot sun, torrential rain, followed by hail stones. Well our week in Cornwall was no exception – on days two and three water teamed from the sky solidly, which was all the more annoying as day one of hols was a sunny stunner.
I stated in my pre-holiday post on 29 July that ‘It will be great if the weather improves but ho hum if it doesn’t…’ however by the morning of day three I can tell you that I had lost the ‘ho hum’ spring in my step. I was feeling very annoyed that the weather was so rubbish. I was in a total ‘no but’ zone – every time Chad suggested something we could do I was being a grump and starting my responses with ‘no but…’ and guess what it got us absolutely nowhere.
I managed to snap myself out of the zone with a conscious effort to be ‘yes and…’. This is a tip that I have been taught to facilitate creativity at work. I often use this technique with clients prior to a meeting where I need people into a good zone where they can think outside of their normal constraints. The best way to explain this is to try out the following exercise with someone…
OK - you are going to plan a picnic with the other person. One of you is going to suggest something about the picnic, say for example where the pair of you could go for this special occasion. The other person needs to start their response ‘No but…’ and explain why. Try this for a couple of minutes going back and forth.
Now try the picnic planning with a ‘Yes and…’ approach, where you suggest something and the other persons response is ‘yes and…’, try this back and forth.
See the point? See which experience is exciting and uplifting, full of energy and vigour? The other being an emotional drain where you want the other person to just shut up. When you need to get progress and get somewhere you need to not over analyse – you need to build on other people’s ideas, add to them and you end up in a much better place. With this approach you get much better material and you just need to spend some time editing afterwards.
So I had to practice what I preach and get into a ‘yes and…’ mindset as the rain fell in bucketsful. On day three we ended up having a fun day and thankfully the rest of the week the sun came out to play.
We had a great break – lots of whizzing around in the car (with the hood down), we consumed a decent amount of booze (we visited a great vineyard in Camel Valley), ate great food (including lunch at Jamie Oliver’s place) and visited a seal sanctuary that I last went to on a Crump family holiday when I was about eight years old.
Sometimes when we are feeling grey we just need to apply ‘Yes anding’ to our lives. We can be so sceptical and throw up walls and excuses. Sometimes you just gotta dive on in there, yes and, swim to the bottom, yes and, find that treasure chest, yes and…
Off-line holiday
Jul 29th
I am terribly excited – today is the start of my holiday – 14 consecutive days off, although today is a hybrid work / day off day – but heck it is midday and I am still in my dressing gown – RESULT.
Chad and I are doing a bit of a staycation, hanging out together along with visiting a few folk in the UK and I cannot wait. The only downside is that the cats have to spend time in a cattery (which we hate doing) but I am sure that they will be OK.
I am also going to break my blogging / google reader / twitter addiction for the next 14 days. I am also going to disable the email on my Blackberry to help facilitate the brain rest. The Crump is officially off-line.
I’ve got two great creative / business books to read (my favourite genre which Claire my business partner bought me for my birthday) plus a load of trash thriller novels (my second favourite genre). So I am going to be paper-based for the next couple of weeks which is all very exciting.
It will be great if the weather improves but ho hum if it doesn’t – I am going to sleep until 9 every morning and it is going to be bliss.
So my friends be good and ‘have fun’.
No Refund Culture – Neil’s blog has moved
Jul 5th
No Refund Culture
Hi there – I have now moved my blog to the following address:
It’s still very much ‘You’ve Been Crumped’ but with the added element of ‘No Refund Culture’. An explanation of what this is all about can be read on the new blog by clicking here.
I have moved it to a new place so that it is easier to use (and hopefully looks a bit better) – let me know what you think of the new look. The new theme on the blog is fun as in the top right hand corner as the reader you can change the colours depending on your mood.
If you follow me please change the RSS feed or the address in your reader.
If you have kindly linked to me in your blogroll then it would be great if you could change the web address.
Thanks, Neil
Modern living: Forget Pablo, may I introduce Neil Picasso…
Jun 29th
I was hopeless at drawing at school. Have a go at doing your own at Mr Picasso Head.
Modern living: Stress gets everywhere
Jun 21st
If you are a townie like me and think that our modern urban lives are stressful, then please spare a though to our countryside dwelling friends…
I spotted this on the notice board in the the foyer of the Shropshire church where Ali and Emily were hitched.
Modern living: Green, maroon and moronic
Jun 3rd
We have European Parliamentary elections tomorrow (not local ones where I live). I’ve already cast my vote via the post – I’ve missed out voting in the past because of ending up not being able to get to a polling station in time (normally because of work) so I have been a firm believer in the security of a postal vote for the past 10 years.
So I’ve already marked the ‘X’ on my ballot paper to be counted. I’ve voted for the party that run my Borough, who are also the party of my MP (I live in Brent and so feel free to do your own homework). I can tell you that I didn’t vote for the Green Party – and today just reinforced why…
We got back to Camden from a prospective client meeting at lunchtime. So a colleague and I jumped out of the cab and dashed to a favourite sandwich eatery to get, surprise, surprise, a sandwich. As we started walking down Camden High Street we could hear someone ranting on a megaphone in the distance.
We turned round a few times and as the traffic started up from the traffic lights the words ‘Vote Green tomorrow’ came into ear shot. Then the orator came into view. A lady passenger of a maroon Toyota Prius was heading toward us down the road, window down, megaphone hanging out of the car with luminous green ‘Vote Green’ posters sellotaped to the rear windows. Again she cried ‘Vote Green Tomorrow’.
Now my colleague and I looked at each other and as I though it, my colleague yelled out “Get on your bike and stop driving around in a car”. Green lady yells back “It’s an electric car – vote Green tomorrow”, as they sped off into the distance.
Man oh man – so many things funny yet fundamentally wrong about the whole thing:
- Where does Green lady think that electricity comes from? Let me tell you: the burning of fossil fuels or nuclear power
- A Prius does use a bit of electricity but we do have to remember that they actually use more petrol to get themselves around
- Aural spamming is not a good way of persuading people to do anything you want them to do
- The car was maroon, yes I know, maroon – can a car possibly be sprayed a worse colour? Who buys a maroon car?
This is the problem with single issue organisations – if you are single issue you lose all credibility the second you don’t totally act in line with that single issue.
I think that the environment is hugely important and a difficult thing to balance with our modern lives of, to name just a few things, cars, planes and doing our shopping online (where our little one-off purchases get whizzed from across the globe). It’s a huge quandary.
I don’t want be too disparaging of the Greens. Single issue political parties are important. They keep us on our toes, we need people with extreme issues (as long as they don’t cause genuine harm) – it’s just that shrieking from an ugly coloured, pseudo-environmental credentialed car expecting the recipients to be mobilised into action is, well, just plain moronic.
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