Joerg's Ramblings – Page 12 – A Foreigner in Ireland

Telephonephobia is a new thing!

29 September 2018Written by Joerg Steegmueller

With surprise I read about a new “problem” in this world. It is the fear of having a phone conversation. The reasons can be manifold. Maybe the information you have to pass on is bad news, or you are concerned that the person you talk to would put you on the sport and you don’t know how to answer a question, or your communication partner is just toooo chatty.

I am on the phone a LOT, due to work, but also for private calls, but after reading about the fear of phone conversations in a German publication, I realised that there are some people that I hardly EVER talk to on the phone. Facebook Messenger and What’s App are the only means we use to communicate with each other. :-O

Are we hiding behind all these messaging apps?

I am not sure if the term Telephonephobia has been used yet for this new type of aversion of using the phone, but it definitely has the danger to become a bit of a problem. A few minutes of a call will create a closer bond with the other person AND will speed up the communication hugely. Have you ever tried to arrange a meeting with someone on messaging platforms only? It can be a pain in the backside to make all arrangements and usually takes a lot longer than a quick call.

So I am in favour of using the phone to TALK to people again. ;-) Who is with me?

Odd Aversion of using the phone, Telephonephobia

The end of 1890 numbers! – Good riddance!

28 September 2018Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Hurray, one big user of 1890 numbers has stopped using them! The Irish Revenue commissioner loved 1890 numbers and it was difficult sometimes to find the geographical (and cheaper) number, but now they completely stopped using them. A great day for customer service.

Many people don’t know the 1890 “scam”, so let me explain:
Many many moons ago when we still had landlines, the phone companies came up with a marketing solution for companies that wanted to provide a better customer service. If a company used a 1890 number then they would pay for part of the call cost and the caller would pay a lower and capped price. Telecom Eireann/Eircom/eir called these numbers “LoCall” numbers and back in the days this was actually correct, But then came mobile phone companies along and in their greed, they ignored the LoCall idea and instead charged a surcharge. :-O For reasons I will never understand, the telecommunications regulator ComReg didn’t stop the mobile phone companies from scamming the customers. But it got worse! When mobile phone companies introduced inclusive minutes, calls to 1890 numbers were not taken out of that minute budget and still cost a surcharge.
So if you can avoid them, NEVER use 1890 numbers and tell companies that still use them that they had good intention, but are hurting their customers now. NOBODY should use 1890 numbers anymore!
www.thejournal.ie/revenue-new-numbers-4256271-Sep2018

Other numbers to avoid: 1850, 076, 0818 and all 15x numbers. Always look for numbers beginning with a geographical code like “01” etc.

Other 1890, ComReg, LoCall, Revenue, scam, Telecom Eireann

Nobody is allowed to check the President’s spend?

22 September 2018Written by Joerg Steegmueller

The job of the “Public Accounts Committee (PAC)” is to check the expenditure of all offices, departments and government agencies to make sure that they don’t waste money and that everything is done and accounted for properly.

They are meant to do that regularly, but oddly it seems that the expenditure of the President wasn’t checked for a much longer time.

Now they have decided to do that checking in the next week. But suddenly the “Secretary General to the Government and Accounting Officer for the Office of the President” has a big problem with that check. He thinks it is even unconstitutional because nobody is allowed to check the President. Interestingly the Taoiseach and the leader of the opposition both also are worried about that check.

Odd! If all is well, nobody should be worried and if things are not well, then we should definitely find out BEFORE the presidential election. Don’t you think?

RTE writes about it here.

Elections, Irish, Politics, President, Taxes Expenditure, Michael D Higgins, President

Pet Hate Alert: “, and” – Mind your commas!

21 September 2018Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Why, oh why can people not write proper English. I am foreigner and at least I have a semi-acceptable excuse, but the amount of native English speakers (and writers) that ALWAYS put a comma before an “and” is shocking.

An example would be: “At the event, there will be music, dance, and theatre!”

This is WRONG!!!!!! A comma can be put before an “and” but only if the following sentence after the “and” could be a self standing sentence. Do not use a comma before “and” in a list.

And if you tell me now that the comma in a list is an Oxford Comma, then I will ask you next if your publication is the “Oxford University Press”, because that is the publication that came up with the very controversial use of a comma in a list.

Other, Uncategorized Comma before and, English, Oxford Comma, Punctuation

New Dublin City Library at Parnell Square

13 September 2018Written by Joerg Steegmueller

Dublin will get a new library and the days of the old one in ILAC Centre are numbered. The new location will be on Parnell Square just next to the Hugh Lane Gallery and the final plans have been submitted to An Bord Pleanala. If all goes according to plan, the library will be finished in 2023.

It is a big project, for which 5 (not so nice) Georgian Buildings will get sacrificed. The former Colaiste Mhuire is part of the buildings that will be redeveloped (or replaced). There are some interesting pictures of the new library in the article in TheJournal.ie here. It looks very pretty and impressive, but that also raises a big question: Does a new library have to look pretty? Or should functionality not take priority?

Have a look at the third picture that shows MASSIVE, not I am talking about M A S S I V E concrete pillars inside the building and a LOT of empty and unusable space. the few little book shelves. I would have the distribution to be the other way around.

Is it expensive, I hear you asking? How does 100 mio sound to you? Lot of concrete, you know! ;-) Dublin City says they will have to pay not more than 45 mio and will magically get the rest from philanthropy.

Dublin City Council Central Library, Public Library