Personal: August 2005 Archives

Not sure how many I know, but by the sounds of them, I hate Generation Y. Actually, I'm pretty sure I know a few, and they are annoying.

I suspect American Gen Yers are more tolerable than our ones, though, since they're into volunteering and other laudable pastimes. Our lot seem to be in it for themselves.

But how do they afford it? In my day, bankruptcy and not having anywhere to live were the inevitable outcome of quitting jobs or not having jobs in the first place. I'd have liked to have found jobs that paid me so much for the three months I was working that I could swan off to Venezuela or wherever and not find myself sleeping on the streets when I got back and incapable of getting another job after such a career break. But maybe that's my choice of career for you.

I must be getting old.

Updates and related entries
January 11, 2006: I'm already on record as having more than a marginal dislike of Generation Y. Now I see there's a book,

I really wanted Orange to be good. After T-Mobile, how could it be anything but better? But while T-Mobile may be harsh, it is efficient. Orange is incompetent.

Mobile phone insurance. Have a think about it. What's the point? You've been on a contract for a year, someone steals your phone: what happens next? You get a new phone free on another contract somewhere else. Or you buy a pay as you go phone.

How about stolen airtime? What if the thieves make calls with your phones? Check your small print. I've been investigating and very few insurers cover airtime theft (aka “airtime abuse”). One covers airtime abuse only after you've reported the theft to your network provider: the phrase “as useless as a chocolate teapot” occurs to me.

I'm still checking Carphone Warehouse out, which claims to insure up to £1,000 or airtime theft; the CPP Group does similarly but only for theft of airtime during the 12 hours before you report the theft to the provider, the police and the CPP group. I'll let you know if anyone turns out to be more helpful.