Materialistic Idealist's blog: "Random stuff"

Theres a growing trend here for employees of services such as gas, electricity, water, telephone, etc to address their customers very casually by their first names. Some people find this acceptable but many do not. Mainly older people have found this particularly unacceptable and objectionable. The rationale is to appear "cool" and "trendy", rather than old school. My understanding is that it is more professional to stick to a title + surname basis. Having said that, I wouldn't be particularly offended by someone going to a first name basis so long as they provided a good service. As a professional, I tend to stick to the old school title + surname way of addressing people till I am invited to use their first name. I recently read an article all about this, which has prompted me to write this blog. What is everyone else's view?

People have vices. Some take drugs, some drink, some indulge in other forms of debauchery. One of my major vices is an addiction to cholesterol. No matter how hard I try I can't stay away from unhealthy food. Before I started working I was able to eat whatever I wanted with impunity. I played a couple of hours of badminton every day, attended 3 or 4 kung fu classes a week and walked everywhere. Different situation now. No time for physical activity and junk food has become an easy source of recreation. But I think its time to do something about it now. Anyone else had this problem? Any advice?

Have we all returned to an era of slavery? About a hundred year ago, most people earned their living with small scale business. There was no boss as such but if you didn't work hard you didn't get to eat. Now, most people work under a boss or for a company. The boss/company is effectively able to hold you in a state of slavery. Keep them happy or lose your job. Contracts may not accurately refelect working hours or practices. Protests about this may not be looked upon kindly. They effectively own you. Instead of being paid for the real value of their labour, people are paid a reduced wage/salary in return for job security. Hence freelancers make so much more. Is the only truly free individual in todays society the self employed entrepreneur? Would you risk security for freedom and money by becoming an entrepreneur?

One of the staple questions in mumms seems to be medical problems. To an extent I can understand why. In UK, healthcare is free at the point of delivery but I know thats not the case in other places, and cost is an issue. What I'm curious about is why post the questions in a mumm rather than a specialised medical site? And do the mumm posters actually follow the advice given? Would you really trust a group of amateurs to look after you health without even assessing you properly? Do the people posting the advice really know what they are talking about or are they taking a "try it and hope for the best" approach? lol

When you come up againt the pain barrier how do you get through it? Not just a physical pain barrier, but also things like severe boredom or indifference when youre doing some boring?

Right now I'm going through a supervillain phase. Hence the name and pic (Dr Wiley is the main villain from the Mega Man games). What makes a good villain?