Surely I can't be the only person getting rapidly frustrated by our society's general downward trend?  In these days of political correctness and perceived equality, it seems that our standards are slipping to the acceptance of mediocrity, and measuring everything by the lowest common denominator.

We are no longer a great civilisation with great ideals and a desire to strive for success (personally, professionally, and as a society), but a stagnant one which is content to rot in its obese corpulence.

My advance apologies to those of us in society who actually strive to work hard and to make something of their personal and professional lives, but it appears that the majority of people are content to wallow in complacency - working their average jobs, driving their average cars, and generally living an average life with no desire to work towards something better.

There are millions of people here in the UK who are content to work their average 9-5, M-F hours (out of necessity more than desire), then spend the weekend drinking all of their earnings down the drain.  A sizeable minority of us have refined this into an art - trashing our bodies so completely that we need hospitalised every month or so for excessive consumption of alcohol.

No-one appears to want to work for success any longer - there are those amongst us who feel that success should simply be handed to us on a silver platter.  We even celebrate this - may I cite the nation's obsession with Big Brother as a torrid example of this mentality.  While its true that the programme can, at times, be entertaining - does no-one else despair the fact that these people, who mostly can't even hold down a decent job, are propelled into (admittedly short-term) celebrity status?  Why are people buying "official Big Brother" weekly magazines crammed with the latest irrelevancies of the contestants' lives?  Why do we celebrate these people?  They have clearly demonstrated that they add no value to society whatsoever.

In better days, people were propelled into greatness for doing great things - whether that be by working hard, making huge selfless sacrifices, or generally leading society into a better age.  Now our culture is reduced to one which fawns over non-achievers - if that statement sounds harsh, how else can you justify a society which contains people who buy empty cans of dog food from Paris Hilton's trash for $305?

My theory?  We have become a stagnant society of mediocre non-achievers, who all want low-effort glitzy celebrity lives.  We love the likes of Paris Hilton and Jade Goody because if individuals with absolutely no talent, no display of education no real job can become rich and famous, that gives hope to the untalented masses that, they too, have a hope of attaining this corpulent lifestyle.

So... where do you stand?

So here I am, in Princes Street Gardens, having unwittingly spent the entire day sometimes-chaperoning members of the public as they have "fun" on mountain bikes. Bit surprising, as I was expecting to spend the Fri and Sat celebrating someone's birthday, and the Sun back in Aberdeen catching up on work.

Ah well - shows you can't plan for everything.

Most unbecoming of all, though, is the fact that I've been an occasional free labourer for the day. Moving bits of trail planks around the park - don't people realise I'm a *consultant*?!? Surely I've graduated beyond manual labour - any extra physical work might unbalance my perfectly-honed buff figure! Bah...!

Anyway - as I'm here, I may as well plug the cause I'm supporting.  Want mountain-biking lessons or, even better, fantastic corporate events?  If you're based in the Edinburgh area, go speak to Iain at MB7 to arrange a fun/serious day out!  Tell him Stan sent you... :)



[Blogged using Windows Mobile 5]

If, like me, you find yourself unable to attend Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver over the next few days, then you'll be pleased to know that a lot of the content is being made available on-line.

Head over to the Digital 07 Worldwide Partner Conference site...

[Blogged using Microsoft Windows Live Writer]

Well, not really...

Still - I'm finding Resident Evil 4 for the Wii very good fun.  Yes - I did own (and complete!) the GameCube version, but I'm more than happy to spend some cash to be able to play the game again, especially with the new Wii controls.

If you're wondering about the title of this posting, the tenuous link is that they're not zombies, they're Spanish-speaking Europeans that have been infested by Las Plagas.

[Blogged using Microsoft Windows Live Writer]