Of Atlas Shrugged

I think I must like pain and punishment. Isn't there a word for that sort of person?
Last year and by that I mean almost all of last year I read War and Peace. Now recovered, I'm embarking on another tome of a book Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shugged".
This is considered by many to be a classic but it's by no means accessible as a book. It's over 1,000 pages long all very small type face too. The person who put me onto it described it as life changing and that for me is a good enough recommendation for a book.
I'm on the train Thursday to Dublin for three hours so let battle Barry against book begin.

Of Blogging Around the World

This Internet thing never fails to amaze me. It's quite incredible what you can do now; things you would never have imagined possible 20 years ago when, apparently, email was invented.

Today, we have a new blogger at Legal-Island : Beata one of our hens. She's being fronted by a professional blogger living in the Kalahari desert in Africa. Yes, that's right. the Kalahari desert Africa. The link to her blog is here. After four blogs a lady in the USA takes over and who knows where we'll go with it after that.

As one of our staff said "I hope it doesn't go to her head". All we need is a diva on our hands!

Of Poor Customer Service

I'm in a bit of a grumpy mood this morning. I had two experiences of poor customer service in the space of six hours yesterday and I'm still trying to let go my annoyance. I wish poor customer service didn't affect like this but it does. There's no excuse for it in today's economy. It annoys me that some entrepreneur has probably risked a whole lot of cash in a business that is being dragged downhill by someone on the front line who doesn't understand the importance of their role and the disrespect they're showing both the customer and their employer. There! Rant over! I feel better!

Of Bloggers of the World Unite

I think I might be onto something. I posted an advert on Elance.com yesterday for a blogger to blog on behalf of Britney our top hen at Legal-Island. So far the response has been phenomenal. I've had 18 replies many of them pleading to blog for Britney claiming to have kept hens in their youth and to be able to get in the head of a good hen like no-one else can.
I've had all sorts apply from a published writer in India to a practising minister in the USA. We've had a woman in Educador volunteer and language student in Pakistan.
What would be great is if they could all do it. Each would blog for a month then hand over the life and soap story of Britney to another blogger. Britney you may soon be more famous than you could ever  know!

In fact, if you'd like to volunteer to blog for Britney for between 1 week and 4 (twice a week of about 100-200 words) then leave your details below or email me on barryjphillips@hotmail.com telling me a little about who and where your are and what country you're from.

More on Britney and the girls can be found here Legal-Island

Of Musing About Over the Weekend

I've just launched my first Tim Ferris "Muse" which is quite exciting. It's to be found here in its full glory Best Man's Speech. It's been a great learning curvy working out how to twiddle the knobs and levers of Adwords, Weebly and Twitter not to mention getting the most from such sites as Elance and Clickbank.

Of The Girls and the Boys

The girls are back - or at least they're back in action. It's like they've remembered what their purpose is here on earth. It is not to look pretty. It's not to eat Legal-Island out of house and home but to lay eggs. Ok the eggs aren't huge but they're beginning to pop out again after failing to show for a good few months. This means our egg networking can begin in earnest. In other words when a member of the Legal-Island staff goes out to meet someone they take a box of four eggs with them, often with a personalised label on it.
I've always found it quite amusing how each gender differs in terms of their response when given a box of our eggs. Males look at you with a degree of suspicion at first, like you're challenging their sexuality. But eventually they grow to like the gesture and thank you for it. Women on the other hand appear immediately delighted. They open up the box shut it again and shoot of their chair to go and show a colleague.

Of Engelbert Humperdinck and Blatant Ageism

I awoke this morning to the news that Engelbert Humperdinck has been chosen to represent the UK in the Eurovision song contest. And why not? He's got a superb voice and has had more hits than most individuals or groups that have entered the competition over the many decades that it has been running. I've yet to hear a radio report that doesn't mention his age and many have been either patronizing or damn right ageist.
Google the Susan Boyle video of her debut on "Britain's Got Talent" and the first thing you hear is Simon Cowel demanding to know "what's your age luv" (ageist and sexist in four words - now that takes some beating). Watch "Weakest link" and the first thing contestants are required to do is state how old they are.

Wasn't age discrimination outlawed a good while ago? We're clearly still obsessed with age or at least youth. Now there's something to sing about Engelbert.