Geek in progress

For the past months, all Ghent university employees and students have been spammed on a regular basis, to ask them to cast their vote in favour of a Ghent University building that is competing in a TV show, to get refurbished. The show will select one monument in Flanders for getting fixed back to its original state, as the government seems to have too little money to keep our monuments intact.

I can see that the upper echelons would want to let us know that we can actually vote, should we not have watched that TV show (which I didn’t). But to keep sending out these emails on a regular basis, to all employees and students, just seems quite unethical to me. By now, we know! And asking us to ask our friends and family to vote for this particular building seems to take it a step further.

And it’s not even a cool building. To put it simple: it’s butt ugly (YMMV). During WWII, the Germans had occupied the university library, and mounted anti-aircraft defenses on its top. Meanwhile, they apparently had decadent parties on the upper floors. If there was one building the English should have levelled with the ground, this was probably it. A pity for the books, but IMO, there are far better looking libraries, e.g., in Seattle.

So please, stop spamming us. I’m not casting any vote, and should I cast one, I’d certainly not vote for the university library. I like the King’s Stables in Ostend far better.

I received a flyer today in which the university encourages its employees to think about alcohol usage at work. I know of no people in my immediate vicinity who have alcohol problems, but higher echelons seem to take this matter very serious, as they should. However, upon reading the flyer, I noticed a page on which the reasonable amount of alcohol a healthy person may drink, is discussed. Three rules are presented:

• On average, drink no more than three glasses a day (two for women).
• At most, drink five glasses a time (three for women).
• Don’t drink any alcohol at least two days per week.

So, basically, don’t drink over the weekend, as you probably will want to remember the fun you had. And spread the 21 drinks you’re allowed to have accross the five other days. That’s four drinks per day, except on Friday, when you can start the weekend by having an extra drink.

It seems to me that the rules stated above are well beyond what’s reasonable. In my opinion, somebody who even drinks but one glass a day, can get addicted, though it may not seem too bad. At first.