1. Queuing
Standing in line really bugs me. Whether it's a supermarket checkout, a cinema queue or getting into a gig - I am equally vexed. Especially when it's an unnecessary queue. For example, I was in an unnamed supermarket recently and of the TWENTY checkouts they have, only TWO were open. To top it off, all but one of the self-service tills were broken. As it was a busy Saturday evening, queues were prevalent. "Every little helps" me arse.

2. Ads Louder Than the Programmes on the Telly
Why oh why must the ads be louder than the programme you're watching on the telly??!! It's not going to greatly endear the product in question to me - in fact it may have the opposite effect. Certain channels are more prone to this than other - Sky, Paramount, ITV, Channel 4. Sort it out - it's really annoying.

3. Rude People
I know I'm going to sound like Granny O'Connor from the 1920s here, but a kind word costs nothing. Being civil, courteous and polite is not a sign of weakness - especially from people in the retail or service industry. Nothing gets my back up like an uppity salesperson. As of today, I've decided to stand for this no longer. (And Yes, I do realise I sound like a crank)

4. Acts who are rockstars first and musicians second
"Look at me, our band have released a single - we want 1000 purple M&Ms." Get down off yourselves and cop the f*&k on. I'll say no more.

5. Excess packaging
Why must items come with so much cardboard, polystyrene, bubblewrap, etc?! What's the story? I'm not a green freak, but the amount of waste packaging that fills up our bin each week is astounding.

6. No Accountability
No one takes responsibility for anything any more. This goes right from the very top (you know who I'm taking about) down to the lowliest call-centre minion. I recently had to deal with a mobile company about a mistake on a bill that took months to sort out. Part of the reason for this was that every time I called, I spoke to a different person. None of the people would give me their full name or direct contact number so I could take the matter up with them again. They kept saying it was logged on the system, yet every time I called, I had to re-explain the situation again to the next pleb on the phone. I don't blame the actual individuals here - this is a cultural phenomenon. Extrapolate this out further and you can see why the health service is in a mess. No one is accountable for anything. Frustrating is not the word.

Rant over

John Reynolds has written a very interesting piece for SiliconRepublic.com (that also appears in today's Irish Independent) entitled It's time to face the music: the future of the entertainment business, which believe it or not, is about the future of this merry-go-round of an industry many of us inhabit. The article focuses on business models and different methods of delivering digital content, whether it's music, video, games or whatever.

This is a subject I've been following for some time now. A few years ago, I nearly started a PhD on business models for digital music (thankfully for my sanity I didn't!). I would consider myself to be someway educated about these matters and I'm as confused as anyone. Here are a few simple truths as I see them, which may help gather my thoughts. This relates mostly to the recording industry, but applies equally to television, film and video game content also.

So it's nearly been a week since Dustin the Turkey was awarded the honour of representing Ireland as this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade (or maybe somewhere else, depending on the situation).

As far as I'm concerned, Dustin's song and performance was completely self-aware, whereas the other 5 entries were (let's face it) rubbish. According to RTE, their judging panel included Charlie McGettigan, Eleanor McEvoy and Bill Hughes. Now, no one can accuse these people of being novices and whatever you may think about their own creative outputs (It's well known that I have a bit of a grá for Eleanor McEvoy anyway), you can be quite sure they could recognise a decent tune. However, from what I can gather, they only heard a shortlist of the submitted entries. So who decided what made the shortlist? I refuse to believe that of the 200 entries RTE claims it received, these 6 were the best. Which leads me to my next point ...