Love it or loathe it, porn is the reason why the internet is so big these days.
I doubt if many if they were honest could deny they've never looked at porn usually within days of getting a internet connection.
I Remember watching a program years back which detailed the fact that most internet inovations were powered by the porn industry, secure transactions were made possible by companies set up to handle porn subscriptions before banks and retailers ever dreamed of going online.
Basically if the porn industry hadn't embraced the internet so readily 10-15 years ago it would most likely still only be available to the very rich and in a vastly reduced form.
What reminded of this, was I have a Rapidshare account for downloading the sort of stuff you find in blogland, cheap enough on it's own but can be free if you fancy uploading stuff for others to download (although 10,000 downloads for a free month is a bit steep).
I've uploaded various stuff around the net with a limited success over the last few months (a couple of hundred downloads only), so I tried uploading a couple of porn clips this morning to a popular forum and nearly a 1,000 downloads in 8 hours!!
As I say despite the denials I know what most of you are really looking at :)
Monday, 31 December 2007
Saturday, 22 December 2007
Merry Christmas
Just like to say to anyone that reads this blog -
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Although I don't really hold with the whole Jesus thing, I'll celebrate with the god of commercialism like everyone else and use it as an excuse to get drunk, over eat and watch some crap films.
Have a good one.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Although I don't really hold with the whole Jesus thing, I'll celebrate with the god of commercialism like everyone else and use it as an excuse to get drunk, over eat and watch some crap films.
Have a good one.
Commercials
Although I generally hate advertising due to the fact that everything is being taken over by it, I do enjoy some of the better made commercials.
Maybe it's just me but with a lot of commercials I watch I totally miss what they are actually advertising?, my son was mentioning if I had seen the new Carling ads? and I said I hadn't seen them.
When he described them to me I knew which ones he meant as I quite enjoyed them but hadn't even noticed what they were advertising?
Another one, an excellent set of animated adverts from Lloyds TSB bank I thought were advertising trains?
Have a look - Carling 1 - Carling 2 - Lloyds Trains 1 - Lloyds Trains 2 - Lloyds Trains 3 - Lloyds Trains 4 - Lloyds Trains 5
In case any of you are thinking of joining Lloyds .. don't do it they're a bunch of crooks and hopefully they'll go bust.
Maybe it's just me but with a lot of commercials I watch I totally miss what they are actually advertising?, my son was mentioning if I had seen the new Carling ads? and I said I hadn't seen them.
When he described them to me I knew which ones he meant as I quite enjoyed them but hadn't even noticed what they were advertising?
Another one, an excellent set of animated adverts from Lloyds TSB bank I thought were advertising trains?
Have a look - Carling 1 - Carling 2 - Lloyds Trains 1 - Lloyds Trains 2 - Lloyds Trains 3 - Lloyds Trains 4 - Lloyds Trains 5
In case any of you are thinking of joining Lloyds .. don't do it they're a bunch of crooks and hopefully they'll go bust.
TV License
Advertising does my head in, I am actually almost pleased I pay a TV license so I can actually watch the BBC channels without the overwhelming amount of commercials ruining every programme.
Although the whole principal of the TV license is wrong in my opinion, basically if you have a TV you have to pay it, with non payers in a few extreme cases being sent to jail.
Surely with the digital switchover upcoming it would be a more reasonable option to give people the choice, as the BBC could be a subscription only channel? although the huge loss of income would probably mean them having to take advertising as well... you can't win can you.
Although the whole principal of the TV license is wrong in my opinion, basically if you have a TV you have to pay it, with non payers in a few extreme cases being sent to jail.
Surely with the digital switchover upcoming it would be a more reasonable option to give people the choice, as the BBC could be a subscription only channel? although the huge loss of income would probably mean them having to take advertising as well... you can't win can you.
Passwords
A few years back at work I was pulled up by our security conscious IT department and told my system login had taken less than 3 seconds to break, and was advised to change it to something containing upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
So I've followed the advice ever since, the problem being once in a while I have a blank mind and totally forget them.
I sometimes amazed when I pull a password from the back of my mind for a rarely used website login, but once in a while a "brain file" goes missing!!
I write this after searching for hours for the scrap of paper I wrote this sites login on, I know we're advised not to write down passwords but with my housekeeping skills not being as tidy as my brain they are reasonably safe as I finally found it after going through two boxes of bills, junk mail and assorted crap I found it.
Would have been easier to send for a replacement I know, but don't like to be beaten :)
So I've followed the advice ever since, the problem being once in a while I have a blank mind and totally forget them.
I sometimes amazed when I pull a password from the back of my mind for a rarely used website login, but once in a while a "brain file" goes missing!!
I write this after searching for hours for the scrap of paper I wrote this sites login on, I know we're advised not to write down passwords but with my housekeeping skills not being as tidy as my brain they are reasonably safe as I finally found it after going through two boxes of bills, junk mail and assorted crap I found it.
Would have been easier to send for a replacement I know, but don't like to be beaten :)
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Nutters
America - Land of the Free, home of the Nutter with a gun.
Every country has nutters (England included).
I encountered 2 yesterday on a visit to the local bank, one old man who because he was asked to wait started swearing at everyone before storming out.
Also a middle aged woman who despite the cold and rain, was stood at the counter in a way too short mini skirt and high heels trying to look like a teenager despite being the wrong side of forty.
While shouting at the cashier (after being told she only had a tenner in her account) she repeatedly let everyone know that she should have more money because her mental health councillor had told her it would be in her account.
"I'm not gonna kick off, so there's no need to call the police" she shouted about 10 times.
The difference with British nutters is that in 99.99% of times they aren't carrying an automatic pistol or high powered rifle due to the gun laws, I'm sure that she would have shot the cashier (and a few others) if she had.
Most British nutters are harmless, the main exception being the drunken nutters after a night out although even the majority are not armed apart from the odd knife or baseball bat (another American influence).
We do have a growing gun problem but on the whole it is confined to inner city drug gang areas, although I imagine it will get worse until the government / police adopt a zero tolerance policy with anyone carrying a gun facing a proper life sentence or being legally shot by armed police.
America's "right to bear arms" a line taken out of context from the 2nd amendment to the American constitution (which is an ever changing document) seems to be used as the excuse by all the nutters in the NRA and other pro-gun groups to justify their ownership of enough firepower to fight a war.
It's like all the religious nutters always quote passages from their various holy books to justify murder, terrorism etc despite all religions having the non negotiable "thou shalt not kill" as one of the basic rules.
So another 9 dead yesterday after another American teenager decides to "end it all" while ending it all for more innocents, bringing the total to about 50 people dead from the 3 high profile incidents this year.
What shouldn't be overlooked that over 25,000 people die and over 60,000 people are injured every year in the US by firearms, not all are caused by criminal activities there are a fair number of suicides and accidents.
America (Bush) went to war over the death of less than 3,000 people in the "911" tragedy but every year nearly ten times as many Americans are killed by Americans.
Surely the ability of American people to live in safety would be better served by bringing his troops home and having them stationed in America dis-arming his own people, instead of sending his troops to all parts of the world stirring up even more hatred of his country and making America the preferred target of all extremists in the world.
Every country has nutters (England included).
I encountered 2 yesterday on a visit to the local bank, one old man who because he was asked to wait started swearing at everyone before storming out.
Also a middle aged woman who despite the cold and rain, was stood at the counter in a way too short mini skirt and high heels trying to look like a teenager despite being the wrong side of forty.
While shouting at the cashier (after being told she only had a tenner in her account) she repeatedly let everyone know that she should have more money because her mental health councillor had told her it would be in her account.
"I'm not gonna kick off, so there's no need to call the police" she shouted about 10 times.
The difference with British nutters is that in 99.99% of times they aren't carrying an automatic pistol or high powered rifle due to the gun laws, I'm sure that she would have shot the cashier (and a few others) if she had.
Most British nutters are harmless, the main exception being the drunken nutters after a night out although even the majority are not armed apart from the odd knife or baseball bat (another American influence).
We do have a growing gun problem but on the whole it is confined to inner city drug gang areas, although I imagine it will get worse until the government / police adopt a zero tolerance policy with anyone carrying a gun facing a proper life sentence or being legally shot by armed police.
America's "right to bear arms" a line taken out of context from the 2nd amendment to the American constitution (which is an ever changing document) seems to be used as the excuse by all the nutters in the NRA and other pro-gun groups to justify their ownership of enough firepower to fight a war.
It's like all the religious nutters always quote passages from their various holy books to justify murder, terrorism etc despite all religions having the non negotiable "thou shalt not kill" as one of the basic rules.
So another 9 dead yesterday after another American teenager decides to "end it all" while ending it all for more innocents, bringing the total to about 50 people dead from the 3 high profile incidents this year.
What shouldn't be overlooked that over 25,000 people die and over 60,000 people are injured every year in the US by firearms, not all are caused by criminal activities there are a fair number of suicides and accidents.
America (Bush) went to war over the death of less than 3,000 people in the "911" tragedy but every year nearly ten times as many Americans are killed by Americans.
Surely the ability of American people to live in safety would be better served by bringing his troops home and having them stationed in America dis-arming his own people, instead of sending his troops to all parts of the world stirring up even more hatred of his country and making America the preferred target of all extremists in the world.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Rants
So much to rant about, but writing was never a favourite subject.
So many things annoy me I really should write long boring rants about it, but probably no one reads this so it's a bit pointless?
So briefly -
Religion - Religion = Bigotry, ban it.
Labour Politicians - Bunch of crooks, trying a little too hard to be like the Tories.
Environment - Excuse for every rip-off merchant to make money from people's fears.
Newspapers - Tory rags peddling lies to the masses.
Advertising - Brainwashing.
Television - Too may channels, not enough content.
Office workers - Waste of space.
Text messaging - Killing the art of conversation.
Computers - Time consuming, addictive.
Alcohol - It's another drug, why advertise it?
Education - Exam passes for league tables not ability.
Football - Middle/Upper class sport nowadays.
Common sense - A Dying Art.
So many things annoy me I really should write long boring rants about it, but probably no one reads this so it's a bit pointless?
So briefly -
Religion - Religion = Bigotry, ban it.
Labour Politicians - Bunch of crooks, trying a little too hard to be like the Tories.
Environment - Excuse for every rip-off merchant to make money from people's fears.
Newspapers - Tory rags peddling lies to the masses.
Advertising - Brainwashing.
Television - Too may channels, not enough content.
Office workers - Waste of space.
Text messaging - Killing the art of conversation.
Computers - Time consuming, addictive.
Alcohol - It's another drug, why advertise it?
Education - Exam passes for league tables not ability.
Football - Middle/Upper class sport nowadays.
Common sense - A Dying Art.
Should Be Compulsory
A few tests that all drivers of "off road" vehicles should be made to try before obtaining their licences.
Obviously as they feel the need to buy one they must be planning to go off road, makes sense doesn't it?
A few more tests before approval -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KkrO2HtXfUs&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OMCp0ASrhgM&feature=related
This one made me laugh, watch the guy at the back forgetting his hand brake.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0s16bHOfQfg&feature=related
This one surprised me, a head on Renault Espace v Land Rover Discovery crash.
Was pleased to see the Land Rover driver would have come off worse if it happened.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GEBC9PbjPv4&feature=related
Obviously as they feel the need to buy one they must be planning to go off road, makes sense doesn't it?
A few more tests before approval -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KkrO2HtXfUs&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OMCp0ASrhgM&feature=related
This one made me laugh, watch the guy at the back forgetting his hand brake.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0s16bHOfQfg&feature=related
This one surprised me, a head on Renault Espace v Land Rover Discovery crash.
Was pleased to see the Land Rover driver would have come off worse if it happened.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GEBC9PbjPv4&feature=related
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Mediafire
Why do people use Mediafire to upload their files?
Every single time I try to download something I either get the message "Invalid Quickkey" or "This file has violated.. etc".
Seems totally pointless to use it, when there are many better options out there.
Every single time I try to download something I either get the message "Invalid Quickkey" or "This file has violated.. etc".
Seems totally pointless to use it, when there are many better options out there.
The Supermarket Handicap
No it's not a horse race, just another rant.
I popped into the supermarket to get some milk and fags, and as I'm returning to my car I'm slowly passed by an old guy with a bad limp, he had just come from his car parked next to mine 4 rows back from the front of the store.
Although the first thought is was he actually fit to drive a car, I then wondered why he hadn't parked in the 10 or so disabled places at the front of the store?
I checked his windscreen and sure enough there was a disabled badge.
So out of interest I checked the windows of the selection of 4x4's and People carriers in the disabled spaces and only one had a disabled badge.
My cure for this problem would obviously be to tow them away and send them to the crusher (the vehicles I mean), although a far more appealing thought came to me :)
Maybe the drivers could be checked for disabilities and if they didn't have one we could "nobble" them Kathy Bates style, to justify their use of disabled parking spots.
Monday, 12 November 2007
Ban It
Smoking was banned in enclosed public areas for a number of reasons, one of the strongest arguments was that it was really bad for asthmatics.
Now as a reformed asthmatic I find this argument to be totally false.
I say reformed asthmatic because after 20+ years of being on 2 Ventolin inhalers a month, my asthma has now gone? this has coincided with me being out of work for the first time in that period.
Possible reasons - when working I was limited to about 2-3 cigarettes during a working day due to the industries I worked in (Petrochemical, Gas etc), now I smoke 20-40 a day.
Also I don't breathe in traffic fumes like I used to when spending around an hour each way on the road going to and from work - Draw your own conclusions.
One thing that does set off my asthma is strong floral smells as found in those air fresheners and products used to fragance your homes.
The missus bought one of those things that sprays a jet of perfume every 10 minutes to make the house smell nice? after half an hour I couldn't breathe and had to stand outside.
If I walk through a perfume department of a department store it has the same effect.
So as minorities can now govern the laws of the country I vote for a complete ban on all air fresheners and perfumes.
I'm sure in ten years time someone else will make the link that these products are killing the atmosphere and cause untold diseases.
Make smoking compulsory as it kills your sense of smell, and you won't need to buy these products as you never smell any foul odours.
Now as a reformed asthmatic I find this argument to be totally false.
I say reformed asthmatic because after 20+ years of being on 2 Ventolin inhalers a month, my asthma has now gone? this has coincided with me being out of work for the first time in that period.
Possible reasons - when working I was limited to about 2-3 cigarettes during a working day due to the industries I worked in (Petrochemical, Gas etc), now I smoke 20-40 a day.
Also I don't breathe in traffic fumes like I used to when spending around an hour each way on the road going to and from work - Draw your own conclusions.
One thing that does set off my asthma is strong floral smells as found in those air fresheners and products used to fragance your homes.
The missus bought one of those things that sprays a jet of perfume every 10 minutes to make the house smell nice? after half an hour I couldn't breathe and had to stand outside.
If I walk through a perfume department of a department store it has the same effect.
So as minorities can now govern the laws of the country I vote for a complete ban on all air fresheners and perfumes.
I'm sure in ten years time someone else will make the link that these products are killing the atmosphere and cause untold diseases.
Make smoking compulsory as it kills your sense of smell, and you won't need to buy these products as you never smell any foul odours.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
Global Warming (Again)
Finally a newspaper article that backs up my thinking Here, basically points out the uninformed scaremongering that's going on around the world, which is as always just another excuse to fleece the people of their money, while blaming us.
If the governments of the world were that worried they'd put a trade embargo on China and India bringing to a halt their mass industrialisation which supposedly is to blame for the rise in CO² levels, while bringing down the cost of Copper and Lead which would in turn save the lives of all the dumb gits who steal people's gas pipes.
Don't forget how many companies are profiting from over priced environmentally friendly goods and services.
Latest in my area is they are thinking of charging for rubbish collections despite the fact we already pay for them in our council tax?
We used to put our rubbish in dustbins, but the council made us use non degradable plastic bags, because the bin men are so weak from eating so called healthy foods they can't lift the bins anymore.
Latest theory from the scientists who don't blame us for everything is that the Earth's climate is actually cooling (backed by historical data and current info) and that the 30 year cycle of warming is coming to an end (as it has done throughout history).
I suppose we might find out ourselves in the next few years, although both sides of the argument will find (or make up) facts to back up their view of things.
If the governments of the world were that worried they'd put a trade embargo on China and India bringing to a halt their mass industrialisation which supposedly is to blame for the rise in CO² levels, while bringing down the cost of Copper and Lead which would in turn save the lives of all the dumb gits who steal people's gas pipes.
Don't forget how many companies are profiting from over priced environmentally friendly goods and services.
Latest in my area is they are thinking of charging for rubbish collections despite the fact we already pay for them in our council tax?
We used to put our rubbish in dustbins, but the council made us use non degradable plastic bags, because the bin men are so weak from eating so called healthy foods they can't lift the bins anymore.
Latest theory from the scientists who don't blame us for everything is that the Earth's climate is actually cooling (backed by historical data and current info) and that the 30 year cycle of warming is coming to an end (as it has done throughout history).
I suppose we might find out ourselves in the next few years, although both sides of the argument will find (or make up) facts to back up their view of things.
Friday, 2 November 2007
Death Of The Blogs
I've noticed an increasing amount of my favourite blogs seem to have either disappeared or the bloggers have decided not to continue due to having files deleted.
Hopefully this is not the beginning of the end for these types of blogs?
Hopefully this is not the beginning of the end for these types of blogs?
Scary Movie (Almost)
A friend of my son's at college made this little gem, titled "No Sleep".
A comedy horror mini film that shows a lot of potential :)
This is the second in a series, the first one "No Food" is here - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cgj3xyUzHB0 and should probably be watched first?
the one below is far better though!!
A comedy horror mini film that shows a lot of potential :)
This is the second in a series, the first one "No Food" is here - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Cgj3xyUzHB0 and should probably be watched first?
the one below is far better though!!
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Vinyl Ripping
Finally set up my new toy the mp3 turntable.
Connected it up and loaded the program (Audacity) and was ready to go.
Had a look around and found some old vinyl 7'' singles which were in a box ready to go to a boot sale one day to test it out.
First problem was despite following all the instructions I can't get any sound through my PC :(
But the waveform appears on screen so I knew it was working and would be able to play it back once it was ripped and saved/converted.
The first single I tried seemed to be taking forever to play, turned out it had got stuck halfway through and I had about 10 minutes of the same groove :(
Tried a different single which recorded perfectly but when I played it back it was hard to concentrate as it seemed to amplify every single scratch and dust particle.
Will have to put some practice into this (and buy a new cleaning cloth).
Connected it up and loaded the program (Audacity) and was ready to go.
Had a look around and found some old vinyl 7'' singles which were in a box ready to go to a boot sale one day to test it out.
First problem was despite following all the instructions I can't get any sound through my PC :(
But the waveform appears on screen so I knew it was working and would be able to play it back once it was ripped and saved/converted.
The first single I tried seemed to be taking forever to play, turned out it had got stuck halfway through and I had about 10 minutes of the same groove :(
Tried a different single which recorded perfectly but when I played it back it was hard to concentrate as it seemed to amplify every single scratch and dust particle.
Will have to put some practice into this (and buy a new cleaning cloth).
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Jokes
Favourite jokes at the moment (oldies but goodies).
.
Q - Why don't cannibals eat clowns?
A - They taste funny
.
Did you hear about the dyslexic devil worshipper who sold his soul to Santa?
.
Boy with no fingers goes to buy an ice cream from an ice cream van,
Ice cream man says "what flavour do you want sonny"?,
Boy says "don't matter I'm gonna drop it anyway".
.
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
.
Q - Why don't cannibals eat clowns?
A - They taste funny
.
Did you hear about the dyslexic devil worshipper who sold his soul to Santa?
.
Boy with no fingers goes to buy an ice cream from an ice cream van,
Ice cream man says "what flavour do you want sonny"?,
Boy says "don't matter I'm gonna drop it anyway".
.
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
Thoughts For The Day
Found these on the net a while back, and thought I'd share them.
I want to die while asleep like my Dad, not screaming in terror like the passengers in his bus.
It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.
The trouble with life is there's no background music.
I just want revenge. Is that so bad?
I may be fat, but you are ugly and I can lose weight.
Practicing Safe Sex? Give yourself a hand!
If we weren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
Practice safe sex, go fuck yourself.
If you don't believe in oral sex, keep your mouth shut.
One good thing about Alzheimer's is you get to meet new people every day.
Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse flavoured cat food?
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
Driver Carries No Cash, He's Married
If you can't feed 'em, Don't Breed 'Em
Your village called, Their idiot is missing
I am Not an Alcoholic.....I'm a Drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.
Politicians and nappies both need to be changed often, and for the same reason"
If I throw a stick, will you leave?
Don't hate yourself in the morning, sleep till noon.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
If you think there is good in everyone, you haven't met everyone.
I want to die while asleep like my Dad, not screaming in terror like the passengers in his bus.
It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.
The trouble with life is there's no background music.
I just want revenge. Is that so bad?
I may be fat, but you are ugly and I can lose weight.
Practicing Safe Sex? Give yourself a hand!
If we weren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.
Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
Practice safe sex, go fuck yourself.
If you don't believe in oral sex, keep your mouth shut.
One good thing about Alzheimer's is you get to meet new people every day.
Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse flavoured cat food?
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
Driver Carries No Cash, He's Married
If you can't feed 'em, Don't Breed 'Em
Your village called, Their idiot is missing
I am Not an Alcoholic.....I'm a Drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.
Politicians and nappies both need to be changed often, and for the same reason"
If I throw a stick, will you leave?
Don't hate yourself in the morning, sleep till noon.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
If you think there is good in everyone, you haven't met everyone.
Rip Off Britain (Part 2)
Bloody cheating newsagents.
Getting sick of all the newsagents round here who try to rip you off everytime you buy something.
1) The nearest one is a family business and the father has always seemed pretty honest and is a nice guy, but his missus is a nightmare every single time I've bought something which needs change I'm handed the change a pound short, and she seems really put out when you point out her mistake.
I learnt very quickly to keep my hand on the counter and count out the change after the first few times where she basically accused me of fiddling her!! "I definitely gave you the right change" she said in a loud voice as I walked off before checking, it would probably seem to the other customers she was playing to that I was trying to scam her.
She obviously makes a habit of it as despite my many complaints over the years it happens everytime I go in there, and if I was the only one surely she would remember me.
A nice little earner.
2) Another newsagent I use sometimes has an old guy who's scam involves holding back any notes in the change, for example if you buy something for a couple of quid and give him a tenner he will hand over the coins then wait to see if you walk out.
If you stand there for a minute waiting he will go back to the till and get the fiver.
Never get an apology, another nice little earner.
3) Last week I had to use the newsagent in the hospital and sure enough my change came up a pound short.
I mentioned it to my missus who used to work there and described the woman, and she says "yeah she's always doing that", so I said to her how come you didn't do it as you were always broke when you worked there and you could have earnt a fortune, but she's too honest.
Getting sick of all the newsagents round here who try to rip you off everytime you buy something.
1) The nearest one is a family business and the father has always seemed pretty honest and is a nice guy, but his missus is a nightmare every single time I've bought something which needs change I'm handed the change a pound short, and she seems really put out when you point out her mistake.
I learnt very quickly to keep my hand on the counter and count out the change after the first few times where she basically accused me of fiddling her!! "I definitely gave you the right change" she said in a loud voice as I walked off before checking, it would probably seem to the other customers she was playing to that I was trying to scam her.
She obviously makes a habit of it as despite my many complaints over the years it happens everytime I go in there, and if I was the only one surely she would remember me.
A nice little earner.
2) Another newsagent I use sometimes has an old guy who's scam involves holding back any notes in the change, for example if you buy something for a couple of quid and give him a tenner he will hand over the coins then wait to see if you walk out.
If you stand there for a minute waiting he will go back to the till and get the fiver.
Never get an apology, another nice little earner.
3) Last week I had to use the newsagent in the hospital and sure enough my change came up a pound short.
I mentioned it to my missus who used to work there and described the woman, and she says "yeah she's always doing that", so I said to her how come you didn't do it as you were always broke when you worked there and you could have earnt a fortune, but she's too honest.
Rip Off Britain (Part 1 of Many)
Why is everyone scamming so much these days, whatever happened to honesty?
Listening to the latest revelations about the television phone votes scam, with Michael Grade making up lame excuses that ITV hadn't come to terms with the public interaction on TV shows and that no one was to blame and saying "I wish it hadn't happened", while really meaning "damn they've rumbled us" and "I wish we hadn't got caught".
Surely everyone can see that these "celebrity" shows are just a money making exercise, the old style Saturday night game show is long gone where a member of the public could win 3 grand if they were lucky and you just sat back and enjoyed it, now it's all Celeb come dancing, celeb ice skating, celeb cooking etc where the winner doesn't get any prize money but you have to ring in and vote at anything up to £1.50 a go.
Simple maths - old show could cost the tv company 3 grand, new show makes them millions with no outlay, even if they did it legally.Those after midnight quiz shows on a lot of stations are a total rip off, you have to ring up at 75p a go even if you don't get through, I guess they have tens of thousands of calls every hour and every five minutes or so they actually take a call, and even if you get through the chances of winning a prize are minimal as the quiz answers are really obscure, funny if you haven't wasted your money though :)
Question = White things
Top 3 Answers = Honduran white bat, Winter white Russian dwarf hamster, Coconut milk powder.
Wonder why no one got them :)
Listening to the latest revelations about the television phone votes scam, with Michael Grade making up lame excuses that ITV hadn't come to terms with the public interaction on TV shows and that no one was to blame and saying "I wish it hadn't happened", while really meaning "damn they've rumbled us" and "I wish we hadn't got caught".
Surely everyone can see that these "celebrity" shows are just a money making exercise, the old style Saturday night game show is long gone where a member of the public could win 3 grand if they were lucky and you just sat back and enjoyed it, now it's all Celeb come dancing, celeb ice skating, celeb cooking etc where the winner doesn't get any prize money but you have to ring in and vote at anything up to £1.50 a go.
Simple maths - old show could cost the tv company 3 grand, new show makes them millions with no outlay, even if they did it legally.Those after midnight quiz shows on a lot of stations are a total rip off, you have to ring up at 75p a go even if you don't get through, I guess they have tens of thousands of calls every hour and every five minutes or so they actually take a call, and even if you get through the chances of winning a prize are minimal as the quiz answers are really obscure, funny if you haven't wasted your money though :)
Question = White things
Top 3 Answers = Honduran white bat, Winter white Russian dwarf hamster, Coconut milk powder.
Wonder why no one got them :)
Rumbled
The music blog had a pretty poor start with most of the files deleted within 10 days of uploading :(
As some of those deleted are long out of print items I'm guessing it was the serial deleter, who seems to have hit a lot of my favourite bloggers recently.
Although my twisted mind thinks maybe anyone selling the second hand versions (on e-bay for example) might have cause to complain?
Not unduly worried as I get most pleasure from just re-finding old stuff I haven't listened to for ages, and the search for info about the bands usually turns up more stuff I'd forgotten about :)
Monday, 15 October 2007
Monday, 8 October 2007
Can't Find It
Often made the statement "you can find anything on the internet".
Met my match tonight as I've spent hours looking for a discography with track listings of the band "Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias" and I can't find one.
Have a collection of their stuff on mp3 which was given to me by a mate several years ago who was/is a big fan, but he's moved and we've sort of lost touch.
Was thinking of putting these tracks into album order for posting on the other blog, as I was always being asked to repost them on the old "punk torrents" site many years ago.
Also was hoping to settle my mind what tracks were on the "heads down, no nonesense" single I bought back when it was new? it was a double single which I'm sure had 6 tracks on it, but the only info I can find says it only had 4 tracks?
Another "I wish I hadn't sold it" story as it seems to have been a rarity and the basic 1 disc copy is going for silly money :(
Met my match tonight as I've spent hours looking for a discography with track listings of the band "Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias" and I can't find one.
Have a collection of their stuff on mp3 which was given to me by a mate several years ago who was/is a big fan, but he's moved and we've sort of lost touch.
Was thinking of putting these tracks into album order for posting on the other blog, as I was always being asked to repost them on the old "punk torrents" site many years ago.
Also was hoping to settle my mind what tracks were on the "heads down, no nonesense" single I bought back when it was new? it was a double single which I'm sure had 6 tracks on it, but the only info I can find says it only had 4 tracks?
Another "I wish I hadn't sold it" story as it seems to have been a rarity and the basic 1 disc copy is going for silly money :(
Confusing
So I try to log in here and I get the message "You cannot login because cookies are disabled"?
I've not changed anything as far as I know.
But I hit the back button and I'm logged in, confusing!!
I've not changed anything as far as I know.
But I hit the back button and I'm logged in, confusing!!
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Coffee
I think I drink a lot more coffee than the average person, usually 10-20 cups a day!! My excuse being a medical condition, as I tend to fall asleep all the time if I don't have my Caffeine fix, and I don't like Red Bull or taking Pro-Plus tablets.But mainly because I really like Coffee.
But despite a coffee addict I have a huge gap in my knowledge, as I don't have a clue what goes into those poncey coffee's they sell in most high streets, I haven't a clue what a Skinny Latte or a Mocha Capucino is? the thought of spending 4 quid on a cuppa seems alien to me, when a whole jar of Nescafe costs less.
I suppose it goes back to ordering a coffee after a meal in a semi-posh restaraunt once, I can't remember exactly what type it was, but I was expecting a big mug of strong coffee with a flavour to die for. Instead I was presented with a cup from a kids tea set with less than a mouthfull of what tasted like Happy shopper instant.
Decided to read up on what makes these strangely named cuppas and came across this explanation "Espresso, while apparently a simple drink, is in reality a complex product. It is derived from 1500 chemical substances (800 volatile and 700 soluble), and when prepared correctly involves 13 independent chemical and physical variables", Sounds more like a recipe for a bomb than a drink?
So basically there's coffee and milk coffee just made hotter than you would at home.
Remember reading years ago that if you put boiling water on coffee it released Carcinogens which cause Cancer, whereas it was safe if the water was "off the boil" about 80°C, so surely these steam heated coffee's aren't safe?
Another interesting side issue found "there are 10 milligrams (mg) of known carcinogens in a single cup of coffee. To put that into perspective, 10 mg is probably more than all the synthetic pesticide residues you could get from eating non-organic food for an entire year. In one cup".
Another reason not to pay a fortune for Organic food, personally the thought that it's grown in various animals poo and sometimes comes complete with bugs is enough to put me off it.
Treating Myself
Rare that I treat myself to anything other than the odd pack of wine gums and feeding my nicotine habit, but I blew £89 on myself yesterday and bought a USB turntable (see pic above).
I haven't actually set it up yet but I'm hoping I'll finally be able to play some of my vinyls for the first time in about 10 years, once I dig them out of the loft.
My last record player was thrown out a couple of years after I had broken a brand new expensive stylus on a scratched record from a boot sale, I nearly cried as the £12 spent was half a weeks shopping money at the time, and I'd had a big bust up with the missus about spending that much on a luxury item (although to me it was an essential), justified by pointing out that I wasn't going to carry on selling all my records unless I could tape before losing them for ever.
I remember the exact record that did it "Nine to Five" by the Man Eaters (Toyah and Adam Ant), I had been selling at a local boot sale when the guy next to me asked if I was interested in buying a large cardboard box full of 7" singles as most of my stall was boxloads of records, I had a quick browse and in amongst the usual piles of New Kids on the Block, Jason Donovan and Five Star singles I found a couple of Prodigy singles and a couple of others I liked, but as he was asking 25p each I said there was a few I'd like but wasn't interested in the lot (expecting him to want at least £15-20 for all of them).
So after a while he comes back and offers me the lot for a fiver, but as I'd only seen a few I expected to sell on I declined the offer.
As I was packing up at the end, he came back and said I could have the lot for a pound!!, this time I agreed.
When I got home I went through them and there were over 500 singles, including about 50-60 that I later sold for a lot more than a £1 each :)
The Man Eaters one stood out as I believe it's a bit of a rarity, so that went straight on the turntable without checking, seconds later the arm of my record player is skipping across the disc after an un-noticed deep scratch has taken the tip off my stylus (... cry).
At least the sale of the other records more than made up for it, but I never bothered replacing it again.
http://rapidshare.com/files/59737554/Maneaters_-_Nine_To_Five.rar
Friday, 28 September 2007
Friday Massacre
Sitting here on a Friday afternoon safely tucked up in nice dry room, while the weather is atrocious outside, it's been pouring with rain most of the afternoon and now it's hammering down.
I'm thinking of the people travelling home along the A13 from London to South East Essex as I did from 1995 till late last year.
Friday nights was always "carnage night", people rushing home on a Friday night seemed to forget basic road sense in the hurry to get home for the weekend.
Even if the weather was ok, there would usually be one "prang" on the way home, and if it was raining like today you could almost guarantee that their would be a major pile up.
I can't remember how many mangled and wrecked cars I've seen and a fair share of body bags and bloodied drivers and passengers, and the many motorcyclists who rarely survive the impact after being hit by a lorry.
Certainly a contributing factor in my decision to leave, as I felt I'd ridden my luck pretty well in not being involved in any accidents in my 6-7,000 journies to and from East London.
Maybe I am a good driver (I think I am) or maybe I was just very lucky?
I've seen people taken out by lorries crossing the central reservation, lorries demolished by other lorries while parked on the hard shoulder, scaffold boards and pallets flying off trucks straight into oncoming traffic, and just too many dead motorcyclists.
I'm thinking of the people travelling home along the A13 from London to South East Essex as I did from 1995 till late last year.
Friday nights was always "carnage night", people rushing home on a Friday night seemed to forget basic road sense in the hurry to get home for the weekend.
Even if the weather was ok, there would usually be one "prang" on the way home, and if it was raining like today you could almost guarantee that their would be a major pile up.
I can't remember how many mangled and wrecked cars I've seen and a fair share of body bags and bloodied drivers and passengers, and the many motorcyclists who rarely survive the impact after being hit by a lorry.
Certainly a contributing factor in my decision to leave, as I felt I'd ridden my luck pretty well in not being involved in any accidents in my 6-7,000 journies to and from East London.
Maybe I am a good driver (I think I am) or maybe I was just very lucky?
I've seen people taken out by lorries crossing the central reservation, lorries demolished by other lorries while parked on the hard shoulder, scaffold boards and pallets flying off trucks straight into oncoming traffic, and just too many dead motorcyclists.
Unreasonable Hatred
A confession "I'm Classist".
I don't know if there is such a thing, but I definitely suffer from it.
To explain, I had to renew my car tax yesterday and the nearest post office that does car tax is located in a nearby Waitrose supermarket.
I don't go there normally as the prices are usually 50-100% higher than the local Morrisons, and it tends to be inhabited by the people who I have an irrational dislike of "the rich".
The car park is full of "Chelsea tractors" and the store has all those types that wander around in their Sunday best discussing whether to have Veal or Venison for dinner tonight or should they try the Wood pigeon or Wild Mallard duck.
Anyway I get my car tax and as I'm there I remember I need to get some Bread and milk, it might cost a bit more but saves me having to go in a different direction to another store.
I don't help my cause by being dressed in my usual scruffy attire, jeans with tears to knee and crutch (through use, not bought ready torn), paint splattered trainers and my usual Lonsdale T-shirt and jumper from the local cheapie sports shop.
So straight away I'm picking up on the "down the nose" looks from the customers, and the members of staff who seem to be glancing in my direction more than they should be.
After a 10 minute wander around trying to find the milk (and lots of head shaking about the unbelievable prices) I get what I came for (even the milk is divided into various speciality versions?).
I get to the till and some middle aged woman in her expensive clobber is in front of me, basic common decency should usually exist in that she would put the "next customer" sign on the belt after her shopping, but No I just get the down the nose look as she stands in my way while her shopping disappears down the belt.
So I reach across to pick one up without touching her and she turns and says in her posh sarcastic voice "excuse me".
Now what I really want to say at this point is "Fuck you, you stuck up cunt" but I just say "sorry" and start putting my milk and bread on the conveyer.
Hatred is growing fast and is compounded by her "oh so posh" son turning up with her copy of "Horse and hound", "oh good you found it" she says as the till operator puts her stuff through.
A basket full of goods £28!! (could do a weeks shopping in Morrisons for that).
Finally I leave, hoping to see a busload of Muslim students with backpacks going in (sorry), with the words "stuck up cunts" going round in my head.
Jump in the car and an appropriate record comes on my CD player "Down in the sewer" by the Stranglers, crank it up as I drive through the car park.
I don't know if there is such a thing, but I definitely suffer from it.
To explain, I had to renew my car tax yesterday and the nearest post office that does car tax is located in a nearby Waitrose supermarket.
I don't go there normally as the prices are usually 50-100% higher than the local Morrisons, and it tends to be inhabited by the people who I have an irrational dislike of "the rich".
The car park is full of "Chelsea tractors" and the store has all those types that wander around in their Sunday best discussing whether to have Veal or Venison for dinner tonight or should they try the Wood pigeon or Wild Mallard duck.
Anyway I get my car tax and as I'm there I remember I need to get some Bread and milk, it might cost a bit more but saves me having to go in a different direction to another store.
I don't help my cause by being dressed in my usual scruffy attire, jeans with tears to knee and crutch (through use, not bought ready torn), paint splattered trainers and my usual Lonsdale T-shirt and jumper from the local cheapie sports shop.
So straight away I'm picking up on the "down the nose" looks from the customers, and the members of staff who seem to be glancing in my direction more than they should be.
After a 10 minute wander around trying to find the milk (and lots of head shaking about the unbelievable prices) I get what I came for (even the milk is divided into various speciality versions?).
I get to the till and some middle aged woman in her expensive clobber is in front of me, basic common decency should usually exist in that she would put the "next customer" sign on the belt after her shopping, but No I just get the down the nose look as she stands in my way while her shopping disappears down the belt.
So I reach across to pick one up without touching her and she turns and says in her posh sarcastic voice "excuse me".
Now what I really want to say at this point is "Fuck you, you stuck up cunt" but I just say "sorry" and start putting my milk and bread on the conveyer.
Hatred is growing fast and is compounded by her "oh so posh" son turning up with her copy of "Horse and hound", "oh good you found it" she says as the till operator puts her stuff through.
A basket full of goods £28!! (could do a weeks shopping in Morrisons for that).
Finally I leave, hoping to see a busload of Muslim students with backpacks going in (sorry), with the words "stuck up cunts" going round in my head.
Jump in the car and an appropriate record comes on my CD player "Down in the sewer" by the Stranglers, crank it up as I drive through the car park.
Call Centres
Not had many dealing with Indian call centres, but this last week I've had to ring them up twice due to my credit card.
I have a Crapital One card which I use now and again for internet purchases, it's got a low limit so if it did fall into the wrong hands they wouldn't be able to rip me off for more than I can afford (that's the theory).
Anyway I tried to buy something over the weekend and the company I was buying from contacted me to say the card company had refused payment, as I only had a balance of £6 owing I rung them up thinking someone had ripped me off?
So I get the first Indian lady on the phone after being passed around the automated options for ages, I don't know if she's based in India or Southall but it was obvious that English wasn't her first language.
After several attempts she finally understood my name, even after spelling it out she still repeated it as a completly different surname? the conversation went something like this -
Me "Can you tell me why my payment was refused, when I have enough funds to pay it?"
Her "do you want to make a payment?"
Me "No, as I said I want to find out why my card was refused"
Her "What method of payment will you be using"
Me "I don't want to make a payment, I want to know why my card has been refused"
Her "Who do you share a card with"
Me "No one it's my card"
Her "You have £6 outstanding, would you like to make a payment"
Me "(pause to compose myself) I would like to find out why my payment of £x to xxxx has been refused"
Her "I will pass you on to another dept, hold the line"
Several minutes pass and I get another Indian lady, and we have to go through the same ritual including explaining my name? after more exchanges about the balance and amount owing it seems to dawn on her what I am saying, so she tells me that she is going to connect me to the fraud department!! now I'm getting worried.
Eventually the phone is answered and I get a guy called Mohammed, and we go through all the previous stuff (name, account details, passwords etc), and then he starts asking me about previous use of the card -
Him "we see you used the card for a national newspaper in July"
Me "yes" (a football competition)
Him "this is the reason, we thought someone else was using your card"
Me "well you billed me for it and I've had no letters from you telling me your fears"
Him "now we've spoken to you we can unblock your card"
Me "why is it if I'm 2 days late with payments you ring me up 3 times a day to find out when I'm paying, but you couldn't ring me up once about this?"
Him "no harm has been done your card is free to use now"
................ SCREAM ...............
Then this morning my statement comes through for this card, I set up a direct debit to pay the minimum at the beginning of August so they wouldn't hit me with late payment charges again.
So I expected it to say I owed £6 as they were supposed to take the payment out during last month, but my balance is now £18 due to a late payment charge.
Another 5 minutes of automated button pressing and I get through to someone who I can't really understand, and he obviously doesn't understand me, not helped by a phone line which keeps cutting out.
Every statement by both of us has to be repeated very slowly, as I tell him a direct debit was set up and he claims there isn't.
I point out that I have a letter from them dated the 2nd August saying thank you for setting up a direct debit, and he says there is no debit set up and I have to make a payment now to avoid further charges.
Despite trying to hammer it home that I have proof of a debit being in place, he won't have it!
So what do I do, no point ringing up someone else at the company as I'll probably get someone worse and who's just reading the set answers again.
....... aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh ...........
A good reason to never have a credit card.
I have a Crapital One card which I use now and again for internet purchases, it's got a low limit so if it did fall into the wrong hands they wouldn't be able to rip me off for more than I can afford (that's the theory).
Anyway I tried to buy something over the weekend and the company I was buying from contacted me to say the card company had refused payment, as I only had a balance of £6 owing I rung them up thinking someone had ripped me off?
So I get the first Indian lady on the phone after being passed around the automated options for ages, I don't know if she's based in India or Southall but it was obvious that English wasn't her first language.
After several attempts she finally understood my name, even after spelling it out she still repeated it as a completly different surname? the conversation went something like this -
Me "Can you tell me why my payment was refused, when I have enough funds to pay it?"
Her "do you want to make a payment?"
Me "No, as I said I want to find out why my card was refused"
Her "What method of payment will you be using"
Me "I don't want to make a payment, I want to know why my card has been refused"
Her "Who do you share a card with"
Me "No one it's my card"
Her "You have £6 outstanding, would you like to make a payment"
Me "(pause to compose myself) I would like to find out why my payment of £x to xxxx has been refused"
Her "I will pass you on to another dept, hold the line"
Several minutes pass and I get another Indian lady, and we have to go through the same ritual including explaining my name? after more exchanges about the balance and amount owing it seems to dawn on her what I am saying, so she tells me that she is going to connect me to the fraud department!! now I'm getting worried.
Eventually the phone is answered and I get a guy called Mohammed, and we go through all the previous stuff (name, account details, passwords etc), and then he starts asking me about previous use of the card -
Him "we see you used the card for a national newspaper in July"
Me "yes" (a football competition)
Him "this is the reason, we thought someone else was using your card"
Me "well you billed me for it and I've had no letters from you telling me your fears"
Him "now we've spoken to you we can unblock your card"
Me "why is it if I'm 2 days late with payments you ring me up 3 times a day to find out when I'm paying, but you couldn't ring me up once about this?"
Him "no harm has been done your card is free to use now"
................ SCREAM ...............
Then this morning my statement comes through for this card, I set up a direct debit to pay the minimum at the beginning of August so they wouldn't hit me with late payment charges again.
So I expected it to say I owed £6 as they were supposed to take the payment out during last month, but my balance is now £18 due to a late payment charge.
Another 5 minutes of automated button pressing and I get through to someone who I can't really understand, and he obviously doesn't understand me, not helped by a phone line which keeps cutting out.
Every statement by both of us has to be repeated very slowly, as I tell him a direct debit was set up and he claims there isn't.
I point out that I have a letter from them dated the 2nd August saying thank you for setting up a direct debit, and he says there is no debit set up and I have to make a payment now to avoid further charges.
Despite trying to hammer it home that I have proof of a debit being in place, he won't have it!
So what do I do, no point ringing up someone else at the company as I'll probably get someone worse and who's just reading the set answers again.
....... aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh ...........
A good reason to never have a credit card.
Dabs
Had an e-mail from Dabs.com today saying "Dear Lee, This week, as one of our best customers, we thought we'd show you these mega-value offers before they sell out completely!".
Considering I've only ever bought one thing of them for under £100 about 3 years ago, it makes you think they are in trouble if I am one of their best customers?
(I know it's a standard advert, but that's how my mind works :) )
Considering I've only ever bought one thing of them for under £100 about 3 years ago, it makes you think they are in trouble if I am one of their best customers?
(I know it's a standard advert, but that's how my mind works :) )
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Collecting
When I first started collecting mp3's a mate gave me the complete Beatles collection on 3 cd's, all the commercial albums plus some other stuff.
So although I was never really a fan of the Beatles, everytime I saw something on the net labelled "rarity, never available" etc I downloaded it to keep the collection going.
I nearly gave up a couple of years ago after downloading a mis-labelled 12 album set of out-takes and demo's, but I spent days listening to them and renaming them for posterity.
Including all the solo projects by the various ex-Beatles it runs into thousands of tracks, and at the end of it I'd struggle to put together a 20 track compilation CD of tracks that I'd really want to play more than once a year!!
I've just been browsing the blogs and seen a 22 album set of "lost" John Lennon tapes, and the first thought was I must download this in case there is something I haven't got, but luckily the other part of my brain has kicked in and said "is there anything here you'd actually listen too twice", and the answer is a big no, so I'm not going to bother.
Easy to justify when you think about it, as previous lost tape, live, demo versions of Lennon's music have been bloody awful especially with Yoko doing her cat being choked impressions in the background.
Just got to wean myself off anything I find from The Sex Pistols, Clash, Stranglers, Queen, Elvis, David Bowie and all those other bands and artists who seem to have been recorded at all points of their life, and have a never ending supply of unreleased, recorded in the bathroom tracks.
Elvis Presley a prime example, although I like about 90% of the stuff he put out I've ended up with sometimes over 100 versions of the same song due to there being 20-30 takes at the original recording session plus 24 years worth of live versions and multiple takes of anything in a movie etc etc.
As far as I can find out he only sung just over a thousand different songs in his career, and I'm sure I got all of those years ago, but it doesn't stop me checking the Elvis newsgroups every couple of weeks for more?
Something that upsets me when thinking about Elvis is that I had a superb collection of Elvis singles and EP's back in the day when the record collection was massive, and due to lack of money I had to sell them all, usually for a fraction of the actual value :(
So although I was never really a fan of the Beatles, everytime I saw something on the net labelled "rarity, never available" etc I downloaded it to keep the collection going.
I nearly gave up a couple of years ago after downloading a mis-labelled 12 album set of out-takes and demo's, but I spent days listening to them and renaming them for posterity.
Including all the solo projects by the various ex-Beatles it runs into thousands of tracks, and at the end of it I'd struggle to put together a 20 track compilation CD of tracks that I'd really want to play more than once a year!!
I've just been browsing the blogs and seen a 22 album set of "lost" John Lennon tapes, and the first thought was I must download this in case there is something I haven't got, but luckily the other part of my brain has kicked in and said "is there anything here you'd actually listen too twice", and the answer is a big no, so I'm not going to bother.
Easy to justify when you think about it, as previous lost tape, live, demo versions of Lennon's music have been bloody awful especially with Yoko doing her cat being choked impressions in the background.
Just got to wean myself off anything I find from The Sex Pistols, Clash, Stranglers, Queen, Elvis, David Bowie and all those other bands and artists who seem to have been recorded at all points of their life, and have a never ending supply of unreleased, recorded in the bathroom tracks.
Elvis Presley a prime example, although I like about 90% of the stuff he put out I've ended up with sometimes over 100 versions of the same song due to there being 20-30 takes at the original recording session plus 24 years worth of live versions and multiple takes of anything in a movie etc etc.
As far as I can find out he only sung just over a thousand different songs in his career, and I'm sure I got all of those years ago, but it doesn't stop me checking the Elvis newsgroups every couple of weeks for more?
Something that upsets me when thinking about Elvis is that I had a superb collection of Elvis singles and EP's back in the day when the record collection was massive, and due to lack of money I had to sell them all, usually for a fraction of the actual value :(
Gambling Update
Gambling bug resurfaces.
Realised at the weekend that after my flirtation with gambling earlier in the year, that I hadn't actually placed a bet in months :)
Had nearly lost my original stake, so it just wasn't fun anymore so I just didn't bother.
Anyway the footie seasons back and as that is a specialist subject of mine, I found my password and logged back in for a go on Saturday.
Lack of funds meant finding a cheap way of winning a few quid, so a £1 accumulator was placed on 10 teams results with a possible £510 payout if it came in.
So near yet so far as 9 were correct with only Liverpool letting me down :( after I chose them for a home win of 1/5 on, which is as near to a dead cert as you can get.
Another attempt on Tuesday's Carling cup saw me put another £1 accumulator on 8 teams for a possible £295 win, 7 of the 8 came in but this time West Brom let me down by losing at home to Cardiff? but luckily I backed the bet up with 56 x 5p bets on 5 of the 8 coming in, which returned a nice £44.57 for a £40.77 profit :)
Going to stick to this low cost alternative for tonights games and the weekend, and hopefully one of the big wins will come home (and the missus might get her fridge/freezer).
Realised at the weekend that after my flirtation with gambling earlier in the year, that I hadn't actually placed a bet in months :)
Had nearly lost my original stake, so it just wasn't fun anymore so I just didn't bother.
Anyway the footie seasons back and as that is a specialist subject of mine, I found my password and logged back in for a go on Saturday.
Lack of funds meant finding a cheap way of winning a few quid, so a £1 accumulator was placed on 10 teams results with a possible £510 payout if it came in.
So near yet so far as 9 were correct with only Liverpool letting me down :( after I chose them for a home win of 1/5 on, which is as near to a dead cert as you can get.
Another attempt on Tuesday's Carling cup saw me put another £1 accumulator on 8 teams for a possible £295 win, 7 of the 8 came in but this time West Brom let me down by losing at home to Cardiff? but luckily I backed the bet up with 56 x 5p bets on 5 of the 8 coming in, which returned a nice £44.57 for a £40.77 profit :)
Going to stick to this low cost alternative for tonights games and the weekend, and hopefully one of the big wins will come home (and the missus might get her fridge/freezer).
Music Player
First the colour goes wrong then it disappears altogether?
Seem to have got it back now, so fingers crossed.
Seem to have got it back now, so fingers crossed.
Monday, 24 September 2007
New Fridge?
The fridge in the picture is mine, I've had it over 20 years and it was second hand when we got it.It still works fine, although the handle is broken and if you leave anything at the back it will get frozen to the back of the fridge? also pools of water mysteriously appear on the top?
But the missus wants a new one, and she likes those double door American style ones, I agree they look nice but wonder what we'd fill it with?
Being an old fashioned ale drinker my beer never goes in the fridge, and most food is gone within days due to the gannets in my family :)
Anyway off I trot to Curry's this morning to have a look around.
Found a couple of suitable ones, the problem being all the ones I liked didn't have prices on display, so I hang around looking for an assistant for ages and they're all hiding, so after 10 minutes I give up and go looking at the big TV's.
After pressing a couple of buttons on the TV's I get 2 assistants racing to offer me help :)
so I drag them back to the fridges and ask the prices, both stand there staring at the fridge doors looking for the price that isn't there, one finally offers to find out for me and the other assistant wanders off relieved.
About 10 minutes later she comes back and tells me the price of one, so I ask a technical question and she's wishing she was somewhere else, finally we go off to a computer terminal but she's forgotten her password,.
Another 10-15 minutes later I'm handed a print out of the 2 fridges I've inquired about.
Happy about this as I can go home and check the models out on the net to get a cheaper price.
As I was in a slightly bolshie mood after the delays I enquired about deals if I bought a new washing machine as well (as in how much could I get off for buying 2 things), I get the standard response of "I'll have to ask the manager" and the expected "he's not here at the moment" line.
Oh well a waste of an hour, but it was pouring with rain when I went in, and the sun was out when I left :)
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Player Update
Just updated the music player, have to do this once a month or they delete my account.
So gone are tunes from Spear of Destiny, Super Furries, Linkin Park, Vangelis and I-Monster.
Added 3 from Billy Bragg including Walk away Renee which has my favourite ever song lyric "then she cut her hair, and I stopped loving her".
Violence grows by the Fatal Microbes which I used to own on 12'' vinyl and am gutted I sold it.
Also the Fink Brothers - Mutants in Mega city One, which I picked up for 10p in a bargain box and loved, only recently found out it was a Madness spin off project.
Changed the Members suburbs for the proper single version which was different from the album version, got this on clear vinyl but had no way of ripping it so I've been waiting for it to turn up on the net, and it finally did :)
Here's the 3 Billy Bragg tunes in a slightly better quality
http://rapidshare.com/files/58285942/Bragg.rar
Enjoy
So gone are tunes from Spear of Destiny, Super Furries, Linkin Park, Vangelis and I-Monster.
Added 3 from Billy Bragg including Walk away Renee which has my favourite ever song lyric "then she cut her hair, and I stopped loving her".
Violence grows by the Fatal Microbes which I used to own on 12'' vinyl and am gutted I sold it.
Also the Fink Brothers - Mutants in Mega city One, which I picked up for 10p in a bargain box and loved, only recently found out it was a Madness spin off project.
Changed the Members suburbs for the proper single version which was different from the album version, got this on clear vinyl but had no way of ripping it so I've been waiting for it to turn up on the net, and it finally did :)
Here's the 3 Billy Bragg tunes in a slightly better quality
http://rapidshare.com/files/58285942/Bragg.rar
Enjoy
More Reflection
Sitting here after another interrupted nights sleep due to shoulder pain, thinking about life.
The time that I woke up, was it a sixth sense?, as just seconds after getting up and going to the loo I heard my mobile phone ringing, which could only be one person - Son no.2 who works at a nightclub, because no one else I know would ring at 4.30 in the morning.
So I go downstairs and I've figured out it's one of 2 things, 90% chance his mate can't give him a lift home for some reason and he wants me to pick him up, or a 10% chance he's been mugged and is in hospital.
Despite the overwhelming odds it's the first option, I still have to ring him back in case it's something bad.
To explain the dilemma - over the last year or two he's become a selfish, vain, self obsessed individual who will only bother to speak to me or his mother when he wants something, he will only do things around the house if you have a moan, or offer payment despite living here rent free and owing me a load of money for the last 2 years holidays he's taken, typical teen I suppose!!.
But the parental thing kicks in and it's "are you ok?", fortunately it's as expected so off I go to pick him up, as his mates car has broken down.
A quick "thank you" from him, and I'll probably get a "goodbye" when he goes out tomorrow after sleeping all day.. the joys of being a parent.
Son no.1 might pay a visit soon if he needs to borrow some money, although he hasn't bothered to pay the last loan back as he's just set up home with a new girlfriend after his last failed relationship, and the CSA are taking a fair amount out of his wages for the grand daughter I'll probably never see again, so I won't press him for it.
Both decent kids but it makes you wonder what you've done wrong? or is this just the normal way of things and I'm living in this TV sit-com dreamland where kids never go far from home and help out their parents?
I suppose what they are doing is not too different from the way I treated my parents, as a teenager going out with mates, listening to music in my room, going to gigs and football was far more important than sitting with Mum and Dad watching TV, and when I got hitched and left home visits back home started to get less frequent as I had my own life to live and I would often only call on my parents when I needed to borrow money or food, suppose I'm a hypocrite!!, although I'll comfort myself with the knowledge that I used to do a lot for my parents while still living there (gardening, washing up, errands etc).
Oh well, pain killers seem to be working now, so I'll go back to bed and attempt a few more hours sleep.
The time that I woke up, was it a sixth sense?, as just seconds after getting up and going to the loo I heard my mobile phone ringing, which could only be one person - Son no.2 who works at a nightclub, because no one else I know would ring at 4.30 in the morning.
So I go downstairs and I've figured out it's one of 2 things, 90% chance his mate can't give him a lift home for some reason and he wants me to pick him up, or a 10% chance he's been mugged and is in hospital.
Despite the overwhelming odds it's the first option, I still have to ring him back in case it's something bad.
To explain the dilemma - over the last year or two he's become a selfish, vain, self obsessed individual who will only bother to speak to me or his mother when he wants something, he will only do things around the house if you have a moan, or offer payment despite living here rent free and owing me a load of money for the last 2 years holidays he's taken, typical teen I suppose!!.
But the parental thing kicks in and it's "are you ok?", fortunately it's as expected so off I go to pick him up, as his mates car has broken down.
A quick "thank you" from him, and I'll probably get a "goodbye" when he goes out tomorrow after sleeping all day.. the joys of being a parent.
Son no.1 might pay a visit soon if he needs to borrow some money, although he hasn't bothered to pay the last loan back as he's just set up home with a new girlfriend after his last failed relationship, and the CSA are taking a fair amount out of his wages for the grand daughter I'll probably never see again, so I won't press him for it.
Both decent kids but it makes you wonder what you've done wrong? or is this just the normal way of things and I'm living in this TV sit-com dreamland where kids never go far from home and help out their parents?
I suppose what they are doing is not too different from the way I treated my parents, as a teenager going out with mates, listening to music in my room, going to gigs and football was far more important than sitting with Mum and Dad watching TV, and when I got hitched and left home visits back home started to get less frequent as I had my own life to live and I would often only call on my parents when I needed to borrow money or food, suppose I'm a hypocrite!!, although I'll comfort myself with the knowledge that I used to do a lot for my parents while still living there (gardening, washing up, errands etc).
Oh well, pain killers seem to be working now, so I'll go back to bed and attempt a few more hours sleep.
Friday, 14 September 2007
Religion
Never really seen the point of religion, to me it's always been one of those things that some people believe in with no basis in fact, like ghosts, flying saucers, fairies, reincarnation etc.
I suffer from it slightly in that I believe one day I will win the lottery and West Ham will win the European cup! probably more chance of God speaking to me personally, than either of those :)
The main problem with religion is that the people who believe in it feel the need to convert you to their way of thinking, I had to put up with hymn singing and Bible readings during my school years, luckily my parents weren't particuarly religious so I wasn't brainwashed at home.
Other than disease and famine, religion must be the cause of more unnecessary deaths than anything else, most wars throughout history have religious beliefs to blame.
So the simple answer must be...... BAN RELIGION
Here are the ten commandments, the basis for Christian, Catholic, Jewish and a few other religions, from a novel by Moses I believe.
Adapted by other religions to suit whatever they believe they can get away with.
1 I am the Lord your God/Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Freedom of choice is a no no, just like dictatorship).
2 Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol (Wish Simon Cowell had read this, and all reality TV junkies).
3 Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy God (Support this if only to stop all those morons on TV saying "oh my god" every 30 seconds).
4 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (Another good one, day off every Sunday).
5 Honor thy Father and Mother (Good manners, this one should be enforced).
6 Thou shalt not murder (Good advice again, shame religious nuts seem to be the ones who do most murders like Bush and most terrorists, although both of these seem to follow the Muslim version of this one which includes the line "without just cause").
7 Thou shalt not commit adultery (If you do, it probably justifies no.6).
8 Thou shalt not steal (Never steal from family, friends or people worse off than yourself. Big companies and supermarkets have been stealing your money for years and are fair game).
9 Thou shalt not bear false witness (Don't lie it makes things worse. Doesn't it Mr Bush).
10 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house or wife (because the house is probably the same as yours with different wallpaper, and his wife is probably worse than yours).
If there is a God can he pop round for a chat, as I need to ask him why he's such a bastard (for reasons I won't go into here).
I don't really expect God to knock at my door, unless it's some religious fruitcake who's monitoring my blog who'll probably murder me, rape my wife, steal my computer, and then lie about it if they get caught.
I suffer from it slightly in that I believe one day I will win the lottery and West Ham will win the European cup! probably more chance of God speaking to me personally, than either of those :)
The main problem with religion is that the people who believe in it feel the need to convert you to their way of thinking, I had to put up with hymn singing and Bible readings during my school years, luckily my parents weren't particuarly religious so I wasn't brainwashed at home.
Other than disease and famine, religion must be the cause of more unnecessary deaths than anything else, most wars throughout history have religious beliefs to blame.
So the simple answer must be...... BAN RELIGION
Here are the ten commandments, the basis for Christian, Catholic, Jewish and a few other religions, from a novel by Moses I believe.
Adapted by other religions to suit whatever they believe they can get away with.
1 I am the Lord your God/Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Freedom of choice is a no no, just like dictatorship).
2 Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol (Wish Simon Cowell had read this, and all reality TV junkies).
3 Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy God (Support this if only to stop all those morons on TV saying "oh my god" every 30 seconds).
4 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (Another good one, day off every Sunday).
5 Honor thy Father and Mother (Good manners, this one should be enforced).
6 Thou shalt not murder (Good advice again, shame religious nuts seem to be the ones who do most murders like Bush and most terrorists, although both of these seem to follow the Muslim version of this one which includes the line "without just cause").
7 Thou shalt not commit adultery (If you do, it probably justifies no.6).
8 Thou shalt not steal (Never steal from family, friends or people worse off than yourself. Big companies and supermarkets have been stealing your money for years and are fair game).
9 Thou shalt not bear false witness (Don't lie it makes things worse. Doesn't it Mr Bush).
10 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house or wife (because the house is probably the same as yours with different wallpaper, and his wife is probably worse than yours).
If there is a God can he pop round for a chat, as I need to ask him why he's such a bastard (for reasons I won't go into here).
I don't really expect God to knock at my door, unless it's some religious fruitcake who's monitoring my blog who'll probably murder me, rape my wife, steal my computer, and then lie about it if they get caught.
Friday, 7 September 2007
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Global Warming again
Quite depressed after the latest version of events that will be caused by global warming.
After all the experts blamed last year's hot weather on global warming claiming Britain would become the new Mediterranean, then the same experts saying the lack of a decent summer this year was down to global warming causing increased rainfall and we should get used to it.
Now I'm reading the "experts" are saying due to global warming melting the ice caps and causing untold tons of fresh water into the sea, this will cause the Gulf stream which brings our warm weather to be diverted away from Britain, which will basically turn Britain into a cold Arctic region in a few years!!
I think we're totally screwed, at least till we stop paying experts to explain why it's sunny some years and rainy others, just as it has always been.
Without going "too deep" on the racism debate
On a side note the previous thread about African workers is the first time in my life I've really experienced the overt racism that is portrayed as the norm by some people.
Due to growing up in a multi cultural area it's never really been a part of my life, for as long as I remember I've had friends of West Indian origin and they were just "friends".
My best mate Dave (made up name) is just Dave, or Dave from down the road not black Dave.
Anyway I couldn't believe how some of the people I worked with treated the African cleaners, more than once I was asked why I spoke to "those people!", we had cleaners sacked because they took home left-overs from company buffets? supervisors would stand there and make sure all the left-overs were thrown away.
Another similar incident I was told about was when the girls put some food in the fridge for people to have later, which after a complaint was all thrown away because they had touched it.
One famous case occured when one of the girls from Ghana was seen wearing a company coat (which had been loaned to her as it was pouring with rain that day and she had to walk to another part of the company), we were all interrogated to find out who had given her the coat, the manager concerned would not lower himself to actually speak to her and ask why she was wearing it (not that it really mattered anyway?).
Finally the person who loaned it to her became aware of the fuss and put the manager right, and we were all warned not to give contractors (meaning the cleaning contractors) anything?
The manager concerned was off sick for a few months afterwards, and I later found out the girls supervisor (a great guy from Uganda, who just happens to be a part time law student :) ) had made an official rascism claim (which it certainly was) and the company took the easy option of suspending him for 2 months while telling us he was ill.
Should have sacked the moron, he wouldn't have been missed.
Although an arsehole is an arsehole no matter what colour they are, and I was once accused of racism by a supervisor because I called him an arsehole during a heated argument, the fact he was black really wasn't an issue with me but I was hauled up in front of the management after he accused me of being racist, luckily a couple of other black workers who had witnessed the argument spoke up for me and told the management that at no time did I make any racist remarks and that the supervisor concerned acted like a complete arsehole and I had been provoked, and should be applauded for not making any racist remarks during what was a very heated confrontation.
Incidents like this do no favours for racial harmony, just as racism is unacceptable so using the racist card when there is no racism present is just as unacceptable.
Due to growing up in a multi cultural area it's never really been a part of my life, for as long as I remember I've had friends of West Indian origin and they were just "friends".
My best mate Dave (made up name) is just Dave, or Dave from down the road not black Dave.
Anyway I couldn't believe how some of the people I worked with treated the African cleaners, more than once I was asked why I spoke to "those people!", we had cleaners sacked because they took home left-overs from company buffets? supervisors would stand there and make sure all the left-overs were thrown away.
Another similar incident I was told about was when the girls put some food in the fridge for people to have later, which after a complaint was all thrown away because they had touched it.
One famous case occured when one of the girls from Ghana was seen wearing a company coat (which had been loaned to her as it was pouring with rain that day and she had to walk to another part of the company), we were all interrogated to find out who had given her the coat, the manager concerned would not lower himself to actually speak to her and ask why she was wearing it (not that it really mattered anyway?).
Finally the person who loaned it to her became aware of the fuss and put the manager right, and we were all warned not to give contractors (meaning the cleaning contractors) anything?
The manager concerned was off sick for a few months afterwards, and I later found out the girls supervisor (a great guy from Uganda, who just happens to be a part time law student :) ) had made an official rascism claim (which it certainly was) and the company took the easy option of suspending him for 2 months while telling us he was ill.
Should have sacked the moron, he wouldn't have been missed.
Although an arsehole is an arsehole no matter what colour they are, and I was once accused of racism by a supervisor because I called him an arsehole during a heated argument, the fact he was black really wasn't an issue with me but I was hauled up in front of the management after he accused me of being racist, luckily a couple of other black workers who had witnessed the argument spoke up for me and told the management that at no time did I make any racist remarks and that the supervisor concerned acted like a complete arsehole and I had been provoked, and should be applauded for not making any racist remarks during what was a very heated confrontation.
Incidents like this do no favours for racial harmony, just as racism is unacceptable so using the racist card when there is no racism present is just as unacceptable.
Profit Vs Health
Health and safety issues are an occupational hazard for most profit driven companies these days, just ask anyone in the National health service.
My dad (now sadly departed) was lucky to survive MRSA picked up while having an operation in a local hospital, for all their talk of improved standards we all know that when it comes to things like cleaning contracts the cheapest tender wins the contract.
Given the choice of a reasonable package from a reputable cleaning company and a half price alternative from a company who promise to put as more people on the job for a fraction of the cost, it's no surprise who health bosses choose given fixed budgets and the current trend in employing admin over workers (Chiefs Vs Indians).
Then they all act shocked when basic standards of hygiene are not kept up because the East european cleaner (on less than the minimum wage) is less than enthuasiastic about their job.
I saw it at my last job where despite a top quality service the cleaning contractors were thrown out due to a lower price alternative company tendering for the contract.
The new company only employed African workers mainly from Nigeria and Ghana, the turnover of staff was immense usually due to immigration catching up with them, which was a shame as some were extremely nice people, who when you spoke to them
made you realise what a nightmare world we live in! several had told me that they were only here on visitors passes and were seeing how long they could get away with staying, although only earning around £3-£4 an hour it was worthwhile as it was a hell of a lot more than they could earn at home, and a couple of months pay here would cover a years living expense at home.
I have to admit most were really nice genuine polite people and the tales of home were harrowing and makes you understand why people travel around the world to be exploited by these companies, as they saw it they were doing the best for their families and you can understand that, but the fact some fat cat bastard was making a huge profit out of it makes your blood boil.
My dad (now sadly departed) was lucky to survive MRSA picked up while having an operation in a local hospital, for all their talk of improved standards we all know that when it comes to things like cleaning contracts the cheapest tender wins the contract.
Given the choice of a reasonable package from a reputable cleaning company and a half price alternative from a company who promise to put as more people on the job for a fraction of the cost, it's no surprise who health bosses choose given fixed budgets and the current trend in employing admin over workers (Chiefs Vs Indians).
Then they all act shocked when basic standards of hygiene are not kept up because the East european cleaner (on less than the minimum wage) is less than enthuasiastic about their job.
I saw it at my last job where despite a top quality service the cleaning contractors were thrown out due to a lower price alternative company tendering for the contract.
The new company only employed African workers mainly from Nigeria and Ghana, the turnover of staff was immense usually due to immigration catching up with them, which was a shame as some were extremely nice people, who when you spoke to them
made you realise what a nightmare world we live in! several had told me that they were only here on visitors passes and were seeing how long they could get away with staying, although only earning around £3-£4 an hour it was worthwhile as it was a hell of a lot more than they could earn at home, and a couple of months pay here would cover a years living expense at home.
I have to admit most were really nice genuine polite people and the tales of home were harrowing and makes you understand why people travel around the world to be exploited by these companies, as they saw it they were doing the best for their families and you can understand that, but the fact some fat cat bastard was making a huge profit out of it makes your blood boil.
Toxic Toothpaste
Not really about toxic toothpaste but I love that title :)
Counterfeit products from China back in the news, including fake toothpaste!
When I saw a report on all the dodgy goods that were finding their way into the country from China, that one stood out as I couldn't get my head round why (given the choice of millions of products) anyone would bother making fake toothpaste?
But then I went to the supermarket and found out it's quite expensive, so there must be a big enough profit margin in it.
When you think about counterfeit goods the obvious spring to mind like CD's, DVD's, name brand clothing etc, basically the sort of things you find down the market cheap, and in the back of your mind you know it's probably fake but faced with a bunch of kids all wanting Nike brand names on their trainers and clothes it's reasonably safe option as they will never spot the difference and a pair of trainers are unlikely to harm your kids.
The recent trend into faking products that could harm you is worrying, as a smoker I'll admit to smoking ciggies from the old communist block when I was young usually brought in by lorry drivers from Poland or Czechoslovakia etc looking to earn a few bob on their trips to England, as far as I know these were no more harmful than the standard cancer sticks you bought at the local newsagent but were a quarter of the price.
But today if you buy cheap fags you're risking more than usual as there is a healthy trade in really dangerous counterfeit fags containing all sorts of nasties.
The main news at the moment is Mattel attempting to save face (and their business) after a lot of their "Barbie" range was found to have high levels of lead in the paint.
All the suspect toys are imported from China, a fact that probably wouldn't have come to light if this scare hadn't occured, now their trying to recall all the dodgy toys claiming a small counterfeit batch had sneaked in.
When I was a kid, if you were poor you ended up with toys "made in Hong Kong" and even at the age of about 5 you knew they were crap and later on you found out they contained lead paint and were just cheap and nasty, whereas name brand toys were made in the UK or USA and were high quality.
Nowadays even if the name is famous it's more likely it will be manufactured in China (possibly Hong Kong?) or another far eastern country, for the simple reason of cheap labour means more profits.
I hope Mattel go bust after the Americans start sueing them for millions of dollars because their kids have unknowingly been chewing on a high lead content toy, I'm sure the thousands of former workers at Mattel who lost their jobs when the manufacture of the toys was moved to the far east won't worry in the slightest.
In fact I hope every company that has taken to buying in from cheap labour markets, while shutting down our own industries goes the same way.
Never trusted a company that named it's main product after a nazi war criminal (Klaus Barbie the master butcher of Leigh-on-sea), although I'd hazard a guess that "Sindy" now probably has Chinese roots as well?
On the other hand if it can be proved the Chinese aren't expoiting their massive population and are paying a decent living wage to all, then it seems fair for them to compete in an open market.
But we all know that maximum profit is everything these days and while there is someone to exploit, someone will be making a profit out of it.
Counterfeit products from China back in the news, including fake toothpaste!
When I saw a report on all the dodgy goods that were finding their way into the country from China, that one stood out as I couldn't get my head round why (given the choice of millions of products) anyone would bother making fake toothpaste?
But then I went to the supermarket and found out it's quite expensive, so there must be a big enough profit margin in it.
When you think about counterfeit goods the obvious spring to mind like CD's, DVD's, name brand clothing etc, basically the sort of things you find down the market cheap, and in the back of your mind you know it's probably fake but faced with a bunch of kids all wanting Nike brand names on their trainers and clothes it's reasonably safe option as they will never spot the difference and a pair of trainers are unlikely to harm your kids.
The recent trend into faking products that could harm you is worrying, as a smoker I'll admit to smoking ciggies from the old communist block when I was young usually brought in by lorry drivers from Poland or Czechoslovakia etc looking to earn a few bob on their trips to England, as far as I know these were no more harmful than the standard cancer sticks you bought at the local newsagent but were a quarter of the price.
But today if you buy cheap fags you're risking more than usual as there is a healthy trade in really dangerous counterfeit fags containing all sorts of nasties.
The main news at the moment is Mattel attempting to save face (and their business) after a lot of their "Barbie" range was found to have high levels of lead in the paint.
All the suspect toys are imported from China, a fact that probably wouldn't have come to light if this scare hadn't occured, now their trying to recall all the dodgy toys claiming a small counterfeit batch had sneaked in.
When I was a kid, if you were poor you ended up with toys "made in Hong Kong" and even at the age of about 5 you knew they were crap and later on you found out they contained lead paint and were just cheap and nasty, whereas name brand toys were made in the UK or USA and were high quality.
Nowadays even if the name is famous it's more likely it will be manufactured in China (possibly Hong Kong?) or another far eastern country, for the simple reason of cheap labour means more profits.
I hope Mattel go bust after the Americans start sueing them for millions of dollars because their kids have unknowingly been chewing on a high lead content toy, I'm sure the thousands of former workers at Mattel who lost their jobs when the manufacture of the toys was moved to the far east won't worry in the slightest.
In fact I hope every company that has taken to buying in from cheap labour markets, while shutting down our own industries goes the same way.
Never trusted a company that named it's main product after a nazi war criminal (Klaus Barbie the master butcher of Leigh-on-sea), although I'd hazard a guess that "Sindy" now probably has Chinese roots as well?
On the other hand if it can be proved the Chinese aren't expoiting their massive population and are paying a decent living wage to all, then it seems fair for them to compete in an open market.
But we all know that maximum profit is everything these days and while there is someone to exploit, someone will be making a profit out of it.
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Stunning Advert
Love this new advert for Smirnoff Vodka.
I thought it was a movie trailer the first time I saw it.
I thought it was a movie trailer the first time I saw it.
Links
Apologies to anyone that clicked one of my links for a blog called "Share your Knowledge" (Now removed), I'm sure it used to be a good blog but it seems to have been replaced by one of those annoying trojan/malaware sites offering a product like "Win Cleaner" or "System doctor" that try to take over your PC and tell you that you've got 3,000 viruses and for a small price and your credit card details they will fix it for you ..... Bastards.
Advice for anyone that gets hit by these sites is close your net connection down straight away (ctrl, alt, del), then run Spybot and Ad-aware to get rid of the malaware trojan, otherwise it keeps popping up everytime you go on the net.
Advice for anyone that gets hit by these sites is close your net connection down straight away (ctrl, alt, del), then run Spybot and Ad-aware to get rid of the malaware trojan, otherwise it keeps popping up everytime you go on the net.
For sufferers of "Frozen Shoulder"
Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis).
Frozen Shoulder Syndrome is an extremely painful and debilitating condition characterised by pain and stiffness of the shoulder.
It lasts for an average of 30 months.
Pain due to frozen shoulder is usually dull or aching.
It can be worsened with attempted motion.
The pain is usually located over the outer shoulder area and sometimes the upper arm.
The hallmark of the disorder is restricted motion or stiffness in the shoulder.
The affected individual cannot move the shoulder normally.
Motion is also limited when someone else attempts to move the shoulder for the patient.
Some physicians have described the normal course of a frozen shoulder as having three stages:
Stage one: In the "freezing" stage, which may last from six weeks to nine months, the patient develops a slow onset of pain. As the pain worsens, the shoulder loses motion.
Stage two: The "frozen" stage is marked by a slow improvement in pain, but the stiffness remains. This stage generally lasts four months to nine months.
Stage three: The final stage is the "thawing", during which shoulder motion slowly returns toward normal. This generally lasts five months to 26 months.
Great.... so only another 2-3 years and I'll be as good as new.
Fuck I'm really depressed now.
Frozen Shoulder Syndrome is an extremely painful and debilitating condition characterised by pain and stiffness of the shoulder.
It lasts for an average of 30 months.
Pain due to frozen shoulder is usually dull or aching.
It can be worsened with attempted motion.
The pain is usually located over the outer shoulder area and sometimes the upper arm.
The hallmark of the disorder is restricted motion or stiffness in the shoulder.
The affected individual cannot move the shoulder normally.
Motion is also limited when someone else attempts to move the shoulder for the patient.
Some physicians have described the normal course of a frozen shoulder as having three stages:
Stage one: In the "freezing" stage, which may last from six weeks to nine months, the patient develops a slow onset of pain. As the pain worsens, the shoulder loses motion.
Stage two: The "frozen" stage is marked by a slow improvement in pain, but the stiffness remains. This stage generally lasts four months to nine months.
Stage three: The final stage is the "thawing", during which shoulder motion slowly returns toward normal. This generally lasts five months to 26 months.
Great.... so only another 2-3 years and I'll be as good as new.
Fuck I'm really depressed now.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Internet Music
I used to spend an absolute fortune on buying records when I was young, thanks to the internet I save a fortune :)
In my mind the record industry owes me a return after wasting all that money when I was a youth, when I could of been spending it on life's essentials when your a teenager.. Booze and Girls.
Yeah although I probably couldn't have drunk more at the time, those things that impress the birds... namely flash cars and wads of cash were out of reach due to music buying addiction.
Anyway it all came back to haunt me when I got hitched and had some kids, I had to flog the majority of the vinyl collection to pay for luxuries like rent, food and gas bills leaving me with my beloved music collection only on a pile of C90's always praying they didn't get jammed in the cassette player.
Then about 7 years ago a work mate gave me his old 133mb Windows 95 computer and I got myself a £10 a month Telewest surf unlimited connection, someone told me about Napster and Audiognome and here we go again.
Using the world's slowest modem on a dial up service I started replacing all the vinyl with mp3's, used to take over an hour per 3 minute song if the person you connected to didn't log off!! and that used to happen a lot as many were connected with those ISP's that disconnected you every hour, luckily my Telewest one was brilliant you stay online 24 hours if you wanted, although the wife wasn't happy about not being able to use the phone.
So in 7 years of downloading I think I've replaced 99% of what I'd originally bought, although I've collected a hell of a lot of stuff that I never owned at the time (just to review of course...hehe).
Shame that Audiogalaxy was closed down just after I got my first broadband connection as it was the greatest file sharing site ever put together, managed to find some of the most obscure punk songs that I had been convinced I couldn't find due to being the only person who'd ever bought the song.
So a big thanks to Napster, Audiognome, Audiogalaxy, WinMX, Morpheus, Kazaa, Direct Connect, BT++, Azureus, Rapidshare and the thousands of bloggers who make it all so easy nowadays.
In my mind the record industry owes me a return after wasting all that money when I was a youth, when I could of been spending it on life's essentials when your a teenager.. Booze and Girls.
Yeah although I probably couldn't have drunk more at the time, those things that impress the birds... namely flash cars and wads of cash were out of reach due to music buying addiction.
Anyway it all came back to haunt me when I got hitched and had some kids, I had to flog the majority of the vinyl collection to pay for luxuries like rent, food and gas bills leaving me with my beloved music collection only on a pile of C90's always praying they didn't get jammed in the cassette player.
Then about 7 years ago a work mate gave me his old 133mb Windows 95 computer and I got myself a £10 a month Telewest surf unlimited connection, someone told me about Napster and Audiognome and here we go again.
Using the world's slowest modem on a dial up service I started replacing all the vinyl with mp3's, used to take over an hour per 3 minute song if the person you connected to didn't log off!! and that used to happen a lot as many were connected with those ISP's that disconnected you every hour, luckily my Telewest one was brilliant you stay online 24 hours if you wanted, although the wife wasn't happy about not being able to use the phone.
So in 7 years of downloading I think I've replaced 99% of what I'd originally bought, although I've collected a hell of a lot of stuff that I never owned at the time (just to review of course...hehe).
Shame that Audiogalaxy was closed down just after I got my first broadband connection as it was the greatest file sharing site ever put together, managed to find some of the most obscure punk songs that I had been convinced I couldn't find due to being the only person who'd ever bought the song.
So a big thanks to Napster, Audiognome, Audiogalaxy, WinMX, Morpheus, Kazaa, Direct Connect, BT++, Azureus, Rapidshare and the thousands of bloggers who make it all so easy nowadays.
Monday, 27 August 2007
Depression and Reflection
Probably mentioned on here before that I hurt my arm when falling over back in May, just a standard trip over the kerb a bit of a stumble then straight down on my elbow.
Took a patch of skin off which stung for a while, not the first time and probably not the last time I've fell over.
The difference this time is that where previously the cuts, bruises, gashes etc have
always healed in a few weeks and I carry on as normal afterwards, this one seems to have caused lasting damage.
The patch of lost skin grew back although still scarred, but the pain in my upper arm is getting steadily worse and recently I have been unable to lift my right arm above shoulder height, if I stretch outwards I get an intense pain in my upper arm.
I have seen 3 different doctors who all seem as useless as one another, the first after the long lecture about smoking gave me anti-inflammatory drugs and a painkilling injection, which made it hurt all the time and the drugs caused an old foot injury to swell up!!.
The second decided I was suffering from arthritis and suggested vitamin supplements
(Glucosamine Sulphate), which I've taken for nearly 6 weeks and the pain is increasing.
Saw a different Doc last week who decided I have something called a frozen shoulder? but at least she sent me for an X-ray which the other 2 docs wouldn't do.
So I've had my X-ray but have to wait till next week for the diagnosis if anything can be done?
Depression is setting in big time due to not being able to do things which have always come naturally, basic stuff like pulling on a t-shirt is painful and pulling up my trousers is an effort.
I am a pretty good darts player (at least I was) now I can't lift my arm enough to throw them, plus all those things I've took for granted are now a problem.
In the space of three and a half months I've gone from active 40 something to invalid, due to tripping over a kerb.
If I could remember exactly where it was I fell it could be a classic "no win no fee" to the council, but I can't be bothered.
If I hadn't chucked my job in just before this happened I would probably have lost my job (the joys of contract labour, no sick pay, replaceable when unavailable).
Reflection comes when your view of the elderly and disabled people change.
Although feeling sympathy for anyone suffering any illness or long term disability, I never grasped exactly what it means and what it's like.
For anyone that has been fully active then suffered a disabling injury, it must be incredibly hard to come to terms with, my injury is extremly minor compared to most, I can still use my arms and legs yet I'm feeling sorry for myself, if one of those limbs were taken I really couldn't imagine how to cope, the people that do cope are stronger than I'll ever be.
The elderly obviously have longer to come to terms with it, but they must all remember how it was when they were younger and running up the stairs was something you just did and didn't have to plan, standing on a chair to change a lightbulb was done without thinking and now even if they can they have to be extra careful as a fall could be fatal.
The thing that worries me most (and this must affect every elderly person) is that my ability to defend myself has been taken away.
I'm 6'2" and 17 stone basically a "brick shithouse" type of person who has never felt the need to be scared of anyone, I have always been confident that if I was threatened I could defend myself without problem, which I've done in the past with no major injuries.
Now I don't feel so secure and it concerns me.
The act of throwing next door's frisbee back a couple of weeks ago doubled me up in pain, so if I had to throw a punch it would probably be a lot worse.
So I have the utmost sympathy for anyone who has reached that time in their life (through age or injury) when the body just doesn't do what it's been used to doing all their life.
Took a patch of skin off which stung for a while, not the first time and probably not the last time I've fell over.
The difference this time is that where previously the cuts, bruises, gashes etc have
always healed in a few weeks and I carry on as normal afterwards, this one seems to have caused lasting damage.
The patch of lost skin grew back although still scarred, but the pain in my upper arm is getting steadily worse and recently I have been unable to lift my right arm above shoulder height, if I stretch outwards I get an intense pain in my upper arm.
I have seen 3 different doctors who all seem as useless as one another, the first after the long lecture about smoking gave me anti-inflammatory drugs and a painkilling injection, which made it hurt all the time and the drugs caused an old foot injury to swell up!!.
The second decided I was suffering from arthritis and suggested vitamin supplements
(Glucosamine Sulphate), which I've taken for nearly 6 weeks and the pain is increasing.
Saw a different Doc last week who decided I have something called a frozen shoulder? but at least she sent me for an X-ray which the other 2 docs wouldn't do.
So I've had my X-ray but have to wait till next week for the diagnosis if anything can be done?
Depression is setting in big time due to not being able to do things which have always come naturally, basic stuff like pulling on a t-shirt is painful and pulling up my trousers is an effort.
I am a pretty good darts player (at least I was) now I can't lift my arm enough to throw them, plus all those things I've took for granted are now a problem.
In the space of three and a half months I've gone from active 40 something to invalid, due to tripping over a kerb.
If I could remember exactly where it was I fell it could be a classic "no win no fee" to the council, but I can't be bothered.
If I hadn't chucked my job in just before this happened I would probably have lost my job (the joys of contract labour, no sick pay, replaceable when unavailable).
Reflection comes when your view of the elderly and disabled people change.
Although feeling sympathy for anyone suffering any illness or long term disability, I never grasped exactly what it means and what it's like.
For anyone that has been fully active then suffered a disabling injury, it must be incredibly hard to come to terms with, my injury is extremly minor compared to most, I can still use my arms and legs yet I'm feeling sorry for myself, if one of those limbs were taken I really couldn't imagine how to cope, the people that do cope are stronger than I'll ever be.
The elderly obviously have longer to come to terms with it, but they must all remember how it was when they were younger and running up the stairs was something you just did and didn't have to plan, standing on a chair to change a lightbulb was done without thinking and now even if they can they have to be extra careful as a fall could be fatal.
The thing that worries me most (and this must affect every elderly person) is that my ability to defend myself has been taken away.
I'm 6'2" and 17 stone basically a "brick shithouse" type of person who has never felt the need to be scared of anyone, I have always been confident that if I was threatened I could defend myself without problem, which I've done in the past with no major injuries.
Now I don't feel so secure and it concerns me.
The act of throwing next door's frisbee back a couple of weeks ago doubled me up in pain, so if I had to throw a punch it would probably be a lot worse.
So I have the utmost sympathy for anyone who has reached that time in their life (through age or injury) when the body just doesn't do what it's been used to doing all their life.
Back Again
Blimey, nearly 2 weeks since my last post... doesn't time fly.
Anyway just felt the need to post this for some reason, and old all time favourite advert.
Anyway just felt the need to post this for some reason, and old all time favourite advert.
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Television Personalities
Recommended - Still going after all these years!!I think this one came out a while back but it's well worth a listen.
Dan Treacy's vocals still make me think of Joe Pasquale but that shouldn't put you off.
Here's what Dan had to write about it (shamelessly pinched from Amazon)
"Aha! we hear the doubters and cynics sing... We smell cash £££ in another dodgy batch of out takes and fillers!!! Oh, far from it! The story behind this compilation goes back a long way...A very long way... after a long sabbatical - at this point if you don't know my/our history, I suggest you cram up on your homework/history ... GOOGLE! GOOGLE!).
I owe this CD in most to a lovely kind bunch of mostly New Yorkers, Rob and his marvellous band The Baskervilles.
They arranged a benefit gig in New York in lieu of my release from prison [naturally I was fitted up]. They raised over £1,000 with the stipulation that I went back into the studio. So, in the summer of 2005 I went into Soup Studios in North London with engineer and producer Simon Trought. This CD was the culmination of those sessions.
Our next/new LP, My Dark Places (Domino Records) came later...
The cover versions (If I Should Fall Behind - Bruce Springsteen, Mr Brightside - The Killers) are simply songs that I love, that move me, that make me laugh...
I was inundated with offers after prison release, but I'm afraid some certain `industry' people were disappointed to find I was not a shambling wreck...I've been called the original Doherty... yes Tommy Docherty... football legend!
I'm as proud and disappointed of this CD as anything I've ever done...
And here's Debbie with the weather. "
Music
I've done a major update on the player, 18 songs added.
A mixture of 40 years worth of stuff I like :)
Added some new stuff, some old 70's funk, some punk classics and a few oddities.
So goodbye to the Kings Of Leon, Aphex Twin, Lily Allen, Siouxsie, Fun Lovin Criminals, 808 State, Pixies, Stone Roses, Madness and the Stranglers.
Hello to Vangelis, TV Personalities, TRB, Sufjan Stevens, Portishead, Marvin Gaye, Hard-Fi, Damned, Chem Bros, Barry White, Adverts, Timmy Thomas, O'Jays, Isley Bros, X Ray Spex, Dickies and Devo.
A reprieve for a while for these favourites
John Lennon, Harvey Danger, AM, Thirteen Senses, Linkin Park, Flamin Groovies, TVP, Spizz Oil, SFA, Radio Stars, Members, Creatures, Buzzcocks, Albertos, Spear Of Destiny, I Monster, Dr Feelgood, Smiths, Inspiral Carpets And M Smith, and the Stooges.
A mixture of 40 years worth of stuff I like :)
Added some new stuff, some old 70's funk, some punk classics and a few oddities.
So goodbye to the Kings Of Leon, Aphex Twin, Lily Allen, Siouxsie, Fun Lovin Criminals, 808 State, Pixies, Stone Roses, Madness and the Stranglers.
Hello to Vangelis, TV Personalities, TRB, Sufjan Stevens, Portishead, Marvin Gaye, Hard-Fi, Damned, Chem Bros, Barry White, Adverts, Timmy Thomas, O'Jays, Isley Bros, X Ray Spex, Dickies and Devo.
A reprieve for a while for these favourites
John Lennon, Harvey Danger, AM, Thirteen Senses, Linkin Park, Flamin Groovies, TVP, Spizz Oil, SFA, Radio Stars, Members, Creatures, Buzzcocks, Albertos, Spear Of Destiny, I Monster, Dr Feelgood, Smiths, Inspiral Carpets And M Smith, and the Stooges.
Monday, 13 August 2007
Day Trips
On a lighter note.
Did a few day trips this week taking in some seaside towns.
Living in Southend I probably don't appreciate what our seafront has to offer, but after visiting other seaside resorts the comment "poor man's Southend" seems to come up a lot.
Skegness is the latest to suffer that fate, I had never been there before so I thought I'd look it up.
Have to say it was pleasant, but nothing special.
They have all the usual things you would expect of a seaside town, but I ended up comparing it to Southend and it didn't match up.
Bognor Regis got a visit and again it was ok, but lacking against the home town.
I was impressed by Weston Super Mare, maybe because the weather was excellent that day but also by the people who all seemed polite and friendly (the main thing that lets Southend down).
I plan to go back there soon, as I enjoyed my brief stay.
Did a few day trips this week taking in some seaside towns.
Living in Southend I probably don't appreciate what our seafront has to offer, but after visiting other seaside resorts the comment "poor man's Southend" seems to come up a lot.
Skegness is the latest to suffer that fate, I had never been there before so I thought I'd look it up.
Have to say it was pleasant, but nothing special.
They have all the usual things you would expect of a seaside town, but I ended up comparing it to Southend and it didn't match up.
Bognor Regis got a visit and again it was ok, but lacking against the home town.
I was impressed by Weston Super Mare, maybe because the weather was excellent that day but also by the people who all seemed polite and friendly (the main thing that lets Southend down).
I plan to go back there soon, as I enjoyed my brief stay.
Public Service Announcment
I seem to be getting inundated with suspect e-mail attachments from companies like egreetings.com, FreeWebCards.com, MyPostcards.com etc.
My AV quarantines them as "potentially unwanted message body detected" so they aren't doing any damage (as far as I know), but are getting annoying.Most of the headers are "you've received a greeting card from a (school mate, friend, relative etc)"
It turns out it the latest scam to get you to visit a site which will download spyware/malaware onto your PC.
I've had about 30 of these in the last few weeks, so I thought I was being targeted but after some checking it appears over 40 million of these e-mails are currently being sent every day!!
Official Report
"Internet spammers launched a widespread attack on e-mail inboxes this month. But instead of trying to lure users into opening a corrupted attachment, they're concealing a computer virus in a link to an online greeting card."
Explanation from an IT friend
"Those e-mails are all "drive-by" Trojan attempts - send the mail address a URI and see if the owner will visit it. If you visit the URI, you download and run a Trojan that adds your PC to the vast network of "zombies" through which the original e-mail was sent."
So obviously I recommend deleting any suspect greeting cards you receive,
or better still be paranoid like me and delete anything with an attachment :)
My AV quarantines them as "potentially unwanted message body detected" so they aren't doing any damage (as far as I know), but are getting annoying.Most of the headers are "you've received a greeting card from a (school mate, friend, relative etc)"
It turns out it the latest scam to get you to visit a site which will download spyware/malaware onto your PC.
I've had about 30 of these in the last few weeks, so I thought I was being targeted but after some checking it appears over 40 million of these e-mails are currently being sent every day!!
Official Report
"Internet spammers launched a widespread attack on e-mail inboxes this month. But instead of trying to lure users into opening a corrupted attachment, they're concealing a computer virus in a link to an online greeting card."
Explanation from an IT friend
"Those e-mails are all "drive-by" Trojan attempts - send the mail address a URI and see if the owner will visit it. If you visit the URI, you download and run a Trojan that adds your PC to the vast network of "zombies" through which the original e-mail was sent."
So obviously I recommend deleting any suspect greeting cards you receive,
or better still be paranoid like me and delete anything with an attachment :)
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Worst Adverts
Just a heads up for this excellent website http://tvs-worst-adverts.co.uk/
Currently featuring 2 of the worst adverts on UK TV at the moment.
Both are from loan companies trying to get you to take out another expensive loan to cover all your debts that you couldn't afford to pay before, while not mentioning that you've now probably doubled your debt and all those bills like rent, mortgage, gas, electric, water, council tax, food etc will still need to be paid before you can pay for this, which is probably how you got into debt in the first place.
Anyway here's the Ocean finance one
http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA0349&advertiser=Ocean%20Finance
Picture loans - Dad's found your scooter one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_mPrjHQyY
Lovely comment on the above website "Josh, how many more times? Dad’s taken your scoota and all your other toys down to Cash Converters to pay back the £45 grand we owe Picture.”
Well you have to laugh, I remember being desperate enough to apply for one of these loans but luckily for me I was blacklisted by several banks and other companies and even the loan company wouldn't touch me.
Lucky escape for me, I ended up selling my record collection and anything else not nailed down to pay the bills and eventually got out of debt without a 25 year loan hanging over me.
Currently featuring 2 of the worst adverts on UK TV at the moment.
Both are from loan companies trying to get you to take out another expensive loan to cover all your debts that you couldn't afford to pay before, while not mentioning that you've now probably doubled your debt and all those bills like rent, mortgage, gas, electric, water, council tax, food etc will still need to be paid before you can pay for this, which is probably how you got into debt in the first place.
Anyway here's the Ocean finance one
http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA0349&advertiser=Ocean%20Finance
Picture loans - Dad's found your scooter one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_mPrjHQyY
Lovely comment on the above website "Josh, how many more times? Dad’s taken your scoota and all your other toys down to Cash Converters to pay back the £45 grand we owe Picture.”
Well you have to laugh, I remember being desperate enough to apply for one of these loans but luckily for me I was blacklisted by several banks and other companies and even the loan company wouldn't touch me.
Lucky escape for me, I ended up selling my record collection and anything else not nailed down to pay the bills and eventually got out of debt without a 25 year loan hanging over me.
Crime and Punishment
I was reading one of Nuzz's posts about taking DNA from anyone who commited a crime even trivial ones and my thoughts are why not.
Anyone that's seen the film Gattaca will probably have nightmares about it, but is there anyone out there who hasn't felt concern about rapists, paedophiles and muderers being "out there" after many high profile incidents.
If you can't handle the consequences don't do the crime, and if you've done nothing wrong you shouldn't need to worry.
My personal opinion is that everyone should have their DNA listed, I know it's not 100% foolproof but it's pretty close, and it would surely make a list of suspects much smaller.
So it affects our human rights, I'm willing to forego that right if it makes the lives of my family and friends safer, and stops people kidnapping little kids.
On a vaguely similar theme, I was reading in the local paper about a woman who was zapped by a police speed gun which just happened to be behind a tree, she gets out of her car and goes and has a moan to the cops and writes to the paper about them not being visible.
So there are big signs telling her it's a 30mph zone but it's the coppers fault she was speeding because he wasn't visible, she was speeding she got caught, take the punishment.
I'm not trying to be high and mighty and say I've never broken a speed limit because I have, give me a bit of open road and I'm foot to the floor but common sense tells me that around built up areas you stick to the limits, several times I've had kids run out in front of me and due to the fact I'm under 30mph I've managed to stop well before hitting them.
Anyone that's seen the film Gattaca will probably have nightmares about it, but is there anyone out there who hasn't felt concern about rapists, paedophiles and muderers being "out there" after many high profile incidents.
If you can't handle the consequences don't do the crime, and if you've done nothing wrong you shouldn't need to worry.
My personal opinion is that everyone should have their DNA listed, I know it's not 100% foolproof but it's pretty close, and it would surely make a list of suspects much smaller.
So it affects our human rights, I'm willing to forego that right if it makes the lives of my family and friends safer, and stops people kidnapping little kids.
On a vaguely similar theme, I was reading in the local paper about a woman who was zapped by a police speed gun which just happened to be behind a tree, she gets out of her car and goes and has a moan to the cops and writes to the paper about them not being visible.
So there are big signs telling her it's a 30mph zone but it's the coppers fault she was speeding because he wasn't visible, she was speeding she got caught, take the punishment.
I'm not trying to be high and mighty and say I've never broken a speed limit because I have, give me a bit of open road and I'm foot to the floor but common sense tells me that around built up areas you stick to the limits, several times I've had kids run out in front of me and due to the fact I'm under 30mph I've managed to stop well before hitting them.
Drugs
Probably just me but isn't there a simple cure for the drug problem?
Since Bush and Blair got rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Afghan farmers have started producing tons of opium again (the Taliban were against drug production), so the world will be flooded with more and more heroin.
So why not use this new resource for our benefit? Free Heroin to anyone that wants it, no need to go round mugging people and burgling people's houses to get money for drugs.
The drug dealers wouldn't need to shoot each other (and innocent people) for dealing on their patch as there would be no customers, and the users would all be too stoned to cause aggro.
The money saved on policing drug areas could be given to the NHS for new hospitals because obviously there could be thousands of drug users who might survive the overdoses and would need medical aid, giving plenty of work for doctors and nurses which would generate more income tax for the government.
A large proportion of benefit claimants would be "on a different planet" and would forget to sign on, saving even more money.
A large proportion of the prison community in for drug related crimes could be dosed up and let out, leaving room for proper criminals like the dealers who would probably have to turn to other crimes after having their main source of income taken away.
Just a thought :)
Since Bush and Blair got rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Afghan farmers have started producing tons of opium again (the Taliban were against drug production), so the world will be flooded with more and more heroin.
So why not use this new resource for our benefit? Free Heroin to anyone that wants it, no need to go round mugging people and burgling people's houses to get money for drugs.
The drug dealers wouldn't need to shoot each other (and innocent people) for dealing on their patch as there would be no customers, and the users would all be too stoned to cause aggro.
The money saved on policing drug areas could be given to the NHS for new hospitals because obviously there could be thousands of drug users who might survive the overdoses and would need medical aid, giving plenty of work for doctors and nurses which would generate more income tax for the government.
A large proportion of benefit claimants would be "on a different planet" and would forget to sign on, saving even more money.
A large proportion of the prison community in for drug related crimes could be dosed up and let out, leaving room for proper criminals like the dealers who would probably have to turn to other crimes after having their main source of income taken away.
Just a thought :)
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Confused Rant
The Environment
Global Warming
Floods caused by Global warming? nothing whatsoever to do with all the new houses built on flood plains and government cutbacks on things like drain cleaning, maintenance of flood defences etc.
Droughts caused by global warming? nothing to do with governments not spending money on building new reservoirs and water companies not fixing all the leaking pipes.
A month of rainy days, or a month without rain it must be down to global warming of course.
I know global warming exists but it's become an excuse for everything these days.
We've had extreme weather through the ages, I remember my house getting flooded when I was a kid in the sixties, local areas were severely flooded in the fifties, we've had a lot of rainy days this year but not even been close to the minor flooding of 10 years ago.
When watching the news over the last few weeks I saw the people of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire blaming the government for the weather, my first thought was how can you blame anyone for the weather? but the more you listen to reports the more truth comes out.
Gordon Brown comes up with new standard excuse no.1 global warming, but years of neglect since the tories killed the unions have seen public services eroded to the basic theory of "if it don't make a profit, don't do it". So all the preventitive measures that would have been carried out years ago now don't get done because there's no money to be made.
Recycling
How can companies like Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and the rest have the nerve to promote recycling, when they are responsible for probably 90% of the packaging that's filling our landfills? Fruit and veg now comes in polystyrene trays with plastic covering, milk comes in plastic bottles, in fact just about everything you buy is in some sort of plastic covering.
I think supermarkets should be fined for every product they put in unnecessary packaging.
What's wrong with paper bags for fruit and veg these are totally bio degradeable, bring back the old method of getting money back on bottles (earnt me a fortune when I was a kid) used to be 3p a bottle (beer, Fizzypops etc) none ever got thrown away as all the kids would go round collecting them to make extra pocket money. Milk bottles still exist but they've been priced out of the market by the supermarkets.
Global Warming
Floods caused by Global warming? nothing whatsoever to do with all the new houses built on flood plains and government cutbacks on things like drain cleaning, maintenance of flood defences etc.
Droughts caused by global warming? nothing to do with governments not spending money on building new reservoirs and water companies not fixing all the leaking pipes.
A month of rainy days, or a month without rain it must be down to global warming of course.
I know global warming exists but it's become an excuse for everything these days.
We've had extreme weather through the ages, I remember my house getting flooded when I was a kid in the sixties, local areas were severely flooded in the fifties, we've had a lot of rainy days this year but not even been close to the minor flooding of 10 years ago.
When watching the news over the last few weeks I saw the people of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire blaming the government for the weather, my first thought was how can you blame anyone for the weather? but the more you listen to reports the more truth comes out.
Gordon Brown comes up with new standard excuse no.1 global warming, but years of neglect since the tories killed the unions have seen public services eroded to the basic theory of "if it don't make a profit, don't do it". So all the preventitive measures that would have been carried out years ago now don't get done because there's no money to be made.
Recycling
How can companies like Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and the rest have the nerve to promote recycling, when they are responsible for probably 90% of the packaging that's filling our landfills? Fruit and veg now comes in polystyrene trays with plastic covering, milk comes in plastic bottles, in fact just about everything you buy is in some sort of plastic covering.
I think supermarkets should be fined for every product they put in unnecessary packaging.
What's wrong with paper bags for fruit and veg these are totally bio degradeable, bring back the old method of getting money back on bottles (earnt me a fortune when I was a kid) used to be 3p a bottle (beer, Fizzypops etc) none ever got thrown away as all the kids would go round collecting them to make extra pocket money. Milk bottles still exist but they've been priced out of the market by the supermarkets.
Another You Tube Video
The second coolest car on film (after Steve McQueens Mustang),
Mad Max's V8 Falcon.
This vid doesn't actually feature any sound from the film, just
uses Ace of Spades by Motorhead, but features the best clips of
Mad Max 1 & 2 which are two films I'll watch everytime they're on.
Enjoy :)
Mad Max's V8 Falcon.
This vid doesn't actually feature any sound from the film, just
uses Ace of Spades by Motorhead, but features the best clips of
Mad Max 1 & 2 which are two films I'll watch everytime they're on.
Enjoy :)
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Personal Information
Always worth remembering.
The World wide web is available..... worldwide.
Accesible to friends, relatives, future employers, identity fraudsters etc.
Obviously the safest option is never to have a blog, myspace, Facebook etc
or anywhere where personal details can be acquired.
My own method is to change enough relevant facts to make it useless to anyone
attempting identity theft, there is a real me and an online me.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Food Recycling
As mentioned previously the local council have given us bins to put waste food in, to keep it separate from the normal household waste.
Monday was the first pick up day and all the good people down my street had left their little bins out for collection (I had specially been through the cupboards and found some out of date grub to help fill it up).
But nobody turned up to collect it?
So we've now got a street full of bins full of rotting food.
I'm sure the foxes will be happy, but probably only a matter of time till some little chav toerag thinks it'll be funny to empty them all out.
I am suprised the bins are still there, I have seen a couple of hanging baskets in our street which have only survived due to being padlocked to the wall.
Monday was the first pick up day and all the good people down my street had left their little bins out for collection (I had specially been through the cupboards and found some out of date grub to help fill it up).
But nobody turned up to collect it?
So we've now got a street full of bins full of rotting food.
I'm sure the foxes will be happy, but probably only a matter of time till some little chav toerag thinks it'll be funny to empty them all out.
I am suprised the bins are still there, I have seen a couple of hanging baskets in our street which have only survived due to being padlocked to the wall.
That subject again ...
You are still allowed to smoke in your own home,
unless you have workmen in who don't want you to!!
They can refuse to work if you refuse to stop.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Simpsons Mania
Don't know if this was an advertising stunt for the new Simpsons movie,
but I love this one I found earlier on the net.
Even the Pagan's might be amused?
Saturday, 14 July 2007
You don't see that everyday
So I walk out of Tesco's today, not far behind
a little grey haired old lady struggling to push
her shopping trolley.
Nothing odd about that as Tesco's has a high
percentage of pensioners shopping there.
But then she stopped near to where I had parked,
and I wondered if she had driven to the supermarket, as due to an
additional limp in her shuffling walk she looked more suitable to one of
those "shopmobility" style scooters than a car.
Imagine my surprise when she starts to load the shopping into the back of
a Silver Chevrolet Camaro!! even then I'm thinking her son or grandson
must be coming soon to drive her home.
But after putting the groceries in the back, she toddles off to leave the trolley
in the trolley park and gets into the car.
This is when I notice it's a left hand drive as I'd assumed she was sitting in
the passenger seat.
The car starts up and roars off with her barely able to see over the steering wheel.
I suppose I shouldn't be "ageist" and she might have worked hard all of her life
to own such a lovely car so I shouldn't be shocked.
But I kept thinking about one of my son's who is being crippled financially by the
2 grand he's had to shell out every year to insure a 1.1 litre 10 year old Peugeot
for driving legally on the roads, I'd imagine a Left hand drive American car would
be un-insureable for him or at least 5-10 grand a year?
I'm guessing she doesn't have to pay quite as much, or maybe pensioners are
better off than we're led to believe?
I know who's reactions I'd trust if I'd stepped into the road in front of this car,
and I'm guessing it's not the one who pays least insurance?
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Football Hooligans
Following on from the "Danny Dyer" and "You Tube" posts,
I thought I'd put the links up for a series of films taken
from the documentary "Hooligan" based mainly around the ICF
"the Inter City Firm" as West Ham's hooligan element were known.
(Thanks to Simon7s the uploader).
This TV documentary was made in 1985 so you'll have to forgive
the dodgy haircuts, but it's well made and Mr Dyer could learn from it.
1 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=E4cKSR0sL3o
2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=akF5iAM0T4Q
3 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=YHSo_xTvPEQ
4 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=4x1eezCQwVY
5 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qywrsvX4KfE
6 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=fWFMF1ChXDA
I have to admit I was at most of these games and don't remember
seeing most of this trouble, although I was told at the time it did happen.
Just goes to prove you can always find trouble if you want to, and in 95%
of cases you can avoid trouble if you don't look for it.
I thought I'd put the links up for a series of films taken
from the documentary "Hooligan" based mainly around the ICF
"the Inter City Firm" as West Ham's hooligan element were known.
(Thanks to Simon7s the uploader).
This TV documentary was made in 1985 so you'll have to forgive
the dodgy haircuts, but it's well made and Mr Dyer could learn from it.
1 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=E4cKSR0sL3o
2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=akF5iAM0T4Q
3 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=YHSo_xTvPEQ
4 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=4x1eezCQwVY
5 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qywrsvX4KfE
6 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=fWFMF1ChXDA
I have to admit I was at most of these games and don't remember
seeing most of this trouble, although I was told at the time it did happen.
Just goes to prove you can always find trouble if you want to, and in 95%
of cases you can avoid trouble if you don't look for it.
You Tube
Brilliant invention.
Just like to say thank you to everybody who has uploaded
videos that I've used on this blog.
Just like to say thank you to everybody who has uploaded
videos that I've used on this blog.
Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer, he might be from Canning town, he might be a West Ham fan, he might be a proper "cockney geezer"?
Dunno why but I just find him fake, it all seems like a very bad impersonation.
Seen a few of his films and he plays the same character in every one, seems to
base himself on Paul Whitehouse's character "Chris the Crafty Cockney" in the fast show "I'm a little bit waayy, a little bit wooah", or maybe Whitehouse based it on Danny Dyer? who knows.
Anyway I'll give him another chance after seeing this out-takes video from
his real football factories show, for anyone that's never seen them he goes
around Britain and the world talking to ageing hooligans about the "good old
days" of football hooligans, and talking to their "firms".
Could be an interesting documentary if you didn't have to hear Dyer keep bringing up "when I was in the football factory" all the time.
Here's the vid, as I said I'll give him another chance, as after cocking up various
scenes he doesn't drop his accent and slip into "public schoolboy" like I expected.
Dunno why but I just find him fake, it all seems like a very bad impersonation.
Seen a few of his films and he plays the same character in every one, seems to
base himself on Paul Whitehouse's character "Chris the Crafty Cockney" in the fast show "I'm a little bit waayy, a little bit wooah", or maybe Whitehouse based it on Danny Dyer? who knows.
Anyway I'll give him another chance after seeing this out-takes video from
his real football factories show, for anyone that's never seen them he goes
around Britain and the world talking to ageing hooligans about the "good old
days" of football hooligans, and talking to their "firms".
Could be an interesting documentary if you didn't have to hear Dyer keep bringing up "when I was in the football factory" all the time.
Here's the vid, as I said I'll give him another chance, as after cocking up various
scenes he doesn't drop his accent and slip into "public schoolboy" like I expected.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
Some Funnies
Watch those reflections
To the point
Wonder what that Irish
family ever did to him?
Gotta love Americans
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