Magpies… save me money

Posted on 7 March 2011 by John

A little bit of a moral quandary.

I have recently taken delivery of an ultra-cheap, but reliable tumble drier. As part of the deal, I paid for the old (yes, 19 years old) tumble drier to be removed. The price of removal, £9.99. It didn’t seem too expensive and it would definitely get rid of a headache.

At around 8.15am, my partner and I put the old one outside, ready for collection. I looked out at 9.15am and it was gone.

This was not efficiency on behalf of the delivery company, it was a crime. However, I can now reclaim the £9.99 from the delivery company.

A crime has been committed, but not only do I feel that there is no point reporting it, it has actually done me a favour.

I am minded to do nothing, what would you do?

There is more to this, so I will continue later in the week.

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Oscar goes to war

Posted on 28 February 2011 by John

With all the talk of the Oscars and of stuttering kings, you might miss the fact that Hollywood is helping the war effort!

Check out this article at:

http://gwenhernandez.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/war-games/

For tours, go to:

http://www.irwin.army.mil/Post/Pages/NTCTours.aspx

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Apple restored

Posted on 25 February 2011 by John

We were told that the Apple would take over a week to repair.

So, I was not expecting a phone call after only four days. It was ready for collection. Picked it up, all working. Just have to restore the old files from the backup – an over-night task.

Hopefully happiness will be restored.

I suppose that just leaves the hell-kitten that is currently occupying our back bedroom… a long story. We were asked to look after someone’s cat while they attended to family business. As far as I can tell, the cat eats, glowers and hisses. Oh and, not to forget, viciously swipes.

See my previous article on cat ownership. It is all true!

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When Apples go bad

Posted on 21 February 2011 by John

When your computer has no problems, neither do you. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but in general we are so linked to our technology that when it is available we do not notice it. In that way it is like tap water. As long as the water flows we have no problems.

Imagine the consternation when my partner’s iMac went wrong. We went through the clear instructions on the Apple website, but came to the section labelled ‘contact technical support’. My heart sank. I would have to cope both with a technical department and a partner with no computer. Double-hell!

I booked an appointment at our nearby Apple store. This took a few minutes. We took the forlorn beast to the Apple store in time for the appointment. We were checked in by a guy with an iPad. Took nearly ten seconds. At the appointed hour I had my first encounter with a genius. He performed a few tests and agreed that the hard drive was dead. Did we have a back-up? Yes, with time machine we could never lose more than an hour of work. No problem.

He also noticed that the screen was darkened in one corner – they would fix that at the same time. (His suggestion, not mine!)

After a few minutes, we left the shop with a receipt detailing the repairs to be undertaken, a note of the condition of the computer (very good) and an estimated completion date.

I was amazed. As I commented at the time, my previous experience of computer ‘fixers’ is that they keep you waiting at least half an hour, you leave the shop with no receipt and when you call back you find that they had left it in the store room and that they were wondering what was wrong with it, by which time it is out of guarantee and they refuse to repair it.

As I say, it is when things go wrong that you find the true nature of a company. So far, I am impressed.

I will keep you up-to-date with the resolution.

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New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on 11 January 2011 by John

It is easy, with all the lethargy of Christmas, to give up
on any goals. To turn into a couch vegetable. New years bring a new
chances. (Well, new days do, too, but we are not good at dealing
with such frequent opportunities.) So, have you thought of any?
Mine are:
1) To do more photography and get it up on this site. I
am helped in this by rebuilding the app that automatically put the
copyright information on.
2) Finish that novel. I am really pleased
with how it is shaping up. I just need to work out an excellent way
to dispatch my main antagonist.
3) Get to the gym. Just paying the
subscription does not make one fit.
(and, of course, to keep you
up-to-date on this blog.) That’s enough for now. I am sure that I
can achieve that much. If I do more, great. How about you. What are
you hoping for this year? What were your achievements of last
year?

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NanoWriMo

Posted on 26 November 2010 by John

NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): This month I have
been caught up in NanoWriMo. However, last year, as a starting
novelist it was easy to put information down on paper. The story
was new and fresh. Now it is beginning to be a lot harder. Rather
like my submissions to this blog. Everything started well. Further
down the line, with a level of quality set, it becomes harder to
continue. Will future work be as good as that of the past? Will the
new additions fit in with what is already there? I am finding out
that the secret is just to keep writing. It may not fit in
perfectly with what is already there. It may run off on a tangent.
If I do not get words down on the page, it will never be finished.
Perfect never finishes. So, for any of you who are entering into
NanoWriMo. Just keep going. In fact, I think that goes for almost
any endeavour. At this point, the important thing is not the route,
not the manner, but the actual finishing. Don’t forget, there is
always revision. Get those actions done, get those words down on
the page. And don’t let any distraction get in the way. (Believe
me, at this stage anything is a distraction.)

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Getting in a Knot – the power of enthusiasm

Posted on 21 September 2010 by John

We recently had a visitor come to stay. She has been a friend for many years. For the purposes of this blog she will hide behind the pseudonym ‘J’. As well as being Scottish, we knew that J had a special obsession.

J loves to knit.

Now I am not quite sure of which end of a knitting needle is which, but she was filled with enthusiasm. As with such things it was infectious. I even started wondering if I should take it up.

As part of the journey towards becoming a knit J showed me a very special web-site. Just for knitters and crocheters (who for the purposes of this site are often referred to as ‘hookers’). The site is ravelry.com.

I expected that it would be filled with middle-aged women, that the conversation would be boring and that it would be barely usable.

On the contrary… the site was filled with people from all ages and sexes. There were special interest groups. The only commonality was yarn. In truth, it was how I think Facebook ought to be. There were not the fears about privacy. There were not all the stupid games. There was just a place to share and communicate.

The proof of the site was that my mother, who has obstinately had nothing to do with the internet in the past 15 years was suddenly interested. A small step, but an amazing one.

I am sure that I will have more to tell over the coming months, but I would be interested in other strange corners of the internet that you have discovered.

[I must admit to having learnt the 'continental method'.]

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Back on the Wagon

Posted on 16 September 2010 by John

I have, at last, got back on the wagon. Those who have been keeping tabs on my word count (bottom right) with have noticed that it has been static for quite a few weeks. There has been a reason for that – not only has life been hectic, but with doing the ‘How to think sideways’ course I simply have not had time.

What a pleasure it was to sit down at lunchtime and bash out a few words.

The break has made me more enthusiastic about writing. It has given me more ideas. The novel is loosely based around a spy organisation. For ages I have been agonising about how to do away with my main antagonist. From the course I realised that my muse had been leaving lots of little breadcrumbs around the place. Suddenly ‘the demise’ became clear. The seeds of his downfall go right back to the first page. I am excited about writing again. I want to find out how it ends…

I do hope your writing is going well. Leave any comments on any updates (please).

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Simply a Fruit

Posted on 6 September 2010 by John

My experience of computers goes back to before the time of Apricot computers.

In those days, the large computers were always on. The small computers were switched on, a floppy was inserted and a bizarre key combination was pressed (control-b?). One waited a few moments and the computing environment one expected became available.

Later on, with early versions of Windows, the manufacturer would have their own registration service. One went through that process and the computer was all set up.

Now there is setup, registration, activation. Six months down the line the computer will need to be rebuilt, having become slow and unreliable. Then there will be re-activation horrors.

My partner’s computer recently started rebooting every few minutes. We had got used to the rebuild (couple of days), reactivation hassle. It was about 6 months. Must be time.

This time we were both fed up. I loaded ubuntu onto the PC and offered out all the partitions over the network. It took an hour.

We bought a computer from the fruit manufacturer. It came in one box We plugged it in. In five minutes it was ready to use. That was registered (no activation). The mail and calendars were set up. It was connected to our TV. It had picked up our network printer/scanner (without requiring drivers. We Had not installed any software. It was just ready for use. It was distressingly simple. Why had I WASTED so much time with operating systems from other manufacturers?

I know from my experience of my computer from the same manufacturer that it will not slow down over time.

So, apricots are not the only fruit. Here’s to my five a day.

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One Amazing Weekend

Posted on 30 August 2010 by John

It is easy to let the Bank Holiday weekend slip by. That did not happen this weekend.

For a start, we had a visitor flying in all the way from Plymouth, Tracy. She does not often get up this way, so we wanted a really special weekend. Her wish was to go on the London Eye. Alan, my partner, had duly arranged this. He had also arranged a little surprise.

We clattered into town on the Docklands Light Railway. A driverless train system that tootles around Southeast London. This was a novelty – Tracy had not had the opportunity to travel on this before. Eventually we arrived at St James’s Park and started to wander around. We reached the end of the Mall with the big house. and were wandering around the side of it, when Tracy exclaimed that she would love to visit ‘Buck House’ some day. Alan wandered up to one of the attendants, who allowed us in… that was the special surprise.

For those who have not had the opportunity to see the interior of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, go! It takes opulence and splendour to the most magnificent degree.

For instance, there is a gallery room. In it are many old masters. They have commentaries on about four of them. These, one imagines, are the only four worth looking at. Then one starts looking at the ‘unremarkable’ paintings. One notices that they are by unknown artists such as Rubens and Titian. Incidentally, the place is so respectable that one does not initially notice, on the painting ‘Summer’, that some of the cattle are getting a little amorous.

Of course, we also went on the London Eye and had a few adventures in a plane… more on that later.

Hope you all had a good weekend, too!

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