Bedding Down
Posted: Sat 30 May, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work, Thoughts Leave a comment »On Friday, I managed to break our bed. (No, nothing dirty – get your minds out the gutter!)
The main support in the middle of the bed (going end to end) is/was a piece of box-frame steel, and that piece of steel buckled, which then resulted in four of the wooden slats going across the bed to break.
We bought the bed less than two years ago, so I went back to the place we bought it, to see whether we could get a replacement bar and slats, or whatever was necessary – seeing as the bed was completely unusable ’til repair/replacement.
Anyway, it turns out we’re not the first people that this has happened to, and it’s a known issue. In fairness, our was only the third or fourth one it had happened to, but it meant that the store is aware of the issue, and it’s not a problem to replace the bar.
So I was able to pick up the replacement bar and slats from their warehouse (still in Norwich) and less than an hour after going to the store, I’d got the replacement bits in the car and driving home – along with some extra advice from one of their warehouse guys, who had also had it happen to him.
As a result, we now have the bed back together, with a couple of extra supports under the metal bar, just to help spread the load a bit more – and the supports were even made by me. Sure, they’re nothing special – just a couple of bits of wood under the bar, but they needed measuring, and cutting straight ( normally my primary problem when it comes to DIY) but they got done traight off, without even the need for a re-measure or a re-cut.
All told, I’m sadly chuffed at having sorted the bed out so quickly, including the extra bits necessary. And who knows, it may also provide just a little bit more motivation on that “needing to lose weight” thing. We’ll see.
!Depeche Mode
Posted: Fri 29 May, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Music, Thoughts Leave a comment »Tomorrow, we were supposed to be going down to The O2 to see Depeche Mode in concert.
Yesterday, we got told that it’s been postponed to “an as-yet undecided date”, due to Dave Gahan having a cancerous tumour removed – and I suppose that’s a pretty good reason to postpone the gigs/tour, all things considered.
Still, it’s a pain in the bum – even if it does give us back a Saturday. Bet we spend it in the garden…
Blocking Spammers
Posted: Thu 28 May, 2009 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky 1 Comment »Yesterday, D4D came under attack from a spammer using the name “Ebay Sniper”. They hit D4D with about 200 spam comments overnight, and they kept on trickling through during the day.
For whatever reason, Akismet was stopping them from displaying, but not blocking them completely. In addition, despite adding them to the discussion blacklist in the settings, the comments were still getting through.
So anyway, eventually I’d had enough of the crap, and ended up going to the big guns – blocking it by IP at source. So the server now blocks everything from the IP address where all the spam was coming from (and it wasn’t an IP used by any of my normal readers, thankfully) and redirects it to www.fuck-off-spammer.com . I don’t know if that site exists – but if it doesn’t, it should.
Funnily enough, since I put the block in place I’ve had no spam comments at all. Go figure.
More Research Required
Posted: Wed 27 May, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »I’ve just received one of the funnier spam emails of late…
I am Todd Williams, I am a staff of Natwest Bank Plc,U.K.i have a veryUrgent Business proposal of (£18,500,000.00 Million Pounds)for you to handle more details of this transaction,Please reply: im-a-fuckwit-spammer@emailaddress.info Kind Regards, Todd Williams(Mr.)ACCOUNTS OFFICER
That’s it in it’s entirety – and the only change I’ve made to it is the email address. Other than that, it’s exactly how it was received – piss-poor punctuation, grammar etc. all intact.
But the best bit of it (in my opinion) is the idea that in the current economic climate, some muppet in Nat West bank would have £18.5million to play with at all.
And seriously, what kind of fucking moron would you have to be to respond to a spam like that?
The Motorbike “Swerve Test”
Posted: Wed 27 May, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving, Stupidity, Thoughts Leave a comment »One of the stories in the news yesterday was about the new motorbike driving test, and in particular the “Swerve test”. According to some instructors/examiners, this new module is dangerous – particularly in the wet.
During the test, learners have to reach 50km/h (31.2mph), then perform a swerve, on special test centre tracks.
But some instructors say that if riders brake and swerve at the same time they are likely to come off, particularly in the wet.
Now while I agree (to some degree) with the comment from the story “A motorcyclist’s competency can be best judged in the dry. Wet conditions introduce a chance element that should not be part of the test”, I also can’t help but feel that “real world” conditions are the best thing when it comes to taking a test – be it motorbike or car driving tests. I know I had driving lessons in some bloody horrible conditions (although admittedly not tests) including hail, driving snow, and plenty of night-time driving.
And if a rider can’t do this swerve at 30mph – and it’s a basic safety manoeuvre for getting out the way of incidents – then they damn well shouldn’t pass their tests. If they fall off and/or damage themselves as a result of this, surely that’s a learning experience in itself?
Even if that lesson is either a) “Don’t fall off the fucking bike” or just b) “Learn to ride properly, and deal with ‘real world’ situations”.
But then, I’m obviously completely unrealistic on these things. After all, I didn’t pass my driving test ’til I’d managed to avoid the really stupid ‘real-world’ mistakes, like stalling the car at junctions.
Tag Team
Posted: Tue 26 May, 2009 Filed under: General Leave a comment »If I didn’t know better, I’d swear our animals are in league against us. It’s a fucking plot, I tell you.
Over the last few nights, Hound has been a restless pain in the arse – up at regular intervals during the night, drinking, mooching about, scratching the floor while she tries to get back to sleep. Sometimes it can be fixed by putting her in her cage (where she seems to relax, for some godforsaken reason) but sometimes the only thing that actually works is for one of us to give in and go to sleep in the spare room, accompanied by Hound in her basket.
It’s a pain – and I’m quite sure that certain uninformed people will come up with the normal “Hound needs more discipline” shit in the comments (to which I’ll just say now – We’ve lived with this, it’s not behavioural, it’s related to her megaoesophagus and OCD issues) – but sometimes it happens anyway.
So we’d had a couple of nights of this, which is always wearing.
Last night though, Hound was fine. It was Psycho Cat instead who took up the “wake the two-legs up every few hours” challenge – this time by puking his guts up in the bedroom. Twice. Followed by yelling and scratching for water.
Hound, on the other hand, woke up and got up each time to check what Psycho Cat was doing, and once the cat-puke (still-warm) had been cleaned up, she went straight back to bed. On each bloody occasion.
I don’t know what the hell I’ve done in previous lives to deserve this current set of animals. But whatever it was, I’m pretty sure I’ve made amends for it now. Haven’t I?
Persistent
Posted: Sat 23 May, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness 4 Comments »And now, a question :
The scenario : You’re dropping off something (letter, bill, leaflet, whatever) at a house, and your child insists on putting it through the letter box. From inside the house, you can hear a dog going completely nutty, barking and barking at the people the other side of the door. (i.e. barking at you and your child) But your child is – for whatever reason – having real issues with getting the envelope through the letterbox.
So – the question…
Bearing in mind that the dog is going mental, and sounds really aggressive, would you keep on letting your child try to post the envelope, or would you take over, get the job done, and bugger off so that a) the dog could calm down and b) your child didn’t get their fingers nipped if they put them through the letterbox?