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I hate cold calls at the best of times but some really annoy me with their useless one size fits all scripts...
Our firm is based in Walsall, they have called a Walsall number to get through to me...
'Hello, my name is Sarah I am calling from IIS in Dublin'.
(Obviously this is going to be a financial call... IIS is either 'make loads of money' or 'have you considered selling your business'.)
'We are making calls to all local businesses in the area.....'
(and thats the clincher. sometimes I give these people the time of day cos I know they must get a lot of flak, however, being told that Walsall is local to Dublin before my third cup of coffee of the day is just too much, at least I didnt say anything sarcastic before I hung up) |
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Sooo, our Aikido Sensei has organised a visit to the Dojo from Sensei Steve Miranda from Sacramento USA.
I was feeling out of sorts on Tuesday night and didnt go but thoroughly enjoyed a good 3 hour session on Wednesday night. After all its not every day that you are taught by a Godan.
On thursday my attention was drawn to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) steve_c's journal and I just had to have a go at the press up thing.... and the sit up one.. and the squat one...
Roll on today and the first part of the weekend Aikido seminar. As we are a one car household atm I cycled across town to it before again thoroughly enjoying much wrist and elbow pain* and inflicting the same on fellow students. 10am till 5pm pretty much flew by (5 hours actual training time in all that) and finished with a refreshing cycle home.
Now my body hurts.. a lot.
Gawd help those doing tomorrows session as well.
*it's not the wrist locks or being thrown that hurts in the long term, its pulling your ass up off the floor over and over and over (etc...) that's really tiring. |
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Aug. 3rd, 2009 @ 04:23 pm
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Five words meme, words provided by pax_draconis
Children
It sometimes seems (from perusing certain areas of the internet) like children are the last safe targets for vitroel.
I can understand that not everyone wants to have children, I just never understand why people can get so venemous about them. I'd like to say that it doesnt bother me when it happens... but it does.
Being a parent (for thems that wants to) is brilliant, there is a very strong and pure love that comes from your child to you, and vice versa.
When (one of) your child(ren) grabs you in a tiny bear hug and tells you that 'I love you forever' there are very few things that can compare.
Dance
To link briefly to the previous topic there is a sign at my Daughter's school which reads 'Dance like there is no-one watching'.
After a few pints in a nightclub I think I adequately achieve said directive.
I am not sure if it is an age thing, but as I grow older I worry more and more about looking like a complete dick on the dancefloor, I think I find it less easy to fool myself nowerdays.
Heroes
I used to have a lot of these as I was growing up. I was largely brought up on God (which never really stuck), Sport and Westerns (not the spaghetti kind, but the classic John Waynes etc..) and I think the majority of my early heroes came from the latter two influences.
I generally dont tend to think of people in that way any more although if I were to choose one person who most closely fit the bill (i.e. was the person who had most impressed me with their achievements) then it would have to be my Uncle John. He suffered throughout his life from his early years with Muscular Dystrophy. He wasnt expected to live to see 20 and instead lived to 50. He was the secretary at his local cricket club, held a similar position in the local football admin and was the treasurer for the 'Sequal Trust'. He achieved more with the limitations he faced than a lot of us do with good health... and my Nan received a condolensces card from Stephen Hawking when he died.
Perspective
Visually I have always enjoyed the works of people such as Escher who play with angles and perspective to produce those brilliantly impossible scenes and backgrounds.
Mentally I am very good at seeing things from a different perspective when someone else is affected but not very good at doing it when I am. This is something I really should work on.
Tentacles
Whenever one comes across a tentacle the likelyhood is that there will be something cool but hideously evil attached to it (yes I think Octopi (sp?) and squid are the servants of you know who.
Whether it be the moderately evil plans of 'Purple Tentacle' or the innescapable innevitability of destruction from beyond the stars you know you are up against it when you find yourself faced with a tentacle.
It has taken me days to get round to writing these and everyone is probably bored of the whole 5 words meme but if anyone wants any you know what to do... |
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There were virtually no delays with any of the flights. The kids managed a day of travel really well. Car hire queue lasted an eternity but we did get a free upgrade to a chrysler tank (its an automatic, has very little low end torque and lets just say its a good that America has very few bends).
The hotel wifi actually extends as far as our room and my hands can actually fit on the netbook. Its overcast... but last night it was pleasantly warm even at 11pm.
The hotel room is big (should really have brought a cat to swing) has a coffee filter machine a fridge and a microwave and we eventually found out how to lock access to the balcony of certain death.
The hotel pool probably has a working capacity of 3 but if i threw one of the kids really hard from the room window they would land in the Atlantic (well maybe just the little one, the big one is getting too heavy to hurl nowerdays).
Wifey has just returned from the hotel gym and we are off for breakfast.
Everything is made of win.
Oh and apparently one of the works vans was stolen from site yesterday causing mass hassle and phone calls galore.... haha its great being on holiday. |
| » Fab! |
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Here is a quick scan of the picture that I comissioned for my better half for christmas! It arrived (a bit late) a couple of days ago. It has to say the least been well worth the wait.
It was produced by the brilliantly talented Ed Org.
Jan. 15th, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
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| » I am now a qualified first aider. |
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Title says it all really. I could have posted this on Friday but I was too lazy at the time.
After four days in Walsall Rugby Club (probably the coldest place on earth) myself and 11 of our operatives now have first aid certificates (at the behest of our clients).
It has been interesting to see 11 hardened workers look so uncomfortable and nervous; they were most definately fish out of water.
Now I have completed the course I sincerely hope that I never have to put anything I have learnt into practice...
Jan. 11th, 2009 @ 09:15 am
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| » Wouldnt you know it |
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All those bloody adverts telling you to check online for a better insurance premium.. etc.
Well I have done; choosing at random a comparisson company with a deeeeeeeply annoying advert... I have almost doubled the contents value covered, kept accidental damage, added legal cover, increased the personal possession / items outside house cover by over half and have found a policy that covers all outbuildings contents.
This has saved us £100, with the only downside being an excess of £50 pounds that we didnt have before.... so provided we dont get burgled more than twice this year we are quids in (I hope the karma fairies havent overheard that).
I am now considering the rather frightening possibility that moving our mortgage might save us money as well.
Jan. 5th, 2009 @ 09:46 am
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| » Christmas and New Year |
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Its been an interesting week.
Christmas Eve was great. We had a pass out for a couple of hours and went for drinks with friends followed by present wrapping that went on into the early morning.
Christmas Day was good as well, the kids were buzzing, my Mother was only moderately contentious, lots of food, drink etc...
Boxing Day started rather well, then turned to shite by mid afternoon leaving us (myself and my better half) shocked and really pissed off! Certain things in life will have to change and this coming year will be very interesting due to this.... I strongly advise that everyone read 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Cinderella' and 'Snow White' again.... they contain valuable lessons.
To be honest it took a couple of days for the good ship RD to right itself, which was made more awkward by GC2 coming down with Chicken Pox and being very fed up and restless because of it.
The last couple of days of December have been really good and today has been fab. At the end of it all, provided you still have those who are most important to you then you can take on anything and deal with any situation.
Jan. 1st, 2009 @ 07:48 pm
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| » Good (ish) stuff |
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( Filums )
( Gamez )
Dec. 12th, 2008 @ 10:26 am
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| » Crap Stuff |
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Yesterday was awkward.
( Dont sick children get bored easy.... )
( The search for the sacred relic of etomer yks )
( Work is crap )
That was a whinge brought to you by the letters a, r, s & e.
Dec. 12th, 2008 @ 09:30 am
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| » Vista |
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I have finally found myself using vista.
What is instantly apparent is that everything is somewhere slightly different... this is not good.
Also, it appears that the default setting is 'complete windows noob' and thus it seems to be hiding as many folders and options from me as is possible; I feel like I should put on some mittens and stick a dummy in my mouth before booting it up each time.
Could one of you good people point me in the direction of the 'show me every folder' setting as well as the 'stop asking me to confirm every last f*cking thing I f*cking well do' setting so I can enable and disable them respectively.
Office 2007 is proving suitably alien as well. Still, it only took me 1 hour to find the macro access button... ffs
Oct. 28th, 2008 @ 10:46 am
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| » MMO's |
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After a break of about 18 months I have yet again started on the slipperly slope of MMORPG playing.
This all started with resubscribing to COH and then not playing it at all. It was closely follwed by purchasing Age of Conan and my time is currently split between playing this and WAR.
( AOC and WAR )
Both of the above are great games for different reasons. If the best parts were taken from both then the ultimate MMO would be had, but isnt that always the case.
Oct. 21st, 2008 @ 12:36 am
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| » New Laptop |
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I have just ordered a new laptop for work, complete with docking station.
After pestering the hell out of pax_draconis about his set up I eventually (due to a mix of, and progression through, technical, cost justification and then availability reasons) went in a completely different direction; apologies to him for basically wasting his time, although it was done with the best of intentions :-).
I am now getting a Samsung R710 and X-docking station. After some careful shopping I managed to save myself enough for a bottle of wine and a kebab which I can enjoy whilst figuring out how to get back those two hours of dredging through search / shopping results.
Reading that last paragraph I realise I am wasted on engineering. Anyone who can completely break through their initial budget of 'about £500' and yet still congratulate themselves for saving £20 on the overal price should really become some kind of spin doctor / publicist (before declaring themselves bankrupt).
Oct. 20th, 2008 @ 06:35 pm
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| » I have sprung a goth leak |
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Having taken the goth test Maleghast pointed at I find myself to be....
You Are 52% Goth
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You definitely have some gothicness going on, but you're far from being a stereotypical goth.
You enjoy certain elements of goth culture, but you're not going to be into something simply because it's goth.
It's likely that you're the type of person who totally defies labels. Good for you!
If you are into something, it's because you sincerely love it. Not because it projects a certain image.
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After thinking on a bit I retook it answering in a mid 90's ghatanothoa stylee and....
You Are 88% Goth
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You are clearly goth. Even if you don't consider yourself goth, other people do.
Let's face it. You're a little moodier, darker, and weirder than most people.
But that's okay. You enjoy being different, and you're proud of who you are.
Many psychologists think that goths are more self aware and smarter than the average person!
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Evidently my gothiness has started to leak. The question is, should I try and stop it?
Sep. 18th, 2008 @ 08:37 am
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| » Message Boards |
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I am looking for a new message / bulletin board system.
Back in the day we used ezboards which allowed local usernames and allowed the admin to grant individual forum access.
I have been using proboards, but these do not allow individual forum access, they work on a password system which i find cumbersome and of course if you wish to remove access to an individual you have to change the password and tell everyone else.....
I have tried messing with Yuku, but this only seems to allow global usernames, which can be a pain in the ass because mose names are already taken when you try and register.
Does anyone know of an ezboard like system that is available online which allows local users and forum access set at an individual level?
Sep. 12th, 2008 @ 08:55 pm
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| » Easy?!?!?!?! |
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Today I shall be outside finishing building the polywhatzithene 'Easy Shed' that we bought yesterday from Homebase.
After spending four hours on it yesterday I am really f**king glad we didnt buy an 'Awkward Shed'.
Jun. 15th, 2008 @ 08:41 am
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| » Maelstrom |
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Yes, last weekend was as almost everyone must know Maelstrom weekend.
( 'My Maelstrom Weekend' by Me )
Jun. 10th, 2008 @ 05:00 pm
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| » I shall try not to be too horrified |
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I did this to delvy so I guess I ought to be open to it....
1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.
2. Go to Google Images and search for that word.
3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results (don't tell me the word).
(The html for images is here.)
4. Put this in your own journal so that I can do the same.
May. 22nd, 2008 @ 04:00 pm
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