SKY...

I usually rave about how great my Sky subscription is...  And it is!  The selection of channels is great and the UI is awesome.  The only gripe I have is when it goes wrong...


You see, a couple of years ago, we got sky+ installed.  All was well until, one day it just stopped working.  We rang Sky, and they sent a bloke over 2 weeks later (!) who did absolutely nothing.  Fair enough; they didn't know that we needed a heights-specialist team.  Nevertheless, I was irritated by the wait.  I was even more irritated with the fact that I had to wait another week before the heights team showed up.  Anyway, the problem was solved by putting the dish up a pole, and all was well.  For a month.

By the way, even when they "fixed" the problem by adding a pole, they said that "ideally, the dish should be just under the apex of the roof of your house; they should've put it there in the first place so that that hedge over there didn't block it out when it got thicker in the Summer".  I guess they just couldn't be bothered to move it, then...


About 1 week out of warranty, which was also about 2 days after Sky asked me if I wanted to extend my warranty (which I refused), everything stopped working again.  After going through the reset-process for the umpteenth anger-making time (they insist you take the steps even if you just did them 5 minutes ago, which I hate, and then they do nothing), the out-sourced (read as "crap") team (on 08442411411) finally agreed to call someone out to me.  At a cost, of course.  They continued to charge me for my viewing as I waited for another MONTH for my HD upgrade to be ready so they could come and fit the thing.  (I insisted on an HD box as the call out charge for the sky+ box would have been the same as buying and installing an HD box for a new customer).  They also hung up on me when I asked to make a formal complaint about the procdures and lack of cooperation/politeness.  I was apalled, and ended up writing to james.murdoch@bskyb.com; an address I found hunting on forums...  His secretary called me back that very day, was very polite, and everything was finally sorted and compensation was given, so I was happy and stayed with sky.  I would've rather that it had been fine in the first place, though.


So, we're into Sky+HD warranty now.  *phew* No charges for call-outs = good.  We had some stormy weather a couple of weeks ago and our dish was blown out of alignment.  It's swivelled on the pole...  I called the heights team out (Custom Group - 08456125555), but they were so busy, we had to wait 2-and-a-bit weeks for them to finally arrive.  Kipperfrog worked from home (she says) to wait in for them, and despite promises of calling to arrange a time-slot the day before, they never bothered, even on the day.  Nice.


And guess what... one bloke, and he wasn't a heights specialist.  Day-off wasted.  Rearranged for Saturday when 08000512592 rang up.  Not this Saturday, next Saturday.


This really isn't good enough, Sky!  That's why this is now public.  I feel another complaint coming on...  Oh, and if they just tighten it on the pole again, it won't be just a complaint they'll be getting... (it's an idle threat, but I just wanted to say it, so don't anyone be offended and phone the police or anything; the worst they'll get in real life is £20 less a month when I leave, and maybe an anonymous turd through their letterbox...)

If you're from sky and you want me to remove your logo, just ask and it shall be done.


One last thing...  If you're Sky dish/box is busted and you live in a poor-signal area, http://www.tvcatchup.com/ is a great place to watch free, live UK TV without hassle.  And BBC iPlayer's pretty sweet, too.

Chickenfoot

My little bro's just come back from America, and he was bearing gifts!  Among them was the brand, spanking new album, "Chickenfoot", by ... Chickenfoot!!  The album was released in here in the UK on Mon 9th November, but you really must check it out.

I've been aware of the project for some time as I'm a bit of a Joe Satriani fan.  Satch is my fave current guitarist, and probably one of the best guitarists of all time (other faves are Slash, Vai, EVH, Brian May etc...).  In Chickenfoot he's joined with Van Halen singer Sammy Hager, Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, and RHCP drummer Chad Smith.  What a MASSIVE line-up!!

I'm not going to harp-on about it any longer; Chickenfoot just won UK 2009 Classic Rock Awards Best Newcomer prize, so just buy it!  NOW!!

Sketchbook by Autodesk on iPhone

I couldn't resist...  These two sketches probably took just over 2 minutes each I reckon (I wasn't actually timing, though!).  It's lovely to just be able to sit and draw on the phone; it doesn't use any paper, you don't have to scan it, and it's super-relaxing.

Apps galore! I got a bit carried away...

Right then...  I promise this'll be my last iPhone-related post for a while.  At least, it better be!  (EDIT:  Dammit, I couldn't help myself!!)  The weather's  been a bit miserable lately, so we haven't been out much...  Anyway, I kept looking for the coolest apps around, and there're loads of "staff-picks", "top 10s" etc, but they all seem either biased, or out-of-date.

Here're my "top-picks", just to aid those of you who might care!  They're not necessarily the "best" apps out there, or the most impressive, but they're the ones that are seeing by far the most use on my iPhone...

SketchBook by Autodesk - Really relaxing.  Even better with a pogo stylus.  Nice
Air Mouse/Remote - I'm a teacher.  This is super-cool for controlling the iWhiteBoard/iTunes!
Stanza - A great eBook reader with a HUGE library, including Project Gutenberg...
Ocarina by Smule - A proper instrument on the iPhone!  Even better since I play ocarina in real-life, too!
Guitar Toolkit - Simply the best reference/toolkit you could ever have.  If you play guitar, just buy it!
Jamie Oliver - 20 minute meals - A super-professional quality app.  And who doesn't ever cook?
WunderRadio - All the radio you could ever want.  Great if your sick of your playlists! (as if...)
Sky+ - You can look at listings on your phone and record on your Sky+!  Great if you forgot something!
TVGuide - BBC iPlayer is built in to the listings.  A must have!
TVCatchup mobile - Live TV.  Bookmark the web-page to home screen for most major channels!
My O2 - Super-useful to keep tabs on your bill!

Games (They deserve their own top 10 - In no order though, they're all great):

Real Racing by Firemint - This is easily the most polished racing game out there.  It's great fun, too.
Fieldrunners - This is achingly-addictive.  You just keep on playing!  One of the only games I can say that for.
Doom Resurrection - Another highly-polished game, this FPS has some on-rails elements to improve flow.
SkySmash - A typical scrolling-shooter, but it's how you want them all to be.  Great!
Sonic 1 - It's Sonic 1.
Rolando 2 - Check out any review, this one's brilliant.  There's no getting away from Loco-Roco, though...
Fling - Another highly-addictive puzzle app.
Zen Bound - It should be crap...  it's not though, it's really very addictive!
FS5 Hockey - Simple but awesome.  Two people can even play on one iPhone! (or over bluetooth)
Worms - Hehehehe.

There are so many other great apps, too.  More that deserve a mention are...

MGS Touch, Assassin's Creed, Monkey Ball, Tetris, BrainExercise, Touchgrind, Tiger Woods, Sky News, Quickoffice, eBay, Amazon UK, thetrainline, TubeMap, Facebook, Flickr, Skype, Flixster, wikiHow, SkyGazer, Yelp, iTaekwondo, iZenGarden, iBonsai, PocketGuitar, Bump, heyWAY Pro, Traffic Info, Trapster, Dynolicious, Shazam, Google Earth and finally... WC Finder (!)

Pretty Cool!! But you don't need "an app for that!"

So, from those last posts you might have guessed it...  I smashed my last phone on it's aerial, breaking the camera, the internal speaker, and signal-quality.  It looked fine, but really wasn't...

Anyway, I decided I was going to push the boat out and grab an iPhone.  It arrived yesterday, so I loaded it up with apps/music and got everything all nice and set up, and today I spotted that you could blog via email!  Made the connections et voila!  The posts you see before were there.  Good stuff...  Is there anything the iPhone can't do?  (it's not a very good grappling hook, or skateboard actually, but it does make a suprisingly nice coaster!  ;))

You don't need an "app for that!"

Photo iPhone...

I'm reckoning that my iPhone can blog photos, too...

PS:  I did't take a photo of my phone, I used the phone to take a picture of the phone on the laptop... clever, eh?  lol

Testing iPhone

This is my first post...

Sent from my iPhone

Let's see if it works!

EyePet...

What you would normally assume to be the premise of disgusting, pink-fluff-clad 12 year old girls, has made it into mine and Kipperfrog's lounge...  And we like it!  The "EyePet" is a funny little, monkey-like creature not of this world, but of a virtual one.  It's brilliant fun!!  Mine's called "Munch".  For a review check here:

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/objects/142/14275443.html

Awesome coolness, in a little big way...

While trawling the interweb for things to do, I found THIS:

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00686/SKM49_2__proj_sackb_686954a.pdf

You seriously need to check it out.  And then make me one.  Or two...  I'm actually hoping that my wonderful wife Kipperfrog is going to make me one for my Christmas present if I'm a good boy; she just needs to brush-up (read: learn) her knitting skills and we're sorted!  ;)

I....c.c.can't....n.not....b.b.buy....one!!

Mornings are about to get better!!  Yes, that's right, the awesome tea-maker/alarm-clock combo is back!!  Swan, makers of the 1984 classic, the D01 Teasmade, have come out of the woodwork with their new STM100 model, apparently exclusive to John Lewis (from what I read http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/27614/john-lewis-new-swan-stm1000-teasmade).

If you want a brief history of teamakers, go and have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade.  Apparently, the D01 is quite recent!  My Grandma and Grandad had one, and I've wanted one as long as I can remember.  £59.95!  Alarm clock, reading-light AND TEA!!!?!?  Surely, every Englishman's dream.  Be still, my beating wallet...

Buy one!!  It should be in stock by the end of the month! http://www.johnlewis.com/230641436/Product.aspx?source=14798

FYI, this is what they used to look like... lol, I just lurve the photo-frame... can't imagine it stayed clean long!

UPDATE:  I'm getting one for Christmas!!  WoOOooOHOoOoOOOooo!!

What an adventure! See http://kipperfrog.blogspot.com

I thought it'd be nice, as I've started blogging and my wife, Kipperfrog, reads mine, that I should actually get around to reading hers (http://kipperfrog.blogspot.com/) even though I was with her for the duration!  What an amazing journey.  I looked at it, and there are pages upon pages upon pages of experiences, and we've shared them all (mostly, anyway).  I'm very lucky to have her as my adventuring partner!  What a great life we're having.  I'm very grateful. :)

This is where it all started!  There are some funny comments, so go and have a look!  http://www.flickr.com/photos/87971452@N00/13414807/


















Good night everyone!  Another week awaits!  As does the rest of "From Russia with Love".

"James, I love you!  I love you, I love you, I love you!!"

I must be gettin' old...

I just cannot get this out of my head... Ol' Sir Terry Wogan plays it every single morning at about 7:35 on BBC Radio 2. The sad part is, I love it and look forward to hearing it every day!! Eek!

Shame he's retiring soon, I think I'll miss him.

This one's a cover by John Fogerty on his "Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again" album. The original's by Ricky Nelson, I think:

Michael Jackson "This is it" Memorial Program

We had a "Sorry we missed you" card on the floor on Friday morning last week. The post office had been a bit busy, so we picked it up on Saturday morning before the IKEArgh adventure. It turned out to be our "This is it" memorial pack. We'd booked to see Michael perform on the opening night of the second leg in January before his tragic demise, and the memorial program, ticketmaster ticket, and lenticular ticket were what we decided we'd like instead of a full refund.

The following site has it scanned if you're interested:

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/QzWtxPOI9n3/Michael+memorial+service+program/7cGpnaM-qwE/Michael+Jackson

IKEA... I've added it to my thesaurus under "arse" and "pain"...

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and Kipperfrog and I decided we wanted a wardrobe so we could stop leaving clothes all over the floor in our bedroom because all our drawers are full...

Anyway, we drove there; it took over 2 full hours because the traffic was so bad going through Kenley and into Purley. When we finally got there, after spending 10 minutes finding a parking-space, we bundled into the hell-hole and queued for the toilet. When done, we pushed our way past what must've been thousands of people, my patience with the whole thing thinning rapidly... we got to the bedroom section at last, and looked around all the wardrobes. Happy, and settling at last in the knowledge that it was all sorted, we went over to information and got the list of bits and bobs that we would soon be collecting. Phew!!

Except, all the bits they'd told us to get turned out to be out-of-stock due to "over-selling". After hauling various bits and bobs on and off the trolley (which we queued for for over 10 mins), I tried to get a discount as we were about to buy an un-matched wardrobe set, and they wouldn't budge, so I asked for free delivery when the parts we wanted did at last come in... nope! What would they offer? A trip back upstairs past the thousands of people to the same desk where, once there, we could start the whole process again. nice.

I decided against this, and asked how much it would be just to buy the wardrobe for home delivery. The fee for delivery was £65. The fee on the website was £35. hmmmm. "Can I just order it online here, and get the £35 delivery fee?", I said. "No," they said, "You'll have to do it at home. Have a nice afternoon."

For pity's sake...

4 hours after setting off for IKEA, we had a quick look for some new shoes in Croydon and then drove home after a lovely dinner from Wing Yip. All was right again. Then we got stuck in traffic at Purley.... grrrrrrrrr

Kipperfrog is now calling it IKEAAAARRRRRGGGGG!!!!

Oh yeah, and one of the tea cups we bought from Wing Yip had a massive chip 'n' crack in it by the time we got home...

Just one more Science post!

I couldn't help it, but it had to be done... You've really gotta check these Hubble shots out; I use them as wallpapers a fair bit, and if not on their own, I love to use them as backgrounds for various bits 'n' bobs. I still can't believe they're actual photos. Not sure if I ever will. Incredible.

This'll be the last Science post for ages, I promise. They're just soooo pretty!

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

I never meant this to be a food blog...

I was wondering about what to have for dinner tonight; I'm soooo hungry! Anyway, I thought I'd have a Chinese take-away:

What that actually is is an excuse to post a cool scientific fact (sorry, I am a Science teacher). Y'see it isn't actually a noodle, but a type of human tapeworm Taenia solium that can grow (so I hear) up to 22.9m long in your intestines, where IT will eat YOUR noodles. mmm, nice. I nabbed the picture from the site below, where there's also a bit more info:

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2008/geske_rich/images/OrgWebTaeniaPile3.JPG

I wanna get more dirty, Harry! (ewww, lol. I never thought inappropriate use of commas could make you sound gay! (No offence to gays))

I've had a bit of a western/Clint Eastwood problem these last couple of months... y'see, I find something I like, and then I collect it. I don't stop until I've got everything. My Dad introduced me to westerns when I was just a wee nipper; The Musical Pocket Watch by Ennio Morricone (from "For a Few Dollars More") has stayed with me ever since - I have it as my ring tone on my phone...

Anyway, the last time I tried to watch any of the Dirty Harry series, I was distracted by something or another, so whenever I looked up at the film, I didn't really get it. Since I got my beautiful gun (picture in an earlier post), I watched it again today. I've got a cold (as does poor Kipperfrog), so I wasn't doing anything else and wasn't as keen to get outside as normal, so I was happy to just sit (read: cough, sneeze, and blow my nose). I'm sure glad I did (apart from the cold-related acts - I could've done without those!!). It was AWESOME (again, apart from the snot)!

......sniffle.....dribble....... uuunnnnggggghhhhh, I haaate coooolds

BTW - You all just escaped a really, REALLY horrible reading experience. You see, I was going to write phonetically as if I had a cold (because I do...). Dike dith.... all ob de werbs cub oup all futhy, thee?

OOH, Goodies!! It's FRIDAY!!

It's Friday, and we all know how I love my arty-farty graphic stuff. Well, my usual haunt for tips/inspiration/freebies is good ol' deviantart:

http://www.deviantart.com/

Tonight however, while I was doing some waterless-surfing, I stumbled across this little gem of a thread on a Honda forum!

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/water-cooler/121411-post-up-your-pc-wallpaper.html

There are some AMAZING wallpapers there that you really should check out. There're 72 pages at the last count, and I think I downloaded 2 or 3 from every single page... Some good stuff! Not all safe-for-work, though... Happy browsing; I do love a Weekend Treat!

Uh Oh, more guns...

It's sad, I know, but I read my wife, Kipperfrog's blog. She posted this:

http://newlycanadian.blogspot.com/2009/07/so-glad-i-dont-live-in-fl.html

It's quite a funny story about an idiotic woman who is probably also fat and works with children/the elderly/in the police. I think you should all read it. She reckons it goes quite well with my previous gun-related post.

As a consequence of reading said story, I am now going to be going to the toilet with my gun. And sleeping with it too. Loaded, of course. And cocked. Strictly platonic, mind....

Our walls are only plaster-board. Poor neighbours. Might be good for making peep-holes, though!

Over half way!! BANG!!........BANG!!

I'd just like to point out that it's now Thursday, which means that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!! So the weekend's tomorrow. Sweet. That pretty much means the weekend starts tonight!! WOOHOO!!

I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy ;)

Oh yeah, and I finished putting this little lot together today (see above)....

I got the gun last Thursday as a little treat to myself for holding on to my job for another year (and getting the corresponding pay-rise)!

It's fun. Awesome fun.

In fact, it's so much fun that I've been shooting it rather a lot these last few days. I shot my fence to see what it would do to solid wood, and two or three of the slugs went right on through, which is a little scary but sooooo coool! hehe. And it EXPLODES pieces of coal.

Oh yeah, and now, every time I shoot it, I can hear a neighbour shouting, "Bang! Bang!", which I find hilarious. It's not very nice, I know, but I just really love annoying people. It helps if you spin the gun on your finger right after you REALLY irritate someone. Adds to the "glee-factor", you see.

Aah, simple pleasures :)

*quietly chuckle to self while rubbing hands together in a satisfied fashion*

BTW, it's all perfectly legal - it's only a 0.177 calibre CO2 (that grates - I teach Chemistry) S&W 586 replica by Umarex, and all I intend to do with it is shoot inanimate objects and targets in my back-garden during daylight hours and out of public view. And it only sounds like hammering. Believe it or not, I'd probably even stop shooting it at certain times if the neighbours asked very politely!! Just thought you should know in case you decide to report me or something!

Night all! And kids, guns aren't cool. ahem