Rule one: Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men.
Posted in people on Dec 22nd, 2006
That bit of parking has to be one of the finest moments of my driving career.
Living in an area that has permits for residents only parking - spaces are at a premium. Let me tell you how much of a premium:
There is parking on only one side of the road and the houses are about […]
Posted in Aikido on Dec 21st, 2006
The practice of Aikido is one of those pursuits that highlights in some way or other weaknesses of a physical, mental or emotional nature. In this case, the weakness it toes…
My only breakage, in many years of training, has been a broken little toe. The incident occurred whilst taking ukemi for kaiten nage. I was […]
Posted in bad customer service on Dec 21st, 2006
The ‘delivery attempted’ card from Amtrak was waiting for me when I got home last night. After being told by Mesh Computers customer service that they had arranged for the delivery to be made before 9 o’clock I was seriously unimpressed to find that Amtrak had attempted delivery at 12:35!
How lucky that I only waited […]
Posted in bad customer service on Dec 20th, 2006
Well, I waited at home this morning for the Amtrak delivery that the Mesh Customer Services representative informed was arranged for before 9am. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t arrive.
Here is the second email I sent to Mesh.
Having now spent, in total, an estimated hour and a half of my time chasing up the delivery of my order, […]
Posted in bad customer service on Dec 19th, 2006
Mesh computers seems to have a good reputation and I’ve made many a visit to their website to browse the prices and specifications of their latest computers. As I browsing the site I noticed they had a usb TV receiver at a good price, so I thought I would try them out.
I ordered a usb […]
Posted in telecommunications on Dec 18th, 2006
Yay - I now have BT Broadband at home. The engineer turned up as planned and installed the line, overcoming a fault on the allocated line, leaving me with a functioning phone and broadband line. Well done BT. (Let’s see what they charge me!)
Posted in interwebs on Dec 18th, 2006
Now that this blog is established I’ve registered it with Technorati.
Technorati Profile
Posted in political correctness on Dec 18th, 2006
A recent local news story informs us that two mannequins used by the Sidmouth RNLI are under threat.
… local bylaws permit charities to collect on only one day a year in the town and a complaint to East Devon District Council raised the possibility that the dummies could be in breach of them…
What is all […]
Posted in books on Dec 18th, 2006
As the nights have drawn in I often find myself sitting down comfortably with a good book. Moving house recently allowed me to re-discover some old favourites and an unpleasant cold gave me the excuse to sit in front of the fire and read.
Having spent the last several months reading what my partner would describe […]
Posted in politics on Dec 15th, 2006
In my view this is a big story and should not be side-lined in the Science and Nature section, as the BBC have done, but given front page coverage.
The statement, signed by 10,000 US researchers, has the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates. This is clearly an important document if it is supported by so many […]