Flops' Friday mini blog

[floppybootstomp]

Yep, I know blogs are boring but...

I was in a school repairing one of their microphones today when the head teacher made an announcement saying that mid-morning break would take place indoors as it was still too dangerous for break to be held outside. He went on to explain that this was because there were still a few patches of ice about and some grassy areas were boggy.

WTF?

Are our kids wrapped in cotton wool now or is this a fear of being sued just in case an accident does actually happen?

I know, I'm gonna sound old but when I was at school we were allowed to roam outside whatever the weather. And that included the winter of '63 where we had a great time having snowball fights with the teachers sometimes at breaktimes. Good sports, some of those teachers.

Ice, snow, rain, we were allowed outside. Kids now is wusses fer sure. Or maybe adults are scared of legal action, I dunno. Whatever reason - sad sad sad.

Today I finished Wolfenstein, last level was a bit too drawn out for my liking but I did thoroughly enjoy this game.

And I also started Mass Effect 1. Blimey, what a game, this is SO different from any game I've ever played. A bit involved to be playing when souzed, too much detail, lol. I know it's a few years old but this is the first time time I've played it and I was impressed.

Impressed but not sure whether I'm going to enjoy it yet.

There are so many choices, right from the start, I wonder how much individual choices affect gameplay?

Also started playing Dark Messiah Might & Magic again, don't know why really, it plays like crap for some reason on my main machine. I may just ditch it.

Opposite the pub where my daughter works there is a large pond that supports a population of swans, ducks, geese, pigeons and seagulls. At the moment is iced over and there are no birds there. Where do they go?

Maybe they all in the pub in the snug bar.

Ok, you ornithologists, gimme an answer

And this self-employed lark is getting truly grim if things don't improve I may have to consider getting a real job

That's if anybody will employ me at my age. There always B & Q I suppose *shudders at the thought*

Today I took the Antec-Lansing I-Pod powered player out of my kitchen and put in my old NAD 3030 amplifier with Ariston Monitor speakers and an I-Pod dock, simply because it sounds better. Rock on, as they say.

Which means the Antec-Lansing will probably end up on E-Bay.

I haven't been to the pub in ages, 2 reasons, lack of funds and poxy weather.

Thinking about building a valve amplifier and passive pre-amp to replace Pioneer A-400 amp in bedroom AV setup.

Started watching first two series of The Inbetweeners' last night. Funnee. Nothing's changed much since I went to school then, lol

That's it, MrFlops signing out

 

[Taffycat]

Thoroughly enjoyable mini-blog Flopps. Hope it's okay to comment?

You and I share a similar "date-stamp" and education era. I attended the local mixed infants and junior schools, which stood opposite each other, separated by a well-tended, green (shared) playing field. Each had its own gravel surfaced playground - great when anyone fell over; lots of gritty bits stuck to bloodied knees, elbows and sometimes heads! But the teacher would deal with that, with his or her trusty bottle of iodine and an Elastoplast. No one even thought of sueing anyone.

There were planted areas in the schools' grounds. Not just flowers, but prickly, berry-bearing shrubs ... "They will have someone's eye out!! A child will be poisoned" Don't ever remember it happening though.

If a certain male teacher ran out of cigarettes, he would simply appoint a boy to "run over to the shops" (which meant going off the school premises and grounds) to buy a pack. That was "wrong" even then, of course, but again, I don't think anyone ever complained.

Hmm... the disappearing waterfowl.... Could it be that word got around about that chap with the duck-house...? Perhaps they have all taken up residence in his duck-hotel for a while

Please write more blogs Flopps, they are very entertaining

 

[Urmas]

@Bloggerflops:

Helsinki, yesterday:

HTH

 

[Abarbarian]

Hmm... the disappearing waterfowl....

Maybe flops has found a new way to raise money.

"Luverly roasted duck in a bun, get yer roasted duck here, roast duck an plumb sauce, get yer roasted duck here, nice plump roasted duck"

 

[floppybootstomp]

Taff: thanks for feedback

Urmas: Blimey A pond with central heating Either that or a direct link to Yellowstone Park...

O Barbaric One: I like a bit of pheasant

Believe me, if I could catch one of the buggers and not get arrested, I'd have no qualms about dining on poached water fowl

It has long been a favourite prank of mine to feed the ducks then in mid-munch shout 'Orange sauce!' very loud and watch them scatter in alarm. Cruel eh?

 

[Abarbarian]

Taff: thanks for feedback

Urmas: Blimey A pond with central heating Either that or a direct link to Yellowstone Park...

O Barbaric One: I like a bit of pheasant

Believe me, if I could catch one of the buggers and not get arrested, I'd have no qualms about dining on poached water fowl

It has long been a favourite prank of mine to feed the ducks then in mid-munch shout 'Orange sauce!' very loud and watch them scatter in alarm. Cruel eh?

That pheasant lable wern't there when I took the screen shot

Orange sauce indeed you cruel heartless man

 

[floppybootstomp]

That pheasant lable wern't there when I took the screen shot

Weren't me, my man, straight up

Must have been one of my wascally wicked woderwator colleagues

 

[Abarbarian]

Weren't me, my man, straight up

Must have been one of my wascally wicked woderwator colleagues

Woderators are of the hook. Lable shows on the pic on me pc so it must have been the fantom of tinternet.

 

[Rush]

Schools should stop breaks outside in the ice and snow , more for me to play with when picking the kids up ...lol..tempted to throw a snow ball at the headmistresses office ...

 

[historian]

As we are being run/controlled by lawyers and barristers in parliament,it must also apply to the local councils who look for ways to not spend money.So they put a ban on all fun under the `elth and safety rules just in case someone hurts them selves.

But of course when these lawyers for the council want to sue a tenent or house holder,for leaving the bin lid open by an inch or so,then no exspense is speared------there`s money to be had.
historian

 

[floppybootstomp]

A few things...

Phoned adsl24 today to order their C & W service, unlimited bandwidth for 20 quid a month and speeds 'up to' 24Mb d/l.

As with 02/Be, adsl24 can't supply the service as my local exchange - Greenwich - has no 'slots' or 'rackspace' left.

Unless BT physically expand the size of the exchange it ain't gonna happen either.

I was told I could queue up but that it could take months, years even, before a slot became available and in the meantime I'd have to be on a permanent month's notice with Zen.

The guy I spoke to, in Lancashire, was a nice fella and he told me that Greenwich exchange is 'possibly the most popular and in demand in the whole of the UK'.

Bugger.

My # 2 machine, 3.2Ghz AMD dulaie, XP SP3 install, is going flakey on me.

It is a very old install and XP does need a spring clean every now and then.

The computer sometimes restarts when I shut it down and also the printer is sometimes not recognised.

Not sure if this is a hardware or software fault, tbh but the fact a couple of games have frozen today makes me suspect my install.

I have had some malware and one virus which I managed to get rid of, maybe that doesn't help.

Also, on a whim, I thought I'd install Freespace II but that froze at start as well but it could just be because it's 11 years old.

I discovered that Steam supply a backup service for online downloads. Basically you open the Steam games list, right click on any game you want to backup then tick boxes for all the other games, create and select a folder and backup to it.

Mine's about 60Gb on this machine, it's currently backing up and will take about 75 minutes.

That should save on some bandwidth if it works

Work is still grim but I have had a request to survey a sound system in a local school at half term on Feb 15th with a view to upgrading the amp rack/replacing some speakers/setting up a maintenance contract. Not gonna be booking a holiday to St Lucia on that but it's still encouraging.

Had this idea about mail-shotting churches, they all have PA systems and also hearing-impaired sound loops, of which I've fitted quite a few.

Would it be hypocritical of me, working for priests, vicars, rabbis, imans and the like? Ha-ha, don't know, don't care really, cash is cash

Just sold the hard disk caddy I had advertised, geezer from another forum visited me at 7pm this evening and paid cash. Luvverly.

Days are getting longer, sunsets less spectacular, I just hope the poxy rain stops.

I have to e-mail at least 5 people and I'm too lazy, I am a miserable sinner, lol

Dumpy, him of the Rusty Nuts fame, sent me a message on Facebook and put the idea forward of a reunion - T F Much Disco (dat's me) and Dumpy's Rusty Nuts, maybe at The White Swan at Greenwich, where we worked together all them years ago.

Good bloke, is Dumpy

Signing off, Sir Flops.

 

[muckshifter]

Had this idea about mail-shotting churches, they all have PA systems and also hearing-impaired sound loops, of which I've fitted quite a few.

Airports, football grounds, train stations, bus stations even pubs-n-clubs, fairground parks such as Alton Towers ...

 

[floppybootstomp]

Airports, football grounds, train stations, bus stations even pubs-n-clubs, fairground parks such as Alton Towers ...

Excellent suggestions Mr Mucks and I thank you for them.

But. All those big customers are firmly in the hands of the big boys. All the major supermarket chains, IKEA. B & Q et al as well.

A company named Baldwin Boxall actually install the public address systems in UK IKEA stores and they're one of the smaller companies.

The rest are wrapped up with bribes, backhanders, greased palms, business lunches and plain old nepotism.

I have found it almost impossible to get toes in a door with any of the big boys.

Biggest customer I ever had was when I had a Limited Company with 3 other guys, 1996 - 2002 and that was The Really Useful Theatre Company. I've worked in most of the major West End Theatres, mostly with CCTV but I did install a sound system in The Palladium. That was good, they were rehearsing for Grease, as I recall.

We lost them when our sales guy put in a quote for some work that was frankly taking the Mick and I expressed my reservations about the high price. He said 'Don't worry, they trust us, we'll get the work'.

But we were busy and couldn't start that work for three days. The theatre manager was impatient and called in another company to give a price. Their price was two thirds of what our salesman had quoted and we never received any more work from The Really Useful Theatre Company.

Later that year Islington Council made lots of staff redundant and those made a maintenance company to do the work they used to do. But this new company didn't give us the work Islington used to, they used other people or done it themselves.

Then Tower Hamlets done the same thing.

Then Ashridge Management College changed management and had it's AV budget slashed so we no longer received work from them. They were our biggest customer.

So more or less overnight we lost our 4 principal customers.

So we called it a day, had paid seven years of a ten year mortgage on an industrial property and just managed to come out of it with a couple of hundred quid each. Still, could have been worse.

And it was also at that time I lost my home and family and (probably as a consequence) spent some time in Hospital. I do not remember 2002 fondly

Still, this church angle might be worth a bash.

 

[nivrip]

Still, this church angle might be worth a bash.

Think you'll actually get in?

Are you sure a bolt of lightening won't strike you down as you walk through the door?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Think you'll actually get in?

Are you sure a bolt of lightening won't strike you down as you walk through the door?

I've already worked in four churches, near Gravesend, Dartford, Islington and Forest Hill.

And I wasn't struck down by lightning at either of them

And lo, a light shone and they trembled in great fear and dread.

Blimey

Despite being agnostic, I really like the architecture of lots of churches, the older the better, fabulous buildings and so very very English.

Or British, perhaps

And steeped in history in many cases.

 

[captain zed]

Could ya not get some work repairing disco gear and computers and stuff ?? You seem to know a lot about amps and speakers and set ups etc. Also i haven't heard mention of NAD in a long while, lol. I hope your luck picks up soon.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the suggestion zed but although I used to repair AV equipment to component level I came to realise it's a lot of work, time and agro for very little money. And you need a workshop.

I do have a dual beam oscilloscope, avometer, fluke voltmeter, frequency generator, dummy load, and variable bench psu, plus a couple of good solder stations and sometimes I'll repair something for a friend.

As for computers - too many at it, too many variables, not enough money.

And you're at the mercy of the customer's understanding of their software. If their machine crashes, they're likely to blame your hardware repair for their software error. So nope, don't wanna go there.

Again though, I often repair friends' machines, usually for free cos I'm a mug

 

[Rush]

Hope all picks up m8, Do you have a website running in the background !! at least it might offer jobbies ???

 

[floppybootstomp]

Rush, I do have a website but it's a franchise and doesn't really represent what I do.

But today I had some good news. I sent some flyers out last week and today it has been confirmed that I'll be working all of Feb 15th to 19th, which is the schools' half term holiday around here.

This will earn me enough to keep going for at least two months by being able to pay all bills, eat, drink and maybe even replace some of those ageing clothes of mine. I know it's supposed to be fashionable but I'd rather not have holes in the knees of my Levis, thank you

So, a little Woot! is in order

I have sales information on it's way to me giving details of induction loop systems with pricing and I have started compiling a mailing list of local churches.

Gaming:

I'm selling: Spore (see other thread); Soldier Of Fortune II (Have just finished playing it again and I honestly don't think I'll play it through again); Call Of Juarez Bound In Blood (Played about two hours worth and I'm really not keen on it); HAWX (I've been useless at all flight sims I've tried except MS FSX including this one) and Crysis Warhead (just finished it).

I'll probably put a thread in the sales section or may just take them to the Cex shop. PM me if interested for a price.

Almost finished Syberia One, a good game, makes a change from fast action and mayhem.

I'll probably get into Guild Wars with a vengenance quite soon.

Went to the dentist at Guys Hospital yesterday, had a filling, going back Monday for another one. Not pleasant but you got to have them things done.

The weather has been poxy since about 1803, it seems, either rain or snow.

Left freezer door open by one inch the other evening, in morning realised about two weeks worth of food was ruined. Cooked a load of defrosted raw lamb chops, burgers and 2lb of minced beef, have been eating chilli for 3 days running, good job I like that stuff.

Haven't been out for a drink since New Years Eve where I was working as well cos of lack of funds. And partly cos the weather's been so miserable.

Realling liking new albums by Vampire Weekend, Hadouken and Delphic.

Two people have asked if I'm available to a disco at their 50th birthdays later in the year, I'm waiting on that.

My AMD computer is still intermittently re-booting on shutdown but seems to be having no problems with the printer now. I may just reinstall XP anyway, it's getting a little cluttered now after about 18 months.

And that load of old twaddle is what's occuring in flopzworld

 

[Rush]

I will do a website for you ...no problem m8 just give me a domain name and i will register it and do all the donkey work...I have a couple of free hosting opportunities still available.