The The

Took a look at the 'The The' website tonight. All their catalogue is available to listen to free of charge for 1 min 30 secs. And the option to buy of course. Very nice quality in stereo even on the rubbish PC boxes. Better than most Ipod earphones though!

Problem is that most The The songs don't event start the first verse by 1 min 30.

http://www.thethe.com/sections/jukebox/jukebox.html

New Presidential Candidate

http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=43687269737c57616465

Ebay is pants

Floggin off your old crap has never been easier

I have always Ebayed but recently have started using a more geographically suitable website www.marktplaats.nl. Ebay has never really been as succesful in Holland as in the UK and I think the main reason for this is the success of marktplaats. And lately due to Ebay making it more complicated to list items I have stopped using it.

With Marktplaats you can search on category geographically. Choices of <3km, <5km, <10km, <15km, <25km, <50km, <75km or no restrictions. This makes buying furniture, cars etc very manageable. Plus it is very simple to post an item. Choose category, add photo and text and post. Your contact dets are always listed through your profile. Plus there are no fees for most items.

Today whilst cleaning out the garden shed I found the stereo from our previous car which was destroyed by an MB 'Actros' whilst I was shopping.

I placed it on Marktplaats at 14:08, had a bid at 16:56, haggled till 18:42 and someone is coming to pick it up in the morning at 10.00.

Visiting Holland?

Hans Brinker who thought in time and saved disaster

I saw an ad for an interesting site if you are planning a trip to the lowlands today on Scrabble Helper. The site helps you locate interesting geographical features in the Netherlands.

If you are planning a holiday to Holland you will find a lot of these geographical features in and around Amsterdam apparently.

Interesting Geographical Features in The Netherlands

So if you fancy sticking your finger in a dyke like little Hans Brinker then this is the site for you.

Lost Teesside

I stumbled upom a nice new website this evening 'Lost Teesside' . It is part of the FMTTM website and chronicals the lost landmarks of Teesside.

The first entry featured 'North Riding Infirmary' , the ENT Hospital on the corner of Newport Road, which I must have passed many a time on the 266 back to Nunthorpe. Some of the text could be better written but this is Teesside remember.

The second entry is the The Royal Exchange which I seem to vaguely remember. Apparently in it's hayday the Exchange set the world price for Iron and Steel.

The Royal Exchange in Middlesbrough, part of 'Lost Teesside'

Silly emails

I tried to register with a UK betting company today not to place a bet but to watch some live darts. And to watch the live stream you had to be registered. Whilst registering I noticed that 'Netherlands' was not an option in the drop down list so I chose Belgium as the nearest country.

I later received a mail explaining why this was.

"Unfortunately, we are unable to accept bets from customers who are registered in the Netherlands and for this reason we have had to close your account.
The reason for bet365 not accepting bets from the Netherlands is that the Dutch monopoly lotto won a case against Ladbrokes in the Dutch courts. The Dutch court held that Ladbrokes were operating illegally under Dutch law accepting bets over the internet from Dutch customers, despite the fact Ladbrokes operate from the UK. However, this is being challenged in both the European and Dutch courts and we are very hopeful that the decision will be eventually overturned. When the case is finally completed we will re-evaluate our position and hope to welcome Dutch customers back to bet365.
To let you know, we are now offering Best Odds Guaranteed on every horse race every day. Just remember to take the price and if the SP is bigger we will pay you out at the bigger odds! You can find out more information by selecting 'Offers & Promotions' from our home page.

The bet365 Team"

I loved the way they explain why you can't use their services but then continue to tell you what fantastic offers they have that you can't use.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

The CEO of Ebay, Meg Whitman, kindly sent me a certificate this morning to mark my arrival into the eBay community. So kind. Little did she know, the same hour, I also received a email from the accounts department saying my eBay account had been blocked for further usage due to an unpaid invoice of £10 which had been open for a month.

The reason I haven't paid the invoice is that Paypal, eBays preferred method of payment have also blocked my account for depositing money to Ladbrokes. Paypal have told me this is forbidden but still it states on Laddies website that they accept paypal payments.

I have been now busy for 1 month trying to resolve the paypal problem, by faxing bank statements, copies of passports, etc to the USA, to convince them my £20 transfer was not the act of espionage.

Maybe rather than a certificate of celebrating 100 sales on eBay I should be given a EAIT certificate. Commendation for Enduring the Actions of Intolerable Twats.

I love t'internet me!

Life Ambition #1

Every since i first played arcade games like Defender, Track and Field, Gorf etc. I always wanted to top the leaderboard for scores. Never did though. I think i once got 4th. Anyway today i managed it . It won't stand for long I'm sure as the game only went online today and only about 100 people have played it so far.















But i took a screen shot for prosterity.












To Play http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/savages/play.php

To see how rubbish that score is now http://www.mousebreaker.com/index.php?page=scoresbest_savages_0

A blast from the past.......

419 Eater

Scamming the Scammer - or 419 Eater.

A 419'er is a name for these guys who send out those annoying emails about the millions of USD they have tied up in Nigeria. I once tried this myself but didn't get far, as i cacked my pants when i realised I would have to give out my work fax number to try to reel him in.

Well never mind as there is people out there who dedicate their spare time (more likely work time) to frustrate and waste these scammers' time.

Maybe the next stage will be to try this with spammers of Viagra and Penis enlargement.

Anyway here is the story of 'John Boko' of the "Ivory Coast". Who wasted almost two months of his time and money trying to scam an imaginery arts scholarship from Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter. He obviously doesn't get BBC comedy repeats in the Cote d'Ivoire.

Read on.......

http://forum.419eater.com/john_boko.htm

Fools Gold - Selling crap on eBay

I've been dabbling on eBay for a couple of years now and it never ceases to amaze me what people will buy. On a trip back chez parents last month I was asked by my mother to clean out some shit from the attic. I found some old flyers from my Uni days in Manchester which i was going to bin but then thought "hang on I should try some of them on eBay".


The first i tried was a flyer A5 size from the Haçienda (FAC 51), Whitworth Street West. Manchester. The flyer was advertising the Monday Club, which was a new night featuring up and coming bands. the first band to be showcased was the 'Stone Roses'.













The NME reviewer wrote afterwards ""I'm already drafting a letter to my grandchildren telling them that I saw The Stone Roses at the Hacienda". So OK it was an important turning point in their career. But still it's not a ticket stub (which i threw away....oops!). Anyway at the time we were anoraks and i used to swipe lots of these flyers from the foyer on the way out. I was feeling very coreagous that night coz i took around a hundred.

Unfortunately I threw about 90 of them away when i shifted my stuff up to the attic and only kept 6. Anyway I sold 2 for £10 each. 1 on it's way to Stockholm and 1 to sunny Eastbourne. So if i could find 100 more anoraks (serious collectors) on eBay I literally threw £1,000 in the bin that day. Oh well.!

Blogs Away

Inspired by an ex-colleague, i have decided to start blogging as it were.
By the way has that term been entered into the oxford dictionary yet?
Let me check.......

Nope maybe next update.
Blog n to 1 senselessly muse one's thoughts. 2 a modern day scrap book for the internet afflicted

So whilst listening to the Boro take on the magpies i decided to set up my own 'blog'. Lets see how it goes. I have ventured into the internet 'whim' on many occasions and not many of them last. I recently put my first 'whim', which was actually a bet, to sleep. The Rudds Arms. Not a bad one even though I say it myself. Lasted 6 or 7 years. Was twice in the local Boro rag. And gave many people 'some' pleasure. It was a website for Teesside expats to keep in touch around the world. Was kind of superceeded by friends reunited though.

Yessss! Sorry I digress. Hasselbaink has just put boro 2-1 up at St. James . Weeheee.

Another one was Kate Humble's first ever unofficial fansite. We had to close that down though after we were threatened with legal action by the friendly BBC. Oh my word!. Just looked for a picture for Kate to link to and the website is still online. Oh well so much for your scary threats BBC Kate Humble unofficial and slightly rubbish Fansite. Kind of dissapointing for Kate though. 7 years down the line and she still only has this site. Well at least her guestbook is still being used even if it is for bizarre requests. i.e "i love kate please wear stockings and suspenders :)".
Never work with animals, children of Ben Fogle

Arse! 2-2 at St. James. Equalized with 10 seconds to go. Boro are rubbish! Oh well final whistle has gone. Bring on the gunners.

So well here we go. Now just have to think of something to actually put on 'me' blog.