April 28th, 2008 by olstar

I have dealt with some degenerates in my time, but oh my lord - these people top the bill! I needed a little spare for my dishwasher to hold the cupboard door on the front of it, as it had broken before i moved in the house. I popped to B&Q and they informed me that this part was a candy part and that i would need to get it from them directly.

So, i rang candy and explained to some fool over the phone that i needed this plastic part to screw on the wooden door, so attach the door to the front of my dishwasher - so it looks like one of the cupboards!

It took a stupid amount of time to explain to him what it was i was after, but he eventually got it - or so he said. So we paid £8 (yes, eight whole pounds!) for this tiny part, and were told we would have to wait up to 8 weeks as it was coming from italy (on foot by the sounds of it!)

Roughly 8 weeks later, a jiffy bag came through the door. Guess what! wrong part! It was some metal thing that looked nothing like the part i was after!

So i rang them, explined again to someone the part i needed, and even sent in photos! He again claimed he had got the right part, and arranged for the one we initially got sent, to be picked up. A week later another jiffy bag came through the door - WRONG PART AGAIN!

I rang them AGAIN and told them they had messed up AGAIN even though i had sent them a picture of the part i required. The lady told me she would call me back - and didnt!

I have one again spoken to a person at candy, and she now informs me that the part is in fact a part you buy from a DIY store, and no direct from them at all!

So over two months has gone by now, and im still without the stupid little plastic bit that holds the door on. Stupid bastards!

Oh, and if you need to order some spares from candy, hoover or gias, than dont call their premium rate rip-off phone number, call the alternative number: 01204 556 100

April 22nd, 2008 by olstar

It was only a month or so ago when i wrote about the fact Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) could still be alive and thanks to a comment from cyber1000 who stumbled upon this news article from TVGuide.com im please to announce that it is TRUE! Micheals bird will be retuning for season 4!!!

“Sarah Wayne Callies — whose rather ugly contract dispute with producers led to her apparent decapitation last October — is returning next season. Full-time. As Dr. Sara Tancredi. Head and all. Seriously.”

To read the rest of the article click here.

I am finally very excited about the return of PB - as before this i had doubts as to how good the storyline could be.

Roll on season 4!

April 20th, 2008 by olstar

I often put the wu tang 8 diagrams album on now as i am still diggin the wu tang sound they have, and that track is in memory of odb so i like to pay my respects a lot.

Anyway, i often wondered what teh bit at the end of the life changes song was, it was chinese or japaniese or something. It turns out its mandarin and is from something called The Heart Sutra.

Heres a rough translation thanks to Spinx over on the Wu-Tang official forums.

Read the rest of this entry »

April 19th, 2008 by olstar

That’s right! After god knows how long, my awesome caddy finally started today after my good friends stu and buzzer spent a good few hours fitting exhausts, petrol tanks and all sorts..

It still needs things like a compressor, tank, solenoids and it needs the fuel pump relay wiring up! BUT it WORKS! And here ladies and gentlemen, is the proof!

I could not believe it started! Nationals here we come!

April 18th, 2008 by olstar

After trying to sort scotts laptop out for him last night, we decided to pay a visit to tesco to get some random bits of food to eat.

Now i cant say im a regular at the “reduced” isles, but i do often check to see if there is anything cool that might save me a few pennies (pennies make pounds)

We walked about, and i spotted a chocolate milkshake (my favorite) reduced to 59p from 99p. Bargain! Then i started noticing the goldmine that lay before us!

We got two chicken wraps for 10p! A pot of egg mayonaise for 10p! A chocolate muffin mousse thing.. for 10p! It was like we had won the lottery!

I am gonna make it a routine to visit tesco at that time of the day so that i can pick up all the bargains

It was quite funny, as i was certain we were caught up in some kind of bargain war with this other guy who seemed to follow us round the shop looking at the things we had looked at. I beat him to the bargains though! Muhaha!

April 17th, 2008 by olstar

We were discussing insurance groups for cars, and it dawned on me that i didn’t actually know what the insurance group for my Volkswagen caddy was.

It took a fair amount of finding to be honest, but after playing about with a few different search terms i managed to track down an awesome website with all the right information on.

I think it was the only site on the whole internet that had insurance details for commercial vehicles. So nice one dudes!

I should be getting the damm thing sorted so this might actually come in useful soon

April 17th, 2008 by olstar

First off - i would like to clear up the fact i am not selling my superstar site. The only reason i considered it is that i was slightly worried i am holding up the future of it by being busy. I do not want to sell it, and according to my members i am not holding the site up either!

It was my grandads funeral yesterday and i was not looking forward to it at all. I had only ever been to one before, it was my great grans (grandads mum) but that was a very long time ago.

We arrived at my aunty’s house and she looked really upset - i think its probably hit her hardest as she was probably the person who spent the most time with both my grandparents these last few years.

We all stood around chatting, i had a good talk with my cousin laura about work and magazines and stuff. Turns out she worked on redline magazine for a bit a few years ago, if only i had known!

James, hayley and Esther turned up, and we set off to grandads old house to meet the rest of the family.

We all got out and walked to grandads house, seemed very strange him not being there stood having a fag or making a joke about something. We all talked for a bit, then watched the black Hearst pull up with grandad in the back.

There was another funeral car behind that was for my mum, kev aunty melanie uncle bill uncle steve and aunty paula. We followed in uncle bills merc, and then sam ben and everyone else followed us in another car. It seemed strange driving at 3mph through what are usually very busy streets. People seemed to stop and just wait for you to go by before pulling out, and mum said that she even saw an old boy stand up out his wheelchair out of respect. Maybe he knew grandad? Maybe grandad had cut his hair many years ago?

We arrived at the church, and it seemed to drop really cold. It was like there was a big cold bubble around where we were stood. We all waited for everyone to go in, and then followed the coffin into the church to the sound of some guy playing the organ.

Im not religious, so i didnt sing any hymns as i feel slightly uncomfortable singing about something i dont believe in. I did spend the whole time thinking of my grandad and the fun we used to have when i went to stay in the school holidays.

Then we went from the church, to the crematorium. The journey there was probably the highlight of the day to me - as me James Laura and Esther all chatted about the mad things we all used to do as kids on grandma and grandpa’s cottage. We all agreed that it was an amazing place to grow up, totally like something out of a storybook.

I think its the most ive really talked to my cousins for ages, which is entirely my fault. Im no good with family members, i always feel like a bit of an outsider. I guess its cos i was the youngest, and all my cousins have brothers or sisters.

Anyway, we arrived at the crem, and within 15 mins the lady had said a few words, and a curtain got pulled across and that was the last time i would ever see my grandad ever again.

We went for some food at some place me and grandad used to go swimming, and after there we set off for home. I wasnt looking forward to the day at all, but it did go without a hitch, and through the loss of one person hopefully it has brought other people a bit closer together.

You’ll never be forgotten grandad.

Rest in peace.

April 15th, 2008 by olstar

I have helped set up many websites over the last 10 years of my life. I started out with silly little sites that no one visited and i made for the benefit of my close friends (and mainly just me haha) but then me and dave started Maxxd.com and our first big site was born!

Since then we have started a few more between us, and i have started one by myself that has become more popular than i ever would of imagined.

I started the SuperstarDB.com website in order to find out more about the famous superstar sneaker that i had loved for many years. Within months thanks to a few sneakey fake ebay auctions i had a handful of regular members who helped spread the word and create what is now the largest independant adidas forum in the world.

We have over 1200 members, and over 120 people frequent the forum EVERY DAY. The member base is worldwide, and if you search for Adidas Superstars in google, in most counties of the world, we are Number ONE.

Now it is known that me and dave spread ourselves to thinly, we do nt have enough time to keep all our sites totally up-to-date and i can go without visiting some of them for weeks. This has resulted in us thinking about selling a few of the smaller ones so we have less on our plate (we probably have about 30 websites in total)

I never ever thought about selling the SSdb, not in a million years - but it got mentioned to me in a PM from one fo the members. What do i do? Should i hold onto this site that has made me so proud? Do i keep trying to fit it in so that i can remain its only owner?

Or do i work out what i would want for it and sell it? I could maybe offer the chance for people to buy a share in it? Maybe split the ownership of it 3 ways or something? That way i could remain part of it, but share the running of it with other people?

I really dont know what to do.

Part of me says “Dont be stupid, its your site and you should keep it” but then another part of me says “sell it and use the funds to move forward with other projects”

What do you think?

April 8th, 2008 by olstar

I had only blogged yesterday about how i was finding it hard to remember to do all the things i need to do in a day. Notepads and stuff work kinda, but nothing works better than being told you have to do something when it needs to be done.

have looked around for many years trying to find a stable, striaghtforward solution to my time management disability, and yesterday after ONE search i found it!

I have always liked using google products, as you know their servers are as reliable as they get, and that they will always be at the top of their game when it comes to new technology and new ideas.

So i looked for a google calendar application that could run on my pc. And i found Calgoo!

Its free, and sync’s with google calendar.

In fact, if you need to sort your time management out, just download it!

You will never forget to do anything! (as long as you have it running!)

April 7th, 2008 by olstar

My work is starting to get to the stage where i am constantly trying to catch up. There seems to be lots of niggly little things that i need to do but just dont get done. An ongoing maxxd gallery rebuild, random site updates and blog updates i never get time to do.

I am gonna have to deffo look into some day/time planning solutions. I looked into it before but it never really helped, i have tried having sheets where i plan my days down each morning. They worked for a few days but then i forgot about them. I have tried online planning, writing in a notepad kinda planning, and i still seem to forget about things and never finish huge jobs.

I have got a lot better with things over the last year or so, i dont forget as much as using a notepad as a short term memory works well. But i still dont find time to finish things like sorting the maxxd galleries. I will have bursts like the other day when went thru and sorted all folders into date format. So i put all cruises from 2004 in the 2004 cruises folder. etc etc.

I never quite got round to finishing the car ones, i got to lee’s old red corsa, and had a lot more to do! There are thousands and thousands of them. Maybe i should just dedicate a night here and there to it? I have got to think about webspace too though as that aint no small amount of data!

Im gonna try and improve my time management skills, i think allocating certain days to certain tasks/area’s is probably the best way forward. Ill see what i can come up with.