August 12th, 2008 by olstar

Ive probably done a few posts like this before, but a lot will of changed since then. As the title suggests, this post will fall into 3 categories, past, present and future.

Past Regrets

I have done a lot of things in my life that im not exactly proud of, and would never shout about them or promote them to other people as “the right thing to do” - but i do not regret them. I belive that all the things you do in your life define who you are and make you the person you are today - as long as the things you have done in your life have never hurt anyone (other than maybe yourself)

My past regrets are mainly to do with people. I regret losing touch with people and i regret not spending as much time with family. I guess the fact i live quite far away from my family is the reason im not as close to them as other people are to theirs, although its not really far enough not to visit more than i have.

My biggest regret from my past is losing touch with a certain person who had been my best friend (or at least one of them) for as long as i could remember. We had our run-in’s but always came out mates, i knew his dad, mum sister etc etc. And i lost touch with him over some stupid fucking teshirts that casued a massive argument between me him and dave - and he just vanished.

Apparently he has cut himself off from a lot of his friends, maybe i know why, maybe i dont.. I have no real way of contacting him to find out.

My only other regrets are probably not making the most of my education. I didnt exaclty dick about in school, i worked as hard as i could - i just wish i had carried on and finished my course, or changed it - as now i dont really have anythign to fall back on in case things that are going on at the mo backfire.

Which brings me on to my next subject.

Present Truths

At the moment i find myself in a rather annoying yet thankfully temporary situation. We still have the two businesses and to be honest hey are doing pretty well. Although like any small business many people take the piss when paying bills, which means cashflow is like a rollercoaster. And unfortunatly all the people i pwe money to (E-on, BT, AOL, TV Licence etc etc) dont seem to want to be paid every so often, they keep bangin on about monthly payments. So i had to do something about it.

Thankfully bills are starting to be paid, debts sorted, and i have actually put some money in my savings account today for the first time since i have owned it. I would like to work as much as possible there while the work is there and put some money away for future investments.

I would love to see MMS and dijitul go to the next level, and i belive they will. But i dont think i will be satisfied at just that. Me and gem have already spoken about a business idea, and i would still love to own a shop selling trainers. I read duncan bannatynes book and it gave me a lot to think about. How he started, what he did to make himself what he is today.

Its made me realise that company debt isnt a bad thing as long as you can afford to pay it back and stil make money. So im going to sit on a few ideas of mine and see what situation im in in a few months. If im more financially stable them im going to the bank with a business plan.

Which again, brings me on to the final part of the blog entry.

Future Plans

I guess i just want to be comfortable in the future. I dont really want to work my arse off until im 60, i would much prefer to work like a slave until i was about 4o then retire - but who knows what is gonna happen. I belive the two businesses me and dave have will do well, and we will be able to let someone else run that allowing us to do other things.

I still want to travel as well, me and gem are both in agreement that living somewhere warm would be a much better idea than staying in this damp cold miserable country. I will only travel once any business ideas are either in motion or have been forgotten about, as i do not want to have to work my way around the world, i would much prefer to be paid to do it!

I guess i have my work cut out, and looking forward i know its not going to be easy - but its what i have got to do, and its what i will do.

Anyway, less blabbering, more work. Bye

July 19th, 2008 by olstar

Well, the last blog post was pretty much completed. The airbag stuff is in, the lid is secured, and everything is tested! It all works very well, and we just have a few little things to look at and the airbag stuff will work 100%.

It is much better than before, better than when DS Engineering robbed me of £2000 to initially set it up. In fact i would even say they made a complete abortion of it. It had to be sent back once to have some welding finished that they had left in a dangerous state, and they just bolted all the stuff in the back on a bit of wood - completely exposed to the elements!

Now we have it in a fabricated box, all bolted down to the bottom of the caddy, and i have used much bigger solenoids, much bigger (like, LOADS bigger) pipework and a pressure switch that actually works!

When i first had the airbags, i was totally dissapointed with it. It was slow, didnt seem to move much.. Now i am extatic, as it moves RATE fast, and go’s PROPER high and really quite low as well!

We have lots of wiring to do, but after that i will put some vids up of it moving up and down etc

In other news, im feeling much better now i am sorting things out money wise. I may be burning the candle at both ends by staying up late and only getting 5 hours sleep max a night, but its nesscery as at the moment im trying to do a lot in order to both secure my future, and my present.

As soon as i am up to date with bills, and the caddy is on the road and working - i am gonna start putting some cash away to help start a little sidelline venture me and dave have been speaking about for ages.  It involves something we both love, and is probably something we can make a fair bit of cash at if we stay on our toes and bring in a few people to help us along the way

Im off to sleep now, more work to be done tomorrow, then monday i am set for a VERY long day!

10am till 5pm at a clients, then 10pm till 6am at the box.. Wont be getting much sleep that day(s)!

July 15th, 2008 by olstar

Well im a few weeks into my working-two-jobs lifestyle, and i am finding it very hard to squeeze everything in. I am working 8 hours at tha box, then coming home and doing up to 8 hours on the pc at home. I am totally exhausted, but right now i am also totally buzzin!

The main reason for working at the box, is to earn enough cash to get a bit ahead with my bills, and to get the caddy on the road. So over the last few weeks i have been collecting the odd part for my airbag system, such as fittings, solenoids and a shiney new compressor.

Newth kindly set the solenoids up for me, and has been tonight to help me (well, i just made coffee actually) fit all the stuff into my car, now that stu had been and welded my box in.

Tonight, we managed to;

• Secure the box lid - no one is stealing my shit again!
• Fit and wire up the compressor
• Fit and pipe up the tank
• Fit and wire up the solenoids
• and….
• Test the airbags!!!!!

I am pleased to announce that all 4 of my airbags seem to be working fine, no leaks, nothing!

And i initially wanted fast movement, but it was crap.. Now.. well, lets just say newth might be right about bending the caddy in half!

Pics to add tomorrow!

Thank you newth, scot and stu!

You are all legends!

June 27th, 2008 by olstar

My first week back at THE BOX is over. It wasnt so bad Its am awesome feeling knowing that i am gonna get paid at the end of next week and from then on until i leave.

It has really taken it toll on me, im so out of touch when it comes to manual labour its untrue! My feet hurt, my legs hurt, and i am exhausted.

BUT

Im happy

I haven’t had as much time to spend on the business stuff as i wanted, but thats mainly been due to me being knackered - as i get more into it and as i get fitter i wont be as tired, and will be able to carry on doing both mekulbox stuff, and our stuff - without a hitch.

Off to lie on the bed now, as i have 3 hours at WW tomorrow updating their shop.

Please boost my balloon to help me win the worlds first internet balloon race!

http://www.playballoonacy.com/show/c3fc253b3feea74c9cb94217a736c89f

June 24th, 2008 by olstar

I was sat watching the news and eating my dinner with Gem and Bonnie, when something about the “Wheelbase project” came on. It showed a grass track nova that had been “done up” to be used in grass track, banger style racing - COOL!!

The wheelbase project is;

“an innovative project based in Nottingham working with young people aged 14-25 years old who are at risk of crime and social exclusion”

The kids who they interviewed on the news were all boasting about how they “dropped out of school” or used to “always get into fights” - one kid even confessed to setting his teacher on fire…

HOLD ON A MINUTE

So let me get this straight, these kids have dropped out of school becasue they were dragged up rather than brought up, and in payment for being a wart on the arse of society they get to play about with cars instead of sitting in a boring classroom listening to some boring teacher drone on about boring subjects that are, well, boring?!

Well thats it then!

KIDS! If you want a career in the motor trade or you just cant be arsed to work hard at school, all you have to do is set your teacher on fire, smash a few school windows and kill any farm animals your school may keep! Simple! And as a reward you will be able to tinker about with cars, build grass track racers and even race them!

WHAT THE FUCK?!

These kids chose their own path, they chose to be scumbags, so why waste money on them? Yeah sure, a few of them have reformed, a few of them no longer wish for all their teachers to be dead, but that doesn’t change the fact they once did, and it certainly doesn’t make all the things they have done wrong, right.

About ten years ago me and my mate timmyroob went on something very similar, called “The Wheels Project” - you never know, the wheelbase project could be a spin off from that? And we spent our entire 6 weeks holiday visiting scrap yards, making a off road buggy and learning to drive a transit van round a field.

All sounds like fun doesn’t it? Well we had to pay (cash money) to go on it, and the miscreant that was on it with us was one of these oxygen thieves, and he got to go on it free.

I remember it boiling my blood back then, and today seeing that the Wheelbase project is set to roll out nationwide - well lets just say boiling point has been reached, and its bubbling over the sides.

I cant possibly be the only person in the world that finds this both unfair, and a complete piss take. Genuine hard working kids get nothing like this and have to PAY OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS to do cool shit like this, but little bastards that set teachers on fire get it free.

Its bullshit!

June 23rd, 2008 by olstar

With a title like that, you would expect me to now go on about how loads of cool stuff has gone off and im now a millionare or summat. Well, unfortunatly, that couldnt be further from the truth!

I started back at mekulboxx today! Im not giving up on the business(es) - i just have a lot of things i need to pay for and the only way to do it is by working shifts, plus trying to fit the business related work in between, somewhere.

It does feel like i have taken a few steps back though, but like people have said to me its for the best as it means i can pay all my little debts off and get my car working.

Once i have all these debts off my back, and im mobile, then i will be able to take advantage of a lot more stuff. I will have a pickup and i can charge people to move stuff, i can do garage clearances, alsorts! I’m quite looking forward to it to be honest, but not more so than just being able to get in a car that own, and drive it when i want

Thats all i keep thinking about when im slaving away doing some proper hard graft

June 17th, 2008 by olstar

When i was recently at my cousins wedding, my cousins brother (who is also my cousin lol) introduced me to his new girlfriend. She seems lovely, and they get on very well - which is awesome considering the shit his ex - the mother of his son and daughter - puts him through.

I wont go into too much detail as i suppose its his private life, but she has fucked him about let right and centre! And even though they have been split up a while, he is still paying for it (literally).

Anyway, i went to fetch some overdue sponsor money from my mum, and she enlightened me of the latest development in the scenario. My uncle told my mum to be wary of getting any calls from her, because.. get this..

She has told all her work colleagues that her SON has died from an asthma attack!

They have even done a collection for her/him!

Just to let you know, the child in question is alive and well, and this latest spout of mindless stupidity is surely her taking things a few steps too far?!

Its one thing to run up debts without telling anyone, then dumping them on people - but LIEING about your sons well being is probably the lowest and most outragous thing i have ever heard anyone to of done.

If this doesnt sway the courts, then the justice system in this county truely is a pile of dog shit.

June 7th, 2008 by olstar

Since the dawn of the internet, there has been many quirky ideas for new ways to advertise your business. Million doller homepage was one of them, he had a really clever idea that was sure to both give people exposure, and make him a bucket load of cash.

Me and dave are working on the next online advertising revolution that will sweep the internet all over the world.

Because advertising is a war!

Adwars! - www.Adwars.co.uk

June 2nd, 2008 by olstar

We do a fair bit of SEO work for ourselves and also our clients, so we monitor the search engines and check the positions of our clients in the results when searching for their chosen search terms.

We do SEO work for Wheelworx and they wanted to be on the front page of google when someone searched for Alloy Wheels. We have found that the sites move on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day. We have had our client up to position one, then a few weeks later down to position 10.

I checked it today, and on my computer they were at position 3. I told my business parter to check and they were 5th on his computer. How can this be?

We both checked the world wise search, and the UK search on google. And both were 3rd on mine, and 5th on his. How can there be such a difference in the results even though he is literally down the road from me?

It makes it very hard for us to do reports for our clients as we are never sure if when they click on the links in the emails they will see the same results we do!

Anyone got any ideas how all this can be?

May 30th, 2008 by olstar

Many people today noticed that internet giants Google changed their Favicon from the familiar big G with a square round it, to a simpler lower case g with no border.

I scoured the internet looking for a reason why they changed it, but only found other people with the same questions as me.

Many people talk of a rebranding? but surely that would be a dumb idea due to how wel know the google logo and simpple layout/colourscheme is?

But i have my own theory behind the most talked about favicon in the world.

In the last few months i have been using Firefox 3, and they have made quite a few changes to the layout of the browser window, more specifically the way it displays favicons.

They are displayed on a grey background instead of a white one, and you can now see if the favicon is transparent or not. Googles old favicon is in a square, and wasnt (as far as im aware) transparent, so would of looked like this Blogger favicon;

This is square, boring, and doesnt really look much different from before. This is the new google favicon;

This new favicon shows off the cool white glow type thing you get when your favicon is transparent. Google would of missed out on the cool glowey shit, so in order to keep up with the times, they have updated it, and dropped the gay border so you can see the glow round the g.

But as my friend DJB quite rightly pointed out, they are suppsed to be the BIG G - maybe now they wanna be known as the little g - as written by Philipp Lenssen who pointed out that one of googles core values is to think and act like the underdog.

I guess they will officially let us know soon enough.. Maybe its just some new employee who decided to change it for the shits and grins. I wonder how much bandwith in total - across the world -this new favicon has sucked?

Wow.