Tuesday, October 31, 2006

So Bad..... Its Brilliant

If (When) this gets released, this WILL be number 1, Who knows, it could beat the X-Factors to the Christmas Number 1 (Here's hoping).




I haven't blogged lately due to lack of internet at home. Pipex can't seem to decide whether or not I have had my ADSL line terminated due to moving home, Let me tell you this Pipex.... I HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED... Sort it Out.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Byrne Baby Byrne...

I knew there was some good news.... Damo is officially the happiest Man in the universe.



Oh By the Way.... We are having a baby, all that midwifery training paid off you see, I know all about trimesters and stuff this time.

Yeeeee Haaaaa
Still Not Moving House

... However, Buyer came to look round at the house today, he had been told by his (rubbish) solicitors to ensure the heating and taps worked.... Wow, what a solicitor. My buyer had no interest in the receipt for the windows.

So there is some good news.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Moving House - It Had to happen didn't it

...Yet
I was sitting in the office yesterday and happened to mention that our move was going very well, it was at that point PM/Naked Jim said something along the lines of "it hasn't gone wrong... yet"

Bloody Project Managers, I'm sure they're all cursed,

Went to sign the paperwork this morning, solicitor mentioned she has received a letter from buyers solicitors who are concerned about there not being a receipt for the windows which I had installed 3 years ago, my buyer isn't concerned, his solicitors are. Tw**s !!! (sending the letter 3 days before we all move)

So we signed our lives away for the next million years and off we went on our merry way, not more than 2 hours later, I received a call from my solicitors....

The top of the chain has gone into hospital and theres no way we will be completing on Friday

AAAArrrrggggghhhhhh

So I came off the phone mentioned a few harsh words as "Damn", "Blast" and something about 'kin Jim, I calmed down, picked the monitor, desk, chair and Project Manager up off the floor, now I'm ok (I think).

Called BT - Cancelled the cancellation
Called Pipex - delayed the cessation of my line
Called Sky - delayed the installation at the new house.
Called Removal Firm - Cancelled the removal van

So the next time, you think of doing something and think of saying, "What could go wrong", look around for a project manager, if they are within hearing distance, keep it to yourself.

Although on a good note ...
Erm...

Monday, October 16, 2006

Moving House - T Minus 4 Days

So far so Good except
  • Bank didn't listen when we set our joint account up, therefore charging us for a Select account causing us to go overdrawn in the account we haven't started using yet - Moaned - all charges refunded.
  • BT say I can't keep my number as I am moving to a new exchange, new number set up and ready at the new house from move date
  • Pipex can't transfer my account so I have to close my current one down and set another one up will set me up as soon as I get my new number activated, I will also need to advise everyone of my new email address (Bast...)
  • Sky are more than happy to move/keep me, have an engineer coming to turn me on (!!!!) next Tuesday, 40 bleedin quid, for what, to plug some cables in, Well I told them I don't have a dish at the new house, If I do, Ill take it down and put in on t 'bay (Damos' attempt at recouping the cost).
Talking of Sky, I called them to confirm receiving my online move request form which they didn't, rather than pay over inflated prices when calling these big companies, have a click at www.saynoto0870.com Normal Price for a sky call (0870 2403000) - 9p per minute, alternative number ( 01506 484000) free....ish

So as you can see all going well, at least the solicitors and estate agents are doing an half decent job.

On a good note -
Erm...
Joe Public 1 - Police 0

How to avoid SPECS speed
Here's a great way of avoid those £60 fine and 3 points on your license, without having to resort to spending £400 on a road angel of "getting Damo" to install the speed camera software for your TomTom.

And how is this done you may ask...

Change Lanes

As this site states, simply by changing lanes, you fool the second camera which needs to take the second picture to work out the average speed over the distance.
For some reason, the Police aren't happy with this. They've asked the public not to exploit this loophole (Hmm, let me think, wonder why, could it be they'd miss the mi££ions made from fining us poor tax paying drivers, Police cheifs wont get their annual Piss up/Bonus/Christmas stats accident reduction figures. and accident will increase, because there's something else they've still not proved (Lie 1: cameras reduce accidents - Not True)

BIG NOTE AT THE BOTTOM : - This doesn't work for Gatsos and all the other cameras out there, but its a start, and better than setting fire to them.

I'd love to know if this worked, but Im not foolish/brave enough to test it,

Thursday, October 12, 2006

The Good The Bad & The Ugly

The Good
Orange - Had a call from the upgrades department at Orange, offering me a great deal on my tariff and a free upgrade to my phone, 500 minutes and 500 texts for the same price I am paying now, apparently this is a Select 500 tariff, after literally seconds of googling found this to be a brilliant deal which, it seems is not available to everyboday (sorry SWMBO). The lady I spoke to also stated that the phone was not yet available, but will call me and let me knoe when it is. This lady was genuinely nice, helpful professional and polite. So much so, I even decided to email Orange to thank her on my behalf. If you know me, then you'll know this is something I NEVER DO....

RESULT: Well done Orange, one customer that shall remain so.

The Bad Another company who I shall not name - I purchased a PDA Phone last year from, this device developed a fault and was returned on 27 April....

... I AM STILL WAITING, not only for them to acknowledge that I they have recieved the device, let alone repair the device. Despite my constant emails and phone calls chasing this, still nothing has been done.

What Damo Did (or what Pissed off Damo did) I decided to do something - I emailed the returns department to escalate this, I did some Googling and found the name of the Chief Executive, Finance Director and Operations Director and Copied them too:

RESULT: within 33 minutes I received an email from the Customer Services Manager apologising for the lack of communication, stating they will get back to me in the next day or 2.

.... Watch this space (Day 1 is now over!!!)

The Ugly



WTF

Monday, October 09, 2006

Lunchtime Playing
Heres one to look at when you're on your lunch....

Virtual NES (Nintendo Entertainment System for the kids), relive the olden days in the days of only 8 colours and fast tapping keys on a keyboard, 1943,Track 'n' Field, Mario.... They're all in here,

Happy timewasting.
Every Man and his Dog is Blogging Nowadays

All of my colleagues in my former job now have their own blog

Gaz - "The Daddy" (not literally), and his oh so happy ways
Daz - The Ladies Man, The Love Monkey
Tao - The Non-Vegetarian Vegetarian -
Cookie - The Longman of the Midlands and his trusted sidekick - His bike
Wendy - The Ruler, she knew how to keep us all in check

So fellow colleagues, get a move on. no excuses Jim (PM/Naked Jim no less) with your "I was blogging before blogs were around"

You've all got something to say, so do so

- Dave - Stu - Steve - Andy - Ade - Lee - Laura - Ash - Alex - Dave M - Luke - Martin - Gary - James - Jim

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Nick Stuff Easier

If, like me, you like to "evaluate" your music/console games/films/applications etc, before "purchasing" them, you'll no doubt know all about Bit Torrents. The 2 problems I have with torrents, is a:- knowing where to find the torrents listed and b:- the upload speed.
BTCompare compares the top 10 used BitTorrent sites along showing the how many torrents are listed and amount added each day, for example, the top ranking site is btjunkie, currently listing 964,773 torrents (3913 added just today). It's just a shame my 8mb download isn't maxed when downloading from BitTorrents.

Some of the sites require registration (Doesn't everything on the net), I haven't registered for any listed, so am now sure if you'll get spammed.

Just remember, downloading this stuff is illegal and shouldn't be done,

Enjoy nicking stuff downloading.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

BBC Top Gear - (SOS) Save Our Show
Save Our Top GearThere's been a lot of publicity about Top Gear since it was brought back to our TV screens back in 2002, especially the environmentalists and saddos stating it glorified speed, dangerous driving and promotes irresponsible driving,

This all seems ridiculous, the driving shown on the program mainly takes place on the track when required for speed, yes the presenters also do ridiculous timed races against sky divers, cyclists and even fellow presenters, I've no doubt the driving tha takes place on the public roads is completely legal.

Yes, Richard Hammond had an accident while driving a jet powered car at 300 mph on a private road, but accidents do happen, whether at 25 mph or 700 mph, does this mean we should ban the program he was filming it for. How stupid, secondly all safety checks were in place and nothing was left to chance Jeremy Clarkson has written an article about it here.

While we're at it, lets ban motor racing for the speed the drivers drive at, movies for promoting violence, horror, death etc, house music for drugs, rap music for guns, and don't forget to ban Fifth Gear on Channel 5 and Pulling Power on ITV as they are car shows that sometimes show interesting fast cars, we actually need to ban all cars that can do more than 70 mph, anything that can go above this speed is obviously promoting excess speed.

(Then again, why not just ban Fifth Gear and Pulling Power for being crap Top Gear wannabees anyway, Sorry Quentin and Tiff).

There are 350 million Top Gear viewers worldwide, they don't all want to drive their Mondeos Vectras, and MPVs as fast and stupid as possible, they just enjoy the show, and watching what The tall one, the hamster and the posh one do.

Sign the petition and tell the Anti Top Gear people what you think. Top Gear should be back on 8 October, we'll see.

Monday, September 25, 2006

1 Year of Blogging...... (and Here's an Iron)Happy Birthday to Me... (Blog)
Happy Birthday to Me... (Blog)
Happy Birthday Dear DamianLByrnedotBlogspotdotCom
Happy Birthday to Me (Blog)

A year ago today I started blogging about bugger all, what do I have to show for it, the same - Bugger all , no new gadgets, no flash car, no big TV, nothing new..... (I think I can hear them violins).

I guess I should think myself lucky however as I do have lots of lovely things despite not being new, my lovely car (not new), my our new house (soon/new) , my fiancee (new), my our TV 2 (soon/new), my pisshead friends (new every so often), my forever growing family, my new drink.

Oh and I bought an iron yesterday.
Fit The Best....

I've just been watching Inside Out on BBC, (The East Midlands regional version) and a blast from the past appeared on the screen...
The LegendTed Moult - while racking my brains trying to remember where I knew the name and more recognisably, the voice, it suddenly came to me, Everest Windows. He's the man that said

"Fit the Best, Everest"

What shocked me however, is that he is a Derbian (i.e. from Derby), not only a voice everyone remembers, but a local legend too, he even has an entry at IMDb. I wondered if there is any other famous people born in my wonderful town.

Simon Groom
(Blue Peter)
Kevin Lloyd (The Bill)
Terry Lloyd (ITN News Reporter)
Keli Young (Liberty X Singer)
Judith Hann (Tomorrows World Presenter & The sister of my home economics Teacher at School).

Derby - What a place, what history, with all these Derby links, its a wonder we're not overcrowded with tourists. Home of the first Public park in England, home of the one time largest housing estates in Europe, Home of Rolls Royce since 1908, birthplace of the Hot Dog, home of Richard Arkwright, Sir Frank Whittle and The Rams, (Well we can't be 100%)

So Come on Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Nottingham. What have you got.... Apart from more than one football team?

Wikipedia - Natives of Derby, Derby Photos

Thursday, September 21, 2006

If It Ain't Broke, Dont Try to Fix it - If It Is Send it Back

Read a great idea over at Lifehacker.
Rather than throw all your old damaged crap out of warranty broken items, why not send it back for a new one. Although I'm sure this is highly unlikely, trying it should only cost a couple of quid,
"Rather than just sending your broken stuff to a landfill, pack it up and ship it back to the manufacturer with a letter asking for a new one. You will be amazed by the results. There are no guarantees with this method, but you definitely won't get a replacement if you throw the product away. This method gets rid of the product just as much as throwing it away does, but it gives a human being at a real company a chance to demonstrate just how much they stand behind their products. You'd be surprised how many will. A squeaky wheel gets oiled. It works, and the trick is all in the letter."
You could try this with your broken ipod nano screens, PDAs, Mobile phones. Slim chance of getting a new ipod from Apple I'm sure.I'm going to have to try this, just to see.

Full Story @ Lifehacker

* Doesnt work with broken hearts,

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

New Home

Just over 4 weeks to go before we move in together, I have resisted in buying anything for both my house and our house, Im leaving SWMBO to buy the plates, bed linen, towels, cutlery, bathroom stuff. As long as I dont have a pink bedroom I'm not that fussed.


When it comes to the Electrical equipment, that's a different matter, while trying to explain the requirements of the LCD HD TV (37", 3 HDMI inputs (SKY HD, HD DVD Player and PS3), as well as a DVI just in case and 1080p ready). SWMBO gave me the blah blah blah look, Wimmen !!!

As I have already picked the TV that does all of the above, when SWMBO agrees to make the purchase, Ill go and get it and show her how to work it (The TV that is), after all, she is fully SKY+ savvy, HD should be a doddle once we do upgrade, at the moment there aren't that many HD channels to justify the extra £10.00 (10 channels of which 2 are Sky Box Office) and I'm sure SWMBO isn't too bothered about neighbours being in standard def.
Richard Hammond - Wishing you a speedy recovery

Richard 'Hamster' Hammond, The presenter of 2 of my favourite TV shows (Top Gear & Brainiac) was involved in a car crash while filming for Top Gear today.

From BBC News

The presenter is being treated at Leeds General Infirmary
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a critical condition in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the programme.

The presenter, 36, was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary which has a special neurological unit.

A North Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said he was unconscious when they got to the scene and a hospital spokesman described him as "critical".

The BBC confirmed the presenter had been injured during a Top Gear shoot.

Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, said officers were dealing with the incident at Elvington airfield, a former RAF base, in North Yorkshire.

He said: "At 5.45pm this evening we received a report via the fire service of a male person trapped in what was described as an overturned jet car which had been driven on the airfield.

"The male occupant has received serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital at Leeds."

The presenter was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham.

In addition to presenting Top Gear for the BBC, he also fronted Brainiac on Sky One until recently.

Here's to a speedy recovery

Monday, September 11, 2006

Remembering 9/11

Remembering 9/11

Sunday, September 10, 2006

- Sold -

And who said this house selling was hard work.

3 days on the market and my wonderful Bloke palace has been sold, thats the good news

The better news is the house we were desperate to buy is ours (Well "Subject to Contract" anyway).

Its all running scarily smoothly, even the solicitors seem to be working efficiently, I keep thinking there's something I'm obviously doing wrong, so far without a hitch, I did my usual Interweb search to see how to make my life easier when moving house, having a new mortgage, getting house insurance, there are some seriously helpful sites out there to help with the hardest of tasks when moving house

Help I Am Moving gives a guide to moving, printable checklist, moving quotes for removal firms.
I am Moving lets you add your current address, new address and helps with the address changing stuff for utility companies, credit card companies, councils etc, I have only added my details as I haven't got the moving date yet, but so far so good.

The following sites are the ones which have the potential to save a great deal of money, not just when moving house.

Money Supermaket and Money Saving Expert have the ultimate guides in to mortgages, home insurance etc. Personally saving approx. £200 a month on a mortgage and halving my home insurance all in less than an hour.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Officially Olde

Not content with selling up bachelor pad and buying a house with SWMBO, I have have had further reminders that I am getting old. During my Friday night in alone, flicking through my 200 channels of crap Sky. Channel Five were doing a typical "50 worst things nobody really gives a shit about". aka ""

This one was "Now That's Embarrassing: The 80s: Eighties". I confess to watching 2 minutes and then had to watch the rest of it to see just how sad I really was (I remember the eighties you know).

Some Highlights...

Dallas/Dynasty (Watched it)
Shootings, shoulder pads, oil barons balls and the longest dream ever

The Krankies (Didn't watch it)
So right but Oh so wrong, A Man and a boy that was actually a man and his (short) wife...... (Nuff said)

Sam Fox with her song "Touch me" (Bought it)
I bought that on a 7" (For younger people, a 7" is a vinyl record, before the days of Cee Dees), seems to have been remixed

The Wide Awake Club, (Wacaday) (Watched it - all the time)
Malletts Mallett (Its a word association game, musn't pause, mustn't hesitate or you get a bash on the head) (Alcohol version of Malletts Mallet)

Number 2 - The Shellsuit (Had one)
Cheap, bright coloured crap looking crepe paper styled tracksuits. That when accidently set alight !!!! burnt "quite well"Damn - I had one of these, mine was a Nike Michael Jordan Black and White - 80's Chavwear

and Number 1... (remember watching it)
That Weather report from Michael Fish"Phone call woman rang the bbc and said there was a hurricane on the waym if youre watching dont wrry there isnt"followed by the worst hurricanes in 300 years ,winds of over 110mph, flooding. Poor Michael....

Not sure if I missed it, but surely the rubik's cube must be somewhere, (DOWNLOAD)

Therefore...I am bloody old....

Monday, August 28, 2006

The end of an Era


So now, the time is here
the time to sell, with carpets & curtains.
to all, I'll say it clear
I am nervous, that much I'm certain

I've lived here 7 years, I'm selling up
Ill do it my way
Move in, with SWMBO now
Joining "couple" highway
=--------------------------------------=

That's it, Damo is selling his "bachelor pad" to buy up with SWMBO, I say bachelor pad, of the 7 years I've been here, 5 have been with SWMBO, however it was exactly what I wanted;

lads night Saturdays, DVDs, Playstation 2, Fishtank, Surround Sound, Big TV, Lots of kitchen utensils, TV with Sky in every room.... BLISS

So now its all gonna change, it'll more like, Lads night Saturdays, DVDs, Playstation 3, Fishtank, Surround Sound, Big(ger) LCD HDTV, New kitchen utensils, TVs with Sky HD In every room

Women eh, they don't half change you......

Its all down to the Estate Agent and Rightmove to get my house sold, although I thought I would give them a helping hand. For some reason I don't entirely trust estate agents, although I have picked the best of the bunch (hopefully)