Gillmans verdict: avoid!

A copy/paste of a review I have now left for Gillmans Domestic Appliances:

We called to ask about a dual fuel cooker to replace our electric cooker. We explained that we had a gas pipe, but had never used it, so had no idea if it worked. We explained our concerns to the person we spoke to, and he said this would be covered within the survey they offer, explaining it would check if the pipe worked or not, amongst other things. We bought the cooker on that basis. The man came to do the survey, said everything was fine, and left.

Two weeks later, our new cooker was delivered and our old one taken away. A few hours after that, someone came out to do the installation - only to tell us the gas pipe didn't work, and he couldn't install the cooker. Naturally, we were very upset, and called them straight away.

The person we spoke to this time not only insisted that the survey does not check if the pipes are working, but also gave every impression that he believed us to be lying when we told him we were promised it would. We told them time and time again that we would never have bought the cooker in the first place if we hadn't been guaranteed they would check the pipe worked, but everything we said fell on deaf ears. Gillmans gave no impression that they cared at all, nor did they do anything to help sort the problem. There was not even an offer of helping us find someone to get the pipe checked and fixed.

At the end of the day, we were forced to have our old cooker brought back and reconnected due to being promised something they weren't prepared to do. We're very unhappy, and will not be looking to Gillmans for anything in future.

That sums up the first horribleness of the day. The second horribleness? That comes in when I try to sort out how to get our gas pipe working. You see, we live in a council house, so naturally the first people I call are the gas engineers that are associated with our council landlord.

They tell me they have no problem sorting the gas pipe - but that they need explicit permission from the landlord before they can do anything. So I call the landlord, who responds by telling me "they don't do that". They refuse to give permission for the work to be done because it's apparently not their responsibility. I called the gas engineers back, demanding to know why they directed me to the landlord who insists it has nothing to do with them. Without even addressing the fact that they clearly were giving me the wrong information, they told me I would have to have the work privately done, and they wouldn't do it at all.

All of this has led me to two conclusions: one, when someone tells you something is going to be taken care of on the phone, get that person's name and some kind of proof that they did actually give you that information. Two, the council housing society is useless, and the list of things they clearly are not willing to take responsibility for in their own properties is growing by the minute.

I'm alive!

Whew! Forgive my absence. Helping with moving stuff in and getting stuff organised, at the same time as all my projects and work and family stuffs, has taken a lot out of me, and I'm only now feeling like I have the energy to start blogging again!

So, let's start off with what I've been working on in my (rare) spare time over the last few weeks, hmm? A website! Yep. My cousin, trusting soul that she is, has asked me to build her a website for her nail art business. Me, being a geek who used to build websites for fun when I was a kid, could hardly say no. Though there were a few missteps initially on my part, a bit of work has given me a draft site that I'm mostly happy with, but suspect will need a lot of editing before the final version is ready to go.

Doing this has made me realise a few things. One, I really enjoy designing things. I learned basic HTML when I was 14 years old and bored in my graphics design class in school. (Not bored because of the content, but rather because I already knew most of what was being taught, and I finished everything in an hour rather than a week.) Since then I've toyed with website design off and on, always with it in my eyes as a hobby rather than anything else. Admittedly with this blog, a lot of it came from a template - but I don't think there's anything wrong with using a basic template and editing it to get what you want, right? Until recently, I've not considered it as anything more than a hobby - and now I'm wondering, if I had a bit more knowledge and a lot more practise, if it's something work looking into one day.

Two, one of those bits of knowledge I lack is exactly where that line is between a website that is accessible and personal, but is also professional. Having always made personal sites before, I'm happy to add lots of colour and gadgets and whatever to the site, anything that catches my eye and seems to fit with the rest of the feel of the blog. However, when it comes to professional websites, I hit that stumbling block. How much colour is too much? Does this look too amateur? Is this too dry with not enough style? It's a question I'm struggling with right now, and I'm hoping a bit more time and work will get me the answer.

Three... um... Okay, there was a three, but I can't remember it now. See what happens when I let myself ramble? I talk and talk and talk about stuff, probably repeating myself several times, and then forget the point I was trying to ramble toward. Oops. Ah well. That's what the "Update" button is for, right?

Moving without a car

I've been quiet lately. Partially from lack of things to talk about that make any kind of cohesive sense, but mostly from lack of energy to do anything that is not directly associated with moving stuff. The boyfriend is moving in (yay!), which means there is a lot of moving stuff in, clearing out stuff I no longer need, and consolidating two households worth of stuff into one.

Now, imagine doing this without a car.

Yep, neither of us drive. We have friends that drive, and have helped us out when possible (thanks guys!), but a majority of the stuff is being taken over in small stages, whenever we get the chance. Since we both work, and it's a 25 minute walk between our houses, it's not as often as we'd like. So, my energy is lacking. Hopefully once the move is finished and we've got everything done, I'll be able to post more again. I don't want to fall into a habit of not posting on here at all and let the blog go dead. That would be bad.

Anyway. I'm off to go unpack/repack/organise more stuff. See you lot soon.

The day I discovered I'm an idiot with computer hardware

I've been fretting - yes, fretting - about my computer for at least a week now. I suddenly noticed it has been making an awful lot of noise. Considerably more noise than it used to, at any rate. I have no idea when it started. For all I know, it could have been present for weeks, and I was just too far into my own world to hear it. Or care. Either way, I didn't know.

It sounds as if the hard drive was being accessed continuously, without end. In a fit of curiosity and concern for my poor computer, I took a peek at the Task Manager. (Yes, I have Windows. Yes, I have certain others trying to convince me to make a break and convert to Mac. Yes, it is slowly working.) The task manager and I... well, we're not friends. And since I so rarely engage in any activity with the task manager, the first thing I noticed were some numbers that looked wrong to me. Largely because I don't know what those numbers are supposed to be, so they looked large.

I noticed that, while my CPU usage was extremely low, my physical memory usage seemed awfully high. I have a pretty good rig, it was designed with high-spec gaming in mind. So, as people who don't know hardware very well tend to do, I got worried. I started ending every process that could be ended without crashing the computer. I uninstalled absolutely everything I don't actively use. I turned off Indexing. I increased the virtual RAM available. I reduced every possible program from starting up as soon as the computer switches on. I did a bunch of other things that online sources recommended I try, all to no avail. I can't even remember some of the things I did, or how I accomplished them. It was all for nothing. The computer is still making noise that it shouldn't.

Fast forward to the other day, when I was sitting on the floor doing something else entirely, and I glanced over at my computer tower. Now, I have the X-Blade gaming tower - some parts of the sides are transparent, and the fans attached to the side of the tower have blue LED lights on them. It looks cool (my opinion, don't judge me). As I was sitting there looking at it, I noticed one of the fan lights wasn't lit up.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

I came closer and, experimentally, pressed inward slightly on the fan. The LED light flickered. I pressed a little harder. The light came on, and the noise got quieter.

I am a hardware idiot. I've known that for a long time; it's the reason I never open my computer case. (Which, incidentally, explains why it gets so dusty in there.) But this has just truly hit it home for me. In all the time I was panicking about the hard drive getting worn down by being accessed too much, it never occurred to me to check the rest of the tower to see if it could be anything else. I am now thoroughly convinced that the noise is being caused by nothing more than a fan that is giving up the fight to keep my computer from overheating.

On the upside, I'll be much happier to replace a broken fan than a broken hard drive.

Project TARDIS returns!

This post has nothing to do with the awesomeness that is Doctor Who. This is a personal project to clear out all sorts of stuff that is hiding away in the many corners of my home. There is so much junk squirrelled away within these walls, it feels like I live in a TARDIS, hence the title of the project.

Some of you may remember when I last posted about this project, last month. As you can probably guess, it did not get finished last month as I intended. However, I hope to finish it for this month. Except there's been one tiny, minor little change. I'm not just focusing on cleaning out my bedroom.

I'm doing the whole house.

This is, quite simply, insanity. My bedroom alone is enough to make anyone with a need for tidiness beg for mercy. In fact, I have spent the last three hours working almost solely on my room. The closet was stuffed full, and needed everything taken out. Only the items which I use, or have sentimental value that is strong enough to warrant keeping, went back in. Since a lot of what came out was just a bunch of empty boxes from various old appliances and objects around the house, this was a bit easier than I expected.

But I'm not done. I have a total of four rooms I need to do this massive de-cluttering to. Thankfully the living room is already partially done. And now, my bedroom is at least halfway done. The other two rooms... Well, let's say it's going to be a very busy weekend. There will be several trips to the local charity shops, as well as a few much-needed journeys to the tip for anything that is no longer usable.

Project TARDIS: you will be completed. You will be completed. Complete, complete, complete. (If I keep saying it, maybe it will have a better chance of coming true.)

Project TARDIS!

No, it has nothing to do with Doctor Who. Or time travel. Or space.

Project TARDIS is, hopefully, to be my project to finish by the end of this month. What it boils down to is that my house, though there are relatively few family members living in it, is... Well, I suppose "cluttered" would be the kindest word for it. If we're being brutally honest, it's crowded and messy and extremely disorganised. I honestly don't know how I've fit so much stuff into it, especially when most of it is stuff we don't use or need to keep. (Have I mentioned I'm a horrible packrat?)

Worst of all the rooms in the house is mine. My bedroom is like a TARDIS in that almost everything I can think of is stashed in it somewhere. Locating things is next to impossible, but I at least have the satisfaction of knowing that whatever I'm looking for is bound to be in there somewhere.

Project TARDIS is about to change that. It has two phases, the first of which will likely take me all of today and part of tomorrow as well. Phase one is the clear-out. I'm taking all of the junk out, all at once, and sort what can be kept and what needs to be binned. This is probably disaster waiting to happen, but it's the only way I know of to make sure I get it done. If I only do a little at a time, I'll get bored, I'll want to do something else, and it will never actually be finished. So, phase one is likely to leave me sleeping on a tiny little corner in the floor where I've managed to keep junk from straying into.

Phase two is the organising bit. I now have in my possession several storage boxes, though it's likely I'll eventually add a few more. These boxes will contain everything which survives phase one. They are all of the perfect size to fit under my bed and out of the way, or to stack nicely in the back of my closet. That part might take longer. It's just so much easier to get junk out than it is to put it all away again!

This is probably a very boring post. But it kind of shows my thought process. And demonstrates why I clean when it is necessary, and avoid it otherwise.

Edit: Apparently it's not Tardis, but TARDIS. How silly of me.

London bound!

We're going away for Easter weekend. To London! We'll be roaming around and shopping and seeing a show and some sightseeing and more shopping. I haven't been to London in years, so I'm a little - erm, a lot excited.

However, I'm also lost for words at the moment. I've not been posting much recently, though I've had things I could post about. I seem to lack the motivation to actually do so. I'm going to see how I feel after this weekend, and hopefully will have rediscovered my inspiration to write. Until then, have a good weekend, folks.

Tinkerbell and V-Day

I've never been very into Valentine's Day. Maybe I'm a bit cynical. Maybe I'm a lot cynical. Maybe one bad experience leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth every 14th of February. Whatever the reason, it's never been a big deal in my mind.

Enter my partner, who does not share this opinion. But, because he is made of awesomeness, and knows exactly how I feel about the whole day, he got me the most amazing card ever:

The man knows me far too well. And, strangely enough, he is helping to discard my dislike for Valentine's Day. A little. Kind of. Maybe.

There's something I'd like to add to this. See that absolutely awesome artwork on that card there? That was done by a personal friend of ours, based on a conversation involving the idea of Tinkerbell in street gear. The original picture, without the card text and horrible camera glare, looks like this:

Love it. Awesome job, Ian.

Who am I? I am... RATCAT!

It's probably one of the most logical things in the world, when you think about it. Cats and water don't get along very well. They're not complete arch enemies, because if they were, cats would have a hard time surviving what with the dehydration and all. But they are certainly not friends. There are exceptions to this, but it works as a general rule.

Therefore, it stands to follow that due to this lack of trust between felines and good ol' H2O, bathing a cat is a Bad Idea. But when you have a cat that was hand-reared and never learned that whole "I'm a cat and I clean myself" thing, there are very few options left. Of those options, bathing said cat is actually the best one.

Do you know what a soaked but clean cat looks like? Looks kinda like this:

The word that comes to mind? Ratcat. Seriously. She was extremely disgruntled for the entirety of the bath, and even more so when the camera came out. Wet cats are not very pretty. But luckily, dry cats are lovely and soft and smell amazing. No more Ratcat! See?

Granted, you could probably see even better if she was bothering to look at the camera. Considering how grumpy she was at this point, I'm lucky I got her to stay still long enough to get this shot. This is going to be a weekly task in my household, unless she suddenly learns to keep herself clean. Ratcat will return...