Author: Olly

  • I just fed my goldfish cucumber

    Yep, cucumber.  It came as quite a shock, when i read that cucumber can be good for fish that are having trouble swimming. I.e. floating on the top, or swimming upside down.

    We have had Bob and Marlon for AGES now – they were a gift from gemmas mum for mine and gems 6th month anniversary, so we have had them almost 6 months now. And the whole time, bob (the black moor goldfish) has not been very well. He has always had trouble swimming and keeping upright.

    We paniced when he first did it, as our last black moor trevor started struggling swimming and he passed away. 🙁 So we looked into it and learned that it could of been to do with the fact we were feeding them flakes, and when they eat them they take air in too, and air in the belly causes them to float!

    We changed to pellets, and he seemed to be fine for a while – then he started doing it again. So we looked into it again, and heard that it could be indigestion. So we didn’t feed them for a few days so they could both crap out any food they had in them. A day or two later he was fine and dandy again – better than ever.

    A few days ago he started playing up again – and this time he wasnt struggling to swim he just wasnt swimming at all. He would just float at the top and hardly move. Marlon will come along and peck at him which startles bob and that makes him shift, but apart from that he was almost motionless.

    So again we consulted the internet, and a few sites mentioned feeding them things like chopped up cooked peas, and cucumber!! We didnt have any cooked peas to hand, so we chopped up a bit of cucumber and lobbed it in. They are now both swimming round pecking at the bits every now and then and both seem happy.

    I think we are gonna try live bloodworm next, as they wriggle about inside the fishes digestive system, ans free up any blockages.. apparently!

  • A Walter Smith from the Benin Republic

    Some of the not so nerdy people i know, that dont spend all their lives on the internet like me, laughed at the originality of the George character on channel 4’s recent program FoneJacker. But this character bears a resemblance to the format of some spam emails that many internet users have experienced for years.

    I must receive at least one a month, from some loser in some deprived country trying to claim that $400,000,000 USD has somehow been forgotten about and they require someone to “Take your bank account details” so they can transfer the monies. And every time i receive one of these emails i reply in the hope that one will reply and i can have a little fun with them.

    Well, one replied!!

    The original email was from Chief K .K Edward with the email address k.k.edward02@zipmail.com.br – but he told me to reply to someone called A Walter Smith, from the Benin Republic with the email address a_walter_smith2000@yahoo.com

    Click Read More, for the emails that were sent and received. I have written a little exert before each one to highlight my intentions. It starts with the first email i got from the Chief hahaha 🙂

    (more…)

  • Losing Faith In AuctionAds

    You have probably noticed that i have the odd ad on my blog, and on any of my personal sites such as my adidas superstar forum.

    I toyed with a few ideas, but settled on using AuctionAds as the content was more interesting than plain text that you get with adsense. It was also quite cool to have bargain adidas superstars linked in my ads on a site that is all ABOUT adidas superstars..

    My first beef with AA was when they seemed to stop recording the clicks and page impression’s so that when i went in and did a report- it said 0 where it should of said how ever many thousand page impressions.

    I contacted them about it, and they responded (quite rudely) and said that although THEIR system wasn’t recording it, eBays was or something, and that i would still be paid.

    True to their word i did get something from the time it wasn’t recording, but its wasn’t very consistent and something didn’t seem right – this was the start of me losing faith.

    I then did a yearly report, and cross referenced it with my paypal account, i was paid on the 1st of September and it was like $12 – not a lot but it helps. I then had not been paid since, and it was November.

    I contacted them again, after reading their FAQ’s on their site, which had stated that advertisers would be paid on the 1st of every month. Hmm, so where has my money been going? I double checked my auction ads reports, and the money had not been going anywhere incorrectly, it had simply NOT been paid to me AT ALL! The staff member again quite rudely and bluntly said that i would be paid after had reached the $50 threshold. I questioned why i had been paid $12 on the 1st of September – he informed me of a policy change – and yet their own site still had not been updated to reflect these changes.

    This was when i started to realise that these people were having problems, probably money problems.. So i got worried, but stuck with it until i had reached $50 so that i could get what i was owed.

    Half way thru November, the $50 benchmark was reached and i again contacted them and asked when i would be paid. I had to ARGUE with the guy saying i HAD passed the $50 benchmark – and at one point even sent him a report from THEIR OWN WEBSITE proving that i had indeed passed the threshold.

    Then he informed me, that not only did i have to pass$50, i also had to wait till the 1st of December. Even though when i had asked the chap who told me the policy had changed – he told me ALL I HAD TO DO was pass the $50. So what, your own staff don’t know what the score is? How am i supposed to know?

    But AGAIN, i left it.. And waited till the 1st to get my $50, so i could pay my ebay bill and list some items i need to sell BADLY.

    It is now the 4th of December – and guess what! I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN PAID!

    I contacted them last night having a bit of a moan, and was told i would be paid within the hour – that was at least 12 hours ago.

    I am trying to hold back going nuts to them, as they owe me MONEY. But as soon as i have what i have earn’t i will remove ALL auction ads off all my sites and look for something else.

    If you are reading this and are thinking about using AuctionAds – DO NOT BOTHER! Yes the ads are cool, and the theory behind it is MINT – But you will spend all your life waiting to get paid, and there are better solutions out there.

    ShoppingAds is their site too, so i would steer CLEAR away from them.

    If auctionads are reading this, then as per my email – you need to start looking after your advertisers as sooner or later more and more people will blog about you and cause your company to shut down.

    Sort it out AA!

  • Even tesco petrol prices suck

    I have always been fairly patient with things like petrol prices, and the last year even more so as i haven’t really had a car that i have had to put petrol in. Ok, so put the odd tenner in Gems Polo now and then if im using it – but ive not given the price of petrol much thought for ages.

    Then i noticed that tesco at oak tree in mansfield had their unleaded prices set at 100.9 a litre.  WHAT! Now id expect to pay that much on the motorway, or doon south where everything is more expensive.. But for fucks sake! This is mansfield! Petrol is always cheap round here!

    Then 5 days later i am at tesco again – and they have put the prices up AGAIN! I was lost for words!

    Tesco petrol price increase twice in a week

    I had to take a photo, and post it somewhere – i was genuinely SHOCKED when i saw it. Down at sainsburys near the cinema (the last time i checked) their petrol was JUST under£1 a litre – it was at 99.8 or something. Now i know we are talking pence here, an its not mega bucks – but its just heartbreaking to watch the money thing spinning round faster than the one that shows you how much petrol you’ve put in on the pumps..

    With increasing petrol prices, huge fines for all aspects of motoring, speeding tickets, parking fines… It makes me wonder what they will do next to try and con more money out of the hard working motorists of the UK.