Office blog

[freedom]

Friday 5th January 2007 (late afternoon)

This is what MsIE has suddenly started saying about my ultra-secure login link:

There is a problem with this website's security certificate.

The security certificate presented by this website was not issued by a
trusted certificate authority.

Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or
intercept any data you send to the server.

- We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this website.
- Click here to close this webpage.
- Continue to this website (not recommended).

More information

If you arrived at this page by clicking a link, check the website address in
the address bar to be sure that it is the address you were expecting.

When going to a website with an address such as https://example.com, try
adding the 'www' to the address, https://www.example.com.

If you choose to ignore this error and continue, do not enter private
information into the website.

For more information, see "Certificate Errors" in Internet Explorer Help.

Don't tell me what to do!


Saturday 6th January 2007

Today I noticed there was an object I hadn't cleaned: The large "drum kettle" thingy.
So out came the stainless steel cleaner for on the lid.
Scrubbing with dry kitchen-toweling and shaking the residue out, was all that the insides required.
And, more dilute and so quicker, on the only-lightly-soiled sides.
Strangely, it's bottom was raised, and so already clean: No need to wipe that.


Sunday 7th January 2007

I have just drawn the "holiday logos" for my forum. Most went well enough, but some
will have to be redone. I can't draw a Welsh Dragon (because I'm not sure what it look's
like), a poppy (same reason), or a rabbit by easter eggs freehand. My pumkin isn't that
great, either. Still, the bad ones are placeholders, and I'll clipart my way through them
next time I get a chance. The 10 others are all fine.

I had the Christmas one already, using a mannual changeover.
The autochanger is not part of phpBB; it just overwrite's the current logo when necessary.
phpBB doesn't worry (or know (or need to know)), about this.

[freedom]

Sunday 14th January 2007 (night-time/early morning)

I have redrawn the rougher holiday logos.

I downloaded clipart for the Welsh Dragon (mostly a direct),
the poppy (reprocessing), some rabbits with eggs (very direct),
and a pumpkin (fairly direct). I accidentally exported the
Valentine's Day one as a BMP file, instead of a GIF; so I've
reconverted that.

I also redrew the two interim Special Ranks:

- The Area Coordinator's (little car rattling along).
I had no idea of the proportions of little cars, so my
placeholder was pretty bad. I've adapted one I found.

- The (new) Career Break ("Intermission" sign, like they have
in cinemas). Chucked out the accidental dithering, cleaned up
the image, added curtains and seats/heads as for an audience.

I have tried not to directly rip anything off, but where my
artistry skills are strained, I have had to rely on some sort
of template the more. However, not much of the original work
will be used in any case, because removing the JPEG speckling
and reducing the size of the graphics has removed a lot
of the detail.

I feel less guilty about copying the Welsh Dragon; that should
be as direct-a-copy as possible, although I've taken some liberties
with his green field there.

Tuesday 16th January 2007 (early morning)

Oh, and I've got a neat trick for getting a perfect black background
from a white background'ed original (or vice versa), without fiddling
around with hue-sensitive selections:

Negate the image (as in a photographic negative),
then rotate the hues halfway round.

-That's it! Cool, huh?

I've tried it on a range of images (taken from album covers):



You can see if work's best with the rolling tongue logo on
the top right: Greyscale background with only colour in the foreground.

The simple photo in the top left look's like "a negative with
the same colours": Interesting.

The drawn figure in the bottom right look's odd because there
is too much black/white opposite to the background, in the
foreground: Unwanted special effects are getting in the way there.

And the composite photo in the bottom left is just blown apart.
It work's better for the logos than the main picture.


Conclusion: use only black/white background and no white/grey/black
in the subject. My logo-changing application share's the most with
the tongue logo, so that's fine.

- * -

Here's one thing that annoy's me with Windoze: When you pop up a
window, especially a directory viewer, it come's up at 80% of the screen size,
and I have to immediately resize it down again, just so I can
work with the thing. Acorns and Macs don't do this.
It's just bad design all the way with microsoft.

[freedom]

Tuesday 16th January 2007

The day I promised my boss I'd make a good early start on the week, and I am
between the bed and the bathroom, with food poisoning. Not a good illness for
an outdoor job.


Wednesday 17th January 2007

My Birthday. I got twice as many Birthday Cards as Xmas Cards, which was interesting.
Well enough in the evening for a little light exercise.


Friday 19th January 2007

Today The Others are setting-up an exhibition in a nearby town.

I am stuck for kitchen options, as they took the toaster with them.
They took the fridge, too.


Saturday 20th January 2007

I have had lots of luck with the railing bolts: Fully loosened.
Next, to collect large secateurs, a rake, giant spoons, etc, and
scoop up all the rubbish before anyone can arrest me for stealing litter.


Sunday 21st January 2007 (silly O'Clock in the morning)

Well, I've been up all night on the computer (sorry, Imean the PC,) (by it, rather,)
and it's 0742 already. A good night's collecting yestereve, with �24 in Orders,
making a grand total of �90 so far this week. Things are looking up.


Wednesday 24th January 2007

From 1125-1353 today, opened the railings-gate, hacked down the overgrowth on the
west side of what is supposed to be a patio, cleared litter, removed plant material,
and hacked down without much clearing, most of the east side. Then ran out of
green sacks and bin bags and had to stop.

Retreated from site quickly, only slightly hampered by the new gate falling off
halfway through. Perhaps too much lubrication. -And I was worried the thing'd seize.

I'll be back tomorrow. I was surprised the initial incursion only took around two
hours; I left my watch and tie at the office for safety reasons.
I still have time to get online quickly, and to grab lunch and some more sacks
from home before an early start on the BW work this afternoon.


Friday & Saturday 26-27th January 2007

Much work, mainly on the east side of the patio. Much cleaner underneath than the
west side.


Sunday 28th January 2007

Praised by two passing residential neighbours for work at the brothel.

Accidentally caught a bit of Big Brother on TV. Surprised to see that
Shilpa Shetty had not walked out as I had heard, put �6 on her to win.


Monday 29th January 2007

Cashed in betting slip; �7.20 Return, so �1.20 profit.

Took the gas inspection cover offsite from the brothel, cleaned off the algae and
replaced. Removed a stick-plant missed from last time.

Tuesday 30th January 2007

Got a bottle of re-inking ink (for stamp pads) from the office bureau: Fresh stamps
�5 for a pack of two; bottle of ink good for hundreds of re-inkings, �1. Sold.

[freedom]

Friday 2nd February 2007

I took some photos a while ago, and the scanner's working at the free internet connection, plus I now have basic image processing, so this mean's I can show you my offices!

My personal place with the extra locks:

(Photo a bit crummy, I know; I'll shoot downwards next time.)

Most of the rest is upstairs...


... and into the kitchen area:


This is the view out of the other enclosed office:

(I had to darken this so that the outside view showed-up.
The postal worker on the right is heaving his trolley
across to the sorting offices. The buildings in the
centre and left are Chippenham station platforms.)


You may think these photos are less than good, but
try photographing some newly-refitted house interiors,
and see how crummy they look as well.


Tuesday 6th February 2007

One of The Others took two loads of firewood of my hands, which save's him
money and release's my storage space. Good News all round.


Thursday 8th February 2007

Benefit appointment for interview interview (sinc.) tomorrow. I have calculated,
based on previous payments, that the payments should start by about 15th February,
allowing for banking delays, and I've informed my creditors to that effect.


Friday 9th February 2007

Benefit interviews, and now they tell me it could be up to three weeks before
payment start's, AND banking delays on top of that.

"Don't do this to me!
I've just told my creditors everything will be fine next week."
"Well, it might only take one week."

Nobody really know's, it seem's, after more discussion. At least they were
kind enough to admit that they don't know, which make's sense of previous
alternating replies contradicting each other on backclaim progress.
If nobody know's then no-one can give me a definitive answer until processing
clear's.

[freedom]

Sunday 18th February 2007

My spare replacement backup auxiliary "shoes" (trainers) are almost gone. But fear not; I found lots of goodies abandoned by the freeholder's (Network Rail) contractors near the line. Two safety-helmets, a pair of prickle-proof gardening-gloves, and a size 42 (9�) left safety-boot. Maybe I will find the other one.


Tuesday 20th February 2007 (Pancake Day)

I planned to go and watch all the tossers on the High Street having their race, but 'got too hungry and late in the end.


Wednesday 21st February 2007

My trainers, which I was hobbling about on/in since my safety-shoes wore out, wore out.
All the little holes in the bottom joined-up and the thing shredded. I was left with a strip of rubber hanging off the bottom, and that was all that was left of the sole.


Thursday 22nd February 2007

Thursday was a load of cobblers. Literally. I took last two pairs of holed safety-shoes to cobblers, and they said while it was possible to re-heel them, they were so far gone that my weight would tear them apart when I wore them.


Friday 23rd February 2007

I have new shoes! I visited the local leather specialists, a horsey sort of a place, and specified the sturdiest shoes they had with all the trimmings (toe-caps, midsole, leather uppers) within a �60 budget. They found me a pair of boots (better ankle-support they said), for �35!

For that price I should be able to afford a second pair soon. (To swap around with. It make's them last longer and prevent's shoe odour.)


Saturday 24th February 2007

Very little moved during the daytime, but I certainly (inadvertently) made up for that at night.

I visited a friend's house partly for networking & information-passing purposes, partly for social reasons.

The information-passing stuff (which I can't go into any detail about here) went very well.
The social stuff went well too. Amazingly, I remember most of it, considering I drank the bottle-gathering dry, including the whisky I brought with me. After a while, I stopped getting drunk, no matter how much I drank, and I pretty-much drank it all. I really should have switched to water, though, and my hangover back's me up on this.

We'll skip the details of the socialising too, because it's rather personal/embarrassing (for everyone (Ithink)), and also because I gave them the address of this blog.

After the gathering, I went for a walk down town in a very good mood, and managed to get into a fight with the landlord of a large central Pub.

I passed by a large hotel, which shall remain nameless. The front door was wide open. The bar inside has no internal doors anymore, and it was lit up like a beacon, with the rest of the ground floor in darkness. A burglar-beacon, with all that cash and alcohol, I thought.

Some, er, function, was in full swing in the function room on the first floor, and, since nobody responded on the ground floor, I nipped in and told them their door was unattended. I know from experience not to simply close the door, because then somebody generally turn's up grumbling that I've just locked them out.

The manager did not appreciate this. He ushered me outside, then took a swing at me (which I blocked). Then he grabbed my arm and started on a series of arguments, which he lost, and threats, which I knew were empty. It was pathetic, like arguing with a child. He was drunk, although probably not as drunk as I was.

I made him let go of my arm, and managed not to throw him through the air, like the last two, which I am happy about, and he doesn't appreciate at all, like a lot of things, such as all the stuff I did for the place before he got his grubby paws on it.

He got two bouncers (yes, the ones who should have been looking after the door,) and told them to hit me. The bouncers knew me better than him, and refused. Then he said he was going to call the police, and tell them to attack me, but this never happened.

The bouncers suggested I go now, and I agreed. The conversation had run it's course anyway.


Sunday 25th February 2007

Hangover. "Floor! Wall! Door! Are these my feet?"


Monday 26th February 2007

Still a bit wobbly from my hangover, much to the amusement of my boss on (this) red-tape day.


Thursday 1st March 2007 (very early morning)

I have just realised, after staring near it on the map for weeks, that "Lady Coventry Road" is a joke.
Lady Coventry must be the Lady that rode nude through Coventry, and "Road" is a stand-in for "Rode".
Developers running-out of roadnames, again.

'Strange, I got "Erleigh Drive" straight away, but then it was a new development, and I have been used to LCR without thinking about it for yonks.

Meanwhile, in the office, which this blog is supposed to be about, the sweeping-brushes on the green upright hoover are not rotating. Hence no sweeping-action, although the suction with the hose work's out fine.

I thought I could swap over the head (although it's on the bottom) from the red one, then found I only need the (better) rotating brushes and the brushbelt, which turned-out to have snapped on the green one. I swapped these fine, although I have been slightly hampered by the replacement belt snapping as I fitted it.

Never mind, there are two hoover spares shops virtually nextdoor, and little belts can't be that expensive.

I found the red hose was blocked during this process, and unblocked it with a (very long) length of dowel.

During cleaning-up all the dropped gunk I managed to knacker the black hoover somehow, and had to use the green one (which was in pieces at the time, remember,) to continue. Fortunately, the rotating bristles were out of action, so the large warnings on the thing not to start it up in contact with the floor with the head-cover off (presumably for the same sort of reasons you shouldn't start a full blender with the top-cover off) didn't apply.

[freedom]

Thursday 1st March 2007 (early morning)

On my way home, after writing the last (above) entry for this blog, I noticed someone had fly-tipped a large skip-style wheelie bin in the brothel car park. So I wheeled it round to where it would be more useful, alongside the cinema's "wheelie-skips". They could do with an extra one, and it's taking up a much-needed parking space.

I noticed we can squeeze in seven large prestige (mainly from the firms of Solicitors in Bewley House) cars without blocking anyone in. (Handy for future reference.)


Friday 2nd March 2007

I popped in to the nearest hoover-and-washing-machine spares outlet for drive belts. Once they identified what I was talking about, they found me a pack of two almost straight away, for just �5.20. Not bad at all: I thought I'd have to order some.

Infact, they picked them from a rack with dozens of the things on (small shop), which suggests that they break rather often.


Saturday 3rd March 2007

Today I received some good new and some and news from the DWP.

The good news is that they have decided they owe me not �600, but �900, and the bad news is they have decided to fine me �800 of it.

I have examined their reasoning, and it doesn't consist of any. The only facts they have correct are the dates of the claims.
Besides which, they don't have the power to fine me anyway. As far as I can tell, the only serious mistake made was getting an appointment date wrong, and it was the DWP's error. And so off we trundle on the bureaucratic merry-go-round once more...

I'll take them to Court if I have to; I can't afford to lose �800. And they still haven't got back to me about the �1000 unpaid Back-To-work bonus they owe me. It's been scarcely three years now.


Monday 5th March 2007

Both of the new girlfriends of the two of the youngest of The Others were in today, resulting in even more mess left in the office than the adults manage to leave. Mainly crumbs and shoes today.

The DWP has promised to pay �114.90 into my account tomorrow, which is handy since I have had to pacify the commercial landlords with a �50 token payment, after the DWP went through their absoulete final deadline, then blamed me, then suggested asking for more time, then said they'd put it into my account in six week's time, which is what they said six weeks ago.
I took the �50 outgoing, in a flash of inspiration, from the company takings, the idea being that the company is happy(ier) to wait the the landlords, and I can borrow from someone-else in the meantime, if I really have to.
Now I have reached my credit limit with my current lenders after the DWP kept asking me for more time, and repeatedly breaking their own deadlines, and insisting on extreme drop-everything-else punctallity on my part. One of the friends I was going to approach for a bridging-loan has lost her job, so that's out, and I don't want to borrow from any of The Others unless I have no other option.

I'm doing all this borrowing to bridge the gap that opened-up between me and my creditors, now my debitors keep asking for more and more bloody time.

I'm very rich on paper, but it'd be nice if my cashflow sometimes would (flow).


Tuesday 6th March 2007 (very early morning)

I set up an EPS Printer option in Red Squirrel (which didn't take long), then discovered none of the PC's native applications read EPS files.
'Strange; it must've been some intercafes' software that I saw that have this option.

[freedom]

Friday 9th March 2007

And so here I am, typing in an intercafe again...

I have been banned from a forum that turned unreasonable (because I remained reasonable); you just can't reason with some people. I'm sure it's just a phase they're going through.

Today, I handed in my latest grumbles to the Job Centre, and asked why they haven't coughed up yet. Apparently their systems were down and they've only just caught up just now... just now that I asked. (So always ask, kids.) They'll send the money to my account, and it'll be there by Wednesday 14th. Well, we'll see.... Early days, scarcely eight weeks by then.

Nice doorstep weather today, although I've yet to get around to it.

[Imelda]

hello Freedom, is it possible to be a betterware person whilst on income support? I have a 13 month old daughter and would like to work at something that can be flexible, and this seems so. if this is legal, pleasse tell me.
Thanks, imelda

[Ben]

Hello Imelda. Welcome to the forum!

[Imelda]

Thanx Ben

[freedom]

Yes it is. Most people at Distributor level work part-time, anyway. Some of them whilst on benefit, some in combination with another part-time job. You can expect to earn around �50 per week this way.

You will need to declare your earnings on form B7, which you can get from the Job Centre.

They will deduce your earnings from your benefit, less �5, which is the max. you are allowed to earn per week while on benefit.

This is best used for getting off benefit, but not much help to you if you want a little more cash while remaining on benefit.

The min. Betterware will be comfortable with you earning is �10 per week (otherwise they make a loss supporting you), so you could aim for that and have �5 extra each week, but it's probably not worth it for such a small amount.

[freedom]

Thursday 15th March 2007

Here I am in the local free intercafe again, and Emma, the IT Trainer, has just stuck a printout
on my workstation saying "Robin's Office". Another worker here came up and said "hey, I fancy your
secretary!" (Meaning Emma.) Perhaps you have to be here to find that funny.

I'll be nicking that sign for my real office.

Meanwhile, one of my friends appear's to be in the local paper... I shall check if she knows about this...

I'm helping the Lancs Telegraph debug their forums.

A bunch of cash has come through (�25 but not my money), and I spent it on essential supplies after being assured by the Job Centre that my payment was cleared and in the hands of the bank now.

Yesterday I checked with their regional office in St. Austell to find out where my money was, and they said it was frozen at the last moment, because I hadn't supplied them with information they hadn't asked for.
They want B7 data and copies of payslips for the last 10 weeks. Fortunately, I have this in another form elsewhere, and "all" I have to do is copy this onto the forms relative to the new dates.


I've had another thought about Imelda's question: My Coordinator boss, Kay, has a young baby (6 months), and earn's about �200 per week.
Kay is not on benefits.

If you earned over �50 per week with Betterware, you wouldn't be eligible for benefits, but any further on top of that wouldn't result in any benefits capping.
However, it would be hard work.

If you worked with Betterware for at least three weeks, liked it, and had or were willing to learn, management skills, and if there are any vacancies in your area, you could consider becoming a Coordinator.
This would be less physical work, but would require a bit of local travel, and supporting the Distributors under you with a phone line (or mobile), and a car.

[freedom]

Friday 16th March 2007

I've scanned and image-processed yesterday's present from Emma, and visited and obtained the contact details of my friend's disgruntled client.




Sunday 18th March 2007

I see the KZ forums are back up, and blaming me for knocking them down, after I sent them technical help for getting back up - charming. Then reluctantly saying no, with lots of insults, and giving some identifying information about me anyway.

This evening I disinfected the fridge (again). This time I was able to get into it easily, as I was able to move the surrounding furniture.

[freedom]

Monday 2nd March 2007

Resigned from Betterware, to clear time for intensive fund-raising, now the DWP has definitely walked off my �2400.


Wednesday 4th March 2007

A night round friends', that I go round occasionally.
All the previous stuff with lost manuscripts sorted. That, and something about my friends being concerned that I might frighten people when knocking on their doors. I didn't really follow that one.

Something else about stalkers and who isn't one. Nothing overall that I can really put on here, and too rushed today, anyway.

No time to relax, whatever that is, as various people had to leave suddenly, and then it was just me, my friend's partner, and the cat. And then just the cat. I hope he didn't get too drunk.


Thursday 5th March 2007

Unexpectedly sober, much to do, too much to write about.
Too damned busy, as Easter is at an inconvenient time this year.

Archiving various files to my HDD, which require's transferring large files via FDD.

[freedom]

Tuesday 19th March 2007

My "British Calendar", give's St. Patrick's Day for NI, not Eire, as today, and leave's the 17th blank.


Monday 2nd April 2007

Resigned from Betterware. Voluntarily Suspended, technically.


Saturday 7th April 2007

Today is a sad day: The Weighbridge part of The Weighbridge was disconnected this afternoon. The landlords need extra space to rent out, and the scales part are to be offered to the town museum.


Sunday-Monday 8-9th April 2007 (Easter)

Continued clearing Brothel front garden area.

Armed assault with an improvised weapon on the Monday, whilst "garden"ing.


Tuesday 10th April 2007

My Betterware boss said she was counting my Advance (agreed several weeks ago) as theft, now I had resigned (with several weeks notice). She gave me three days to pay, otherwise she'd take me to Court, for theft. Or perjury, actually: You can't build a prosecution case on lies.

I thought the debt was �45, but that was without the profit due from last week's deliveries (�40). I made the deliveries early, and assumed they'd been paid in, but of course, they aren't due until the following week.

She said, "that's �45 from last week, and a new �40 this week: What did you spend the �40 on this week?: That's theft (from the till)!"

The Advance was �85 weeks ago, but cloaked by stepped delivery payments. Now the cloaking has gone (in two stages), the naked debt is revealed.

I spent the money weeks ago, on food. There wasn't any more to give her than �3.73 spare change, which she denounced as feeble, still under the impression that I had lifted and blown �40 this week.

I had to end it now, or the Advance would have got out of hand.

The middle of the month is when she get's really bad PMT, so this has an influence.

I told her it doesn't grow on trees, and she told me three days, or she's sending the police round. That'll be interesting: They owe me �6,500.


Wednesday 11th April 2007

The Commercial Landlord gave me a gift of �85 to pay the debt with, because he felt sorry for me. This is very nice of him, seeing as I owe him �150 already.


Friday 13th April 2007 (Bad Friday)

Told the Benefits person at the Job Centre that I would take the DWP to Court for benefit fraud (that'll confuse them) if they didn't put at least half of what they owe me (�1,200) in my account within four working days, which is the fastest they can do a transfer. It's been scarcely seven months now.

Betterware Wind-down concluded, with the repayment of my outstanding Advance. The Day of the Devil (6/6/'06) to Friday the 13th: Hey-ho.


Saturday 14th April 2007

One of The Others has rented the Common Room, and put up a second whiteboard,
listing the following aims:

• Relay 3 way
• Design panel
• Wire tagstrips / D Plugs
• Continue adding isolators!

I added some more realistic goals for him:
(He has done all of these recently.)

• Eat pastry
• Buy doughnuts
• Go to pick up Jack
• Crash car
• Play with staple gun
• Drink cola
• Break phone
• Give advice on �80 debt
  when you're �6000 in the
  red yourself
• Get drunk
• Ask for pay rise

- * -

My mother asked me to put �10 on the Grand National for her, with me making the selections. McKelvey and Eurotrek have run the course well before, and they perform well in these (weather) conditions. I split the stake between them, Each-Way.

Silver Birch won, but McKelvey was 2nd. Creed Bet gave me Odds of 12-1, at quarter-odds with �2.50 give's �7.50 and my original stake back, another �2.50, meaning I got the �10 back.

My mother said she doesn't want the money back, so that's a �10 profit in a silly sort of way for me.


Sunday 15th April 2007

Collected my "winnings" from Creed Bet.


Monday 16th April 2007

'Visited the CAB (Citizen's Advice Bureau) to make an appointment, and they saw me straight away.
They said the legal action route is best left until there is no other alternative, as it could get rather silly, as the DWP would refer the case to Whitehall, presumably largely to annoy everyone.
Fortunately, there are other external appeals I can make without resorting to civil action (at least, not yet), and without futile attempts to re-use the DWP's internal appeals system.
They also said that when the DWP does' it, it isn't fraud. I don't believe that; it's neither logical nor a professional legal opinion.

The DWP phoned me back two hours later: Their decision-making centre has no record whatsoever of my current claim, which could explain a lot of things, and they've asked me to send a copy of my proof of income over the last two months to them via the local Job Centre. This is interesting in that this is the fourth time they have made this request.

The CAB asked for an interim payment on my behalf. They say they're getting a lot of complaints about the St. Austell decision-making centre, and -oh-, to always make sure I get a recipt when giving any letters or other documentation to the Job Centre, so I can prove that I had previously handed over information. This had never occured to me before.


Tuesday 17th April 2007 (Just past midnight, in the morning)

I've just realised: It's night-time in the office, and it's not cold!
The first time this year!!