The grumpy thread

[Cavcraft]

I am now 34.  This means that I am officially in my mid-30s.  Which is depressing, especially as I have very little to show for my 34 years on earth.  Apparently 34 is the average age at which people in Britain buy their first house - barring a Lottery win, I can't see that happening to me over the next twelve months.

 

Still, it could be worse - next year I'll be half way to my three-score-and-ten, and that really will be depressing.  I hate getting older.

 

 

Erm, I'm 50 next year. Life's what you make of it, and all that. I've got absolutely F*CK *LL to show for it financially speaking (really, I haven't) but I'm rich in other ways. We don't own our house and doubtless ever will, is that really such a big issue these days? Tough shit if it is.

[Barry Cade]

I bought my house at 28, made a few bad decisions which included being my own boss and owning a string of Yankee V8's, along with hundreds of other V5's passing through my hands. Gave the house back to the bank 2 years ago as I realised owning a house is a pain in the arse. Won't do that again.. Got f*ck all to show for anything now but it's better in a lot of ways....

 

Happy birthday!

[jakebullet]

I'm 40 next year, still live with the parent, have no social skillz, little friends n a shite job. My oh so funny sister will give me a dvd of the 40 year old virgin as a birthday present and I'll have to say oh how whacky you are! whilst wishing to give her a much needed kick up her big fat arse.

[Mr Livered]

Jobs, money, success in life... boring!

 

I like to read the forums at idlefoundation.org. Helps me stay focused on the things that really matter in life and forget about the things that aren't.

[Lord Sterling]

I am now 34. This means that I am officially in my mid-30s. Which is depressing, especially as I have very little to show for my 34 years on earth. Apparently 34 is the average age at which people in Britain buy their first house - barring a Lottery win, I can't see that happening to me over the next twelve months.

 

Still, it could be worse - next year I'll be half way to my three-score-and-ten, and that really will be depressing. I hate getting older.

Wuvz - I am 30 and have fuck all to show for it. Still (unfortunately and rather regrettably) live with Ma_Sterling and have never, ever had a contracted job in my life only ever working for agencies on shit pay, despite working hard/applying for jobs, I have basically had all my confidence and drive squeezed out of me. I see and hear of people earning 20k/30k and spunk £10/£15k cash on cars, clothes and holidays were I find it hard to break the 1k barrier in savings. Its taken me neigh on 3 years to reach the dizzy heights of having a mere £900-odd in savings.

 

Frankly, I just accept life for what is and what I'm given, I'm not meant to be one of these high-earners/high spenders, I'm not meant to buy my own house or have the knd of luck others might have. So, fuck it, let it be. I don't give much of a shit anymore.

 

Where I am today is one of the reasons why I want to leave this country very soon, if it wasn't for my Dad and recent events in Brussels, I reckon I'd just doly accept life as it is and probably grow old alone.

[Timewaster]

Blimey, is this Grumpy old man or the Samaritans?

[ruffgeezer]

Another day on the Daimler, and another day failing to get it to start, next time I'm going to take a booster charger with me, as I'm sure it isn't turning over quick enough.

 

The starter solenoid has had it, but even a direct feed to the battery failed to make it fire.

[wuvvum]

Hmmm. Sorry, I was a bit down last night - apologies if I've made everyone else feel miserable as well.  I blame my visit to Rome...

 

Trig, I've just consulted my spreadsheet (to which I've added an R8 214i that I owned about 9 years ago and had completely forgotten about) and the total currently stands at 462, including bikes.  I suppose that is an achievement of sorts, although not one which has improved the health of my finances...

[r.welfare]

On behalf of those of us unwilling or unable to make the compromises to our own lives in order to achieve what you have, can I (for one) salute you.

[purplebargeken]

I'm 50 next year and I had an early birthday present in the Amazon - Mrs. PBK said that I might as well have it now whilst I can still do stuff on it, as I  might not be able to later. Gee thanks. Where's the life insurance policy? Sheesh. 

[Station]

Search for MD80 camera. They're 10 quid, USB charged, tiny and can film in 720p, plus length of recording depends on size of SD card used. You hit record at the start of each journey. Buy two for the rear as we'll.

[mercrocker]

Somebody said "most men lead lives of quiet desperation" who it was I neither know nor care but its bloody true.   I have two escapes from the blighted truth that is reality - one is honest old motors, the other is 1950s rock and roll.   The more I have and enjoy of each, the less I care about all the rest of the bollocks, be it home ownership, pension value, happy ever after or how many things my mobile phone can do.....

[warren t claim]

I'm grumpy because we haven't had a ground breaking year in car design for ages. I can remember the Sierra and BX being introduced in 1983 and 10 years later the Mondeo upping the anti with great driving family cars. All that happens now is every few years we get a new Golf/Focus/3 Series BMW that's 5% better than its predecessor.

[Cavcraft]

I'm grumpy because we haven't had a ground breaking year in car design for ages...10 years later the Mondeo upping the anti with great driving family cars.

 

 

I disagree. The Mondeo was merely an improvement on the Sierra, just as the Focus was an improvement on the Escort. Neither could have possibly failed to be worse, especially the Focus.

[RedSparrow]

I'm grumpy because we haven't had a ground breaking year in car design for ages. I can remember the Sierra and BX being introduced in 1983 and 10 years later the Mondeo upping the anti with great driving family cars. All that happens now is every few years we get a new Golf/Focus/3 Series BMW that's 5% better than its predecessor.

 

I think it's because manufacturers are desperate to hang on to buyers so prefer to play it safe. I don't think we'll be seeing any radical new designs for a while except in hideous faux 4x4s.

[dollywobbler]

I disagree. The Mondeo was merely an improvement on the Sierra, just as the Focus was an improvement on the Escort. Neither could have possibly failed to be worse, especially the Focus.

 

I can't agree with that. My dad owned a Sierra while his boss had a Mondeo, so I regularly drove both back to back. There's no comparison! Much as I liked the Sierra, the Mondeo actually felt like a Nineties car rather than a throw back to another era. I also rate the Focus as a kick up the backside for that entire market sector, not just as a replacement for a donkey in the form of the Escort. 

 

But RedSparrow is spot on. The most exciting development seems to be in making hideous crossovers like the Juke. Sad times indeed. No-one dares to be different, so the chances of another Citroen DS, NSU Ro80 or Renault Espace seem utterly unlikely.

[chaseracer]

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” from 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau.

 

He wasn't wrong... :-/

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Simply tell them ‘Expand on this’ and somehow attach a drawing of a cock and balls to the eBay message. SORTED

[Mr Livered]

Example 1: 'Is this lens a manual focus lens? Sigma never made a lens like that, they all had AF servos, yours must be broken?'

 

No, it's a magic lens full of cavorting Balinese maidens whose only demand is that you turn the focus ring manually BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS THAT WAS SPECIFIED LIKE THAT FROM THE FACTORY BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS (at the bottom of the Sigma DC range).

 

There is a tiny mark on the lens coating. It doesn't affect the pictures you take at all.

 

Example 2: 'Please can you expand on 'this tiny mark on the lens, cheers'

 

HOW ABOUT NO? HOW ABOUT STOP WASTING MY TIME!. Tell you what, I'll get the micrometer and give you some measurements.

 

It's an 18-200 F-mount lens that's probably going to end for about £60. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT? WHY CAN NONE OF YOU READ?????

 

I sell things online for a living, so I spend hours each day answering questions of that type. In the course of so doing, I have formulated Livered's Law of Internet Selling.

 

Basically, the amount of questions asked about a product, and the stupidity of the questions, is inversely proportional to the amount that a punter proposes to spend.

 

Order values from my website vary between about £8 and about £250. The people who spend £250 generally just log on, click on what they want to purchase, pay and wait for their order to arrive. That's it. The people who want to spend £8 expect to be given advice on what to choose, information on the type of packaging used to send them their stuff, how to use it, what they should do if it turns out that they are dissatisfied with their order, etc etc etc. I'd be much happier holding the hands of the big spenders, because that makes a lot more sense to me, but (rather counter-intuitively) it doesn't work that way.

[HillmanImp]

Spent ages ensuring the sill lined up with the bonnet:

 

 

Welded half of the Sill on and just noticed that I hadn't clipped down the bonnet when I was lining it up:

 

 

FUCKSTICKS!

[HillmanImp]

Sorted. Cut out a piece.

 

 

 

 

Not perfect but good enough for me.  I was ready to throw my toys out of the pram for a minute there.

 

Sure there will be more drama to come. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Mmmm... GT6 ! Do you have a proper thread up for this ?

[HillmanImp]

Mmmm... GT6 ! Do you have a proper thread up for this ?

 

No because I don't work on it frequently enough. I am hopefully working on it all week this week though. Might start one. Good idea. 

[Cavcraft]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111173613581?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

List lens on eBay.

 

Get 5,000 of the most redundant questions encountered in the history of mankind.

 

Example 1: 'Is this lens a manual focus lens? Sigma never made a lens like that, they all had AF servos, yours must be broken?'

 

No, it's a magic lens full of cavorting Balinese maidens whose only demand is that you turn the focus ring manually BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS THAT WAS SPECIFIED LIKE THAT FROM THE FACTORY BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS (at the bottom of the Sigma DC range).

 

There is a tiny mark on the lens coating. It doesn't affect the pictures you take at all.

 

Example 2: 'Please can you expand on 'this tiny mark on the lens, cheers'

 

HOW ABOUT NO? HOW ABOUT STOP WASTING MY TIME!. Tell you what, I'll get the micrometer and give you some measurements.

 

It's an 18-200 F-mount lens that's probably going to end for about £60. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT? WHY CAN NONE OF YOU READ?????

 

 

Have you considered getting angry about it?

[jakebullet]

I sell things online for a living, so I spend hours each day answering questions of that type. In the course of so doing, I have formulated Livered's Law of Internet Selling.

 

Basically, the amount of questions asked about a product, and the stupidity of the questions, is inversely proportional to the amount that a punter proposes to spend.

 

Order values from my website vary between about £8 and about £250. The people who spend £250 generally just log on, click on what they want to purchase, pay and wait for their order to arrive. That's it. The people who want to spend £8 expect to be given advice on what to choose, information on the type of packaging used to send them their stuff, how to use it, what they should do if it turns out that they are dissatisfied with their order, etc etc etc. I'd be much happier holding the hands of the big spenders, because that makes a lot more sense to me, but (rather counter-intuitively) it doesn't work that way.

 

This to the power of eleventy. The amount of twats I get wanting a tracking number for an item that cost £1.20 including postage is unbelievable.

 

Curses! You've foiled my scheme of spending 8 years building a 20K feedback account just to rob you of £1.20. I'd have got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

[Negative Creep]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111173613581?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

List lens on eBay.

 

Get 5,000 of the most redundant questions encountered in the history of mankind.

 

Example 1: 'Is this lens a manual focus lens? Sigma never made a lens like that, they all had AF servos, yours must be broken?'

 

No, it's a magic lens full of cavorting Balinese maidens whose only demand is that you turn the focus ring manually BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS THAT WAS SPECIFIED LIKE THAT FROM THE FACTORY BECAUSE IT'S A MANUAL FOCUS LENS (at the bottom of the Sigma DC range).

 

There is a tiny mark on the lens coating. It doesn't affect the pictures you take at all.

 

Example 2: 'Please can you expand on 'this tiny mark on the lens, cheers'

 

HOW ABOUT NO? HOW ABOUT STOP WASTING MY TIME!. Tell you what, I'll get the micrometer and give you some measurements.

 

It's an 18-200 F-mount lens that's probably going to end for about £60. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU PEOPLE WANT? WHY CAN NONE OF YOU READ?????

 

 

To be fair, a "tiny mark" could mean anything from just that to a massive scratch depending on the honesty of the seller so I wouldn't blame people for asking

[ruffgeezer]

I bought a set of wheels for the Farting Flea on ebay.

 

Only after I've won them does the seller cough that they are from a job lot of parts he bought a while ago.

 

They are not from a Flea or 125RE of any sort, and now he's put the blame on me for them not fitting even remotely.

[hairymel]

Have you considered getting angry about it?

 

 

 

FUCK YOU EBAY, FUCK YOU.

 

apparently so

[Pillock]

Motorway matrix signs. The overhead ones every 20 yards telling you it's 12 miles to junction 94 and I'll take 12 minutes.

 

Coming down the M42 yesterday, just before J6 it flashes up "M42 CLOSED J5-J4". I had about a quarter of a mile to decide, so came off at 6, past the airport, through Solihull and Shirley and back on at 4. Added 25 minutes or so. What was weird was that as I came on, traffic was coming through the "closed" section. Half hour later it's on the radio that the signs are showing wrong information, the road is not closed.

 

THANKS.

 

These things just seem to fuck up more than they help. Every third gantry has a different limit on the managed motorways and it leads to much more stop-start crap. I appreciate the motorway flows better at 50, so why put half a mile of 60 and then back down?

[cms206]

Pearoast from elsewhere; The Council Estate celebrated the arrival of the 760 Turbo by failing it's MOT thusly...

 

001 Offside headlight aim too low

002 Battery insecure

003 Nearside windscreen washer provides insufficient washer fluid

004 Nearside (inner rack end) steering pivot point has excessive play

005 Offside (inner rack end) steering pivot point has excessive play

006 Nearside brake linkage has abnormal movement of levers indicating maladjustment

007 Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases

008 Exhaust system not adequately supportes.

 

004 and 005 are causing headaches...