Elliott Rodgers

a company called SAS Fire and Security Systems Limited (or it may be from Crime Research UK) is cold-calling residents in the Chiltern district and offering to install ‘free’ security systems with a ‘small’ ongoing monitoring and maintenance cost. The company claims the security systems are being offered as part of the Crimestoppers summer campaign which Chiltern District Council and Thames Valley Police are currently taking part in. This is not true, SAS Fire and Security has nothing to do with this campaign. If you are approached by SAS Fire and Security Systems Limited or any organisation you are unsure about, please don’t let them in your home or give them any of your personal details.

The scammers trading as SAS Fire and Security Systems Limited is not the company based in Essex who have no connection with the scammers

You can contact the community safety team at Chiltern District Council on 01494 732089, call Consumer Direct (Trading Standards) on 0845 404 0506 or call the Thames Valley Police on 0845 8 505 505.

Clarification: Comments have been added to this page about the fact that scammers who are operating this scam are also using the name Homeguard UK Fire & Security Ltd. I recieved a letter from a Mr Phillips (dated 25 Feb) who was concerned that my site and the comments were casting unfair allegations on the legitimate company Homeguard Security Systems Ltd who had given him excellent service. This use of a similar name is a popular method with scammers.

These scammers are in no way connected with legitimate company Homeguard Security Systems Ltd (who clearly state the fact on their website).

I do not currently work for either Thames Valley Police or Chiltern District Council – I do however get p****d off with scam artists who target the elderly and vunerable.

More information on SAS Fire and Security Scam and someone else blogging about them – “Crime Prevention UK” scam

Today as an experiment I decided that I’d go out of my way to be as nice and helpful to people as I could all day…. nothing huge, just in little ways… a kind of extension to the whole “see someone without a smile give them one of yours” sort of thing.

People’s reactions where on the whole varied.. some people were confused, some people looked at me like I was crazy, some people were blatantly suspicious of my motives (which I thought was rather sad really).

Although it took more energy continually going a bit further towards being nice, it was worth it.

One lady in her seventies had the best response EVER when I showed her where the eggs had been moved to in my local Sainsburys…

“You’re a lovely young man. My grand-daughter’s only thirty one next month and single, you single? ”
“I’m single, my girlfriend dumped me in January. ”
“More fool her. You looking? ”
“I think I found someone. “*
“Oh well. ”

And off she went…. very random, very funny.

*I haven’t but it seemed the only way to bring the conversation to an end.

On the 1st of March I took part in “Blog Splash” with Fiona Robyn, a UK author, who is putting her third novel Thaw online, one day at a time (SPOILER WARNING: if you are going to read it, do it from Start of Thaw).

Fiona Robyn was kind enough to let me interview her.

Thaw Synopsis

Ruth is thirty two years old and doesn’t know if she wants to be thirty three. Her meticulously-ordered lonely life as a microbiologist is starved of pleasure and devoid of meaning. She decides to give herself three months to decide whether or not to end her life, and we read her daily diary as she struggles to make sense of her past and grapples with the pain of the present. ‘Thaw’ explores what makes any of our lives worth living. Can Red, the eccentric Russian artist Ruth commissions to paint her portrait, find a way to warm her frozen heart?
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This movie has to be seen to be believed, it must have taken this guy weeks to do, I am in awe! It also makes me really, really tempted to have a go at doing one myself…. I realise of course I could never make it as good and don’t have anywhere near the patience needed!

Enjoy!

If that all seems like a lot of effort you could try this

This was originally posted in my blog on 18th October 2009

Photoshop isn’t one of my strong points, at some point I plan on learning a lot more about Photoshop so I’ve been collecting online tutorials to so I decided to share them. When I was younger I was heavily into Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, I think this is why fantasy photoshop images of dragons, wizards, magic and sorcery appeal to me so much.

I thought I’d start the tutorials off with a selection of fantasy and magic style effects in photoshop.

50 Imaginative Fantasy Art Tutorials

Tutorial to create an amazing dragon

Speckyboy kicks off my list with a collection of 50 imaginative fantasy art tutorials for photoshop including an amazing one of a dragon.

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For various reasons, I was awake at 4am and decided that Sheppie and I should go down to Lowndes Park and watch the sunrise… It was beautiful, the park and most of Chesham, quiet apart from birds singing. Ironically the best view of the sunrise was from my lounge window!

Anyway here they are:

Not bad for someone who’s normally out of bed about 830am!

I’m getting a little better, I’m still pretty weak and feel tired all the time.

I can eat now without having to rush to the bathroom five minutes later which is a massive improvement.

So things should start getting back to normal over the next few days.

Hopefully.

Spent most of the day in A&E.

Am unwell with more of the usual gastric intestinal stomach type trouble so will be away for a few days a week or two.

Anyone who needs me can still contact me.

Sometimes you just need a simple image to use for a web graphic or photo. Sometimes you don’t have the time or energy to make one from scratch. So here’s some of my favourite ways to make a quick graphic.

Says-It.com

This is one of my favourite “sign generator” sites. It has a wide range of signs, although very American in nature including Church Sign, Drinks Can, Concert Ticket and a brilliant Delivery Truck. I used their Danger Sign on the Broken Hearted page. There’s an amazing 200 (yes two hundred!!) symbols you can have on some of the signs.

Says-it is popular so sometimes the server needs a breather and you have to wait for your graphic but it’s well worth the wait.

Advert on a Bus

The atheists in the UK decided they wanted to advertise on a bus, someone created a brilliant advert on a bus generator! I haven’t found a practical use for the image yet. Enjoy, have fun.

(On a side note despite being a Christian, I do support their right to express their opinion, even if I think they are wrong)

Atom Smasher

Another great site with some fun signs including the simply brilliant error message generator and the Chinese take away sign.
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So someone just had to try me on my Rules for leaving comments. Sadly you bottom-feeding pond scum, you picked the wrong day and the wrong time to behave like a t**t. This morning someone using an IP from Ubiquity Server Solutions decided to spam multiple times from the same IP on the same page. I know it was them as they had the same IP address each time. A screenshot of the spam comments and details has been sent.

I’ll update this post with any replies from Ubiquity Server Solutions… If any. I don’t count an automated reply telling me a ticket has been logged.

Oh and they used gmail accounts so I’ll probably report them to Google as well. After some marmite toast, cup of tea and doing the washing up from yesterday (I hate washing up so it’ll put me in the mood for a rant).

Update: Less than an hour later, had a reply from an Allen Jenkins saying they’d passed the complaint onto the customer responsible for the server oh and he added Thanks.

Update: They obviously take things “seriously” given that further spam reports went unanswered and they didn’t deal with the fact the original spammer sent an abusive message.

Way to go on a spam policy!