Day: September 5, 2015

  • God damn it

    So, I had this ridiculously optimistic hope about house value. The first person who came pitched our house value at pretty much where I thought it was. The second, a bit higher – ten to fifteen k higher. That’d be amazing – and was kinda where I’d had optimistic hopes of getting to.

    Then the third one came in, and she was beyond my optimistic hopes. By another fifteen to twenty k. Yes. Potentially thirty five k on top of the first estimate. That’s a ridiculous range in house price. And then she said ‘most of the ones we sell go above asking’.

    Why do people do this evil? Put these ridiculously optimistic hopes in my head.

  • confusedrower:

    funnygurl1979:

    sixpenceee:

    A New App That Lets Users’ Friends ‘Virtually Walk Them Home At Night’ Is Exploding In Popularity

    Tens of thousands of people around the world are now using a free personal-safety mobile app that allows friends to virtually walk you home at night.

    The Companion app, created by five students from the University of Michigan, enables users to request a friend or family member to keep them company virtually and track their journey home via GPS on an online map.

    Although they can do so, the friend or family member does not need to have installed the Companion app. The user can send out several requests to different phone contacts in case people are not available to be a companion or not with their phones at the time.

    Those contacted then receive an SMS text message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an interactive map showing the user walking to their destination. If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running, or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movement and asks the user if they’re OK.

    If the user is fine, they press a button on the app to confirm within 15 seconds. If they do not press the button, or a real emergency is occurring, the Companion app transforms the user’s phone into a personal alarm system that projects loud noises to scare criminals from the scene, and gives you the option to instantly call the police.

    (Source)

    Boost this

    I immediately downloaded this. This is the smartest thing ever

  • Making tracks… The new section of path is done, just need to remove the old one now… on Flickr.

    Making tracks… The new section of path is done, just need to remove the old one now…

  • Malta becomes first country to outlaw surgery on intersex babies

    Malta becomes first country to outlaw surgery on intersex babies

    counterreproductive:

    “Maltese will now work with medical professionals to draw up best practice guidelines to ensure any surgery or medical interventions that do take place are medically necessary and not “driven by social factors without the consent of the minor.
    The new law also contains provisions for gender recognition and legal protections for trans and intersex people. Some activists are hailing them as being among the most progressive gender identity laws in the world.”

  • Frantic Frantic Frantic. Stop.

    Today they’re coming to value the house. By ‘they’ I mean a gang of three different estate agents. I have a massive list of questions to ask and in the last few days Kathryn and I have done an awesome amount of work on the house and garden. It’s not finished, which leaves me slightly frustrated, but I am willing to accept that realistically I could have done no more.

    – Paint the entryway
    – Paint the back wall (just touching it up, but there’s a lot of touching up) <- This is part done – all the bits that need a ladder to reach are done.
    – Remove the doors and get them dipped-and-stripped (being done)
    – Touch up some paint in the kitchen DONE!
    Finish the deck and the garden path
    – Weed the garden and chuck down 100s of litres of bark chip
    – Build gravel stairs at the bottom of the garden (edge them and then throw gravel in).
    – Paint the bathroom doorframe
    – Remove excess grout residue
    – Make panel to go under sink

    I have worked from 8-9am until after Kathryn’s got home; then we’ve worked together. We took our entire day off and worked for 9 straight hours sorting the two spare rooms and the bedroom. I’ve painted, cleaned, cut timber, disassembled more pallets, tidied, washed, wiped, dusted, pcked, sorted, been to the charity shop with a billion donations, bought dirt and path-underlay, moved a literal ton of gravel (and need to move it again)…

    The deck now has an edge/barrier planter and (with the exception of the stairs) is boxed in. I’d like to have done the stairs with panelling too, but haven’t quite managed it and may not. Clearing out under there is the first priority.

    IMG_20150905_093814

    I’m really quite pleased with it, especially considering the planter’s all scrap from pallets too.

    Inside, the only jobs I can think of are to hang the bathroom cabinet and to rehang the doors, when they get back from being stripped (which should be today).

    Outside, I’ve still got some painting to do of the wall, and the garden still needs much tidying. The front garden bushes need pruning and the front needs more weeding. I was threatening to paint the front wall, and haven’t yet, which may or may not happen.

    And we won’t go into the state of the inside of my wardrobe. It’s almost as tall as me with clothing just hurled in there in a heap. It’s fearsome. It’s a mixture of ‘this needs sorting’, me rifling through it to get my old uniforms out to return to my work, and lord knows what else. All the laundry has just gone in it without being sorted (apart from socks and underwear which does have a drawer).

    Oh, and Rebecca is due to go up to JLH this coming week. I’ve a custom gearbox being built which should be tolerable for the Ital engine and lovely with the EV motor.

    So it’s all go here. We just have to hope that the visa comes through – although if not, we’ll be moving to the countryside near Bristol. That’s the plan B. And setting up shop here. Anyhow, let’s see how this goes.