Setting you free.

[reddragdiva]

• Zed Shaw: Programmers Need To Learn Statistics Or I Will Kill Them All.

• How homeopathy works.

• NewsTechnica: Baron Silas Greenback sues Royal Institution for competence discrimination.

Christ I'm buggered. Last night the washing machine decided to shit itself, spewing water out the detergent drawer. It's the good old Hotpoint F-05 error, outlet pump blocked, which Hotpoint owners know means "That's another hundred quid on repairs" and "I told you we should have gotten a Bosch." The Internet tells me it is fixable with a spanner, pliers, steely determination and enough time on your hands, so I'll apply that tomorrow. Today I lugged two large bags of clothes to the launderette and back, managing not to fall on my arse on the ice. Fuck it's cold.

I'm rediscovering the secret of fatherhood: Keep calm, carry on and swear copiously. I now understand in my soul why my dad swore more or less continuously.

Sainsbury's being fucking lazy sacks of shit, arkady made a grocery run while I was doing this. Asda (we chose not to shop at Sainsbury's this time) were completely out of bread, so she picked up several kilos of flour. This is for application to the breadmaker we got from juliann and naughtypixie, which is hereby the most popular toy ever. Average cooking time two hours, average existence time thirty minutes. OM NOM NOM. Arkady is going through the breadmaker cookbooks that came with it too.

Comments

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

i think that's the same problem our hotpoint had - there was a clogged up filter somewhere under it that Richard got quite good at cleaning out after the repair man failed.

[reddragdiva]

It's given an F-05 twice before and we paid the hundred quid. I'm rather less than keen to this time. If I do, then we do in fact throw it away and buy something less shit when we move.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Watch what the bloke does and learn to do it yourself next time!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Also, go to Lakeland or somewhere and buy some net bags for washing little socks in. £10 is a bit steep for three bits of polyester with zips on, but it will save you a lot of hundred quids. John Lewis do not do them, I found out when I was looking for some.

[reddragdiva]

We have a delicates bag for bras and stockings and the frilly tat the girls are fond of. I'll see what the clog is actually made of today.

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

you got onto slashdot, our kiddah! :)

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/01/09/2154224/Why-Programmers-Need-To-Learn-Statistics?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29&utm_content=LiveJournal

[redcountess]

It made the daily newsletter too :)

[planktonnn.livejournal.com]

I now understand in my soul why my dad swore more or less continuously.

.oh yes
.and I can't say I enjoy any of the implications of that

[redcountess]

Buying another one because the pump's blocked after probably ingesting feathers is rather like buying another car when the ashtrays are full - If you remember it blocked the previous two times due to things like cat hair and Freda's socks. And in fact, a quick search on Google suggests that Bosch machines block just as much.

[reddragdiva]

Well, yes! Hence the hope of fixability.

[vatine]

The main problem I have with ASDA is that they're (these days) owned by Wal-Mart and, frankly, I'd rather do multiple dangerous and/or unpleasant things before sending money in the direction of the Waltons.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Same here-every time someone says "you should go to ASDA-they are so cheap" I tell them I want nothing to do with them thanks to Wal-Mart and they look at me funny. I then have to explain how loads of villages and small towns in the US have been mostly changed for the worst thanks to them.

[reddragdiva]

Round here it's Asda or Sainsbury, and Asda are notably cheaper.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

If given a choice (for cheapness) I'd go to Lidl or Aldi. I have to say I'd still use Sainsbury's if the choice was them or ASDA. I've seen first-hand how businesses and villages/towns in the US have been decimated by Wal-Mart and want nothing to do with them no matter how cheap they are. Just like I refuse to ever buy/eat Domino's pizza since a portion of their profits supports anti-abortion groups in the US.

[vatine]

Around here, I could, thoretically, go to ASDA, but I do not know to what extent they're cheaper or not, since I'd have to stab myself in the face if I did. But, then, you have your priorities and I have mine (I'd rather prepare halal meat than shop at ASDA, knowing roughly what the Waltons get up to).

[reddragdiva]

There is that. And your cheap alternative is the Iceland across the road ;-)

[vatine]

IF they actually carried anything useful and were ever open. No, our cheap alternatives are either the Tesco up the other way of the road or the Lidl by the station.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Homemade bread does rule! Our breadmaker is one of the best things we bought in 2007.

[sinibar.livejournal.com]

In 15 years the only thing I've had to do to my Hotpoint washing machine is replace the motor brushes. Perhaps they've gone downhill in since then, but I do remember the advice given to me by the shop owner. First he asked if I was good with a spanner, "relatively so" I replied. He then told me to buy British and identified which models were actually British.
"They will go wrong", he said, "but they're cheap and easy to fix when they do." In comparison brands like Bosch and Zanussi are more reliable but parts are expensive and they're harder to work on.
This opinion was then backed up by vixmonsta's father, who used to repair said. He even correctly identified what would go wrong on the model I bought.

[reddragdiva]

That's what I'm hoping for.

[reddragdiva]

Mind you, I feel a deep sense of wrongness at a washing machine that rusts inside.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

I still feel a deep sense of wrongness at a front-loading washing machine rather than a top loader that can take an entire week's worth of washing in one go. Even after over a decade ("the best part of a decade and a half" I have been reminded), I still haven't quite come to terms with it.

[vatine]

I think a proper washing machine should take two people's laundry for a week in a single load (volume-wise) and ideally have "Wascator" as the brand (thats essentially a rebranded E-lux, so that's OK too). Of course, there's usually a need to split the laundry in multiple batches based on temperature and colour, so I mostly ran half-filled machines every second weekend).

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Washing --> sledge --> you only have to pull it over the ice. Course, everybody has been panic buying sledges so there might not be any anymore.