Welsh Web Wonderbird

Blueness

2007-11-01T20:47:00.000Z

i'm blue!

There you go Jules- i've posted :o)

Busy little bees, or maybee not!

2007-05-06T20:55:00.000Z

Poor little bees- scientists are worried about a decline in the wild bee population in Wales and are urging more people to become beekeepers! There is an article on BBC Wales looking at how the numbers of wild bees have been decimated by a nasty little mite that obviously doesn't appreciate honey.
The low hum of the bee is a welcome sound to gardeners hoping to have their plants visited by the black and yellow pollination workers. No bees mean no tomatoes, which in turn means no chutney!

Joking aside, bees are a crucial part in growing crops and as the article mentions, if bees are eradicated, mankind will be extinct within a decade. Quite a sobering thought.

For the full article and advice on bee keeping visit BBC South West Wales

Loquax- the (Duck) tale of a UK competitions portal

2007-03-21T22:29:00.000Z

As many of you already know I've worked for Loquax for the last few years. Loquax, in case you didn't know is the UK competitions portal, a great resource for online competitions. (Hey, this is my blog and I can plug if I want to!) As well as competitions, there is a shopping section, a place for offers, bingo area and a busy forum (over 1,000 online last time I checked). As well as the main competition site, there are other websites in the Loquax Ltd family covering everything from broadband, offers, insurance, mobile phones to seasonal Easter and Christmas niche sites.

Now for what Loquax does not do- no incentives, no rewards, no cashback. And again, no incentives, no rewards, no cashback. I know I'm repeating myself, but that seems to be what we are doing on a more regular basis recently. So, just to be on the safe side- no incentives, no rewards, no cashback. I'm sure somewhere in the affiliate world there is a big black book that has Loquax down in the wrong category. Or perhaps this comes from the abundance of win an ipod or similar competitions and websites popping up at the moment which are (very) thinly veiled data collection devices.

Loquax does not sell users data on to third parties and does not charge a subscription so any affiliate earnings are ploughed into maintaining the website. Which takes me to the next point- Loquax is not a charity. The Loquax forum is not a board for other affiliates to boost their businesses- just don't do it. You can post as many offers and personal affiliate links as you like just as soon as you pay for the server bills and employee wages ;-) Plus, if you do do it, you may find yourself handed an invoice for administration charges the next time we see you at an A4U G2G.

Bloomin' Spammers

2007-03-14T22:10:00.000Z

Honestly, you spend bloomin' ages writing unique and useful content for your websites just for some *insert own sweary comment* to come along and rip the whole bloody site off. So to the lovely peeps who have done just that- thanks for the compliment, but also thanks for copying my affiliate link too!

Blogs - how useful are they?

2007-03-06T20:16:00.000Z

Blogs, blogs everywhere you look, but hardly any worth reading (including this one, the inane ramblings of a bird who must get out more!). Everyone has got one these days from David Cameron (Webcameron) to Charlotte Church (where you can catch extended interviews from the show not shown on telly!); newspapers eg Guardian Arts Blog and of course a little bit closer to home, a duck related affiliate :-)

So, blogs - how useful are they? Are blogs an invaluable resource on the web, a continual narrative of thoughts, opinions and information? Or do they just contribute more background noise to the already bustling white noise of the internet? Are blogs veritable vocal vomit expelled by willy waving individuals whose partner/workmates glaze over at the mere hint of a rant? *cough* :-)

Road Sheeping :-)

2007-01-31T22:11:00.000Z

Ah bless - the council make the effort to get the roads gritted, then this happens!

"SWEET-TOOTHED sheep are scuppering attempts to defrost icy roads – by eating the sugar-based grit.

During cold weather flocks of sheep have been spotted licking the tasty treat off roads in Halkyn Mountain, North Wales.

The bizarre behaviour comes after council officials introduced a new type of grit made from sugar, starch and cereal.

Local resident Elfed Evans said he had spotted dozens of sheep licking the grit off the road...."

ICWales News

Blog Tag-tastic!

2006-12-20T23:09:00.000Z

Oh the lengths some people will go to to make me post on my blog!... have you been blog tagged??? Blog Tagging is where somebody tags you in their blog and you have to say 5 things that people don’t know about you in your blog. You then tag another 5 people who must do the same. Thanks (not!) to Jason and Paul for their tags!
Here's my 5 things you didn't know about me:

1)I'm half Basque (but Jason prefers to see me in a whole one - boom boom!) I speak Spanish, bit of French, weeny bit of Welsh (must learn more) and a few Basque words i picked up while living over there - Kaixo! Agur! (Hello and bye!) oh and Patxaran...hmmm

2)One of my favourite films is The Shining...ok, it is my favorite flick of all time. Especially when I'm drunk; think I've made poor long suffering hubby (or PLSH from now on) watch it at least 1000 times!

3)I wear Mr Bump slippers, much to the amusement of the DHL delivery guy and the postman.

4)I met PLSH (Jason) on Love@lycos- that website has a lot to answer for! He's cute really and contrary to popular belief, he's not grumpy! :o)

5)I am accident prone - not when I'm drunk though! I've had countless sprained wrists and ankles, twisted my knee, broken 3 toes (the same one twice), fell down the stairs at 9am in the morning, bruised ribs, whiplash and the best one yet, falling over a doorstep breaking my foot on a friday night and sitting in Casualty for 6 hours with a bird who had got bottled in a club in Swansea being chatted up by a guy who had grabbed a knife off his missus and slashed his hand!...and all on Children in Need night...and much repeating of "i'm not drunk, i've just finished work, i fell over a doorstep"

Thats me done! Time for more blog tags, so I tag Kevin, Matt "Zabaglione" Wood, Fraser, Jason - coz you should do another as everyone already knows about your duck obsession ;o) and Paul for not revealing he is the stunt double for Doc Oc and David Gest ;oP

Return of the WWWB

2006-06-28T16:51:00.000Z

crickey- it's been so long since I "blogged" anything... I'm suprised I remembered my log in details! I've got a new half year resolution, (crap at New Years ones anyway!) I, WWWB on June 28th 2006 17:50 (or whatever the time stamp is on the thingy once I publish this post) promise... no, threaten to post most regularly and try and bore the pants off more people than ever before! *evil empire laugh*

Celebrity Big Brother v Soapstar Superstar

2006-01-06T21:19:00.000Z

Celebrity Big Brother v Soapstar Superstar - hmmmm it's a difficult one...on one hand you have a bunch of "celebrities" crammed in a goldfish bowl doing nowt- the viewing public like cats peering in hoping for one to jump out and have an early supper. I reckon as soon as Big Brother starts, all contestants should be fed on the "I'm a Celebrity" diet- beans and rice. AND take away any air fresheners... *evil laugh*

I'm not sure Soapstar Superstar is going to be any better- just saw a clip of the guy who plays Kirk singing Bryan Adams. Quite good- not the greatest like. However, I don't know what the judges were on- blonde guy judge complains that (let's call him "Kirk" for the time being) is not dressed like a superstar, ie he's wearing jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket. Hellooooooooo!!!!!!! Bryan Adams, one of the greatest rockers ever is mr jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket man! numpty...

Happy New Year!

2006-01-06T21:17:00.000Z

Bit late I know- but Happy New Year to everyone and hope you all have a great 2006!

Old School

2005-11-17T17:19:00.000Z

Seen Old School? (quality film :-) ) Ever chuckled at the swearing wedding singer at Frank the Tank's wedding? Ever wondered if you could buy the full version of their version of Total Eclipse of The Heart? No? just me then! The performance comes courtesy of The Dan Band and yes, I found the album on Amazon. There is a long story behind buying this album which I cannot possibly repeat as I don't like hospital food- needless to say it's well f*&king funny :-) Anyway, the album is all covers kinda megamixed into one and other including a cracking ABBA Medley - all interspersed with liberal amount of swearing. Ideal Christmas prezzy for the person who has everything!

Online Christmas Shopping plug

2005-11-08T12:33:00.000Z

There was a brief item on GMTV this morning about online shopping for Christmas- listing about as many online shops as they possibly could including ASOS, IWOOT, Pricerunner, Kelkoo, John Lewis etc. (Strange, as the GMTV site is predominantly Kelkoo feeds) You could almost hear the marketing department scream "NO!" when the journo said "if you are unsure about an online shopping site, go direct to the big name shop websites". Made me chuckle!

The GMTV website also has a handy online shopping tips page which gives guidelines if you are an online shopping virgin or know someone who has questions about internet shopping. http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=17422. A good rule of thumb is to use the same judgement online as you would when you are shopping in the high street. After all, you are probably less inclined to use a credit card with a dodgy shop keeper who has just set up shop for a couple of weeks, than say with M&S.

There was a good point made about using shopping comparison sites and the savings they can offer consumers. If you are unsure of how they work, these kind of websites (the advertisers) use information provided to them by big shopping names such as Argos, Comet, John Lewis and also smaller internet only retailers. When you search for an item, for example a Sony KV28HX15U 28" Widescreen TV- you will be given information from a range of retailers and be able to see the cheapest price available. Example here. The cheapest retailer from the example was Currys.

If you find the right price and want to go ahead and buy, you will then be purchasing the item from the retailer directly. By the way, there is no extra charge added for you to use price comparison websites- and you could be saving yourself a couple of quid!

To continue the GMTV spirit of plugging your own site for Christmas shopping, take a look at the price comparison site UKShopstobuy for your Christmas purchases! ;-)

Added bit- always check the price before you pay, as prices are correct on publishing and you never know when a retailer may change 'em!

Tomato Vineyard

2005-11-07T22:28:00.000Z

This is for Kieron (you can read his online blog too at http://www.here.org.uk/) - i'm sorry I couldn't send you an individual tommy as promised, but here's a few photies instead! This year, we had a bumper crop of green tomatoes- so my vision of rows of plants dripping with luscious red fruit was sadly unrealised. The plus side is have got instant Christmas presents for people this year- jars of green tomato chutney!

Most Haunted Live

2005-11-03T22:32:00.000Z

Most Haunted Live - more like "Most Time Wasted" - i've lost those hours from my life forever, i'll never get them back. :-( In case you're not familiar with the show, it's the live version of Living TV's most successful show, Most Haunted. The latest one was held on 4 nights over the Halloween weekend on various locations around London where Jack the Ripper was supposed to have hung out- I missed most of the first night, but by all accounts I don't think I missed much.

The whole show was utter shite and here's the whole sorry list of reasons why:

1)Ads- There was an ad break literally every 10 minutes at some points. The show has become over comercialised; text competitions, spin off DVDs, selling the show to America and more. It seems someone has waved a golden carrot in front of Antix and Living TV and they've got so distracted with raking in the cash, they've forgotten the important bit- the show!

2)Experiments- There weren't any, for example in previous shows haunted rooms have been locked with trigger objects and recording equipment left inside.

3)Historians not used enough and location details scare. I'm sure there used to be more background info and history.

4)Little activity- I know spirits are not performers, but even when there was something interesting going on, the investigators ignored it! I'm sure I was not the only one shouting at the TV!

5)Potty mouthed- I believe in treating others how you would like to be treated yourself. Shouting and swearing at spirits (and other living dudes for that matter!) is disgraceful and disrespectful. Unless I'm missing something and being abusive is the way to be when I want them to do something to make me money?!? No wonder the spirits didn't come out to play...

6)Treatment of Derek- I freely admit I used to be a fan, been to one of his shows- we can discuss whether he is genuine or not another time, it is not important to this argument. Derek was ignored, had orders barked at him and was treated with disdain and utter contempt. The dog was spoken to with more respect. I later found out that there had been an article in The Mirror about Most Haunted published on the 28th October bringing into question the integrity of the show. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16303507%26method=full%26siteid=94762-name_page.html. The story and footage came from http://www.badpsychics.co.uk/ who were not given any credit for the story. If anyone was to be treated badly, shouldn't it be Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe, who was actually quoted in the article and therefore threatened the shows credibility? If Derek is such a fake, why has he been on the show for so long? It still amaze s me that grown adults are unable to leave their personal issues aside, especially when it's being recorded!

I did actually post a "polite" message to register my disappointment on the Living TV forums in a thread about the Live show. Imagine my suprise when the next morning I tried to log in to find I have been banned from the forum section and my post had been deleted! I was incredulous- what is the point in having a forum if you don't want to hear constructive critism? The post was not abusive in any way and as far as I can see, no forum rules were breached. I had heard rumblings about heavyhanded behaviour by the Living TV mods before, but had suspected it was all talk from disgruntled peeps. Head on over to the Living TV forums at your peril- freedom of speech is not allowed!

It seems the whole show has now disappeared up its own arse - good luck to them trying to flog a show with no credibilty

another joke...

2005-09-19T22:24:00.000Z

ok, this one is courtesy of Jack Dee - i'm still laughing as i'm typing!

Man goes to a job interview
Interviewer: Do you have any experience shoeing horses?
Man: No, but i once told a donkey to f&%k off!

Two Americans were driving...

2005-09-18T20:34:00.000Z

Two Americans were driving through Wales. At Llanhyfryddawellehyn, they stopped for lunch and asked the waitress
"Before we order could you please settle an argument for us, and pronounce where we are... very slowly?"
The waitress leaned over and said "burrrr - gurrrr kinngg..."
:-)

eh?

2005-09-18T20:16:00.000Z

Having a bit of a memory problem here - i'm sure i've updated this blog in August and pretty convinced I changed the template too. Must have dreamt it... :-) How sad is that? When I was working in call centres I dreamt of work most nights - completely drove me nuts coz it felt like I never had any time off! Talking about time off, have just about recovered from the A4uforum meeting last week. I've come back with a list of stuff to do including a)update the blog (I cannot believe anyone reads me drivelling on about stuff!) and b)send Kieron a tomato and photographic evidence of the "vineyards".

Tech Help Tools

2005-07-27T21:45:00.000Z

Just further to the web tools post - if you've got any windows probs/questions this site is pretty fantastic - http://www.cyberwalker.net/ This site is a life saver and has saved the life of my old pc many a time - especially mid way through a blue screen of death crisis with an impending aquaintance of hammer with pc case looming :-)

Useful web tools

2005-07-27T21:35:00.000Z

Ever spent ages looking for that just right colour to use on a logo or website - but can't get the colour code right? Well ponder no more! Head over to http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/ Fantastic site with loads of reference and how-to bits.

hmmm ice cream

2005-07-21T21:30:00.000Z

Just been out for a lush ice cream sundae - hmmmm icey... anyway, just had a completely wild idea - what about home deliveries just for ice cream? You can get home delivery for all kinds of takeaways - why not ice cream? Surely if must be easier to keep it cool, than to keep a pizza hot (or lukewarm as is the case with the local Dominos place :-) ).
How cool (icey) would it be to place an order by phone or online? You could be enjoying a lovely tub of phish food within 30 minutes... without having to lift a finger! Well, apart from having to go and answer the door that is :-) And so much easier than elbowing kids out of the while while chasing the ice-cream van down the road... why does he never stop?

What's better than an ice-cream home delivery service? An ice cream home delivery service with an affiliate program with lifetime rev share on online AND telephone orders! Affiliate marketing genius me :-P

hello again

2005-07-19T22:23:00.000Z

well I hope this works this time!
I'll start again... after having a busy couple of weeks - i'm back blogging again - hurray I hear you all cheer ;-) Its Tuesday and i'm just about feeling back to normal after an extremely heavy weekend - showing my age now! Just a quick update about the Cottages4u issue mentioned previously - the buy.at guys passed on my queries and waited for a response, then they contacted them again and again etc. To cut a long story short they are no longer on the site and once i get 5 mins their sister sites will be removed too. Having to wait so long for a response is disgraceful and indicates their attitude towards affiliates all too well...

Make Poverty History Campaign

2005-06-16T20:55:00.000Z

Ok you are going to have to excuse the really pants positioning of the banner at the top of this blog. I've been trying to put it in a prominent place so that all my many, many readers (all 2 of them and that includes me!) could see it straight off. I did try the rather fetching white band but due to coding restrictions (ie I can't code!) it sliced the blog in half... Seriously though, the Make Poverty History Campaign click here to visit the website for full details- can make a difference to people living in poverty. Thanks to Aly on the A4u Forum for posting a link for the banners to put on websites. If you are interested in showing support on your own website click here to get the banners/buttons.

Little Miss Grumpy

2005-06-08T10:34:00.000Z

arse, arse, arse i'm blooming annoyed and it's not even lunch time! My pet hate is rearing its head in todays annoyance levels... why do people insist on using those frigging mouse over banners, by navigation bars = especially the ones without a bloomin close tab so you've got to watch the damn thing do its crappy business for about 10 years before you can continue reading. I was considering buying a Nokia mobile phone - not anymore! I'm sick of the sight of that new phone. What's more annoying is temporarily forgetting the blooming banner is there and setting it off again....arrggghhhhh!

...and how did Ronan Keating get on my iPod???
I'm sure it's a conspiracy to get me narked this morning! :-)

Cottages4U

2005-06-05T21:41:00.000Z

Making an affiliate related post, makes a change! We (the Duck man and myself) decided to take a short break in the UK and spent a couple hours (ok, 4!) on Friday wading through the Cottages4U website. After what felt like an eternity and many cups of tea later we found an idea little place which appeared to be available for when we wanted to travel. I say "appeared" coz it said it was available on the Cottages4u site, however, when we tried to book, the real time checker or whatever bollocks it was called confirmed it as booked up. On checking, we couldn't find any weeks when it was free over the summer! We had a look at a few other cottages and got the same response... I am a little concerned about how people are supposed to book a cottage with this merchant, especially as they feature prominently on In2Welsh. I'll drop a line to the peeps at Buy.at with my concerns and let you know how it goes!

It's Not Unusual...

2005-05-30T21:45:00.000Z

We pootled off to see Tom Jones in Ponty on Saturday night... fan-bloody tastic! The legend that is Tom was on top form - seeing him in his home town made for a fantastic atmosphere. We saw Steve Jones from T4 - better looking "live" than he is on the telly... he does like the ladies though - what a sharker! Back to the concert, Tom sang all the favourites- he was on stage for nearly 2 hours. Not bad for a bloke who is due to get his bus pass this week!