This is how long I have been playing Zelda on the Wii since Friday. The photo was taken the other night, because I’m currently at 11 and a half hours. And apparently only about 10% of the way through the game! Baring in mind that I’ve also been playing tournaments on WiiSports and trying to play Medal Of Honor Vanguard. Oh and being a CSI:NY detective in SecondLife, I’ve spent most the weekend gaming.
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I found out yesterday that Asda, one of the most horrible companies in retail, are to open a store in my home town. They will be putting in an application to the council within the next few weeks - and I will be putting in my complaint against it.
Ok, so the area where they wish to build this 60,000 sq ft building is derelict. It’s covered in graffiti and there hasn’t been a company opened in the office buildings that currently stand there for at least five years. Yes it needs a new company to move in, but why not utilise the current office buildings that stand there? If South Lanarkshire Council lowered their rates, somebody probably would move in - Vodafone were the last inhabitants, I believe, and they didn’t last very long at all due to spiralling costs.
Why do I have such a problem against companies like ASDA? Probably because I work for an independent convenience retailer. Granted, we’re part of a symbol group but we’re still independent..
I know how hard it is to get customers through the door of a small shop with a large supermarket down the road. I know how badly sales are hit when a new shop opens, or said supermarket gets a re-fit. I see how much stock costs and the low markups on everything. I might not own the shop I work in, but I know how hard it is to keep it afloat and actually make a profit.
With monopolizing stores like ASDA and Tesco moving into every spare piece of land in the country it’s making life for the small, independents hard. In fact in East Kilbride town centre there are shop unit after shop unit lying completely empty, their To Let signs more of a common occurance than actual shops. The place is becoming a ghost town, and the council are going to sign it’s death warrant by allowing ASDA to open on a nearly-out of town piece of land.
Imagine the situation. Mrs Smith needs to go and buy her grocery shopping for the week. Plus she needs to buy a new pair of trousers for a birthday party she’s attending at the weekend. Oh and buy a present and card for the party…while she’s at it she’ll need to put on her Lottery ticket and top the car up with petrol while she’s out and about. Currently her only option for doing this is going to either a local, independent grocery shop then a card shop and then drive to a petrol garage which might or might not have National Lottery status - so she might need to go somewhere else to get her ticket. Plus going to a clothing shop somewhere to get her outfit. By doing this she’s giving at least four different retailers her custom.
If ASDA opens she’ll be giving her money to one, money-grabbing, world-polluting arsehole of a company.
I can’t wait for the letters page in next week’s East Kilbride News. I for one will be signing the petition against ASDA in East Kilbride…I know that somebody will start one. And if they don’t…well, I will.
…well, in about 6 months time when I can actually legally drive!
I have absolutely fallen in love with the Citroen C1 Airplay+ over the past couple of days and the best news is that I can actually afford to buy it brand new, not second hand like I was planning to do with my first car. Plus there’s the added bonus that my mum’s agreed to help out with my buying it - it’s around £6995, which works out at £115 a month. Plus because it’s got an insanely low CO2 output, the insurance is dirt cheap also!
Isn’t it just a gorgeous car? I love the back of it, it’s so different from your bog-standard car…plus I know that Citroen’s range of C cars are a dream to drive, my mum got rid of her C3 Pluriel about a year ago and I drove that once or twice before she got her company car.
Anyways, aside from that I’ve managed to fix my laptop, I just need to re-install Windows and then I’ll be back online 24/7. And actually get some blogging done from time-to-time!
The Samsung G600 is one hell of a phone. With it’s slinky black shell, amazing music player supporting five different file types, 30FPS video recorder and viewer, 240 x 320 pixels TFT LCD screen, 5MP camera (yes, that’s more megapixels than my current digital camera!), connectivity via Buetooth and USB2 plus a great WAP 2.0 serivce, it is definitely the most stylish 5 megapixel camera phone on the market.
Over the course of the past few days I’ve somehow managed to read about 12 novels. I think it’s because I’ve finally moved into my new room (my brother and I have switched) and I unearthed all my books which I’ve read before but had nowhere to put them out in my old room due to serious lack of shelving. Now they’re at least on a shelf - just have to wait for the boyfriend to come up and put up proper shelving on my walls.
My new room is lovely; wooden flooring, white walls, glass computer desk, high chest of drawers and a gorgeous white / pale pink duvet set which I bought in TK Maxx the other night with my mum. I was tempted to buy a rug also, but it was a little expensive for such a tiny wee rug - plus it’d get covered in dog hairs which I’d be constantly trying to pick off it.
I am in the process of charging my camera so that I can post some pictures of my room - if only to remind myself to keep it tidy as it really is lovely!
Speaking of lovely, our new manager started in the shop. He’s a really nice guy, but things are so different with my old boss. Like I’ve said before, she’s more of a friend than a boss! Still, the new guy rocks - even if everybody aside from me seems to be scared of him. I suppose it’s only because I already know him that I’m not scared of him - I am determined to impress him though with how well me & the other supervisor can run the shop.
As you can probably see, there’s a new theme up here at Emerge. It’s a theme which is designed for magazine and news blogs, but I think that it fits quite well with my site also. I just really love that I can cram so much into one page without it looking really, really jampacked and hard to read. What are your thoughts on it?
Photos coming soon, I have lots to post!
My coursework folder. This is one section, minus the evidence that’s the same size as this. So, I’ve done 4x the work in this folder. No wonder it takes me so long!
My lovely bedroom
And again, from an other angle. It’s a tiny, tiny room!
My cool floor, and funky new shoes which I love. Camo-print ♥
TakeMyTech.com are giving away free tech stuff! For every blog entry there is an item being given away (recent items include Burger King Xbox games, Wireless card, Adobe Photoshop…). Once the comments for that blog entry hit 100, a random commenter is picked out to receive the prize.
The aim of the website?
Last night I was trying to think of something cool to do and I got to thinking about some of the stuff they have been doing to get rid of excess gear at Engadget.
I decided to do something similar, and cross it from time to time with some of the stuff Gizmodo is doing. The concept is simple, and as long as the ads pay for it, I’ll keep doing it.
* I just give it away. I post a new item that I am wanting to give away, when the comment number reaches at least 100, I will generate a random number and that commenter gets the gadget. I’ll even pay the shipping. I’ll email asking for an address so be sure to fill in your email when you leave the comment.
* I will have a contest something similar to the “Show me your desktop” or “Show me your gadget bag” that I have been seeing lately and the one I like best will win it. This will be more common on the higher valued items I am guessing.
I hate this layout. I hate everything about it, the colour. The navigation. The sidebar. Yuck.
I shall be back in a day or two with a brand spanking new (pink!) theme. Until then I think I shall be chained to my keyboard. Well my mothers, since I’m still waiting for my charger to arrive from an eBay purchase. Mind you, the Royal Mail are on strike so I don’t think that I’m going to get it any time soon.
I’m also going to dye my hair again. I feel that it’s time for change. In fact, every time I change my layout I seem to dye my hair. I think I’ll go fire-engine red again…
Image from SXC.hu
As you probably are aware if you’re a regular reader of Emerge, I occaisionally post on subjects from PayPerPost in order to make a little cash. In the past couple of months I’ve earned $100, which is £s;49. I’m not an active PPPer as I don’t like plastering my site in advertising but I’m happy with what I’ve earned so far.
It’s enabled me to buy an awesome necklace from This Charming Girl, which a friend runs and an AC Adapter for my Dell Inspiron 6400 from eBay. Hopefully that’s all that is up with my laptop (the adapater which I have doesn’t seem to work..) and I can start using my baby again. I miss my laptop!
My next purchase from my earnings will be a reseller account from somewhere. I have this awesome idea that I want to put into play…nothing to do with this site but a business idea. I’ll post more about when I pull everything together!
Anyway, for fellow posties - what do you spend your earnings on?