Samsung GT E2600 Won't Turn On Fix

There are a lot of reasons why a phone won't turn on. I'm not going to list them all, but I am going to talk about why my Samsung GT E2600 wouldn't turn on (totally dead), and how I managed to fix it.

Symptoms of the problem

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and there was a strange image on the screen. A picture of a flip phone with an arrow over the top pointing at the phone. I haven't got an image to show you, but if you have seen this on your phone, and now have the problem I had where your phone won't turn on, you will know exactly what the error image looks like.

This wasn't the first time I'd had this error image. I'd had it a few times in the past. However, on previous occasions I just instantly turned the phone off by taking the battery out (no buttons will work when the phone is in this error mode) and putting it back in and powering it back up. That fixed the issue.

But with the most recent time I got this error screen, I never turned the phone off as soon as I found it. I just put it down with the error still on the screen and forgot about it. When I went back to the phone it was off. Trying to turn it back on was useless, nothing worked. Completely dead.

It's Dead - How To Fix

First let me make it clear: There may be several methods the cure this problem, and some of what I did, such as taking the battery and SIM card out might not be required to get the phone back to life again. Try it several different ways if you want. But, this is what I did and now the phone is fully working again.

Take out the battery, SIM Card and memory card. Press and hold the power on button for 1 - 2 minutes to clear any remaining power in the phones circuitry. Put the battery back in and put the phone on charge. Now press and hold both the power on button and up on the square navigation pad (which is for turning up the volume while in a call) at the same time for 5 seconds.

After doing this the phone should come back to life. If it doesn't work for you try doing the same procedure but holding both buttons together for 10 seconds. That should do the trick. If your E2600 is suffering from the same illness this is worth a go. It fixed mine. Good luck.

Satsumas Coated With Imazalil

Since my last post about pesticides on fruit I have been keeping my eyes peeled, pardon the pun. My last post [you can't even eat an orange anymore] was about this subject highlighted how the average Orange is now sprayed with imazalil. You can read that post here. Today, there is more bad news. It's not only Oranges that are sprayed with imazalil, but also Satsumas. Please be aware, most citrus fruits are now sprayed with pesticides, most of which are not only very hard to completely eradicate, but in small amounts also penetrate through to the actual pulp of the fruit itself.

The only reason I'm talking about Satsumas today is because I have recently got the proof firsthand from actually going into a shop (Sainsbury's) and purchasing Satsumas. I can confirm that they are coated with (E904, E914), Imazalil and Pyrimethanil. Enlarge the image above to get a closer look at the label for confirmation.

I find it quite sad, and very disappointing that so many big food outlets now use suppliers that apply these pesticides to fruits, as they are well known to be a danger to human health. These days I thinks its probably better, and safer to either buy organic or grow your own fruits and vegetables.

Applied Nutrition Pro CBD Supplements

One of the UK based companies that sponsor boxer Hughie Fury, Applied Nutrition, are set to increase their supplement range with the addition of 3 new products. With the official release being some time this week (10th October 2018), these new ProCBD supplements are all infused with CBD in one form or another.

A quick update: It appears that the release date may not be arriving this week as first thought, as there has been no official announcement of the products being available for sale to the general public. And their website shows the products as still "coming soon".

One of the three new ProCBD range of supplements is actually a CBD Oil. This comes in a small bottle and is conveniently taken by placing the desired amount of drops under the tongue. Available in either Apple or Orange flavour, each bottle contains 0.5grams (500mg) of CBD isolate.

The second addition is the ProCBD Recovery Gel with CBD oil. Specially made to aid the recovery process after training / exercise, the fruit burst flavour Gel is packed with many of the essential nutrients that feed the body / muscles after a hard workout.

Some of those include: Vitamin C + B Vitamins, Electrolytes and Zinc, and of course CBD Oil. Applied Nutrition have also added a great spectrum of vitamins that are beneficial to joints and bones. Such as, Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM.

The last one on the list is the Protein powder. Or more specifically, Protein and Hemp with added CBD Isolate Nano. There's also a special Digestive Enzyme blend that help ensure excellent protein absorption. Contains Digezyme, Lactospore and Astragin. The ProCBD amount is 30MG per 30g serving. And the Protein amount is 23g per 30g serving.

In a recent YouTube video uploaded by the British Boxers channel, Peter Fury, Hughie's father and trainer was asked why they are using the new ProCBD products from Applied Nutrition. He said, they are proving to be excellent for boosting the immune and nervous systems when the body is under the constant stress of heavy training every day.

Keep a look out for them on the official Applied Nutrition website if you feel like trying them out. Please be aware: None of these products contain any THC (the cannabinoid in Cannabis that gets a person high).

Blue Nokia 105 Sim Free Mobile Phone

If you want basic, tough, reliable and cheap in the same sentence when looking for a mobile phone, it has to be either one of the budget Nokia’s or Samsung’s. If you’re looking for the cheapest but best value for money phone that’s also very easy to use, it would have to be either the Samsung E1200 or E1080i. If you don’t mind spending an extra £5, and in return getting a phone with a few more features, and an even better battery life than the Samsung E1200, then the Nokia 105 is a fairly good choice. As an added bonus, I believe the newer model has dual SIM capability (2 SIM slots / two active phone numbers in one cellphone).

Battery life is excellent. The talk time and standby times really are super long. This is due to the phones low power consumption, combined with an 800mAh battery. A similar setup of low power consumption + an 800mAh battery capacity is also found in many of the cheaper Samsung Phones, and those equally renown for having a super long battery life.

The Nokia 105 has a really good torch feature. With this phone, Nokia have gone back to basics and put the old but very effective LED light back onto the top of the phone. This is just like they used to have on the older, now retro phones. It’s a great method, and much better than the torch feature on some of the Samsung phones in the same price range, which is basically the screen turned totally white. Nowhere near the same level of brightness.

There's a built-in FM radio in the 105, along with a convenient 3.5mm jack for headphones etc (Not included). It also has 8 MB of built-in memory, clock, alarm, loudspeaker, calendar and some games. One of which is the super popular old school game – Snake, that also used to be on the older Nokia phones. The 105 has a hard-wearing keypad and decent (65K) colour screen. It does not have a camera or Bluetooth. But should we really expect it to beings that it costs under twenty pounds.

This phone usually comes SIM free and open to all networks. It should work fine with most, if not all of the major UK phone Networks. It can even work with a 3G SIM card but won’t be able to use certain, more advanced features like the Internet etc. Basic Calling and texting should work fine.

Overall this is an excellent, no frills phone that does the basics really well. If you’re looking for a low-priced mobile phone to have as a back up / second phone, or you’re not into smartphones and want something simple and easy to use, this phone is a good option.

The one big 105 negative to be aware of

However, where this phone falls flat on its face lies with its SAR Level. The SAR Level of the Nokia 105 is a massive 1.48 W/kg. That is high considering that this is a basic phone with not many features. 1.48 W/kg is, in some cases over double the SAR Level of a lot of the budget Samsung phones. For a few, such as with the GT E2600, it’s closer to triple.

For this reason I would probably go for a Samsung instead to be honest. Either the E1080i, E1200 or E2600 slide phone. Reviews for all phones mentioned here are great. Take your pick, any one of them will serve you well. I just prefer a lower SAR level, and frankly you should too.

Samsung GT E2600 SIM Free Phone Review

After owning and messing around with the Samsung GT E2600 Slide Phone for well over 4 years, I thought I should give you the review low down on this phone. The E2600 is a bit like a Bridge Camera in some ways. In terms of features and price, It’s not as featureless as a cheap basic phone with just the basic features, such as the Samsung E1200 or E1080i. And then it’s not an App rich, full of features Smartphone either.

This phone somewhat bridges the gap between the cheapest Samsung’s that can just call and text, and the do-it-all S6’s, Note 9's and iPhone X's. And for that reason I love it. This phone is for people who want a relatively basic, easy to use slide phone that looks good, has more features than the budget phones, and even has a few of the cool little extra’s you find in Smartphones that so many people in this technological age have become accustomed to.

The Samsung GT E2600 is a very small and stylish non Smartphone. It has a built-in Radio, MP3 / MP4 player, 2MP Camera (With video capability), and takes MicroSD cards up to 16GB. The MicroSD card maximum limit states “Up to 16GB” on the box of the phone. But a lot of end user online reviews have stated that the E2600 can support up to 32GB. Either way, 16GB – 32GB is a lot of storage space. 2GB has been more than enough for me so far.

Other features include a good selection of ring tones, 1000 number contact list, voice recorder, organiser, alarms, dictionary, loudspeaker, timer, stopwatch, games (Which can be downloaded to the phone), Backup Manager, Bluetooth, Instant Messaging, SNS (Facebook, Twitter access), MMS (Multimedia Messaging), and even has a fake call option. Takes a normal (Standard) size SIM.

You can access the Internet with the E2600, but it would be through your phone network provider (costing big money in most cases), as the Samsung GT E2600 does not have WiFi. Resolution for the 2.4 inch QVGA TFT Screen is good at 256K.

Other cool and useful features: The E2600 has a convenient 3.5mm headphone jack, making it really easy to listen to music while on the go with whatever headphones you have at your disposal. It also uses a mini-USB port for charging the phone which doubles up for transferring data on and off the phone.

The call block list (Add to reject list) is present on this model, which stores a maximum of 10 numbers. With all the spam calls these days, it would have been nice if this capacity was larger. Ten just isn't enough.

Battery life is really good. It’s almost up there with the super impressive E1200 and E1080i. But, due to the E2600’s higher power output, it doesn’t have the staying power that those two have. Still very impressive. The battery lasts a long time, but when the battery is almost fully drained, and there's no bars remaining on the battery indicator (the battery level indicator box is flashing), it dies out pretty fast. Whereas the E1200 and E1080i, with their very low power outputs, can hang on in there for a long time.

Obviously, the E2600 is a slide phone, but unless you need to use the number pad to make a call, the phone can be used without the user having to pull the slider up. The phone can be set to make calls (if you don’t need to type in the number), receive calls, and do many other things like listen to music via the MP3 player or radio with the slider being down. The Samsung GT E2600 has excellent reviews, and an almost just as impressive SAR Level at just 0.53 W/kg.

It’s available SIM free from eBay in various conditions (used, refurbished), and also for sale on other online outlets, including Amazon. With the phone being Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) it should work in many locations abroad, so makes a good phone for taking on holiday. It’s also unlocked, so will work with most, if not all UK phone networks. Including Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, GiffGaff [O2], EE etc.

One criticism that you won’t see in many reviews online, but one that I think is relevant enough to be mentioned by me as an owner of this phone for 4+ years, is the camera quality. Most people online say it’s got a really good camera and takes great pictures considering its only got a meagre 2 mega pixels. But I have found the camera pretty poor in most settings. Unless the lighting is perfect. the pictures are blurred and have no sharpness to them.

Did I buy an E2600 that had a fault with the camera? Well, I bought the phone brand new, and I seriously doubt it. But I suppose anythings possible. This is just something you should be aware of if your buying this phone on the count of the customer reviews crediting the camera as being really good. In my experience that just wasn’t / isn’t the case.

However, don’t let that put you off. Overall this is an excellent little phone that has been totally reliable for me and served me well with over 4 years of everyday use, and it's still going strong. It can take some damage. I’ve dropped it more times than I care to think about but it still works perfectly. It does everything I need it to and hasn’t ever let me down. I have no plan to upgrade, so that says it all really.

A great, basic non-smartphone but with some excellent features. My favourite feature is using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm headphone lead to connect the phone to my car stereo so that I can listen to the music I have stored on the GT E2600's memory card in the car. Good phone for a reasonable price. Brand new they are selling for £50 – £60. Used but in good condition they are selling for around £25 on eBay. The E2600 has been out for a number of years now but they are still very popular.

I had opened two Amazon pages on my browser that were selling this phone in order to check the price that the E2600 is selling for in 2018 because I bought mine a good few years ago.  After a few hours I returned to those two pages that I’d forgotten about and refreshed, and they are now both showing as sold out. These were two separate sellers that weren’t showing any indication of having low stock. Get one while you can. I’m keeping mine.

Neon Genesis Evangelion EVA 02 Boots

For fans of the Neon Genesis Evangelion Manga Series these boots are just a super cool pair of shoes (hiking boots) to own. These boots are pretty hard to find, specially in both styles, the EVA Impression 01 and 02. The 02 (Pictured below) are a mix of dark red, mustard, black and have a low cut boot.

Image credit: Ascosing

The 01 (Image below) are real cosplay style boots, sporting a higher ankled boot in comparison to the EVA Impression 02's (which are just shoes really) and coming in a more bright and wacky purple, green, mustard and black colourway. And they have huge, extremely padded tongues. Both pairs are very well made.

Image credit: Ascosing

These Neon Genesis Evangelion  Ayanami Rei hiking boots could become collectors items in the future. That is if you can buy a pair and not end up wearing them. Great novelty shoes. Super cool if you're a Genesis Evangelion Manga fan.

Nike MAG Back To The Future Shoes

These boots, although a few years old now, should be posted on this blog. Better late than never! Nike MAG are one of the most futuristic pairs of shoes currently on the market. How many pairs of shoes do you know of that have their very own USB connection. There are a few pairs of shoes on the market that do feature an MP3 player, LED lights (light up shoes) and certain other built-in devices, but none are as high quality or as prestigious as the Marty McFly (Martin Seamus McFly) Nike MAG's. These are the boots that Michael J Fox wore in Back To The Future II.

Fair enough, they don't have the Power Lace Up feature incorporated into them just yet, but they do have the most awesome, futuristic light up system I have ever seen on a pair of shoes. And I should add that some self lacing pairs were released as part of an auction / giveaway, and a few lucky people ended up snagging a pair. But sadly there was only 89 pairs to go round, so the chances of coming into contact with a genuine, original pair of the self lacing MAG's today in 2018 / 2019 is slim to none. Unless you've got deep pockets.

A few people have tried to make their own self lace up system by ordering a fake pair of MAGs from China and then fitting them out with a self lacing kit, consisting of a motor, pressure sensor and motherboard etc, but most so far haven't looked very good once the job is complete. This is due to a lot of factors, but the main one, is that the boots bought from China were cheaply made, and cheap looking to begin with.

And secondly, in order to fit the self lacing "kit" the boots have to be taken apart, as in, unglued at the sole. So needless to say, they have to be glued back up again once the automatic lace system have been fitted. This is where some DIY attempts have failed miserably, and the boots ended up looking similar to Leatherface's mask out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Best option is to scrap the self lacing ideas (unless you're really good at that type of thing) and go with a standard Decal Upgrade Kit.

The light blue / turquoise side sole lights and the red, gold and yellow back heel emblem lighting is a great colour combination. And the illumination of the Nike wording on the boot strap really tops of the design. All the lights are LED. It doesn't look cheap, it actually looks really professional. Specially in the dark, where the lights are shown at their full potential. The glow brightly! Nike have done a great job with the design of these shoes.

The lights are rechargeable, that's what the USB connection is for, and the lights when fully charged last about 4 - 5 hours. They are activated by the click of a little button located at the top of the high boot, so the lights can switched on and off when required.

Nike Mags For Sale

Sadly, only 1500 pairs were made and as you may already know, people have been going crazy to buy a pair. Most pairs have been selling for big money. Prices as high as almost $40,000! Typically they are selling for around £2,000 to £4,000 in the UK, that's if you can find a pair for sale. As with most highly sought after footwear, there are a lot of replicas on the market, so be careful when buying a pair.

But in saying that, a lot of people actually don't mind owning a reproduction (fake) pair from China due to any pair of the original 1500 that do happen to come up for sale being so expensive. However, if you do want an original limited edition pair from the 1500 that were made, be sure to only deal with highly reputable seller.

Best bet these days to pick up a pair of Nike MAG Back To The Future Boots is eBay. All the money made from the original 1500 pairs was donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research. An illness which he himself suffers from. A superb, iconic pair of boots that were way overdue. Nike should consider doing a new MAG drop. They are still widely sought after even after all these years, and I'm sure they would sell out extremely fast. -Interwire.

Making Money From VHS Video Cassettes

If you've been to a charity shop or car boot sale at some point within the last ten years, chances are you would have seen many VHS videos for sale. And with a general selling price of between 20 Pence to £1 Pound, no doubt, most people wouldn't really look at VHS videos as having any kind of resale profit in them. And in terms of buying them to actually watch, most people don't own a Video player anymore, so they are pretty much obsolete at this point.

Electronics and playable media has moved on so much since the VHS days, even from the CD / DVD era as well to some extent. It's all about digital and mostly invisible media these days, streaming, downloading etc. People want everything in super HD and delivered within seconds. I should make it clear that I'm not one of those people. I prefer old school media. Retro electronics are still loved by many individuals, and as a result, there is still a demand for certain items.

This brings me to the subject of this post. Can you make money from old VHS videos. The answer is, yes you can. Slowly. While most videos, popular ones, are not worth much, there are some that are worth a decent amount of money. So if you do some research beforehand and know what to look out for, there are more than a few gems out there.

But make no mistake, to make the highest amount of money, the movie must either be rare, or a pre-cert (pre-certification). Pre cert basically means that the video tape has no official age restriction information on any part of the cassette tape or case / cover due to the 1984 Video Recordings Act not yet being in force.

So Pre-certs were unregulated, largely unedited, and weren't required to follow any guidelines set by an overseeing governing body. Also worth aware of, is that not all pre certs are worth good money, and some eBay sellers list videos for sale as "Pre cert", but the age restriction (15, 18 etc) can clearly be seen on the cover, and even on the cassette itself. Unless I'm missing something here, those are not pre certs. Anyway, moving on.

Sure, there are some VHS videos out there that are neither rare or pre certs but are still worth considerably more to resell on eBay than you would pay for them at a second hand shop. Besides, some second hand shops / thrift stores actually give them away for free, so its not hard to turn a profit on a giveaway. As an example, one that quickly springs to mind is Jacknife starring Robert Deniro, Ed Harris and Kathy Baker.

That film sells for around £5 - £10 on eBay UK. Or at least it used to. Just checking eBay now, and there are many more copies than what used to be there a year or so back. Hardly worth all the bother to resell. I actually own this movie on VHS, but I wouldn't sell it because I like the film, and it's not really worth the running around for a fiver or tenner after eBay take their fees.

A better example would be some of the B-movie cult classics. Because certain titles are so rare (and also pre-certs), and still have a cult following, certain titles do command fairly high resale prices. There's quite a few on eBay right now. Including Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, the original EVIL DEAD, The Slayer (VIPCO), The House On The Edge Of The Park and AXE. As well as many more. Most of these are priced up at around £200.

However, if you're thinking of doing this to earn some extra money, be prepared for a long wait to actually make a sale. With the demand for VHS videos not being what it once was, it's clear to see that most of the videos mentioned above have something negative in common. None have sold, and none of them even have any watchers.

So while they are worth some money, I think that the people selling them when I just had a quick look in eBay have priced them up for whatever they want, just hoping someone will buy it for an extortionate amount of money due to the fact that they are now hard to find. There is no set market price or ballpark figure.

But in some ways this is correct, and can actually be a good thing. When there's only one or two of something for sale, and that thing can't be found anywhere else, you either have to pay what the seller wants or you don't get the item. It's as simple as that. But it's fair to say, all the movies mentioned above are on sale for too much money, and they'll never actually sell.

I say this because the Original Evil Dead is actually quite sought after on VHS, and does usually sell on eBay for £50+. Trying to sell it for £200, like the seller I just discovered when I did a quick bit of research for this post, has resulting in them pricing themselves out of getting a sale.

Another example of too high of a price tag is with some of the Walt Disney cartoon movies. Some sellers want crazy money for their films. It really is ridiculous. There's one on eBay right now that caught my eye: Pinocchio (in used condition). Guess how much its up for sale for. A used VHS video of Pinocchio is for sale on eBay for £3000 (Buy it now). Three Thousand Pounds! It will never sell.

You could probably check back in 20 years and it would still be for sale. But by that time the seller would most likely have gotten so fed up with zero buyer interest and constantly having to relist it, that they would finally cave in and end up listing it for sale at the right price.

Some of the Walt Disney "Black Diamond" "The Classics" edition films have some appeal, and usually they are much more sensibly priced. Furthermore, certain Disney films, like Beauty and The Beast and The Jungle Book, do have many eBay watchers and do actually sell.

More worth mentioning that have quite a lot of interest on eBay and sell for good money (£35 - £200): Bloody Moon 1981 (B-Movie Video Nasty), Mylene Farmer, Devil Hunter Yoko, Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 Dead By Dawn, Status Quo Live In Concert, Manga, Superman 1 and 2, Insanity, I Miss You Hugs & Kisses (Rare), Battle Beyond The Stars, Bloody Payroll, and The Exorcist.

These are just a few, there are many many more. Like I said, do your research and I'm sure you'll find a lot more that are worth picking up if you see them on sale cheap while out and about. All the titles mentioned in the paragraph above are definitely worth buying, as long as they are both original, pre certs if released before 1984, and providing the price is fair.

Low prices for VHS videos are extremely common if you frequent charity shops, car boots sales and second hand shops, etc. VHS' are deemed by most to be close to worthless. So the people selling them are not always aware that some are worth a considerable amount of money, and will let them go for 50 Pence each or less. There's a good profit to be made if you know what to look out for.

Job Interviews And No Callbacks

I understand that companies are busy, but why say something that you don't mean. I've been for a few job interviews lately, and every one of them seemed to go well. Each one filled with laughing, joking, and generally just an easy going atmosphere. I'm one of those people that just doesn't get nervous at all in interviews. The way I see it, be yourself and remember, later on the same day it will all be over and its just another experience that I'll look back on and think to myself - remember when I went to that interview. It's basically nothing but a tiny event in a much bigger picture that is your life.

So much so, that even on the same day it occurred, once over, it's already history in my own - life and times - adventure journey. One more experience to add to the many others. If it was meant to be I'll be working there, if it wasn't then I won't. Please don't take this to mean that I don't care about the jobs I'm going for. If I didn't want the job I wouldn't go for the interview in the first place. it's just my outlook on life.

 

When I was working. I loved those Dandelion Wishes

Strange things have been happening to me lately. Good things. A waking up, or heightened awareness so to speak. To say its been an eye opening experience is an understatement. Maybe its an age related thing, where you finally start to understand what and who is important in this world, and what and who is really controlling most of what we see and hear. But that's for another post. Back to work.

Have I become unemployable

How hard has it become to get a job that you could literally train a monkey to do. In my experience, it's now harder than ever before. The employers seem to think that these jobs are like gold dust, and you must be prepared to chop an arm off to work for them. However, the funny thing is, when you see some of the people who actually work there, they look like they've just come off the set of the film - The Hills Have Eyes.

Just think, those Hills Have Eyes looking "individuals", who can hardly string a sentence together, actually aced the interview and got the job. I find this absolutely crazy. Things seem to be very backwards lately. It's almost like they don't want people who can talk and have a decent vocabulary to work for them. Maybe that is the case for me, because the jobs I'm applying to, and getting interviews for, involve manual labour.

Even though I'm basically from the streets of Birmingham, brought up on a housing estate, I still have very good manners and a decent vocabulary. They probably listen to me talk and think, nah, he uses big words, he won't fit in, he's gonna alienate the Hills Have Eyesers. In one of my recent interviews, which was for a warehouse role at TNT in Nobel Way, Aston, Birmingham (UK), I messed up big time. I used the word Clarify.

As soon as I did, the TWO interviewers (Yes, two interviewers for a job moving boxes) both sat back that little bit further in their chairs and their faces were like, wow, you just blew it mate. I decrypted their facial expressions into word format, and they basically translated to: "Mate, what are you doing here. We're looking for illiterate knuckledraggers who can hardly speak, not people who have the capacity to do more than read a label and move a box". Damn, I've been busted.

Don't ring us, we'll ring you

To clarify (hahaha I had to), I didn't get the job. But you would have thought I did by the time the end of the interview came. One of the interviewers even said, yeah, I'm putting you first on the list, right at the top. Hmm. Don't you just hate fake people. I do. And that brings me to the meaning of this post. Job Interviews and no callbacks. Despite the promises, the great rapport in the interviews, laughing, getting along well etc, letting me know the outcome of the interview "Either way" via a phone call has become the fake people's method of secretly saying you haven't been successful. I find it all very amusing, but also rather sad on their part.

What happened to those salt of the earth people. You know, the ones who are honest and tell it like it is. You know, the ones who say, I'll call you tomorrow and let you know, and they actually call because they are people of their word, straight shooters. There are a few detrimental character traits that I really dislike in a person. Two of those are liars and people NOT of their word. I think this is because I am an honest man, a person of my word. If I say I'll meet you or phone you, I will 100% stick to what I said. So when I don't get the same treatment back it really annoys me.

Name and shame

I think it's about time to name and shame the companies that I have spent money travelling to, and gone out of my way for, only to be treated with a level of disrespect that I feel really lets these companies down. And speaks volumes about the people they employ. All companies mentioned in this post have one thing in common. They all have employees working for them who basically lie to visitors / potential employees. So, without further ado.

Already mentioned above: TNT, Nobel Way, Aston, Birmingham. Promised to put me at the top of the list and call me back within a week. Never happened. Thanks Benn (AKA Bulky Bullet). He reminded me of someone I used to know. His nickname was Bullet. Only Benn the interviewer was a bit more of a meat head. So I nicknamed him bulky bullet. Or another name that's just come to mind while typing this: Bullet the meat head. Much more fitting.

Clearabee, Hastingwood Industrial Park, Wood Lane, Birmingham B24 9QR. I specifically asked "When will you be letting people know if they were successful or not". The chirpy but as fake as they come Clearabee employee answered in no uncertain terms, you will be informed "Either Way" tomorrow on whether you got the job or not. Never happened.

Castle Doors Ltd, Unit 19, Ford Industrial Park, Dunlop Way, Birmingham B35 7AR. Again, the promise of "I'll let you know tomorrow Either Way" was never kept. Also, Lee, the interviewer, needs to work on his language skills. Fu**ing this and Fu**ing that. Swearing in an interview while in mid conversation is never a good thing. It instantly puts the professionalism of the company they represent into question. I don't care how down to earth or naturally himself he was trying to be. That's no way to conduct business let me tell you.

Actually, come to think of it, after writing this, maybe I don't want to work with a bunch of liars. Who knows what other undesirable character traits I would have been exposing myself to. -Interwire.

More Indeed Jobs That Don't Exist

Where is the line drawn when it comes to taking advantage of people who are going through hard times? Is there a limit, some moral ground, where companies will reach a point where their combined consciences will make an appearance and they will think to themselves - Nah, we can't do that, it's too unfair on the people.

Well, sorry to break the bad news, but it appears that any level of moral ground, empathy, or even plain old respect, has been replaced by an almost blood thirsty lust for money. And they don't care what lies they have to tell you to get it, just as long as they get that money.

As the title says, More Indeed Jobs That Don't Exist. What I'm talking about here, is the companies that are not just advertising fake jobs, as discussed here, but also looking to get people already short on cash to start travelling around to training centers in the hope of landing a job, only to be left disappointed when they realise they have been completely taken advantage of.  Need more confirmation of this, tempted to apply? Just read some of the reviews. One star ratings all the way.

By that stage, the company that sent the person on the training course have completed their slice of the transaction (getting the person receiving some kind of Government assistance to go on a training course that leads nowhere), and that's the deal done, regardless of what happens next. Just so long as the course is completed. For each person they refer to the scheme, they get paid.

So they advertise jobs that don't exist to generate the leads, get desperate people to sign up for the course, waste the individuals time by sending them to a "training center" everyday, with the promise of a job at the end of it of course, then cast the person aside afterwards. With no job or anything else gained other than money for the fraudulent company that sent them on the fake job course.
 

Benefit Scam Job Training

These companies make me sick. One company that was advertising in this manner on Indeed, is the Castle View Group. I applied for one of their "Vacancies". Surprisingly, I got a call back! That's sarcasm by the way. The representative for Castle View Group had her script mastered and proceeded to read the dummy cards to me. Sounded promising - Sounds like I'll be in work by Monday! Then, the last question: Are you claiming any Government assistance at all, any benefits.

I said no, nothing. Why? Oh, no reason, she said. Suddenly, the woman wanted to end the call. And she did. The excuse of - OK, I've got all the information I need from you for now, someone will be calling you back tomorrow. That callback never came. And I'm glad it didn't. Because a few clicks of research later and I quickly discover what the Castle View Group is all about.

Not claiming benefits equates to me being ineligible for the scam course they wanted to send me on. Ultimately translating to me having no commission potential, meaning I was useless to them. Surely there is a law against this type of false advertising, not to mention defrauding Government funds by using immoral means to generate leads. Seem crazy that these companies actually get away with it.

More Disclosure Required

However, there has been a small change in the way Castle View Group now advertise on Indeed, or any site for the matter. Perhaps with all the complaints, Indeed, or maybe even company regulators made them change the wording in their ads, so it now reads as " Castle View Group - Training". I find this very funny, because I can almost guarantee you, from that small but extremely significant change, their fraudulent, purposely vague lead generation machine has taken a huge hit. And profits are certainly not what they once were when they weren't using full disclosure, and not telling people they were being sent on a useless training course.

Also be aware: Obviously, to reach a wider audience, this company is using other job websites to post their ads. One of those is Totaljobs. The ads show up on Indeed because most of the big job sites are using an RSS feed or API to display the results from other websites. Just something to be aware of.

Tom Hanks And The Celebrity Status Pass

I'm not a big user of social media, but the other day I ended up on Twitter. More specifically, on Tom Hanks' time line, where peoples tweets show up if they mention in their tweet anything relating to Tom Hanks. From the time line I clicked through to Tom Hanks' Twitter account, and while the first thing to surprise me was wow, he's got over 15 million followers, the second and main sticking point was how ridiculously weird, bland and boring his tweets were. Check out one of his latest masterpieces below. If you can't see it, disable your Adblocker or tracking protection.

Manhattan Still Life. Hanx pic.twitter.com/JLh5yLnvBf

— Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) September 7, 2018

His tweets mostly consist of pictures of lost / misplaced items, like gloves, socks and shoes. All of the images have some wording accompanying them, like a caption. Mostly along the lines of - Who's sock is this, where's the foot.. He seems to have some kind of obsession with lost items. All very odd. But the strangest thing about all this is that each tweet he posts, no matter how unbelievably strange and meaningless, gets thousands of likes and retweets. Why is that.. He's a celebrity of course, and he has the Celebrity Status Pedestal Pass.

What's going on?, London via /r/Graffiti https://t.co/qBn95aMiYs #Graffiti #Streetart #urbanphotography #graffitiart pic.twitter.com/DyeLEhvXBK

— Urban Diode (@UrbanDiode) September 20, 2018

If a non-celebrity posted those exact same tweets they wouldn't receive not one like or retweet and would probably get labelled as a bit of a weirdo. Well perhaps the "normal" non-celebrity would get one or two likes from a few friendly sympathisers, I mean followers, but that's about it. Hanks, or Hanx as he calls himself, gets thousands. With 15 million + followers I suppose the percentage rate of his engagement is low in comparison.

But I'm shocked that what he posts even gets a few hundred likes from millions of followers. It's only because of who he is perceived by the public to be, a film star, that people just like or retweet for the sake of it. He could probably post a tweet of himself killing a helpless animal, setting an old granny's hair on fire with a blowtorch, or throwing someone off the top a building and it would get thousands of likes. Looking at the rate of engagement his silly tweets get, nothing would surprise me. Actually, come to think of it, that's actually classed as entertainment these days. My bad. - Interwire

Beware Of Fake Jobs On Indeed UK

Indeed, the job search website, has become a prime location for shady companies to use in order to fish for leads / personal details. And the sad thing about it is, it's extremely effective. How do I know this? From personal experience. Almost every time I apply for a job on Indeed UK, the next day there's several new unknown numbers calling me up. And they all have the same thing in common. They are all spam calls.

Admittedly, out of laziness, or just convenience, I have been using Indeed quite a lot to apply for jobs. So when it comes to the other job sites, like Totaljobs, Jobsite etc, I'm not sure how well they handle the fake job problem. But I will say, I have used other websites, including Totaljobs, a few months ago and never had any problems with fake jobs. So maybe their listing processes are more strict.

With Indeed UK its so blatantly obvious. I apply for jobs, and the next day I'm inundated with spam mobile calls. Their rules and regulations for listing a job must be as easy as listing an item for sale on Gumtree. I don't give my phone number or details out to anyone. But they are on my CV, and of course, that is being sent to every job or "employer" (scammer) that I am applying to.

And the next day (I usually apply for jobs on the night) I'm getting calls from strange numbers. Usually I wouldn't answer them, but with the hope that it may be good news about a job I recently applied for, I feel compelled to answer the phone. After dealing with this for a while, and being let down every time, my compelled, excited frame of mind has frizzled away and been replaced by suspicion. Now I don't even answer the phone anymore if the incoming call is from a number I don't recognise.

After the call has ended, and the missed call has been logged, I go and do a search on the Internet for the number. What do I find? Complaints from other people on sites like who-called.co.uk. With close to all the calls I receive after applying for jobs on Indeed, basically all of them are spam, either related to PPI, fake phone contracts, car crashes that never happened, or some other ridiculous lie.

Some of these scammers are now using smarter tactics. Rather than just phoning up using strange numbers, like 0303, or the one that rang me today, 0441280811434, a select few now take the location details of where a person is from, such as Birmingham, London etc, and send those details to the target victims local scamming call center. So in my case the numbers calling me start with 0121, which is the area code for Birmingham.

Their success rate from doing this must have sky rocketed. But that won't last long once people become aware of their sneaky tactic. It didn't take long for me to realise what they were up to. And now, regardless of the area code, I won't answer before I've researched the number online. If its legit I will call them back.

What's the answer to this growing issue? I'm pretty sure new laws were recently put in place that were meant to prevent this kind of thing happening anymore, but the cold callers haven't seemed to take much notice. Like their calls to me, it's fallen on deaf ears.

I've considered removing most of my personal details from my CV, including using a phone number that I don't care about, and a throw away email address. But what I have started to implement already is researching the companies that are advertising on Indeed that I'm interested in applying to, and instead of using Indeed to apply, going over to the employers company website and submitting my application there instead.

Either that or I only apply to jobs that have a "Apply on Company website" button. The jobs that have the "Easily apply for this job" next to them, or any job where an individual sends the CV through Indeed are, in my experience, the ones much more likely to be fake. Indeed really need to address this problem as it seems to be happening more often.

And I mean, just think of all the details these low life companies are getting from using this method to generate potential leads. There is so much information about an individual on a CV. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a hundred cloned people out there who are now using my details as fake identity.

You Can't Even Eat An Orange Anymore

You would think that Oranges were one of the safest fruits to eat. After all, they have a protective layer, the peel, protecting them. Well it turns out now, that even Oranges are not safe anymore. They are sprayed with potentially dangerous pesticides. I first discovered this when reading the label on a bag of Oranges being sold at an Aldi Superstore in the UK.

The Oranges in question were imported from Africa and the label stated that they were sprayed with thiabendazole and imazalil. I thought this seemed odd because I have never seen a heads up message like this on a bag of Oranges before. So when I got home I decided to do some quick research.

My findings: These pesticides are more than likely toxic to humans. So now you can't even eat an Orange anymore without being paranoid that its actually doing you more harm than good.

Oh simple things, where have you gone..

Most people would probably say: The pesticides are on the outer layer, the peel, so they're not going to do any harm unless you're someone who eats the peel. That is true to some extent, but tests have indicated that some of the imazalil does get through to the pulp of the Orange and is being ingested. 

It may only be a small amount, but imazalil is harmful to humans, and no amount of this pesticide being consumed is acceptable. Especially unknowingly when eating something perceived as healthy. I mean, how many people actually read that small, deemed irrelevant label on a bag of Oranges. I only happened to read it by chance.

Even more concerning is the fact that it is also very hard to actually get rid of. More tests were done where different methods of washing the Oranges were performed to see if any of them would be 100% effective at removing all traces of the pesticides. The results concluded that none of the washing methods, which included washing with soap, hot water, and even an Ultrasonic bath, were successful in removing both pesticides completely. 

In fact, the more hazardous of the two pesticides (imazalil) was the one that was the most persistent and could not be fully removed with any of the washing methods used in the test. Read the PDF test paper.

Now, I don't know if or how dangerous thiabendazole and imazalil are to humans when handled, but just thinking about how many times I myself have handled oranges, not washed my hands afterwards, and then sat down to eat or picked some plaque from a tooth is quite concerning. 

Is Organic any better? Does every big superstore buy from fruit suppliers that use toxic chemicals on their produce. Are any exempt? If so, comment below. These days it seems like nothing is safe anymore. Profit, and a disregard for human health has taken over almost everything. As small as this issue might be in the grand scheme of things, it's just another thing to be aware of. The tightrope is getting thinner - Interwire.

Stonebridge Quarry Closed By HS2

Sign: Stonebridge Quarry (Packington Estate) closed, or closing because of HS2. How do you [I] feel about HS2? I think its terrible. Going straight through a lot of countrysides and nature preserves, uprooting businesses, and even making people leave their homes and paying / offering them much less than what the house / property is worth, does not warrant a time saving of a few minutes to a few hours (max) when travelling some of the most populated UK commuter train journeys.

Such as London to Manchester, Birmingham to London etc. What a huge waste of money and time. Something tells me that the reason the HS2 contract was granted was because some people high up in the project somewhere, I don't know where, are going to make a lot of money from this deal. And its clear to see, because HS2 is going ahead, that they don't care who they have to trample on or displace to achieve their ridiculous goal. Anyway, I just wanted to update this blog with a picture of the Stonebridge Quarry sign that reminded me of HS2 due to the notice of closure on the lower left.