Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Cyberleader2000]

Happy birthday, CL2K!  Try to focus on the good stuff to come, it's great that you have friends to go to the cinema with, and a mother who loves you, even if she's sloppy on punctuality. 

And remember when you get to my age birthday presents can consist of a large jar of marmite and a DVD to watch with the kids!

(Although that is what I asked for).

well this Saturday were going to see eaither spiderman 2 or if its out godzilla will it be out by then

as for my mum lastr year I asked for a new digitial camara she said I had to name one as she cant find one that matchses what I want it for and as for the late x-mas present it will be a PS4 when she can find one for a good offer

[HdE]

My life is currently riddled with a series of minor impediments because: the internet.

Seriously. I arrived at the conclusion today that too much exposure to the WWW is doing bad things to my sanity.

I'm (hopefully) known for my tolerance levels, but I am literally just seeing so much stupid online right now that I actually dread logging into places like Facebook, as well as certain other corners of the internet. But not here. It's aces here.

What I'm talking about are the kind of asinine statements and arguments that seem to suggest the people posting them have full-on proper head problems. In their heads. Things that make me think 'how can anyone REALLY think that?'

Time for a brief retreat from netland, methinks.

[The Legendary Shark]

I gave up on Facebook and all that pap months ago and feel a lot better for it. This place is my Facebook now and the the rest of the web is just for communication, collaboration, research or the occasional tv show.

I found that if I didn't own the web, the web pwned me...

[HdE]

My only bugbear is that Facebook et al are pretty important lines of communication with certain people. It's just become increasingly difficult to tune out the noise these last few weeks.

I shall deal with this as I do all minor crises. More beer.

[Colin Zeal]

The cricket team I play for is facing a complaint from the team we played on Saturday as they have reported us to the league. Haven't seen the exact details yet but seems they have complained about our standard of umpiring (not giving LBW decisions against our batsmen) and abuse of umpires. Sadly I think they may have some grounds for this but that isn't what's annoying me at present. I just don't need the hassle of having to deal with this when I've got a load on at work and home. I play cricket for fun and at the moment loads of things are happening that mean it's about as far away from that as possible and I'm getting to the point where I'm considering giving up playing.

[Fungus]

I gave up on Facebook and all that pap months ago and feel a lot better for it.

Completely. Few years back a college reunion was punctuated throughout by people taking photos. In my naivety I didn't even see the relevance of this to the 'net. Wondered about the sanity of a few in particular after befriending (ugh) them later.
Still waiting for the full Facebook backlash. But on it goes........

[A.Cow]

Today I have learned an important lesson:

    A car horn that plays "La Cucaracha" can be mildly annoying.

    A car horn that plays "La Cucaracha" can be more annoying if it's located at a garage within earshot of my window while I'm trying to do urgent paperwork.

    But that's nothing compared to someone trying to FIX a car horn that plays "La Cucaracha".  For most of the last HOUR.

[GrinningChimera]

Today I have learned an important lesson:

    A car horn that plays "La Cucaracha" can be mildly annoying.

    A car horn that plays "La Cucaracha" can be more annoying if it's located at a garage within earshot of my window while I'm trying to do urgent paperwork.

    But that's nothing compared to someone trying to FIX a car horn that plays "La Cucaracha".  For most of the last HOUR.

the cockroach

[TordelBack]

    But that's nothing compared to someone trying to FIX a car horn that plays "La Cucaracha".  For most of the last HOUR.

Dear god.   

[Proudhuff]

fix it with a hammer? 

[Theblazeuk]

Drill bit stuck in our brand new drill. At least it got the bloody holes in the wall.

Very irritating as we only had to get this one because the old one couldn't keep hold of the bits in anything but wood... now we can't change the bit on the new one or get it back in the box.

I suspect in our cackhandedness we may have drilled the holes using the counter-clockwise setting. I didn't really think to check till we tried to put it away.

Any tips?

[The Legendary Shark]

Try forcing some cheese (preferably either Lancashire or Red Leicester) into the mechanism...

[TordelBack]

Is it one of those newfangled keyless chucks that you just twist the housing against itself, Theblazeuk?  Bloody useless things, can't seem to get more than year out of one, and I don't use a drill that often.  Chances are something is squashed tight deep in there and needs to be persuaded to come loose.  If it's as recent a purchase as you indicate just bring it back - running it in reverse shouldn't do that, and sometimes you have to run in reverse: Not Fit For Purpose.

Otherwise, all I can suggest is what worked for me, which is to get yourself a gallon of WD40* and squirt it deep into the chuck, and leave it to soak for a good few hours: drown the bloody thing in the stuff.  Then get a pliers or a small wrench or clamp and waggle the drill bit back and forth fairly gently while holding or clamping the body of the drill firmly, all the time squirting more WD40 directly on to any gap you can make between the jaws and the bit and keep working it  (wear old clothes, there'll be WD40 everywhere).  If that isn't budging it, get a tack hammer and a flat-head screwdriver and try to open a gap without damaging the jaws themselves.  Once you get things moving, it should all come unstuck.

Obviously you run the serious risk of further fecking your drill and certainly voiding any warranty, so take care and don't blame me!



*Note: not a variety of cheese.

[The Legendary Shark]

It does amuse me that mankind can construct pyramids, skyscrapers and Mars rovers yet we still can't bore holes in a wall without ending up with a knackered cheap drill full of WD40 and cheese.

[Theblazeuk]

Cheers Tordelback. I am seeing lots of recommendations for that so I may give it a go. I just dunno whether to try and faff around with the warranty and get a replacement - if it comes out easily then great! If its a pain in the arse and I do damage to the drill, what a waste.