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I'm not really one for new years resolutions, I've never given up anything just because its a new year, and I'm not about to start now. Having said that I did decide to make a new start this year, so I started the year determined to be more positive for one thing, and decided to do something I've never done before, I didn't know what, just that it had to be something I hadn't done before.
As I've mentioned before, my contract is up in March, and I've been unsure what's in store, so the last few weeks I've been working on my CV and applying for jobs, nearly 100 so far. Whilst I've been doing this I've also given a lot of thought to what it is I can do and what it is I want to do. And the more I think about it the more I realised I want to combine both, but do it for myself.
Then talking to a friend, it dawned on me, here's my opportunity to do something I've never done before, and we're not even 2 weeks into the new year. I'm always having ideas, but I've never before done a business plan, tried a few times and didn't get very far, so I've spent the last few days working it and just finished it.
Obviously I don't want to discuss it in detail in public just yet, but if anyone is interested in helping me out or getting involved then PM or Email me
Ian
Posted by rufusmusic on 11/1/06; 1:48:22 AM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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Talking to my mom earlier and her neighbours son Tom has been sent off to Iraq after only being in service 6 months, he's 21, he wanted to be an engineer, he's a tank driver. He only get's to speak to his mom once a week and all his calls are monitored, he told her he has to drink 30 pints of water a day because of the heat, he started to tell her he was behind a tank that rolled over which was apprently on the news, and got cut off, none of them know if or when he'll be back. Stay safe Tom.
This bought us on to last night's programme on Reg Keys who stood against Bliar in the election, a documentary that followed his campaign and gave some insights into the turmoil caused to the families, Reg sounded ashamed to admit he'd been to the doctor for his nerves, his other son, still in the army described the personality change in his dad and how he was torn between wanting to go to Iraq if called upon, to see where his brother died, and the further anguish it would cause his parents who obviously both want him to refuse.
Russell Aston's family are still continuing their fight for justice, best of luck to you all.
Posted by rufusmusic on 18/5/05; 4:21:38 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"UK: Nick Griffin charged with four counts of incitement to racial hatred; party's founder also charged."
Posted by rufusmusic on 6/4/05; 4:47:59 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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This was the view from my flat the other day 
This was the view a few minutes ago;
And another
Posted by rufusmusic on 2/3/05; 1:15:56 PM
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I was introduced to Rosie by a friend of mine, Doreen, who also sadly died in 2003, both women were great characters who knew how to live life and enjoy it.
From the Burton Mail
TRIBUTES TO CRASH VICTIM by NERMIN OOMER
FRIENDS of a grandmother who died in a coach crash in Europe have paid tribute to "the Queen of Ashby", as her body was flown home.
Coach hostess Rosie Nolan was hurled from the Austria-bound vehicle taking holidaymakers on a ski trip, which overturned on a German motorway at 7.15am on Saturday.
Mrs Nolan, who lived in Staley Avenue, Ashby, was a mother-of-five and grandmother.
Her body is believed to have been flown back to Britain on Tuesday, accompanied by some of her children.
Friends of the 57-year-old today painted a picture of a kind, outgoing, popular woman.
Mrs Nolan’s friend, Tina Daly, landlady of The Shoulder of Mutton pub in Market Street, Ashby, who had known her for nine years, paid tribute to the "wonderful, warm, loving person".
Mrs Daly said: "She was a diamond — the Queen of Ashby, who had a heart of gold. She would do anything for anybody.
"She liked dancing and music and loved having her nails done. She always had a Jack Daniels and diet coke or a glass of red wine.
"There is so much to remember about her. She was part of a very close family and we all loved her to bits.
"We were devastated when we found out."
Landlord of the Bowling Green pub in Brook Street, Ashby, Paul Monk, said Mrs Nolan was a friend and customer who "lived life to the full".
He said: "She liked to enjoy herself and was always on the go.
"Everybody knew her and she had lots of friends. You couldn’t keep her down. She was 57 going on 30 and she will be missed by everybody."
There were 35 people on board the coach travelling along a motorway near Grunstadt, Germany, including the hostess and two drivers.
A local district attorney will assess whether to start a criminal prosecution over the crash.
Police in Wattenheim said the coach had "balding" summer tyres and was possibly going too fast.
But Watford company Cantabrica Coaches, which organised the ski trip, today defended the company’s "excellent" safety record.
Cantabrica spokesman Simon Posner said: "The coach in question is a state-of-the-art modern coach fitted with all the latest safety features. It was fully checked prior to departure.
"The tyres fitted are the same as those fitted on all coaches currently operated in Europe."
Posted by rufusmusic on 27/2/05; 9:47:07 AM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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It's official:
One state ruins it all. One size fits all, available to order for a very reasonable £5.
Posted by rufusmusic on 3/11/04; 10:42:25 PM
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"New Age Travellers: Time Shift New Age Travellers are regarded by many as pariahs. With unique and never before seen archive this week's Time Shift takes a fresh look at those who've often been called soap dodging, anti-social, drug taking scroungers.
From their origins in the early seventies, as idealists looking for an alternative way of life, we see how legislation and increasing fragmentation have eroded both the appeal and viability of being a New Age Traveller. Narrated by Paul McGann. "
Posted by rufusmusic on 17/10/04; 9:43:16 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/
In an effort to worry the public and convince them to vote for us again next year, and because George Bush asked us to, this website includes the common sense advice found in the Preparing for Emergencies booklet, and information on what the government is doing to protect the country as a whole. (Hint: we're praying really, really hard.) National editions of the booklet will be available here when we can be arsed to get translators to put them into your crazy moon languages.
Posted by rufusmusic on 1/8/04; 1:18:28 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"Going undercover is not undertaken lightly, especially if your true identity is to be revealed. Jason Gwynne describes the ordeal."
Posted by rufusmusic on 16/7/04; 12:36:49 PM
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"The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's West Bank barrier is illegal and construction of it should be stopped immediately. The ruling said the barrier's construction was "tantamount to annexation" and impeded the Palestinian right to self-determination. Israel insists the barrier is needed to keep out West Bank militants. The Palestinians consider it a land grab. The court's decision is not binding, but can serve as a basis for UN action."
I'm back and in pain after falling off a wall in Portugal.
Posted by rufusmusic on 9/7/04; 3:48:35 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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After arriving in Faro last Thursday I spent the first few days in Olhâo before moving on to Sagres 3 days ago, weather is fantastic, as are the beaches, I´ve just logged on from a bar here before I move up the coast.
Should be fun tonight if Portugal win, pity it´s not us playing, but not all that suprising I suppose.
Apologies to all for missing the Trust AGM last night, hope it went well guys.
Bye for now.
Posted by rufusmusic on 30/6/04; 10:24:51 AM
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Theres no link for this story as it's not in the news, fortunately no one was hurt.
About 1am this morning as I was thinking about going to bed I heard a number of succesive bangs, there was a train going past, and at first I thought it was the explosives that workers sometimes put on the tracks, but it carried on, bang-bang-bang-bang-bang by this time I was up at the window and could see people across the road running everywhere and frantically banging on doors, then disappearing into flats/maisonettes, lots of shouting from around the other side out of my sight, and where the gunfire came from, which is what, I'd realised by now, it was.
The police, who vacate their 'community' police station every night arrived up the road and parked up in the farmfoods car park, 2 marked cars and one unmarked, an ambulance, with no flashing lights or siren blaring out, drove past towards Wolves, the others soon followed and I had to go to bed at 2am.
It seems it was something that's been building up between Park Village and Heath Town.
Hopefully thats the end of it.
I just spent a while on the phone to a local labour councillor who knew nothing about it, but said it was about drugs, and there had been a shooting at Park Village recently, he said the police need to be firmer and stronger, then kept blaming the courts for letting them off lightly, as well as blaming the family environment, and asked me to call him next week.
Posted by rufusmusic on 8/6/04; 3:12:01 PM
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Not really news, but as I've been working so hard I felt I deserved a treat. I've never bothered with a DVD player, I thought I'd wait until the rewriters came out, and after waking up early this morning, and doing 4 pages for next weeks presentation I had a look at cclcomputers and bought this for £70 including tax and delivery.
Sony DW18A Black (Dual Writer +/-) OEM Ref: CDR4044
OEM Drive - 8x DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW
Features
Read & Write Compatibility with major DVD Recording Formats, DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW.
Fast 8x DVD+R/-R and 4 x DVD +RW/+RW recording or rewriting
Buffer under run protection features for smooth, reliable writing.
Internal ATAPI drive for installation in a Microsoft Windows operating system environment.
Specifications
Write Speeds 8x DVD+R
4x DVD+RW
8x DVD-R
4x DVD-RW
40x CD-R
24x CD-RW
Read Speeds 12x DVD-ROM
40x CD-ROM
Buffer Memory 2MB
Dimensions (MM) 146.3 x 41.8 x 170.5 (w x h x d)
Weight 1100g
Mounting Horizontal or vertical
[Edit] 24 hours later and its here, along with the 50 DVD+R's and 20 DVD+RW's I ordered from www.svp.co.uk I also bought a 240 disk carrying case from svp for £3.39 [/Edit]
Posted by rufusmusic on 3/6/04; 10:56:21 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"Police raided the home of a County Durham council worker after a farewell prank gets out of hand."
Mr Grey said: "The police searched my house for guns, but they did not find any because there weren't any there."
Hardly suprising considering he said that Mr Phillips [his former boss] "ought to think himself bloody lucky that I don't own a gun".
A Durham Police spokesman said: "Following police inquiries it has been decided not to take any further action."
:)
Posted by rufusmusic on 2/6/04; 6:31:12 PM
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"Watching paint dry is the new reality By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 28/05/2004)
Viewers who say they would rather watch paint dry than the likes of Big Brother have had their wish granted."
Thanks Eig
Posted by rufusmusic on 1/6/04; 9:31:11 PM
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"Senator urges action as Briton reveals abuse at Camp Delta."
Abuse of prisnoers isn't systematic, oh no, the man with the record for most executions in Texas wouldn't oversee such cynical abuses of basic human rights, surely.
Posted by rufusmusic on 16/5/04; 7:34:07 AM
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"Education: Advice to a 14-year-old girl who had an abortion without parental knowledge might just as easily have been given elsewhere, says the DfES."
Posted by rufusmusic on 13/5/04; 4:29:06 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears to have survived his six-hour grilling by Congress over the Iraqi prisoner mistreatment scandal.
Some Democrats on the Senate Armed Services committee called for his sacking, but Republicans backed him, as has President George W Bush.
Mr Rumsfeld apologised and accepted full responsibility for what he said were abuses committed "on my watch"...
Several Democratic members of Congress suggested Mr Rumsfeld should consider his position.
The harshest comment came from veteran senator Edward Kennedy.
"I think the President of the United States should fire Secretary Rumsfeld," he said after the hearing.
As one of the senate committee commented, the picture below is now what people will think of when they think of America.
"I can't tell you my feelings, the Americans got rid of Saddam Hussein. They told us about democracy and freedom. We are happy about that. Then this man did this to seven of us. I am asking: Is that democracy? Is that freedom", Hyder Sabbar Abd, in the NY Times, pictured below.
Pictures from http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/
Posted by rufusmusic on 8/5/04; 12:57:16 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"People living near Exeter urge Devon County Council to set up transit sites for travellers."
Posted by rufusmusic on 4/5/04; 8:17:12 AM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Graeme Dott 18-8 for his second World Snooker title."
Well done Ronnie.
Posted by rufusmusic on 4/5/04; 8:15:31 AM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"Ronnie O'Sullivan demolishes Stephen Hendry 17-4 in the World Snooker semi-final."
Amzing snooker from Ronnie to totally destroy on of the game's greats, I've always been an admirer of his but these last few performances have taken the game to a different level, can't wait to watch the final tomorrow.
Posted by rufusmusic on 1/5/04; 1:57:34 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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" 'Laser vision' offers new insights Directly spraying light onto the retina, basically a heads-up display on your eye. And it's a step closer to the sunglasses Chevette stole in Virtual Light. Said glasses being wired up to display metadata about the world around you -- if you have a gardener set you walk through and look at the plants and everything has little labels with the common names and names in Latin."
Posted by rufusmusic on 30/4/04; 11:51:35 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"Migrants are helping to reverse Scotland's population slide, official figures reveal."
Statistics show 5,057,400 were living in the country at the end of June 2003 - up 2,600.
Research indicates 6,500 more people died than were born which carries on the trend of recent years.
It was out-matched, though, by an estimated gain of 9,100 because more people migrated than moved away, said the Registrar General.
People coming to Scotland from overseas exceeded emigrants by 700, compared with a loss of 9,700 the previous year.
So much for being 'flooded' with immigrants.
Posted by rufusmusic on 30/4/04; 2:40:22 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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From CNN
PROSSER, Washington (AP) -- Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick. Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading "End the war -- on terrorism."
Whatever happened to the first ammendment?
Posted by rufusmusic on 27/4/04; 8:18:13 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"The Comments link at the end of each News item is a very effective way of providing instant feedback and addressing any issues. Feel free to use it! This is a view that I know is shared by Rufus and also probably by Steve himself, I'm sure, as well as others who have the News facility enabled."
I've got to agree, they're very useful for pretty instant feedback, I think I'm right in saying that anyone can add a comment, you don't need to be a member of a blog to add one, just click the comments link, fill in your details once and away you go. Try it...
Posted by rufusmusic on 26/4/04; 4:03:00 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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"I've been using this for years. I'm hoping that others will finally follow - a lot of work has gone into making this simple.
Within your Editors only: News page are two links. These are special javascript bookmarklets. Drag one to your favorites or bookmarks toolbar, then highlight some text in any web page like this:"
It worked, only for some reason the Trackback isn't appearing on my news items.
[Update] Thanks for the help Legion, got it back on now, hopefully Steve can sort out the problems with TB soon [/Update]
Posted by rufusmusic on 25/4/04; 8:26:45 PM
from the Rufusnews dept.
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Dozens of Chinese babies died after consuming fake milk powder, they died of malnutrition as the powder had virtually no nutritional value. The fake milk powder was sold in central China, in a rural area.
It is not uncommon in China for some companies to sell products such as fake rice or medicine to people.
About 200 babies came down with ‘big head disease’. This means their heads swelled while the rest of their bodies seemed to get thin and wither. They all had consumed this fake milk powder. At first doctors did not realise they were suffering from malnutrition.
When officials checked the milk powder out, they found that it contained less than one third of the nutritional value of normal baby formula.
Some reports say that officials did not alert the public about the fake milk powder even after so many babies had died.
Posted by rufusmusic on 22/4/04; 2:34:03 PM
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