Texas Calculatem and Poker Office Blog

Rottie, Acorn and Juice are at Inter. But having busted out my account I've been relegated to fishing at Pacific Poker.

The tables at Pacific were surprisingly tight and I only made about $10 from sitting there for one hour while bantering with the others on Yahoo.

The other players seem to be able to treat SNG's and NL as cash machines. But I need to return to my old staple of limit poker if I want to start making any sort of positive return again.

I read a story about the popularity of Psychic Reading in The Metro this morning, and mentioned it to Rosie. We were both thinking about what to blow our month's Poker winnings on but were stumped for ideas. But after hearing of the £25 fee for a psychich reading session, Rosie wondered whether or not she could sell some reads herself.

I thought it was a great idea. As such a business would be very simple to set up and run part time. If readings are done purely over the internet, then all we need is a Paypal account and simple website.

Here are some useful resources for the project:

- Tarot Card Reading Tutorial
- Intro to Tarot Cards - this gives advice on things like why you should do the readings on a wooden table. Telling clients that we do stuff like this would make us seem more legit.

Also, need to watch this video that Juice made earlier. I'll do it tonight as I don't like watching noisy stuff in the office.

My Inter balance stands at $9. The Juice has been fishing my account and I took a hit going all in with top pair, flush draw, against a lucky fish who had 2 pair. SMT SMT.

Tried to get some banter going at Inter last night when I was playing with Juice, but the magic just wasn't there. So the tilt monkey had to stay in his little Box.

The Juice is thinking of moving to Cumbria, and tells all in this post.

I'll be sad to see him go so far (though in truth, I probably only see him in person every 6 months) but I guess that at his stage in life he needs to go where the money is. I'm very lucky in that I was brought up near London, which happens to be one of the most overpriced financial centres of the world. It gave me to opportunity to commute from home (1 hour from Canary Wharf!) until I got lucky and bought a pad in London.

According to the scales of truth I have the body of a 12 year old.

Texas Calculatem sales stand at 4 for this month. Not very good as it won't quite cover my Hakkasan bill. SMT SMT.

I made this dragon in the office today. It doesn't look too good in the video as I have shakey hands from my habit.

If you want to make your own model, click here to download the PDF.


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

A few months ago I was making a couple of hundred dollars a day from my web enterprises. Unfortunately, the Ask Jeeves robot took down my main site, and the subsequent fallout got lots of my pages delisted and therefore cost me a lot of money. (moral of the story - block the Ask Jeeves robot from your site on an IP level, no one uses it anyway).

However, my sites have been staging a small comeback, and the number of page views of my main advert in the Digital Point Coop Advertising Network is finally starting to climb again see the screenshot). I am hoping that this increase is going to preceed a rise in profits. One small niggle at the back of the mind has arisen from Miasdad's comment that people are now going on holiday rather than booking them. So maybe the profit potential is limited for the next couple of months. But if I can grind away and stay prepared then things should be good when things pick up.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I am very impressed that I managed to add embed the Arctic Monkey video into my last post. This blog is breaking new barriers, though I draw the line at posting videos of Juice praying to his Budha statue in his bedroom.

Also added a link to a blog about theatre that's written by one of Juice's friends. I've never really been a theatre man myself, but find it fascinating that people can see so much in a play. Being a simplistic lout, all I see is a few people prancing around a stage saying words. The last play I saw was Dangerous Corner by JB Priestley. Can't really remember what it was about. Think it was a murder mystery with an owl at the end.

Oh - this is supposed to be a Poker blog. So I guess I should write about Poker... Poker is going the same as usual for me... Absolutely nowhere! Did some Poker with the usual crew last night but failed to make or lose anything. The only saving grace is that I've got $15 from Empire for doing absolutely nothing, and have taken that to around $33 getting lucky against a few unlucky fish.

On a more interesting front, I've taken to congratulating pot winners by telling them "nice river" in the chat, with the aim of tilting the opposition. A nasty chap called Texasflai took exception to this and started telling to "4ck off". He got even more angry when my alias told him that she wouldn't "4ck him". NICE.

It was a quiet day at work today. I was chatting to The Rottie on MSN as she played a MTT, and had French chick on another.

French chick was after a job. So I started typing into my chat box to Rottie:

"French chick needs a job, should I ask her to come and be my personal lapdancer?"

Alas, just as I hit the enter button, an external software salesman decided to pop up behind me and say "Hi Edge, how's the new software treating you?"

How embarrasing! I was sure he'd read my MSN box. And to make it worse, I had a pile of those Jack Sparrow coins on my desk. So he probably thinks that I'm both a childish collector of junk and lewd pervert all wrapped into one. I should have more discipline and stop fucking about all day.

Anyway, on to a totally different topic, Madonna's Like a Prayer video topped a poll of videos that "broke the rules", according to this article from BBC News. I've just watched it and don't see what the fuss was about. Two noteworthy features according to the BBC are dancing around burning crosses and kissing a black Christ-like figure in a church. There weren't any dudes dresses as ghosts next to the crosses, so I doubt she was trying to support the KKK. And so what if it portrays Jesus as black, he most definitely wasn't white, as depicted in most European art.

Was Jesus White?

The silly girl didn't take note of what I said in my previous email:

- that I tried calling her and the number is wrong
- that I wanted some pictures of her and her mates

Chicks can be so confusing.

Juice is going to be on TV. Click Here to read about the show.

Hello my dear Edge. I was disappointed that you can’t call to me.
I would like to hear your voice.
I don’t know how you need to call from your country… Single what I know,
that Russian code is 7 and the number in Russia is xxxx. Please,
try again later. I will wait…
When you’ll call me, the operator takes a handset. You need to tell him digits
1125 and he’ll connect you with me. 1125 is number of inside network.
Please call this digit correctly and then we can speak.
I went with an idea that you call me in these days. I thought about you all the time!!!

To communicate with person by Internet is very interesting for me. You make friends with him,
but you don’t know him alive. It’s new for me.

How I already told you I’ve never been married. Of course I had boy-friends.
But I feel sorry that I’ve never been married. My mother worries about it.
She has married in 21 year. And she considers that the joint life needs to
be begun as soon as possible. But in a modern society so it is a lot of girls
which devote much time to work. And consequently they cannot adjust home life.
Earlier was considered that it is a problem of men but now it is a
problem of women too. It’s including my problem too.

In our room 4 girls and from them only 2 are betrothed. I envy them a little.
But at heart I always know that I deserve happiness and necessarily I meet
the prince! =)
Ok Edge, on this optimistic note I finish my letter and I hope to receive
from you the letter or it is even better to hear your voice.
Your forever Yuliya.

I am thinking of getting one of these Terastations from Amazon to go in my bachelor pad. It will be very useful for storing DVD's and music on.

The pirate gold that I mentioned last week has finally arrived. I now have 3 pieces of gold on my desk, and will get yet more as other people in the office start to open their mail. The plan is to sell them on ebay and buy a new office tea cosy.

Despite the heat, I've been doing DIY this weekend. My nice new flat has dodgy plastering and cracks in all the walls, so I've been filling them in. Unfortunately, I get vertigo, and the ceiling of my room is very high as it's a converted attic (which doesn't help with the heat!).


I'm trying to convince Juice that he should try to bag a date with the cute looking girl in the photo. She's the friend of a friend and neither of us have met her. But I think she's be perfect for him.

My Dear Yuliya,

Alas I have been on holiday to Vegas with my wife. Do you have a wife?

I have sent you a photo of myself playing Poker in Vegas. Do you have any
more pictures of yourself? I think you are very fugly.

Regards,

The Edge.

Yuliya is missing me. Not sure what to send back to her. I'm still trying to find a free way of calling her in Russia.

Hello my friend Jon.
I already for long time did not receive from you the letter.
Why you to me do not write? What with you happened? I so for
long time waited your letter and have not waited! I ask you
to inform me that with you happened. I am afraid of you to
lose you to me are very dear. I wait for fast your answer.
Your Yuliya.

Here's how to get a free Pirates of the Carribean Jack Sparrow Coin from Play.com.

- Order the Jack Sparrow coin from this page on Play.com.
- Go to the checkout, go through the details, and use the code "PIRATES" in the voucher box (it's on the right of the screen).
- £4.99 should be deducted from the price, making the order £0.00 (and there's no postage cost).

Good luck with this. I'm waiting for my treasure!

I went to the Mirch Masala in Tooting for a nice curry last night. The highlight, yet again, was the mixed grill. Good shit. It takes about 30 minutes to walk there, via a friend's house, so I managed to get a little exercise as well.

It was nice to catch up with my mates and see how they're all coming along. One is about to start running a motorway service station where he'll have 50 underlings to do his bidding. For some reason he wasn't very impressed when I suggest he fire the bottom 10% of his workforce every year, a la Jack Welch, to keep the rest motivated. Oh well, I guess some people just aren't meant to be managers.

Another mate is about to start working for a big bank. So I'll need to keep in touch with her! She was thinking of buying a place with her boyfriend, and I was convincing them to come somewhere sensible like Clapham instead of the Rugger Bugger infested Putney. Fortunately the boyfriend had a rather cynical view of Putney. "It's ridiculously all white," he said, "the only non-whites work in MacDonalds or Tescos." I hadn't really noticed before, but upon reflection, I realised that he was definitely right.

Normally I'm all about the poker rooms but yesterday I found a casino site that deserves a mention. I stumbled across Online Casino during a blackjack break and stayed longer than I should have. The thing I enjoyed the most is that they have three different software versions of the games. I went for the free flash game version. Not only is it free, you don't have register or download a thing. Just click on it and you're literally playing in seconds.

My second choice for software would have to be the other no-download version, but, unlike the first option, you need to register before you start to play. This one does have the option to play for real money if you're up for it. The last choice is the standard, downloadable casino software. Not my thing but it's nice that they've got all these options.

Surfed around the site for a little bit afterward. Unlike most online casinos, they've got pretty extensive casino game tutorial pages for all of the games. Liked what I saw in the blackjack and video poker sections.

They also have a pretty decent sign up bonus worth up to $200 if you're wanting to play for real money.

The Hakkazan Challenge is coming along very well. Through flogging links, Poker Software and Juice's InterPoker play we are now at £125. So there's £55 to go and we're only half way through the month.

Alas, we could hit some problems as Juice's computer has died - thus his late absence from the InterPoker Church. And he estimates that it could take a few weeks for him to get this issue resolved. That is not good news but I'm sure something will come along to save the day.

After my receiving an interesting review, where my blog was described quite accurately as a "link farm", I've decided to clean up the blog a little. The list of links in the left menu, consisting largely of deep links to my other projects, has been reduced. It now just contains links direct to the sites that I run. I can't really reduce the list on the right as most are link exchanges with other blogs and it would be a bit rude to take them off. I also took off the Adbrite bar on the left. It wasn't really paying the bills. Juice has removed Adbrite from his blog as well.

I'm trying to work out what all the fuss about myspace is all about. I created an account and it can be found here. Have not worked out what I'm supposed to do with it, but on the webmaster forum that I read regularly, there are always people flogging myspace accounts.

According to the wikipedia page on myspace, it's full of females posing in various states of undress.

"...females who feature photos of themselves in little clothing on their profile pages, to behave in ways that they would not behave in person..."

Here's an email I got about Zidane's legendary headbutt against an Italian guy in the World Cup.

As seen by the Germans:



As seen by the French:



As seen by the Italians:



As seen by the Americans:



As seen in Hong Kong:

Yuliya has just sent me her phone number (blanked out below). I'm not too sure what to do with it, as getting shafted calling up foreign numbers does not factor into my dating budget. I have a dodgy mate who's obsessed with bargain phone deals, and he probably has free international calls on one of his deals, so I've asked him to call her up, pose as me, and send me the recording (that will obviously be shared with my readers).

Hello my dear Edge. Today I've read all your and my letters.
Thanks that you continue to write me. Today I was so glad that you
write me. I'm sad a few today. I haven't causing to be sad, but I'm
sad. Yesterday I went to cinema with my friend. The cinema was full.
Of course there were interesting. But I would like to go to this movie
with you. In general I would like to go for a walk and speak with you.
I'm sure we would have interesting time together. If you live in
Moscow, you need only to call me and finishes speak about meeting… I
am so sorry that you so far… How I already told you it would be very
interesting to speak with you. I haven't mobile phone, because I
needn't. But I have only work phone. My working phone number
is +79123123123 or 00 123123123(and 1125). When you'll call me, the operator takes a
handset. You need to tell him digits 1125 and he'll connect you with
me. 1125 is number of inside network. Please call this digit correctly
and then we can speak. Now, when I told you my phone number I'm
waiting for your calling with impatience. It's my work number. Call me
please from 10 until 19 o'clock by Moscow time (from 8 until 17 by
Greenville). I hope I can hear your voice soon. I always glad to your
speaking!!! Now I don't know what about to write you, all my thinks
about telephone conversation.
Edge call me please without fail!!!

I've helped Juice sell a few links over the past few days, and mentioned it to Acorn, Rottie and Miasdad last night. They seemed fairly interested, and on the off chance that lots of fellow bloggers could be interested in this idea, I've written a guide on how to sell blog links and posted it on my web development blog.

click here to view the Link Selling Article.

Update (13th July 2006) - I submitted the article to Digg (here). It already has 5 diggs. Hopefully it'll make it to the front page.

I used to do a bit of sports arbitrage. It can be reasonably profitable, and the chance of losing is low, but I found the need to fiddle around with multiple accounts a bit annoying. Finding sports arbitrage opportunities can also be very dull.

Anyway, if you're interested in trying out arbitrage betting, here's some information about a service that sends subscribers the latest arbitrage opportunities:

Sports arbitrage is a multi-million pound industry - It’s time you claimed your share. UCantLose.co.uk is the best valued technique available and comes with a full money back guarantee.

I have been interested in risk free arbitrage betting (arbs) for a number of years but never really made much money because finding arbs is very time consuming. The best way to make money from arbs is to join a service that will find the arbs for you

I have joined a number of arb services in the past but they have all been very expensive and the arbs they sent were either low yielding or the odds had already changed by the time I received the arbs.

UCantLose.co.uk is totally different!! - I have been a member for six months and I have made a very nice 2nd income from the arbs I am sent. UCantLose.co.uk is the best valued arb service I have ever used and the arbs they send me are of the highest quality. UCantLose.co.uk limits the number of members they accept so when they send out an arb there are not thousands of people rushing to get money on, meaning that the odds stay stable for longer - This is very important!!

They guarantee to send at least 40 arbs per month but they always send much more than that (I usually receive between 50 and 100 quality arbs per month). In the unlikely event that they ever fail to send 40 arbs in a month they will refund that month’s membership fee. You also get the option to receive arbs via email or a text message sent direct to your mobile phone.

UCantLose.co.uk is much more than just an arb service because they also send daily hints and tips to help you make more profit from your every day gambling. They also find the best gambling deals on the internet (such as free bets, joining bonuses, free trials etc) and send them direct to my inbox - Very handy!!

Membership to UCantLose.co.uk is from just £15 per month which is a very small price to pay considering how much you will make from the arbs, bonuses, hints and tips etc.

UCantLose.co.uk is currently accepting new members, visit http://www.ucantlose.co.uk/ to join today. Places are strictly limited so you need to act fast to ensure you do not miss out!!

July is so quiet. I was in at 6.30am this morning, got all my spreadsheets going, caught up with the news on the Reuters Terminal, and then nothing happened!!!! What a waste of time. Argggghhhh!

On a less negative note, I'm managing to hold my head above the water at InterPoker, playing at SNG's where Texas Calculatem isn't too good and which Poker Office 2 does not support. While Miasdad and Acorn are surging ahead, I've managed to bring my balance from $9 to $25. So I've got a few more chances before blowing my InterPoker account and moving on to CD Poker via Miasdad's affiliate link.

The Hakkasan Challenge?

This month, Juice has already made enough to pay for a dim sum meal for two. We're only a third of the way through the month and should quite comfortably stretch to a meal for three by the end of the month, upon which we'll head out to China town and get fat! However, if Juice manages to put in a few more hours, we could aspire to Hakkasan. At an average price of £60 per head, we'd need to make £180 to pay for the meal. That could be a challenge, but I guess I could contribute some funds from my affiliate sales. How about it Juice? Do you accept the Hakkasan Challenge?

The Edge has another Admirer

Here's an email from my latest Russian fan:

Hello have a good day,
I am not sure where to begin,it is first time I try to use internet to
meet the man but the thing is,that I will work abroad I can choice
USA,Canada or Europe and I would like to meet the man to share free
evenings and be my guide. My friends helped me to send a few letters
to different address and I do hope that I am lucky to meet good and
kind man.you should know that now I live in Russia and my goal is to leave
this
country because it is impossible to live here for young pretty woman.they
tell I look well
enough,I am blonde with blue eyes,I am natural blonde.I will send a few
photos if you reply.
if you don't have wife nor girlfriend ,maybe we could try to meet?
I am free I have not children .and I have not boyfriend here.
I am 25 years old ,please write to me directly

I gave £10 to Save the Children in the first vote. Now it's time to choose another charity to give another £10 to.

If you'd like to help me choose a charity, please visit http://forum.blapper.com/, and spread the love by sending the site to your friends or posting it on your own websites.

Please note that Mail Order Brides do not count as charities.

I just sent the following email to Yuliya:

Hey Yuliya,

I'd love to chat to you. What is your phone number?

If you send me your postal address as well, I'll send you a cardboard box
and some cash. You can post yourself to London in it, and be a true mail
order bride.

You asked what my city is like by night. It is very dark by night, and the
alleys are full of drunks, wenches and footpads. Such characters help to
make London an interesting place, and I'd love to show you around it.

Could I be cheeky and ask for a couple of favours? My mate Mark has a
fetish for shaved legs and was wondering if he could have a photo of you
shaving your legs. He was also hoping you could send one of your attractive
friends over for a visit. He's not that fussy, but prefers tall slim
blondes.

Kind Regards,

The Edge.

I just stepped on something sharp and now my toe is bleeding. Ouch!

---

STEROPLAST FIRST AID KITS Statutory Standard Kits: Comprehensively stocked & compliant with Health & Safety Regulations Durable, polypropylene case with wall bracket. Content of Steroplast Statutory Kit. Guidance Leaflet x 1 Assorted wash-proof Plasters x 20 Standard Dressings - EyePad x 2 Standard Dressings - Medium x 6 Standard Dressings - Large x 2 Triangular Bandages x 4 Alcohol Free Wipes x 10 Safety Pins x 6 Disposable x 1 Usage: First Aid, Medical Supply, Occupational Health, Health & Safety, Office Use. FIRST AID KIT FOR BETWEEN 1 - 10 PERSONS

I've received another email from my dear Yuliya. It appears that we've been emailing for two weeks, and I feel that our relationship has developed very far. Though she hasn't sent anymore pictures, Yuliya is keen to speak to me over the phone and visit Australia at my expense.

Dear Edge.We already communicate more than two weeks. It's wonderful!
At alive dialogue two weeks are such big time for which is possible to know much practically all
about the person.
I have already written much about myself and I know much about you. But all the same I would
like to know you even better. You write about yourselves so well that you seems the fine person
to me. I would like to hear your voice. Let's speak by phone!!! I think it would be delightful!!!
I didn't communicate yet with foreigners by phone. It will be interesting to know your opinion about
my English!
We went to cinema yesterday. Film calls "Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". The world premiere
started at 29th of June. Did you look this movie? In general Moscow is night city. I have been
surprised yesterday when I have seen so much people in the evening in the street. But in other
way there is very cool and fresh in the evening. And every body wants to for a walk…
Moscow has changed very much for last years. I remember when I have arrived to Moscow, here is all
was in another way. For this time the city became much cleaner, has appeared more trees, have built
new beautiful houses and small shops. Posters with advertising give more colors to night city and
the city comes to life. And how your city looks at night? Is there noisy?
Ok Edge. I shall wait with impatience for your letter and your answer to a question on telephone
conversation.
Bye-bye.
Yours Yuliya
PS:I was interested in travel agency about that how many will be
To cost trip to Australia. Unfortunately for me it is expensive.

I've just sent the following reply to my dear Yuliya.


Hi Yuliya,

It would be very nice if you could send me some pictures of yourself bathing
with your friends. If you like, I could go down the Lido in my speedos and
get my professional photographer buddy to grease me up before I pose for
pictures. He has done some very tasteful male nude photos in the past.

When you come to visit me in Sydney with all your gorgeous supermodel-esque
friends, we could go for a romantic gondola ride in the Venetian Hotel.
Would you like that?

In terms of sports, I play football with David Beckham every weekend. Have
you heard of him? I really like his fashion sense.

Kind regards,

The Edge.

I just finished reading Freakonomics, on the recommendation of a friend, and to be honest I was disappointed.

The authors, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, have applied techniques from the field of economics to a range of non-standard fields, and discuss issues ranging from drug dealer wages to corruption in professional Sumo Wrestling.

The Rottie, with her BSc in Economics, described the book as "pointing out the obvious".

Being a mere Mathmos, I found some of the earlier chapters vaguely interesting, though hardly profound. Levitt uses econometric techniques to prove that Sumo wresting is rigged, shows why Estate Agents might not have their clients interests at heart (hardly surprising) and describes the amusing story of how the Ku Klux Klan was taken down through publicising their secret hand shakes on the Superman radio show. However, the blurb for the book claims that it will help readers to think about things in a different way. I'd like to think about my Poker playing in a different way, or maybe even my derivatives trading, but I found nothing in the book that could help me iron out the flaws in my Poker and trading games.

The second half of the book refers to how racial and social differences affect people as they grow from being children into adults. To be honest, I really just didn't care about the points he made or what he discussed... A lot of ink was wasted discussing how certain groups choose certain names, and how the names of children can therefore be used as an indicator of their future success. Does it really matter?

I have a friend who trades short term interest rates for a major bank. He gets regular reports from Economists who are paid investment banking salaries to provide the best research to himself and his clients. However, he told me that all economists are useless, and if they were any good they'd be trading rather that writing inaccurate reports. While Levitt's work does not relate to finance, I don't feel that he's a suitable candidate for refuting my buddy's claim.

Anyway, now that I've finished that crap, the next book on my list is The Plot Against America. It's some sort alternative history book about Charles Lindbergh defeating Franklin Roosevel in the 1940 presidential election, and the subsequent fear that it instills in Jewish households.

I'll start reading The Plot Against America once I've finished Bernard Cornwell's "The Bloody Ground", that I've been reading at the same time as Freakonomics.

Unfortunately, Yuliya declined to send me some photos of "Edge" on her belly, or with her tongue sticking out.

However, she does appear keen to visit me in Sydney (even though I told her I lived in Edinburgh in an earlier correspondance), and didn't bat an eyelid at the chicks I had relationships with. So if she does fly over to claim a Scottish passport, I won't need to worry about her becoming jealous.

In this email she's attempted to titillate me with stories of her bathing antics, and asked me about what sports I do, so I guess I can write about my professional poker career, beating online Poker with Texas Calculatem, Poker Office 2, and a few tips from Uncle Acorn, Juice, Rottie, Kronsdat, Miasdad etc....

Hello Edge.
Hurrah! I did my work. I finished putting into shape the
next in turn flat. It's so grate. When you finished your work to the
end and your clients like your work you experience shocking feelings.
I promise to send you the pictures of flats Today the weather is hot
as before. Yesterday I bathed at first time in this year. The water is
really warm. And you don't want to go out from water. I decided to go
to the beach more often. I admire to bask in the sun on the beach!!! I
don't think the water is so warm already. Now I shall go more often to
bathe on a beach. Now I well swim, I have learned to float in 18
years. The matter is that Safonovo is in the north of Russia and there
practically always cold weather. I bathed very seldom till 17 years.
After I have arrived to Moscow I began to go to swimming pool. And now
I swim well later more than 10 years =). I was engaged in navigation
only 5 years while I studied in institute. Then I didn't have enough
time for it. Now I am engaged in fitness. I go to a sports hall 3 or 4
times a week. It helps me to relax after the working day. Now a lot of
people work at office all the day and go to a sports hall in the
evening after work. I go to a sports hall with my girlfriends who are
working with me. As I already spoke we are very amicable collective on
work. And are you frequently go in for sports? Also I am engaged in
drawing. I'm professional designer and I should draw much. Today I
have made a few pictures and beautifully have issued them for you. I
hope my work is pleasant to you. Sometimes I do my work at home. I
actually draw much. I should make sketches of ideas which come to my
mind. The designer is creative work which occupies a lot of time. But
it is pleasant to me and consequently I am happy to be engaged in this
business.
Good luck Edge.
Take care!
PS:I with pleasure would arrive to you to Sydney, but when.

I accidently got an unpaid item strike from ebay. I'd been receiving notices for the unpaid item, but was convinced that it was just because ebay hadn't realised that I'd already bought and received the webcam (I'd just bought two - one for me and one for Rosie). But no - I'd actually accidently bought three and hadn't realised.

Unlike the more conventional ebay monkey, I'm not going to bother disputing it. If this prevents me from buying something in the future I'll just open up a new account. I'll admit that I made a mistake, but I really couldn't care less about my ebay rep and will just open up a new account if this prevents me from buying stuff in the future.

Dear Edge,

You have received an Unpaid Item strike.

You were the winning buyer on eBay item Logitech QuickCam Express USB Webcam . The seller, justdeals-uk has informed eBay that payment for the item has still not been received, or that the two of you were not able to come to agreement. As a result, you have received an Unpaid Item strike.

Furthermore, because you did not respond to this Unpaid Item notification, you have lost feedback privileges for this transaction.

If you would like additional information regarding the item in question, please review the dispute details page.

Important: Repeated Unpaid Item strikes may result in your suspension from eBay.

You can appeal against this Unpaid Item strike if you believe it is not deserved. First, read the requirements for appealing the strike. If you meet them, you can submit your appeal on that page. If your appeal is successful the strike will be removed.

If you have recently paid for the item or have otherwise resolved this dispute, you can ask the seller to remove the Unpaid Item Strike.


Thank you,
eBay



Details for item number:
Item title: Logitech QuickCam Express
Item URL:
End date:
Quantity: 1
Dispute URL:
Date dispute was opened:

Targoun wanted to know how to add Poker adverts to a blog....

First, you need to sign up to an affiliate site. Fortune Affiliates are quite good as they pay $200 for CPA's. You can sign up via the banner below.




Hopefully, after a few days, they'll have approved your account.

If your account is approved, log into your affiliate account and get the html code for your banner.

Log into your blogger account, and the click the "Template" tab at the top. Insert your affiliate code into a suitable place.

Good luck,

Edge.

Hey Yuliya,

I love your tea making photos.

Could you send me a photo of yourself sticking your tongue out? Is there
anything else you can do with your tongue?

I've sent you a picture of two girls I had relations with last week. It
would be great if you could visit me in Sydney and bring some of your
girlfriends to entertain me and my mates.

Kind Regards,

Edge.

Yuliya has just responded to the page of random text that I sent her yesterday. She has also attached a picture of herself brewing a nice cup of tea. I guess she knows the way to a man's heart.

Here's her email. I think I'll ask her about Texas Calculatem next time...

Hi.
How are you doing today? I hope everything is all right.I'm Ok.
Today the weather is really hot. It is hot and stuffy weather
so I want to go to the work quickly. Why on the work? Because there
are we have cooler (refreshing system). And our room is cool fresh. I
have no refreshing system at home. And it is very hard to be at home
all day. Have you got refreshing system? Our countries are so
different. There are various temperatures in various places. Now in
Moscow is +30, and in my native land Safonovo is +10. Probably there
are is identical weather in all your cities. I don't yet bathe in this
year. Today in the evening I'll go to swim to the pond with my
friends. We already arranged. There are 12 ponds adapted for bathing
in Moscow. Water is dirty in other places and don't adapted for
bathing. Which places for bathing have you got? Are you already
bathing in this year? How often do you go to the sea? Do you see
ocean? Ok, I must to do work hard today. I'm going to finish one
project. So I have to work hard. Tomorrow I need to show the flat to
the client. I hope everything will be remarkable. I'm sending you few
my photos. Tell me please what do you think about it?
Bye-bye.

Was watching Matt Allwright and Dan Penteado on BBC's Rogue Traders show earlier, and I have to say that those guys were very inspirational.

The show tonight was about dodgy car salesmen. And in true Robin Cook style, they confronted the salesmen with proof of their misdeeds. One of the accused had a peasant henchman, in a hoody, who brandished a broom at Matt and Dan, much like a medieval spear. The accused also got into a truck and repeatedly tried to run them over as they attempted to leave the premises. After many attempts, they eventually got out, but were shot with a car wash spray as they left. All this was on TV, before the 9pm watershed, and the presenters must have been very brave to risk life and limb for such a show. Not only does it demonstrate bravery to the masses, but it also benefits the public as the rogue salesmen were selling substandard cars illegally, thus risking the lives of the British public.

Anyway, I don't have much else to report today. Am trying to big up the Juicester to the French chick. Tried doing Yoga stretches but just got sore instead. Have been so tired today. Got to bed at 2am, and was up at 630am, and in the money shop by 730am. Tough times.

Even better news than making easy money with Texas Calculatem...

It's alleged that one of the Portuguese football players failed a drugs and alcohol test after the match. If this is confirmed as positive, under World Football Federation rules, paragraph 6 sub section 2e, Portugal will forfeit the quarter final match and England will play France in the Semi Final on Wednesday...
Full report below...







































Carlsberg don't send emails, but if they did, they would probably be the best emails in the world!

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There is a very real danger that Cristiano Ronaldo will be voted the fans'
best young player at the World Cup despite his pouting, diving, pretty boy
antics designed mainly to get himself a lucrative transfer to Real Madrid
and thus avoid the good kicking he deserves from Wayne Rooney at Manchester
United training.

He is currently 1st in the FIFA voting just ahead of Luis Valencia of
Ecuador. Please can everyone go to
http://edit.fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/bypa/supplemental.html?vote=1&commonname=500062

and do the decent thing by voting for Valencia. It doesn't matter who you
support or if you haven't seen them play, just stop Ronaldo.

Takes 30 seconds...You know it makes sense!!!!

My web enterprises have been struggling for a couple of months, and in order to increase the amount of karma coming my way I started a charity site at blapper.com. Juice tells me it's ugly. But hey, he's hardly a pretty dog himself.

Anyway, the charity vote was won by Save the Children. So I sent them £10 and got a nice email in reply. I'll get round to updating the charity site with this info when I'm feeling less lethargic.

Dear EDGE,

Thank you for doing something really special by donating £10.00 to Save the Children.

We have received your payment details and will be processing them shortly. If there are any problems we will let you know by email.

If you have any questions regarding your donation please email ADDRESS quoting your reference number: 000000
Remember to continue visiting www.savethechildren.org.uk and please do keep in touch

THANK YOU!

The team at Save the Children UK


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The Gift Aid scheme allows us to claim 28p from the Inland Revenue for every ?1 that you donate to us, including any donations that you may have made to Save the Children since 6th April 2001. Please let us know if you have made donations to us but have not been a UK taxpayer in this period.

You are eligible for the scheme if you are a UK taxpayer and you currently pay income or capital gains tax equal to or more than the tax deducted from your donations.

You are entitled to cancel your Gift Aid declaration at any time within the next 30 days, without any tax being claimed by Save the Children. Should you choose not to Gift Aid your donations or if you stop paying tax, please let us know and we can take your donations out of the Gift Aid scheme.

> raise money while you search with everyclick.com
Everyclick.com is a fantastic new search engine that will generate money for Save the Children every time you use it. Find out more by visiting www.everyclick.com.

Unfortunately, it's looking as though Yuliya is a robot. She's just replied to the email that I sent her last night and has failed to address the question of whether or not she's a real person. Here is what she sent me:

Hi .
Now I'm on the work and I can write letter for you.
I work on the 12th floor of building with 20 levels. I work in design section.
We are four in one room. Do you remember I tell you that I really like my job?
Our company is very good. Everybody has a computer. I know computer sufficiently
good. Many of my projects are made on computer. Unfortunately my computer isn't
connected to Internet. I need to write letters and copy them on floppy drive.
Then I need to go in other room, where I can send letters for you.
My English is not very ideal. I have friend on my work. She knows English not
bad. She helps me to write letters. My English becomes bad without her help.
Some day I'll write letter without her help. I think you'll laugh on me. =)
I would like to know your opinion about my English.
Now I'm engaged in the interior of flat with 78 meters square.
Some day I'll send you the photos of flats, which was put into shape by me. I
think you'll like them.
I live with my friend, who, by the way, works with me in one room. Now
she with me! She sends greetings to you!!! We live in not big but very
comfortable flat.
My life is very interesting and happy. And I can tell that I never feel sorry.
Why I need to feel sorry about things which I already done? I'm optimist. And
I want to take from life everything what I need and want…Of course I can't
permit me everything what I want. But I exactly know that money is not the
most important thing in the life. I live in the beautiful city Moscow.
Moscow is considered one of the most expensive cities of Europe. There is
very expensive immovable. But in others our city is the same with Russian
cities. I tell you that I've been in many Russian cities. Yes. But I've been
there only by passage when I came back from Safonovo. Train from
Safonovo to Moscow goes for 3 days, and I need to travel with transplantations. Other
cities of my native land seem calm and still. But Moscow is not the same.
Here is everything flies, makes a noise and turns up in drive. Moscow is
really Mega polis.
More over I've been to the culturing capital St. Petersburg. It is completely
other city. Have you ever heard about Ermitage. Ermitage is enormous museum.
To look all the exhibits in Ermitage spending one minute for one exhibit you
need 100 years!!!
You have asked That I have sent you any photo I have not absolutely understood
What, explain to me on more detailed.
, what can you tell me about your life? Is your life happy and interesting?
I have been finishing my letter.
With the best regards yours Yuliya.
PS:Yes me your photo which you very much was pleasant to me has sent.

In response to this, I have therefore sent her the following computer generated text(source: Madpage Poetry). Let's see if Yuliya the robot finds it any more or less worthy of a response...

This uncritical shark unfittingly scowled close to one eager tortoise. That straight egret flexibly stopped inside some censorious crane. Some approving opossum hurriedly bent via some brave bluebird. One accommodating egret minutely unwound following the industrious egret. Well, one immoral wolverine triumphantly drove up some proper wasp. Some astonishing lemming guided showed in between the extensive caribou. Er, a possessive human insincerely chortled towards the talkative trout. The raffish cobra stiffly opened unlike one enviable wolf. That spontaneous capybara straightly connected aboard that unexplainable caterpillar. Hey, the walrus is much less magnanimous than some fawning capybara.

Some dove is much more safe than an absolute leopard. That porcupine is far less juicy than one sound macaw. The supportive gnu effusively touched besides one hungry quetzal. One marvelous goldfish adamantly disbanded beneath this humane oriole. Well, a lorikeet is less pious than some pithy tapir. Uh, one wasp is more affable than this pugnacious anteater. The supportive gnu effusively touched besides one hungry quetzal.

The mindful ocelot organized fidgeted across from the restful dachshund. A victorious egret fluidly lighted on some secure human. Some showy egret bluntly haltered outside of that haphazard man-of-war. This hare is more neutral than one compatible emu.

Some aardvark is far less constitutional than that subconscious urchin. The mindful ocelot organized fidgeted across from the restful dachshund. Oh my, a untactful bird stringently slit amid that lusty heron. A hawk is less banal than this invaluable cow. That boastful penguin pridefully misspelled preparatory to this splendid python. Some notable sloth placidly ate by means of this duteous rooster. One tendentious nightingale cosmetically wept after that rhythmic flamingo. Uh, that sociable firefly aesthetically knelt in favour of this ravenous buffalo. The supportive gnu effusively touched besides one hungry quetzal.

Uh, one wasp is more affable than this pugnacious anteater. The taunting crane analyzed pointed save an obsessive roadrunner. One abashed caterpillar calculated ducked up some equitable egret. Umm, the whale is much less repulsive than the provident egret. That llama is far less vague than the playful whale. Crud, this trim woodchuck bravely awakened through that archaic squirrel.

The supportive gnu effusively touched besides one hungry quetzal. One lucky insect inoffensively misled pending the devilish newt. A victorious egret fluidly lighted on some secure human.

I'm on the late shift today. Tried doing some late night $1/$2 at Pacific Poker but got out fished, down $16 overall. Both Texas Calculatem and Poker Office 2 work at Pacific Poker, which has recently had its Poker software upgraded. The whole gaming experience was very different to Noble Poker, which is where I've been playing my $1/$2 lately. Pacific Poker is very loose and the fish are plenty. However, such conditions mean that variance is high, with larger pots won when the wins eventually arrive. Overall, though, it's a patience game as most hands go all the way to the river.

Other than that, I've tidied up my accounts, clearing out Noble Poker an Royal Vegas Poker. I now only have funds at Pacific Poker, InterPoker and Ladbrokes Poker.

Anyway, as I've already said, I'm on the late shift. That starts at 1.30pm. So I was hoping to have a nice lie in. But what happens? Some twat called Tariq calls me regarding my Orange mobile phone contract. I don't have a fucking Orange mobil