What Shall We Do Today?

Hobbies & Interests

Homeworking

Hobbies & Interests....

I have several hobbies and interests, anything to keep my mind off my health and as I cannot work in full time employment due to my illness and varying ailments I do have quite a lot of time on my hands.

My main interests in life are are Manchester United, Computers and anything to do with them, Technology, Gadgets, XBox's, Puzzles (Rubik Cubes and the like), Jigsaws, Crosswords etc. and Music. I like watching television and going to the cinema, my favourite type of movies are sci-fi, horror and comedies especially spoof movies such as Austin Powers, Blazing Saddles, Naked Gun, Airplane etc. (Mel Brooks rules!!)

As far as music goes I will listen to anything from Abba to ZZ Top. The only stuff that I cannot get away with is this rave music although there are some quite good samples mixed into some of it!! As I was brought up in the 'Sensational Sixties' my musical interest began with 'The Beatles' who I thought (and still do) were the best thing ever. I have an extensive music collection which consists of Vinyl, Flexi's, Cassette, Video, Cd, & Mp3 (even eight track cartridges!!), most of the vinyl stuff is from the Sixties, Seventies & Eighties and it still matches some of the crap that tops the charts these days, especially these money-making 'manufactured' bands (you know who you are!!).

Even Bono agrees with me on this, (November 2000).....

BONO declared war on manufactured pop groups yesterday, storming: "They're dead - their time is over."
The U2 singer told me he feels fans have grown tired of bubblegum bands and now crave REAL music.
The group aim to prove they are still the world's No1 rock 'n roll act by going back on the road again next year.
Bono was speaking the the day after George Michael blasted "rubbish" manufactured acts and attacked record labels for "ignoring real talent in favour of pretty young things." Blur have also waded in to the debate, calling current chart music "a load of sh*te."
Bono said: "People are sick to the teeth of processed and hyped pop bands. It's crap. They want something real again and that's where we come in. The tide is turning.
"Normally people want big rock bands to fall flat, but what I'm picking up is that they want us to do well because we are flying the flag for bands who can really play.
"The state of music in Britain and Ireland hasn't been very healthy recently but you can tell it's changing by the chart positions of pop acts - they are slipping.
"We went in at No1, which surprised me. We were No1 in the singles chart and Radiohead No1 in the album chart.

November 2000...

At the time of writing this The Beatles are once again at the top of the charts, the album charts that is with a compilation of their number one hits - the aptly named '1'. It just goes to show what great music they produced and the album is outselling all these 'manufactured' bands of the moment.

Home working 

Can You Help? As I do have a lot of time on my hands I am looking for a GENUINE home-working opportunity, a chance to work within my capabilities and at my own pace, not one of these 'con' jobs or pyramid sales etc., a real opportunity to do some work from home, assembly work, secretarial, in fact anything that I can manage taking into account my illness. As well as passing the time away it would also keep my mind off my illness which is half the battle with a disease such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and the depression that usually accompanies it. If you do know of anything worth trying then drop me a line at dwheatley@btinternet.com

Talking of these home-working 'con-jobs', especially in the U/K, anybody else who like me is looking for a genuine opportunity to do some home-working be warned, there are quite a lot of ruthless people (to put it mildly!!) out there who are picking on what are usually a group of people like myself who are disabled and looking for something interesting to pass the time away or even single parents trying to make ends meet with a bit of extra income. As an example, these 'firms' usually offer assembly work, where you have to assemble some obscure unit such as a sensor and no matter how much time and care you take building your units with the parts and 'tools' supplied (usually a bit of sandpaper & a nail) after you have sent off £30 or £40 'start-up fee', it will be 'rejected' because of an assembly fault!! After sending back about two or three of these 'rejected units' you fail to make the grade and lose the money that you sent off as a 'start-up fee' which is supposedly to cover the costs of the 'parts' that you have used so far, parts which would probably cost around £1 per unit!!. Of course it is not just assembly work it could be anything and these 'firms' have stationery that really looks 'official' with their dodgy V.A.T. & phone numbers, the simple rule is if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is and always double check before sending any money off and if you are still not sure that the opportunity is genuine then do not send any money off.

Here is an article by Nick Stevens on the subject....

HOW TO AVOID RIP-OFFS AND CONS

Before we proceed to look at the subject of finding employers, I feel it is important that you learn how NOT to find employers!

As I said at the beginning, most people who enter the homework field lose money. That's because of the hundreds of cons, rip-offs and scams which plague our business.

The first myth to dispel is that of 'envelope addressing'. How many people ring up to ask if I can tell them where to get envelope addressing work.....

The answer is nowhere. Envelope addressing work DOES NOT EXIST!! Computers can do this simple task in a fraction of the time and at a far lesser cost. How many items of junk mail do you get which are hand addresses (not including those from one-man 'opportunity publishers'- and you can be sure they don't pay anyone to address envelopes!)?

Back in the fifties, sixties and early seventies, a few companies did offer envelope addressing work (very poorly paid, by the way). I suppose this is where the public obtained its stereotypical image of the housewife sitting at home with a huge pile of manila envelopes and a biro.

However, since the war, we have had something much more common on the homeworking scene - the envelope addressing rip-offs. Schemes vary from proprietor to proprietor. Most are one-person or husband and wife businesses, but they might have any number of addresses. We know of one man who used at least fifteen names and addresses at once, no doubt catching some of the more gullible people more than once.

Basically, the conman attracts his victim with a circular in the morning post proclaiming "WE PAY YOU £1 PER ENVELOPE - GUARANTEED!" or some other totally incredible claim. (25p per envelope also seems to be a common figure). A few don't actually quote figures, but offer you a "worthwhile spare time income addressing envelopes from home".

Of course, everyone thinks that this is the opportunity they have been waiting for. Due to the strictly limited number of places available, they rush off to the post-box immediately with their £15 or £20 'deposits' At the worst they get nothing in return, or at the best they are asked to promote the same scheme to get more people to part with £15 or £20 deposits. Of course, as the 'local agent' it's your door they come knocking at when they get ripped off. Another common variation is to ask participants for a further payment of £20 or so in order to start - in return for this £20 they receive a 'report with reproduction rights'. Avoid these schemes - the only one getting rich is the organiser (and they have been facing some pretty hefty fines in recent months).

Another scheme to steer well clear of is chain letters. Not to be confused with multi-level marketing, which is studied in another chapter, chain letters have no 'head office' address or commencement date as the law says they should have.

The most common is the Edward L.Green chain letter. Edward is a fictional character invented by a mail order dealer in North America, but nonetheless he claims to have devised a simple yet legal scheme to make millions.

All you do is send £5 to each of four names on a list. If you're lucky you might get a piece of paper back in return for your fiver. Then you remove the name and address at position number one, replace it with that at number two, move three to two etc., and put your name and address at number four.

The money you spend on printing and mailing the Edward L. Green letters will probably be entirely wasted. About 99% of people you mail to will have seen the scheme before (we have received ten in a week before now!) and will probably bin it. They might even report you to the trading standards, in which case you could face prosecution!

A less common chain letter, but slightly more workable, is known as either 'Money Network' or 'Money Unlimited'. It promises you £100,000 for a £10 investment (believe that and you'll believe anything!) and carries a false testimony from an American lawyer called Philip R Brown. Philip's English isn't all it might be, and his reasons for not giving his address (couldn't cope with all the enquiries he would get) would have him struck off the register.

Last Updated: 10th May, 2004