Well, isn’t somebody going to be very disappointed! They thought they had a bargain deal, claiming an iPhone 3GS in perfect condition for less than the going price and then, when the postman arrives, they are the proud owners of an iPhone box. What could be worse? In their excitement, they rip open the box, tearing at the seal, desperate to find their great deal inside and in the process destroying the most expensive packaging perhaps ever paid for!

Fair play to the seller, whether he was really trying to trick someone, or genuinely selling a box, he certainly made a killing. Maybe the Dutch guy had read this article, Get a good price by selling on ebay! One thing is for sure, the bidder didn’t read “Know how to buy on Ebay!”

So what happened .. in German (according to Google) he clearly says “Here you can make offers on the original packaging of the black iPhone 3G 16GB.” [Hier können Sie auf eine Originalverpackung des Iphone 3gs 16 Gb schwarz bieten.] and “I expressly point out that here only on the box of the iPhone, not the device itself” [Ich weise hiermit ausdrücklichst darauf hin, dass Sie hier nur auf die Schachtel des Iphones, nicht aber das Gerät selbst bieten.]. So although the title of the auction was “Apple iPhone 3gs Schwarz (16GB) OVP” he was honest in his description. And even more explicit, he says “It comes all that is visible in the pictures.” [Es wird alles geliefert was auf den Bildern zu sehen ist.] so you only need to look at the photos displayed to see that, yes, it is a picture of an empty box – open!

So, the final bidder, who jumped in at the last minute paid a whopping € 107.50 for an iPhone box plus postage! Oh dear. I wonder what he will think when he opens the box.. I wonder what comeback he may have, after all, the seller wasn’t making false claims as to what the description of the box was, unless “The condition of the box is perfect” [Der Zustand ist Tadellos.] was not the case. Presumably the Dutch guy will have celebrated already and spent his winnings down the pub so not much chance of a refund!

But the strange thing is, when looking at all those silly mugs who bid on the item making 32 bids in total, an extraordinary amount of those bids (22 of them) were from people with zero feedback. So, that makes me wonder if something fishy was going on? OK, maybe they are all naive new Ebay users, or maybe brand new accounts set-up purely to push up the price of the iPhone packaging.

I think the lesson is, do not bid on ebay unless you know exactly what it is you’re bidding for.

There are levels 43 until 150 here so far, with the exception of level 120 which is really bugging me!! I really hope to finish level 120 soon and then I may just buy the next 50 levels, except it is stopping me doing far more important work. UPDATE 3rd Jan 2010: Aha, well, I found out as suspected that there was a bug in the previous version of Geared, and Level 120 was missing an essential orange cog. Without that cog, I could only get a half-result. However, with an iTunes iStore App update, to Geared V1.70, the cogs have been glossed up but importantly, Level 120 was fixed, which meant I have successfully finished all levels 1 through 150!

I’m especially impressed with Level 79 which I managed to complete with one cog left over. Level 146 I also managed to complete with one small cog left over, quite an easy one this, despite being late in the series.

There are two completed versions for Level 141, the first version probably the supposed answer, but then I worked out another solution without using all the orange cogs. I also like the answer for Geared Level 80, which took some sussing out, quite a tricky design that one.

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With the help of the Beijing Bus website I have listed the following bus routes on my iPhone so the next time I’m stood on the street at Tuanjiehu and can’t find a taxi, I can hop on a bus.

Or the times when I’ve been playing football, it pours down with rain and suddenly every taxi driver in Beijing either hides indoors, is scared to drive in the rain, or doesn’t want to pick up a dripping wet foreigner, then I can take the bus instead.

Bus #682 travels from Chaoyang Park West gate (just outside Jenny Lou’s) north to Nuren Jie, then along Xiaoyun Lu, stopping at Xiaoyun Qiao, then stops just past Side Gongyuan, before continuing on it’s journey to Wangjing or wherever.

Bus #416 travels in a small circle around Sanlitun, stopping at Xing Fu San Cun (opposite the German Embassy on Dongzhimenwai Dajie), on to the 3rd ring road and then along Xiaoyun Lu across Xiaoyun Qiao and onwards. On the way back, it stays on the same route to the 3rd ring road, but then travels down to Changhong Qiao, along Gongti, past Sanlitun Village, onto the 2nd ring road at Dongsishitiao and back onto Dongzhimenwai.

There are a number of buses I can take from Tuanjiehu to Pingfang on Yaojiayuan to get me to the Chaoyang Sports Stadium: #686 (5 stops)/ #214 (7)/ #758 (7)/ #350 (9)/ #406 (8)/ #672 (7)/ #673 (8)/ #750 (8).

Bus #302 from somewhere behind Goose and Duck and the east gate of Chaoyang Park, across the 4th ring road to Tuanjiehu then north on the 3rd ring road to Zhongguancun, then up to the 4th ring road through Haidian ending up at Bagou Cun.

Bus #31 from Tian Shui Yuan Bei Kou (which is just by the south gate of Chaoyang Park), the bus turns right, past the big Jingkelong, travels south to Dawang Lu and to Baiziwan Qiao Dong (Tesco) and next stop is Baiziwan, ideal for the Ole Football and Climbing Gym.

Bus #31 comes back from Baiziwan to Dawang Lu, Yaojiayuan Lu and to Tuanjiehu Lu Bei Kou.

Bus #43 starts at Tuanjiehu, passes Landao and then down Dongdaqiao to the Friendship Store on Jiangoumen, along to Chongwen Men, then down to Fa Hua Si (Tiantan East Gate) and finishes up at Wu Jian Lou (end of line 5 area).

Bus #43 comes back almost along the same route, but needs to do a big u-turn on Jiangoumen and on the 3rd Ring Road. A bus route definitely to avoid during rush-hour.

Bus #115 is my regular bus for the 5 minutes trip to work. From Kangjiakou it travels along Chaoyang Lu, through Tuanjiehu and along Tuanjiehu Lu and across Changhong Qiao to Sanlitun. It continues over Dongsishitiao and turns round just past the south end of Jiaodaokou Nan Lu and heads back same way.

Bus #675 passes Tuanjiehu and heads along the 3rd ring road as far as Yansha Qiao before going past Xinyuan Li and to Xinding Lu (just by SOS clinic and Tori Tei) and stopping at Zuojiazhuang by the airport expressway. It comes back the same way.

Bus #635 travels from Kangjiakou (somewhere past the east 5th ring road) to Tuanjiehu, along Dongzhimen Wai as far as Gulou, then up along Deshengmen, over the 2nd ring road, over the 3rd ring road and all the way north to Erlizhuang which is close to the north 4th ring road. So useful for Guijie or for Dongzhimenwai Daijie.

Bus #673 travels past Ping Fang (Chaoyang Sports Stadium) to Tuanjiehu and through the south of the City on congested roads to Beijing Xi Zhan (Beijing West Station). It comes back mostly the same way spends some time on the East 3rd ring road before turning at Changhong Qiao back east.

Bus #758 from GuanZhuangHuiHeJianCaiShiChang (east 5th ring road) to Ping Fang, past Tuanjiehu to Dongsishitiao towards the centre of the city then heads North past Jiaodaokou, straight over Andingmen at the 2nd ring road and up to the Olympic Park and beyond the 5th ring road to TianTongBeiYuan. Back the same way.

Bus #731 from south east between the 5th/6th ring roads and close to Jingshen Gousu over to Tuanjiehu and then heads north around the 3rd ring road to Haidian and Xiang Bai Qi Qiao (which is at the north east corner of Yuan Ming Yuan and the Old Summer Palace. It comes back same way.

Bus #984 is a long distance bus that starts off around the north 6th ring road, just south of Huairou. It heads South on a minor and busy road to 3rd ring road, the cuts across Tuanjiehu down to Dawang Lu and at Sihui Qiao on the 4th ring road it passes Baiziwan Qiao (Tesco’s) it continues South and ends up south-east of 4th ring road at Xiao Hong Men Pai Fang Cun. It comes back the same way.

So, there’s my crib sheet, I wonder if I’ll ever use any of them apart from maybe #115 (to Sanlitun), #635 (to Dongzhimen) and possibly #682 (to Xiaoyun Qiao).

And they are just the buses that pass my house at Tuanjiehu, there must be 100′s of others criss-crossing the city and going to crazy old places here and there .. maybe I should do some random bus hopping and see where I end up in this beautiful city – if it wasn’t for the traffic congestion. hmm.

Arty Design for On the Road

“On the Road”

by Jack Kerouac
ISBN 451-Q3517-095
Format: Paperback, 254 pages
Published 1967 – seventeenth printing (first published 1957) by Signet

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1945417.On_the_Road

My next book on the list … review to follow (12th October 2010).

Garp - Front Cover, Corgi 1983 reprint

“The World According to Garp” (Paperback)

by John Irving

ISBN 0-552-1119-02,
Paperback, published 1983 by Corgi
Originally published in 1978 (Victor Gollancz edition)

‘For Colin and Brendan‘. I wonder which random people this book may have been dedicated to, not the publisher’s cleaning lady obviously.

Quite a rare cover, I found only one other image on the ‘Net, over at goodreads.com, who have loads of old editions. It’s not the most exciting cover, but they nearly all have a frog. This one on the right I particularly like, with the idea that Garp is carrying the world on his shoulders. It is a second edition hard-back, signed by Irving, nice.

Alternative front cover

An unforgettable book .. it says. It’s true. A story of Garp, from birth to death, he’s an artist, written by an artist, not autobiographical, but what can you write about but your own experiences. With many stories within the story, it comes back round in circles, while other smaller anecdotes are left to be pondered, and remembered.

It’s a long book, but so recommendable. I read it in October 2010, I wonder why I hadn’t read it before? Maybe it’s Matt’s subtle introduction to American authors to me. Ha.

I’ll write more, if I get motivated again …

Girls at Play, great art work

“Girls at Play”
Paul Theroux
Published in Penguin Books 1983, reprinted 1986
First published by Bodley Head ltd 1969
ISBN 0-14-005495-2

– I read this book in Hong Kong (borrowed from Andre’s extensive library in the apartment) over a weekend. Perhaps I should have been having more fun in Hong Kong, but this book fitted into my pocket and kept me occupied while eating by myself.

Girls at Play, cover by Leslie Howell

The book cover left is not the same as the slightly less intriguing book cover with a horrid lime green cover and spotted gecko (after the game they played I presume) as mine (cover design by Leslie Howell, printed by penguin in 1986).

No doubt it is in the collection because of his more famous ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’, ‘Riding the Iron Rooster’ and so on.

And in that introduction I sum up the book’s best parts; the cover and his other (non-fiction) work. The book is set at a school in East Africa not long after the British Imperial rule has left the country to Independence and explores “the futility of African politics and the disintegration of tribal life.” Read the full description on PaulTheroux.com. There are some chapters with humour and some small sections of suspense, but overall there isn’t any real depth to the story, although the characters are described in quite detail.

Easy to read early work from Paul Theroux, I read it quickly. So it was kind of the airport holiday novel I could’ve have brought to Hong Kong for the weekend.

Book Cover, aiming at teens perhaps

“Or Is That Just Me?”
Richard Hammond
Phoenix Paperback, published 2010
First Published in 2009
ISBN 978-0-7538-2563-1

– I know who Richard Hammond is purely because of Top Gear and that sparingly. So I didn’t know much about him before reading this book and haven’t much of an impression since. The book was given as a birthday present, so end of May 2010, and it took until September with a dearth of other books that I picked it up. If I was writing a review on Amazon or what-have-you I would give it 1/5.

The whole way through I felt the book was a marketing scheme to publish someone who is clearly in the spotlight and could have been written in 100 odd less pages than the 256. The photos in the middle are self-gratifying and overall it is just a book recalling his wonderful and risky trips here and there. There is a loose theme about the worry of reaching 40, but this seems like an afterthought to give the book some reason to be written.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve missed out on the media attention surrounding the guy in the last 10 years or what have you and apart from a few reminiscences of Top Gear filming I had no bond with him, nor the book.

Sorry Phil.

I liked the look of redbel theme, which is designed by a Belgian named pixelb. It has simple stark colours, simple design, with a nice WordPress 3.0 menu. So, as easy as 1-2-3, I installed the new theme and had it working, after a fashion.

Modifying WordPress Theme

However, as usual with these free WordPress themes, there are a few things that needed to be changed, or tweeked, or modified to better suit the look of the website.

For example, the Forbidden City brand needed to be stronger, with the use of a logo on the header, which was easy enough to add to header.php, but meant the removal of the custom search page. This is something I will talk about later.

Photoshop Change Colour of Image

Also, the colours were too plain. Forbidden City plays in red / yellow, as the colours of the Imperial Forbidden City of China. The blue buttons, sidebar sprite, article, read more labels and .pngs did not match. Using Adobe Photoshop CS4, I added an adjustment layer and colorized the hue/saturation, which is a very easy way to change colour of the image, if it is a fairly simple colouring.

Tutorial

1. Open the .png or .psd image in Photoshop
2. Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (or press Ctrl U on Windows) to open the adjustment settings.
3. Actually it is better practice to go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation to add a new adjustment layer. This means a new layer is added on top of the base image, so you can easily revert or delete the layer if things don’t go according to plan or don’t look right.
4. Name your layer as you like, leave color as none, normal mode and 100% opacity (as default settings). Press OK.
5. Click the colorize button, then change the hue setting to match your new colour chose (60 for yellow). Adjust the saturation (90 for bright yellow) and the lightness to suit (+5 for yellow).
6. Job done. Save your new .png image as you like.

With the redbel theme there are four blue colour images you should change, in my case to either red or yellow. You can then either change the .css link for each file, or simply rename the existing images and upload them via FTP to the theme images folder.

Photoshop Colorized Images Screenshot

Here are the new colorized images as I changed them, which you are welcome to download to use on your redbel theme, giving some extra colour palettes if preferred.

Various Colour Palettes for redbel theme

Redbel custom colours download

Download the custom colours for the WordPress redbel theme.

Redbel Theme Image Colours yellow (233) – Download the Yellow theme background Colours for Redbel

Redbel Theme Image Colours red (216) – Download the Red theme background Colours for Redbel

Redbel Theme Image Colours green (225) – Download the Green theme background Colours for Redbel

Other Modifications

redbel theme mod

I changed the header background in a similar way to give it a bit of a yellow splash.

I then changed the default puce.gif, which is used as a list indent on the sidebar to a gif of a football, to remind of the football based theme of the website.

I wanted to change the width of the main article, but the border of this is made from a fixed width image, which would be screwed up if the page width was altered, so I left this for the time being.

I found a problem with the widget options in the dashboard, that they were not saving when reloading the widget menu, but found this fix on WordPress Forums. I understand bpixel has sinced fixed this on the theme download.

I still need to work out how to add a search page to the sidebar, as the default option and the current .css for search mucks up the layout of the sidebar background images.

With the .css file, I made a few text, image and text colour changes, but nothing too drastic.

Thanks again to bpixel for the theme I worked with. I am very happy with the redbel theme mods I have made so far for Forbidden City FC.

Anyway, here are a few replies I received to some random questions I have asked:

“Travel: Where would you rather be right now?”

John K. 43 / M / Denver, US “exactly where I am”

Yabbox “Good answer. You lucky man.”

John K. “very”

Lauren F. 28 / F / Middle Village, US “zihuatanejo!”

Yabbox “It looks idyllic. Take me with you!”

Lauren F. “Wish I could take myself!! ”

Dustin M. 25 / M / Missoula, US “Rob a bank”

Yabbox “Nice. I didn’t think of that.”

Dustin M. “I mean, look at women, listen to gossip, play pranks on people, or get rich?

Yabbox “Apart from wander around the rooms of a high class brothel, I thought of stealing a passport, or walking across immigration, or issuing myself a round the world airplane ticket, stealing a yacht, etc. Similar lines I guess, but yours has more potential!”

Ian M. 26 / M / San Jose, US “id (birth cert, other documents), laptop, cell phone and charger.”

Yabbox “Modern day essentials. Frightening but realistic. Thanks.”

Ian M. “yeah…pretty much everything else is optional”

Melissa A. 29 / F / Dubai, United Arab Emirates “harddrives, bicycle, plants”

Yabbox “Superb answer. Realistic, practical and loving.”

Melissa A. “cool”

Maria F. 20 / F / Lisbon, Portugal “I don’t know, but if I woke up in an unfamiliar place without having any memory of how I got there, I’d call the police.”

Greg S. 25 / M / St. Louis, US “A hammock suspended between two doric columns overlooking the ocean on Santorini.”

Fernando B. 31 / M / Sao Paulo, Brazil “Probably will try to raise as much money as I can …”

Skyphone G. 40 / M / London, UK “I won’t assume right off that you might be gay if you are a flight attendant not unless you might be giving away signs of being effeminate? Being competent flight attendant demands a rigorous attention to details when it comes to serving demanding flight passengers. Only highly qualified individuals are fortunate to qualify & most of these qualities can only be found on people with specific attributes regardless of their sexual orientation.”