One Question

Answering Those Everyday Questions

Apr 27

Is it OK to gamble at home?

by kelvin

What a question!

It makes gambling sound like something seedy, or perhaps underhand.

We love Mansion Casino, it’s our favourite online casino, but we’re almost puritan in our strict rules about how much we’re allowed to play and how much cash we can use in a session. Although that’s our strange and personal choice we find it makes it more fun and reduces the feelings of guilt!

We’re a bit wary still of spending time alone online gaming, but then again we like it, it’s fun, and every now and then we come out seriously on top, so it works for us baby!

Gone on, give the virtual ball a spin!

Gaming

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Apr 18

Why recycle?

by kelvin

What a question!

Recycling isn’t a straight forward topic.

Many things are down-cycled – meaning that their next use is an inferior product to the current one. Drink cans for example – because there are two grades of aluminium used to make a new can, and no simple way of separating them, the recycled material is rarely used to make a new can.

Straight recycling is best demonstrated by reuse rather than having any process involved – imagine how many times a beer bottle could be refilled before it actually wears out – but instead the glass is reprocessed, losing strength and purity every time.

Paper gets gradually weaker each time it is recycled – but how do you know how many times it has been processed?

The story goes on, and gets ever more complex.

But no matter what happens, reusing the material is better than just throwing it into ever more stressed landfill sites where all sorts of evil takes place.

Britain is bad, one of the worse in Europe. Progress is vital, but not fast.

Help. Recycle what you can and demand facilities for the rest.

The big wide world Wellbeing

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Apr 16

What’s galvanised steel then?

by kelvin

At the weekend we were buying some new furniture for the office.

We wanted something made that could look cool and a bit industrial when inside, but also not fall to bits if we put it out in the garden, then forgot to bring it in for a few months.

We talked to a man in the know who told us we need to either use stainless steel, or galvanised steel. We all knew stainless but thought that was all a bit too shiny and brash, so what’s galvanised then?

It turns out that steel is bathed in molten zinc at 450 degrees!

So sort of a zinc coating that makes it resistant to rust and corrosion.

Coolio. We’ll be going down that route then.

Maybe some sleeper wood for the seats? But not real sleepers as they go all gooy in the hot sun and would wreck your clothes.

Hey! Suddenly we’re learning furniture design.

 

Gardens Style Technology

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Apr 9

Where can you find a solicitor in Bristol?

by kelvin

Or a dentist in London for that matter?

If you’re looking for a solicitor in Bristol we’d use the City Visitor site.

Now we only got to know about it because we did some work for them, but now at the offices we use them a lot. It’s just a simple directory, but an effective one, and if your smart phone works faster than my Blackberry then you’d just as well browse the web to find what you need than spending quite a lot of a directory call.

We’ve now used it for printers, hairdressers and all sorts of other searches.

It has been mayhem in the One Question office this weekend. Instead of going off for an Easter break we have a pitch presentation to prepare and so everyone is in. Pulling together creative work and copy illustrations, it’ll cost us a fortune in overtime, and I bet the potential client will think we just do it for love.

Britain

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Apr 5

Why worry about what you’re good at?

by kelvin

Few things are completely obvious in life.

But there are plenty that we need to learn and accept.

We don’t need to make loads of money, but not making enough leads to a miserable existence for all but the most open minded.

So we need to work. One way or another.

Deciding what’s the best thing to do can seem an insurmountable task.

And so many of us fall into a job. And many of us stick it out for as long as possible. For some of those folk that can be a whole working life. Though that’s getting ever more rare these days.

Others drift, in search of the perfect job. That thing that they’re really good at.

Others work it out, perhaps on their own, or with help.

I’d like to advocate the latter route.

Do what you’re good at and command a premium for doing so and you have the opportunity to be both happy and, if not wealthy, at least comfortable.

And the others will envy your peace.

Intelligent life Life

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Mar 29

How to make gorgeous pesto at home

by kelvin

Life at One Question Towers is fiendishly busy on some fronts, and as a consequence it has become very quiet on the online question series.

Last night the gang came around for some dinner, but because it was gloriously hot I decided we’d go for some light foods including a carrot salad, a bulgar and feta salad, and then a bowl of huge ribbon pasta with a pesto I’d knocked up.

Here’s what I used:

1 basil plant from The Co-operative

Half a small bag of rocket (buying it is so annoying when it grows readily in Cornwall, but we weren’t there)

A generous handfull of pine nuts – blimey they have got expensive of late!

A small clove of garlic

A good grind of salt

Half a wedge of parmesan, grated coarsely

A few glugs of good olive oil

A squeeze of lemon juice

I bashed up the nuts, garlic and salt with a little oil in a bowl, roughly chopped in the leaves, poured on some more oil to make it all wet, blended lightly to leave some leaves still quite leaflike, then stirred in half the grated cheese and lemon juice.

This took less time than cooking the pasta.

Drain the pasta, but leave it a little wet still, and stir in the pesto – serve with the rest of the parmesan.

Watch it disappear!

 

Food

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Mar 22

When do we get back to summer time?

by kelvin

At last light evenings are nearly upon us.

Although we haven’t felt the usual desperation for BST this last month as the weather has been so mild and generally sunny we all feel a bit better than is usual for March.

On Saturday night you’d best be ready for your clocks to “Spring forward” asSunday 25th is teh start of British Summer Time.

You get an hour less in bed, you feel a bit tired, but isn’t it worth it to have great daylight through until 7.30 or so, depending where you are in the country.

Britain

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Mar 19

What has happened to One Question?

by kelvin

Good question!

We’re actually a small copywriting agency that runs the One Question website / blog type thingy as something of an interesting debating forum for us and others. We like to think properly about the posts we put up, and research everything well, but we wouldn’t say that it’s the most serious piece of work we undertake.

Of late the posts have been few and far between, but all for great reasons.

Sean has landed himself a copywriter’s role at a decent London agency, just off the back of some of his work here. We are completely delighted for our favourite leprechaun and hope to see him from time to time and perhaps even receive a guest post from him (but we’ll change the passwords to prevent any later night posting fuelled by demon London drink!).

Meanwhile Bobby and I have been pulled off onto a couple of big projects and Tracey is on holiday. We haven’t forgotten that the world is full of unanswered questions, but we won’t be doing a lot to help for a week or two.

We’re still happy to receive whatever you may want to ask though…

Love. OQ Towers.

Business

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Mar 12

Crufts – are those dogs real?

by kelvin

A couple of the team watched Crufts last night and came in expecting the most wonderful office dog to be perfectly groomed and ready to do tricks against the clock.

Alas they were disappointed.

Even old dogs can learn new tricks, but the owner needs to want to train them, as well as know how.

Most could be trained to perform the activities in the agility test, but not as fast as the amazing collies who are fast as you can imagine, and doing it in front of a huge audience, super bright TV lighting and all sorts of other distractions.

It was good to hear the emphasis on health this year, after some problems in the past couple of years brought media focus to the strange behaviours of breeders in their search for an alien perfection. Ironic that this was the first year that a dog actually dropped dead after its appearance, but with some 27,000 dogs attending the show, there had to be a few who weren’t well.

So back to the question, are they real?

Seeing some people with out of control dogs in the park you wouldn’t believe the behaviours are possible, but in fact I was impressed to see quite a realistic display of dogs last night.

Will mine ever get there?

I don’t think so!

Kelvin.

Dogs

1 Comment »
Mar 5

Why you should pursue anything that suggest you owe money!

by onequestion

Hi it’s me again, your loveable Irish rouge, hoping to help you avoid getting into trouble along the way, especially if you haven’t done what you’re blamed for.

And, yes, I’m speaking from experience.

A while back PayPal wrote to me to chase some money that I don’t owe them.

I know I don’t owe them anything so I left it and forgot about it.

A couple of months later I get a heavy letter from a debt collections agency threatening all sorts of unpleasant things, even by irish standards. This time I decide to try to put them right.

And I’ve entered into the most annoying and frustrating set of correspondence I can ever remember.

They refuse to acknowledge that it’s not me who owes them the money.

The refuse to clear my name.

They still say they’re coming around with a van to cart off my stuff (actually that sounds like it could be a good thing, perhaps I’ll start leaving the door unlocked!

It goes on. It’s boring. Annoying. Sometimes a little scary.

And all because I ignored the first letter. What a fool.

So my message to you is – get on their case, whoever ‘they” are, as soon as they accuse you of anything.

Uncategorized

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