Happy new year

Hey everyone,

Sorry for my absence. I have not had great internet access but will be back regularily soon.

Hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Please also make sure that you switch your RSS feed to my new home http://www.therandomforest.com

www.webhostingchoice.com - Review

http://www.webhostingchoice.com offers a very quick and simple to use service. Basically you can use their site to search for a new web host using your desired criteria.
On their front page they have a very simple search which includes monthly cost, setup fee, disk space and bandwidth but then have further options for a very advanced search to suit the needs of anyone who needs a new host.

The site is laid out pretty well but I was initially put off by the bright green. However I do not feel that this small matter takes away from the simple functionality of the service and with the option to add hosts to their database it will continue to grow into a large directory.

Andy does have a heart!

After the dark humour of the last 2 posted Andy and Lou (from Little Britain) videos posted I thought I would show you that he does have a heart!



Matt Lucas who plays Andy had reportadly been cast to play Winston Churchill in an upcoming film. I can't find much info around the net about this so assume it may not be finalised but still..... I am sure he would manage to portray a very humourous version of the man.

I would especially relish Lucas recreating some of Churchill's hilarious quotes.

One of my favourite being:

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

C-Planet Affiliate Program

C-Planet are an affiliate link providing company that say at if you join them you can earn thousands of dollars.

They say:

At C-Planet we only partner ourselves with the highest converting brands on the internet. Affiliates value our partnership for two reasons, higher conversions and higher earnings. We provide honest, accurate and in-depth statistics for your traffic in real-time, our top affiliates earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every month.

The first thing that struck me was the very professional look of the website and it's simplicity. It seems that their program is a casino affiliate program so sadly it does not really fit in with my site but as it is free to join and use, if I ever create sites in this nice I will try them out.

More Andy and Lou!

If you thought the last Andy and Lou video I posted was dark then...... well... you will see!




I hope you still like me for finding this funny!


They guy who plays Lou is a comedian called David Walliams. Last year he actually swam across the English channel for charity.

This feat is an amazing physical challenge and considering the man was not exactly athletic he really gained my respect.

He completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes covering 35 km aided with only a pair of swimming shorts, some grease for his body and a boat that fed him bits of food on a stick.

Ski season is here!

I really hope I get to do some snow boarding this season. In fact I damn right can't wait to get to the top of the hill and look down over the mountains before graceful turning and tipping over the edge and then sub-sequentially falling flat on my face!

I will hopefully be getting to board in Vermont and maybe Quebec this year but have not been on an actual holiday for almost 5 years.

My first ski/snowboarding holiday was in Andorra, a small country just next to France. I had an amazing time and felt like I had contracted the ski bum virus. I went again the following year to Banff in Canada, which again was utterly amazing but sadly missed going to Italy and Austria with frineds in following years.

I'm not very good at boarding but I try hard and have a lot of fun.

Supertravel are a luxury ski and golfing holiday company based in the uk who specialise in providing Luxury Skiing holidays in Luxury ski chalets. I have never stayed in a luxury chalet but really would love to, especially with the fact that your chalet host will be providing you with fantastic food and wine.

Holidays are available in various locations including chalets in Meribel, France and Courchevel, France aswell as St Anton, Austria and all over the world.

I am sure you will here all about my baording experiences from me once I finally get to go again!

Little Britain - Andy and Lou at the pool

Little Britain is a very popular tv series in the UK. Before I left there had been 3 series and there were a fair few memorable characters.

My favourite was Andy and Lou.



Although this humour may be considered borderline I really enjoy it. I don't see it as poking fun at disabled people but what do you think?

Select Blinds

This is a sponsored post

The best thing about the Select Blinds website is the little 3d women that tells you all about them and also follows your mouse pointer around. She is eerily lifelike!

Another cool thing is that they supply the Window Shades for extreme makeover, so you know that they have a wide range of modern and stylish designs.

The website is pretty well laid out with a great quick quote system and easy links to their products.

Pricing seems cheap with very nice looking blinds for standard sized windows available at around $80 - $150. Not bad for such an important part of your room / office.

I have moved

As you may be seeing. I have moved.

This area of the Random Forest will still be in use mainly for reviews and simple posts. I will be aiming to bring most of the traffic here from search engines.

So for my new personal home please visit me at:

www.therandomforest.com
and subscribe to my new feed.

You may not enjoy this site so much from now on as I will be aiming to use it mainly for monetization but the new place will hopefully be better than ever so please stop by and say hi, at very least.

Thanks so much for all your support.

Please also tell your friends about the move.

Calling all visitors and subscribers... I need you opinion.

Hey everyone.

I am very thankful to have people who read and comment on my blog regularily so just thought I would ask some advice from everyone.

I am thinking of updating to Wordpress and updating my URL from www.therandomforest.info to www.therandomforest.com.

I would then use www.therandomforest.info to carry on with paid posts and some cross posting from www.therandomforest.com.

I just wanted to know if everyone would be willing to switch their subscriptions and visit the new site?

I was also wondering if anybody had any ideas for any Wordpress themes that would suit me?

Would the prescence of advert spaces, other than Adsense on my new site deter anyone?

Thanks for you help, it's appreciated.

You can be a Tiger

This is a sponsored post

As a teenager I worked in a Golf Club. I only worked in the kitchen but still had access to all the facilities so used to spend breaks and some time after work on the driving range. I used to spend ages just hitting the balls as fast and hard as I could but never really migrated into playing the full 18 holes.

The regular Golfers were obsessed with their handicaps. I really didn't understand what it was all about and on many occasions had to ask for explanation. I still don't fully understand the whole system but I know it's important!

For those of you that do understand Handicap and are serious about it then you can visit NetHandicap.com. This USGA golf handicap software for amateur golfers, golf clubs and USGA tournaments allows you to get hold of a handicap card that you cna use at official USGA tournaments.

The site is reasonably clean and seems to offer some great services including Performance reports, a league and an online community.

Tutorial - Get new Blogger commenting features & a quick explanation of OpenID

Recently us poor Blogspot bloggers have been hit with a problem whereby commenter's either have to log in to Google or use a nickname / anonymous with no option for their URL.

I ranted about it in my post "What are the big G up to now? Punishing their own?" and Kathy just posted one way around the problem in her post "Google's Being a Poopy Head, Too", by putting a link in the comment.

However it does seem that Google are trying something out and may not be trying to limit us. In an attempt to stop comment fraud Google are updating the commenting system to allow people comment using their Open ID.

This new commenting system is available now and as you can see from the screen shot below it should make it secure and easy for most users to comment.




So what is Open ID?

OpenID.net explains:

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

If you already have one of the following accounts then luck will have it.... you already have an OpenID:

AOL

openid.aol.com/screenname

LiveDoor

profile.livedoor.com/username

LiveJournal

username.livejournal.com

Orange (France Telecom)

http://openid.orange.fr/

SmugMug

username.smugmug.com

Technorati

technorati.com/people/technorati/username

Vox

member.vox.com

WordPress.com

If not then you can go to the OpenID site to learn more or log into commenting using your Google account/Nickname or Anonymous.

Ok, More importantly. How do I enable the new OpenID comment options on my blogspot blog?

Google have a new draft version of blogger so basically all you have to do is log into your blogger blog through this and enable the new commenting options.

• Goto draft.blogger.com and log into your dashboard as normal.

• Click on 'Settings' for the blog you want to update
• Click on the 'Comments' tab

Here are your new commenting options. The important thing is going to the section 'Who can comment?' and checking the option 'Anyone - Includes Anonymous users'.

Then scroll to the bottom and hit 'Save'

Voila!, now hopefully you won't have to worry about losing comments from Google users.

Please let me know if this tutorial was useful and if you think I need to add anything to improve it.

Strange happenings in the forest

This post contains a sponsored link and a little made up story! :)

As I sit up here hanging around on a branch keeping watch over the forest and all it's inhabitants I can always see little shapes fluttering far away in the distance.

At moments I like this I swing down to my work room and grab my binoculars and camera. Many a time you can see various types of birds, snakes and tree dwellers going about their daily life.

One such moment just a few weeks ago lead me to witnessing a bizarre scene. Now being the caretaker of the forest I know many of the beings that reside here but browsing deep into the trees I could see a strange little creature that I had never seen before. The little winged, long nosed animal was looking very nauseous and dazed.

I immediately slid down my rope and made my way by foot to go and find this creature. Luckily I know the random forest very well so it took me no time at all. I found the creature lying down at the base of the tree, looking somewhat disheveled so I picked it up and took it to Bernard the dog for some medical advice.

Bernard was gob smacked. He said it resembled a young pterodactyl and that they had been extinct for millions of years!

We are still unsure how it got here but it is well on the way to recovery and Bernard has taken the duty of care until we can work out how to return it to it's time period.

Anacortes is a website that provides equipment for bird watching and star gazing (or pterodactyl spotting) including binoculars, telescopes and CCD digital cameras. As well as books, bird supplies and a classified section. They stock many major brands including Celestron, Meade and Bushnell.

The site is a little cluttered on first glance but carries a very friendly feel and seems easy enough to navigate and purchase from. If I was looking for anything they carry and the price was right I would have no worries using them.

What are the big G up to now? Punishing their own?

It seems that the big G are pushing their monopolitic ideas to the limit.

Opal @ Vegan Momma recently commented and flagged that she was unable to add her web address to her comment without being logged into Google.

I assumed that it was a glitch with that post but after spending a fair amount of time commenting on other blogs today I have encountered it on EVERY blogspot blog.

As you can see below Google NOW only offers 1 option for you to display a link to your blog/website when commenting on blogspot blogs.


Before hand you had an option to leave your name and a weblink as an alternative to logging into Google. Where has it gone? And more to the point... Why has it gone?

This new Nickname thing is just damn insulting. I would almost rather post as Anom!

The reason I don't like commenting using my Google account is because I have two blogs registered on there and one is inactive. I don't want people going there instead of this blog.

I really think that this stupid new feature is going so push away potential new commenter's who do not use a Google account or only want to comment showing one website address.

Damn Google. Does anyone know how I can convert to Wordpress without losing my PR and all my readers?

Indiana Jones and the search for the Dark Knight

Sitting up here in my tree house, looking over the Random Forest, I saw a spider monkey swinging through the tree next to mine. Immediately I was reminded that I have been meaning to search out more information about the upcoming Dr. I. Jones movie!
I swang down into the mac room and eagerly loaded up my laptop to search for some stuff. Whilst doing this large fruit bat whizzed by me, barely missing my nose, and I was reminded of another upcoming movie that is exciting me a great deal!

Well maybe it did not quite happen like that but.... It is true that I am really exited about the upcoming Batman and Indian Jones movies. So I have decided to show all you marvelous people some stills and basic info that I have found on my search.

The Dark Knight
Release date: July 18, 2008
Official site: thedarkknight.warnerbros.com

After Christopher Nolan brought the dead francise back to life in the last film 'Batman Begins' I have been really excited about what will be instore next.

Still featuring the best actors from the last movie and Nolan directing again, I know it will be awesome. The biggest news (that I am sure everyone has heard about already) is that the Joker is going to be portrayed by no other than Heath Ledger, who is fast becoming one of the most credible young actors of our time. At first I thought no one would ever be able to stand up to Jack Nicolson's original performance but as you can see from these shots, Ledger certainly looks the part.

(These were originally posted on Rotten Tomatoes and then removed, so you may have trouble finding them elsewhere, Leave me your mail and I would be happy to email them to you).











It looks amazing, doesn't it?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Release: May 22, 2008
Official site: indianajones.com

This movie had been producing rumours and news for years now but it is finally in production and has a release date too!

Harrison Ford has been being very particular about the script and I have every faith that it is going to be great as after about 4 years he finally agreed. Getting around the fact that Mr. Ford is quite and old man now they have moved the story into the 1950's and brought in a son to bring in the youth aspect (this is my only worry). Sean Connery is not on board but Karen Allen (Indy's original love) and great new cast members, including Ray Winstone, Kate Blanchet and Jim Broadbent, will make sure that the acting is solid.

I guess the main question everyone is asking is.... So, how does Indy look?

Well...... Pretty rugged and handsome, actually!







I'm so excited :) :) :). Maybe I need to grow up a little, they are only movies after all!

Are you looking forward to these movies?

Free and Easy - Business Cards

This is a sponsored post, but a helpful one too! :)

I have been thinking of ways to promote my blog recently and have been seriously thinking of ordering some free business cards so that I can give people I meet a real physical way of remembering my blog address.

There are various companies that offer this kind of service and Ooprint is one of them. They are offering 100 FREE blogger cards (you only pay shipping) and with some very simple but nice designs to choose from I can't see where you can go wrong. Their free cards offer the chance to feature your address and a keyword bublle so you can give a basic gist of what your site is about.

Working in the graphic industry for many years I was always dubious of the quality of these free card companies but when I first actually saw some from another company I was very surprised and if Ooprint offer this same quality then I see it as a great deal.

I will be ordering my cards using this design:

I just need to decide on my keywords, maybe you can help me?

I'll let you know what the quality is like when I receive them, but I am sure they will be great.

May I park here?

I have just done recently done something on a complete whim without any full research.

Usually these 'whims' of mine do not work out so I need some help and opinions from people, so I can determine if I should pursue what Is started!

I have been reading about domain name selling and parking through dnxpert.comand wanted to get involved. But of course I just get bored reading and not acting so I took a very silly plunge and purchased a batch of domain names from GoDaddy.

I have now parked these domains and am putting them up for sale.

Parking is basically re-pointing your domain name to one of them pages which are all ads, you know the annoying ones! Theoretically if someone stumbles across your page they may want to click on one and apparently that will earn me a few pennies! I have had no visits or clicks so far so I have no clue ho much it actually earns me. The page also has info letting any potential buyers know that the domain is for sale.

The domains I purchased are:
electionsection.net
fasttry.net
foreverclubbing.net
mumzcorner.com
passionatetravels.net
theecoplanet.com
timelessbritain.com
timelesstowns.com
yournewjoboffer.com
(I also purchased an Adult domain but am struggling with the ethics of it, so will not show it right now! Some of the domains are also still awaiting verification so may not be parked yet.)

I went with Sedo.com for my parking and so far they have been extremely easy to use.

I just need to work out how to get these sites visited now.

What do you think of them? Can you give me some advice?

Christmas is running at us at full speed! Coupon Chief is here to save you [money].

As we all know it's very close to December now and Christmas is ridiculously close.

Snow has started again too so I may be in for a white Christmas. Something I have rarely experienced. Yipee!!

I have not gotten anything for anyone yet and I still need to send anything I do get off to England for my family.

I think I may get books for my mum and maybe even for my dad this year too, although socks will probably suffice :).

So if you need to save some money on gifts then couponchief.com is a very good place to visit. With some amazing amounts of cash off available you can't go wrong. Anything from BestBuy deals to Vision Direct deals and in many cases saving of 100's of dollars are available.

The most beautiful song in the world

• Turn up your volume
• Press Play
• Close your Eyes
• Listen

• Then let me know if you agree

I was busy on YouTube trying to find some clips for an upcoming post and this song came on random song selection. I had to go find it right away so I could share it with anyone who has not heard it before.

This song was recorded by the Buena Vista Social Club. A group of older Cuban artists who had not been heard for many years. After the famous producer Ry Cooder had trouble with a band of African artists passing through customs into Cuba, he was stuck there with a recording studio and nothing tor record. Local enquiries accidently led him to rediscovering some of the most endearing, heartfelt musicians and music that I have ever heard.

The Buena Vista Social Club is available on DVD as a great documentary or you can purchase just the soundtrack. I would at least rent this as it is a must see (Hint, you can find it using the Amazon search on my sidebar!).

The music and lyrics to this song are so simple but they just resonate on the right frequency with me.

Spanish Lyrics:

De Alto Cedro voy para Marcan
Llego a Cueto, voy para Mayar

El cario que te tengo
No te lo puedo negar
Se me sale la babita
Yo no lo puedo evitar

Cuando Juanica y Chan Chan
En el mar cernan arena
Como sacuda el jibe
A Chan Chan le daba pena

Limpia el camino de paja
Que yo me quiero sentar
En aqul tronco que veo
Y as no puedo llegar

De alto Cedro voy para Marcan
Lleg a Cueto voy para Mayar


English translation

From Alto Cedro, I go to Marcan
I arrive in Cueto, and then I go towards Mayar.

The love I have for you
is something I cannot deny
I drool all over
I cannot help it.

When Juanica and Chan Chan
sifted sand at the beach

Chan Chan felt shame

Clean the path of straw
cause I want to sit down
on that tree trunk I see
and that way I'm never going to arrive

From Alto Cedro, I go to Marcan
I arrive in Cueto, and then I go towards Mayar.

Have you heard this song before? What do you think the most beautiful song in the world is?

Cheapest Ipod, maybe find it at Savebuckets?

This is a sponsored post.

I recently purchased a fantastic Ipod Nano for my lovely partner. The machine is beautiful and does an amazing amount of things such as play music and video and allow you to play and download games, amazing! My 3rd gen Ipod now feels so clunky and out of date even though it cost me nearly £400 at the time.

A few days after I got her the Nano I found it £15 cheaper elsewhere. It always hurts, that could have been a nice meal for me :) ..... or I could have treated her to a nice meal......

Anyway.. Save Buckets is a UK price comparison website and it may be the perfect place to find that special mp3 player or any other great deal you are looking for. Especially with Christmas just around the corner.

The layout is clean and easy, as is the search and they look like they are keen to keep improving.

Crustaceans lights the way. Strange but true!

Whilst taking an inventory of the fridge contents at work yesterday I noticed a very strange thing.

I opened the fridge door and in the half light I could see blue staining on the raw shrimp.

I grabbed the container and as soon as I removed the shrimp from the fridge the staining was gone.

"Are these things glowing in the dark", I wondered!

Well after testing by putting head in the fridge door and closing it, the results were in....

...The raw shrimp was glowing in the dark.

Trying to convince people was hard so many demonstrations were needed and most people turned right off at the idea of eating them.

Something was telling me it was , when I arrived home I did some research.

According to this article by Patricia N. Sado for the FDA in July 1998:

"Several consumers thought their "glowing" seafood was due to phosphorescing phytoplankton, or even fluorescence. The consumers' seafood products "glowing" in the dark were not due to radiation or to fluorescence, which requires an ultraviolet light to trigger the reaction. These seafood products exhibited luminescence due to the presence of certain bacteria that are capable of emitting light. Luminescence by bacteria is due to a chemical reaction catalyzed by luciferase, a protein similar to that found in fireflies.

The article also goes onto say;

"Luminescent bacteria occur naturally in seawater, fish, shellfish, and marine animals (5). These bacteria may be present on raw seafood products in the grocery store. They should not be present on cooked seafood products, since cooking destroys these bacteria and other pathogenic bacteria. Employees should follow good manufacturing practices and sanitation in fish markets and grocery stores to prevent cross-contamination of cooked seafood products such as seafood salads, cooked and peeled shrimp, and imitation crabmeat. Good sanitation practices would probably have kept the cooked seafood from being cross-contaminated in most of the incidents where P. phosphoreum and V. logei were isolated."

So if you see any glowing seafood, the official verdict is that it is safe and the unofficial verdict from me is that it is extremely cool to look at!

Have you ever experienced or even heard of such a thing?

Crank up the portable heater, the cold is coming........

This is a sponsored post



Snow had hit Montreal a few times in the last few weeks and although it's not knee deep yet, it's a small reminder that winter is heading our way.

It has been jumping between + and - but weather forecasts are indicating that a freeze is imminent.

I love being out and about but am finding less wish to leave the house and although the heating here is sometimes put a little high I am glad we have it.

Just a few weeks ago when it first started to drop temperature the heating had broken for a while and I really hope it does not happen again. I think I would have to go and live in a 24 hour coffee shop if it breaks again.

I live in a house shared with four others. I share a room with my partner and everyone else has their own space. We are all adequately heated (well as I said maybe it's a bit high sometimes but I don't feel the cold so much as others). The main lounge area does have a radiator but it is slightly too large to heat well. Luckily the landlord has wheeled in a portable gas heater so the room feels very warm and cozy even though just on the other side of the window it's a different story.

I must say though that the snow does look really pretty but it is in the process of melting completely and has become slush that billows into waves of ice when the cars zoom through it.

Hopefully we will receive beautiful fluffy snowman worthy snow in the next few days. It will make the cold more worthwhile.

Work in progress

Over the next week or so I will be playing with my theme and trying to make something I like.

Feel free to comment at any moment!

Me Luv Blogs We Luv

Last night whilst reading through all the articles I have missed over the last few days I came across Blogs We Luv (found the link on Bushmackel.com).

Blogs We Luv celebrates blogs across the blogosphere and also allows you to do a little site promotion and answer 10 questions for them.

So how could I refuse! I submitted my questions and then had a few quick email exchanges with the amazingly helpful Tish and voila! My post is up today. The link is proudly presented below!

10 Questions with Forest of The Random Forest

I suggest you go there right this second and submit your answers.

Dark times ahead!

Movie Review: 30 Days of Night.

Director: David Slade
Writers: Steve Niles and Stuart Beattie
Date: 19 October 2007 (Canada)
Genre: Horror

Last Wednesday I was faced with the boring prospect of heading home after work, but feeling achy and ill and not having my girlfriend around to comfort me, I decided that I would not go home for a while.

Drinking whilst ill is stupid, so my local hole of debauchery was off the cards. That's how I found myself heading towards the big bright lights of the movie theater.

Staring up at the listings and looking around at the posters I knew that a no brainer horror would be perfect. I wasn't feeling like I could pay attention to a deep and meaningful film, 30 Days of Night was on hand to fulfill my need.

30 Days of Night takes place in a town called Barrow which is the furthest most northern town in Alaska. For 30 days every year the town is thrown into night. This year the residents end up having to deal with far more than endless depression, alcohol being illegal and missing loved ones who have fled to brighter parts of the world.

The film opens with the two town sheriffs discovering footprints and a pile of burnt mobile phones, whilst on their annual shut down. Immediately you know that the extremely handsome Sheriff Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnet) is going to be the focus of this movie. The tradition of giving the hero the job of straight faced delivery of the stupidest one liners is held.

Very soon after the romantic angle is introduced when his separated wife, Stella (Melissa George), firstly just so happens to be in town for work and secondly misses the last plane out.

From here on in, you know, the bitter partnership will obviously be there to save the town from the freakish events that will unfold!

Eben and Stella's first meet occurs whilst arresting a very unfriendly and unwashed stranger who is causing hassle at the diner. After imprisoning him in the cell at the police station (that also seems to double as Eben's home) the stranger continues to be unfriendly by taunting Eben's younger brother and Grandma from behind the bars. Threats such as 'You are all gonna die' and suggestions that they are coming give yet more ominous signals for events ahead.

The murder of every sledge dog in town and events that lead to power and communications being cut quickly unfold and the evil aggressors are finally shown to us. Sporting a mixture of sleek black suits and trendy goth fashion the long nailed, sharp teethed villains get to work by playing with and feeding on the town residents in a very speedy fashion. The remaining humans meet in the diner and hatch an amazingly insightful plan to go hide in a loft until it all blows over.

I won't go into the exact details of what happens next, IMDB exists for this purpose, but I will say that overall it was an enjoyable movie that stuck well to it's genre constraints and presented everything in good a good dosage.

The Vampires themselves were very freaky and given a look which is a mixture between human and pure evil. Intelligence and explanation of their arrival in town was given to and heard only from Marlow, the leader of these evil creatures. Surprisingly he carried the most human traits. He looked like a businessman at the end of a hard week, showing a slight pot belly and a double chin gained from too much lunchtime drinking (of blood, I can only imagine!), he instructs his minions to devour the helpless, hapless townsfolk and gives them moral support! He is pure evil but you find yourself kind of liking him at times , you find yourself imagining that he was probably quite an amicable human. At one point he almost shows compassion, but opts to break the neck of the slim goth 'token' lady vampire, after she is burnt with a UV light, previously used for the nurturing of a small marijuana crop. He instructs the town to be burnt to the ground so that the humans who come back will suspect a 'terrible accident' (this idea shows huge disregard for modern forensics!) and the vampire myth will still be only the stuff of bad dreams. The other vampires all have strange appearance, from overly large mouths to strange tilted eyes or a striking resemblance to Marilyn Manson, if he had spent the last 5 years living only on water and celery. They never really get a chance to speak, however the make up for it in heartless murders, sometimes of townsfolk that you did not expect.

The special effects and cinematography were excellent. An Overhead shot of the devastated town with blood stained snow and vampires feeding and chasing really wowed me. Slightly off colour gave the film the loneliness feel and shaky camera scenes, such as the camera being followed by a vehicle, made you more than aware that evil was lurking. The cuts were well done and gave a chance for both the humans and the vamps to shine through verbally and visually, and they left you to imagine at least some of the slashes, murders and general mayhem.

Josh Hartnet did a better job than I expected but actors such as Mark Boone Junior (playing the big beardy snowplough driver, Beau) and Mark Rendell (as Jake, Eben's little bro) gave great performances. The people interacted with each other in an interesting factor and managed to appear scared enough to make you worry about them.

The end of the film has an almost unexpected twist but sadly there was no after credit revelation. I left the theater with the exact feelings I wanted. Satisfied with the gore and enough plot to hold me but not switch me off. I look forward to the next installment, of what I am sure will end up being, the '.......of Night' franchise.




Have you seen this movie? If so I would love to know what you thought?

Also how did you like my review and how could I have improved it?

Today

Finally got back to blogging and working on stuff today....

Got 3 Movie reviews to write....

About 500 posts in my Google Reader to read....

So I will get back to the regular posting from today...

Long evening ahead, wish me luck!

It's not a game... It's a.. well, yes it is a game actually!

This is a sponsored post

I first went Paintballing quite a few years back now. My friend and I managed to get a bunch of cheap tickets so we sold them to all our friends, making enough to cover our day, and off we went.

Everyone turned up in old rotten clothes and it was a cold wet day but I knew I was excited at the prospect of running around diving in the mud and shooting little blobs of paint at my friends.

During our briefing at the center the instructor explained to us that a few other people would be joining as they had turned up that day just hoping to join in with a game, of course we did not mind.

One of these guys was a chubby 30ish year old dressed head to toe in army camo gear with Rambo style face paint to match. My immediate reaction was 'weirdo' and I was happy that he was put on the other team. 'He will be an easy slow target I thought'.

So when we went through to pick up our paintball gun packages I looked around and saw his mean looking and new gun completely out shinning our bashed up bent little things. I then correctly realised that this guy even had his own equipment and he was no amateur. We were in trouble!

I will probably never reach a high level but I have learned that If you wanna play this game for real you need your own gear!

Ultimate Paintball sells gear from all the top brands including Tippmann, Spyder, Smart Parts, Dye, Empire, Draxxus and many more. They offer great paintball gun packages including their top selling guns: Tippmann A-5, Tippmann 98 Custom, Smart Parts Ion and Spyder Pilot ACS. All of their Paintaball offers also come with free shipping so the deals you see on the site are the deals you get.

One of them 'Sorry' posts...

Sorry I have not been around too much the last few days.

I have been getting a little ill and can't really afford to miss work so have been neglecting my blog.

I managed tp post a paid post because I had actually written it sometime last week.

The snow has just started to hit here in Montreal and I am excited about taking my camera around when I feel up to it.

I also managed to stop by the movie theater and watch 30 days of night and have been thinking of the best way to tackle a review. Hopefully you will get that from me tomorrow.

Does anyone know if it is allowed to post movie reviews and things on here and Helium at the same time?

See everyone soon, I hope!

Are you smart, dumb, sexy or just plain crazy!

This is a sponsored post


Take the Cooking Test - Cooking Quiz at QuizRocket.com!
Make Your Own Quiz

I work in a kitchen and I only got 56%, maybe I should start paying some attention!

Quiz Rocket is another one of those sites that you can go onto to take all manor of fun tests, including humorous and personality IQ tests. With 30+ tests there is enough to keep you going almost everyday for a long while.

With all this Holiday season business coming up they have a Christmas trivia quiz for you to take right now and I am sure some other themed quizzes will be popping up in the next month or so.

Quiz Rocket is free and the website is fun and easy looking. When going through the quiz I there were a few sneaky questions to gather data from me but they were not too bad and then to get your results and HTML code you have the option to sign up to or skip various offers. I choose to skip them all and it took a while to get through them but again it wasn't the end of the world.



This is a reasonably fun site to pass a quick 10mins break.

Free as a bird

Talking with some fellow co-workers, I discovered that none of them had ever heard of the Beatles song 'Free as a bird'. This prompted me to look it up right away.

This is a very beautiful song and watching it really makes me miss Liverpool. As you see when you watch it there are tons and tons of references to some of the Beatles earlier works.



'Free as a bird' started life as a John Lennon demo and was given to the remaining band in 1994 by Yoko Ono. The finished the recording as though Lennon was away on holiday and it was released as part of the Anthology album in December 1995.

It was one of 2 new Beatles song, the other being called 'Real Love'. Also another good song. In my eyes, like many others, they did very little bad music.

What is your favorite Beatles track?

Over 2000, How am I doing? I Need your Opinions

As of yesterday my Unique Visitor counter has tipped over the 2000 mark!!

I am so happy that I now have some regular visitors and I value the feedback immensely.

Things that have happened with this blog recently are:

• I have been able to Monetize through the use of Paid Post,
• Google gave me PR4 (Probably temporary!),
• I am playing around with the theme colours and maybe the design a little!
• Advert placement is being looked at, Adsense is still giving me very low returns,
• I had a $20 Adwords voucher so I am using it to promote this site;

My main goals are to improve my writing and keep my readers, get more visitors (this is hard!) and keep my site monetized enough so that I can still aim for it to be a job one day.

So basically I would like to know (partly inspired by Bush asking the same question), How am I doing? Part of me thinks I may have been posting too many sponsored posts or not writing enough weird random articles.

What can I do to be better? What do you particularly like or hate about coming here?

I am in the early stages or thinking up and starting some new sites and getting back to some things I started earlier.

One of my more immediate projects will be starting a review site, inspired by Darn Good Reviews and other bloggers efforts a separating their personal space from their business space a little bit.

I am also looking back into Helium (If you get a chance here is one of my articles, let me know what you think!) and Ciao to see if there is any future in such things. Does anybody make a decent amount from Helium, and if so how many articles do you have active?

And more of an experiment rather than a business plan I am thinking of creating a story blog. Basically I will probably write the first part of the story and then guests will be asked to write the next piece and so on until an entire story is written. People will also be encouraged to submit shorter stories of their own, if they wish. I am not too bothered if the idea is stolen from me :), I just want to know what people think before putting any effort in.

All comments even if extremely harsh will be appreciated greatly.

Thanks to you all, I understand I am asking for a lot of commenting and participation!

Yeeee Haaaaaa

Almost everyone has dreamed of being a cowboy or a cowgirl, or both maybe! I have not really had this desire since I was a child, but I have noticed that fashion sometimes takes the Western twist and Cowboy Boots can make really cool fashion statement.

Metboots.com offers a range of western boots and with their free delivery offer on orders over $100 may be a good place to look with the 'Holiday Season' arriving fast.

They look a bit fancy for me and I am sure you would have to know that someone would really want these but they could make a great gift.

Here is a strangely funny (if you like weird British Humor) video I found on You Tube, enjoy... Maybe!:

Is there room for anymore Social Bookmarking?.. Well maybe 1 more, especially when you can earn $$$$ from it!

I bet that is the longest title I have ever used, not very catchy, I know!

Well what is the deal about then?

I am still a little confused about all this social bookmarking stuff and which ones are going to do me any good. Stumbleupon brings me the odd visitor here and there and Digg is something I will try and look at a bit more sometime soon.

However I think this new Digg style player could grow really quickly as they are offering a unique thing for us ever $$$ hungry bloggers. Swypefile allows you to enter your Google Adsense code so that you can earn money from ads shown alongside your submitted posts. That means your own content and others content that you submit. They say that they will use your Adsense 50% of the time and that also if you refer anyone ( http://www.swypefile.com/go/13047, this is my referrel id, please sign up through me :) ) then your ads will also be shown on any posts they submit for 50% of the time.

Sounds too good to be true in some ways, but as it's free and I am not actually giving them my Adsense password I think it is definitely worth a try.

The site looks pretty new and simple right now but if it catches on quickly then I am sure that it will grow very fast and becomes a big competitor.

Let me know how you get on.

Learn to Dream - New Photographic Printing Website

This is a sponsored post (Seymour on the left works for the company too, they have some very humorous comments about the image in their 'Meet The Staff' section)

For many years I worked as a Graphic Designer / Mac Artworker and I spent a fair amount of time working for and dealing with high quality large format/photographic print. In fact I used to design and artwork stuff for special window displays and exhibition so I think I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to such printing processes.

So when this post opportunity came around asking for some news posted for a new UK Photographic Printing Specialists website launch I knew I had to take it.

Learn to Dream are not a company I have dealt with before but it seems like they are very well established and browsing through their work it looks like they are a pretty competent bunch and do know what they are talking about.

This new website seems to be moving away from approaching the industry and has been produced primarily aiming at the home digital camera user. They are offering some very specific bespoke services for you to enlarge and have your images framed and delivered back to you or your office.

It looks very professional and has a great simple and helpful 'How It Works' guide as they know that many of their new customer reach will have no knowledge of the professional services that they are offering.

I also suggest that you take a sneak on their staff page. This had me laughing for a long while and really gives the company a personal touch.

If I was going to get any images enlarged I would always use a service where I can speak to real people and make sure that I get the image I was expecting. Companies like this one should be able to give you full advice and offer tips for supplying your images aswell as making sure that the prints come out sharp and correct in colour.

If you are interested then read on through their official press release and go visit them:

Press Release:

Photographic Printers have a new website to showcase their products

London, England, November 16th 2007 – Learntodream, based in London, England, is pleased to announce it’s newly updated website www.learntodream.co.uk.

“We’ve always enjoyed a unique position in the photographic / graphics printing industry because of the high quality of our products and our association with LTD, one of the most successful commercial Graphics Houses in the UK” said Learntodream’s marketing manager James Ironmonger.

“Our customers are always delighted with our services, so we thought it was time to make sure that more people knew about us and could see just how we can really bring an image to life. So we’ve updated our website with more information, better images and made it easier to use too” said James.

Working with website designers SpinningClock and internet marketers Intelligent Online Marketing, Learntodream have produced a new website has a fresh new look that allows visitors to get an idea of just how their picture would look in their own home. The amount of information has also been increased, allowing the user to better understand the processes, both technical and creative, that are involved.

The range of printing mediums available is also explained in more detail, allowing the user to make initial decisions on which they think is best for their treasured photograph. However, Learntodream’s expert staff are always available to guide customers and that is what makes Learntodream that bit special.

Learntodream offers high quality photographic printing services to the consumer and small business, it’s parent LTD, offering graphic design and printing services to the high end of the business market, working with such names as HSBC and L’Oreal. Both companies have over 20 years worth of experience and share the same latest high end printing equipment.

For more information, contact James Ironmonger +44 845 456 4033 or visit their new website at www.learntodream.co.uk

Theme change around test

I have just quickly had a shuffle around on the colours of my layout. I am still not sure if I should change or not so just wanted to get some opinions from some of your regular readers and decide if I should move over from 'the dark side'.

A few posts and people have suggested that black themes turn away new reader, have any of you seen that to be true?

So let me know what ya thing! Thanks a squillion.

Awards hand outs to come...

... Just thought I would also add that I will be handing these awards out to some of you guys in a post very soon.....

Awards! What for Me?

For some odd reason I have recently been awarded not 1 but 1 amazing awards by fellow bloggers!

It really feels great that other appreciate my blog and my participation in their blogs.

So who did what and what are they?

Brown Baron gave me the wondrous the Mariuca Superstar Award. This award was deservedly passed to him from Marzie. It was given as a token of appreciation for the friendship and support of other bloggers and he passed it onto me for the same reason. It is really really really really really really really really really really really appreciated. Does that get the point across? Thanks Mr B. Baron.

He also awarded it to Bush Mackel, Mark, Opal, AntiBarbie and Zath so I suggest you check these great blogs out.

The Be The Blog award is a very special new award created by Mark at Me and My Drum and is spreading around like wildfire. I feel amazingly priviledged to be awarded by the creator himself. I must say his blog has been a great place for me to visit and his commitment to helping other bloggers is only one very small reason as to why you should become a regular reader of his.

Thanks to everyone who reads my humble words. I also want to mention that Bush Mackel recently posted asking his readers how he was doing. I really think it important that we all ask this question and should all post about it at some point (I'll be doing just that soon), and if others ask us we answer honestly.

I miss Lizard

When I decided to move over here to Canada I knew I had to get rid of all my large possessions.

One of the said possessions was alive. It was a bearded dragon that I never named, but none the less was very fond of. To me he became known as 'The Lizard'.

I got my first bearded dragon a few years ago from a local pet store. A good friend of mine also purchased one at the same time and over time it turned out that they happened to be 'sexually compatible'.

In a very irresponsible manor we decided to let them breed without really reading up on the subject. I very quickly realised how irresponsible this was so I quickly got up to speed reading every internet site that I could find on the subject.

After I realised that my friend's lizard was pregnant I separated the lizards and began to set up ready for the egg laying.

In a sad twist of fate, whilst I was away one very hot weekend, my lizard died. I never found the real reason but I think he may have overheated as I had positioned his tank very close to a window. I have never forgiven myself.

I made sure that I would be extra caring from then on in and meticulously arranged the correct conditions for the egg laying and hatching.

One day 'Stitch' the female lizard dug a hole in the mud box that I had made for her and after many hours she finished laying her 13 eggs.

I transfered these eggs to their incubator and kept a close eye on them.

Only 4 eggs survived the incubating process, gladly all 4 eggs hatched problem free. They were very cute and very scared. It was only the fact that these little critters were so tired from birth that I was able to catch them and put them in their tank.

This picture (taken on my cell phone) shows just how cute they were.



I reared them until ready and then sold two.

The two remaining became my nameless pets. I cared for them as best I could and they grew up very calm, friendly and pretty. Eventually I sold the one that turned out to be female, as the male/female, brother/sister thing isn't the best situation, even in the lizard world!

On receiving news that my one year Via for Canada was good to go, the poor lizard had to leave my possession, I put an ad on the net. I received a few positive replies instantly.

One of the replies was from a fascinating lady called Catherine.

I spoke various times over the course of about a month with Catherine and we arranged the rehousing of the lizard.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I have to give you a rough outline of this wonderful lady. Every time I spoke to her we ended up chatting for at least an hour. Catherine was just over 70 and had been trravelling around the world for most her life. She had lived with nomads, been a background artist in Westerns and done many things but working with horses had been her main skill. She was now retired and my lizard was heading off with her for a beautiful relaxing life in Spain.

So off went my lizard with Catherine and I vowed to keep in contact but have not done that really so far. I will be calling her in the next few days and will hopefully update you when I get through to her.





Like the title says... I miss Lizard.

If you are interested in the basics of owning one of these wonderful creatures, and the care involved then read my Helium article here.

New Samsung Phone

This is a sponsored post

I was moaning about my current phone (which is also a samsung) the other day over at Bush's place and I commented that phones were cheaper in the UK.

Well... this new Samsung Camera Phone looks pretty snazzy and has great features. If you go onto their site you can help some clubbers win it and look at some funny pics.

They also have a guide to the best UK clubs if that's your thing. So if you feel inclined why not go to the website.

samsung-g600.co.uk

The site has a very cool flash design and quite unique menu system (I thought).

You can vote for your favourite Queue Jumper from our gallery of 300 image-concious UK clubbers. All contestants have been selected by the nations finest Door Pickers from across the country and shot with the amazing Samsung G600 5 megapixel camera. The fifteen individuals with the most votes will each win the hottest, most talked about mobile model this season: The Samsung G600

What's more, from the 22nd-31st October 2007, the fifteen Queue Jumper gallery winners will be joined by fifteen winners from our G600 Queue Jumper application poll on Facebook - The thirty winners will then be entered into a grand final, where one lucky Queue Jumper will win an amazing modelbook and photoshoot managed by one of Europes leading model agencies Independent Talent worth £10,000



Also make sure you take a glance at the features and specs of the most stylish phone of 2007, the Samsung G600 slim slider 5 megapixel Camera Phone.