The Furnace

Open A Banana Like A Monkey (top-tip)

2009-07-10T16:19:51+02:00

Just like the guy in the following video, I've been peeling my bananas all wrong. Now watch the video and see how it should be done:

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AVERT - Stop Aids In Children Campaign

2008-12-01T09:23:56+01:00

Every year, nearly half a million babies are infected with HIV, and 330,000 children die of AIDS. The international HIV and AIDS charity AVERT wants to see this change. This World AIDS Day, the Stop AIDS in Children campaign will be asking for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) to be made a top priority across the globe.

To find out more about the campaign, and to discover how you can help, please watch the video below and then visit the Stop AIDS in Children campaign page (http://www.avert.org/stop-aids-children.php).

Also, if you'd like to show your support of World AIDS Day on your blog, website or social network profile, then be sure to add a 'Red Ribbon' badge on it, like the one you can see at the top-right of this blog.

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Show your support for 'World Aids Day' by adding a 'Red Ribbon' badge to your blog

2008-12-01T02:44:50+01:00

For weeks now, people have been buying and wearing 'Red Ribbon' badges as a way of showing their support for 'World Aids Day', which takes place every 1st of December. Proceeds from the purchase of these 'Red Ribbon' badges play a large part in helping numerous Aids Charities and victims affected by this terrible disease around the world.

The 'Red Ribbon' badge, like the one shown in the image on the left (courtesy of cj592), is normally worn on the lapel of a jacket or elsewhere on other items of clothing and can be purchased from many high-street stores. Have you got yours yet?

Show your virtual support for World Aids Day

The thing is, though, the badges mentioned above are great for showing your support in the real world - when you're out and about doing your thing - but how do you go about showing your support when you spend a great deal of your time in the virtual world... like me, and the many others like me, who do?

After a little bit of thought about this I decided to design my very own 'Red Ribbon' badge, only this would be one that I could add to the side-bar of my blogs - like the one you can see on the top-right of this blog - to show that I support this very worthy cause.

If you also support 'World Aids Day' and you'd like to add a 'Red Ribbon' badge to your own blogs, websites or social networks, then I am giving you my permission to use the ones I have created below and I also provide the HTML code that you'll need to do so.

Adding a Red Ribbon badge to your blog or website

Below you will see that I have designed the 'Red Ribbon' blog badge for you in three different flavours - you have the choice of a black background, white background or transparent background - which one you use is entirely up to you. However, here is my suggestion for which one to use, based on the colours used on your own blog, website or social network:

Black Background - This one looks best when placed on any white or light-coloured area of your site.
White Background - This one looks best when placed on any black or dark-coloured area of your site.
Transparent Background - This one looks good when placed on any area of your site, no matter what colour it is.

Once you have decided on which of the 'Red Ribbon' badge below that you would like to use, simply copy and paste the HTML code beneath it into the area of your site where you'd like it to appear.

Blog.co.uk users: Go to your blog's 'Design Wizard' and add the 'HTML/Java Script' widget to your blog's side-bar. Copy & paste the 'Red Ribbon' code below into that widget and then save and close the 'Design Wizard'. Viola... your 'Red Ribbon' badge now appears on your blog.

Help to spread the word about World Aids Day

Once you have added your 'Red Ribbon' badge to your site, please tell everyone you know who might also be interested in getting one where you got it, by sending them here via a link to this blog post. Or simply tell them to click on your 'Red Ribbon' badge, which (providing you've added the code correctly) should link back here anyway.

If you need any help adding the 'Red Ribbon' badge to your own blog, website or social network, then please make your request in a comment below or send me a message via my profile page.

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Far Cry 2 - Put it on your Christmas wish-list

2008-11-20T08:39:17+01:00

Exploring 20 square miles of African savannah and jungle is never an easy task. But when you’re up against an army of highly trained mercenaries, the danger becomes unimaginable.

Welcome to the world of Far Cry 2 .

It’s been over four years since the release of the first Far Cry , and Far Cry 2 has almost nothing in common with it beyond being a first-person shooter with excellent graphics and advanced artificial intelligence. It’s by a different developer, and you now play one of eight different mercenary characters out to catch an arms dealer nicknamed “The Jackal.”

The sci-fi enemies have also been jettisoned in favour of a much more realistic game where survival skills are just as important as a good aim. The rules of engagement--either by stealth or all guns blazing--are entirely up to you.

Key Features

Virtual safari: The game features 20 square miles of terrain for you to travel, filled with realistic fauna and flora and fully destructible trees and buildings.
Fiery realism: With an all-new graphics engine created just for the game, fire moves and propagates exactly as in real-life, with vegetation breaking and snapping realistically.
The coming storm: A dynamic weather system changes to reflect your mood, with the sky turning dark and stormy during bad times.
Jungle survival: Highly realistic weapons degrade with use, bullets need to be dug out of your body, and vehicles break down if pushed beyond their limits.
Buying friends: Meet and co-operate with fellow mercenaries as you pit different factions against one another in a war-torn African state.

I'm so glad this was released in time for Christmas, because now my better-half can't use the excuse that she didn't have a clue what to buy me. No more socks and pants this year...

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What a load of shit...

2008-11-04T16:56:52+01:00

Here is a very clever way of using art/design to highlight the the problem of dog-poo on the streets and raise people's awareness of it, while putting a smile on their faces at the same time...

Sprinkle Brigade

(Best viewed in full-screen mode)

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My group featured on front page of SlideShare

2008-10-28T21:20:39+01:00

A week ago, I created a group called 'SlideShare Introductions' on the 'SlidesShare' website - the best place to share your PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents on the web - and within just a couple of days, it was (and still is) a featured group on their front page.

As you can probably imagine, I am very chuffed about this, which is why I'd like to share this achievement of mine with you.

Below, is the slideshow presentation I created for my group, which was also featured on the front page of the site, but sadly isn't any more. Please take a look at it and let me know what you think. It is best viewed in full-screen mode and all of the links in it are clickable.

And also... here is the slideshow presentation that I created as my own introduction to the rest of the SlideShare community and added to the group for all to see. Again... it is best viewed in full-screen and all links are clickable.

I hope you've enjoyed these two slideshows that I created and just maybe, perhaps, I've wet your appetite enough to get creative and make your own ones to upload to the SlideShare website. If you feel you don't have the the know-how to create your own, or if you're not sure how to get started, I'll offer you all the help I can to get you going.

Even if creating slideshows like these isn't your cup-of-tea, I'd still recommend taking a look at the site, as there are many very interesting ones there to look at. There's everything from your usual business-type slideshow presentations, to very funny ones, educational or how-to's or ones that feature people's photography or art-works. Whatever your thing, your sure to find something you like in one of the many different catagories. To go there now, just click here...

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The Knott Appeared on Red TV - Live and Unsigned

2008-07-11T16:51:13+02:00

If you've tuned into Red TV (Sky 186) recently, you will have heard the dulcet tones of the band called 'The Knott' singing 'Live In Doubt' in the regional finals of the Live & Unsigned event that was held in Bristol a short while ago.

The Knott are a Swindon (Wiltshire) based band and Matt Keeble, the one on the far-right in the video below, is my next-door-neighbour. Which is really great, because I get to hear about all of their up-coming gigs and can normally get in for a discount, or even for FREE sometimes.

OK, so they didn’t make it to the national final of the Live & Unsigned event, but hey, they had a great time, met some great people and got to be on the telly. So all’s well that ends well.

Don’t forget, you can click through to YouTube.com to get a better quality version of the video below. Oh, and don’t forget to leave a comment and pass it on to your entire address book!

Here's a short video clip of what was recently televised on Red TV:

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New members needed for the 'Site Share' group

2008-07-10T19:17:35+02:00

I am calling on all of my friends here at Blog.co.uk, to join in with my new 'Site Share' group.

http://siteshare.blog.co.uk/

The group's aim is, to allow all of its members to share any interesting, helpful or fun websites that you have come across on the internet and that you would like to share with the rest of the Blog.co.uk network.

Over time, this group will eventually become a great resource for anyone who'd like to easily find the best websites on the internet, all in one place.

If you do decide to join - or even you don't but think you know others who might - then please be so kind as to write a blog post about it and let all of your friends know that it exists.

Here's that link again for you:

http://siteshare.blog.co.uk/

Thank you in advance for taking the time to check this out...

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Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Rum

2008-07-05T16:48:19+02:00

I've just joined The Black Pearl Crew group blog. Come and join us all there...

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The kids playing in the snow

2008-07-04T11:35:34+02:00

I've just come across this great site, called 'Animotto', that allows you to make very creative music videos from your photos.

Because I really enjoy taking photos, making videos from them and because I love music too, this site is ideal for me and is also very easy to use too.

Here's a quick one that I made in just a few short minutes of signing up to the site:

Click on the button below to start creating your own.

If you go to the site to make your own and then add it to your blog, please leave a link to it here so that me and others can check it out...

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Check out my brand new super-computer

2008-06-30T19:01:44+02:00

I still can't believe that I finally did it!!! After two whole years of 'umming & arhhhing' and finding all sorts of excuses and reasons for putting it off, I have finally got round to buying myself a brand new computer. I actually ordered it on Friday - I'm still in shock even now - and it should be here by next Monday.

"But, David... why all of the amateur dramatics?" I hear you ask and now I will tell you.

Anyone that knows me well, also knows that I always replace my computers every three years, without fail, no matter what condition they might be in. That's just how I roll...

However, me and the last computer that I bought in 2003 - a top of the range, very high-spec Medion which cost me over £1000 just for the tower alone - have become very much in love.

I know it sounds stupid, but this good ol' girl of mine - the Medion computer who I've named Brenda - has never once let me down, played up in any way or caused me any other problems what-so-ever in the five long years that we've been together.

She is, without a shadow of a doubt, the very best and most reliable computer that I have ever owned.

In March of 2005, when I would've normally replaced any other computer, I just couldn't bring myself to say goodbye to Brenda. Even now, two years on from what should have been her funeral, she's still very much alive and kicking and could even give a top-range computer of today a good run for it's money.

But alas, after many happy years together, I realize that she must now move aside to make room for a new, younger and sportier model to be a part of my life.

Hey... I'm a bloke... what else did you expect!

And here, in the picture below, is my new bit of stuff, who I am now longing to run my sticky little fingers all over. It won't be long now, my precious...

( Click on the image above for a larger view )

Hey, everybody... isn't she just absolutely adorable, with her young, pert sockets and curvasious disk-drives! Anyway, here are my new girl's vital statistics, which really are very impressive:

Processor: Dual Core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory: 2Gb DDR2 RAM (with plenty of room for expansion)
Storage: 1Tb hard disk drive (yes, I said 1 Terrabyte... which is 1000 Gigabytes)
Media Writer: DVD +/- RW dual layer with Lightscribe
Graphics: 2x 512Mb PCI-E Nvidia GeForce 8400 (I did say 2x graphics cards, count them both)
Sound: Edifier 5.1 with 6-piece speaker set and subwoofer
Display: 22in TFT LCD monitor with 8ms response rate
Removable Media: 52 in 1 card reader
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Extras: Also comes bundled with the latest, most popular software programs

Sooooo... What do you think of this sexy little beauty then? I almost had to reach for the tissues a couple of times while writing that lot down. All of that hardcore power was giving me quite a stiffy, I can tell you.

As you can imagine, I am all a quiver with excitement and can't wait for that knock on the door when the new girl arrives. I know that we will instantly hit it off and get it on from day one.

Amidst all of this wanton lust for more power and stunning visuals, though, I just can't help wondering whether this new attraction of mine will stand up to the tests of time as well as my old girl Brenda did. Given the chance, and if I continued to lavish my love and affection on her, Brenda could probably go on making me happy and giving me enjoyment for a few more years yet.

On the day that my new young filly arrives, will I really be able to unplug Brenda and banish her to the living room, to be used and abused by my missus and the kids. I really, really don't know if I can... or even if want to!

Perhaps me, Brenda and the new girl can all work closely together in my upstairs office, side by side... and maybe even the two of them will become very good friends... and perhaps, if I play my cards just right... perhaps the three of us... if I'm very, very lucky...

Nah... what am I thinking!!! That sort of thing only ever happens to those guys you see in the porn films.

I'm off out to buy a take-away now, so catch you all later...

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Whoo-hoo - my blog is fixed

2008-06-29T14:14:20+02:00

It's taken 10 days to put right, but finally, my blog actually looks like... well... erm... a blog.

What happened was, that when I originally started this blog - 11 days ago now - using the new 'Design Wizard', it actually created it without applying a design/template to it. This caused me to not be able to access the 'Design Wizard' at all, because there wasn't actually a design to change. So I was effectively locked out from making any changes to this blog.

Well today, I was about to copy the previous two posts here, to a new blog that I had just created. But when I opened this one up, low and behold, there was now a design attached to it, albeit a very poofy-pink one that I very quickly changed to what you can see now.

Sooooo... in case you thought that I had completely abandoned this new blog, this is just a quick post to explain why you may have been lead to believe that and also to let you know that this blog is now very much alive and kicking again.

Watch this space...

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My Son's First Sports Day - Photos and Video

2008-06-19T20:13:10+02:00

My son Oscar, had his first sports-day on Friday and he won a few of the events, for which I'm well chuffed.

Anyway, I did take a few photos and shot some video too, which I'd like to share with you now. So go ahead and press on those two play buttons below. One is the video that I took and then edited with some music, the other is a photo slideshow that I also added some music and effects to.

If you notice any stuttering or choppyness during playback, just pause it for a moment or two and then press play again after a short while.

Sevenfields Nursery Sports Day 2008 - Video

Sevenfields Nursery Sports Day 2008 - Photo Slideshow

And here's one of the photos I took on the day

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A New Blog - A New Perspective

2008-06-19T15:13:22+02:00

After giving it some thought, I decided to create yet another blog here, one where I'll get more personal with you all and share more stuff about me and what I get up to in my daily life.

Anyway, I'm going to keep this blog post short, because I want to dive into the backend of it and play around with the settings and design until I feel comfortable with it.

Be sure to make a note of this blog's name - The Furnace Of Life - and pop on in when you see that I've updated it and be so kind as to leave a comment or two.

Take care & play nicely...

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