Land of the Glenn

Affordability is always the issue

2008-08-15T00:51:00.002+01:00

Here's a rhetorical question:

If you don't have the money to go on holiday, do you still go on holiday?

Here's another rhetorical question:

If you don't have the money to go to college, do you still go to college?

I think the answers to these questions are obvious. And they can sometimes be very well disguised by all this make believe and people saying it will be good for ya. But most of all, who exactly are you trying to prove something to? Because if it's anymore than just yourself, you have issues. Why should you feel like you have to please everyone when it's probably not the best thing to do for yourself.

You might have guessed, you might not have guessed. But I'm 90% sure that I will burn myself out by going to a full time college course and trying to earn enough money to live.

After all: "you can't build a castle without a foundation"

And the life lesson for people who read my blog? Don't bite off more than you can chew. But most importantly, don't waste all your efforts on trying to impress people by making the "right" decision. Do what's right for yourself, and only yourself. Set your goals where you want them, and with supreme confidence, drive and disregard for others critique, carry out your plan. Deadly results will follow.

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Internet Marketing

2008-07-31T15:06:00.005+01:00

I'm really looking forward to the 1st of August. It is of course the first day of the 30 day challenge.
This year the goal is to make just $1. It doesn't seem much, but this is because if you have too bigger goal you focus on that too much instead of focusing on the IMPORTANT process to get there. And that's what the 30DC is all about - the process. Because once you know the process, you can go on to make thousands of dollars.

It excites me because I'll be learning new skills in the month of August that I can use to make money.

There's a new tool appearing this time. It's called market samurai. And from what Ed Dale says, it's the bee's knee's at identifying niche markets. I just can't wait.

I don't have a team yet, been a bit lazy. So if your looking for a team or looking for more members of a team then I'd be real happy to join! :D

Glenn

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Lifechanging video

2008-07-03T19:52:00.001+01:00

And that's the best piece of information/advice I've ever heard.

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Cool Ambient Lighting

2008-07-02T03:10:00.005+01:00

LED rope light under a bed

I came across this awesome post on lifehacker where someone made some cheap ambient lighting. I absolutely love ambient lighting, it really helps make a room look nicer and you can create a certain mood with it. It's almost art! I myself have done something similar; I strapped a blue neon to the underside of my desk and it looks brilliant!

my desk

The main difference between what the guy at the blog did compared to mine is he used cheap LED rope lighting. I've seen that stuff sold so cheap at DIY stores and the effects you can make with it are great. I might try it myself eventually with LED rope lighting.

Well anyway, here's the link to the article I was on about: http://lifehacker.com/397415/set-up-cheap-ambient-lighting-with-rope-lights

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Healthy Eating Pyramid

2008-06-24T17:12:00.003+01:00

It can sometimes be hard to remember to eat the right foods or even eat at all when you are very busy with work and such - but it’s essential if you want to stay healthy. Eating the right food also gives you energy; with a good diet you wont feel the need to constantly need to nap and your concentration levels will also increase.

So I first want to start with the understanding. One of the reasons we don’t bother half the time is because we don’t fully understand what we should eat to stay healthy. And to gain correct understanding we shall use the healthy eating pyramid.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid

What is it? The healthy eating pyramid is a model for qualitative food choices (proportions of one food compared to another instead of actual serving sizes and amounts). The pyramid encourages variety, minimum fat, adequate fiber, limited salt and sufficient water by grouping together foods according to their energy content and what nutrients they can provide. It is a template in which you can create infinite possible recipes and ideas for great healthy food. Here is a healthy eating pyramid:

You should eat more foods from the bottom of the pyramid where its wider and not as much of the foods near the top of the pyramid where its narrower.

I believe that sticking to eating foods in these proportions will make you feel so much better. In fact I don’t have to believe, it’s proven fact.

So try it today!

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Photoshop tutorial - Blue skies

2008-06-24T13:03:00.011+01:00

Another photoshop video tutorial, this time on how to replace a sky with something which looks a lot nicer. Also covers other interesting ways on how to make a photo look nicer.

Please stumble this if you found it useful! :)

Photoshop tutorial - Abstract art

2008-06-24T11:31:00.004+01:00

A while ago I made a photoshop tutorial on making abstract art. Here's both parts from youtube:

More to come...

Ya wanna be uber at photoshop?

2008-06-21T17:03:00.011+01:00

I was looking through some of my archives and I found a lot of my early photoshop work. It's funny to look back at how crap and n00bish my work used to be. From them hobby messing about days to the current pro graphic designer/matte painter/web designer days. Really surreal, but good to look back because I can see my progress.

So I thought I would show a rough timeline of work, starting from aaaaaaaaaaggggggggggeeeeeeessssss ago to present day work. I've been working with image editing further back than 2004, but I have no archives that date further back than that. (click on images for larger version)

2004

basic eh?

2005

2006

2007 - mainly work stuff - these have all been published as brochures or newspaper/magazine adverts, these are just a cross sample of my advert work and logo design.

2008 - pro time with more work stuff too

These following pro matte paintings are available to purchase as a framed piece of art here

Web Design Archive
Finally I have compiled all the web designs I could find together that I have made. This includes a complete catalog of ALL CCS templates that have existed! (www.CoolCrazyStuff.co.uk - its my website, has been for about 3 years, and before that it was CrazyStuff. All together thats been my website for about 5 years lol.)

Original CrazyStuff - 2003

Redesign moved to CoolCrazyStuff - 2004

I was like, naaaaaaaah this ones better - 2004

Then I was like: HAVE THIS! - 2006

Now I'm like, yeeeeeeaaaah this ones better. It's going to change soon though - 2007-2008

Other sites:
Alan Dawney Holidays

MASO Designs - I decided to try start a website where I could sell my services.

I'm not MASO Designs anymore. I am Director and Founder of DragonFang Productions.

DragonFang Productions is a Film production company which also provides Web Design and Graphic Design services at competitive rates. The website is in creation so check it regularly if your looking for that kinda stuff!

So that's a sample of some of my work and my god how much I've progressed and gotten better over the years!

I am professional now, if you are looking for graphic design/web design services and you like my work then don't hesitate to contact me. I design websites, adverts for newspapers and magazines, brochures, business cards, album covers, matte paintings, logos, anything.

I am CrazyFretz. I am Glenn.

Confirmed water on mars!

2008-06-21T06:16:00.001+01:00

"It is with great pride and a lot of joy that I announce today that we have found proof that this hard bright material is really water ice and not some other substance," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, during a Friday news briefing to announce the confirmation of water ice.

w00t w0000t! Who knows what else they'll find!

Linkage: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/06_20_pr.php

Ice Ice Baby

2008-06-20T01:57:00.003+01:00

The Phoenix Mars Mission has discovered what it believes to be ice (of the water kind) on mars. Can you imagine what this would mean if they're right?!

Linkage: http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/06_19_pr.php

2008-06-20T01:36:00.004+01:00

Whilst on my rounds I came across this rather intriguing method of decoration. It's particularly good for temporary decor as it's easily removed, but it does add a nice touch to any room.

I might consider doing something similar with my plain old walls. Helps to make things more homely I guess!

Well here's the link to the Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Vinyl-Wall-Art/

Cows are farting their way through the ozone layer!

2008-01-13T05:06:00.000Z

Did you know almost 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions from Australia come from cow farts?

Australian scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say. This is because Kangaroos have special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

And that's nothing! Compare Australia to a more agriculturally based country like New-Zealand, their cow farting pollution is up to almost 50%!

It will However take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to animals such as cattle and sheep.

Hmm I wonder what the percentage would be for the UK. It's quite a difficult number to find out really. Also, I haven't a clue how they measure how much methane is in your average bovine trump!

That's todays piece of useless information out of the way. And onto more Relevance; I'm currently onto day 13 of my 30 Day Challenge and I've started with content creation. And also realizing how important regular content is (hence why I'm writing more on my personal blog now). But I will have to pause my challenge for 5 days until the 17th of Jan because I need to go back to the Army to sort out my discharge.

But don't fear, I will be back with a vengeance and pedaling at full pelt trying to make money online and keeping readers of my blog up-to-date of it!

Until next time - may the cow farts be with you...

30 Day Challenge

2008-01-08T05:23:00.000Z

I got a PS3 the other day after much frustration of not having one, and I'm glad I got it because it is AWESOME. It felt great to have a PS controller back in my hands and wow at the new sixaxis controls. It brings gaming to a new level. I of course had to get the game Warhawk which uses sixaxis a lot to control the dropships, and I also bought Resistance: Fall of Man. I must say, Resistance didn't quite meet up to my expectations and therefore I am going to exchange it for a better game such as Timshift or Call of Duty 4.

Any-how, the mass spending of money made me feel a little anoyed at myself for not having much more of the old crisp green sheets. So I finally decided to take action with online incomes. A friend suggested the 30 Day challenge website. And wow, what a great site, there's so much good advice and techniques on there its unbelievable. I'm currently up to day 6 and I've learnt so much about effective market research and finding niche ideas. Also testing to see how niche they are. It's a real eye opener and I can't wait for each installment of the 30 days of training that Ed Dale and friends have put together. If this kinda stuff interests you (internet income and what not) then I highly suggest you go to www.thirtydaychallenge.com and give it a go!

I have only been going for 2 days but I'm up to day 6, I know I might be seen as rushing it. However theres alot of time on my hands and lots of tasty info and I simply can't help myself but go through the course faster! The whole idea basically is to make $10 in 30 days via online income.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm sorry that these blog updates are few and far between, I hope to do them more frequently but at the moment not many people visit my blog so theres little motivation. If you do read these pages please comment to tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your response.

Cya for now!

Free PS3 hopefully

2007-12-28T19:39:00.001Z

I was looking around t'internet for offers on PS3's and ways of getting them cheap because I'm a tight bastard and I haven't much money. Other than the standard eBay routes I found a site called www.telebids.com which to be honest is a great idea. they make their money by letting people bid on items at 50p per bid. And each bid puts the price up by average of 7p. So for example if a PS3 went for £48, that means its been bidded on roughly 658 times, 658 x 50p is roughly £329. So they make their money. But still, I'm a tight bastard and I don't wanna spend loads of money on 50p per bid because it gets quite competitive.

So I carried on looking and I found what at first looked like a scam, but I looked further into it and it works similar to telebids on how they make their money... sort of :P lol.

All you do is go to:

http://PS3.real-incentives.com/9341

and sign up, then it will ask you to take part in an offer(and only ONE), these vary from credit card subscriptions (not good!) to betting agencies and the best one in my opinion is the lovefilm.com 14 day trial, it's the best one because you can cancel it just before the 14 day trial is up. However, you MUST rent at least 1 DVD and return it for the offer to go through. When signing up to lovefilm.com it will ask you for your debit/credit card details, but there's is a big disclaimer at the top of the page that reads: "If you cancel at any time during your free trial your card will NOT be charged." So the idea is to rent and return a DVD, then cancel, it basically means you get past the offer stage of the free PS3 deal without paying any money :D (clever aye? :P)

They make their money because they are affiliating the sites that you have to accept an offer from. So by you advertising their services, they are making more money than the PS3 is worth which means they can send you a free PS3 as a thank you and they still get more out of it. And it's not just PS3's either, they do this on HDTV's and Ipods and many more. I found a vid on youtube which explains it if you are still not sure about it all(which is understandable) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqEN67hIVcI

I did the lovefilm offer, I'm waiting for my DVD, it's nice and easy. So lets help each other out getting free PS3's shall we?! :P

Lets recap on what you need to do:

1)Click on my referral link here: http://PS3.real-incentives.com/9341
(because this helps me get my PS3 :D)
2)Sign up, take an offer (I suggest lovefilm.com)
3)If you do lovefilm.com then follow it through with the offer(that means rent a DVD and return it then cancel the trial.. or carry on if you like it!)
4)Start referring friends to do the same.

Once you get 12 referrals, they will send you a 40GB PS3... or you can select that you want an 80GB PS3 and wait until you get 14 referrals. Job done!

But do it soon, because I suspect they will catch on the the little loop hole in the free offer thing with lovefilm and eventually it wont be possible to do that anymore. My advice is do it soon to get it truly free :)

So that's it! It's not a scam. What are you waiting for?

Transformer Costumes!

2007-12-02T00:57:00.001Z

How good are these transformer costumes?! I'm considering making one if i get bored enough!

LOL

2007-11-30T01:29:00.000Z

olololololol, random picture i found, so i put sum text to it. this is all.

Another new start

2007-11-28T20:24:00.000Z

I really can't be bothered to do a blog post right now, but I really wanna add something to it. so what the hell.

I got medically discharged from the army last week because I have a shin splint on my left shin. Advice to people joining the army who have sustained an injury; phone AFCO/ACIO and tell them about it and say you want to pospone your entry, because otherwise you get kicked out for a year before you can come back!

So I'm looking for jobs again, back to square one. However I've decided its finally time to make somewhere feel like home, and since at the moment the room I sleep in is like a shell I've decided to make some changes. I ordered a dark grey carpet today, should arrive tomorrow. I took some pictures of the room in the state it was in before I make all the changes to it so I can to comparison shots when its all done. The plan is to have a black n white theme, with greys in between and blue uplighters on the walls, because theres something about a blue lit room that makes it feel so chilled and spacey that I love.

I'm also making a desk out of a kitchen worktop, the style/colour is called Jet, it's a black mottled look, quite cool. I will be getting a 26" HDTV and PS3 along with another computer I'm buying off a mate. So all together it should be an uber room by the end of it. I had considered painting an amazing picture of a dragon on the wall but I dunno if i can be bothered or not! I'll stick some pictures up soon.

On another note, I've been considering changing operating systems from windows XP to linux, or more specifically Ubuntu. It's so nice and cleanly layed out and works so nicely. and not to mention the amount of open source software that works on it including "beryl" which is a application which makes everything rather swift and cool. check the video:

First Post

2007-11-15T01:53:00.000Z

I keep getting ideas for interesting websites, and so I go to make a template, and think of what pages to put in it, and that sort of stuff. Then I think to myself why and then go off the idea, but I still really want a website of my own. So instead of trying to maintain websites that fall into certain categories and never update them I'll instead just have this blog to output my creativity, show people what I'm up to, share ideas and cool things I've found e.t.c. It proberly wont interest many people but ya never know.

I can tell you what I have in mind for my blog now. Firstly it'll be a bit like a diary of my life in the army, just the basics really, nothing too in-depth because that would be breaching security proticols. I get creative a lot, so I can showcase any art I've made, or things I've built, songs I've made or just ideas I have. I want to do a lot of traveling and I can log my journeys with stories and pictures.

It's like I'm blowing my own trumpet when I say this but I don't care: I have a lot rattling around in my head, and it needs an outlet, so thats basically what I'm trying to achieve with this blog. Hey, it might be interesting!