A bipolar mind

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time - Rolling Stone

2011-05-07T20:26:00.001+01:00

"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The song list was chosen based on votes by 172 musicians, critics, and music-industry figures.'

You can now download this album in full, free of charge. for your own collection.

This is a very large file, so I split it into several parts.

Going to Malta

2011-05-06T17:44:00.001+01:00

I am very excited this week. I am getting ready my backpack ready, my passport and all the hostel reservations for my trip. You read correctly, hostels. My guy and I are backpacking to Malta for eight days.
I think is going to be a wonderful experience. Although he is a bit more posh than me when it comes to travelling, he likes his hotels, pools and comforts; but hopefully he will be OK with this new experience. I went backpacking before to Morocco with a female friend of mine, and the experience was amazing.

This time around, we are going a bit more prepared. That is, I have already made reservations for hostels, as whether we went totally unprepared and ready for adventure when we went to Morocco. Still, really looking forward to Malta.

A couple of days ago I closed my fingers in the door of the car. I almost broke my index finger, but luckily it didn't break. It stills all swollen and hurts a bit, but it will be fine in a couple of days. It is because of this that I haven't posted anything in the last few days.

Unfortunately, because of my trip to Malta, I won't be able to post anything in the next few days. If I can, I'll leave some posts prepared so they show every now and day while am away. Although, folks, I cannot promise it.

Have a nice week all, and I will see you again when I get back.

Get free visitors to your site

2011-05-03T12:36:00.001+01:00

Here there is a way to earn hundreds of free visitors to your site. Visit traffic.facebook111 and submit your url for free. A pop-up window will open and somebody else's site will show up in there. This will refresh itself every 20 seconds. At the same time you are surfing other people's sites, they will be surfing yours. The longer you stay surfing, the more visitors you will receive to your site.

The system is totally automated. All you have to do is go to traffic.facebook111 Insert your website and you are ready to go. Best of all, it is free, and doesn't even requiere any registration. I use it from time to time to get an extra 200+ visitors to my site.

So go on, what are you waiting for? Click here and join the cash ride.

Get Paid to shorten url

2011-04-27T20:17:00.002+01:00

You might not believe it, but here it is: now you can get paid to shrink your url as you would normally do. How, you might ask? Very simple: adf.ly. All you have to do is sign up with them, then convert your url on your website, facebook, twitter, youtube, google ,forums or any other social network that you use to to adf.ly, and they will pay you into your account for everyone that clicks on it.

You get paid automatically in your paypal account the first Monday of every month once you reach a minimum of $5. Which, lets face it, it is not a lot.

That is not all, if you refer other users to sign up for the service, you will earn 5% commision on every advertising order they make. A great way to boost your earnings, selling quality traffic with adf.ly!

What are you waiting for? Sign up here.

Make Money Uploading Files

2011-04-27T17:41:00.002+01:00

If like me, you love to share in the world of the Internet, then ShareCash is the right tool for you.

Simply register and start uploading your files, such as e-book, torrents, music, zip files... you name it. They accept every format.

Unlike other upload websites that pay you insanely low prices, such as $10 for 1000 US downloads, ShareCash pays an average of 60 cents per download. Thats an average of $600 for 1000 downloads - sixty times more than any other upload cash website! The best part is that 60 cents is just an average: some downloads will pay 80 cents, some $1, some even $10, and they support downloads from nearly all countries! In fact, it's very normal for some users to average 80 cents to a dollar per download.

Here are some of the features ShareCash offers:

Affiliate System - refer users and get 10% of what they earn!
Premium Memberships - downloaders can buy a premium membership. If they buy one after visiting your file, you get 30% of the price!
Affiliate messaging system - you can now talk to and train your affiliate army to make you even more cash!
Low cashout limit - get your money after earning only $10 !
Accepts any file type!
Super secure - your details, files, and earnings are safe with us!
International downloads - get paid for any country!
Flexible, on time payments!
Easy-to-use folder-based uploads manager!
Friendly, 24/7 Online Community on our Forum, Live Chat, TeamSpeak, and Ventrillo!
High-tech FTP, Direct, and Remote Uploader!

What are you waiting for? Go to ShareCash and start earning right away!

The Patient Bear

2011-04-27T16:29:00.001+01:00

One day, a bear and a rabbit were walking trough the woods when they saw a golden frog. The frog said 'I don`t see many people, but when I do I grant them three wishes. The bear looks at the rabbit and says 'That means three each'. The bear then says, "I wish all the bears in this forest were female." The rabbit wishes for a motorbike. The bear looks at the rabbit, then says, "in fact, I wish all the bears in the next forest were female, too." The rabbit wishes for a crash helmet. The bear (getting a bit carried away), "I wish all the bears in the WORLD were female!!" Then,the rabbit puts on the helmet, revs the bike and says, "I wish that bear right there was gay" and rides away.

Life Answered's Questions

2011-04-24T07:30:00.008+01:00

Life Answered's Questions

If cocaine were legal, would they sell it in little packages like Sweet N' Low? Would they call it Sweet N' High?

If drinking and driving is illegal, why do bars have parking lots?

If someone leads but no one follows... are they just out for a walk?

Is it possible for someone to become addicted to therapy? And If so, how would you treat them?

After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?

Are part-time band leaders semi-conductors?

Can a storm be officially designated as a tornado without touching down at a trailer park?

Can atheists get insurance for acts of God?

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

Charlie: I'm not old enough to understand girls. Jasper: Heh, I don' think anybody lives THAT long.

Could crop circles be the work of a cereal killer?

Crime doesn't pay... does that mean my job is a crime?

Did Noah keep his bees in archives?

Did Washington flash a quarter when asked for ID?

Do cemetery workers prefer the graveyard shift?

Do files get embarrassed when they get unzipped?

Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Do stars clean themselves with meteor showers?

Do you need a silencer if you are going to shoot a mime?

Does the fountain of youth and the fountain of knowledge come from the same fictitious underground stream?

Does the Little Mermaid wear an algae-bra?

Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?

Have you ever wondered what the other side of your bellybutton looks like? Ewww.

How can something be 'new and improved'? If it's new what was it improving on?

How can there be a limited lifetime warranty?

How can there be self-help GROUPS?

How can you be ALONE with somebody? Think about it...

How come in Scooby Doo Fred and Daphne were always on the same team and Velma, Scooby and Shaggy were always on the same team? Doesn't seem quite right now that you think about it, does it?

How come on the show 'Family Matters' two of the kids just dissappeard... they were there one season and gone the next... makes you wonder if family really does matter?

How come when you are driving through a neighborhood looking for an address, you turn the radio down?

How come wrong numbers are never busy?

How do 'Do Not Walk On Grass' signs get there?

How do I set my laser printer on stun?

How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?

How do you get off a non-stop flight?

How do you know if honesty is the best policy unless you've tried some of the others?

How do you know when it's time to tune your bagpipes?

Women Joke

2011-04-23T07:30:00.005+01:00

When God was creating the human race, he lined up all the males on one side and all the females opposite. Then he asked: Which of your species would like to urinate standing up? Well, the males went crazy, shouting that they wanted to pee standing up. 'Fine', says God, 'Women get multiple orgasms'.

The Dolphins' Research

2011-04-22T07:30:00.005+01:00

Check out this cute little dolphins. There are 9 of them.

You didn't see a single dolphin, did you?

Research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such a scenario.

What they will see are the nine dolphins.

If it takes you longer than three seconds to see the dolphins, your mind is heavily biased in favor of perceiving the intimate couple (the email from which I harvested this picture says "your mind is corrupt"...)

Dirty Mind Visual Jokes

2011-04-21T07:30:00.021+01:00

Don't we all have a dirty mind?

God Visual Jokes

2011-04-20T07:30:00.015+01:00

If you feel offended somehow by my blog, then don't visit it. This is only a joke. Don't take life too seriously, you are not going to come out alive of it.

A man's best friend: beer

2011-04-19T07:30:00.017+01:00

A man's best friend: beer

24 hrs in a day. 24 beers in a case ... coincidence?

A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch? - W.C. Fields

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. -Ernest Hemingway

American beer is like making love in a canoe. It's f*cking close to water. - Monty Python

And God said: Let there be vodka! And He saw that it was good. Then God said: Let there be light! And then He said: Whoa - too much light.

As a rule, I don't drink -- as a habit, I do!

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder...

Beer - The reason I wake up every afternoon.

Beer contains Vitamin Pee.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Beer: Helping ugly people have sex since 1862!

Beer: Now THERE'S a temporary solution.

Don't drink and drive. You might hit a bump and spill your beer.

Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer.

Give a man a beer, he'll waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, he'll waste a lifetime.

I don't drink anymore. Of course, I don't drink any less, either.

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. - Frank Sinatra

I have a drink to celebrate the little things. Like Tuesdays - we only have one of those a week!

I killed a six-pack just to watch it die.

I swear to drunk I'm not God!

I'd rather have a beer than win father of the year. - Homer Simpson

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy. -Tom Waits

If God had intended us to drink beer, he would have given us stomachs. - David Daye

God = men + female

2011-04-18T07:30:00.007+01:00

El Fantastico y Maravilloso Mundo de Google (3 de 3)

2011-04-17T10:30:00.024+01:00

A todos nos encanta google. De hecho, no podriamos vivir sin el. He aqui un resumen de las verdades fantasticas y maravillosas con las que google nos deleita cada dia.

Ver anteriores ----1----2

El Fantastico y Maravilloso Mundo de Google (2 de 3)

2011-04-16T10:30:00.004+01:00

A todos nos encanta google. De hecho, no podriamos vivir sin el. He aqui un resumen de las verdades fantasticas y maravillosas con las que google nos deleita cada dia.

<------ Ver anterior Ver Siguiente ------>

El Fantastico y Maravilloso Mundo de Google (1 de 3)

2011-04-15T10:30:00.005+01:00

A todos nos encanta google. De hecho, no podriamos vivir sin el. He aqui un resumen de las verdades fantasticas y maravillosas con las que google nos deleita cada dia.

Os ha gustado? Dadle aqui para ver los siguientes.

The 15 funniest youtube videos

2011-04-14T10:30:00.004+01:00

Today, we are just going to have a laugh. Here are some of my favourite youtube videos. Hope you enjoy them! (Not listed in any particular order)

The Axis of Awesome - 4 Chord Song

Tom Leher - Chemistry elment Song

DiGiorno Pizza

The man song

The Axis of Awesome - What would Jesus do?

College Humor- Matrix Runs on Windows XP

X-factor - Worst Auditions 2

Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin

Awis of Awesome -Titty Bar

Barry and Stuart - Funny magic trick

Mosstril 5000

Amateur Transplant -London Underground

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSKBoO5hBHk

(College humor - Tech support)

Russell Peters

Muchachada Nui - el peor dia de mi vida

El Reno Renardo - Creci en los 80

Here are some of my favourite youtube videos. I hope you like them. If you have any more suggestions to add to this list, please post them below.

Reverse Image Search: TinEye, you will love it

2011-04-13T10:26:00.003+01:00

I came across TinEye a few months ago, while doing my coursework for one of my Astronomy courses. At that point, I was stucked because I had a few images for which I had to guess which particular planet they belong to, and what exactly the features shown on them were. I had a vague idea of some of them, but I wasn't particularly sure and I wanted to double check, rather than getting it wrong. The Solution? TinEye.

"TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.

TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. It is free to use for non-commercial searching. "

TinEye regularly crawls the web for new images, and they also accept contributions of complete online image collections. To date, TinEye has indexed 1,953,157,319 (and counting) images from the web to help you find what you're looking for."

It did help me find my images, giving me reputable sources (NASA, mostly). And it will help you too if you ever have images, but do not have a description for them.

Do you want even more? Then check Idée Lab which showcases visual search and image recognition technologies.

Use it now, thank me later. ;)

General Resources: How to find images on the internet

2011-04-12T10:24:00.005+01:00

Here is a good source of information to find virtually any image you can think of on the wonderful and amazing world of internet. Beware some of them might be copyrighted, or have a creative common license; some others might ask you for a few bucks, but the choice is yours.

Option 1 - search engine

Option 2 - Creative Common Images

Creative Commons Web site
Creative Commons image search
Google Creative Commons search
Yahoo Creative Commons search
everystockphoto.com is a search engine for creative commons photos, located in Vancouver

Option 3 - Free stock image collections

DeviantART
FreeFoto.com
Free Images.co.uk
Imageafter
MorgueFile (The term “morgue file” is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats)
OpenPhoto.Net
Stock.xchng

Option 4 - Media Sources

AFP (Agence France-Presse)
Empics (Press Association)
Nettizen Online Newspaper Directory
News Directory, a guide to all online English-language media (worldwide), over 3,600 newspapers, 4,800 magazines, hundreds of television stations plus colleges, visitor bureaus, governmental agencies, travel links, and comics ; more than 14,500 links in all
NI (News International) Syndication
Reuters

Option 5 - Photojournalist resources

Association of Photographers
EPUK (Editorial Photographers United Kingdom & Ireland)
NPPA (National Press Photographers Association)
NUJ (National Union of Journalists)
World Press Photo

Option 6 - Commercial images

About the Image blog
BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies)
BigStockPhoto
Big White Box
Clipart.com
Corbis
Getty Images
Fotolia
iStockPhoto
Jupiterimages Unlimited
PACA (Picture Archive Council of America)
Stockxpert

Option 7 -Historical Images

UNESCO’s Archival Portal, an enormous portal to archives around the world, a bit overwhelming.
UK Public Libraries Page, access to images available at local libraries in the UK
UK Higher Education and Research Libraries
Sensitive Map
Libweb, a portal to 7500 libraries in 135 countries which contain of course images
24hourmuseum, a virtual UK museum
Cornucopia, an online database of information about more than 6,000 collections in the UK’s museums, galleries, archives and libraries
Virtual Library Museums Pages
EIG (Education Image Gallery), nice resource for schools
EnrichUK, a searchable portal linking 150 websites that have been supported with Lottery good causes money from the UK
BBC History
PBS History, some pictures, but mainly movies ; still a nice portal with lots of material including teacher resources (PBS, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is a non–profit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 348 public television stations)
Scran, part of the Scran Trust – a registered charity – whose aim is to provide educational access to digital materials representing our material culture and history
British History Online
Best of History Web Sites
Voice of the Shuttle

Option 8 -Museums and Art galleries

24hourmuseum
Art Guide, the comprehensive internet guide to the art collections of Great Britain and Ireland
Art Museum Network, up-to-date information about the news and activities of more than 200 leading museums around the world including news about the exhibitions, acquisitions, and programs of institutions, and links to all members ; so indirect access to image collections worldwide (well most are American, but other countries are represented as well)
Cornucopia
Virtual Library Museums Pages
Artnet.com, actually a place to buy, sell and research fine art online, with over 1,200 galleries in over 250 cities worldwide, more than 100,000 works by over 25,000 artists from around the globe represented on this site ; so lots of art images
AskArt, a comprehensive source for information on contemporary American artists
Gallery Channel, a nice site with information on 8,400 exhibition venues, 21,400 exhibitions and 25,600 artists worldwide – all available for public view, a nice site, easy to access
British Museum
Hermitage, a famous museum along the embankment of the River Neva, right in the heart of St Petersburg, Russia
Louvre
Metropolitan Museum of Art, near Central Park, New York
Museum of Modern Art, also in New York between 5th and 6th street
National Gallery in London
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Tate holds the national collection of British art from 1500 and of international modern art. All works can be found on this site.
Victoria and Albert Museum
AHDS Visual Arts
American Memory, part of the Library of Congress
Art Resource
ARTstor, aimed at Canadian and American institutions
Bridgeman Education, also aimed at institutions
David Rumsey Visual Collections, both free and subscription based collections
Courtauld Art and Architecture collection
Grove Art
OAIster
RLG Camio
RLG Cultural Materials
Scholars Resource, lots of teacher resources
Art History Resources on the Web
AICT, Art Images for College Teaching
Artcyclopedia
Smithsonian Art and Design
UCLA Arts Library Sources
ULAN, Union List of Artist Names, search using structured vocabularies (Part of Getty Museum website)
WorldArt Web Kiosk, access the Californian University image database

Option 9 -Architecture and buildings

Option 10 -Scientific images (Earth Sciences, Medicine, Botany...)

BIOME (Life Sciences, Health and Medicine)
EEVL (Engineering, Mathematics and Computing)
Gesource (Geography and Environment)
PSIgate (Physical Sciences) (In the future RDN is to be found at Intute)
Science and Society Picture Library (UK based)
Science Photo Library
ScienceImage
Science.gov (USA government)
US Government Resources for Science Images
USA Centres for Disease Control (CDC) Public Health Image Library
Hubble Space Telescope
NASA
NOAA, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
USDA, US Department of Agriculture
USDoD, US Department of Defense
USDOE, US Department of Energy
USFWS, US Fish and Wildlife Service
Anatline, a web-based interface for viewing high resolution anatomical images
Bristol Biomed Image Archive, only for Athens member institutions (if your institution is not a member, you can apply via the website)
Images from the History of Medicine, website of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM)
Karolinska Institutet, images provided by Sweden’s largest medical university
Medical Images on the Web, overview of medical image databases provided by the University of Nebraska
MPL Medical Photographic Library
TDR Image Library with a focus on tropical diseases
Viperlib Visual Perception Images, images related to visual perception (obviously…)
Weill Cornell Medical Library directory
Arkive,the Noah’s Ark for the Internet era – a unique global initiative, gathering together into one centralised digital library, films, photographs and audio recordings of the world’s species
Agripicture picture library, a select diverse collection of generic farming images
Biodidac, Biological Images
Canon Photo Gallery, part World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
ImageBank, Higher Education Academy, Centre for Bioscience, UK
Botanical Society of America, online image collection drawings actually
American Geological Institute Earth Science World Image Bank
Geo-Images Project maintained at Berkeley University by G. Donald Bain, Director of the Geography Computing Facility
Picture Library of the famous Geological Society of London
National (UK) Archive of Geological Photographs

Option 10 -Map resources

Bodleian Library’s Map Room
Odden’s Bookmarks
National Geographic Maps
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection from the University of Texas
David Rumsey Map Collection if you like historical maps
DEMIS World Map Server, a software program to generate maps (not for free…)
Online Map Creation (OMC) Tool, a software package to create high-quality postscript maps in various projections (free)
Timemap TMJava is a novel mapping applet which generates complete interactive maps with a few simple lines of html, and… an open source project of the University of Sydney
Earthbrowser, software application allowing you to browse the surface of our blue planet (free trial, rated at 23.95$ with updates), including webcams, satellite updates, etc.
Atlas of Cyberspace, an atlas of maps and graphic representations of the geographies of the new electronic territories of the Internet, the World-Wide Web and other emerging Cyberspaces, interesting site
And last but not least Google earth

How to get yourself a fake Facebook girlfriend

2011-04-11T10:26:00.025+01:00

Technology never ceases to amaze me. Neither does people and the unimaginable depths of lies and deceits they will go to just for the sake of pretending.

A few days ago I came across Cloud Girlfriend, a new Facebook service that allows people to create fake Facebook girlfriends to people who need it, either for self-delusion, or for building a reputation among his friends list. Are you so lonely and desperate that the thought of been alone for another second will make you succumb in deepest realms of depression? Would you consider getting a fake Facebook girlfriend to stave off the unwanted feelings?If your answer is yes -highly unlikely for the sane world -, I recommend you to go and visit a shrink. Seriously dude, you need one. Am I for real? Believe it or not, I am. Although you Fake Facebook girlfriend never will be.

Money cannot buy love, but it can buy a fake girlfriend

Why would anybody get a fake girlfriend? Maybe to impress your friends and fool them into thinking highly of you because you scored a hot chick. Or maybe to make you feel like you actually have somebody that loves you and cares about you -this sounds sicks just as I write it. But that's the internet for you.

David Fuhriman, co-founder of Cloud Girlfriend, is even dressing up their whole operation and making it smell good by claiming that it has a ‘therapeutic value’, that it fulfills psychological needs like “intimacy and friendship”, and that it can help build ‘self-confidence’ and that it helps users ‘navigate real-life situations. Of course, anyone could argue that it does the exact opposite of that in the long run.

He also claims that the service will help blokes get a girlfriend. If girls who visit your profile see that there’s a hot chick who thinks highly enough of you to date you, then they’re more than likely to think you’re worth it as well. Hypothetically, though, let’s say that this app does get you a real-life girlfriend. Imagine the outrage – not to mention the disgust – which she would feel when she finds out that you used such a service before. Doesn’t the whole affair seem terribly counterproductive? Fuhriman certainly doesn’t think so, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there are some people out there who don’t think so either.

How does Cloud Girlfriend Work?

On Cloud Girlfriend, the first thing they ask you is your idea of a perfect girlfriend. Just provide them with that along with some dough, and they’ll set up the account for you. They already have dozens of fake accounts on Facebook set up for your usage. You can then interact with your fake girlfriend publicly on Facebook and enjoy a “public long distance relationship with your perfect girl”. These accounts will be handled by real people to give a sense of realism to the interaction.

Of course, the more astute of you users will have already noticed that this whole service is against Facebook’s terms of service. Fake accounts are simply not allowed, Fake girlfriends included. However, Fuhriman says that there are more profiles of dogs and cats on Facebook than there ever will be of fake girlfriends. This guy fully thinks that he will get away with it, and with the way Facebook’s moving, he probably will.

EAN and UPC locator

2011-04-10T10:11:00.004+01:00

One of the things you get to do a lot with Amazaon Mechanical Turk, when you have been working for/with them for a while, is find EAN (European Article Number) numbers and UPC (Universal Product Code) numbers. Only they know why. But you have it as hit, you choose to do so, you get paid. Everybody wins.

For some hits you will actually go and find it the information yourself, for others, you will have to revise other people's work. In any case, I found two websites that makes these kind of hits a lot faster and easier to do.

The first is http://www.ean-search.org/ Pretty self-explanatory, if you ask me. You just type in the EAN number, and the product information will come up.

The other one is http://www.upcdatabase.com/ Again, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

So there you go, if you are ever in need of finding EAN or UPC numbers, these two websites should make your life just a little bit easier.

Zelomi is back!!

2011-04-09T21:15:00.002+01:00

So sorry folks to have kept you waiting for so long for the next post. The thing is, I have been very busy. Between holidays, work, studying, guitar, a few other things, and of course, sex ;), I have been all over the place and unable to post as often as I would have liked. But here I am again today. So let me keep you up to date with what has been going on.

After mini holidays to Southampton, which, the main reason we went there was so my partner could arrange for a removal company to move all his storage staff into our current location (paid for by his company). All the boxes, aka crap, where laying around the house for a while, and it was mostly down to me to sort all the mess, since I work from home. Ahh, sigh..The good thing that has come from that, is that now we have a huge collection of DVD classics, along with my boyfriend's miniature helicopters, which he is teaching me how to fly.

I bought a treadmill for my birthday. That is, birthday present to self with sponsorship from my boyfriend. We got a pretty good deal on a refurbished one, that basically looks and works as brand spanking new. This babe is now listed as £299, but we paid £249 a couple of weeks ago when we did the purchase.

You might be wondering, why on Earth did I needed a treadmill? Well, the answer is simple: you guys know I work from home. Which means am sitting on my ass all day long and my ass, unfortunately, was growing big. A bigger ass also meant that I wasn't feeling as sexy; which in return meant a lower sex drive; which was driving my partner crazy. All in all, it was a great purchase, since I can use it at the same time I work. So, technically speaking, I am almost getting paid to get my ass fit.

Another thing that has kept me from posting, is that I taken another course with the Open University. I am halfway to my Certificate in Contemporary Science; and after successfully achieving two Astronomy courses (Introducing Astronomy, and Planets: an introduction), I have now decided to take Archaeology before maths; with the view in the near future to study a Certificate in Astronomy and Planetary Science. This has kept me real busy, I have been studying my ass off, to be honest; but hopefully from now on I will make a point to update this blog a couple of times per week.

I have started playing my guitar again. I didn't know much before, just a couple of songs, but I haven't played since the summer, which means I basically forgotten everything. So I been practising and practising until my fingers hurt. I will start lessons in May, hopefully.

I booked two tickets to Malta with Ryanair. £72 return, for both of them. No luggage, though. But with rynair policies you are allowed up to 10kg on hand-luggage. We will be flying from the 8th to the 15th of May. I convinced boyfriend to go backpacking, since he has never done so before. It took me a lot of convincing, since he likes to travel hotel-style. I have been backpacking before, so hopefully it will be a good experience. I will let you know how all this turns out.

I almost forgot, I have been putting a lot of time and effort on Amazon Mechanical Turk,so I can buy all the extras I want for my guitar.

Mini holidays to Southampton II

2011-03-21T11:00:00.001+00:00

Finally my holidays are over. We made it back home about 3am last night, after a long long drive. I shouldn't be awake, honestly, but the removal van came early and now the whole apartment is full with unpacked boxes. Oh, rest, who needs it?

Saturday was a great day. We drove to Porstmout and spend day over there. We got to the top of Spinnaker Tower. They views from there were unbelieveable, specially since it was a very clear day. After that, instead of taking the elevator down, we took the stairs. It was Red Nose Day, so the management donated 1 pound per person walking down instead of taking the elevator, and we also gave some money too. There were 500 steps, and believe me, my muscles are still aching from it. That tells me that I should get my ass fit again. Oh well, am gonna purchase a treadmill at the end of the month, so that'll help get me fit again.

Spinnaker Tower

Views from Spinnaker Tower

Walking on air at Spinnaker Tower

After such a glory day, we came back to the hotel where I worked till midnight. Then slept. Sunday we left at 3pm. Stopped at Northampton to visit a friend for a couple of hours, and eventually we got home.

Now that my holidays are over, I will have more time from my blog. Keep checking this week for new updates.

Mini holidays to Southampton

2011-03-18T20:25:00.002+00:00

I have to apologize to all of you for keeping you waiting so long for the next post. This is because I have been on a short holiday in Southampton, down in south England. In fact, I still am on holiday; so you will probably have to wait a few days for a decent post. Nonetheless, let me tell you a little bit about how things have been going so far.

We left Sunday night, and drove for 8 hours until we got to Southampton. We arrived late, at around 2.30am, so we went straight to sleep On Monday, my partner and I went to visit Stonehenge. Spent most of the day there, had lunch quick lunch on TGI Friday's, and then went to work for a couple of hours. Yep, you guessed right, lucky me, I work from home. :D

Stonehenge

Not a lot happen on Tuesday, since I had to work all day. Wednesday was a really great day. We drove to Poole and spent most of the day at the beach. It was a bit grey and cold early in the morning, but it got better as the day moved on, and we ended up with a beautiful sunny day.

Poole's Sandbanks

Poole's Sandbankseng

We had lunch at Haverster and then head to meet some friends in the afternoon. Later on I went and work for a couple of hours, not long, just 2, in fact. At night we went to the casino. My partner signed me up as a member and we got the first round half price (we paid one, and got the other one for free). As he was ordering, I looked across the bar and saw a man hitting a woman real hard. So much so that she fell on the floor and stayed there for a couple of minutes. Later on I had to give a police statement of what I saw, and as it turns out, the woman was his sister. We had a lot of fun during the night. It was late already to join the tournament poker table, but we played roulette and black jack, and by the end of the night, with the winnings we made, we paid all the drinks and still had a fifty pounds extra to get home.

Thursday was even busier. We got up early, had breakfast and then I started to work. After that we catched lunch with some friends at Pilgrim House, a Chinese restaurant with all-you-can-eat buffet. Great place, really, hardly recommended. Awesome value and great food.

Only a couple of hours later, we went for drinks at the Standing Order, as it was a leaving doo thing for my partner's relocation. We had a great night with the guys; a night full of laughter that it will take us all a very longtime to forget. We made back to the hotel very late that night, and very drink too, I have to say.

Today am working. We moved hotels this morning after breakfast. Thankfully my headache is gone. Tomorrow we will go for a day out in Southampton. And Sunday, after 3pm, we will make our way back for another joyful 8 hours drive; not before doing a little stop at Northampton to visit a friend.

I will keep you posted with more updates soon, so don't forget to check back again next week. Until then, have a great weekend folks!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

2011-03-13T10:43:00.001+00:00

I discover Amazon Mechanical Turk about a year ago, more or less; just flipping through my Amazon Affliliates Account. I was very surprised by it, having tried other work-from-home jobs that turned out to be fake, or other sites that, even though the weren't fake, the minimum amount you had to reach for payout it made it almost impossible for you to see any of the money, and you more or less ended up working for free.
Amazon Mechanical Turk is not like that at all.

How this works, is, in theory, very simple. Big companies like Youtube, Ebay, or even Amazon itself do continuously outsource menial and repetitive task that usually a computer can't do. For instance, lets say that you are looking for a particular video in youtube, and you type in the search box 'Whitesnake, greatest hits' but all you get is a video of the latest hype of Lady Gaga. Now that, my friend, is disappointing. The workers at the Mechanical Turk will get little jobs (aka HITS) on thousands of videos, where they have to classify whether or not they are truly Whitesnake, or Lady Gaga. This is usually very easy to do, and you mostly watch the videos and tick in the boxes in the ready-made questionnaires.Some other times, the videos will be of adult, x-rated material, but you are told so before you decide to accept the HIT, so it is entirely up to you whether you want to watch it or not. Ebay also outsources a great deal of his work, too. This means usually checking that products are in the correct categories.

But this is not everything you can do with Mechanical Turk. Other jobs are: checking for keywords (usually people) on a particular website; translating small documents or sentences from one language to another (that is, if you speak any other language than English); transcribing audio texts; checking products information; or even writting small articles. These are only a few of the examples you will find in Mechanical Turks.

Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it is about to get better. One of the greatest thing about this website, is that you can register for free (truly, for free) and start working right away. For certain HITS you will require to pass a qualification, you can do so within the same system, and if you pass it, you will be able to do that particular HIT, and any other upcoming HITS in the same category. Some other times, certain HITS won't be available to you because of the location of your country. Don't despair, there are millions and millions to choose from.

Money, money! What about the money? Am sure you are wondering about that. Every HIT pays differently, you can earn anything from 1 cent to 50 dollars on a single small job. How much do you earn, it will depend on how much time and effort you are willing to put in it. How do you get paid, then? There is no minimum you can request for payout. For certain countries, they will be able to transfer directly to your account or send you a check. Unfortunately, at this stage, you can't withdraw your winnings in many countries, but you can transfer it to your Amazon account and use it later to buy whatever you want to. I usually do this and get all my DVDs that way. Some other times, I will buy something more expensive, like a laptop, and then sell it on Ebay for the same price I paid, so I can get the cold hard cash that I paid for it.