FerrariDave

Long Time No Blog!

Written by David Dunn on October 29, 2008 – 11:20 am - 111 views

Yes, I know, I haven’t blogged on either of my blogs for quite a long time now (I’m not even going to look at the date of my last post to see how long it’s been).

However, I haven’t stopped reading several blogs on the internet and keeping on top of stuff. The main reason I haven’t been blogging is just the lack of time - having just started college and such like.

When keeping myself updated with blogs on Google Reader today I came across a blog post from Budgets are Sexy - another money-making style blog on the internet. The blog post was about a ‘dollar a day’ challenge.

Now, I never knew nothing about the mentioned ‘dollar a day’ challenge as I haven’t been subscribed to this blog long enough to know about it.

The blogger posts this post about how they are going to tweak their originally set out challenge to save $1 every working day.

Now, at the moment I own an ISA bank account from Halifax and I have great difficulty saving any money at all - therefore I reckon that adopting this plan myself I could at least save some money every year whereas now it would just get spent.

So this is how I am going to do it:

1. Save £1.50 every day of the year (including days I am not working as if that was the case I’d only be saving £3 per week)
2. This means that I’ll be saving £547.50 per year just from these £1.50s

I am also going to experiment something I found quite interesting from one of the major banks (I don’t remember which) whereby when you spend something using their accounts, the change is saved into your savings account. I’ll try and explain this better:

• You spend £12.50 on some stationary from Staples
• You pay using your debit/credit card
• The amount is then rounded up to the nearest pound and the difference is saved into your savings account
• In this case it would be 50p

I’m going to give this idea a go on a weekly basis saving up my receipts until the end of each week and transferring the ‘change’ into my ISA. I will keep the blog up-to-date about how both of these are going.

What do you think about these two ideas? Do you currently carry out either of these things or something similar? Are you finding it beneficial?

Random StumbleUpon

Written by David Dunn on August 4, 2008 – 7:24 pm - 1,226 views

I’ve decided that I am going to now press the StumbleUpon ‘Stumble’ button 5 times, but each time I am going to take a screenshot and I’m going to comment about the page.

The pages are obviously going to be random and if I don’t really want to comment on the page that’s tough because I have decided I have to!

So… here goes…

Number One - Add a Picture

Oh dear… as I have just got myself a new StumbleUpon account, the first page I am given is the page to add a photograph for my profile. Okay well, I guess I will add one, seen as they asked nicely!

That reminds me, I need some friends added to my new StumbleUpon, if you would care to add me, please do… http://buymeaferrari.stumbleupon.com/

Number Two - RetailMeNot.com 

Hmm… seems like a great site in theory, however, it appears to be aimed towards an American market, and as I’m in the UK it doesn’t really help me at all.

Oh.. hold on.. I’ve found a UK button That’s a lot better! There’s actually a really good selection for the UK market - didn’t think that there would be as many coupon codes as there is.

This site gets a thumbs up, however, not for the homepage but for the page dedicated to the United Kingdom.

Number Three -  Friday, insane time, and this is what we are after

The third site in my random stumble is ‘The Funny Site’ (dfunny.info). And a blog post from them.

First impressions seem to count here as when the page first loaded, I am greeted with what you can see in the above screenshot. Now yes, I am definitely no expert but I know what I like and what I don’t like; all I can pretty much see when it first loads is a load of adverts and links, I can see one line of the post.

I personally prefer to see a bit more of the blog post, I don’t so much mind a load of ads on a homepage of a blog but on single post pages, I prefer to see a lot of the screen dedicated to the blog post itself. Just a personal opinion.

The post itself isn’t really to my taste either - it’s just a load of photographs of drunk people gathered from across the internet, some of which I have seen before.

Yes, of course this will be to some people’s taste, but to be honest, it isn’t to mine. This one is getting a thumbs down, not because I think the post is useless because it will appeal to some people, but it because it doesn’t personally appeal to me.

Number Four - BookMooch

As you can see from the boldness of my RoboForm toolbar, I am already a member on BookMooch. However, I can’t remember the last time I logged in.

I personally much prefer a site I found after BookMooch and that is ReadItSwapIt  - to me it’s so much easier and seems to have more books to my taste.

However, I am still going to give BookMooch a thumbs up as it is still a really good website it’s just I have found a better resource to suit mu needs. The website itself has a decent design and functions pretty much as I would expect it to.

Number Five - There’s a method behind StumbleUpon’s madness (VentureBeat)

In all honesty, this is the most interesting blog post I have read in a while - MG Siegler is talking about the workings of StumbleUpon and explores the StumbleUpon Recommendation Engine.

I knew a little bit about it and the different methods the toolbar uses to recommend you pages but I didn’t really know about it to this extent.

I’m also glad to real that the co-founder he talked to has said that the limitation on the amount of friends you can have is going to be raised from 200 to 1000. On my previous account I struggled to shuffle the friends around so I could have a decent friend base but still keep within the limits (yes, I know, it probably doesn’t seem like it with my new account but it will grow :-))

This page is definitely going to get a thumbs up, a review and I am even going to comment on the blog itself as I really did enjoy reading the post.

Summary

I really enjoyed implementing this idea and actually talking about each of the sites which I stumbled upon. It made me really think about the site rather than just aimlessly stumbling, thumbs up/down then moving on.

This will definitely be something I will do again on FerrariDave as like I said, I really enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy reading the above. If you did, or have any other similar ideas that I could have a go with, please don’t hesitate to leave me a quick comment

School Work

Written by David Dunn on July 8, 2008 – 8:41 pm - 875 views

Just a quick one as I need to get some stuff out as I’m starting to feel a bit happier about myself.

I’m currently starting to do school work properly now, I’m starting to cut down the procrastination and finally beginning to do some proper work.

Yes, attention isn’t always 100% there, but I’d defy anyone to truthfully say that they pay 100% attention, 100% of the time. It’s just very unlikely to happen.

I’m starting to get caught up with my ICT coursework, just got a couple of tasks that I’m going to do tonight then I should be done with it, assuming I don’t get it back to amend stuff. Even then, it’s still out of the road as the amendments should be pretty minor.

I’ve just got some English homework to do for next Tuesday but that day I am on a geography field trip. So, I’m going to do it tomorrow night after teaching karate then hopefully get it handed in on Thursday.

I may be feeling happier that I’m beginning to do things more efficiently, but once August 13th(ish) comes around, I might be disappointed. It’s results day for my AS exams.

I’m guessing I aint done well at all with any of my exams but thankfully I’m beginning to get my act together so hopefully I’ll be able to re-sit stuff and possibly get myself back on track. It’ll probably take some work but at the moment I’m in the right state of mind.

I’m also starting to exercise more effectively than I was previously. I’m going on the treadmill more often now, and hopefully I will get out for a proper run at the weekend before I start work.

Tonight I am not going to go on the treadmill, I’m going to take the dog for a walk at about 11pm then I’ll come in and do some abs work - sit-ups etc., then some push-ups. After that I want to do a fair amount of work with my Powerball as I haven’t used it properly for a while.

May update this tomorrow morning with how my work went tonight and how much exercise I got done.

Yet Another Change In Direction

Written by David Dunn on June 29, 2008 – 9:53 pm - 671 views

Those of you who read both this blog and my other blog (Buy Me A Ferrari) will get what I mean by ‘yet another’ change in direction, especially if you have read this post.

It’s time for me to make a change in the type of blog this in (yes, I know I’ve done it before). But I really couldn’t think of enough stuff to do with motoring to make it a viable topic to blog about.

So I’m officially reverting back to the general sort of blog where I am just talking about anything that I am interested in and basically anything I wish to blog about.

This seemed to work better when FerrariDave was like this before so hopefully it will work again.

The competition at the moment is one complete flop but hopefully if I can pick the readership up again, I can have better competitions and stuff that people will want to enter.

Your comments are, as always, welcomed and I’d love to hear what you think, both positively and negatively.

I’m Back!

Written by David Dunn on April 13, 2008 – 4:07 pm - 687 views

As per the title and my previous post, I’m back from Belgium/France and I enjoyed the trip very much so.

Until I was nearly home there wasn’t a WiFi hotspot anywhere near where I actually went.

However, even if there was, to be honest, I don’t think I would have had much time to post as we never stopped other than on the ferry and in the hotel. Every other time we were out and about.

That’s why I haven’t posted about it as we went to so many places that I couldn’t even start to list and blog about, in order, where we have been.

I will be shortly uploading some photos up to Flickr after I begin to go through them and edit them as I see fit.

There’s also a little bit of news about FerrariDave. The blog is still going to stay as a motoring-related blog, however, as you have seen finding decent motoring news to blog about has been a little difficult of late.

So…. I am going to slightly change what I blog about so that it is more my opinion of news rather than actually trying to break the news myself.

This will mean I am going to comment and share my opinions on other people’s blog posts, and also motoring news in general.

You’ll probably also find me ranting on about one thing or another related to motoring, whether it be something I’ve found annoying (or helpful) whilst driving or whether it be something I’ve seen on the roads when I haven’t even been driving.

For more personal topics and a blog related to me I wont be using daviddunn.co.uk yet I don’t think, I need to find a different domain name for the personal blog. This idea might however change as I’m thinking about different ideas right now.

If you’d like to check out my photos (as they’re being uploaded) from my Frelgium trip (yes, that’s Frelgium, appropriately named by Mrs Charlton), please click here.

School Belgium/France Trip

Written by David Dunn on April 6, 2008 – 8:20 am - 772 views

Just a quick post to firstly let you know what posts will be on FerrariDave over the next few days and why I haven’t been posting of late.

First of all, the apology. I haven’t posted here in ages and I really wish there had been time to blog on here and Buy Me A Ferrari but there hasn’t been. There’s just been one thing after another and lots of work at the same time.

But I’m back now and I plan to start another blog where I post when I see fit about topics that I enjoy. It will be at daviddunn.co.uk - there’s nothing there at the moment but there will be when I get back from this trip.

Now, onto the trip.. I’ll explain where we are going and what we are doing in a sec. However, I need to explain why the hell this is being posted on FerrariDave when it has nothing at all to do with motoring.

Well, there isn’t really a decent explanation as such, just that I haven’t got a blog where it would be more appropriate so it’ll have to go here. The posts will be transferred across to my new blog (daviddunn.co.uk) once I get the whole thing sorted out but as I’m going away today (in three hours) here will have to do

I am taking my laptop with me on the trip and hopefully will be blogging as much as possible, whether I can get WiFi anywhere is another story so I’ll probably create the posts while I’m on the trip and either post them when I can get internet access or when I get back to sunny England.

The trip…

You’ll probably think this isn’t the most enjoyable trip in the world, and you’ll probably be absolutely right, it’s an educational trip so it isn’t going to be the most action-packed holiday in the world.

We’re away for four days in total (a lot of this time is travelling). Here’s a run down of what we’re doing on the trip. The places we’ll visit is bullet pointed later on, immediately below is just a run down of where and when we’re travelling.

Departure

We depart from school at 12:00 today and spend 7 hours on a coach (hopefully with the odd stop here and there!!) and eventually arrive at Hull.

Hull Ferry

We then shortly depart from Hull on the Hull-Zeebrugge ferry and *hopefully* arrive there safe and sound, Monday, 8:30 where the weather is supposedly meant to be ‘hail showers’ this is, I imagine, where we’ll realise how fun this trip will be

Langemark

After arriving at the Zeebrugge ferry terminal, we then travel to the hotel (making stops at graveyards and suchlike on the way). The hotel is situated in Langemark (anyone with information on WiFi hotspots anywhere near Langemark, please comment!) We should (according to my sheet from school) arrive at the hotel at 21:30

Somme

We then depart from our hotel the next morning at 8:00 to travel to the Somme. It would appear that the school have absolutely no idea how long it will take to get there.

Zeebrugge

We then travel back to Zeebrugge to hopefully catch the ferry sometime around 19:00.

School

We should then get back to the Hull ferry terminal at 08:00 and apparently arrive back at school at 12:00 on April 9.

Yes, you heard right, we’re visiting graveyards and battlefields. This is going to help us with English Literature studies next academic year and should provide me with some photo opportunities which of course I will be uploading to Flickr and posting about them on this blog (and eventually my new blog).

These are the places we plan to visit:

• Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, near Ypres
• In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres
• Hooge Crater and the Menin Road, Ypres
• Langemark German Cemetery
• Menin Gate for the Last Post, Ypres
• Thiepval Monument on the Somme
• Delville Wood, South African memorial, Somme
• Albert Museums

So expect a fair few blog posts on here and also a fair few photos. Anyone with any information on cheap/free WiFi hotspots please drop me an email: me@daviddunn.co.uk or leave a comment on this post.

Also, if anyone has any information on great stuff to photograph, or even just nearby places / bars to visit, that would be great either emailed or left as a comment on this blog post

A New Blog

Written by David Dunn on January 18, 2008 – 11:31 am - 875 views

You will have probably read recently that I was expanding and that I was only going to post motoring-related stuff on here - I lied - just this once, sorry!

I thought it was only right that I post about a new blog I have just released, it’s the money making blog that I talked about and it is called Buy Me A Ferrari.

It’s going to talk about money making and how I am making money on the internet. More information can be found on the blog itself - would be great if you could head on over there and have a read of the welcome post.

Entrecard competition

If you are participating in the Entrecard competition, I’ve got a new way for you to gain a lot more entries - any comments that you make over at Buy Me A Ferrari will convert into two additional entries per comment.

If you subscribe to Buy Me A Ferrari via RSS and post a comment in the original Entrecard competition post, you will earn yourself an additional 5 entries to the competition.

There’s one last way you can gain more entries - StumbleUpon. If you thumb up the homepage and/or any of the posts at Buy Me A Ferrari, you will get yourself 3 entries per page you thumb up. You will need to tell me about what you have thumbed up, along with your SU username, in the original post.

Back to motoring

I now promise you - 100% that there will be no more posts about anything other than motoring - but please don’t hold me to that promise Good luck in the Entrecard competition and I hope that you join me over at Buy Me A Ferrari.

Naughty Registration Plates

Written by David Dunn on January 15, 2008 – 2:29 pm - 4,715 views

I often visit Reg Transfers as one day (when I’m a millionaire :P) I wish to own a few expensive cars and a few expensive registration plates to go with them.

On their website they have a naughty section with some pretty cool (but naughty) plates.

Here’s a selection of some that I found great and would have on an expensive car - just for a laugh

It’s pretty obvious what this one is spelling out. You can spot it from a mile away. Price: £150,000

This one has always been a one of my favourites as Reg Transfers have had this one for a while. They had it on one of their promotional Smart Cars once, not sure if it’s still on though. Price: £99,995

Read more »

FerrariDave is Changing!

Written by David Dunn on January 14, 2008 – 11:33 am - 1,129 views

After running FerrariDave since 11th November 2007, I have decided that some stuff needs to change. Nothing too drastic so don’t worry.

Rather than FerrariDave being a personal blog, I am going to start another more personal blog with a domain name more personal to myself. This website will not only have a blog but will talk about stuff I am working on and other personal stuff - basically it will be more of a website than just a blog.

What will happen to FerrariDave?

FerrariDave is going to become more focused on motoring/automotive topics. Anything related to the motoring industry, driving, traffic law, Formula 1, and the likewise will be posted on ferraridave.com.

What else have I got planned?

Over the not-so-distant future, I plan to release the following sites:

• Personal website
• A joke site
• A cool idea for my local area that I don’t really wish to go into more detail about until I develop it a bit more..
• Local news blog
• Money making blog

That’s about all I have in mind at the moment. Obviously some of the ideas are going to be developed a bit more quickly than the others and some I have even started work on already.

More information about each project will be posted on my personal website, rather than on this ‘motoring’ site

Entrecard competiton

The Entrecard competition is still running and I will probably keep on running Entrecard contests once this one is over. Which reminds me, I need to find out how I stand with regards to Entrecard once I have more websites. Anyone have any ideas?

So hopefully the readers that I have at the moment will continue to read FerrariDave. If you aren’t interested in motoring, then I am sorry, but hopefully you will continue to follow my projects and hopefully I’ll develop something else you are interested in

Thanks for reading and wish me luck with my projects, please, I might need it!

If Carlsberg Did Speed Bumps

Written by David Dunn on January 13, 2008 – 11:32 pm - 1,009 views

Found a link to this video on Multi Forums and I too thought it would be a really cool idea for Carlsberg’s ‘If Carlsberg did…’ range.

What do you think? Do you have any cool videos you would like to share from YouTube or similar?