Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

In a sort of continuation of the last blog, this will be on a similar theme. I just thought that sthe subject sort of deserves its own thread. As far as earning extra money is concerned, the field of property could be particularly fruitful – although again it is something where you’ll need a bit of money beforehand. I posted a bit the other day about fast house sales – but now, it seems, there is evidence to suggest the house market is stabilising. At least a little bit.

Although it doesn’t sound like much, property prices have just risen by £1, 500.

In addition to this, if you look here, there are property blogs here that probably go into it in a lot more detail than I’ll ever be able to, but it’s certainly another option. At least for UK property. I can’t speak for other countries, but property shows are constantly on the TV here, and people always seem to be able to pick up bargains at auction, and then turn them into big earners.

Just a thought, anyway…

This was going to be a blog about my day, which has not been very good. And I suppose by writing this, I am doing so anyway. But then: why not? Because, all in all, it has been pretty bad. When I came downstairs earlier, it was to find my flatmate badmouthing me behind my back. I only caught the tail end of it, and although they tried to cover it up, and cover it up rather feebly, there was no mistaking it: I was being insulted by someone I considered a friend.

Just not a good one, it seems.

But now, after seeing this news story, I can’t help but feel my day pales in comparison. So I’m not going to write any more about it. Finding a used tampon in your food is quite easily the most disgusting thing I’ve read all week. At least I can smooth things over with my friend. Or pretend to, and just go on as if nothing happened. But that – that will live with you forever!

The other day, I talked a little bit about the magazine I’m working on with a friend. But although tonight has seen me dabbling once again in a bit of graphic design, it wasn’t for that project this time. I’ve been asked by a friend to help him out with some graphics for his website, so I’ve been getting on with that a little bit. Like writing, and essays, and most things really, it doesn’t take very long once you actually get down to the business of working – it’s just the putting off and procrastination that drag it out longer than it needs to be.

The last I heard, things are still going well in magazine-camp, though. The office is getting messier (which I take to be a good sign). The internet line they decided on – even as small as something from a 2mb leased line provider – is working well. I suppose when I’m not there, working away in Photoshop, there are only two others using the internet, and 2mb is fine for that.

After looking at the various business broadband options, and what have you, they’re happy; they’re sure that they went for the right option. Although I suppose that, at the end of the day, there is not that much difference between the various broadband providers that are out there.

So I think I’ll just wrap up some of these banner ideas – I’m onto the second; I’ll probably aim to get a third done quickly – and then call it a day.

When you’re woken up abruptly and loudly by a dog barking in the morning, the smell of fresh coffee and sizzling bacon in the morning does a lot to remedy the situation. It certainly put a bit of spring in my step as I rolled out of bed.

The news, it seemed, was of the depressing and dark sort – as usual – so I did my best to ignore it, and looked up some news of the NFL variety. There are some gloomy stories there, of course – drugs, and arrests, and all sorts – but then there are some wonderful pieces as well.

Over recent weeks, they have been doing a feature called “Best in the Biz” – a feature that looks at various aspects of the game, and counts down a top 5 list of the best players at that position, or the best coaches, and that sort of thing. And now they have put together a list of the top 5 players currently playing the game.

Of course, the continuous debate between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady makes an appearance. How can it not? We’ve got the privilege of watching two sure hall of famer’s. It’s as much of a pleasure to debate as it is to watch – well, almost – and it really brings home the fact that this is a wonderful era for sports.

This morning, just as I got back from a walk with the dogs, the local newspaper came through the door. On the front page was a very gloomy, very big picture of a house, and an accompanying story of how bad the house market is looking at the moment. As you might expect, the whole thing was filled with news of the recession; now a sort of endless, brooding, dark cloud that is swallowing our lives.

I decided, after seeing it, that I’d look it up a little bit online, and see if it really is moving as slowly as the article said it was. And there are all sorts of property news websites online – it’s great for that sort of thing. Rather interestingly, there are a number of similar sounding stories there as well. Including one that says, rather darkly, that house prices are set to fall even further over the next 18 months or so, and aren’t going to get better until around 2015. It must be hell, with such low property prices, if you are trying to sell. Certainly not a nice time to be dealing with it all.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t options out there. If you’re looking for a quick house sale, then there are still ways to do it. I suppose it might come with the slight downside that you’ll have to settle for less money … but it could be something of a blessing to get rid of your house so quickly, especially in a market like the current one. Sitting around, trying to sell, only to run into the metaphorical brick wall over and over again can only add to the depression.

And there are forums, too: real estate forums, and all sorts, that are all there to help out if you do find yourself immersed in this sort of thing. And they are a brilliant thing, because they put you in direct contact with other, similar people who are also going through the same thing that you’re going through.

Yes, the internet can be such a marvellous thing sometimes.

I’ve had a good day today. Interesting and entertaining and fun. But a brief flick through the news shows that not everyone enjoyed such an entertaining day.

In one such example, someone has been charged over 23 quadrillion dollars on their credit card. I had never before even considered the existence of such a large sum of money, so to see it on your bill after buying a pack of cigarettes must have been quite shocking to say the least.

Harry Potter has just come out, so some people are going to want to dabble in the magical every now and then. And someone has been arrested for suspected witchcraft and wizardry. What is this – the middle ages? The idea of the whole town rallying together and peering in through the door as the cops turn up seems more than slightly comedic…

For me, it was my brother’s graduation ceremony, and although he was quite nervous, it all went very well. The chancellor gave an entertaining speech, the music was fitting, and afterwards, the food and wine was a lovely touch. It made for a very good day. It’s great to be able to spend some time with the family, and just enjoy small talk and small pleasures.

The news today was filled with a number of interesting stories, but there were two that particularly stood out for me. Firstly, in an act of tremendous goodwill, a woman in Nigeria has given her lottery winnings to a beggar. And what a lucky beggar they are. I can just picture the look on their face as they hold out their hand for a bit of spare change, only to be given a cheque for 3 million naira.

Hopefully, too, the winnings will go towards things that matter; things like a home, and good food, and all the things that we take for granted. It will go towards things that help, rather than being blown on fancy cars, or expensive toys.

Quite curiously, the reason she gave for giving the money away was that she was scared she would become broke. She had read reports that a number of lottery winners become “broke in the short run and come across a lot of misfortune.” I must admit the idea of giving your money away because you’re scared of running out of money seems slightly strange. But all the same, it’s a heart-warming story.

And secondly, another thing that caught my attention today was a story regarding houses and property in the Philippines. If prices are going to fall, then I would be very tempted to look into any bargains that might spring up. There are a number of things that appeal to me about it as a place to visit.

But looking into Philippines real estate would, of course, depend on a number of things. Not the least of which is this side job taking off in the manner that I hope it does. Oh well, fingers crossed, and we’ll just have to see how things go. First things first – I need to clean my house a bit, because I’m moving into a new one in a few days time. And I quite fancy getting my deposit back in its entirety!

Graphic design is something that I thoroughly enjoy dabbling in. I’ve loved it for a long time – right back to when I was about fifteen. Although saying that, when I first started, calling it “graphic design” would not do. The first images seemed to consist of dragging a few pictures together, slapping a bit of text on and calling it finished.

That first program was old, and pretty rubbish. When I got my hands on a copy of Photoshop, I found that using it was so much fun that I practised, and fiddled, and messed around nearly every day. After a while I was producing things that were actually pretty good. And over the years, I’ve continued to work with the program – even if it is just messing around, or producing background images for my desktop, or profile pictures for my friends. But it has paid off. Because now, rather suddenly, I’ve got a chance to really call myself a graphic designer.

Now I could potentially be producing a magazine for my friends business – a business that seems to be going quite well. He’s set up an office, it’s starting to get rolling quite nicely, and it’s really quite exciting. I’ve been to check out the office, and had a play on the computers, and it’s pretty cool stuff. With leased line providers, there is nice, fast internet available already, and it all feels so professional. I told him as much.

Business SDSL availability can sometimes be more lacking than you might like, apparently, which makes it quite difficult sorting it all out. So it wasn’t as simple as just rolling into the office and ordering any old internet. He had to research into all the available broadband companies to make sure that he didn’t get ripped off, and was ordering a package that could actually be of use to us if this thing snowballed – which hopefully it will.

Apparently Big Brother is still going strong. Despite low ratings, it’s still ploughing away, and if I’m honest, I’m not really sure how. It must be at least the 10th season, by now, and it’s having to delve deep into the bag of tricks to even remain interesting. I was quite a fan of the first series, these days but it’s been getting progressively worse, obsessed with sex and sexual preferences and conventions.

But CCTV is everywhere in real life; you are probably caught on film too many times a day to count with your fingers, and all this is before you factor in the joys of call recording. I have enough Big Brother in my life already, I think, without watching the show itself.

And call logging is getting increasingly more frequent, too. There are all sorts of security companies out there offering surveillance services and logging services. We’re at a stage now where you even have your voice recorded when you ring up to hire a suit (for training purposes, apparently.)

CCTV systems, recording calls … where does it end? Yes, I don’t need to watch Big Brother; there’s certainly enough of it in my life already.

It can only be beneficial in these tough financial times, to have as swish a CV as possible. So I think I’ve decided to do an MA degree. Spending a year getting more qualified, and, on top of that, using it as an opportunity to take some time to expand the CV further with work experience and other writing just seems like a good idea at the moment. In a year’s time, with luck, the job market will be looking a little bit more peachy, and my more peachy resume will be right at home in it. That’s the hope, at least.

The most interesting courses, for me at least, are in London. It’s an interesting place, too – obviously, being a thriving, bustling capital. But there is an interesting video on You Tube, too, where someone has seen and recorded a UFO flying around the city. It seems the general consensus is that it’s a bunch of balloons drifting on the air, but still … it’s nice to have an air of mystery about a place. My worry is that to study there, and pretty much do anything there, really – well – it’s very expensive, though … there’s no getting round it. To make it possible, I’d probably need a loan, even if I can manage with a small one, and try and work up the rest of the money. So I’ve been looking around at the various current accounts to see what sort of deals they have on offer, and some of them don’t look too bad. With so many banks available, I suppose it’s always nice to have some healthy competition.

There also appear to be foreign currency bank accounts, which seem quite interesting, allowing you to bank offshore. I’m not sure it’s for me at the moment, but having leafed through quite a lot of pages on these bank websites, I stumbled on it and thought it quite an interesting idea. There are so many different accounts out there, and so many benefits, and so many different loan packages that I think I’ll certainly have to look into it more before I make a decision which to go with.