It's that time of year again, and this year I thought I would try to be a bit more organised, so I decided to compile a list of some great sites for finding original and innovative present ideas...

GENERAL GIFT IDEAS

http://www.thedoghouse.co.uk	A brilliant all-in-one online reminder and gift service, offering sms &/or email reminders for all those hard to remember dates in your life. Gifts are catogorised by charactor of the individual or by types (male, female, child etc.) They also offer a personalised gift suggestion service for the people in your life that you profile.
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com	Another great site for those unusual presents that simply make you say "I want one of those" Site has a Christmas section, and shopping by price and type catagories.
http://www.giftexperience.com	Buy them a great experience, hot air baloon rides, rally driving, sky diving and more... The site features gift sections for Flying, land, water, pamper, hamper, wine, kids.
http://www.needapresent.com	Unusual and original gifts and gadgets for all, sort by person or Price & top 20 gifts. Everything from naming a star to board games and usb cup warmers.
http://www.bust-ed.co.uk http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=52 I have been busy decorating my computer room, hence I have not been about for a few days, but it's taking shape nicely, from the nice new paint job to the lovely new carpet and new computer desks... All i need now is a time machine to catch up with all my work The Simnopsis Sims blog is coming on nicely, and now has four new members... Please feel free to join, and post anything Sims2 related, news, discussion etc. ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=42 Simnopsis is for anything relating to the Sims2 on a more personal level (sim friends) ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=35 ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=33 Finally I have got round to doing some blogging after my holiday in Cornwall. We had a great time, and visited some really interesting places including the quite brilliant Eden Project and Mowellham Quay. The weather was especially well behaved, and although it did rain once or twice, it was bright and sunny when it counted. I also got a chance to use my digital camera and captured some great memories onto disk.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy photography, and  having interesting subjects to snap, rekindled a desire to take more pictures when I got home.   The Eden Project was a truly amazing place, and I would recommend it to anyone that has not seen it. It is full with visually stimulating and educational delight such as the one on the left. The picture shows one of my daughters; Charlene who was looking at one of the display pieces within the Rain Forest Biome. It has to be said she was truly captivated by the whole experience, although my wife Jane found the humid atmosphere rather to much to cope with in that biome.    What's it about? Family Surf is an online resource for anyone that wants help finding good safe and fun websites that don't do nasty things to your PC behind your back. The site is compiled as an ongoing task, providing links and reviews of sites that in my opinion at the time of adding them to the list are both suitable and have interest to web-surfers with families or children. Feel free to have a look and let me know what you think, all feedback appreciated good or bad http://familysurf.co.uk Also been working on two other websites, two lots of logos and some other stuff for a couple of friends... so I have not had much free spare time. Hope to be back to normal again soon, but I go on holiday next week, so I guess I will be silent for a while longer. ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=31 It's not the headache so much as not being able to see or talk straight that causes the problem, so I had to stop, and have spent the last two days in bed. It seems such a waste of time ... oh well tomorrow's another day As you can see I am up again now, still slightly fragile, I feel a bit like I am severely hung over, but no drink has touched my lips :lol: Will get back to it tomorrow. ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=30 Just Smile... Near every blog or forum I see uses emoticons or smileys from time to time. So I thought just incase others have not found these sites yet, I would add the links and my write up on my blog, so hope you find them handy too. (exert from my main site) We all love to visit fun and entertaining sites, but not all sites are the ones that you can share with the whole family. Kids can’t resist the little flashing ads for smilies, screensavers, ring tones, chat rooms and the like; the problem is many have content that you really might rather your children did not see. Worse still some of them (if not the large majority) will install spyware or adware on your PC without your knowledge. In this section of my site I have tried to gather links to some of the better fun content, that is both safer for your kids and your PC. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a site offers a really brilliant alternative to the regular smiley. In total there are over 1200 original smilies. All smilies or emoticons are made by Marijn Kampf and a new one is added every weekday to the site. The smileys are available as a single archive containing all smilies todate, or as individual download. In addition to this there is a forum and online shop, wallpapers and other cool stuff. All smileys on the site are © Copyright 1998-2004 by Marijn Kampf. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crack's Smileys has also got a lot of original smiley content in the style that most teenagers love. The smiley collection are designed by both "Crack" and his fellow smiley artists (read more on h ..]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=29  Click for larger Image. A picture I did a while back, based on a stock photo of a girl taken by black-marking I simply cut out the girl and superimposed her on a picture I took of one of my decks. I saw the original photo of the girl who happened to be sitting in the right sort of position to be superimposed on the decks with minor tweaking. I kind of likes the result. ]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=28 Aside from computing, being a Webmaster and other computer related hobbies, my favourite pastime is Djing. My ever-growing collection of Vinyl is probably my most treasured possession closely followed by my decks and other equipment. Each and every one of the 12-inch records that I own has a little place in my heart that very likely only another DJ or collector of vinyl could understand. I started out Djing about 20 years ago, back then I was a mobile jock, playing mostly to weddings, birthdays and the like. The first time I Djed was on a fold up 70’s style all in one twin deck that had been hired for the receptionist’s wedding at the place I used to be an apprentice. She asked me if I would play the tunes that every one had brought with them, and from that point on I was totally hooked. Over a period of time I purchased amps speakers and decks, and people who were at the party kept asking me to play and of course I happily obliged. It took me ages to collect my records and learning how to read the dance floor and what records differing types of people liked took a strange learning curve. Over time I learnt to watch people during what I used to call my warm-up, playing a few tester records of different styles, watching who tapped their feet to what, and who was nodding the most and to what. Then when it came to getting them on the floor I just slowly built on my observations, mixing different tracks and dropping floor fillers as the dance floor started to gain momentum. I have carried the things I learnt as a mobile jock and adapted them to my current style of mixing, never forgetting to read the dance floor, and watch for those special people that once onboard help send the whole floor into a frenzy (if you DJ you know the ones I mean) The arrival of Chicago house brought with it a huge change to my Djing habits, and mixing style. In the late ..]]> http://www.extemporaneous.co.uk/blog/index.php?id=27