Archive for October, 2006
October 29, 2006 at 11:16 pm · Filed under Me, Feelings & Thoughts
O.k so Mum phones up out of the blue this evening with some news. You may or may not remember about a post I did a little while back called “I’ve just contacted the hospital”. Well I had no word back and to be fair I didn’t think I would so the plan was to do a follow up call. Well I never executed that plan but someone else sort of has. Yup that someone was mum. But wait, she didn’t phone the hospital, oh no instead she phoned Ray. Ray is Emma’s dad….perfect huh? So out of the blue my mum has so far phoned up my ex girlfriend of about 10 years ago Dad to ask if he could pass on a message for Emma to ring her. So sure enough he did. Emma then rings up my mum and they have a wee chat about stuff and Robert’s your fathers brother I get mum phoning me this evening, with permission of Emma may I add, with Emma’s phone number. Now I thought this kind of stuff only happened in the movies or in countries where prearranged marriages are the norm.
So with this information at hand, mum practically orders me to phone Emma immediately….so I did. I must admit the path taken to get this number has been strange, wonderful and weird. In addition though I’m quite a forth coming maybe even quietly confident guy ringing you ex to say hi knowing she knows how you got her number and the way it has been handled even I was a little say nervous? Anyway we had super chat. A really good one in fact! We spoke about what’s been happening, and how things are with both our parents and you know general stuff. It was so good to hear she was alright and to know she’s on top of things.
So there we have it. A whisper from my friend Andrew to Mother starting her own PI company to me ringing Emma to say hi. I may even be seeing Nurse Faulkner on Saturday…but that is still to be arranged. Big thanks to mum! Even when everything is all up in the air my mum still thinks about me when she should be thinking about herself.
October 29, 2006 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Me, Feelings & Thoughts
I loved the Triology of Lord of The Rings. Fantasy, epic, war, and oldie woldie stuff like that is something I’m always interested in so when I found the trailor for Eragon on the Apple site I just had to link to it. It looks good in the trailor but as with most films proof is in the pudding. Anyway here is the link let me know what you think.
October 29, 2006 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Me, Feelings & Thoughts
I’m not really a celeb spotter / worshiper or anything like that but Cameron Diaz is one hot lady. I was searching IMDB for what films Jack Black has been in to see if anything interests me, as I do like his work, when I came across one of his latest films called The Holiday. As it’s bloody brand new etc. there is not much info on IMDB so I clicked on the poster and suddenly I was focusing on a great shot of CD (as I call her…yeah right) with this amazing glowing smile. Anyway just wanted to share that with ya….Oh and well done British Kate Winslet putting in a nice smile below the fold.
Just for future reference I’m not normally in to chick flicks but I think this might be a good one to watch on the sly…or for those people with girlfriends I think this will just do the trick for both of you. Catch the trailer here.
October 29, 2006 at 3:04 pm · Filed under Website, Blog, Internet, Marketing
Just a quick note to say I’ve found a very useful plug-in that some bloggers may find useful as well. I was searching for a plug-in for Firefox that allows me to blog on the fly when I see a page that I find interesting. I came across the Performancing plug-in and it seems to work o.k so far. I’m actually using it right now, so if this post works out alright I’l be most pleased.
October 29, 2006 at 12:41 pm · Filed under Me, Party
Yesterday was a good day. I cleaned up my room again as it got it to a little messy but nothing to do with the state of mind thing as mentioned in my previous post. Anyway as usual I left things to the last minute. Well I say that, I always had in mind, well at least for the last few days, what I would wear if I didn’t hire a costume for the party. So, at about two thirty in the afternoon I decided I’d better get a bloody move on. Now there is a couple of things I needed to get. First was a shower, I sweat so much lately. I mean I have always sweated lots, even when I was playing football like there was no tomorrow but for Christ Sake, I know I’m a big guy (no ladies not that way…Doh!) but I’ve never seated so much as I do now. Hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t keep the sweat part in? Anyway where the hell was I? Ah yes needed a shower, then the next thing I needed were a white tie and a black shirt, oh yes and a hat, and a haircut. So that was my mission.
After a quick shower I shot off in to town. David said he was meeting Alex so I gave him a quick bell to see where he was and funnily enough he was at the shop I was planning to go to so I met him there. On the way there though the roads were packed, I mean proper crammed with people. I guess it’s the Halloween party season but for the love of Mary I’ve been to London on a busy day and not felt so cramped. Anyway I met up with David and Alex and I noted they also got braces, which was such a cool idea. After a quick hello I dashed in to the shop and let them get off to pick up a final few things. I bout some white flapper shoe things, I forgot what they were called, a tie and a pair of those cool braces. After that it was a dash to British Home Stores. One black short-sleeved shirt later I was on to my next store, Tie Rack where I bought a white scarf (which I didn’t take to the party after all, so that’s someone’s Christmas present sorted). The piece de la resistance was still at large though; the trilby hat. Luckily when walking home with Claire one time we found a shop on western road that did all types of hats etc. So I popped along there and bought myself one. Finally the costume accessories had been compiled and now only the hair needed to be fixed. I made my way back up to Seven Dials which is quite close to home, where I saw a barber shop not too long ago. A quick job, well done and I was back home ready to have some relax time with some beers I had just bought for David and me.
Alex popped round and after some tunes, beer and another shower for me! We were back on it and in to town to the party. The party was at one in three, or something like that. I never know what it is called. I know it as the Queens Head and that’s it really. Anyway we made it there and what a pleasure it was to see everyone dressed up so fantastically. The ladies looked great and the men looked….handsome? SO let’s carry on. The room was brilliantly decorated with balloons, glittery curtains and thanks to Phil buying the disco ball, that was a nice touch. Some of the funny bits of the evening have to be Mark Raymond’s South American look. I just cracked up when he came up the stairs with Sarah. Then it was Jon with his massive Violin case. After that it was Nils and Abi. If anyone should be a pimp it’s Nils, and Abi, wow what an outfit!
The night continued with a few good laughs, namely Jonny spinning around of a piece of bread (I’m laughing as I write this) or him saying “hello to my little friend” and shooting everyone with the Violin case. I had another dance off again. Why o’ why do I do that? This time it was a little lady who worked behind the bar. I caught her doing some move, after I think she commented on mine. All of a sudden I saw her step up the pace so I cracked on and did some shapes. Afterwards she admitted defeat muuahahahahahaha, I shouldn’t boast but her friend told I that she actually is a professional dancer. I saw her downstairs but I didn’t say anything to her but smiled. She did come over and ask where she could get food, but that’s hardly a great opener is it? Anyway I thought she was very, very, very, cute. Maybe next time I see her I’ll let her win.
That was night over really, I said my goodbyes and walked with Jonny and Cals to RFC (A rip off of KFC). It was a great night and thanks to Phil and Claire for hosting such a fab party! For photos of the night click here (thanks to David Coats for the photos - nice one geezar!)
October 27, 2006 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Me, Feelings & Thoughts
Not much to talk about of late. I’ve not been up to much really. Keeping my head down and keeping an eye on mother really. She isn’t coping as well as what I thought originally but her life is so messed up I think it will take a while to get sorted out. However my original comments still stand and she will get through this patch period like a walk in the park.
On another note I’m still in a confused mood about certain things and not sure what action to take. It’s a really hard thing to talk about with anyone and here is the only place I can semi echo my thoughts. I can sometimes judge the mood I am in by the state of my bedroom and lately it’s been terrible, though this morning I had enough and sorted it out. Maybe I should organise my room as well as my head? Just to be clear I’m not down and it’s not affecting my life as much as it seems on this blog. It’s just something that is on my mind and I suppose next year will be the time to sort it out one way or another. Actually next year I plan to carry out a plan that I’m working on. It’s got more to do with financial planning and direction in terms what I have to do to make things happen but more importantly what do I want to have in my life. I look at my brother who has everything a man would want and more. I want the house, the car, the kids and wife, maybe even in that order.
On a lighter note let’s provide some funny links that I have enjoyed of late, The Chasers War On Everything, Paul McCartney and Heather, and finally Boarding Passes.
October 24, 2006 at 5:26 pm · Filed under Website, Blog, Internet, Marketing
I feel Wordpress is fast becoming the leader behind blogging software. This site itself is built on the Wordpress platform and performs well on a variety of areas that are important for me; Usability, Customisability, and Search engine friendliness. These are the three key areas to any web publishing application in my personal opinion. On the subject of search engine friendliness Google has a webmaster area that enables you to submit a sitemap, amongst other interesting tools. I’m not going to go in to why you should submit a sitemap and indeed have a Google account other than the fact Google say that Webmatser Tools “offer webmasters an easy way to make their sites more Google-friendly” and provides “Google’s view of your site, and diagnosing potential problems.”
So we have a great publishing platform and a great tool from Google to ensure they are aware of you new posts and overall content. However my ideal solution would be to combine these two elements together; I wasn’t alone in my thoughts. Arne Brachhold not only had the same idea earlier but also has built a terrific plug in. It works beautifully and I fully recommend it. Installation is very easy and the way it works is great.
Once you have registered and verified your site with Google and installed the plug-in with the correct write permissions you can continue blogging in the normal way. Each time you post the plug-in recreates the XML sitemap, adding your new post URL to the site map to. It then pings Google to inform them to collect the XML Sitemap.
It’s simple, pretty fast and a new version is in BETA so I look forward to seeing that.
October 23, 2006 at 12:22 am · Filed under Me, Party, Feelings & Thoughts
The weekend wasn’t too heavy and I’m kind of looking forward to the same chill out this weekend coming though Claire and Phil’s birthday party is on Saturday so it could all change so let’s wait and see.
O.k well this weekend Mark let us round to his again to have a little play around. It was nothing too heavy but some fun nevertheless with beer, mates and music. Jon and Mark provided some quality tunes and djing so thanks to them to. Afterwards some of us moved on to Jon and Dan’s place to finish the night off. Again nothing crazy just was chilling out. It was nice to be inside with friends for once though my Dad kept calling me from Libya asking about all the family mess that has been happening.
Saturday I made the trip to see Mum. In all honesty I should of taken sometime off and went to see her straight away but with work being quite heavy I thought she may be able to manage to the weekend. I think I was wrong, as when I got to see her finally she seemed a little shaky and nervous. I think she is coping as I’ve mentioned before but she needs more morale support. Anyway, we had a lovely evening with my niece Charlotte joining us to stay over as well. My niece is usually a handful because she is too bright for her age. Some people call it cheeky and I would have to agree, but there is something about her that makes me appreciate the way she thinks about things sometimes before talking back. Don’t get me wrong she is only seven and she really shouldn’t answer back but she is way too head strong like her Dad. After the Chinese, some beer and a video we called it a night.
I headed back home this morning on the train quite sad to be leaving my mum. Actually really sad, there is nothing more I want to do than be back at home with her to make sure she gets back to her normal self or at least to a point I feel comfortable with. Luckily Gary will no doubt be able to provide the strong support he provides me from time to time to Mum, but I really want to be there.
Anyway I got back to Brighton and had a super evening with David a.k.a. the wife, talking about loads of stuff primarily football and girls. I’m still feeling a little sad though. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been thinking about Becky, Kelly, Michela or Mum. God that’s a weird combination, just for clarity the first three is are old girlfriends.
I feel a girlfriend / relationship post coming along…hmmm look forward to that one eh?
October 19, 2006 at 3:59 pm · Filed under Website, Blog
Just a quick note to say I’ve now added Google Analytics to the sites statistics. That means now the site is being tracked by logs, Stat Counter, Crazy Egg and Performancing.
I think I’ve pretty much got all the free stats I need…but if there is some more useful ones please do get in touch.
October 19, 2006 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Internet, Design, Marketing
I find the whole Web 2.0 quite funny but that could be because I don’t understand it and don’t have the whole picture when I think about it. There are loads of jokes and groups about how Web 2.0 is rubbish etc. and they may have a point. Why am I posting this? Well I found an interesting article on the O’Reily network that may help some people including myself. One of the things that I liked was in the article was this:
| Web 1.0 |
|
Web 2.0 |
| DoubleClick |
–> |
Google AdSense |
| Ofoto |
–> |
Flickr |
| Akamai |
–> |
BitTorrent |
| mp3.com |
–> |
Napster |
| Britannica Online |
–> |
Wikipedia |
| personal websites |
–> |
blogging |
| evite |
–> |
upcoming.org and EVDB |
| domain name speculation |
–> |
search engine optimization |
| page views |
–> |
cost per click |
| screen scraping |
–> |
web services |
| publishing |
–> |
participation |
| content management systems |
–> |
wikis |
| directories (taxonomy) |
–> |
tagging (”folksonomy”) |
| stickiness |
–> |
syndication |
Anyway if you would like to read the article just click here.
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