Playing with WordPress
Hello anyone who still bothers to drop by, I've not posted for a while... OK since December. All the usual stuff, I'm a bad blogger, blah blah. I've been real busy honest and kind of haven't been doing anything but working, which I've set about rectifying recently. I've taken up Squash again with Chris from work who's uber fit. We're awesomely matched which I like and have some great games. Although recently they've got even tougher as I think we're both getting quite fit for it. Chris is however winning 6 matches to 4, so I need to get some practice in while he goes on holiday 
I've also taken up Aegis, a mixed martial art based around kick boxing with Sam, which is awesome! I've always wanted to do one and I reckon I got into it just in time too.
OK, so I have even bigger news than all of the above. Claire graduated on Tuesday 15th with a 2:1 in Primary Education with subject studies in English (Ages 3 - 7) which was great because she's been worried for months that she wasn't going to get what she wanted. I'm sure all that know her however never doubted she'd get what she deserves so well done Claire. Also, Claire is doubly happy about her graduation as got whooped as she stepped onto the stage to collect her certificate and I'm sure she won't mind me mentioning it either, lol.
You may have noticed some changes to my site I've decided to scrap my own CMS because basically I was never going to fix it or finish it. Not cool. It was getting quite good. Not as good as Wordpress though! Wow.I gave WordPress a quick look a couple of weeks ago when I needed something to install on a fresh installation of Debian and I'm blown away. It's so simple and intuative. After setting up and configuring a fresh installation of Debian through reading various sources accross the net I decide that i'd put together some really simple to follow instructions on how to do the same. I've started writing the guide and am going to follow them through myself a couple of times to make sure they're clear and correct. It's as much of a learning excercise for me as a guide for anyone else, I just thought I'd share with the internet and if it helps someone oneday then yey! That said I'm far from any kind of Linux master.
The plan is, after writing a How to install and configure a Debian for a web server, write a series of smaller guides on how to do things like configure Apache virtual hosts and configure MySQL. All the basic stuff for a simple web server.
OK, so that's it for now, if you previously subscribed to my rss feed you'll need to change it to the new one on this site. If you didn't, why not do it now! Here's hoping everyone is having a good 2008 and i might post before 2009... *might*.
In The Air Tonight
Wow, it's been a while. Sorry.
I'm just listening to the Phil Collins album ..Hits which I admit I bought on the back of the Cadbury advert featuring the song. I've always loved that track, I just love the way the tensions builds in up. Anyway, I was told about the story behind the song.
Apparently when Phil Collins was a child, he, his best friend and a third boy were playing by a canal when his best friend fell in. The boy couldn't swim and niether could Phil Collins so he couldn't save him. The one boy who could ran away and his friend drowned. Years later Phil Collins found him and invited him to his concert where he played this song.
I think that knowing this gives the song so much more power and the lyrics have much more impact. Apparently though it's not true and it the song just came to him and didn't really mean anything.
Never mind, I thought it made a brilliant song much more interesting. Just thought I'd share my disappointment with people
Blue Fingers
Well, it's been two weeks now since I blogged, I'm getting increasingly bad at it know but it just doesn't have the sparkle that it used too. The problem is I think, is that I don't really have much else to talk about other than myself.
So, what have I been upto? Well, i've hit upon some stressful times at work because my workload has about doubled due to people moving onto other employment. I'm not saying that this is neccersarily a bad thing but while i'm learning the ropes it's a tough learning curve!
I went into Leeds last night with Claire, Sam and Jonny to see Toyshelf(site created by Jonny, looking good mate) play in a battle of the bands and they kicked ass. Also there were 16 days who were also wicked, Claire, Sam and I really enjoyed them, Jonny wasn't so nice about thier music 
lol.
Toyshelf unfortunatly didn't win, coming in third by 6 votes, the winners were 16 days. There was a fourth band who played but i can't remember thier name, lol. All in all a good night although my left ear is a little harder of hearing than it was yesterday!
Just for you
You know who you are, you special, lucky people.
Well today has been just bizarre! I went back to school!
As part of a 25 years of Boroughbridge high school celebration I and some other past student (Steve Metcalf, James Parkes, Laure Perks) were invited to go back to school for day of performing arts and drama with the current students. So off I went this morning at 8:30am to head back to school. I got to sing in safety in number from The Boyfriend with 3 current student and Steve, and boy did we show them how it was done Talk about cheesy, lol. We also got to sing some numbers from various other productions from the past such as The Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls and Grease. It was loads of fun despite having to catch up on all the lyrics and the dance moves in just a morning.
After all the student past and present departed the stage Mark Joseph who had also been taking part in all the singing with the other students got on stage and performed some of his material which went down a storm. I really enjoyed that.
So now I'm going to head downstairs, grab a drink and go to bed, I'm absolutely shattered. Night night
Blogin’ from work
Well, seeing as we've got no Internet in the new house, although we should have soon, they've taken the money from my account to get it sorted, grrrr monies; I decided to give a little blogette during my lunch break.
Not really got much to report. Claire has finished Uni for another year, only one left to go and is currently looking for a job somewhere near to where we live and that she can just work day times in. She really doesn't want to go into catering as, and I quote 'I'm sick of working with arsehole chefs that don't give a crap about you, sorry, except for you'. Well, I've been lucky in that I've only ever worked with some pretty nice chefs... most of the time, but I can see where she's coming from. Chef's perhaps don't have the best reputation for minding their P's and Q's.
Also, seeing as the broadband is being activated, Sam is going to move in this week which means that we will all be moved in, woo. But how long will it be before that fabled first argument I wonder? Well, ok there has already been a couple but Sam hasn't moved in yet so they don't count. Do they?
Sometime in the next few weeks I plan to actually launch my new site design, I've been sat on it for a little while and once I've built the back end to allow me to actually post anything from it then I will get it running.
Right then, back to work, more security fun awaits me!
Feels like new
I said I'd update at the weekend but I was very busy! My entire life seems new to me at the moment. It's simultaneously a fun, exciting and totally weird.
I have my new job which I'm five weeks into and it's going great. I got to jump in at the deep end which was scary but has been a brilliant way to get introduced to the business. I have a new house which Claire, Sam and I got the key to on Friday. We've been shopping to Ikea twice already and bought a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and a book shelf and me and Claire spent the last two night building them. Our next Ikea trip will be on Saturday when me and Sam go and pick him up a bed frame. Today Claire sorted out the electric, gas and phone lines which is great! She's a star!
With having the new house comes moving away from home. Some people might argue that it's no big step but it's going to be strange. I've been living away from home for the last three years at uni but somehow it still feels like you live at home. Also, everyone's leaving or left. My brother James is at university in Swansea doing Biochemistry, my other brother Nick is living with his Grandma and working as a Farmer and Mum, Steve and my sister Kara are moving to Hungary in September. I just hope we can all meet for Christmas and things and have a good laugh.
I think that's it for now, I'm going to watch the F Word and then some House with Claire. While I remember, I'm really looking forward to watching series one of Blackadder, Claire bought it for me as a moving in present! cool.
busy busy busy
I'm very busy at the moment with various things so I thought I'd sit down and tell you all about it. Now I'm here however, I've decided that I feel too ill and am going to get in bed and watch some House M.D.. Hugh Laurie is the man! I'll catch up at the weekend... promise?
AJAX ftw
I've been playing with AJAX recently and I have to say that I'm starting to like it a lot. I've been playing with prototype after Dan at work suggested it to me. I've not used java script before but I can see straight away that prototype takes away so much of the hassle and provides some really simple and intuitive interfaces. After my next incarnation of my website I'm going to get some nice ajaxie stuff in for viewing and adding comments I think, that would be nice.
tomorrow night I'm attending a 'packing party' at work where we'll basically be putting brochures and letters in envelopes i guess... should be a laugh, beer and pizza have also been invited. I'll also find out in the morning if I get the daily spin of the wheel of justice for a chance to win a weekend city break or get the car washed by my manager. When I spun it last Tuesday (The first outing of it's newly resurrected life) I won a round of hot drinks for my department from anyone I nominated, Joe got the honors and a mediocre cup of tea was brought over from the vending machine. Impeccable service though, would definitely go back. lol.
working at i to i
It's now my second week at i to i and it's going great. I got to travel down to Nottingham uni to give the students their more information on what we do. For anyone who doesn't know, i to i operate volunteer projects around the world. Anything from Help Teach and Care for Children in Cambodia and Coaching soccer in Moshi, Tanzania to Building homes in La Esperanza, Honduras. How cool!!! I can't wait to go on one of their experiences, it'll be great. If anyone is considering doing a bit of travelling or taking a year out, have a look at the site, there's loads of things to do! Tell 'em I sent ya'!
In other news, Claire, Sam and I have given in our application forms and paid our application fees and are now in the process of securing our house, woo!!
[rant]Why when I just want to get something done quickly is the whole internet undergoing maintenance? firstly I pop over to Twitter to find they are messing around with something, grrr, fair enough. Then I decide that before I do anything else I'll pop my new Linkin Park cd in and copy it to my machine so I can listen to it on my mp3 player tomorrow at work... denied! It seems the musicbrainz server is undergoing maintenance as well! Boooo![/rant]
Moving out
Very soon I'll be leaving home for Leeds as I start work as a junior PHP and MySQL developer on Tuesday. This means that whilst Claire, Sam and me are looking for somewhere I'll be staying with Claire and Sam will continue to commute from Ripon to Leeds, not something I'd like to join in on.
So whilst I'm very excited about moving and getting a new job I'm nervous about the same things. All the normal questions, will I enjoy it, will they like me, will I be good enough for them? I'm bricking it!
We're off to view a house tomorrow and on sat so if things go well, we like a house and it's available then we could be in a new house in a matter of weeks, cool!
I have to say I will miss building with Steve as it was a challenge and I'm definitely a lot fitter than when I started, even if i don't look it