leyton.org

Not even six months after my last refresh, afraid it’s site refresh time again. The old setup and theme were really not working out in quite the way I’d hoped, so I’ve taken a few leaves from recent rejig of my running club website, and applied them here.

The theme I’m using (Mandigo) is wonderfully customisable, so it’ll get a bit more TLC in due course: It’s very much the default right now, which makes it a bit dull. I’ve an idea in mind for the header banner which will appear in due course, and a few more tweaks and changes that will take shape in the next weeks and months as the mood takes me, and the time is available.

Behind the scenes an upgrade to Wordpress 2.6.2 has happened, which went very well. I’ve also embraced wordpress as a CMS, and dispensed with the /diary/ URL suffix. Old links will, of course, continue to work, but the whole site should hang together a bit more consistently.

I’ve needed a few diversions away from worrying about our forthcoming wedding (I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it, so many people coming so far, for us, it’s difficult not to), so the last day or two I’ve been doing a few purely geeky things, some of which are long overdue.

Most obviously, you’ll see I’ve changed the look and feel of the website. I’ve switched to using a customised two column version of the Sandpress theme, which is built on top of Sandbox. Sandpress won last years competition (authors website here), and I like it’s clarity and simplicity. It also feels a lot ‘fresher’ than my previous theme, and makes it a bit clearer to see the new posts, comments and so forth.

I’m not a CSS guru by any stretch, so there are a few clunky things still in need of resolving, not least the comments form, sidebar, top navigation, as well as the behaviour of a few plugins in the new theme (Paged comments in particular, so I’m trying to get hold of a version of that for sandbox, rather than reworking it myself)

I’ve also upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 (I rather like the new admin interface), and refreshed a few of the plugins that work behind the scenes to take care of certain things.

I’d appreciate any comments, particularly around what you think of the new theme. There’s a nice preview, so you can see how it should look, and compare it to the other themes from last years competition.

All go at the moment, so only time for a brief update:

• Wedding plans are proceeding well. We’re being cautioned by friends to stay calm as the day approaches, and I think we are managing that quite well. Got quite excited picking up the rings, as well as getting to see the finished product for something we’ve arranged. More on that after the big day

• Jury service. I’ve received a “you are on the shortlist” letter last week. Inevitable really given all of Frances’ family have had similar, so it was only a matter of time before I got one. I’m in two minds. On the one hand I’m fascinated by the process, and obliged to ‘do my civic duty’, but on the other it will stomp all over my business. Being self-employed has some big draw backs at times. More on this later, no doubt.

• Anime: Last year I hired “Spirted Away“, and absolutely loved it (Frances wasn’t quite as struck). Whilst poking about HMV last week, I figured it’d be fun to watch some more, so have “Laputa, Castle in the Sky”, and “My neighbour Totoro“. This last one has intrigued me as it’s frequently on muted loop at Ichiban. The blurb reads “Conceived as a family film devoid of conflict and suffused with the carefree pleasures of the summertime”. How can you not like the sound of that? Can’t wait.

• Comments (1): My advert music post passed 800 comments recently. Quite scary, but fascinating to watch, and I’ve discovered some great music. With Sigur Ros’s new album due, maybe we’ll start to get some new background music for adverts and documentaries

• Music: R.E.M. released their new album “Accelerate” on Monday. I “pre-ordered” it from the iTunes Music Store (as I had a birthday voucher to use), but winded up having to cancel my pre-order and order it again. Doubt I’ll use that service again as “you may not be able to download it when it’s made available” strikes me as undermining what pre-ordering is about. Surely I should get it first? As to the music, whilst the album is good, it didn’t really jump out at me on first few listens on the train through to Edinburgh yesterday. To be honest, I quite like where REM has been going (in particular I liked ‘New adventures in HiFi’ when it came out, which isn’t viewed as one of their best by critics), so this “return to form” leaves me in a funny place.

• Comments (2): It seems a comment from a friend on an old (2006) post about the misery of our kitchen/downstairs update, has attracted the attention of the company he was referring to. I take great care in what I post, and what I allow through in the way of comments, so this thread is exercising me right now. Thoughts appreciated.

• Work. I’m in the midst of great change. A new contract with an existing client, and finishing up with an old long-term client for a number of reasons (not least that work is coming at me thick and fast right now, so I decided to go with the challenge rather than the easy option). Plus this new arrangement, whilst featuring less working from home, does give me a bit more time to work on some longer term projects and clients. All good.

• Comments (3). A new plugin. In the hope of showing that there’s stuff going on here even when I’m not posting, take a look at the (tidied up) sidebar for the most recent comments to my various posts.

• Aching muscles. Went for a ‘trail/route familiarisation’ run in Pollok park with the club on Monday night. Oscar, one of the group B coaches, led proceedings. I discovered more paths I didn’t know existed in the park, and had a great time running through muddy puddles (much to Frances’ disapproval when she saw my shoes). But trail running seems to use different muscles, so came back quite achy and muddy. But great fun. Can’t wait for the next couple of seasons in the park.

So, bar the Jury service, things aren’t too bad.

You might have noticed that the main landing page has been revamped slightly. Perhaps a statement of the obvious, but I was become conscious that this website was sometimes the very first impression new clients might have. Whilst they are necessarily overlapped, I wanted to present a clearer distinction between my work and personal life.

I’ve been meaning to form a “cleaner” landing page for some time – it was far too noisy before. I’ll probably be integrating it more closely with the Wordpress installation, and finding a common theme, as and when I can find the time.

Comments much appreciated.

A meta-post of sorts. I’m in the midst of weblog tweaking fever and am rejigging much of how this site hangs together. I’m adding some new ‘features’, and consolidating a few things to hopefully make it a bit more interesting.

In no particular order, presuming this is of even the slightest bit of interest to anybody other than me!

• I’m going to be consolidating my post categories from the huge list that currently exists. Not quite sure yet, but I think it needs to be less than 10. I don’t use that many of them anyway, and that says everything really. Also because I’d like to get some wickle icons like the vewy cute wuns Dave and Sharon are using at rowerunning.co.uk.

• I’ve re-merged my ‘techie musings’ weblog into this diary. I haven’t posted since last year, and figured it would be better to move to using a technology category here, than there. Way back when, I demerged it because I was struggling with Typepad. Now Wordpress, with the database under the hood, it’s more flexible. So I can make the URL to techiemusings a link through to a ‘technology’ category or somesuch. Right now, it redirects to here. More in due course, including some neat-o wordpress hacking I needed to do to get the subscribe-to-comment bits over too.

• I’ve got some wizzy new plugins on the go. See the ‘Most popular posts’, which is already looking quite peachy for bubbling up some old posts. Also want to bring my flickr page in to the mix a bit more.

• Some style-sheet tweaks are in order to make this a bit more distinctively me…. No, not a dishevelled home-worker driven by nothing more than caffeine….

• I have already upgraded to Wordpress 2.1 – The auto-save feature in the ‘write post’ was worth it alone (alas some of the other compose features aren’t working in Safari). On more than one occasion I’ve lost superb missives to humanity’s detriment, I assure you, when closing a tab by mistake… No longer. You may rejoice at leisure.

Lots more to come. Hopefully the site will continue to grow in useful and interesting ways. I’m still slightly unnerved to see that somewhere between 800 and 1,000 people visit the site every day. Please keep visiting, and please let me know if you have any comments or criticisms regarding what features here!

Apologies for the sustained absence. I’ve been somewhat busy the last few weeks, what with a trip to London, my parents visiting the dear green place and the ongoing onslaught that is work as a freelance contractor, and something had to give, and that’s been the weblog. Thanks for thoughts received in the meantime.

I’ve a few posts up my sleeves which I’ll be poking about with over the next few days. Including, but not limited to Trident nuclear missiles, boredom from the perspective of a child, Michael Palin and a few political items that deserve a bit of an outing to at least clear my conscience.

I also think the website itself is in a bit of a need of a refresh. My ‘Techie Musings‘ page has been horrifically static the last few months, and I’m afraid waxing lyrically about technology has become a bit passé, and I’m minded to merge it into this page as simply a separate category. Oh, how the tables turn.

I’m also giving ecto a bit of a go. I’m finding I get the ‘urge’ to blog (ooer) rather sporadically, and the whole hassle of poking about websites for things is so 2006. So a local client with a nice font and minimal distraction might be just what I need. Or something.

Anyway. More soon. I promise.

Roger Darlington was very gracious in awarding me a ‘Thinking Bloggers’ award and passing on the meme. Because I like shiny things, I also get to put up the little icon. My site, my rules

Anyway, I’ve not been tagged with a meme before, so figure it’s only fair to actually pass it on as the idea requires, so my list of five blogs that make me think are:

So, those are my five ‘Thinking blogger’ nomination/awards/memes. Hope there’s something of interest there for readers.

Something that has been occupying my thoughts of late is how to voice opinions on traders and workmen without overstepping what you might call “the line”. By this I of course don’t mean voicing positive recommendations and so forth (let’s face it, nobody is going worry about that), but the negative ones.

The problem as I see it is that people who are unhappy with work are often far more motivated to say so, than people who are pleased or happy with work. Curse them! – I’m going to do something about it, is far more likely a response than That was done well, I’m going to tell people. It’s most likely got a lot to do with the sense of being aggrieved, and wanting some form of recompense. If you can’t get your money back, then make sure that nobody else falls down the same trap.

The trouble with a weblog though is that it loses that sense of a direct conversation. If I say to a friend “Don’t use this person/company for x“, it’s only ever going to be shared with a small number of people. But if I write it here, Google (my friend) will find it and absorb it, and archive it, for a very very long time. My opinions are seen by a wider group of people, many of whom I don’t know. If there isn’t much else being said about a trader or company, and folk start “googling them” (as they increasingly do), the effect of a minor moan could become much more significant. Let’s face it, if such a tactic for checking out businesses becomes a widespread habit, some companies could be so badly affected by one or two negative comments that they go under.

Yet it’s very easy to read recommendations and reviews on many websites. Amazon have always had reader recommendations. In fact, a book I contributed a couple of chapters to got a bad review from a disgruntled student, and that is no doubt putting a lot of folk off the book here in the UK. Dooyoo do similar for consumer items, which works very well.

So where’s the line? Is there even a line to be worrying about? Should I stand up and start voicing an opinion on every trader or business I encounter, and simply let them remain as merely my opinions. There are two risks, one is Slander, the other Libel. But the key thing in both is they relate to false statements. Of course, what one person may regard as false another may regard as true, but my doing so publicly puts me in a line of fire I’d altogether rather not tread on.

However, we do have the recognised right to freedom of speech in this country. I’m entitled to my opinions, and even to voice them publicly, and this website is just a part of that. Yet we do have some of the most unfair laws regarding libel and slander, where the burden of proof remains on the defendant to prove the case is not true, rather than the other way around (for more, read the wikipedia entry on Slander and libel, which I encountered whilst researching this, and looks very useful). But right now I’m concerned that I may expose myself if I do voice my opinions on traders who have, in my view either not done the job particularly well, treated me particularly well, or have a strongly different opinion to me as to what was said and agreed.

I’d be interested in what people who read this might think. I’ve already had a few e-mails and hits from people seeking opinions on local traders and businesses as a result of previous postings, but so far I’ve abstained from naming ones I’m not happy with.

So what should I do? I’m very confident in my version of events in all situations where I feel aggrieved or let down in some amount, but similarly I don’t want the mere fact that I’ve a website and am voicing opinions that to adversely affect businesses and traders. Should I stay quiet on the matter, even though I want to scream my take on events from the rooftops with regards one particular company?

If you visit the front page of leyton.org you’ll see that there are a few sections, most of which are reasonably self-explanatory. Techie stuff, Diary postings, book reviews and so forth. It’s intended as an overview of what’s on the site.

The del.icio.us links perhaps require a bit more explaining. They’re simply “interesting links” I’ve encountered whilst browsing about. They’re updated behind the scenes, and I have some special bookmarks set-up here on my iMac to “publish” a link straight onto the website. It gets interesting in that it’s “social bookmarking”, which means you can find out how many other people are linking to the page, what they think of it, and the tags they use (see here for more). From that you can find other similar pages, or just something a bit different. As far as my links go, I’d advise a small amount of caution, as I don’t put any text with them and what I find amusing or interesting might not fit with what you feel is such.

Some recent ones include:

• Why do you stay up late?, an interesting rendition of a poem.
• Hannibal Lecter: Transhumanist icon. An interesting read analysing the character of Hannibal Lecter in the Thomas Harris books and movies. Interesting.
• The System Administrator song. If you wondered what I do for a living, well, it’s not quite this, but near enough. No, not sing. Stop sniggering at the back there!
• On the Moon Ep.1. Hello, I am the Toast King, and I rule over the moon.
• The Schmidt Sting Pain Index “Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy”.
• David Lynch reads the weather. It’s David Lynch. Reading the weather. You’d never have guessed if I hadn’t told you.
• Cute or what?.

I’m going to put together a few other ‘overview/highlights’ pages in the next few days – mainly as I’m settling in to a whole new work routine and finding it difficult to put together posts as often as I’d like, and this is a quick and easy way of posting something that I hope is of interest!

It also struck me that as there are now over four years of posts here (time flies!), it’d be fun to have a look back over some of them in the next few weeks (here’s my first, if you’re interested) and have a ponder over whether my opinions or interests have changed, or if the website I link to is still there…

Writing a weblog (or anything else for that matter) can be a hit and miss affair. Sometimes you can find yourself overwhelmed with interesting things to waffle on about for a few paragraphs. You start to worry about overwhelming the site with new stuff. Other days, it can be a completely barren affair, and you can find either too many other things to do, or you’re just stuck for any inspiration.

I’m in the latter camp right now. I’m halfway through Mao: The unknown story, Wimbledon is in full swing, and I’m anxiously waiting to hear back about job applications that are at various stages. Whilst I’d never really consider myself particularly creative, inspiration and a ‘notion’ to write are often what’s needed, even for the “this is my life and what I find interesting” content you’ll find here, and it’s all a bit lacking in me right now.