Out with the old and in with the new!

Well, that's it, another year gone by and a new one just itching to get itself noticed! I've been meaning to blog for a while now, but what with the festivities I just haven't really had the time to bother. Perhaps a resolution (no need to point out that I have blogged earlier about my hate for them!) is to blog more often - we shall see.

2008 brought so much joy and I guess some sadness too - though I can't for the life of me remember what this sadness could be, but then I do prefer to focus on the positive rather than the negative. 2009 will be a good year, why?... Well Winston Churchill once said "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it" I like that quote and its true, 2009 will be what we all make of it, and I intend to enjoy every moment of it and I strongly encourage you all to do the same.

For now though, I shall go and enjoy what is left of 2008 with a drink and a merry song, so here is me raising my glass to you and wishing you all a very happy new year!

Visitors from everywhere

Aha, a blog with a topic, this should be more structured... yes

I may have mentioned earlier (think I did actually) but this site has been google analyticified and I get all sorts of bizarre stats about where people have visited from, and I'm quite amazed. yeah ok, its not incredibly accurate, and the only foreign visits I can be sure of is the one from Jon in NZ, and ones from Brian in SA. Who the visitor was who spent 2.50mins from Malaysia completely eludes me, or the 4mins from a visitor in Glasgow. Hi to you all anyway.

Being honest, the analytics stats were one of the reasons for posting - as visits have dropped a bit, so need to have more stuff for the tourists to read. I mean, there it defeats the object really if I have to tell people to visit and see the updates because they don't happen so often. It would be nice for people to notice new things for themselves and therefore think there is a reason to check back when they want to rather than because I've said "hey, check out the latest blog post"

But back to the topic, it really is quite amazing to get some sort of geographical map on where people are in the world that may have a slight interest in either me, or the life surrounding me. Not getting all egotistical or sentimental, but it is really warming to know that there are people all over the world who do actually willingly want to know whats going on all captin.co.uk. (Yuk sorry for sounding like one of those "send this to all you love to let them know" emails that pass around).

Oooh, competition time... This should be good for you all to play. Lets see who can visit from the most bizarre of places. Places in the UK don't really count, I'm talking international captin.co.uk visits now - there may be prizes for the most random visits, we don't need to go so far as pictures of where you are whilst posting (unless you want to, that's your choice not my request) we'll just let google analytics do the trick - and no cheating proxy users!

And about time too!

Hmmmm, keeping this whole thing up to date is not as easy as I first thought... Yeah writing a blog entry hardly takes up much time - well the typing bit doesn't, its the "what DO I type" that takes forever.

Lack of blog entries recently has been pretty much down to that, I've either not had the time to update the site or I've not done anything worth blogging (other than being ill, but that's not blog worthy material)

I guess the one thing I could blog about is chrimbo - yeah its upon us again, sneaked up just like it does every year and gets us by surprise. Each year we tell ourselves we'll be more prepared next year but the honest truth is we wont get any better and more likely will just get worse. One thing I have been doing this year is the whole idea of pre-new years resolutions. New years resolutions seldom last beyond the first two weeks, let alone a whole 52, so I thought I'd take some pressure off and do things not as a new years resolution but as... well a standard resolution, (eek was gonna go all geek and do some naff joke about pixels and a standard 1024x resolution, jam done it now!) Anyway, back to the giving stuff up thing, err yeah, it didn't work, not for long enough anyway - yes I know I haven't said what it was I was trying to give up because that's not really the point, I failed at it is what I'm droning on about here.

You see here I am, trying to write a structured blog but its just not happening is it - I have all these things in my head like "oh write about what you did at the weekend" or "have a moan about something" or "aimlessly ramble on about nothing like you are doing now, someone will find that amusing"

Hmm, gonna stop this blog post, have a brew and perhaps write another, or do some updates, or neither who knows...

Weekend ramblings

Eeeek 3 days with no update... Well I do have to do other stuff other than update the blog, otherwise there would be nothing to blog about :p

After a hectic start on Saturday and 30 mins of my life wasted trying to find somewhere to park in Barrow we finally managed to make it to the Carol Concert (if you could call it that) that was arranged to raise awareness for the impending closure of Emily's nursery (http://www.saveournursery.co.uk/), it went well with awareness definitely raised, and the children sang really well (Emily did until she noticed that purple Barney thing and then that was it!)

Had a meeting with the Rt Hon John Hutton MP (we do his website at work, http://www.johnhuttonmp.co.uk/) again about the closure of the nursery. Waiting outside his office for the meeting was one of the scariest moments of my life, as I began to notice the number of secret service protection that were hanging around outside - I know they are not the secret service, as they were far from that, but they are not just normal police officers either (for those without a knowledge of current affairs, John is not only the MP for Barrow but also the current Minister of Defence). Anyway, the meeting seemed to go well and John agrees the nursery should stay open - he said he will write to the Minister of Further Education for advice as well as contact the College himself. I will wait to see if this happens, as although he was very nice and polite and left us feeling he will help, I am aware he is a politician and sadly my faith in them at the moment is low... I hope I am proved to be wrong.

Sunday was the day of the Family Meet 2008, this year was at Fountains Abbey - or was it Studley Royal, or perhaps it was Studley Roger? People ended up in different places as usual!

It was a cold day, with some good fun parking on the solid ice - and even more fun watching the owners of expensive 4x4's failing to handle a car that should be more than capable of handling the weather. Anyone would think they buy them for reasons other than being able to drive off road :p

Nice to see the family again, meetings like that are far and few between, we're a hard bunch to get sorted so kudos to Liz (must have written this a million times now, but thanks are due) to putting the effort in to arranging it, and thanks to all for making the effort to attend. Check out the gallery for the latest update showing people there. I do have to apologise to Uncle Paul for the lack of a photo of him on there, its not because one wasn't taken as I have a very good pic, but down to the fact that my gallery setup doesn't handle portrait images properly (its on the fix list)

Right, enough aimless ramblings, time for Emily's bath

Presents and Pain

Well, what an interesting day! My darling wife picked me up from work this evening as she had been in town finishing off her Christmas shopping (I however have not even started!) and had to pick up a parcel from the post office that she was expecting. The parcel though was not for Ruth but for me!

For some time now, a very good friend of mine (Amran) has taken to occasionally buy me random presents such as a nice coffee grinder, or a mixing bowl (that was sadly broken when I dropped it :( ) and has also bought gifts for Emily completely out of the blue. Today's random gift came from Dr. Burnorium's fantastic site http://www.hotsauceemporium.co.uk/ and was a delightful bottle of "One Fuckin' Drop At a Time"


Now, at the time of writing this post my mouth is almost full to the brim with ulcers (I've been a sufferer of them for longer than I care to remember - they always attack when I am more stressed than usual) but I decided that this was not going to stop me from trying some there and then. So I rang Amran, opened the bottle and had a sensible drop on a teaspoon before screaming bad words and stamping my feet in pain before the endorphins set in and I experienced that oh so euphoric feeling you get from a good hot chilli.


This stuff is good - its better than good, in fact I decided not to stop there and put several drops on the burger I was having for tea for a nice extra kick!


Now, as I mentioned earlier, I've been a sufferer of ulcers for far too long, and bonjella just makes no difference at all. You know how alcoholics can seemingly drink a cask of ale before they get tipsy, but a first time drinker starts to stagger after their first pint, well that's how bonjella affects me, I might as well use a whole tube of the stuff for it to make any difference I've become that acclimatised to it! This chilli stuff though, ha! the ulcers didn't know what hit them, they are so scared now to even tingle under fear of getting another sharp kick from the "pipette of pain" as it will now be named.


I'm going to take the "pipette of pain" to work tomorrow to see if anyone there is daft enough to try some (it won't be forced on anyone), Adam has always said how he likes hot food so we will see if he dares put... well his mouth where his mouth is! Check back to see how it went on - there may even be a video!


Oh, and before I go off doing other site updates, huge respect and thanks go to Jess for being the first person to leave a comment on the blog and help make me feel it is worthwhile continuing to write it! Perhaps more people will comment, or perhaps not?


Back to the chilli's though, I really would recommend that any reader visits Dr Burnorium's site and purchases something from there for anyone they are struggling to buy a present for at this (or any other) time of year. It really is a better option than another pair of socks or a desk calendar. I'm not saying this because I earn commission or am eyeing for a freebie for referrals but because I believe in praise where praise is due.


Peace and love

M

A short post - or a stump

Another day another dollar so they say, though its not been another dollar for me today as I've had a nice days holiday at home looking after my daughter. We didnt do much other than a bit of washing and walking, just spending some quality time together which is always nice.

Wednesday night is football night so the post will be a stump tonight as I must have a bath and also something to eat (bit late for all that but...). Was a good turn out tonight, had 12 players - last week it was 8 which in my opinion was better as it meant I had to run around more. 6-aside was a little too crowded. The problem is that the numbers change so much - it started off as a work thing, bit of team building, though now there seem to be more non work players on the pitch. I'm not complaining as its always nice to meet new people, and I'd rather continue to play regardless of whether its 6-aside, 5-aside, 4-aside or just one on one!

Got sent a nice youtube link from the legend that is Neil he's my uncle and for those who dont know holds several world records dispite having an aneurysm several years ago, anyway check the link out http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUdTQa3Cp4

Anyway off to eat some tea and have a bath now, might do some site updates later, might just go to bed, who knows

M

Yahoo sucks, Google Rules! And other news

Wahay, another day another update (wonder if anyone is reading this? still no comments :( )

Well it made a feeble attempt in Dalton at snowing this morning, we got horrid sleet instead. Causing all sorts of chaos, including the downfall of a poor young lady on her moped that I decided to rescue and help move her female moped (she later asked "is she scratched?" with reference to her bike) out of the middle of the road and ensure she was OK before getting back in Deans car for my lift to work (thanks Dean).

Work was work - I won't blog about that as... well its work and whilst I enjoy what I do I have enough of it 9-5.30 don't need to continue living it outside of hours if I can avoid it.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, this whole site is linked to Google analytics giving me wonderful info like where abouts people are visiting from, what pages they viewed, how long they were on that page for etc. Quite interesting to see that I've had a large number of visits from London, one from Sheffield, one from Manchester (Amran) one from Clevedon too. Perhaps I should have a visitors book for people to leave comments? But then no one is commenting on the blog (hint hint) so that may just be a waste of my time.

So yeah, Google rock, they provide the blog functionality and an easy way for me to see stats on what people are visiting my site for. Yahoo however suck! Whilst I was doing www.thedawes.net for Brian, I looked into using flickr for the photo section - but that required a Yahoo ID. No problem I thought, I'll just sign up for one like I did for Google. But oh no, you have to have a ymail or yahoo.com email account to do that - I have enough email accounts as it is (work, personal and hotmail for signing up for stuff that may get me spam!), but I tried it anyway and failed to nicely integrate flickr into the whole template so ditched it and for Brian used Google Picasa and Blogger for the gallery, but then the Google code for my own galleries.

So Yahoo was forgotten about for a while, till today someone at work mentioned free-cycling. This has nothing to do with bikes, though I suppose it could, its a recycling thing where you advertise what you want to get rid off and people come and take it off you because they have a use for it. No money exchanges hands and its good for all. So I wanted to join the Barrow freecycle group, but that was a Yahoo thing - "ah OK" I thought, "I've got that Yahoo ID somewhere" so I tried to join the group, only to get stuck in a loop with it saying "you can't join the group unless you set a profile up" so I'd set a profile up and it would say "you can't join the group unless you set a profile up" after wasting far to much time on this (during a break at work - or lunch, like I ever have that!) I gave up and exclaimed "Yahoo sucks, Google rules... that's going in my blog tonight" and here it is.

Thing is Yahoo once used to be great, then Google came along and just amazed the world. I'm not going to go on and on and on and on about them as there is nothing I can say that hasn't been already said or thought by most of the people I expect would possibly read this blog, and I doubt that if anyone does actively read does so for me to tell them what they already think. So I'll shut up.

In other news, more galleries have gone online today - I know that people are patiently waiting for the Emily gallery (and read her page, she's pestering for it to be done too) but there are more pics of Emily to go through than anything else, so you will just have to keep waiting for that.

Some people may also be waiting for the rants to be added to or extended but it takes a lot to write them and sometimes winds me up in the process and I have no time for either at the moment so again, have some patience and keep checking back they will get done eventually.

And with that I bid you farewell till the next update if you are a regular visitor, or scroll up/down if you aren't

The updates... They continue!

Not that I am full of self praise, but I'm actually fairly impressed that this is the third day in a row I've managed to do some sort of update to the site as well as adding a blog entry - even if it is just to praise myself. How long it will last though, only time will tell.

So, what updates may you ask... well if you were a regular visitor you would already know! Well to start I put that there image up at the top, to stop the site just being grey and dull (it may still be dull though, you lot can be the judge of that!) added a few more galleries to the photo section, and increased the blurb on the front page for a better introduction.

Still having problems with the whole iFrame control for the galleries, which is a real pain as the more galleries I create the more sidebars I have to maintain. I may still figure it out, but what with visitors tonight it was just would have been rude to sit there all night trying to fix it. I felt bad enough as it was having to abandon them whilst I ate my tea away from Emily - though I'm sure once again people were here to see Emily more than me.

Oh, BIG news, the patio has finally been completed. For those in the know this was a major ongoing project, it started before that pathetic excuse of a summer occured when I ripped out the tree/bush in the middle and shifted the concrete. With a bittle of help from Luke it was sort of leveled out ready for me to lay the slabs, but one excuse lead to another and eventually we got someone in to lay it for us - huge thanks to the inlaws for so kindly paying for it. So it will be Christmas dinner on the terrace then! So glad its been done, it looks fantastic. We'll stick a few plant pots around and perhaps build one of those brick bbq's and oh... one of those chimnia things, though its not that I live in a bad area or anything (its actually really nice) it the patio is at the front of the house and I'll always be concious about leaving stuff out there for small twerps (oh, trying to reduce the stupid amount of swearing I seem to do... will let you know in a later blog how thats going on) to vandelise or steal.

Right, it must be time for bed, Ruths fallen to the devil that is the sofa, it just seems to take control of you and force you to snooze! Till the next update...