To Upgrade, or Not

Posted: Wed 11 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Geeky, Redesign, Thoughts | 4 Comments »

One of the current questions I keep coming back to with D4D™ is whether I should bother upgrading my WordPress install to get me back up to date.

As it is, D4D™ still runs on WP 2.1 , and the current version is 2.7 . It’s so behind the times that I know I should go through the pain of a multi-version upgrade, but I honestly don’t know if I can actually be bothered.

I’m very aware that when I moved over to WP, it was a pain – although I wouldn’t go back now, believe me – and I know that the D4D™ template has been corrupted by me to within an inch of its life.

Of course, I could do the upgrade, and put D4D™ into a WP template for a while. That’d be quite a shock to the system, wouldn’t it? If I were to go that route, I’d also be putting into place at least the basics of a re-plan of how things go on D4D™ including taking out a lot of the old sections that really aren’t looked at any more, and just a bit of a tidy up.

Oh, and a move to a new/different host. After all, why make things simple and do just one thing at a time? That’s no bloody fun at all…

Writing Plans

Posted: Wed 28 January, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Resolutions, Travel, Writing | 1 Comment »

As I’ve written before, one of my plans for this year is to get some more writing done. I’m working on it, and there’s still a lot of the year to go, so we’ll see how things work out.

However, I’ve also been thinking about getting some impetus towards year-end, where I can both learn a bit more about my preferred writing areas, and (hopefully) get some feedback on ideas that I’ll have written – or at the bare minimum, have outlined and started – by that time.

In that light, and because I’ve known about them for years, I’ve signed up for a course through the Arvon Foundation, which I’m already really looking forward to.

It’s a cost of nearly £600 for the week, but that includes all food, board etc., but I think it’ll be an interesting departure, and something cool to do. Who knows, if it works out well, I might even go on more of them in 2010…

Ideas Overload

Posted: Tue 20 January, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

At the moment, I’m a bit swamped on the ideas front. It’s not an unusual occurrence, to be honest – but it means I’m trying to stick with some vague kind of prioritisation (is that a word?) in order to get things done, and to get those ideas out into the real world.

At the same time, there’s also several ongoing projects for clients as well, which makes things slightly more interesting. I’ve been working through those as well (and there’s at least one still waiting that I should have completed a long time ago) because they’re paying jobs, whereas the ideas I’ve got may make money, but certainly won’t do so straight away – if ever, in fact.

I do like getting these ideas out of the way – and indeed, they’re all part of that much-mooted five-year plan I’ve been banging on about for the last two years or so – but I’d be just as happy to only have one idea at a time, rather than the four or five that are currently floating around at any given time. Sometimes, keeping track of them all isn’t exactly easy, although I don’t mind too much in general. I know that writing them down would be counter-productive (as I whittled about last week) so keeping them in my head is the best plan. After all, if I then forget them, the idea probably wasn’t worth that much in the first place.

The really frustrating/sad/geeky part is that when I get these ideas, they come fully equipped with database setups and tables as well. And that is just a sign that I really should be getting out one hell of a lot more…

Ambition…

Posted: Sun 16 November, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Writing | Leave a comment »

Yesterday I saw a news release that just made me go “Ooooh. Me Wanty.”

Red have released information about a whole new digital movie/still camera system that they’ve created and frankly, Wow.

Maybe one day.

Cable Release

Posted: Sat 15 November, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), NCFE Course, Photography, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last week, one of the assignments on the NCFE course was to take some night shots.

I did try – but my subject was rather more ambitious (and thus far less successful) than I’d hoped for, so I’m going to be re-doing the entire thing at some point.

The bit that annoyed me more than anything else though (well, other than the vile weather on pretty much every available evening) was that I couldn’t do a better job, despite having the right equipment to do a long exposure. Regular readers with long memories will recall that I bought a Pclix two years ago which is ideal for the task of long exposures – only I’ve lost the cable that connects the Pclix to the camera. And that, of course, is the bit I really needed.

So I’ve ordered a new cable – which also means I’m due to find the old one any time now – and once it arrives I’ll go out and actually make use of that purchase from two years ago…

Things for the coming 12 months

Posted: Thu 6 November, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Own Business, Redesign, Resolutions, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing | 3 Comments »

So following on from yesterday’s list of plans vs. achievements and so on, this is likely the list for 2008/9. It’s not quite as intense as last year’s one, for a number of reasons. Also, I’m sure that by the end of the 12 months, there’ll be other stuff that needs to be added to it, so it’s more flexible as well.

But here goes. (And in no particular order)

  1. Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
  2. Write and Launch the two main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see if they can make any money
  3. Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential
  4. Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course
  5. Redesign my photography site
  6. Promote the photography and site more
  7. Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last
  8. Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
    Oh yeah, and…
  9. Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc.

Five Year Plan : 40% Done

Posted: Wed 5 November, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Own Business, Thoughts, Writing | Leave a comment »
  1. Photography
    • Take more photos
    • Put the good ones in the portfolio site
    • Work on a couple of projects/themes
      Started the work on a couple of projects, and seeing how they go
    • Possibly do a redesign of the portfolio site to fit in more with ‘brand ‘image’
      Couldn’t be chuffed with this one in the end, although I’m still thinking about it
    • Submit portfolio site and photos to various interested parties
    • Possibly make more use of Flickr, although that one’s a bit of a “don’t know”
      And really haven’t done this either, as I’ve been using the portfolio site instead
    • Pull more attention to the portfolio site
      Again, working on it
  2. Business
    • Redesign/redevelop business website with a CMS etc.
    • Look at sorting out a proper business bank account
    • Keep generating new work
      As always, an ongoing process – but working fairly well so far, allbeit not having generated as much as I should have done
    • Continue with current work and clients
      Again, an ongoing process
    • Get new contract – the one with the current place will definitely expire in ’08, due to tax/IR35 reasons
      I haven’t had any long-term contracts, but plenty of shorter-term ones, and now the new permanent role…
    • Work on developing new sites and business ideas
    • Minimise outgoings, increase incoming money
      Nice idea, but not all that successful due to rising costs (particularly of petrol)
  3. Writing
    • Realistically? Get one solid idea written and done, if only for the head-space
      Admittedly, ‘only’ a short screenplay for a film of about 10-15 minutes, but still, completed and done, except for small ongoing edits
    • Optimistically? Get two solid ideas written and done.
      Working on the second one (and a third, to be honest), but not completed
  4. House stuff
    • House alterations
      • Bathroom
      • Kitchen extension/upgrade
        Postponed for foreseeable future
      • Extra Item : Cavity Wall Insulation
      • Extra Item : Loft Insulation
        Postponed ’til ’09, due to a nightmare of work involved
    • Garden alterations/work
      • Veg patch
      • Front garden/driveway
        Semi-complete
      • Main lawn etc.
        Semi-complete
      • Borders, beds, blah blah
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