Scotland

Just a quick post to say I'm back but I've been shipped out to Scotland until Friday so I can't really post until then.
ttfn

AMSTERDAM!!!

Sorry its been a while since I last posted - I've been taking a short break since the big update.
Just a quick post to say I'm off to Amsterdam tomorrow so I'll see you next week!
ttfn

Where to find the forum

Just in case anyone hasn't found it yet, to find my forum please go to http://www.brendannewell.co.uk and on the left hand side there is a link labelled "forum".
You will need to register to post in the forum - the register link is at the top of the forum page.
ttfn

Forum

Just to try and get the forum rolling I thought I would post here that a new topic has been started in the Family Tree section on the forum.
Please use the forum to suggest any ideas you have for the website - any changes you think I should make, anything you particularly like and any new sections that you would like me to add.
I am eager to host a website that attracts people regularly so anything you think you would be interested in viewing regularly that I could include on my website (within reason) then please let me know.

New section

I have added a new section to my website.
There is now a forum where you can all discuss the various sections of my site so rather than just me seeing your comments via email, everyone can see your comments and reply to them as well.
You will need to sign up if you want to post but you can read the forum without signing in.

Relaunch news

There was a slight problem last night which meant that my website was unavailable. I spoke to Chris and he had the same problem on his website so something funny was going on at the back end somewhere. Anyway it all seems fine now so fingers crossed it was the only time it will happen.
Please let me know what you think of my relaunched site. I want to get to work on the various sections of the website that still need work and your feedback will help me put each section into a priority order. Which bits do you want me to expand on/fix first?
Hope you are all enjoying my site anyway :-)
ttfn

Time to call it a day I think

Thats all folks. Website relaunch time.

http://www.brendannewell.co.uk

A list of what is new appears on the main page so please browse to your hearts content.

I haven't 100% checked everything so if you notice any broken links, spelling mistakes or anything else amiss then please let me know asap so I can set it right.

Any comments are welcome and in particular if you find anything of interest in my hobbies section that I would like to hear about it.

Cut the fat time

As Anya screams in the background, tearing books to pieces and removing every single video from our shelves (around 200 if you were wondering), I make an executive decision to leave out one of the five sub-sections from the hobbies section. I have finished the other four although content is lacking in some places but I think I have included enough for now - I can update later. I have a final check to do over the whole site for glaring errors and a few more pictures to upload that I just found in my digital camera and then I'm done for now.
Wish me luck as I enter the home straight...

Yet another update

Three of five done - just two more to go. I'm taking a break before I get started on the fourth.
ttfn

A late update

Well it's going on for midnight but I've finished the second of five sub-sections in the all new hobbies section. It remains to be seen whether the content is any good but looking at the pages I can say that they at least look ok. I'm raring to go on the third of five but I'm going to get some sleep first :-)
ttfn

Another quick update

Of the five new sub-sections in the all new hobbies section I have 100% completed one of them.
Only four more to go and then I can start looking through the new site to see where I can make slight adjustments and improvements before I launch.
Nearly there...

Quick update

Very quick update. I'm not entirely over my wall yet but I'm getting there. I've cut out all the content I wrote this morning and put in pictures instead and it looks better than before. All I need to do now is rewrite all the content, find some more pictures to put in each section and I'm done - it goes without saying that the content will be the hard bit.
I've also completely 100% finished the pictures section now. It was a long haul writing out all that html no matter how many shortcuts I invented along the way but it's finally done. Remind me to keep my website pictures up to date from now on rather than storing up hundreds at a time....

I've hit a wall

I'm been writing up some stuff for my hobbies section on my new site and I've hit a wall. I don't think what I am writing is very interesting and I suspect that a quick glance will be all it gets before it is forgotten. I think my new pictures section is looking quite good and I want my hobbies section to be at the same level but as of this moment I need to come up with some better ideas.
I have considered opening only part of the hobbies section with the launch so that I can spend more time writing something interesting but I really want to complete my whole site before the launch so I'm kind of stuck on what I should do.
Right now I need to take a step back from what I am doing, look at it and redesign it again.
Time is ticking....

Website updates

I have now nearly 100% completed the new pictures section of my website. I have uploaded the backlog of photos and set up the webpages but I just found another batch last night that need to go up. It shouldnt take long though.
I have started today on the hobbies section of my site and will hopefully finish that soon.
Overall I would say that I am on schedule for the new launch at the start of next week so wish me luck on getting it completed this weekend....

Chess me up

So last night me and Kieran went with dad to play in a rapidplay tournament at his chess club. I had a really good time and in the end I scored 5 and a half out of 6. It was really good to play competitively again (even though it was more of a friendly tournament).

In other news, I haven't made any progress yet with the new website but I hope to do some more work today so watch this space.

Money grabbing b*stards

I'm not going to go on about this too much but I just want make a quick post to express how much I hate the government. I'm not so naive to just hate the current government - I hate all of them. They are all money grabbing b*stards.
I have always wondered why exactly we pay stamp duty when we move house. Some taxes I can understand. They make sense.
Road tax - I use the roads, they need maintaining so I pay road tax.
Council tax - I need refuse collectors, I need council services so I pay council tax.
Income tax - The country needs money to run so everyone donates a bit in the form of income tax.
But stamp duty? It doesnt make sense. Why does the government need money because I have moved house? As if moving house isn't expensive enough with all the money grabbing solicitors and estate agents and mortgage companies. The government decide that they will just make moving house that little bit worse for you by taking some of your money away when you move house.
Sadly my little rant doesnt end here. Apparently you have to pay your stamp duty within 30 days. No doubt this little gem is hidden in the small print somewhere but regardless you have to pay in 30 days. So when mine and Laura's stamp duty arrived 5 days late the government decided that we hadnt suffered enough financial punishment for moving house and now we have received a letter with a fine for £100 (payable within 30 days).
It takes the proverbial. They received our stamp duty which was barely late and still they feel the need to take more money from us. All because we moved house.
Sadly I am aware that we dont have a leg to stand on. There is no point appealing and ultimately I can never change the system. My vote will never count because even in the unlikely situation where my vote decided which party wins the election - they are all the same. They are all money grabbing b*stards.

Site news

Just a quick post to explain my current lack of posting.
My website is shortly moving to another location and I am working a lot on a complete overhaul.
The website moving is great news for several reasons.
Firstly I will no longer be blagging webspace from my good friend Chris - he has been incredibly patient and has allowed me to take up half of his webspace for a long time.
Second I will now have my own domain name. This means my web address will be much easier to remember. I'm not giving out this new address until the website is completely refurbished at its new location ;-)
Thirdly I can now expand without worrying about taking up someones webspace. This means lots of new pictures.

The changes I am making to my website are mostly in two areas.
First is the aforementioned pictures section - I have a huge backlog that I haven't uploaded yet and it will be great to add them to the site.
Second is my wishlist/gaming section. There was never really much interest in these sections since the wishlist section was mostly a place for me to remember all the cool things I wanted to buy and my gaming section wasn't detailed enough to attract attention.
I am consolodating these two sections into one big section which will cover all my different hobbies including gaming, reading, comics, collecting and some others which I hope will provide a more interesting insight into my hobbies, why they became my hobbies and what they mean to me.
Minor changes are being made to the layout of the site in general. The links bar at the side will be reduced since it will no longer be possible for me to include a link to every pictures page (these links will now be in a seperate pictures section). Also I hope to make the site a bit more graphical since it seems a bit plain to me at the moment. I made it plain originally because it looks quite professional but I think my personal site could do with a bit more of a personal touch.

Once my new site is up and running it is my hope that I can start writing my blog again daily as well as keeping my pictures section up to date. Aside from that I hope to begin work once again on my family tree section which has one or two family members missing (new arrivals) and soon there will be one or two more as well (congratulations to Alec and Suzanne!!!)

Well I think that pretty much covers it for now. As for an estimated date for the launch of the new site - who knows....
I hope to be done by the start of next week but it very much depends on how much free time I have. I would quite like to completely redo the site before I launch it rather than launching it and then working on it afterwards - it gives me more of an incentive to get it done if I am working towards launching the new site.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well and I hope you will all enjoy the changes I make. I would lastly ask that if anyone can offer me any advice or suggestions on how I can make the new site better in any area at all then please email me. Your opinions can only make it better for us all :-)

I will try and post updates on my progress to give you a better idea of when I will be done but until next time...

ttfn