You see WordPress 3 came out and I wasn’t that fussed but obviously upgraded. You may or may not know that the default WordPress theme has now changed with this new release and I thought ‘what the heck, might as well use it and have a site that looks identical to a million others.’

OK, that’s not what I thought at all but I wouldn’t blame you for making that assumption! No, I thought that if I used the new Twenty Ten theme (as it’s so-called) I would be using a theme that was the most up to date and most reliable to work with the new version of WordPress. I hate it when themes break from upgrades. It’s frustrating to no end.

The theme I used before, Bold, worked fine with WP 3, but, there’s always a chance it won’t with future upgrades and I’m going on blind faith that this won’t happen with Twenty Ten because… well, the WordPress peeps themselves coded it.

So I very randomly, a week ago today actually, sat down in front of a local WordPress installation on my laptop and started tweaking Twenty Ten to my liking. Now I haven’t done any sort of web designing/coding/fondling for… probably the best part of two years at least. Where the idea came from to just start doing it again still remains a mystery to me.

Any who, I did said tweaking with some very important ‘rules’ so to speak, in my head. These were:

• Any customizations that could be done through the WP admin panel should only be done through this route, and not through editing the core CSS etc. (E.g. the header image and the main background colour in this theme’s case).
• All editing to be done through my own child theme, so that when things go ‘SGRISHGIRUOS – T’EME NOW DED. KTHXBYE’ I could start all over again. Thankfully this didn’t happen and I named this theme Twenty TEmz. A lot of thought went into that. Clearly.
• Keep editing only to the CSS as much as possible. I didn’t want to mess with the code much. I’ve taken bits out (none that will cause damage by being gone) and slightly changed some (nothing that can affect any upgrades) but most importantly I didn’t add any code. OK, OK, I added one tiny little snippet. From previous experiences it’s the addition of random coding tidbits that causes issues with updates.

And there you have it. This theme ain’t much, I’ll admit, and there are some parts I haven’t even looked at yet that need a lil’ bit of work but on the whole it works and it ain’t too shabby. The CSS file could do with a little tidying up, and I’ll get round to that eventually. Maybe.

I’ve been using other people’s themes for over two years now, and it feels a little nicer now using something I put a little bit of time into making my own.

Posted from Norwich, England, United Kingdom.

I have no idea why I signed up to Twitter, and to this day I’m not really sure why I’m still using it. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy spewing out little crap nuggets online, but I’m not so sure I should be doing it! I have gone through stages of not using it for months, and other stages of posting daily, even multiple times daily.

Of course the other side to Twitter is following other people, I follow few, but those I do, I love reading their 140 character or less messages.

I would like to say I’m going to try to post better to Twitter in the future, to post less often than I do now and to say more meaningful messages. But let’s face it that’s not going to happen! So here’s to another three years of spewing crap to Twitter!

Here’s some (not so) specially selected tweets from my 700+ archive:

Drunk. And oh so oh so oh so oh so tired….. please give me sleeeeeep!!! PLEASE!!! Falling asleep at my iBook at the moment! 10:54 PM Jun 29th, 2007 via Twitter Tools

I have written to Twitter  whilst drunk many, many times. I would do well to learn not to! Wish my iBook hadn’t broken a little while after this.

Watching six million balloons fly past my window. Very random if you ask me. 1:53 PM Sep 3rd, 2007 via web

Six million is a number I always use if I don’t actually know what the number is. Eg, if you asked me how many JD & cokes I’ve drunk in my life I’d say six million. Unfortunately, I probably have drunk six million JD & cokes!

Bet you can’t guess where I am! Empire State Building! Hell yeah! 12:04 AM Nov 6th, 2007 via txt

Yup. I’m that sad – standing at the top of the Empire State Building and posting to Twitter of all bloody things!

Want to see how small Pumpkin Princess really is? Just look: http://flickr.com/photos/hooofooey/2474605302/ 10:00 PM May 7th, 2008 via web

Gorgeous kitty eventually got to a fairly normal size. I was not happy. She’s  still gorgeous though!

YES! 27 days straight at work are over! Day off tomorrow, yippee! 11:20 PM Aug 28th, 2008 via web

I would never be stupid enough to work that many days ever again.

The best birthday present – being added on Facebook by my two cousins I wasn’t ‘allowed’ to be in contact with for over 13 years! 9:32 PM Mar 22nd, 2009 via web

It’s been lovely having contact with them. Facebook isn’t all bad I guess!

Something ab-sah-tootley awesome has just occurred! Effin’ hell I can hardly believe it! 5:52 PM Jun 11th, 2009 via txt

The tweet after this one showed my unconditional offer to go to uni. A very happy day for me.

http://twitpic.com/92noz – My short hair! Had 6 inches chopped off :-O not had it this length for about 5/6 years. Will take some getting used to. 9:09 PM Jul 2nd, 2009 via TwitPic

I had it cut again a little while after and it still didn’t look short!

Spent the evening painting donuts! Hands are covered in paint! 9:28 PM Jul 23rd, 2009 via Twitter for iPhone

Hell yes I’m that cool! (Painting decorations for  a Donut Eating Nerds party – dress as nerds, eat donuts, not the other way round!).

Had a fun evening titled ‘Four Cheesestrings & Energy Nuts’ 10:51 PM Aug 25th, 2009 via Twitter for iPhone

Went longboarding (not the surfing type) with my sister. I ate four (four!) Cheesestrings and she eat a bag of energy nuts. I told you, I’m cool (longboarding, not eating like a pig!).

Walking to work for my last ever shift! Unemployment here I come @ 5pm! 7:40 AM Sep 12th, 2009 via Twitter for iPhone

And I’m still unemployed today. Lazy ass student instead!

Rather enjoyed being Action Barbie at an Action Man vs Barbie event last night! Uni has some random themes sometimes… 11:18 AM Oct 21st, 2009 via Echofon

That was just the beginning of all the random fancy dress nights out I’d have!

I’ve been back in England less than 24 hours and I already miss #surfing in #Morocco. #Taghazout is an amazing village! 12:08 PM Mar 29th via mobile web

Went surfing in Morocco for my 21st birthday – the BEST week of my life. Ever.

Just got off the phone to my sister, we were chatting/laughing for over 2 & 1/2 hours and could have continued. I love her SO much! 9:00 PM Apr 29th via Twitter for iPhone from here

Just reading this tweet makes me smile. Sister cried when I told her that I’d written this!

Gotta <3 uni. Spent over 2hrs chatting with male best friend about the future (pretty deeply) WHILST playing with a balloon! Awesome stuff. 12:41 AM May 4th via Twitter for iPhone from here

Seriously, a balloon! Uni has given me many random yet beautiful moments like this one.

I wonder what I’ll be chirping about for the next three years?

Posted from Norwich, England, United Kingdom.

Ah, you wonder. What’s that? Well, from their respective websites:

Comic Relief:

Our vision is ‘a just world free from poverty’.

Our mission, thanks to our comedy heritage and the fantastic relationship we enjoy with the BBC, is ‘positive change through the power of entertainment’.

And our biggest tool, in trying to achieve these two goals, is the ability to inspire people across the whole country especially those who don’t normally do charity – to do charity.

And Red Nose Day (RND):

Red Nose Day is, quite simply, a day like no other! We take some fantastic fundraising in schools, offices and homes across the land, mix it with the nation’s favourite celebrities getting up to all kinds of mischief, sprinkle a new Red Nose (or three!) across the entire UK and add a cracking night of comedy on BBC One to make Red Nose Day the phenomenon it is.

If you are intrigued further, I highly suggest going through the nifty flip-book style storyline of RND’s ‘Story So Far’.

One of the main goals (emphasised this year – there are many things Comic Relief as a charity help towards all year round) is to raise money towards putting a stop to the malaria crisis in Africa. You’ve only got to see a short clip of one of the many films made about parents who are watching their babies and children die from malaria, and you’ll feel just how serious this is.

The mind boggling thing about it all is that malaria is something easily preventable. Something we (the developed world) don’t even have to think about, yet is something that kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds. I don’t think I’m the only one who literally gets wet eyes even thinking about that for a moment.

I’m not writing this blog post to… well, bring sadness to your day. Red Nose Day has always been something I’ve always enjoyed being a part of since I was old enough to understand what it meant. I thought I would take this time to share what I’ve done for it today (admittedly, not much, but it’s better than nothing) and to also help spread the word just that little bit further.

So I first decided to follow one of Red Nose Day’s twitter accounts (they have a number of them for different things). This was to mainly follow  how the Red Nose Climb of Mount Kilimanjaro went.

Then tonight, via the very useful BBC iPlayer I managed to watch the documentary about the climb as a whole and it immediately made me want to donate.

And I did. £30. I know it’s not much, but the point is that if everyone gives then it amounts to quite a lot. I then gave another £1 for a red nose to be added to an uploaded photo of my choice. I believe this is the first year ‘digital noses’ have been available – usually you buy a physical round red nose to wear during the day.

I then ‘donated’ my Facebook status to RND, to be updated by their page as they choose.

All in all, small actions, by one (small?) person but still completely worthwhile.

One of the reasons Comic Relief and Red Nose Day is something I love is simply because it’s making a difference in the world by making ‘ordinary’ folk give through laughter. And I love laughter.

@ 23:06 Friday 13th the total money raised was standing at £32,802,411. Wow.

Update @ 21:53 Saturday 14th the total for Red Nose Day itself was £57,809,938. I’ve also given a bit more money by downloading £10 worth of singles from the top 40 on iTunes. (25p from a 79p song in the top 40 will be donated from iTunes to Comic Relief – amongst donations from other downloads as well).

Well I’ll tell ya. The clue lies within today. It’s the Chinese New Year! And the title of this blog post simply says ‘Happy New Year’. I think. So yes, happy New Year to you!

…

‘Um… I thought New Year’s was January 1st,’ you whisper quietly, so as to not disturb or offend my seemingly insane thoughts.

Yes that’s quite right but for me January 1st is no day to set as an example for the rest of the year. Oh no. You see because I do happen to get rather drunk on alcohol the day before, so Jan 1st is a sleep/rest/peaceful day. Not one for looking wistfully into the future and being proactive. And all that joy.

So, a first for me, I’m ‘choosing’ (if I can indeed do such a thing) is to count my New Year’s as today. That way I’m not sleeping off alcohol and I’ve had a good 4 weeks to actually think about the year ahead. Sounds good to me!

If you are wondering why I chose the Chinese New Year, rather simply I love all things Chinese. I hope to learn Mandarin when I can find the time and I want to spend a good deal of time visiting China. Cool beans.

Righty so let’s get to it. My main ideas/thoughts/goals for the year of the ox are (in no particular order):

• Put hell of a lot more effort into maintaining this site/blogging. It is something I actually enjoy, yet fail to put time into! Due to less time spent in front of a computer these days, I’m experimenting into others ways of blogging (i.e. via my mobile phone).
• Get damn well better at staying in contact with everyone. This includes my immediate family, my distant family. My immediate friends, my distant friends. Offline friends, online friends. And rather oddly, myself! I do this via writing in my journal with a good ol’ pen. I’ve not done it for a good few months and I should really do it every day!
• Get clear with myself just what the hell I’m doing with my time and essentially my life! It sounds deep, I guess it is. Towards the end of 2008 I realised my life is my own. So I want to start making decisions for myself and not other people and their own goals. With this I need to sort out what I want to be doing with my life!
• Read more. I was such a bookworm for so many years (if not the majority of my life) but the past three years has seen the time I spend reading dramatically decline. I’m not sure why, but I do miss it so I want to bring the comfort of a good smelling book back to my mornings.
• Save money. Simple. Put money into my savings account rather than letting it sit in my main account just waiting to be spent.
• Eat better. Mainly, less fat. I’m not trying to be a health nut but I want to eat just a little bit more consciously towards what I’m putting into my body. I’ve found a great tasting and healthy food in (fruity, not nutty) muesli. I know, I’m shocked too but it’s actually really good!
• Do more exercise. Really. During the summer I was pretty good but since then my exercise routine has quite literally diminished. But I like exercising. It feels gooood. Honestly! (And I have a little spare weight I’d like to shuffle).

Hmm beyond that I don’t think there’s much more I’m working towards this year. That I’ve thought about yet anyway! Some things are standard, others are… not so standard… *laughs*

Anyway, there is no point dragging this post out so I’ll leave you with that.

Happy Chinese New Year! Feel free to share your own goals for 2009.

Any how, I don’t want to get into it now, there’s time yet for all that malarky to erupt.

So yes. Today is the day all fluffy-tailed, pointy-eared, black-pawed critters have been waiting for. The official non-beta public release of Firefox 3! Now where’s those rats I just caught for my celebratory dinner…

Oh! I’m sorry! You’re not a fox! You’re not even remotely fiery! D’oh! Neither am I, but don’t tell my mother…

Actually, technically maybe I am. Only in the sense that I’ve been using Firefox as my primary web browser since mid-2003. Not because I smell like wet dog. And rabbits.

So any who, getting to a somewhat relevant point (or not). The young buds at Mozilla decided that the release of Firefox could also be a record attempt at the number of downloads erm, downloaded in 24 hours. Sound kinky or what? Nah, I didn’t think so either. I did get a bit excited though, to the point a little bit of wee came out…

That day is today and YOU have less than 24 hours (probably less than 20 by the time I get this thing bloody finished) to take part in the record attempt! So go download it, or not if you’re not a firefox like moi.

Ah-hem. Well, good luck! Hmm, that’s not so fair, you do have a somewhat high chance (I think) of actually downloading it… just don’t put any money on it. Hell, I’m writing this post using it! But it took about an hour to actually get it on my machine!

Why? Well, everything at the Firefox 3/Mozilla HQ went kapoof shortly after the 24 hour period
‘started’. Oh you know, it’s that typical thing of every bloody person being ruddy impatient and running to the download page to get their hands on the dirty-pawed product. So what happened? The servers said no. Literally. Spreadthefox.com, getthefox.com and the main Firefox page at mozilla.com went loopy. Well, they just didn’t load actually.
Which was no fun! Anyway, after some weird goings-on, some chillin’ tunes from Stereophonics and some farting, things finally worked for me. So yeah, I have it. It’s kinda kooky if you ask me! The main reason I got it seems to be holding up – it does seem faster.

Now don’t go bloody shouting at me because I said that. ‘Course it’s bloody faster you nimwit! Well I don’t care what you think. I needed it to be faster because Firefox 2 went loco on this machine, and thankfully it is. That’s all I wanted. I don’t care about plastic, silver-shiny, new-car-smell features that might also be inherent. I’ll find those later.

So if you are also a Firefox user, or just want to fill up your family’s computer with random downloads then, with a bit of patience, you should go download it baby! It’s no Speed Racer, but it’s certainly speedier than FF 2.

Some screen captures of the fun you might have instore if you do decide to download. Spot the difference between the first and second capture and you win a ‘keen eye’ award*.

* The keen eye award does not actually exist. Well, it does because what I’ll say to you, if you do spot the correct difference, is ‘keen eye’. That’s it. Awwshum, non?

Oh, psst… you can also make yourself a certificate to say you downloaded it! Sweet! Here’s my certificate (PDF).

1. You can start, by failing to think of something for your series entitled Wednesday Weevils, and post some half-nonsense poop about FooFoo’s. Although you did wonder if anyone knew about any cool photos sites besides Flickr, it really wasn’t a real Wednesday Weevil. In the end, you managed to upgrade your Flickr account so the 200 photos maximum has vamooshed.
2. You can then follow up that post, with a completely pointless and stupid entry written in a pirate accent, that simply celebrates the smiley on the Internet.
3. A few posts fall in, apologizing for lack of time. Even some fiction-sounding material works it’s way in.
4. Then you jet off to the grand US of A.
5. Whilst you manage two twitter updates (1, 2) during this trip, they mark the true beginning of the full-on Hibernation Period.

What happened, you ask, during this Hibernation? The gathering of acorns? The deep-sleep slowly fueled by thick layers of insulating fat? Well… here’s what might have taken place, immediately after the return to gloomy England.

1. You’ve had such a brilliant time abroad, your last night was filled with tears. You yearn to stay and live there, once again. Your life in England cannot compete with the hope the two week vacation put unknowingly in your heart. You, along with your sister and father all get drunk on delicious wine, wiping away the tears, but fail to ease the constriction of your chest muscles.
2. Upon returning to your home country, and the building you call ‘home’ you feel empty. You want to be back with your father, and the little lion dude. At least you have the pumpkin princess to snuggle with.

3. In the next month, you wake up to reality, and realise things aren’t that bad. Yes, you want to live there, but actually, your home country is better to study in for your chosen degree. One day you will live there again, just not as soon as your heart wishes for it to be so.
4. You apply for university, to start in autumn 2008. Your at-the-time first choice offers you a place three days before Christmas. It is your first offer out of four to come. You smile, laugh, and jump around the house like you’ve never done so before in your life.
5. Christmas 2007 is spent is your own company, and that of the snuggly one. Your one present is that of your university offer, but nothing else could have been sweeter to receive.
6. Back at college in January, your closest friend, who happens to be male and three years older, turns into your own private stalker.
7. January also takes you to see one of your favourite bands you’ve loved for the longest of times.
8. For the next couple of months he is chasing you to the train station, getting on your train home, and demanding your attention and time in a completely obsessive and entirely non-friendly way.
9. When your father comes to visit from the USA to take you to a visit day at your first-offered university, you are glad for the break away from the stalker. You hope the distance and time apart will soothe difficulties.
10. Things get worse. Your stalker ‘attempts’ to commit suicide three times at your town’s train station. He never jumps. He just sits there until the police are called out to pull him off the bridge and arrest him.
11. You have been followed and chased down that many times, you no longer feel safe in your home town, or the city of your college to walk alone. Although you do it anyway, constant looking over your shoulder, and panic attacks start setting in.
12. Finding comfort in a female friend, one year older than yourself, and your course tutor at college, things improve as the stalker has to leave you alone, else feel the wrath of those silently supporting you.
13. During this time you have received all four university offers. You visited one uni and hated it. You visited another and decided this one would be your first choice, over your previously preferred university. The long term benefits of this one outweigh the short term desires of the previous one.
14. You turn nineteen.
15. A couple of weeks into April, you manage to resolve things with your stalker, but you lay down ground rules for the newly-forged friendship.

So there’s the basics of it. The possibilities that may have occurred to render a website owner in a hibernative state. Of course there’s no reason to think they did happen, they just might have…

OK guys and gals, here’s the point of this post. I was pretty much in hibernation from the internet for a good number of months. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and I would bet that it isn’t going to be the last.

Everything listed above did happen to me, amongst other non-interesting things. Whilst some of it may sound… undesirable, it inadvertently strengthened other parts of my life. Some of the things that happened during the stalkerish stage were enjoyable in the sense that I had huge adrenaline rushes and for once in my life I could be loud and shout and swear at someone at the top of my lungs. It was great! I’m normally rather calm, quiet and content and so this experience let me break out of that mold a little bit!

I plan on writing about particular things listed above in their own sanctity of individual posts in the coming weeks. I thought it may be an idea to sketch out a basic ‘outline’ of what life has been like for me since November ’07.

Rather interesting, eh? Actually, not really. I’m sure there are more interesting things six months could have been filled with! But it has been one hell of a ride, for me, that’s for sure!

I’m slowly crawling back into the world of online things.

Some things that have changed regarding online things:

• My oceanus-anima.com email addresses have been spammed to death. I no longer use them, and now enjoy the comforts of Gmail. (englishocean at gmail.com is my email address).
• I am using someone else’s theme for oceanus-anima.com. This is a first ever in my history of website owning since 2003.
• My iBook broke. Then my computer broke. Then my website broke. My iBook is forever broken. My computer just about usable. My website back up and waiting for me to use it again.

If there is not one thing you can possibly comment upon, and/or relate to then… well… that really can’t be the case, surely? If so, can you explain? At least welcome me back into the online world.