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A Catch-Up

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Hi all,

I really haven’t had chance to blog recently, so I just thought we would have a general catch-up. So what’s new? Well…

I’ve fully transferred my website to a new hosting provider (see Transfer of Hosting). The main technical glitch was many of the images not showing up. I’ve manually fixed every page and every blog post so they should all be working now. But if by chance you stumble upon a broken image link, copy the address bar in your browser, paste it into the message body on the Contact page and click send. Then I’ll know where the problem is and I can get it fixed.

I’ve had a spell of ill health in the form of lower back pain (see Ouch…Severe Lower Back Pain), but apart from the odd painful twinges here and there I’m now feeling much better.

My good friend Sye is back from Uni and has temporarily come to live with me. It’s great to have him here, he’s good company, I feel happy being able to support him. He knows he is welcome to stay for as long as he needs too.

Sye’s also been a huge support to me in a difficult week I’ve had recently. The reason for the difficult week was financial pressures, Sye was my listening ear (along with a few other people close to me) and has given me some good advice. I discovered I have a leaking pipe under my floor, need to replace the two front tyres on my car and have had some hassle of my buildings management company.

I’ve been to my friend Steve’s graduation-from-Uni meal. It was delicious food in the Hilton in Manchester. Unfortunately I only managed to sit through the meal due to my back pain but I still enjoyed the night out.

I’ve caught up with Simon & Chrys at a recent Food & Fire Evening at Chrys’ house. It was lovely, relaxed and social, just what I needed.

I’ve also been reading Pure by Julianna Baggott which is a post-apocalyptic story about two young people whose worlds collide. Pressia a wretch in a world with deformed people and animals after the detonations and Partridge a Pure from the Dome that was protected from the detonations. It’s a trilogy with the next book out next year and the final book out the year after. It’s a fascinating read and will review it after I’ve read it.

I’ve downloaded OS X Mountain Lion. One of the reviews in the Mac App Store described it as an evolution of OSX Lion rather than a revolution. This review is right, they’ve built on OSX Lion rather than a complete redesign like Windows does. OSX Mountain Lion feels more streamlined, the iMac boots up faster and complete operations with more speed. It seems to just work, it has fixed my sound issues (see Intermittent Sound Problems on the iMac) and has a few cool new features.

The first feature I love is Siri. It’s current use is as an dictation App, but in the future it is likely to be utilitised for starting Apps, putting reminders in iCal and other functions like the Iphone 4S. I think it’s very clever how it learns your voice characteristics and uses this learning to improve the dictation. I like the Notification Centre but it doesn’t work as I’d like. For example, my new emails don’t appear in the Notification Centre like on my Iphone 4. The share button in Apps is useful and being able to post Twitter updates from my desktop makes life easier. But I was disappointed that Facebook integration is only coming in Autumn as this was one of the features I updated for.

That’s about all I’ve been up to. However I’ve got a few events here and there, working on some creative projects I hope to share with you soon and am coming up with some good ideas for thought provoking blog posts.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Teething Cats

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While doing my weekly shop I picked up a fishing rod toy for Dylan & Russell (see New editions to the family and Kittens at home and spending time with Family and Friends).

However it wasn’t just an ordinary fishing rod toy, it had a sucker on the end of the stick so that it could be attached to units to dangle freely for the kittens to play. I set it up and stepped back as Dylan started to sniff it. He got his claws on to the toy and started to gnaw on the string. In less than a minute he gnawed through the string and the toy was broke.

I watched in amazement. That’s weird they’ve done that to loads of their fishing rod toys recently. Do cats teeth? I thought. A quick Google search revealed the answer.

Kitten’s teeth between 6-12 months (this is when they loose their kitten teeth and get their adult teeth). This varies from kitten to kitten as they are all individuals and develop at different times. So give or take a month either side. Full marks to me for sussing out what was going on! To help any new kitten owners out and make it easier on the babbies…ahem…kittens I’ve given some signs and symtoms of teething along with ideas to help them teeth below:

Signs and Symptoms

  • Inflamed gums (if they’ll let you get close enough to check).
  • Rubbing gums on hard surfaces (such as kitchen draw handles).
  • Gnawing through the string on fishing rod toys.
  • Chewing on electrical wires or anything similar (remember to switch off the electricals when you go out and if possible remove them from the environment).
  • Finding small, sharp kitten teeth around the house (I found one after the fishing rod incident).
  • Reduction in eating hard food (this must be carefully monitored and remember that if in doubt take to the vets).

Helping your Kittens Teeth

  • Give them a cardboard box – Something for them to chew on, relieving the pressure off the gums.
  • Give them Whiskas Sticks – A meaty treat but also allows them to chew on this rather than furniture, etc. My kittens love them.
  • Provide straws for them to play with/bite (my kittens also love these!)
  • Provide wet (or soft) food a few times a week to ensure they are eating and keep an eye on how fast the dry food is being eaten or not.
  • Provide a kitten-friendly environment. Move all wires out of the way possible. Those wires that you can’t remove remember to switch off at the plug before you go out (to avoid kitten electrocution) and discourage kittens from going near.
  • Consider buying special kitten chew toys. Some people swear by baby teething rings (can’t say that I’ve tried these yet).
  • Finally have a read on the Internet for further ideas a good site is All About Cute Kittens and I found this Yahoo Answers site useful.

Blog Soon,

Antony

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Birthday Celebration Ideas

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This year marks my 25th birthday. Yes, I begrudgingly get moved from the 18 to 24 box to the 25 to 30 box. I originally planned to have big celebrations but after recent events (see My Darling Baby Brother) I thought about scaling them back. What stopped me was the thought that Alex wouldn’t want that.

So I’m busy deciding on what birthday celebrations I want. Here’s my ideas so far:

1. A night out in another city, possibly Leeds or Blackpool. For friends.
2. A family meal – local restaurant. My favourite restaurant too expensive, perhaps a cheaper but equally nice one?
3. Watching a show in London. Perhaps Wicked?
4. Alton Towers
5. House party Maybe get a pinata? Perhaps a themed party? With dressing up.

Will have a think and let you know what idea or three I choose.

Write soon,

Antony

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My Writing Process – for some of my better blog posts

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Recently I read about Stephen Fry’s writing process (see Inspired by Stephen Fry) and it got my thinking about my own writing process. Some of my better blog posts such as What makes a relationship work, Maintaining Motivation and Relaxation I consider to be well written. So here’s a description of my writing process, I hope the budding writers find it useful.

I currently have loads scaps of paper around the apartment with random blog titles on and idea’s for future posts. My inspiration firstly comes from my own experiences. Other than that I get ideas from listening to other people’s experiences (or reading other’s experiences on blogs), reading the News and generally anything else I come across on the World Wide Web. Sometimes I even type random words in to Google and see what search results appear.

I start by mind mapping what I aspects of the chosen subject I want to write about like below:


(Although it’s usually on the scraps of paper, rather than in Microsoft Paint)

Usually the ideas are in no particular order and need some rejiging in order for it all to make sense. I number the ideas in the order I need to discuss them to make the post flow logically, ensuring I have a Begining, Middle and End.

A begining is important as it needs to introduce what you are going to write about as well as the why, who, how and when. The middle is the section were you expand on your introduction and explain your points in detail. The end brings the post to a conclusion, sometimes summerising your thoughts and or feelings about the topic you’ve discussed so readers leave knowing what the point of your post was.

In terms of the actual writing of my posts I sit in my living room mostly unless I’m feeling particularly inspired to go in the office/guest room with the desktop computer and antique style desk. I usually always have a brew, usually in a big cup (it’s thirsty work). I tend to write in the evenings, after tea and after I’ve chilled out from the stress of the day – unless I intend to blog about my source of the stress of course, in which case the emotions are better when they are fresh. Occasionally I’ll have the Saturday or Sunday (all day and all evening) at home a bash a number of blog posts out and set them to schedule during the week or weeks ahead.

I always try to keep in mind my readers, mostly friends, family and some randomers that have managed to accidently find my blog and keep revisiting (so they must like what they read presumerly). Once a blog post is complete, I preview it and check for any missed words, mispelt words, etc, before hitting the publish/shedule for later button. My editing isn’t the best though and I’m sure from time to time you’ve seen words mispelt, the occassional missing words or worse. Please don’t tell me if you do spot them, I’d rather not know. Ignorance is bliss.

Now, I am not saying that all my blog posts are written using this process. If they all were, I’m sure it would be a much better quality read. But I do try and do a few a month like this to keep my writing readable and enjoyable for my readers. It’s nice to please readers but mainly I write for me. It helps my creative juices flow and I find it for some reason very theraputic.

Hope this helps any budding writers and explains my writing process,

Antony



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