99U tweeted a link to this rather interesting article earlier today, which reminded me of a blog post I started writing earlier this year, but didn’t finish.
Here is that unfinished and unedited post:
Do you remember people watching? You’d be sitting somewhere, waiting for someone or something, and have nothing better to do than to watch people; to watch the world go by. Fascinating wasn’t it? When was the last time you did this?
I bet now when you are in a queue, or sitting having a coffee, or a meal you reach for your smartphone. You tweet, you Facebook, you check your email or maybe you hurl grumpy avifauna at kleptomaniac swine.
But whatever you are doing, chances are you are looking down at a small, glowing rectangle, and not at the world around you.
Taking my break from Twitter over Christmas and now for lent has helped break the habit of reaching for my iPhone – for a habit it is.
I recently read this great post from Patrick Rhone, and it struck me that if he’d been head down looking at his phone he wouldn’t have seen this, thought this, and written what is a great blog post.
Over Christmas a Tumblr site appeared called We Never Look Up appeared. It showed a stream of images of people, in the street, at restaurants, at bus stops looking down at their mobile devices. It showed dramatically how focussed we’ve become on these small glowing rectangles, and on the ‘elsewheres’ they connect us to.
I feel that not only are you physically giving your attention to the device in front of you, but when you spend so much time focussed on the ‘elsewheres’ that these devices connect you to then part of your mental attention is always connected to those ‘elsewheres’.
You are never truly ‘there’ with the world around you, and maybe the person opposite you, you are thinking about your next tweet, or whether you should Instagram a picture of your beer or your lunch. This may not even be a conscious thought, but nagging feeling that takes away your attention and removes you from the here and the now.
I deliberately omitted one of the biggest highlights of last year from my 2012 post as it deserves a post all of its own. When Richard and I launched MK Geek Night I don’t think either of us honestly expected it would grow as quickly as it has. We went from the idea of a few local web types meeting in a pub, to an evening event with speakers and sponsors.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve had from the web community; almost every speaker we’ve approached has happily agreed to speak, and we aren’t taking no for an answer from the other two…
Our fabulous venue,The Buszy, can hold 200 people, I’d said if we had 100 attendees I’d be happy. In the end yet we came incredibly close to selling out that first event.
The evening went very well, and the feedback we had from attendees was great – we just needed more seats and better beer.
We had more seats and better beer and we sold out!
We also had an evening of audio problems apparently caused by the sheer volume of bodies in the room, but even with the audio gremlins we had another great night.
We had two fabulous speakers in Aral Balkan and Dave Addey, who stood in at a days notice for Sarah Parmenter who was unable to to make it, but promises to join us in 2013.
This time we had professional quality audio after a bunch of lovely chaps got in touch and offered their services for free – did I mention how much I love our community? The added bonus is that we now have recordings of the talk that we will be releasing as podcasts – soon.
MKGN #4 – March 2013
As if our incredible Christmas Special wasn’t enough of a high to end 2012 on we released tickets for MKGN #4 the following day and they sold out in eight hours. Eight hours!
2013
2013 is looking like an even bigger year for MK Geek Night. We have incredible speakers lined up right the way through to the 2013 Christmas Special, and we have continuing support from our marvellous sponsors.
But most importantly MK Geek Night has developed its own community and its own momentum, and I’m happy and proud to be part of the team that guides that momentum.
I’ve been looking for a new theme for my blog for months, and found nothing that matched my fairly simple, yet exacting, requirements, so I thought I’d try and build my own.
Now given my rather patchy knowledge of HTML and CSS, and my non-existent knowledge of WordPress I knew this would be tricky – but I didn’t realise quite how tricky.
I tend to read most websites and articles using either Reeder or Instapaper, and that clean, typographically focussed style was what I wanted to realise for my theme.
I started building an HTML prototype and quickly found a number of errm ‘gaps’ in my coding knowledge. My good friend, great designer, and all round splendid chap Richard Wiggins very patiently helped me fill those gaps and get my prototype to the stage where it was time to make it into a WordPress theme.
Ahhh WordPress.
It’s fair to say I had rather underestimated what would be involved in making my design into a WordPress theme. “I just have to drop a few tags into the right place” I thought to myself. If only it was that easy.
WordPress does have some simple standard tags and elements you can use within a theme, but all are completely non-customisable, and in many places rather bloody stupid. All of the documentation on WordPress.org assumes a much higher level of knowledge than I possess, and again is limited and full of gaps.
All of which led to many moments of despair and pathetic whimpering. But, slowly, and surely I bent WordPress to my will and finally emerged victorious.
Having conquered the beast that is WordPress it was time to revisit the design which still wasn’t quite ‘right’. It was the selection of the wonderful Meta typeface family that finally made it work; specifically the combination of Meta Web Pro for the body and Meta Condensed for the headings.
It was great fun working remotely with Richard whose IM messages of “Make it blue! Make it blue!” transformed key elements of the design. Of course it was even more fun working over a beer or several in his local pub; beer being something I owe Richard rather a lot of now.
Richard then took over and finalised the design adding the real polish including the lovely navigation arrows you see to the sides of your screen, unless you are on an iPhone then they magically appear at the bottom. Which is because Richard also applied his responsive web design magic to my humble design adding yet another layer of shizzle.
If it hadn’t been for Richard’s help and encouragement this redesign would never have seen the light of day. He’s a brilliant designer – hire him NOW.
There are still a few old posts I need to tidy up but I’m very happy to be able to launch my new design.
I spent two weeks in India in 2003. On my last day I travelled from Delhi to Agra with my travel buddy Ben to see the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
After leaving Delhi at dawn we had an eventful trip to Agra featuring security checkpoints, dancing bears and no less than three punctures. I’d never seen a car tyre with an inner tube, and I’d certainly never seen an inner tube with so many existing repair patches already in place.
The Taj Mahal was every bit as breath taking as legend suggests. It’s hard to comprehend just how majestic this building is without seeing it for yourself. I walked around for hours in quiet awe.
Getting a good tourist free photograph of such an iconic attraction is of course very difficult so we hatched a cunning plan. Ben would stand in front of the Taj as if having his photograph taken, then on the count of three he would duck out of the way allowing me an undisturbed photograph of the Taj Mahal.
Unfortunately Ben got a little carried away, and rather than merely duck he threw himself bodily to the floor. This is why the edges of the photo are lined with bemused looking Indian tourists, and why Ben spent the rest of the day limping.
Of course the irony is that because of this the tourists make it a much better photograph.
Inspired by my old friend Simon, and my new friend Cole I thought I’d share my musical guilty pleasures with you.
Like Simon and Cole I have exquisitely perfect taste in music – I mean truly excellent taste.
And like my friends I have those tracks lurking in my iTunes Library that I enjoy, and even love, but aren’t perhaps as ‘cool’ as the others.
So here for your listening pleasure, and musical delectation are my guilty pleasures:
Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles The first video played on MTV and the first track in my guilty pleasures playlist. This a childhood favourite that I enjoyed then for its novelty, but now appreciate for it’s pop artistry. I sit waiting for that kick drum to arrive around 30 seconds in, and smile each time.
Hasan Al Sabah – Hawkwind (video) This track is ridiculous and lightly rubbish, but I love it for that and for an associated memory. When my chum CJ first travelled the Indian sub-continent he sent me a series of very funny letters. My favourite was one that was simply the chorus from this song, which repeats the word hasheesh, followed by “Subtle Huh”. What could it have meant…
Under The Bridge – All Saints I love the original Chilli Peppers version of this but a true guilty pleasure must be a rock band covered by a girl band. I gotta say their version is flippin’ great. I remember seeing the video for it at the cinema as a short preceding the main film; which I think was Pulp Fiction of all things.
99 Problems – Jay Zed Yeah it’s a tad misogynistic, but I can’t help myself. Hard not to love that rocking backing track, and the verses where he deals with the racist cop.
Beautiful – Pharrel and Snoop Dogg A great groove combining the lyrical stylings of NERD and Neptunes superstar Pharrell and Snoop Dogg. Good video as well (ahem)
Too Old To Rock n Roll, Too Young To Die – Jethro Tull I saw Jethro Tull at the first ever ‘proper’ gig I went to, Marillion’s Garden Party at Milton Keynes Bowl, and they were frankly brilliant. I often find myself singing the “too old to rock n roll, too young to die” line in nasal Ian Anderson style. I can’t think why…
James Bond Theme – John Barry Come on… all boys love this piece of music… don’t they? Haven’t we all had a little Bond fantasy moment when its come on in the car? No? Just me? Well they are my guilty pleasures! For a piece of music 1′ 48″ seconds long it’s had a heck of impact I think. I also highly recommend the brilliant ska version by the Skatalites which they some how extend to 7 minutes.
Ghost Riders In The Sky – Johnny Cash This is an odd one. I hate country music, it makes me feel physically ill, but I can’t help but like this track.
Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties – Jona Lewie Another childhood memory and a sentiment I came to sympathise with in my teens. But like Mr Lewie I met a girl to dance with in a “new way” and I’ve done my time in the kitchen at parties.
Band On The Run – Paul McCartney and Wings The whole Band On The Run album is a guilty pleasure for me. I remember the cover as a kid and the album has been with me ever since. The original Wings track isn’t on Spotify so the link is to a Foo Fighters cover which is predictably brilliant.
Cocktails For Two – Spike Jones Yet another track I cam across as a child; my Dad had the most wide ranging record collection I’ve seen. This track is silly, funny but very clever. If you don’t smile once listening to this seek help.
My Friends – Johnny DeppDavid Hughes in show tune shock! I loathe musicals I really do, but I went to see Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd and really enjoyed it. Yes I was surprised too. The music and lyrics are in many places really clever, and the story is wonderfully dark – not a hint of Sound Of Music or Wizard Of Oz here. This track is a particular favourite with the two singers moving in and out of each other in a musical spiral; one light and positive the other dark and brooding. Johnny Depp sounds like a mix between David Bowie and Keith Richards; although if you really want to him channel Bowie listen to the opening track London.
The Futures So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades Another novelty record and another memory. Towards the end of my 6th form I was chatting to a friend I worked with in my evening job at Comet, who upon hearing my plans exclaimed that “my future was so bright I’d need to wear shades”. It would seem he was overly optimistic perhaps.
The Chain – Fleetwood Mac I’m not a Fleetwood Mac fan, but own and like the Rumours album. I love this track and freely admit I wait for the moment about 3 minutes in when the wonderful bass line kicks in, and I imagine I can hear Murray Walker and James Hunt in the background.
Bullet The Blue Sky – U2 Like Simon I’m far from a U2 fan, but I love this track. The drummer in full Bonzo mode and the Edge’s searing guitar over the top. I can hear those fighter planes…
Supersonic – Oasis (video) And like Cole I never really got Oasis, but again love Wonderwall. However I thought I’d include Supersonic as it sums up their simianly swaggering sound, and I love that intro.
Mr Blue Sky – ELO Last and by no means least Mr Blue Sky; a guilty pleasure shared by Simon and I. This is the perfect feel good song. It is wonderfully eccentric and English right down to the last “Mr Blue Sky”.
There you have my guilty pleasures laid bare for your perusal and enjoyment.
For months now I’ve been searching for a new theme for my blog. I wanted something simple yet stylish, with great typography, that used textures and colour well, and I quite fancied a retro Americana feel. Above all I really wanted it to be a responsive design.
I’d just about given up looking, and was moaning about it on Twitter, which prompted my friend Prisca Schmarsow to generously offer to work with me to create a bespoke theme for my blog. As we talked through some ideas I stumbled across the Liquorice WordPress theme; a theme which, whilst not perfect, seemed to tick many of the new theme boxes. I decided to see what I could do with Liquorice.
An evening hacking Liquorice around had it pretty much where I wanted it.
It’s a shame that Prisca and I won’t get to work together on a blog theme as we shared some nice ideas I feel, but I hope that when time allows maybe we will.
Within a few days my new theme had been commented on by a good friend who thought it was “more me”, and by my wife who, seeing it over my shoulder, spontaneously said how much she liked it without being asked by her needy husband.
But there was one vital ingredient missing: it wasn’t responsive.
Many of you are probably wondering what all this responsive malarkey is all about, and I can’t blame you as it represents the latest in web design thinking. In simple terms a responsive website is one that responds to the size of screen upon which it is being viewed; changing layout and dimensions to best suit that screen. Responsive design is supported by all modern desktop and smartphone browsers which makes it possible to easily create versions of a site tailored to the smaller screens of iPhones and iPads for example.
Responsive design is new to me, and I thought it was going to be a complicated exercise to retro-fit it to my new blog design. Luckily Liquorice is well coded, and even more luckily a good friend of mine Richard Wiggins of Pixel Creation offered to make my site responsive, and at the same time help me learn how a responsive design is created.
It was a fascinating, illuminating, and fun session; I was surprised by just how little code was required to transform this site. Richard did a superb job.
I’ve known and worked with Richard for over 10 years. He worked at the agency I employed to create the Psion Dacom website whilst I was New Media Manager there. He then left to create his own web design studio Pixel Creation. Richard is a very talented designer and one that is quickly able to transform what I’m thinking of into pixels. I’ve worked with some of the biggest agencies in the world and I choose to work with Richard whenever I can. I can’t recommend him highly enough.
See It In Action…
If you’re reading this on an iPad rotate it to see the site respond to the portrait and landscape views.
If you are on a desktop or laptop make the browser window smaller to see the site respond.
If you are reading this in IE8 or lower I’m sorry. I decided against the hacks required to make it work perfectly in your browsers although it works well in IE8. I highly recommend you move to a modern browser such as Google Chrome or Safari.
Lastly if you are reading this in a RSS reader get your arse over here now to see my new blog design.
