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The Accidental Quest to Spread Myself Around
15/01/22 10:55
Seems ages since I've done a blog update, but it's not really. Just a week. But I do tend to write ones at least once a week. So anyway here's a quick one – which may get expanded on later. I'm currently sat in the 25th different pub of the year, which I guess on the 14th January isn't too bad. I seem to have found myself on an unspecified quest to go to a 'few' different pubs and spread the love for pubs across the world: or at least Liverpool initially.
I'm currently sat typing this in Chapters of Us in the Baltic Triangle area of the Pool of Life. I'm drinking a pint of Twisted Wheel 'Soul City' NEIPA (keg). It's not my usual kinda place – after all it's keg not cask. But it's very relaxed and cool with nice staff (balancing the always problematic tightrope between attentive and pushy very well). Loving the laid back music vibe too. And there's four keg options which is good.
Cheers, from the Baltic Fleet (Pub 23 of 2022)
Previously I went to the Baltic Fleet (Pub 23) and had a lovely pint of Trapper's Hat from Brimstage Brewery. From there I headed down the road to Love Lane Brewery. Was disappointed to find they had no cask on – I mean it's a brewery so having no cask was a wee bit sad. The service was good though, and it's a nice place. Just get some cask on (I can probably source some for them if they are struggling to find any). ;-)
I'll probably get to Pub 26 tonight and maybe beyond, not that it matters per se. Tomorrow I'm out with the guys & gals who work at Neptune Brewery for our Xmas day out. The decision was made to support our local pubs for this occasions. The places that they sell the beer to, rather than go out of town for a day trip. A mighty fine sentiment I reckon. Of course all the pubs we go to tomorrow I will already have been to since the start of the year, but that is a good thing. I'm never gonna be a ticker (of places or beers). I've not set myself a goal or aspiration for going to different pubs; indeed it's kind of happened by accident since my first pint in the Roscoe Head on New Year's Day and moved on from there. Not sure whether I'll carry on counting each unique pub - after all it will require me to actually document the thing and cross check (when was I here last?).
So what will pub 26 be? I'm thinking it'll either be the newly (today) re-opened Coach House or Peter Kavanagh's. I'm sat here typing this in Chapters and I have no idea myself. I truly am a leaf on the wind. Won't know which way the wind is blowing till I push open the door.
It's been nice to go to so may different places and I've been surprised by a few. Get yourselves out there and Support Your Local (pub and businesses). Not Dry January. Not Try January. Just Do the Right Thing January (and beyond!).
Onwards and upwards.
________________
Following this post I went on to the Grapes for a couple of pints and a chinwag with some regulars then headed up to the Coach House which became Pub 26 of the year. Great to see it reopen for the first time since Christmas.
Coach House cask options from Roosters and Neptune. Cheers! (Pub 26)
I'm currently sat typing this in Chapters of Us in the Baltic Triangle area of the Pool of Life. I'm drinking a pint of Twisted Wheel 'Soul City' NEIPA (keg). It's not my usual kinda place – after all it's keg not cask. But it's very relaxed and cool with nice staff (balancing the always problematic tightrope between attentive and pushy very well). Loving the laid back music vibe too. And there's four keg options which is good.
Cheers, from the Baltic Fleet (Pub 23 of 2022)
Previously I went to the Baltic Fleet (Pub 23) and had a lovely pint of Trapper's Hat from Brimstage Brewery. From there I headed down the road to Love Lane Brewery. Was disappointed to find they had no cask on – I mean it's a brewery so having no cask was a wee bit sad. The service was good though, and it's a nice place. Just get some cask on (I can probably source some for them if they are struggling to find any). ;-)
I'll probably get to Pub 26 tonight and maybe beyond, not that it matters per se. Tomorrow I'm out with the guys & gals who work at Neptune Brewery for our Xmas day out. The decision was made to support our local pubs for this occasions. The places that they sell the beer to, rather than go out of town for a day trip. A mighty fine sentiment I reckon. Of course all the pubs we go to tomorrow I will already have been to since the start of the year, but that is a good thing. I'm never gonna be a ticker (of places or beers). I've not set myself a goal or aspiration for going to different pubs; indeed it's kind of happened by accident since my first pint in the Roscoe Head on New Year's Day and moved on from there. Not sure whether I'll carry on counting each unique pub - after all it will require me to actually document the thing and cross check (when was I here last?).
So what will pub 26 be? I'm thinking it'll either be the newly (today) re-opened Coach House or Peter Kavanagh's. I'm sat here typing this in Chapters and I have no idea myself. I truly am a leaf on the wind. Won't know which way the wind is blowing till I push open the door.
It's been nice to go to so may different places and I've been surprised by a few. Get yourselves out there and Support Your Local (pub and businesses). Not Dry January. Not Try January. Just Do the Right Thing January (and beyond!).
Onwards and upwards.
________________
Following this post I went on to the Grapes for a couple of pints and a chinwag with some regulars then headed up to the Coach House which became Pub 26 of the year. Great to see it reopen for the first time since Christmas.
Coach House cask options from Roosters and Neptune. Cheers! (Pub 26)
Comments
Updating the Website
07/01/22 15:24
Eventually I bit the bullet and replaced my old MacBook Pro with a shiny new one. The most obvious thing of course is that it seems quite small – as I've moved from a 15" to a 13" (must be an age thing). Once turned on and copied everything over from my old mac it was time to delete the old files and applications that don't work on the new system. Didn't loose much. But copying over the photo albums was time and Gigabyte consuming. I definitely need to go in and cull many thousands of photos. Won't get to it quickly but every few days I'll make sure I delete a couple of hundred or so. There is a mind boggling 37k photos on there at the moment. I need to at first – at least – get it down to 30k. At the end of the day I dare say I should ask the question 'would I ever use this photo' and 'would it deserve to find its way into a photo album?' and if the answer is no; then delete the buggers.
Of 495GB available on the hard drive currently 120GB is taken up by my photos so losing 7k of photos that'll get used it will free up about 20GB. I need to take some time to work out how to deal with saving items on the hard drive and how to save things externally on other drives or in one cloud or another…
Now I have a decent computer which should be less prone to crashing I may finally use GarageBand to help me play and record songs – and I hope write some of my own. That's the plan anyway. Incidentally the sound from the speakers is unbelievably good moving on from an 11 year old computer.
One thing that stopped working was the Stacks plugin for Rapidweaver (which I use to produce this website). This meant much of the website couldn't even show itself in Rapidweaver. It gave me some cause for thought in terms of whether I paid to upgrade from Stacks 3 to 4 or whether I should maybe get another bit of software to use for my website. After considering a few things out there I almost went for Sparkle. But then again it would have meant learning a new app whilst downloading my entire site into it to reproduce some of it – and the risk of losing a lot of links; including comments to existing blog items. There are not that many, but it would have been a shame to lose them. In any case getting Sparkle would have been more expensive and time consuming than upgrading Stacks. So – a bit like the consideration of updating my laptop – I ended up going full circle and retaining (albeit updated) Rapidweaver with Stacks.
The whole transfer of data and updating of software has been a pretty much painless operation – assuming you consider thinking about things not too painful.
The next thing is to consider what changes I may want with the website. So far I've made sure the changes with the Stacks have updated (initially the upload deleted all the boxes I had around text, but this has now sorted itself out). I deleted the section I had on 'Class Song of the Day' which was bit sad, but it was an old feature which I dare say no-one ever went back to. I'm thinking about turning this into another new series of pages. Obviously the main sections are this general blog, the writing bits & bobs, and the health section (which thankfully I haven't had to update recently). Considering adding a section to do with pubs and beer which I could use either to highlight local (Liverpool & its Environs) or national things. Just consideration at the moment. Watch this space.
Of 495GB available on the hard drive currently 120GB is taken up by my photos so losing 7k of photos that'll get used it will free up about 20GB. I need to take some time to work out how to deal with saving items on the hard drive and how to save things externally on other drives or in one cloud or another…
Now I have a decent computer which should be less prone to crashing I may finally use GarageBand to help me play and record songs – and I hope write some of my own. That's the plan anyway. Incidentally the sound from the speakers is unbelievably good moving on from an 11 year old computer.
One thing that stopped working was the Stacks plugin for Rapidweaver (which I use to produce this website). This meant much of the website couldn't even show itself in Rapidweaver. It gave me some cause for thought in terms of whether I paid to upgrade from Stacks 3 to 4 or whether I should maybe get another bit of software to use for my website. After considering a few things out there I almost went for Sparkle. But then again it would have meant learning a new app whilst downloading my entire site into it to reproduce some of it – and the risk of losing a lot of links; including comments to existing blog items. There are not that many, but it would have been a shame to lose them. In any case getting Sparkle would have been more expensive and time consuming than upgrading Stacks. So – a bit like the consideration of updating my laptop – I ended up going full circle and retaining (albeit updated) Rapidweaver with Stacks.
The whole transfer of data and updating of software has been a pretty much painless operation – assuming you consider thinking about things not too painful.
The next thing is to consider what changes I may want with the website. So far I've made sure the changes with the Stacks have updated (initially the upload deleted all the boxes I had around text, but this has now sorted itself out). I deleted the section I had on 'Class Song of the Day' which was bit sad, but it was an old feature which I dare say no-one ever went back to. I'm thinking about turning this into another new series of pages. Obviously the main sections are this general blog, the writing bits & bobs, and the health section (which thankfully I haven't had to update recently). Considering adding a section to do with pubs and beer which I could use either to highlight local (Liverpool & its Environs) or national things. Just consideration at the moment. Watch this space.
Password Protected
03/06/21 12:20
I don’t have Sky Sports these days but for the nightmare year of the football season lockdown combo I’ve had BT Sports so I could at least watch Liverpool in Europe whilst everywhere where was closed. I then stooped to NOW TV on my phone for a while with a Sky Sports Pass so I could watch a couple of league games on my phone - you can’t stream to an iPad or a telly and only watch on your wee phone screen but it’s a lot cheaper than having Sky on the telly.
Season over and they’ve both been cancelled. Whilst going through the process online the BT Sports website warned me that my account had been compromised - along with many others - and that I should change my password. Not sure I ever got me an email informing me about this compromise - and I have no idea when it occurred. Needless to say as well as saving money cancelling these two things I no longer need then I had to change several website login details.
It is inevitable as night follows day that I will forget these new logins (I’m already not entirely sure). I really need to develop my own clever/silly password generation protocol to stop me having to repeatedly go through the ‘Forgotten Password’ rigmarole. Thinking about it now... it will be pure genius. If I can remember where I’ve hidden my genius.
I dare say if I do find my missing genius it will be password protected.
Season over and they’ve both been cancelled. Whilst going through the process online the BT Sports website warned me that my account had been compromised - along with many others - and that I should change my password. Not sure I ever got me an email informing me about this compromise - and I have no idea when it occurred. Needless to say as well as saving money cancelling these two things I no longer need then I had to change several website login details.
It is inevitable as night follows day that I will forget these new logins (I’m already not entirely sure). I really need to develop my own clever/silly password generation protocol to stop me having to repeatedly go through the ‘Forgotten Password’ rigmarole. Thinking about it now... it will be pure genius. If I can remember where I’ve hidden my genius.
I dare say if I do find my missing genius it will be password protected.
Time To Plant A Tree
08/05/21 16:49
In these days of multi social media hangouts creating a place where the links to all of them are in one place is a neat idea. I’m not sure how late I am to the Linktree party but I’ve arrived and I’m glad I have. The set up is quick and clean. No messing about. As simple as it should be.
Set it up on Thursday night and put the link in the Bios in my two Twitter accounts and my two Instagram pages - one each for my personal Zevonesque account and for my Real Ale Liverpool (Realeliverpool) accounts. As well as having links to both sets of Twitter and Instagram it of course has a link to the website (i.e. here) and to the YouTube Channel.
Haven’t yet linked it to Goodreads or anything else and I may well not. Goodreads seems to have become a more problematic place these days. And obviously I’m not on TikTok or Facebook. These Linktrees must be pretty tall trees for some people. Anyway, in short, you can find me more easily than you could before. ‘Hurray!’ I can hear the cheers from here.
If you’ve got multiple hangouts on the internet thing then I can thoroughly recommend getting on Linktree and connecting those buttons.
One thing I’ve noticed on my YouTube Channel is that it is predominantly me reading poems at the moment: I’m going to call this my ReadMeSpeakMe period. I need to get strumming some new songs to rebalance the channel.
Set it up on Thursday night and put the link in the Bios in my two Twitter accounts and my two Instagram pages - one each for my personal Zevonesque account and for my Real Ale Liverpool (Realeliverpool) accounts. As well as having links to both sets of Twitter and Instagram it of course has a link to the website (i.e. here) and to the YouTube Channel.
Haven’t yet linked it to Goodreads or anything else and I may well not. Goodreads seems to have become a more problematic place these days. And obviously I’m not on TikTok or Facebook. These Linktrees must be pretty tall trees for some people. Anyway, in short, you can find me more easily than you could before. ‘Hurray!’ I can hear the cheers from here.
If you’ve got multiple hangouts on the internet thing then I can thoroughly recommend getting on Linktree and connecting those buttons.
One thing I’ve noticed on my YouTube Channel is that it is predominantly me reading poems at the moment: I’m going to call this my ReadMeSpeakMe period. I need to get strumming some new songs to rebalance the channel.
Flash Dogs and The Updated Website
18/03/21 23:06
The website rejig was definitely the right decision. I didn't want to put another page up there to go on the top menu, as it would get a bit too squashed up with the current layout. When I looked over the layout I found that one of the pages I had was on 'Writerers' which I haven't updated for years and was well out of date - in fact not entirely relevant. The only items on it I wanted to retain were the Flash Dogs website links, so I've copied those over to here rather than lose everything in one fell sweep.
I haven't checked yet whether these are all still live or not. But I will do over the weekend.
Flash Dogs Website Links:
Mark A. King - Recent UK based novelist with 'Metropolitan Dreams'
Liz Hedgecock - Another UK novelist and novelleta.
Beth Deitchman - Yep, another US Flash Dog writerer from the lovely Luminous Creatures Press.
Emily June Street - California based noveller, including the Velocipede Races.
Casey Rose Frank - A freelance writerer and voracious readerer from the east coast of the US.
Tamara Rogers - Writing and Images from the wonderfully talented Flash Dogs cover artist.
Holly Geely - US based writer of novels, novellas, and short story collections.
Steph Ellis - the prolific and wonderful Steph.
Tamara Shoemaker - fab writerer and wonderful editor from Virginia, US of A.
F.E. Clark - Great artist and writer from up in the north east of Scotland
Emily Livingstone - Fictionalist from New England
Removing my writer's section gives me room up top to put my 'Health' Section. A win, win or something like that. Sorted.
I haven't checked yet whether these are all still live or not. But I will do over the weekend.
Flash Dogs Website Links:
Mark A. King - Recent UK based novelist with 'Metropolitan Dreams'
Liz Hedgecock - Another UK novelist and novelleta.
Beth Deitchman - Yep, another US Flash Dog writerer from the lovely Luminous Creatures Press.
Emily June Street - California based noveller, including the Velocipede Races.
Casey Rose Frank - A freelance writerer and voracious readerer from the east coast of the US.
Tamara Rogers - Writing and Images from the wonderfully talented Flash Dogs cover artist.
Holly Geely - US based writer of novels, novellas, and short story collections.
Steph Ellis - the prolific and wonderful Steph.
Tamara Shoemaker - fab writerer and wonderful editor from Virginia, US of A.
F.E. Clark - Great artist and writer from up in the north east of Scotland
Emily Livingstone - Fictionalist from New England
Removing my writer's section gives me room up top to put my 'Health' Section. A win, win or something like that. Sorted.
Redesign Time. Probably.
18/03/21 21:47
Contemplating a wee redesign of the website. Nothing too major, and I’ll probably retain most things. But I’m conscious that I have been blogging about health related issues over the last few weeks. Depending on how things go for me with the MS this could continue to be a topic I feel I have to keep coming back to. But at the moment it is sandwiched with all the blogs about writing, music, beer, Liverpool, and even poetry.
The health stuff could be a mighty turn off for some people and if there is a run of blogs on it then other of my usual witterings could be hidden in the avalanche. Equally if people are interested in the MS stuff (don’t let me ever call it a journey) then they may not be interested in my latest beer experiences - and certainly not my singing. So to that end I think I will create a new Health section and do all the related blogging within that.
I think it makes sense - though not sure how quickly I can turn that around. Watch this space - or that space: who knows?
The health stuff could be a mighty turn off for some people and if there is a run of blogs on it then other of my usual witterings could be hidden in the avalanche. Equally if people are interested in the MS stuff (don’t let me ever call it a journey) then they may not be interested in my latest beer experiences - and certainly not my singing. So to that end I think I will create a new Health section and do all the related blogging within that.
I think it makes sense - though not sure how quickly I can turn that around. Watch this space - or that space: who knows?
Argh. Almost Painful
20/06/20 23:20
This morning I found out I'd looked my website up. I'd done some housekeeping on my laptop and as part of that it appears I deleted an important Rapidweaver file (an .rwsw one). This meant that while all the main files were all fine the thing that basically holds it all together was gone and there aint no way of creating it backwards from there. Argh. Had me worried a bit during the day. But realised that I did have a back up from a month or so ago.
The simplest, maybe the only way, was to copy the file from the last back up from May. This meant I'd lost my last six blogs and, more worryingly the Seedling Challenges from 71-75. Of course I could copy the text from the online website and paste it back in the website creator, but it would mean I would lose the comments (stories from those Seedling Challenges I needed to update. Luckily and sadly in the last month there have only been stories from me and Sal - and one last week from Nina. I've copied all these and can upload if required, but assume Sal and Nina will want to put there's up from their address. We will see.
Main thing is it could have been a lot worse. And I'm glad I do backups occasionally. Keep up with your backups people - and do be careful deleting shite from computer. Schoolboy error.
In the meantime if you fancy doing some writing then check out the Seedling Challenge. Don't leave it to Sal and me. :-)
The simplest, maybe the only way, was to copy the file from the last back up from May. This meant I'd lost my last six blogs and, more worryingly the Seedling Challenges from 71-75. Of course I could copy the text from the online website and paste it back in the website creator, but it would mean I would lose the comments (stories from those Seedling Challenges I needed to update. Luckily and sadly in the last month there have only been stories from me and Sal - and one last week from Nina. I've copied all these and can upload if required, but assume Sal and Nina will want to put there's up from their address. We will see.
Main thing is it could have been a lot worse. And I'm glad I do backups occasionally. Keep up with your backups people - and do be careful deleting shite from computer. Schoolboy error.
In the meantime if you fancy doing some writing then check out the Seedling Challenge. Don't leave it to Sal and me. :-)
Difficult Time: Still Writing
27/05/20 21:57
It goes without saying....
.... Anyway, notwithstanding all of that, one of my aims this year was to do some more writing outside my normal short fiction and VSSing and to that end I have put my head above the parapet with the website GetIntoThis.
My first piece for it was a gig review of Romeo Stodart (of Magic Numbers fame) at the Philharmonic Hall. Two days later the Phil shut down and by the end of the week all the venues were closed. So that put paid to doing any more live reviews. Since then though I’ve managed to do a couple more things for the website including a piece on Liverpool pubs, which discussed my last two days of going to the pubs and dreams of returning - along with a guide to some of the places that you can still go to to get beers in.
I’ve also done a couple of pieces from Press Releases on new albums, namely Laura Marling (by the way get the album, it’s wonderful) and Kamasi Washington.
Wrote a quick 160 words about my view on Sefton Park with its 148th birthday on Monday (there is a shortage of things to write about without gigs).
Another piece has gone up this week on driving during lockdown and another will go up shortly announcing an upcoming album. So that'll be seven bits of writing, not prolific but not bad as it’s six pieces more than nothing.
Keen to do more as and when. But I need to do some serious fiction writing - that is seriously getting it done, not necessarily serious of subject. Wondering how best to do this. How many times have I planned, or almost planned, but not committed. Yes folks, even if you didn’t already think it, it is time for A.J. Walker to be committed.
.... Anyway, notwithstanding all of that, one of my aims this year was to do some more writing outside my normal short fiction and VSSing and to that end I have put my head above the parapet with the website GetIntoThis.
My first piece for it was a gig review of Romeo Stodart (of Magic Numbers fame) at the Philharmonic Hall. Two days later the Phil shut down and by the end of the week all the venues were closed. So that put paid to doing any more live reviews. Since then though I’ve managed to do a couple more things for the website including a piece on Liverpool pubs, which discussed my last two days of going to the pubs and dreams of returning - along with a guide to some of the places that you can still go to to get beers in.
I’ve also done a couple of pieces from Press Releases on new albums, namely Laura Marling (by the way get the album, it’s wonderful) and Kamasi Washington.
Wrote a quick 160 words about my view on Sefton Park with its 148th birthday on Monday (there is a shortage of things to write about without gigs).
Another piece has gone up this week on driving during lockdown and another will go up shortly announcing an upcoming album. So that'll be seven bits of writing, not prolific but not bad as it’s six pieces more than nothing.
Keen to do more as and when. But I need to do some serious fiction writing - that is seriously getting it done, not necessarily serious of subject. Wondering how best to do this. How many times have I planned, or almost planned, but not committed. Yes folks, even if you didn’t already think it, it is time for A.J. Walker to be committed.
Out the Other Side
15/03/20 12:00
It's unusual for me not to write a blog for over two weeks, but let's face it we are living in damn unusual times. Living through the constant daily onslaught about Brexit since 2016 I thought it would be nice for things to die down once that path was taken. But boy oh boy how wrong I was. I hark back to those simpler Brexit Apocalypse times. COVID-19 truly is a Black Swan event. It's one of those things you could kinda imagine happening and we've had smaller scale events like it (SARS, MERS, Ebola) but this has evolved into something else. I well remember the post-9/11 issues of flying and the lack of flights with all that entailed. Seeing countries pull up their collective drawbridges is a whole lot different, and I dare say once a virus is in the community pretty much useless.
Anyway, I'm no expert - though everyone else seems to be - so I'll just take this opportunity to wish all my friends and their families (and the whole world (minus a couple of people maybe)), the best through this time. Let's hope this toilet paper apocalypse suddenly disappears or at least becomes a damper squib than it appears right now. We have to hope the experts who are doing what they can to minimise the effects have luck and a fair wind behind them. Don't listen to people pointing in every other direction saying these guys are right and we are wrong - it is a perverse version of the grass is alway greener (though we won't know how green it is until we see it in a month or twos time) - we must accept that there will be deaths - that's diseases for you - and that they cannot be laid at the door of an individual. What I'm saying is don't play politics with this. If this is our Battle of Britain moment it won't be the RAF who save us and our friends but doctors and scientists.
Stay safe peoples. Keep the faith. Do the best you can. Try not to get too paranoid, but do the basics. Do wash your hands. Keep in contact with people. Keep your humanity.
See you all out the other side: if I don't see you before.
And now, I'm of out for a pint or two before the Government, or cruel economics, closes all the pubs…
Anyway, I'm no expert - though everyone else seems to be - so I'll just take this opportunity to wish all my friends and their families (and the whole world (minus a couple of people maybe)), the best through this time. Let's hope this toilet paper apocalypse suddenly disappears or at least becomes a damper squib than it appears right now. We have to hope the experts who are doing what they can to minimise the effects have luck and a fair wind behind them. Don't listen to people pointing in every other direction saying these guys are right and we are wrong - it is a perverse version of the grass is alway greener (though we won't know how green it is until we see it in a month or twos time) - we must accept that there will be deaths - that's diseases for you - and that they cannot be laid at the door of an individual. What I'm saying is don't play politics with this. If this is our Battle of Britain moment it won't be the RAF who save us and our friends but doctors and scientists.
Stay safe peoples. Keep the faith. Do the best you can. Try not to get too paranoid, but do the basics. Do wash your hands. Keep in contact with people. Keep your humanity.
See you all out the other side: if I don't see you before.
And now, I'm of out for a pint or two before the Government, or cruel economics, closes all the pubs…
Time for Some Old Fashioned Writing
27/05/19 15:02
For the website I use a couple of external sites for providing information and permitting comments. For the latter I use Disqus, which I remember at the moment. But the other day I forgot what the site was I used for monitoring the website usage - e.g. number of visits, type of device visiting and operating systems etc. I mean clean forgot, couldn't for the life of me remember it. It's one of those things that usually shows up on my webpage frequently visited but for some reason had disappeared and wasn't showing up as one of the go to short-cuts.
First thing I did was try looking on Google for sites that did website monitoring, thinking I'd recognise it when I saw it. Of course Google produced lists and paid for adverts for lots and lots of sites, but inevitably not the one I used. Sod's Law.
Realised today that of course I've got Keychain on my mac and can look up the sites I log in to through that. I was a bit slow coming up with that bit of genius. Next time a similar thing happens I must remember to look there first, instead of wasting time Googling random stuff. The other thing I should do is go old school and hand write some of these things down in a notebook.
Oh, and the site I had failed to remember was GoSquared.
Ho hum.
First thing I did was try looking on Google for sites that did website monitoring, thinking I'd recognise it when I saw it. Of course Google produced lists and paid for adverts for lots and lots of sites, but inevitably not the one I used. Sod's Law.
Realised today that of course I've got Keychain on my mac and can look up the sites I log in to through that. I was a bit slow coming up with that bit of genius. Next time a similar thing happens I must remember to look there first, instead of wasting time Googling random stuff. The other thing I should do is go old school and hand write some of these things down in a notebook.
Oh, and the site I had failed to remember was GoSquared.
Ho hum.
This, That and The Other
03/05/19 22:47
Been making some edits to my story for the Don't Open the Door anthology, no spoilers but hell, of course they open the bloody door! Hoping to finish that off tomorrow and then give it a final brush on Sunday and get it to the editor. Should be a tighter story when I've finished it.
Had a bit of sad news that I didn't get selected for the Pulp Idol final. It was a bit of a shame, but, after the IT cock-up meant I never got the invite to the heats, I was expecting it anyway. I'd recorded a reading of the first three minutes of the first chapter and put that up on YouTube for a judgment to be made, not ideal but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Doesn't change anything about the novel, and once I've got the Door story sorted I will get back on to it and finish it. I want to know what happens in the end after all.
Considering some alterations to the website, with a new section or two. Should get at least one of the ideas up and running this week. Watch this space (or maybe the menu bar).
Talking of the website, of course tomorrow the weekend starts, so it's time for the Seedling Challenge. I've been religiously putting it up each week so that it's been there to be used by anyone who wants to, but I know I need to push it a bit more. So be prepared to be pushed - at least if you're exposed to Twitter in any way.
At some point I'm going to start writing some songs, now that I'm playing the guitar more regularly. I'm still surprised that the songs that I've been playing aren't known by the other guys at the open mic. But they are all of a type I suppose, and if I write in a similar style (or at least perform them that way) then there's every chance they won't know what's mine and what's someone else's. We'll see. If I start doing my own stuff then I can pop along to the Monday Night Club at the Cavern and play a tune or two (they only allow people playing their own stuff). Now that would be cool, wouldn't it?
Currently reading 'Crome Yellow' by Aldous Huxley, which I bought last week as part of a charity shop haul. I've only read Brave New World by Huxley before (which I loved), and this is so very different but enjoyable. It's my fifteenth read of the year, which puts me on track for the forty.
What with website updates, short stories and novel writing, reading, guitar practice and songwriting, it's a wonder there's time for anything else. Then there's football tomorrow night and Tuesday and then next Sunday (not to mention an important match on Monday night). Oh, God, and there's Line of Duty on Sunday. Clearly there's not enough hours in the day or days in the week. If any of the political parties yesterday could have promised to sort out the 'not enough hours' issue they'd have got my vote.
Anyways, ta-ra for now, I'm getting back to Crome.
Had a bit of sad news that I didn't get selected for the Pulp Idol final. It was a bit of a shame, but, after the IT cock-up meant I never got the invite to the heats, I was expecting it anyway. I'd recorded a reading of the first three minutes of the first chapter and put that up on YouTube for a judgment to be made, not ideal but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Doesn't change anything about the novel, and once I've got the Door story sorted I will get back on to it and finish it. I want to know what happens in the end after all.
Considering some alterations to the website, with a new section or two. Should get at least one of the ideas up and running this week. Watch this space (or maybe the menu bar).
Talking of the website, of course tomorrow the weekend starts, so it's time for the Seedling Challenge. I've been religiously putting it up each week so that it's been there to be used by anyone who wants to, but I know I need to push it a bit more. So be prepared to be pushed - at least if you're exposed to Twitter in any way.
At some point I'm going to start writing some songs, now that I'm playing the guitar more regularly. I'm still surprised that the songs that I've been playing aren't known by the other guys at the open mic. But they are all of a type I suppose, and if I write in a similar style (or at least perform them that way) then there's every chance they won't know what's mine and what's someone else's. We'll see. If I start doing my own stuff then I can pop along to the Monday Night Club at the Cavern and play a tune or two (they only allow people playing their own stuff). Now that would be cool, wouldn't it?
Currently reading 'Crome Yellow' by Aldous Huxley, which I bought last week as part of a charity shop haul. I've only read Brave New World by Huxley before (which I loved), and this is so very different but enjoyable. It's my fifteenth read of the year, which puts me on track for the forty.
What with website updates, short stories and novel writing, reading, guitar practice and songwriting, it's a wonder there's time for anything else. Then there's football tomorrow night and Tuesday and then next Sunday (not to mention an important match on Monday night). Oh, God, and there's Line of Duty on Sunday. Clearly there's not enough hours in the day or days in the week. If any of the political parties yesterday could have promised to sort out the 'not enough hours' issue they'd have got my vote.
Anyways, ta-ra for now, I'm getting back to Crome.
Updating Software: Bah!
03/04/19 21:09
After updating the website from http to https protocol on Monday the comments on the website, including most significantly the Seedling Challenge, disappeared. The comments are via Disqus, and on their site it suggested that changing the protocol shouldn't have had an impact. However patently it did. The reason for me making the change was that the website written on the old version of RW kept showing up on some (most?) web browsers as 'unsafe' because it was using the older http:// protocol. Little did I know it would fuck it up and stress me out.
I'm not completely sure why they went but my suspicion is that it was my old version of Rapidweaver 5.3.2 (about 7 years old). I think it kept changing the automated site name to http within the webpages where Disqus was specified.
I've ended up spending a couple of days trying to get it sorted. In the end I've bitten the bullet and bought the new RW software - which incredibly is now 8.1.7.
Unfortunately it wasn't a case of importing the old website into the new software - oh no! No, I had to download a newer version of RW5 (5.4.1) and save in that format and then open that in RW8. So I currently have THREE versions of the software on the laptop.
Unfortunately I'm also going to have to buy a Plug-In for the software (Stacks) which is going to cost me a bit more too. But it is a necessity really for RW. Really it should be integrated into the thing (you'd thing RealMac and YourHead could do a deal and sort that) as not many people wouldn't use it.
Anyway, as soon as saved it into RW8 and uploaded it the Disqus comments worked again. Painful, but hey ho I got there in the end.
I'm not completely sure why they went but my suspicion is that it was my old version of Rapidweaver 5.3.2 (about 7 years old). I think it kept changing the automated site name to http within the webpages where Disqus was specified.
I've ended up spending a couple of days trying to get it sorted. In the end I've bitten the bullet and bought the new RW software - which incredibly is now 8.1.7.
Unfortunately it wasn't a case of importing the old website into the new software - oh no! No, I had to download a newer version of RW5 (5.4.1) and save in that format and then open that in RW8. So I currently have THREE versions of the software on the laptop.
Unfortunately I'm also going to have to buy a Plug-In for the software (Stacks) which is going to cost me a bit more too. But it is a necessity really for RW. Really it should be integrated into the thing (you'd thing RealMac and YourHead could do a deal and sort that) as not many people wouldn't use it.
Anyway, as soon as saved it into RW8 and uploaded it the Disqus comments worked again. Painful, but hey ho I got there in the end.
Updating the Website
06/01/19 13:38
Beginning to update the website. Starting to make it look a little cleaner by removing the colours, thick lines and rounded edges on the boxes to begin with. I need to sort out the header to make it smaller (need to look that up as to best way of doing that and keeping it consistent) in the meantime I've just made the header plain colour rather the distracting backgrounds I had before. In actuality that will mean the different appearance will be least evident on the blog.
I've moved the Memoirs pages beneath a general heading for 'Writings' as I intend to put up some small fictions and none fictions under here at some point, possibly starting with old flash from sites like Angry Hourglass and Flash Fiction Friday and the like, but ultimately to include new writing too. I'll see about that over the next few weeks but in the meantime I need to decide on my immediate goals for writing in the coming weeks, months and indeed years.
Just done another Chuck Prophet song 'Heart Breaks Like the Dawn', probably a few bpm too slow but hell it'll do for now. I've also flipped the video so the words read right on my t-shirt. But of course that now means all my other videos have me mirror reversed. Oops. More editing work required at some point.
I've moved the Memoirs pages beneath a general heading for 'Writings' as I intend to put up some small fictions and none fictions under here at some point, possibly starting with old flash from sites like Angry Hourglass and Flash Fiction Friday and the like, but ultimately to include new writing too. I'll see about that over the next few weeks but in the meantime I need to decide on my immediate goals for writing in the coming weeks, months and indeed years.
Just done another Chuck Prophet song 'Heart Breaks Like the Dawn', probably a few bpm too slow but hell it'll do for now. I've also flipped the video so the words read right on my t-shirt. But of course that now means all my other videos have me mirror reversed. Oops. More editing work required at some point.
Dirty Ole Tunes
08/06/18 23:14
So far this week has been very poor for writing. Hoping to get an hour or two done this weekend - at some point.
Finished reading Neil Gaiman's 'Fragile Things' which of course was excellent - and makes you realise how good short stories CAN be. Now I need to get more practiced at it. Pen to paper, mate.
Been an odd week with a few things. But whilst writing and reading has been a bit limited I have at least managed to update the website a little, especially getting Class Song of The Day up to date. So far Year 2 has been a breeze. As well as 'Buffering' the next ten songs I've selected the following 32. I'm keeping up with keeping up.
This weeks songs have been from The Pogues. Let's face it, who doesn't like them? An easy job for me then. Now get yerself drunk crooning, no need to remember the words just grunt along folks.
Next week is one of my fave singer songwriters and underrated guitarist... but I won't spoil the surprise. You'll have to wait until Monday for #ClassSongOfTheDay on Twitter
Finished reading Neil Gaiman's 'Fragile Things' which of course was excellent - and makes you realise how good short stories CAN be. Now I need to get more practiced at it. Pen to paper, mate.
Been an odd week with a few things. But whilst writing and reading has been a bit limited I have at least managed to update the website a little, especially getting Class Song of The Day up to date. So far Year 2 has been a breeze. As well as 'Buffering' the next ten songs I've selected the following 32. I'm keeping up with keeping up.
This weeks songs have been from The Pogues. Let's face it, who doesn't like them? An easy job for me then. Now get yerself drunk crooning, no need to remember the words just grunt along folks.
Next week is one of my fave singer songwriters and underrated guitarist... but I won't spoil the surprise. You'll have to wait until Monday for #ClassSongOfTheDay on Twitter
Links and Buttons
30/04/18 19:21
Updated the home page today with a few big black buttons to link through to photo and Twitter accounts. I already had the Twitter links but the old links were a bit bleary with the screen grabs of my various avatars. Gone black and basic with these buttons - makes them easy to see and easy to change. I've added the Instagram link as I know lots of people use it now and whilst it's owned by Facebook I've retained the photo app. I've had Flickr for years and it's rammed with loads of photos in it from various trips both around the world and around the ale trips in the UK.
Maybe I'll add a YouTube button at some point ... if I get around to adding Class Song Of The Day to it (or updating it).
Maybe I'll add a YouTube button at some point ... if I get around to adding Class Song Of The Day to it (or updating it).
Facebook Analytica
20/03/18 09:59
The news about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica over the last couple of days is fascinating and concerning but in the end it comes as no surprise, does it? I've been on the edge of leaving Facebook for a few years and have spent time deleting many old posts in the past. These days I only put an update up there two or three times a month - other than 'Class Song Of The Day' which is linked with the zevonesque Twitter account - so it will be no great loss. The thing that stops people leaving, or at least puts any pause on it, is the risk that you're cutting ties to friends who have no other easy way to contact you. Of course if you're really friends then you will have one way or another to keep in contact (at the very least just ask a mutual friend) - unless you are just using it to cyber stalk. It may be hard to believe but we all lived perfectly well in the days before Facebook with nothing more than a little book with telephone numbers scratched into it, scrubbed out, rewritten and slotted with post-it notes.
Anyway, long story short I am going to delete my Facebook account sometime this week; maybe even today. End of.
Facebook: useful when it started but won't be missed at all at this point. Sorry to anyone who can't find me easily ... er but I'm still all over the www like a rash with a website and Twitter so you can find me with a wee bit of a google anyway. And of course Class Song Of The Day can still be found on Twitter - just search #ClassSongOfTheDay - I'll see about putting a decent page or two on the website too. My biggest fear is losing all my Words with Friends data, but if that disappears in to the electronic ether then so be it.
Links to my Twitter accounts are on my Homepage, you patently don't need the link to the website: you're here!
The Cambridge Analytica affair is not the reason I'm leaving it's just another nudge in the right direction.
Anyway, long story short I am going to delete my Facebook account sometime this week; maybe even today. End of.
Facebook: useful when it started but won't be missed at all at this point. Sorry to anyone who can't find me easily ... er but I'm still all over the www like a rash with a website and Twitter so you can find me with a wee bit of a google anyway. And of course Class Song Of The Day can still be found on Twitter - just search #ClassSongOfTheDay - I'll see about putting a decent page or two on the website too. My biggest fear is losing all my Words with Friends data, but if that disappears in to the electronic ether then so be it.
Links to my Twitter accounts are on my Homepage, you patently don't need the link to the website: you're here!
The Cambridge Analytica affair is not the reason I'm leaving it's just another nudge in the right direction.
The Partial Demise of Zevonesque
23/11/17 09:44
Had a decision to make for a while, whether to keep zevonesque.com and awalker.org or get rid of one (clearly I need to keep one, duh!).
I had the Zevonesque site for many years, whilst the awalker site I got when I worked for myself for a couple of years. Whilst I don't need it for work at the moment I may as well keep it for writing as it's got my name in it (shame AJWalker was unavailable). The alternative would be to change my pen name to Zevonesque, which I've decided against.
The first item on the menu was 'Real Ale Walks' which I don't have on this site, but I have my other Twitter account and Wordpress site 'RealeLiverpool' for that side. Other than that it held the same things that are on this site.
Over the last couple of years I've only been updating this site and whilst I could keep both - maybe making zevonesque for ale or non-writing blogs - there is a cost implication which I can't really justify. So it is with a slightly heavy heart I have to say farewell to zevonesque.com
Of course Zevonesque will not die quite yet, Twitter will still be awash with it or to put it another way;
Zevonesque is dead, Long Live Zevonesque!
I had the Zevonesque site for many years, whilst the awalker site I got when I worked for myself for a couple of years. Whilst I don't need it for work at the moment I may as well keep it for writing as it's got my name in it (shame AJWalker was unavailable). The alternative would be to change my pen name to Zevonesque, which I've decided against.
The first item on the menu was 'Real Ale Walks' which I don't have on this site, but I have my other Twitter account and Wordpress site 'RealeLiverpool' for that side. Other than that it held the same things that are on this site.
Over the last couple of years I've only been updating this site and whilst I could keep both - maybe making zevonesque for ale or non-writing blogs - there is a cost implication which I can't really justify. So it is with a slightly heavy heart I have to say farewell to zevonesque.com
Of course Zevonesque will not die quite yet, Twitter will still be awash with it or to put it another way;
Zevonesque is dead, Long Live Zevonesque!