New Poetry: Ending

I've now updated my poetry website... for the last time. At least for a while! A number of my poems have now made it onto the website, and, mostly due to my inability to be very prolific in my poetry-writing in the last few years, I've decided to leave the poetry website static for the foreseeable future. There's a bit more info on the Welcome page of the poetry site.

For now though, I've added a few new poems (just four this time), all with an "ending" theme (some are rather more blatant than others). I hope you enjoy what's there!

New Poetry

The last thing I had planned to update on the website over Christmas was my poetry section, and I've finally got around to doing it! Take a look at the nine new poems I've added and see what you think.

Poetry update

I've now managed to update the poetry part of our website - have a look to see some new poems. Some are even properly new and were written this year! I hope you enjoy the poems.

Poetry update

Finishing off my PALS and website updates for the Easter weekend, I've now added nine new poems to my poetry website and removed the old ones. Enjoy!

Poetry update

I've finally found some time to update the poetry website. It was last updated in August 2009, so was a good 4 months ago now. You can see the 9 new poems on the poetry part of our website. A lot of the good poems have appeared on there now, so I need to have a think about what I will do in the future - short of just writing more poetry!

New Poetry

Had a bit of a productive evening (well, night!) today. First off, I've updated my poetry website. There are nine new replacement poems available to look at now, ranging in date from 1997 to 2009... enjoy!

Updated Poetry

I've been neglecting updating my poetry on the website for a while now, knowing that it was going to take me a good 2 or 3 hours to do once I finally got around to it. Well, today is that day!

I have a whole load of Internet-related things I need to do today (including upload the next issue of PALS, add some photos, update my film blog - not to mention other totally unrelated things like sorting out the online book club), so I thought I should start as I mean to go on and get the most complicated thing done first!

So, I've added 9 new poems to the Poetry Website, and finished off "The Lovers" poetry story - last November's instalment was the last chapter, as it were. Next time I will try to stick within the 4 months and get some new poetry on there before the end of August!

New Poetry

After a lot of pondering, some typing and much swearing (at the computer, not the poetry), I have finally got around to updating the poetry section of the website! It has been overdue an update for a while now. I try to do it every four months or so, but time got away from me this time around and it took me 6 months; the last time the poems got changed was May 2008. Anyway, now I'm unemployed and have far too much free time on my hands, I've had a chance to get around to doing it. Seriously, I'm free if anyone has a job they'd like me to do! (And no, that doesn't include your ironing, people).

I hope you enjoy the poems - I've tried to include some slightly more recent ones this time around, with only one being included that's pre-2000 (I know, 2000 was 8 years ago, but it is more recent than ones I wrote in 1995!). There are also a number from 2007 and 2008 though!

Back to work

Phew!

I've been a bit busy over the past few days with updating this blog, the website and my newsletter. It's all due to giving myself a week off of work after returning from Rome before beginning my dissertation - and discovering how much I haven't done in the past 12 months!

So, where do I begin? I guess the first thing you will notice (perhaps) are the changes on the blog itself. I was getting very frustrated with the fact that my Archive section listed every month since 2004, so I finally bit the bullet and changed to a "new" way of editing the template - essentially using Blogger's easy drop down menus instead of having to constantly find and learn new HTML code! You can still use HTML in places, but mostly it was a case of using drop down boxes to change things.

I've also added tags to some of my posts - that took a while too. Tags (or labels) have been used on posts that include links to new photos, updated poetry, new issues of PALS and other important features like my wedding. Clicking on any tag takes you to all the posts associated with that tag. I've also tagged posts with photos named on them that have been removed from our website, and posts with broken links (and named the broken link). This means I don't have to re-write posts every time I break a photo link - which unfortunately started to become necessary when we used up all our storage space on our website by adding too many pics!

Finally, I've added an additional link to the blog. After playing with Google Reader and adding some of the blogs I'm interested in (finally sat down and figured out it worked properly) I decided that Profmike's blog was worth adding as a link here. It has info on all the books he's read, and is a good complement to our book club site!

So, that's it for changes to the blog. I've also been updating our website - firstly with new poetry on my poetry site. Additonally I've added photos of our Rome holiday to our Photos webpage, and a press release to the website front page. I'll post the Press Release as a separate blog article too, above this one (something I used to that I think was a good idea and will start doing again).

Finally, I've made a start on Issue 24 of PALS. I'd already added a couple of articles I'd received a while ago, but I've begun to chase people for additonal articles and hope to have enough to fill the issue by the end of June - hence the press release above! On top of that, I've even managed to write some letters - a good way for me to remember why I started all this in the first place, and getting back to doing the thing I enjoy most - simply writing letters and keeping in touch with my pals! I have to admit I've been horrendous at that lately, and I'm going to make a massive effort to be a better pal in the future.

Prolific worker

I've had a slightly more productive week PALS-wise; probably due to the fact that I haven't had to worry about writing essays or keeping on top of lecture notes for a change. All that is about to change this week when it's back to uni, but I've been enjoying the rest while I can.

Dan and I managed to get out and do a coastal walk around Aberdeen this weekend - how nice it was to have two full days off in a row! Working Sundays can be tough sometimes. The walk did end with us being quite frustrated that once on the coastal path, it's near impossible to get off it - and a 7 mile walk on a day where the sun goes down at 4.30pm is not the best idea! But it was very pretty - the picture I've added to this post is also on our Photos Website, in the Aberdeen section.

And that's not the only thing I've updated in the past few days. There are now a range of new poems on my poetry site, if you fancy reading them.

I've also been working hard on Issue 22 of PALS. At the moment it could be about one of two things - it depends upon how quickly people send me articles on their "Week in the Life Of...". People have said they're happy to write something, which is great, but I haven't had any pieces yet. I'm not too worried as one of my pals has written a wonderful piece on her diving holiday in Egypt which she's happy for me to use - it'll either feature as the Issue 22 or Issue 24 Special. Whatever doesn't appear in the Mar/Apr edition will be in the Jul/Aug one.

I hope you enjoy all the updates - and if you'd like to write a piece about a week in your life I'd love to see it. I doubt I'll be able to be this prolific with updating the website again now until late May, but the short break was nice.

At last...

After a few rounds of swearing and bashing my monitor (I blame it all on Firefox) I have managed to update my poetry website with a new selection of poems...I didn't necessarily mean to do it today, but I got carried away! Dan won't be happy, it means I haven't made the pie I promised him...I mgiht do that next.

I intend to start some work on Issue 20 of PALS tomorrow too, so feeling quite enthusiastic right now! I just hope the enthusiasm lasts in a couple of weeks time when I'll be much busier studying and working...

Poetry and Databases

I have spent a LONG time working on website and penpal related things today, but I feel really good now that I've acheived everything I intended to - even if it is 1am! As I'm learning (slowly, but faithfully) to use Access properly, I've created useful databases for my penpalling, and now one of all my poetry too - that really did take a while!

I've also updated my poetry site and added a batch of new poems to it, so have a look for yourself! I'm hoping the poem database will make it easier in the future to know which poems I have and haven't added.

Now I just need to wait for some articles from people for the wedding special, in the hope that I can release it before the end of June (I intend to release it on 22nd or 23rd June, as the next week might be a bit busy - it being the week before my wedding and everything). At the moment there are lots of pages but they are not very full! Here's hoping...

Poetry Site

I've finally got around to updating my poetry site today - it now has a whole load of new poems to look at on it. I'd been putting it off because I knew it would take ages; and it did take 2 hours! It was quite satisfying to finally get it done though.

Other than that I haven't done much with the website, but I will be uploading PALS next weekend. Spent yesterday having fun and going to a Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee) - essentially a Scottish barn dance (although they wouldn't like that description I don't imagine)! It was fun, but there was a bit too much alchol involved, so am feeling somehwat delicate today - hence wanting to sit quietly in front of the computer!

Lots of newsletter activity

I didn't mean to spend quite as long as I did writing up pieces for my newsletter and updating my website, but I was enjoying myself and got a bit carried away! I've spent the past 3 1/2 hours or so writing up pieces on New York, Leeds Castle and Portsmouth, along with updating my poetry site with some new pieces - see the results here. I still haven't finished Issue 15 of PALS, but it's not due out until the end of December and I hadn't planned to write that today (plus it's 1.30AM now so I want to go to bed soon), so I feel as if I've been pretty successful!

All in all today has been very good, as I've managed to entirely get over my jet lag, buy some Xmas presents, buy myself a lovely new leather jacket (admittedly quite expensive but it's sooo nice), write a ton of Xmas cards and letters/ birthday cards, and do loads to the newsletter! Quite glad I have another day off before I have to go back to work though, just to do things like clean and go food shopping!

My Poems

I have spent a good part of this evening (night now I guess!) working on my poetry website, updating the poems and adding a "Suggested Reading" sections, so there is now something new to look at on there again! I still have plenty I want to do - most importantly I need to upload the next issue of PALS at some point over this weekend, so it is ready for the beginning of September. It shouldn't be too much of a problem as it's a Bank Holiday weekend in England so I have Monday off - great!

My plan to write articles for future issues is going quite well too; I have kept up-to-date with my list, even managing to write a short piece about my job for a future 'Jobs Special' I hope to create in the next few months.

Dan and I are probably going to Winchester for the day on Monday too, so that will be another place to write about for one of My England issues (probably one covering the South East)!

Anyway, for now have a look at my poetry website for the updates.

Busy me

Although I've had a day off of work, I've been working hard on updating the website and getting the next issue of the newsletter ready. I'm off to make a cake as a reward in a second, but thought I'd let you know what I've been up to first.

Firstly, our photo page is now updated with some of our favourite Prague photos - take a look.

Secondly, I've also updated my poetry site with some new poems, so that you no longer have to read the ones from 3 months ago every time you look at the site.

And finally, I've even written a couple of pages of Issue 12 of PALS, on hobbies. Still waiting on articles from 2 or 3 people, but they have a month or so so I'll try not to be impatient. I think that's it for today - enjoy all the updated bits!

My Poetry Website

Yesterday Dan and I spent (a long!) time updating my poetry website, which you get to by following a link from our home page. I've also added a link below. The poetry site now has 10 new poems, and the background etc have all been updated - I hope you agree it looks a lot nicer now! I'm hoping to update the poetry on a more regular basis, hopefully every couple of months if I can find time. There's likely to be an article about this part of the website in a future issue of PALS, but for now feel free to have a look and see what you think.

My Poetry Site