Category: Personal

Le Tour In Yorkshire – Day 2 (York/Huddersfield/Sheffield)

So a small thing that I’m not exactly proud of – I cannot ride a bike.

I mean, I probably can. However I’ve never really been on one. I preferred scooters and video games growing up. However, one thing I really enjoy is Le Tour De France.

I think it is because when I was growing up Le Tour was always background TV on holidays. We’d be in a caravan, after a long day being out and about, and it’d be the last programme we watched before going to bed. So when they announced that Le Tour in Yorkshire was happening (La Grande Depart was taking part in Yorkshire), I made sure that I was going.

At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, the plans I originally had did fall through, and a night at the excellent Chorlton Beer Festival meant that I wasn’t sure if I would make it, but instead miss it. But the next day, hungover, I decided to suck it up and head to Huddersfield to watch the tour. To be spotted, I made sure I dressed suitably.

I was quite surprised how easy it was to get there. A lot was said on preparing early and getting there early. However I was surprised at how empty the trains and trams were. I wasn’t convinced it was actually happening. However, when arrived in Huddersfield, it was obvious there was something huge going on.

I headed to watch the tour and found a space next to a barrier at the bottom of a hill on the outskirts of Huddersfield. And then I played the waiting game. I was 3 hours early, and the carnival was due to arrive in 2 hours. So I chatted to a few people. And waited. It wasn’t a waste as about half 2 the first for the riders flew past.

That was followed 3 minutes later by the main field, which whizzed so fast past us it was borderline scary. But wonderful. (NSFW language in the video, but in all honesty if you work at a company that doesn’t allow you to view a video which includes the word “Shit” in it, then change jobs).

So all in all, it was a great day out. It was long, and there’s a bit of waiting, but it was something worth seeing. The crowds were amazing all weekend, so they did themselves credit. Same time next year boys and girls? 🙂

Did you go? What did you make of it? I thought it was superb!

Speaking at WordCamp Manchester 2014

Hi everybody,

I’m back from a non-self-imposed blogging hiatus (yeah, been busy) to announce that I am speaking this years WordCamp Manchester, at MMU Business School, on 28th of June.

My talk is entitled “How To Get Your First Child Theme Off The Ground”, and it is aimed at new developers wanting to learn what child theming is, how to put together a child theme together, and – most importantly – why you should be using a child theme for your next project.

I am incredibly excited to speak at this conference, as it was one of my goals for the year. I’m looking forward as well to interact with the WordPress community more, which for the last year has been a constant source of learning for me. This is the first time I’ll be speaking at a WordCamp, after I spoke at MWUG earlier this year (view the slides & notes here)

Talk is still in the early stages of planning, so if you want me to cover anything, please drop a comment or an email.

If you fancy attending, at the time of writing, tickets are available on the WordCamp Manchester site. Be warned though, they will sell out. That isn’t some marketing speak to drive ticket sales – they have already sold out once before, and – with only 3 left – I’d put the house on them selling out again.

They are also looking for sponsors. Sponsoring is cost effective and could be a good source of exposure for your company. Find out how to sponsor here.

Finally, if you’re coming, I encourage you to attend the Contributor Day the next day. It has been the best thing I’ve done professionally this year, and you can really contribute to the growth of a fantastic piece of software. Tickets for that are free.

Three Point Zero

So today, I turn 30 years old.

I have a hard time dealing with “not being 20 something” (yes, I know I need to change the footer), so much so that I consume a not exactly miniscule amount of youth water in an attempt to stave off the inevitable passage of time.

In short I probably shouldn’t complain about my entry into my fourth decade of existence. I achieved a lot. From the usual lot of growing up, getting a career and a savings plan that isn’t dreadful to the more interesting of going to Oktoberfest, travelling the world, to becoming a professional wrestler, and also writing a fricking book, I suppose I can look back on my 20s as being generally lovely.

So here’s to my thirties. May you be as kind and generous to me as the 20s were.

Also if anybody fancies getting Hulk Hogan or a celebrity that I actually know to retweet this blog, that’d be super. Thanks!

30 Books That Will Make Marketers improve Their Skills on State of Digital

Recently, I contributed to a post on State of Digital as I picked a book that was listed on their 30 Books That Will Make Marketers Improve Their Skills. The book I chose was the rather excellent Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holliday. This book completely defines the whole “It’s better to Beg for Forgiveness than Ask for Permission”, and well worth checking out.

The list contains 29 other luminaries of the digital world, and it’s a great reading list. Well worth checking out and bookmarking!

You can read the post here.

Does Google Need To Make Their WordPress Plugin Better?

I was listening to a recent episode of the excellent WordPress Weekly Podcast of WP Tavern (episode 134), which covered WordCamps.

One thing that piqued my interest was the discussion of the first plugin released by Google in the repository. On it, one of the panelists (I didn’t quite get who) mentioned that it “sucked”. Which is something I actually agree with.

The reason I believe it sucked was that it only did two things: Webmaster Tools verification and allowing to add Google Adsense to your site, both of which had a lot of plugins in the repository. The panelist then went on to discuss the number of other technologies that Google have that are criminally underrated in the WordPress Repository: Google’s two factor authentication (incidentally, I’ve been using Rublon recently, and it’s pretty good), and Schema implementation are both pretty under-represented, surely it would be better if Google focused on one of those plugins?

In two words, probably not.

To play devil’s advocate, I think the reason why Google’s first plugin is Adsense’s focus is that their core business revolves around advertising. It make sense that they become to the go to plugin for people wanting to put Adsense on their site.

Yes I wish it was more advanced and I believe there would be better things for Google to work on for WordPress Sites, but remember Google doesn’t owe you anything, from rankings, to mail client, to even what is in their WordPress plugin.

Such is the beauty of WordPress that the plugin’s open source nature that anybody can take the plugin to make it better (something I’ve been messing around with). So yes: as I recommended at my MWUG Presentation on SEO for WordPress: listen to Google, but question them.