Today was the first day of the monthly street food market in the Jewellery Quarter. I had a tasty meatball sub – The bad boy I think it was called. It was one of them foods on a roll that just had to be eaten with a fork. It was messy. Tasty, but messy.I finished watching the first series of Inside No 9 tonight. Those guys really do push television into dark realms that others just wouldnt dare go. The end scene with the school girl strapped to a chair in her underwear as a near-deformed man is about to pass on the devil that has possessed him for 50 years. Dark, dark places.I’m really looking forward to seeing The Terminator tomorrow night at Star City. The original masterpiece up on the big screen. Its gonna be great. I just hope my cough clears up a bit.Oh and I’ve just bought tickets to see Kacey Musgraves in Birmingham in November. Yay!
Keeping it up: Day 5
I’ve not been keeping it up, have I?(phrasing)Try and try again I shall.Tonight I saw the first episode of humans – very good it was. It’s interesting to see exactly what it means to be ‘human’ – to have consciousness. The acting was great – I even tried making a cup of tea like a robot afterwards and it’s actually harder than it seems. It will be interesting to see where the show goes – especially as dark elements have already begun to creep in.Later on I ended up listening to an old episode of Cabin Pressure – Qikiqtarjuaq. It’s been about a year since I first heard this series and had forgotten how good it is. Benedict Cumberbatch is probably best known for playing Sherlock in the BBC series, but one should also check him out in Cabin Pressure. He, along with the rest of the cast, have incredible chemistry in one of the funniest series I’ve ever heard.
Keeping it up: Day 4
Today’s been a naff day. I’ve felt pretty aweful with this sore throat and cough. Please – send me no flowers.I’m looking forward to later tonight when I’ll get to watch the Game of Thrones series finale for the second time – I’m more looking forward to how my girlfriend reacts to the outcome of certain characters. I have the responsibility of warning her just before any gruesome bits happen – the temptation not to torments me, but I will do my duty.Tomorrow we are taking her mom to Dudley Zoo, which should be nice – hopefully I can kick some of this cough before then. Looking forward to getting some good snappy snaps of the animals. Here’s hoping we have some nice weather.
Keeping it up: Day 3
So I have failed completely so far in writing an entry each day. I have some poor excuses if that’s any consolation? I broke my computer and spent ages trying to reinstall it; I’ve also got a sore throat and cough……yep I know, I know pretty pathetic.So two months ago I signed up for the London marathon 2016. During my training I pushed myself a bit too hard and strained my ankle. I’ve not been able to train for nearly three weeks. But since buying an ankle support, it seems to be getting better. So this Sunday I’ll head out for a jog and see how it feels.I’ve not been confirmed for the London Marathon – the winners are announced in September/October time.However I will hopefully be doing a couple of half marathons before the end of the year. So that should help me gauge my fitness level.
Keeping it up: Day 2
I bought a new cage for Moomin on Friday night. I loved the idea of him having a higher one so he could climb up further. The idea of the high platforms seemed cool too. However in practice it wasn’t suitable at all – he kept falling off the platform and knocking the loosley-coupled platform bridges out.So I’ve opted to go for the same one as he had before. Pets at home were very helpful in getting it exchanged as well as letting me have some spare parts.I’m even thinking about connecting the two cages together – as they are the same model – to make Moomin a sort of super-lair. I’ll let you know how that one pans out.
Keeping it up: Day 1
So this is my first entry in my ‘keeping it up’ series of continuous writing – two days after the introduction post. How pathetic is that!? So anyways, here is the first of which i will do my best to be many.So I saw Jurassic World yesterday evening. I had seen the trailer and thought to myself how it was going to be terrible and probably best to avoid it all together – I have been known to be one of those people who goes on about how remakes or reboots are a bad idea. However I was pleasently surprised: I actually enjoyed it. It was a good two-hour escape into a world of dinosaurs and thought there were some great little twists in there.For me the whole film came together with the ending. I enjoyed it throughout, but the ending was great fun and improved the film for me as a whole.And it was good to see they didn’t shy away from the violence. With it being a 12A – always a warning sign for me for some films – I thought it would be completely kiddified. But there was a comfortable amount of people being eaten, crushed and thrown into trees for me to feel satisfied. I’m not sadistic – honest.
Keeping it up: An Introduction
I was inspired by Jeremy Keith and his 100 words he has been publishing for the past 80 days. This is the same philosophy as The 100 days Project.I then heard the latest episode of Unfinished Business podcast where he, Jeffrey Zeldman and Andrew Clarke spoke about publishing on ones own site. Their conversation and views inspired me further.The discipline of doing something creative each and every day – no matter how quick or easy – sounded like something I’d like to try. To make myself create something every day and stop procrastinating. So this is it – my own approach to 100 words / 100 days. I will be writing an entry into this journal each and every day no matter how mundane it may be.I’m still thinking about whether or not to give myself some form of constaint. For example Jeremy’s daily journals have each been exactly 100 words. But I don’t want the thinking up of a constraint stop me from actually doing something, so I’ll just give it some thought.
Rinse and Repeat
I find myself most nights tinkering in some way to my website with the goal of making it the best personal publishing platform it can be.
The only problem is, is that because I spend the time tinkering with the site, I find myself not publishing as often as I’d like. I do write notes throughout the day which get published and shared out in most cases, but I’d like to be writing long form more often.
So what I will try my best to do is write something everyday in a more long form style — within my journal section. I was inspired by Jeremy Keith’s 100 Words he has been writing every day. Its all about keeping the drive to produce results in whatever creative profession is yours -i no matter how busy you are or how you’re feeling.
I’m looking forward to seeing what everyday writing will produce. Likely it will produce a bunch of ramblings on everyday things but maybe I’ll find a little gold nugget every once in a while.
We shall see.
ownCloud – first thoughts
I have just installed ownCloud on my laptop as a testing ground. I am soon to be buying a new computer off a friend and will be using my current one as a personal server.I decided to go with owncloud because it seems to do everything I need it to right out of the box. Cross device file syncing with as much storage as I have on my computer. All I had to do was install owncloud via the ubuntu terminal following these steps.I am starting using it on version 8.1 and first impressions are that it is very nice. It has a clean UI and straight forward settings controls. This is going to be a big step in me taking control of my own data and moving away from services like Google and Dropbox.The big job now will be to import all of my photos out of Google as well as re-downloading all of my music from google play music.
Going Alone and taking control of my data
You see so many horror stories about companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook. About how they use your data to whatever end they want. I heard a story once about how through facebook’s various smart algorythms, someone’s profile had inadvertantly been made an endorser for something inappropriate to their own mom!Now I’m not saying that these companies are super evil. Infact it is simply their business model to use you for the collection of data; to learn everything they can about you; to sell that information to their real customers – why do you think Google, Twitter and Facebook are all free?As Aral Balkan from Indie puts it: “you are the quarry being mined”Take Google for example. The services that they give you for free are great. They give us maps of every place in the world imaginable… every place; free photo storage; free document storage; free email. Great. But at what cost is free?I became aware of the importance of owning ones own data through reading about, and implementing several principles of, the IndieWeb. On top of this the work that Aral Balkan and his team have been doing at Indie has inspired me to take a more pro-active approach to my data.Like I said, I have already begun implementing several aspects of the IndieWeb: I write any potential tweets as notes on my own site first; I reply to other people’s tweets from my own site first.The next logical step for me is to move away from using Google for many of the things I currently use it for. This is quite a lot.EmailPhoto StorageDocument StorageCalenderBooksStreaming MusicMaps and its associated location trackingYoutubeSome of these I will still use. But many of them I will be finding other alternatives.EmailI have been using protonmail for about three months so far. And so far I really like it. Take a look at their security details to see why I have chosen them them to go with.Photo StorageWhen I take a photo on my Nexus device, it automatically gets synced to my google cloud storage. While I love the convenience of this, I’m going to be putting together an alternative where I will store my photos on a home server – with automatic backups – and the only ones online will be ones that I upload to my website. As with my syndication of notes/tweets, I may syndicate images out with notes that I make.Document StorageAs with photos, I will be looking to store any digital documents on a home server.CalendarI am yet to look into this. Although I very rarely use any form of calendar, it may be nice to have a personal one. I may decide to build my own – possibly incorporating it as a secret area of my website.BooksStart buying physical books again as opposed to digital downloads. That’s a pretty easy one.Streaming and Storage of digital musicThis is one thing that I wont be changing. I love how I can have all of my owned albums digital stored in the cloud. On top of this I also love how I can pay eight pounds a month and get unlimited streaming and download of countless artists and albums. Many of the artists I now listen to have come as a direct result of just randomly picking an album to listen to.MapsGoogle maps is probably way out there in front of its other competitors. However I love the idea of Open Street Map. So this may be my alternative in the near future.YoutubeI will continue to use youtube as normal as it now comes with features exclusive to Google Play: All Access customers.
Thoughts again about an indieweb CMS
Some time ago I wrote an article on planning to build my own CMS. I started to work on it using CodeIgniter as its framework. When I started to get overwhelmed by all of the moving parts I was trying to think about all at once I immediately went over to my current site – which is powered by WordPress – and thought “this’ll do me perfectly”.And to be honest it does.The thing is there’s still this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that says to me: “build your own CMS; it will be lightweight; you’ll know it inside-out; you’ll learn all about the IndieWeb’s moving parts”. But then the critic in me says: “Don’t be stupid – that’s why there is a community of talented people who have solved a lot of these things – so you don’t have to, Dave.”But that thought process of mine is negative and against the true spirit of the IndieWeb – building your own tools for yourself; Building something that is 100% to your own specification and something you will use everyday.Now don’t get me wrong I’m hugely grateful to the WordPress plugins that I rely on every day that have made my getting on to the IndieWeb so easy. But I feel it is time to step up my game which is why I am going to set myself a deadline – in the spirit of Tantek’s IndieWeb commitment for 2015-01-01 – of having my site in place with a home-built CMS by 2015-07-01.And apologies in advance to all the great people at IndieWebCamp, for no doubt I will have countless questions for them in the coming months as I hack away at my new CMS. Thank you.
My IndieWeb Setup
Please note: This is now out of date somewhat
This post is an outline of my IndieWeb setup. I describe some of the key plugins I have installed as well as third party services I use. All of which play nicely together for the IndieWeb.Built with WordPressMy personal site is built using WordPress and is a completely custom-built theme. WordPress?—?with its plethora of plugins and diverse, active community?—?provides one of the best platforms from which to build an IndieWeb site today – outside of rolling your own. When I first heard about the IndieWeb and found myself wanting to implement its principles on my own site, I went ahead and installed a plugin I was recommended?—?the IndieWeb Plugin?—?which links to a collection of other plugins that implement certain functionality to tie into those IndieWeb principles.Plugins I have installedYou don’t have to limit yourself to only the plugins I list here?—?I have just listed the ones that I myself have in use in regards to IndieWeb.IndieWeb PluginThis plugin, once installed, provides links to the recommended IndieWeb plugins?—?some of which I have listed below?—?that will help bring you into the IndieWeb. I have also provided direct links to the plugins themselves, or you can search in your admin area’s new plugin interface. I haven’t described them all yet as I am not 100% on what some of them do. As I gain an understanding of others I use, I will include them below. The ones that I have described below are the ones I actively use and understand what they do for me. Download the IndieWeb PluginNextScripts : Social Networks Auto-PosterThis is a great plugin for easily syndicating content out to many third-party silos. I use a custom fork of it with editsThe plugin creators have very kindly added in my code edits to allow twitter replies that create those tweets as replies within the Twitter timeline. Social Networks Auto-Poster?—?or SNAP for short?—?has a flexible way in which to template how and what to share to each silo when posting your content. For example in a small note you may send the full text content only, however for an article you have written you may want to send the post title and permalink. Download the SNAP PluginRel-Syndication for WordPressThis plugin works beautifully with the Social Networks Auto-Poster plugin. It will grab the SNAP plugin’s syndication data for a post, and append a list of links to that post’s content. It will also include the necessary microformats2 meta data in the links of those syndicated copies. Download Rel-Syndication for WordPressWordPress Webmention PluginThis sets up webmention support on the site. It allows me to receive webmentions and automagically creates them as comments to those posts. It will also parse the post content for posts I write for any links contained within, and send webmentions to those links. Download WordPress Webmention pluginIndieWeb Custom TaxonomyThis plugin adds an extra semantic layer to posts. It allows you to categorize your posts as being one of the following: “Bookmark”, “Favorite”, “Like”, “Reply”, “Repost” and “RSVP”. All of which are actions that are found on social networks. It also allows you to save a URL to which you may be replying to. The plugin will then pull in that URL to give a preview of the link with the post content. This shows the context to which your post content may be replying to. Download the IndieWeb Custom Taxonomy PluginWordPress Semantic LinkbacksWhen you receive webmentions* from a site?—?or from Bridgy if you use that (see below)?—?then those comments are added to the site. What the semantic linkbacks plugin does is generate semantic comments using microformats2. *Please Note: you will need to have the WordPress Webmention plugin installed for this plugin to recognize Webmentions. See above. Download the Semantic Linkbacks pluginOther Tools I useBridgyBridgy is absolutely bloody fantastic. It is a web app built by Ryan Barrett and automatically polls a number of third-party silos?—?whichever ones you choose to connect?—?and pulls in any links to your website and any new responses to posts you have sent. Once it pulls in links and responses, it will send them over to your website as webmentions. The WordPress Webmention Plugin?—?mentioned above?—?knows exactly what to do with them. There are a couple of configurations that you may need to do also?—?at least these are what I needed to do. Firstly when bridgy finds replies to a tweet that originated from your site it will need to know where that original link is on your website. For example if you just sent twitter a note with no links back, bridgy will need to look on your site for that original message. But how does it know where the post is? It looks for the post that has, within it’s h-entry markup, the syndication link to that twitter copy. If you are using the Rel-Syndication Plugin for WordPress, then your content should already have the syndication links appended to them. One thing I had to also do was to add a “feed” meta link into my site’s header, in order to tell bridgy where those links could be found on my site (as they were not on my homepage at the time). And that’s my IndieWeb setup. Like I said before, there are some other plugins that were recommended from the IndieWeb plugin. However I have not included these here as I am not yet confident in describing those just yet. Any questions about this setup or any other IndieWeb queries please ask. I’ll do my best to help.