Well, it’s been a few days since my last entry. I’ve been pretty busy, scaling up a website like the recent BBC makeover, optimising the content management system for 1024×768 resolution. It’s been quite hard work actually, because there seems to be a fair bit of CSS tweaking, plus we’re adding some more features to the site which should help it’s rankings in Google a fair bit. (Not that it’s doing too badly, as it’s around end of page 1/top of page 2 for most of it’s target audience.

Which brought me to thinking, what am I really doing with richrock.co.uk? What can I do with it? I really saw it as a personal blog project, optimising the text and gaining readership, maybe a few more comments than I’ve had. It’s not worked out fantastically, as my interests are diverse, and I felt I’ve never really had a proper direction for the site. So I’ve sat down, and thought, ‘what are the core elements that I would consistently blog about?’ and also had a bit of thinking along the lines of ‘how can I implement my own changes without a week’s worth of work?’. I do have in mind to write my own custom Wordpress template, although that’s only in the sketching/planning stages. I would also like to expand my pages, creating some fixed content about things. I even thought about using the Content Management System (CMS) I do web development with, but again, that is quite a bit of work. It takes me three-four weeks to complete a CMS project, and that’s with eight-hour days. Which I don’t have in the evening.

So, building on that, I initially decided on a set of core elements from which I should not deviate. And here they are:

• Christianity
• Web Development
• Mountain Biking
• Media (mostly music, film, photography and interesting net oddities).

I thought I could narrow it down more. It seems that good blogs only tend to use a couple of core subjects. They provide a more focused reading, and yes, initially would have a reduced readership, but would grow with the following of people genuinely interested in those subjects.

I struggled. I really did. There wasn’t much chance of me not talking about any of the subjects above. Seeing that I could not change much about my subject choice, I decided to set priorities on what to talk about. So here is the revised list, in order of priority (most important first):

• Christianity
• Media (see above)
• Web Development
• Mountain Biking

Subtle changes, but changes nonetheless. Even though I am a web developer, I don’t have much time to write howtos or guides about CSS, HTML or PHP, and similarly with mountain biking, I enjoy it very much, but don’t really have much to write about it. Speak to me, and I will talk passionately about riding trails. At least until I’ve saved enough for my next bike, which is looking like a Norco Shore 2.

Media is quite wide and encompassing, and allows quick-fire entries about cool things I see on the net. But the most important topic, and one which is personal to me, is Christianity. It’s my faith, my lifestyle. When I write about it, I get a passion rise up in me, It excites me to write about something that God has done for me, or some small teaching, an insight to the glories of God.

So that will be my primary subject. I’ve been on something of a restorative path, having drifted and almost lost my faith some time ago, but God has other plans for me. I am starting to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice of conviction again, because I’ve done my own foolish things, and I expect my life to change radically again, like the moment I got saved. If I wrote that, it would be a long blog, but I am planning to write it and put online as a separate page. Watch this space for my testimony there.

I don’t have much else to say. I got up early to write this on the laptop prior to publishing online, so I could really think about what I was saying. I may do this for the teaching entries. I’ll have to look at the previous posts and see if I can reduce the categories for the older ones, or find some other way of archiving them.

Lastly, I have been thinking about writing an entry regarding the human/animal embryo research that has just been approved by our government, but not sure what to say about it. It’s a work in progress, like we all are in life.

Now I remember. I’m gonna try and post something each day. See what tripe I come out with by the end of the month. Hopefully it’ll be a useful selection of web development/programming tips, geek advice, mountain biking reports and teaching notes based on my Christian faith. That reminds me, I must re-write my testimony to go on a separate page.

All quiet. Not much to say. Sorry.

And I’m really tired. I’ve done quite a bit of riding this week, rode some forest trails on Little Skirrid (Ysgyryd Fawr), did a little bit of road before my front disc brakes disintegrated. £18.99 later, I rode the winter circuit of the Sugar Loaf, a nice little combo of road and forest track, with a nice smooth fast downhill. Great. Then I rode the 8.5 miles to my girlfriend’s house, and will have to make the same ride back on Sunday.

It’s been good for me, I feel better for getting out more, riding local hills, even attempting some trials stuff for a laugh. Alongside that, watching the DVD ‘Roam’ by The Collective just makes me think how fantastic it is to ride the local mountains, to see awesome views. God made this planet, He alone created the many hills, with minute attention to detail, and we can come along, ride those said hills, take in the views and marvel at His creation.

A time to laugh and a time to dance - Ecclesiastes 3:4

I laugh. When I make a mistake on the bike (usually at slow speed), I fall off, and I laugh. In my opinion, the quote above may be out of context, but to me it says enjoy other things. People who focus on one thing all the time end up being very miserable, or just people you don’t want at parties.

I do things in church, I am reasonably active, I work hard, I play hard too. Now that summer’s here, I can ride in the evenings. Now my flatmate’s got a bike too, I can take him on the trails, and it encourages each other.

I’m still not sure how much the girlfriend approves of my ‘toy’. But that toy gets me out, helps me enjoy life. If I was boring, what does that show people of my faith in Christ? That Christianity itself is boring? Because I have other interests, and I can be godly in those (I don’t swear when a chain snaps, or I fall off), I can show other people what it’s like. Sure the extra commitment of Church can take time off doing other things, but being in a Church is important. To be with others of like minds, can encourage each other, then go into the world and show them too.

I don’t know of any point as to why I have written this, but it felt a long time since I made a post about my faith for a while. Now, because I’ve written about my bike, I’ve got that scripture for ’some trust in chariots…’ in my mind.

Found this to solve a problem. Be aware that CSS support of hr tags is limited.

These guys rule the roost with their DVD’s showing the best mountain biking action in the most creative way, using film as the media…

Watch… I can’t wait…

While I wait for the backups to complete, I find myself drifting around on the internet. In my open-source meanderings (on Firefox obviously), I find this. A spiffy collection of cool tech-orientated cartoons, with one of my favourite Dilbert strips at the top.

Plus I want this. As I’ve been doing a lot of MySQL stuff recently, it only seems appropriate.

Simple - in a mysql prompt, type this:

SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE 'tablename';

Where the tablename is the table you need to find the next auto_increment value. It should be the 9th value in the results.

Well, I’m supposed to be teaching in my homegroup tonight. There is a preferred subject, but I’ve had no inspiration about how to go about it. The problem is simple - do a subject I’ve done quite a few times, but differently.

All I have is a sequence of events that I’d like to unfold the session with. However, the actual elements (quotes, stories, questions, practicals) have yet to materialise. Am I panicking?

Yes.

I’ll admit that I’m a n00b at this. I’ve been starting on the slippery road to being a programmer, having dabbled in a little Javascript and fairly fluent in HTML & CSS. So now I find myself trying to grasp the concept of PHP programming.

Don’t forget - I’m self-taught. I’ve been working on a lot of PHP>Database interactions, and I plan to share those with you, in the interest of Open Source Software. I’ll be writing some tutes on the basics next week, as I’m on holiday, and I’ll be doing a fair bit of writing then.

Until then, enjoy! Oh, and I’ll be posting some more photography too.