I’m finally back online, after I decided to take a few days leave - a much needed break! I still haven’t really gotten into the swing of things yet since the Christmas period, having been dodging work and other bits and pieces. I think it’s time to settle myself down now, I’ve opened up another hosting business recently, it’s just about self-managing, the script manages everything from processing payment, through to creating the accounts and lining up support tickets in order of priority etc… More details on it shortly, as I’m still setting it up (the website).

Since last week I’ve relaunched Blogger Hub, except this time it will be solely for Wordpress, and Wordpress related products and discussions. I’ve no experience with other platforms like Drupal, Typepad and whatever else is on the market, so it would be pretty stupid to continue to run a board on topics I know little about, or have no experience with - on the other hand, Wordpress is such a widespread product it will interest both beginner and intermediate bloggers. The usual topics covered: Running your Blog, Styling and Modding your Blog, Monitising your Blog, Selling Products and Placements on your Blog, and the general “blogging banter” thrown in for the sake of it. I don’t see it catching on for a while - I’m being pretty realistic in this, forums are a difficult thing to setup, and even trickier to get running - no one wants to talk on an empty board, but the board will be empty without anyone chatting on it. A Catch 22 situation! I will have to put my marketing cap on and get some members in, one thing which may interest them will be the fact that I’m trying to figure out a way to have it as a revenue sharing board… :razz: .

More website news, I’ve finished the Motor Vehicle Preservation Society of Ireland website, it needs a lot more work - such as optimization, and more filler content drafted up, but it was a past-deadline realese, and Payne was on my neck to get it online - “take yer time” generally means “where’s me f**kin’ website” in webmaster talk… It’s online now, alongside the Blog which was a 5 minute jobby. He’s happy with the result, I wouldn’t be 100% happy with it, it’s a bugger to load on Dialup (or slow broadband), but that’s just a case of reducing the size of the navbar icons and header image. All these loose ends will be tidied up in the coming weeks (possibly months :neutral: ).

On another note, I’m on the road finally! I got my “Learners Permit” last week, and I’ve taken a few driving lessons. I’m already capable of driving, it’s just road ettiquette, general use, and caping my speed… I mentioned the last one, as I kept creeping over the speed limit on my first lesson - of which the instructor didn’t give me any instruction… (a family friend). I’ve got a fair bit to improve on, such as roundabouts, and merging. I’ve been practicing Hill Starts, Emergency Stops and 3-point turns, I’m not great at them but practice does make perfect!

I’ve been having a break from blogging -and I hope to continue it for a few days to come! I’ve been run down lately, from working on other websites and blog, that’s I feel it’s time for a break. My income online isn’t as good as it used to be, so now I’m basically working for free on the blog - so I don’t see why I should be running myself into the ground over it!

Contrary to what people may think, blogging can be stressful! Especially if it’s about blogging! You try so hard to make your article perfect that you read it and read it, make some alterations, read it some more, publish it online, read it, edit it, read it, and finally drag yourself away! This blog isn’t too bad, it’s mostly a personal blog, but some of my other ones relating to making money online, and blogging tips have to compete in a competitve market, and I’m writing for professional people who know what they’re talking about :???: .

I’ve sold on a number of my blogs already, as I’m focusing on getting a good Leaving Cert at the moment, and there isn’t enough time to work on both - so the blogs had to go. I kept on five of them, and this week I opened another two in partnership with other people so the workload on them already has been halved (or so I claim!).

Anyway, I’ve done my weeks worth on the blog. I’ve added a new theme (I’ll get around to modifying it later), and had my words! Normal bloggings will resume next Monday :twisted: .

I’m after catching the flu from all of the TB infected morsels that surround me on a daily basis, coughing up the remains of their lungs in a pool of Hospital-Gown Olive Green bile. I thought that if I can survive Cork in minus conditions and just get the ’sniffles’, I could survive anything - WRONG! I knew the moment I woke up this morning with the sore throat, amongst other classic flu symptoms that I was no longer invinceable.

So in light of this, I’m now sueing Danone - the people who make Actimel. Strengthens your ‘defence forces’ my hole!

You’ve probably noticed the blog has had vacant posting days on a frequent and regular basis, this is entirely my fauly due to poor time management - one of my main problems!

I’ve decided that enough is enough, and it’s time to make a structured plan from week-to-week, which will give me a basis to form my plans to give proper measures for schoolwork, blogging, work and of course ‘play’! As I’m rapidly approaching the doom of the Leaving Cert 2009 (same as A-Levels in the UK), I need to create a proper study plan if I’m to make anything of myself in the exam! As my teachers have said, the Leaving Cert started in the first term, and I’ve practacly been dossing since then - so today is a stepping stone to a better Leaving Cert!

My motive for wanting to do as best I can in the Leaving Cert was when I got my Christmas test results back. I wasn’t entirely pleased with them, although some I was over joyed with - such as Business Studies, Irish, Maths and History. Other subjects like French, Accounting, and English (Shakespere and Keats…Ye Olde Waste O’Time!) are subjects which require most of my attention, as I barely scrapped by! - I’m sort of excused from Accounting as I haven’t gotten results yet, and I haven’t even studied it until the beginning of this schoolyear - so I don’t have a basis on where I’ve to improve on.

Basically I’m leaving most of my evenings to schoolwork - up until around 8pm (if needed), and then the rest of the evening for relaxation and ‘work’! Around 4 hours, with a few breaks here and there is what every Leaving Cert student should be doing every night apparently! It’s tough going, I’m basically going from a light shower of study to terenchal down pours of study!

Then there’s always weekends! I usually do little to no study on weekends, it’s my time to relax and get my hands dirty (occasionally) while out and about in t’yard. I have no intentions now, to cut down on my recreational activities, but possibly I could squeeze in some studying on the Fridays and Sunday evenings when I’m usually twiddling my thumbs doing nothing..or else messing about with websites!

I’ve been asked on many occassions about running a Wordpress blog on your own domain, and on all of those occassions I’ve stated that it’s easier than it appears! I have since decided to write a series of step-by-step guides from the get go regarding setting yourself up on your own domain with Wordpress.

Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are more like personal journals, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.

Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

Firstly you must decide what you want your blog to be about; a personal blog, online business blog, development blog, technology blog, money making blog. There’s a variety of categories you can base your blog about, more importantly, make your blog about something you have a personal interest in yourself! You won’t be motivated if you know nothing about your chosen category.

Next you need to chose a name, and more equally important, a domain name to which your blog will be available. Try to use keywords that relate to your blog category, or if it’s a personal blog, use your name or internet alias. For example, if you’re opening a technology blog, I would suggest that you have technology related keywords in your domain and blog name.

Next you should register your domain, to secure it for the long-term, if you don’t intend on starting your blog immediatly. I’d advise that you use reputable domain registrars, such as GoDaddy, Name, or Register365. All offer reasonable prices, with second to none support available when needed, and have an easy to use domain management panel.

Now with your domain registered, you should secure hosting. Obviously this is upto your requirements, fundementally your host should offer a generousl package of space and bandwidth, as well as MySQL databases and will support PHP which is a must! Wordpress has setout a list of recommended Wordpress hosts - here.

Now that you’ve secured your hosting and domain, you can now move onto installing Wordpress! If you’re lucky enough to have Fantastico, and Wordpress pre-installed you can cut out the next few steps. But if you haven’t, or would like to manually install Wordpress, read on!

Download Wordpress here. Unzip using WinRar or a simular program. Open the folder, read the readme.html file! Next open wp-config-sample.php in Wordpad, Dreamweaver or another simular program. Replace the database information with the correspoding information for your hosting and MySQL database. See below.

Remeber to leave the quotation marks in place!

‘putdbnamehere’ - Your database name, often it is structured like: user_blog.

‘usernamehere’ - Put your cPanel or MySQL Database username here.

‘yourpasswordhere’ - Replace with your password.

‘localhost’ - Generally you don’t have to replace this, but in some instances you may be required to replace it with the MySql server address of your host, which they will supply.

Now save as wp-config.php, and upload all the files and folders to your server root. Login to your hosting FTP account using an FTP Client like SmartFTP, usually your server root is located at public_html.

Once all the files have been uploaded successfully, point your browser to http://yourdomain.com/blog folder/wp-admin/install.php, and run the installer script. This will now input the tables into your MySQL database. If you encounter an error double check wp-config.php, if this measure fails contact Wordpress Support for more help.

If your install was successful, you will be forwarded to a splash page, where you will be given your username and temporary password, you will then proceed to the Wordpress login page, where you should use these details to login to the admin control panel. I would advise, that at this point you go to users, and modify the password to something unique to you!

You can now start blogging! But before you do, make sure that you setup your blog’s categories, options and of course blogroll! You can now begin blogging, as time progresses you should become more familiar (if you’re not already) with the Wordpress interface. It’s argueably one of the easiest to use blogging systems, with a large followings of Themes, Plugins, Widgets, and other modifications which we’ll go into greater detail in futher installments.

Part 2 is due in the next few days!

2008 has been so hectic, I haven’t yet had the chance to layout a plan of action forecast for the year ahead, as regards present websites, blogs, forums, domains, and proposed investments, and ideas. Well I’m finally getting there - slowly but surely. 2008 has been so hectic, I haven’t had the opportunity to make any business posts, nor have I had the luxury of time to upgrade the blog to Wordpress 2.3.2. :???:

I have plans for my ‘high’ earners, such as this blog and a few others - sorry but for some reason, I often don’t publically disclose most of my websites of being under my ownership - although, if you have an eye for detail you’d spot my trend of websites dotted about the net :wink: . I have decided to keep this blog as my main personal diary, with as few business posts as possible. I will of course post the odd webmaster article, but I want to bulk out the rest of my network of simular topics on money making, marketing, and other online activities - if they end up anything like this blog was in August I’d be happy!

The six forums I run and co-run will be expecting quite considerable work, all phpBB, and SMF boards will eventually be ported over the vBulletin, provided they can earn their keep! I’ve two boards on IP. Board, I will keep them on that for as long as I can (when the licenses expire). I’m gradually moving from stepping stone to stepping stone when it comes to marketing websites and blogs - forums are my next target!

Setting up a blog is hard work, but setting up a forum is a mammoth task! For instance, Wordpress is so easy to install I can have it done in under 30 minutes, theme installed too! . All you’ve to construct is your categories, a few links in the blogroll, intro post, and a few other minor bits and pieces. Forums, tend to be more difficult. Firstly you have to install it, IP. Board and vBulletin, simple as they are, take a lot of time to install. They take longer to setup, with various categories, forums, sub-forums, usergroups, user ranks, admin/mod permissions, etc… Hence, I have never been very motivated while setting up forums!

I believe it will take me another week to settle! I’ve been so busy getting myself ‘on the road‘ - more on that when I get my license in the post!, I’ve been away from the 2nd of January until Sunday evening, I’m back at school - which is hectic at the moment as you could imagine, I’m busy working on other websites which I’ve promised priority over everything else, and that coupled with looking for employment, and trying to juggle a social life and online business - it’s not an easy feat!

Friends and neighbours and friends of Dan Crilly, who died suddenly on Sunday, spoke yesterday about how the youth was “one of those teenagers everybody knew”.

Daniel Crilly, or “Dan-Dan” as he was known to friends, died in Darndale at the weekend, just yards from where he used to live with his family.

It is believed he collapsed and was found on Sunday morning.

He had lived in Marigold Court in Darndale until a few weeks ago, before moving to a semi-detached house on Clonshaugh Road near Northside Shopping Centre with his family, including his mother Sandra, older brother David and an older sister.

The house where Daniel collapsed is on Marigold Avenue, just yards from where he used to live. Although family members were too upset to speak at their Clonshaugh Road house yesterday, former neighbours and friends from Marigold Crescent told the Irish Independent how “Dan-Dan” was “just like Del Boy, always trying to make a few quid”.

“He was a great singer too,” one neighbour said.

“He won competitions and all in his school. He’d always say hello and would go to the shop for you if you asked him.”

Another neighbour commented on how Daniel was “brilliant at football” and played gaelic football for the local club O’Tooles.

“Everybody knew him — he was just that kind of kid,” the neighbour said.

The transition-year student at Donahies Community School in Donaghmede was also described as a talented singer by his school principal. “The school, obviously, extends its sympathy very much to his parents — to his mum and to his family and especially to his brother, David, who is a fifth-year student here in the school and we will offer the family all the support we can,” Antoinette Nic Ghearailt, principal of St Donahie’s, said yesterday.

Friends updated their Bebo pages yesterday in tribute.

A number carried the tribute “6/01/08 RIP Dandan, love you loads bro” as the banner across the top of their pages.

Another friend, under the name Kea, said: “Dandan may you always walk in sunshine and god’s love around you flow, for the happiness you gave us, no one will ever know.

“It broke our hearts to lose you but you didn’t go alone — a part of us went with you,” he said.

“Love you bud, a soul taken away. An early brother to an early friend to an early boyfriend.

“Taken away but not forgotten. Love you always”

Local councillor Larry O’Toole said the community was anxious to know the exact circumstances of Daniel’s death.

Source: independant.ie

Incase you haven’t already heard, Daniel was a Transition Year student at my school. Although I didn’t know him that much, I thought it would be fitting to place a tribute on my blog due to the tragic circumstances of his death on Saturday night/Sunday morning. The above excerpt from independant.ie(with some minor alterations and corrections), outlines just about everything I have knowledge of regarding what happened.

I found out about it this morning, I had heard rumours and got texts about it, but as you tend to do, you ignore them until you hear from a credible source. So first class was mainly spent going through what happened, and what will happen in the following days. As you can expect some people were upset, and others traumatised from having only heard the news. We were offered visits to DoE provided psychologists, told we would be provided for at the funeral mass, and 4th and 5th years were asked to form a guard of honour. We were breifed on how there may be press outside the school gates come lunch time and after school. We were asked not to comment on the situation, to leave it to the family and the school. A book of condolenses was also opened outside the school Oratory for students to sign.

It is now yet disclosed the exact cause of death. But there is present speculation that it is a cocaine related death. I’m not certain, I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment. Many people from the school and those who knew him places memorial tributes onto their Bebo, I’ve done so on the blog - maybe I wouldn’t have called him a friend, but I still see it fit to tribute him in such tragic circumstances.

Well I’m finally back from Cork - at last! I’m now sick of buses and HGV’s for a few weeks, having spent the past 6 days (24 hours a day) working on them, and the week beforehand working on my own vehicles! I’m starting to get the feeling back in my fingers, after the trip: All outdoor work in minus conditions!

We drove an old Bedford down, without fault, except we had a turbo problem which caused it to crawl along at some paces and die coming upto the crest of a hill - got there in the end! I drove it down there, and I don’t know how ‘Payne in the Arse‘ got her to Cork, it’s a diabolical machine! The clutch is nice, but the gear linkage is dreadful - you’ve to beat it into gear, and second is impossible! In comparison to our Volvo, which is a great machine but a bit heavy, even though the Beford is 1987 and Volvo 1984, the Volvo is far more advanced!

I froze the bo****ks off myself down there at first, but once you get working you don’t ‘feel’ the cold. It was getting dark at 4:30pm, so a lot of work was completed during the night - lucky I remembered my torch this time! We were supposed to come home on Saturday night, but due to the ice, and the nature of the vehicle we were traveling home on, we thought it best to wait until the next morning to leave Cork.

We brought an old Leyland home - 50 MPH all the way from Cork to Dublin, with a big stack exhaust and Leyland engine, the CD player and 6 speakers we installed didn’t make much of a difference as we couldn’t hear them over the noise! I really pity any poor sucker who had to travel alongside us! I suffered too though, frozen all the way from Cork to Dublin, and having to listen to the noise, I’m glad the only sound I’ve to put up with now is that of Level 42.

I’m glad to be home, as there is no place like home! Where there’s central heating, hot water on demand and no buses! I’m not back at school until Tuesday, so I can recover tomorrow and have no disturbances from my hibernation while everyone is back to work/school! I’ve got a cold, so I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into a flu!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging recently, I’ve been busy getting as much work as possible done about the yard. For two days we were stripping my coach, all the seats had to be removed - an easy task, but not so easy when the bolts are 30 years old and locked shut! Then it was the task of hoarding all the seats up to the upper deck of a double decker we own - for ‘safe‘ keeping!

We then began the big job of repainting said decker into London Transport red! Our present sheds don’t offer much roof clearence, so the roof had to be painted outside in the yard - and we also couldn’t get a long enough airline up at that point in time, so it had to be hand painted :oops: .

We got the roof painted, I lost the circulation in my finger tips through sanding the bus by hand! So we called it a day, got upto the yard this morning, both of us in rags from the night before, after I went home I went to a party at a neighbours before finishing the night at home. I wasn’t drinking past midnight so my resolution is still on course! Did some coding at 2 this morning, over on Irish Transport Forums - just tidying it up a little, added some new user ranks, a new usergroup for the Motor Vehicle Preservation Society of Ireland personnel, added a new background, and messed around with the postbit. Crawled to bed at 3:30, and up again at 9:30 :???: !

Don’t be expecting many, if any posts over the next few days. I’m spending the rest of the week until Sunday in Cork. Like the rest of the expeditions, it will be focused on learning mechanics. For those of you who care, I practacly serve a Diesel Engineering Apprentiship, with Stephen Payne in the Arse. It’s great down there: learning how to drive buses and HGV’s, carrying out mechanical repairs as well as bodywork, and it’s a bit of craic in the evenings when we’re winding down and go out and about in Cork city.

I should be back on Sunday, and the usual day to recover, meaning I won’t be back on track until the Tuesday - which come to think of it, I don’t have to be back to school until Tuesday the 8th of January :lol: .

See you all then!