Peter J S

Bored

I’m really bored.

I want to work on a PHP project with some people, but I want to get a project finished. I have started loads of projects, but I never finish them.

http://pixeldepth.net/

Post there if you are interested in working with me. I will select a few people (if anyone is interested).

If anyone has got any ideas that might make some money (by programming), give me a shout, cause my pockets are empty :p

Alan Longstaff

Just been spammed by Alan with a link to his website telling me about some photos he has taken, so I thought I would spam it here as well, check it out, some nice photos…

http://www.alanlongstaff.net/Â

PHP Developers In Lowestoft

For those that do not know, I live in Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.

I’ve been looking at the few web design companies that are based in Lowestoft. Unless i’ve missed them in the portfolio sections on the sites, I have yet to see a clients website done in PHP, mostly they are ASP, which is fine, but surely there must be a demand for PHP developers? Surely they must be losing clients who want a website done using PHP?

So yeah, that is what I have been thinking about, so I decided….hell, why don’t I contact them and see if they want a PHP programmer who is also versed in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? So that is what I done, I have emailed a company, I don’t think I will get a job, but if I do I will be very happy.

…But what if I don’t?

Well, i’ve been thinking of putting a little money together, adding a “Services” page to pixelDepth (maybe use a subdomain or redirect for http://services.pixeldepth.net?), and then putting an advertisement in my local paper. It’s cheap as chips (if chips are cheap that is :p), and it might generate a little bit of interest.

Reason i’m thinking about this is because come August, my job ends, so I will be back to square one, no money, no job etc. So I need to start getting something going now.

This brings me to my next problem; if I do get a lot of interest, who do I go for the graphics / layout side of things? Not sure if Alan will have time or want to do it. Obviously it will be a paid job (50 / 50 probably). What if I get too much interest? It would be bad to turn potential clients away, so I would need more programmers who will get paid for the work they do.

This brings me onto my idea, maybe a graphics and programmers directory?

I thought about this a few months ago, basically it would be a directory for people to lookup a graphic designer or web programmer where they can view previous clients or some sort of portfolio, maybe a rating, what languages they are versed in, what style of graphics they can do etc etc. I’m quite interested in doing this actually, but finding time to do any big project is hard.

So many ideas, so little time.

Edit: Maybe getting another PHP programmer in on it would help. Anyone interested? Maybe 2 or 3 programmers actually. Hmmm, might post this at pD.

Lowestoft Air Festival

This Thursday and Friday it is the Air Show here in Lowestoft. I don’t really go to them, I haven’t been to one in a few years, though I do sometimes go out into the garden as I can view them from here.

This week I have Thursday and Friday off work, so on Thursday I will take my nephew, as he is just about old enough to enjoy it.

For information about the Air Show at Lowestoft, have a look at the website…

Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival

Gym

So yesterday I decided it was about time I joined a gym and started to workout. I used to do a lot of weight training when I was at school, but gave it up as I didn’t want to get too big. Because I play badminton to a good standard (county level, but never played for my county), I need to get fit, i’ve never been a fit badminton player, I move around the court very well, have power, all the shots, but never could last a long rally. So it’s about time that I done something about it.

I think in about 2 months, there is a badminton tournament (Suffolk championships? Not sure what it is.) I would like to enter if I am fit enough. Today I spent 2 hours in the gym doing cardiovascular work. I must admit, I really enjoyed it. I just need to keep up with it.

Waveney Takes Title

Over the past 9 - 10 weeks, me and another coach (Phil) have been coaching a group of kids (year 8 and 9, so 13 / 14 years old) to try and create a team for the Waveney district (4 girls and 4 boys). We done that, we had a good strong team to play a part in the Redrow Youth Games.

Here is some information about it…

The Suffolk Youth Games is Suffolk’s biggest multi-sport event for young people. Held annually, and now in its sixth year, the Games attracts hundreds of young people aged 10 - 16 from across Suffolk to come and take part in this festival of sport. The emphasis is on participation and enjoyment of sport, whilst at the same time providing competitive opportunities for the young people taking part.

Participants represent the local authority area in which they live. In Suffolk, there are 7 local authority areas, which make up the teams for the Youth Games:

* Babergh
* Forest Heath
* Ipswich
* Mid Suffolk
* St Edmundsbury
* Suffolk Coastal
* Waveney

The main competitive sports at the 2006 Games are:

* Athletics
* Badminton
* Girls Basketball
* Girls Cricket
* Hockey
* Netball
* Squash
* Swimming
* Tag Rugby
* Tennis

We had an opening ceremony where all the teams had to walk around the track like it’s done in the Olympics, it was cool :p. After that, the whole team split up into the teams for each sport, we (Badminton team) had to go to another area for the Badminton event.

So, we are at the badminton hall for the event, we had to play 6 teams playing 6 games per team. It went brilliant, we won 35 out of 36 games. It could have been 36 / 36 because the scorer made a miscount on the doubles game, but we were all happy with the results. The medal the kids received was really nice, have never received anything like that myself :p, and they also got a goodie bag. So yeah, the Badminton team annihilated the opposition, I’m hoping that was due to our excellent coaching :).

Overall, the Waveney team took the title for the second year running.

I now look forward to next year, some of the kids in the Badminton team will not be eligible to play next year, so we will need to go through the process again to pick a team.

Youth Games

Sunday (tomorrow) i’m going to Bury St Edmonds with the Waveney Team. I will be focusing on the Badminton team more then anything, as the kids who are taking part (4 girls and 4 boys aged 13 / 14) were coached by me and Phil Lowe (awesome Badminton coach, and a very good friend of mine).

The Youth Games is basically a big event with various sports (Hockey, Football, Badminton etc). I’m not sure how it is all worked out to decide the winning team, i’m guessing some sort of points system, so if your team wins the Badminton event, we get X points. I’m not sure.

Anyway, am looking forward to it, and will blog tomorrow to let you know how we did.

Christening

Tomorrow I have to go to church for my second nephews christening. Church really isn’t my thing to be honest, I don’t mind it around Christmas time (christingle) where you get an orange with candles and cocktail sticks with little sweets on them :p. So yeah, I have to go, I went for my first nephews one, it wasn’t too bad, I just hate having to stand up and sing (not that I actually do sing mind you ;)).

Haven’t really done much today, I ran the badminton club this morning, there were quite a few kids (30 I think) and not enough courts(4 courts).

I just wrote a Javascript tutorial for pixelDepth covering substringData(), I couldn’t think of anything else that could be typed up in 10 minutes :p. substringData() isn’t something i’ve used a lot, mainly just experimenting with, same with most of the other text node methods (splitText(), appendData() etc etc).

Am looking forward to the Wimbledon final tomorrow, couldn’t have asked for a better match to be honest, well, not unless Sampras comes out of retirement for next year and makes the final to play Roger. I miss Sampras, he pwnd :p. I really hope Roger beats Nadal, Nadal has too many wins this year against Roger. Roger has played 54 matches this year I think (something like that), and he is 50-4, all 4 matches he lost were to Nadal.

“Be Cool” is on tonight, might watch it, looks funny.

I passed

Today I had my Level 2 Badminton Coach exam (theory & practical). My time was for 11:45am, which was for the theory exam. I done pretty well on it, scoring 63 out of a possible 70, there are 7 sections (laws, child protection, tactics, physical etc) with 10 questions in each section. I hadn’t done any revising, didn’t get the time, so I was pleased that I passed, the pass rate is no more then 3 wrong answers in the 7 sections.

In the afternoon it was time for the practical exam, there are 2 parts to it, 1 part being group coaching, and the 2nd part being individual coaching, both were for 15 mins, and I done very well on them, the assessors spoke to me after and said I done well.

So yeah, i’m now a fully qualified Badminton coach, which means I can coach anyone without a fully qualified coach being present.