creamed-coconut.org

• It's been a fairly quiet, boring weekend. Hopefully I'll go on some walks next weekend. #
• My next training course starts this morning. I hope they won't expect me to make yet another introduction speech. I hate making speeches! #
• The triaining course actually starts at 10am instead of 9.30am, so I'm just sitting around waiting.At least I've been moved to the nice room #
• Day 1 of my Prestige training went well.The worst part of any training course is having to sit around waiting for the others to catch up! #
• Great news for freedom of choice on the internet and web standards! http://ow.ly/1px1o #opentochoice #
• RT @JoJoBuzz: Ok I seriously need a new follower, one more will do as 666 followers is freakin' me out! HELP! Please RT #
• The bus was over 20 minutes late this morning. When that happens, you never even get an apology. Thankfully I still got to work on time. #
• Day 2 of training went well. Today I was learning Adobe InCopy & InDesign. They're mainly for print designers, but still useful to know. #
• I hate it when people ignore emails! How hard would it be to just say "I don't know yet but I'll look into it and get back to you"? #
• Basically, I'm still waiting to hear back from my local college about whether those Photoshop evening classes are still going ahead. #
• It's been another good day. This evening I'm going out for a meal at Frankie & Benny's so I'm looking forward to that. #
• RT @smashingmag: Outstanding Free Ebooks on Design – http://bit.ly/9fgaRy #
• Today has been an uncomfortable day – the course is starting to get boring now, plus I had an appointment to have my eyebrows waxed. #
• I feel really bad for the people at my old employer as they had a horrible restructure announcement yesterday. Glad I escaped when I did! #
• It doesn't surprise me at all. It feels as if the sun will never shine again upon that place of doom! My ex-colleagues jobs are at risk. #
• There was a fire drill a little while ago so I had to stand outside and get cold as I didn't have my coat with me. #
• Now on the way to buy some Easter eggs! #
• Not looking forward to tonight as the clocks go forward, meaning an hour less in bed! I don't get enough sleep as it is! #

I’ve been feeling very cheerful recently, because of my new job and also because the weather has become warmer and sunnier over the last few days.   Following our long cold winter, all the snowdrops and crocuses are out, and it won’t be long until the daffodils are out too.   Last year, I felt that I couldn’t enjoy spring properly because so many bad things happened in March 2009.

Last week I had my Polopoly CMS training course at work, which went really well.  I also had my official corporate induction session where I learnt more about the history of the company and the staff benefits etc.  After my training, I was then allowed to start setting up websites on the live server (previously I was only allowed to work on the test server).  I’ve also been editing stylesheets for several of the new websites, which has been fun and it has given me the chance to improve my CSS skills.

A couple of weeks ago I bought some books about XHTML, JavaScript, Photoshop and using WordPress as a CMS.   I’ve been reading through these in the evenings and at weekends.  I feel like I’m learning something new every day, which is good as I love learning.  Tomorrow I start a training course on another system called Prestige, which is used for publishing news articles to websites.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I’ve applied to do a Photoshop evening course at my local college.  I sent off my application form just over 2 weeks ago, but I haven’t heard anything yet.  I just hope that the course will still be running, as it said that it’s subject to demand.  Anyway, it doesn’t start until the end of April, so there’s still hope!

Last Thursday I attended a quiz and chips night with the IVC social club.  It was good fun – there were 10 separate rounds and I had chicken and chips for my meal.  One of the people on my table kept cracking funny jokes which made me laugh.  It’s one of the best quiz nights I’ve ever been to.  My team didn’t win anything (there were prizes for the top 3 teams, and there must have been at least 30 tables as the quiz night was held in a big school hall), but I think we finished somewhere in the middle.

Talking of the IVC, over the last few weeks I’ve been building a new website for the club.  I’ve pretty much finished it now and it’s currently on a test server, so I’m just waiting for the chairman to give me the go-ahead to transfer it to the live server.  The new site will use WordPress as a content management system, so it will be much easier to edit and maintain than the existing site, which is all hard-coded in HTML.  I’ve enjoyed doing that and it will also be a good thing to add to my portfolio.

For Mother’s Day (well, the Saturday evening before Mother’s Day) I bought Mum and Terry a meal at Malaysian Delights.  We hadn’t been there for several months, so it was good to go back again.  On Mother’s Day itself, my grandmother came round for tea (we had roast beef) and my sisters visited us to give Mum her cards and presents.

This weekend has been very quiet and I haven’t really done that much, but I’m hoping to go on some walks round some local gardens next weekend.

• Happy Mother's Day! #
• Eeeh! My Greasemonkey script has just alerted me that 1 of my Facebook friends has de-friended me! It was someone from the old company! #
• …actually, it looks like she's deleted her entire Facebook profile. So it's not just me – phew! #
• It now seems like the whole family is coming round to celebrate Mother's Day! We're having a roast beef dinner. #
• I had a good day at work today. We (ie me and the other new person) started building full sites on the live server today! #
• It's really starting to feel like Spring now! #
• Someone created a stylesheet with black text on a dark navy background, lol! #
• RT @failbooking Failbooking – Funny Facebook Status Messages ( Failbook )I Enjoy Math Fails « http://bit.ly/90Om7H #
• @Dazzx What sort of help do you need with your application form? If you let me know the questions, I may be able to advise you. in reply to Dazzx #
• RT @guardiantech: Anger over rushed Digital Economy bill leads to online lobbying effort http://bit.ly/bUNEQG #
• Looking at your old sites at http://web.archive.org is a bit like looking at your old wardrobe – you think "What on earth was I thinking?!" #
• I've asked my MP to ensure that draconian internet laws are not rushed through parliament. http://bit.ly/boKmLO #38degrees #debill #
• It's been another good day today. #
• I'm looking forward to going on some daffodil/crocus walks this weekend if the weather is nice. #
• RT @childrens_trust: We have been making a huge difference to children with disabilities for 25 years – now we need your help – please RT #
• Haven't updated for a couple of days. Yesterday I was working on stylesheets which was fun. Today was a fairly boring, quiet day. #
• “Can’t you just wave your magic wand and make it better?” http://ow.ly/1oFQV LOL! o_O #
• If your computer is running slow, it must mean that it's "haunted" or "bedevilled"! http://ow.ly/1oVfW I laughed out loud when I read this! #

• Feeling irritated because IE and Opera aren't rendering my image. It's just a JPG, for crying out loud! It works in all other browsers. #
• Anyway, I'm looking forward to my Polopoly CMS training tomorrow! #
• Training is going well so far. It's fairly basic at the moment though. #
• @AndyDBryant So far, most of the things we've covered in the training are things I've already learnt from my colleagues on the job. in reply to AndyDBryant #
• Currently thinking back to how anxious and fed up I was this time last year, and how I thought that things would never improve. #
• Yes, it's now a year since there was a restructure at my old employer, when what was then my favourite job was taken away from me. #
• And yet, what was one of the worst days of my life is now turning out to have been a blessing in disguise. #
• I'm looking forward to my roast beef and Yorkshires tonight! We sometimes have our Sunday roast on a Monday evening! #
• Yay! My online portfolio now validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. #
• Here's to Day 2 of my training! Hopefully today will be more interesting for me. #
• Well, that was a bad move! #
• LOL! I changed seats on the bus so I could sit on my own in peace, only to have someone else sit down beside me! #
• I hate it when Sainsburys make you wait 2 days for a food delivery! #
• Had a scary dream where I slipped over and started spinning round a vortex really quickly. Luckily someone in the dream grabbed me… #
• …just in time otherwise I would've gone crashing through a panel of glass. I hate scary weird dreams like that. #
• I'm hungry but the vending machine has eaten my money! #
• My eyes have been stinging like mad because I've been staying up until midnight studying web development/design tutorials! #
• So I think I'm going to have an easy night tonight. I've got a quiz tomorrow evening so I don't want to be half-asleep when I'm there! ) #
• For the last couple of days, I've mostly been working on CSS files which has been good. I enjoyed my quiz & chips evening last night too. #
• I'm looking forward to taking Mum and Terry for a meal at Malaysian Delights this evening, as it's Mother's Day tomorrow! #
• @alanjlee For my phone's background, I have a picture of a blossom tree. It's been on there for quite a while now though. in reply to alanjlee #
• RT @Dazzx: 20 Most Popular Open Source Software Ever http://j.mp/9HB2xg <- I use several of these! #
• We all enjoyed our meal at Malaysian Delights this evening. Sadly, Mum is working tomorrow (Mother's Day). #

• It feels like I've spent way too much time messing about on my computer this weekend! I've hardly spoken to anyone! #
• I feel a bit sleepy. #
• Just got a weird text message from my friend, asking if I'm still working at my old company. She knows I've started my new job, so why… #
• …would I still be working at the old company?! o_0 #
• RT @mashable: 10 Firefox Add-ons to Beautify Your Browser – http://bit.ly/ccd1FL #
• I've had another good day at work. Hopefully I'll be allowed to do some "proper" work soon! #
• And to think that if I was still in my old job, today would've been a really hectic day. The 1st week of the month was always stressful. #
• I just saw an avatar of someone pulling their eyes around! Yuk yuk yuk! I've always hated it when people do that! #
• The Facebook birthday reminder facility doesn't even work! #
• Today I've mainly been doing tutorials. No "proper" work yet! #
• I feel a bit of a wally! A girl on the bus turned round and said hello. She looked vaguely familiar, so I said hello back. I think she… #
• …was actually talking to another girl sitting right behind me! <blushes> #
• Guess what I've just done? I've ordered yet another book! My room is almost overflowing with books, and I haven't even read them all yet! #
• RT @Dazzx: Got a missed call from an 076 number? Don't call back – it's a premium rate scam http://j.mp/aULM5n #
• Personally, if I get a missed call from an unknown number, I won't call back. If it's important, they'll leave a voicemail or send a text. #
• Big local headline says "Man gets foot stuck in railing". If that's considered big news, then not much happened in the world yesterday! o_O #
• It's not even 10am yet, and I'm feeling really hungry, even though I always have breakfast! #
• Just bought a nice Aero bar and a chocomilk to get me through until lunchtime. #
• Today I've been mostly collating lists of variables for our proposed new websites. #
• RT @Dazzx: Don't Hit F1 in Windows If a Web Site Asks You To [Malware] http://j.mp/bBw15u <- In other words, don't use Internet Explorer!! #
• @Dazzx Well I'm a Firefox girl, mainly because it's useful for my web development work. I do really like Google Chrome as well though. in reply to Dazzx #
• RT @mashable: 10 Popular Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers – http://bit.ly/c1gcNJ #
• One of the things I love about my new job is that my co-workers are funny and they crack good jokes that make me laugh. #
• I've just sent off my application form for Photoshop evening classes at my local college. #
• It feels so cold today, and here I am wearing short sleeves (well, 75% length sleeves). Bad, bad decision! #
• To people who *still* use that "disable right mouse click" script, I laugh at you! I've got a nice "Disable Javascript" toolbar button! #
• …Besides that, using a no-right click script can make webpages inaccessible to people using a left-hand mouse or those with disabilities. #
• I'm now eating a mis-shapen, but tasty, chocolate muffin! #
• web browser choice matters http://bit.ly/dlzFxx #opentochoice #
• A publisher has totally ignored my 2 requests (by email and letter) to cancel my magazine subscription. It's time to get angsty! #
• Finally got reply from the magazine publisher. I'm not allowed to cancel the subscription. So I'm stuck with it til the end of the year! #
• Is this guy stupid or something? He apparently doesn't know how to send an attachment from his Hotmail account! o_O #
• RT @sainsburys: Wine & dine for £10 this week! RT the link for a chance of a £50 voucher! http://bit.ly/sains #
• RT @rockinrimmer: Top 5 Web Design Debates That Cause the Most Riots http://bit.ly/aekXyY #
• Spent this afternoon upgrading the IVC social club website, working with the chairman. It went well, but there's still work to be done. #
• YouTube seems to be lagging really badly today! #
• Not happy! It looks like my MP3 player is totally knackered, and I've only had it since Christmas! Even when I connect it to the computer… #
• …it refuses to switch itself on, and Windows doesn't even recognise that it's attached. #
• Phew! After a bit of Googling, I found out a solution to the MP3 player problem and it's now come back to life! Yay! I didn't realise there #
• …is a tiny Reset button on the side! #
• @davidtreynolds I'm on Virgin Media as well, and I've noticed the internet is a bit slower today. For example, YouTube videos get stuck. in reply to davidtreynolds #
• @davidtreynolds That's weird, as I haven't downloaded that much today. Nowhere near the threshold, anyway. in reply to davidtreynolds #