YULE LOVE THIS...

ell I’m shaking things up a bit here! While the subject matter will remain the same — after all, this is my blog — I’m looking to freshen up the delivery. I’m happy with the overall look of the site, but it needs a jolt to rekindle my interest.

So, before we dive into this post, what do you think of the new medieval-style graphic?

2401.01 HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another year in the bag. It's time to look at my 3 targets I set for myself and to look at the year ahead. Before we look of that let's look at my Yule experience.

1912.25 THE CAPTAIN'S YULETIDE MESSAGE

As I usual I like to take an opportunity to look back at my year as it disappears in the 'rear view mirror'. The post is published at the same time as the Queen gives her speech, and as she does I've prepared it beforehand, I'm guessing at the moment it goes up I'll be tucking into our seasonal feast.

1904.23 NEW FACES

Like Doctor Who we are different people throughout our lives and just like the timelord we wear different faces too. I like to reflect this in my cartoon alter ego.

1812.25 THE CAPTAIN'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

I like to take this opportunity to look back on my year at this time. As usual I'm publishing this post at the same time the Queen gives her address to the commonwealth. In reality I'm probably eating my dinner at this point, if you're catching up later I'll probably drinking beer.

1712.25 THE CAPTAIN'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

At the time I publish this (and if you're in the UK) you're probably sat down to your Christmas Dinner (I'm northern, dinner is at lunchtime - subject for another time) or sat in front of the TV watching the Queen give her address to the commonwealth. There's a chance you've decided to read this in which case I'm honoured, if you're catching up later on then that's fine too. Ok it's time for me to take the time to reflect on the year behind me.

1710.21 SICK-EE

I haven't been sick for a while. It's been even longer since sickness forced me off work.

1710.10 15 YEAR BLOGGERVERSARY

Ok, it might not be the most popular blog but I enjoy it and it's been around a long time, fifteen year in fact. That's right, I've been writing this stuff for a decade and a half.

1701.08 BLOGGING ON THE GO

I'm writing this to share how today, in 2017, I'm preparing an creating my blog posts. Ever since I got my first PDA many years ago (a Palm m100) I've been blogging from wherever I find myself. That is I use a device to make rough notes to expand on later.

1612.25 THE CAPTAIN'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

Well that's another year almost over, another year closer to the grave. So Christmas comes around once again and as always I find myself reflecting on the year behind me.

1612.14 VERSATILE AWARD AND BIG PRAISE

I love these awards where you are nominated by fellow bloggers. Earlier this year I was nominated for the Liebster Award which was a huge honour. To be recognised by other bloggers for doing something you enjoy is a wonderful thing.

1611.26 HOME ALONE

This weekend Morticia has gone away with the girls so I've been left 'home alone', well not quite. I'm here with Rags and we are enjoying a bit of quality time together. We've been catching up on all our favourite superhero TV shows and eating junk food. We're having a great time.

When she goes to bed I've been working on new graphics for my website/blog ready for next year. Next year is a big milestone for my website. It'll be 15 years old. Although in the early years I gave it loads of attention it's only in the last year that I've given it renewed vigor and in that time I've 'met' loads of new friends. Well the new graphics I'm working on will show my commitment to this outlet. Although I am active on social media I fell out of love with it some time ago. Blogging allows me to express myself emotionally and creativly whilst still having control.

A first look at some of the new graphics
(I'm not quite happy with the menu bar yet).

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent...

Every relationship is different but I feel it's healthy to spend a little time apart and (after Rags has gone to bed) some time alone. I'm making the most of my time and getting some great quality time with my daughter. Today I'm making Toad in the Hole and we are going to watch movies. It's going to be a great day.

Supplemental 1611.27;
Today had promise but has been sadly marred by a nasty migraine which has left me in bed for most of the day. The movies we planned to watch remain unwatched and the quality time I planned was reduced significantly. I'm very disappointed with how the weekend has panned out in the end. We got in some quality time but not as much as I'd hoped. 

1610.11 LIEBSTER AWARD

I am honoured that Susan Leighton of Woman on a Ledge has nominated me for a Liebster Award. Susan blogs about life and does so in an honest way which makes for refreshing reading. It soon feels like you're chatting away to an old friend. I am happy to accept this token of appreciation.

The Liebster is a way for bloggers to acknowledge other bloggers whom they feel have a unique, entertaining, informative or educational voice.  It is also a terrific way to promote and spotlight hidden gems in the blogging community. For more information and the official rules, please visit the Global Aussie website.

One of the requirements for all nominees is to write a short essay on their favorite blog.  Well I'm going to write about a guy named Stu. Stu writes a blog about his life as an Englishman living in Holland and how his life has adapted to the customs and culture there. Why have I picked him? Because he's an excellent cartoonist too and it was him that inspired me it start drawing cartoons again and use them in my blog. Sadly his blog posts are a little sporadic these days as he juggles family and professional life with a bit of live improv. He's still an entertaining read and I love his (cartoon) work. You can find his blog at InvadingHolland.com.

Then I have to nominate my own choice for an award. This is a difficult choice since all the blogs I read and/or comment on are excellent for their own reasons. I'm supposed to choose blogs with less than 200 followers but I'm not going to go about asking for that information, I've taken a guess based on what I've observed on their pages.

List of 2016 Nominees:

Military Wife and Pug Life - 'MiliWifey' is pug loving, Marvel maniac and (obviously) military wife who loves to recap really bad movies.

Life From a Seated Perspective - Mark Rankin is a fellow Yorkshireman and writes about the challenges of his life being wheelchair bound.

Cat Hair and Glitter - Holly writes about her life in Kentucky (not the chicken shop) as a mother and potential cat lady (she has 6 cats and 2 dogs!).

Not Meatloaf Again - I first came across 'Chocolat Lover' when I used to follow her husband James' blog. She writes about their lives with young daughter Evie.

Yet Another Coffee to Go - Retired life in North Wales with Eileen. She writes about life with her husband and her dogs.

Liebster nominees must do is provide 10 random facts about themselves set by the nominator. Bring it on...

10 Questions about me:

Q: If travel was something everyone did as a rite of passage growing up where would you recommend they go and why? (one country only)

A: Lake Ullswater in the Lake District. I did an outward bound course there when I was 16 and it had a profound effect on my life.

Q: What is the last show you binge watched?

A: Mr Robot - blog post coming soon!

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: Obviously Yorkshire Puddings!

Q: Give a tip for other bloggers or potential blog starters. 

A: Be yourself, that's all it takes.

Q: If you had to choose between living with TV or music, which one would you choose?

A: I'd choose TV over music anyway. Music isn't a massive part of my life.

Q: Who has been the most influential person in your life?

A: It has to be my wife, Morticia. She pushes me through my doubt and encourages me to be the best version of me.

Q: If you could travel back in time, what year would you visit and why?

A: I'd love to be a time traveler and be an observer of history. I'd love to see my home city back at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.

Q: The gun or the cannoli?

A: Don't really understand the question. Don't like guns, we don't really have them in the UK. Cannoli? Had to Google it and it's got cheese in it. Yuk! Is this some sort of American question?

Q: Who is your favorite author?

A: My favourite author is probably Peter David, the best Star Trek novel writer out there (in my opinion).

Q: What is the last movie you saw?

A: I assume this is referring to the cinema? The last film I saw at the cinema was Star Trek Beyond.

To the people that I nominated, if you choose to accept, please read the rules from the original post (link is at the top of this post).

Here are my 10 questions for my nominees... 

Why did you start blogging? 

If you were a time traveler, would you go forwards or backwards? 

What is your idea of a great evening? 

Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? 

What scares you, I mean really scares you? 

If you were a cartoon character which one would you be? 

If you won the lottery (or came into a large sum of money) what would you go out and buy first? 

When you're in the car alone (if you don't drive then think of a similar circumstance where you're alone with a radio) what would you turn the radio on to? 

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Gravy or no gravy?

There it is, anyone else want to answer these questions please put your responses in the comments. 

1609.27 THE VOID

Since 2012 I've lived with the darkness. It's always there like an unwanted stalker forever traveling with me. Back in 2012 I had a breakdown, since then I've had this companion who occasionally pushes me into a dark place, a void, a dark corridor full of locked doors. I have to traverse the whole thing to get back out into the light. But what if this time there is no light this time? It's this making sense?

Yesterday I almost deactivated my blog. I thought about deleting my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I came really close. It could still happen. The only reason I think I haven't was the words of my previous therapist who advised me to share my thoughts and that blogging was beneficial to my mental well-being. That's why I'm rambling on like this.

Hopefully I'll see you all on the other side. 

1604.30 LET'S DISQUS

I'm constantly trying to improve my blogging experience and management. To this end I've been experimenting with Disqus, a 3rd party commenting system, to manage my comments (or rather your comments). Since I do most of this on my smartphone it would help that I can keep the comments together and respond / manage with ease.

It was a bit fiddly to set up but it seemed to work ok on both mobile and desktop formats. At the moment I have it disabled although I may activate it later today, I'm still not sure.

My worry is that the change would be detrimental for my current readers, you guys. You can still use your Google account as well as other authentication methods (like Facebook) but it does ask you to set up a password for a basic Disqus account.

I do love receiving comments, makes me feel like I'm not shouting into the void.

Supplemental 14:57; Disqus is now live as the comments engine. I'll be evaluating it fully over the next week. 

1603.28 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE BLOGGERS

I've been blogging for many years. In the early days there was quite a community out there happily sharing comments and reading each other's ramblings. Then came social media and blogging fell by the wayside for many. I have still blogged on and off for the last few years but not as frequently as perhaps I should have. 

It's become increasingly obvious that the 'great unwashed' are everywhere on social media filling it with their ill informed drivel and spite filled opinions. So I turn back to my blog and the lovely people that surround and read it. I also enjoy reading other people's blogs but recently my reading list has started to wear a little thin with some of my regular reads abandoned for months and even years.

It's time it get some new blood so to speak to replenish my reading stock and to perhaps get some reciprocal reads back. I've added a couple of new blogs to my list, the only problem is that the blogosphere seems full of writers using the blog as a money making machine. I don't want sponsored posts, they're so false. So where are the real bloggers? I'm sure they're out there under the pro writers and monetisers.

If you know of any good reads please let me know.

Supplemental 1604.11;
I found about three new reads in the blog world and I'm still looking for more. It's not easy to seek out interesting blogs that aren't about fashion or making money out of blogging (which sounds a bit like a pyramid scheme to me). 

1601.31 A TEMPORARY DRAWING

I've been illustrating my blog with cartoons since October 2007. By April 2010 it had become a requirement for every post. This caused an issue when I didn't have a cartoon to fit the post. Since then I always intended to come up with a placeholder cartoon (I did play with a 'test card' placeholder but I quickly dispensed with it). So 5 years+ later I have done the necessary. Hopefully, if you are reading this years down the line when I've collated my blogs into print (for posterity and my family legacy) this will be the only place you will see this cartoon.

1401.29 MOBILE WEBSITE

My website has been around for many years and for the last few years I've toyed with having a mobile version. Everyone seems to have one and even my blog has a special mobile view when accessed via a phone (thanks to Blogger). I'm no web designer, just a tinkerer and have always thought it would be a difficult task for my skill level so I never pursued it.

Today I had a nasty session at the physio which left me feeling sick and in a bit of pain. I ended up booking the rest of the day off work. After a couple of painkillers and a little nap I found myself doing a bit of work on my laptop (proper working from home work). After that I found myself playing with a free service that mobilised your website. To detect a mobile device I had to add some HTML code into my website to redirect to their service. This got me thinking that there must be a bit of code that I could use to redirect to my own creation. I quickly found it and knocked together a simple version of my home page.

I uploaded to my server and after a little tweeking it works. On a phone now (not a tablet)if you go to www.kirt.me.uk you are redirected to a simplified version of my home page. I'll keep working on it but I'm enjoying getting back into my web presence.

1303.04 ABSENT BLOGS

I know I've not blogged properly for a long while,  apart from a few posts at Christmas I haven't really posted since August. It was shortly after this my world fell apart. I did write quite a few entries in the latter part of last year,  I just never felt able to share, I think now I'm ready. I'll publish them over the coming weeks.

Supplemental 1606.07; I never actually got around to publishing those blogs, it's alway been too painful to revisit. I didn't get around to re-reading them until 4 years afterwards.

1111.06 BONFIRES, WITCHES & CHRISTMAS TREES

I'm more than a little annoyed that my mobile blogging app, BlogPress, has not worked since I updated my iPhone to iOS5. I am using the native Blogger app to compose this for formatting later on a PC.

Anyway, this is not the purpose of my post today. It's the beginning of November and that means Guy Fawkes night, the traditional celebration of a failed Catholic terrorist plot from 1605. Whilst for us there was no bonfire (we rarely have one) we did set of some fireworks whilst down visiting my Mother in Law.

That's where the witches come in, well one in particular. The aforementioned Mother in Law who returned with us to stay for the week. It's been a difficult preparation getting the house together for the visit. I'm hoping Morticia will get a lot from the visit, at the end of the week she will be returning with her mother to St Neots for the following week. It will mean rest bite for us both, I think we both need it.

I noticed over the last few weeks Christmas trees have been appearing and television adverts have turned to seasonal subjects. I'm not a big fan of Christmas commercialism and I hate how early the 'silly' season starts. How long until Christmas starts in August?