Some Time to Relax May 29, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a commentTik suprised me last Tuesday by arriving a day early in Bangkok. We set Thursday aside to spend a day at the Ancient City.
The things I’ll do for money May 25, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , 2commentsYes I know it doesn’t look so nice and this site is now laden with banners but for the little extra work it entails from me and for the number of visitors I get to this site I’m happy to swallow my ego.
Every recent post is now ’sponsored’ as such and I’ll be very grateful if you guys can click on the links when you finish reading the posts.
I need to tweak the advert content over the next few days and see how I can make the ad’s open in a new screen but I think for now it is working ok.
Thanks for your help .
You just can’t get the staff May 24, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentOn interviewing a web designer who’d submitted a $500 bid to complete a new website …
Martin: have u read the specs for it?
Them: Yes…we have
Martin: if you had, youd know that it was for the domain codernow.com
Them: I think I missed the attachment, because I read the specifications, give me some time, I am checking
Martin: the attachment IS the specifications!
This guy has contacted me to tell me that he can do the work for me for $500 within 3 weeks without finding out what I wanted done!
I had another guy yesterday who, on discovering I’m in Thailand punctuates his formal proposal with questions about how much it costs to get prostitutes here.
These guys did not get shortlisted.
Controlling China’s Population Boom May 24, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Health & Sport , add a commentChina’s dangerous sexual ignorance
By Louisa Lim
BBC News, China
Counsellor Tang Weiyao confirmed that even the most highly educated Chinese could be ignorant about sex.
“I had two university students who had been married for two years and hadn’t managed to have children. They went to the hospital for a check-up and it emerged that they didn’t even know the first thing about sex. They thought simply sleeping in the same bed would get her pregnant,” she said.
Sleepless night May 23, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Creative / Humour , add a commentHas time just been frozen? It’s not easy to tell,
Have I got into heaven? Am I living in hell.
I’m solving my problems, I’m creating great stuff
Yet my body’s in tatters and it’s making life tough.
Time is an asset when there’s things still to do,
But at three in the morning it’s of no help to you.
Time is still waiting; I know that it’s there,
But it refuses to move, it refuses to care.
I’m too tired to eat properly; I’ve got lazy to drink,
I just threw my old lenses, by mistake, down the sink.
My brain won’t stop working, and it’s making me stressed,
I don’t want to write poems, I just want to get rest.
A Creative week May 23, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentI had had 3 days of insomnia. I’ve tried exercising, I’ve tried hypnotherapy, hot milk, hot baths, talking to telecom consultants about business but nothing is putting my brain to sleep.
I feel like I have lost my entire left hemisphere this week. I can’t do any housekeeping duties or logical stuff. It’s taken two days to do some very minor admin work which on a good day could be finished in two hours. My office is a mess because I’ve not even noticed where I’ve taken clothes off, or left half-empty mugs or dirty plates. Some hours I’m barely able to stand up, I’ve yawned more than I’ve breathed yet my right hemisphere is in overdrive and I’m churning out marketing ideas, business ideas, answers to unsolvable problems non-stop!
A Lyrics Plug-in for Windows Media Player May 23, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Computers , add a commentI just installed an excellent plug-in for Windows Media Player which will find (online), display and scroll through lyrics whilst I am playing songs. I was impressed that I’ve not yet found a song which it can’t automatically transcribe for me.
The program is called Mini Lyrics. It works on many types of media players including ITunes and Realplayer.
It’s completely free and comes with my hearty endorsement,
Click here to download the free program
You Do Care May 22, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentI’ve just registered the domains youdocare.com and youdocare.co.uk
It’s really become a nightmare registering domain names. With the exception of David Wright’s creative suggestions of “giftgazelle.com” and “giftgibbon.com” there were very few memorable domains which hadn’t already been snapped up. I decided I didn’t really want to use a gazelle or a gibbon as a logo.
I can see that there’s a lot of marketing opportunities available with the domain ‘youdocare’.
I registered via Go Daddy this time rather than via Cablan because Go Daddy can register co.uk domains. I’m very impressed by their online account management system and they’ve certainly given me a good 1st impression.
You won’t see any action for a few weeks on this new site but the ball is in motion.
Watch this space.
A Pleasant Surprise May 22, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Computers , add a commentMy United World Telecom 4 Me website has been pretty much dormant since January when I contracted a group of incompetents to revise the site. Now that there is an end in sight (most probably a big fight and me taking my business elsewhere to complete) I checked on the feedback from a lot of tedious SEO work which I conducted months ago.
I’m pleased with the results so far, I’ve managed to rank highly for some very competitive keyword phrases …
My New Curriculum Vitae May 21, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business , add a commentI’ve always enjoyed writing C.V.’s. After 2 years of having no need whatsoever for one, I decided to update mine. It brought back fond memories of some old business classes I taught when we would spend a couple of hours ‘interpreting’ the dumb things that people have a habit of including.
The thing I love most about writing a C.V. though is that it really puts life in perspective. There are only 2 A4 pages to use in order to create the best possible impression one can. Two years after I last updated my C.V. I inspected it and find that I want to remove about half of the experiences I used to be quite proud of. I ‘d be suprised if anybody who cannot update at least a few lines on their C.V. every few months can attract good quality employers.
My Dreamweaver observation May 19, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Computers , 2commentsBizarrely my version of Dreamweaver does not have the word ‘website’ in it’s dictionary.
Some more business opportunities May 19, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Business, Thailand , 1 comment so farWe are on month five of a two-month project but finally I am seeing some progress on my newly revised United World Telecom 4 Me website.
The site is being hosted elsewhere by my good friends at Cablan.net until it’s completed. There’s many changes still in the pipeline so I’m not going to publish the temporary link here yet. That said the new site is looking pretty good and, although it is taking me forever checking every detail of the designers work, it is a huge improvement on the current United World Telecom 4 Me site. I’m having to do a lot of copy-writing for the site which is a great experience for me.
It may be completed in time if the Thai designer actually reads the instructions I’m giving him rather than merely pasting these instructions onto the site as part of the content! I’m optimistically expecting some version of the site up by the end of next week.
My ambitious plan is to pre-empt every question or problem a client might ever have and have answered available on the site to save me 99% of my customer service time. Other people within UWT will be linked from the site so that they can deal directly with clients and some fancy back-end stuff works out all of my administration for me. I’m looking forward to having the business work for me (and work hard).
So … my challenge now is that I’m going to need a new project or two to keep me awake and to bring some money in.
A few opportunities have presented themselves and I have created opportunities for myself too. I’m traveling into central Bangkok 4 daysa week for my Aikido classes, to play squash and also to meet friends; so going in a few hours earlier to meet people is not a problem. It’s just now a case of deciding which opportunities take my fancy, and which ones want me.
Has the rainy season started? May 14, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a commentIt looks like the rainy season in Thailand chose to start yesterday just a couple of minutes after I had jumped on the back of a motorbike taxi for a 45 minute journey into central Bangkok.
I have come to learn that Bangkok is not a waterproof city. During the rainy season we get a torrential downpour for about two hours and then out comes the sunshine with a huge grin on it’s face as if to deny that anything happened at all.
My journey taught me never to take for granted the huge potholes in the roads which allow a motorcycle to splash water between their passengers feet and knees. I now appreciate the devilishly nasty drainage system of the overhead bridges as the waterfall from it flows consistently onto the motorcycle lane. I became very aware of the number of taxis who show not the slighest pangs of guilt when their bumper sprays polluted water into the faces of any biker behind.
Ironically the very reason I’d chosen a motorcycle rather than a conventional taxi is that I really didn’t want to be late meeting my friends because we were going to a restaurant that only I knew of. I was dressed in my finest shirt and a pair of jeans.
I did arrive with time to spare to buy myself a pair of under-trousers and a t-shirt and despite making a huge wet patch on my seat, managed to enjoy my meal.
A Very Artistic Clock May 8, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Computers , add a commentThanks to Joseph for a link to a very artistic looking clock. The digits are refreshed by animated handwriting.
More Photos Online May 6, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Computers , add a commentMy old website linked to an impressive photo-hosting website called Grove Street which hosted about 1,500 personal photographs on it. The biggest challenge with my new site has been to copy all of these photos over, organize, date and title them!
Since buying a digital camera at the end of last year, adding new photos has been very simple, but all the ones before then had to be scanned in and manually date-stamped.
Today I have added many photos of friends. At the moment some of the dates need changing but the photos are all there. Things are all well organized so finding things you are after should be simple. The search feature though doesn’t yet include some photos – and many search results might be a bit out-of-order. Please be patient as I add and edit things about.
