AlexHemptonSmith.com

I’ve been practising my javascript and PHP knowledge in my spare time on a permanent online presence for myself, ‘alexhemptonsmith.com’ – because my name will never change!

This small site will act as a portal almost, with links to my other online escapades, a lifestream showing my online activities in real time, and an AJAX contact form. It’s only 0.1 – I’ll probably add and remove stuff before I’m completely happy – but right now its looking pretty good.

I’m going to write about some of the methods I’ve used when creating it in a later post. Like the javascript animations, my really simple lifestream script and the way I serve up different HTML for different browsers, which allows me to have a much more streamlined version for Chrome/Safari because of multiple background support.

Update: Thanks to everyone about the IE6 bug and the footer covering the lifestream, fixes coming soon…but I need to sleep!

Llangrannog 2009

Since my Nan passed away our family, all ~40 of us, make sure we get together each year for a weekend of partying, remembering and general merriness, at one of her favourite places – Llangrannog, Wales. She managed to take each of us there at some point, on family holidays and days away, so we couldn’t think of anywhere better for our annual shin-digs!

They’re always a brilliant time, and this year was no different. Hats were the theme, so we all set about creating headgear for a competition – but we never got around to judging them…

Quite a few of the family couldn’t make it up from Poole due to the snow, but overall a brilliant weekend was had by all! Now just to explain the absence to college… :S

Your Future in Europe

So I spent the weekend in Paris laughing my ass off enjoying a conference, ‘Your Future in Europe’. The conference itself was a bit dry; even my Politics teacher caught 40 winks during the end of the keynotes! But the oppertunity to laugh, eat and drink with my fellow politics students was great. From the minute we got onto the coach to the minute we got off it back in Hereford I didn’t stop having fun, thanks to everyone who went on it!

The highlight for me has got to be ‘Lady Barbera’, the blow-up doll my friends and I took which was adorned in England (red/white) clothes, with the image of Margaret Thatcher stuck onto its face.

The real ‘Iron Lady’ was against the EU so we took her as an ironic guest to such a pro-EU conference.

Suffice to say she didn’t actually go with us to the event, she stayed in the hotel room! However, she did get lots of attention at St. Pancras station on the way out to Paris…

We wanted a picture of us and her looking up at ‘the lovers’ statue, and to our surprise the sculptor of the piece was there filming with the BBC. And here’s the best bit – he actually asked us to pose with the doll so they could film it!

Perhaps we’ll be making an appearance on the BBC some day soon…

A very busy February

So if the last few weeks weren’t busy enough with things I didn’t want to do, I now have a jam-packed month of things I do want to take part in – nevertheless it’s going to be chaos!

Tonight I’m set the task of entertaining some organisers of a Polish youth charity – beckoning from, you guessed it, Poland! They’re here for the weekend and we aim to have a great time whilst building relationships that will join our two charities (I’m ‘Operations Director’ of a Hereford based youth charity, HIYCC, more on that in a later post).

Next weekend, at this very moment, I’ll be sampling the sights and sounds of Paris, France. We’re attending a European Union Conference, ‘Your Future in Europe’, which should be very interesting; however I’m betting the city will probably be more memorable!

The weekend following that I’ll be away for a boozy, family weekend in Llangrannog, Wales. It’s been a tradition for us to meet up every February since my Nan passed away; and it always brings laughs, karaoke and lots of very fond memories. It’s just great to get together, and Llangrannog itself, as well as the converted barns we stay in are the perfect location.

A week after that my College half term kicks in, and a HIYCC ‘team-building’ week away is planned, but who knows what will be finalised. Last year we had a cruise to Spain and back, and being confined to a boat with the other directors actually forced people to get work done…surprisingly!

And then the following week brings a nights stay in London for the Arsenal vs Roma game, a concert with The Killers in Birmingham and a presentation for the Debate Society on why the NHS should remain privatised.

Phew! I’ll be blogging about each in more ‘bite-sized’ pieces, with lots of pictures to make things more fun! right, off to work for a few hours and then the Polish entertainment begins!

God Bless.

A long time coming

Wow, that’s been a busy few weeks; but I can finally sit down and start to blog again! Exams are over and I can start to chill, until everything else I’m involved in gets started!

I’ve had this domain for quite a few years and it’s gone through so many face-lifts and overhauls, under the hood it was starting to look like Jackie Stallone! So I backed up the important stuff and wiped it clean, installed a fresh copy of WordPress (though this may be temporary), and got myself blogging again!

Hopefully I’ll use this as an online diary, noticeboard and photo album; but don’t quote me on that! We’ll see what happens, nonetheless I’ll definitely be spending more time on this blog. I still have an about page to populate, and some other things I want to add. Enjoy your stay!