It started in Wales with the Ataris, I would’ve normally seen them in Bristol but as I was in France during that gig, I opted for the next nearest location which was Clwb ifor bach in Cardiff. I’ve been a fan of the Ataris for ages, so it wasn’t surprising to say that I loved seeing them play, but what made the gig extra special was one of the support acts Mike Herrera. I had vaguely heard of him as I knew he was part of pop punk band MxPx, but what I didn’t know was that he was also the front-man of a band called Tumbledown whose music style is edging on country with some obvious punk roots. That might not appeal to everyone, but as I’m a big fan of both genres, so I loved the music!

Moving on, but keeping with a country theme, one of my favourite solo artists Brad Paisley released his new album “wheelhouse” near the start of the month and it has some cracking songs on it! The style of the album differs slightly from his previous two, but that’s not a bad thing as it helps to keep things fresh, while still remaining close enough to not alienate existing fans.

Changing from country music to a little pop-punk, I went to see a group called Patent Pending who I’d previously seen as a support act once before, so was excited to see them headlining their own show at the 02 academy in Bristol. This wasn’t the largest of gigs as the band aren’t that big over here, but that didn’t stop it being a cracking evening. The first support act was called The Bottom Line and they were really good. I’ve never seen the first band who comes on stage get everyone jumping around and cheering them on, but they managed it. They sounded a bit like a poor mans Blick 182, but considering that the tickets only cost £11, they deserved some praise and I’d definitely recommend going along to see them if you get the chance. I would link to some of their music but haven’t been able to find anything online, so if you know of any, let me know and I’ll add it in here.

The main group, Patent Pending, were excellent and felt like a very genuine band who were just happy to be able to tour and see people enjoying their music. They verge slightly more towards the pop side of pop-punk, but when the music is as catchy as theirs then it hardly matters.

What’s been some of your favourite music that you’ve discovered so far this year?

At just gone 5am, me and two other mad guys were outside in the hotel car park setting off on a 5km ride to the Roubaix velodrome to catch a coach that would take us to the starting point for the 170km route in Busigny.

I vaguely remember questioning my sanity about why I was even attempting this during the coach journey and why I hadn’t chosen the much shorter 70km route, but by then it was far too late to change and before I knew it I was off the coach and sitting on my bike with the starting line in front of me.

The first stretch of course was pretty easy, consisting of smooth roads with little or no hills to speak of, and I’d just started to think that it was going to be a lot easier than I’d been worrying about before we turned off onto the first section of cobbles. I’d never so much as touched cobbles on my road bike before then, but had read up on them in preparation. Despite that, I don’t think anything could have quite prepared me for how hard riding over that first section of cobbles felt.

My pace had been fairly good up to that point and I was easily keeping up with the peloton I’d set off with, but on hitting those cobbles, my pace almost halved and by the time I’d made it to the next section of road, the rest of the riders I’d been with were well ahead of me.

It didn’t help that my bike computer stopped working as soon as my bike hit the cobbles. I’d prepared for the bumps by using extra tape and even blu-tack to secure the transmitter on the wheel, but I’d obviously not done it well enough, so ended up cycling blind for about 30 minutes until I came to a stop where a lot of riders were taking a short break to recover and take on fluids. I fixed the computer and crossed my fingers that it would behave itself for the remainder of the ride, which luckily it did.

The next section of cobbles wasn’t quite so bad, but I think that was partly due to me now knowing what to expect from them. The next few hours of cycling continued with more sections of road and cobbles and with the palms of my hands getting sore, but I’d started to feel like I was going to be able to make it round…. then came the Trouèe d’Arenberg (Trench of Arenberg) section. Trouèe d’Arenberg is the most famous section of Paris–Roubaix and for good reason! It’s the true definition of cycling hell and riding that section of cobbles almost brought tears to my eyes. I was so relieved when I’d finally made it to the end that I had to stop to check that my legs were still attached at the knees and to take a drink. It was then that I made the mistake of looking at Strava and was dismayed to see that I wasn’t even at the half-way point yet!

Continuing onwards, the remainder of the race largely consisted of me quite enjoying riding through the streets of France and seeing a surprising amount of supporters out cheering us on and then struggling over what felt like endless sections of cobbles, all the while praying that I wouldn’t get a visit from the puncture fairy like so many other riders were!

One of the interesting things I noticed was the large number of British riders doing the event and I’ve since found out that the British had the most participants with around 400 entries, although there was also quite a few German riders who I cycled with during the event too.

Towards the end of the cobble stone sections, I kept seeing more and more camper vans with people stood outside cheering us on.

I’m not sure about the other riders, but I sure as hell needed that support as by the time I’d past the 80km mark, both my hands had blisters on, and I was having trouble gripping the bars during the cobble sections with my bike being thrown from one side to the other, and with lots of dust being thrown up in the dry conditions.

The last 750m are in the vélodrome in Roubaix and I can honestly say, I can’t remember being happier to see a place in my life. I’d like to say there was some sort of dramatic sprint finish, but I was just so happy to cross that finish line that I didn’t care where I was in the rankings.

It might sounds like I hated Paris Roubaix, but while that’s true of the course, I’m actually really glad I did it as doing a really hard challenge makes you feel all the better once you finish it, plus it was great to see an old friend and make some news ones too. All the people I met during the trip were lovely and I now fully understand why Paris Roubaix is called the ‘Hell of the North’. I’m proud to say I completed it, but I won’t ever be doing it again, that’s for sure!

I’m actually kinda dreading it, but at the same time, I like the idea of a challenge. It’s not just the event that will be hard though, the numerous hours and hundreds of miles of cycling I’ve had to put into training, just to give myself a shot of being able to make it over that finish line is also very challenging, but without that impending sense of urgency of the event fast approaching, I know I’d not of bothered to do half as much cycling as I currently have done so far this year, and that’s not just because of the shitty weather we’ve be subjected too recently!

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that sometimes challenge can be a good thing, although it’s rarely also the easy option, it’s still loads better to give yourself a challenge rather than doing nothing!

I’ll end this post with some of the pictures that make me think I’m probably insane to attempt this on a road bike!

Hopefully, I’ll avoid anything like this during my attempt.

Images are from www.pbkblog.com

For those of you who know me personally, you’ll know that I’ve considered Bristol to be my home for ages, this is despite me actually living out in a small village in the middle of nowhere, about 30 minutes drive from Bristol.

That all changed on the 9th of this month as I moved into a lovely shared house in Bristol. I’ll admit that I was slightly dubious about what life in the middle of a city was going to be like after living out in the country for the past 4 years. I was expecting a large increase in the amount of noise around me, especially at the house is on the corner of a main road, but I’m happy to say that hasn’t been the case. The house is quite a new building so is well insulated which I think helps to keep out the noise from the road and none of the neighbours have caused any issues, so it’s all looking good.

I’ve actually moved further away from my place of work, although only by about 15 minutes drive. It might sound like a strange descision, but I was already driving into Bristol multiple nights a week anyway, due to friends, sports, cinema, etc.., so it’s not made much of a difference in that respect, and I’m not a lot closer to shops and a good number of my friends. Hopefully, this will mean that I’ll be able to see them more often!

Apart from those obvious reasons, I also like the idea of being in Bristol as a lot of people consider Bristol (also Bath) to be the one of the UK’s big web design ‘hubs’: the concentration of web professionals living and working in and around the city is very high which was another big draws for me personally seeing as I’m a web designer/developer.

I’ve only managed to go on one small walk around my new area but am hoping to be able to spend more time exploring the local area and see what secrets it has hidden away! Watch this space…

I was reading an interview with Jamie Foxx where he spoke about the controversy and arguments about the movie Django Unchained that he stars in. Several critics have said that the film is racist and disrespectful. I’m not going to comment on the film, but I loved this quote he gave:

As a black person, everything is racial and it is always bad. If I attend a buffet at a promotional event and see little trinkets of cheese, I go: ‘What is this? Haven’t you got some black people coming? This is white people’s food!’
But then if I come in and they have chicken and watermelon laid out, I go: ‘Tsk! They think we only eat this stuff!’ We always say it is bad because we always get the bad end of the stick.Jamie Foxx

He’s saying this is a tongue-in-cheek way, but recently, looking at my Twitter feed, I feel like the web industry could learn a lesson from this as there’s been a lot of negativity lately. I’m not saying that the issues that have caused some of this negativity needn’t be addressed, but maybe, we as an industry should stop trying to see the bad in everything.

I’m proposing that the next time you see something you disagree with or don’t like, try and think of at least one good about it before you start ranting about it publicly. You might discover that your rant isn’t needed or at the very least, it might make your argument a more informed one!
]]> http://www.liamjaydesigns.com/2013/01/the-negative-web/feed/ 1 http://www.liamjaydesigns.com/2012/12/your-ass-is-so-big-because-its-filled-with-lame-excuses/ http://www.liamjaydesigns.com/2012/12/your-ass-is-so-big-because-its-filled-with-lame-excuses/#comments Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:11:32 +0000 Liam http://www.liamjaydesigns.com/?p=1436 It seems like quite a long time since I posted a bit of a rant on something, so it’s about time for another. Todays topic of choice is exercise excuses.

“I have no time to workout.”

Hearing that comment always Continue Reading »

I’ve worked with WordPress for years, and one of the most common problems I see when looking at others code is the way they chose to get the path to their theme directory or the url of the site. A lot of front-end developers still don’t seem to really know what the best way is to do this essential thing in WordPress. Below are a few examples for pointing to urls or directories within WordPress:

1. Getting your site URL: It’s a fairly common requirement, maybe you want to simply add a link to your home page? If you’re currently using bloginfo() for this then please stop! The code below gives a very basic example of how to do it the proper way.

   <a href="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>">This is a link to your home page</a>

   If you’re in doubt of anything then read the Codex it really does help! By using the correct functions to get you around WordPress you make it much more likely that your theme won’t clash or interfere with plugins or other developers code. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to troubleshoot a bug in your own code only to find it’s another plugin that is causing the issue!

2. Getting the theme location: If you are using TEMPLATEPATH or bloginfo( 'template_directory' ) stop, stop right now!! It’s much better to be using the very useful get_template_directory().

   There are actually 4 variations of this function:

   1. get_template_directory() returns the PATH to your theme folder. Useful for use inside PHP functions or includes.
   2. get_template_directory_uri() returns the URL to your theme folder. Useful for enqueueing and registering your scripts and styles and if you want to include and image.
   3. get_stylesheet_directory() returns the PATH to the stylesheet folder. This will always point to the Child Theme if one is in use whereas get_template_directory() will always point to the Parent Theme.
   4. get_stylesheet_directory_uri() returns the URL to the stylesheet folder. As with the above this will always point to the Child Theme if one is in use.

   For more examples of using these check out the official WordPress codex

   Try to make sure that you’re always using the best function for the job, especially if you are expecting users to override your theme in a Child Theme then it is best to use the correct function.

Eventually, I overcame my fear and managed to muddle my way through the Terminal set-up, and without deleting my entire home directory in the process either….yes, that was (and still is) a major fear I have every time I have to do anything in Terminal!!

It occurred to me that during the entire time I’d been using SCSS, it had never asked to be updated and I genuinely had no idea wether ruby gems* update themselves or not. So after an unsuccessful Google search on the subject, I resorted to bugging my lovely Twitter followers for help!

Do I need to update SASS manually or does it automatically do it? Please help, I’m a command line novice!

This was retweeted by @StuRobson and seen by @ScottKellum who kindly told me that SASS does need to be updated manually, and that typing ‘sudo gem update‘ (without the quotes) into the Terminal would update all of my gems at once. Or if I just wanted to update SASS then typing ‘sudo gem update sass‘ would be the way to go.

I did this without any trouble and SASS had been updated. I’ve since found a useful command that let’s you check which version of SASS you’re running, by typing ‘sass -v’ into the Terminal (again, without the quotes). Hopefully this will save some of you the time it took me to find out how to update SASS, but feel free to leave a comment if you’ve got any better ways of doing it.

Probably not anything to do with the Ruby Gems that I needed to update on my Mac!

*I’ve no idea what ruby gems are, but they always remind me of the things you had to collect in Spyro the Dragon on PS1.

I’ve been working in photoshop and on the web for years, and I’ll hold my hand up in admitting that I never really knew how hex colour codes worked. If you don’t work on the web then you maybe wondering that hex colours are? Well when you are looking at the source for pages around the Web, you may see cryptic six-digit codes in place of colour names, that’s hex codes!

These are actually numbers written in base 16, or hexadecimal. Without going too far into the maths (because I *really* hate maths), there are a few things to know:

Counting in base 16 goes like this: 0123456789ABCDEF. W.T.F??
Well, “9″ means nine, “A” means ten, “B” means eleven, and so forth. So F is the highest digit you can use in hexadecimal, and it’s worth fifteen.

Colours represented in hexadecimal are numbers with six digits. The first two are for red, the next two are for green, the last two are for blue. Shorthand: RRGGBB.

The higher the number, the brighter the pixel on the screen. So 0 is the lowest setting (black) and F is the brightest setting.

Thus, the higher the number in the “GG” position, the higher the green on your screen gets turned up. So #00FF00 means “green,” since the two red digits and two blue digits are 0 but the two green digits are at their highest setting!

So I guess that means that roses are FF0000, and violets are 0000FF! ;)

I turned 27 yesterday. Whaaa? When did that happen? It only feels like yesterday that I was still in Uni spending far too much time on my PS2 and playing geeky card games like Magic the Gathering…yeah, I was one of ‘those’ people (still am).

Confession: I love my twenties. Love, love, love them. I’ll take 27 over 17 any day. I’ve become more confident, started doing lots more sports and have a career that I love. I enjoy the freedom in responsibility, and I’m better at accepting my limitations.

I remember reading a blog a couple of months ago from someone who had noted down one thing they’d learnt for evey year they’d been alive and I think it’s a great idea, so here are 27 things I’ve learned in my 27 years:

1. Always be reading something. Books are your friend.
2. Leon is the best movie ever made!
3. Find a job where you can learn more, not earn more.
4. Really think before you hit that “Send” button on your email. Read what you just wrote. Do you sound like a twat? You’ll most likely regret saying it.
5. Say “Yes” against your better judgement once in a while. Some of the best things happen when you try something new or unplanned.
6. Don’t turn on the TV unless there’s something specific you want to watch as 90% of the stuff on it is trash!
7. The better you get at something, the easier it looks, the easier it looks the less people will respect it (or want to pay for it).
8. I’m still not sure I believe that Pluto isn’t a planet.
9. Automatic doors make me feel like a Jedi.
10. The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.
11. Take lots of pictures. Someday you’ll be really glad you did.
12. You should watch The Big Lebowski if you haven’t already. If you have, watch it again!
13. Time heals (nearly) all wounds…
14. I can Listen to music by Less than Jake on repeat all day.
15. Physical exercise is great at reducing stress and anxiety as well as improving your health.
16. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee – sounds reasonable to me. No-one should be deprived of coffee!
17. I’m not sure I truly believe in Karma, but the concept of doing good things then good things will happen in your own life, has worked out pretty well for me so far.
18. Everyone has their successes, so make sure you’re able to recognise them, because they may not come in the form of £’s or $’s.
19. The bigger the team or company, the harder it will be to make a difference. Small is beautiful sometimes.
20. Try looking at something from a different point of view before moaning about it. Change the way you view things and you’ll become a lot more accepting of others.
21. Confident women are sexy.
22. Try to have fun in your job. Fun is not the enemy of work.
23. Beer tastes nasty and I’ve never liked it. Cider is much better.
24. There is a song for any (and every) emotion you’ll ever go through in life.
25. I’ve yet to discover any word in the English language that rhymes with purple.
26. A weightlifter from Bristol, played the (body) role of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films.
27. Never forget to Smile…..it irritates angry people.