I do not like it when people make assumptions about me based upon a few moments… or a few conversations… or a few meetings… or a few interactions of any kind. All that crap about making a good first impression should be rewritten to say ‘don’t make a bad impression’. I’m not mad or pissed off… it just bothers me slightly when people make assumptions based upon so little.

For instance… I was talking to a buddy of mine on the phone yesterday (the blog previous to this one is about it) and she thought I’m soft. I must confess that I was stumped by that assertion – she did say that I’m too nice, and I’m beginning to think I am.

I think I should take lessons on how to become a badass motherfucker who treats women like dirt.

On another note… a guy in town here who goes to the gym is going to be fighting in Winnipeg in September – full contact cage wars. Asked him if he’ll holler with a location and date closer to the time. Might even ask him if he needs a sparring partner.

Anyways… I think I’m going to start blogging whilst listening to music every single time from now on. It affects my blogging style. So here’s my current playlist:

• ACDC – You Shook Me All Night Long
• Type O Negative – Cinnamon Girl (one of my favourites)
• Creed – Six Feet From The Edge
• Boy Meets Girl – Waiting For A Star To Fall (one of my favourites)
• George Leach – Young Enough (one of my favourites)
• Guns N Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
• Guns N Roses – You Could Be Mine
• Guns N Roses – Patience
• Heart – Alone
• Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way
• Nirvana – Polly
• Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Californication
• Type O Negative – Love You To Death
• Mark Wahlberg – We All Die Young
• Nirvana – Come As You Are
• Nirvana – Polly
• The Calling – Wherever You Will Go (my favourite)
• Shakira – La Tortura

On that note… I’m slowly teaching myself Spanish. Not colloquial but with correct grammer and pronunciation. That’s probably why it’s taking so long. Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world and the second most widely spoken language in America. So it’s probably in my best interests to learn. Yvette’s going to be teaching Spanish to people at the end of the year, so I’m probably going to sign up for that. I can read Spanish better than I can speak it but that’s still not very good.

I would dearly love to speak Ojibway but that would be about as hard as me speaking Hebrew – almost impossible.

I’m a web designer by trade. It’s what I do for a living and what I do to bring in a meager income to partially support my children.

So many times I read about web designers bragging that they still code their html in Notepad. About 95% of people making this claim are flat-out lying. Only a moron with NO BRAINS and no time-management skills would code an entire website solely in Notepad.

I know from experience… being in the field that web designers use programs like Coffee Cup, Web Studio, Dreamweaver, GoLive and Homesite. Some archaic douche bags still use Frontpage but they’re in the minority.

Some people might code SOME of their html in ‘code’ view in these HTML editors, but they do it much like me. If I’m doing a complexed layout using CSS design instead of tables, then I’ll type the html by hand and keep checking it in WYSIWYG view. But most people still use tables which suck. There’s VERY FEW situations when a table is a necessity but mostly they’re crap and are horrendous for search engine optimisation. Anyone using them for a website layout in this day and age knowing there is something better just needs a slap.

So please… if you’re claiming you use Notepad please stop lying because the chances are that you don’t (at least to make complete websites).

Of late I’ve started to fall in love with WordPress. The sheer amount of functionality provided out of the base package, combined with the awesome power of the hundreds of plugins is definitely making my life more fulfulling.

I recently heard about a guy who earns a six-figure income from blogging. No doubt I would LOVE to do that… even though the $451 a day he earns from Google Ads dwarfs my approximately $7 per day… I would blog if I made no money and nobody EVER came to my website.

For instance… my day job is as a web developer. Content management systems are a huge part of what I do every day. I’ve tried all of the major ones. My boss was very apprehensive on using WordPress in a professional environment as a CMS. It took the crashing of a server with Drupal on it and the time it took me to construct that site, to get him to agree to have the same site rebuilt in WordPress.

On my WordPress Plugins page, I’ve listed all of the WordPress plugins I use on various personal websites. So far I’ve used nearly all of them on work-sites in the last three weeks that the boss has agreed to allow WordPress in the workplace.

The flexibility and raw power is making WordPress one of the great loves of my life. I’m not really sure what makes me feel like this either hahahaha. Maybe it’s just having that administrative control to do what I want, where I want and how I want.

I can tell anyone out there who’s considering building a static OR interactive website with one of the major ones like Drupal, Joomla, PHPNuke, PostNuke, Xoops or anything else… FORGET that. Use WordPress. The plugins are where it’s at.

I just realised whilst being totally pathetic and yet again listening to the soundtrack of Love Actually that I actually am a bit of a romantic. It’s just too bad that I’ve never had the opportunity to show it.

I used to dream about having the perfect woman. I used to dream about coming home to someone and being enveloped with love. I used to dream about cheesing over the woman I live with because I love her so much.

I used to dream about having that sort of relationship where the first time you see that person you know there’s something special about them, and you end up staying with them permanently.

I used to dream about dreaming about that one single woman.

I think all this soppy romantic emotion that’s spilling out of me the last three months is a result of being in a relationship where it’s the entire opposite. No love… no romance… no friendship. So why don’t we talk again about music… except it’ll be soppy love songs – in no particular order:

• Lips of an Angel by Hinder
• All You Need is Love – Lynden David Hall
• Way Back Into Love – Hugh Grant & Haley Bennett
• Drifters – In The Still of the Night
• Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry – I Don’t Know Why I Love You
• Alabama – The Closer You Get
• Tim McGraw – Just To See You Smile
• Elton John – Can You Feel The Love Tonight
• Tony Braxton – Unbreak My Heart (Dance remix)
• Boyz II Men – End of the Road
• Boyz II Men – I’ll Make Love To You
• Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony – No Me Ames
• Mariah Carey – Always Be My Baby
• Joanie Madden – Women of Ireland
• Kaoma – Lambada
• The Temptations – Sugar Pie Honey Bunch
• BB Mak – Back Here
• Boy Meets Girl – Waiting For A Star To Fall
• Celine Dion & Andrea Bocelli – Our Prayer
• Celine Dion & R. Kelly – I’m Your Angel
• George Michael – Amazing
• Emma Bunton – What Took You So Long
• Kelly Clarkson – Because of You
• Lighthouse Family – High
• Lionel Richie – Penny Lover

As the previous two posts are related to the greatest movie of all time… here’s some more Youtube Videos.

I could go on forever about this movie. It literally is the greatest movie I’ve ever seen… even better than The Great Escape, which has been my favourite movie since I was eight years old.

This video is what about 50million British people wish the British Prime Minister would say to the American President. My favourite scene in the movie – the Prime Minister standing up to the President and letting him know he isn’t going to call the shots anymore.

A rather good soppy love scene.

The beginning scene of the movie – Lynden’s singing ROCKS!