My brother and Mum have both gone on a little visit to see my granny in her new nursing home (no, it’s a nice one, just opened, there’s greenery and nice people… and my aunt and uncle visit a lot).  This means it’s just me and Dad.  AND he’s out a lot.  He has his allotment and all the other things semi-retired people do.

Because of all this… space… time… quiet… It means I get to play loud music and really geek out.  This means I am moving forward in a BIG way with the scout group’s website.  As of5 minutes ago I have the entire framework together.  Now I just have to fill it and make it look pretty.  AND I have figured out the multiple installations of Wordpress using only one SQL database… yes, it’s taken me this long… yes, I am this stupid.

Next I am going to go through the several thousand photos I already have from this delicious group of people to try and find ones that simultaneously give a positive impression of the group while keeping the little darlings identities as secret as possible.  I foresee using an awful lot of ‘blur’.  I’ve also figured out how to make the colours work… well, I think so anyway… and each section will have their own official colours used… See, official colours!  Then it’s not my choice… not my fault!

All of this.  All the colouring in and prettiness will be done in the next day or so because then comes the hard bit.  Words.  What the hell do I say about any of the Sections?  I know next to nothing about what actually goes on.  Yes, ooo, idea, get the section leaders to write it?  Tell them that I have read the Scouting UK website and copying will not be tolerated.  Reward them with sweeties?  Try a massive charm offensive?

Yeah, I laughed at the last one too.

Can’t think about it now. Have prettiness to do.

Well have sleep to have first.

But I’m going to leave you on a musical note. You remember the bad bad news about the Rocky Horror remake?  Well, filming starts in November on another musical remake - Fame.

Yep.  Fame.  It’s going to be directed by Kevin Tancharoen who is involved with things like Pussycat Doll’s Search For The Next Doll.  The only reason I care is he got Special Thanks on Dr Horrible… so he must do something right.  But, thing I am worried about - every song except the theme is being thrown out.  I mean, seriously, what’s the point?  Let’s just call it Theatre School Musical and have done with it!

Colour schemes.  They do so very much suck.

As well as my own recent blog theme horror issue crisis nightmare I am also redesigning the website of the Scout Group I am involved with.  I have been trying to get the other people in the group interested in it but I have the old problem that the ones who are interested are too busy and everyone else is, well, not.

Professional web designers, graphic designers and people who know what they are talking about when it comes to this stuff?  My respect to you all.

Now my biggest problem at the moment is the colours that the Scout Association uses.  They are lovely and go well with each other in their various logos and pages.  So the colours I want to use are the Scout Association ones

and the colours which our group uses for our logo

They go so very well together and without making anyone’s eyes bleed this becomes quite difficult.  Of course I could keep the brightness to a minimum and have another natural colour dominate the screen but I have to get kid’s to want to come to the site as well… and that means bright and shiny, right?  But that bright and shiny = goofy?  And the last thing I want is for the scout’s website to look goofy.  I also don’t want this to be a site (like this horror) that needs updating every 20 minutes to keep me interested.  I just want to get it done and then have to do nothing to it for at least a year… other that to add to it… obviously.

Because of the almost paranoid way we have to be about the information we will be carrying everything has to be inhouse.  Instead of hosting all the pictures on Flickr like most of us do to save space and the like it’ll be all here.  It’ one of the reasons I am on the hunt for a cheap and usable hosting site that doesn’t limit SQl and gives enough space to be usable…  Let’s put it like this.  I have added one picture in so fr (other than the them-y stiff) and I’m already at 74.6MB… Yep, this is going to be weighty.  Obviously not as fat as this blog but… well, this has been running for less than a year, most of the pics are on Flickr and still this is at… oh 51.89MB.  Well, that just blows my crap all over the water. Ignore that bit about my blog.

Oh but when you add in all the photos and videos and audio and pdf’s and blah blah blah that is going to be added in (hopefully) weekly it’s going to go way way way over the 50MB one site offers and is going to kick around the 100MB wihin no time at all.  Sigh.  I just want it to work like ‘Tree does - simply, easily, with no muss, no fuss.  Yes, I am using Wordpress for it.  For two reasons - it’s easy to use and I’m too lazy to learn anything else.  I think I am beginning to understand Wordpress finally - the plugins that are useful vs the ones that are just tinsel, the things that make it truly great.  Of course, I still can’t write PHP, or CSS or any of the useful stuff but I can modify someone else’s code.

Yesterday I tried to follow a step by step for building your own theme and I failed at the first hurdle.  But after going through a lot of theme sites and downloading a fair old number that looked pretty I finally found two I liked.  I am now modifying the crap out of them for both here and the scout site and then seeing which I like better.  Oh, the reason I am not keeping the current design for this place is simple.  I don’t like it.  I don’t know why.  It’s just a no.

I really wish I understood why IE hated the one from before..

They have to be, right? Am currently tired, irritable, my leg hurts (after I fell over my own feet on my own driveway (as I was so tired after the bagpack finished) so I can’t even pretend I fell over a crack in the pavement and sue somebody!), my feet and back still hurt (from the aforementioned bagpack), I have gotten no closer in finishing the website (as I decided to take a ’short’ nap when I got home and woke up a couple of hours ago) which has to be done (at least the framework and examples) by tomorrow, and I have a stress headache.

So why, you may ask, am I wasting time blogging? Well, yes, mostly because of my Blog365 commitment, but also because I want a little bit of a routine to appear back in my life. I mean, next week I have Committee Meeting after work Monday, Tuesday brings Nurses appointment take 2, Wednesday will bring… well, nothing at the moment… but you know Wednesdays!. Thursday is best not talked about and then we round up to Friday again! I know. it’s all just too exciting and I just appear to be whining so I have something to write about. It’s either that or I tell you about the buckets full… sorry bucket full of money we collected this weekend (£470 ($914) on Saturday (will know final amount tomorrow) and about how I wished we had a Chip n Pin machine connected to our account.

Why don’t people carry change anymore? What if the Chip n Pin machine hadn’t hav been working? Huh? Then you would have had to abandon your shopping! Well, not really - they would have just had you sign for it instead… and then the queue’s would have ben longer and you would have had to wait, enduring the endless whittering from the tired and slightly manic bagpacker at the end of your till. Oh, I know you chose that till because you thought there was no charity headcase standing there but you were wrong! We had a small child and a short adult there on purpose! And we’re not above making you feel guilty as we look slightly pained as you pass our bucket by… And the child says ‘Thank you’ in a small voice… My cheekbones hurt also. From all the fake smiling.

BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS.

Some people were super generous with their time and their money. It’s a chore but a profitable one. That reminds me I must post that cheque to Dan.

Meanwhile… if any of you in the UK have any old mobile phones or used ink cartridges clogging up your house/business you can help the Scout Group by sending them to us. Contact me here and I’ll give you the address!

Have now downgraded my router and everything is fine. Ish. Well, it’s working at the moment so let’s just smile and pretend everything is fine. Ah, the peace of denial!

So, anyway, I was down at the Scout Hut today doing our Re-Registration Day (basically getting the parents down to the hut to fill in forms confirming that they don’t want us to kick their little darlings out AND getting them to volunteer for things). My whole bit involved getting people to drink tea and coffee and confirm the times they will be showing up for the bag pack (that I am now organising as Mum has been banned from it by, well, everybody) next weekend.

I honestly thought it would be a disaster. That no one would show and we would all end up feeling complete idiots. The great parentage surprised me again! Although not all of them showed up (not by a great stretch of the imagination did I, or anyone else for that matter, expect that to happen) enough did so that we could call it a success. Now we just have to get people to stick to the things they signed up for.

The enthusiasm that was shown got me in the right mood to get the things done I have been avoiding for a while. So, yay! The only thing I have to concentrate on now is…. ARRRGGGGHHHHH! The website. I have to do one that works on anything but php… It’s been so long since I’ve bothered that I can’t remember a thing. It’s the login bit that’s killing me. We need a protected bit so that we can put letters to parents, event information, photos and the like in there. php - easy as, done, dusted (thanks Wordpress). Everything else is just too damn hard to figure out. But! I am going to Whip It (yes, that song has been running round my head all day - just passing on an earworm!) and success will continue to be the theme of this week.