Musicalmidget’s Blog

I’m happy to be able to say that this blog is now running from the new server at HostedFX and the new domain is active.

Since I first connected to the internet years ago, I’ve had my eye on the domain musicalmidget.com, simply because that’s the name I go by on nearly all the websites on which I have registered. Unfortunately, the domain was taken but luckily seemed to be free when it became possible to buy a domain for my own blog.

So, welcome to my blog, now running at musicalmidget.com!

To follow on from my post yesterday, I’m pleased to say that an alternative host has been found. I’ll be moving all my sites to HostedFX. The hosting package is similar in many ways to my EckoHost package and the price is also more or less the same.

As promised, this blog will have a new URL when the move is complete. The new domain is one I’ve had my eye on since first connecting to the internet but has always been taken. I’m astounded that it was free when I looked. www.musicalmidget.com will be the new URL for this blog shortly!

Today didn’t start off particularly well for me. After a great night out in Nottingham last night with Gavin, I jumped in the car at about half 1 this afternoon, expecting to be home roughly an hour later. Unfortunately, it actually look a little less than three hours to get home, thanks to total gridlock on the M1 caused by some sort of accident. So, three hours, hardly moving, baking hot temperature, no water. I suppose you can see why it wasn’t such a fun trip. I wasn’t in the best of moods afterwards as a result.

Eventually I make it home, and after a large cold drink, it’s onto the net to catch up with the days events. After such a tiring drive home I was hoping for an easier evening, but it seems it simply wasn’t meant to be. First thing I discover, EckoHost, my web host for the past couple of years, will close in 15 days. MyBB Mods, this blog and a small private site I run for a group of friends will all go offline after 31st July unless I’m able to find a suitable replacement host. This is sad news. I’ve been impressed with the service from EckoHost since day one, but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end.

This unfortunate news has meant I’ve actually spent my evening frantically looking for alternative hosts to move to. I’ve seen a handful which look alright, but only one which really strikes me as impressive. It’s much the same kind of package as my current EckoHost account, and it’s also about the same price. I’ll be in touch with that host in the morning to ask a few questions and decide whether or not to proceed.

All being well, I should be able to move all three sites across to a new host in time. One good thing to come from this rather sudden move however, is that all the packages I’ve been looking into will allow me to use addon domains. As a result, this blog will, once moved, probably have a domain of its own. Let’s face it, the current address is hardly memorable. I even type it incorrectly myself from time to time.

It’s been a hectic kind of day. I hope tomorrow is a little more…relaxing.

I’ll post more on the hosting situation soon, although all being well, there shouldn’t be any serious changes during the switch.

This afternoon I pretty much finished quite a long essay I’ve been writing for a while. So, I decided to use the free time I had for the rest of the day to try and work some more on the custom theme I’ve been trying to develop for this blog. The theme itself seems mostly completed but I feel it probably still needs tweaking in a couple of places.

I’ve done as much as I can to try and ensure that this theme works on every browser without any major differences. However, it’s still possible that there are a few cross-browser issues, particularly with internet explorer in lower screen resolutions. If you should notice any such problem, please let me know.

As I mentioned in my last post, this theme is hardly the greatest out there, but in my personal opinion, it’s at least a little bit more unique than the nice but very common WordPress default theme.

If you have any suggestions or comments about this theme, please do let me know.

WordPress 2.0 was released recently and is now installed here. It looks as though some areas of the blog are broken but I’ll be working to fix them as soon as possible. If you’re reading this however, and I assume you probably are, then posting is at least working.

Let the blogging continue…

Well, here we are at last. My first post on my first blog.
How exciting…

I’ve been meaning to set up a blog for quite a while now and just never got around to it, so tonight I decided to change that. It’s nothing special yet but in time who knows. One day I’ll probably work on creating a unique theme for the blog, but as I’m fairly new to WordPress I’ll take some time to get used to it first. Besides, the default theme is quite attractive anyway if you ask me.

So, to start the ball rolling, here’s a run down of what’s going on in my life at the moment…

Anyone who’s spoken to me recently is probably aware that we’re having quite a bit of work done at the moment so my house is in quite a mess. We’re having a new kitchen and a new bathroom. The kitchen is pretty much in now, we just need to paint the damn thing. The bathroom is starting to take shape but still isn’t quite there yet. At least we finally have a working shower again, it was hell without one.

Last week I took a spur of the moment break from all the building work. I went to see a friend and ended up staying with him most of the week whilst his parents were away. I’m glad to have had the break, I’m feeling a little more refreshed now.

Although all of my final A level exams are out of the way now, I’ve got an exam on my saxophone coming up this week, so think of me on thursday morning. Usually I don’t worry so much about graded exams, but so much is riding on this one, such as my place at University. I’m fairly confident I’ll pass it, but I still feel worried. I suppose that’s just natural.

I had my last ever concerts with the music centre bands at the weekend. No more 1 o’clock Concert Band, no more Vermuyden Concert Band, and no more Doncaster Schools Symphonic Band (DSSB) which was my favourite of all. I’ll try and visit the bands as much as possible when they start again next year, but travelling between the university and home every weekend may prove to be quite difficult, especially as I probably won’t have a car yet when I leave. I’m sure the bands at Hull University will keep me happy though.

The above events have meant that something have taken a backseat recently, including working on MyBB and some of my music compositions. I’ll be picking up on those things again pretty much as soon as I finish writing this entry. MyBB will probably come first as I’ve got to catch up with a lot of changes to the code which have been made over the last week or so whilst I’ve been gone. I’ll get back into the music stuff soon too and look at getting some things published on Sibelius Music in the near future.

Any how, that’s a run down of thing which have been going on recently. I don’t know how often I’ll be posting here, probably just whenever I feel the urge, so keep checking back from time to time…

Bye for now.