It’s definitely still cold out there, cloudy and dull most of the day, but now you can see the beginnings of a slow thaw during the day and temperatures falling to below zero at night creating treacherous road conditions. We have snow every year in the U.K. with villages cut off, roads impassable and the really bad weather all seems to be mainly up north.

Essex weather

With the weather here in Essex hovering just above freezing during the day, and the forecast for more of the same weather, we musn’t forget the wildlife, the wild birds like the favourite red breasted robin which often visits birdtables looking for food. Just a few crumbs and some fatty left overs fed routinely will attract visitors and help them out at this crucial time.

Baby, its cold outside

It’s Sunday, the snow has come and its cold outside. The time has come to crank up the old boiler and get cosy indoors. So far we have been lucky this winter as this is our first snow fall and so far its not too heavy and the forecast is that the temperature will stay hovering around freezing for the next few days. Could be worse like in Europe with temperatures falling to -35 some nights. Brrrrrrrrrr!

Essex UK

In this corner of Essex where I live, often referred to as the Tendring peninsula, we so often escape the bad weather that is in the rest of the UK and the peninsula appears to have a micro-climate all of its own. We seems to be much drier here in this corner with the lowest rainfall in the UK, which is certainly a draw back for the struggling farmers who constantly have to irrigate their crops in the summer months. This corner of Essex also has a nickname, the ‘Essex Sunshine Coast’ with around 40miles of sunshine coastline dotted with seaside towns like Clacton and Frinton and a large ferry port at Harwich, the gateway to Europe.

This past weekends seminar was invaluable. Those who attended have been working on the XOrc 2012, testing and familiarising themselves with the various features that the new version of the XO has to offer. It’s always exciting keeping pace with all the new developments and additional feature a script has introduced. The XO2012 is no exception. Why do I work with the WP based Semiomantics XO themes? after much testing over the years I have found that not only is Semiomantics is the best performing script its also the most versatile. As Yorgo says, there are 10o1 ways the layout can be manipulated to create a new theme.

Mobile ready

Technology is going mobile, therefore the focus for a web designer  means making sure that the designs implemented are lightweight and fast loading and clearly seen and navigated on any mobile device. What looks good on your desktop pc may not necessarily impress a visitor on a mobile.  So, a theme must be flexible and responsive, across browsers and cross-platform compatible. What you see in the IE browser is not always what you see in Firefox! How a site looks on a smartphone is not the same as on an iPad.

Semiomantics XO2012

I am still working and experimenting with the new Semiomantics features and exploring the possibilities. As the theme is tuned to CSS3 and HTML5 cutom design can make the theme more visually stimulation for a visitor. Included here is a first draft of a demo site undergoing some customisation.

Updated my Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonicholas/6802062847/
hope you like it!

Saturday was a busy first day at the Ycademy seminar on ‘Semiomantics XO with CSS3 and HTML5′. The new Semimantics XO2012 is a sound base for further developments on  an already top performing script. Using both CSS3 and HTML5 it is  now possible to add elements such as video and audio straight into the code without the use of external plugins which often slow the  opening process or create conflicts. The focus today is on speed, and this is greatly enhanced with the use of HTML5 especially for mobile applications.

With CCS3 its also possible to add new elements to create more visually stimulating  web designs.

CSS3 & HTML5

Sunday will be another stimulating day packed full of information and workshops on creating content and design with CSS3 and HTML5. This is just the begining of an exciting year ahead at Ycademy, and more exciting, stimulating and cleaner designs for our customers. More coming soon.

Entertaining a young child on a wet Saturday afternoon resulted in a sticky face and hands, a big happy grin and a tray of gingerbread men, and of course they needed decoration after being baked.

It’s never easy finding things for children that they want to do when it’s cold and wet outside, but cooking seems to go down well with our young grandson. It certainly is a fun way to spend a few hours  together and they learn so much without realising it. The only draw back is the cleaning up afterwards.

Gingerbread men

Gingerbread man

It’s funny how this tradition of baking a gingerbread man has caught on and stayed with us even in the 21st century. Wikipedia states ‘…Gingerbread dates back to the 15th century, and figural biscuit-making was practiced in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits appearing was in the court of Elizabeth I of England. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests…’

There are many versions of the Gingerbread Man story and probably as many versions of the gingerbread man recipe which is basically like a biscuit recipe with ginger, syrup and spices added and then cut out into the shape of a gingerbread man. A short bake in the oven and we have something  tasty to eat too. How you decorate your men is entirely up to you or the children who made them.

Attending this weekend 28/29 January 2 day seminar “Semiomantics XO with CSS3 and HTML5″ Click here to check out the details.

Oh dear, another trend and dilemma!

This Social Media puts me in a spin!
Do I Digg or do I Flickr?
Do I Mash or do I Twitter?
Circle here, Foursquare there,
Where should I really dare.

First it was the SEO,
Now its Linkedin, have a go!
Build the traffic, cause a jam,
Hostings going crazy with too much spam.

Do I tick or send a click?
Will what I do really stick?
For every action will there be some satisfaction?
Connecting, rejecting who or what
Communicating on YOUtube, Who cares a squat!

Do I Google or skip over and test out Noodle,
Make some pages? or Meetup with friends I’d not seen for ages.
Facebook, Empire, Tumble or Stumble
Or better still do I just fumble.

Fingers crossed it does the trick!

Reading, believing, staying in touch,
Tips and tricks and all that stuff.
When will it end this media run
It’s getting boring and now no FUN!

Social Media Marketing

Putting some fun back into social media marketing. Just enjoy!