johnsteeleswritingarchive.wordpress.com

…along with a couple of new posts to get the blog off to a good start.

Meanwhile, the remains of this blog will be left here for the immediate future. Thanks to all who read it in the past and I hope that you’ll like the new blog too.

www.greenbargainsblog.com was a website I created to help save the planet by encouraging people to make small changes, such as switching to low energy lightbulbs, often saving money in the process! Unfortunately, the website has failed to raise one red cent to cover its running costs and the only comments it attracts nowadays are from spammers but I haven’t given up on it yet and am currently looking into Content Management Systems like Joomla! to give it a more magazine style look. And I have finally remembered to link it to our Twitter account: twitter.com/greenbargainsbl

hotdvdbargainsblog.co.uk, which I created to promote all the DVD bargains I found whilst trying to find green ones, may have raised the grand sum of £1.68 as it seemed to be associated with a boxset that I don’t own — Result! However, both this and the Green Bargains Blog are run on behalf of a local community project, the Five Villages Print Shop, so the £1.68 isn’t mine but it’s still nice to see the website showing signs of succeeding (however humbly). The site has also undergone a cosmetic revamp, partly inspired by the look of the site DVDBargainAlerts.co.uk (no connection), although I found a similar but different WordPress theme, that I was easily able to adapt for our purposes.

I’m also responsible for a couple of local websites, brookhouseandubberleyforum.org and friendsofberryhillfields.org, and have been busy updating them and in the latter case getting it back online (it’s taking time as it’ll be based on the aforementioned Joomla!, that I’m still learning how to use).

Finally, I’m discovering that I’m not just a lazy writer but a lazy web programmer too as I’m taking forever creating a database driven site for a friend, after having had a Jeremy Clarkson moment when he asked me if I could help him and said yes, “How hard can it be?!” Like the Top Gear trio, I’m find the answer is “Very hard indeed”. But I also have a stubborn streak, so I’m unlikely to give up.

Oh, and I’ve updated this site too with a worthy sidebar widget that enables you to donate food to starving children by rating short videos, all at no cost to yourself!

To kick things off I’ve added a fair number of posts already, containing poems, stories/articles, and old Internet writings, so get stuck in an’ feel free to leave comments if you wish.