# personal
Changing up how I share with my community
Find out how my blog and newsletter will be changing over time. More blog posts will be created each week and my newsletter will have a summary of what I've been posting, and what I've found interesting.
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Dear readers, it's been a while
Hello to anyone that visits my blog post, whether it's your first time or your 100th. You all mean the so much to me and I appreciate you taking the time to read any of my posts.
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2020 - New Year - New Decade - New Goals
Last year has been yet another rollercoaster. I wanted to stay working at Lightfoot for another year, but it didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped. I started my own business to become a contractor, and my wife is still using pet-sitting as a side hustle.
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The future of blogging is Headless and the JAMStack
Find out why I think Headless and the JAMStack is the future of blogs
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A Netlify Test
Last week I signed into my WordPress blog and found I had errors. These errors seemed to have occurred through my Neve theme which may have been caused by an upgrade somewhere along the lines. I tried to trace the errors back through my daily backups, but it seemed no matter what I did, I still had errors.
LinkThis month has been weird for me...
This month has been so weird for me. I walked into my workplace on the first of May to find out I'm being made redundant with a few colleagues due to targets not being hit. It didn't shock me, and I wasn't upset by this. I understood the company was hitting a rocky patch. However, I didn't expect this to happen, especially at the time it did.
LinkMichael’s mental health story — Wellbean blog
I'm happy to announce that my mental health story has been published on WellBean's blog. If you would like to give it a read, then please head over to the link below. Thank you for taking your time to read it.
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Saying goodbye to February and Hello to March 2019
Today is our final day in February, and although it's our shortest month, it definitely feels like our longest. I've managed to retain my internet connections and make many more. This month I managed to hit 3,000 followers which is a nice achievement.
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Spending time with your loved ones
After two weeks of not really seeing each other, I'm thankful that I can spend some time with my wife. She's been very busy pet sitting, and I've been helping her where I can. Due to this, we have had some time away. Although it's nice to spend some time apart, it's also nice to spend quality time together.
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What a write off
Today has been pretty stressful to say the least. Having some guy shout at me through his car window really got to be. It shouldn't have and most things usually go over my head, but this got me. It was probably the fact that my day already wasn't going well and this was the nail in the coffin which sent me over the edge.
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In Spite of Fear
I watched a video today by the lovely Anna Reel where she says "In spite of fear, do it anyway". This pretty much goes along with what I've read. A book called Feel the Fear and do it anyway explains it in much better detail. However, the basics of it are, if you fear something, you should do it anyway. Usually the best outcomes in life are because you faced fear head on.
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Valentine's Day - 2019
Today is Valentine's Day which means couples will be spending time together. Maybe they'll spoil each, or maybe they'll chill with some Netflix. However they spend Valentine's, it can be a wonderful day.
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My first ebook will be about creating your first ebook
You heard right, the first ebook I will be creating will about how to write your first ebook. I've been thinking about how I would love to create an ebook, but I didn't know what to write about. Researching how to create an ebook leads to people explaining you should use Canva, Google Docs or something completely different, but they don't explain how or why.
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The vegan challenge
For the past three weeks, I've been a vegan. It's something that brings in lots of new challenges, and the experience can be very gratifying and rewarding. There's a lot of foods out there which are obviously not suitable for vegans, such as; meat, eggs, dairy and even honey. However, some things aren't so obvious like; bread, pasta, sweets and biscuits. Most things have a suitable for vegan logo, some are suitable for vegetarian while others don't have either.
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Pet Sitting these beautiful girly Dalmatians
I've spent this weekend helping my wife looking after 3 dalmatians and 1 lab. They are a handful, but they can also be very well behaved. I got woken up many times during my sleep because they were either begging for a wee or food. It makes me want to have my own dog, but I know it would never be fair on them due to both of us working full-time. Anyway, here are some video snippets of these girls in action. ?
LinkSome background to mine and my wife's life
Around 8-9 years ago, my wife (then girlfriend) and I moved out of my mum’s 2-bedroom council house into our very own 1-bedroom council flat. Like everyone else, we had to go on the waiting list and bid for flats/houses. We were expecting to find a place in between 1-2 years, but my mum thought it would take a lot longer.
LinkHelping my wife pet sit
Some of you know my wife has her own pet sitting business. This year has been an incredible start for her, she has had many, many bookings. To a point where she's now struggling to keep up. This is both a good thing and a bad thing because she has a full-time job, she's trying to juggle her job and business together. She now has to turn business down and she feels bad for doing so. Another issue with pet sitting, you can't charge too much at least not yet. Because if she did, she would then get fewer clients, it's all about building a base, and then growing from there.
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Appreciation Post
As it's a Monday, and Monday's can usually bring us down. I thought I would use this post as a way of appreciation. I want to thank all of my blog, email, Twitter followers, friends and family. Without you reading my blog and the support you give, I probably wouldn't have created so many posts in such a short time-span.
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Winning Spirit of the gym at my CrossFit box
Coming into my Crossfit box this morning for a workout and thinking nothing of it. That's until my coach, Matt announced that someone had one the Spirit of the gym award who didn't turn up for last night's social. He announced my name, and I was actually shocked! Honestly, I couldn't believe that all my Crossfit friends would vote for me. It's truly an honour to win, and it made me incredibly happy to win.
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Saying goodbye to January and Hello to February 2019
Today is our final day in January for 2019, and I have to say, it's been an okay start to the year. I've made more connections on the internet. Removed Facebook from my phone, posted to my blog every day, and even turned vegan. I felt positive about money, only for that to crash and have anxiety over money. It was okay though, because this eventually went away, and now I'm positive again.
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January 2019 is coming to an end
This is our final week of January, and we only have 3 days left until it's officially over. I've already had a few surprises, some bad and some good, and I wanted to share with you both my good and bad for this month.
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My new PC setup (Surface Pro 3)
My desktop PC is playing funny buggers, so I've had to switch it out. I'm now using my Surface Pro 3 which I've had for a few years and used it on and off. My wife was very reluctant for the switch, because of the Pro 3 having such a small screen. After reassuring her that we can still use our two monitors, I went and purchased the correct cables. Two mini display-ports to HDMI that are purchased on Amazon by Rankie.
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The best vegan meal so far
I've only been a vegan for 4 days, so don't take this as an official best vegan meal. This meal really filled me up and tasted amazing. It takes around an hour (15min prep and 45min cooking), but the wait is well worth it in my opinion.
LinkAttending my best mate's dad's funeral
I've spent most of today at my best mate's dad's funeral. It was a lovely funeral which went over all of Ron's highlights, from farming to fishing and karting, and being a fantastic father. He had many issues like many, but he lived an overall happy and eventful life and spent a lot of time with his wife and kids.
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A year of Fitbit statistics...
This morning I decided to take a look at my Fitbit stats, and I thought... I wonder what my yearly stats are like. Taking a look, and I am really surprised by these stats. You can see what they are below, and as you can see, I have accomplished a lot.
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Going Vegan
Starting tomorrow I will be going vegan. At first, I was very reluctant because I love my meat. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to leave such a good source of food out of their diets. Now after hearing a lot about how farming is a huge cause of global warming, and the need for more animals. We simply won't have enough animals to feed all of us and something needs to be done to sort it.
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Watching Aquaman with my wife
Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible. Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.
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Best Hip Stretches to do while at Work
Yesterday, my hips were very tight because of some heavy squats I did on Monday. My hips were very immobile, and today I'll talk you through some hip stretches you can do at work.
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Excited for the new Spider-Man movie
If you haven't watched Avengers Infinity War and don't know the ending, I suggest you look away now. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
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How I manage to get to Crossfit every morning
Some days I wake up at 4:30, others at 5 on weekdays then on Saturday I get up at 7 in the morning. How do I do this you ask?
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Struggling with money and how it affects Mental Health
Money is always a taboo that often gets swept under the carpet, much like mental health. It's a topic that should be talked about more, again like mental health. When you suffer from both, then it can be a volcano ready to explode at any moment.
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Dealing with death
Death is a terrible part of living. We all worry about death, and most of us aren't ready for it when it comes around. If someone passes then those close friends/family feel sadness and mourning and have to deal with so much. Funerals, funding, banking services are just to name a few of the things that have to be dealt with, and it's a terrible situation to go through.
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My cat Squiggle is not well
My cat has gone to the vets twice because he has a pain in his back. He is constantly licking surfaces, himself and also scratching, digging, and biting himself. It's definitely a discomfort, but the vets can't find the answer, and it's so frustrating. If you stroke the lower part of his back, he will start to lick and/or bite you to tell you it's hurting. His hair looks dandruffy and is falling out easily, yet it doesn't look like he has mites or fleas.
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Migrating this website to SiteGround
Yesterday I wrote a blog post about SiteGround, you can see it here if you haven't already read it. In that blog post, I stated that my wife's website, Brooks Pet Sitters was hosted with them. However, the website you were reading from was hosted with Digital Ocean. Digital Ocean is great if you have complicated sites or programs, but this is a simple WordPress site. All shared hosting will work with WordPress, so why did I go with SiteGround?
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A full week of work starts
For us office workers, today is our first full week back. Like many around this time of year, I felt pretty apprehensive about going back. It was so nice having a break from work and they always go way too fast. Christmas and New Year never last as long as you'd hope and everything just goes back to normal.
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My fundraiser for Mental Health has started
This is just a quick blog post to let you know I will be starting my first fundraiser for mental health. It will be a Crossfit workout called Becky and all donations will be going to Mind charity. I hope you are excited as I am regarding this event, and will join me as the event starts. When more details arise, I will be sure to update you all.
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3 years at Crossfit
A memory popped up on Facebook today and it's reminded me why I joined Crossfit. I initially joined because I was unhappy with my weight. I got to 16st (~101kg) and I was feeling slightly unhappy with my weight gain. It's not a huge amount of weight compared to other's, but it was my heaviest weight. Also, posture was a biggie for me, I have Anterior Pelvic Tilt (or APT) and I walked with a bounce.
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My 2 year journey at Lightfoot
My journey at Lightfoot all started because of my struggles with a previous company. I had been given a 3-month trial and during this trial, my work was struggling. The company really liked me as a person and wanted to see me succeed there. They extended my trial by another 3 months and by the end of it, I was still struggling to keep up. I then had to start looking for a position elsewhere, and that's where I found Lightfoot.
LinkHappy new year 2019
I just want to use this post to wish everyone a happy new year. I hope it's enjoyable, prosperous and is everything you could hope for.
LinkA year review 2018
After reading Tim Ferriss' year review, I decided to do something similar. I couldn't go through my calendar as I never use one for events (maybe I should start next year).
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Looking to 2019 and my personal goals
2018 has been massive for my wife and I. I helped her start her business Brooks Pet Sitters, and although it's been tough, she's loved every second. Our goal was to have 20 clients this year, and we now have 45. Some have been incredibly supportive, while others not so much. We learnt how to pick our clients and separate the good from the bad.
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Favourite books of 2018
I'm not sure about the number of books I read this year, but I read a good amount. They're mainly self-help books and a few on marketing, so if you're looking for something on web dev or graphic design, then I'm afraid you're out of luck.
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Biggest achievement of the year 2018
My biggest achievement for this year is staying with my current company for as long as I have. This may sound daft, but bare with me...
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Favourite connections of the year 2018
I feel like I've made so many connections this year and for that alone makes me truly grateful for 2018.
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Favourite album of the year 2018
This year has been a great year for music releases. We had a surprise album from the amazing Eminem. His album came with a bang and was a great listen for me. Unfortunately, the album was short lived for me, and I have only listened to it a couple of times.
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I went to Total Ninja (Manchester)
My nephew, wife and I went up to Oldham last weekend to visit my mum. While we were up there, my wife decided to book an hour of Total Ninja in Manchester which was booked online.
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I have donated £175 to Macmillan Cancer Research
A few weeks ago, I took part in a Crossfit event called Battle Cancer. This event was in aid of Macmillan Cancer Research, and it was a spectacular event.
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I managed 14 unbroken Double-Unders
I know this isn't a massive achievement, but I have a goal to get to 50 unbroken DUs by the end of the year. The other week, I managed to get 14 unbroken which is the most I have done so far. I'll keep you updated with my progress, but for now you can check the video below and follow me for more Crossfit updates.
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Murph is quite possibly my favourite CrossFit Workout
It's not only to remind us of the great Michael Murphy who served for the US Navy, but it's also to remind us of friends and family who have served for our country (where ever you may be), it's to remind us of all our doctors, nurses, firefighters and police officers. It's also to remind us to be kind and help each other through tough times (e.g. this workout).
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On 27/04/2018 I entered my first CrossFit Competition
I know that date has pretty much long gone, but I want to get into the habit of updating my blog more often with what I'm doing, so thought I would add this while I still can.
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I did a tandem skydive at 15,000ft
Last Saturday, I took a tandem skydive thanks to my lovely wife who bought it for my birthday present. I have to say, I wasn't nervous at all, calm as a cucumber in fact. I always try to never over think any situation and say to myself... It's been done a million times before, they are experts and I'm going to be fine.
LinkWe don't need a social networking website. We need building websites to be more accessible.
Some may know that I've been wanting to build an open source social networking website for a long time. The trouble with building a social networking site is there is so much to do. Especially if you want to build something that's on par with the likes of Facebook.
LinkMotivational Posters
I have opened up an online store with Woocommerce and Printful and will be selling motivational posters. If you would like to take a look, then head over to this page and see for yourself. If you would like to give feedback, then please feel free to contact me through comments, Twitter or Facebook. I will reply back to you and will take all suggestions on board.
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Pet Sitting Business for my wife
Last year, I wanted to help my wife start a pet sitting business but had no idea where to start. I started looking at ideas on how to get started and found some basics that needed to be fulfilled.
LinkLast major website refresh
I have updated my website again and moved it from OctoberCMS to WordPress. The process was fairly easy and I am glad to have finally made the move. WordPress is a great blogging platform and although it gets a lot of bad rep, it is a great platform to be on. WordPress is hosted on over 80% of the internet and it's completely open source which means you simply can not go wrong with using it.
LinkPlans for the new year
I never do the New year, New me bullshit, I have always believed that the end of the year is a time to reflect what we have done over the past few years and what we can improve upon for the new year to come.
LinkSocial Network API update
Last time I updated you guys on this, I only had a list of ideas and how it would initially pan out. I have now started the project and published the repo onto GitHub.
LinkSocial Networking site - Starting point
In my last post, I said how I would create a new open sourced social networking website and I would start out on the API.
LinkDocker has been fun, but it's time to move on...
As a few of you may know, I have been using Docker for some time to deploy my site with. It's been a great learning experience for me and is something I wish to carry on with.
LinkNew Year, New Blog, New something?
I am really stoked to show you guys my brand new Blog built with October CMS. For my hosting, I have used Digital Ocean (click the link for $10 free). Digital Ocean is a fantastic hosting company which I just love to use as they give you complete control over your VPS, and they even give you One-click apps to help you get started.
LinkMay Update
I just want to write to my Blog followers and notify you all that I have been relatively busy lately and that is the reason for lack of any posts. I have just been employed by a company called CreateANet. They specialise in app development, so it's an exciting time for me and my future. I have been settling in got the past couple of weeks and all seems to be going well thus far.
LinkQuick Update
Lots have been going on recently, so I do apologise for not writing a post as of late. I had to be made redundant by my previous employee due to lack of funds and not being able to push enough work my way. Luckily, the guys there are pretty cool and was happy to be my reference for any future employment. I was really lucky to find a new workplace and as soon as I left, I started my new position with Pulse8 Broadband.
LinkWebsite Update
As you can see, it has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy trying to push updates over to my website to help strengthen the relationships between you and I.
LinkNew Blog Design
It's been a while since I've post and for that, I do appologise. My head has been loaded with ideas and new projects that I absolutely would love to get started on, but I tend to try and start 100 all at once and then get too agitated because none of them are working for me or just get pushed away.
LinkVirgin Media Calling and Asking for Password
Last week some time, I received a phone call from Virgin Media. The caller said he would like to talk to me regarding my account, which at first seemed fairly legit. I asked him what the problem was and to his response, I was shocked.
LinkSocial Networking Website Based in Laravel
I've been wanting to make a social networking website for a long time, one which will rival the big guys. I also thought about maybe doing it following the footsteps of Mark Zuckerberg by recording my steps live on my Blog and get feedback to what others think. That way, I can create something which everyone wants and unleash something which almost everyone will love.
LinkBrand New Website, Brand New Start
Of becoming a Web Master. It's been a while since I properly posted on my Blog. And so I wondered the best way to go about this. As I went back to my old site and old Blog. I looked at it and I couldn't help but think that the way of making templates on Blogger was a bit too tedious and slap-dashed and was in need of a new website.
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