Updating the Website: Part Two

I have had a great week and a half since posting about my need to stop dithering with updating the work website. Here’s the Mindmap as it stands at the moment.

I’m fairly sure that you get the idea that this is not meant to be a “complete” map, and that it is meant to grow and alter as I spend more time thinking about what I want the outcome to be.

What I Have Done This Week.

Along with deciding to use WordPress as the backbone of the new site I have also decided that I will start the design process from scratch rather than use an existing template or theme. My main reason for this decision is that it will force me to actually learn the skills that would be required for ongoing maintenance and enhancement. This has already proven to be a good decision as my fuzzy-brain-itis seems to have faded somewhat and I can almost say that I genuinely understand how WP works and how things are structured to produce the wonderful blogs that we all take for granted. Almost.

The process will follow (roughly) this order of events:

1. Complete initial layout and design. (Currently under way.)
2. Investigate potential hosts & decide on one. (A “trial” domain will be purchased for this project.)
3. Existing content will be reviewed and altered.
4. Identify and incorporate new and additional content.
5. Check that the overall creation (design and content) aligns with the stated purposes.
6. Invite friends and associates to review the initial result.
7. Fix stuff that doesn’t work, is misspelled, and that everyone hates.
8. Send it out for a second round of critiquing, smile graciously as everyone applauds.
9. Release it into the world back on it’s own domain, retiring the existing design to Back-up City.
10. Wait for Google to figure out where we’ve gone, and hopefully pick us up again sometime this millenium.
11. Have a nice glass of Cab Sav and gloat over conquering my techno-fear.

Timeline of this masterpiece?
As long as it takes, and as quick as I can go.

How was your week?

The shape of things

The Little Miss is still coming up with surprises.
We purchased the shape sorter that you see here about a month or two ago. We wanted something bright, cheery and robust for her to grow into. It rolls around with the hard plastic shapes rattling inside as it goes. Each shape also rattles with it’s own individual sound too. It is a very cleverly designed toy, in my opinion, as it can be used by babies well before they have the motor skills to, or interest in, ’sorting’ the shapes. And it not only teaches shapes but also how to match colour.
My only complaint is the fact that it has two blues, which poses the problem of what to call the dark blue if you are trying to keep it simple for the baby. In good conscience we couldn’t really call it black, so I’m guessing it will become “navy”. Still. It’s a great toy.

So far Miss O has been chewing, shaking, sucking and trying to stuff each individual rattle-shape as far into her mouth as she can manage. But over the past week she has started to show signs of using the toy as it is intended. She has been putting the shapes through their holes and into the body of the sorter.

She still requires assistance with this - turning the sorter around so she has the right hole available to her - but she is managing the manipulation of the rattles, which are as big as her hands. Her fine motor control is still a little shaky, but my goodness it is coming along. If she gets the hang of this as fast as she managed to get on her feet and walk, then she’ll have nailed it by the time her first birthday comes along.

What continues to surprise me is that these skills seem to come out of nowhere. Of course we have been putting the shapes in and out of their holes, showing her the basics of in and out with one lid off too. It’s not as though we plonked it down in front of her and left her to wonder what the heck it was.

But what surprises me is the fact that she has shown no “beginning” attempts to put the shapes through their holes. It seems to have sprung up more or less fully formed. She showed no interest in putting the shapes (or anything else) into any sort of receptacle at all. She was perfectly happy to remove objects from all manner of container, but not in the least interested in replacing them. Then one day last week, there she was, trying and succeeding reasonably well at putting the shapes through the holes. Will wonders never cease?

It is indeed, the shape of things to come.

—

For those who may have an interest in toys for children, take a look at the Tolo website. We have several of their toys and find them to be great for our little Miss.
She owns the roller rattle (3m+, S9170, in pastel colours), the magic shaker (6m+, S6420, in pastel colours), the roly poly chiming sailor (6m+, S9348), the rolling shape sorter (12m+, S9410) and Sneezy, the Activity Dragon (from birth, 95030).
It’s fair to say we like the Tolo toys.

A New Book Challenge

Inspired by a visit to Josette’s blog about books I have decided to create a boundless book based challenge for myself. I have the tendency, as you may have noticed, of latching on to a particular writer and reading them to death. Not that there is anything wrong with reading books that you are likely to enjoy, after all the whole idea of reading should be for pleasure and not for punishment.
Still I do find myself digging deep reading ruts. I thought that these existing challenges would help me scale the walls of my various ruts and perhaps introduce me to other authors I can then obsess over reading the entire back catalogue of. I have decided that I will add the BBC Top 200 to this list as well. I will put the whole shooting match to the bottom of my Goals: 2008 page for updating as books are knocked off the list.

But to start, here are the books in question. Sadly I don’t believe I have even read one of the Bookers. Fortunately some of the Pulitzers overlap with the BBC Big Read list, so that’s a handy list-shortener.

The Bookers

2007 - The Gathering (Enright)
2006 - The Inheritance of Loss (Desai)
2005 - The Sea (Banville)
2004 - The Line of Beauty (Hollinghurst)
2003 - Vernon God Little (Pierre)
2002 - Life of Pi (Martel)
2001 - True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey)
2000 - The Blind Assassin (Atwood)
1999 - Disgrace (Coetzee)
1998 - Amsterdam: A Novel (McEwan)
1997 - The God of Small Things (Roy)
1996 - Last Orders (Swift)
1995 - The Ghost Road (Barker)
1994 - How Late It Was, How Late (Kelman)
1993 - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Doyle)
1992 - The English Patient (Ondaatje)
1992 - Sacred Hunger (Unsworth)
1991 - The Famished Road (Okri)
1990 - Possession: A Romance (Byatt)
1989 - The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)
1988 - Oscar and Lucinda (Carey)
1987 - Moon Tiger (Lively)
1986 - The Old Devils (Amis)
1985 - The Bone People (Hulme)
1984 - Hotel Du Lac (Brookner)
1983 - Life & Times of Michael K (Coetzee)
1982 - Schindler’s Ark (Keneally)
1981 - Midnight’s Children (Rushdie)
1980 - Rites of Passage (Golding)
1979 - Offshore (Fitzgerald)
1978 - The Sea, the Sea (Murdoch)
1977 - Staying on (Scott)
1976 - Saville (Storey)
1975 - Heat and Dust (Jhabvala)
1974 - The Conservationist (Gordimer)
1974 - Holiday (Middleton)
1973 - The Siege of Krishnapur (Farrell)
1972 - G. (Berger)
1971 - In a Free State (Naipaul)
1970 - The Elected Member (Rubens)
1969 - Something to Answer For (Newby)

The Pulitzers

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
2007 - The Road (McCarthy)
2006 - March (Brooks)
2005 - Gilead (Robinson)
2004 - The Known World (Jones)
2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides)
2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)
1999 - The Hours (Cunningham)
1998 - American Pastoral (Roth)
1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)
1996 - Independence Day (Ford)
1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)
1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)
1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)
1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike)
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)
1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)
1988 - Beloved (Morrison)
1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)
1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)
1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie)
1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy)
1983 - The Color Purple (Walker)
1982 - Rabbit is Rich (Updike)
1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
1980 - The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)
1979 - The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever)
1978 - Elbow Room (McPherson)
1977 - None given
1976 - Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)
1975 - The Killer Angels (Shaara)
1974 - None given
1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)
1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)
1971 - None given
1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)
1969 - House Made of Dawn (Momaday)
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)
1967 - The Fixer (Malamud)
1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)
1965 - The Keepers Of the House (Grau)
1964 - None given
1963 - The Reivers (Faulkner)
1962 - The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)
1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
1960 - Advise and Consent (Drury)
1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)
1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)
1957 - None
1956 - Andersonville (Kantor)
1955 - A Fable (Faulkner)
1954 - None
1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
1952 - The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)
1951 - The Town (Richter)
1950 - The Way West (Guthrie)
1949 - Guard of Honor (Cozzens)
1948 - Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)
1947 - All the King’s Men (Warren)
1946 - None
1945 - Bell for Adano (Hersey)
1944 - Journey in the Dark (Flavin)
1943 - Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)
1942 - In This Our Life (Glasgow)
1941 - None
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)
1938 - The Late George Apley (Marquand)
1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)
1935 - Now in November (Johnson)
1934 - Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)
1933 - The Store (Stribling)
1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)
1931 - Years of Grace (Barnes)
1930 - Laughing Boy (Lafarge)
1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)
1927 - Early Autumn (Bromfield)
1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)
1925 - So Big (Ferber)
1924 - The Able McLauglins (Wilson)
1923 - One of Ours (Cather)
1922 - Alice Adams (Tarkington)
1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)
1920 - None
1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)
1918 - His Family (Poole)

The Big Read - Top 200

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O’Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

If you are brave, or mad, why don’t you join me in my quest to become better and more widely read? I will post each time I manage to read another book off the list, and if you want to join in, just leave a comment with a link to your updated reading list or review.

In the meantime here are some external links for your pleasure:

The Man Booker Prize website
The Pulitzer Prizes website
The BBC Big Read website
The Nobel Laureates

The Month of June in Books

June was a slightly lesser reading month than May. Five books in total for the month although I am nearly finished a sixth as of this writing. Three fiction books from my new and usual cast of authors and two from a couple of money gurus.

Continuing the Fool’s Guild story I have managed to read:

The Widow of Jerusalem

This is the tale of Scarlet the dwarf.
Based in Tyre during the Third Crusade, this is also the story of the Queen of Jerusalem and her husband Conrad of Montferrat, as seen by the Fool’s Guild.

The story is told by Theophilos to his wife, Claudia, as they make their way from the deserted Fool’s Guild to the new and hidden (due to the persecution of Pope Innocent III) location in the Black Forest.

An Antic Disposition

Based on Hamlet, we are taken on a journey through Danish civil war and family life for Amleth, Orvendil and the court jester Yorick. Much of the story is based on the legend of Hamlet, but with the author’s own additions and twists.

The story is told by Father Gerald, head of the Fool’s Guild. At the time of of the story he is the Chief Fool of Denmark. This gives considerable flesh to the bones of the main character of this series, Theophilos.

This brings me up to date with this series, with only the latest book in the series to read and the very first book to find. I am still enjoying these, but did struggle somewhat with making my way through An Antic Disposition. It was the main cause of not making it through more books this month.

Then came a nice, light end to the month with another favourite author - Kerry Greenwood.

Trick or Treat

This is the latest edition of the Corinna Chapman series. Basically this is a story about revenge, greed and fraud. Lovely topics, eh? This also has history woven through it in the form of the theft of jewellery and prized possessions from World War II.

Another relaxing reading experience to finish the month off with.

On the non-fiction front I was doing a bit of skills updating with two titles about money. The first is by Anita Bell and the second by Martin Hawes and Joan Baker.

Your Kid’s Money

This little book is full of gems of ideas about how to help your kids understand money. Personally I was interested in ideas for how to look after the gifts that Miss O has already received from family, as well as the money that her father and I have been putting aside for her. It was also good to have this book prod me about how she was to eventually take ownership of her own money. I know that this is a number of years away, but I hadn’t really given that process any thought at all. I had assumed that at some point it would “become hers”. Hmm.

Coach Yourself to Wealth: Live the Life You Want

If you could see the size of our mortgage post-renovations, you would understand why I was updating my ideas with this book.

Every now and then I like to check in and see if there is anything different I can learn about handling our finances. Tax laws change, new financial products are created, and mortgages get into the ugly zone. Great for Kiwis instead of all those American based books, but still good for anyone wanting to understand the general skills and attitudes needed to get to your own version of “wealth”. A much lighter read than “Your Money or Your Life.”

That was the month of June in books. I’ll catch you back here again at the end of July.

Updating the website: Part One

Fine, so I have finally decided that it’s time to suck it up and get on with renovating our work website.

This has been sitting in my ‘parking lot’ of things to do for quite some time now and it has been gnawing away at my subconscious with its sharp little teeth until I could stand it no longer. The little taniwha has finally pushed itself forward and all those mini-attempts at doing this rather large project have been fully laughed at and consigned to the ‘information gathering’ folder.

Now it’s time to work on it like a big girl and stop hiding behind my bed, my baby, my housework, and my ‘any excuse will do, thanks’. So here is the first step.

This is a large project for me as I have to divide my time into fairly small slices. Roughly one to two hour slices at the most. This provides some challenges for me around “flow”. I will need to find some way of dealing with this as it isn’t likely to change significantly in the next few weeks or even months.

To help me with the organising and planning, I have enlisted my trusty Mindmap software from Mindjet. I am more than happy to pass along the responsibility for keeping my thoughts and ideas in some semblance of order. Here is what I have to start with. This contains my initial and brief musings on the subject of creating a new and improved website.

Clearly this requires more attention before moving into the details and tasks. A whole section for required skills is missing and irrespective of whether I intend to use WordPress or not, I will still need to learn the finer points of CSS design.

Some of the items are “might be, could be” in nature. Nothing is fixed, nothing is set in concrete. Oh dear. That could lead me to waffle about. I am getting a strong impression of needing to have stern words with myself and committing to a couple of major decisions.

Right then.
Please take this opportunity to praise or whinge about websites you love or loathe.
In the meantime I will shuffle away to my corner and make those ‘big picture’ decisions. I will report back once they are made and I am ready to start the nitty-gritty.