Happy New Year! I hope 2009 will be a happy and fulfilling one for you.
I’ve Launched a New Site at www.MarkMcGuinness.com
I’ve recently moved my poetry blog from its old home at /poetry on the Wishful Thinking site. I’ve also given it a new tagline, “a notebook of poems I read, a scrapbook of poems I write”. As that suggests, it will be a more personal, informal site than either Wishful Thinking or Lateral Action, and obviously much more poetry focused.
If you’re a confirmed poetry geek, I hope you’ll stop by and set me right when I talk nonsense about poetry; if you’re one of those people who wonders why anyone still bothers with poetry in the 21st century, I hope it will give you a clue. Either way, the RSS feed will keep you updated with my latest (ahem) musings about poetry, as well as my own poems.
New Year, New Look Wishful Thinking
If you’re reading this via e-mail or a feed reader, you may want to click through to the Wishful Thinking site, where you’ll see I’ve revamped it with a new look. I’ve also moved the blog from www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/blog to www.wishfulthinking.co.uk, as, like a certain Mr Airey, I’ve come to the conclusion that my blog is no longer an addendum to the ‘main’ website, but is in fact the main website itself.
I’m still in the process of rebuilding and rewriting the site, so please bear with me while I get everything the way I want it — particularly with the numerous broken links that I know are scattered through the site. I have things shipshape as soon as possible.
A big thank you to Antonio Gould, who has helped me with the process of (A) thinking through exactly what I want to do with my sites and laying them out accordingly; and (B) moving not one but two WordPress databases while tidying up various technical nasties and generally avoiding destroying the entire site — which was probably on the cards have I tried to do it all myself. Antonio’s a busy chap, but if you can persuade him to help you out with any of your web projects, you’re onto a winner, he has been a pleasure to work with and done a sterling job.
The design of MarkMcGuinness.com and Wishful Thinking is now handled by the Thesis theme for WordPress (affiliate link) created by Chris Pearson and Brian Clark, which is a joy to work with, giving me plenty of flexibility in adapting it to my needs without having to get my hands dirty with too much code. (Disclosure: Brian Clark is one of my partners at Lateral Action, but my only connection with Thesis is as a customer and member of the affiliate program.)
Last but certainly not least, I’d like to thank Megat Azim Jamil whose yellowhite3c WordPress theme has been great to use on Wishful Thinking over the past three years or so. If you’re looking for a free WordPress theme with a nice clean design, I recommend you download Megat’s theme and give it a try.
Meanwhile at Lateral Action …
In case you’ve missed it I’d like to draw your attention to the latest animated video from Lateral Action, my new website about creativity and productivity, which I’m producing partnership with Brian Clark and Tony Clark.
In the latest episode, Jack (whose voice you may recognise …) has a big decision about the future of his business. Will he make a deal with the devil? Click here to find out. If you’re new to Jack’s story, check out the previous videos in the series first.
To follow the story and receive plenty of articles and tips about creativity and productivity, grab the Lateral Action RSS feed or sign up for free updates via e-mail (e-mail link is in the sidebar on the Lateral Action home page).
Coming Next on Wishful Thinking …
Next up on Wishful Thinking will be the culmination of my series on How to Motivate Creative People. Plus of course, I need to let you know whether I managed to keep my New Year’s resolution from last year — stay tuned …
Wow, Mark, you’ve been busy! Congratulations on finishing such a huge project. It’s something I’ve considered with my own sites – bringing the blog onto the web site – and it’s helpful to see someone else do it successfully. I like how you moved the consultancy/coaching practice to Lateral Action. I know people have been wondering how you were going to monetize that site, and it makes sense to promote your services there.
The sites look great – clean, clear and easy to access. I’m inspired, since I know a web revamping is on my horizon in the not-so-distant future!
To your magnificent creative success in 2009,
Cynthia
Thanks Cynthia. The coaching/consulting will still appear on this site as well – I just need to rejig the relevant pages… You’ve got a load of great resources on your site – good luck with however you decide to arrange them in 2009!
Mark
And a happy new year to you too, Mark. I’ve been admiring Thesis since it was launched, and may be following suit in the near future.
I hope those htaccess hacks you need for the address move aren’t proving too troublesome?
David Airey’s last blog post..Thoughts about Pepsi
Thanks David, we’re using a redirection plug-in that seems to be working fine: http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/
Should the plugin ever fail, or you prefer to manually delve into your htaccess file, here’s a fantastic tutorial round-up that I’ve visited on quite a few occasions:
http://www.crucialwebhost.com/blog/htaccess-apache-rewrites-oh-my/
David Airey’s last blog post..Thoughts about Pepsi
Happy New Year Mark!
I’ve just found your website and will be taking a better look.
David — thanks for the great tutorial, much appreciated.
John — happy New Year! Hope to see you around here again.