Category: Personal

TNA Maximum Impact V – Manchester TV Tapings

Please Note: The Below does contain a number of spoilers from as yet aired TV Shows

The past weekend me, Si & Shane attended the TNA Maximum Impact V tour, held in the MCR Arena in Manchester. This was me and Si’s time attending TNA, and Shane’s third (though admittedly, this was the second year we have made a proper day of it.

This event had a number of firsts. Firstly it featured the first time ever in the UK a cage match (a first for me, as I’ve never seen a cage match before), but probably more importantly, it would be the first time the Manchester shows would be taped for TV. I’ve attended TV Tapings before with WWE, and they are…interesting to say the least. Sure you get all the big starts, but TV tapings generally mean that things are filmed a number of times, leaving the crowd getting restless. Also, as the UK is such a small part of the WWE “Universe”, rarely any advancement is made on storylines. Thankfully TNA realise how big it is over here, and we were treated to a number of large storyline developments.

As well as the big stars like Sting, Bully Ray, RVD, James Storm, Bobby Roode and Hulk Fricking Hogan being on tour, Manchester also got two of the three stars of TNA’s British Boot Camp. You had the winner – Rockstar Spud – who as somebody who has had a keen interest in the British scene I’ve never seen wrestle live. We also got an appearance from The Blossom Twins, who I’ve seen a few times for Futureshock Wrestling in Stockport, the last of which they wrestled one of my Facebook Friends.

So we’re like besties. Honest.

So, despite nearly getting thrown out of Nando’s in the Printworks for having the audacity to believe that CM Punk will beat The Rock at the Royal Rumble to some “It’s still real to me, dammit!” nobodies, it was a heck of a show. It is always a highlight of my year, as it feels that we’re actually leaving winter when it happens. Photos follow below, but be aware, there are spoilers from the TV Show!

Quick Tip: Save Time Writing Social Media Roundups in WordPress Using This Little Known Fact

Okay, I’m surprised that more people who run blogs don’t know this.

I saw a blogger recently write a post recently that featured screenshots of tweets. As such they loaded up the tweets, took screenshots, saved them, uploaded them, and embedded the screenshot into the post. Usually after the screenshot there is direct link to the tweet itself.

Zzzzzz. It takes too long.

WordPress is compatible with oEmbed, a list of services that allows you to embed onto a site a representation of the URL within posts and pages.

What does this mean? Well if you include a Twitter URL on the page, rather than link it, it will grab the URL, and format it in a way so it looks similar to twitter. Say for example, this URL (https://twitter.com/rhyswynne/status/291573833675206656) parses via oEmbed like this.

All you need to do is when writing a post in WordPress simply include the URL of the tweet you want to parse on its own line.

It’s not just Twitter. WordPress is compatible with Youtube, Flickr, and a variety of other services. You can see a full list here. You can even add your own, but that’s a post for another day.

This post may not be news to many of you, but hopefully this is useful to some. I’m just surprised people are including screenshots of tweets in their posts still.

Update: Another possible bonus of oEmbed is that, according to a recent court case, if you embed tweets with images, then you are properly crediting photographers (thanks to Danny Denhard – @dannydenhard for finding this. So this photo below, even if it was under copyright, could be legal.

I should also mention that oEmbed only works with tweets that upload pictures to pics.twitter.com.

I will say I am not a lawyer! But not only is oEmbed the best way to embed content, it may also be the most legal.

State Of Search: Recommended WordPress Backup Plugins For 2013

Not sure if I’ll do this which much regularity, but I keep forgetting when and where I’m featured on other websites. I’m looking to compile a list, but at the moment it’s quite barren, so before I build up said list, I’m going to start linking to posts featuring me as a talking head, or commenting on something.

Meh, it’s content!

I’m not featured in many places, so I think this’ll be fairly easy to keep updated.

Anyway, the first one is being featured on State of Search (a blog I regularly read, and one of a small handful of SEO blogs I actually bother with) talking about my recommendations for the 6 Top WordPress Backup Plugins of 2013.

I was featured along with Michael Wester, Bastian Grimm, Dan McGuire, Carla Marshall and Dean Cruddace, and for the record, I recommended WP-DB Backup for a Free Plugin (which I must admit is more out of habit, I really should check out BackWPup recommended by a couple of people), and Vaultpress if you can afford it.

Thanks to Jackie Hole for featuring me!

Goal for January: Dry-ish-athlon

It seems that along with my blog, a good friend of mine John Wilson has also started a blog. I’d like to take credit as the inspirational thought leader muthaluvva that I am, but I can’t. In John’s first blog post, he talks briefly about 2012 and what he achieved, and he achieved a fair bit!

However interestingly he is also setting goals for the year, resolutions that are likely to be forgotten, oh no, he’s setting goals for the month. The first one, detailed in his post, is to complete the Dryathlon, which is giving up the sauce for 30 days for cancer research.

Brilliant! I thought.

As such, I’m also jumping on the monthly challenge bandwagon. My Goals for 2013 are still valid, but each month I will set myself a challenge, at the end of the month I’ll review to see if the challenge is a failure or a success.

Hell, it’s content for this site, and it’ll make my life more interesting. Even Matt Cutts recommends it.

It also marks the first time I’ve listened to what Matt Cutts has said and implemented it since June 2007.

As such, my goal for January is to drink less.

No, I’m not doing the Dryathlon. I’ve failed already: TNA are in Manchester at the end of January and have kind of promised a couple of my mates that we’ll have a few beers before the show, so that’s a no-goer, but hopefully before that Friday, I’ll have drank very little.

Incidentally, rather than just “drink less”, I’m instead going to set a target. I did a bit of research on the NHS website on the amount of alcohol each drink contained, as well as the recommended alcohol intake for a man in a week, and then decided to scrap the figures, and instead go for this goal:-

I will drink a maximum of 10 pints (or the alcoholic equivalent – 20 units) in January

I’m tracking my drinks using a Google Doc I’ve put together for the month, you can see it here. Providing I don’t drink 10 pints in one session, I should be able to remember what I’ve drunk where and update accordingly. I’ve also identified two things to target.

  • Go See More Movies – The pub is pretty much the de-facto thing to do when bored, but here’s the thing – I’ve started recently going to movies instead when I’m bored. Largely due to the fact most people who know me know that I’ve got glaring gaps in my movie knowledge, I’ve decided to put it right. Hell, January I was planning only going to see The Hobbit, but can do more films.
  • Not take the TNA in Manchester Day Off – In truth, the only two stumbling blocks I can forsee are at the end of the month, which is the aforementioned TNA UK Tour and Colwyn Bay are playing Brackley Town the day after. Both of those will be relatively boozy. As such, I’m going to avoid taking the whole day off for TNA in Manchester, but instead opting for half a day off. This reduces the drinking time, plus also creates a journey from town to my house and back again. The hope is then to meet my compatriots a little bit later on in the day, probably not even in the pub, so we can enjoy the show relatively clear headed (I’m not used to drinking at wrestling, largely being a performer, so it’s no big deal).

Providing I can do those two things, I should be fine.

I’m also imposing a forfeit (if I fail) as well as a reward (if I succeed). They will be announced on the challenge completion. Wish me luck!

Also, you can follow John Boy’s descent into soberity madness on Twitter, and you can donate to Cancer Research to support him on Justgiving.

Goals of 2013

So another year over, and – surprise surprise – I kept my New Years Resolution! Wasn’t too tricky to be honest, but the “Less Weight, More Dates” resolution was – as of the time of writing (which is before the Christmas Break) – kept. The latter especially I broke emphatically **smiles shyly**.

2012 was a big year for me (shy smile aside), I changed jobs moving from Manual Link Building to 3 Door Digital, released WP Email Capture Premium (finally) and grew in ways I never thought I would. I also ticked off a life goal (go to the Olympic Games), and went to two gigs (a lot for me!).

Onto 2013. A year of change methinks, where I think I’ll finally grow up. I am not setting resolutions, but rather goals for the year. Here are four that I’ve thought of that – if I haven’t achieved any of these by December 2013, I’ll be disappointed.

Start Speaking

This is a fairly big one for me. Recently, I’ve noticed I’ve become a bit of a go-to guy when it comes to WordPress. I’d love to do some sort of talk somewhere. I’ve a few ideas of talks I want to do, and also half-pitched to Alex an idea for Sascon (which may or may not happen). However, one thing I’m thinking of targeting is WordCamp this year, which is an unconference. I’m not too familiar with the concept of unconferences, but what I am lead to believe is that you simply put your name down on the list to speak, and they will fit you in somewhere.

I have an idea for a talk at WordCamp, so I will try and prepare something.

Blog More

This is where this site comes in. I think I could probably count on two hands how many blog posts I wrote in 2012. I used to be so proficient, blogging almost every day. Last year I dropped off the face of the earth, it is something I wish to correct in 2013.

The main blog will be this one, but will be open for guest posts on other places. Let me know if you want me to write something and what you would like me to write about.

Of course, I’ll also keep blogging occasionally on the 3 Door Digital Blog, Blogging Dojo, WP Email Capture and You’re Supposed To Be At Home.

Please remind me on the last one if I haven’t got the Hinckley United post up on the last one by the time you read this, then call me names in the comments.

Save More Cash

Away from the internet, I’d like to start saving a bit more. When I moved jobs my savings did take a wee bit of a hit, but I should be able to build them back up again, but it’s taking longer than I thought (damn Christmas! Damn Nexus 7!).

I was told by somebody to have one goal in your life that is seemingly “unachievable”, as they are often achieved. One of my seemingly unachievable life goals is to never ever have a mortgage. My plan is to save up a figure in my head in a instant access savings account, split that figure in half, and put half into something that is a bit higher interest that I can’t touch.

I do spend a ridiculous amount of money at times, so can easily cut down. Sandwiches for work and less fruit machines (yeah not sure why I play fruities, started in University, never really stopped) are two of the ways. Hell I’ve a nickname of being a mingebag, I may as well become one.

Start a Pension

Yes, this is more to appease the parents rather than me, but it did shock me that out of all 5 of my immediate family, I don’t have any retirement savings. I have talked about it, but I didn’t get around to setting up.

Yeah it’s dull, but I don’t want to be poor when I’m old.

And I don’t want to be old.

Anyway, those are my goals in 2013. Hopefully with them being in writing I’m more likely to keep them!