Aaron Donohoe

…between being considered a loonatic and being considered a genius. Take a one man band for instance – you would be considered a genius for combing guitar, drum on your back and maybe a harmonica holdser for around your neck, Bob Dylan – he was a genius. But if you were to have a moment of wisdom in which you decided to further develop the percussion section of your band by adding cymbals to your knees, you’d probably be considered unfit for society and would be hauled away by the men in white coats.

Take my recent burst of inspiration – I have been in need of a laptop stand, to free up some space on my desk and also to make using the laptop much easier with the screen being at an elevated height. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a suitable one that’s versatile for all my laptops. So, in a moment of inspiration, I got the idea to make one…using a ream of paper (500 sheets) and a ring binder. Not my proudest moment I must admit, but it’s functional. The selotape and external harddrive have become vital to the structural integrity of the design (Patent Pending btw). Pics and diagrams to follow.

On another note, I’ve had masses of feedback with regards the new design, and amendments have begun already. Most feedback was regarding the blog, many believe that the website would function and look better with the blog as the homepage, and working onwards from there – and after deliberating on it, I completely agree. Other feedback was on other bits and pieces, with regards font, layout and other bits and bobs. I’ve some plans to tackle these, but it will take a while to get it back up and running. But I have taken all pieces of recommendation into consideration.

Oh, and lest I forget, TeenCamp Ireland is merely hours away. Hope to see you there…if I make it. It’s on from 1pm-7pm at Filmbase in Temple Bar. There will be pizza…oh and some talks.

I’ve got the new website working about 90% so far. There’s just some minor detailing yet to be done, but I just wanted to get the site online to test it out live – it’s been living on localhost for a quite a while!

It’s not too far off completion. It requires validation and some other bits and pieces. It’s very much work in progress! But it’s my first design doing it for a website and then trying to mirror it exactly for WordPress – a learning experience. I’ll admit, it was a royal pain in the arse in places, but most of the time it was pretty straight forward! Just over three days work, worth it for the benefit of having a unique looking website!

I’d like some opinions on the design also – it’s minimal, and lots of fuss over very little, but what would you like to see integrated into the site? I ran out of ideas after the Random Language Welcome script (thinking of releasing it shortly – some minor bits to fix!). Considering a photo gallery for some of my pics – perhaps some Ajax features?

Things may take a while to load in the next few days as I’ve to alter my server account settings to accommodate the .ie domain as it’s default, I’ve also to slim down some images and do some more work to the blog. Also, if you spot a bug, feel free to bring it to my attention by commenting on this post, or dropping me a DM, or email.

Busy few days ahead!

It is with great relief that I can say that I’m a free man for three months! I finished up for the last time on Thursday with Business – both History & Business exams went very well in my opinion, came out of both of them after an hour and a bit really happy with what I submitted.

Of course, here I am whining about a few summer assessment exams, while there are Leaving Cert students nationwide who are pulling their hair out and cramming those last bits in! I have a few friends who are doing the Leaving Cert this year, although they are grand on the facade, they are pretty stressed and worried. I’ve only done my Junior Cert a few years ago, and found you calm down after the first exam – although it could be a different story with the Leaving Cert, as unlike the Junior Cert you’ve to study for it!

As soon as I was finished, I was ushered into work by ‘the boss‘. He had bought two new coaches and had no one to help move them, although I haven’t a license for a bus, I have got one for a car. So my job was to drop him to the dealer to pick up the first bus, and follow him to our depot, then do the same for the second one. I felt very honoured, as not everyone is allowed to drive Steve’s classic S-Class Merc!

I’m presently waiting for a few call backs on job applications, I’ve put a few fingers in some pies, as I want to make some money this summer. I now own more vehicles then I did last summer, so that means more expense. I also have the burden of Car Insurance, increases in Petrol prices (although I’m considering getting a Diesel) and I’ve to pay more for my hosting as I’m presently moving all my websites onto a new hosting account – a master reseller account.

Also, you may note I’m somewhat getting into this Twitter thing. I’m presently experimenting on some services and plugins for Twitter, such as Twitterfone and Twitterfox. There are more, but I’ve either dumped them or haven’t yet tried them, I have intentions on doing a review on them shortly.

We’ve treated ourselves to a new theme, which was modified by a friend of ours (I was owed a favour )- with the code itself modified by myself and brought upto a Widget friendly stance. The header was also designed (albeit badly) by myself using some new brushes I got for Photoshop – made it somewhat technology come WEB 2.0 looking. I like it…opinions please!

We ditched our other theme, as we found a few errors in it and as it wasn’t mine I didn’t want to touch the structure and f**k it up even further!

*EDIT*: Found a problem with IE…trying to fix it!

I’ve done a bit of reshuffling on the blog, I’ve messed around with some of the code (tidying it up), added an advertising space (for more see here), added new bits and pieces and removed some redundant ones. I’ve been considering making a logo, but I haven’t the time right now, so I’ll probably get around to it during Christmas.

What do ye think of my quicky advertise here button? Not bad for a few minutes in Photoshop (for someone who only knows a bit more than the basics!)

Edit: Robert pointed out that the comment box was near on impossible to see, I’ve since edited the stylesheet to resolve this. Thanks Robert.

I’m back after having a few days rest from blogging and the internet. Mainly as I’ve been focused on a few other projects, and other bits and pieces.

I’ve been busy running around since Saturday, we got ourselves another bus, an Ex-London Transport Leyland Titan that used to work around the Coolock, Kinsealy, Swords area. Ended up being roped into helping out tiling a floor (with big f**k off slate tiles!), and later that evening repaneling a bus…I wasn’t much of a help as I was fucked and wanted to go home…as you do!

Sunday I spent mainly coding and editing photos, and making headers and various other jobs I’ve been putting off for ages! On Sunday, I made the decision to free up my portfolio, by selling most of my projects/websites. A drastic move, and my online income will be severely reduced, but I believe that it would be for the best.

Considering, I will have more time to focus on websites I’m keeping online – futher their development, earning potential and rankings, etc… Monthly expenditure will be reduced, I will recoupe the costs of setting them up (and possibily gain a small profit), I’ll have more time to focus on things other than online activities, such as starting a career, spending more time acquiring and restoring vehicles for preservation, futher my other skills like photography, programming, etc… So selling most of my websites will benefit me for the better.

It also gives me the opportunity to develop new projects futher along the line. I made the mistake many people make, by jumping into too many projects too quick and not having the time to spend developing them properly. Some of my latest projects like Blogger Hub and Impulse Blogger
have been abused and abandoned. They offer great potential, but I simply haven’t the time to spend on them – so these will be my priority to get sold, as they’ve the most potential and could turn a profit

The above Blogger Hub and Impulse Blogger will be sold alongside Irish Humour Blog, Joozo.net, LooseHosting, PictureStorer.com, and Whatsmypagerank.net & Whatsmypagerank.org. They’re a mixture of domains, developed sites, blogs and forums, and opened but pretty much undeveloped websites.

Any person who wishes to make a reasonable offer before they are listed for public sale shortly should contact me ASAP. Bear in mind I want quick sales, so sensible offers please!

Had a spare half hour this evening, so knocked up a quick (I mean quick!) website for the domain: www.aarondonohoe.com that I registered a while ago for use as an online portfolio, and maybe a blog…

Has a Web 2.0 header, and buttons I roped together in Photoshop. I suppose it will do for the time being. Comments welcome!

I’ve finally gotten around to getting Blogger Hub active and online! I haven’t been saying anything about it, but basically it’s a new Bloggers Community – the aim is to be for Bloggers by Bloggers. Although I’m the first to admit that it looks bleak at the moment! I haven’t done any promotion -even though the domain has a PR2 just from sitting around and a pretty good Alexa rank!

The forum basically revolves around Blogging – namely the WordPress system, but I’m willing to expand should the demand be known. All blogging aspects including earning money, plugings, styling, selling text link ads, free link exchanges etc… And as time graduates, the forums will expand as well the subjects.

I’d like to ask any readers of the blog to take the time to register (and participate!) in the forums – here. We’re just trying to get our feet off the ground, and this is the first step to marketing the forum!

I haven’t been trading domains for a few weeks – mainly through being extremely busy with managing sites and planning out material for the domains I’ve already got in my posession!

Although, I came across an eBay auction last night and couldn’t turn the offer down. Basically, the domains:

WHATSMYPAGERANK.NET

WHATSMYPAGERANK.ORG

Came up for sale, at a steal! I won them both for $7.05, inc. transfer – not bad! They’re prime candidates for a profit, either through development, parking, or re-sale. Well what sort of mini-entrepreneur would I be if I didn’t see a profit in everything I buy!

While on the subject of websites. I’m opening Blogger Hub shortly – I’d say gimme another week! I’ve also to completely design, code and test the websites for the Motor Vehicle Preservation Society of Ireland and Rivercourt Coaches – which as client websites are pretty high on my priority list

Okay, you’ll probably notice that the blog looks a little different today – well, I’ve been busy getting it looking more presentable, with a new theme, making the sitebar look more attractive, and messing around with the Widgets.

One thing, is it took ages! This new theme, doesn’t like Widgets (on it’s current layout), so we had to revert to our roots, and dust off our HTML skills to get the sidebar looking mildly well – if I do say so myself

I’ve gotten rid of WidgetBucks – as I don’t honestly feel I’ll make money from it, and it looked horrible, and flashy. So, I’ve decided to give Adsense another shot – I find that it can fit in better with a theme than Bidvertiser.

And to encourage more RSS subscribers, we’ve dotted various methods to sign upto our RSS feed – such as the new Email Subscription option in the sidebar, which will deliver new posts direct to your inbox! And as usual, the bog standard Google Reader option is available.