Personal

• 2024, the end

  18th December 2024

  So another year draws to a close. It’s always interesting to reflect on what happened and what didn’t. This was the year I mastered by health, my fitness and hopefully my anxiety. In January, I started a fitness regime which if I fast forward to now has been pretty successful. I’ve lost almost 3 stone […]

• Lower league football

  1st December 2024

  I live in a small town in North Wales. They have a football team and for years, I have always toyed with going to watch them. I remember playing on the pitch at the ground with school and local teams as a child but I guess once I saw the bigger stadiums in the English […]

• Data analysis in lower league football

  12th September 2024

  For the past few months, I have been helping my lad with his data analyst role that he’s volunteering to do for our local team. Armed with a VEO camera, a spreadsheet and a good nights sleep after a match, we have been building up a ton of data on the team and opposition which […]

• It’s been a while

  23rd April 2024

  I haven’t blogged for ages. Do people still blog? Will anyone read this? I felt the time was right to write something, mainly for myself to remember later on down the track as I often do. It’s funny reading the opinions I had, how they might have changed over time. I’m 45 now and hopefully […]

• Leadership vs Management

  22nd October 2022

  I was reading something on LinkedIn around Leadership and Management not being the same and something hit a chord with me. A couple of years ago I wrote about Leadership and what it meant to me. We did a course at work as a group and it fundamentally changed how I looked at others but […]

• Quiet Quitting

  20th August 2022

  I recently saw a few articles talking about Quiet Quitting. From what I could gather it meant Quiet Quitting: A new term for the ancient art of slacking your way to a paycheck At first I saw it as a negative thing and my mind wandered to those I had worked with in the past […]

• Stop doing these things

  19th March 2022

  First blog post of the new year and it’s almost April so my bad. Today I am writing about portfolios and CVs as I have spent the last few months going over so many as we look to expand our design team at the agency. Whilst going through them all, you start to see similar […]

• Exciting personal news

  17th November 2021

  It’s been a while since I posted but it’s update time again with some news. I have a new role. This is my 7th year with the agency and it’s one of the most exciting for me as I manoeuvre into a role that I think fits me well. The tea boy I hear you […]

• Mental Health Awareness Week

  11th May 2021

  This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. I have wanted to write about my own experiences of late for a while so it ties in nicely. We’ve all lived very different lives for a year or so thanks to COVID19 but it looks like we at least in the UK might be getting close to […]

• Ten years blogging

  18th February 2021

  It’s actually a bit longer than that but I only have the posts from 2011 onwards so we’ll say it’s ten years. Now my blog isn’t famous, it doesn’t get lots of hits but it’s a good reflection on how my career has gone over the past ten years and reminds me how far I […]

• 2020? Bloody hell, where do we start?

  17th December 2020

  Not sure how to describe 2020. For some it has been a horrific year, for others, challenging and for some, me included, life changing. It’s a year ago this week that I started my new role as Interaction Designer. I started excited, a bit apprehensive but looking forward to starting a new role and realising […]

• Youth Movement

  24th October 2020

  This week, the agency won the Big Commerce Partner of the Year award. This is an important award for us not only due to the difficult times we are in but the work that has gone into getting us there. For years, we have been a pure Magento agency but now we can say that […]

• Work Life Balance

  15th October 2020

  Here’s another web person talking about work life balance I can hear you say. And you’d be right I guess, this is the topic of the post. For many years, I haven’t had a great work life balance. But that has started to shift recently for a few reasons. Some background information first. I come […]

• Take me to your leader

  18th May 2020

  Leaders at the moment are very much in the spotlight. As we humans fight the enemy of COVID-19, we look to our leaders for guidance, support and reassurance. Good and bad leaders are very exposed right now and there is no place to hide as the pandemic continues. Over the last few months, we at […]

• Full circle

  26th February 2020

  Twenty years ago, I acquired a copy of some software that would change my life. Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Over the course of the next twenty years, my life has taken many twists and turns and my career has gone full circle. Photoshop remains as does Dreamweaver but how we go about what we do has […]

• Me, on a stage, in Colchester

  8th February 2020

  Put the date in the diary, I’m coming to Colchester. I am pleased, excited, over the moon to announce that I will be doing my first live web talk to the public on May 15th for Colchester Digital. An event that my good friend Dean Leigh has a hand in organising. Dean and I were […]

• 2010-2019

  18th December 2019

  The end of another year. And an end to a decade where a lot has happened both for me and the world of the web. I wanted to look back at the 10 years gone by as it’s been quite a defining time for me. I became a dad a second time, got divorced, seven […]

• Anniversaries

  5th September 2019

  This week marks my 4th year at Space48 but also my 9th year as owner of Little Black Cloud my freelance business that I started way back in the day. Of course these days, nothing happens via LBC but I’ve kept it going in honour. Freelance It’s mad looking back 9 years ago and what […]

• Communication is everything

  7th June 2019

  So I’ve started off with a wanky title, the kind of headline you see on LinkedIn. So this needs to be a good read. So no pressure. I turned 40 last October, I know, I don’t look it. The lowest age someone has guessed is 32 so I will take that. As part of turning […]

• 2018, the year that was

  13th December 2018

  Another year is coming to an end. 2018 has been an up and down year. It’s the year I turned 40 which at that time was such a big thing but looking back now, it was a non event and I feel no different to 39. Like most years, some events stand out for me. […]

• .Net and a design problem – Part 1

  14th September 2018

  A few months back, I was asked by .Net to take part in their design challenge. I was massively stoked to be asked but I decided that it wasn’t a good thing for me as I’d not really done much design at that time due to being solely just a front-end dev and I felt […]

• 40 year old developer

  25th May 2018

  I turn 40 in a few months. I’m not happy about it if truth be told. I still see myself as a 20’ish lad just finding his feet in life yet here I am, mid life crisis well in motion and more wrinkles than copies of .Net magazine. I work in an industry that I […]

• Talking helps

  1st July 2016

  I don’t write technical posts. I try to pass on thought and opinion in the hope that someone takes something from them. And this one is no different. We work in an age now where we have tools for this and tools for that. We’ve automated a lot of what we do and have a […]

• Ownership

  19th May 2016

  We’ve established in the past I’m probably a workaholic. I’ll never change. It’s part of my DNA I can’t shift. I take what I do very seriously. It matters and often at a personal cost. Now not for one second am I bigging it up or saying I’m better because I’m really not but I […]

• 2015 Year Review

  31st December 2015

  Another year is coming to a close. My kids are growing up fast, I have 4 white hairs in my beard and I still don’t have the sports car I dream of. I look back on this year with a tinge of sadness but a lot of excitement going forward into 2016. The last year […]

• One giant leap for this developer

  19th September 2015

  Two weeks ago, I started a new role at Space 48 as Senior Front-end Developer. I’m so excited. I love working in a team full of devs. You can bounce ideas off and learn a shed load of new things as well as hopefully teach a few too. So moving to Space just outside Warrington […]

• 18 days and counting

  14th August 2015

  18 days ago, I stopped using Twitter. Big deal I hear you say. Yes it was. You see, Twitter has been a huge influence on my life over the past few years. I’ve made friendships, lost friendships and maintained friendships. I’ve got work, helped others find work. I’ve laughed and cried in equal measures. It’s […]

• Getting fit with tech

  30th May 2015

  I’m not the world’s healthiest man. I’m lazy and eat too much bread and pasta. By no means do I eat a lot of junk food or processed meals but yeah, I’m not healthy. The problem for me with getting fit and losing weight is the being strict element. I can be really disciplined and […]

• Listening whilst I work

  9th March 2015

  A strange topic maybe for a blog post this March but it’s a big part of how I perform my job. Today’s topic is about what I listen to as I work. I’m a big music fan. I love the eighties and will listen until the cows come home but my big love is Jean […]

• Pastures new

  11th September 2014

  I recently handed in my resignation at the agency. It was the single hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long, long while. I’ve been at McCann now for just over two years, two very good years. I’ve learnt a lot in that time and made some true friends. I’ll miss the place terribly, […]

• My one bit of advice

  30th July 2014

  I’m feeling generous today and wanted to share some advice I gave myself over a year ago. If you are new to this web industry or not so new, question everything. Speak up and make sure your point is heard. Make sure you get all you need to do your job right. Information is power […]

• Play nice

  20th July 2014

  I’m sat here at a kids party as I write this. It’s noisy and chaotic. Every child demanding attention shouting “look at me, look at me”. By the end of the party, there will be some smiles and some tears. It reminds me a bit of the web community. We’re not sliding down slides or […]

• Not everyone is creative

  7th July 2014

  Wrong! I was reading Twitter today as you do when a tweet from Sean Johnson caught my eye. I *am* a creative. The Oxford English Dictionary says so. creative (noun) A person whose job involves creative work http://t.co/Sx2ZWMqEwo — Sean Johnson (@seanuk) July 7, 2014 It reminded me of a few months back, probably last year when […]

• Self promotion

  3rd July 2014

  I’m really bad at it. I’ve never really been good at talking about myself in a positive manner. I tend to let my actions speak for themselves. But in the world of social media, it’s very much a case of he who shouts loudest will always be heard. I’m always conscious of advertising my stuff. […]

• Trying to live longer

  1st July 2014

  An off topic post from me today. I’m talking about fitness, diet and trying to see 60 onwards. Last year, I got the shock of my life when I was told I had high blood pressure and the operation I needed was to be cancelled until I sorted it. I won’t go into details to […]

• Back in the game

  20th June 2014

  I write this post on a the back of a successful week for myself. I say successful, to many others, it will be a normal week. As you probably know, I’m not someone who is scared of saying how it is so I have no problem is being honest and open about the reasoning for […]

• Ten years ago, I started a journey.

  7th June 2014

  June 2004 saw me land my first ever web design role. I’d been doing websites for a few years before as a hobby but this was to be my first proper job. I remember it well. I worked in a business centre where lots of small business were based. I worked at one place but […]

• Moaning old goat

  29th May 2014

  I like a moan. I won’t lie. Things annoy me so I say so. Better to speak up than sit in silence stewing. Do I try and fix it? I try. Some moans are probably for moaning sake but I’m pretty keen to fix issues if I can. I also moan because I care about […]

• Treasure your colleagues

  19th April 2014

  I’ve wanted to touch on this topic for a good while now but this week kind of prompted me to get it done. It’s also my 100th blog post. I never knew I had it in me. It’s a pretty wishy washy topic but I make no apologies. Anyway, colleagues. 2 years ago, I was […]

• Don’t take things for granted

  11th January 2014

  I did my usual Saturday morning thing. The kids were in bed (they stay over at weekends) and I probably had 10-15 minutes before their usual routine of running in and grabbing my phone to play a game. I loaded up twitter as usual and read through a handful of tweets when one grabbed my […]

• New Year, New Man

  4th January 2014

  Happy New Year all! Hope you all had a good Christmas. Mine was uneventful but a great chance to kick back, enjoy some lovely cheeses and watch lots of eighties films. Bliss. So it’s out with the old and in with the new which for me this year is quite exciting. I start a new […]

• That was the year that was

  20th December 2013

  2013 has been an interesting year I guess. Infact this very update could have been written with two completely different tones and endings. Alas, the good ending is the one included. I’ve seen people come and go. Some old faces and some new have said hello. I got to work with some great characters and […]

• Dan the UX man

  3rd December 2013

  It’s all change for me in the coming months. After a fantastic offer by the agency and a lot of trust, I will be switching disciplines and working with the UX team. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I’ve had a real interest in UX for a while now and chatting with the UX […]

• Learning the hard / easy / whatever way

  15th November 2013

  I’m not great at learning. Things often take a while to sink in. When I was working with table layout, the thought of learning divs and CSS was scary and seemed a different language that I’d never pick up. Some would say I still haven’t mastered that. But not being one to shy away, I […]

• A bit late to the tablet party I guess

  4th November 2013

  I recently treated myself to a Nexus 7, well it was my birthday after all. I’m not really sure why I bought it. I’ve toyed with the idea of an iPad for ages now but something was stopping me. You’d think as a developer who works with responsive web design that it would be something […]

• Should I blog?

  22nd October 2013

  Today, a fellow twitterer Alex Jegtnes ‏aka @jegtnes tweeted this… At the risk of sounding really, utterly daft—am I the only person who’s avoided blogging because they’re ashamed at the state of their site? — Alex Jegtnes (@jegtnes) October 22, 2013 Taking the site design to the side for now, I think if you want […]

• Not knowing something isn’t a sign of weakness

  18th October 2013

  Anyone who knows me well enough and reads my blog (all 3 of you) know that me and javascript have a love hate relationship. I’m honest about the journey I’m on with it. I don’t know enough to work with it. I’m trying, some of it makes sense and I think if I carry on […]

• Stress

  27th September 2013

  I’m quite a stressful person. It’s fair to say, two years or so ago, it possibly may have been close to killing me. I’ve been full time with the agency for over a year now and life is different to what it was when I was a freelancer. There are the usual differences with regards […]

• All grown up

  19th September 2013

  I wrote back in April about planning for the future and what I wanted to be doing in a few years time. A few months on and I’ve had a taste of leading, being the go to guy and generally being more involved and I have to say I loved it. It gave me a […]

• Social media

  10th July 2013

  Social media is boring me. There I said it. For a good while now, I’ve been questioning the amount of time I spend using social media to the point where I’ve tried limiting what I do. Of course, I still keep coming back. I love talking to people, finding out what they are doing, getting […]

• Stop, look and do something about it

  8th July 2013

  Web Celebs It’s a phrase I hear a lot and once upon a time, I felt the same way like so many do now. There are web designers who are put on pedastals, I agree that it happens. Often though it’s not their choice. Some, yeah love the attention but that’s human nature right? Everyone […]

• Planning for the future

  20th April 2013

  I’m 35 this year, I know, I know, I look so much younger but this year has made me realise that I’m not getting any younger and I’ve been thinking a lot about what I see myself doing in a few years. Recently I’ve taken an interest in how things are planned. Workflow has become […]

• Jumping on the bandwagon

  19th March 2013

  Just a quick one. I’ve finally got to using Git Hub and as of today, I’ve put my HTML framework / templates up for all to mock, suggest improvements and so on. I’m doing this as a personal project but want to try and include a few people who might be able to help out. […]

• Is feedback a thing of the past?

  18th March 2013

  Ok, so link bait alert, well sort of. Been thinking of this a while now and have touched upon it a few times on Twitter but I wonder if giving feedback has become almost habit and meaning very little. Let me explain a bit more as I know a few will pull me up on […]

• I made a website

  9th March 2013

  It’s not a serious website I must stress but I wanted to look at doing something with data and graphs so I came up with the idea of tracking my mood and seeing how my mood changes over time. If you don’t know me, I’m a proper grumpy fucker. I’ve not worked out the data […]

• Speaking achievement unlocked

  4th March 2013

  You’ll no doubt know that I’ve been up for doing a web talk for a while. It’s part getting over my fear of public speaking and also part of a “talk about your job/ideas in the office” that we’ve all been doing. Anyway today was my time to shine. I spoke about “Browser Led Design” […]

• Beefcheeks* in Brighton

  2nd March 2013

  Ok, so I’ve just got home from my first trip to Brighton and the Responsive Conference hosted by Jeremy Keith of Clearleft. I’d been to New Adventures back in January and felt nothing could better that conference but I have to say that ResponsiveConf has bettered it. I woke up after New Adventures, something stirred […]

• New Adventures Conference 2013

  25th January 2013

  As we reflect on a great conference put on by the New Adventures team, I come back with some great memories, new ideas, some drive and lots of opinion. This year’s lineup was full of people that I knew little about so was quite open minded beforehand. The one speaker that I knew pretty well […]

• Twitter archive and looking back in time

  19th January 2013

  I’m sure you all know by now that Twitter have been giving access to users of all their tweets from day 1. Well this Saturday I got mine. It’s pretty interesting reading to be fair. Some things I remember saying, some I have no recollection of. What is interesting for me is the topics I […]

• Facing my fears

  14th January 2013

  Ok, so not really web related but may hit a chord with some. This is a big year for me hopefully as I plan to finally get on a plane for the first time. Basically I am shit scared of heights although it’s an odd kind of fear of heights that I have. Hard to […]

• So this is 2013

  1st January 2013

  Happy New Year and all that jazz. Yes, I have redesigned my site again. Get over it. I just fancied a change. Must add, it is still in need of a few fixes and testing. So here we are eh, another January. Another month of people being all good as they try to follow their […]

• Mr Unsociable

  6th December 2012

  For a while now, I’ve been annoyed at how much internet “noise” is going on in my life. I’ve found myself getting wound up by constantly getting notifications from Facebook about meaningless photos and comments, wound up by the constant oneupmanship on Twitter and the wankfest that is dribbble. In short, I need to cut […]

• End of an era, the beginning of a new one

  1st November 2012

  You’ll have to excuse this post. It’s more for me than you but I wanted to share with people who know me, have met me and who will meet me one day. I’ve been married ten years to someone I met in school, someone I bought a house with and someone I had children with. […]

• Change of lifestyle urgently needed

  11th October 2012

  You may or may not know but I am supposed to be having an operation soon. It’s only a minor one but an operation all the same. Anyway this week I had some tests and it turns out the op is off for now until I control my high blood pressure. It came as a […]

• Change of scenary

  30th September 2012

  Right, I’m going to sound an odd fucker here but I don’t sleep in a bed. I sleep on the sofa. Have done for 2 years now with the odd stay somewhere else. Why? The bed I have is awful, the bed I had when married was awful. Basically I can never get comfy, added […]

• It’s good to talk…isn’t it?

  22nd September 2012

  I talked last year to a couple of friends about speaking at an event. I’m not particurly good at speaking, I’m shy and to be honest, not good at talking about the work I do. Passionate yes, technical, no. So why the hell would I want to do a talk? Overcoming a fear might be […]

• I love my job

  18th September 2012

  It was 10.30pm last night. I was sat in the Chester services eating a Big Mac watching next week’s guests on Jeremy Kyle argue in the car park. I’d forgotten to get a straw and I had no clean clothes for tomorrow yet. I was tired and wanted to just lie down and sleep. I’d […]

• Is it better to be honest and realistic?

  8th September 2012

  I’m a realist, some say pessimist, I guess I’m both then. A few of my friends have recently gone freelance whereas I have taken the opposite step of going back to a 9-5 style role. Now, I enjoyed the freedom and the doing it when I wanted BUT I didn’t enjoy a lot of the […]

• New Adventures

  1st September 2012

  Now, this is a bit of a misleading title given the fact that yesterday saw the tickets for the New Adventures Conference go on sale, which I must add that although I announced I wasn’t going to go, I did end up buying a ticket 10 minutes later. But no, this is about MY New […]

• Dan is available

  26th June 2012

  Tomorrow I finish a 6 month rolling contract with an agency in Manchester which means as of Thursday 28th, I will be available for freelance / contract work. So if you need a website or are an agency in need of a front-end developer, please get in contact. Thanks

• A new hobby

  22nd June 2012

  A few weeks back, I posted about Instagram and why I loved using it. I still do, more than ever. But I finally bought a camera. The Olympus SZ-31MR. It was featured on The Gadget Show and looked a good deal so I bought it there and then. Within 3 days I was driving all […]

• Instagram

  16th April 2012

  I’ve always liked taking photos of things but never really had the tools to do it. Sure I had a camera phone but it was slow and clunky and I never really got what I was after. Then the kids came along and I started to focus on pictures of them as a subject. Boring […]

• Health kick

  24th March 2012

  Something I have always struggled with in my adult life is my weight. Basically I eat all the wrong things and do naff all. Eating healthy to me was secondary to having fuel to function. I’ve done diets before and exercised but nothing really kept me hooked. I did the Atkins diet and lost a […]

• Oi Dan! How’s that plan going?

  24th March 2012

  Around January, I said I had a plan in mind for 2012 and what I wanted to improve on as a front-end dev / web designer. We are now close to April so thought I would reflect on the last few months and how I have gone. First off, (While I type this, my little […]

• A plan of sorts

  3rd January 2012

  This year is all about improving what I have. I made the decision after looking at various jobs advertised online. Sure I can build templates and make them look good but I have holes I want to fill. Starting this week, I began getting to know Javascript. Being able to do some jQuery is fine […]

• Year review

  24th December 2011

  The year is at an end. It’s my first full year as a freelancer and it’s been very eventful both work and personal wise. So what have I learnt, what are my standout moments? 1. Responsive design. This year I started to use media queries. I’d heard a bit about them and I’ll be honest, […]

• I ask, you answer

  2nd December 2011

  iaskyouanswer This is a site I designed and built for myself as a side project. Basic premise is I ask designers / developers a set of questions and they answer them. And merge into one website. Goes live in a week or so once the CMS is complete.

• Freelance – Love / Hate

  28th November 2011

  I saw a tweet today about how working freelance is the Holy Grail. This is how I feel about it. I’ve been freelance now for over a year. I love it and hate it at the same time. I’ve been lucky in that I have worked on some big projects so the need to be […]

• What? No portfolio?

  19th November 2011

  Since launching the new site, I’ve had a few people question why there was no portfolio or links to work that I have done on the site. It is something I pondered for a while when doing the site. I planned to do something but felt it needed thinking through. There are two phases to […]

• I ask, You answer

  18th November 2011

  Last year, I started a small project doing web designer interviews. The idea was simple. I drew up a list of questions, I asked a few mates and stuck them on my blog. A few weeks into doing it, I was getting some enquiries about doing an interview. Before I knew it, I had over […]

• New site, New year, New me

  18th November 2011

  I’ve been freelance now for over one year. It was a forced move, but I think it’s been the making of me. Where I used to work, I had regular pay, I worked in a great team but for all the benefits, I was wasting away, not learning and not being listened to. I wasn’t […]