Darren Straight's Blog

Just want to wish everyone a quick but thoughtful Happy New Year!

Thank you to all of you who visited my blog in 2009 – it means a lot to me, especially as I don’t get as much time as I used to on updating this blog.

However  it’s 2010 and a new decade has arrived, so I shall be dedicating more time to this blog to bring it back up to track, already you can see that I have tweaked the theme a little to make it run faster. Start emailing me suggestions – I’m on the case….

Following up from both my previous posts (post 1 & post 2) about the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Fan Trip Train Ride 2009, which gave you the chance to travel by steam train from Paddington to Oxford aboard the Hogwarts Express (GWR Hall Class 4-6-0 no 5972 Olton Hall) steam train on Saturday the 18th of July 2009.

I have now had the chance along with my girlfreind (see her post) to travel on this Hogwarts Express Journey, it was really enjoyable and worth going, the atmosphere around people was a great experience.

I have just finished uploading all the photos I took of my journey on the Hogwarts Express (5972 Olton Hall). My photos include both outside and inside photos of the main steam engine train and the carriages, along with some photos of Oxford and a few of London.

I shall soon be adding my Hogwarts Express Videos to this post too, which are definitely worth viewing, even if you didnt go!

Well I guess all good things come to an end, or at least that’s what some people say.

But it looks like that one good thing has unfortunately come to an end, that of which I’m sad to see go as I was a part of it, that is that the rumors circulating earlier this week about the MSN/Windows Live Butterfly program closing have come true.

A Microsoft spokesman sent Mary Jo Foley the following response when she questioned Microsoft about the closing of the MSN/Windows Live Butterfly beta testing program.

“The Butterfly group has been involved in beta testing MSN and Windows Live products for a number of years.  Rather than continue the program as something only focused on beta testing, we’re offering the group a variety of options to engage in the broader Windows Live community, including the opportunity to join the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) program and continued and future access to beta testing opportunities.”

For those of you that don’t know, The Windows Live Butterfly awards program (formerly the MSN Butterfly program) was a program whose members were given the benefit of new Microsoft software and services to test before the beta releases went public and they were in direct contact with the program managers for MSN and Windows Live products.

Microsoft had initiated the Windows Live Butterfly program in order to recognize the contributions made by those who have excelled at beta testing, showing themselves to go above and beyond what Microsoft looked for from beta testers. Prospective butterflies were selected by the Windows Live product team and were nominated for a term of one year, after which they could be renominated.

As a Windows Live Butterfly Program Member I’m sad to see this come to an end, it’s a real shame, I’ve met and made great friends with many people through the Butterfly Group both face to face and online, and the butterfly group has helped me in lots of ways, I will miss everyone on it including of course the employees at Microsoft that talked in the newsgroups, I just hope we can all stay in contact someway!

Maybe  we could update the Windows Live Butterfly Map - http://www.butterflymap.com/ (Courtesy of John O’Brien a MVP from Soul Solutions and the co-founder of Via Windows Live)  to all current Windows Live Butterflies along with contact details!

Some memories:

• First Ever Windows Live Butterfly Meet Up in London
• Guess Who’s a Windows Live Butterfly Expert Now!

MSN/Windows Live Butterfly Plus Toy

MSN/Windows Live Butterfly Plus Toy

First Ever MSN/Windows Live Butterfly Meet Up in London

Just Checked my stats and noticed incoming visits to my blog from http://www.bestbloglist.com/

Seems I’ve been added to the Top 50 Best Blog List, I’m not sure when the next best blog list update will be but for now I’m on it which is pretty good!

Here’s a list of all those blogs on it at currently:

1. A Little Crazy? Aren’t we all?
2. Post Secret
3. A Woman of Many Parts
4. PopGadget
5. S J Howard
6. Guppyman’s Rant Zone
7. Home Exchange Travel
8. Man Blog
9. Black Belt Productivity
10. Spina Bifida Moms
11. The Wedding Blog
12. Intent Blog
13. One Man Bandwidth
14. Red Monkey
15. Life According to Princess Grace
16. Travelogger
17. Sui Mai
18. Huffington Post
19. Crooks and Liars
20. Two Okapis
21. Geisha Blog
22. One Thing I Hate About Today
23. Bootstrap Analysis
24. Manchester United Soccer Blog
25. It’s Raining Noodles
26. Quick Online Tips
27. Jack Of All Blogs
28. Useless Men
29. Coolest Gadgets
30. Berks TV
31. Darren Staright
32. Parenting Blog
33. TechCrunch
34. Dead Spin
35. Geek Blog
36. Captain’s Quarters
37. Cool Beans
38. Gadzooki
39. College Start-Up
40. Google Tutor
41. Poker Moments
42. The Bold Soul
43. Common Sense
44. Jane Loves Tarzan
45. Celebrity Chefs Blog
46. Blog Herald
47. Pearsonified
48. Random Bytes
49. FishbowlNY
50. Inherently Wrong

Hi everyone, from all my heart I wish you a Happy New Year 2009. I wish that the New Year will bring hapiness in your family and that all your dreams come true.

And as a treat for my blog readers, this new year I have updated my theme to a new Wordpress Windows Vista Style Areo Glass Theme.

Features include:

• Striking Glass-style design
  • Drop Shadows
  • Transparency
  • Taskbar-style pages list
  • Glowing Options Orb
• Seven user selectable sub-themes
  • Void, Life, Earth, Wind, Water, Fire and Lightweight
  • Cookie saves user’s preference for 30 days
  • Default Theme is admin selectable
• Easy Navigation
  • “Taskbar Preview” style menus when you hover over page buttons – makes finding pages a snap!
• Cross Browser Functionality
  • IE6, IE7, FF2/3, Safari 1-3, Chrome
  • NOTE: IE6 Functionality is just that, functional. It doesn’t look pretty and at least one issue causes the screen to want to “scroll forever”, however it is visible and usable. These issues may be corrected in a future release.
• Widget Ready
  • Think: Sidebar “Gadgets”
  • Themed Widgets: Each widget is graphically themed in an attractive way.
• Convenient Options Menu
  • Meta functions neatly tucked away. Makes sure your content is front and center.
  • New Post and New Page buttons right on the Options menu – saves time!
• Customizable user picture
  • Uses the “Custom Image Header” feature of WordPress to allow the blog owner to change the user picture to his/her heart’s content.
• Gravatar-enabled.
  • Subscribers see themselves on the Options Menu and in posts.
• Minutiae
  • Graphic work was done in Paint Shop Pro 8. I know it’s crufty and old, but Adobe software just costs too damn much.
  • It looks best if you have the Segoe UI font installed, but works with number of other default Windows, Mac and Linux fonts, so it should look okay in any situation.

I hope you enjoy my blogs new windows vista areo glass look and agree that the theme I have selected is well suited for this blog!

Hey everyone,

It’s been quite a while since I last posted or updated anything on this site. My apologies to those of you who frequently visit my site hoping for some updates, so much has gone on in my life within the last 4 months that I have had hardly any spare time to keep this blog updated.

Some of the things which I have done include:

• Spending quality time with my Family and Beautiful Girlfriend Emily who I have been going out with for exactly 6 months now.
• Deciding whether or not to move in with my Girlfriend so we can see whether or not we would be able to live or not under the same roof together.
• Helping my Girlfriend out at college on her Progression to University Course.
• Visiting London on Several occasions that of which included staying at The Baglioni, a Luxury Hotel next to Kensington Gardens in London.
• Going Camping at Abbey Wood and Biking around Kent.
• Going to Reading Festival 2008 Great Fun!
• Going to The Madonna Sticky and Sweet UK Tour 2008 Concert.
• Searching and going to Job interviews within the IT Industry.
• And finally going to my Grandmas Funeral Yesterday.

So yeah it’s been one hell of a road and this little list doesn’t even scratch the tip of the iceberg, so much more has gone on, both good and bad!

I’m not sure when I will be able to update my blog again but I hoping it will be soon.

Take care everyone.
Darren

Avril Lavignes The Best Damn Tour is coming to The O2 Arena this coming Wednesday the 4th of June. So looking forward to going along with all the other music festivals, concerts and gigs I shall be going to this year. It’s all good fun!

With all this talk of music lately on my blog anyone would be thinking I’m turning my back on technology, computers and all the geeky stuff in general! I can safetly say I’m not and am still keeping up to date in what’s happening in the weird and wonderful technology world!

This September the 11th, Madonna will be performing live on stage at Wembley Stadium as part of her Madonna the Sticky & Sweet Tour 2008. I bought tickets for myself and my girlfriend to see her from the Golden Circle Standing Area, so hopefully it will be a good one. I’m just wondering is anyone else going to either the London one or another? Or wishing they could go but can’t?

Ticket site: http://www.livenationinternational.com/madonna

Upcoming.org: Madonna The Sticky & Sweet Tour 2008 London

There’s 88 Days to go until Reading and Leeds Music Festival 2008, so let’s take a quick look at the lineup so far! Can’t wait to go!

Main Stage

Radio 1/NME Stage

The Dance Arena

Radio 1 Lock-Up Stage

Here’s an accomplishment for myself to remember, this Tuesday gone it was such lovely weather, that I decided to get my shorts on and do something I’ve always thought about doing. I decided to walk, jog and run from Sittingbourne to Chatham, an approximate total distance of 10 miles.

It was quite wearing as I hadn’t prepared myself for it, but I believe it was well worth doing. It’s just one of them stretches of roads you drive up and down on day after day but without actually getting out of the car you never actually notice certain things along the side of the road.

Walking, jogging and running from Sittingbourne to Chatham was an experience I won’t forget and I have the bonus of next time I go down that route in car to say I’ve walked this!

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to do this on a regular basis however I will definitely do it again sometime time or maybe see if I can go a bit further and even try and do the Sittingbourne to Cambridge walk, an approximate total distance of 26 miles. Perfect if I want to compete in the London Marathon!