Muxton.com

Free DropBox Invites on UKMac.Net

scott — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:06:47 +0000

If you have like me been looking for an invite to DropBox then look no further. Ukmac.net is offering free invites to this exciting new file and photo synchronisation application. Just drop over here and leave a comment for your free invite.

A Day At The Long Mynd and Wenlock Edge

scott — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:37:51 +0000

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Yesterday was the first time in MANY moons that I had a day off on my own and didn’t have a list of jobs that had to be done. It was a gorgeous, bright, sunny early summers day and although it was a little cooler than lately I decided it was perfect weather for a walk in the Shropshire hills so I packed up and headed off towards Church Stretton and the Long Mynd.

Church Stretton is a small village on the South Shropshire/Welsh border and is situated at the base of the Long Mynd, a small range of rolling hills that are the starting point for many beautiful country walks. It is an area commonly overlooked by Midlanders heading away for a weekend in the countryside who typically drive right by on their way into Central and North Wales. This is a shame because it really is a stunning landscape and has a lot to offer walkers, cyclists, and outdoor lovers of all types.

On the drive to Church Stretton from Much Wenlock the road runs parallel to a wooded bank called Wenlock Edge, which is another area that many people drive past without even realising that on the other side of the trees, hidden from view in their cars, is a panorama of stunning proportions.

Yesterday I took the opportunity and stopped off at one of the car parks on Wenlock Edge and walked down through Easthope Woods to the foot of the ridge and was rewarded with a magnificent view of the yellow rape seed oil fields and the Shropshire hills. For someone like myself who spends his days working in a busy hospital and his weekends running around after 3 small children the peace and tranquility was slightly unreal. Looking down at the small numbers of farm house it was hard not to feel envious of anyone fortunate enough to live in such an idyllic place.

After taking a few photos I returned to my car and continued on to Church Stretton where I parked on the National Trust car park at Carding Mill Valley. I picked up a rucksack with flask of coffee and my iPod and set off accompanied by a selection of early Genesis tracks. The walk up through the Valley to Light Spout Hollow and the waterfall is not difficult and not long but I enjoyed every minute of being out in the hills with just myself to consider. At the waterfall I stopped and had a hot drink then headed up onto the top of the hills into the open heather where the views across the whole of Shropshire open out in front of you.

Stopping off to take some more pictures with Peter Gabriel’s throaty vocals singing “White Mountain” from “Trespass” through my iPod headphones, I would have been quite happy to stay there all day, but as with all good things I knew I would have to come back down to earth…

On my return to the car park I found it was now considerably more busy than when I had left, there were several coach loads of children from Sandwell Academy out on a days field trip, complete with wellies, tape measures, stop watches and lots of little corks which they were using to time the flow of the water through the valley. Nice day for it I thought !

Further Links

Shropshire Walking
Church Stretton Area Web Site

Thoughts on the Future of Muxton.com

scott — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:52:08 +0000

Its probably about 7 years or more ago now that I first registered the domain muxton.com and since then I have played around on the edges with a variety of web publishing tools and designs but never really established either a routine posting regime or for that matter a consistent theme. It has been a bit of a hodge podge of thoughts and links to be completely honest which is fairly easy to see from the assortment of post categories in the site sidebar.

There are a bunch of reasons for this including work pressures, having 2 more children in the last 4 years and further dabbling with my other web site at http://ukmac.net, although these are probably no more than excuses for the real reason which is my lack of ideas and motivation for this site. The web is a wonderful place for procrastinators and there are doubtless thousands of other potential bloggers like me who spend hours every night surfing around other peoples sites thinking, “Oooh I like that design” or “that site is really well thought out” instead of getting on with producing something themselves.

The question is can I make the effort to post regularly or come up with the necessary incentive to create a style and format that encourages me to come back and write something ? Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know is that as it stands this blog is pretty much a waste of space.

I have read a number of articles by bloggers on the subject of getting started with blogs that basically say that you should just write something, anything, as long as you start to get into the habit of writing so this is where I will start. Not an interesting first post but a start none the less.

The other place I think I will start is to rationalise the content already posted here including links and categories that really don’t gel and give a feel for what this blog is about. My old tech style posts need to be archived and the categories replaced with subjects that reflect my new theme, whatever that turns out to be.

Ok, so as a first post for a procrastinator of many years that will probably do. Time will tell if I can keep this up !

Cheers

This Weekend

scott — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:46:48 +0000

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Barbeque Season Hits UK Full Force

scott — Sun, 11 May 2008 07:47:25 +0000

It appears from the empty shelves in Asda where the hot dog rolls normally reside that barbeque season has landed in the UK. The last weeks warm dry weather has clearly triggered large numbers of folk to try their hand at the ol’ barby this weekend. With that in mind I have compiled a list of useful barbeque links below.

Enjoy, and remember barbeques cook very quickly ! Make sure your food is cooked right through and don’t end up another of the barbeque food poisoning statistics.

BBC Food Barbeque Basics
BBQ.co.uk - Useful hints and tips for barbecuers
Allrecipes.com - Barbeque tips

Flickr Now With Video

scott — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:23:59 +0000

Flickr have finally introduced their video upload service. Currently it is only available to Pro users and is limited to 90 second clips but the quality is good in comparison with many of the video upload sites. Check out the clip above for an example….

Drive by Shooting In Ironbridge

scott — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:44:42 +0000

It seems that these days even quiet local pubs in rural Shropshire can be victims of gun crime. The Shropshire Star has this article by video journalist James Shaw that covers this bizarre incident that happened a couple of nights ago at The Station Hotel in Ironbridge. Fortunately the man hit by the gun in this incident was not seriously hurt as the weapon used was an air rifle and the impact was limited but even so he could easily have been blinded or worse.

Telford On The Web

scott — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:44:29 +0000

Telford On the Web is a local directory service focused on the Telford area which contains links to jobs, property, clubs, events and more. It is part of the Uk on the Web network which has similar sites for hundreds of other towns and cities across the UK.

As a starting point for locating a product or service nearby it is a useful site to have in your bookmarks as it is well organised and finding the information you need should be no more than a few clicks away.

Recommended.

Leopard release this Friday ( 26th Ocotober )

scott — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:14:06 +0000

Apple releases the latest edition of OS X this weekend starting at 6pm on Friday 26th October.

ViralTag Your Way To Higher Rankings

scott — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 21:58:03 +0000

It is fair to say that I have been neglecting this site for some time now and so today I decided to try and kick start things again. Whilst browsing round for advice on increasing traffic to this site I came across the site of Jason A Clarke that had an interesting article about a new system called ViralTags.

The Instructions on what to do to implement this on your site are listed below. I will write here again in a few days with an update on how much difference posting this has made to my site. If you would like to join in please feel free to paste this onto your site and I will update the links below for any pings I get from sites who have linked to this article.

Cheers

[tags]ViralTags,Link Exchange, Link Tree, Get Traffic, Increase Page Rank[/tags]

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Instructions:

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Inner88 by Jason A Clark. (And if you really want help growing your website you might consider subscribing to his Full RSS Feed where he gives you all kinds of great stories and tips on increasing your rankings.)

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice and your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a maximum of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags,” practice being a friendly part of the blogging community by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do exactly what you’re doing now.

5.) Keep in mind that porn sites are not really welcomed in this link exchange. We also ask that you not tamper with other people’s links cause that’s not cool. Be cool.

Host Tag: Building Rankings Fast

Important: Once I get a ping back from you I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here on my page, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copies and pastes from your blog does the same this program will soon spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

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