Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Posted on October 15, 2008 - by Jordan H
How the little guy can do something…
It’s quite typical in this day and age to turn on the television and see yet another news report about starving children in Africa, people dying in Bangladesh or something similar, and it’s quite typical to disregard it as nothing much and flick over to another channel. It’s not hard to think that poverty is something that doesn’t affect us and is only a problem in third-world countries. I think it’s time we all thought again.
Poverty is something that can be very close to home. Albeit not to the extremes which are saw in places like Africa and Asia, it’s still there and something, which again, is very easy to turn a blind eye to. You may find these facts hard to believe, but one-fifth of the UK’s population don’t have enough to live on. That includes almost 4 million children. The amount of children in poverty has doubled since the last generation, despite advances in technology and availability of benefits.
We’ve all wore the white band, but has that actually meant something to us? Of course we can’t donate millions ourselves, and most of the time we can’t see an actual change, but there are tons of things we can do which, when done by a lot of people, can make a huge difference. There is a great list here of a small things you could do which could make a big difference on the lives of people in poverty all over the world.
Yes, your average Joe doesn’t have a million pounds to give away, but there’s nothing stopping him clicking a button or donating the money he’d spend on a coffee to help out those in need.
Today is Blog Action Day, and thousands of blogs around the world are joining together to make a combined effort to make people aware of world poverty. This is a great example of how many people can do a small thing, but when it’s combined together makes a massive difference.
There’s an endless amount of things you can do to help, and it’s amazing what the world can do when people pull together.
Photo from SamPac on Flickr. Statistics from Oxfam and JRF. Part of Blog Action Day 2008.
Posted on August 8, 2008 - by Jordan H
Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony
I tuned in to BBC at 12:45pm today, quite excited about the beginning of what would be a very unique Olympiad in its own right. Surrounded by the political controversy with Tibet, Human Rights and the censorship, it’s hard for you to appreciate the stunning work that the Chinese have done without your mind wondering over to the hardships that the nation likes to hide.
But the ceremony started off nevertheless, with a stunning countdown and then some amazing performances from 15,000 people. Along with an amazing fireworks display above the capital, the event was truly spectacular. No wonder the Chinese trust in the number eight as their lucky number…
Posted on July 22, 2008 - by Jordan H
GeekUp Preston at Forum Bar
Last night I went to my first GeekUp in the Forum Bar in Preston. We had a great time, talking about how we can get young people interested in geekery (grooming!) and talking about how we got into geekery ourselves.
Gemma was also talking about her big mess-up last Friday at the airshow. About 12 of us came, including me and Andy. I really enjoyed it and got to meet loads of new people.
Thanks everyone!
Posted on April 20, 2008 - by Jordan H
WordCamp UK Blog
Thanks to Mark Steadman for setting up the WordCamp UK Blog. It has a useful feature of Wordpress where any Technorati posts tagged with “wordcampuk” will show up in the ‘Buzz’ section.
So if you’re blogging about WordCamp, or if you’re putting up any type of social media in fact, stick the tag “wordcampuk” on it so we can find it and group them all together!
>Jordan
UPDATE: Thanks to Mark (again!) for pointing out my late-night typo! It’s actually “wordcampuk”. We haven’t got the Technorati feature up (yet), but trackback to a blog post and Mark will try and get you on the Buzz section.
Posted on April 18, 2008 - by Jordan H
WordCamp Logo
Since WordPress is crashing Firefox when I try to upload an image, I’ve decided to upload them at Flickr instead. So I’ll stick some photos on my photostream there.
The image above is the cool new logo for WordCamp UK made by Stef Lewandowski, a fellow WordPress blogger who I hope to see at WordCamp!
The attendees list hasn’t closed (yet!), but I still suggest you sign up over there soon so you can guarantee yourself a place as it’s gonna be popular being the first UK one.
I’ll be sure to keep my twitter updates flowing throughout the weekend! Let me know if you’re coming - dropping me a comment! And be sure to link to the websites from your own blog too, the more publicity the better!
>Jordan
UPDATE: We’ve now got a new badge/logo for WordCamp UK because (according to Matt) the old one had a shrunken version of the W…
Posted on April 17, 2008 - by Jordan H
WordCamp UK - Sign Up Now!
Time is running out if you wanna go to WordCamp UK! There’s only until 12pm Friday (GMT+1) to sign up on the WordCamp Wiki if you’re interested. If all goes to plan, it should take place somewhere in Birmingham on the 19th and 20th of July 2008. And with any luck, Matt may show up (unconfirmed, just a hope).
Many thanks to the fantastic Tony Scott for proposing this idea! If you’re interested, post your name on this wiki page and I’ll see you there! For more info, see the WordCamp UK website.
You can also subscribe to the WordCamp UK Mailing List. For the many WordPress bloggers out there in the UK, it’d be a great help to WordCamp if you could trackback/blog our event soon so we can get as much publicity out there as possible!
I’ll post some more info as it’s decided!
UPDATE: Well, it appears that the attendees list has not closed (yet), so while it’s still open head over there and put your name down!
Posted on January 1, 2008 - by Jordan H
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from Jordan! Have a great 2008 and I promise I’ll keep posting!
Posted on December 19, 2007 - by Jordan H
Countdown to Christmas
Yes, it’s that time of year! I thought about writing a poem, so stay tuned! But there’s only 5 more days till Christmas and I’m excited, not the least because I know what I’m getting! Our tree is all up (as it has been for the last 19 days) and I’ve finished school. So bring on the festive spirit!
I spruced up the jhSystems website a bit, so have a look at that please! And I messed with the style of the help documentation section and made the theme constant. Unfortunately the site looks absolutely crap in IE. Not surprising for a crap browser though, eh?
Stay tuned and a happy Christmas!
>Jordan