Norman Ralph

The site is now 4 years old! Well officially the anniversary of my first post is on the 26th March but today is the 4th anniversary of the launch of all the back end gubbins.

There have been plenty of ups and downs over the years but my relationship with you, the readers of this site, is now longer than any real life relationship I’ve had so far. Many would say that was a little sad, but I am quite proud. When I kicked off in 2007 I never envisaged I would still be writing stuff on here.

Here is to another 4 years of happy posting. One day I will work out exactly what sort of content fits the site best.

Normanralph.com is now three years old. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, both for the site and me personally.

We have been through three site redesigns, several changes of direction and a lot of stuff has been written about a lot of subjects.

I hope you have enjoyed the last three years’ worth of content and I am confident that we will see another three years of content to come!

I have had a quotes widget in my sidebar for a few weeks now with around 30 quotes randomly displaying once every 25 seconds or so. At the moment the quotes are mainly on atheist and humanist topics or from some of my favourite speakers/writers but I am looking to build up the collection to around 100.

If you have any ideas or favourite quotes you would liek to see on the site then you can comment at the bottom of this post or send them via email on my contacts page.

Thanks!

I am using this site less and less to update the blogosphere of my daily activities, so I think a change of direction is necessary to make sure that this site doesn’t become a ghost town.

I haven’t blogged in a while so i will just bring everyone up to date:

1) I have had to take some time out from my studies to address a few situations, namely my finances. This credit crunch is a real bitch. Sidetracking slightly, why is it a credit crunch exactly? What’s crunching?

2) As a result of my sabbatical from university, I have had to step down from my roles within both the AHS and Leeds Atheist Society. This was a massive disappointment for me as long term readers will be aware I have been involved with both organisation since their inception. I hope to contine playing a role in some sort of capacity, even if just as a regular old member. The main issue being my need to give the leadership room to develop their own style and direction.

3) I have gone full time with my job at O2. I am now a performance adviser and basically I do the same job, with more responsibility for no extra reward. Well I technically get increased job satisfaction and a job i enjoy most of the time, but not exactly going to make a dent in the old finances!

4) I have moved in with Liz, just the two of us, into a nice little cottage in the Seacroft area of Leeds. It is one of the original village buildings from before they added all the council estates that now mean that Seacroft is a suburb of Leeds rather than its own little village.

5) As a result of the above, I have less than I used to to write about on here, hence the need for a wholsesale change in direction.

I would like to start concentrating on developing a few ideas I have for essays and the like on my particular subjects of choice, i.e. management, secularism, atheism and humanism. Some of this blog is going to get dedicated to that and related stuff, like pics, tweets etc. I also think I am going to put some more syndications on here, sharing posts and ideas by other atheist writers, bloggers and speakers.

I have also started thinking recently about whether there is scope to get more involved in actually devleoping the atheist movement into one that makes a real difference. Chris has focussed in on Humanist Action Group and is working towards turning that into a real charity. Whilst I could piggy back on to that, I wonder whether I could ever really make a difference. My areas of interest is with young people, I think it with this group that real difference can be made. I used to do a lot of work with Lancashire County Council and their youth and community section. I was involved in a number of youth participation programmes too. I also wonder whether I could use some of my contacts in parliament to do soemthing with lobbying and maje a difference that way.

Well as you can see, there are a number of directions this blog could take. I don’t know yet which one I fancy, or which one will come to fruition. Maybe inspiration will hit me, or maybe I will try all of them until I get one that works!

That’s right folks, normanralph.com is two years old today!

I am actually a little shocked about that fact to be honest. I really didn’t think when I posted that very first time that I would still be blogging two years later!

A lot has happened in thos two years, although not as much as maybe I had hoped for really. I am still studying, working for not a huge amount of money, living like a student, still rather hefty in shape but then I have developed a long term relationship, learned so much about so many things through uni and work, formed and run a national representational organisation, set the ground work for a charitable venture (more on that in the future, it’s all a bit hush hush at the moment) and made some great new friends.

Anyway, it’s cake time now!

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that your usual array of witty (ish), topical banter was unavailable for the last few days and was replaced by some rather unimaginative “filler” page.

It was all due to a ridiculous error made by a generally good company which has all now been resolved, although not without a significant tearing of hair and bashing of keyboard.

As you will no doubt have realised whilst reading this new post, that the issue is fully sorted and the wonders of normanralph.com are back!

The new skin and theme have been added, hopefully delivering a more streamlined and sleeker look to the site. I miss the old theme a little though. It is odd how attached you can become to something so mundane!

I have tweaked the original design a little to make it fit the purpose I have in mind, so fingers crossed I haven’t broken anything important, lol. If anyone notices anything untoward then leave a comment on here.

I have also finished the tagging of the archives, which should now mean the site is a little more fluid to use when finding related articles or posts.

There are still some more features that I want to put into place, for example a contact form, a few more pages and possibly an RSS feed page for a few of the other sites I contribute to. I am still undecided as to whether I am going to change the direction of the content on the site, or whether simply to split up the content I already post. I will hopefully come to some sort of decision soon so I can get on with real posts rather than these boring update ones!