Having said that, I will usually give one or two a go, just to see what they say about me.

This evening, I took one of them Enneagram tests. Now, I don’t know a huge amount about the enneagram, except for the fact that it categorises you as mainly one of 9 types. And then gives you a variant type on top of it.

So, here are my results.

Main Type	Overall Self

You can try it here too.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

Like I said, I’m not sure how accurate it is. I can’t really look at myself and say “oh, yeah, I’m definitely 54% focussed on my image”…

So, if anyone who is reading this actually knows me, what do you think? Does this describe me?

It’s not even that I have too busy to post.

Call it what you will, I have realised this evening that it is 8 months (months! yes! eight of them!) since I last posted here.

I don’t do new year’s resolutions, but if I did, blogging more would be one of them.

On the basis that they are not new years resolutions, here is a list of things I would like to do this year, or do more often. And do them well. At least, to the best of my abilities, and that is all anyone can hope for, isn’t it?

1. Blog more.
2. Understand how to make nice websites. Ones that look nice, and work well.
3. Use the knowledge from number 2 above to make some websites. Nice websites, that work well. I think we’ve covered this.

When it comes to non-internet-related things, which I guess are somewhat more important than those in the first list above, there are a small number of fairly specific goals I would like to meet, along with a few more general…. let’s call them… hopes:

1. Most important thing I absolutely, positively must do this year is pass my finals. It’s been a long, hard slog so far, and it would be a shame to fall at the final hurdle, so to speak. And I don’t mean scrape through with 45 or 50%. Without meaning to sound like I am blowing my own trumpet, I have been top of the class every year so far, getting a first each year, and I don’t mean this year to be any different. I refuse!
2. Contingent on passing my exams, but nonetheless important, would have to be finding a job once the summer arrives, if I haven’t one lined up already. What kind of job, I hear you, my readers (if I have any), ask? Well, given that the qualification I am currently studying for is a B.Sc. in Science Education, in DCU, the logical course of action after four years of teacher training would be to find a job teaching. So, that’s what I’m planning at the moment.
3. Once I have fulfilled the first two goals, anything and everything else this year will be a bonus. These include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• • Building a model rail layout (more on this anon)
  • Learning a new language (possible but unlikely, given number 1 above)
  • Travelling more (quite possible, more on this at a later date)

So, I guess that’s enough for now. I know there is some theory about how writing down your goals helps you achieve them. Then, I recently heard an opposing theory that sharing your ideas with other people, and hearing their praise for having such good ideas, provides enough self-affirmation that most people go no further with their grand plans. I have experienced the latter, but I’m still hopeful that writing down what I hope to do in the next year or so will be motivation enough to give it a go.

Referring back to the beginning of this post, I think that may have been what was lacking in the last few months.

Motivation.

If I have any regular readers, this may annoy you.

I’m sorry.

But I like the new look, and hope to keep this one. For a while anyway.

The background picture at the moment is a photo of Smerwick Harbour – from half way up Mount Brandon.

Smerwick Harbour from Mount Brandon

I’m back at home again, in West Kerry. So, no broadband again.

I’m spending the two weeks at home trying to update Dad’s business site www.saildingle.com. I’m learning how to do stuff properly with Dreamweaver. It’s ‘fun’. Well, actually, it’s alright.

So, that’s it. I know I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth over the Christmas period, so if any of you are following my Twitter stream, sorry.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

My new plan, since I was encouraged to take over the running of the website for the family business www.saildingle.com back in February is to try and focus on making money from th’internet.

I have an idea for a website, that could be somewhat popular. With people of a certain age group. It’s actually pretty specific. But, it’s an idea, and one I’m working on at the moment.

Websites are great, and all, but unless you have a plan for earning money from them, they won’t do your bank balance any good. Advertising seems to be the easiest way of earning money from a website.

So, I have been reading around, looking at different people’s blogs and websites, trying to figure out the best way of monetising my website. Therefore, I’m going to stick a few ads in a few different places on this blog, and see how they turn out. Google Adsense is what I’m going to use for the time being.

I’m not expecting to become a millionaire overnight. But, at least I will have some idea as to how ads work, and how much money I could expect to earn from this whole interweb malarkey.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

Or, why don’t you let me know what you think?

As part of our ICT for Teachers module in college, we have to make a website. Seeing as most of us would have little or no experience with that kind of malarkey, we were given the easy option. So, we were all shown how to make a website using Google Sites!

It’s actually a nice little way of making a simple website. Nothing fancy, mind you! It wouldn’t allow me to stick up my Twitter badge, for example. But, it’s handy all the same.

It also allows you to add google analytics pretty easily, which is the reason I’m writing this post. I decided to take a look at the stats for this blog, and I have readers! Wow!

So, to those 2 or 3 people who stumble on this blog every week, leave me a comment! Don’t be shy…

So, for moral support, I brought a friend along too, who was equally mystified as to our presence at the bash.

But, I have to say, we really enjoyed ourselves. We met some really nice, interesting people, and had fun.

Well done to Damien Mulley, and his team, for putting together a wonderful evening.

Looking forward to the awards next year already!

After all the kerfuffle (is that how it’s spelled?), I have finally managed to get wordpress set up, and running.

I had thought that my first post would be easy enough to write, but that’s not the case. Is it ever, I wonder?

What is the point in keeping a blog, unless you have something specific to say? Is there a point to keeping a blog if all you are going to do with it is waffle interminably about nothing in particular?

I realise I’m slipping into rhetorical question mode. That may become a feature of this blog, if I manage to keep it up. I hope it isn’t a pet hate of anyone reading this!

So, I am not going to do a “Here is me. This is what I do. This is what I like.” That would be ever so slightly banal, I reckon. Maybe we should just take it easy, and perhaps over the next while, my interests should make themselves a bit clearer with every posting. Let’s take it slow.

I’m not sure either if my true identity should be revealed or not. I’m not worried about family and neighbours finding this site, I can’t picture any of them sitting down and trawling through pages and pages of material, just in case they find something interesting.

It’s more a case of, the less you know about me, the less your opinions might be clouded by any stereotypes or prejudices (and I’m not necessarily talking about negative ones) you may hold.

Yes, let’s keep it relatively anonymous for a while.

And we’ll see where we go from here…