Hi - my name's Paul Flanagan & welcome to Blogging With Dr P... I've been blogging as Dr P since Nov 2002. No - I am not a doctor :O)

History

I was born at a very early age.....and so it goes on. Originally, from the North East of England, I have lived, travelled & worked all around the country, and sometimes abroad. I once spent sometime in California helping a friend with a party balloon business, & then had an interesting job painting & decorating the former Bolivian embassy in Brussels - honest! I am currently residing in Essex, England

I have 5ive older brothers and a younger sister. My mum is a good Irish Catholic lady. My father was a good English Catholic bloke - but is currently fitting pipes, (as was his trade), or some such other Heavenly activity.

Personal Stuff

Isn't the internet a marvellous place? I met my wife to be - Sue - in a Yahoo internet chatroom. Yup - it's true. There I was minding my own business in Australia 3 when up pops the Texan gal - who I later learnt was originally from New Jersey, and had spent sometime living in Colorado, then near Fort Worth, Texas. So, one thing lead to another , and she came over here in October 2001, and again in Decemebr 2001 - and I went back there with her for New Year 2001/2002 - not before we got married in Tarrant County Court, Fort Worth, Texas on December 31st 2001 :) (For you Walker:Texas Ranger fans - this is the building he walks out of at the start of every episode :) ). In February 2002 Sue moved over here - and we're living happily ever after - thank you :)

Internet Stuff

I started off, like most people, logging on and thinking how wonderful Microsoft Internet Explorer was, and how clever that it came with Windows 95 (!) - ah, those carfefree days of innocence & youth. Since then, (several years ago), I don't use IE at all - can't stand it. I only use to to see how my webpage looks in IE as most of the uneducated world still uses it.

And like most folks I marvelled at the cleverness of Lycos etc, and how my internet provider could bring the whole world through to my door...or desktop, actually. Then I found Google:Groups and thought - "Hmm, there seems to be a lot more 'things' to be found in here than in the regular search engine." And so my education continued.

Like a lot of semi-geeky type interneters, I'd always wanted to start a webpage/site as well. But, as with most folks, I'd assumed that this sort of thing was the domain , if you'll pardon the pun, of the incredibly smart spotty boys of the class - and not for us mere mortals. The years went by.......(and I even have an un-opened disk in a little cardboard folder, sent by Microsoft, of Frontpage 98 - I shall auction it on e-bay one day :) )....and a few more years went by again. Until.....

Until the  summer of 2002 when I was inexplicably struck down with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both wrists/arms, and a frozen right shoulder - all at the same time. Yes - I was completely f**ked! I spent about three months off work altogether. In order for me to get my hands working again, after two operations etc - I started to spend more time on the internet. And I started to learn HTML......oh er missus!

I launched my first weblog, at Pitas.com, in November 2002. I moved to Blog Studio in April 2003. Since then, through my own trials and efforts, and the help of Wayne - the webmaster at Blog Studio, I developed the site to how it looks today.

However, I must give a big thank you to TypePad.com who actually motivated me to give a big format change to how the site looks. TypePad are the people who produce Moveable Type,(free website software), and TypePad  is to be the 'next generation' MT incorporated into fully functional weblog templating etc - all provided by them......and paid for by you. It was at this point , after signing up for a trial period with TypePad, and realising with a bit of effort, and my HTML skills (!), that I could produce something 'similar' looking to what they were offering - and at a fraction of the cost. So I did.

In late 2004, I delved into web site design using such great bits of software as Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX2004 etc. Hence this redesign of the weblog to use more CSS.

With a chance of making an enormous fortune from advertising, ha ha, in December 2004, I applied to, and was accepted by, Google Adsense.

Since the middle of 2004, (I think), I started to spend some time around the Cre8asite Forums - where I have since become a moderator.

My own little internet businesses are starting to expand with my very popular Cre8tive Stores venture. Everything I do is under the umbrella organisation of Cre8tive Web

News

We've been back  to the good old US of A in November 2002 for Thanksgiving in New Jersey - that was quite a hoot - I've never had one of them before!  We had Sue's mom, (that's mum to us Brits), & dad over here for the New Year 2003/2004. That was quite a hoot as well. We did lots of touristy things :)
And then in February we went off to Colorado to see Sue's relatives and friends over there. That was a real laugh - and you can get a glimpse of it here: Colorado Adventure 2004. And in November 2004 we went to Texas for Thanksgiving - and smuggled back some Branston Pickle (!) - wot a life, eh?!
Germany has been quite popular over the last few years with trips to Cologne and Hamburg in 2005 & 2006.

General Interests

Outside of playing on the internet, (weblog, surfing - don't  'do' the chatroom stuff anymore), I don't have a lot of interests. That sounds crap doesn't it? But it's true. I  collect old books, particularly on South Pole exploration. I used to be a keen DXer in my earlier days. (I'll let you look that one up!). Both Sue & I had been to Weight Watchers where we'd about two stone. Sue has lost considerably more. But now - it's crept back on again with staying away in hotels recently. I have every intention of going back to the gym in the new year........every intention :).
I like writing - anything - and yes, to anybody! :)

Likes

People who laugh at my jokes. Other people's jokes that make me laugh. Peaches & cream. Elvis Costello - (early stuff). Interesting people. Travel. Travelling to meet interesting people. web design & blogging. Good wine. Many, many other things....

Dislikes

Suffering fools. Sometimes it's just got to be done.

Summary

Thank you for taking the time to drop on by and see me. Please leave a come and visit me over on the main blog - Blogging With Dr P... Thank you & DO call again.

Or you can leave a comment here if you wish - I'd so like to hear from you all: |

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