...or being honest, "how vain is James Marriott" website!

This website will serve 4 purposes:

1. Self promotion

2. To host my blog and rant forums

3. To develop my business portfolio and website developer skills

4. To try out new design ideas (note: I am pimarily a developer)

Make no mistake, this website is mostly about Me, Me and Me. Bear with it though as in between bouts of inane whining I will be passing on all my worldly knowledge with hints, tips and advice on how to make life as easy as possible. Please browse my website, have a laugh and do join in any of the discussions.

Please note that this website is currently going through a live design update and so you may notice changes from day to day. However, if something doesn't look right please do let me know as I'm always happy to take some constructive criticism...

With one exception... if you're viewing this using Internet Explorer (for the love of all things holy, why??) and using a version pre IE9 (you need shooting) I don't care that it doesn't look right (it's a personal website so I have that right) - See this screenshot to see what you're missing

I′m me. I′m also "Zebedee", "Tosh"(?) and "mr_jmm"

According to me: I′m lovely, so I′m told. 30 something going on 12. Lover of tea, Ubuntu and beautiful people; if you think that just means looks then you′re a shallow, self-obsessed cock so please don′t waste your time trying to engage me. I′m a PHP Web developer (means I do the clever bits with websites) and a huge Linux fan. Biggest passions when I′m not developing websites are music, skiing, riding my bike (FZR1000) and my friends who of course mean the world to me. I love life and I′m trying to enjoy every minute of it. Now I′ll admit that I'm a massive geek but I′ll get offended if you call me a nerd (though I confess to a few nerdish qualities). I′m honest, genuine and not afraid to speak my mind. That means I won′t tolerate bullshit.

According to others: James Marriott is an opinionated, sarcastic, cantakerous old bastard that takes great pride in pissing the world off. A geek with a few nerdish qualities that seems to have a deep loathing of all things human, Microsoft, Vauxhall, Apple and drivers of a certain age and gender. Given the chance would convert everyone to Ubuntu, FireFox, Gmail and Twitter. But we do love him. (Ok, I added that last bit, bite me)

What's going on in the life of James Marriott?

Latest - I have a new girlfriend, Franky!!

April 2011 - Have been running Linux as the sole OS now for about 6 years. Currently running version 11.04 Natty and loving it. I'll write another blog about it as soon as I can.

14th December 2010 - Latest handset arrived (finally) - HTC Desire HD.

31st July 2010 - Had a scroll added to my neck tattoo.

2nd June 2010 - Got my first tattoo, on my neck of all places.

14th February 2009 - Vroom, vroom, squeeeeaaaaal. I'm back in the driving seat, wooooooooh.

14th August 2008 - Got a 6 month driving ban under the "totting up" procedure. I would like to point out that it was only my second speeding offense! (...that will appear on my licence *ahem*)

Teddy has left the pram and I'm spitting dummies

As mentioned, one reason for this site is as a release for all the strange noises that are constant companion in my head and my medium of choice is blogging (and soon vlogging - hateful word meaning video blogging).

I also have a seperate blog that I use to record my counselling sessions as a secondary theraputic tool. Hosted on blogger you can find it at understandingjames.blogspot.com

[NEW] - I now have an additional blog dedicated to my girlfriend, Franky, titled Frank From The Outside where I discuss what it is like to live with someone that suffers from Dissasociative Identity Disorder / Mulitple Personality Disorder.

15/10/10 - Lack of time to work on this site and to help speed up the blog posts I have resorted to throwing in a quick WordPress bodge for the blogs. It's messy but it's functional.

04/03/09 - My aim is to be writing at least two blogs a week but it really comes down to finding the time and assuming I can get the other websites finished and in some sort of self managing program. One blog every week at the moment is just about do-able. If I can kep this up then I'll start introducing an RSS feed to make it easier for people to keep up.

Check out some of the recent changes/updates etc. to the website

• 20/05/11 - Added Mobile Phones page
• 18/05/11 - A long, long overdue design amendment. I've removed the image base and converting to a pure CSS approach. Colour scheme has gone from blue to an Ubuntu Human theme. Added a Picasa based photo gallery.
  If I can be bothered I will have to use images to recreate rounded corners for IE pre IE9 but that will be it.
• 06/08/09 - Slight redesign, code update.
• 04/03/09 - General update to the Just James section including profile and biography.
• 01/03/09 - Guestbook (Facebook “wall” like affair) where you can leave random messages for me.

A full list of changes can be seen on the changelog page.