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10:54am, 29 Feb 2012
As if there wasn't enough computing stuff in my blog at the moment... Katie's incredibly talented boys have been working on a game called "Merge". Eldest boy is doing all the coding which is majorly impressive, and middle boy is supplying the graphics. It's a mining game - you move left and right using the A and D keys, and jump using space. The left mouse button swings your pickaxe to dig through ground, trees, everything in your path. At the moment, I think it's just about getting the basics right, like the movement of the man, and the physics, and the environment - but it's a starting point for extreme awesomeness.

Anyway... with all caveats about not being responsible for third-party sites, here's the link to the game:

ascistudent.com

You'll need to have a machine with Java on it, so it's not for everyone - but I know he'd love some feedback from anyone willing to give it a try.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I can't game, but I can be impressed by talent. :) great stuff :)
    oldbiddy
    10:59am, 29th Feb 2012
  • I really like it! :-)
    1step2far
    12:27pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Fine on Safari/OSX
    GregP
    12:48pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Awesome game! Love the ability to mine through trees without them falling down. Nice touch with the bits of earth flying about. Consider giving him tree climbing ability?
    Nightjar
    12:57pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Brilliant :) well done boys!
    Mikuro
    1:19pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • I managed to dig a tunnel and follow to it, but I found the movement glitchy/jerky, but this may be because my machine at work is not designed for games.
    snogard
    1:47pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • daren't look as at work but will tyr to remember later
    Sushi.
    2:01pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Wot, no coins? It works. Where's the treasure? :-)
    Angus Clydesdale
    6:59pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Might I respectfully suggest that a hitlist shouldn't have more than about 10 queries on it? Anyway, eliminating valueless queries is the best possible start. As for the school, get some of these "Raspberry Pi" the news is full of today and show them how to program it.
    ChrisHB
    7:59pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Chris - either you've misunderstood me, or I've misunderstood you :-)
    fetcheveryone
    8:07pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • It does seem faster tonight. Then again, R is in the bath rather than on World of Warcraft. I'll let you know if he goes on later so you can plug in an extra server.
    McGoohan
    9:39pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Don't you mean Bottleneck?
    fetcheveryone
    9:57pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Indeed. Bottleneck watched telly last night so you should be OK. Watch out tonight though. Call of Duty online. Add more flux capacitors now.
    McGoohan
    8:42am, 1st Mar 2012
  • i think Chris was commenting on your previous blog?
    Nightjar
    12:47pm, 2nd Mar 2012
  • I like it, but can conclude I'm epically uncoordinated, and I didn't intend to go digging off into the underworld! :S
    MudMeanderer
    12:57pm, 2nd Mar 2012
  • NJ - I got that, but what I mean is... it's not XXX thousand seperate queries, but maybe 20 individual queries that get called thousands of times. My thought was that if I could remove the need for calling them, it would ease locking contention. And it seems to have worked :-)

    Game feedback - thanks everyone - I'll blog any updates he makes.
    fetcheveryone
    1:14pm, 2nd Mar 2012


Katie, ICT, and some more MySQL

10:27am, 29 Feb 2012
It's a sign of how much we worry, that Katie and I were both relieved with the diagnosis yesterday. We'd both been worrying (K aloud, and me in an unspoken 'oh god, it could be that couldn't it' sort of way) about what the pains in her stomach had been caused by. The scan images on the screen were impossible to interpret, and I kept expecting the hospital staff to say "here look, here's the thing we'll have to saw off". And for the bit that I was ushered out for... the wait was very long, and when K came out, her cheeks were pink and she looked worried. So we were both relieved with the outcome. And we've already discovered that Fruit & Nut has the lowest amount of saturated fat of all the chocolate available in Budgens. By chance, we also spent the evening on a fat telly marathon, watching "Obese: A Year To Change My Life" (worth it if only to see the tiny little grin on Katies face every time Jessie is on screen), "Supersize vs Superskinny", and "The Biggest Loser" (with Davina, for the dads). It's inspiring to see what some people can do, and easy to see how it goes beyond healthy and into obsession.

I forgot something from parents evening. I managed to get myself talked into volunteering to doing some sort of ICT thing with the kids in my sons class. Probably something like one hour each week for a bit. The thing is, I don't know what to do. My boy has been very close to computers due to my job, and my closeness to them - so he's probably doing pretty well with what he knows already - but not all the kids will be at the same level.

I could write some simple games in PHP, like "pick the missing word", or "spell the picture", or "what do these numbers add up to" - but I guess there's a lot of that about already, probably all a lot jazzier. The other thought is that I could just sit there with them, and show them how to do something simple with Paint, or to type some sentences into Word, or to make a poster. Or something. Suggestions please.

A quick update on the MySQL optimisation. Yesterday I made up my hitlist, and it totalled 157,765 queries. I've managed to cache the query on the Train Home page, so that'll mean it gets called about 100 times a day, rather than 22364. I've also (without too much fighting) removed one query each from Submit Edit Training, and Submit Add Training - so all together that has saved around 32,644 queries on the training log table, or about 21%. The assumption that all the existing queries take the same amount of time to run is a big one - because some of them are GROUP's and JOIN's, but it's all about chipping away.

TTFN.
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Comments

  • Get them optimising the training log - they'll have some ingenious solutions I betcha :-) On a serious note, I have no suggestions on what to do in class.......sorry. But good luck :-)
    bigleggy
    10:38am, 29th Feb 2012
  • Start 'em off at ground level. NAND gates.
    paul the builder
    10:46am, 29th Feb 2012
  • get them to show you want they can do and move on from there?
    D2
    11:20am, 29th Feb 2012
  • Or take them back to Turtle :)
    snogard
    1:42pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • Our KS1 pupils are coping with Powerpoint, inserting photos, adding sound which they've recorded on digital microphones. They are learning to manipulate digital photos and make their own movies. It would be worth asking the teacher what skills they already have - there's bound to be a huge range of experience and ability. Hope that helps.
    GimmeMedals
    4:31pm, 29th Feb 2012
  • What age are the kids? Have you tried Scratch? scratch.mit.edu My daughter and her cousins have been using it from about age 9/10, and she's just made a Pacman type game with it.
    Ploddington Bear
    11:10pm, 6th Mar 2012


May The Ground Force Be With You

4:04pm, 28 Feb 2012
The weekend with the boy was good, although Katie and I missed each other terribly.

Saturday morning is tag rugby, and the boy is turning into the sidestep king. I think he's got the hang of some of the skills, and he's looking like one of the biggest in his group now. Really proud.

His friend came over for the afternoon, and due to a contractual obligation, I got the boy and his friend to walk the dog with me. We took the long route round the canal, which works out to be about 2.1 miles, and they were trying to fish with sticks, and worrying me that one of them was going to tumble in. At the furthest point from home, friend cuts his finger on a bullrush, and a big bead of blood forms, which he quickly smears everywhere. Gah. But he's brave, and I tell him to wrap his hand round it and keep the pressure on, and all sorts of not-really-knowing-what-to-do until the bleeding stops and he's forgotten about it. Two big bottles of Ribena from Greggs (if you're ever wondering what to get my boy for Christmas, then Gregg's vouchers would be great) and I get them home with only minor grumbling about the distance. The dog managed well too.

Saturday evening is Return of the Jedi.The boy manages fine, up until the point where the emperor is about to go batshit crazy with the lightning, and then we had to turn it off.

On Sunday, with time stretching out ahead of us, we head off to Bramcote Park to try out his "Bubble Rocket". Here's the link to it on Amazon:

amazon.co.uk

It does exactly what it says on the box, in other words, it only goes about knee high. After a few stomps we give up. I have backup - my old cricket bat, which my grandpa bought for £1 from Woolies in the early eighties. The ground is a bit bumpy, so it's a bit frustrating, and he's trying to hit the skin off it each time. Thankfully he connected a few times, but our game doesn't last hugely long. Park for ten minutes, ice cream, and we head off into the wooded hillside to explore. The boy finds a walking stick like Yoda, and we keep trying to find higher ground, until we reach the top. Then we found this lovely rope swing:



he loved it, and it was officially the best bit of his weekend. The worst bit was when I told him to shut up when his friends finger was bleeding.

Also there was hours of Skylanders. Awesome game. He really wants Stealth Elf, and as he's finally tasted all five foods from his Deadly 60 tasting poster, I've ordered it for him. Of course, being six he was struggling with the whole "wait for stuff" concept, so I also taught him the power of the Ground Force theme tune when it comes to ridding repetitive songs and other disturbing images from the mind. I've yet to show him the Jonny Briggs theme tune diversion that you can accidentally find yourself in if you're not careful.

His last words to me when I dropped him off... 'Ground Force Be With You' :-)

Anyway... some geekery now:

over the last while, I've been looking at database performance. I've had some useful stuff from McGoohan, which I'm still wading through, but I've found some definite areas for improvement, like ditching some indexes that weren't being used. But if you've been around the site much today, you'll know it's been struggling a bit.

It's mainly down to locking issues in the training log. Whenever you load a page to view, add, edit, update or delete a piece of training, my code will dip into the training data to fish out the bits it needs. For those few microseconds, the table is locked to other users. Usually, this is a quick process, but reaching a critical mass of people will cause problems. It's like the queue at the toilets before a race - it only takes a few extended contemplations, and soon you've got a queue on your hands, and people start looking round for somewhere else to go.

Today I've been looking at the number of times each of my pages visits the toilet, to see if I can't help to flush a few turds out of the pipe. Here's the number of times that each action makes use of the training log table:

Training Home - 1 (and I reckon I can cache this data)
View Training Log - 2 (but I've got this down to one, with a very small change. Can you spot it?)
Add Training Form - 0 (it's just an empty form)
Submit Add Training - 5 (now we're getting somewhere)
Edit Training Form - 1
Submit Edit Training - 9 (including one for each piece of kit - somebody shoot me, gah!)
Delete Training - 5 (also including one for each piece of kit)
View A Piece Of Training - 2 (one to get the data from the table, and once again to get very similar data for a graph)

So it's probably all about finding a smarter way to update kit mileage. The pleasing thing was that I didn't get to this conclusion without writing this blog, but it's helped me to get my thoughts out in an orderly fashion.

In terms of which to fix first, it's tempting to look at the number of times each of these actions happens. Here's how many times each of these actions happened during yesterday:

Training Home - 22364
View Training Log - 39866
Add Training Form - 10480
Submit Add Training - 5965
Edit Training Form - 9229
Submit Edit Training - 4415
Delete Training - 308
View A Piece Of Training - 7603

If you multiply each of these by the number of trips to the training log database they make, and assume that each query takes about the same amount of time, you get the following hitlist:

View Training Log - 39866 x 1 = 39,866
Submit Edit Training - 4415 x 9 = 39,735
Submit Add Training - 5965 x 5 = 29,825
Training Home - 22364 x 1 = 22,364
View A Piece Of Training - 7603 x 2 = 15,206
Edit Training Form - 9229 x 1 = 9,229
Delete Training - 308 x 5 = 1,540
Add Training Form - 10480 x 0 =0

So that's where you'll find me for the next few days, covered in grease and with a big smile on my face.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • I didn't understand much of that stuff about children, but I did like the 2nd half a lot. I hope you don't end up needing to make old training archived, or more difficult to access in some way. I was thinking about this (whilst running), and I definitely do love (and actually do this often) that seeing how my training was at this point last year, or a certain point before a PB, is really simple now. Long may it remain so.
    paul the builder
    5:05pm, 28th Feb 2012
  • Loved the blog, or at least the bits I understand (children are a mystery to me). Can't comment without knowing what the schema looks like, but love feeling in the loop anyway.
    GregP
    5:23pm, 28th Feb 2012
  • Just make sure that when you've finished tinkering about with it, you haven't got a piece left over that you've forgotten to put back ;-)
    Fizz :-)
    8:57pm, 28th Feb 2012
  • Great work on boy and db front (I've got both, same as you!) :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    10:55pm, 28th Feb 2012
  • Jonny Briggs was ace! :-)
    CottamRunner
    11:14pm, 28th Feb 2012
  • I found it all fascinating but I can't get the Ground Force theme tune into my head
    Diogenes
    8:30am, 29th Feb 2012
  • Love the sidestep bit but it ain't like dodging half awake drivers anxious to get to the car park and not miss their train is it lol
    Dai Bank
    9:12am, 29th Feb 2012
  • 360 - he's got enough trouble with me yelling "Numbers!" at him :-)
    fetcheveryone
    9:16am, 29th Feb 2012
  • How does the Ground Force theme go? I'm stuck on the A Team theme now!
    Nightjar
    11:00am, 29th Feb 2012


Functions

2:06pm, 24 Feb 2012
Finally a few minutes to write a blog.

I took the dog out for a very short run yesterday afternoon. The plan was to do his usual mile route and to expect loads of stops. About thirty seconds in, he stopped, crashed sideways to the floor, and let go of all his wee and poo :-/ He's been dripping-tap incontinent for months now, but I really thought he was dying. He lay on the floor, and I sat down with him and stroked his head. A neighbour came past, and volunteered to go fetch some water, but as I stood up, he got to his feet. He was shaky and a bit stiff-legged for the rest of the day, but he seems to be having a slightly better day today. His breathing is also a bit better today (it was a bit wheezy yesterday).

In happier news, I took the Bulletproof Chunk into school for his parents evening. Since the Autumn term his reading has progressed from an FSP8 to a 1b/1a, his writing from FSP8 to 1b, and his numeracy from 1c to 1b/1a. In short, he's doing well - but his reading has come on so much, it's been pretty obvious. It's opened up a whole new line of questioning from him as we're driving about in the car, and he's reading stuff off signs and shops. Our Harry Potter marathon is moving along slowly - we've just made it to the Gryffyndor dorm room for the first time, and consequentially, I've just revealed my Seamus Finnegan accent.

I've not had a lot of time for the site over the last week. I've been co-opted for a site for Puma: puma.menshealth.co.uk - coming soon to a shopping centre near you. It's going live as of today, so please don't break it, but do have a look. But hopefully now I can spend a bit more time getting back to the newsletter, which has been forced to take a bit of a back seat.

The site time I have had has been spent working on some performance optimisation stuff. I've got it mostly humming like a top, but the training log is BIG now, and every now and then it runs aground. There are around 3.5 million training entries in the database. Even if I archive people who haven't visited in the last three months, that would only buy me 0.6 million rows. A worthwhile improvement perhaps, but at the rate the site is growing, I need something that will work better - we're picking up about 1 million entries per year. Look out for some potential changes to the way that older data is accessible, but hopefully it'll be something that happens seamlessly. WLTM anyone with MySql optimisation skills.

That's me done.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • There's an ad for that event in RW :-) nice colours :-)
    icemaiden
    2:09pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Are we all filling up the DB with our Garmin nonsense?
    McGoohan
    2:13pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • McG - no, that's a seperate table. I'm sure that'll happen one day, but it's not part of the main training log table.
    fetcheveryone
    2:15pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • is it the size of the table, or the overall impact of the training log on the DB that's the concern? If it's the former, you could move a subset of older data to a different table (or tables, perhaps one per year?), index them up the wazoo and perhaps offer less graphy analysis stuff for those old entries than for current stuff.
    emdee
    2:21pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • gobbeldegook
    santababy
    2:45pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • I'll comment on the bits I understand ;-) Hope the dog is ok - it must have been a bit scary :-( The Bulletproof Chunk has made fantastic progress this year :-)
    GimmeMedals
    3:00pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • If we all stopped training would that help ?? .......oh hang on a min... ;-)
    bigleggy
    3:09pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • lol why not delete all those daft training types like mimbling ;-) that'll save tonnes of (whatever you measure that sort of stuff in)
    BigChiefRunningBore
    3:54pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Never thought I'd hear myself saying this but I agree with Chiefy... :-o
    But more importantly - hope the dog's OK
    BaronessBL
    4:12pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • The training category table is yet another unrelated one, sorry.
    emdee - it's both I suppose. The trouble is the variation in needs for accessing that data. I have some ideas for breaking it into subsections, but it'll just take a bit of work and a lot of testing :-)
    fetcheveryone
    4:22pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • I'll try to send you some semi-related info tonight. May not be relevant at all. I work with SQL Server rather than MySQL but there might be some common ground in the Venn diagram of DB life.
    McGoohan
    4:38pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • I was sent this website in a link from a UKA newsletter this morning. Looks much etter when not viewed on the phone. Great work. hope the dog is OK
    snogard
    5:25pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Used Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server. Never used MySQL but the principals are much the same. Probably...
    Nightjar
    7:34pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Best wishes to the dog Lord Fetch.
    CottamRunner
    7:36pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • you have a very clever little chap :-) :-)
    phal
    8:01pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Ok, I didn't understand a word of that last paragraph, but good work...erm...I think! 😊
    SpeedyMel
    8:51pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • When I look at my training log, it's prefixed with a dozen lines showing my monthly training totals since the year 2000. I hope that that is denormalised data. If not, make it available only on demand. Similarly for my positions in the training league, my total mileage this year.

    I suppose you can retrieve execution plans in mySQL... Do you have the ability to partition tables and indexes? I have to say that I think 3.4m rows is tiny, but maybe I'm showing off.
    ChrisHB
    9:14pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • Rightio dood. You have several fmails. Don't know if any of it is any cop (Sql Server vs MySQL) but you might get some inspiration at least.
    McGoohan
    10:02pm, 24th Feb 2012
  • No idea what all the pooter talk means. But, I hope your dog's ok. It's horrid when they get to that state. And well done to your boy
    MabelMoonface
    8:35am, 25th Feb 2012
  • Poor old dog - that must have been scary for both of you! Well done, Fetch junior - they're like sponges at that age - make the most of it :)
    SarahWoo
    7:28pm, 26th Feb 2012


Well done Batman.

9:50pm, 19 Feb 2012
That was wonderful :-)

I got a big surprise yesterday. If I were able to watch the day through again, I'd have noticed some subtle clues, like in The Usual Suspects. Like the fact that my favourite running kit had gone missing. Like the fact that the "Top Secret - Fetch Keep Out" thread was bouncing regularly to the top of the forum. Like the extraordinary number of Fetchies in attendance at Bedford parkrun, and the fact that Katie dragged me off in the opposite direction to make sure I didn't see them.

For months now, the top secret thread has been intriguing and bugging me. Katie asked me not to look at it, so I didn't. Of course I could have done, but it's like checking your parents wardrobe in December. And I love nice surprises :-)

We went out together and did five miles in the morning, and because I've had a light fortnight (achilles) and a few late nights, I had a midday droopy eye moment. Katie had asked me to go with her to Bedford stadium, to watch some goalball - and played a bold double bluff, suggesting I should stay behind and get some rest. So off we went.

We parked up, and here are some more things I missed: Sarah Woo's personalised numberplate, Jude standing in the car park in a Fetch Hoodie, and the fact that Katie said "lets run to get in out of the wind". We went upstairs and into the stadium bar area, which looked like it had a bunch of kit and grub around the place, but I imagined that was just a squad of people doing stuff (and I was right, but I didn't guess who). I'd been told that we were going to meet the goalballers at lunchtime, and Katie said "They're probably outside doing a warm up". I think this was the only thing that felt slightly strange about the entire thing - surely they'd be cooling down :-)

But I followed her out and...

O
M
G.

A mass of people in the stands. Fetch logos everywhere. Cheering, smiling friendly faces everywhere, Katie gripping my arm tight and saying sorry. The clapping and cheering just not stopping. It was so awesome - on the back end of a totally sh*t week that had left me in tears by close of play Friday, and now here I was, shaking, giggling, the reality sinking in. Everyone filing past, shaking my hand and hugging like the best - all in a blur - I just couldn't believe it. Do I exist? :-)

Every few minutes I'd take something new in. The organisation with the printer and laptop, and spreadsheets. The wedding photos on the wall. The first race in five minutes time! There were people volunteering. Not just coming to run, but coming to stand in what started off as drizzle, and descended into a biblical downpour. I think I held it together until I said a proper hello to Elsie Too. If you don't know from her blog, she's been having such a tough time recently - and yet she'd done so much to make this happen. I've nominated her for member of the month - she totally deserves a million nominations.

I wanted to stand and watch as much of the racing as I could, and kept hugging into Katie - in case you don't know, I love her so much! The racers were great - all trying their hardest, and Hod has found his true calling in race commentary. The rain was getting harder, but Grid was stood trackside, taking pics, explaining that M4P couldn't make it because of poorly Edith (get well soon please!) - taking pictures with a fancy camera and a hired lens. The extent people have gone to! Then someone came out drinking tea from a mug. With a drawing of me on it. Fep!! Yet another thing sinking in, and another bit of leaky eye. Thank you twelveone for the design, to Tiggia too for the help, and to the Fancy Massive (the Silverjars and the Jigses) for making it happen. I spoke to my dad tonight, and showed him a picture of the mug - and they want all the spares.

And whilst we're on the subject of amazingness, it turns out that an anonymous donor paid for the rental of the bar area. Elsie won't say who it was - but whoever you are, thank you so much. There are some completely wonderful people in the world, and I feel so touched to be a small part of it.

My turn to run came, and I did a quick lap of the track to warm up. My fastest ever mile is 6:02, but I felt like I was good for no quicker than 7:00 - I didn't know what my achilles would make of the pace. I started off with Nightjar, curly45, and Magpie Rob, all aiming for 6.30ish. My tactic was to hang in at the back, and to try not to get too left behind. The commanding voice of Drell sent us on our way, and the heavens opened with some of the pointiest rain of the day. Amazingly, we stayed in a bunch for 3.5 laps, and I may well have drafted the others a bit on the back straight into the wind. I just about got past Rob in the last 200m, and he shouted me on. So often in the last bit of a race, all the energy that my body has been holding back comes out - and we had a great sprint finish, and the tightest finish of all the races. Loved it!

Whilst beejay stormed to the fastest time of the day, I warmed up a bit with the towel that Katie had smuggled out of the house under my nose. Then it was time for pictures back in the bar, with our race numbers combined to make our wedding date. It felt like being papped :-)

Next up was the entertainment for everyone who'd made it - Katie and I doing the 100m three-legged in 59 seconds (all I can remember is the sound of Katie laughing like a drain in my ear), and then Katie doing the bouquet toss - 11.10 metres, although that probably won't make it past Norris McWhirter because of the wind assistance.

Some short speeches, and I'll thank those of you that were there to keep it to yourselves :-) Thank you to everybody.

The pub was lovely, it was nice to have a chance to meet so many Fetchies that I've never met before, along with some very familiar faces. We planned and plotted - and looking forward to the Mick and Phil (please enter that if you've not done so - enter online on RW), and Mrs Jigs has insisted on a summer picnic to celebrate the six month anniversary of what I'll remember for ever as a totally stonking day :-) x 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Big heart to everyone. Fetch is always changing, lives mingle and merge, but the bit that matters is bigger than ever.

xx
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Missed CC league for club! Slaps wrist! lol :)
    Muds
    9:59pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • A brilliant day fantastically well organised, glad you enjoyed it so much, lovely to meet you both :)
    Goofee
    10:03pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • And the trillions of us that couldn't be there are dead happy to hear what a wonderful time was had. Sounds just great! xx
    Sharkie
    10:11pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • It was an amazing afternoon, it clearly couldnt have come at a better time :)
    I am so happy to have been able to attend and be a part of it- lots of love for a long and happy future for you and Katie and of course FetchEveryone xx
    runningmumof3boys
    10:18pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Well, I wish I could have been there, but this blog is the next best thing. The best to you both. :-)
    McGoohan
    10:20pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • It was a privilege to be part of the day - I'm so pleased you enjoyed it.
    GimmeMedals
    10:21pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Sounds a perfect day. So glad it came as a surprise. x
    1step2far
    10:23pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Don't know what to say, so :) :) :) :) instead!! You deserve to feel the way you felt yesterday, none of which would have happened, none of us would have been there having such a lovely time if it wasn't for you!! Congratulations to both of you once again, you are so lovely and cute together!! heart :) xx
    Cloggy
    10:24pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Ah, fabulous!! So glad you had a brilliant time. Sorry I couldn't be there.
    SherryB
    10:25pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • :-) it was fab-u-lous :-)
    HellsBells
    10:42pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Delighted to be there :) You two are officially the happiest couple alive :) Lovely lovely day xxx
    jude
    11:06pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Congratulations again. Sounds fabulous. X
    Torry Quine
    11:09pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • Great blog, sir.
    Dvorak
    11:10pm, 19th Feb 2012
  • So pleased you and Katie enjoyed the day. It was pretty awesome and will be memorable for all the right reasons. Great to meet you, Katie and lots of other wonderful people. xx
    Mizzy
    1:20am, 20th Feb 2012
  • SO glad you enjoyed the day. heart
    JJ Flash
    5:41am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Glad you enjoyed it, and the speech was great ;)
    Yorkshire Pie
    7:04am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Great blog of a great day! Huge well done to Elsie Too for organising and to Katie for managing to keep the secret for so long and get you there with no clue. So glad I could be a part of it - our race was great :)
    Magpie Rob
    7:14am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Sounds like a great day :-)
    Cat the Dog
    7:22am, 20th Feb 2012
  • [very big grin] Now *that* is what Fetch the site and community is all about. :) Thanks for sharing it from your perspective.
    eL Bee!
    8:27am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Lovely :-)
    minardi
    8:36am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Nice blog. Great day. Great effort by Elsie and all the volunteers.
    Bru-Bru
    8:39am, 20th Feb 2012
  • glad you had a great day :-)
    slowfish
    8:55am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Way hey!! :-)
    BigChiefRunningBore
    9:13am, 20th Feb 2012
  • SO glad you enjoyed it and it was lovely to meet you. I wanted to stay right to the very end but had family to attend to. As others have said, Saturday afternoon is what Fetch is all about and you've created that. :) :) xx
    SarahWoo
    9:19am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Just lovely - sorry I wasn't there - what a wonderful thing and well done everyone involved
    BaronessBL
    9:20am, 20th Feb 2012
  • It sounds wonderful and totally deserved. I'm so glad you had such an amazing time. heart
    Pinks
    9:35am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Fab :) You totally deserve it
    jennywren
    10:29am, 20th Feb 2012
  • sounds fantastic - reading that has brought a tear to my eye - well done Fetch :-)
    Star
    11:06am, 20th Feb 2012
  • So well deserved, so sorry I couldn't be there, but so pleased that it all went so well :)
    Oatcake
    11:58am, 20th Feb 2012
  • Awesome! Glad you had a good time. Sorry we couldn't make it. I know it has for you, but it does for the rest of us too, restore the faith in the good thing that you have created. If only we could find a way to enforce the natural law that is FetchEveryone.com i.e. No Nobbers Allowed! (Or slightly more luverley - Only Lovelies Allowed!) :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    1:10pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • Fabulous stuff :)
    I've kept out of the bad stuff and am happily relatively oblivious, cos I believe Fetch is a warm fuzzy place, and want it to stay that way. Would so liked to have been there to see your face (and check if you're real ;))
    Meglet
    1:24pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • I missed a wonderful day :-( but so pleased it went so well.
    Watford Wobble
    7:18pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • Sounds so fabulous I'm so glad it went so well heart
    Smout
    8:28pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • Sounds amazing Mr Fetch, just sorry I couldn't be there to join in the celebrations. Hopefully see you guys at MnP instead. :-)
    Boingy
    8:40pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • It was an AMAZING day, so pleased that KatieB and everyone else managed to keep the secret from you. And you like the marmite rice cakes :-)
    Fizz :-)
    9:27pm, 20th Feb 2012
  • Sounds like a fabulous and brilliant day! :-) Great work from everyone who helped make it happen! :-) Go Fetch and Fetchies! :-)
    CottamRunner
    12:49pm, 22nd Feb 2012


Optimisation Crossword

10:29pm, 8 Feb 2012
I thought I'd try a little coding challenge this evening, now that the boy is tucked up in bed, and Katie is in the middle of Masterchef. WARNING: this blog contains geekery.

On the home page, there's that chunk that says "Recently Online" or summat. And it shows thirty avatars of the most recent loggers-in. Since time began, this has been achieved through a bunch of image tags, one for each avatar. And that's not the ideal situation if you're trying to enjoy the site as quickly as possible. When your browser gets the HTML for the home page, it finds all the image tags, and sends a request back to the server for each one. If you consider that there are already a whole bunch of images on every page, having a wodge of thirty in one hit just can't be good. It's less work for your browser and less work for the web server. I'm not saying it's the most bottley of bottlenecks, but sod it, anyone with any sense is watching Masterchef :-)

So what I'm doing now is making the server build one composite image, filling it with all the avatars, and storing it as a single JPG on the server. The HTML on the home page then just has to call in that image and... oh wait, yeah it needs to make all those individual avatars clickable, because as we all know, change is NOT GOOD. So whilst it's generating the image, it spits out a nice imagemap, which I hope is something that still works on all those jazzy phones that people have these days. I also have to make sure the filename changes regularly, because browsers like to cache stuff, and networks like to cache stuff, and my imagemap was ending up linking the wrong pics to the wrong profiles. Oh and finally just to complete the picture, I stuffed it all into a system I put together that caches the HTML. I call it my superCache, because I wrote one called just Cache, and it was a bit shit.

That's about all I've got for today. In other news, the boy and me played Connect 4, and I left the dog at the shops by accident, but when I got back he was still there, looking sad by a bollard. There's no news from my achilles, which is very good news, but MLW has suggested I stick to a short recovery run tomorrow, just to make sure it stays quiet.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • you lost me right up to the bit about connect4 and the abandoned dog. :)
    Sushi.
    10:33pm, 8th Feb 2012
  • I'm much better at Connect 4 than at Noughts and Crosses and for some reason I can't fathom that seems wrong. I know nothing about coding but does anyone actually NEED to know who recently logged in? crab
    JenL
    10:34pm, 8th Feb 2012
  • Never really understood the need for that box, other than occasionally glancing at it to see if I knew anyone... But good work, if you've ended up speeding the site up, even better if it earns you Geek Points...
    JamieKai *chameleon*
    11:17pm, 8th Feb 2012
  • I like the box. I don't like Masterchef. The rest, it lost me. Though, I seem to be top left in the box. How does the box work?.
    Dvorak
    11:33pm, 8th Feb 2012
  • Was that box clickable? Wow :-o
    Smout
    5:11am, 9th Feb 2012
  • Poor dog :-0 Glad you retrieved him ok :-)
    GimmeMedals
    7:39am, 9th Feb 2012
  • I love the 'recently online ' box, lets me know whose stalking me
    richmac
    8:40am, 9th Feb 2012
  • You're getting awfully nifty at this coding stuff.
    RuthB2
    8:46am, 9th Feb 2012
  • Most of that went straight over my head but can't believe you left the dog behind!!! I bet he's forgiven you too, hasn't he? ;)
    SarahWoo
    8:48am, 9th Feb 2012
  • I often wonder how normalised Fetch is, for instance, all the totals in the training log. Possibly, normalisation went out of the window in about 1990 for all I know.
    ChrisHB
    9:20am, 9th Feb 2012
  • Love a bit of tech talk. Please feel free to continue. Wives, children, pets are mere distractions from the important things in life;)
    Siamese Pete
    9:34am, 9th Feb 2012
  • 1st Para OK, last para OK
    In between I read that as "ble-bla-bla blallala etc..."
    Dai Bank
    9:57am, 9th Feb 2012
  • poor dog
    HellsBells
    9:58am, 9th Feb 2012
  • As a comparative newbie I was dead chuffed when my image first appeared in that box. Did not really understand anything until final paragraph...mind you don't always understand all the running jargon in other blogs either!
    Autumnleaves
    10:03am, 9th Feb 2012
  • At least you didn't leave the boy behind at the shops!
    Heavyweight
    10:44am, 9th Feb 2012
  • Sorry but I didn't really follow the first three paragraphs nerd but I am glad the dog is OK ;-)
    BaronessBL
    11:46am, 9th Feb 2012
  • And you did this all in PHP? You are brave. Any time I have to open any PHP files these days I get cold shivers of the world I left behind :-).
    Chrisull
    12:10pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Say again?
    BigChiefRunningBore
    12:39pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Clever! Cache-tastic!
    Lalli
    12:46pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • LOL at leaving the dog behind at the shops!
    Garfield
    12:53pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • You'd hope that most of the(static) images on the page would be cached by the browser. As for the more dynamic ones, is it worth looking into a dedicated image server that doesn't need to do PHP or MySQL lookups? Stuff like .js and .css files could go there too if they aren't changing often. It could use something considerably lighter than Apache (or whatever it is you're using)

    Just thinking out loud really.
    sprouty76
    2:00pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Good news on achilles. Sounds like a good bit of streamlining on the number of image retrievals. Well done. :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    6:43pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Good name too - recently_online_montage_1328813007.jpg
    HappyG(rrr)
    6:44pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • You could also update the recently online list less frequently, thus getting more bang for the caching buck. Say 5 or 10 minutes, or of course you could be really clever and make the update frequency depend on the number of users online...
    Drell
    8:55pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Its stopped showing the user name when you hang the cursor over the avatar which is useful for knowing who the 'no images' are
    richmac
    8:58pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • make the image name time based rather than incremented, then it's easy to delete old image cache based on time of day+date and you don't have to keep count variables. Plus you can see when they were made if you need to do manual cache cleaning.
    The great dollop
    10:06pm, 9th Feb 2012
  • Downfall is better than Connect 4. Thanks. :-)
    CottamRunner
    10:41pm, 9th Feb 2012


Snow Days

10:03am, 7 Feb 2012
It seems that my achilles isn't going to be too much of a problem - I had issues with it back at the start of 2009, and I recognised the spiky feeling with dread. But by looking back at what I'd written first time round, I can see that this is a much milder version. It feels a bit like there's some double-sided sellotape (other brands available) wrapped round my tendon, and when my foot has been still for a while, it feels like the skin needs to unstick itself. MLW (my lovely wife) confirmed my thoughts that it's probably a bit of scar tissue. We ran yesterday, and it came through it ok - I've got some exercises (up on balls of both feet, then down on the bad foot), and MLW gave it some treatment. No need to saw it off yet.

The snow was a bit hard to deal with. I spoke to my boy in the morning, and he was out on his sled. It's days like these, when the weather calls an impromptu party, and everyone goes out and makes memories... they're the tough ones. Christmas, but without the warning. I've got him on Wednesday, and for the weekend - by the end of which no doubt I'll be back to wanting to throttle him - but gosh it's going to be lovely to see him.

The site had a bad day yesterday in terms of performance, to the point where I had to contact the people who look after the box, and they turned it off and on again. The usual bottleneck is slow database queries - but unless you catch them in time, it feels like they can spiral, until it seems that *every* query is taking ages, and then the day-long analysis tells you nothing. Would be nice to hear from any database admins with bendable ears.

Right, that's enough chuntering... time to get stuff done.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Miss him every day so cherish time he's here more. Never easy. Glad Achil is ok. :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    11:47am, 7th Feb 2012
  • Your boy is lucky cos you want to see him :) x
    oldbiddy
    12:45pm, 7th Feb 2012
  • lucky little boy to have such a great pop :-)
    runnerbean
    4:52pm, 7th Feb 2012


Gallery, and parkrun

4:35pm, 4 Feb 2012
I've just made some updates to the options in the gallery. When you click "Edit" next to your pictures, you can choose to turn off comments, and to turn off the option for the picture to be embedded in threads, blogs, etc. I will also be working on a buddies-only option for pictures, but that will take a bit longer to put into place. It's a shame that it's necessary, but I don't see that it's the subjects of the photos that have brought it about.

In connection to that, here's one last blog reminder for anyone who objects to specific content to send me feedback. The terms of use require users not to "upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, or invasive of another's privacy." The boilerplate that I'm required to send back asks you to indicate specific posts, and to indicate why you object. I will always respond as quickly as possible.

Right then... I'd quite like to draw a line under it. ___________. But do comment if you want.

We had a good time at parkrun this morning - starting off at just a shade quicker than 9 minute miling, and doing the third mile in 8.13. A lot of our running has been at a much slower pace (9-9.30 pace), but it's really helped to build in consistency, and I think we've run three times a week every week since the start of the year.

MK Half on the 4th March is a no-go, but there's a chance for me to do Berkhamsted Half instead. Looks like it's got some hills at 2 miles and 6 miles - but Katie has taught me to enjoy them :-) A long run and a parkrun on consecutive days have left my right achiles feeling a tiny bit spiky though. Rest day tomorrow.

*edit* I've just looked up how far I'd need to drive to Berkhamsted - and it's a bit far. Will find something else :-)
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • Berko is a lovely run though
    BigChiefRunningBore
    4:59pm, 4th Feb 2012
  • You're a good man and you run a good website. I approve of the Gallery changes, and like you I wish they weren't necessary.
    Velociraptor
    5:28pm, 4th Feb 2012
  • As always I agree with V-Rap. Keep up the good work Mr Fetch, you are doing a cracking job. *manlove* :-)
    Boingy
    6:51pm, 4th Feb 2012
  • Berko half is a nice one to do. Ashridge National Trust estate, might see deer, Very little in built up area.
    If thats too far no point in mentiong the Autumn Challenge in November :( Organised by Fetchies :) Who are also Watford Joggers :)
    Muds
    8:29pm, 4th Feb 2012
  • Well done. Perfect compromise. What has happened to MK? :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    9:25pm, 5th Feb 2012
  • Sorry, I'm a bit late to the party.....

    Re. the SGT / comments on photos etc, it's a question of tone for much of the time. One photo I posted got this comment:

    "how sexy are you, can we have the sex now? thankyou please."

    IMO, this oversteps the mark. Having written a buddies only blog wondering if I was over-reacting, I chose not to complain about it because someone pointed out I was scantily clad in the photo. However, it was a running photo and done particularly well by the photographer, hence I liked it. The fact that it was on the flattering side was a bonus (of all the hundreds of race photos that are taken of us, there aren't that many where we look good!).

    On the other hand, the comment " *waits for shorts to fall down* " is humourous and on the right side of the line. Obviously, this is subjective and therefore difficult to call but posters ought to be wary of the "I'd do her" tone.

    I think you've done the right thing with the options on the photos. But then I'm in favour of Fetch (site and person) full stop, including when it changes.
    Naomi P
    9:38am, 9th Feb 2012


Pleased

3:01pm, 3 Feb 2012
Thanks everyone for all the comments, for the support, and for all the suggestions. It's the sort of thing I had in mind when restarting my blog, and I think it's worked well.

I hope I've got the balance right. I agree with what Ant said (hello Ant, nice to see you) - there are rules, and they are there to protect anyone who feels they need protecting - as I said, users can always let me know about specific posts that they need me to review, and I do so as promptly as I possibly can. I'd like to think I can still be the village policeman, rather than the North Korea that JB refers to. Did you know that Kim Jong Il declared himself to be the worlds greatest golfer?

I did post on the "sexy girls" thread, and I hope the message has been received well by the majority, although some people still seem to suggest there's some sort of vendetta against "fun". To those people, I point out that I've not removed any content - just *asked* people not to do something that plenty of people find to be offputting and puerile at best.

There are options I can go with to help people post pics with less fear. The most obvious is a buddies only option, but I should also be able to make embedding of images conditional on the "owner" of the image agreeing. A combination of those two techniques should help I think, and I'm all up for doing them. I'd much rather be making you all a new graph though.

Anyway...

I did some work to improve site performance yesterday evening. A bug with Fetchpoint saw it spitting out three times more markers than it should have done, which clogged things up royally. I think the option to hide the coin layer would really help.

There was some fun with the slow query log. It shows me every database query that chugged along slowly, and highlights the big bottlenecks. Usually when I've made an update, or changed a bit of functionality somewhere, I have to go back and update my indexes and whatnot. It's not gone nuts since Wednesday, fingers crossed.

I'm just back from a ten mile run. I took a piece of paper scribbled with street names, and I think I shifted a load of Fetchpoint bugs. I can't say the miles just flew by, but it was a nice distraction. I've got that "pummeled to death" feeling you only get from a good long run. If we can fit it into our calendar, it'd be nice to get a half marathon done in March.

Reading Harry Potter to the boy. He's been very patient, and in about four nights, we've got so far as the hut on the rock, where Hagrid tells Harry he's a wizard. My boy is also now 124cm tall, which for six, puts him somewhere around the 95th percentile, and if he stays that way, he'll be close on 7ft, if Skylanders doesn't leave him with a permanent hunch. He's 11cm away from not needing a booster seat, and 16cm away from making me go on all the scary-ass rides at theme parks. Time flies.
Click here to suggest fetcheveryone's blog for today's highlights.

Comments

  • yay to more graphs
    Pidd
    3:18pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • My cunning plan to avoid all potential issues with the updates, by being injuired and unable to run, has worked perfectly. I am very grateful to all the fetch users for helping Lord Fetch iron out the kinks. So the site is now great again in time for me to start adding training again. I would also get behind the idea of more graphs.
    HermanBloom
    3:36pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • According to the records I think he played the first round on the Pyongyang Golf course and went round in 30 odd with about a dozen holes in one. Pity he never turned pro.
    Doctor K
    3:56pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • HI Ian, (waves), been busy but lurking. Laters...
    The great dollop
    4:22pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • "yer a wizard 'arry" one of the best lines in the film :)
    JaneyM
    4:36pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • I'm amazed at my own inability to be all that annoyed at any of the Fetchpoint bogeyettes. Must mean it's good :)
    An yay to running, long running.
    Smout
    5:04pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • Looks like Mick has quitly left the building, which is a shame
    Diogenes
    6:21pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • He's back to the buddies-only habit.
    ChrisHB
    6:26pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • My mistake, somehow he seems to have disappeared from my favourites and didn't appear when I did a search. As you were.

    P.S. May I say how I enjoy your light touch, Fetch
    Diogenes
    6:53pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • Very impressed by the quality of the debate (most of it anyway) and I think you've handled it well. Don't like censorship, don't like objectification of women. But agree that most of the time that thread is pretty jolly and inoffensive: there's just always someone who can't see the line. Or sees it and chooses to smush it in the dust.

    In other news - and for filing under Coincidences, Random - Mr IM just read that bit of HP to Child 1 last night :-)
    Iron_Mum
    7:06pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • You take a list of streets for bugs???? But you put them there in the first place ;-)
    BaronessBL
    10:13pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • Little'un's doing well. I don't think my 6 year old would be able to sit through Harry Potter reading.
    MissChappo
    11:00pm, 3rd Feb 2012
  • Mine's 6'1", but then, he's 15 now and was best man at my wedding. Kinda grown up. I'd say. I think your photo options will sort everything. Threads with people being daft, even offensive. Whatev. Folk copying a pic from someone's gallery intended to illustrate something to do with running, without their knowledge, and using it to ... ahem ... over. Unacceptable. IMHO. Good work friendly local PC Fetch. :-)G
    HappyG(rrr)
    11:59am, 4th Feb 2012
  • Very appropriately handled
    plodding hippo
    4:58pm, 4th Feb 2012


About Me

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Blog Archive


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2024 (39)
April (9)
Night Races - Can you help?
Sifting Chunks: Gradient versus Pace
Audible Free Trial - You get free audiobooks, I get five quid!
A donation from JH
Andy Townsend :-)
GCU50: Citizen on Patrol
Fetchpoint: The Game - Where I'm Headed
Fetchpoint: The Game - a consultation
Heavy Roller please
March (11)
I can eat fifty eggs
Oscar the Grouch :-(
If a Fetch fails in a forest...
Trialling a new weekly update email
Lasting Power of Suspicion
Fetch Virtual Challenge 2024 *bunting*
Swittle's Funeral
Cadence
Tea & Trails Podcast
Down to my last pen
A bench for swittle
February (8)
The Lightning Struck Tower
Swittle
Cholesterol
This year so far in pictures
Three Noahs
Fetch is as strong as you make it.
100k - what do I need?
Paywalls are BS: I'm on a podcast!
January (11)
Chasing Round Numbers - A Cautionary Tale!
MOTM - Decision Made (and a competition for EVERYONE!)
MOTM - a chance to rethink
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How much walking will I do?
Training Plans - Further Updates
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Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
2023 (136)
December (6)
Nearly forgot...
Jam today
Removing another bit of Google's invasiveness
Fancy an extra challenge over the next 12 days?
Chewie, we're home!
Two tips for today's advent challenge
November (13)
Spammy McSpamface
40 days and 40 nights
EfM confirmed!
New Training Log Beta! 😲 (aka Change Is Not Good)
Escape from Meriden
Waiting for your training?
Route of the Century?
I didn't know I owned a nutcracker
Design our anniversary shirts/vests!
Holiday Reading - plenty of fiction :-)
Swimming in a metaphor
Hello
Off World
October (11)
Fl'update
To think I tried to mop it up!
Vote Please: How many F'Laps will you try to do?
F'Laps 2024
Long Run
So it still needs a name...
Front Garden Ultra?
The Boy is a man!
Festive Fetch Calendar
Creative K's
Signs
September (7)
Training Edit Screen - time to ditch it...
Stock check
The Doctor K Cup - October 7th!!!!
Removing the training edit screen
A Happy Applecart
Happy 19th Birthday!
Forgotten pictures
August (14)
Just in case
Weekly Total Hours
Dim Brys Dim Chwys
All hail our robot overlords!
Your local parkrun
Fool on the hill
Survey Follow Up
A survey?
Did you know?
I made a thing
VC Day
FBI Agent
What keeps you going?
Be careful what's in your paste buffer (and July training update)
July (13)
Delight
Respecting your eyeballs since 2004
Hot Stuff, coming through
Ocean Colour Scheme
18 years, 10 months, 13 days and counting...
Ooof #fail
Our listings need you!
Pics from the end of the swim
A whispered, half-remembered dream
Try the Heatmap!!!
Teaser
100 Running Words (and my June summary)
July Virtual Mile
June (8)
Last Big Swim
I can't be the only one...
Which is the real me?
#EveryoneDay
The legendary sixth samosa!
WSW Main Page Layout Changes
May Summary (contains swimming!)
Hoodies pre-order closes at 10am
May (17)
A new WSW challenge
Tagging images
Hoooooooooooooodies!!!!!!!!!!!
Another Sweatshop Competition
Did you get an email?
Fifty Years Ago - Part VIII
Fifty Years Ago - Part VII
Fifty Years Ago - Part VI
Help on a slippery slope
Fifty Years Ago - Part V
Fifty Years Ago - Part IV
Fifty Years Ago - Part III
Chuck-off: Round 2
Not my king?
Fifty Years Ago - Part II
Fifty Years Ago
And that was April
April (10)
Centurion Safari!
Sheep treats (and a routes feature)
And I’ll sail her up the west coast, through villages and towns.
15,746 places to 💩
Track Your Blood Pressure
A couple of quick fmail updates
Rusty Metal and a Cycling Grudge Match
Please help me kick the fmail tyres!
Onset of Summer Watch. Have you got Onset of Summer? +fmail!
Premium?
March (10)
And that was March
Try the new fmail system
Can you help my boy?
Tell A Friend?
Some Sweatshop Competitions
Sign up to our 2023 Virtual Challenge
Review: FORM Smart Goggles
UTMOST vs Treadmills
33,258
Embranglement!
February (13)
And that was February
This year's Virtual Challenge
What does Points make?
Automatic Everything Collector
Peaky Finders
FAO Fitbit users
My favourite training graph
You've got this.
Coffee Survey (for my stepson)
Access all the tips
Tiny Usability Changes
Cod science
Hot Tips
January (14)
Monthly Infographic Bug Fixes
No, but really...
Have a play with the monthly infographic
It's not ready yet, but...
Introducing Fetch Premium
Help me design a new Monthly Infographic...
Still following?
Fettle
Definitely Not Betting
Do you follow? (plus burp chat)
Advance warning for stalkers!
I'm back (and the Fetch LS, SS and NS shirts preorder is open)
Attention Fitbit Users
Review 50 albums in 2023 (badge!)
2022 (144)
December (8)
Treasure Hunt Day 1 - the best gift
Important updates to the Fetch Relay
Introducing the Fetch Relay 2023
Who Am I? (Solved, thanks) And How Am I?
Confessions :-)
12 Days of Christmas Treasure Hunt
Chewie, we’re home!
A few pics from the Foffice :-)
November (24)
Yesvember - Day #30 (and Festive Fetch Calendar Eve!)
The Fetch Festive 160.934 :-) [Yesvember #Day 29]
You'd better watch out... (plus Yesvember Day #28)
Brace Yourself (and there's one spare bobble hat!) and Yesvember - Day #26
Hats in the post! Plus Yesvember Day #25
Look what arrived!
Yesvember - Day #24
Training Graph Manager - usability update (Yesvember Day #23)
Yesvember - Day #22 - Cheating?
Last chance to enter the Advance Performance comp
Yesvember - Days #11 thru #14 (plus Jumpy Boy)
Weather on the training home page watch. Have you got weather on the training home page? (Yesvember - Day #10)
Oh, and... it's Yesvember - Day #9
Another bit of the internet fenced off
Yesvember - Day #8 - taking steps
Yesvember - Day #7
Yesvember - Day #6
Yesvember - Day #5
The curse of swimming GPS
Yesvember - Day #4
The Les Mis effect
Yesvember - Day #3
Yesvember - Day #2
Yesvember - Day #1
October (15)
October gives way to Yesvember!
Anyone fancy a threeway?
More thoughts on races
Racing, post-pandemic
Contracts exchanged!
Competition Time!
Last call for Flobble Hats
A record year for swimming?
Woburn Lido
Order your Bobble Hat! If you like.
I appear to have entered a race! (plus new Garmin import queueing system)
Eric the Eel
Get your hobbit on
The Doctor K Cup: Saturday 8th October!
I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind
September (16)
Take This Bus To Cuba
Fetch Bobble Hats
Trumpeting
Training View tweaks (switch maps, game overlays, mile markers)
Training View tweaks (and a play button bug fix)
A long ride and a cold swim.
Play Button
UTMOST Wava & Bike Division Rebuilds
New UTMOST leagues for cyclists and WAVA fans
The Doctor K Cup
Chance encounters
Do I ditch our Facebook stuff?
A keeper, from my feedback inbox...
Ultra distances - update
Adding ultra distances to Fastest Fetchies league.
Try the new Training Groups pages
August (11)
Training Groups Update - Coming Soon
Garmin Queue Issues
Donations without reference numbers :-)
New Elbow Laws
No longer the 3398th fastest Fetchie over 10k!
Pulling counties into league tables
What was I thinking?
County Champion?
Just bear in mind that you asked for this.
Wahoo and Coros users
How to make half a million quid (batteries not included)
July (6)
Club Listings
Book giveaway :-)
Updated Race Portfolio
Updated Targets Page
Exactly ***1*** Spare Ladies L Cycling Jersey
Search All Blogs :-)
June (10)
Imagine you could search all the public blogs...
Banking Scandal at Fetch Towers!
7pm on Baker Island #everyoneday
#EveryoneDay - Sunday 26th June 2022
Spare Challenge Coasters
The North West Passage
Feature Request Voting - Know Your Limits!
UTMOST Division 8: YIKES!
Shepperton Weight Gain Programme
UTMOST Division 9! Sub-50 10k :-)
May (16)
Four hours left :-)
Division 10: No hope of escape?
Book giveaway :-)
Division 11: No place left to hide
New HR Analysis
They're here! Well, not exactly *here*, but...
A quick Darth Mode update
Darth Mode! And a few biscuits for the hyperdrive.
Division 12: Two hours of pushing broom
Dark Mode: Beta
PB Potential? Fancy a quickie? ;-)
Division 12: Running Out Of Road?
Thank you everyone!
Making UTMOST moves :-)
Do you want a Fetch shirt?
I did my UTMOST :-) (plus new sharing infographic)
April (7)
Today's plan
NEW UTMOST BADGES!!!!!
A plug for some races
Raspberry Pavlov
Win a book :-)
United Colours of Cross Training
A little Streetview adventure
March (11)
The lockers are a pound.
Advice for Gym Noobs!
Feedback made easier
#EveryoneDay June 26th 2022
Fetch Virtual Challenge 2022 🎈
Thanks Chunky: parkrun routes!
Sniffer Dogs
Yikes!
Fetch Cycling Jerseys - Update
Route Plotting tweak
The Crow: A Pipedream!
February (7)
Fetch Kit Spares
Updated Race Listing Pages
Introducing Rundle!
I appear to be training for an OWS event!
Fetch Cycling Jerseys!!!
Does you wantz free shoez?
Post Office tomorrow - kit spares
January (13)
Updated Flanci Design (now with more Fetchness)
Badge Collection Graphic!
Updated elevation trace
Book Lists :-)
Updated sharing infographic - do you like it?
Spare Fetch Kit
Badge page refresh / feature requests
Flanci / Fetch Leggings
New Badge Pages
New hill badges
Join me on my fitness journey!
Are you the farmer?
Blog every day challenge - finishers
2021 (187)
December (14)
Book List
Ten years ago today...
A big slobbery elephant snog.
If you don't like hills, this must be getting tiring :-)
When does a hill end?
Hill finder - prototype v2
Hill Finder - prototype
2022 Targets
Chewie, We’re Home! Happy Fetch Independence Day!
Embed badges, plus a new badge :-)
Updated people page
Seeking map
Streak Watch
The new Fetch buffs are here…
November (23)
Almost there...
The Fetch Library
Update your thread titles
Ascent dissent
Mute a thread
Shortcuts
Training Import Queue
I fell off (but not really!)
Croeso i Fetcheveryone. Ydych chi'n siarad Almaeneg, Swedish neu Eidaleg?
New mobile nav
Last call for shirts
@
Just a trim please
Brought to you by wind power
300 miles later
Golden Ticket Shocker!
Banjobax (aka KOG)
Home and Away kit preorder - with long sleeve option
A little competition - win a copy of Daniels' Running Formula
Garmin testers - thanks
Add your grub stops!
Points Of Interest: Grub Stops
Garmin-owning testers wanted
October (19)
New home and away shirts and vests
Benchmark league - a few more updates
Benchmark league table
Hill areas
Preorder is now open!
'b'uffs then
Necktube design #1 & #2
Buffs (well, neck tubes)
Report dodgy GPS stuff
An apology for people who follow my training
New cycling and swimming badges
New Conquercise Feature: Grids
Sprouting a tiny biking antler :-)
Have a try of the cycling gradient analysis
Struggling with my big ring
Cycling: gradient vs pace
A question for cyclists
For Doctor K
Shan't.
September (14)
New comments (FID 1212)
Forum post previews
Garmin imports with a snippet more info
Gallery upload options
Golden Tickets
"No need to panic donate", says Williams
Forum Quotes
Spoiler Alert!
20th of March and all that.
Have you signed up yet?
This bit of crappy Upminister nearly cost me my f***ing life.
A guide with no pages
To steal a catchphrase from a wise lady...
Multiple choice polls
August (11)
Pre-Race Training - Updated
A connection!
New Member of the Month sponsor
Best Weeks - bug fixes
Your Best Week Ever
Rainbow Kit - preorder is open
Age Bests - filtering out the mistakes :-)
Sign up, sign up, for the Doctor K cup
A message from my lovely wife ❤️
Another batch of rainbow kit?
Spares: Event Clips, Swim Hats and a few rainbow tops
July (10)
A bunch of site goodies :-)
Hello kitty
Holy Simmering Mercury Batman!
Settings
A heart rate question
Sleepy Shuffle?
365 graph
Slipping on ma noob shoes
Meatronomes
World's Sexiest Bridges
June (11)
Benchmarks - a *tiny* little improvement
Race Leaderboards - some small improvements
Race Finder - Update
Up there ^
Routes - more updates
Last call for FE Event Clips
Server update
Minor code problem
Some little updates to your route list
Feature requests - two years on!
More than just a rainbow
May (8)
Rainbow Kit - update on delivery time...
Fetch Ron Hill Cycling Jerseys
Pre-order your rainbow kit now :-)
Jimi Hendrix vs Run DMC
The return of parkrun - a poll
Something in the woodshed...
Default to walk
A tour of the Fetch Office
April (11)
Instabanned :-)
I has Instagram
Fetch Event Clips
FERC
Castle Challenge Coaster!
My chess rating
Jab - symptom watch
This just in...
REVIEW: XMiles selection box
Let FE pay for your coaching qualifications :-)
Castle Challenge - A Quick Blog
March (18)
The Fetcheveryone Castle Challenge
Running vs Cycling Cadence
Fetch vests and shirts (and swim caps)
Elevation vs Follow Roads
£500 of England Athletics courses up for grabs!
TomTom users
Music by year: 1993
10k Analysis: Part 7 - Length of Training Runs
Music by year: 1992 (plus some 1991 additions)
Bot sniffing win :-) plus daily blogger count!
User profiles
10k Analysis: Part 6 - Training Pace Again
Time to update your injuries :-)
User profile - sticker button.. EDIT and race standard
More user profile adjustments
User Profile tweaking
Cute story of the week*
10k Analysis: Part 5 - Training Pace
February (17)
Year on Year mileage comparison
Elevation graphs
It's all kicking off in chess club!
Music By year: 1991
10k Analysis: Part 4 - Weekly Training Habits
Tagging virtual races
Chasing rainbows
Rainbow Shirts
Lance!
Blog writing improvements
10k Analysis: Part 3 - Accuracy of human predictions
Music by year: 1990
Smacking bots
29 slices - my seven days of dinner
10k Analysis: Part 2 - Age and Performance
Pass it on
10k Analysis: Part 1 - Distribution of best 10k times
January (31)
January
Mobile Usability Team Helping All Fetchies...
Salmon Ramen Recipe :-)
Salmon Ramen (for TBR)
Backup dog
The best GPS watches in the world... volume 1
Pick it...
People who liked...
Obscure bugs
Zen & The Art of Heart Rate Training
FIT file import - temporary issue
Keep the change, ya filthy animal
The honeymoon is over
Dirty data
Mobile Usability
Oops
Readership!
Stay sticky
It's Hip To Buy Squares
Related Threads - Exposé :-)
The Batshit Association
Jobs
Tag Team
Feed the monster!
An ad for Fetch Chess Club :-)
Estimating VO2Max
Three little birds
A not uncommon swelling
Church Mouse January
Honey, where's my super suit?
Not here.
2020 (128)
December (6)
Blog A Day 2021?
9 years ago today
Chewie, We're Home! Happy Fetch Independence Day :-)
Be Prepared
Becoming an effluencer
A few Fetch Mugs left
November (10)
The Festive Fetch Calendar is back!
FIT file import
Mugs!
Thank you, mysterious Fetchie!
Chess
UTMOST in the age of COVID-19
This'll cheer you up for sure...
Lost in translation?
Annual Infographic... updating now.
In theory...
October (11)
Training Plan Analysis
Mini plans with the training plan
5k with The Boy :-)
Welcome to tomorrow
Thank you
Become tradeable!
Pre-Race Training Volume
Doctor K Cup Week
Last orders
Advice for a friend
Trader Makeover
September (6)
The shop is open!
Hoodie Colour!
New Fetch Hoodies
A big up/holler!
VO2max
A benchmark derailed by GPS data *nerd*
August (8)
10k analysis
Officially a Sheepy Shuffler!
Pi Watering
Pre-order Avoid Everyone Face Masks
I got sent these...
Other sites? :-O
Benchmarks - an infinitely configurable set of ladders.
Try the monthly infographic :-)
July (10)
Update on Monthly Training Infographic
New Infographic
Monthly Summary (with a little tweak)
A quick Garmin update
Open Water / Wild Swimming Database
Avoid Everyone - spares
OWS Locations
Thread-level search
New Sharing Graphic & New Pastures
My first lamp post
June (16)
Replacing the Who's Training page
Combining some pages
In pursuit of the Gridmaster Ultra
15th Anniversary Kit - Spares
Shoelaces
A new How To video
Training Plan Updated
Black Lives Matter
Avoid Everyone Spares + Second Batch
Wikipedia page
Another YouTube video for sharesies :-)
Getting data to Fetch from **other places**
Feature Voting - some further updates
Feature Voting - speeded up
Another How To video - this time, Conquercise
Fantastisches Tweeten
May (13)
A video for sharing
Bees!
Fetch Introductory Zoom Presentations
A promise to all Fetchies
Fetch Virtual Weekend: Replacement Bus Service
How has Fetch use changed?
Fetch Weekly Virtual Races
Zoom Meeting - Thursday 9 til 10am
WAVA Standards Update
WAVA Standards + Poll
Fun with Age Grading :-)
New Badges Day
The test shirt fabric has arrived :-)
April (14)
Zoom Podcast - watch the video
What is WBC?
If you did the free Amazon trial...
Some small amends (and shirt version)
Pre-orders open
I was only joking, but...
If Fetcheveryone did lockdown merch
Site outage - Thursday 16th April 11pm
On exercising responsibly
My Sports Quiz - how would you have scored?
Your creative thinking required
WBC My Favourite Teacher (a bit later than the deadline)
Updated Training League
Server Downtime, Thursday 9th 00:01BST to 04:00BST (and thank you!)
March (13)
New Fetch Game: Hide and Seek
Free trial of Audible
Do you have a good memory?
New Opt-In for Fetch Miles
New Badges for Fetch Miles
The Fetch Five: Don't Let CV19 Win!
Amending event dates and notifying of cancellations
A green light comes on over your head, and you can get on with life
Most Popular Shoe Brands 2019
A review
Android: Session I
Compare Your Training
Book Now to avoid disappointment :-)
February (10)
Imports from Suunto, Fitbit, Polar and TomTom.
Plot A Route - mobile improvements
Happy tugging!
Something to play with
Adding A New Feature
February Treasure Hunt
Server Downtime
Miles = Smiles
Build Your Mile
Pop Will Eat Himself: Update
January (11)
Clarence the Cadence Kitten
Trim your trails :-)
Seven Day Leaderboard
Let's try that again
Some minor blog amendments
Try the new Forum Search Prototype
Pop Will Eat Himself
A card from HowFar?
Thank you HowFar? (Statement, not a question)
Take the red pill
Climb every mountain
2019 (134)
December (7)
The Christmas Poem
Where your treasure is...
Listen to the dog breathe
Chewie, We're Home
Thursday's Challenge
Which GPS?
Fetch Shop (of sorts)
November (12)
The zeroth challenge
Polar users - auto import
Calling all Polar users
Mobile Optimisation
Calling all Android users
Did your ads disappear?
Pin that sucker down :-)
Easier tagging
Category now editable from VIEW
Kit now editable from VIEW
Working towards tagging
Manual Add Training bug
October (16)
Boring Cricket Blog
Books Part 2
Books :-)
42
Training tags Part 2
Training tags
Let's Jazzercise
My precious
Cricket Week 4: Footage :-)
Forum Training Threads
Benny Neutrino Returns
Cricket Week 3: Wingardium Leviosa!
Benny Neutrino's Filter Tips
Cricket Week 2
Continuing Amazon Affiliate Saga
In case you haven't seen...
September (11)
Updated: Spare Anniversary Kit
Affiliate links
I did a cricket!
Fetch365 - enjoy responsibly
Filth
My dear old things
Buddies vs Follow
Server Invoice Day
Our new MOTM sponsor
Fetch Power!
Race Listings: Please Read
August (5)
Everyone *rainbow*
Almost there...
Quick blog
Country Badges
A new set of badges
July (6)
Pre-orders open
Anniversary Shirts v2
Fetch 15th Anniversary Shirts
Fetch Fest 2020
Shout Outs
Missing imports from Garmin yesterday
June (13)
Who Squares Wins: 64 screenshot
Who Squares Wins: 64 Player Edition
Training summary - older pages
Training sub-menu rejig
Try the infographic
Steady Edina
Annual Summary Infographic
The height of daft things
The training summary - the morning session
The training summary - a wordier blog
Try the annual summary thing
How to listen to the Fetch Podcast
12 month summary mega-graph!
May (15)
£79.99 off the bottom line
Competition
parkrun reviews - now with routes
Fix It Friday; Project Joker Week 2; and some shout outs.
Fetch Kit Cupboard Sale
The bonus ball
Project Joker - Week 1
Fix It Friday
A quick update on the server
Fetch 15th Anniversary Kit
There is a good service operating
Oof.
In case you're wondering...
Trouble auto importing from Garmin?
Fix It Friday: Stuff that came to me in dreams
April (12)
Feature Voting - now with virtual badges :-)
The moment of triumph!
New Feature Voting
Fix It Friday: What would your horse be called?
Marathon Pacing: tyre-kickers required
Fix It Friday: Back to Basics
Podcast Poll
Fix It Friday: The League Of Everyone
Dom, dom, dom, I've got DOMS, I've got DOMS!
Crouch, Touch, Pause.... longer pause... what am I doing again?
Training Log - Update
Site Update: New Font
March (15)
Fix It Friday: An Endless Mission
Naming and faming :-)
2nd in my age category!
Fix It Friday: Brought to you by Surprise Inset Day
New training log
Route Matching - Ready :-)
Fix It Friday
What's your unit of measurement?
Ciderthon competition
Fix It Friday: Stroopwafels of Doom!
Route Matching - Update
This week's cool list
Me in the river
Big Fetch Miles 2019
Fix It Friday: Fingerprints!
February (13)
A Maths Challenge
Fetch Legends: Activate!
Whose coat is this jacket?
Fix It Friday: The Fix Awakens
Joining the awesome list...
Fix It Friday
Naming and faming :-)
Fix It Friday - Monthly Summary
Training Month Summary
Podcast Q&A
If you can't read this, don't panic.
*redsaber* The force is strong with these Fetchies!
Fix It Friday *bluesaber*
January (9)
Some shout outs :-)
Fix It Friday!
Podcast Ep 3, plus some naming and faming :-)
Fix It Friday
Fetch Chaos
Oooh! Second chance Berlin trip! And new subbers, podcast episode, and Trader.
My week of running
Naming and faming - this week :-)
Naming and faming :-)
2018 (138)
December (8)
A Christmas Message (in podcast form)
Rungeon :-)
Hey, Everyone!
France Trip Vote
Happy Fetch Independence Day
Actual free trip to France (incl. flights)
Litter
Sombrero's Lovely Cards
November (14)
Hoodies + other spares
Spare Fetch Kit
Festive Fetch Calendar 2018
Avatars
Book Giveaway - Can We Run With You, Grandfather?
Fix It Friday
Bedford Harriers Half - place offered
Updated Kit Bag
Family Fortunes :-)
Any adidas experts out there?
No Fixes Today - just two challenges
Big Fetch Mile Cardiff
Fix It Friday
Festive Fetch Calendar 2018
October (14)
Hello landlubbers
Embedded polls
Member of the Month
Fix It Friday
Spare Fetch shirts and vests
Abingdon
Fix It Friday
My Fetch Mile
One thing's for sure, we're all gonna be a lot thinner.
Fix It Friday - 'Ave It!
Automatic route matching
Automatic route matching
One last reminder for those cycling jerseys
Fix It Friday - Forensics and User Experience
September (14)
Fix It Friday
Server Downtime 2.30pm 26th September
Never Again
Fix It Friday!
Handling your weirdness
Cards ordered :-)
Just wondering...
Fix It Friday :-)
Try the Fetcheveryone Tutorial
40 days and 40 nights
Fix It Friday
ARION insoles - review part 1
Fetch Shirt - Black Ones, and sizing
Shirts and Vests Pre-Order
August (14)
Fix It Friday
Blog Height squished
Site Outage Last Night
New Mobile Nav
Fix It Friday
New feature - how you doin'? :-)
Sunflower spread
Fix It Friday
A new pre-race mileage graph
Fetch Social: Draycote Water September
Fix It Friday: The Supermarket Analogy
A run with _andy :-)
Suunto 9 Review
Fix it Friday
July (5)
Fix It Friday!
Five Get Wet In Devon
Big Glasgow Weekend - Part 1: Gies A Cwtch
Tom Williams Interview - Final Part
Glasgow Big Fetch Mile Results and Pics
June (17)
Abingdon Week 17 - P&D Booster rockets
Interviewing Tom Williams: Part III
Walking League (and one just for Nellers)
Follow Roads - continued
Week 18 in the bag
Tackling turds
Abingdon Marathon Training: Week 18
Interview with Tom Williams - Part 2
Server
Five Questions (ready for serious answers)
Kick some tyres for me
Interview with Tom Williams - Part 1
Five Questions
Follow Roads saga
Google maps progress, plus Abingdon plans
Training Summary - Infographics
Who Squares Wins - ranking update
May (10)
Training log maps converted
More mapping updates
Who Squares Wins - The Wizard's Hat
De doo doo doo... another one bites the dust...
Invisible changes
Silverstone 10k
Three year throwback
Why your support makes the difference
Some high mileage Fetchies
dryrobe winner
April (14)
Interviewing Tom Williams
Swimming Caps!
#finishformatt
New batch of shirts and vests
You make big mistake my friend
Fetchpoint
Glasgow Big Fetch Mile announced
Two tickets to the Running Awards
Pics from Dudley Big Fetch Mile
Notes for London Marathon Fetchpointers
Results from today's Big Fetch Mile
Who Squares Wins - prototype board
Attention London Marathoners!
New game - coming soon
March (9)
Intervals, Solidarity, Swimming and Fmail
Ready to give the new fmail a try?
More on fmail
New fmail system
Win a dryrobe :-)
For jabberknit...
Updating the Training Home page
Pics from Bedford Big Fetch Mile
Sledgends :-)
February (13)
Buffs On Sale
Big Fetch Mile Bedford
Vlog :-)
Marathon Talk
Important GDPR stuff - PLEASE read
A page of historical importance
Vlog :-)
Road Rash, Marathon Prediction and T-Shirts
This :-)
Capturing the dog
It's BACK!
Enter Wilmslow Half Marathon
An advertisement
January (6)
Local Fetchies - Opt In
Revealed: World's Best Shoes
How I chose the Big Fetch Mile venues
Big Fetch Mile 2018 - Venues & Provisional Dates
Try adding an image to your training entry
Mileage Targets 2018 - Update
2017 (147)
December (12)
Mileage Targets 2018
Thank you
Brownie Recipe :-)
Phew
Fetch Hoodies + Buffs SALE Update
Chewie, We're Home
Fetch Hoodies SALE - what's left
Fetch Hoodies! SALE!!! (and Buffs available too)
Chewie, We're Home
Sharing pics
Fetch Jingle Mile Cambridge photos
Glorious Failure: Bedford Harriers Half Marathon
November (20)
Serpents, hamstrings and inversions
A special anniversary approaches...
Hamstring and prototype updates
Training Log Prototype - Today's Improvements
Red Venom sale
For what it's worth...
Training Log Prototype - Update #2
Training Log Prototype - Update
Big Fetch Mile - venue hunt
RT for a Garmin
Training Log Prototype - To Be Fixed
fetcheveryone.com/amazon
The Weekly vLog (by me)
Thanks :-)
New Training Log Prototype - Available Now
Thanks for following
VLog - footage from the Cardiff Big Fetch Mile
Big Fetch Mile[s] 2018
Win a place in the Surrey Half
I vont to scan your barcode.
October (12)
Big Fetch Weekend :-)
Fetch Mile Results
Festive Fetch Calendar :-O
Calling Parkers everywhere!
In which I decorate a cake.
Regent's Park Fetchie Discount
Elevation in colour
"I didn't come here to walk to Sparta!"
New elevation info
Chicken Ballot-ine, with a side order of beef
New training log headers
Ballot day tomorrow - help needed
September (19)
Weekly vLog - COCONUTS!!!
River Thames Half Marathon
The lollipop update
On failing gracefully
Doctor K Day
Fetch Kit Sale - Updates
Weekly vLog
Fetch Kit Sale
Training Log View Update
Fetcheveryone Weekly? Vlog?
Fetchie Race Discount - Regent's Park 10k
Training Log Tags - Live
Training Log Tags
Weekly vLog - Derby Mile, and a pause to salute the legendary Doctor K
24 hours later
Doctor K donation page
Doctor K
Fetch Weekly vLog
Derby Mile - tomorrow!
August (8)
Race Prices; and an alien earworm
Straight outta Cromford - the Fetch Weekly vLog!
A Fetch vLog! With prizes!
Quick search location for sharing
New WAVA graph
Weird FIT file thing
Back from me 'olidays :-)
Linking race results to training log entries
July (12)
Race Pricing - crowdsourcing
Appdate for Android and iPhone
Inhalers
Fetch Mile - Cardiff?
Bookends
Race listing omelette
Coding and town planning
Please review your races
A2B winners
Motivational Sounds - the final 10
Two more Big Fetch Miles? :-)
Bedford Fetch Mile Results
June (19)
Big Fetch Mile
Motivational Sounds
Fetch fug - updated design
Fetch fug (available at the Fetch mile)
I've done the naughtiest thing ever.
Donating Blood - my Vlog
Fapp In the App Store :-)
Can I kick it?
A***biscuits
This just in...
For Bean
Your app status is Waiting For Review
A2B
Fetch Caps
Garmin Communicator Plugin
Fetch App - strong and stable testing
HTTPS is here
Fetch App progress
https access to the site
May (14)
Fetch App
Apostrophes
[Untitled]
[Untitled]
Site down at 11pm
Round and round the garden
Try the new home page layout
Server down tonight @ 11pm
Browser testers wanted
The Big Fetch Mile!!!
Site *NOT* down tonight. [cough]
Bluffer's Competition - Winner
Bedford parkrun timelapse
Return of the cap
April (8)
Fetchpoint (London and Milton Keynes!)
Base camp, VMLM
Bronze!
Just for D2
Off to the awards
Bloodvlog
Hoodies - it's on!
Updated Training Home Page
March (6)
'Train' page
Project Joker
Hoodies and Londons
Hands up, hands UP! Draycote Water 10
Bluffer's Competition
Project Joker
February (12)
Draggable?
Running Awards shortlisted
Route Plotter now with OpenStreetMap
Plan for Bluffer's comp
Update to Route Plotter
First update to the route mapper
For Angus
Virtuous Circles
Competition coming soon
Race Guide Ads
Club La Santa vLog
Fetch Fixtures
January (5)
Word Clouds
Buckets Ready
New Home Page
Do me a favour...
Limited Companies, filing accounts, that sort of thing
2016 (128)
December (11)
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
Five Years Ago Today
Pantsfest! May the stains be ever in your favour!
#FEXIT
Photoshop SOS
Attention: Fitbit users
Bedford Half 2016
Luton Fetchmob: Breaking Point
Vote Fetch!
Breaking news: Paris Marathon
November (21)
How to end a LiveChat.
Define wrong
TomTom Runner 3 Review - Any Questions?
Deliveryman
Movember: Project Beard: Day 24: Beardraggled
Festive Fetch Calendar 2016
We're gonna be in the Hudson
Hey Chiefy
I've written summat
Going Postal
A special mention
Training Log Beta
Spare Hoodies
Updates to Training Beta
Movember: Project Beard - Day 8 (The Seven Day Itch)
Vote for Fetch
Training Log Detail View - Some Changes
Aberdeen University Study
Consultation V2
[Untitled]
Fetchpoint - October Winners and November Prizes
October (16)
Alien nuggets!
Keeping a tight lid on the biscuit tin
Training Log Beta
100 Running Words
Pssst....
Fetchmob, December 3rd
Where to mob?
Little things
That All-Time Mileage League
The sudoku that keeps on giving.
Sub-25 for 1km :-)
Fetchmob - December 3rd
New Training Log Preview
Fixed the overlap...
Why the new training log isn't ready yet...
vLog
September (12)
Doughnut or Donate
Training Log - Sneak Peek
Fetch Shop Sale! Old stuff clearout!
vLog!!!
The consultation system...
Garmin support for timezone info
The GMT/BST/Timezone problem
Training Log Consultation...
Training Log - Consultation
Fetch Social Runs
Subscriber shirts, vests and hoodies, and determination.
Fetch Voluntary Subscriptions
August (3)
Ze Gryndylows! My first #OWS :-)
Testing Fetchpoint exclusion zones
Fetchpoint scoring system
July (7)
Conquercise Prize Draw?
Fetch Games: Checkpoints (and what's wrong with them)
More owls...
Your Favourite Fetch Game?
Even More Utmost Than Before...
Chiswick!
15 days later...
June (10)
Five days on...
[Untitled]
A quick thank you...
What do you think?
If you'd be so kind...
Poised
Which watch?
Run Bedford 10k
Import from a TomTom
Attention TomTom users
May (10)
Race Distance poll
An ungainly fish
A five year plan
What Club La Santa can learn from parkrun
Cream Me Up, Scotty
Greetings from Club La Santa
And a quick poll...
Club Charter
A poll about intervals
More owls!
April (11)
Robin Hood and his Merry Dad :-)
Warning: Dull - some screen res stats
Responsive Design Update
For all you marathoners
A Poll
Fetchpoint
Ditching the forum categories?
Moving to Responsive Design
Sandy 10: Be Kind To Horses
Owls!
For Adam and Jamie
March (11)
Bacon Smoke!
Benchmarks Update
Bath - Race Report
PB!!!!!!!
An annoying eight-year-old.
Let's Cook and Cut and Paste :-)
Let's Cook :-)
RIP Gramma
Book Winners
Dog farming
Site header update
February (5)
Book Giveaway
Pi Club
Pi Project Update
Because I'd like to check the blogging badges are working...
Crapruary
January (11)
Snooker Freak
Badges - Another Update
Unlockable Badges - Update
Unlockable Badges
TomTom Runner 2 Review
Gallery updates
Snowball coding and Fetch Unlockables!
Achievement Medals - what do you reckon?
Run The Sum
2015 Book List (and a bit of a review / plan)
Festive Fetch Calendar - Winners
2015 (175)
December (7)
Red Red Wine
A Poll
Gis a job!
Bedford Half
REMEMBER!!!
Vote for Fetch
Now you've hopefully got the idea...
November (13)
The Festive Fetch Calendar
Don't get excited or anything...
Slightly Dismal Friday
Pre-order your Fetch Buff now :-)
A message from our sponsor
Dr Fetch will see you now
Only the grumbliest, achiest chocolate... :-)
The Stanford Experiment
Buff Design
Snugs - Review
Love, Commitment, Support
The pre-wedding blog!
Good morning Fetchers, good morning Everyone
October (9)
Monthly Totals
Did you write a blog yesterday?
The First Rule of Web Server Maintenance
The gain line
Fectch
The zipper challenge!
Sugar daddy
Now in colour!
Competition Time!!!
September (14)
Teach your kids (or yourself) to code
Sticky Training Choices
Goodies: GetMore water and the Alcatel OneTouch Watch
Shirt size guidelines
This nearly made it...
Subscriber Shirt Design
I've got wood!
Humbled
New Beginnings
Some more questions answered
Swimming
Some responses to your comments
Standing on the shoulders of Fetchies
Funtleks
August (8)
24 hours in the south
24 hours in the north
Fetchies Assemble!
Thank you
Better knowledge than riches
Fitbit Urge
The villainous Mr Fetch!
Uncomfortable rear
July (8)
Why don't you play Conquercise?
Another week of strange training
Book Giveaway - Winners
GPS Reviews
Criteria for reviewing a GPS
Auto-bike-detector :-)
Win some bookses :-)
Half Way!
June (13)
Time Lapse Clouds
TomTom Bandit - very QUICK first impressions
My wings are like a shield of steel!
Running plus Cycling update
Embarrassingly...
Stalkers Paradise!
Recommend me a bike :-)
Holy Steamrollers Batman!
Rest day (no such thing)
Sqveeeeze!
We will now imitate the flight of a goose :-)
You made me ink! Snorkel safari :-)
Good morning from CLS :-)
May (10)
Club La Santa :-)
The AWESOME Power of Fetchies!
Home Insurance Shaftage :-/
Editing Forum Posts
The Future!
Some London Marathon stats
Walking On The Moon
Hardest parkrun?
New found wisdom
Week 1
April (11)
Marathon vLog
I owe some hugs!
And that concludes the voting from the Danish judges
Adventures in geocaching
Your video clips wanted!
Jelly with no spoons
Random Ultra
Suncream in my eyes - a review of 'Running and Stuff'
Books what I've read this year
Measuring the effect of wind
Wind Roses
March (18)
Watching the tide roll away
A great week of running!
Happy Jigs Wisdom!
Mobile Fetch
I don't do this very often...
Breathless Optimism
20 miles yesterday
This Week's vLog
Decision Trees and the sub-4!
Democracy Street
Mayan Maths
Bath Half (at last)
Still a chicken
Costume Drama in Bath
TomTom importing
Updated 'Train' page
Zonked
Nearly
February (29)
Pheasant
An Unexpected Journey
Wind picking up...
An unplanned kit alarm
Race Pace Test
2nd place
Week ends
Bounceback
Barking carrots
Bedroom pizza
Top of the mountain
Blogs get the mobile treatment
Supersonic Katie, and a marathon pace question
Back home
Racing parkrun ;-)
Unblocking the sink
Start in Darkness
Some times I'd like
Mobile Site - Forum Section
All-Time Leaderboards
Batteries
Sword fighting
PB Attempts
Duct tape and WD40
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
Lessons
Shoe horning
Training vLog Week 13
Big February Project
January (35)
Cake, invalidated
Small sips
LiRF, award shortlist, beginners, books, boy.
Dog Available :-)
Cutback
New Recipe Section
Lazy
Another threshold run
New Beginnings
Blah
But far more importantly...
Fetch Beginners Programme
Give it a go :-)
Training vLog - Week 11
Threshold Run (a running blog)
Long day, short blog
(Lack of) Pump Action
A thread to follow
This Boy Can
Local Leaderboards for Checkpoints
Choking.
February 18th
Godzilla!
The Travelling Checkpoint Salesman
Acorn Antiques
Bearing Up
Deleted Bridges and Dodgy Lasers
I'm Batman!
Healthy and Appy
Punch O'Clock!
The plan, then.
Ten mile toes
On Parliament
[Untitled]
Bold Claims, and a Challenge for 2015
2014 (262)
December (9)
A trip to Wales (vLog)
Christmas Messages from Fetchies
Various
FERC London Marathon Places - Draw
It's gone in my sock...
Festive Fetch Five
This Week's Training
To the Post Office!
Training vLog - Week 4
November (12)
I Am Groot!
Slightly Dismal Friday
Week 3 - in which I nearly drown my wife!
I said yes :-)
Free Daps! aka Test GORE-TEX® footwear this winter!
Training vLog - Week 2
More chances for VMLM entries
Marathon Talk
My first training vLog :-)
Second place?
In :-)
Questionnaire about personality traits amongst runners
October (16)
Adidas API
Horseplay minimiser
Running with the big dog
Flat and Windy
Who'd like to test the Garmin API then?
Advantage Borg
Deal?
Jumble
Milk Tray Reps in the Rain
Geneva
Quote
Hatfield 5k, and some other running thoughts
Site layout changes
Vote for Training Plans
Maths help
3-2-1
September (8)
A quick device poll
Garmin Connect API
Cake at the lake :-)
Empowering Women
This Week's Training
Tick :-)
Article help
First outing with the Harriets
August (7)
Book club and Harriers
A treasure trove for bookish types
What I did on my Summer Holidays
Local decoration
The Fisher King
Mojitos and no mosquitos!
Cake-athlon
July (26)
James Mason
Missing Week
Camping View
Wild Camping
Quick
Transalpine Race
In brief
Urgent! Pair of runners wanted!
Fetch Kit Available to Pre-order :-)
Fetch Anniversary Kit - Preview
API and FAK!
That dog has a puffy tail
More books
Reverse Moses
Zombies vs Plants
Shovel required
Nightfever
Dayfever
Catcher in the Rye
My sister the psychologist
Drink your strong limey drink
Keep me in the loop
Bread knives, hedgehogs and the dog in the night time
Whoops
Pinteresting
Q&A?
June (34)
Checkpoints video
Walden
Happy boys and giggly imps
Spring loaded
Elbow grease
Fetch 10th Anniversary Kit
Fetch YouTube Tutorial - Race Guide
Finding the Library folder on a Mac
Stoat!
Sonic screwdriver
Live wires
Wiring help needed
Garmin Express Experiment
Scalded sloth
Garminge
Potching
New Forum Layout
Further updates to the blog layout
New blog layout
First woodpecker
Beastin' parkrun
Pantoball
All was well
USA! USA! USA!
Marking Territory
The People's Poet Is Dead :-(
Holy Water
Throwing shapes
Life moves pretty fast
Recursion is beautiful
Win an OS Explorer / Landranger map of your choice
Intervals with a Suunto Ambit 2S
Tick
Economy done two ways
May (31)
[Untitled]
Vorsprung Durch Lego Technic
How do I liberate my boy from his XBox?
Questions?
Life in the Woods
Lazy
MovesMissed
Intervals with a TomTom
Electioneering
[Untitled]
Tree fluff
More camping
Zen and Camping
Not eaten by bears
Bear food
Camping List
Camping Venn Diagrams
Floppy dog
Routes but not Rathbone
Illustrator wanted
Masking
Highlights
The Cosmic Ballet Goes On
Silverstone 10k :-)
Quick one
[Untitled]
Superhuman snooker
Dogturdflagman
Numbers!
Whittlin'
Chapter 1
April (29)
King Bin
Quiet day on Feedback Mountain
Listing
42
Go directly to parkrun. Do not pass Godzuki.
A day in Wales
[Untitled]
Spanner
The Lost Diadem of Fetchbook
Falling asleep in my dinner
Egg
Sofathon
God gave rock and roll to you.
Sugar Mule
Not bad, consid'rin.
Tinkering
Can U Dig It?
A weekend in Wales
Looking forward to Oliver!
Thank you, and more App talk
RIP Nan
Blah
Appy
Pyjamas at both ends.
Thump. Saturday has started.
Sore tum :-/
Zombies aside... first impressions of the new TomTom
TomTom Runner Cardio Press Event
Am I pregnant?
March (31)
Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes Cornflakes
Sandy 10
#bedfordhappy
Me on YouTube
New graphs live
Follow the dot
Only the best for the Captain's table
Mrs Diahann Wagner is GOING HORNY
Sport Relief Win
Hot dogs, quick blogs
Toton Sidings
A sign!
Owen Farrell visualisation technique
Kebabs!
Booster fails to ignite
Myton Rugby Run (5 Miler)
Rugby before rugby
Sweetcorn antidote
Custard factory
Pooped
I did some intervals :-)
Speed work?
Many things
A bit cabbagey here.
Angry Wasp
Minty
Rainbow's End
Core Dump
Bath Half (in detail)
A quick overview
Down to business in Bath
February (28)
Made it to Bath
Unexpected hugs
Slider
I like to go a-wandering
Spring cleaning
Tongue-lolling
Because We're Worth It
I don't know what!
Thanks Jim
Enough now
Clearing the pipes
Crouch, Touch, Pause...
Medication, that's what you need.
Symptom Tour
Hello FBI
Dazed day
Why I'm an optimist
Mobius birds
Snotty knuckles
In this house...
Retch Everyone
Carrots
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
Ultrahalfmarathoner
Angry Birds
Belching
Clarkson averse
Good day :-)
January (31)
*bunting* *cake*
Bigger Boys
Zombies!
Pretending to be Saga Norén
Waiting for the AA
Ship shape
Readthrough
Technology takes you further
Love Garden
Cushions
High Heel Striker
Bit of a rubbish one
Ta
Hot Re-fills
Coding Grinch
An august prediction
Some Running Goals for Q1
Wipe-clean dog
Breaking it down
Snakes and Ladders
Bigger Ponds
Drink Your Weak Lemon Drink
All in All
Panning the pancake
Does JK Rowling own a dog?
Back to the kitchen table
Steve Davis shoes
Pigs on a water slide
Sloshing
Protocol
19 books :-)
2013 (29)
December (3)
Oh...
Engine Management Light
Hannibal Vector
November (3)
Speed skating
Stew-pendous
Cool Hand Grandpa
October (3)
Bookish
Minecraft Cake
Random dump
September (2)
Blog by Email!
Catchup blah
August (3)
Big Green Caterpillar
Questions answered - final CLS blog
Last Days at Club La Santa
July (10)
A nice morning of swimming and tennis
Please Read: Questions for a sports coach
Snorkeltastic
Hitting the straps
First Impressions at Club La Santa
Mile High Blog
Clocking off
For the second week running...
Another Club La Santa catchup
The Floor In The Plan
June (3)
Club La Santa
Bulk Uploading, and win a book
FERC Charities 2011-2012
March (1)
Bath Weekend
January (1)
Meet Steve
2012 (39)
December (2)
Tired Now Boss
Bath - Week 14 + Foodbank
November (3)
White Level Reading
Bath - Week 15
Bath - Week 16
October (2)
Onwards!
C'mon Dave
July (1)
RIP Arnie
June (2)
Rub some bacon on it
18 weeks
May (9)
Techy not tetchy
Time for a techy blog
Time to walk the dog
Stevington 12k
Properly coldy
Still a bit coldy
New blog design live
A bit coldy
Blogs Redesign
April (2)
Easter
SERIOUSLY LORD FETCH, SORT IT OUT
March (8)
A long run up
Running Tick
Weekend
Sport Relief Mile
Back once again
Swimming sweetcorn and other vegetables
Joy Rides, Sticks and Medals
Training Tip
February (9)
And...
Katie, ICT, and some more MySQL
May The Ground Force Be With You
Functions
Well done Batman.
Optimisation Crossword
Snow Days
Gallery, and parkrun
Pleased
January (1)
There Are Some Really Sexy Girls On Fetch







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