While I'm not normally one to blow my own trumpet I felt that it was high time that I got myself a vanity page together. I decided this course of action for the most vain of reasons - I performed a search for “Graham Smith” (without quotes) on a popular search engine and found that I came somewhere other than top result! I have been running CrazySquirrel for more years than I care to mention and although it has become quite popular of late and is the number one result for a number of terms being the number one Graham Smith is still a prize that eludes me.

After a great deal of effort I have manged to briefly make forth place in the results for Graham Smith only to slip back to eigth place again. It would seem that I am unlikely to make the number one spot any time soon as there is a rather famous music photographer that shares my name. I've recently started to look at getting the number one spot for Doozer as well although I am only about twelfth for that currently. 

As this is a vanity page I should say something about myself. I live with a lovely young lady called Hazel – we have been together a little over 14 years and currently have no plans to get married (we have a mortgage we don't need to get married). I've got a degree in chemistry and a masters in computer science and want to do neither very much.

Original 2006 Content 

In a week or two (around my 30th birthday actually) I intend to order a wood lathe for myself and spend far to much money. Fingers crossed I will be as interested in it wood turning as I think I will be. I'm currently looking at getting a Record Power CL4 - Quite a beast of a machine for a new turner but I think it will be worth it in the long run if I get really interested and will be fairly easy to sell on if I'm not.

Update: I've got the lathe and I am very interested in turning. I'm going to try and write about my exploits turning so if your interested check back.

I dream of one day working for myself and there is a tiny little voice inside me hopes that I will be able to turn for a living. I would have to become very good but I am not sure when I will get the time to get that good. I suppose as with a lot of things in life you have to be doing it for a few years to make a name for yourself. If I could sell one or two pieces a month though I would be really happy.

My last attempt at self employment (Shallow Sea Aquatics) wasn't a complete disaster but it wasn't exactly a roaring success either. Our suppliers required us to have a premises which costs a small fortune even though we never actually used it. We simply couldn't afford to pay for the upkeep of it – it sucked essentially all our profits and then some.

Currently (May 2006) my end of year goals are to:

• Make this site earn me $1000 a month (no, I'm not earning any where near that at the moment).
• Learn (some) French.
• Get good enough at wood turning that I can start selling a fair number of items.

I think these goals are fairly ambitious but achievable with enough work. We needs loads of new content for the website to grow it that much by the end of the year. I suppose I had best get writting...

P.S. I'm currently the 9th Graham Smith :o)

Update: February 2007

Well I've not made the top spot for Graham Smith nor have I got this site earning me $1000 a month (although we've made gains). I still don't speak French but the wood turning has gone pretty well. I've not sold anything yet but I'm probably now good enough that I could. Perhaps I should make a 2007 goal of becoming the number one Doozer - we'll see.