Sam Davis | Blasted Thing

Hello and thank you for visiting my web log.

My name is Sam Davis and I hail from Bournemouth, on the south coast of the United Kingdom. I was born in Boscombe General Hospital in Dorset, and grew up in the Moordown area of the town. I attended Hill View Primary School and then went on to Bournemouth Grammar School.

After finishing my A-Levels I took a year out, as I worked for Chrysalis, and did a lot of freelance web design stuff - and then in 2001 I went to university to study BSc (Hons) Multimedia Communications. This course involved a year-long industrial placement, where I was an IT Technician. I graduated in June 2005 and freelanced my way through the next year, building systems and designing sites for various organisations.

However I decided a change was due in 2006, so I took up a position at Bright Light Media, which is a small E-Commerce web company with big ambitions. I’m still there now, and I’m responsible for the development of several web-stores and designing of internal systems. It’s a steep learning curve at times, but it’s great to be in a position whereby the things I am creating are helping us all move forward.

Aside from the obvious interest in IT, I am a huge fan of music. I frequent small gig venues across the south every month in the hope of catching a band that I really like. I’ve been to some really special nights where I listen to a band that is awesome, and then of course, it’s doubly nice when they make it big. Apart from an smidgen of smugness, it’s nice to realise how much money you can save if you catch a band early! The music section on this site will detail much of the stuff I am into at the moment.

I also, like most men, like football. I play for Ferndown Locomotive FC and support AFC Bournemouth, neither of which is ever easy - however it is a passion of mine that will never disappear. Simialrly, going out and socialising is a big part of my life. Having a few beers regularly with friends is important to me… and through it I’ve gained even more friends, random stories, and crazy nights out - some of which are documented on my photo section!

I am often referred to as “Sam IS Charminster” from the man that is Dave Taylor on Fire 107.6, and sometimes I provide some of the best one-liner jokes you’ll ever hear on his show. You have be tuning in around 09:30 for that though…

Stop Press: People have been asking me why I’ve recently turned in to some kind of technical nerd who seemingly has no life…

“Sam, all your blog posts are turning into PHP, Magento, XML, AJAX, B&Q, H&M type stuff that I neither know or care about? Are you saying that nothing f**ks you off these days? You’re changing!”

The fact is, I’m finding that, by blogging about the stuff I do inside work, my site can become extremely helpful to other people who are trying to achieve the same goals as me. For instance, in my posts I can often be seen providing chunks of PHP code, links to third-party services, advice for Magento users etc…

Not surprisingly, more people are finding my web-site through these search phrases rather than things like “TV Burp”, and although my sole aim isn’t to get as many hits as possible, this new batch of targetted traffic on my site provides income via affiliate links and Google Adsense, so it does make sense.

Similarly, by writing about this kind of stuff, I’m using my blog as an online diary of things that I have done - therefore, in three months time when I forget how to echo a Google search query on a web-page, I will be able to use my blog as a point of reference, thus saving me hours trying to remember how I did it in the first place! You see!

That said, I still have niggles, hates, and general Annoyances - and these can always be accessed on the Life Blog section.