wordpress « white male consumer

Activities Behind The Scenes

Posted February 8th, 2010 at 1:52PM

I’ve been actively plugging away with both this site and other projects in the past few days. The employment side of things is also looking rosy, so while posts might come slow over the foreseeable future, rest assured it’s not for lack of time in front of the computer!

I completed the promised site redesign here, switching to the Atahualpa theme but keeping the same color palette from the previous incarnation. Everything is running smoothly for the time being but I need to work on the archive page. I’ve been running a pretty sleek plug-in for displaying archives, but displaying all 700-odd posts on a single page is asking too much so I’m on the hunt for a better solution.

In related news, I’m currently working on an e-commerce site running CRE Loaded. While I don’t know if I’ll ever master that particular package or the concerns and issues of e-commerce security, its great experience to get under the belt. I’m making a small sum and its given me the crazy notion of monetizing more of the various coding and design work I’ve played with for years.

To that end I’ll be retooling surfingonarocket.com to function as a professional portfolio site. Eventually I’ll be able to point potential employers there for proof positive of various skills, from writing and editing AP style to coding and designing, Web 2.0-style. I want to become more productive to that end, finally putting out some original WordPress themes and completing freelance work of any variety. We’ll see how that goes.

I took the census entrance exam the other day and answered 27 out of 28 correctly. I couldn’t for the life of me determine what I got wrong, since I was able to work through the entire test twice in the 30 minutes they gave us and wasn’t uncertain over any answer. But then when I took the practice I filled out the incorrect bubble on one where I knew the right choice, so its anyones guess. Apparently 10 correct will get you a job so I’m not concerned enough to re-take the test, and hopefully missing one won’t preclude me from an office job or anything besides being an ‘enumerator’ (the people responsible for going door to door, and, apparently, getting guns pointed at them on a regular basis – according to a 2000 census veteran). Office job will pay better too.

The final word? Even without the certainty of employment I’m planning my first track outing of 2010 – it’ll be at Monticello Motor Club with SCDA, May 17th. There will be a MINI contingent and associated discount, and I’m officially pumped. My MINI is still tucked away in the garage (now completely enclosed with very nice electric garage doors!) but it’s just a tech check and fluid change away from being ready for the event. Well, not quite, but close enough.

Till later, intrepid readers!

I Promise To Blog More, World (Srsly?)

Posted January 13th, 2010 at 12:13PM

I’ve been playing with the most recent version of WordPress – 2.9.x at this point – and have been pleasantly surprised at each turn by some of the recent changes. The sad thing is I don’t think any of these are “new”; it’s just that I haven’t spent much time back here lately.

The WYSIWYG editor seems fully functional and reliable. I’ve always used the HTML editor (posts around here tend to be simple anyway). But I could get used to the new editor, especially with the fullscreen mode! (I don’t have much good to say about my PowerBook’s 1024×768 12″ display, going on five years old.)
I’m also just beginning to install and upgrade themes, plug-ins, and WP itself from the admin backend, and it is a godsend.
Along the same lines, I discovered the Atahualpa theme, which as a “theme framework” adds a whole new layer of accessibility with complete step-by-step access and control of site design through the WP backend.
And when reading this, keep in mind that I connect to the internet at a blazing 26.4 kbps. The WP admin still loads flawlessly and skipping my end of the connection speeds up installs / upgrades / theming exponentially.

So I’m intent on making MULTIPLE posts in January. There are a few topics on the burner and I notice the old Twitter hasn’t been updated in nearly two months. Huh. I’d like to refurb the pages, particularly the links and colophon. I’m definitely getting the itch to make some design changes. I’ll either polish the hell out of the current theme (by Ahren Ahimsa), or move to Atahualpa.

Site (S)news

Posted August 13th, 2009 at 12:19PM

I’ve been working on integrating a new theme to wmc. Things are moving smoothly and I’m pretty much done with the change over. The archives page is undergoing renovations that’ll hopefully be completed soon.

There is some horizontal scrolling on my laptop, but the menu easily expands and minimizes, eliminating this. I also know most people are using higher resolutions than I, so there’s less wasted space now. Let me know what you think and of any errors or oddities you may encounter.

Still on the ‘to-do’ list is substantial updating to the About and My MINI pages.

“(S)news”? Get it? Snooze? Ah, I’ll post something worthwhile later.

WP 2.7

Posted December 17th, 2008 at 9:39PM

Awww, WordPress. I upgraded to version 2.7 tonight, courtesy of some help from Bakshi (check his dead blog here). Most of the changes are in the admin back-end, so sorry if you’re not seeing anything different. This side is greatly improved from my cursory examination though.

Yeah, I’m really just using this space to finally get my Nov. 5th post off the front page. That was eons ago! I’m already getting mail regarding Obama’s re-election bid in ‘12. *cough*

WordPress 2.5 And New Design

Posted March 30th, 2008 at 12:50PM

I upgraded to the highly anticipated WordPress 2.5 yesterday, and this marks my first post with the greatly revised back-end. My my, have things changed. It’s very slick back here, and the biggest change to the admin section since I began using WP (somewhere in the nether regions of version <1.0). I’m looking forward to seeing what the ‘aftermarket’ will come up with in terms of redesigning the admin section as it’s now fully and more easily themeable.

Speaking of designs, I was hoping to whip up something new for my site’s theme with the upgrade to 2.5. I use MAMP to run a virtual server on my laptop so that I can theme and change things without affecting the live site. I’ve been running a 2.5 release candidate on it for a few days, but never got around to doing serious work on a theme. (I had a pretty good one going for awhile, but overwrote it in a really boneheaded move.)

So I set about looking for something new and attractive, fresh. I ended up at this Smashing Magazine article showcasing 15 of the latest, greatest WP themes. They were all very eye-catching. But after rooting around Smashing and a few very excellent web designer websites who gracefully release free WP themes, I realized that for all of their coding and design prowess, the actual designs are far from usable. The trend is moving away from easy access and readability towards… What? Amazing design that’s amazingly difficult to use. The main content is buried and obscured by huge splash graphics and marginally useful sidebars.

How can a website like Smashing Magazine dedicate itself to design topics that I (as a relative newb) barely understand, and then go and use a design that’s so infuriatingly hard to use? Where the main content takes up less than half of the page?

Design for the sake of it? No thanks.

I don’t even mean to call out Smashing Mag. I just discovered the site and it looks to be a great resource. What I didn’t want to do was single out some designer who’s making free professional-grade themes for WP (and whose site I personally felt reeks).

But whatever. I’m currently using a very slightly modified (revised header and slightly wider) version of InSense by Design Disease. It’s appealing, easy on the eyes, and allows the viewer to focus on the content.

Maybe one of these days I’ll get inspired and hack away some more. Till then.

“Health” Category Added

Posted December 12th, 2007 at 10:26PM

So about two months ago I did a quick post saying I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but that I wouldn’t make it a centerpiece of this blog. Well, as this site is a clearinghouse of all things moi, it turns out that as I learn more and fully deal with the disease, I feel the need more and more to write about it. So I’ve created a “health” category.

It won’t be strictly diabetes-related, however. I’ll be going back through the archives and adding anything “health”-related. I’ll be liberal with the definition, as I am with most definitions and things in general.

I foresee more interesting links to news stories and articles, and occasionally a handwritten (OK, handtyped) post on the more misunderstood aspects of diabetes.

Nobody reads the blog anyway: who cares if it goes in 20 random directions instead of only 19?

Problems Solved, Lessons Learned, Themes Changed

Posted November 21st, 2007 at 2:30PM

Today I quickly discovered the MySQL problem I was having after updating to WordPress version 2.3.1 â€“ an outdated plug-in that was calling obsolete tables from the database. First time I’ve had a problem with a plug-in, I usually never deactivate them when updating WordPress.

For the record, it was “Google Sitemaps v2.7.1.” I’m sure there’s already a fix for it.

But while I’m at it, I’m going to work on theming some more today.

Stay classy, San Diego.