So here it is,,, this is where I’ve been for the last few days. Slaving away till all hours of the night, brain storming and typing like a Stenographer on crack…(you know you love it)

So this is VisualComa v3.1.0 and I like it… It’s not a huge diviation from the last design, but its a little more fresh and simple. I wanted the visual focus to be more directed to the posted content. I guess that mean I should put some real content in here then… Another point of interest was to freshen things up by using a relaxing font when possible. Apple Casual is a great font, one of my favorites.

Other News

As I mentioned the other day I actually bought my own Scooter. It’s a Honda Ruckus 50cc, yes that’s the weakest cc I could have gotten apart from getting a pocket bike. but seriously who would I be kidding if I were to get a real motor cycle… I’m pretty sure I would kill myself or lay it down on my foot right in the middle of town and have to be drug out from under it. Then some old lady with saggy nylon tights would come over to see if I was O.K. and I would accidentally look up her dress… So lets just forget about getting a motor cycle. I don’t like what I’m thinking about.

What else is new…

In relation to what else I’ve been doing, mostly typing but also listening to some sweet tunes. One in particular that I got was ‘Grace Kelly‘ from Mika… I freaking love this song, and for some reason they remind me of Queen. oh and don’t ask why, but I’ve really been into the Shiny Toy Guns, weird I know…

Nuff said for now,,, I promise I’ll get some good video of the Scooter in action (biscuet), maybe even a wheely. just for you Wine… I’m building a mount on the front for my camera, so, good time are coming…

Take it easy

This is just a quicky, I’ll save all the good stuff for Web App Wed… But in the mean time here is a little info for you WordPress self-hosted users.

I would suggest checking out this plugin before you go and download and upload a crap load of files manually. Don’t forget!!! Always do your homework on a plugin before you use it, and if possible test it on someone else first. no I’m not testing it on you…I already tested it on some of my theme sites and this one as well.

&

I found another great bit of information today about combining CSS with PHP… Now the seriously time consuming work can begin….

For those of you that may not know, who ever you are… I have been grinding my fingertips to the keys over these last 6 to 8 months developing Themes for Blog and Myself, working toward the goal of being a serious competitor in the theme industry. I am still way behind…

None the less I hit another mile stone today with fully dynamic CSS that can be administered from the Design/Themes section in WordPress. As far as theme development goes, this is a fairly standard option. I’ve just never taken the time to get into it. So, now I can spend countless hours restructuring CSS,, oh the joys of the learning curve.

BTW, if you haven’t gone over to MeRandy, you should check it out. I also want to say for those of you that have, Don’t expect anything of real content to come from there. It’s a place for me to dump my drawings, pics, and random finds that I wouldn’t post here.

This weeks edition of Web App Wednesday I’m going to keep it simple. Here is a nice plugin for those of you self hosted Wordpress users…

WordPress Database Backup

It’s a typical install, easy and fast. And it’s just a few clicks away from sending you an email with a .sql.gz file holding all your Database info. You can set it up to automatically back up every week, which leave you free from worrying about the big What If…

Check it out and see what you think. If you’ve got any amazing plugins that you like so much you’d recommend lets hear them.

This is Web App Wednesday, for those who see this and are wondering… This is the one post I do a week that lets me talk about Web Apps that I’m into. More or less this weekly post keeps me from blabbing about Web stuff all the time.

This week I’m going to talk a little about WordPress, I’m absolutely in love with this platform. As a PHP, MySQL driven Content Management System, WordPress is one of the few platforms that allows us simpletons to publish web content with relative ease.

Yesterday was the 5th B-Day of WordPress so if you’re a user than slap a high five in the air for that. I think there is a lot to be said for a platform that offers itself for free. Not to mention the fact that you can self host, be hosted via WordPress.com, or if your extra ordinary you can do a Multi User WordPress thingy… I’m not sure how to explain that last one except that you’re able to host multiple blogs from one administration panel on a self hosted account. (i honestly don’t think that last line counts as techno babble)

The real reason I’m all in pansies over WordPress this week is that I finally developed a full fledged plugin that interacts with the database and offers editing. Simply create a page and type [list_badges] in the content area and blamo there you have your results.

Yipty dippty doo, right!!!? This is exciting for me simply because now I am one huge step closer to being able to offer something to the public… (although I probably wont any time soon)

Here’s the skinny,,,

My honest opinion is this. Platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Habari, b2evolution, Moveable Type and the like are setting a new standard for the web. It’s amazing, cool, and I’m happy about it.

Also, I’d like to give a shout out to group over at and say a HUGE THANKS!!!! You’ve made the web gods happy… oh and me too…

Here is my latest work… Connersvine…

The Connersvine theme is by far my favorite one, and for some reason I was able to wizz through it. I think design only took about a week and a half, and coding took about another week. I love it when this happens, work seems to be a breeze and it’s actually fun to work all hours of the day and night.

Here are a few things I like about the design…

• Real photos to work with… Cool background image.
• Fixed header Link section.
• Use of png’s with Opacity.
• Comments section. (nothing that special, just different than what I’ve done so far)
• Posting section has some new ideas I’ve been wanting to do.

All in all I’m really satisfied with their new design. Check it, click on stuff and let me know what you think. (yes, I know there is nothing in the news section)

Today has been filled with brain teasers so I really haven’t had a chance to post thoughtfully, but I thought you should know a few things.

1. Today is Kristen’s Birthday, be sure to say happy birthday if you haven’t yet.
2. Today is also WordPress’s 5th Birthday… I know thats not what you expected, but no worries you don’t have to wish ‘it‘ a happy b-day…
3. We had cake for Kristen and it was a Wall-E cake. I really want to go see it, but I don’t have anyone to go with so I might just wait.
4. Oh, and I don’t really like cake…
5. I’ve been on the computer for a long time, I’m trying to develop a plugin so I can make Brody do more work…
6. I was board the other day and decided to update my template and came up with this design while in the process.

I might have positive post later today, but I’m trying to just crap one out for you…

I’ve been doing a little thinking over the last few weeks about doing a little side work. I’m still not sure if I should be doing side work or not. Seeing as I might be my own competition, it might not be a good idea.

Here is what I’m thinking, and in this thought I don’t feel I would be my own competition. (but maybe I would)

My Idea…and this would only be offered to personal blogs…(real people with people thoughts)

• Offer services for basic installation of WordPress…Which would require…
  1. Your own Web Hosting package.
  2. Your own Domain Name.
  3. Basic understanding of Blogging in general. (other wise you’re wasting your money)
• Helping you find a Trusted Theme for your blog. (no I wouldn’t offer theme construction…way to much work)
• Help you find Stable Plugins so you can do what you want, and get what you need from your blog.
• SEO (Basics)
• And for the none WordPress users, maybe a little Tutor Session.

Still I’m not sure about this. Honestly, you could find all these things and do them yourself.

Thing of it is, would I be giving away Trade Secrets? Would I be my own Competition?

Trade Secrets??? (thats the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard…wordpress is anything but secret) Here is what I mean when I say “Trade Secrets”. I’m fairly positive that if the Music Industry (in general) new how to build a blog, they would. The problem with that is what will they do with it? Would a record label actually give a Musician a blog and let them have free rain to say and do what they want? (??? not sure…)

Mean while all the work that I have done so far has been for the band directly and I would like to keep it that way. For me it’s a matter of who’s really on the Soapbox, and I think we as bloggers, writers and authors can tell when a musician is speaking or it’s just their manager, label or editor…

There has to be some amount of give and take between Management and Musicians, there always has been and there always will be. One thing to keep in mind as we start to see more musicians begin to write and share is that with every post myspace is taking a blow to the gut… (thats my favorite part)

Three Cheers for Blogging!!!
Now if we could just find another word that says “Blogging” with out all the implied geekiness… although I think inside we all kinda like our geek side. I know I do!

Here is my latest work. I’m not going to toot my own horn… I do like it, although I have been starring at if for a few weeks now so I need a break.

Its all ready to go, my only real concern is IE, since I moved I don’t have access to Internet Exploder and that is really bad.

So if you’re using IE and you happen to swing by FEE and see some ridiculous mistakes feel free to ream me for being an idiot.

Basically I don’t feel like I have written a single piece of meaningful content here in a while. Hope I haven’t lost any reader cause of my post laziness.

To be completely honest I think I’ve been starring at my computer screen so much this last few weeks that my vision is starting to get all waked off jacked up… oops

Over the last two weeks I’ve been putting in painful hours getting a theme ready for a band called FEE. I hope it’s a typical feeling when I say, “I think I’ve been looking at it too long because now that it’s just about done I’m scared to look at it in fear I might want to change things.”

It’s probably something most designers go through. No matter what is being worked on, or what kind of a product you are designing, if you look at it too much all you see are the tiny, insignificant, 1 pixel mistakes that I will spend hours tweaking on. When in reality only a handful of people will ever notice that 1 pixel. (heck, why not strive for perfection)

Apart from 1 or 2 pixels here and there I can definitely say I am happy with it. It’s clean, easy to navigate and easy to read. It’s low contrast in the areas that count and I don’t think there is much visual competition going on. I feel most of the components are working well with each other.

Now all I have to do is re-work the CSS for Internet Explorer.

Oh, and out of curiosity, does anyone know where I can find some kind of list about what the differences are between IE, Safari and FireFox…?

(if this is the second time you’ve seen this post, that because its the second time i posted it. The first one was negative and after getting a few hours of sleep I realized I wanted Vertical Blogging to be ran over by semis not fee’s theme. In case you were wondering…)—(wait do I have to pay to say that last line???)