Archive for: 2011

I’m back! And Happy Holidays!

| 0 comments

I think it has been sufficiently long enough between my last post and this one. Though, some of you may or may not know, I have been on an exchange in Australia for the past 4.5 months, so I think that is a good reason! I had an amazing experience in Australia. I met a lot of great people, and I saw a lot (even got to pop over to New Zealand for a week!), but there is just so much more to see. Australia is a massive country, and though I was there for 4.5 months, I was at uni. So, I did have school work to do, but I managed to see as much as I could, with good grades to boot! I will definitely be heading back at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future. I know what I want to see still, and what I want to go back and see more of!

Now that I am back, I have some plans for my online portfolio coming up!

Read More »

Keep Your Browser Up-To-Date!

| 0 comments

The web, and technology in general, is changing rapidly. Shiny new technologies are emerging, updates are more frequent, and it’s a whirlwind of activity that we are all trying to keep up with.

One piece of technology that is always improving is the internet browser. Though there’s a handful to choose from – Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and others – many people stick with what’s pre-loaded onto their PC or Mac, and don’t bother to look at what is just out there.

And unfortunately, overtime old browser versions become out-dated, and they are unable to support the new web technologies that are available to users today. A specific one that comes to mind is Internet Explorer 6.

Read More »

Google+, Google What?

| 0 comments

Social media has come a long way quickly over the years, from MySpace to Facebook, to Twitter and anything else in between. You share photos, videos, thoughts; your current employment situation, or if your relationship is complicated or not. Social media allows people in the same field of work to connect with one another and share ideas, information, and possible employment opportunities, and it has even helped make significant social change in places around the world.

Recently, there’s a new social media website that’s come into town, and it’s starting to get some attention, and though very new, it could have the potential to bring some heat, especially to Facebook. This is Google+.

If you haven’t heard of Google+ yet, then you should check it out. Of course, you can’t just join, not yet anyways. It’s by way of invitation only, or through the use of sending specific posts to those who haven’t joined yet, and they’ll receive an email with a link to sign up.

Read More »

New look, what do you think?

| 0 comments

Well, my website has been down for awhile as I have been working on the redesign. This is it! What do you think? There’s lots of changes with this redesign. Obviously, the overall look of it. But there’s more to it than that of course. I thought I would go through what I have done and learned through this process.

Custom theme!

My previous design was a child theme that I created off of Thematic, a theme framework. At first I liked child theming, but after learning how to create my own themes over the past few months in my directed study at VIU, I have a new love for custom theming. With creating your own theme, you have complete control over everything, and you don’t have to use CSS to hide things, or force things to be a certain way. There’s a lot less clunky stuff going on I guess you could say. You can also include or exclude certain components, such as comments.

A couple books that have helped me out with custom theming are Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog and Smashing WordPress Themes: Making WordPress Beautiful, both by Thord Daniel Hedengren. Both are great books, and I highly recommend them. There is a 2011 edition now of Beyond the Blog as well. And, I also can’t forget the help of the WordPress Codex.

Read More »

Semester Finished, Summer Is Here!

| 0 comments

Ah, the end of the semester. It’s a relaxing feeling… sort of?

If you were following me on Twitter, you’ll know that the strike at VIU did happen, and it lasted a month. It started on March 10th, and we were back in class on April 12th, with a semester extension to April 29th without a formal exam period (actual class end date was April 11th followed by exams).

So that was a quick couple weeks to finish things up! All of my profs were really accommodating and flexible which was great. 🙂

I’m glad summer is here, I get to work more now and have some more free time, maybe. 😛 I’ve got one, maybe two, projects lined up right now. Speaking of projects – I added three to my portfolio! They’re all for the Media Studies department at VIU. Two of them were for my directed study (Digi 405) where I focused on WordPress theming. The other was a project I did in the Spring of 2010 as my first project working with PHP, and this semester I gave it a new look, and added some new stuff to it. Go check ’em out! 🙂

Read More »

Fingers crossed!

| 0 comments

It’s been awhile since my last post. I’m not very good at blogging I guess. But my busy schedule keeps me, well, busy!

I’ve been working on lots of projects, not only for my classes but for the Media Research Lab and the Media Studies department. I’m the MRL Student Manager, so I get to work on lots of things, and it keeps me super busy, but I like it a lot! So, shortly after the end of the semester I should have a few new projects up on my portfolio. 🙂

However, the end of semester could come a lot sooner… or at least our reading week may be extended. There is an impending strike at VIU, and the deadline is March 4th. I’m on reading week right now, and potentially we could have classes next week to only have no classes the follow week if a strike does occur. I have my fingers crossed that the strike does not happen, or if it must that it doesn’t last long. If it does last awhile, I personally do not mind if the semester has to be extended a bit, but I just don’t want the semester to get cancelled all together.

But I am keeping myself busy (which isn’t hard to do), and continuing to work work work away like nothing is happening. It’s all we can do really. Just wait and see what happens!

With some of my projects, I’m really getting my hands dirty with WordPress. I should be a WordPress Wizard of some sort by the end of the semester! I’m in love with WordPress, it’s just awesome. I’ve been working a lot more with just PHP again as well, and I’m hoping to get into OOPHP before the semester comes to a close.