CSS from an Ambien and Lunesta point of sleep

Month it...

2007-01-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

It is a shame when you only update once every 7 years. I found the map! That's right, don't read the last line again, I found the map! Yes it's "the map". 89 years of searching and it's found. It is being kept at an undisclosed location for obvious reasons. Finally.

Ethanol

2006-12-16T21:16:00.000-05:00

It is incumbent on you to learn about Ethanol fuel. If you drive a car, or plan on riding in a car any time soon Ethanol might muscle its way into your life. It costs a little more to produce than gasoline but this energy alternative may be a life line in the future. Ethanol and fuel cell information is worthy of study. Learn about the environment and effect positive change.

HDTV is under an under used feature...

2006-12-12T18:43:00.000-05:00

According to Hidefster.com a plasma television resource, television consumers are not utilizing their TV's HD capability. People are buying HDTV for the 16:9 aspect ratio and the ability to watch in better digital quality without going HD. People you are missing out. High definition plasma television viewing is simply the best. It's better than all the rest. Better than any TV you ever seen. If you go out and spend $3000 on a TV and then don't get the HD cable box and HD package you are making a big mistake. Would you by a Porche and never see what it can do on a Highway. Oh, local driving is good enough for you. Well than so is low def TV. Me, I like HD and fast driving. Call me crazy.

Natural Sleep Store Insomnia Cure

2006-11-18T21:21:00.000-05:00

If you can't sleep check out the NaturalSLeepStore.com super sleepproduct and information spot. Natural sleep is a big part of sleeping health. Drugs are not a great long term solution. Sleeping pills. Rest well my liege should make you feel at ease not jealous of those who are capable of resting while insomnia ruins your life. Fight back against Insomnia with the armor of sleep products from pills to foam beds.

Ship it, just ship it...

2006-11-12T15:25:00.000-05:00

Don't you just ship it. Don't you just ship. C'mon and ship it. Ship it like that.

Ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, ship
oh ship it, ship it real good,
oh ship it,
ship it good,

Pack and ship it,
pack and ship it,
tape and B-Wrap,

Oh tape it, tape it real good,
oh tape it,
tape it good,

Anti-static bubble wrap

Tape with peanuts and shrink wrap

Tape it!

Video game fun and TV...

2006-10-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

The type of television and choice of cables you use to set up and play your Xbox 360 will greatly influence your game play enjoyment. The next generation Plasma TV series from Samsung is designs to enhance the gaming experience. DVI and HDMI are the minimum for true game play accuracy. Star Wars II Lego freak show is quite sweet on a 60" plasma television.

Window air conditioner HDTV commercial

2006-09-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I saw a commercial in HDTV that was for the new 19,000 BTU window air conditioner from sharp. It was a really sweet commercial because the people in it where so hot and then got real cold when they turned on the window air conditioner. I enjoyed the commercial for AC units even more because it was in hidef. HD commercials are more tolerable than low def commercials. High def makes you feel like your watching something the creators worked at producing. It is television art not just a sales pitch. HDTV has gone a long way towards making peoples lives better.

Absolute Craziness

2006-08-10T15:14:00.000-04:00

Insomnia: Talk Beats Sleeping Pills

The headline above appeared on WebMD.com a few weeks back and should sound completely insane to you because it is. I don't know about you, but if someone's yapping away about air conditioning units, video game buttons, HDTV, Thorlo socks, and even sleeping pills, I not only stay awake, but I find myself having to engage in the conversation.

Deleterious Toe Jammery

2006-08-08T12:39:00.000-04:00

The Toe Jam & Earl video game series sends the wrong message to our children. Toe Jam is ostensibly a silly, inane name, but is toe jam something we want our children cozying up to. Toe jam is not only unsightly, but it can lead to a decay of the nail bed, infections, blisters, abrasions, and possibly insanity. One addendum I propose be made the next (and ultimately last) installment of the series is the inception of a hero, one that will defeat the wretched Toe Jam. His name would be Thorlo, a summa cum laude graduate of Sock University. Equipped with thicker, denser terry padding than other socks, Thorlo is capable of preventing the formation and spreading of the bacteria that is the genesis of toe jam. In the meantime, www.videogamebuttons.com has all the summary, renting, and buying info. you need for any game and any platform.

Socks for Him!

2006-08-02T16:22:00.000-04:00

There once lived a boy with no socks,
Whose blisters grew bigger than rocks,
His feet stunk like hell,
for the whole neighborhood to smell,
so he was sentenced to life in a box.

That, my friends, is the story of Bobby Fischer. Ask anyone.

I bought socks. I did not shoplift socks...

2006-06-29T12:10:00.000-04:00

My good friend and retailer Mr. Sock recently purchased an electronic article surveillance system. It is a Sensormatic system that uses ultramax tags to stop shoplifting. He uses the hard tags called supertags and the little sensormatics called stickers. He claims it has lowered his shrink. I told him to wait until the inventory in January before he starts boasting. It will probably work, but I just want it to be proved for me before I believe it. I'll tell you what happens at inventory time.

Behold Sock University...

2006-06-09T14:51:00.000-04:00

Oh the joy of shopping for socks online or on the online as some would say. If only all people could ghet a good sock education before purchasing some socks. Be they Thorlo, WgWam, or Gold Toe a good sock is hard to beat and a great buy on a good sock is even harder to beat. So directa your feetza to Daddy Greene's pizza and buy some socks the online.

Oh Ambien my sweet pill to make me sleep...

2006-05-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

The Canadian National anthem while inherently annoying is also a great tune. If you rewrite the words to change them to sleepy lyrics you get quite a little number. It can actually induce slumber. Lunesta deserves its place in any sleep anthem but Somnigen and Ambien are seated in the places of honor. Sleep well my Canadian lieges.

Hand painted shirts.

2006-05-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

Black artists and hand painted shirts are like sunlight and ocean waves. All are effected by the moon. Hip hop clothing is a big industry. One of the hottest trends is hand painted goods, brought to you by black artists. Look for these tee shirts on an MTV video soon.

Yankees and Arod

2006-05-14T15:40:00.000-04:00

9th inning hits are key. The guy needs to step it up a notch. He had a good 9th inning hit on Sunday though. At 6-1 it might be a little late.

Reporting and reconciliation...

2006-05-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

Balanced accounting practices increase the financial security of your business. Financial security can be the savior or downfall of any business. This is especially true for a retail store.

Security Warning...

2006-05-03T23:41:00.000-04:00

Attentive vigil over ones personal security can not be over valued. Security is a priority when planning any project. Security guarantees safety when it is so necessary.

Socks and sleep...

2006-05-01T02:05:00.000-04:00

Instead of counting socks some people count sheep. I am not one of these select sock few because lunesta puts me out before socks or sheep become necessary. Cotton sock 1001, cotton sock 1002. Not cool. Nor is 1000 sheep. Just get some natural sleep with somnigen when all else fails.

Sonata gonna work here anymore...

2006-05-01T02:01:00.000-04:00

Get it? Office space. But in all candor, Lunesta is the shizzle. Ambien works and Somnigen is great to, but lunesta is my current favorite. It's sleep alicious. That is not a word but I am to tired to care. Ambieniacs are taking over the world. Lunesta is here to stay.

Who in the Heck does not...

2006-04-07T02:45:00.000-04:00

Who in the Heck does not use a title for a blog entry? That is the question. This is the answer. HD stuff happens. Remember what Sockem Cotton said, "To Live Is Sock!"

2006-04-07T02:38:00.000-04:00

Ambien sleep is my new favorite topic as I am a new author. I am a fan of Lunesta also. Somnigen is cool to.

Alas it is a world filled with security tags of the retail sensormatic type. Sometimes I watch sleeping pill commercials on a 72" HDTV DLP rear projection TV, which is nice.

Right now I am wearing 2 socks made from real cotton.

I look forward to being cooled by a window air conditioner this summer.

Sensormatic Vs. Checkpoint "The Showdown" coming to a theatre near you.

Star Trek TNG wow what a difference.

Plasma Vs. LCD = Jury is still out.

2006-04-05T17:50:00.000-04:00

CSS: Squishing those last few bugs

I realized I haven’t updated the blog in a few days. This is a result of late nights at the office and meetings at the very end. I will pay more minds to updating every day.

To bring the blog up to date, I have now discarded all the tables of every page on the site and used CSS instead. Now all that’s left is ironing out the little visual mishaps. I worked on 8 pages today, one of which I completely recoded. I felt this was necessary to have it in follow the template that now the rest of the pages on the site are in.

I am now waiting for review of the rest of the site before rubbing my hands together and putting this project to rest.

2006-04-03T18:14:00.000-04:00

CSS: 6 away from completion

Today I kept chugging away at removing the tables from the main pages to CSS. I’m getting very close to being finished. Below are the pages left. I will finish these tomorrow.

Sony_LCD_23.html
Panasonic_Plasma_37.html
Mitsubishi_62_DLP.html
Magnavox_Plasma.html
Glossary.html
HDTV_Beginners_Guide.html

2006-03-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

CSS: Banging out more pages

Yesterday I made some night progress by finishing up all the product pages. I could only assume that they are finished because no email with corrections came my way.

Today I worked on the main pages. The “Buyers Guide” was one of the troublesome pages but I managed to get most of it cleaned up. I might take a poke at it over the weekend. I know what is wrong, it’s just going to take some time poking through the code and moving some tags around.

I also worked on the blog today. It was pointed out to me that the positioning was a little off from the rest of the site. I was able to fix this by pulling the output of the PHP and making a static page. This static page was saved to where the PHP files are located and the CSS controlling file was operated on . . . It really didn’t take much.

Last night I was riding home on the train, I noticed a book in a persons hand said CSS on the binding. I quickly jumped on the opportunity to brain poke. Like most of us techie people, we like to talk tech so he was happy to pull his nose out of the book. He recommended a book and a site to check out. I have the book written down at home but the site is http://www.csszengarden.com/. Although I browsed upon it before, I realized only today what a great site it is.

65۫ F out today. Hello spring!

2006-03-30T21:45:00.000-05:00

CSS: Product Pages

With the status bar of download progress, it counts down from 2 minutes. All the product pages are in CSS form with the headers and Meta tags put in place. I was able to complete this part of the site because I had a template to work from. After the content was placed in the template, I was able to tweak each page to accommodate the slight differences.

I am awaiting feedback on the pages for any changes needed. I know I could miss a few little things especially when coding for an entire day, then trying to view the page from an aesthetic point of view. Criticism is always welcome and appreciated.

2006-03-29T17:48:00.000-05:00

CSS: ~Bug Squashing~

The little things, that’s what’s important. Today I worked on fixing some of the CSS issues of the pages. At the end of the day I was shown the spacing on the upper portions of the pages were a little off center. I’m in the process of squashing those bugs.

2006-03-28T18:33:00.000-05:00

Product Page Templates

Yesterday almost all the files to the site was is CSS form. I did 50% of this by using multiple templates I contracted. By tailoring each file a little I could achieve a similar look to the original site. The problem is, I could not get a close enough replication of the site using just the method of cut and paste into the template.

Today I spent the majority of the day trying to edit the common CSS file to create a better representation of the original site.

The product page template is finished so all you eager beavers who want to get to product pages live follow the directions bellow:

Go to the FTP and download the following 3 files from the "For Editing" Directory.
1. Product_Template.html
2. Product_Template.css
3. MainCSS.css
Open the HTML file in Dream Weaver version 8
before going any further, click “file” and “save as”
save the file as a different name.
Edit the place holders “Left” “Right” “Content” and “Sidebar” to the content of the page.
NOTE: The page looks different in Dream Weaver then it does in the browser. Even in the browser it will most likely not look perfect. The CSS has to be tailored to make the page look the way it’s supposed to.

Place the new files you have created in the “For Editing” folder on the server.

I will make the finishing CSS touches ASAP

2006-03-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

Table Removal: The beginning of the end

Well, I’m almost done with this site. Out of the 30 or so pages, I have only 4 left to remove the tables from, and then I have to update all the META tags and update the google ads for the product pages.

Tomorrow this project will come to its glorious end.

2006-03-24T16:41:00.000-05:00

Table Removal:

Well all the core pages are pretty much finished. All but two are completely done and the others just have small bugs. The main page and Reviews & Ratings page have the small problems.

Although all the product pages are not finished, the template for the products are created . . . Which makes me think of something . . . PHP!!! But regrettably I will not be using PHP to suck the content out of the present pages being they don't take on a particular form . . .Althoughh for future implementations I will consider this.

2006-03-23T18:11:00.000-05:00

Table Removal: Templates and Tinkering

The template I created yesterday worked like a charm. The content of the main section and side bar are simple plug-in’s.

The reason I’m only in 3rd gear still is the content above the sidebar and main portion but below the navigation bar changes from page to page. I have to custom fit each and every page to its own layout. This is taking, I believe too much time. I have to think of templates that satisfy most of the pages upper content.

I have created one that has 3 sections and will be used for the product pages. There is one main section on top for ads, and a left and right box directly below for content.

I will spend part of tomorrow morning creating new upper content templates. I have about 25 to 30 pages left for table removal.

2006-03-22T17:34:00.000-05:00

Table Removal: The saga continues

I didn’t like the way the project was sailing along. It seemed as if every page I was building from the bottom up all over again. I didn’t make sense to me that a site that has only the content changing on each page should be so difficult to recreate without the tables.

With these thoughts in mind, I made a template. This template consisted of all the similar portions of each page; the top, bottom and sides. I also made sections for the sidebar and content.

This was not a new idea that I had; it was just that the other way I was going about it didn’t work. Plain and simple, the code had its flaws and to edit the content would be just as much a hassle as it was to recreate it. This was not sufficient from the code perspective or the content writers’.

Because I took the time to re-do some steps, I saved a lot of time in the long run. On the first day, I created one page, the second day I created one page as well. Today I created 4 pages. Tomorrow I can only assume I will be able to complete more then 4. I hope to have this site finished by tomorrow if not the next.

There is one bug on the 4 pages I found but it’s a quick fix and I will patch it up tomorrow. It has to do with the positioning of the search bar and some of the pictures not responding to the change in the browser size. This is doing to something called absolute positioning. This alone is not a problem but when an element of absolute positioning is not contained inside a different type of container, it will disregard the changes around it.

2006-03-21T18:12:00.000-05:00

Table Removal: Page 2

Today I worked on removing the tables from the second page of the site. I thought the process would take shorter today then it did yesterday but I ran into new problems. One of which was both pages were using the same CSS file. Since both needed different settings for the attributes, when changing one, I would have the side effect of changing the other.

Although I have a little more to go, I resolved this problem. I did this by breaking the CSS us into a main CSS file and each page will have its own CSS file. This method seemed to work best.

I was thinking to have all the pages with absolute positioning. With this method, editing the content would be like drag and drop for each div statement. Using this method, I think the process will move along faster.

2006-03-20T19:44:00.000-05:00

CSS all the way!

Today I removed the tables for the main page of the HDTV site. This process resulted in 100 lines less of code with an identical look.

Getting started with the page in aligning the pictures and text to the right of it proved some difficulty but all in all the task was relatively simple.

As a personal side note I am enjoying the process.

2006-03-17T18:00:00.000-05:00

The Blog: CSS

All the hard work and extra time paid off. The blog is up and running, looking beautiful, and striped of its tables!!!!

Some of the bugs that took me a while to iron out were so hidden, I must have overlooked them a few times, but lessons were learnt and I’m a million times more confident with CSS.

I cant wait to strip the tables out of the rest of the site!

2006-03-16T17:41:00.000-05:00

Reinventing The Wheel: Banging out the flat spots

Today I worked on eliminating the tables in the PHP script of the blog with great progress. I am now 90% finished. I have just a few glitches to iron out.

Image 1: Internet Explorer

Image 2: Fire Fox

As you can see, there are bugs in both Internet Explorer and Fire Fox. The IE bug has to do with the background gradient behind the blog navigation on the side bar.

The Fire Fox bug has to do with positioning. Firstly, the entire body is positioned to the left. Secondly, the content sections are shifted to the right. These bugs are easier to fix then the IE bug. The caveat is when changing one it changes the other so that is my obstacle for tomorrow.

2006-03-15T18:08:00.000-05:00

Reinventing the wheel . . . but it’s a better wheel then yours!

The site is getting a make over of a life time, she’s being stripped naked of all her ugly nested tables and replaced with those good div’s instead. Its not easy at first but im getting the hang of how to approach this thing.

Today I have completed the skeleton of this construction and started putting the basic structural pictures in place. Tomorrow I will work it into the PHP code and I’m optimistic I could be done tomorrow.

I also spent some time killing the little bugs we found when viewing in fire fox. They might be small like a Nat but they bite!

2006-03-14T18:14:00.000-05:00

The Blog: A working Blog

The Blog is up and looking nice besides a glitch or two in fire fox which will be worked on first thing tomorrow morning. Working with an HTML mock up proved to be the best way in creating the code. I will follow this procedure whenever working with PHP.

Now that everything is looking perfect, once again I will be hacking it apart and making the code as beautiful as the blog now looks. This requires substituting the hellish maze of imbedded tables with sassy <div>tags. Not the easiest task being the blog is an "out of the box" PHP driven script whose creator loves using tables for layout.

Come on you software engineers, get with the times!

2006-03-13T19:18:00.000-05:00

The HD Blog: The Layout 2

The first layout was almost complete, that is, before we had an epiphany for another, better, more pleasing to the eye layout. This set the project back a little but a lot was accomplished today/tonight and was well worth it. The blog is looking (going to look) like something I could be proud to say is ours.

The beginning of the day was spent creating the new look in photoshop. A lot of messing around with different colors and shapes resulted in something that the team gave the thumbs up to.

The last part of the day was spent creating a mock HTML of what the site should look like. The coding was a little tricky. Some of the objects possitions were not doing what I expected them to but I finnaly got some of the problems worked out . . . at least in IE (Internet Explorer). So far just one bug in FF has to be iorned out. It shouldn’t be that big of a bug to stop though, I think I had to deal with something simmilar before.

Tomorrow I will be finishing up with the HTML mock up and move on to the real deal of figuring out where all the code goes in the PHP. . . . My work is never done, but what can I say, I love it!!!!

2006-03-10T17:01:00.000-05:00

The Blog: Implementing (the buggy beginning stages)

Bugs bugs bugs
Today I started implementing the mockup html of yesterday into the php. So far
so good, of course there are some bugs. A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)
is not always what you get. I’m squashing the little suckers one by one. Some
changes are to be made on Monday.

The list of “things to change” can be seen below:

Center the title

Change the color of the side box to orange

Side box needs better spacing and different titles ( The titles and what goes under them will be changed so leave the actual text for now. )

The first title is to close to the top

More space between the lists and the next title

Take bullets out

all the titles should be centered and the list beneath them should be left justified

the side box should only go as far down as it will be filled (ads will be placed under them (not inside the box))

Change the look of the blog title (Maybe background graphics )

Put the logo to the left of the title text and center the whole thing

2006-03-09T18:10:00.000-05:00

The Blog: The Layout

majority of the day was spent on the layout of the blog. I used the output of the website to create a static webpage in order to use as a mockup. Using the local server (A.K.A. my computer) to test the layout I was able to create a nice looking template for the blog. Tomorrow I will implement what I have worked on today.

2006-03-09T10:57:00.000-05:00

The Blog: Layout and Create

Yesterday I got all the pieces fitting. When you where a kid, have you ever played with one of those three section books where the bottom section is feet, the mid-section is a body and the top section is a head. As the sections change, the creature takes on a new shape. In a way, I am the author of this book, or the editor anyways.

the site contains different sections, the three basic sections, strangely enough, are named almost the same as the book. The sections include the head, body and footer. The difference is, there are sections inside sections.

The tricky part of this whole thing is, the different sections can not overlap into each other, no matter what the body has become. Imagine the book, some of the bodies had a little piece of the head or a little part of the foot, or some of the feet are too large for the body. The creature wouldn’t look right.

I got a working model so everything meshed right. Today is the day I get everything looking nice. Make the feet, body and head the sexy looking creature it was meant to be.

2006-03-07T12:06:00.000-05:00

Rum Tum Tum on a Barrel of Rum

They always said I walk to the beat of my own drum. I often do when playing my own drum. Rarely do I find the opportunity being I do not own a drum. If I did own a drum, I would probably call my friends who play the guitar, sax, and keys. I would also invite my cousin who sings and then we could all walk to the beat of my drum while jamming out with one another.

2006-03-01T10:08:00.000-05:00

Please Save Me The White Space

I had an idea for a new innovative layout for a webpage. Imagine you are looking at two sheets of paper on a desk. You place them beside each other so you can look at both of them at the same time.

You are half way through the document when the cleaning lady comes and becomes pushy tell you to move. You reluctantly gather your papers and move to a desk of one of your co-workers that is vacationing in Hawaii with his wife. Although you are grateful for the vacancy you can temporarily occupy with your work, the desk is smaller and cluttered. You then start to realize why you had the bigger desk, because you actually do work. . . .

None the less, you are back on track and ready to examine these papers. You arrange your papers in the next best positioning to compare, vertically.

I often see websites whose borders are defined by the 800x600, or the page justifies its self to 100% of the browser. Both approaches are ideal for the 800x600 resolution user but a ton of either a block of blank space or justified blank space for any other resolution.

My webpage layout idea is similar to the best and second best paper arrangement scenario. When using the higher resolution of 1280x1024, the 800x600 margin you are restricting the website to is only using up about 62% of the capacity of the screen.

Half of 1280 is 640. If the webpage was restricted to the 640 pixels instead of 800 pixels, two pages could fit next to each other. If the browser is resized to less then the maximum of the 1280x1024 capacity, the second page positioned left of the first, would move below creating the vertical scrolling we are all used to.

2006-02-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

Check check and check

The website is almost complete. Because some of the code is generated from a program that I have only some control of, it’s not beautiful but alright. Lucky for me I'm a boy genius and found a way to keep the search engines from looking at the ugly coded sections of the site.

2006-02-22T12:44:00.000-05:00

The page is looking a lot nicer. All the major bugs are worked out.

The objectives of today:
1. Background images for the subcategories
2. Make the source code compliant with W3 standards.

2006-02-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

Coming together

The bullets of yesterday:

Top Tabs:Replace with articles

Search Bar: Replace with Google search

Index Page: Get rid of broken image and default text

The bullets of today:

Dynamically change the tab color of the current tab

Change the linking of the articles

2006-02-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

When buying shoes and cloths, the product must meet my standards. Finding such products can be a tiresome process.
This weekend I bought a pair of work shoes. The soles on the old one became warn past the point of repair, they were not overly comfortable and the quality was not something to brag about. The convincing factor when I bought the old shoes was they looked almost identical to the Kenneth Coles I wanted but they were 20 bucks cheaper.

I’m not one to make up his mind because of some brand name or symbol plastered on it like a sponsored race car. The difference between the race car driver and the person with that cool logo on his shirt, pants, jacket, shoes and anything else he’s sporting is the race car driver is getting paid to sport the logos.

I like checking for quality, comfort, and don’t get me wrong, I like looking slick so fashion is a must. I looked around the shoe section of Macy’s not for shoes but for the best dressed sales person. Logically it makes sense that the best dressed person there will know what they are talking about when it comes to style. I have my own methods checking the quality.

I found a sales woman, well dressed and the shoe selection was of nice size. I explained the purpose intended for the prospective pair of shoes, work casual, worn with jeans and a button up. She pointed me in the right direction. She brought out Kenneth Coles, then Bostonian, then some no name.

I liked the Kenneth Cole style the most but a little to narrow for my foot. I decided to walk around in them while she grabbed a new style from the back. I strolled past the sales rack to the Ecco display. Without even picking them up I could see the quality of the shoe. The leather binding where the shoe meets the sole was stitched, not glued. This could be the first indication of a shoe is of better quality then that of a discount store knock off.

My interested provoked the hungry commission driven sales people to swarm. I usually don’t pay them any mind or dismiss them without a second glance with a “No thanks, I’m set.” One sales person, he was not intrusive like I was used to and he knew his stuff about these shoes in particular so we talked. It turns out the shoes I was looking at are hand made, they are fine quality, will last longer then most other shoes, are comfortable from the first day worn. They also looked nice. I tried one on and stood from the chair. I was so impressed by the way the one felt, I didn’t even bother putting the other one on.

By the time the girl came back with the other shoe, I had made my decision and was packing them up so I could pay for them. I think she was a little upset she didn’t have the last word in my purchase. Next time I’ll be more sensitive to that. None the less I have a nice pair of shoes on today.

2006-02-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Zen-Cart Project

This project was tossed my way when a shopping cart needed to be implemented on the company websites. Zen-Cart is an open source shopping cart free to the public with a very "out the box" template. While the programming provides an easy-to-use user and administration interface, the fact is, the template needs to be molded into something the company can use.

I am now in the process of learning the structure behind the program. I'm hacking the code into the malleable putty like substance so I can shape the template into something of true beauty.

Goal(s) of yesterday:

Get the dang thing working

Become familiarized with the hierarchical structure of the program

Create a template based off the output of a Zen-Cart generated page.

I could put check marks next to the first two. The third I will be working on today.

Goal(s) of today:

Create a template based off the output of a Zen-Cart generated page.

Although this goal might seem trivial, finishing a template will be tricky. I am working inside a restrictive structure. I’m in the programs territory and I'm working with the few files of the hundreds the program is comprised of.

2006-02-12T23:19:00.000-05:00

Happy Guy With A Scarf

My lady friend hinted at her knitting talent. I decided to take advantage of her offer to knit me a scarf by choosing a pattern. I’m no expert when it comes to knitting patterns so I visited http://knitting.about.com/library/blstitches.htm and chose myself a stitch.

Help me choose:

http://knitting.about.com/library/blbasketweave3.htm
http://knitting.about.com/library/blpavilion.htm
http://knitting.about.com/library/blchevronstripes.htm

The color story:

River Rock Moulinette

2006-02-08T20:44:00.000-05:00

I took a trip to Killington VT this past weekend. Let me paint the picture. A 10 person house, a hugungus Jacuzzi that fits 10 guys + two girls, beers to quench a small army's thirst and steaks for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Can life get better?

On Friday night it rained a little. Not enough to ruin the snow on the mountain but enough to keep the massively overpopulated crowed away. The boarding was ehhh but for my first time up for the season, I can't complain.

I got back from the long day at the mountain tired and hungry with the adrenaline still pumping threw my blood like rats in a flood. I needed some eats. Heather, the coolest female engineer I have ever met broke open a picnic basket filled with wine and string cheese. All the steaks in the world did not compare to this snack. String Cheese I love you so. I will be blunt, I love you for your string cheese Heather.

Unfortunately, I took off my hood from my jacket and lost it. Fortunately, I found a jacket I think I want more then heathers string cheese. Check it out, tell me what you think, search for ipod jacket at burton.com

I'm going again this weekend and the conditions will be no less then awesome (X'ed fingers).

2006-01-23T11:52:00.000-05:00

Laundry day usually lands on the day I open my underwear draw to find 4 pairs of boxers left. This is not to say I’m lazy, I keep a ratio of underwear to cloths for this reason. When I have 4 pairs of boxers left I will have about the same amount of pairs of white socks, black socks and half the amount of brown socks.

A problem occurs when one from the pair gets sucked into the void dimension of lost socks. “Why me!?!” I cry as my entire perfect ratio is lost to this variable that I could not possibly have anticipated.

Although my first though would be to contact the authority in this matter, http://www.funbureau.com/. Of course this noble effort is fruitless. I’m sure if my lost sock would appreciate it if he knew.

My only solution to restore the “perfect ratio” is to throw the remaining sock away and buy a new pair of the same color category. This will usually be done from http://www.kennethcole.com/ for the dressier socks or http://www.championusa.com/

2006-01-19T16:46:00.000-05:00

I found a Starbucks around the corner from where I work. I bought a caramel macchiato, call me a sissy if you will but it hits the spot on a cold muggy day like today.

A little interesting factoid about star bucks, the guys who started the company are from my home town of Great Neck, NY. My grandmother, who also lives in Great Neck, has a book of many interesting people who live or lived there. Some of the names include Kenneth Cole, the young, successful, metro-sexual clothing brand and Sara Hughes, the Olympic figure skater. If you haven’t heard of these people maybe you have heard of F. Scott Fitzgerald, if not by name, maybe you have heard of his book; “The Great Gatsby”

I’m sure I’ll be in the revised edition when it hits the streets.

2006-01-12T13:10:00.000-05:00

Flip Flopper

Today I wake up at 8:30. I am sore from the workout last night. It was my first day back at the gym in about 5 or 6 years. When I stopped I was curling 85lbs. Fine, I wasn’t humungous but I was content with my physique.

The past few days I was showering in below freezing temperatures. The buildings boiler broke one day and was on the fritz the next . . . waking up to a cold shower is one of my least favorite things. When I turned on the shower I was happy to find steam forming clouds on the bathroom ceiling, like the sky on a summer’s day. Despite my aching body, I knew it was going to be a good day.

I began my walk to the subway, exited about the day, exited about work. I enjoy doing what I do; web page development/design. I’m learning PHP and MySQL to bring the pages to the next level. The winter took a break from its frigidness, the morning was beautiful. I watched the people of queens starting there walk to whatever their destination might have been that morning. I watched someone come out of the Laundromat with their clean pressed shirts and thought how happy clean pressed shirts from the Laundromat made me feel. Then I watched the tow truck with my car on back.

My day was taking a change of emotion. From a great day to something other then great, my world turned. I got to work a few minutes before ten, immediately looked up the pay-on-line service for tickets for New York City. I searched “New York City traffic tickets” . The fourth from the top of the unpaid google search hits was the one I was looking for (http://nycserv.nyc.gov/NYCServInquiry/NYCSERVMain).

Unfortunately something on their back end scripting did not work. I was less then pleased. Not only about the fact that I would have to pay my ticket of some robotic humanoid operator on New York City’s toll free line, but the fact I was going threw hell trying to find it on their own site.

I hate when web sites intentionally hide a contact phone number. If it’s a sales type website, having no contact number is a turn off to me. I am big on buying off the internet, but I am cautious about sketchy sites. Not having a phone number easily accessible triggers the “Warning: sketchy e-commerce website” sign in my head.

I still haven’t figured out why my car was towed nor do I care right now. I’m at work and should be working. Now you might question why I’m writing on my blog at work. Well don’t pop a brain cell. I’m just warming up the old fingers.

2006-01-11T13:10:00.000-05:00

When I was working on my undergrad education and, at first, my major was undecided. I found myself self reflecting when thinking about a major to choose. One day I decided to look in my internet explorer history (all the pages I have surfed for the past 20 days) for answers.

What I found in my internet browsing history was predominantly a bunch of links to howstuffworks.com. Have you ever browsed “howstuffworks.com”? This site happened to be one of my personal favorites.

As a kid, I loved building/taking things apart. I was and still am genuinely interested in everything from how the little gadgets in my room work to how people could strap themselves to a string-less oversized kite and fly for hours (hang glider). Howstuffworks.com helps me satisfy in my technical curiosity.

I decided to get my baccalaureate computer engineering. I figured it would be the most logical path for me to take.