Keeping It Clean and Simple
After months of debating whether or not I was happy with the website, I finally came to the conclusion that it just didn’t look right. I tried many different themes but none seemed to give me the look I wanted. I was trying for a clean and simple look for my personal website. Just when I was about to give up and try a modified sandbox theme, I found Tapestry by Brian Gardner. It gives me the clean and simple look I was shooting for and, after a few minor modifications and upgrading to Wordpress version 2.3.1, I’m pretty excited about the end results. Clean and simple really works for me.
Upgrading Wordpress was a fairly simple task. As with any version upgrade, several of the plugins I was using stopped working. I wasn’t really all that concerned since I planned on doing a total overhaul. Simplifying the website was a priority but proved more difficult than expected. I spent hours searching for and testing different themes before stumbling upon Brian Gardner’s website. As soon as I saw the Tapestry theme, I knew it was what I wanted. I only made a few minor css and template modifications then added a header icon and it was done. The last thing to do was install the necessary plugins, five total. Below is a list of what I installed to get the results seen here.
- Wordpress
- Tapestry 2-Column Theme
- KG Archives
- flickrRSS
- AddThis Social Bookmarking
- Feedburner Feedsmith
- Lightbox 2
Just in case someone is interested, the header icon came from Icon Archive. They are an excellent source for free high quality icons and pngs.
If He Only Knew What Lies Ahead
He officially entered this world on November 2nd. Welcome to Wayne Edward Judy Jr., or Wejie as we affectionately call him. His first few weeks have been eventful, especially after surprising us by showing up three weeks early. Well, actually he didn’t have a choice because of complications that forced the doctor to cut him out ahead of schedule. After spending his first week in the hospital, he made the trek home where his adventure begins. My sister Joy, and her husband Wayne, are first time parents so things promise to get interesting.
New Family Addition
Several months ago I found out I was going to be an uncle for the second time. My sister Joy and her husband Wayne are expecting their first child in November. It’ll be nice to have someone sharing my birth month, or maybe even my birthday. Our family is overloaded with August birthdays, five to be exact, and another on the first of September. They had their second ultrasound and learned they are having a son. That means another nephew for me to corrupt.
I’m Back and Making Changes
After a long absence, I’m finally back online and making some major changes to the website. It’s been a rough few months not being able to use the internet at home and dealing with the limitations of using it at school thanks to Symantec Security blocking just about everything. My first order of business was to read a few months worth of emails that had piled up. I have so many replies to send that I decided to take a break and work on my website a little. It wasn’t that high up on my list of things to do but I’m really excited about the results. The new look comes from upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress and installing a modified version of the “dark” theme. I will break down the changes in more detail once I finish replying to all the emails from people wondering if I’m still alive. Computers and the internet are wonderful things until you don’t have them anymore.
Building a New Computer
After putting it off for close to a year now, I finally decided to get the ball rolling again and start building my new computer. The last time I upgraded my computer was more than three years ago so I am pretty excited about the new project. I have spent about an hour each day for the past week reading reviews, researching new technology, and hunting for the best prices on computer parts. It took some time figuring out the best configuration using the new motherboard I bought last year, especially since the technology has changed since then. My new plan is finalized though, and I started ordering the parts.
After plenty of debate about going with the newest technology avaiable, it just was not worth the extra cost involved. There is virtually no performance increase over the new motherboard and memory I already have so that money is going toward a new case. Below is the new computer configuration.
(1) MSI RD480 Neo2-FI motherboard
(1) AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core processor
(4) OCZ 1024MB PC-3200 DDR400 EL Platinum Edition memory modules
(1) Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Serial ATA150 hard drive
(2) Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB Ultra ATA100 hard drives
(2) ATI Radeon X1600 Pro PCI-E video cards
(1) ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI tuner card
(1) Thermaltake Truepower Cable Management 750W power supply
(2) Sony DRU-830A 18X Dual Layer DVD±RW disk drives
(1) Logitech Z-2300 speaker system
(1) Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard and mouse
(1) Dell UltraSharp 2007WP 20″ Widescreen Digital Flat Panel LCD monitor
(1) Lian-Li PC-A10A aluminum case
(1) Lian-Li CR-33A media card reader
(1) Microsoft Vista Ultimate edition
(1) Microsoft Office 2007 Professional edition
Well, that is the list of component parts and software for my new computer. So far, I already have the motherboard and memory which I bought a while ago. The processor and copy of Vista was an awesome deal I just could not pass up. I basically got both for the cost of the processor. The hardest decision to make was which case to use. I must have looked at hundreds of different cases before making my choice. The last case I bought was from Lian-Li and it has been incredible, so I was leaning in that direction right from the start. It was still difficult because there are so many nice cases on the market. It finally came down to the overall quality and craftsmanship. The new case should be here sometime later in the week. I cannot wait to start building and sharing the process with everyone. Stay tuned for more.
