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I Should Have Been A Blogger

June 4, 2011 By 14 Comments

Fireman Fighting A Fire

I know a little code …….. actually a lot of code ………. well just enough to be dangerous. OK, we’ll call it half-baked; jeff-of-all-trades, master of none! Ahhh, leave me alone, I’ve had a bad week.

Everyone keeps asking about “Down The Rabbitt Hole.com“, and it’s coming but I’m struggling with a Facebook Fan-page. I understand that I could slap one up on the fly, but that’s just not my style. I wanted a pretty cool Twitter and Facebook page to mirror the Blog, which is way cool. I’ve even seen Bulletin Boards that provide Facebook Fan-page coders and designers. Whatever, I guess everyone needs something to do.

When “Down The Rabbit Hole” is finally released, it’s going to be pretty awesome that’s for sure, but it’s just a theme, it’s a great resource, but it’s like really boring …… it’s all about computer stuff. Ya know, WordPress Themes, Plug-ins, Linux Operating Systems, and Apps for Linux and well, ya know ……… boring stuff.

It’s got a supports forum, that’s pretty rad!

After I’m finished with this project, I’ve got plenty more to occupy my day. I’ve a project that will remain nameless that I have been working on; off and on, for the past 18 months. The code is about to kill me. I’m probably looking at about 25,000 lines and yes I’m dealing with each and every line ……. surely there must be a better way.

I program in five different languages now, HTML being one of them. However, if you really press me against the wall, you can get me in trouble. Reason, I’m not trained in HTML. There are pros that do nothing but spend their days coding in HTML. I’m trying to let my knowledge build slowly but surely with real everyday experience, kinda like picking-up a musical instrument and just banging away on the keys; you’re sure to have a big time, but I doubt if you’ll ever give Beethoven a run for his money.

I’m going to pick-up a sixth programming language in the next couple of months, but I thought I would let you vote on which one you think I should take on. Please click this link and make your choice and place that choice in the comments section below. Now I understand, all things given to reason most everyone is going to recommend “ZZT-oop“. I’d still like to see your recommended choice in the comments section below. And I would like to thank you in advance for the 9 hours it will take you to come to an informed selection.

Now if you’re wondering what in the world is up with this rant; I can’t really tell ya! I just started writing, to divert my attention from the dragon that is my daily grind. I’m hiding from the coding gremlins …………. I should have been a Blogger, or at least a professional Baseball Player ……….. maybe a Fireman!

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Themes For Newbies

August 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Image Of Blogging Theme

For the past couple of days I have talked some about the evolution of WordPress Themes. Parent this and Child that. But for the Newbie Blogger, I’m sure all they want is a theme that will work. Really that’s all you need ………. have fun finding it.

When I started Blogging I looked at a lot of trash and wondered how in the world these Bloggers made a following of it. Then I would see the Pros who had killer looking Blogs. Man, smooth as Tennessee Whiskey. Now it’s the norm, I see these little old ladies who have some great recipes and smoking hot themes. It’s stunning really. I mean I like barbecue recipes as much as the next guy, but I lose interest real fast when I see a theme that looks as good as the food. I start searching for who in the world designed that theme. We all do this.

I’m afraid that’s the mindset that we are up against and the theme developers are counting on us to look them up. The only problem, these themes often come with killer learning curves. And to keep pace, they add more and more. Kinda like a high-end sports cars with all the bells and whistles!

I was trying to think of the perfect theme to use for the Newbie and I do have one in mind, but man, is it a nightmare to configure. It’s cool mind you, but a nightmare none the less. As I thought on the subject I came to the conclusion that almost all themes these days are hard to configure. I guess that’s just part of being a Blogger. The good news is that once you learn what you are doing the quicker you can get on with the Blogging thing. The bad news is that once you learn what you are doing the developer changes nearly everything about the theme. You don’t have to upgrade of course, but in a couple of years the theme will start showing cracks with code, plug-ins and widgets.

For you Newbies ………. good luck; it could be worse, it could be me that is just starting out!

Filed Under: Jeffrey's Corner Tagged With: , ,

The WordPress Theme Frame

August 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

WordPress Theme Frame

Following up on where I was yesterday, it seems that everyone is starting to get into the WordPress theme business. There really is no better way to advertise your Blog than through a good-looking WordPress theme. However unless you are a coding freak, this is easier said than done ………… until now!

The evolution of the WordPress theme is taking some interesting turns in development. I’m not going to get into the tech side of things here so that I can keep things simple. But developers now are dividing WordPress themes is half. One half is called the “Frame”, more commonly known as the “Parent Theme” and, the other half is called the “Child Theme”.

You can now build a dozen or so themes on one frame. This changes everything. If you can put together a few simple files you can have yourself a theme. It works something like this; you place the frame inside of your “themes” folder that lies within your “wp-content” folder. At the same time you upload your theme to the same folder. When you go to activate your theme, you activate your theme not your frame. But both frame and theme must reside inside the same folder for the theme to work.

WordPress Frames are not new of course, but they have been gaining traction since the first of this year, as it makes the development of the theme that you see and the editing of that theme much easier. Once you have your frame in place you can build a theme is just a few short hours and that is a pretty cost affective way to promote your Blog.

If you wish to explore WordPress Theme Frameworks in greater detail you can click on the link to get you started down that road. That first one illustrated is titled: Atahualpa. I have experience with this one as I built my “Europa Files” Blog with Atahualpa. I’ve seen some smokin’ hot themes before, but this one takes the cake. It comes with 268 extremely well thought out options.

Filed Under: Jeffrey's Corner Tagged With: , ,
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