RSS
 

Creating WordPress themes from scratch

07 Mar

I haven’t been very good about using this blog for anything more than pumping out some Twitter posts on Education. I had hoped (rather ambitiously) to use it for personal writing and also to share some of my experience in building templates for PHP based content management systems like Drupal and WordPress. Time got the best of me.

While trying to revive this blog, I tried many pre-made themes for WordPress, none of which are exactly what I am looking for. I thought about modifying a theme like Sandbox, but I wouldn’t get to know absolutely everything about wordpress if I did that, right?

The obvious place to start is the WordPress Theme Development document. At the very least, a theme needs two files:

  • index.php – the template that will be used for ALL pages generated by the wordpress site
  • style.css – the stylesheet for this template, and any others in the theme folder.

To be continued

 
No Comments

Posted in Wordpress

 

Lazy (restful) cats

10 Feb

Squab

 
No Comments

Posted in family

 

I have never watched Lost

24 May

image

I have never watched an episode. I have never watched a commercial. Not in six years — according to you fans – have I learned more than a premise resembling a fusion of Gilligan’s Island and The Prisoner. I didn’t even look closely at the promotional image I modified for your delight.

I can only relate to your excitement (and sadness) by remembering how I felt after watching the finale of Nip/Tuck. I know Christian and Sean will live forever. Did your characters survive?

Once I saw the cast of your show on an episode of Top Chef. They judged a tough elimination challenge. Their opinions didn’t really matter. The food looked good.

Sometimes I had to feign interest as the lunch conversation destabilized in to a recap ofLost, always mindful to ignore details that would feed my curiosity; other times I tried to change the subject to shows I watch, like The Wire. Thank goodness everyone loves True Blood, and that there is no end in sight.

For a while, I thought Lost was a reality show like Survivor, but I have never watched that either. Are they anything like Survivorman? I always mix that one up with the English asshole who eats rotting stuff too.

And I might have imagined this, but was Lost a spinoff of that show Alias? These questions may lead me to read a Wikipedia entry, or even an episode capsule or two. If the show was anything like Cloverfield, I might watch a clip if I can find one.

Did anyone watch Treme at 10?

 
No Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Android phones are great…

23 May

… if the features are useful, and more than just toys.

Part 1: Google Goggles

Meisje in witte kimono

Meisje in witte kimono

Google’s augmented reality/shape/text recognition software Goggles is incredible:  I point it at objects around the apartment — my Nalgene bottle, some Burt’s Bees – and Google search will display pictures, prices, and point me to websites; I point it at a paragraph of Pagnol, and it yields an excellent translation; I point it at a print of George Breitner’s Girl in a White Kimono and Google wants me to preview Changing minds: the history of psychotherapy as an answer to human suffering By Frank Tallis (image oncover), or listen to Bruckner’s Symphony 9 – Cesare Cantier, and even shop for white kimonos.

Bruckner

Bruckner

The problem with this is that I know all of this already.  Sure, I had no idea that the girl in the print above our bed is also on the cover of a book about psychotherapy, or is on just one of about 100 album covers for Bruckner’s 9th.  But I can recognize a Nalgene bottle, and find the site easily, and I really don’t need a machine translation of a French novel I have studied for years.

Where will I find this useful? I will try it at one of the many asian supermarkets we frequent, and try the augmented reality feature the next time I see an unfamiliar landmark.  Google also suggests using Goggles to scan data on business cards.  I’ll try that the next time I even see a business card.

 
1 Comment

Posted in software