2010.01.26 Movable Type 5

Movable Type 5 came out recently. I know you care. In reality, you probably didn't notice, but I figure that I'm as qualified as anybody else to give a review of the CMS which powers my site. From my limited experience, here are the key changes or additions to Movable Type 5:

• Sites
• Revision History
• Dashboard

I'll set out right now what type of site I personally host - I am a one author, multi-blog content sharing, action streaming, stat-tracking, lessn-shortening, non-asset managing, non-user registering, funky content incorporating site. I'm writing about me. I know what a handful of other people do/use on their installations of Movable Type - because they've told me, I've figured it out, or, I built their site. If you're into this sort of thing, or have any interest - read on. Otherwise, I feel no offense at you going on to the next item in your feed reader. I'll soon return to some long overdue pictures of my kids in the next post and I won't talk about our car accident (very much). I promise.

2009.08.31 Maria's Party Invitations

A while back I created an invitation for Maria's birthday party. Inspired by a birthday card created by the incredibly talented Ben Schlitter, I wanted to add a personal touch to the invitations. I wanted something beyond the usual hand-lettering which let people know an invitation was hand-made, but didn't want it to look too amateurish. Granted, this invitation was technically computer-made, but you know what I mean. With a Mexican theme to the party, I went to work.

2009.01.23 Converting Old Video Game Music

I took the plunge last weekend into finally making some custom ringtones. I shouldn't have waited as long as I did to do it, since they're pretty fun to have (as long as they're not too annoying for everybody else to have to listen to). One of my major hurdles and goals was to be able to convert old Nintendo and Super Nintendo (SNES) sounds to a format I could work with. Since I doubt most of you will care about the details of this adventure, I'm not going to waste my time with a narrative, but will bullet this out. Read on if you are semi-interested, stop now if not. :)

2008.06.28 It's Not All About the Design

I was talking with someone the other day about freelance web design/development. As we were talking, they said something along the lines of, “I can't help but notice you talk more about the code than you do about the design. I thought you were more interested in the design side.” (both true statements). “So, if you're so interested in the code, then why claim to enjoy the designing more?” Good question. It all comes down to math. I spend more time working on the code than I do on the design. It'd be great if we could all code faster. That would be fabulous, but that's just not how it works. It's not that I skip out on a decent design. I do my best, but the actual building of the site takes longer. Like a chef, creating a new dish. They're familiar with all their ingredients. They're familiar with the pieces and steps to making a good dish. They have an imagination and a goal, but once it comes time to perfect that new dish, they'll spend more time standing in the kitchen working on it, than they will sitting at their desk coming up with the idea.

2008.03.08 From Whence it Never Will Return

$400. At the time it was almost all my savings. I didn't even own my own computer when I bought it. The only computing device I had to my name at the time was a soon-to-be-dropped-and-ruined Iomega Zip Drive. Not only could this thing hold almost six and a half times as much content, but you could make mixes on CD's instead of on tapes. Now we'd be rocking – literally.