One finished & one started

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

My sister’s online shop is now live made by val so if you happen to be looking for handmade fairy doors then you can find them there. Shipping is only to the UK at the moment however Val hopes to expand this in the 2007.

ZenCart was used for this project, I found that it can be a bit overwhelming when you first look at it but I guess it is the number of options that make it powerful. The template system takes a bit of learning when you are used to your templates being contained in a single folder as with WordPress or Joomla! The ZenCart template system is explained here if you want further reading.

Now that the shop project is live I am reviving on my loooong neglected rickis dot net site. I am working on a set of Joomla! templates which I want to convert for WordPress and if possible ZenCart so that sites can be created using a combination of these applications and have a unified design.

I will be changing the theme here before too long, Jura was my first attempt at writing a WordPress template and theme from scratch and although I like it does have a few problems. I have learned a lot of CSS in the last couple of months and I have a few new ideas that I want to try out, so as they say “stay tuned”

Kev

  

Mood : calm

Can some one fix that damn TV!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

There is a danger that this blog in turning in to a health blog, or should that be a lack of health blog?? My toe is fine now and the nail is growing back so yay!

The past week I have been stressing out a lot and I frequently have a stress tone in my head. If you have never had one it, for me anyway, is like the whine you get off an old television. If you have never had an old TV then it is like when you have been in a loud club or concert. If you have not been to those then… sorry I am out analogies just now.

Last weekend was particularly bad and if Louise hadn’t come over on Saturday evening I don’t think I would have got out of bed all weekend.

The route cause of the stress is the stuff at work which I cannot talk about here but to add to that last Friday my car decided that it would signal left even if I was not indicating left. It was possible to stop it signalling left if I signalled right, this is of course no use if I didn’t intend to go right. In the end I put my hazards on when I was going straight on and took them off when I had to signal.

I got the car back today so at least that is done with. Last Sunday I had really wanted to take a walk along a beach and clear my head but without the car that was not possible, this Sunday maybe if the weather is better.

Anyway how you all been? At least one blog on my blog list seems to have disappeared which is a shame as it was an entertaining & interesting read.

Hope to get some nonsense going here again soon.

Kev

  

Mood : stressed

Can some one fix that damn TV!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

There is a danger that this blog in turning in to a health blog, or should that be a lack of health blog?? My toe is fine now and the nail is growing back so yay!

The past week I have been stressing out a lot and I frequently have a stress tone in my head. If you have never had one it, for me anyway, is like the whine you get off an old television. If you have never had an old TV then it is like when you have been in a loud club or concert. If you have not been to those then… sorry I am out analogies just now.

Last weekend was particularly bad and if Louise hadn’t come over on Saturday evening I don’t think I would have got out of bed all weekend.

The route cause of the stress is the stuff at work which I cannot talk about here but to add to that last Friday my car decided that it would signal left even if I was not indicating left. It was possible to stop it signalling left if I signalled right, this is of course no use if I didn’t intend to go right. In the end I put my hazards on when I was going straight on and took them off when I had to signal.

I got the car back today so at least that is done with. Last Sunday I had really wanted to take a walk along a beach and clear my head but without the car that was not possible, this Sunday maybe if the weather is better.

Anyway how you all been? At least one blog on my blog list seems to have disappeared which is a shame as it was an entertaining & interesting read.

Hope to get some nonsense going here again soon.

Kev

  

Mood : stressed

Toe Update

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I had the toe redressed today and the nail was gone, I am sure it was in the dressing somewhere but the nurse insisted it wasn’t. It looked okay and it wasn’t bleeding so Yay!

Kev

  

Mood : none

Blood and Nails

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

The problem that I had with my bleeding toe came back a couple of weeks ago and in the last few days a lump grew around the wound. I am just back from Accident and Emergency at my local hospital where the Doctor numbed the toe and removed the lump and a large part of the toenail.

I have a load of antibiotics to take and some pain killers, it is still bleeding through the dressing at the moment given the blood on my sock and I am feeling a bit queazy so I am heading to lie down for a bit.

Kev

  

Mood : crappy

Meme Time Again

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Tagged by Waltzingalong

Comment with your username or name and I’ll give you an honest compliment. Then post this in your journal or blog and spread the love.

Kev

  

Mood : awake

Slasher Horror Quiz

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

In the last few years I have gone to see a few films in the Slasher Horror genre and I must admit that I am not exactly a fan I honestly prefer a good comedy to seeing someone’s kneecaps fly across the room. However I have noticed a few things that may be useful as a diagnostic aid to tell if a town has Slasher Horror potential.

So here is the Darkest Before Dawn Slasher Horror Quiz

1. Economy




• Was a Highway constructed 10 or more years ago that killed the passing/tourist trade?


• Has the only factory, usually a meat packing plant, closed down?




2. Law & Order




• Is the local Sheriff married to his cousin or sister or both?


• Is the Sheriff pissed off about what happened to him in Korea or Nam? Even if he didn’t actually fight in the wars, remember the later episodes of M.A.S.H. caused a lot of trauma!


• Does the Sheriff rant about Bikers and Long Haired Hippies even though no one has seen such a person in 20 years?




3. Cars




• Do any of the local families have dozens of cars laying around their property just rusting? Some of these cars may date back to the 1940’s


• Does the family have a tow truck but not run a car repair/rescue/scrapping business?




4. Gas Station




• Do the gas pumps belong to a company that ceased to exist in the 1920’s?


• Does the garage attendant sit out front and when asked a question only answer ‘Yep’ or ‘in back’




5. Pickling Jars




• Is there someone in town who constantly buys pickling jars even though there is no fruit or vegetables in season?




6. Shopping




• Is the only open shop also in the Gas Station?


• Does it have very few useful items like food but lots of pickling jars for sale?




7. Fashion




• Do all the women of the town wear clothes that were only in fashion for five minutes in 1953?


• Do all the men wear dungarees, with the exception of the Sheriff?




8. Children




• In the past was a group of children responsible for the death of a caretaker or child who was a bit different?




9. Outsiders




• Unlike the townsfolk do people passing through look like the come straight from the pages of Vogue?




10. Clowns




• Is there someone in town who dresses as a clown even through there is no circus or fair on and they are not a children’s entertainer?

Score one point for each question answered Yes

1 to 5 : The chances are you will be safe but stick to the soulless highway just in case.

6 to 10 : Expect to loose 75% of your travelling companions and remember the cute lovey dovey couple making plans for the future bite the big one first.

10 to 17 : Ain’t no one getting out of this one alive, you may think you are but the Sheriff will have a road block just out of town and you will think he is there to help you. The last words you will hear are “Squeal piggy squeal!”

  

Mood : none

At Last A New Chapter!!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have at last got around to typing up Chapter 5 of my online novel, it has been a while since the last chapter was published but I am already typing up Chapter 6 and it is a lot longer than the previous ones.

If you haven’t read any of it and want to start here is Chapter 1

Kev

  

Mood : none

There is no C!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

It has been a while but hey I’ve been busy, lazy, tired, emo and most of all I have had very little worth saying.

I am still working on my “top secret” project but thing hopefully will start to progress next month and I will no doubt be posting here about my struggle to get Joomla to work the way I want In the last couple of day I have also been doing some work with Zen Cart again and I hope that the shop that I am helping to build will be online soon.

A few of my friends are going through rough times at the moment, you know who you all are my thoughts are with you and you know how to contact me if you need a chat. ::huggs:: to you all.

Okay a quick little rant. Once before I had a rant about the British media obsession with Pete Doherty and I fully realise the irony of posting about him again, however I’m gonna do it.

My rant is not about him but about people calling him Pete Docherty. It is mainly on the radio, so I think BBC Radio Scotland are the main culprits as I mainly listen to it going to and from work.

The two names may have the same genealogical roots, Doherty being the Irish version and Docherty being the Scottish version, but if you are going to bore me with the antics of a self-destructing coke-head then please at least show some standard of journalism and get his name right.

Kev

  

Mood : none

Corners

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

From her corner she looks,

but does not see him.

From his corner he sees,

but does not speak.

From the fear of rejection,

only loneliness wins.

  

Mood : none

So my Dad thinks I’m on Drugs

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

My Dad asked if I was on drugs after reading my blog, had he read some of my, hopefully, funny weird stuff? My rants? No he had read my entries on the Drupal and Joomla CMS engines. Luckily he missed the entry on how to cultivate 6 foot high magic mushrooms.

On as far as choosing a CMS for the project I am going with Joomla. I am sure Drupal has a lot going for it but the integration of phpBB was a major factor and it was easier to get that working on Joomla.

  

Mood : none

Joomla?

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

In the past week I have been looking at Drupal for a project I am working on.

The main reservation I had about Drupal was the forums module. Looking at the discussion on the Drupal home site I was not the only one. Most people seem to want a fourm that looks like phpBB, mainly because that is what existing users seem to be used to.

There are two ways that go someway to achieving this goal. The first is to alter the Drupal forums to look like phpBB. I found various pointers to this but not what I considered a complete solution. The second method is to set up both Drupal and phpBB and use a Drupal module to handle the login’s for both and to exchange the user data. It also requires the use of mon_rewrite to direct the user to the correct place for logging in. This seems to have the unfortunate side effect that I at least cannot get in to the phpBB administration panel. I can get in if I suspend the mod_rewrite rules but the effectively breaks the site for other users, not a problem while testing but once it goes live it can’t happen.

This morning I was about to buy two books on Drupal and phpBb from Amazon when the recommendations in the checkout mentioned Joomla. I came to a full stop on the check out and found the Joomla website. There seem to be several options that work with phpBB and I am now setting up and install to evaluate.

Any one out there have any opinions on Joomla?

Kev

  

Mood : none

Drupal?

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I am looking at Drupal for a project and was wondering if any of you who pass this way have any experience of it and what your views of it are?

Cheers

Kev

  

Mood : none

Welcome to Jura

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Jura is the template/theme I have been working on for the last few weeks. It is still in beta but I want to give it a proper run on the blog to see what people think and on the basis that many eyes find more bugs

I plan to slowly add more features and if I can read up on things like ’sidebar widgets’ I will release a general version under GPL.

Kev

  

Mood : none

Answers

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have posted the answers to the quotes quiz that I posted before Christmas, they are below the more tag

Kev

1	Oh, but the feeling is bad, the feeling is bad.	I Don’t Wanna Dance Lyrics	Eddie Grant
2	I pray every single day. For a revolution.	What’s Up	4 Non Blondes
3	No life at all in the house of dolls.	No Love Lost	Joy Division
4	We’re leaving Babylon, y’all!	Exodus	Bob Marley
5	Candy came from out on the island.	Walk on the Wildside	Lue Reed
6	I was shakin’ in my shoes. Whenever she flashed those baby-blues	Centerfold	J. Geils Band
7	You better run, you better take cover.	Land Down Under	Men at Work
8	When she dealt out the rations. When she dealt out the rations.	Up The Junction	Squeeze
9	Three shots from three feet. Dragged himself to the phone	Terror Couple Kills Colonel	Bauhaus
10	I never thought I’d meet a girl like you.	I Ran	Flock of Seagulls
11	It was a kind of so so love, and I’m gonna make sure it doesn’t happen again	Say Hello Wave Goodbye.	Soft Cell
12	And we’re not little children And we know what we want	Road to Nowhere	Talking Heads
13	Though it could be arranged With just a word in Mr. Churchill’s ear	Olivers Army	Elvis Costello
14	The love after the hate. The love we leave too late	My Ever Changing Moods	Style Council
15	The flood swells his clothes and delivers him on, delivers him on	Sometimes	James
16	Running through the rubble of a thousand broken hearts and in their eyes	Children of the Revolution	Kirsty Maccoll
17	Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow	Mad World	Tears for Fears
18	Look at me standing. Here on my own again.	Wonderful life	Black
19	And if you flash him a smile he’ll take your teeth as deposit	Sheriff Fatman	Carter USM
20	You took your sacrifice to the gods of war	Protect And Survive	Runrig
21	Got in the house like a pigeon from hell, oh oh oh oh	Back on the Chain Gang	The Pretenders
22	But she knows if this show was televised no one would watch it .	Live Bed Show	Pulp
23	And I’ll lay right down in my favorite place	I Wanna Be Your Dog Lyrics	Iggy Pop
24	Where the strong and the quick alone can survive	Avenues and- Alleyways	Tony Christie
25	And the sickest joke was the price of the medicine	Lost Weekend	LLoyd Cole
26	True it’s a dream mixed with nostalgia	Tales from the Riverbank	The Jam
27	I was gonna be king. And she was gonna be queen.	Spirit of 76	The Alarm
28	He only drinks in restaurants. Where the girls are fully covered	Chocolate Girl	Deacon Blue
29	Hey there baby, I could use just a little help	Dancing in the Dark	Bruce Springsteen
30	Open your eyes, open your imagination	The Beat(en) Generatio	The The
31	Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.	Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)	Baz Luhrmann
32	When they ask me “what are you looking at?” I always answer “nothing much”	Left of Center	Suzanne Vega
33	I want my sun-drenched, wind-swept Ingrid Bergman kiss	Good As Gold	The Beautiful South
34	He thought he’d be like the police. But now he finds he is at war	The Lebanon	The Human League
35	How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals ?	Romeo & Juliet	Dire Straits
36	Some have a style. That they work hard to refine	If She Knew What She Wants	Bangles
37	Your purple prose just gives you away	Unbelievable	EMF
38	What’s it gonna take to make a dream survive?	Alive & Kicking	Simple Minds
39	I wake up every morning with a smile upon my face	I’m the Urban Spaceman	The Bonzo Dog Band
40	She lied to me with her body you see,I lied to myself ’bout the chances I’d wasted	The Saturday Boy	Billy Bragg
41	Take a look up the railtrack. From miami to canada	Letter from America	The Proclaimers
42	Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables	West End Girls	Pet Shop Boys
43	I’m dancing through the fire, just to catch a flame-	You do something to me	Paul Weller
44	Scratches his head and does his best James Dean.	Jack and Diane	John Mellencamp (Cougar)
45	The juice of the carrot, the smile of the parrot A little drop of claret - anything that rocks	Reasons to be cheerful part 3	Ian Dury And The Blockheads
46	Then he approached her like a little child Too scared for what he had to say	Louise	Human League
47	Those bloody great ballads we hated at first	One Last Love Song	The Beautiful South
48	Use only the drugs described by your boss or supervisor.	Shut Up, Be Happy	Ice-t
49	So I lay down in the darkness with the beer and coffee stains	Under Your Thumb	Godley And Creme
50	And that prince philip tells us we gotta work harder!	Just Who is The 5 O’clock Hero	The Jam

  

Mood : tired  Tv : The Simpsons

28 Question Meme

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Been tagged by waltzingalong

28 things about you. I don’t care if we’ve never talked, never liked each other, or if we already know everything about each other.

1.Your Middle Name:

2. Age:

3. Single or Taken:

4. Favorite Movie:

5. Favorite Song:

6. Favorite Band/Artist:

7. Dirty or Clean:

8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:

1. Do we know each other outside of LJ?

2. Whats your philosophy on life?

3. Would you have my back in a fight?

4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?

5. What is your favorite memory of us?

6. Would you give me a kidney?

7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:

8. Would you take care of me when I’m sick?

9. Can we get together and make a cake?

10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?

11. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?

12. Do you think I’m a good person?

13. Would you drive across country with me?

14. Do you think I’m attractive?

15. If you could change anything about me, would you?

16. What do you wear to sleep?

17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?

18. Would you go on a date with me if i asked you?

19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?

20. Will you repost this so i can fill it out for you?

  

Mood : none

insert title cause I can’t think of one :)

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Today I ran my last 10K race of the year, that makes six in total, there is a brief report at Beat the Hour

The work on my new template and theme has stalled a bit in the past week mainly due to a feeling I have that it is not going to be good enough or in fact different enough from templates that are already available. I am going to have a rethink about some of the design this week.

  

Mood : none

A somewhat traditional Sunday update

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have just published Chapter 4 of Hb my Online Vampire Novel. I promise that Chapter 5 will not be such a long wait.

The work on my WordPress template is going well and I am taking my time to get it working properly and looking just as I want it to look, getting fussy in my old age I will also be sorting out my Categories soon as they have always been a mess.

I have a new web project that I am working on and I am stalking a web address for it that looks as if it is going to become available as it hasn’t been renewed, more news if the project progresses.

Kev

  

Mood : chipper

Theme Progress

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have started to move my new theme from xhtml/css mock up to WordPress template and it is going well. So far I have overcome all of the IE display problems without the use of any hideous hacks and it is still validating to XHTML 1.0 Strict and valid CSS.

Question : Do any of my fellow CSS Hacks out there know if XHTML 1.1 now replaces XHTML 1.0 Strict as the goal to aim for, it seems logical but what are your opinions ?

This evening I hope to get to work on the Search and Sidebar coding.

Kev

  

Mood : none

Under Reconstruction

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Okay I have pulled the theme that I was using for the past few months. I got carried away with all the whizz-bang Ajax stuff and lost something.

I am working on my own Template/Theme and it may take a few weeks to complete but I think it will be worth it.

Kev

  

Mood : creative