Happy New Year

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Happy New Year and wishing all a prosperous 2007.

  

Mood : none

Crafts Network & rickis dot net

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

The project that I have been working on for the last few months is now on-line, Crafts Network. Currently the main feature is the forums, however I hope to add more features to the site over then next week. So if you are involved in Crafts in the UK in any way then please stop by.

I have also redesigned the rickis dot net site with a less wintry look.

At the moment I have no real plans for Hogmanay but I expect I will be on iChat/AIM if I am at home and anyone wants to chat.

Kev

  

Mood : creative

LOST - the viral marketing game.

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Gacked from Morgaine.

LOST is a student project that aims to show how 7 million people can connect to each other. It’s also a game, and is trying to reach the highest number of players for any game, ever.

Want to give it a GO?

  

Mood : none

My Elfamorphosis

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

See me dance

  

Mood : none

But LiveJournal said it was on the Pill!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

So there I am innocently checking my LiveJournal user info when I noticed the Google Ads.

Now the first three make sense, or is that AdSense? But the fourth one is a mystery, I mean I always practice safe surfing, what could have gone wrong!?

  

Mood : none

Tree Cam

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have set up a Christmas Tree cam for the duration of the festive period.

Festive messages can be sent using the form on the page and I will put them online as soon as I get the chance.

Oh and the scary looking Santa’s were in the flat when I bought it, there are three of them!

Hope to get the tree decorated a bit better as well.

Kev

  

Mood : Festive

Flakes

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I have set up four previews of the Joomla! templates I have been working on.

Snowflakes Blue

Snowflakes Red

Snowflakes Green

Snowflakes Yellow

I am working on the WordPress version.

  

Mood : none

Oh Bollards

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

  

Mood : none

Let it Snow

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Well snow would be a bit of a change as all we have had in Scotland for the last few weeks is rain, very heavy rain at times. The combination of rain and the Autumn leaves from the trees blocking drains have turned many streets in Glasgow into rivers rather than roads.

I have competed the design for my first Joomla templates and after a lot of messing about and a few swear words I have got the template packaging method sorted out. The plan now is to construct WordPress templates with the same design. I hope to get a chance to do this tomorrow evening. Once that is done I will release them for download, I am not really sure anyone will be interested in using them but you never know.

Kev

  

Mood : geeky

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