Kill a Tree a Day... because they'd do the same to us if they could!

Now don't get me wrong, I love trees as much as anybody... but they can be pretty scary just moving around in the wind, let alone when they're on a rampage.

New memes: mixed up outdoor place and (bonus!) a new speech habit

As part of my never ending quest to spawn a new meme, I've come up with two new possibilities.

"Now that's a bad site!"

I guess as a web developer I shouldn't make fun of (hopefully) amateur sites, but sometimes I just can't help myself. You're the lucky reader of my first entry in the "Now that's a bad site!" blog series. First up: Popeye goes crazy in his first crack at web design.

Facebook shmacebook! Does FB have real value?

Farhad Manjoo at Slate has a new article on the true value of Facebook.  Essentially, IMHO, he's saying Facebook's lasting value will be the spinoff concepts and innovations.

Dave Hagger Jewellery... a cool web approach

I've just launched Dave's new site, "Dave Hagger Jewellery". Dave is a Victoria area silversmith, and he's been at it for 50 odd years.  How to make use of the web for a pretty-well unknown jeweller?  I've created three web properties for Dave:

Great animated GIFs at Slate.com... King Kong at his most manly of moments

Images from King Kong © 1933 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved.

Slate has a new weekly (?) series of classic movie scenes reworked as animated gifs.

I particularly like the King Kong scenes; I can see myself in Mr. Kong's declarations of manliness.  Kathy recognizes the hairy chest.

Three new custom WordPress sites

I've recently built three new WordPress sites; each of them uses custom-built WordPress templates... I'm hoping that that separates me from the majority of WordPress "web site designers" out there: I build custom templates to match my clients' business needs.

A new state motto for Idaho

"I-da-ho, you-da-ho, we-all-da-ho for Idaho"

Update 2012/05/23: It's been pointed out to me that if you don't know about "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream", the new motto doesn't make any sense.  Then again, even if you did know about the ice cream variety, it may not make sense :)

Latest site: White Arrow

Just finished this site for an old friend, Alex Rettie, in Calgary: White Arrow Writing and Instructional Services. This is a WordPress site where I did the design and created a custom WordPress template. Alex wanted a professional, modern look and I think we hit the mark :)

Two new web sites, "Cards by Wendy Hawthorn" and "Kovaluk Sports Conditioning"

Kovaluk Sports Conditioning is a hugely functional custom Wordpress site, allowing the business owner to maintain a dynamic, lively site.

Cards by Wendy Hawthorn is a site I put together quickly for our friend Wendy so that she'd have an on-line gallery for her hand-made Christmas cards. It uses a custom gallery tool I built for another client, combining "prettyphoto" to display the images and "imagemagick" to create the images in the appropriate sizes.

Latest site: Tofino Vacation Home

A lovely custom Wordpress site for a lovely rental... vacation-rental-by-owner in Tofino, BC. It features a photo gallery and room booking tool.

Another Wordpress custom template site... A1 Window Washing

A1 Window Washing is a Victoria-based exterior cleaning company. Jesse cleans windows and gutters, and does de-mossing and power washing.

Flamenco de la Isla Society site

Another simple customization of the default Wordpress "Twentyten" template. This is the sort of thing that you, as a small business or organization, could do on your own... but frankly it would take you a long time. For the Flamenco de la Isla and the Recuerdos sites I researched/installed plugins, massaged the Twentyten CSS to better suit my clients' needs, and advised on content structure. This type of site takes me around 5 hours to implement.

Newest site: Martello Construction

A new site for Paolo Bidese's Victoria-based construction company, Martello Construction. This site makes use of SSI-templates for a consistent, easy-to-maintain layout, and PHP for the image gallery of his construction work.

Recuerdos... a Flamenco performance site

My latest site is Recuerdos, a simple custom Wordpress site for Alma de Espana. Please spread the word about the Flamenco performance happening in July 2011.

Trickle Charge your iPhone

A few times lately my iPhone has completely discharged overnight when I forgot to plug it in for a recharge before going to bed.

The next morning, after a slight panic that I won't be able to check my Facebook while driving to work (just kidding...), I have two choices to charge the phone: the Apple wall charger that came with the phone or plugging it into my computer via USB.

The first method (wall charger) is generally very quick, achieving a full charge in less than one hour. But it won't be able to "jump start" the iPhone back to life after it completely discharges.

Instead you'll need to use the slower charge you get from your computer using USB. This serves to "trickle charge" your iPhone, much the same way you should trickle charge a car battery that is completely dead. The lower electrical current seems to gently bring the iPhone back to life.

Bands that never quite made the big time... (part 1)

Helga cracks a joke

"Finger Bitching" -- East German girl band from the early 80's, complete with spiky blonde hair and misplaced makeup, they were most famous for their potato chip ad:

"Vee are finga bichin. I'm Helga und dis is Freda. Eeet our chips or vee vill be very upset."

Newest acronym: GSOD

GSOD: Gerbil Sneeze of Death

Gerbils, by their very nature, tend to hold things in: their emotions, their food, their p--p (!), and, unfortunately, their sneezes. If you don't help your gerbil by opening up their potentially-fatal nasal passages with tweezers (or barbecue tongs, as you see fit), they stand a good chance of suddenly letting loose with a GSOD. Poor little fellas...

Update: GSOD (geesawd) should not be confused with JIHAD (geehawd), in that geesawd is rarely carried out against Western tourists... otherwise, they're pretty much the same thing. Usage: "I declare geesawd against you!"

Operation QSD Meme... again

Newest word from "Operation QSD Meme":

"Vegecanarian": A vegetarian who abstains from eating any animal... except canaries.

Usage: (when offered a yummy chicken burger) "No, thanks. I'm a vegecanarian."

Pass it on!

FOK (in a nice way!)

Yet another Internet meme from QSD:

"FOK" (Fount Of Knowledge)

Usage: "That guy is darn clever! He's a real FOK!" Or perhaps, "What a FOK that guy was!"

Pass it on!