Josh Gomez

I’ve been keeping a steady pace with the maintenance of this here blog. However, when I move forward with content and design, I end up slacking in the code department. I need to tighten up my page templates and get the most out of my sidebar. Most importantly I need to get a list of plugins together and get them running smoothly.

Page Templates

Besides the default Wordpress templates I need to configure, I also need to create custom templates for each of the sections of my website. I have some ideas for my About section involving a personal timeline and maybe some integration with the handful of social networking groups I belong to.

The two other templates I have been working on (sketching out) since the beginning are my Projects  and Topics sections. I would like to have a nice section for each project I worked on with sketches, drafts and finished product screenshots. That would be nice to have, just for my personal archive. Topics should be fairly easy to create, once I get on the ball and start blogging about shit worth reading. Right?

Sidebar

What’s the sidebar all about? I don’t know, but everyone keeps raving about how cool sidebars are, so I decided to just do it. So far, well, you see what I got. Maybe a photo of a fake office fern?

Plugins

Finding plugins that are worth a damn is always fun. After going on so many hunts, I’ve created a nice library of surefire killers. Now I finally have a reason to organize it, dip it into subversion and share it with you. Later.

I’m finally getting somewhere with the  new design of AMBERAlert.com, so it feels good to show some of the progress I have made with the homepage in the last two days. I will be making some small changes to the layout and filling the gaps today before opening the flood gates of criticism at the office. In the meantime, comments on what you see now are welcome here.

I have been struggling with projects at work. It would be lazy to blame it anything else but me. Some call it designer’s block, a massive brain fart, but I just think it’s a lack of inspiration.

I haven’t felt inspired to be instantly creative lately and it stinks. Usually I can find something and make it happen. The longer I go without that driving spirit to do something good, the harder it is to focus on getting back on track.

How do I find inspiration? There are many ways, but here’s one:

Talk to a stranger

Let someone in on your project and ask them what they honestly think. Discussing the issues with a stranger is good because they don’t know the answers you want to hear. A friend may tell you exactly what you want to hear, which will get you nowhere. Even if the stranger doesn’t give you the boost you need, it’s nice to hear what others are thinking about the work you do.

Most people like it when someone is interested in what they think. Play off of their willingness to share their thoughts. Their ideas might not be great, but you can always add your own flavor.

While doing some research on taxonomies, I came across a nice explanation of faceted classification:

The [faceted] classification of a book on Norwegian rural architecture in the 17th century might run something like this:

• Personality — architecture
• Matter — wood
• Energy — design
• Space — Norway
• Time — 17th century

With the addition of tagging to Wordpress 2.3 I was trying to figure out a standard way of adding terms to each of my posts. How do you tag things?

Rocketline is a local psychedelic, space dance band and they sound amazing. I have attended two of their shows, and both times was enlightened by their energy and entertained by their skills. Their sound: a cohesive bond between drums and bass, spacey guitar work, and a flighty saxophone, all complimented by timely percussion, chimes and ambient vocals.

After talking with the group a few times, I encouraged them to let me build their band’s website. They loved the idea, and we have officially started working on the Rocketline website. Stay tuned for updates here, as I will post the play-by-play.

For now, you can visit their MySpace profile for upcoming shows, and music.

My parents came up to Phoenix this weekend to celebrate my sister’s graduation from the Toni & Guy Hair Academy. It was a great weekend, probably the best weekend that my parents have had in Phoenix. Friday night extreme bowling, and Sunday afternoon football at Coach & Willie’s was nice, but spending Saturday at the Arizona State Fair was the highlight of the weekend.

We decided to get to the fair early Saturday morning, and spend the early afternoon there. This turned out to be a good idea. I enjoyed the lack of riffraff roaming around, which isn’t the case at nighttime. A few years ago, my first time at the fair, I remember what the night crowd was like, and it was not something you would want to show your parents.  However, I plan on going back to the fair in a couple of weeks. I want to go at night.

I spent a few more hours on this theme tonight, and I am happy with it. I like where it’s going. However, I still have a few little things to finish up before I can step away from it.

Page Templates

I will be designing a few page templates for certain sections. I am working with a bare-bones theme arrangement right now, so most of the content is being served to you through the default template - index.php

First on my list will be a single post template. My design for the posts template will focus on two key goals: readability and comments. This is what posts are all about, right?

Next I will get together a generic list design to create the archives, topics, tag, and search results templates. These designs will display lists of posts depending on how you want to browse: month by month, by topic area, through tags, or using the search box.

Finally I will have some fun created the templates for my projects, topics and contact pages.

The projects page will showcase my work on past and present projects. I might also include a section on ideas for future projects.

Topics will be displayed with their corresponding subtopics and a brief description. My inspiration comes directly from A List Apart’s topics section. I think I will go with something split into columns, with graphics and shorter descriptions.

Contact forms are fun. I want to spicy this page up with something, but I don’t have any sauce, yet. We’ll see what happens on that day…

As you can see, I got part of the new theme working here. I should finish up with most of the page templates tonight, and move on to more important things, like more content.

The first thing I would like to tackle are the topic areas for my blog. This always seems like a huge task, but I am feeling it today. I’m in that mood, where I really don’t care and I can just shoot through them. After topics, I will go into sprucing up my about section, with a brief bio and a new photo. I know you can’t wait, but you must.

I have failed miserably at created a custom Wordpress theme. Twice. I am now convinced that I got it down. I’m going pretty minimal (maybe minimal pretty), just enough to chew on and hopefully swallow.

It seems like this weekend was never going to come. I’m glad it is here.