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Here’s to hope
January 4, 2010 by Nicki
2009 was definitely “The Year of the Suck” (personally speaking). I’ve found myself looking forward to the new year in hope of a lot of positive changes coming our way. And I’d have to say that 2010 has had a promising start already. New Year’s Day we visited with friends and family that we haven’t seen in ages. On the 2nd we honored a friend who’s home on leave from Iraq with a LAN party. Yesterday we pretty much vegged and today I’m back at work, but I guess I can’t complain too much about that. I have a job, and know many who are still looking (including my husband).
I’ve spent the last couple months realizing and appreciating the things for which I am truly grateful. I have a husband and daughter who love me. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table. I have wonderful and supportive friends and loved ones. I have a job. I have hope … I hold on to faith that things will work out in the end — even if I can’t see how they will or am desperately afraid that they won’t.
This is the time of year most people make their resolutions, right? I see many things I don’t like about myself or my life that I’d like to change.
The “musts”
- Get it together. I used to be better organized, and I definitely need to work on this — in both my professional and personal lives.
- Continue to control my spending and stick to a budget. Jim’s being out of work initiated this, but it’s something that I need to keep in check more.
- Lose weight and exercise more. Honestly, I don’t feel healthy and the extra weight I’ve gained since the wedding has had some negative effects on my general health and well-being. And, as much as I hate to admit to vanity, I really do think I looked a LOT better back then.
- Implement a better backup solution and upgrade to Windows 7. My backup drive (which was a “backup” in name only) recently went T.U. and I was rightfully scared, thinking I had lost nearly 7 years worth of data, projects, family photos, etc. Luckily for me, my wonderful husband brought it back from the brink of death and recovered everything. I had been putting this off for the better part of a year and since I bought a copy of Windows 7, having a fresh system would be a great time to sit down and better organize my data and get a REAL backup solution in place.
- Spend more time focused on my family. There’s always room for improvement — I want to be a better a wife, and a better mother.
The “might actually get done soon”
- Release another Firefox addon. I’ve been testing a simple Firefox addon for Aion. It’s been tested on several different versions of Windows and the feedback I’ve received has been promising. While I’d like to learn how to advance my programming skills more, actually releasing a working project is a good step in the right direction.
The “would like’s”
- Do more artistic stuff. I haven’t touched my graphics in ages. I have been neglecting my WordPress themes. I never really sit down and WRITE anymore. I need to work more on my creative outlets.
- Blog more. Hopefully if/when things get better, I will have more time/energy/desire to blog more here. There’s so much that I want to talk about sometimes, but lack the time or desire to sit down and type it out.
- Learn more. There are many things I’d love to learn. More cooking. More web design. More programming. Another language or three. I used to read up about anything and everything, and I need to start up again.
So here’s to a new year, and to hope. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.
I got down with my sickness
I’ll say this: Thank God for the scheduled posts ability in WordPress and the WordPress application on my iPhone. Without those, absolutely nothing would have been posted here last week. 
I had been ill off and on all last week, but it hit hardest Friday. And by that I mean I got DOWN with the sickness, LOL! Literally knocking me on my butt, and right into bed. I missed most of the Alabama vs Arkansas game, but woke up in time to hear Rammer Jammer being sung by the crowd in T’town. I missed WordCamp Birmingham entirely and am really bummed about that. (can someone let me know where the lecture notes are posted?)
I also missed a Ladies Night Out meeting, but was pretty sure I was going to miss it even before I got sick. I haven’t been to a meeting in a while and have been dying to join one of the karaoke outings. 
Well, after 3 full days of sleep I am feeling much MUCH better! Of course I’ve spent half the morning clearing out emails and voicemails and will probably be doing so for most of the rest of the day today, LOL!
I took some time this morning to submit a new fanlisting that I’ve started:
I’ll be sure to post when it’s approved and “gone live.” 
Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat
May 26, 2009 by Nicki
This update contains several fixes and enhancements.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)
Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Features
Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel. The sidebar can also be removed altogether using this option.
Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.
Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.
Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!
Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!
Favicon & “web clip” icon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace these files with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO. Web clip icons are used by iPhone and iPod touch users when adding a bookmark to the Home Screen.
Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.
Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating the Theme Options page. Additionally, you can also add the Feedburner email subscription link for your feed.
Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. (note: these are overwritten if using the Feedburner option instead)
Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.
Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.
Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. You can also display your latest Tweet in the sidebar by updating the Theme Options with your Twitter username.
Related Posts feature – This function looks at the tags for a post and finds all posts matching those tags. If no tags are specified for a post, this function will not show up. This function can be disabled via the Theme Options.
Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.
More detailed information on these and other features can be found in the theme’s readme file!
Fixes
- Comments displaying improperly (or not at all)
- Related Posts function now matches all tags, not just the first one listed.
- If a tag has been used only once, it is not included in the search.
- If only one tag is used, and it has only been used once, Related Posts function will not show.
- Comments and trackbacks now separated.
- If both trackbacks and comments exists, comments count corrected.
- Favicon corrected for backend (WP Admin).
- Navigation links added to post single view.
Availability
New iToy: Pogo stylus
May 14, 2009 by Nicki
Last week I had discovered something: I can’t type worth a flip on a touch screen when I’m mad! 
Jessie had suggested getting a stylus — well, in a round-about way, after discovering that her Nintendo DS stylus would not work with my iPhone. LOL! I thought it was a great idea though and began scouring the net for possibilities. And let me tell you, there are TONS out there. I finally popped back onto the Apple site and looked through their online store. One immediately caught my eye, so I ordered it: the Pogo Stylus.
I got the red one! 
It came in the mail yesterday, so I spent a good deal of time last night and this morning playing with it. I don’t think I’ll use it every day, but there will be times when I’ll need to take lengthy notes or maybe post to my blog, and this will come in VERY handy!
Open call to Black Hat theme users
April 21, 2009 by Nicki
Having all this time off lately has afforded me something that I hadn’t previously had — an opportunity to spend a great deal of time on my Black Hat theme. I’ve taken the last update further by incorporating more theme options. As of right now the following can be added or controlled via the Theme Options: Sidebar location (and/or removal), Feedburner URL (replace the default RSS feed link in sidebar), Feedburner email subscription link, meta keywords, latest Tweet in the sidebar, Related Posts.
What I’d like from you is: what functionalities would you like to see added to Black Hat? I am getting close to releasing this update and would love some feedback on what should be added next.
Updated WordPress Theme: Black Hat
April 13, 2009 by Nicki
I normally don’t post updates to my themes here on the blog, but I think this one warrants an update post for a variety of reasons. This update has been so extensive, I want to post a little more information on this its features as well as its development. I also want to highlight what the theme has to offer — while this is all is located in the readme file, I don’t think I laid everything out in the original introduction post. And last but not least, I wanted to cite the various resources that I have used in both the development and updating processes.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox, which is of course based on the Sandbox framework. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is also backwards compatible for version 2.6. (Sorry, I will no longer be supporting version 2.5 or older.)
Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Features
Theme option for changing sidebar location – Pretty self-explanatory, there’s a theme option so that the sidebar can easily be moved from left to right and back again from within the WordPress admin panel.
Sitemap template – If desired, you can create a sitemap for your blog by simply using this template.
Links page template – If desired, you can create a links page by simply using this template.
Printer-friendly stylesheet – Something I think a lot of users don’t think about until someone tries to print a post. Personally, I think all blogs should have these!
Admin & Login links – Many WordPress-savvy users don’t need a link to get to the Admin panel, but it’s nice for those of us who can’t remember the exact URL for it!
Favicon – Something else I think a lot of users don’t think about. Personally, I hope all my users replace this file with their own. A favicon helps your blog stand out, IMO.
Visual sticky post indicator – With the introduction of sticky posts in WordPress 2.7, I’ve noticed that it’s hard to tell if a post is sticky or not. I like visual aids, and this is one.
Easy to implement Feedburner links – By default, Black Hat features a feed icon linked to the blog’s RSS feed. This can be changed to a Feedburner RSS feed by simply updating a file to include your Feedburner feed URL. There is also pre-written coding for the Feedburner email subscription link. Another simple edit can enable this feature.
Default and conditional feed options – By default, Black Hat includes the coding for the following feed types: RDF/RSS 1.0, RSS .92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3. The RSS feed for all comments for your blog is also included. Conditional feeds: If viewing a single post, the comment feed for that post is available. If viewing a category, the feed for all posts in that category is available. If viewing a tag, the feed for all posts with that tag is available.
Additional/SEO meta tags – When developing my themes, I take the liberty of adding many commonly used meta tags. Most of the information is automatically filled in via various WordPress commands and can easily be modified by the user.
Twitter integration – In the post footer (when you click on a post, not viewing the index or archive page), there is a “Share on Twitter” link. There is also some pre-written coding to allow you to display your latest Tweet in the sidebar.
Related Posts feature – This function looks at the first tag for a post and finds all posts matching that tag. If no tags are specified for a post, it simply will not show up at all.
Customized default avatar (Gravatar) to match theme design – Black Hat includes an avatar to match the theme style. To use, you would simply login to the WordPress Admin panel and set the custom avatar as default.
As I said, more detailed information on these can be found in the theme’s readme file.
Sources and Link Love
These are the various resources and individuals who have helped make this theme possible: WP Candy, Cats Who Code, ThemeLab, WP Recipes, WP Hacks, Lorelle on WordPress, the WordPress Codex, WP Seek, WP Tavern, Jacob at A Blinding Sonic Blast, WP Lover, WP Hackers mailing list, Theme Playground, and For the Lose.
My apologies if I’ve left anyone out!
Availability
Hoppy Easter
April 12, 2009 by Nicki
Comments Off
Happy Easter everyone! I’ve two cute things to share today:
The cutest little rapper I’ve ever seen:
And by far one of the funniest Easter Eggs I’ve seen:
(H/T: For the Lose)
New WordPress Theme: Black Hat
March 17, 2009 by Nicki
My newest theme for WordPress 2.7. I think this one has been my biggest challenge due to all the features I had wanted to incorporate. As I had previously highlighted in my post the other day, this theme includes a detailed “read me” file covering its various features and a couple of FAQs/frequently requested modifications:
- Theme option for changing sidebar location
- Sitemap template
- Printer-friendly stylesheet
- Favicon
- Additional feeds
- Additional/SEO meta tags — including Google’s new canonical tag for paginated post pages. (Rumor has it this tag will be added to the core code in a future WordPress release. Nice!)
While I don’t think it’s my best work visually-speaking, I think its functionality and user-oriented details make it one of my better themes overall.
As time permits, I will be updating previous releases to meet the standard that I’ve set for myself with this release.
Details
Black Hat is a dark minimalist theme based on Adrian Diaconescu’s Corporate Sandbox. It is has been built specifically with WordPress 2.7 in mind, but is backwards compatible down to version 2.5. Stickers icons courtesy of DryIcons. Favicon by Brian Brasher.
Availability
Seriously miffed at WP.org
March 12, 2009 by Nicki
UPDATE!!
OK, things have been explained a little more clearly and I see now where they are coming from. I spoke with Joseph Scott, and he explained that WordPress doesn’t “include themes with links to sites that break the licensing terms of WordPress, or sites that support them.”
He also mentioned that this is in fact listed on the theme submission requirements page:
All themes are subject to review. Themes for sites that support non-GPL (or compatible) themes or violate the WordPress community guidelines themes will not be approved.
Not being intimately familiar with the licensing terms, I didn’t understand what that meant until now.
So, a snit over nothing really, yes … but from now on I think I’ll choose my resources with a little more scrutiny.
The release of my newest theme has been delayed. I had submitted it to WordPress.org yesterday for inclusion in the Theme Directory, as I have done my other themes. This morning I received a very vague rejection email and initiated a discussion as to why.
The long and short of it, I’ve posted to the WordPress.org forums, but to be honest I don’t expect anything to come of it. I would however like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
My post to the forums:
I submitted a new theme yesterday. Because I have several other themes listed here, I am already pretty familiar with the requirements, but always give them a quick once over to make sure that I haven’t forgotten anything.
I was a bit dismayed today to get the following in an email: “Thank you for submitting the Black Hat theme, however it has not been selected to be part of the theme directory.”
That’s it. Nothing else explaining why my theme was rejected. That in itself is disconcerting, so I requested more information. I’m then told “Themes from sites (or links to sites) that support non-GPL WordPress themes are not included in the theme directory.”
My theme’s style.css clearly states that the theme is released under the GPL license; this is also stated very clearly on the theme’s URI on my website.
I explained this and was then told: “Go back and look at your credit links, both in theme description and the footer of the theme. Specifically http://www.rubiqube.com/corporate-sandbox/ which has at least 3 ads for sites that support non-GPL themes.”
My theme is based on the Corporate Sandbox framework. I linked to the site crediting its author — not required, but morally the right thing to do IMO.
So my question is this: Has the theme directory submission been changed? If so, this is not listed anywhere on the requirements page. And when did credit links fall under this kind of scrutiny?
I understand that there needs to be some serious cleanup for some of the themes listed here, but this is taking it a bit far, don’t you think?
The man I credited has ads on his site. How many others here to submit themes have similar ads? Or use a premium theme with a link back to its creator?
I understand that if that’s the way the rules are now, that’s that … but for Pete’s sake, list them in detail where theme designers can see it!!!
Theme improvements
March 8, 2009 by Nicki
I’ve been working on a new theme for the past 3 months and hope to have the kinks worked out soon so I can release it. In doing so, I’ve taken the time to assess what this new theme will have that my current releases do not.
And it’s quite a long list, lemme tell ya!
One of the items on my laundry list of “to do’s” is to include an informational “read me” file, featuring various features of the theme and answer a few frequently asked questions that I’ve come across from user feedback.
In fact, the majority of the “to do” items are from questions and/or requests that I’ve received. 
Here’s a sample readme:
Hopefully this will be a little more helpful to users than the few notes I normally add in the theme description in the style.css file. I plan on updating all of my current themes to include these features.
Comments?
Feedback is gold, so hit the form below and let me know what’s on your mind.
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