Archive
A Little More CSS
Today I spend about an hour going through the CSS of this blog’s INove theme and found a few more interesting things. I experimented with different pieces of code, but didn’t change anything major. All I decided to do was change the font for the post and page titles (you can’t go wrong with Trajan Pro!!!!), as well as their size and color. I also took the header image into Photoshop and applied a glass effect, making it a little more interesting.
Concerning the blog in general, I made the “Christopher” and “Kyle” pages subordinate to the “About” page so that the search bar could be on the same line as the menu bar.
That’s all for now. I’d talk about what I did in class, but Dropbox didn’t have time to upload my new work.
Update: I added a new page to the galleries. The title is self-explanatory.
3.4.2010: I updated three pictures on the light painting gallery and added one image to the “Works in Progress” page. Today in class I worked on the third image on the “Works in Progress” page and started on a new image that Mr. Skocko called “beautiful.” I would put the original of that image on the “Works in Progress” page, but I think I’ll save it for its own post. Also, neither of the two pictures I worked on during class had time to sync up to Dropbox, so I don’t even have the files.
Today’s Stuff
This post is not devoted to any one thing, so I couldn’t find a suitable title other than “Today’s Stuff,” which is what it is.
During 7th period today, Kyle and I continued our attack on the cabinet in the Mac Lab, and made a small amount of progress. Also, we figured out how to use the two Lens Babies and the Wide Angle Convertor lens that Mr. Skocko has. Both of these devices could prove to be useful for photographers, maybe.
Kyle had spent all of 6th period working on the CRDESIGNLAB logo, so we reviewed his progress. Unfortunately, I didn’t like any of his designs.
At home, I did some more print prep, and put together a panel of images that we might print. Opinions are greatly appreciated!!!!
Lastly, I continued messing with the blog header CSS. I made the font for the title (DISCO) work whether or not the computer viewing it has the font and Kyle suggested that I change the size of the tagline beneath the title, so I did. I also remade the header image, boosting the saturation and rounding the corners more. Once we have a finished logo for CRDESIGNLAB, I will put that there instead of just a random image.
It was a busy day, and I still have a lot more work to do. I plan to go through Mr. Skocko’s tutorials on print layout back from the days of CS3 and finish going through the chapter on printing in The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby in order to produce the best prints possible. Wish me luck!
Tomorrow after school, Kyle and I will go to Michael’s to look at frames for our images. We want to frame our work, and so we can’t print until we know the size of the frames we want. If all goes as planned, (which it never does) we may be able to print during Mac Lab Saturday School™. We will be there from 8 to 10am to inventory all of Skocko’s equipment (all the stuff in that cabinet) (fun fun fun!!!!!). See you there!
(P.S.: People with focusing problems (Christian) should try to prefect their methods during MLSS™.)
The 3 Part Explosion
Part 1: The Big 1/12th
1 blog.
2 people.
31 posts.
259 comments.
2,662 hits. (palindrome)
1 month.
It make you wonder what the future holds in store.
Part 2: Standing Against Yoda
Well, as you may have guessed from the seemingly random facts listed about, this blog is now one month old. Actually, it turned 1/12th at about 3pm.
I have talked quite a lot about the direction that CRDESIGNLAB will be taking both here and here, and so I won’t bore you with any more repetitive details. I would just like to add that with every passing day, I become more and more devoted to expanding and improving this young site. With every passing day, I realize just how much potential the 2.0 web holds, and how with a little hard work, almost anything is possible. With every passing day, I become more and more enlightened as to the possibilities that exist within the Mac Lab. And with every passing day, I try harder and harder to make CRDESIGNLAB the best it can be by being the best I can be, by being everything that the Mac Lab is about, and I do so with a happiness and sense of gratification that I do not get anywhere else.
And that is why this site is great. Because I try to be great. I try. And sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fail. Luckily for me, my successes are far more numerous than my failures.
On Saturday, I commented on Philip Behnam’s brilliantly beautiful new blog header pattern and I asked him how he managed to change the header. He said the setting was in the appearance menus. I looked, but to no avail. I desperately wanted to trash the horrid grey gradient that had been sitting atop CRDESIGNLAB for a month, and so I turned to my last resort: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I bought the CSS Styles upgrade for WordPress a while back, but to be honest, code kind of scares me, so I have been reluctant to delve into it. I decided I would brave the unknown and try to dig the code for the header out of the current theme’s CSS, and as you can see, I succeeded. I was ecstatic! I left a jubilant comment on Philip’s blog and literally jumped for joy. I had actually, on my own, figured out how to make something happen by using code! Man, I was happy. And to be completely honest, it was a piece of cake. It took me two minutes and the result was really cool. The moral of this seemlingly pointless little anecdote is that I TRIED!!!! For two minutes, I gave it my all and to my great surprise, I succeeded. Whoever heard of such a thing!!!
Basically, I am trying to tell all of you people who are sitting there thinking “how in the world did they do that stuff” or “how in the world did they find the time” or “how in the world are they so smart” to take a moment to try. Just try to do something. Anything. Just not nothing. I challenge you, I dare you, to put forth some effort and I guarantee you will be shocked at the outcome.
Yoda (from Star Wars) said “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” I would like to think of Yoda as a wise old Jedi Master, as his 900 years surely lent him some experience, but I stand conflicted on this statement of his. I believe there is a “try”, and I also believe that if you “try”, the “do” will come naturally. I believe that you cannot have the “do” without the “try”. And so I think the Master is wrong, in a sense. Trying is part of doing. And the latter cannot exist without the first. And the first inevitably leads to the latter. Did I forget to mention that I like circular logic?
Bottom line: try.
Man, ranting is fun! And shockingly tangential sometimes. I started out talking about the blog and ended by telling you to try. It’s it amazing how the lessons of the web 2.0 world can be so relevant in daily life.
Part 3: The Lines of Light
Now for the feature of today’s post. The featured photo was taken when Kyle and I went to downtown on 1/17/2010. The 43 second exposure captured cars as they drove past and then stopped at the red light. It is not as good as a few of the other light painting we did that day, but I think the cars make it very cool. Also, during the car ride downtown, we opened the shutter for twenty seconds or so at a time and captured the lights of the cars moving down the highway. The results of four such experiments are now on the light painting gallery, along with the car picture. I don’t want to devote too much time to these images, as the tangential point of today’s post is discussed above in Part 2.
Well, I guess that is all. I kind of exploded into my computer during 7th period today, and this post was the result. The title was the last thing I wrote, because I feel like that simply is what this post is. My mind exploded. I just threw a bunch of stuff at you. Now do with it what you wish.
Blog Update
As its title suggests, this post is an update about the blog. All the pictures that Kyle and I took yesterday are on the memory card that Kyle took to Orange County and I have been unable to reach him all day. This means that I have no new images or anything to feature on this post.
However, I have spent a little time working on the blog. After a few minutes of digging, I found the portion of the CSS code for the blog’s theme that deals with the header image, and after a few more minutes of experimentation, I figured out how to change the image. I took one of my old light paintings and quickly turned it into a new header image. This image will only be temporary: we will create something cool to replace it sometime soon. I also changed the font of the “CRDESIGNLAB” title. By the way, by changing the CSS, you can change anything, from the fonts, to the backgrounds, to the layout of the blog and the posts. Everything.
I downloaded the SnapzProX trial on my MacBook Pro and experimented with the software. I plan to start filling the “This is How We Do It” page with tutorials similar to those that Mr. Skocko makes. I even looked on the FAQ page on the Mac Lab Blog to find the exact settings that Mr. Skocko uses. As soon as I recover from the cold that is currently plaguing me, I will start making these tutorials, starting with how to change the theme header image and then light painting basics. Normally, it would cost $70 to upgrade WordPress to support video, but by placing the movies in the Dropbox » Public folder and then copying the public link (tutorial coming soon too), I will bypass this cost.
I also uploaded CRDESIGNLAB’s first piece of 3D art, my first animated logo. I built it a long time ago, before winter break, but just hadn’t gotten around to uploading it yet. Hopefully even the 3D galleries will fill up soon.
Today, the blog got its 250th comment, which I think it amazing, given that CRDESIGNLAB has existed for less than a month. I would like to extend a great thanks to all of you that have been following and commenting on my work and that of CRDESIGNLAB. As I said in a previous post, it is a great feeling to know that you are appreciated and an inspiration to others.
Well, that’s all for now. Please come back soon!
Analytics and CSS
Last week, I signed this blog up for Google Analytics. The next day, I found out that you need the CSS Styles upgrade in order to access the blog’s code and make Google Analytics work. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a type of coding language used to govern the appearance of the a web page. Basically, it tells the browser what to show, dealing with everything from the fonts to the colors, formatting, and even the background image(s). I had only been briefly aware of CSS before.
Today, I bought the CSS Styles upgrade and have started going through some tutorials on how to write CSS code. So far, it is fairly simple, and the possibilities seem endless, but I have a long ways to go. In a few weeks, I hope to have completely overhauled the blog’s appearance, but I won’t apply the changes until I am completely done, and I certainly won’t be done in time for the presentations next week. Also, I won’t be able to set up Google Analytics until I have made progress on the CSS code. If anyone wants to know how or why, ask me. Wish me luck!!!
