I’ve had a little shuffle around with the site and given my design work it’s own separate layout. It’s a little more comprehensive than before and allows me to provide a bit of information about each project.
Also, the whole site is now running on a prototype version of my PHP content management system! Check out some screen shots:
Things are really beginning to take shape in the garden despite being late in the season. They must really love the city life!
Over the last few months I’ve developed a strange new addiction. My brain feels fuzzy and my eyes are raw, but I just can’t seem to give it up. I’ve been ensnared by the painful delights of web scripting.
There are few things that come close the euphoria that follows 4 hours of franticly nudging and tweezing drabs of scrambled code until finally, the whole thing locks into place and produces the exact output you desire – regardless of how desperately unimpressive it may be. Part of what makes scripting so great it the fact that almost every problem has a solution, it just depends on how creative you can be; I’ll happily put myself through hours of torture if I can see the slightest glimmer of hope that it’s not all in vain. And at the end of it all I get to sit back, hit refresh and present a polished, elegant interface that reveals nothing of tangled spiders web of functions and variables that string it all together. Talk about feeling smug.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s doing my brain any good. When I’m scripting, it consumes me. I’ve even started dreaming about code and solving functions in the shower.
It all began while I was snooping around the back end of wordpress and using snippets of code to modify my blog. I began to realise that these garbled towers of text and symbols were actually beginning to make sense. Not only that, but I figured I could wrap my head around the basics and build myself something pretty useful – but what?
I’ve always wanted a content management system (CMS) for my portfolio that allows me to make changes and add new work without ever having to get bogged down with HTML or FTP’s. The obvious answer for most people is to use a system like indexhibit. It has almost everything I could want from a CMS except for the ability to adapt it to an existing layout. Sure, I can edit the CSS but I’ll always be left with something that looks like it was created with indexhibit.
So, I’ve taken it into my own hands and began building my own system. It’s almost complete too! So far, it allows me to create projects and organise them into categories as well as edit the project name, thumbnail and information. Most importantly, all this information can be dropped into any desired layout. I hope to have it up and running in the next few weeks! Here are a few screenshots of it in action:
I’ve been itching to grow my own vegetables for over a year now but I never really had the space while at university. Fortunately, about a month ago, I moved to new house with a rather substantial – albeit derelict – back yard. After clearing away the weeds, broken chairs, gas canisters and a whole host of other curious objects I was finally able to make space for two old chest of drawers and a wardrobe. With help from my girlfriend we lined them with refuse bags, made some holes for drainage and filled them with compost. Simple!
It just goes to show that living in the city and being more self sufficient can easily go together. I’m really looking forward to having my own little rural haven to fill my spare time and clear my head – Oh, and hopefully I’ll get some tasty free meals out of it too!
