Site Updates

I have WP Template A.D.D.

Yes, as you’ve noticed, the template has been changed, AGAIN.

I didn’t really like the last one.. it just seemed too plain for my tastes, and I wanted an opportunity to show off some of my portfolio and other random web services (Like XFire or Last.fm). I’m still working on some of the sub-pages, so things may break.

I’ll update this article as I add/change things

Updates:
7:10pm - Made more buttons for all of my links. The idea is no text links, only buttons.

7:51pm - Re-Added the Photo Gallery plugin and the Counterize plugin for stats.

8:16pm - Added Last.fm and OFS Radio buttons to header

8:30pm - Listed two more entries under “Previous Entries” section to total of 7

9:22pm - Fixed problem with individual page margins & sidebar wrap

10:39pm - Redid all header graphics. Longtime readers will recognize the style as a throwback to one of the very first versions of the site. I think i’ll start work on the archive section now.

12:44pm - Finished 404 page, Sub-page template, and added Gravatar support. Gravatars are community avatars shared by your email address. After you sign up and pick a “gravatar” or submit one of your own, whenever you leave your email address on a web site that supports them, that image will appear next to your comment, much like forums. Sign up here!

3:50am - Finsihed “About” page. It’s 4am, and i’m tired. Time to call it a night.

To-Do:
~~About page~~
Archive page
Changelog page
Contact page

Bugs/Problems:
None currently!

Link: I have WP Template A.D.D.

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Posted by Haggis on February 25th, 2006 @ 4:26 pm.

Bannerized

Yes, I have whored myself out for the corporate masses, but dammit i’m BROKE. I’ve added banners on the top and bottom of the pages from Google’s AdSense, which is one of the less evasive banner sites out there. I’ve opted for the “image only” banners right now, but may change to text-and-image banners if I don’t get as many click-thru’s.

Click on a few. It won’t hurt, I promise. You don’t have to sign up for anything.

Link: Bannerized

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Posted by Haggis on February 13th, 2006 @ 5:27 pm.

New Sites & Site Relaunch!

I’ve been hard at work this past week doing way too many things at the same time, but somehow my perserverance and determination has allowed me to finish!

First off, I am proud to say that I have added another website to my long portfolio, this time for ALL SMOKED OUT Artist Wordsmith! His site was in dire need of a facelift and was ready for the next level, so I volunteered my skills to make him something more interactive and asthetically pleasing (without using Flash!).

CLICK HERE TO VISIT WORDSMITH’S NEW WEBSITE!

I have also been working on the complete redesign for One Fry Short Productions website. We had all gotten tired of the busted purple lightning scheme, so I started from scratch (except for the logo, of course) and did something from the ground up. I used a few new plugins this time and they have paid off pretty nicely.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT ONE FRY SHORT PRODUCTIONS NEW WEBSITE!

First off is the most noticable: the random header. If you didn’t notice, go to the site and hit the “Refresh” button on your browser about ten times. You will notice the header image swap out every time you revisit the page. Since I took almost 500 photos over the course of my road trip, I thought i’d put them to good use.

The plugin itself was fairly easy to install. You have to make sure that your “header” block in your theme file (both index & styles.css) is properly defined. You activate the plugin, upload some header images to your server, and then define them using the management tool built into the plugin from WordPress. It will automatically find your header block (again, if it’s defined properly) and replace it with the random header code. Pretty neat!

Also installed a Banner rotating software, and an “Event Calendar” that won’t show days that I posted, but rather days that have the “Event” category selected with changed timestamps. IE instead of just highlighting the date, when you click on it it will pull up an article about the event that is happening that day.

I have to say that the new Akismet spam blocker plugin included in WordPress v2.0 is amazing. I haven’t had spam on any of my sites since upgrading, and that is a severe cutdown from the hundred or so I was getting at the peak of the problem last year. If you haven’t upgraded your WordPress blog to 2.0, you’re missing out. The new visual rich editor is nice for newbies, but I’m too used to picking over my HTML than having a software write it for me automatically.

Link: New Sites & Site Relaunch!

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Posted by Haggis on February 7th, 2006 @ 12:51 pm.

Wordpress Weirdness & Tour Updates

If you’ve noticed some weird formatting issues over the past few days, it’s due to the WordPress v2.0 upgrade I did on my server.

They included the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor, which for people not used to writing HTML code, is really useful. For a web designer perfectionist such as myself, it’s extremely annoying. It would clean up my written code and change the formatting to what it thought I was trying to do, but it usually screwed my whole website up (such as making everything centered, or adding too many line breaks after sentences). I finally figured out how to turn it off (the profile editor, a new feature to WP 2.0) and everything seems to be back to normal.

They also included a new spam fighting utility in the new version using the Akismet spam checker. It uses Wordpress’s new database plugin to the server with a special key you have to register. When set up, it will check all of the comments on your website from previous and future posts for spam words and sites against it’s massive database. That combined with my image verification on the comments posts, I haven’t gotten any spam since I installed the new version.

I’m enjoying some downtime today from the tour at DJ Cactus’ dad’s house. We had a few equipment issues yesterday before the show so we pulled everything out and have been running through some tests and balances so everything sounds great for the next venue we have to use it at. Honestly it was something that should have been done before we even left, but we just didn’t have the time.

Tomorrow we’re all working on getting a venue in Sacramento signed since we have a whole other day in Northern California before we head south to Los Angeles and Long Beach on Saturday. I’ll be spending the rest of the night printing press releases and interviews from Wordsmith to present to the club venues to help get us in the door. I’ve also got a list of record companies in Los Angeles that I’m sending some stuff to in the hopes that maybe a few will show up and sign one of these groups.

Speaking of which, GoldenChild and his crew are heading to California tomorrow morning. Coming from Houston it’s a two day trip on I-10 all the way into L.A., but we’re just excited about him coming back. He missed a hell of a show last night at King’s Inn and it would be a damn shame for him to miss the two biggest shows on our tour in Long Beach.

On a side note, if you notice I haven’t been updating the photo gallery with the new pics instead of posting them on the main pages of dailyhaggis.com and onefryshort.com. here’s the reason: I’m on dial-up. Yes, ladies and gents, as in 56k baud torture. My galleries timeout when i’m uploading picture, so i’m waiting until I have access to a broadband connection before I update them. For not I’ll just continue to post them on the main sections so everyone can see em.

That’s all for now. The next post probably won’t be until I make it to Los Angeles and finish with the show at Club 49. I’ll post many pictures and will have another article by then.

Link: Wordpress Weirdness & Tour Updates

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Posted by Haggis on January 12th, 2006 @ 11:36 pm.

Daily Haggis v4.0

On December 18, 2002, I created a little website called The Daily Haggis. Originally dedicated to my obscene love of the entertainment world, I never thought that three years later I would still be doing it, albeit in a different format.

So for the third birthday of this little blog, I decided to retire the previous template and install a new CSS-friendly version that is more compatible with some of the newer plugins for WordPress, which this site is built from.

It’s not quite finished yet, but all I have left to do is a little graphic and color tweaking. (The original colors were tan and green.)

Also, and what really brought this on, was the installation of a brand new SPAM-killer plugin. This one finally has the settings i’ve been looking for: Preview comments AND Image verification. Doing this will cease any spam that might come through the site, as well as using a more user-friendly preview system (the other one was CRAP.)

Leave a comment and wish the blog a happy birthday!

Link: Daily Haggis v4.0

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Posted by Haggis on December 15th, 2005 @ 1:29 am.

Technical Difficulties

My comment system (and concurrently the whole damn site) is currently bugged do to some changes I was making to system last night. It’ll be back up and running later tonight.

UPDATE: All is well.

Link: Technical Difficulties

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Posted by Haggis on December 14th, 2005 @ 11:00 am.

Buttons Buttons Everywhere!

I was feeling generous today so I decided to make little buttons for some of my friends’ blogs. Everyone should visit their sites and post some nice comments! I get so many visitors here at my little space that I felt I needed to share the wealth as these sites are all great in several different ways.

Tell em Haggis sent ya!

Link: Buttons Buttons Everywhere!

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Posted by Haggis on December 1st, 2005 @ 3:36 pm.

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Recently Watched Films:

Charlie Wilson's War 4.5/5
2008-06-29 22:00

Fascinating tale based on the true story of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson's one man war against the Soviet Union's takeover of Afghanistan in the early 80s.
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10,000 B.C. 3.5/5
2008-06-29 19:00

Bad CGI in parts, really good in others. Predictable story and cheesy dialog. History buffs will probably be angry.
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Super High Me 3.5/5
2008-06-22 19:00

Documentary of a stand up comic who smokes pot every day for 30 days. A few laughs, some interesting points with the testing, overall silly.
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Jumper 4/5
2008-06-07 17:00

Decent sci-fi flick about a boy who can teleport and how he misuses his powers for selfish gain, also triggering the attention of a shadow group who seeks to stop all of his kind.
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the... 3/5
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Cloverfield 4.5/5
2008-01-19 16:30

One hell of a monster movie from the point of view of five survivors of the attack. I was scared as hell in the theater.
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