Ramblings of the Mildly Insane

After much anticipation, my new mobile phones have arrived. Since it was about time for me to upgrade, and after weighing the options, I opted for the BlackJack II and the AT&T Tilt.

Believe it or not, I have some level of restraint, so I allowed both phones to charge fully. The Tilt was closest (and has the cooler features), so I decided to play around with it before bed. All I have to say is that it’s still shiny and new, and as a result, it rocks. Unfortunately, my new service hasn’t been transferred to it yet, so I can’t make any calls. Luckily it has WiFi, which I used to connect to my home wireless network and thus, gained internet access.

First order of business? Download and install Opera Mini. Unfortunately, Opera has other plans. For some strange reason, after not recognizing my phone (but recognizing that it’s a mobile device), when I click on the download link, I get an error message. So, for now I’m stuck using Internet Explorer and oh my, how the web is ugly in a mobile browser. My own websites included.

Now that I’ll be doing a lot more internet browsing with my mobile phones, it’s prompting me to really reconsider a mobile stylesheet for my upcoming website redesigns.

All right, sorry for the late night ramblings. The cold medicine isn’t working as well as I’d hoped, so now I’m going to drink some tea, take a sedative, and go to bed. (Only after saying a prayer that I’ll feel better tomorrow.)

If you’re known to use widgets, you may want to keep your eyes open for a small bug which I’ve come across on this blog while trying to update my newest theme.

This quirk is hard to describe, but I’ll do my best…

First, the theme I’m working on features 3 sidebars: One with a custom name, Top Side, and two using the ‘Sidebar %d’ method (i.e. Top Side, Sidebar 1 and Sidebar 2).

I created a custom text block for the first widget and added it to ‘Top Side’. So far, so good. Tweaked the functions.php file in order to remove the before and after widget <li> code and all continued to be right with the world.

Then, I decided to add a widget to the first sidebar and that’s when the sky fell down on my head. finish reading »

It’s official. Mild Insanity is now running the most recent version of WordPress.

This upgrade didn’t come entirely of my own volition; I used MI as a guinea pig (as I always do) in order to put together a video tutorial of the upgrade process. Although I’ve already done one, since 2.5 is a significant milestone, I figured it could use some sprucing up since the back end has changed. finish reading »

This site will probably look borked up for a couple days as I put some finishing touches on my newest WordPress theme, Supr Preppy. This has literally been sitting in my WP dev folder since early this year (i.e. January) and it’s about time I finish the darn thing and release it.

Frankly, the only thing that was holding it from release was IE6’s poor support of transparent PNG rendering and my not wanting to hack around with it because there are issues with their Alpha Loader hack that I’d rather not discuss because I’m weary enough as it is. Instead, IE6 users will get a slightly modified version of the theme.

For the next few days, I’ll be cleaning up the style sheet and preparing it for its first release. (Oh, and yes, it’s compatible with WP 2.5.x — woo hoo.)

Since few people have the precision of a surgeon, photographs are bound to have some level of jitter unless you have an image stabilized camera which will take it into account or a tripod. But, this is one ingenious way to nip it in the bud completely — and for less than a buck. (Heading off to Home Depot.)

Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day and since I haven’t changed the header on this site in a very very long time, I’ve decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to dust off my sketch book.

The header image is actually my first Photoshop painting using my new Wacom Intuos3 Special Edition graphics tablet. I scanned a sketch I made, then worked in over until it had the feel I was going for. It’s not exactly as I want it, but I’m happy with what I have so far.

In time, painting with the tablet will become more natural (I’m already in love) and I’ll probably start showcasing my sketches and painting here. It’s the perfect place and a perfect way to revive my long neglected blog.

Now that I realize there’s really no such thing as a “natural” celebrity, I may just need to stop trying to emulate them and start Photoshopping myself whenever I don’t like my photos.

Of course, right now I can’t claim to have the same type of Photoshop skillz as those who cater to the stars. *sigh* (But, I can sure try.)

For an eye-opening look at this strange reality, visit iWANEX STUDIO and do the following:

1. Click on Portfolio
2. Click on a thumbnail image
3. Hover over the larger image that pops up.
4. Bonus: hover over Penelope Cruz’s photo back and forth really fast to see her hips and boobs grow.
5. Another Bonus: hover over Beyonce’s photo back and forth really fast to see her love handles and calf-fat magically disappear.
6. Bonus that the girls will hate me for: Click on Justin Timberlake’s photo and hover.

Hattip to Heather Burns for turning me onto this entertaining, yet deeply saddening, website.

Since I first activated Akismet just over a year ago, it has caught 106,934 spam comments.

Let’s do the math. 106,934 divided by 365 (I’m rounding down) is equivalent to 293 spam comments a day.

My last message to spammers still stands: I hope rabid gremlins gnaw your faces off while you sleep.