Sat, 03 Jul 2010

My boys are . . .

Addicted 2 Skateboarding

It's their new blog site all about their favorite activity -- skateboarding.

Yes, I know the entries have my name on them, but they are really from the boys. I'm just providing the platform as part of my blogosphere. An old timer like me can appreciate the activity, but actually doing it requires ayounger body and legs.

The boys also have a You Tube site which is connected to the blog.

On their blog, the boys plan to share tips and tricks. They have been skateboarding for about two years and want to share their passion with others as they learn. They will take the rider into the videos that they use and point out the finer points through their comments to help land the tricks. They plan to get into everything skateboarding. If you're into everything to do with skateboarding, you should check it out. (Hey! If you are into skateboarding, what are you doing here?)

By the way, the image at the right is ME, not the boys. Actually, if I tried skateboarding, the image probably should be of me in traction rather than just kicking the board.

posted 07:42 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sat, 24 Apr 2010

What's Going on? -- Live Toad

I'm playing with the Live Toad page. That's the place where I try out things. My big thing now is JQuery and related files. I'm having fun trying out their UI system and seeing how it can be applied to web pages. It's fun to try things out, especially since JQuery makes things so easy. I'm looking at all the possibilities and trying out various things to see if I can make them work and increase the glitz factor of the page.

posted 13:54 [/WebSite] permanent link

Fri, 01 Jan 2010

I'm at Blogspot

I'm trying a different blog approach at Blogspot. The link is at the left. The new blog gives me some advantages that I can make entries using Microsoft's OneNote and upload them to the blog (see my trial with this blog here) and I can also blog using just the browser. I may end up going there, but I'm going to give both of them a try for a bit to see what works best. It really shouldn't make much difference, since I don't think anyone's reading this anyway, but what the heck. Here's wishing a happy and prosperous 200910 (shoot, that's going to take a while . . .) to the world!

posted 09:10 [/WebSite] permanent link

Fri, 07 Aug 2009

Revising the Site

So you think revision is easy!? Well, it isn't, especially if you have spent years with a site. But, I'm going for it. I'm doing two major things:

• Converting to ASP to make things more consistent and easier to maintain.
• Pruning things that I no longer maintain or that contains older infomation.

It's hard because I'm not certain where I am going and I don't want to remove anything which might prove valuable in the future (yes, I know about backups and I have them). I'm going to primarily work on content, but I may also look at sprucing things up through the use of styles to redesign things (that's phase two, if I ever get there).

Stay tuned . . .

posted 17:01 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sun, 21 Jun 2009

Twitter, thinking in 140 characters

I'm on Twitter now @bobbreedlove. I'm using it as a way to get my blogs noticed. But, it's interesting thinking in 140 characters. Sure, some are easy -- "going to bed", "beatiful day". But, the ones which actually reflect my thinking at the time are more difficult. If I want to provide a link to a blog or web page, I need something enticing, but even shorter, like the title of this blog. And, if I am just putting a thought into a tweet, it becomes more interesting.

The 140 character limit was chosen for technology -- the size of an SMS block -- and not for any more esoteric reason. But, it does make putting a coherent, interesting though into a tweet, a bit of a challenge, especially since I refuse to restore to texting words to get the thought across. You won't see any 'U R ... 2 me" or other cryptic messages in my tweets. I just won't do it. Even with this character limit, I want to maintain my use of english and not resort to short cuts.

So, hold me to it. If U C me do it, complain! I'll try to keep my thoughts interesting, complete, and less than 140 characters!

posted 19:42 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sat, 03 Jan 2009

Focus, again . . .

So I'm thinking about focus again and, as usual, I'm all over the place about it. OK, seriously, I am still majorly unfocused on the website. Monday, I'm starting on my 2009 resolution, to loose 45 pounds and I'm going to record it in the wiki. This will probably take a good deal of my focus on the site for a while as it will take my effort in my personal life. I don't think I will devote a real page to the effort, but will uses the wiki because I will be able to more easily record thoughts and results as they come to me.

I have been thinking semi-seriously about moving my entire effort over to a Google site and starting from scratch. I doubt it will be any time soon, but it could give me a more dynamic way of maintaining the entire website and, perhaps, some focus.

posted 16:08 [/WebSite] permanent link

Thu, 18 Dec 2008

Shoes . . .

. . . throwing them, that is.

The other day, I was made aware of the custom of throwing shoes as a sign of displeasure. It happened to be U.S. President Bush who was the reciepient of this sign of displeasure for his invasion of Iraq. (Personally, I'd throw the entire store at him for that one, but, that's a different blog).

It got me to thinking that we need a displeasure rating, like the stars used to signify accomplishment or pleasure. Thus, the shoe rating . . .

I'll be using the 5-shoe rating system to show my displeasure with something on which I am commenting:

	Mildly displeasing
	Some what irritating
	Pretty displeasing
	Extremely irritating
	Boarderline postal

We'll see how things work. For example, the war in Iraq gets 4 shoes () just because I am really a pacifist!

posted 08:31 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sun, 10 Aug 2008

Reworking a Web Site

Reworking a website is an interesting undertaking. I am currently doing so with the Sacred Heart site where I act as the volunteer webmaster. I have changed the look-and-feel, but have also been working on the content and ability to maintain the site. That means, I'm looking at content and the technology which drives the site. (I really need to do that here, especially to clean up and compact the content, but, that's another blog.) When you rework a site, you need to consider a number of things.

The first thing to consider is the purpose of the site. For some sites, like commercial sites, that's relatively easy. For other sites like a personal site, it can be more difficult, due to the lack of focus or broader focus of those types of sites. So how do you start?

I think, you look at your audience. After all, a web site is a place where you want to show visitors something. What are they looking for? Look at your audience -- customers, parishioners, family, the general community -- and determine what they are looking for. Match this with what you are offering -- a product, service, idea, concept, schedule -- and determine how you are going to present it.

Now comes the interesting part that many people seem to forget when they design a site. How are you going to maintain it? Presumably, your site will not be completelly static over its life. It will change. New events will be added, products will be modified, services will be enhanced, thoughts will evolve.

The Internet is an immediate medium. People who visit web sites want up-to-date information, thoughts, products. You need to be able to modify your site at the speed at which the Internet operates -- and you'd be surprised at just how fast that really is. When something happens, people expect to be able to go on line within minutes and see information about it. If you don't have that information or they can't find it, they will go elsewhere to find it.

If you have a staff of hundreds to maintain your site, then you're probably OK. But the majority of us don't have that type of staff. Even at companies which support commercial web sites, it is often difficult to get information to the site in a timely manner. Consider this when you design your site.

I am working with a volunteer organization (a church and school). Even though there are some paid staff, the majority of the work is done by volunteers. Getting information from them to put on the site is a major problem. I have designed the new site to allow them to update the pages themselves -- or at least to make life easier on me to maintain then information that they do send me.

More later, as I work through the site redesign and start to work on this personal site.

posted 08:36 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sat, 26 Jul 2008

Focus . . .

. . . I lack it. It's probably the reason that I don't get much done on the web page and why I don't participate in a number of discussion areas to get my views know. It's evident in the blogs I have posted today. They range all over the place! I have been this way most of my life. I think that just too many things interest me and I go from thing to thing without maintaining my focus on any one things for very long. The website is all over the place also. I don't seem to finish anything in particular and this makes the site a hodgepodge of miscellaneous thoughts. The whole things is sort of a gimodudah.

posted 08:06 [/WebSite] permanent link

Sun, 27 Apr 2008

Lack of Time?

I just revised one of my web pages and got to thinking about the lack of focus for the website and my efforts in general. My first thought was that this is due to a lack of time. But, upon reflection, I got to thinking that might not be the answer. Hey! I had time to reflect . . . hmmm . . . is lack of time really the answer? Maybe it isn't really lack of time. Maybe it's last of focus. Maybe I am just not interested enough in any one subject to take the time to really devote effort to expanding it over the long haul? I seem to get started on something, work on it for a period of time, and then drop it. I am constantly rewording parts of the website in which I state something like, "watch for developments as I work on . . . ". I never seem to actually develop anything, at least not to the extent I intended when I told visitors to " . . . check back for further developments."

The most disconcerting thing is that I often drop the entire project all together. That is, not only don't I keep up the efforts of documenting it on line. I actually don't continue the project as I thought I might when I first considered it. There are also lots of parts of the site which are partially developed. I get to a particular point and tend to loose interest.

No, loose interest probably isn't the actual problem. I'm still often interested in the subject. It's just that I tend to get interested in something else more! I think that there may be just too much input. Too many demands on the old gray matter (and possibly too few brain cells left as I get older to process all that input).

Maybe some of the problem is discipline. I lack the discipline to follow through on something that is not of immediate interest or which takes longer than one or two sessions to resolve?

Do I seem to be rambling? Does it seem that I won't reach any conclusion on this article. Does it seem like I'll just trail off . . .

posted 17:15 [/WebSite] permanent link