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I have been far too busy lately. For one, I have this website I am running for a client. The pay is ok, but I had no idea how much work I would have to put in. I haven’t had a lot of free time. Cest La Vie…

Speaking of busy, the other thing taking a lot of my time is my new iPhone. Yes, I’m one of THEM now. Hush.

I never thought I would get so tied up in another digital device but this thing has me hooked. I even made it look like my actual Mac by creating a ‘theme’:

I also installed quite a few programs and games. Funny thing is, you would think I would be more productive having all this tech at my fingertips 24/7. Well, I am…but not as productive as I should be. I haven’t grown out of the ‘OOOoo…bright shiny object!’ phase yet.

In other news…this weekend is my Grandmother’s 80th birthday. The entire family is here in Florida right now. That means I am about to be hugged and kissed and have my cheeks pinched or belly poked about 100 times by Sunday. I’m actually pretty excited about it. I haven’t seen many of them in over 5 years.

Finally, I haven’t had a Mountain Dew in months. My face cleared up because of it. I lost more weight, too. Vitamin Water is my new ‘Dew’. That and a lot of Green Tea. Arizona when I am in a pinch, but I like the stuff Shelly and I found at the store the best.

Until next time….

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I just spent the better part of 16 hours working on 3 sites.  One of which is for my flatmate Phil.  I must say, I am especially proud of one particular page.  (My coding prowess runneth over)  Check out the gallery page HERE.

Lots of nose-grinding work learning new kinds of Javascript, CSS, and how to frame without using frames.  I know…geek talk.  BOOOooring.

So yeah, my other sites aren’t launched yet.  One has an issue getting me his cPanel login and the other is still propagating the DNS.

So how many of you read all that and didn’t understand a word of it? 

—

In other news, I haven’t shaved in 4 days.  Exciting, huh?  Well, it’s just that I really get into my work.  I just kind of…forget.  There are mre important things on my mind than scruff.

Like M O N E Y.

I will leave you with one of my favorite images ever:

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Some of those reading this blog may be my potential customers. That’s understandable since I have been advertising my services all over the web.

That said, I feel it is important and take the time to ask my potential clients for some understanding;

Dear New/Potential Client(s),

This blog is not a representation of me or my work. It is solely a place for me to connect and stay in touch with family and friends. I am sorry if you feel it is unprofessional or if the content offends you. I cannot help that.

I can, however, assure you that my work speaks for itself. Also, I research ALL of my clients. Such is the case when I don’t always have the opportunity to meet them in person or they give me little to no information to go on when asking for a quote.

So, I humbly ask you to be understanding about what you read here and just remember:

I will not hold your online history against you, either.

Sincerely,

David

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Whenever I send an email, the recipient sees this at the bottom:

So how do you do this? Well, it’s not easily done in Apple Mail. So, I am going to (attempt to) teach you how to make your own using a text editor, Mail, and Safari.

Creating an HTML Signature in Apple Mail

Step 1 - Create it:

Create your HTML signature. For this, I use TextMate because it shows me the correct formatting while I type.

Format it most any way you want. (*NOTE: I used inline formatting. This is a must since most emails will remove any <style> tags) Just remember not to make it too obtrusive.

Your icon shouldn’t be any larger than 50×50 pixels. I kept mine at about 20×20. To host your icon, you can either use your own site or Photobucket.

For those of you who don’t know how to ‘code‘ I created a template for you to download >> HERE <<.

Now, save the file to your desktop.

Step 2 - Fake it:

Open Apple Mail and go to Preferences.

Next click on the Signatures tab.

Now, click the + sign to add a new Signature. Name it anything you want.

By default it will add your Info. don’t worry about that. We’ll get to that later when we edit that file.

Drag it to ‘All Signatures’ so that it loads for all emails. Otherwise, just drag it into the account you are going to use.

CLOSE MAIL AFTER THIS STEP!

Step 3 - Safari-tize it:

Open the HTML signature you created in your text editor (the one you saved to your desktop) with Safari. Either drag the file onto Safari’s icon on the Dock or choose ‘Open‘ from Safari’s File menu.

Next, choose File then Save As and choose the Format: ‘Web Archive’ .

Step 4 - Save it:

Browse to the following folder: YOURUSERNAME/Library/Mail/Signatures

Look for the most recent file by separating everything by ‘Date Modified’. You should see the signature you just created in Mail. Copy the name of that file, which will be something like this:

B34739D3-5A67-4119-98A2-9D2CC5C0B337.webarchive

Now, paste that name onto the Web Archive file that you saved on your desktop. Then, drag the new file from your desktop into that folder and overwrite the existing one.

DONE!

Now, the next time you launch Mail and prepare a new email, you should see your signature on the bottom, like this:

I know it seems like a giant pain, but I have only had to do this once. Now all my emails have an attractive and professional looking signature.

It displays in Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and most POP3 servers…and, of course - Apple Mail.

Feel free to share your own finished signatures (and questions) in the comments.

Duckie

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So I have been hard at work for another client. This time I am creating a Social Media site based around underground Rap.

I’d been working on a tool that would emulate the scrolling product slider on apple.com/mac. What I came up with was this:

http://www.therealduckie.net/damian/slider.html

My next step, if I can figure out the issue, is to add REAL reflections (the ones you see were made by me in Photoshop) have each link/image pop-up like LightBox.

The problem I am having is that jquery conflicts with mootools and reflection.js. So, I am on the hunt for jquery scripts that will work or a way to get the others to play nice.

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I’d like to thank Eddie for motivating me to install the right plugins for my own Wordpress install.

It makes life SO much easier not having to go to each site.

(note to you myspaz junkies - I do not use that account, so your replies will not be seen/read.)

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I cannot make excuses for being who I am or what I do. I can only do my best, everyday.

When we’re kids, life is about mistakes and learning. Somehow, as we have gotten older, forgiveness for these moments is forgotten and instead replaced with resentment and guilt. It’s as if we forgot it was ok to screw up, once in a while.

I’ve made mistakes because I am human and I am still learning about life…even at 38. If I decide to go out and drink because a dear friend is in town and I have a few too many…So what? It will be said that I have spoken out many times about drunkards and people who have given their lives to the bottle. I do not deny that. However, the difference in what I may do once in a blue moon (read: every 6 months) versus someone who wakes to the bottle is a very different thing.

I will continue to fall, stumble, and generally make an ass of myself. And guess what?

So will you.

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This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been a real emergency, the tone you heard would have been followed by important information.

This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system.

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I thought I would talk, briefly, about why I chose to go with such a dark design for my website…

To me, the decision was simple - I have an HDTV as my monitor. It’s very bright. When I visit a site with a lot of white or light coloring, it’s sort of blinding. But that’s not all…. Since mine is an LCD, and LCD pixels can be known to burn out, I worry about all these bright websites and their effect on both my eyes AND my HDTV.

So this is my effort to educate others on the benefits of switching to a darker site design. I am hoping that everyone will see the benefits and switch.

…Less LCD burn-out 3…. I mean, come on…Bright pages are so 2006 *wink*

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Created by compiling roughly 800,000 scientific papers into 776 scientific paradigms which results is an amazing display of connectivity. It almost looks alive.

Click the image above to view it. VERY large image.

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