Like most people, I have new goals for myself for year 2010. I really prefer not to call these New Year Resolutions, because that sounds to me like something that I’ll never achieve. I know that many people have New Year Resolutions, and NEVER stick to them. I’m not sure I know anybody who has ever stuck with one. There are some who would prefer to put a more positive spin on this term by calling their goals – destinations, but that doesn’t do much for me. So, I will simply call these goals.

I do believe that putting your goals out for others to see makes these goals much more likely to be accomplished…..and that’s what I’ve decided to do. I do have other (and more measurable) goals than what I’ve listed here, but these are what I desire the most.

1. Spend More Time Reading God’s Word

I call myself a Christian. Actually, it’s much more than that. I am a follower of Christ. I’m far from perfect and really don’t deserve it, but God loves me in spite of who I am. I’m His, and He is mine. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I know many of you who will read this don’t believe in Christ. We all have that choice to make. I’m willing to share my beliefs with anyone, but I don’t force them. Having said that, I plan to draw closer to God this year than I ever have before…..by spending time in prayer, study, and obedience.

2. Become a Better Husband

I am a family man at my core level. I love being married and I love my wife. I don’t think I’m a bad husband, but I want to be a better one, because I love her and think she deserves better than what she’s gotten. I also think improving as a husband will make me a better father to my son, and that’s always on my mind. So, I want to be a good family man, and continue to be one my family can respect and count on. How can I be a better husband? Well, I think there are a lot of things…and it’s mostly through the little things. I just watched the movie Fireproof a couple of days ago, and was completely inspired to improve in this area of my life.

3. Improve My Health

I plan to improve my health in a variety of ways this year. I recently found out that I have Sleep Apnea, which I’m being treated for right now. This has renewed my interest in taking care of myself physically. I’ve heard many times that “You are what you eat”. There is a lot of truth in that phrase. I plan to eat in a more nutritious way, and be more active. That will probably mean less time in front of this computer. But the thing is, our habits define us in so many ways, you know?

Conclusion

Like I’ve already said, there are other goals I have and other things I want to accomplish in 2010, but these 3 things are at the very top of my priority list. We all have to look at our lives from time to time and take stock of the direction we’re heading in and what the most important things really are. If you have not done this lately, I encourage you to. Now that I’ve probably alienated every reader I’ve ever had on this blog (I did say the subject matter would broaden), thanks for reading.

I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas! I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, and your hearts filled with thankfulness for the blessings that God has placed in your life. James 1:17

Then I discovered blogging and WordPress. I first started blogging on Blogger, then WordPress.com, and finally replacing my website with a self-hosted version of WordPress. At the time, the internet wasn’t as saturated with blogs and social media, and it seemed fresh and exciting. I admit it, I even blogged about blogging. I think this is the natural thing for someone to do when they have a blog for no reason. What else are you gonna blog about?

I immediately started downloading a bunch of themes and modifying them with my own color schemes and headers. It wasn’t long until I wanted to figure out how to create a theme from scratch. So, after spending a bunch of time playing around with code and reading tutorials, I learned how the different files of a basic theme work together. I released my first theme, and got quite a bit of attention for it, even though it really was nothing special. So I started putting out a new one about every week or two for a while. By this point, I was getting so many support questions, I was ready to change my name. The far majority were not problems with the themes, but questions about how to make changes….to customize them.

At that point, I decided I needed to start charging for my services. I couldn’t keep up with all the emails and questions, although I didn’t want to ignore anyone. So for a while, I took on “clients”, who wanted a custom theme. I did this for a while, but working on someone else’s website just wasn’t as interesting as making one for myself. I continued to make customizations for a fee, and still do that, occasionally. However, my interest in developing websites has become much less than it used to be.

I think for me, I’ve got to be learning something new, and although I haven’t learned everything there is to know about building websites, I learned enough to successfully build one from the ground up. Now I have interests in other things. I like tools. You know, like shop tools….wrenches, ratchets, power tools. It’s enjoyable to work on something and actually fix it. I also like photography. I’m not interested in ever becoming a pro. I’m not interested in being a portrait photographer or a wedding photographer, but I do like to take photos, and experiment with the camera, as well as post-processing. It’s just fun. And I love motorcycles. I currently own two of them. I have an antique BMW bike, which I’ve written about here before, and I have a Yamaha Virago. I just started back riding last year, after not riding for a bunch of years. Now I’m hooked on it. My dad and I ride together a lot, and are planning a trip to the mountains next month(if the weather isn’t too bad)….can’t wait.

So, I suppose the point of this post is, to let you know that when I post on this website in the future, it will not necessarily be about anything web related. It could be about anything. I don’t have a central topic, or a schedule to go by. I’m not trying to make a living here nor build my RSS readership up.

The WordPress themes will stay for now, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll leave them on. They’re kinda outdated anyway.

If you’re still here, thanks for reading.

The thought of getting a Mac crossed my mind more than once, I just wasn’t quite ready to spring for it. I bought an HP Pavilion dv9000, which was way less expensive than a Mac Book Pro. I’m also a bit of an Ubuntu fan, so I’m trying this Vista thing out. My thoughts so far is that it’s OK. I haven’t really had any problems doing anything. It’s similar in my mind to XP, just shinier(I know I’m probably not telling anybody anything you don’t already know). The biggest disappointment to me is all the junk that comes pre-loaded…..all these icons on the desktop and in the start menu with their 60-day free trials. I got rid of all that junk first thing.

Here’s a quick overview of the specs on the laptop:

• AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60
• 17.0″ WXGA+ High-Definition Widescreen Display
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
• 3 gigs of DDR2 System Memory
• 250GB Hard Drive (SATA)
• LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support

The first thing I did, after getting rid of all the junk that came pre-loaded, was to set up XAMPP for develpment purposes. You just can’t hardly do WordPress themes with out having a local install. You can, it just takes so much longer. Luckily, I didn’t run into any problems there.

I’m thinking this laptop should serve me well for a few years. There are several things I’ll have to get used to though.

1. I’m used to a normal keyboard. This small keyboard will take some getting used to.
2. I’m not very good with the touchpad. Presently, I have a mouse hooked in. I’ll have to work on that.
3. 17″ screen…..When trying to code, I generally have at least 4 or 5 windows up at once. I’ve grown accustomed to having two larger screens to spread everything out. This will be the hardest thing to get used to.
4. Mobility. Of course, having a laptop will add lots options as to where I want to work. Not being restricted to my desk will be very nice.
5. If I continue using Windows Vista, I’ll have to get used to the annoying security measures they’ve taken. Seems like every time you click something, you have to click something else to tell the computer it’s ok…….quite annoying…….who does the computer think just clicked that icon in the first place?

Well, that’s been the biggest event of my week.

Today marks the third anniversary of me being a dad. In other words, today is my son’s 3rd birthday. I’ve been thinking about how much my life has changed in the past three years as a result, and let me tell you, everything is different. My whole lifestyle and every decision I make is influenced by my role as a father.

It’s funny how a person so small in stature can possess so much power. They can dictate when you sleep, when you’re happy and sad, and whether or not you’re on time or late. Kids are a LOT of trouble, and mine is no exception. But I wouldn’t trade the experience so far for anything. Seriously, life is more complicated now, and I don’t have the freedom to just get up and go anywhere, anytime as I once did. Although it doesn’t make any sense unless you’re a parent, it’s much better now.

It’s amazing to be able to see a child learn things first-hand. They will repeat something you said weeks ago, when you had no idea they were listening to you. Yeah, he’s a little sponge because he absorbs everything. He can’t seem to remember to close the refrigerator door, but he’ll remember that you mentioned taking him to McDonald’s the day before if he would stop crying(he’ll bring it up even if the bribe didn’t work). I guess kids are like old folks, they hear what they want.

I’m thankful to God for entrusting me with this responsibility and for giving me a wife that puts our sons needs before all else.

Happy Birthday son, I love you.

“There was a family on holiday in Australia for a week and a half when the husband, wife and their 15 year old son decided to go scuba diving. The husband is in the Navy and has had some scuba experience.

The son wanted a picture of his mom and dad in all their gear so he got the under water camera ready to go. When it came to taking the picture the dad realized that the son looked like he was panicking as he took it and gave the “OK” hand sign to see if he was alright.

The son took the picture and swam to the surface and back to the boat as quick as he could so the mom and dad followed to see if he was OK. When they got back to him he was scrambling onto the boat and absolutely panicking.

When the parents asked why he said “there was a shark behind you” and the dad thought he was joking……..but the skipper of the boat said it was true………but they wouldn’t believe him. As soon as they got back to the hotel, they loaded the picture onto the laptop and this is what they saw. (continue reading to see the picture)

(Try and tell me you wouldn’t have emptied your entire digestive system right at the point you saw it)

Would you have stayed to take the picture?? ”

I’ve seen South Park before, however I’m not a regular viewer. A cartoon with potty-mouth characters probably wouldn’t mix well with a chatty two and a half year old.

South Park Studio is a neat little tool where you can build a SP character from the ground up. The deal with this meme is for bloggers to build themselves with this tool so, I suppose, we can all laugh at one another!

Sound like fun? All right! If I were on the show, I’ve determined that this is probably how I would look……

Now, to complete my part in the game, I need to pass this own to a few people. Let’s see, how about Azmeen, ClarkeW, Jake, and Ian. If you guys don’t want to participate, no big deal.

If you’ve read this site much in the past month, you know I’ve released a few WordPress themes. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and finally, I decided to just do it. I have quite a few theme ideas hidden away in the proverbial closet of my mind.

Putting that into action has been a lot of fun for me……and it has brought some traffic to this site(which is one of the main reasons to offer a theme for free).

For those that don’t know, if someone links to your WordPress site, that information is revealed to you in the WordPress dashboard. Every now and then, I take a few minutes and look at sites that link to me – especially since I’ve started releasing themes. I like to not only see what types of sites are using my theme, but also what changes they make – some make some very creative changes. I don’t look at all of them, but I enjoy checking them out randomly. This past Friday, a new website activated my new YellowJacket theme. The title sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to see what it was.

The first thing I noticed was the change in the header image – which is fine with me. However, I also noticed that they removed the attribution link in the footer of the page.

*NOTICE: This has been resolved.

First up was the kitchen floor and the formal dining room (which is used as my wife’s office).

The kitchen had a linoleum covered floor that was extremely difficult to remove. I rented this “floor stripper” for the day which set me back about $75, but well worth it. I first made an attempt at it with a manual scraper, and didn’t get very far before deciding to spend a little more.

I considered installing new floor over the old(as many people do), but the floor in the second room has stained concrete, and I wanted this tile to be an even, level, continuous flow from one room to the next.

I think it turned out very well.

We went with vinyl tile………no particular reason, except maybe that it sounded easier to install than ceramic tile. I think it would be much easier to install the second time around, because it’s such a learning experience.

Next Up…….the Living Room/Hall

Now before all you Trading Spaces junkies get excited, notice I never in this article refer to a room as a “space”. I’m just not that hip.

The living room had carpet that was probably installed when the house was built about 13 years ago. I always liked the color, but the combination of our son and dog, the carpet just couldn’t take the beating. It was stained pretty bad, despite being cleaned with a carpet shampooer regularly, so we decided to put down hard wood (laminate actually). If you noticed the shelves were empty, we had already started clearing out the room when I took this picture.

The adjoining hall and foyer already had a hardwood floor, but I tore it out because I wanted it all to match nicely. I tried my best to take out this floor with out damaging all the pieces, some of them had to be busted up. It was glued down tightly.

Now getting carpet up is not that tough, but you quickly realize just how un-clean it is……..lots of sand to sweep up.

After getting the under-layment laid out and cut-to-fit, it was time to start putting down floor. I was already sore from the past two days of work. My hats off to guys who do this for a living. My knees are still red.

The finished product! Dude, I was so happy to reach this point. All I have left to do is nail down the freshly painted shoe molding to cover the edges, and then the exciting task of moving all that heavy furniture back in place.

My son was ready to take a ride when he got back from spending the weekend with his grandmother.