I’m trying to change that. I’ve deactivated my Facebook account, and I’m taking a break from Twitter for a while. I know I’ll eventually go back to Twitter, but as for Facebook, I’m not sure. I might reactivate my account and I might delete it completely … I just don’t know yet. Since I’m taking a break from social media, I’ll have more time on my hands, and I plan to use that time on my websites.

Tonite I put together a list of things that I want to do. They are (roughly in order that I want to accomplish them):

• Clean up the files I have on the server with my web host (get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Clean up my database (again, get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Decide what I want to do with the subdomains that I have set up (keep, redirect, or remove).
• Clean up my email accounts and forwarders (again, get rid of stuff I’m no longer using).
• Redesign the layout for this website.
• Start this site over from scratch in WP3 and import the posts and comments I have to this point.
• Possibly redesign the layout for my professional website.
• Start my professional website over from scratch using CodeIgniter.
• Do further development on the weather script I wrote a few years back.
• Possibly write a WP plugin based on my weather script (once I complete it).
• Blog more about the stuff that I’ve been doing at work with CodeIgniter.

That list should keep me busy for a while. LOL Now I just need to get myself to turn off the tv so I don’t have any distractions.

Wish me luck.

Since I’m back working again (just over 4 months at the new place) and coding every day, I have ideas race through my head for things I want to do with my own websites. Unfortunately, those ideas are racing while I’m at work, and by the time I get home, they’re gone. I need to start writing ‘em down I think. I’ve been using the CodeIgniter framework a lot. I keep trying to think of things I could do with it.

I’ve also dabbled in writing a Facebook app for a project at work. It’s a relatively simple one, as far as Facebook apps go … no interaction with the user or anything like that. I still had issues getting things set up initially, but that’s probably because I jumped in with both feet rather than reading documentation first. Oh well. I learn best by doing anyway. I’d love to come up with a Facebook app on my own, but I’m not sure what to do. The only thing that I can come up with is a weather widget. I started laying one out for my own websites already. I could create a script that can be plugged in to a regular website, a WordPress plugin, and a Facebook app. I just need to get my butt in gear. It’s hard to get motivated to work on my own websites after working on other people’s sites all day at work. But then again, I am usually sitting at the computer all nite anyway. I might as well do something useful rather than reading Twitter and Facebook and other mindless surfing.

We use WordPress quite a bit at work. I don’t deal with it since I’m the programming geek (php & MySQL), but I see what is being done by my co-workers. It makes me want to work on this place again. One thing I’ve never dabbled with is widgets. I usually just hard code the stuff I want in the sidebar since I’m just doing the site for myself. But I’ve seen what can be done with widgets and it makes me wanna give it a try.

There was a time where I was doing a lot of WP development. Yeah, it was just for myself, but I knew what was going on and what I could do. It’s been so long since I’ve done anything serious with WP. Even when I redesigned last, I didn’t delve into things I could have. I really wanna dive back in, but I feel so far behind. So many advances have been made to the core. I happened run across a site for a WordCamp in the cities. I’m seriously considering going. I think one of my co-workers wants to as well. It’s not until November, so we’ve got a while to make a decision. Anyone else considering going to it?

I’ve got a pretty sweet setup going on now (well, considering what I’ve had in the past anyway). I added memory to my laptop (from 1GB to 4GB), and I upgraded to Windows 7 (which I LOVE). I even got a new monitor that’s hooked up to my laptop (21.5″ widescreen). The dual monitor setup is perfect for development (I wish I had dual monitors at work). I still use WAMP server for local development. I even found out about a program (from my boss) that gives me a GUI for my local MySQL databases (HeidiSQL). I have no excuse not to work on my own websites (other than the fact that I’ve turned into a lazy ass).

So … be on the lookout (I’ve said that before, haven’t I ). I really will try to post more here. As with the ideas I have for my websites during the day, I have ideas for posts that never materialize (I think I need to carry a notebook with me to work … or just use Google Docs). I need to be better about that. I need to stop procrastinating and being lazy. I really hope I can follow through.

It feels soooooo good to be working with php again. For the past year, (at the 2 contract jobs I had) I was working strictly with html and css, mainly html emails. While I don’t mind working with css, I enjoy working with php and sql so much more. And not only am I working with php again, I’m even learning a new framework, CodeIgniter. It’s what they use at work.

I had my first taste of it today when I started on a new project. I think I’ll pick it up pretty quickly. While I haven’t used a framework before, I have worked with a “layer” concept at a previous job. We had separate directories for database, presentation, and domain layers. CodeIgniter has model, view, and controller “layers”. What I really like about CodeIgniter is the fact that you can put together an array of data in the controller layer to send to the view layer, and in the view layer, you have variables that have the names of the keys from the array that was passed to it. Or at least as far as I can tell, that’s how it is.

I’ve even been in a good, upbeat mood the past couple days. I really noticed it today. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m out of my apartment or it’s because I’m back working (with something I really enjoy even) or it’s just things turning back around in my favor. I’m not going to analyze it, and I’m definitely not going to take it for granted (or at least I’m going to try my damnedest).

Hopefully this means I’ll have a good birthday this year (it’s next Saturday). Now I just need to figure out what I’m gonna do to celebrate it.

I thought that the interview went well. It’s a small company, but I worked at a small company before. The work is exactly what I’m looking for. It’s a php/MySQL specialist type position. Obviously since it’s a small company, there would be work in other areas as well, but it would be focused in php and MySQL development. The person who conducted the interview said that he was impressed with my skills, especially since I never went to school for web development.

The only down side to the situation is that they’re not entirely certain yet that they are going to fill the position. He said that he needs to assess their workload to see if they can justify the position. He said that he should know by the middle of November (that would be a good birthday present ), and if they decided to fill the position, they would do so before the end of November.

So I guess that means that I’m still in a holding pattern. I’m still looking for opportunities in the area. But at least there’s a possibility out there … there’s still hope that I won’t have to leave the area.

Based on this choice, I went to UND and pursued a degree in meteorology. After graduating from UND I took a job at a company where I was a “meteorologist”. Why the quotes? The job was more of an office assistant than a meteorologist. I did put together reports from field projects, but I didn’t do anything weather related during my 4½ years there.

I was laid off from this company in December 2003 (they eliminated the position). This brought me to a point where I had to make another choice. At the time, I wasn’t really sure what to do. I had taken over the company’s website, so there was one option. Another option was an office/administrative assistant. I was actually one of the final two candidates for an administrative assistant position with Pepsi Co. in town. They ended up going with the other individual, but that was actually the best thing that could have happened to me. I decided to pursue the web development option, which landed me with a smaller local company. I worked at the company for about 3½ years until they closed their doors. At that time, I went to work directly for the final client that the company had. I was with that company until October of last year when I was laid off due to budget cuts (thanks to our lovely economy that still hasn’t recovered).

There was no need to make a choice at that point. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to continue in the field of web development. I just needed to find another job. I managed to find two contract positions. The second of those was supposed to turn into a permanent position, but thanks to our lovely economy, my contract was ended (3 months) early (and 17 other people were laid off).

This brings us to the present and another choice that I must make. This choice has not been easy for me. It has nothing to do with my choice of careers. I am now, more than ever, confident that I want to continue working in the field of web development. The choice is “where am I going to work?”. I’ve been struggling with this for the past two months (or more actually). There really aren’t many positions around the region (ND/MN/SD) that aren’t .NET or Java or some other language/technology that I don’t have experience in. I’m looking for php/sql based positions since that’s where my experience/background is.

I know that I need to look outside of my “comfort zone”. I just really don’t know where or how to start. I have looked for opportunities in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, but haven’t really found any that excited me. I don’t want to take a job somewhere only to find out that I’m not happy wherever the job is. I did apply for a position in Edmond, OK, but I still haven’t heard anything back (and I was a little excited about the position and the location).

It has been almost two months since my contract was ended, and I’m basically still at square one. I know that there are people out there who have been out of work for much longer than that (in fact, I was unemployed for about 7 months when I switched from a career in a weather related field to a career in the web development field [that was almost 6 years ago]); however, my savings will only last so long, and I’m not collecting unemployment.

I have found one position that is in line with the type of work that I’m looking for. I don’t know the name of the company because the position is through a job agency (and they won’t tell me until an interview is scheduled), but that isn’t really that big of a deal at this point. The thing that has me delaying pursuing it is the salary. Their high end is lower than my low end. It would be a $6/hr pay cut from my last position and a $3/hr pay cut from the position before that. While I don’t expect to start at a new job at the same pay rate as the one my last contract was with, I still have my acceptable range. This one is below that. BUT … the position is a permanent position, not a contract one. AND … if they have decent benefits and are progressive about reviews and pay raises, then this could be a good opportunity. But I was told that they are looking for more of an entry level developer, and with my experience, I don’t consider myself entry level any more (at least not when it comes to php/sql development). I have not written this option off yet. The only down side that I really see (at this point) is the pay. But even if I do pursue it, there’s no guarantee that I would get it.

So that brings me back to my current choice. Do I pursue this position (so that I can stay here), or do I put on my “big girl pants” and seriously start looking for something out of state? I’m really struggling with this one. I need to do what’s best for me … but I have no idea what that is. I just wish I would have an epiphany or would see a sign and know which path to follow … which choice to go with. I’m tired of struggling with this choice. But … at least I know what I want to do. Now I just need to make a choice as to where.

I’ve even gotten to do actual work already. I’ve made some updates to the websites and put together an email (from scratch … I didn’t even have a psd – I had to grab the graphics from a pdf file). It’s all been front end work so far, but I should be able to do things with php and even sql at some point. I’m still getting my feet wet on how the company does things. As of right now, I still believe it was the right decision for me.

There are 2 things about the job that I don’t like … but it has nothing to do with the company or the work. This is a contract to hire position (with the very strong possibility that it will become permanent after 6 months … perhaps sooner). The agency the contract is through required PAPER timecards, and they don’t do direct deposit. So Monday lunches will entail driving to the agency to drop off my timecard and Friday mornings (hopefully … they open at 7:30am) will entail driving to the agency to pick up my check and then Friday lunches will entail going to the bank to deposit my paycheck. It’s a little inconvenient, but I’m not gonna complain (too much … LOL). At least I’m working again.

I was unemployed for a total of 42 days. I guess that’s not that long a period, considering I was unemployed for about 7 months way back in 2003-04 when I switched careers (from meteorologist to web developer). And with the economy the way it is, it could have been a lot longer. I got lucky … this opportunity opened up, and a couple of people I used to work with had worked for the company at one time or another (I actually replaced someone that I used to work with).

As I said, things are going good as of right now. My supervisor even thanked me today for the effort I’ve been putting in the past couple days. I guess it’s a good thing to impress ‘em right out of the gate. I just can’t wait ’til I get to start working with php and sql (whichever flavor) again.

What is the idea? Well, it’s a weather widget. Yes, there are lots of weather widgets already out there on the web, but there’s no rule anywhere saying I can’t add one more to the mix.

My previous stab at this idea was just for my own personal use on my own websites. It displayed the current conditions only for Fargo. This time I want to create something that others can download and add to their own websites. I also want it to allow for customization of the location of the conditions by the person who is viewing the website that the widget is on, and I want it to remember that customization.

I intend to use the NWS XML feeds for the data source. That’s what I was using for my first version of this widget. I trust the data from the NWS. I see them as an official source. I know that there are other sources out there that might have more data points, but I prefer the NWS, so that’s what I’m gonna use.

I’ve already created a brief outline of what I want to accomplish. I even started sketching out the database schema over the weekend. Now I just need to force myself to sit at the computer and work on it. I definitely could use the distraction while I’m waiting. Once I have things finished up, I’ll most likely add it to this site for download (with instructions of course). I don’t know if anyone else will want to use it, but it will be good for me to put this together. And it will be something nice to add to my portfolio.

I wanted to share something that I thought was pretty cool. If nothing else, I wanted to save it for later reference for myself. And if someone else finds it useful, that's even better.

Let's say that you add classes to the links you have on your website (whether it's a blog or just a normal website) to indicate external links, such as the following:

Let's also say that you want to add either text or an image to the external links to indicate to your readers that they are links that will take them away from your website. Since they are external links, you probably also want to open the links in a new browser window.

Of course, you can always manually add the text or image after the external links, and you can add target="_blank" or target="windowname". But that just adds more work for you to do. And what if you're lazy?

Well, with jQuery, you can leave your links coded as above and add some code to do the rest of the work for you.

The first think you need to do is include the jquery.js file. If you're looking into jQuery, you probably are familar with how to set up an html page and include that file, so I'm not going to include that code (even though it is only one line).

You then have 2 options ... include the following code between some <script> tags directly on your page or create a separate javascript file and include that. I tend to do that latter to keep my pages clean. Now for the code ...

Now let's go through the pieces.

This piece of code is a pretty basic part of jQuery (from what I understand). It is a wrapper (of sorts) that you put around the rest of your code. It's sort of like window.onload() only better. It makes your code available as soon as the DOM has finished loading. This means that your code can be executed before any images you have on the page while window.onload() doesn't (at least I think that's the case ... I'm no javascript expert).

This does what the comment says it does. It finds all of the links that have a class of "external" and adds the text (or image code) to the end of it.

This code binds the custom "click" function to the links that have a class of "external". The custom function just opens the url that is in the href attribute in a new window. The return false just keeps the current browser window from following the link.

That's it. It's that simple. I really hope I didn't confuse you completely with my explanation. I also hope that I did the jQuery justice by explaining it the way I did (hopefully correctly). I'm going to try working this into this site some time soon ... at least the image indicators.

I may be doing more posts like this in the future as I find other tidbits that I find useful. They might be simple like this one is, and they may be more complex. It just depends on what I find useful. So consider yourself warned.

Side note: Wow. This is my third post (here) today. And I even posted an entry on my other blog. That makes this my fourth post in one day. I think this is some sort of record. LOL

All that I know that I wanna do as of now is redesign the layout. I also want to add more to it to make it more of an asset for getting a job. One thing I was thinking of adding was a page/section with some code samples. But other than that, I'm not sure what else to add. I want it to be a showcase of what I can do. After all, my current chosen career path IS web development/programming. And I want to stay in this career path for as long as I can.

So this is where you, faithful readers, come in. What do you think I should add to the site? Do you have a professional site of your own? What do you have on it? I'm looking for ideas as to how to improve mine. That and I miss working in php (since I don't get to at work).

So, while I'm waiting to find my next job, I need something to occupy my time during the day ... a new project. I've had a couple ideas, but nothing has lit a fire under my ass yet. One idea I had was for a weather script that I could turn into a WordPress plugin. I had a weather script for quite some time, but I took it offline when I cleaned up my other domain. Another idea I had was to put together a racing website. I've had a few in the past, each devoted to a single driver. This time around, I was going to make a generic racing site that had info on all drivers in the series. I also thought about adding a page where visiters could create an account and select up to 3 drivers to view info for each time they came to the site, if they were logged in.

What I need from you, faithful readers ... or what I'm hoping you'll provide ... are some ideas for things for me to work on. Perhaps an idea for a WordPress plugin that hasn't yet been done (or that could be improved upon), or some other functionality for any website. Or should I dive into either the weather script or racing website? Help me find a reason to get up in the mornings until I find my next job.