http://www.boxoffice.swalrus.org/

New Hotness

I thought since Wade is getting some traffic blogging about DC and Food Trends that his blog shouldn’t have an ordinary blog theme that anybody could use. So I made a new one for him! Gotta look out for the Swalrus Network. The header image is from his trip to Lake Tahoe I modified it so that I can swap out the lake and mountains in when he gets tired of that image. Then ‘Little Wade’ can be taking a picture of anything.

Comparison picture after the break.

Old and Busted

Society for the Standardization of Blog Navigation Links

Mission Statement:

Previous and Next are confusing when reading a blog. Does that link mean back to the “previous” page I was on or to the “posts that are previous to these”.  It’s the same as using “Right” and “Left” on a ship, it can have multiple meanings. We are presenting the new “Starboard” and “Port” of the Internet. Older for older posts. Newer for newer posts. Simple.

Everybody wants stickers! Right!? Had a little free time and I whipped up this sticker design for my new fake movement. After the break there’s another design, plus smaller versions for blog sidebars.  I might fine tune the design a little, but these seem to get the point across.

It took me a while but I’ve really come to admire Engadget’s new layout. I think it’s very forward thinking and cleanly designed. So I’m using a version of their OLDER AND NEWER links for my blog design.

I’m starting the Society for the Standardization of Blog Navigation Links.

our mission:

• use Previous to refer to the older posts.
• or the simpler OLDER POSTS/ NEWER POSTS
• that’s it.

VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

*UPDATE*

Turns out that I might be on the short side of the argument with this one. Right now Cinematical uses the opposite PREV and NEXT technique and so does the entire GAWKER network… and the rest of Engadget’s sister sites also… But sometimes a small band of rebels can conquer and entire empire.

How to reproduce this in WordPress.

1. Save these two images to a directory on your site back_image and forward_image or use any other images you want.

2. Put the following code in your stylesheet. But change the location of the images to where you put them on your server.

CSS CODE :

.navigation p a{
text-transform:uppercase;
text-decoration:none;
color:white;
font: 20px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
margin:0px;
padding:0px;
letter-spacing: -1px;
}
.navigation p a:hover{
color: #cc0000;
}

.navigation .oldpostnav{
background:url(images/nav_link_back.gif) no-repeat left;
padding:0px 0px 0px 25px;
float:left;
}
.navigation .newpostnav{
background:url(images/nav_link_forward.gif) no-repeat right;
padding:0px 27px 0px 0px;
float:right;
}

3. Use this code where you currently have your navigation in wordpress. In the Main Index Template (index.php) search for “posts_nav_link”

<div>
<p>
<?php posts_nav_link(‘ ‘,’<div >Newer Posts</div>’,'<div >Older Posts</div>’); ?>
</p>
</div>

Before

After

This blog redesign is still a work in progress, my strategy has been to get something out there that is functional and then add onto it piece by piece until it’s perfect. I’d always noticed that the posts themselves were a little plain, but I just couldn’t find something that fit the style. I thought it would be cool to have a sort of Apple-ish calendar poking out of the top of every blog post…. so that’s what I made. Doing these little things is a good way to keep my design skills fresh in between actual paying design jobs. Which are few and far between.

On the code side it’s not that much of a change, just added a fee floated divs here and there and a couple lines to the CSS file. I’ve pushed this template so far that I’m begining to think I should make an actual theme out of it and submit it to WordPress.

Maybe I’ll get there eventually, but it’s not perfect yet.

Later!

It also makes me rethink having two blogs. mark5four0.swalrus.org was supposed to be some kind of middle ground where I could dump anything that I was working on and not be afraid to show it. I was trying to keep some distance between my professional side, my personal side, and my artistic side. What I’ve realized is that no matter what I’m only one person. If I put Mark Schumaker in the meta tags of all the pages, I’m really not separating anything. So I might as well just put all my blogging and art in one place and have a portfolio site in another. So I’m shutting down that blog and bringing all the content over here.

I’m still keeping MarkSchumaker.com… because everyone should own their name.

link

later!

Cue flashback.

It all originally started way back in 2002 with MarkSchumaker.com which after about 2 years I forgot to reapply for and it was snatched by a domain squatter. (Fuck you Kenyatech) So I needed a new domain, another Schumaker (Kevin Schumacher, no relation) already owned Schubox.com so because I couldn’t come up with anything better I thought theSchubox.com seemed reasonable. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have registered a name so similar to someone who kind of does the exact same thing as I do… probably confusing… So after about a year the domain squatter realized that he should have taken my offer of $35 for the domain and gave it up. So I promptly bought it back, because any respectable nerd should own his own name. A few months later I wanted to switch hosts to one that offered more services. Dreamhost.com was having a $9.99 sale for one year of hosting and a free domain. Not wanting to waste the chance to own another piece of the web, I decided to register Swalrus.org. So now I have 3 domains… I decide that MarkSchumaker.com will be my professional site, TheSchubox.com will be my art portfolio, and Swalrus.org will be anything else. Which all made sense for about 3 months until I realized that I was putting the same keywords in all three sites and therefore they would all come up if you searched for my name on google.

So it’s not a prefect system.

Now that I’m looking at it swalrus.org is kind of useless, I could have all these domains under theschubox, but I guess it’ll be nice to have a seperate domain if the network idea ever takes off. Basically I’m paying $10 extra per year to be able to tell people that I own Swalrus.org! On the plus side it is such a weird word that I’m now the top result on Google for it. This all worked for hulu, google, boingboing, most other web2.0 sites so I guess I’m in good company.

So now, because of all this… I’ve found the old original version of the Swalrus Conservation site and put it back under the top level domain. I think it makes more sense to have to top domain point to all the sub domains… and it’s still funny. Now it will act as a distribution point for the Swalrus Network.

Which as of now officially contains…

Thoughts.swalrus.org – This blog
Mark5four0.swalrus.org – My art dump
WadeChi.swalrus.org – Wade Chi Photography
USAFuels.swalrus.org – Laurel’s Documentary
TheTable.swalrus.org – Site for the Beerpong Table
CRS.swalrus.org – The Charlitron

If I ever get more people to join up I’ll probably remove the last two because they kind of suck.

But hello the most to people who are looking for the “Worlds Tallest Cat”. Because that post is the most popular I’ve ever done. I am going to cater to the masses and post some pictures of Frankie, hopefully with some sort of scientific measurements.

Also my other website Swalrus.org is now the number one result when searching for “swalrus” on google… I have now fulfilled one of my life goals.