sw’as

A new version of the Footnotes plugin (now called WP-Footnotes) is in the wild. In fact, it’s had several updates since the 1.0 version went into the wild a week ago and is now at v 1.3.1. See all the details on the WP-Footnotes page of this site or check it out over at the WordPress.org site.

Update: Feature requests and bug reports should now be submitted using my bug tracking site.

Without Pockets

Update: It’s alive!!

Without Pockets is coming along nicely. Those of you who are really, really on the ball might have noticed that it’s now possible to sign up for a monthly Without Pockets email update, and you can also check out the WP Blog.

The site went live for a few select people last week so that I could get some feedback on the design, and it should go live for real and for the whole world sometime quite soon (like the end of this week). I’ve got a whole bunch of posters going to print tomorrow and plan to do a postering blitz of Brisbane on the weekend^[1].

Here is a sneak preview just for you^[2]:

If you have had thoughts of designing a t-shirt now is a seriously good time to get started. If you’re one of the first few people to submit a design you’re in with a frighteningly good chance at winning $1500 in cash and prizes. No kidding. Head on over to Without Pockets for the details.

The Wedding

Ok, I think the wedding is now actually, totally behind us. sigh^[3] Laura put in a massive thank you card writing effort on the weekend, while I uploaded a bunch of photos for you all to enjoy. If anyone loves us so much that you want to have one or more of those photos printed out for your very own collection just email me with the photo number and I’ll send you a high resolution version you can take down to the photo lab to be printed.

It also won’t be long before all those photos are clogging up my Flickr account and therefore the 1000 words section of this site.

Soccer

Both The Derps^[4] and Nobby’s Nuts^[5] are fresh off humiliating defeats, though the Nobettes are putting on a good show so far this season. For more lively soccer updates and a frighteningly bad birthday tale sink into The Oooze.

My own little world that very few readers here care about

PHP5.2 has just been released with a couple of really neat new features. Notably, ZIP file handling and hooks for tracking file upload progress. Cool.

1. Anyone feel like volunteering to help? You know if you don’t I’ll just ask you to help anyway. And if you refuse, well…I don’t know…I guess I’ll just have to take you out of my will. [↩]
2. And, yes, I know that you pansies with tiny little itty bitty screen resolutions might find that image a little too large to consume…too bad. [↩]
3. Of relief. [↩]
4. That’s the outdoor side. [↩]
5. That’s indoor men’s. [↩]

I am slowly but surely getting closer to being able to put something more than a placeholder page up at http://withoutpockets.com.

The underlying code for the site is coming along nicely and I hope to have something to show my select group of testers later this week. But what I’m really struggling with is coming up with a design for the site. I have mapped out some general principles that I’d like to follow with the design, but I’m finding it difficult to get any inspiration that will get me off the ground.

Back when the name for Without Pockets was first conceived, Aidan came up with a little character which was quickly dubbed “Mr. Pockets”. While it looks as though we probably won’t use Mr. Pockets in the design I’m going to explore that idea of having some kind of creature as the logo for Without Pockets.

In an effort to force some inspiration I’m going to design a new and different creature each day for the next five days and post them here. Maybe it will lead somewhere, maybe it won’t. If you love or hate any of the creatures tell me. If you’re feeling particularly creative (and maybe a little bored) you too can have a crack at designing a logo for Without Pockets. Who knows, maybe I’ll want to use it.

Update: I should make it clear that these creatures in themselves were never intended to be a logo per se (thank god!) but merely to get me thinking a little more creatively. I think it’s kind of working, though I’m quickly learning that creating original drawings isn’t my forte^[1].

Monday’s Creature

Ok, I didn’t think this through. At all.

These things are going to be ugly. I always intended that they be just quick an dirty sketch type creatures, but I didn’t anticipate them being quite so dirty.

This is the first time I’ve done such an exercise and I should have known it wouldn’t be safe to do in public. It’s clear from my first effort that I’m going to quite significantly embarrass myself. Anyway, what the hell. I name this ugly beast Tipsy and I hope it dies without coming back to haunt me.

Tuesday’s Creature

So today’s creature is not so much a ‘creature’ and more of a character. He’s pretty rough I have to admit, but I only managed to spend a few minutes at work scratching him onto a post-it note. Anyway, I name this one Jake.

Jake isn’t as ugly as Tipsy, which is definitely good. And while he’s not drunk, he’s probably just as unstable due to his exceptionally high centre of gravity.

By the way, some people seem to think Tipsy is male, but I’m pretty sure she’s female. Stay tuned for Wednesday’s installment.

Wednesday’s Creature

Since it’s now Thursday and I still haven’t posted Wednesday’s creature, it’s clear that I’m doing very badly at this challenge in more than one way. It looks as though I might now get to the final three until next week for a variety of reasons^[2], but stay tuned, I already have ideas and they will be forthcoming.

1. Obviously, I knew that already, but I would like to be a little better at it. At least good enough so that I don’t totally embarrass myself if I try. Obviously I’m not there yet. [↩]
2. Soccer tonight, bucks party starting tomorrow, weekend away, etc. [↩]

Well, things have been a bit slow around here, but I can assure you that is no reflection of the pace of my life right now. So much stuff is happening it’s really fairly hard to keep up.

Wedding

We’re just over a month out from the wedding and things are all go. The invitations have gone out and we’re getting RSVP’s left, right and centre. There is still plenty of stuff (but just small stuff) that needs organising. Time sure is ticking by quickly.

Without Pockets

I’ve been hard at work on the website withoutpockets.com and it is slowly but surely getting closer to being ready for launch. For now, I’ve put up a pre-launch site, which Tony has already been nice enough to plug over at Primordial Ooze^[1]. And as at today has generated a full 25% of the visitors to withoutpockets.com.

Laura

Laura’s flat out at school at the moment. She is putting on a musical this week and is out at rehearsal tonight. Apparently she told the kids at school today that I’d be there to see it on Friday and they were so excited that they announced it to a bunch of other classes. Apparently they ask about me all the time. They all seem to really like Laura, and I’m not surprised (I do too), she’d be a awesome teacher.

TV Boycott and an Attempt at Early Rising

Prompted by an experiment conducted by Steve Pavlina I’m in the middle of a 30 day TV boycott, just to see how it goes. I don’t plan to never watch TV again, but it’s nice to be avoiding Australian Idol.

So far I’ve found that I’m listening to a bunch more music^{[2] [3]}. I had hoped that I would find myself reading more as well, but so far that hasn’t happened. I just started Memoirs of a Gesha.

As well as avoiding TV, I’m trying to establish a habit. Early rising just seems so much better to me, however I find it really hard to do, so I thought I’d use the same 30 days to turn rising at 6am into a habit. Jiselle told me the other day that habits are established after 21 days, so I should be sweet.

The Eels

I’ve only mentioned them in the footnotes so far, but I’m listening to them right now and I love that band so much that I thought they deserved a bigger mention. Go check out the Eels J Files. You might notice the most played albums over to the side which are conveniently recorded and supplied by Last.FM. I wouldn’t be surprised if an Eels album features at the top of that list soon. To be honest, I’m not sure why the aren’t there now.

1. On a side note, Tony seems to be becoming fairly prolific over there. [↩]
2. I’m pretty bored with my current collection, got any suggestions? [↩]
3. Oh, except the Eels. OMG I love that band!! I don’t know how I managed it, but I somehow neglected to post anything about seeing them live recently. I hope to have that horrible oversight corrected soon. [↩]