TopNotchThemes

Just trying to turn the Drupal theming world on its head. Nothing major ;)

The suspense is nearly killing me. Or it would be if I had a spare moment to notice.

Big big big things coming. Soon. I can spill the beans in a couple of weeks or so. And no, I'm not pregnant, since I know that's where your brains are going :P

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In news of things that aren't in stealth mode, I dropped off the stuff I needed to submit hard copies of at UC Berkeley today. Eeee! They'd be crazy not to take me ;) The more I write about the things I want to do, the courses, my background, the professors there, the inspiring opportunities... the more it makes me excited about actually being there in the fall. Cross your fingers.. I have to get the last of the online stuff in this weekend, then it's a waiting game for 2-3 months.

Also, we launched Amnesty! Yep, that's our handiwork up live at www.amnesty.org right now. Chris and I did the theming (wireframes/design mockups -> Drupal theme). Try switching it to Arabic.. too cool.

The boys were out for a great visit over the holidays, which was actually a nice rest for us. Saw some good shows, ate good food, hung out. Yay!

We're off to a Drupal workshop in Portland all next week, so we'll be pretty afk. Oh, and I'm co-chairing the design/UX track at the upcoming Drupalcon 2008 in Boston. Feeling awesome things brewing...

Other than smashing my right hand with a car door yesterday, I'm feeling very proud right now. We did a full choir recording session yesterday (promo material for getting us hired for gigs, especially weddings), and our conductor picked two of us from each section to stay and record for the octet group, including me from the sopranos! I'm honoured. And hoping I can get a copy :)

And I'm just sitting here doing some web work for Amnesty, and realizing in awe how cool it is to be this close to launch and while sitting on a page, switch it to Arabic, change the window size to 800x600, increase the font in the browser... and have it not break anything. How many freaking sites can do that, eh??

We're going to Chicago on Wednesday until Monday to hang out with the boys for Thanksgiving. Hurrah for a direct flight out of the Oakland airport. Gonna hit some museums, eat some good food, and generally just have fun hanging out for a few days... and get a bit of a breather from coding.

Did I mention we're starting a new business too? I think we need professional help. I mean... we rock. I'm so glad I've found someone so much like me yet complementary.

I've recently started up bellydance classes again, doing two back-to-back on Wednesday nights, and trying to do more at-home practice. I can feel the difference in my overall energy already. And I'm amazed how much of the moves I remember, despite having done absolutely zero exercise in like two and a half years. My endurance and flexibility are crap, and I keep aggravating my right hip, but it still feels like jumping back in the saddle. Our instructor said I'd probably be fine in her advanced choreography class on the weekend... we'll see ;)

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Say hello to one of the two web projects that has engulfed the last six months of our life, now public: http://hub.witness.org/

We're very proud :D Truly a bar-raising achievement in Drupal. A couple of our web team members were at their big birthday bash/launch gala the other night.

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Anyone got any leads on lawyers who have experience with open source/GPL issues?

So I mentioned I've been busy, right? Amnesty International's site long-awaited launch is looming (they've been trying to get a new site up since *1999*), as well as another HUGE and sexy Drupal site (well, sexy in terms of technology and design, not so much for subject matter) I haven't mentioned as much, the WITNESS Video Hub.

Well... WITNESS just won the first Humanitarian Emmy award. We're launching on the 7th, two days before the banquet. But, no pressure, really.

This fall is going to leave us with one hell of a resume. I seem to stumble into the coolest projects and people sometimes.

Just when the Berkeley iSchool couldn't possibly have me any more excited, they come out with a new course like this.

I'm nearly squealing by the time I get to the syllabus page and see things like this: "Lab 9 - Synthesis: Invent a music instrument (group work)"

Then nearly fall out of my chair when I see the footer: "Powered by Drupal"

*faints with happiness*

Been a busy grad school prep beaver today -- starting my statement of purpose, writing my last (hopefully) reference-letter-writer, reading up on the wonderful world of NSF grants (no way I have the time/background to apply this year, but I will for next year!), and making notes on four professors I'm dying to meet at the open house.

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Both our huge work projects are in their biggest crunch time at the same time this week. IE6 must die. This makes Steph crazy. This makes Steph crazy. This makes Steph crazy.

(sorry for the esoteric geek-out here, but I just had to share the kind of crazy stuff we're running into on a Drupal site [Amnesty International's] that has to work part-fluidly in 800x600, IE6, 150% font size, right-to-left switching...)

09/27/07 14:15:04 changed by chris ¶

Ok, so I'm not a globe-trotter :) Travelling just takes too much out of me, coming and going. But it was an amazing trip. So freaking packed. I barely had time to breathe the second week, with the retreat and DrupalCon. I have so much to say and so little energy to say it with right now. Our two huge projects with CivicActions are launching this month. And I just booked my GRE exam for October 30th. This month is going to be insaaaaane.

I posted the few photos I actually took in Barcelona, and here are many more from various coworkers.

It's so hard to see myself slipping away from my online life right now, but I don't want to let it get to me. I miss you all and I'm not going anywhere far, just trying to take care of the big stuff :)

First of all, it's way too damn hot here. It's actually got a 30% chance of rain here this afternoon it's been so hot (which is totally unheard of in the summer). Our place was 95F/35C yesterday, which is not a temperature that's fun to sit at a computer in. How do I know this? I scored a wireless weather station ($21.99 at Fry's, killer deal!) with the intention of posting the info online, except the damn thing won't do the "wireless" part... soooo I just have a fancy thermometer :)

I ecstatically got the whole new cam system up and running at stephthegeek.tv, but have since realized that a significant percentage of people can't hit my local cam server for some reason. Like can't ping it or anything. So if you're one of the ones seeing the thumbnails, but the large image in the popup isn't refreshing... yeah, I'll get to the bottom of that asap. And if there's anyone out there good at troubleshooting these things, please do let me know. It was working fine when it was pointing to my IP here but at port 9999. Bleh.

Big deadlines on Amnesty International's site looming, as well as other project crunchiness, and then going to Barcelona in a little over a week.

Still haven't had time for GRE prep. Getting a little freaked out about that. Damn country and its damn standardized testing :P

We own wine glasses now! I find wine pretty even though I don't drink it. Meagan's mom was kind enough to send us a Pier 1 gift card for the help prepping at her house for the wedding, so we went on a little spree today :) Money's tight after our big Canada trip, so it was immensely pleasurable to grab a few neat things for the kitchen (ironically mostly wine related, plus a bowl and serving platter).

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this with certainty yet, but we're going to Barcelona from the 8th-24th of September. Civic Actions is holding our retreat there to coincide with DrupalCon, whee! So I'll be somewhere over the ocean on my birthday :P I asked Chris for one present this year... and that's to have a birthday party! I haven't had an actual birthday party since... well, I can't remember. I don't normally care much, but I'm going to be a quarter of a century and that's a good excuse for some celebrating. But I think it will have to be after we get back. There's a conflicting party on the 7th, and the weekend before is Labour Day (aka. Burning Man for most people around these here parts).

So yeah, life's pretty grand! Never thought I'd travel this much, but pretty exciting getting to see Europe for the first time. I hear Barcelona is quite lovely too.

Making good progress with the sites, prepping for the GRE (I'm going to take an online prep course... urg, too long since high school math), trying to squeeze in some extra working hours to up our income to a more sustainable level (we really didn't get in as many hours as we were hoping while in Toronto), new hamster mommy-ing, and and and... yeah, lots :)