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...

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 ¶

DrupalCon group photo

There were a lot more people there than in that photo! About 400, actually.

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 :)

Mmmm, cafe biberon, my new friend. Espresso and condensed milk!

So yes, been in Barcelona, Spain for a couple days now. Mostly on the time zone here now. I've never been so far away...

I love the small things that are different and interesting. Meal times, toilet seats, light switches, sirens, windows...

Finally up and running with my development environment on the MacBook, others are slowly arriving, gearing up for the big get-together in a couple of days, and then DrupalCon!

I don't know if it's the act of admitting/posting itself, or just that I usually take a while to get to the state where I'd post something, but I always seem to put up these emotional rants and feel significantly better the next day :P

I decided to take matters into my own hands, and after about ten hours of solid concentration, I've got a new StG.TV on my hands. It was turning into a total catch-22... didn't wanna work on grad school stuff until I had a site I wasn't totally miserable about, didn't want to work on the site because I had this huge, perfect vision of what it had to be, yadda yadda. Well, there. Ten hours to deploy something incomplete, yet inflicting infinitely less emotional torture and way more on the right track than what was there before (don't believe me? Check the timestamp. Toldja I'm a Drupal whiz now ;)

Got a few major things to do yet (like, uh, cam refreshing and copying and pasting most of the static content), but I'm tracking more over there already than I was before.

Go me!