daem0n.org

I have been given the opportunity to substitute some projects in my Cutting-Edge Web Technology class with screencasts on a topic of my choice, so long as that it makes sense for the course as well as be useful for the other students. After falling in love with BlueprintCSS, I decided it was totally appropriate to use that as the topic for my first screencast.

It is meant for web designers who atleast have some knowledge on html and css design, and gives a start to finish example of how to get started with BlueprintCSS. Check it out and give me some feedback! (Click the read more link to watch the screencast) My next screencast will most likely be a tutorial on building an MVC based website using CakePHP, so check for that soon!

Recently I was looking around for what web developers and designers refer to as "css frameworks". Basically, as Wikipedia describes it, a CSS framework is a library that is meant to allow for easier, more standards-compliant styling of a webpage using the Cascading Style Sheets language. Just like programming and scripting language libraries, CSS frameworks package a number of ready-made options for designing and outlaying a webpage.

Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds very useful to a web developer like myself.

Now after alot of research I learned quite a bit about best practices in web page styling, grids, and typography. After checking out many 960 grid based frameworks, I decided that Blueprint CSS was the one best suited for my needs. Dropping a css framework in before you start developing a page can dramatically cut down development time and on top of that it gives you a solid foundation and base for designing multi column (or single) web pages that should work across all browsers in the same way you intended it to. The grid approach used which other css gurus and frameworks have dubbed as the '960 grid' is great for compatibilty sake and also allows complex layouts, so you don't feel restricted in any way. Blueprint css also supports plugins and offers nice and nifty css libraries already loaded that even make print styles for your pages so they are ready for paper too!

Also, just to add, if you're wonder, YES this site is made on top of blueprint css, so you can see that it's quite versatile and allows plenty of freedom to be creative. If you're a web developer, I strongly urge you to check out Blueprint CSS or any other css framework that fits your needs.

Well, I'm back. I haven't posted in ages, and theres just so much thats happened since my last post. For one, I finally decided to redo and revamp my attempt at a php framework and so far I feel really happy with my result this time. One of the reasons for this push in motivation was my Cutting Edge Web Technologies class im taking this Fall with Dr. Marques. He's a wonderful professor, and I'm also taking him for Digital Image Processing, a very interesting course where I hope to build my knowledge on machine vision systems and analyzing digital images.

Along with that, I've also managed to get myself involved in training to compete in a triathlon since my last post here. I know that might sound pretty insane, and let me just confirm that, it is. I was starting to hit a plateau in my training and attempts at losing weight, so I decided to get hardcore and one of my friends brought up triathlon training. I started about 8 weeks ago, and I am so glad I did. My cardio and overall fitness levels have shot up dramatically and I feel amazing. Check back soon and you can follow my progress in the Training section.

Other than that, I have am registered for the September 26th LSAT testing, wish me luck! Well that's it for now, and since I took the time to rebuild this framework and make it alot easier to manage, I'll try to post more frequently, even though I doubt anyone actually reads this. lol.

It's been a while since I posted, and there is a good reason for that. I've actually been productive!

I finally went ahead and registered in the iPhone Developer Program and I am starting to mess around there and work on my first iphone app.

The backend for my custom mvc framework that's powering this site is also coming along. I have a friend of mine who needs some help with a project and I feel confident that my database model is already mature enough to take on the task (with only 3 days of development behind it!) The Create an account section on this site is up, but there's a few bugs that I gotta work out soon as I get some time.

Ooh and almost forgot, I'm done with week 1 of my new hardcore diet and exercise routine and I am pleased to announce I dropped 7 pounds in 7 days :) BEAT THAT SLIMFAST! rofl. Today is cardio again (blah) and my legs are fucking shot from the leg workout on Friday, but oh well, just gotta tough it out.

As for other news, my web hosting and design company, XS Web Solutions has upgraded servers. We now have a sick i7 server with 12 gigs of ram and 10TB of data transfer on 100 mbit :) I might relocate this blog onto that box and just keep the private sections pointed to my home server, but we'll see what happens.

School wise, I even finally stopped being lazy and requested some transcripts to be sent to FAU so I can get a few credits restored that I took at PBCC. I also met with my academic advisor and did some more planning to try and make sure I complete all requirements to graduate this winter :)

All in all, it was a good week.

I started a new diet and cutting workout routine after realizing I gained too much weight. I weighed myself Sunday and I was at exactly 200lbs on the dot. My goal is to get back to 185 by May 5th without losing any muscle weight. On my first day, I can say that I ate alright, I can definitely do better, which I will once my supplements get here ;) Also had a fuckin' great workout at the gym. Along with the diet comes a new workout routine that I specifically designed for cutting up. Supersetting push/pull combination sets with high intensity cardio in between exercises. Here is how it breaks down:

Monday Chest/Back + HIIT Cardio Tuesday Ab/Core + Cardio Wednesday Bicep/Tricep + HIIT Cardio Thursday Ab/Core + Cardio Friday Legs/Shoulders Saturday Ab/Core + Cardio Sunday Rest. :]

The way the super sets work is for example, on chest/back day start with a high intensity cardio short warm up (5 minute half mile on the treadmill works.) Immediately proceed to Superset 1: Incline Dumbell Press (10-15 rep range) alternating with Wide Grip Pull Ups (10-15 rep range) Repeat these two sets 3x each back n forth. Back to high intensity cardio for another 5-10 minutes at 7mph+. Thats the first round, repeat this 3 times total with different chest/back exercises each time.

Tue/Thur/Sat Ab/Cardio days are pretty simple, first 20 minutes are random ab and core exercises then a nice long and steady cardio session (30-45 minutes) on any cardio machine (good to randomize it as well).

Well that's my superior cutting workout routine, wish me luck.