http://www.exploding-boy.com A weblog about design, music, entertainment and life. Tue, 12 May 2009 01:27:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 Proxima Nova [1] Gotham [2] Helvetica [3] Myriad [4] Palatino [5] [1] http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/proximanova.html [2] http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100008 [3] http://www.linotype.com/526/helvetica-family.html [4] http://www.linotype.com/1257/myriad-family.html [5] http://www.linotype.com/1317/palatino-family.html http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/10/24/my-top-5-fontsor-fonts-i-use-way-too-much/ Here’s a rule I recommend. Never practice two vices at once. http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/10/20/wisdom-from-tallulah-bankhead/ Well, well isn't Myriad Pro getting cocky??? [1] [1] http://pooliestudios.com/projects/fuckhelvetica/ http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/09/30/cocky-myriad-pro/ With the most recent redesign of this site, about a year ago, I decided I wanted to mix things up a little and display a different look/design for each month. I wanted the main page of the site to change with each month, but have the individual entries maintain the look of the month it was written. Using a little bit of PHP, 13 different stylesheets, and some handy WordPress conditionals I was able to do just that. Stylesheets A' Plenty I started by first creating 13 different stylesheets. The first one I created was a base stylesheet containing the basic structure of site. The other stylesheets containing color changes to the header, headings, and link colors, were created for every month. I saved each of the monthly stylesheets by month number, so September's stylesheet was saved as 9.css, June's was 6.css and December's was 12.css. You can take a look through the archived entries on this site to see the various styling for each month. Taking Advantage of WordPress Conditional Tags Wordpress conditional tags [1] are an easy way to tell WordPress to alter various elements within your theme depending on certain conditions. Most early themes for WordPress take advantage of conditional tags to display different content in the sidebar of a page depending on your current location on the site. In order to keep the current month's look on the front page of my site, but have the individual entries maintain the look of the month it was written I set up a conditional that said if the page is_single() then display the stylesheet of the month it was published. If we are not on a single entry page then display the current month's stylesheet. Here's what it looks like: < ?php if (is_single() ) { ?> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://sitename.com/<?php the_time('n'); ?>.css" /> < ?php } else { ?> <link rel="stylesheet” type="text/css" href="http://sitename.com/<?php echo date('n'); ?>.css" /> < ?php } ?> PHP Notice the small bit of PHP within the conditional we set up - <?php echo date('n'); ?>? I replaced the name of the imported CSS file with a short snippet of PHP, which in turn generates a numerical value of one through twelve depending on the month, and appends the *.css file extension. This is why I saved my monthly stylesheets by month number. You can read more about the PHP Date/Time functions [2] and decide what format is best for you. Options If you are not using WordPress you can still easily accomplish the same switching of stylesheets with some simple javascript or server side methods. Once you are familiar with some the options of the PHP Date/Time functions you can experiment with changing the look of your site at any interval you like. [1] http://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags [2] http://us.php.net/datetime http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/06/16/simple-time-sensitive-css/ Plastic + Testicles = Profit! While I was driving to work today I got stuck behind a vehicle that sparked a couple of sobering thoughts. It saddens me that I live in a world where a man that thought of the idea to mold colored plastic into the shape of large testicles to hang on the back of vehicles is a millionaire, while I am not. It also saddens me that there is such a great demand for this product to make the inventor a millionaire. http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/06/12/nutty/ A while back I wrote about my Sumo Omni Chair [1]. Unfortunately for me, that chair has since been stolen by my daughter. She jumps, plays, and sleeps in the chair all the time. Because that chair had more or less been stolen from me a while back I was very happy when I recently got my hands on my new SumoSac [2]. I was immediately taken back by how massive the chair is after it expands. The chair comes in a semi-large duffel, and is compressed for shipping purposes. After a day of airing out and fluffing the foam the chair expands to a hefty 55lbs. Along with being a great deal larger than my original Omni chair the SumoSac is more comfortable because of its' ability to pretty much swallow an adult. You sink right into the chair and do not want to get up. I also really like the softness of the micro suede cover. The chairs start at only $179 for the 4ft chair and go up to $229 for the 6ft size, so if you are in the market for a super comfortable chair they are definitely worth a look. [1] http://www.exploding-boy.com/2006/09/23/sumo-omni-chair/ [2] http://www.sumolounge.com/sumosac.php http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/06/05/sumosac/ theugliestguitar [1] jodiwilldare [2] hankscovers [3] lindseyjaye [4] frenetic [5] wsker [6] robgordon [7] whoinventedcountryrock [8] beforeindie [9] [1] http://theugliestguitar.muxtape.com [2] http://jodiwilldare.muxtape.com/ [3] http://hankscovers.muxtape.com/ [4] http://lindseyjaye.muxtape.com/ [5] http://frenetic.muxtape.com/ [6] http://wsker.muxtape.com/ [7] http://robgordon.muxtape.com/ [8] http://whoinventedcountryrock.muxtape.com/ [9] http://beforeindie.muxtape.com/ http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/05/14/my-favorite-muxtapes/ Today while I was walking around a mall in a higher end of town I came across two twenty-something girls hopping out of a brand new Range Rover. As I walked by them the two girls gave me a snotty little glare as they continued to make their way into the Coach store. As the first girl made it to the door the second girl's high heel shoe got caught in a crack in the sidewalk and she fell forward slamming into the glass door of the store. It was at that brief moment that I thought to myself...maybe I really can will things to happen with my thoughts. http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/04/25/mind-power/ Muxin' It Up Muxtape.com [1] is a site that allows you to create mixtapes that play anywhere. Now I just want to have the ability to add friends and mark other's mixtapes as favorites. Here's my first mixtape [2]. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I'd also really enjoy a service that is similar to twitter to follow exactly what music you and your friends are listening to at that specific period of time...think last.fm, but with yearly/monthly archives. [1] http://www.muxtape.com [2] http://christopherware.muxtape.com/ http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/03/27/muxtape/ I have always got a kick out of visiting a site to find out they are using some of the icons, code snippets, or menus I've shared in the past, but I don't think any others have given me as much of a kick as one that was brought to my attention recently by a reader. Do you know you're featured in Snoop Dogg’s [1] source code? An exploding Boy CSS file. Sure enough the "Doggfather [2]" is sportin' one of the menus examples I created a few years back for the "Login" and "Sign Up" links. The site isn't using my personal fav from the bunch. I also can't really say it looks all that good with the rest of the overall look of the site, but it is cool nonetheless. [1] http://www.snoopdogg.com [2] http://www.snoopdogg.com http://www.exploding-boy.com/2008/02/06/fo-shizzle/