Welcome change

Notice anything different?

Well, duh! I got up at 4:30am (U-man decided to kick his old man out of bed) and decided to tackle this task. 7.5 hours later and I got it to work (and I learned some really cool things about atom.xml and some new PHP XML parsing functions). The blog is getting a makeover as part of an effort to get my own personal website, rafaelhernandez.org (the site you are at now!) going. Believe it or not, I've had this domain registered for years. I figured it would be good to secure it, just in case. Well, just in case is now. The blog as of today (5/20/07) is a little rough in the styling - I still need to style the titles of the posts, the links, and other smaller touches that will take a while. However, I am quite pleased that I was able to get this to work.

To tank, mu, nederlands, jv3k, and all other types out there who need their own sites, you should know that I still administer this blog through Blogger. I can still use the forms and all the cool features. The exception now is that I actually host the files on my own webpage. I am proud to say that I am sticking to my original new years resolution: to stop reinventing the wheel. By using Blogger (an existing mechanism that works perfectly to create and mainain content) combined with what I already know (PHP and HTML) and stealing some great ideas (code that WORKS and doesn't require too much debugging), I was able to come up with this! so, to list what it takes:

• Domain (i.e. rafaelhernandez.org)
• Webhost (I use bluehost.com - they are ok, sometimes a bit slow)
• Some HTML knowledge (I recommend Elizabeth Castro's book - it is how I learned!)
• PHP/MySQL knowledge a bonus, but not necessary (I learned with Larry Ullman's book)
• Flash knowledge a bonus (especially for menus), but not necessary (gotoAndLearn.com is excellent)
• Software: An image editor and a text editor. I use the Macromedia Studio 8 bundle - Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, and Fireworks 8 - (now owned by Adobe)
• Blogger account (Blogger.com)
• A model site for code. Any site you like will do. I stumbled upon Andy Budd's article on centering a div when I endeavored to redesign my site using only CSS. I downloaded his CSS and examined it carefully. I learned tons (especially that I was too anal with many of the style-rules). The result: what you see here. If he stumbles upon this in Google, I yell in praise "Thank you Andy!!!"
• Most important: time and patience. I've been doing this for 8 years (all self taught). I've been nibbling away at versions of this site for 8 weeks or so (with real momentum happening in the last 3 weeks). Don't be discouraged. You'll find a way.

What I am most happy about with this new blog is that it is in the same place as my website. I always hated the fact that my blog was in a separate location from thenewstyle.org. I knew it was possible to achieve what I have done, but I really didn't want to venture into the unknown to do it. Well - I've emerged unscathed and full of confidence. It can be done and it really isn't that hard.

Will be seeing you here more often.