Category: Personal

New Blog Theme & Website Design

Just putting the finishing touches on the new design for the parent site, brianmcbreen.com, and this corresponding Tumblr blog theme (based on the original Swiss Theme by pixelspread).

On the parent site, I integrated tags and the most recent blog post via RSS, albeit with some compromises due to iWeb (which I use mostly for convenience). I did discover this clever way of using grids in the background for precise design, a practice I had longed for in iWeb.

In the blog theme, I made several changes to the CSS and added support for tags and comments through Disqus. I’m sure I’ll do some fine tuning to the layout and as always come across some minor bugs, but for now I’m happy enough to let it live for a little bit. It seems I get restless with the design every few months as those who visit the site often can attest.

What do you think?

Parar y Pensar

As a technology professional who works with the web every day, I’ve become accustom to getting answers to my questions online, oftentimes in just minutes. In fact, like most people in my circles, I take it for granted.

But from time to time however, something comes along that makes you step back and realize what a marvelously powerful tool you have at your disposal, granting you powers only imagined a few decades ago.

I happened to be doing research on some background influences of a philosophy paper I was reading. After following the usual paths of Googling authors and titles from the material, I branched out to some key phrases and terminology introduced in the paper. This led me to other students of the author who, while not referencing the author’s ideas directly, did relate some of the concepts to different contexts. Now I’m starting to get impressed, I’m following a vein of thinking around the web.

Thanks to these new references, I turn back to the original author in search of a recent essay he had published. As it turns out, I find the author’s website, which includes links to the paper as well as his blog, both in Spanish. Using Google translate, I am able to translate the paper to English along with the blog, in about 10 seconds. Done. Total investment: about a dozen minutes and $0.

So, at a time like this I step back and wonder, at what point did what I just do become commonplace? I certainly could not have done it 10 years ago. Makes you really marvel about what the web will be like 10 years from now.

Trip Report: Confused, Gray & Happy

Channel Islands Harbor
34° 9’33.95"N
119°13’19.00"W

Back in the days when I kayaked on a daily basis, this route out around the breakwater would have been a milk run (see Google Earth screenshot above). But today, it was a reasonable start for some basic expedition training.

It was quite gray under the marine layer this morning, despite the brilliant sunshine of the nearby inland areas. Winds were less than 10 kt with a 3 ft west swell, overall fairly calm. The route took me out the mouth of the harbor, around the north end of the breakwater, along the outside down to the south end, then through the harbor to a protected beach for lunch, and back to the launch.

Conditions predictably picked up around the outside of the breakwater, with a confused sea generating waves from all directions. While manageable in my rusty state, it did get the heart pumping and put the head on a swivel looking for that next swell. Entering the south end took considerable attention. It was perfect for a first run.

The smell of ocean mist on the wind coupled with the regular drone of the harbor’s fog horn paired nicely with the exercise to leave me happy and relaxed. Now off to schedule more training time and do a little expedition planning–oh yeah, and clean all that gear.