https://mikebranski.com/post/ Recent content in Post on Mike Branski Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Mike Branski Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:40:08 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/find-strength-in-knowing-what-you-control/ Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:40:08 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/find-strength-in-knowing-what-you-control/ You cannot change what you control, but you can change how you respond to those things. There is a calm that falls over you when you realize this. It fills you with a power that brings peace and tranquility to your mind. You feel stronger in every fiber of your being, but never before have you felt so calm, either. And what you control is so fundamental, so keystone to your inner peace, that it radiates outward and touches everything that you do. https://mikebranski.com/deciding-when-to-use-an-image/ Thu, 14 Jan 2016 04:03:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/deciding-when-to-use-an-image/ Last week’s post was a little weak, so today I want to talk about something I’m exploring: adding imagery to my articles. (It is worth noting I have set up a slew of new, recurring calendar entries to assist with my writing schedule instead of wasting until the last minute like I’ve been doing.) I go back and forth on this, but whenever I share one of my posts and it either pulls the wrong image, or none at all, I can’t help but feel it’s lacking something. https://mikebranski.com/when-seconds-determine-it-all/ Thu, 07 Jan 2016 04:11:26 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/when-seconds-determine-it-all/ When you first meet somebody, you start forming an opinion of them before they say hello. Clothes, hair, eyes, age, movement, body language - each of these things and dozens more quickly add up to an initial impression that happens over the span of a few breaths. While that can and will evolve as you learn and experience more about that person, your first impression often lingers, and, like the gut instinct you feel when faced with a complex decision, it’s not something you’ll easily shake. https://mikebranski.com/establish-your-cadence/ Tue, 29 Dec 2015 19:32:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/establish-your-cadence/ Being a person of many hats, it is a very real challenge to make any headway in my various interests for a sustained amount of time. The truth is, I often find myself not wearing any hat at all! I then rekindle my excitement for one or more projects, and the cycle begins anew, until I am back to not being focused on anything in particular. So, do you always feel yourself falling behind on your projects? https://mikebranski.com/choosing-a-tense-for-your-story/ Tue, 17 Nov 2015 19:33:48 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/choosing-a-tense-for-your-story/ While editing my book, I’ve oft flip flopped with the subject of tense, as I’m sure many other authors do. When I first started it during NaNoWriMo 2011, I landed on past tense, for no particular reason I remember today. But many times - both while furiously scribbling down the story, and my time editing it since - I’ve waffled over the tense of my story. Even though I started out in past tense, I’d find myself gradually slipping into the present over the course of my writing. https://mikebranski.com/hurry-up-and-wait/ Mon, 21 Sep 2015 15:35:08 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/hurry-up-and-wait/ Or, “Why Web development can only move so fast”. Browsers and, to a lesser extent, networks are getting ever faster. In the arms race that is the web, we are able to offload more and more to the client for processing than ever before. This is amazing, and truly essential for us to continue forging paths ahead in creating rich, innovative experiences for users. But if this is true, why is our development getting slower? https://mikebranski.com/fit-for-a-friday/ Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:17:59 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/fit-for-a-friday/ I originally started writing this last Friday, but left it unfinished. It’s now Wednesday morning and I find myself in the same boat I was in then and decided to post it. A few years ago I was introduced to CrossFit through the paleo community, but hadn’t tried it. Some time last year I did an evaluation session with a place on the East Side, but didn’t pick it up. (Notice a trend here? https://mikebranski.com/adventures-in-foam-mass-effect-n7-build/ Sun, 21 Jun 2015 23:44:13 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/adventures-in-foam-mass-effect-n7-build/ Ages back I shared progress on my first attempt at costuming, a stormtrooper pepakura helmet. My interest and effort ebbed and flowed, and I eventually scrapped it. Years later, I’ve undergone some pretty big life changes (marriage, divorce, new job) that I used to kick start other positive changes, and part of that is actually finishing projects start. So, I set out to make a suit of N7 armor from Mass Effect 2⁄3 using EVA foam, using Julian Beek’s N7 Prop Codex as a guide. https://mikebranski.com/plan-less-new-mantra-old-problem/ Tue, 03 Feb 2015 15:45:46 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/plan-less-new-mantra-old-problem/ I wrote Relearning How to Have Fun 21 months ago, and yet, reading it again today, I feel like I just stepped out of a time machine. It is just as relevant as when I wrote it, but with a key distinction: I’ve gone through a tremendous amount of change since – especially in the past nine, five, one months. I’ve said very little about my goals to very few people this year, and with reason: telling someone about your goals gives a sense of accomplishment and can cause you to make less real progress than if you hadn’t made the proclamation at all. https://mikebranski.com/creating-a-new-theme/ Sun, 28 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/creating-a-new-theme/ Introduction This tutorial will show you how to create a simple theme in Hugo. I assume that you are familiar with HTML, the bash command line, and that you are comfortable using Markdown to format content. I’ll explain how Hugo uses templates and how you can organize your templates to create a theme. I won’t cover using CSS to style your theme. We’ll start with creating a new site with a very basic template. https://mikebranski.com/goisforlovers/ Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/goisforlovers/ Hugo uses the excellent go html/template library for its template engine. It is an extremely lightweight engine that provides a very small amount of logic. In our experience that it is just the right amount of logic to be able to create a good static website. If you have used other template systems from different languages or frameworks you will find a lot of similarities in go templates. This document is a brief primer on using go templates. https://mikebranski.com/hugoisforlovers/ Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/hugoisforlovers/ Step 1. Install Hugo Goto hugo releases and download the appropriate version for your os and architecture. Save it somewhere specific as we will be using it in the next step. More complete instructions are available at installing hugo Step 2. Build the Docs Hugo has its own example site which happens to also be the documentation site you are reading right now. Follow the following steps: Clone the hugo repository Go into the repo Run hugo in server mode and build the docs Open your browser to http://localhost:1313 Corresponding pseudo commands: https://mikebranski.com/migrate-from-jekyll/ Mon, 10 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/migrate-from-jekyll/ Move static content to static Jekyll has a rule that any directory not starting with _ will be copied as-is to the _site output. Hugo keeps all static content under static. You should therefore move it all there. With Jekyll, something that looked like ▾ <root>/ ▾ images/ logo.png should become ▾ <root>/ ▾ static/ ▾ images/ logo.png Additionally, you’ll want any files that should reside at the root (such as CNAME) to be moved to static. https://mikebranski.com/relearning-how-to-have-fun/ Tue, 14 May 2013 16:12:03 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/relearning-how-to-have-fun/ Note: Initially this post was titled ‘Relearning JavaScript’, but as I started writing it I decided to first touch on the broader picture before diving in to specific topics. Over the past few years, my skills have stagnated. While I’m mostly talking about web development here, it’s also true with photography and other areas of my life, to a degree. I’m not bemoaning myself or anything like that, but, looking back, I stopped challenging myself and making projects fun. https://mikebranski.com/i-think-ill-just-sleep-it-off/ Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:33:24 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/i-think-ill-just-sleep-it-off/ At the risk of overstating the obvious, being sick sucks. My stomach had been rumbling since the weekend, and while I tried blaming it on eating some non-paleo foods while we were camping, I didn’t start feeling better as I my diet returned to normal (and in reflection I actually didn’t eat bad at all!). Taking to my colleague today all but confirmed I simply have a case of the stomach flu, as she recounted her less than favorable weekend feeling like crap. https://mikebranski.com/today-an-elevator-tried-to-kill-me/ Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:49:38 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/today-an-elevator-tried-to-kill-me/ Earlier today I was talking with Ian during our usual lunch time outing when he told me he it was about time one of the two elevators in his condo building was finally working again. The one had been non-operational for a spell and they had finally repaired it. Leading up to this, that particular elevator would groan, creak, and otherwise make unpleasant and unsettling sounds during its use. When I left Ian’s place today, I had a 50% chance of getting that elevator when I called one up from the 9th floor condo. https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-knowing-when-to-call-it/ Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:48:23 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-knowing-when-to-call-it/ Finally a (long) update! I spent a lot of time sanding down the excess bondo and working on the shape. Following that I applied a coat of white paint to see how it looked and took a step back to evaluate the project as a whole. When I started this crazy (awesome) project, I didn’t know much going in, and I made a lot of mistakes that I can now avoid going forward. https://mikebranski.com/weight-loss-a-go-go/ Fri, 25 May 2012 10:07:51 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/weight-loss-a-go-go/ Last fall Mel and I started doing a Biggest Loser weight loss challenge with some friends. Mel’s pretty skinny to begin with, and I’m not grossly overweight, but we both had some pounds we wanted to shed. It started out great – we were both losing a little bit at a time, but the progress was definite. Then, as could be expected when making lifestyle changes, we both dropped off and kind of plateaued. https://mikebranski.com/late-night-ramblings-momento-edition/ Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:27:26 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/late-night-ramblings-momento-edition/ I originally wrote this in Momento, but decided to share it here as well. Yowza! I haven’t written here in three months. Realizations like this feel so cliché. “Ohh, I haven’t written in a while, but I really want to, but I still don’t do it. Boo hoo hooooo.” So shut up and write, you ninny, or stop complaining! No one cares that you say you’re going to do something. https://mikebranski.com/i-got-in-an-accident-today/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:17:42 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/i-got-in-an-accident-today/ This afternoon Wisconsin saw its first real snow of the season. We had some dustings a few weeks back, but nothing that stuck. The snow doesn’t bother me too much, for the most part. It can be inconvenient, sure, but I make do, and don’t really mind it. Today, though, I could have done without it. Today, I got into my first accident. I’ve been driving for 10 years, and have a spotless record, to boot. https://mikebranski.com/focusing-on-2012-the-year-of-me/ Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:01:23 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/focusing-on-2012-the-year-of-me/ Whew, this week certainly flew by. Although it didn’t feel like it as it was happening, it doesn’t seem like tomorrow should be Friday already. The past 24-36 hours I’ve found myself struggling to focus a bit – even more so than usual. A sore throat and occasional headache that are riding a cold can do that, though. I also very much need something new. New work, new (and more) fun, less stress, and more focus. https://mikebranski.com/post-nanowrimo-wrap-up/ Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:05:57 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/post-nanowrimo-wrap-up/ What a whirlwind of a month! These past 30 some days have been pretty crazy and moving at light speed. Last month, about mid-way through my novel, I started to really slow down. I decided I’d write a blog post to jump-start my creative juices before each writing session. Well, that lasted all of two posts. While it helped warm up my literary muscles, it also delayed my noveling by another 20-30 minutes. https://mikebranski.com/christmas-time-in-the-city/ Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:24:46 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/christmas-time-in-the-city/ I spent a while trying to find the right image for this post, but I started looking before I ever really wrote anything. Like I said yesterday, it feels like October slipped by unnoticed, so when we went to my parents’ house today and started getting out the Christmas decorations, it was sort of a realization that it’s already the middle of November! I love Christmas time. Unlike Halloween (which I also love! https://mikebranski.com/whered-october-go/ Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:27:55 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/whered-october-go/ Holy crap, did anyone see October? I swear, it was just September, then I blinked, and suddenly Halloween has come and gone without much ado, the first snow has fallen, and we’re 12 days into November. I’m going to have to ask Katie if she’s figured out when October is so I can be better prepared next year. So what’d I do all month? Well, mostly I worked. And then I worked some more. https://mikebranski.com/being-inspired-to-greatness/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:54:22 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/being-inspired-to-greatness/ Every once in a while I come across a post such as this from the blog of Tim Ferriss: Engineering a “Muse” – Volume 4: Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses. Then I get inspired (again) and want to jump into “engineering my muse.” You see, I do this a lot, with many aspects of my life. I get an idea about something, maybe do a little research into it, then forget about it for a while until something comes along and sparks my interest again, and I repeat the cycle all over. https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-id-just-as-soon-kiss-a-respirator/ Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:18:01 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-id-just-as-soon-kiss-a-respirator/ Let’s see, the last time I talked about my stormtrooper project was almost a month ago. Despite not sharing my progress here, I *have* been hard at work on it (okay, okay, I’ve had my bouts of laziness and procrastination with it, too). I’ve been keeping friends updated through chat, and keeping The RPF community updated in my build thread over there. I can’t stress enough how awesome that community is and how instrumental they’ve been in my inspiration for and knowledge of this project. https://mikebranski.com/putting-the-spotlight-on-spotlight/ Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:41:10 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/putting-the-spotlight-on-spotlight/ I’ve come across more and more people lately who are unfamiliar with OS X’s Spotlight, so I figured I’d give a quick intro to to help them out. If you prefer using menus over keyboard shortcuts, you may not like it, but, then again, you just might surprise yourself. Being a heavy shortcut user I absolutely love it, but I also cannot find my way around using a menu for the life of me. https://mikebranski.com/somebody-likes-you/ Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:58:44 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/somebody-likes-you/ I recently turned on email notifications for “Likes” for Left Right Designs, because I think it’s exciting when you’re small and in the growing stages, so it’s cool to see it progress. What’s nice is that Facebook encourages you to post an update. Why is this nice? It keeps content fresh and encourages interaction with not only your new fans, but those who have been there from the beginning, too! https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-stormtrooper-helmet-pepakura/ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:55:41 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/building-an-empire-stormtrooper-helmet-pepakura/ I recently began working quietly on one of my better-kept secrets: I want to build a full set of stormtrooper armor. I’ve never really built a costume before – just your typical stuff in grade school, nothing crazy – but I’m tackling the creation of screen-accurate stormtrooper gear. How cool is that‽ (Strangely, I think that’s the first time I’ve used an interrobang here.) So, what does this entail? Well, it’s quite overwhelming at first, to be honest. https://mikebranski.com/why-facebook-birthday-wishes-are-bullshit/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:23:04 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/why-facebook-birthday-wishes-are-bullshit/ You see? This is the why Facebook birthday wishes are little more than empty husks of what was once a kind and generous act: wishing someone a happy day of celebration on the day they were born. It’s become such a mindless, effortless task that we do it with hardly a thought for what we’re doing and what it used to mean. We see it’s someone’s birthday, and we wish them a happy one. https://mikebranski.com/weekend-eating/ Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:37:17 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/weekend-eating/ Initially I just sent this to my good friend and fitness coach, but, I figured, why not toss it up here with some thoughts as well? This was the first weekend of my renewed serious get healthy plan. I’ve talked about eating better before, but, the truth is, I really like to eat! So it’s been tough. I’ve recently been able to admit to myself that, not only do I need to stay conscious about the foods I eat, but, since I like to eat, and, especially, bake (hello, Kitchenaid mixer), I also need to work out and get fit to help curb excessive weight gain. https://mikebranski.com/deceitful-search-engine-optimization/ Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:36:22 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/deceitful-search-engine-optimization/ Search engine optimization is not something you do once after you’ve built your site. Rather, it’s a living, breathing concept that needs to be built-in to, not just the development process, but your entire creative workflow. You need to keep your site updated with regular content (regular is subjective and relative to the content you’re providing), but you need to make sure it’s *meaningful* content. Posting three times a day and filling your site with posts that you spammed with keywords and referral links is not how you get a better search presence. https://mikebranski.com/the-hard-to-please-gamer-striking-a-balance-between-freedom-and-linear-content/ Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:50:35 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/the-hard-to-please-gamer-striking-a-balance-between-freedom-and-linear-content/ I recently picked up Mass Effect 1 + 2 from Steam during their Summer Sale, and a few months prior I picked up Darksiders for the PS3. Intermixed with them has been some StarCraft 2 gaming, and even a little World of World via soem free game time. Playing these games – Mass Effect and Darksiders in particular – got me thinking about how story and your control over it really affect your overall satisfaction with a game. https://mikebranski.com/netflix-raises-prices-consumers-cry-out-and-are-suddenly-silenced/ Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:53:31 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/netflix-raises-prices-consumers-cry-out-and-are-suddenly-silenced/ I just happened over to Engadget and saw their post saying Netflix is jacking their instant streaming plus one DVD plan from $9.99 to $15.98 per month. This change is going in place immediately for new users, and September 1st for existing subscribers. The price increase reflects the price change of their streaming only and DVD only plans to $7.99 each. Basically, they’re making you pay the new, full price for each service with no discount for opting to go with both. https://mikebranski.com/key-points-to-better-seo/ Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:25:31 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/key-points-to-better-seo/ I’m consulting with a client on search engine optimization (SEO) for their sites and was asked to prepare a few key points they can take to a client that’s new to the web. Now, I’m not an SEO expert, and in fact feel that many people try to sell some magical solution that doesn’t actually deliver results, but I do know what’s worked for me and others over the years. Here are my thoughts… https://mikebranski.com/reboot-your-skills-with-a-self-imposed-bootcamp/ Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:58:38 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/reboot-your-skills-with-a-self-imposed-bootcamp/ I’ve been saying for a while that I want to get back into photography, improve my writing, learn this, do that, yada yada yada. It’s the same old song and dance. Those phrases are overused cliché’s by people who mean well, but really only seem to excel at not going anywhere. I’m one such person. Or at least I was. I’m (very slowly, it seems) proactively working to actually get back into photography and rekindle that flame that keeps sparking up. https://mikebranski.com/new-comment-system-from-wordpress-to-disqus/ Wed, 25 May 2011 21:17:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/new-comment-system-from-wordpress-to-disqus/ Unrelated: my post categories suck. Moving on, I’m happy to see Absurdly Awesome is back from its seven month hiatus. And to think I finally removed it from my Friends link list not too long ago. Anyway, I noticed they switched over to Disqus for the comment system (this actually happened pre-hiatus, but whatever). After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to make the switch as well. One of the things that I dislike about WordPress installations across different sites is that there’s no shared user base, so I’d either have to register with each to save my info across sessions, or re-type my name, e-mail, and URL each time I wanted to leave a comment. https://mikebranski.com/new-topics-to-watch-for-and-other-musings/ Thu, 19 May 2011 22:49:46 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/new-topics-to-watch-for-and-other-musings/ Title case always leaves me second guessing. (Just found this neat little tool.) Anyway, I was mulling over things to write tonight, since it would seems I haven’t posted in two-and-a-half weeks. After a week or so, I hadn’t realized it had been that long and started thinking about a new post. Then I kept forgetting or putting it off, and now we’re 17 days later and I’m finally writing something. https://mikebranski.com/rebooting-life-identifying-your-cloud-of-interests/ Mon, 02 May 2011 14:35:34 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/rebooting-life-identifying-your-cloud-of-interests/ This was a fun little exercise in Illustrator. I just sat down and started writing all of the things I’m interested in right now. I’ve been feeling burned out and distracted, generally lost with what I want to do at any given time. So, I created a cloud of interests. What was the point of this? Really, for me it was a way of identifying a number of the things that have been floating around in my head. https://mikebranski.com/walking-the-line-between-personal-and-business/ Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:40:12 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/walking-the-line-between-personal-and-business/ Hey guys (and gals)! Over the coming weeks I will be rolling out a selection of my digital works for sale as prints in my new Etsy shop! As such, I’m going to do my best to not spam everyone with ZOMG GO BUY MY STUFF!!1 links. I’m going to be promoting my pieces as new ones get listed, but I’m going to try to keep it mixed in between the everyday content you’re used to seeing in my Twitter, Facebook, etc, streams. https://mikebranski.com/struggle-with-weight-loss-and-healthy-eating/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:59:56 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/struggle-with-weight-loss-and-healthy-eating/ Thirty-five. That’s how many pounds I lost when Melanie and I moved to Canada for 10 months. I moved back in March of last year, and maintained a steady weight – I even managed to lose a few more pounds in the process! Then, come June of the same year, I started a new job and things spiraled out of control. Early Years I’ve always had my fair share of chub. https://mikebranski.com/things-i-want-to-do/ Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:02:09 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/things-i-want-to-do/ My goal is to start doing any one of the following things, and sticking with it. At no point do I want to not be doing something fun like this, and it’s high past time that I make it happen. I often have ideas to do something, and while I’m not saying even half of them are any good, I still generally don’t bring them to life – even the really good ones. https://mikebranski.com/overthinking-kills-productivity/ Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:07:07 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/overthinking-kills-productivity/ It’s true. I overthink things waaaay too much, and as a result, I often don’t accomplish what I set out to do. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve come to realize this in both my personal and professional lives. And I’m sick of it. I find myself coming up with things to write about, or ideas for projects to do or things to try… and then I don’t follow through. Heck, I almost didn’t write this post because I was worried about not having it be long enough or filled with enough useful information. https://mikebranski.com/first-post-on-dreamhost/ Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:29:51 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/first-post-on-dreamhost/ If you’re seeing this, then you’re viewing the site on the new server. https://mikebranski.com/two-weeks-of-creativity-day-two-big-and-small/ Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:05:59 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/two-weeks-of-creativity-day-two-big-and-small/ Continuing along with the Two Weeks of Creativity, here are yesterday’s entries. The theme yesterday was “Big & Small,” chosen by Brad and reviled by him shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, we trucked through it and both got our exercise done. Day Two - Big & Small Both of my sources for this theme’s entry are from Flickr. We have small plant by baarah, and Sequoia Wonder, Big Trees State Park, California by moonjazz. https://mikebranski.com/two-weeks-of-creativity-day-one-flowers/ Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:38:24 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/two-weeks-of-creativity-day-one-flowers/ I was talking with my buddy Brad on Sunday after I took my girlfriend to the bus station for her two week trip back to Canada. I told him how I was bummed out that we were going to be apart again, although I was happy it was only two weeks this time instead of five. Time will likely fly by (and it already seems to be a bit!) since I’ll be so busy with work and getting settled into our new place, but Brad decided it could use a little bit of a fun boost, and so Two Weeks of Creativity was born. https://mikebranski.com/hard-work-pays-off/ Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:22:31 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/hard-work-pays-off/ I got a good three hours of work in when it was time to go mini golf with the team I found out I was on that morning. So I mini golfed with the folks of EPIC, ate a hot dog and chips, and headed back to my office with the rest of the team. Once we got back, my manager said we can take the rest of the day of, with a big grin the whole time. https://mikebranski.com/finding-early-release-versions-of-mozilla-products/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:40:42 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/finding-early-release-versions-of-mozilla-products/ Earlier this week I wrote about Mozilla’s response to my answers to their web developer survey and how they were building strong ties and customer loyalty through communication. On top of taking the time to respond, the information they provided was very helpful. Below are excerpts from the e-mail I received from Alix Franquet in response to my feedback, as well as some comments about the items discussed. You mentioned you had trouble finding versions of Firefox to test, so I wanted to point you to a couple of places that might help: https://mikebranski.com/building-trust-and-loyalty-through-communication/ Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:24:18 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/building-trust-and-loyalty-through-communication/ Last November, the Mozilla Developer Network put out a survey targeted toward Web developers and raised a call to action. Although it doesn’t seem they ever posted the final set of results (they did some preliminary results at the link above), they had over 5,000 developers respond from 119 countries. Pretty cool. What I find even cooler, though, is that they took the time to respond to individual responses. In my feedback, I told them I always seemed to have trouble finding alpha/beta versions of Firefox and Thunderbird to test. https://mikebranski.com/utilizing-phps-print_r-function/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:04:51 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/utilizing-phps-print_r-function/ This is just a quick tip, but ever since discovering it I use it constantly. A lot of developers use PHP’s print_r() function to display human-readable information about a variable, which makes it great for debugging arrays and objects (among other things) very quickly. However, you have to wrap the output in <pre></pre> tags otherwise it gets spit out in a jumbled mess and doesn’t display nicely. echo‘‘;print_r($foo);echo‘‘; That works just fine, but you can shorten it up by passing true to print_r()‘s second parameter, the $return flag, and mixing it in with your echo statements. https://mikebranski.com/sites-merged-new-wordpress-site/ Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:08:21 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/sites-merged-new-wordpress-site/ It’s been a few years in the making, but I’ve finally moved my blog from shatteredreality.com to mikebranski.com, and I’m working on updating the photography content that was here originally – for now it’s available at http://mikebranski.com/v1/. When it came down to it, it was just too much work trying to keep three sites up and active and full of content, which led me to update none of them. Far from ideal. https://mikebranski.com/960gs-and-object-oriented-css/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:38:18 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/960gs-and-object-oriented-css/ It’s not like I don’t have enough on my plate and I need to find new stuff to keep busy with. Despite that, my list of things I want to check out seems to grow each week. Two things I’ve been wanting to look closer into are 960 Grid System, and Object-Oriented CSS. 960 Grid System (960gs) is a CSS framework that’s – not surprisingly – based on a grid system with a width of 960 pixels. https://mikebranski.com/disable-editor-resizing-in-ckeditor/ Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:41:11 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/disable-editor-resizing-in-ckeditor/ Customization is key, so when I had spent a considerable amount of time trying to disable editor resizing in CKEditor and kept coming up blank, it started to get frustrating. Here we have a pretty solid editor coupled with a pretty solid lack of documentation – reminds me a bit of Magento! To their credit, it’s still extremely new and they are working on documentation for it. That aside, I managed to stumble across a post on their forum that led me in the right direction. https://mikebranski.com/pumpkin-carving/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:03:05 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/pumpkin-carving/ I carved up Yoda on the right, Cassie did the bats on the left. https://mikebranski.com/in-lieu-of-content/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:57:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/in-lieu-of-content/ I wish I was as cool as Josh Scanlan. Check out his brutally sarcastic posts, laced with an asshole preservative, and topped with a layer of “I don’t give a shit.” Oh, and sometimes he has polls. Go check it out, I’ll wait here… Back? Offended yet? Don’t be; he just says what you’re thinking and you’re envious of that, so you take it out through misdirected anger. Not quit crying and go read some more. https://mikebranski.com/a-blog-about-a-cat/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:02:59 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/a-blog-about-a-cat/ I had one once, named it Ping. Started chewing on my cords. So I got rid of it. Replaced it with a flash drive. Also named Ping. It was a win-win situation. https://mikebranski.com/the-rested-traveler/ Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:11:55 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/the-rested-traveler/ Arrived home this afternoon from our annual family vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. Probably the coolest part of the trip was getting to stand in the now-empty Lake Delton. On the Ducks tour, I learned that the lake was drained in just four hours, causing an area of the Wisconsin River to go from 65 feet deep to a mere 6 feet, due to all the sand Lake Delton washed out. https://mikebranski.com/warped-tour-milwaukee/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:38:10 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/warped-tour-milwaukee/ Pretty quiet on the blogging front these past few months, “pretty quiet” being a huge understatement. I haven’t been keeping up with my blogroll either. Could go on and on about why that is, but all that matters is I’m writing now. Let me just say this: Whoever says Macs are more stable than PCs are full of shit. I purchased a MacBook a few weeks ago, and while so far I’m enjoying it, programs crash like I didn’t believe possible. https://mikebranski.com/helio-to-t-mobile/ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:48:41 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/helio-to-t-mobile/ I just switched from Helio to T-Mobile 10 days ago. Maybe I’ll write more about my overall experience with Helio later, but the reason for the switch wans’t exactly voluntary. Helio recently merged with Virgin Mobile, which I thought to be great news (although I’ll miss the Helio name) because it would bring much-needed mainstream support to the company, among other things. Unfortunately, approximately two weeks prior to the public announcement of the merger, their service took a fast nose-dive, so bad that I could no longer make calls in my house (used to get around 80% of full reception), my text messages would constantly fail, and my 3G connection was intermittent at best. https://mikebranski.com/switched-hosts/ Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:27:14 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/switched-hosts/ Just moved this site over to Media Temple. Let me know if there are any issues. https://mikebranski.com/wow-aoc-and-other-assaults-on-the-tongue/ Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:38:11 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/wow-aoc-and-other-assaults-on-the-tongue/ Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: talked about video games. Erich convinced me to pick up WoW?????? two months ago, and, while I’ve been more or less enjoying it, it definitely doesn’t feel like it has that “hold” potential where I won’t get bored with it soon. An upcoming game that never really held my attention but is starting to now is Age of Conan. I like the unique classes and the potential that’s there, but I don’t know how I feel about not being able to craft until later in the game. https://mikebranski.com/scribefire/ Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:00:25 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/scribefire/ I just found out about a Firefox Add-on called ScribeFire thanks to Firefox 3’s Add-on recommendations. ScribeFire opens a pane at the bottom of your browser (or a new tab or window) allowing you to create a post to one of a number of blogging services, with the ability to edit multiple blogs and switch between them instantly. Check out their getting started page to learn more. On top of full post writing and editing, you can open up your del. https://mikebranski.com/akismet/ Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:21:53 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/akismet/ I just enabled Akismet so let me know if there’s anything goofy with the comments. https://mikebranski.com/ps3-laptop/ Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:40:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/ps3-laptop/ Ben Heck recently wrapped up his work on the first Playstaion 3 laptop (I’d link to his site but their new server seems to be down). This baby features a 17″ LCD screen, capable of 720p resolution with a HDMI-DVI connection; built-in keyboard and speakers; and weighs in at 16 pounds. I want one. (I wonder what kind of heat this behemoth will produce.) Following the link above, Engadget will soon be auctioning off the one-on-a-kind model for charity. https://mikebranski.com/out-of-the-game/ Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:35:34 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/out-of-the-game/ Forgive the lack of posts lately; since March I’ve been very tied up. At the beginning of last month I had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled; the surgery went well (local anesthetics) and the recovery went even smoother. After playing catch up from that, two weeks ago I came down with bronchitis, and I’m still suffering the remnants of the cough. Busy things in store for this spring: Updates to my No Spam plugin (and one or two new ones, too! https://mikebranski.com/upgraded-to-wordpress-233/ Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:36:30 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/upgraded-to-wordpress-233/ Just updated to WordPress version 2.3.3 due to a security vulnerability in WordPress. You shouldn’t notice anything, but let me know if something broke in the process. https://mikebranski.com/i-forgot-about-this/ Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:55:57 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/i-forgot-about-this/ I wanted to make fun of the site and the people who take it waaaay too seriously, so I put up something that was different than most of the photos there. I get a kick out of the results. Turns out to be hot all you have to do is something different; women love rebels. Epic. https://mikebranski.com/star-wars-the-force-unleashed/ Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:01:09 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/star-wars-the-force-unleashed/ Just.. wow. Some of the rag-doll animations looked too “rag doll-ish”, but it’s still unfinished and everything else is beautiful. https://mikebranski.com/site-downtime-longer-than-expected/ Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:45:33 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/site-downtime-longer-than-expected/ Sorry about the extra downtime to anyone who was viewing Shattered Reality this afternoon. I was in the middle of updating WordPress when my server’s FTP crapped out, leaving me S.O.L. I submitted a help ticket and they rebooted the FTP daemon on the server and all’s well again. Let me know if anyone notices anything out of whack with the new update. https://mikebranski.com/firefox-memory-hog/ Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:53:34 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/firefox-memory-hog/ I forgot to close Firefox the other night before leaving for work. I came in the next morning and my PC was just crawling from the lack of memory. I’m really glad Firefox 3 is supposed to address a lot of the memory leak issues. https://mikebranski.com/i-hate-helio-customer-service/ Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:54:58 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/i-hate-helio-customer-service/ Me: “I have $150 in charges that shouldn’t be there and I need to find out why this keeps happening” Them: …long pause… “So you want to know where they’re coming from?” Of course I want to know! Seriously WTF? On December 4th I paid November’s bill (Nov 3 – Dec 4). On December 14th I paid for December’s early because there was some shuffling of accounts. I get my bill today and it reads $190,when I really only owe $70. https://mikebranski.com/it-can-be-done/ Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:45:15 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/it-can-be-done/ Tired. Too often I refuse the body’s natural action of going to sleep, putting it off until exhaustion overtakes me and I succumb to the primitive hobby. The advent of mobile technology only reinforces this. – Sent from my Helio https://mikebranski.com/time-sink/ Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:40:50 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/time-sink/ I just printed up a sheet of 9 blocks made in Word that say “You are a valued member of this company. :)” and randomly put them on people’s monitors over lunch. I think it will boost morale. https://mikebranski.com/anyone-out-there/ Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:41:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/anyone-out-there/ I don’t write because no one reads. No one reads because I don’t write. Actually, it could also be that I’m lazy. I do love to write, I love to do a lot of things, but I often get caught up with something “new” and forgo everything else, and the cycle repeats until it emanates so much that I end up back at the original idea and get excited about it all over again. https://mikebranski.com/end-of-week-amusement/ Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:21:25 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/end-of-week-amusement/ Okay, so I saw this comic before today, but I still found it great: https://mikebranski.com/im-going-to-dc/ Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:07:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/im-going-to-dc/ First it was Reader’s Digest, now it’s National Geographic! I’m being flown out tomorrow morning and flown back Friday night. I’ll let you know more about what’s going on when I get back— I have to pack! https://mikebranski.com/did-you-hear/ Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:24:01 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/did-you-hear/ For the next month or two, I’ll be helping rebuild a website on location for a company you might have heard of. https://mikebranski.com/now-with-rss/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:36:44 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/now-with-rss/ Well actually, I’ve had an RSS feed since I switched to a WordPress-powered blog. But now I’ve got around to implemented a Feed Burner feed, which you can find here or in the sidebar. Note that the old feed will now redirect to the Feed Burner one, so if you’ve subscribed, please update your link to the following: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shatteredreality https://mikebranski.com/its-all-i-can-do/ Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:54:17 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/its-all-i-can-do/ WYSIWYG editors can be such a PITA. Using the code view, I (unsuccessfully) tried many times to post four Family Guy videos from YouTube, but WordPress’s WYSIWYG editor kept messing them up. I could post links to the four videos, but who wants that? Video or it didn’t happen! https://mikebranski.com/feast-your-ears-on-this/ Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:06:59 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/feast-your-ears-on-this/ Monty Are I – “Between The Sheets” Official Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhLjgvPNkcU https://mikebranski.com/oh-yeah/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:54:17 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/oh-yeah/ I almost forgot to mention: some new projects are underway and will be announced soon. Stay tuned! https://mikebranski.com/quick-mentions/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:52:28 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/quick-mentions/ I turned 21 today! My buddy recently introduced me to Travian, a free online strategy game in which you build up a village. Simple but fun. It’s cool because you can take a few minutes to do some stuff here and there without having to play for long periods of time. Check out my village. Vanguard fans, the server merge is happening next week. https://mikebranski.com/a-stunning-realization/ Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:21:22 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/a-stunning-realization/ Shit. I have a blog. https://mikebranski.com/from-who-brought-you-tortoisesvn/ Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:03:07 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/from-who-brought-you-tortoisesvn/ Stefan’s Tools is a small, but useful, set of tools created by Stefan Kueng, the main developer behind TortoiseSVN. Most notable is the StExBar utility, which is essentially everything Microsoft forgot to implement in Windows Explorer. If you’re a fan of these tools, you can send a small donation his way for all the work he puts into these. Don’t use those tools, but love TortoiseSVN? You can support that instead (or both! https://mikebranski.com/using-subversion-in-textpad/ Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:41:55 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/using-subversion-in-textpad/ For anyone who may be editing in TextPad, there’s a way you can have some Subversion functionality within the TextPad interface. I don’t think I’ve ever used TextPad, but hopefully someone will find this useful. https://mikebranski.com/joes-goals/ Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:01:04 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/joes-goals/ For those of us who are goal oriented (or at least pretend we are), there’s a nifty website out there called Joe’s Goals. From the website: […]I built Joe’s Goals to make it stupidly simple to create, track, and share your personal goals. It is a productivity application that is actually easy enough to use. And it really is just that: a website with some tools to help make tracking your goals as simple as it should be. https://mikebranski.com/tortoisesvn-manual/ Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:03:30 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/tortoisesvn-manual/ I don’t know how I missed this before, but the TortoiseSVN and Tortoise Merge manuals are available on the TortoiseSVN website in both PDF and HTML formats. Unless you’re using a nightly build of TortoiseSVN, you’ll want to read the release version (not developer version). Older manuals are also available in case you need them. https://mikebranski.com/an-internal-struggle/ Tue, 29 May 2007 21:48:52 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/an-internal-struggle/ I really want another Fiber One bar, but my digestive track is screaming, “NOOOO!!!” But my taste buds scream, “YESSSSSSS!!!!!!” Did this warrant an entry all on its own? Probably not. https://mikebranski.com/technics-shmechnics/ Tue, 29 May 2007 12:37:05 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/technics-shmechnics/ You’re going to notice more posts relating to geeky stuff and, more specifically, Web development. For those who don’t know, I do web development for a living, and now the company I work for has given each of us a blog on our internal server. Each of us use it to post tips and writings about things pertinent to our jobs, and some of those things might be useful to people outside of our team, so I’m going to share some of my posts here. https://mikebranski.com/jump-to-any-line-in-dreamweaver/ Tue, 29 May 2007 12:28:54 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/jump-to-any-line-in-dreamweaver/ Here’s a handy little shortcut for jumping around your code in Dreamweaver: Ctrl+G Hit this and enter a number to Go to that line. Great for quickly jumping to a line of code in a CSS (or other) file. I use this all the time when debugging my code and I’m inspecting elements in Firebug. https://mikebranski.com/company-issued-alarm-clocks/ Tue, 29 May 2007 12:27:38 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/company-issued-alarm-clocks/ I think so. Who wouldn’t love waking up like this every morning? http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/91f2/?cpg=52H Now, the real question: is it worth $50? https://mikebranski.com/brians-in-da-house/ Fri, 25 May 2007 09:20:54 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/brians-in-da-house/ Wakka wakka wakka. https://mikebranski.com/were-back-in-the-game/ Thu, 24 May 2007 20:05:02 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/were-back-in-the-game/ Err, well, I’m back in the game, anyway. Shattered Reality was down for a few days due to switching around my server, but it’s back up and running, and with a fresh new look! https://mikebranski.com/hijacking-viral-marketing/ Thu, 17 May 2007 22:31:08 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/hijacking-viral-marketing/ Who doesn’t want to be as cool as the guy behind xkcd? In a recent blog post, he decided Ask.com’s viral marketing campaign could use a twist. To help him in his quest, I present to you the following: THE ALGORITHM CONSTANTLY FINDS JESUS THE ALGORITHM KILLED JEEVES THE ALGORITHM IS BANNED IN CHINA THE ALGORITHM IS FROM JERSEY Thanks to Amy for the link. https://mikebranski.com/delayed/ Thu, 17 May 2007 22:19:42 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/delayed/ I sat down to write this post four hours ago. It did not get written four hours ago. Instead, I was distracted by the new version of WordPress (v2.2). I went to download it, as I’m sure I’m overdue for an update; but before I installed it, I wanted to get it set up locally to test because I hate updating and having it end up broken. Turns out I haven’t copied this site to my local server yet, so I started doing that. https://mikebranski.com/for-amy/ Wed, 02 May 2007 11:33:51 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/for-amy/ I did not get the photo pass to shoot Brand New back in March. Maybe that’s why I haven’t updated in nearly two months: my saddened state has left me feeling less that… writer-ish? Hmm….. life’s good. Stressful parts, as always, but good nonetheless. Well, except for having strep two weeks ago. That was less than good, contradicting my aforementioned “nonetheless.” https://mikebranski.com/brand-new/ Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:13:09 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/brand-new/ This is short and sweet, but oh so sweet… I put in a request for a photo pass to shoot at the Brand New show this month. I’ll let you guys know if I get it. A little back-history: I’m heavily into concert photography and shot professionally for the Pabst and Riverside Theaters for while when my schedule allowed for it. Shooting a Brand New concert would be a culmination of everything I work for in concert photography and my passion for music…it would be incredible. https://mikebranski.com/keepin-up/ Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:54:19 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/keepin-up/ So I got to trying out something new just now: perhaps “regular” even “pointless” posts will get me in to regular “habit” of writing. I don’t care much to use the word “habit” because I don’t want writing to become a mundane and forced activity. Yup, that’s all. https://mikebranski.com/moments-like-these/ Sun, 18 Feb 2007 21:58:44 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/moments-like-these/ Today was rough. Without wanting to go into much detail about it, I will point out something truly special. True friends that being of which I speak. On a day where leaving the state is a welcoming solution, having friends jump in and provide support can be an immeasurable aid. True friends will always be true friends, no matter how much one may be incessantly babbling at the time. True friends are there for each other, both ways. https://mikebranski.com/blah-blah-valentines/ Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:14:14 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/blah-blah-valentines/ Yes, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes. “Fuck Valentine’s Day.” Yes, we all know this. Thank you. Enough with the bulletins already two days prior to the holiday, bulletin board flooded and aggression reigning supreme. You know what? I don’t have a Valentine this year, either. In fact? I’ve NEVER had a Valentine’s Day where I could sit down and spend the night with that special someone and really get the most out of the holiday. https://mikebranski.com/it-was-fun/ Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:49:07 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/it-was-fun/ Cassie recently went home after coming over and doing a shoot with me. It was a lot of fun, and we laughed and got along so well, it was really, really refreshing. I worked on improving my lighting techniques, and once I added a large reflector to the scene (a la a big dry erase board), the quality of the shots greatly improved. I also tried to cut loose and have fun with it, and I’m really glad I did. https://mikebranski.com/aint-that-the-truth/ Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:19:25 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/aint-that-the-truth/ This comic pretty much says it all….Mario Party always did have those quirky things that just pissed me off so much that I wouldn’t even feel like looking at the game’s case for the months to come. https://mikebranski.com/predetermined-purchases/ Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:27:59 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/predetermined-purchases/ I’m pretty sure part of my first paycheck is going to pay for this. I’d also like a high-definition TV, to pay off my car and school loans, a new camera, some lighting equipment, and who knows what else. https://mikebranski.com/just-a-moment-to-gather-myself/ Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:18:44 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/just-a-moment-to-gather-myself/ My mom just got back from the VA Hospital after meeting with her brothers and sisters and doctors over the condition of my grandfather. I don’t know his age, but he fought in the Korean War when he was still very young. He has suffered with Multiple Sclerosis for most of his life, inhibiting him to a wheel chair for countless years. My mom grew up hearing from doctor’s that he may not be around in the years to come; she is now 42 years old and he’s still with us, but is now slipping quickly. https://mikebranski.com/duck-shot-in-wing-lives-two-days-in-fridge/ Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:47:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/duck-shot-in-wing-lives-two-days-in-fridge/ Yes, it’s true. A man shot a duck, injuring it in the wing and leg. Thinking it was dead, he took it home and put in it the fridge. Two days later, the man’s wife gets quite the scare when she opens the fridge and the duck lifts its head up. They proceeded to take the duck to the vet (yes, the vet) after having shot it with the intent of eating it two days earlier. https://mikebranski.com/outstanding-even/ Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:08:51 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/outstanding-even/ So I thought I’d pop in and let everyone know that I GOT THE JOB!!!!!! I know, I’m excited too! What job? Wow, someone hasn’t been reading since day one ;P I am the newest Web Developer at Layer One Media!! I start next week Friday, which is good because in the mean time I can get myself as caught up as possible on ColdFusion by Adobe. https://mikebranski.com/sick-of-seeing-ireland-on-your-myspace/ Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:14:00 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/sick-of-seeing-ireland-on-your-myspace/ For those who have become annoyed by MySpace defaulting to Ireland for the main site (ex: IE.MySpace.com link at the top, Irish flag, etc), you just have to change your Preferred Site & Language. To do so, follow these steps (it takes not even 30 seconds): Log in (dur) Click “Home” in the upper-left hand part of the part to return to your home page (where you see if you have new messages, comments, etc). https://mikebranski.com/phptek-2007-anyone/ Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:41:45 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/phptek-2007-anyone/ So, I’m sure there has to be at least one person who’d like to see me go to this year’s php|tek PHP Conference, right? It’s only $750…..no? Damn it. I’ve wanted to go to one of these, ever since hearing about the PHP cruise some years back. I’ve been super busy this past week getting my portfolio account on deviantArt up and going. After sorting through 11,000 some photos of mine, I narrowed down the best of the best and put them online, making many available for purchase as prints and other goodies. https://mikebranski.com/my-photography-on-myspace/ Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:27:12 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/my-photography-on-myspace/ I recently created a photography page of some of my very best work, which you can check out at: http://www.myspace.com/shatteredrealityphoto PLEASE, if you like my work, or just photography in general, check it out. If you like what you see, add me to your friend’s list and tell one of your friends about me. I’m also interested in constructive comments, so if you have intelligible feedback about my work, please let me know! https://mikebranski.com/yeah-thats-nice/ Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:59:58 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/yeah-thats-nice/ You know what’s nice? Putting clothes on straight from the dryer. That’s nice. My house is usually so horrendously cold that any bit of “free” warmth is jumped upon, rope-tied, and used to keep me from an icy grave. https://mikebranski.com/follow-a-trend/ Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:05:27 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/follow-a-trend/ After learning about this GTD craze thanks to Hyaline Skies, I ventured out to Barnes and Noble today and picked up two Moleskines: one regular and one pocket-sized. For a while I have been in great need of a more organized way of keeping track of things; my current method of Post-It notes everywhere has started to take its toll. Save for the tabs, I have my pocket-sized GTD Moleskine all set up, but I’m still debating putting in my own tab for journal/blog entry ideas. https://mikebranski.com/a-new-year/ Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:47:40 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/a-new-year/ Seriously, could I not have come up with a more original title that that? At any rate, it is a new year, and for whatever reason now is the time we’re supposed to make changes and improvements in our lives. That’s right; if you haven’t made a “resolution” yet, you’re too late and will just have to wait until next year. On improvements, however, this is a nice list for improving your blog from lifehack (which I admittedly mistook as a redesign of Lifehacker). https://mikebranski.com/have-buttons-will-mash/ Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:23:33 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/have-buttons-will-mash/ My little brother asked me to play Super Smash Brothers Melee with him. Fifteen minutes of button mashing and I was through; I’d imagine the game to be more entertaining if you knew moves for your character. Unfortunately, picking the game up once every few months doesn’t embolden yourself with such knowledge. I remember playing Super Smash Brothers back on Nintendo 64; that was quite the party game. You know, go to a friends house, rally up four controllers, pick your favorite character and beat the crap out of your friend’s Nintendo-y exterior. https://mikebranski.com/mikes-goals-for-a-reason/ Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:24:27 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/mikes-goals-for-a-reason/ There’s a reason that when I signed up at Joe’s Goals, my page was entitled Mike’s Goals: they’re mine. This means I should do them, but as you can tell, I haven’t been. When I first signed up for Joe’s Goals, things were rocky; but before long, I had as many as 11 points in a day. Then as with most things geared toward making changes that require time and a regular schedule, things tapered off again, bringing me to now. https://mikebranski.com/the-internet-is-for-porn/ Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:06:46 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/the-internet-is-for-porn/ To make up for my lack of posts this past week, I present you this video (NSFW)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etVCUmgfMag Entitled Internet is for porn, this is a World of Warcraft musical explaining why the Internet was born. Catchy music, and damn funny. https://mikebranski.com/planets-put-into-perspective/ Sun, 17 Dec 2006 14:32:39 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/planets-put-into-perspective/ This Google video puts a good dozen of the known planets into a truly awesome perspective. As noted on digg, if you take the distance between the Earth and Sun (149,000,000km) and multiply it by 25, you get approximately the diameter of VV Cephei (3,676,200,000km). That’s just unreal. This image seems to be slightly more accurate in it’s proportions, however the true scale of it is somewhat lost due to its static nature. https://mikebranski.com/head-colds-and-terminals/ Sat, 16 Dec 2006 03:04:48 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/head-colds-and-terminals/ Been pretty busy lately, and this head cold is finally starting to wane; proper entries to resume shortly. Yesterday I untinstalled Ubuntu Linux 6.10 and replacedit with Ubuntu 6.06, a more stable release. Dual booting Linux and Windows isn’t necessary for me, but I thought I’d gain some experience and give Linux an honest go. Also of noteable mention, I have an interview Monday for Layer One Media in downtown Milwaukee. https://mikebranski.com/internet-fucking-explorer/ Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:07:42 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/internet-fucking-explorer/ This pie chart couldn’t be any more accurate. [](http://mikebranski.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/web-pie-chart1.jpeg “Web Pie Chart”) https://mikebranski.com/running-slow/ Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:48:23 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/running-slow/ Hey everyone. Just wanted to quick pop in and say sorry for the lack of things the past few days; between working hard to finish the last pieces of the Ka Lounge Website, I’ve been hit with a crummy cold. Figures, I don’t take my vitamins for a week and WAMMO, instant-sick. Lame. https://mikebranski.com/free-hugs-campaign/ Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:51:31 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/free-hugs-campaign/ I couldn’t not share this when I saw it. Free Hugs Campaign – Original Video For those not watching the video (however, I highly recommend you do), here’s how their Website – FreeHugsCampaign.org – introduces the Free Hugs Campaign: Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. https://mikebranski.com/verizon-dont-do-math/ Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:50:22 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/verizon-dont-do-math/ First, open this video and listen to it in the background (it’s actually all audio, no video). Warning: a good 24 minutes of audio there. Next, read more about the situation at the Verizonmath Blog (start with the bottom post and work your way up). Finally, observe the irony. https://mikebranski.com/jawdrop/ Sun, 10 Dec 2006 02:32:26 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/jawdrop/ I wanted to quickly mention an incredibly stunning photo gallery I recently had the pleasure of discovering on flickr. I haven’t seen work this beautifully mastered for some time now. It’s really an inspiration for someone such as myself who wants to learn more about portraiture. Excellent stuff. Enjoy! https://mikebranski.com/it-all-ties-together/ Sun, 10 Dec 2006 02:14:12 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/it-all-ties-together/ I just finished uploading the photos I took at the Heroes! Villains! show Friday night at the 8th Note Coffee House on the UWM campus. As I said earlier, the lighting was absolutely horrendous, and I didn’t bring my flash (usually don’t use one at shows), but the lighting was so bad that I had no other choice. Couple that with the kit lens not being able to focus for shit in even remotely dark conditions, I shot in manual focus for the first time at a show, which worked surprisingly well. https://mikebranski.com/are-you-mad-man/ Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:22:07 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/are-you-mad-man/ No post yesterday. Crazy. I just got back from a show headlined by Heroes! Villains! It was cool to finally see them play, and they put on quite a good show, albeit rather short. I think they played just the five songs off their newly released sampler, but it was solid stuff. The opening and bridge of each song particularily shined for me. If you’re interested in hearing what they sound like, check out their MySpace page. https://mikebranski.com/oh-my-god/ Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:23:37 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/oh-my-god/ http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 If you check out the above article, you’ll see that Multiverse is in talk with Fox Licensing to turn Firefly into an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) Game. As Tim Buckley put it, if this is done half-assed, it would be an absolute abomination to the series. I’ve loved Firefly and then Serenity from the first time I viewed either, and the prospect of a game is intriguing, but I just hope they don’t screw this up. https://mikebranski.com/whats-on-your-fortune/ Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:17:32 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/whats-on-your-fortune/ “Give a hug to someone who needs one more than you.” I like that one; it’s not some crazy ass cryptic one you and your friends have to huddle around for 20 minutes trying to figure out if you’re going to die of some unknown cause by the third Tuesday of March, or if a burlap sack full of rare kittens will fall into your lap on the 21st of next month. https://mikebranski.com/holiday-tidings/ Wed, 06 Dec 2006 18:24:15 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/holiday-tidings/ My little brother made a craft project for the four of us for St. Nick’s today, so I made him something in return. I printed it out on matte photo paper and glued it to a piece of cardboard, then in turn cut it out and stuck it in his stocking. Now I pass on the greetings to you. Hope everyone got lots of sweets in their stocking this morning. More to write later. https://mikebranski.com/sometimes-they-say-it-best/ Tue, 05 Dec 2006 15:54:58 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/sometimes-they-say-it-best/ It’s amazing sometimes how singer’s seem to say everything you’re feeling. I’m not saying the following song by Brand New does just that, but I think it’s a powerful song that has a lot of emotion behind it, and I wanted to share. Go to their purevolume page and listen to Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades as you read the lyrics. “Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades” by Brand New Keep the noise low. https://mikebranski.com/always-a-little-sketchy/ Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:36:17 +0000 https://mikebranski.com/always-a-little-sketchy/ I don’t think it’s too often the first post is the best post you make for a while; they usually improve as you post a few more blogs. Instead of just randomly writing most of the time, I’m going to pick things to actually write about. On PS3 launch day (Nov. 17th, 2006), I went to Target and picked up an Xbox 360. No waiting in line (even at the checkout!