As you can see, Ive been places (I forgot to mention I went to the Philippines) and this week I will be going to Kansas to visit family.

I have plenty of projects to do and summer school starting Wednesday.

What else is new? I suppose I can say that I am trying to get my stuff back together, but as I am still trying to rearrange the thoughts in my head and the various workflows of how I do things, I fail to realize that you just gotta do it.

I will be taking this into consideration next time when I work on a project.

Expect to hear from me soon, and with a customized layout.

WoogleCal
WoogleCal seemed like it would be a winner in its simplicity and function.  The plugin would require an RSS feed from Google Calendar (which is easy to get), and just post it into any part of a WordPress template.  However, the plugin wasn’t available to download. Fail.

wpng-calendar
This plugin allows for integration of Google Calendar to a WordPress blog through ways I don’t really know…  I do know that it uses Widgets and Ajax features that I particularly do not like to use.  There wasn’t even an option to post it into a template (not that I know of atleast).  The only thing I have against widgets is that I do not know how to implement them into custom templates (like ones I make).  I do not want to use widgets also inpart to the loss of functionality and customizing that can be accomplished through XHTML and CSS.

RSS Aggregator Method
I categorized this into a section because it utilizes various RSS Feed Aggregators to post Google Calendar in some format.
FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost feature plus adding paramaters to Google Calendar’s XML URL makes it a top choice, though not one I particularly like.  The code FeedBurner gives you is javascript, which is partially okay, but I prefer a php style list sorta thing like most decent WordPress plugins give you.
Basically, you add:

?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true&singleevents=true&max-results=10

to the end of your Calendar Address XML URL

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/soggn9gp245h3vkrsfgq6m3330%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic

The end result is something like this:

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/soggn9gp245h3vkrsfgq6m3330%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true&singleevents=true&max-results=10

If you do not have a FeedBurner account, (which was recently acquired by Google) go get one. When you add a feed, add the one that you just combined together. Now, you can use the FeedBurner’s BuzzBoost by going to your Feed, click the tab for “Publicized” and click the sidebar link for “BuzzBoost.”  Activate the service, and edit the necessary fields.

If the javascript isn’t to your liking, the next one might float your boat.

Here is one that I think ranks up top as well..
RSSImport by Frank Bueltge
This one fits the need perfectly. I was slightly skeptical when I first saw the plugin but it works correctly. Simply use the php code given, type in the FeedBurner address for the Feed address, edit how many items, and etc. One thing to note is that the URL with the parameters added to the Google XML URL has a limit of 10; you would need to go back and change it to fit the limit, or remove it and use the one from the plugin. I think the only downside of the plugin was that it didn’t display the descriptions, when, and where correctly (in which case most other RSS plugins have failed in).

The end all of solutions for Google Calendar to WordPress
There’s a twist, and its pretty funny how I overlooked it. The best method to have correctly formatted events displayed is using the ICS or ICal URL and import that to WordPress. Again with more plugins! I tested almost every ICal to WordPress plugin relatively well, and while some may seem well featured, most plugins got the cut.

I will share with you the one I used however.
This one is by Daniel Westermann-Clark, you can click on the name to get to the plugin.

The readme inside the download has all the detailed information on how to add it, format it, etc. The plugin is completely underrated for what it can achieve, and through using it, you get correctly formatted dates (even customizable date formats), information, the works..

I’ll go over how to use it later. In the meantime, have fun with it!

The design was sorta simple yet went back to my own tastes with various inspirations elsewhere. I do like simplicity, and I think simplicity fits me well. I would like to try out various other styles of design like the very artsy vintage, grunge styles, and vectorish modernish.

They should have a class specifically for web design styles, haha. Then again, there might be stuff already made for that and I wouldn’t even know.

So today I completely neglected the fact I had a math exam in calculus. I stayed up all night until 5am doing my website and formatting my portfolio to be displayed.

I still have not come up with a great work flow that covers the creative aspect as well as the organized format of a web design portfolio. If you don’t know what I mean, I am talking about what to do when you create a finished product or work, such as a wallpaper. How would you display it for the world to see on a website? More specifically, would you keep copies of your wallpaper in an archive on your external hard disk (like me) and make a copy specifically for your website to distribute?

Also, how do people go about making thumbnails? Thumbnails are really a pain… This is true for even different sizes of print material.

As you can also see, I have updated my portfolio. You can see my various works I have finished. I think I will update it to have titles and general information on the works.

And I must not forget my resume..

I see dates that go back to 2004 and 2005, however, at that time, I used tables and FrontPage to build websites. I see more creativity in me back then more than the me right now.

As a goal for this year, I wish to restore that creativeness that was once inside me. I think I will begin making wallpapers and then start back into invigorating designs. When you see me do that, I will have created a layout for this website. Until then, I will use an already made layout.

• I am attending Kennesaw State University
• I have 5 classes a week
• I have 2 part-time jobs
• I am currently sick

What have I been doing lately?  Well, I am working in New Media Group which is a part of Student Media at KSU.  And I am also working with the Sentinel, which is the student newspaper for Kennesaw.  I renovated the online edition with WordPress and created the theme (took a long time), and I am in the process of implementing a system where multiple organizations within Kennesaw can update their events to be viewed in a single place.

I am writing this post on my Asus EEE PC 900, which I got around May 2008.  I have successfully modded it with Bluetooth and a Touchscreen (which is now cracked and needs to be replaced).

So I ask myself, why am I starting to write again?  For one, I need to have a personal blog of my own.  Two, I am taking over this blog (sorry Vu, Quan, Logan).  Three, I need to update the blog and the theme, as well as my portfolio, which has grown considerably since the last time I made it (http://roastlechon.com/portfolio).

My new system for posting portfolio stuff will be through WordPress just so I can keep it all in one CMS platform.  It would take a little more work than I would expect, but for me, I tend to slack off when doing things for myself (I would rather do work for another person than for myself).  I suppose that to be a good thing, but I do need to do things for me.

Anyway, new stuff you’ll find is the new Add this feature at the bottom of every post.  This will allow you to submit currently viewed posts to popular social bookmarking sites like del.ici.ous, digg it, etc.

Other things that are new are the recent comments.  This allows people to view the most recent commented posts and see who commented them. A similar feature below that are the popular post list.  The plugin generates a list of popular posts, with the top one being the most popular, based on trackbacks, comments, views, clicks, etc.  I actually have no idea how it works, but it seems accurate in my opinion.

In other news, I got the website to be significantly viewable on Internet Explorer 6, which is  sad in a way due to the fact that people still use that horrible piece of crap.  At school, it is very sad that we still use that horrible piece of crap, though we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on expensive printers.

I’ll post a guide on installing Firefox along with the best web optimized plugins, including how to increase the speed of your DSL/Cable, as soon as I have the time.

Aside from other things, blogging at 3:00 AM in the morning is starting to be a bad habit. With school coming up, I really need to crank out my A game. My SAT book arrived in the mail, pretty good condition for a cheap price on Amazon.com. But aside from SAT’s I need to work on my summer reading assignments, such as The Sun Also Rises and watching a french movie.

This weekend is my dad’s birthday and during that time I will be away from home celebrating his birthday at my mom’s coworker’s vacation home. Of course I’ll bring my laptop =D. Also, I will be staying with my sister in Athens after the celebration, so that I can soley concentrate on my summer work and SAT’s. Until then, I have to get my website up to date.