Jeff Gran » announcement

University of Denver

Jeff Gran — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:24:21 +0000

Yesterday was my first day of classes at the University of Denver. I’m entering into the Information and Communications Technology program. I’m excited to start learning, and it’s interesting (and validating my decision) that I’m already learning things that I never even knew I needed to know.

Next quarter will be more about specific techniques (javascript, for example), but so far this quarter is focused on things like the Software Development Life Cycle, Requirements and Use Case gathering, object oriented analysis and design, etc.

Someone wise once said that any newcomer into any field or discipline will always want to learn the fancy tricks and techniques first, when what they really need to start with are the fundamentals. So, here’s to fundamentals.

Site Upgrades: WordPress 2.8!

Jeff Gran — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:17:34 +0000

WordPress 2.8 was released on Wednesday, and I’ve upgraded my site. I’m looking forward to playing with the new widgets API. Hmm… what kind of widgets will I make?

I also upgraded to the latest Pods release (1.6.5), which will allow some nifty behind-the-scenes magic to happen.

That’s all. Carry on.

Site Theme Upgrade

Jeff Gran — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:34:25 +0000

I’ve “gone live” with the theme upgrade I’ve been working on. This represents a week’s worth of work or so. I added many new features, including a custom front page, a widgetized sidebar, and a custom sidebar widget displaying my social media, email and rss links (with custom-created buttons, of course).

The portfolio section is empty as of now, as I am in development of a new structure for it using the Pods CMS plugin for WordPress.

Specialize, they say

Jeff Gran — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:40:01 +0000

I’ve been reading a lot about how to make your way in this crazy world of people who make web sites. Several authorities have suggested that, especially when starting out, it’s a good idea to specialize in one particular niche.

I’ve decided to concentrate on WordPress development for several reasons:

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging and CMS systems out there today.
In the hands of an expert, WP can be extremely flexible.
WP is easy to get started with, but difficult to master. Inexperienced users often require expert assistance in customization.
I’m already using it for this site, and have at least one more site in development using it.
The skills used in creating wordpress themes (XHTML, CSS, PHP) are all applicable to generic web design uses – I’m not boxing myself in.

The plan for now is to keep practicing with custom wordpress themes. First up is a redesign of this site. Yep, it’s only a couple of weeks old and it’s already on the chopping block. What can I say? Sometimes I’m a perfectionist.

We’re online!

Jeff Gran — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:35:43 +0000

This is the first post on my new and improved site. On it I’ll be posting my artwork, my design/development portfolio, ideas and inspiration, etc. It’s a little sparse right now, but in the next week or so I should be fleshing it out quite a bit. Stay tuned.