OurMag

Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)

I remember when so many of my friends were so excited about using web design programs like FrontPage, HTMLEdit, and a few others. Then, applications like Adobe's DreamWeaver made their appearance, bringing a good deal of image editing and layout design to the crafting of web pages.

Unlike my friends, however, I'd never been a big fan of these applications. The reasons were varied, but the base concept was that:

• It is tedious to hand edit pages... 10 pages? Sure. 1000 pages, no.
• Upgrading a site becomes a nightmare
• Content needs to be "ported" each time you change the look and feel
• The storage foot print is huge.

This was, of course, back in 1994 through 2000. Back then, I was crafting my sites using a feature called server side includes, which allowed me to build dynamic pages. I had my page content stored in flat files, which my custom scripts used to generate pages.

In 2001, I migrated my server side include pages to php based pages, which also gave me the ability to store my data in a database, like MySQL. I saw an immediate speed and reliability increase, which was great. However, I was still hand coding the site and for each new feature... I was maintaining my own api(s)/etc.

In 2004, I migrated my sites to a platform called Drupal. It was also php-based and employed the MySQL database. However, it had a strong community user base that contributed updated modules with features that were useful.

With this platform, I could focus on content creation and less on coding.

Drupal is the platform I employ now, as it gives me the most flexibility and allows instant theme/layout changes without needing to write a single line of code. In fact, most everything can be done via JUST CSS.

There are actually a number of sub-blogs that have been living at ourmag.com. Please welcome The Sushi-Blog to the main OurMag.com site!

- Wing.

Konnichi wa!

I'm in the process of moving my aggregate sushi blog (http://sushi-blog.ourmag.com) into the site proper. Unfortunately, the recent ourmag.com upgrade kinda broke it. :/

Anyways, please look for it here soon!

- Sushi Blogger

I love Anime Expo. Let me say it again, I _LOVE_ Anime Expo. I have been going and attending it for over a decade and a half and I really never get tired of it. I get exhausted, drained, and wishing I was eating healthier during the convention... but I never tire of it.

So, it is with much nail biting, sweating bullets, and gazing with crazed eyes at the Anime Expo page, while watching my inbox and Twitter feeds for news of... the Anime Expo 2009 pre-registration openings.

The November, December, January, and now Febuary dates have come and gone... some details have shown up, namely that it will be the first week of March. Since the pre-registration close date has already been announced... it is with continued anxiety that I watch on, awaiting my chance to get in and pre-register.

So much Anime Expo... so little time!!

- Wing

Tokyopop Presents J-Rock Vol. 1

Fanime Con:

• San Jose, California
• May 22nd-25th, 2009
• Tons of fun and plenty of J-Rock!

I've actually attended Fanime Con a few times. Being that I live pretty close to the convention, there's really no point in my getting a room... still, the driving late at night kinda sucks. :)

This convention isn't nearly as big as say... Anime Expo, but it is still alot of fun and filled with people who are very enthustiastic about the culture.

Speaking of culture, what's really big are the J-Rock guests that they will be hosting this year! Woot & Yatta!

Don't miss out! If you're in the California Bay Area (San Jose / Sunnyvale / Mountain View / Santa Clara / Fremont / Cupertino / etc.) there's nothing like a live concert from J-Rock performers!

Everybody Cosplay Volume 1 (v. 1)

Cosplay is something which adds that special something to a convention. Seeing people take the extra effort to bring their favorite characters to life and to live out a little piece of their fantasy and dream!

For me, seeing all the wonderful cosplayers is a personal highpoint for me, during these conventions. They are alot of fun, energetic, and are founts of knowledge when it comes to the character that they are cosplaying.

The quality of cosplayers' costumes range from simple setups, where they just went for something that hinted at the character, to elaborate and labor intensive hand-sewn pieces, where money is literally of no consequence, so long as the finished product is true to the original and to the vision.

Hmm... well, I haven't really had much time to devote to this now coming on 10 year old site. I've wiped and re-wiped the content on the site a few times, so taking digital eraser to tonnes of pages of content isn't something new to me. :)

I've been working on a new premise, which is an extension of a previous premise. Basically, my old one was to focus less on coding, and more on content. The new extension to this previous mantra is; if it gets in the way of the content, remove it. Even if that which is getting in the way... is... content.

What it comes down to is a matter of good/bad content. In this case, I think I got so fed up trying to code some "elegant" method of migrating my old content that I was willing to throw the baby out with the bath water.

And so... Voila! The new and improved 2009 edition of OurMag.com!

- Wing.