My solution? I have it so that my playlist syncs to my phone, in which the playlist caters to my own personal music tastes for that day or days.  I recently just finished reorganizing my music, and it was not easy.

Some things to consider when organzing music:

• Have each folder be by Album Artist - Album Title
  • If you happen to have Original Soundtracks, I usually do it like so:
    Eg. Various Artists - Movie Title Soundtrack or OST
  • For other things like Singles, EP, and other stuff you may come along, (like Anime Soundtracks), I do it according to Wikipedia’s information on Soundtracks for that Artist
    Eg1. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! OST
    Eg2. Macross Frontier OP2 ED2 Single - Lion (OP = Opening, ED = Ending)
  • If you have more than one CD per album, merge them all under that album and rename the Album as that Album title
    Eg. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor has two CDs
    All your tracks in that album will have the Album title = In Your Honor, as opposed to In Your Honor CD1, CD2
• When doing Meta data (ID3 Tags), Always make sure you edit Album Artist, Artist(s), Title, and Album
  Album Artist is important because if you have more than one artist in an album, sometimes in Winamp or other media players, you would see more than one instance of that album in the “Album View” (which to me is very annoying).
  Eg. The Matrix Reloaded has more than one artist, and is a soundtrack.
  Folder: Various Artists - The Matrix Reloaded
  Album: The Matrix Reloaded
  Album Artist: Various Artists
  Artist: (insert artist for each individual track)
  Title: (insert title for each individual track)
• Use MediaMonkey to edit your collection! I use this program all the time when I organize my music.  I use a few simple keystrokes to get what I need:
  • Open up a folder of music
  • Ctrl + A (Select All)
  • Ctrl + L (Find Music Info on Web)
  • Find respective Album with good Album Art and information
  • Click Auto Tag
  • Ctrl + A again
  • Ctrl + R (Reorganze File Names based on Meta Data)
  • Done!
• For any other needs, I manually do it by hand.  For example, my Anime Soundtracks, I create Album Art for them on Photoshop on a 500×500 canvas size.

Need anymore tips? Feel free to ask in the comments.

Any who, I have to read 3 chapters from “System’s Analysis and Design with UML Version 2.0,” read about 50 or so pages of Not For Sale by David Batstone, and read chapter 5 for Sociology.  Long night? Yes.  On top of all that, I have a test in IS2060 (System’s Analysis), which I am not quite ready for.  Plus work!

My newest project to tackle is a redesign of clubs.kennesaw.edu, and to give it a more user friendly feel.  I’ll update with a screenshot on what I have going on for it.  Since it’s a second tier .edu website, I don’t have much wiggle room in terms of its design.  But perhaps it might work out well enough.

Oh yeah, I’ll have to post about my Google Calendar solution for WordPress.  But that would be after I get things done.

Until then.. Study!

I do understand the security issues of reusing drives, and yeah, data should correctly be erased. If not people can always give unused hard drives to me

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.

On to my rant, the question is number 5 from page 61-62 from the book “Principles of Web Design.”

5. Find a Web site that you think needs improvements in its design.

a. Print two pages from the site.
b. Make copies of the originals, and set the originals aside.
c. Using scissors, cut the main elements of each page. Rearrange the elements and paste them in a design you believe improves the site.
d. Compare and contrast the original with your improved design.

Now, about those instructions… For one, its a waste of paper. Two, websites that do need improvement need major overhauls in content (eg. pages that scroll so far that you can’t even see the scroll bar). Three, cutting and pasting elements won’t do much to improve the design, since most websites that really need improvement need better content organization.

For better instructions to improve the question, I would see something like: Choose a website that needs improvement and sketch out a layout using some graphic elements and/or content from the site.

Back to work. End.

Earlier today, I finished Gurren Lagann. From the beginning to the end: Amazing stuff! I could say its very manly and action packed filled with other testosterone goodness. My transitioning from Clannad (another good anime) to Gurren Lagann was abit bumpy, yet I found that sweet spot for high, action packed glory.

Simon and Kamina face off against all odds, for all humanity, and sometimes even their masculinity. Towards the end, the anime jumped pace at an exponential growth from okay to blazingly, amazingly, spectacular goodness. I highly recommend it for any seasoned anime lover..

After abit of homework, I awaited the completion of Gundam 00 Season 2 Episode 17. And what a great way to end a homework assignment… The episode is really great (you guys gotta watch it!) and makes you want to watch more… I just can’t wait until next weeks episode of Gundam 00…

• 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.