Wordpress
Reversing Changes and More
As I said in a previous post, I moved the Ullrich Media website off of Squarespace with the intent of hosting it on our dedicated Media Temple server. But after I did I realized something: the site looked like ass.
The sad truth is I’m not a web designer, nor do I know that much about Wordpress. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t really have the time to learn more about either of those things right now.
I would love to, believe me. But for now I’ve made the decision to return to Squarespace and keep that as the home of Ullrich Media for the foreseeable future. It’s just easier and I need things to be easier right now.
I think you can probably relate.
In addition, I made some changes to the site itself, which is actually quite easy to do with Squarespace. No, they didn’t pay me to say that. Although, I’m open to it . . .
For the site I added more photos and made the portfolio section a bit more organized to highlight my work. Mostly I grouped the photos in different sections depending on the kind of photo they are. If you go there it will make more sense.
And hey, I also decided to offer prints of some of my photographs too. You should buy one, framed, and hang it on your wall. I did. It looks pretty cool.
Here’s the direct link to my Print Shop. There’s also a link when you go to the main Ullrich Media website too, if you’re so inclined.
I think that’s it for the moment. At least where my website and work/personal stuff is concerned.
Wait. I know what you’re thinking: Hey Chris, where’s that book you were working on? Oh that. I’m still working on it . . . and a new one in an entirely different genre.
So far, so good for both. More on those soon.
Oh, it looks like we might get a vaccine for the kids pretty soon, which I’m quite happy about. Good for the kids and, frankly, good for the parents too.
It will be nice for everyone when the kids can go back to school, be with their friends and worry a lot less about being exposed to a potentially deadly virus. Very nice indeed.
Let’s hope all the parents (or enough of them) decide to vaccinate their kids. They should, but you never know . . . selfish assholes can have kids too.
I hope you’re not one of those. But since you’re reading this, you probably aren’t. I don’t think that’s my “audience,” but who knows?
Okay, that’s really all for now. Be kind to each other until I get back. Okay?
Image: ©2021 Chris Ullrich. All Rights Reserved.
More Useful and Interesting Things
It’s the weekend so many of you are probably out doing weekend-type things. Good for you. Enjoy yourselves.
In the interest of enjoyment, or in some cases entertainment or information to enhance your lives, here’s another list of useful and/or interesting things I’ve found this week.
• I don’t know about you, but I loved arcades as a kid. In fact, I worked in one for almost a year while I was in High School. Games like Asteroids, Missile Command, Galaga and Pac-Man helped shape my childhood. It also cost me a hell of a lot of quarters.
But that’s okay, it was great fun and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Sadly, it seems future generations may not have the same opportunity for fun as I did. The Verge spells out the situation in a must-read article for anyone who loved these places as a kid.
• Once again the folks at Lifehacker come through with some good info. This time it’s what to do before and after a disaster.
• Do you blog? Do you have an iPhone or other iOS device? If so, you may want to check out this great piece of software called Poster. I’m trying it out now and so far, I like it. You might like it too.
• Tired of paying through the nose (or other orifice) for a wireless plan and smartphone? If so, you might want to check out Republic Wireless. It’s a very interesting approach and something I’m going to be looking into in more detail soon.
That’s it for now. Once again, enjoy your weekend. I know I will.
A New iPad Writing Update
As previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to write with the iPad as much as possible instead of using the MacBook Air or any other OS X-powered Mac. After a couple weeks of doing this, I’ve got some thoughts to share.
First, and this should not come as a surprise, I love almost everything about the iPad as a device. It’s extremely portable and has amazing battery life, even when used for several hours of work and pretty much continuous syncing of Dropbox via Verizon’s 4G LTE. I can only imagine the portability and battery life are going to get better and better as we see newer versions of the iPad.
As a device used for content consumption, the iPad also excels. If you want to watch a movie or TV program via Netflix or iTunes, the iPad is your best choice. The screen is excellent and the afformetioned battery life can get you though several programs during a long plane ride to Hawaii, or wherever you’re going. It also features an impressive collection of apps devoted to bringing you content.
On that note, the iPad is excellent for reading books via the Kindle or iBooks app or comics using an app like Comixology. I also enjoy checking out news, Twitter, Facebook and my Instagram feed using an app like Flipboard. These kinds of content consumption, and the quality experience they provide, are all pretty much a given.
More On the iPad as a Writing Tool
It seems I can’t stop using the iPad now that I’ve realized its true potential as a writing tool. I’m using it for all sorts of writing now, but still primarily for scripts using the Final Draft Writer app.
However, it is also great for other types of writing. In fact, I’m using the Wordpress app on the iPad to do this post right now. Fancy that.
After several days I’m pretty convinced the iPad could become my primary writing tool perminantly. Using it really feels good and allows for a more tactile approach to writing that I don’t experience as much when using a laptop or desktop with a traditional keyboard. Other people (with far more readership and insight) seem to feel the same way I do.
One thing, though, I do feel a little bad for my MacBook Air. It looks sorta lonely sitting there unused.
I’m sure it won’t sit idle forever. I’m sure I’ll get back to using it for something soon enough. Until then, it’s the iPad for me all the way.
Site Stuff, Photo Sharing and More
Looking at the archives list on the right of this page reminds me I’ve had this particular blog incarnation since mid 2004. That’s a good amount of time (almost 8 years) and I’m proud of myself for sticking with something that long.
I have actually been putting stuff online since before 2004 but alas, those articles and content have pretty much been lost after moves into and out of various blogging platforms over the years. I’m pretty sure I could probably locate them if I really tried and perhaps I will someday. But for the moment, I’m content to have this blog’s starting date be in June of 2004.
In the interest of fun, though, let’s step into the Wayback Machine and see what I was thinking on that first fateful Summer day in June of 2004. From that first post it seems like I was talking about a mix of tech and politics and also managed to throw in a quote from Chris Rock too. Not a bad bunch of content at all.
Although, I’m not sure why I felt the need to say “later” at the end of the post. It’s almost as if I didn’t know what I was doing then. So weird.
Anyway, now that I’ve evolved into the highly skilled professional that I am (hey, if you get or got paid to do it, you’re a pro) I can safely omit any of that kind of stuff and just talk directly to the audience. You know, you and you out there reading this.
Yes, there’s probably only two of you but that’s okay, we know something that others don’t know, right? We’re the cool kids now. Suck on that nerds. . .
But, I digress.
Nostalgia and self-affirmation is great but it doesn’t help me figure out if I should keep my Flickr Pro account or not. See that there, that’s what they call a transition. Although, it wasn’t a great one. No, not at all.
My Flickr Pro account expires later this month and my dilemma is that I haven’t been uploading photos to it at all. In fact, I haven’t used it for many months. Granted, it’s only about 25 bucks a year but if I don’t use it at all, why bother? Plus, maybe there’s something better out there with more features, more interaction and the like?
I’m also considering that I have pretty much unlimited bandwidth, space and server power with the Media Temple servers we use for The Flickcast and other sites (including this here blog) that I could just host my photos myself and skip the third party stuff. That’s why you now see a “Photos” tab up there at the top of the screen.
I’m trying out various photo gallery plugins for Wordpress to see which one looks the best. Right now, it’s one called NextGen Gallery and I kinda think it’s the best of the bunch. We also use it at The Flickcast so I’ve got some experience with it. I think I will leave it in place for now and see how it goes. I will add more photos I’ve already taken and perhaps some new ones soon too.
I also know that I’ve invested a lot of time and effort over the years to upload stuff to Flickr and it has a lot of photos of mine. It would be a lot of work to start completely over somewhere else. In fact, I’m not sure exactly how I would bulk download all the photos at Flickr and upload them somewhere else. I would need to look into that more.
Given the potential pain in the ass and time involved, I would instead probably want to have Flickr serve as an archive for my old photos and would start anywhere new, like SmugMug, from this point on. However, because of the large number of photos I have (too many for the free Flickr account) I would end up having to keep paying for the Pro version just to maintain the archive.
So I guess that pretty much answers my question, doesn’t it? Yahoo will be getting 25 bucks from me this month. They can probably use it.
Thanks for playing along. Always fun to see the decision making process at work, right?
The truth is no service, free or paid, is going to motivate me go out and take pictures. That motivation has to come from within.
Now where did I put my camera?
Ups and Downs
Well, so much for the great “let’s post my Instagram photos to my blog automagically” experiment. If you’ve been following this site the last couple days, you know it went horribly wrong and resulted in lots of the same thing being posted over and over again.
Not good. Made even more not good by the fact that this site is setup to automatically update my Twitter with new posts and that’s set to automatically post to my Facebook. Not good times a hundred thousand.
So, that meant a lot of extraneous posts and a whole slew of bullshit I needed to deal with today in addition to the ever increasing pile I already have allotted to me. But I’m not unhappy.
However, to read this site or my Twitter or Facebook you might get the impression I’m disgruntled, angry or otherwise unhappy. Not at all.
In fact, I’m not disgruntled, rarely angry and thousands of miles away from unhappy. Just ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll tell you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Welcome back. I tend to go the opposite direction of angry and in most cases, I just keep on being happy. I’m not saying I never feel down or sad, I do. Everyone does. Well, most everyone anyway. Probably not sociopaths. But they’re just weird.
Anyway, the truth is for a vast majority of the time I feel happy and I think life is pretty good. It has some ups and downs, sure, but to me that’s what makes it interesting.
Of course, I say this as an educated, white male living well above the poverty line in a city with great weather, great people and with a lot of opportunities for work, fun and to live life to the fullest. Yes, luck may be a factor too.
However, even with a lot of luck you still need to do something with the opportunities presented to you. You can’t just sit back and expect the world to come to you. It doesn’t work that way and at some point, if you’re still waiting, eventually you’re going to be disappointed.
The trick is to get out there and do something before that happens. That’s why I make sure I’m as busy as possible doing a variety of things that a love. I don’t want to look back later at my life and be an old man filled with regret (apologies to Christopher Nolan for cribbing that line).
That’s what helps me stay happy. It might not work for you but hell, it’s worth a try, right?
Let me know how it goes.
By Way of An Apology: Some Notes About This Site
Happy second day of 2012. No, I don’t know how long people are allowed to say “Happy New Year” or what I just said. I’m just going with it, okay?
That kind of statement brings me, in a not so direct way, to this website, blog or whatever you want to call it. I will call it a blog or, more precisely, “The Personal Blog of Chris Ullrich.” See, it even says that up there at the top.
In other words, this is my blog and these are my thoughts, such as they are. They are not to be confused with anyone else’s or with those of anyone or anyplace I have worked, am working now, or will work in the future. These concepts are not that hard to understand so I will rely on you, good readers, to figure these things out. I feel confident you can.
Now that the disclaimer part is over, let’s talk about some other facts. I started this blog in 2004 (here’s a link to the first post ever) and it has been continuously published since that time. It used to have a decent amount of daily readers, but for various reasons, that readership has dwindled.
This is probably mostly due to the neglect it has suffered at my hands. That’s changed and this blog will now be updated regularly again.
Another reason readership has dwindled is due to this blog being moved around and hosted at various places using various hosting software. That is also done. This blog, along with the rest of my sites (including The Flickcast) is now housed permanently on it’s very own virtual server provided by the folks at Media Temple.
This blog is also now permanently run on Wordpress. It had previously been on other platforms, including TypePad, but now it’s Wordpress all the way.
It’s also been tough to find this blogs RSS feed because I’ve tried several ways to help that out too, including FeedBurner. Now that it is permanently on Wordpress, being served off of my own server and is not going to be moved ever again (if I can help it) the RSS feed is not going to change again either.
In case you’re wondering, the RSS feed for this blog is right up there in the top right corner. It’s also right here. Click on either link to subscribe and I will love you forever.
Why am I taking valuable time out of your day to tell you all of this? The answer is simple: I owe you an apology.
I owe you this apology because if you’re reading this blog, and have read this far, I should not have taken you for granted. I say that because people who regularly read a blog are often frustrated when it isn’t there when they go to find it. They are also often frustrated when they go to read a blog and find it hasn’t been updated in a long time.
I’m guilty on both counts, but I can change. In fact, I already have.
If you take a closer look you’ll see I’ve updated this blog more times in the last month than over the last several months. I realize that’s not a foolproof way to tell I’ve changed, but I just wanted you to notice.
I intend to keep writing here. Even though some have pointed out blogging is dying, I actually feel it has helped me immensely. I also feel there’s still an audience for quality (or in my case at least prolific) blogging.
So, I’ll keep doing it and doing it here (as well as various other places like The Flickcast) and if I’m lucky, people will start coming back to this blog and enjoying it. I think it’s possible.
Thanks for reading and feel free to check back here often. I’ll be around.
Obligatory "Best of 2011" Post
Even though I try to stop myself, I’m still a slave to some conventions. One such convention is the “Best Of” lists that invariably crop up at the end of the year.
Of course, I bowed to convention and did one. It was published over at The Flickcast. However, because I like to help and I like you, I’ve included it below as well.
No need to thank me.
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As is the usual practice almost anywhere were column inches or post counts matter, writers such as myself take to their keyboards and make lists. I am no exception and, with a great deal of difficulty and toil, have managed to cobble together a list of what I think are some of the best things of 2011.
I don’t really want to bore you with a lot of explanations as to why I picked what I did. Suffice it to say these picks are mine and mine alone. Also, they are not in any particular order, mostly because I find it hard to rank them that closely. Or, I was just too lazy.
Either way, here you go.
Movies
Drive The Artist Attack the Block X-Men: First Class Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol The Descendants Thunder Soul 13 Assassins Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 Hugo
TV
Game of Thrones Fringe Community Homeland Breaking Bad Justified Sons of Anarchy Archer Happy Endings Boardwalk Empire
Games, Gadgets, Software, iOS Apps, etc.
Apple iPhone 4S Apple iPad 2 Apple iOS 5 Wordpress Final Draft iA Writer Batman: Arkham City Cal of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Saints Row: The Third Forza Motorsport 4
Comics
Detective Comics Batman (DC) Justice League (DC) Green Lantern (DC) Irredeemable (BOOM! Studios) Daredevil (Marvel) Criminal: Last of the Innocents (Icon / Marvel)