As you can see, markwood.ca has a new look to it. This is a free Wordpress Theme that I found online and really enjoyed. I want to eventually hire someone to create my new custom design and then code it to work well with widgets and plug-ins. But till I find the money for that, this is what the site is going to look like.
I want to apologize for the lack of updates these past two weeks but I have been really busy at work and have been spending some over time at work to get things done. Also I have not had a lot to talk about since I have been not doing much other then working and playing Fallout 3 when I have a few minutes at home.
Just a small update. I wrote a qualifying test for the COBOL and JAVA SO2 positions in the ministry and did not end up getting a call back for an interview. I guess that’s just the way things work out. Hopefully I will be able to get another contract and stay with the Ministry of Health a little longer, but we’ll see how that all works out. I might be looking for a job in the next month if things don’t pan out.
Other then that, nothing else is new. Hopefully some new and interesting things come up and I can start talking about them instead of the horribly boring updates I am giving you right now.
Yes, I know this post should have been out two days ago, but I came down with a bad sinus cold and have not been able to think well enough to concentrate long enough to write all the things I want to talk about. So now that I am feeling a little better, I thought I would try and get through what I did this weekend.
To start things off, I will send you to xfep.com to read a funny little story about how the WordCamp Toronto 2008 hash tag battle happened. So in the end, my hash tag that I came up with in the morning before the event came out on top for both days! I think I should have one a prize for that. But no worries. At least I know that I created the hash tag for WordCamp Toronto 2008.
For those of you that have no idea what WordCamp is, I will take the next few minutes to explain WordCamp to you as best I can. WordCamp is a conference build around the blogging software called Wordpress. Markwood.ca and many other personal and professional blogs are based on this software. So WordCamp is a place for people that use this software to find out new things coming up with Wordpress as well as learn different ways to use Wordpress from other presenters. There are topics such as WordPress Gallery with Rannie Turingan, WordPress Security with Mark Jaquith, WordPress and Podcasting: The Good, The Bad and The Audible with Charles Hodgson, Running Your Blog Like a Pro with David Peralty and a few others that I will mention at the end of my post.
There is so much to learn at these events that I thought I would record them all for myself so that I can refer back to them on a later date, but then I thought, “Why hog these sessions for myself? Why not post them online for everyone to see?” So that is exactly what I did. I attended ever session (except for the last panel because I had to get a cab to make it to the train station on time for my train.) Being a novice at blogging and wanting to get into the world of professional blogging, this event was very useful for me. I hope that other people will take the 6 hours plus needed to watch all these videos and really use them to improve your blogging abilities or to get into the world of blogging.
WordCamp Toronto Schedule:
Day One
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Blogging as a Cornerstone of Social Media with Joseph Thornley
video: The Video
11:00 a.m. – 11: 45 a.m. – ‘State of the Word’ with Matt Mullenweg
video: Part A, Part B
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – WordPress Gallery with Rannie Turingan
video: The Video
2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – WordPress: Beyond A Blog with Jamie Oastler
video: The Video
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – WordPress and Podcasting: The Good, The Bad and The Audible with Charles Hodgson
video: The Video
Day Two
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – WordPress Security with Mark Jaquith
video: The Video
11:00 a.m. – 11: 45 a.m. – Running Your Blog Like a Pro with David Peralty
video: The Video
1:15 p.m. -2:00 p.m. – Video Blogging with Mark McKay
video: The Video
2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Making the Most of Plug-ins with Brendan Sera-Shriar
video: The Video
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Entertainment Blogging: A Panel Discussion with Frank Yang, Tim Shore, Chris Budd and Jonathan Dekel
If you would like a copy of the presenters slides, please go to the WordCamp Toronto Wiki
Here is a list of the things I would like to have either from somebody as a gift, or buy myself in the future.
If you have any ideas you think I would like, please feel free to get it for me. I know I will love it just as much as this stuff I have listed here. This list is more to help people that have no idea what to get me.
- Under $100
- Clothes & Accessories
- 1950’s Black and white saddle shoes (size 11 wide)
- Dress shoes (size 11 wide)
- Watches of any kind
- Gift Cards
- Housing
Wine GlassesWine Rack- Microwave cart (very small)
- Spice Rack
Digital Picture Frame
- Video Games
- Mass Effect (PC)
- The Orange Box (PC)
- Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (PC)
- Wii Fit (Wii)
- Rock Band 2 (Wii)
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii)
- Over $100
- Electronics
- PlayStation 3
- 47 inch Plasma TV
- Nikon D80 DSLR
- Electric Razor
- Gift Cards
- Starbucks
- Canadian Tire
- Ikea
- Mark’s Work Warehouse
- Housing
- New Chairs for Dinner table
- Bed side night tables
- Digital Picture Frame
- Pots
- Random
- Cigars
- 6 Man Tent
- 1 or more hour famil flight with Flight Instructor on C172
- Bass Guitar with Amp
Kitten from the Kingston Humane Society- Chocolate lab puppy
- Border collie puppy
- Silver or Gold Neck Chain
- Watches of any kind
- DVD Movies (Widescreen Format)
- Box sets (DVD’s)
- Regular DVD’s
- Hot Fuzz
- Live Free or Die Hard
- Shaun of the Dead
- Cars (In order of interest)
- Hybrids
- 2009 BMW 135i Coupé
- 2008 Honda Civic Sedan Hybrid
- Other
- 2009 Mini Cooper S
- 2009 Volkswagen Jetta 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel Comfortline
- 2008 Jeep Wrangler Sahara
As the title says, I am making myself and the few people that still read my blog a solemn promise to update my site at least once a week, every Monday. This way I can have everything I did on the weekend fresh in my mind. I wont be limiting myself to only one post a week, but it will become my new minimum for myself.
I would like to get back into posting an learning more about web/blog development and everything that goes with it. Things like getting the domain registration from my cousins name to my name and paying for my own hosting. This would hopefully give me the boost to post more and to post more relevant information. Also, I would look at possibly monetizing my site so that it can get at least a little income to help pay for some of the bills.
This promise will come into effect starting the second week in September. I am moving into a new apartment on the 1st of September, which happens to be a Monday so I will not be able to post that day as I will be really busy. But I figure the second week should be better as I will have most of my stuff unpacked and put away.
I am also going to be un-privatizing some posts that I did last year about my weight loss. Feel free to click on the LA Weightloss category to see more posts on the topic. But just a quick update on the progress. As of August 18th, 2008, I weight 144.3Kg (318.2 lbs). Down 22.7Kg (50.2lbs) from 167.1Kg (368.4lbs). I am still doing LA Weightloss but with less of a success because of the stress of moving and this month has not been really that good for me. I hope to really give it a good go starting in September. Here is hoping.
Finally being out of school and having some free time I thought I might focus some more on my website. I think the large reason I have not been updating my site is the simple fact that I am not really happy with the way it looks. I want something more. I want it to look a little bit more like I spent a bit of money on it. I know I can’t use Adobe Photoshop worth a damn, but I can draw fairly well. So what I have been thinking is that with my free time, when I am not blogging and updating my twitter (Yes, I jumped on the HMCS Twitter and can’t seem to stop the ship. My user name is markfox if you would like to add me to your twitter account.) I am going to draw what I would like my page to look like. Then hire someone I know from my Girlfriends Graphic Arts and Design program and see if they would be willing to turn my drawings into a Photoshop reality. Hopefully I can get this before I graduate, but who knows.
Speaking of graduating. Looks like I will be 100% doing that again. Yes, there was a bit of a doubt during my last semester because I had a few problems understand what the teacher wanted and had a lack of interest in going to every class. I was able to pull of some ok marks (OK for my standards). I was able to get three A-‘s. The more amazing part is they were all the same percentage, ( all 80%). I was so happy because this means that I will once again be graduating from St. Lawrence with distinction once again. 24 more days until graduation; I’m not looking forward to it, but I am going because my mother and my grandparents really want to see me graduate again from College. So it’s the least I can do for them for all the help that they have given me through my College career. If anyone is interested, my graduation date is June 13th at 10 am. Everyone is welcome.
Just a small little update. I have been feeling a bit under the weather and with all the recent assignments and stuff, I have not had as much time as I wanted to put into fixing the CSS on my new theme. Sadly it’s going to have to wait until I am feeling better, have all my assignments out of the way and have all my tests for week 5 done. I hope to have some more time to work on it, but who knows when I will be getting some free time.
As you can tell I have finally moved my site over to MarkWood.ca. I am currently working on a few things for my new look but it should be up by the end of the week. I am so happy that I can now give people my website address without the other person scratching their head when I spell it out for them. I will keeping the user name 4sakn for when I play games and other non-professional functions.
I have to get going to work, so I will be writing more later tonight. School is going to be taking up a lot of my time so I will try and update as much as I can. I am hopeful to get in about two or three posts a week. I think that should be more then enough information for people to keep current with what has been going on with my life.
I would also like to thank you for visiting my new site and hope you enjoy everything once I can finalized all the changes.
I made mention of a move to a new domain about a month or so ago. I said that I wanted to do it for the new year. Sadly things have come up that made me and my cousin have to take a little extra time on getting things finalized. So by the end of this week, 4sakn.com will no longer be my personal domain. I will be moving all of my things over to MarkWood.ca.
Please don’t forget to update your bookmarks as I will not be making a redirect page on this 4sakn.com. The move will be done no later then Friday the 19th of January. I might happen sooner so keep an eye out.
Thank you to all my loyal readers out their. I hope that I can have a still bring you the same personal news I have been doing over the past year. Hope you all like the changes that are going to be made.
As I’m sure most people that visit here are aware, this site is my personal blog of the things I do. I some times keep it updated on a daily basis, and other times I neglect to do so for a month at a time. This site has been a gift from my cousin David for the past three years now. It’s easy for him because he pays for the hosting and for my domain and he does not have to worry about birthday gifts or x-mas gifts or anything else like that. I love it like this and I would not ask for anything else.
As some of my readers know, David will be moving his personal blog from Phoenix Realm to David Cubed. I think that this is a great move for him and I think he will get a little more respect now that the name of his blog is more professional. Because of his move to a different domain name, I have been thinking about doing the same.
The name 4sakn came from back when I was doing graffiti and needed a quick alias to write. I have also been using it for online games and almost everything else I do. But I have been thinking, with only a year and a half to go in my college career, it’s time to set way to the younger , less professional Mark, and welcome in a new older, more professional Mark. So, I have been looking to find out what domain name I want to pick. I have not decided yet and am still in the works of a lot of other planning as well.
I just thought I would let my readers now that some time in the near future, you will have to change your bookmarks for my site.
I would like to end this post of by saying “Thank you very much” to my cousin David for his continued support and willingness to pay for my hosting and domain name and wish him luck on his move to David Cubed.
I thought I would take some time to mention my cousins new projects. He is now running and hosting LifeSpy and ImgFly. He has put a lot of time into both these projects to hopefully get them off the ground and help him make some income.
LifeSpy is a website about everything. From how to come up with a hack proof password, to the many uses of baking powder. This is basically a page to help you live a better life and maybe help learn more about life. The site was released less then a month ago, but is gaining some great traffic over those few days. The creator is looking for any articles someone is willing to write in their spare time on any topic they want. I myself have written a few and am planning to write many more to help him out. So if you feel the need to write something about life that might be informational to others, please do and forward it on to the editor and you could see your entry on this great site.
ImgFly is another great free service being offered by this very ambitious man. ImgFly is a site where ANY user can load their picture on to the web and have it hosted so they can post it on other sites. There is no limit to how many pictures you want to upload, and the pictures will be kept as long as he has control of the site, which will be for a very long time. If you don’t have any webspace to call your own and need to post a picture online to show all your chat room buddies, then look no further then ImgFly.com. The free picture hosting site.
I wish my cousin the best of luck in his ventures down these new roads and hope that he becomes very successful from these endeavors.
