Unlike his previous Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, which was all over the place, Thord Daniel Hedengren’s Smashing WordPress Themes: Making WordPress Beautiful focuses mainly on theme development.

To help readers understand how theming works, Hedengren deconstructs WordPress’s default Twenty Ten. He then explains the concept of child theme and how quickly one can build his own based on a parent theme or a framework. The selling point of this book is obviously how to build one’s own theme and Hedengren has done a great job of walking readers through three different sites: semi-static (for small, corporation site), media (for portfolio site) and magazine. He also covers briefly on BuddyPress, a plugin that adds social-networking features to WordPress-powered site.

Because of its flexibility and easy-to-use admin interface, WordPress is a perfect tool for clients who would like to update contents themselves. Smashing WordPress Themes is an excellent guide for web designers who would like to build sites using WordPress as a content management system.

Mood: happy, chatty, playful
Enjoyed: story time, outside/gym

Notes and Reminders: “Lots of words, sentences, great coordination kicking and spinning balls.”

Glad to see you’re enjoying your time while away from us. Ms. Ester gave you great complement. She told us that whenever she takes you guys outside, you say car, truck, snow, ice and so on. You know all the name of your classmates as well as the names from another class. She also said that you gave everyone a hug.

This morning, I took you to the new car. You didn’t see the old car so you said “mat xe cu” (old car is lost). This evening, I took you out of the car to go into the house and you said “too lanh (cold).” You have already speaking Vietlish?

In addition to my main responsibility, which is maintaining GWSB web sites, I actively update the GWSB homepage with new banners and videos. Keeping the homepage fresh with new contents make my job more engaging. I also work closely with the associate director of media relations to make the GWSB News, which powered by the rock-solid WordPress system, updated constantly.

One of my contributions to the GWSB News is posting videos. Whenever I get video from the Dean or faculty, I edit the clips using QuickTime Pro and post them on YouTube. One of my favorite projects right now is filming and editing the clips for the Student Voices. The Flip is the perfect tool for this project because of its ease of use. The FlipShare, its organizing, editing and publishing software, is so straightforward and intuitive. Within half an hour, I can make a 3-minute decent clip.

I just received a bunch of clips from the students using the Flip and I am very exciting to edit them to be used on the GWSB News. Since I am not doing anything fancy, the Flip allows me to cut to the point of the video.

Dana’s brother gave me Roger Kamien’s Music: An Appreciation. I find the first part of the book to be valuable in helping readers understand the fundamental elements of music such as pitch, dynamics, tone color, rhythm, melody and harmony.

My co-worker gave me The Penguin Guide to Jazz by Richard Cook and Brain Morton. The book is about 1600 page; therefore, I won’t read it from cover to over but keep it for reference on jazz albums.

The GW Hatchet reports:

The University is scrapping its current website management system – part of a $1 million website revamp started nearly two years ago – claiming it no longer suits GW’s online needs.

As a web developer for The School of Business who had been involved with the project, I applaud the University for making the change. Although Vignette is a very powerful system and I am getting a handle of its complexity from a user perspective, it is not the right CMS for GW. The University is in the process of selecting a replacement. The choices look promising.

Simplexpression opens its door on Etsy. Come and check us out. We will add more items as time permits.

Mood: happy, chatty, playful.
Enjoyed: story time, outside/gym

Notes and reminders: “Whenever we do anything and requires getting dirty he cries and don’t want to do it. We still try to keep him interested so he will get to play with different things.”

You must have picked up your grandma’s gene. You even refuse to play in the snow because you afraid of getting dirty.

On a different note, today is Vietnamese New Year. You received gifts from Co Tam. Although she is not your primary teacher, she loves you and takes great care of you. She is a very sweet teacher.

You also received your first “li xi” of 2011 from Bac Quyen tonight. Let’s wish bac and her family a prosperous new year.

You talk nonstop nowadays. You talk as soon as you wake up in the morning and your first word with your eyes closed is “sua” (milk). You talk throughout the day at school and you talk before you go to bed. Your last word of the day is also “sua.”

Keep yakking away, baby. We take great pleasure in hearing you talk and building up your words. You started out with “xuong” (down). Then you added “xuong lau” (downstairs). Mom was surprise that you could say three-syllable “di xuong lau” (walk downstairs). She didn’t realize, however, that you had already mastered five syllables: “The train is coming.” I am still not sure where you get that from.

Bedtime reading is a bit different now then before. You pull out the book and read to us. You read the pictures instead of words. No wonder you’re a son of a visualgui.

Kathryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, gave an inspiring talk at the GW School of Business about the merits of being wrong, admitting mistakes and how these lessons can apply in our personal and professional lives.

With Bird Songs, saxman Joe Lovano doesn’t set out to chase after Charlie Parker. Instead, Lovano and his Us Five (with pianist James Wheidman, bassist Esperanza Spalding and drummers Francisco Mela and Otis Brown III) use Parker’s compositions as a springboard and go off in their own direction. “Passport” starts out with the original melody with Lovano plays a lyrical solo before heading into his blazing chops. With “Barbados,” the band replace the bebop rhythm with the Caribbean groove and yet still provide the space for Lovano to pour out his soul. Bird Songs is indeed a compelling reimagination of Parker’s music.