Introducing KellysWorld 3.0

If you haven't visited KellysWorld.net recently, you may not have noticed that it has a whole new look and feel. I call is KellysWorld 3.0; as this is the 3rd major revision to the site. What you are reading now, KellysWorld Times, is a sub-domain of KellysWorld and not actually the primary site. The actual domain of KellysWorld was pretty much stagnate for much of 2005. It was just unwieldy to work on and not much fun. I had more fun working on KellysWorld times and wrapping my brain around CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in Blogger, the tool I use to make edits and changes to KellysWorld Times. I enjoyed working in it so much I created a few other "blogs" for the family plus one for our upcoming marriage. Those sites though aren't KellysWorld and as someone who enjoys doing a little web editing and playing with new features and tools, I really need to have a fully functional website.

You won't find any fancy features and while the look is new and much improved over the old site, it isn't anything super special. I won't lie to you, it is a template. You may actually see other sites on the web sporting a similar look. Who knows, they may make better use of it.

You will find in KellysWorld the standard fair. There are links to the various family blogs, there is a gallery of photos, a place to send me a quick e-mail, a place to store useful files and even upload some you feel are useful and even a page dedicated to just telling you what's new with the site itself. The gallery is especially cool making use of Flash technology so that all you have to do is sit back and watch the slide show. Having videos on the site should be great in the near future once I have produced a few.

All-in-all it should be a much better site and I hope updated more often than before. For the most updates you can continue to come here, so feel free to bookmark KellysWorld Times; but to say you have actually been to KellysWorld, you will have to go to http://www.kellysworld.net. It's really not that hard... go ahead... you know you want to!

Wedding Web Site Debuted Today

Today I proposed to Tracy and you can read more about that proposal on Eternal Magic, the website I designed exclusively for our impending wedding. I decided to design my own site around a blog, or journal, like this one. Tracy and I had looked at a bunch of wedding sites. They offered some nifty features, but you didn't have full control over them and once the wedding was over the site was no longer yours. Some allowed you to get a CD of the entire site, but still, a total lack of real control. Plus it seemed more romantic and more pragmatic to design our own. I already have a full blown website and have been doing my own blog for sometime now, it seemed a natural progression.

I designed the site to have a the Wedding Journal as the center piece, but not the only piece. The site also gives information on the bride and groom, the wedding party, the rings and the honeymoon; as well as links to gift registry, accommodations in Dallas and a guest book for visitors to the site to sign. Finally there is a section for photos and eventually videos. An additional section will most likely be added about the wedding video. While we plan on hiring a professional to video the wedding ceremony and reception; we have decided that I will actually edit the video. While this is a time consuming process and one that I don't do very often, I have done a few videos in the past for friends and like the website it seems only a natural progression to do our wedding video. Keep your eye out for more information on that. Once complete we will have to decide how many copies we will make and how we will distribute them. It will be a fun, all-be-it, painstaking task.

I won't be doing the only creative portion of the wedding. Tracy has already decided that she wants to do the invitations and the program. I may also be lending a hand in that regard as well. We don't want to take on too much, but I think we both want to put as much of our talents into the wedding as we can. Where we have the talents and the time we will do what we can, and where we don't we will hire professionals. In the end our goal is to have a romantic and fun wedding that all of our family and friends will enjoy as much as we do.

So check out Eternal Magic occasionally for the latest details on our wedding and don't forget to check back here for my personal musings about the world I live in.

Photos Added to Photo Gallery

Please check out KellysWorld Gallery for some new photos. Many of them date back several months to Javier's graduation from highschool to Courtney's 13th birthday party; so we are talking Spring 2005. I also added more photos from Carlos and Deseriees wedding ceremony. Those photos were taken with a traditional camera and Tracy had the film developed and scanned. I have had them on my computer for months, but just hadn't uploaded them to the site.

I am looking through all of my photos targeting all the ones I want to upload. I will then go through all of those photos and find the best ones and create a few "Best Of" galleries.

All the while I will continue to upload new photos as they are taken.

Kelly's World Times is Moving

That's right. I am finally getting around to making some changes to my site. You have probably already noticed that I have again changed the look of the site, nothing major and a pretty simple change at that. Just like this look better. I'm still tweaking though, so you may notice a few more small changes.

The big change though, at least for me is the change in URL or web address. Instead of being at http://www.kellysworld.net/journal it will be located at http://kwtimes.kellysworld.net. A seemingly simple change, but took me a little while to figure it all out. I prefer addressing it this way as it is simpler for folks to remember and is just cleaner.

For those looking for more "technical" information, I have moved from one form of sub-domain to another. A sub-domain is basically a web-site inside a web-site. If you use any large websites you will notice they use sub-domains a great deal. Anytime they basically move to a more independent part of the website they put it under a sub-domain. This allows for a totally different nagivational system as well as an independent look and feel.

I have a few other ideas in my head for changes to the entire site. Some of the tools I had used in the past I don't have access to anymore so I am going to have to re-build a lot of the old site. So if I can keep to my guns, in a few months we may actually see KellysWorld.net v3.0. It may not be revolutionary and it may not be any different at all. Just not completely sure yet; I just feel it is time to make a few changes.

For now though, hopefully, when you come to this site if you use the old address you will find yourself re-directed to the new address. I'm still working to make sure that all works right. You will know when it does though.

It won't all happen in a nice and systematic way, but the hits to my site aren't huge so for most of you reading this the change will seem to have just magically happened.

New PhotoLand for KellysWorld

Excitment feels the room! The applause seemingly have no end. KellysWorld.net now has an improved way to view photos and you can even buy prints if you want them all in one place! The world just can't believe the increadible innovation that has just occured.  

If true, the world needs to get a life!

So the world isn't going completely nuts. Dogs and cats aren't sleeping together, not for the whole night anyway. There is great innovation though at KellysWorld. Recently I subscribed to a service offered by Smugmug.com. What is Smugmug you ask, well simply put it is to photos what Blogger is to blogs. Simply a great and easy way to share photos. Instead of creating each album myself by hand, this system allows me to simply upload the photos and that's it. As I have time I can write explanations of what each photo is, should explanation be required.

 

So go check it out. You can find me at KellysWorld.smugmug.com.

 

If you like the site and think you might like to use it, then let me know. There is a referral program that lets you save $5 off your first year's fees. I subscribed to the power user program, but they have a level below that and a level above it. The prices are all quite reasonable. The professional, the level above my type, is only $100/year (which is what my hosting service costs); while the standard service is only $30/year. They will give you 7 days to try it for free, no matter what level you choose.

 

Yes, there are free ones out there but they are ad supported and have other uncessary pains involved; plus you don't have the level of custimazation. This is more of a permenant home for photos while most of the others are more temporary in nature; even if they never delete your photos.

New Feature - Comments

Just as a reminder, my updated blog now allows for comments. See the end of each recent article for a comment link.

New Look... It May Change Again...

You may have noticed that my "blog" has a new look. This is because Blogger has a new web interface with new features and many new templates. I don't know if I will return my blog to the "KellysWorld.net" look or not. Everytime I do it takes a while to make it work and then Blogger goes and makes more changes that require me to do it all over again. I love the changes Blogger makes and I don't have to change the template, but it just makes sense to do it.

This newer "blog" allows for some pretty cool features. Chief among them is the commenting function. You can now comment on the newer posts (older ones don't seem to have comments turned on by default) and say anything you want about them.

Another new feature is the "profile" of the blog owner, in this case ME. How exciting! Don't everyone clap at once.

There are many othe new features, but they are all under the hood or behind the drivers seat; not so much for the reader.

Let me know what you think... oh and you can use the comment just look to your right of the posting date. It's real easy. Just give it a try!

Changes, Changes, Changes

Just a quick note. Kelly's World continues to be worked on. The basic layout has been completed and most of the menus. The flash, I think, is a nice touch and gives it a slightly better look and feel. You would never believe how easy it has all been to do. It takes time, but other than that... pretty easy. The Gallery is using some code created by a photo program, eventually I plan on customizing a photo display of my own that fits more of the style of the web site.

I know, people are thinking I have too much time on my hands. But working on this site has therapeutic overtones. Plus it is just plain fun.