twidrops: twitter backdrops & website backgrounds

I am happy to announce that I have finally gotten twidrops online.

Although only a small collection of twitter backdrops and themes are live, I think that anyone who checks it out should be happy with the quality of what is available there.  I started with some photographs that I took at the 2009 Sioux Falls Air Show on July 25th. So there are at least 3 shots of the Blue Angels on the site as I write this.

The twidrops site also offers a default theme allowing you to upload your chosen twidrop and simply plug-in the suggested color codes to produce a handsome looking twitter profile right away.

I also have about 20 repeating psychedelic pattern tiles available on the website, so far.

I am still working on the twitter backdrop design tutorial, but it is quite far along and is online now in the blog.

More will come, I am scanning my image files for some other backdrops and background tiles right now.  Now that I have a little online I want to add some other files to add some variety and diversity.

Be sure to stop by twidrops (twitter backdrops & website/blog backgrounds) to check it out!

twitter is a social blogging platform where you share bits of information 140 characters at a time.  If you would like to follow me on twitter, I am Domainating (of course).

Thanks for reading!
-Doug Peters

The Very Best CSS Tutorials

If you are a web designer, you have to be familiar with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).  If you aren’t, you are doing it all wrong.  No designer should ignore CSS.  He/She should use it for website design layout as well as styling and formatting.

However, CSS is a bit more difficult than HTML.  That said, the positives of employing it far outweigh any of ignoring it.  Heck, you can’t even be considered a professional if you don’t know CSS.

Despite the steeper learning curve, CSS coding is absolutely required in effective website design because CSS structurally designed pages load much quicker and use many fewer resources than when using tables.  CSS also allows more flexibility in design than using the old grid based table layouts, which were never anything more than a hack in the first place.  Additionally, pages utilizing CSS are more optimized to allow for better results in the search engine listings because of the faster page load times and a much better content to code ratio (less junk and more relevant meat for the spiders to suck on).

Yet, simply reading the CSS standards and reference books are not very inspiring or really unveil the power of CSS.  This is why I would like to point out my very favorite CSS tutorials.  Although I have very few listed here, I promise you that if you explore these methods, you will be quite involved, becausethe first couple actually point to a whole host of others…

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/19/53-css-techniques-you-couldnt-live-without/
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/20/50-new-css-techniques-for-your-next-web-design/
• http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_design_101_floats/
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprites

Enjoy!

Paul Iverson Memorial Today

There will be a memorial for my cousin Paul Iverson today at 11:00am at the Heritage Funeral Home (on South Minnesota Avenue at 57th Street) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Paul died of multiple system failure at Sanford Hospital in his room on the 6th floor on the Saturday morning of July 25th, 2009.

Paul was my favorite cousin. We went to SDSU at the same time and enjoyed taking a break and watching the older (more violent) cartoons together, laughing at the toons, but eventually we would guffaw at each other’s funny laughs. You know, the kind of laughter you only let out when you let your guard down because it can be embarrassing? We both believe that laughter has a great healing quality and is great for the soul.

Paul was an excellent draftsman. He was well educated, very talented, extremely smart, mild mannered, had that great sense of humor and wit, and was a great friend to all who were fortunate enough to know him.  Paul cherished his family and friends above all.  He just loved spending time with my son, Max.

Paul was also a crack shot with the rifle, a real shark when it came to playing pool, and he loved old movies and TV. He didn’t ever have a computer, though only this year when I showed him my Sony laptop loaded with Windows Vista, he actually said that now he might consider getting one now, as they seemed to be more reasonably designed and user friendly. I insisted, as I do now, that we are still in the dark ages as to usability.

Paul Iverson is survived by his wife Julie Iverson. Although Julie had divorced Paul, they remained close. But she did not want to be his enabler and hoped he would change his ways. Unfortunately, Paul did not make that wake-up call and his vices eventually killed him.

But Paul was not scared of death. He knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and had no quams with meeting his maker.

Paul took care of his aging father at the end of his life, who has recently lost his wife (and Paul’s mother, Joan). Unfortunately, his father Jim now has to bury his son.

We will all miss him, but we know he is in a better place with his mother and other members of his family.

Rest In Peace, Paul. I love you, man.