Contemplation

I’ve been spending far more time on editing, customizing and tweaking my theme compared to posting (and even responding to comment, I apologize for that).

So I had an idea, which grew out of a friend’s request to help with their wordpress theme. Since I’ve been playing around quite a bit with wordpress and PHP (its a shame not to share good things), I will be offering to edit and customize wordpress themes on request. I’m also up for setting up blogs, and publishing the material for those who aren’t too friendly with web technologies (or computers in general).

Blogging is a revolutionary medium of communication, and so, by helping those who (for any reason) didn’t get around to blogging, free expression and thought will be promoted and, more importantly, exercised.

Finally, I’m not a programming guru, however, my experience is reflected in the blog. If you’re interested, you can contact me via email (see page footer).

Because I happen to read the Guardian so religiously, I stumbled upon this magnificent design: a garden stand-alone water feature that requires no wiring, no complicated installation and runs on solar power.

As if it was perfected for our little sunny island, those who are lucky to have their little gardens, can enjoy a soother and greener atmosphere with this feature.

I’m not aware if these are available locally, but they are definitely available online (here and there). Buy your own or be inspired by the idea, we’ve got a lot of free sunshine and its about time we make use of it.

I should be working on more important things (like my career, for example), but I decided to spend yet more time faffing about and play with some code, meanwhile at least.

I’m not sure if this trick has been documented elsewhere on the web (it probably has), but it was only extended from a “custom greetings” code I learned once (the ‘good morning/evening/night’ one, if you ever came across it). So, I thought I’ll display my header background in a different color (express ‘color overlay’ filter photoshopping) depending on the time of the day. Of course, you can decide to display a whole different theme altogether if you want, but I thought change the header coloring would be subtle and interesting in the same time.

Now, these headers will show depending on the time of the day (GMT+3).

In the morning (0500 - 1159)

In the afternoon (1200 - 1759)

In the evening/night (1800 - 2359)

After midnight ( 0000 - 0459)

Well, there’s nothing to it, all you have to do is write an php function of an ‘if’ statement echoing a different css ‘id’ name (which you will have to write as well) and respectively match both. I’m not going to attempt writing a full tutorial yet (because 1. its not too complicated, and 2. because I haven’t got a proper code highlighting plug-in), but I might do so

So, hopefully you will end up visiting these pages at different times of the day to see the changes. If you do, let me know what you think of it.

Someone else beat me to this news, but I’m more excited for the appointed designer than the actual development near the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

I watch a documentary about Zaha Hadid’s work on the BBC four channel a few years ago while I was still studying at university. I was completely blown away by her designs; so much that I was almost considering changing my degree program to that of design.

The $3.5bn development, which will surround the BIC, will have buildings designed by the Iraqi-British Zaha. The deconstructivist architect’s designs are known for, well, their deconstructivist look. Sleek, shiny, powerful, and most of all, overwhelmingly grandiose, sometimes in principle, mostly in substance.

Since the development will surround the BIC, a look at the picture (to the left) would give a good idea of Zaha’s interior design. This is the BMW plant, and yes, those car production lines are running directly on top of staff offices. Her vision was (if I recall correctly from one of the interviews) to bring about a more collective working environment to the plant, so as to have BMW professionals of all levels working side by side (and floor by ceiling for that matter).

One would think that a deconstructivist vision to design would be rather bland for the exterior, however it is certainly not with Zaha’s designs. What is seen at the bottom, is Zaha’s proposed design for a preforming arts centre (built on an island) in Dubai.

You like? (you better do, otherwise it will be a waste of $3.5bn)