Recently my good friend Ryen contacted me about creating a Wordpress theme for a blog dedicated to his favorite baseball team…the New York Mets. After spending about an hour or so coming up with a good name for the blog he settled on MeetMrMet.com (after the Met’s Mascot). I have created what I think is a great look for a blog dedicated to the Mets.

I’m sure most of you will be able to see that it’s more or less a modification of my existing theme. I spent quite awhile getting the cutout of the mascot and David Wright near perfect. I used a lot of different layering techniques in the header along with some vectors from my expansive resource library. I hope you will all give the site a visit and welcome Ryen to the blogging community.

As always comments and criticisms are welcomed. If you have any questions or inquiries about having me design a theme for you shoot me an email via the Contact page .

~ GrandmasterB

This weekend GrandmasterB.com will be moving! After reading the rave reviews of Top Hosting Center and seeing the great hosting packages they offer I’ve decided to part ways with my current host. I found Top Hosting Center while visiting JohnCow.com and signing up for the XBOX 360 that THC is sponsoring. In the process of signing up for the contest, I also decided to sign up for the Affiliate program. Their Speedy Hosting Plan is an unbeatable value for the price. The Speedy Hosting Plan starts at just $8.95/month + $25 setup fee (or signup for 24 months and get the plan for $6.75/month). What’s included you ask? Well let me tell you…

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I am so excited right now I can hardly contain myself! I just received an email from PJ at WP-Premiums and she has added GrandmasterB.com to the list of featured sites. I would like to thank PJ for considering my site to be featured and displayed along with all of the other fabulous blogs on her featured list. Below is a quote from the email:

Dear Grandmaster B,
I was so impressed by your great customisation of the Milk It theme that I’ve featured it on my showcase site at http://wp-premiums.com/ . I’m sure that your design will be an inspiration for others who are planning to design or customise their own WordPress-powered websites. Feel free to encourage your readers and supporters to visit and rate your site design.

Best wishes,
PJ

Thanks again PJ…and to all of my readers. If you should happen to check out WP-Premiums…please rate my site.

~ GrandmasterB

I’m back for the conclusion of my post from yesterday (My Web Development Tools). Part two will focus mainly on my browser of choice…FIREFOX! I know that Firefox is probably not new to most of my readers, but I have installed a great set of add-ons that will make any web developers life easier. By the way don’t forget that Firefox Version 3 is now available in Beta4. If you’d like to check it out it can be found here.

Tool Number Four: Firefox 2

I LOVE FIREFOX! There, now that that’s out of the way I can concentrate on giving you details as to why I use Firefox to develop sites. I use Firefox for two main reasons. I code every site and test as I go with Firefox. The main reason is that the fine folks at Microsoft have discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac; which quite honestly is fine with me. I do have a standby Windows machine dedicated to testing once I am sure everything looks fine in Firefox. The other reason I prefer to do all of my work with Firefox is the great add-ons that you can download from the mozilla site. That’s the beauty of using an open source browser; the community of developers come up with some of the coolest add-ons to make your internet experience more enjoyable.My favorite add-on for Firefox is the Web Developer Toolbar by Chris Pederick.
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I have been asked many times what are the best tools (programs) to use when designing and developing websites, or what do you use when you develop a site. For me it all starts with the most simplest of tools…pencil and paper. What you say? This clown uses a pencil and paper to design websites? I find that by drawing out ideas first helps me to find a direction for the design. This approach really isn’t any different than how an author approaches writing a novel or a sculptor creates a masterpiece out of bronze or marble. Only after I have a good idea of where I want to go with the design do I sit down in front of my computer (Mac of course!) and get busy with Photoshop.
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