Hey there everyone! This is starting to become habit. For the second time in less than a month my week in review post has run late into the week. I apologize for the delay in getting new content on the site, but you know how life goes…sometimes it just takes over. This has been a busy week for GrandmasterB, as I am putting the finishing touches on a custom theme for a vBulletin forum for work. I’ve been working pretty much non-stop for the past week trying to get all of the bells and whistles installed and working before the big day on Saturday.

FOOTBALL SEASON IS COMING

What big day you ask? Well, this Saturday is the kickoff to the Mountain West Conference football season! While I’m not the biggest college football fan; I am a fan of the network being broadcast nationwide on DirecTV and being the first network dedicated to a single college sports conference to go into nationwide coverage…pretty damn cool. The new forum isn’t quite live yet, but will be launching on Saturday morning for fans of the conference to jump on board and chat it up about their favorite Mountain West Conference teams.

…keep reading, trust me!

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I’m writing my week in review a few days late this week. Last Saturday we found out that my father-in-law had passed away suddenly. We drove out to Omaha, Nebraska for the funeral and just got home this evening. This week has been very trying and extremely saddening. We had a very special relationship with my father-in-law and spent a great deal of time together going to Rockies games, family barbecues and most recently a fantastic camping trip to the Western Slope of Colorado.

This past week I was able to meet some of his family and friends that live in Nebraska, and I must say it was great to hear all of the stories about his life and how he was growing up. I know that my boys are truly going to miss him very much. We had some great times and I will cherish them forever. Rest in Peace Tom…we all miss you.

Before heading out last weekend, I did not have much time to work on anything good for the blog. I’m working on a custom vBulletin skin for a forum that we’re putting together at work. I’m hoping to have the new community launched by August 27th in time for the start of the College Football season…I hope I can make it.

July 22: Photoshop Tutorial: Grunge Styled Banner -  After spending countless hours writing and preparing the images I finally published my latest tutorial. The response has been very good so far, but none of the major tutorial players have picked it up yet. I’m assuming since there is an image of a pot leaf in the banner they may not pick it up, but that’s okay too. If you haven’t seen it yet, definitely give it a look.

I’m working on a new question and answer feature post for the site. I know that some of my readers have questions regarding how to do certain things in the tutorials or even suggestions for tutorials. If you have any questions at all please send me an email via the Contact Page. 

~ GrandmasterB

This is crazy…I can’t believe that July is almost over already. It seems like the Fourth of July was just yesterday and now we’re only 10 days away from August. Summer seems to be flying by and it’s almost over. Heck, my oldest son starts school next week…his summer is over. GrandmasterB took the family camping on the western slope of Colorado over the weekend. It was nice to unplug for a few days and get away from all of the hectic city life. I was shocked to see that gas prices are freakin’ insane on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. When we left we filled the Explorer up with E85 which was 2.89/gallon, but along the I-70 stretch there are no “corn stations” and gas was a whopping $4.42/gallon. I almost crapped myself when I only squeaked out a little over 10 gallons on $45…OUCH! I’ve got some pictures of the festivities during the camping excursion, but their being photoshopped to protect the identities of the innocent. I’ll write up something this week and share with everyone.

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Another week is in the bags and can you believe it July is already here. It seems like Summer is just flying by and I haven’t had much of an opportunity to enjoy it yet. Don’t worry about GrandmasterB though, I’ll be heading to Vegas next month with the wife for a weekend of rest, relaxation, drinking and some fine dining. Usually when the wife and I travel somewhere we try to hit a nice restaurant and I think this trip we’ll hit Bobby Flay’s restaraunt Mesa Grill at Caesar’s Palace. I’m a big fan of Southwestern cuisine and have a few of Bobby Flay’s cookbooks, so I’m sure it will be the restaurant of choice. Put a fine dinner together with a weekend away in sunny Las Vegas…sounds like paradise to me. Well, enough day dreaming let’s get to the review.

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Hey there readers! Hope you all had a great weekend. This past week was very exciting for GrandmasterB as I finally managed to get not one, but two of my tutorials published on Pixel2Life. I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen, but it finally did and the results were amazing! I spent a great deal of time last week busting my hump at the office working on a new advertisement that will be appearing in the August issue of ACCESS DIRECTV. The ad was approved late last week and is already off to the publisher. Once I have a copy of the magazine in my hot little hands I will publish some pictures and let you all know where it appears.

Aside from all of the hullabaloo at the office, I spent some more quality time with the new MrPappagiorgio.com theme and I think that I have finally nailed down a solid look that is sure to impress. If time permits, I should be done within the next two weeks…that is if I don’t get carried away this Fourth of July weekend with the festivities. I’m also in the process of putting together a new tutorial to be published soon along with some Grunge RSS Feed Icons. Other than that it has been business as usual at GrandmasterB HQ. With all of the upcoming news out of the way…onto the review.

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