Thursday, February 21, 2008

Anything new from the team member you love to hate?

Note: This is a repost of what was originally posted here.


Hey everyone! It has been awhile since I've done any blogging here.

First of all, we decided to archive the MotM blog board which held all the blog posts that were made. I hope that we can make it publicly accessible again, but I did repost my entries if anyone wants to see them (or look over any of them again). You can find them here - http://jaybachatero.com/aka/motm/.

Now, is there anything new with me? Well I haven't been as active as I used to be, no doubt about that. I think I am going to divide this blog post up into two sections; my personal life (nothing too personal however), and my SMF life (because as we all know when I login to SMF, there is a life in its own awaiting me).

The Boring Stuff: Personal Life
Well I have been on break this week. It hasn't been too bad, maybe a little boring at times, but ultimately I take whatever I can get! I am fairly proud of myself, because I have created a fitness program for myself and have worked hard at trying to get myself in shape. I have heard from a few people recently saying that I am "skinny." Which is good. Now I'd just like to get a bit more muscular! Music has really motivated me and gets me in a groove while working out.

I saw the Lunar Eclipse yesterday, it was kind of cool I must say. My brother is the one who is really into astronomy, so I imagine he must of really enjoyed it!

I've gotten myself a little bit of a cold recently. Hopefully it goes by quickly. I've been sure to get a lot of Vitamin C and have been working on trying to feel more comfortable while it is there.

I watched a good bit of the Democrat debate tonight. I won't get into who I support, but I was proud to be able to vote for the first time during the primaries in NY. If only we had a larger voter turnout. One interesting story is the person standing behind me had been voting for I think around 30 years and he told me he had never seen such a long line at a polling place ever. Even in a General Election!

I am working at getting a job. There is a possibility I may get a job working with a friend. The job doesn't sound terribly exciting, however it is a job, and my family could definitely use my help financially.

The Fun Stuff: SMF Life
Yeah! The fun stuff indeed. So what's new with me in the world of SMF? Well, I've been here and there lately, but today I have dedicated some time in getting back in the quality control area of SMF 2.0. I came across one legitimate bug and posted a potential code fix for it (the fix worked for me at least), and have made several suggestions (often aesthetic-related) to improve certain areas of SMF. Some of the bug reports I opened cover really quite minor things that I could imagine the developers grabbing their hair and screaming "make...it...stop!"

I am very proud to have Alundra on the Documentation Team. She has been a great help to me and I have seen few as dedicated as she has proven to be thus far. In fact I see some of her in the young youthful version of me those few years ago when I first joined the SMF team! Back then I was ready and determined to do a lot of work. I wanted to impress my peers and not make them feel like they made a mistake putting me on the team. Ahhh...the dear memories.

I have started taking a look at the Help section of SMF. That's right, it just may actually get updated for SMF 2.0 after all. If not, you know who you can blame. I merely say that to add some pressure in the mix for me to actually get it done.

I have also started working on a paid theme for SMF. As much as I would love to make it available for free, I really could use money right now so I am trying to think of creative ways to get some money. You can see a screenshot of the board index of the theme here - http://jaybachatero.com/aka/pics/boardindex.png. I am not too thrilled with it at the moment to be honest. I am just not that good at graphics. At this point I am thinking of charging perhaps $20 for the theme and $15 for Charter Members here at SMF (so a $5 discount to show my support of those who support SMF financially). I may even consider doing a 6 month cycle where the theme would eventually be free, perhaps compromise with those who pay by offering an improved updated version of the theme at the time it is made free.

Pretty soon I am really going to need to get my head dirty in 2.0 documentation. Time is running short really and would like to have documentation available ASAP to the public after 2.0 is actually released to the public.

Well that's it from me. I hope everyone here is doing decent and is enjoying their SMF powered forum as always. Feel free to leave me a comment. I will be famous someday and so now could be your last chance for me to actually reply back to comments made for me!

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