Just the other day I picked up a new book called PHP: The Good Parts. I’ve been programming PHP for over 10 years, and the book covers a lot of beginner topics like control structures, variables, etc. However, there is some stuff towards the end that will be of great value. I plan on reading the (short) book cover-to-cover. Why you ask? I feel like I have to; after so many years, there are some things I should relearn the right way.
It is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of a new website for The Goodhouse Foundation, a non-profit organization my brothers and I have started to combat and raise money for Multiple Sclerosis and Cerebral Palsy. Over the past week or so I’ve been developing the site, which is content sparse at the moment, but will soon change.
I’m happy to announce that I (with @nepawp) am working with @tecbridge1, and The University of Scranton ACM group to put on the first (of hopefully many) NEPA Hackathon! It will be held on May 11th, 2014 from 10am – 3pm at the Scranton Enterprise Center, at 201 Lackawanna Ave. Scranton, PA 18503.
Over the weekend I released Version 0.6 of my @simplecast plugin, Simplecast Episodes. Aside from some smaller internal changes, I added what I think is a pretty nice feature to coincide with WordPress 3.9’s new feature to create media playlists from audio and video: the ability to download episodes directly into WordPress, adding them to the media library.
I’m pretty fond of my headshot. I think it looks good and represents me well; granted, about 2 days after it was taken I stopped wearing glasses in favor of contacts, but still. It’s a good headshot. Since it’s being used in a lot more places now (my books, mu job’s employee directory, and various social networks and blogs I write for), I figured I’d tell you a little about it, and recognize the photographer, my brother Phil Casabona.
The headshot was taken on July 16th, 2013 for the main purpose of using it for my book, Responsive Design with WordPress. My previous one was a bit dated and taken with my Mac’s webcam, and while I think I did a good job taking it, it was not professional grade. I also wanted to integrate my white fedora into the picture because I decided that would be my “thing.” That has worked out pretty well, actually!
Anyway, my brother lived in Astoria, Queens, NY at the time and we were meeting up that day so I could pick up Google Glass, so I told him to bring his camera so he could take a new headshot for me. We found a brick wall in an ally somewhere in lower Manhattan and he took a few that day. He later sent me the best and we both agreed that the first one should be used:
It has become one of my favorite photos of me so I just wanted to take a moment on here to thank my brother for taking the shot. You can see more of his work in two places:
He’s currently based on Glens Falls, NY and has a few gallery showcases there if you want to see his work in real life.
The results are in for my 3 eBook giveaway and the winner Kevin Jones!
Congratulations to Kevin and thanks to everyone who entered here and on Twitter. If you didn’t win, you can still get 35% off Responsive Design with WordPress when you order from Peachpit and use the code RWDWP. For all of my books you can go to:
Thanks again to everyone who entered!
With the weather getting nicer here in the Northeast (finally), me moving to @wpengine (finally), and some extra codes sitting around for electronic copies of my books, I decided I it would be nice to ring in Spring with a give away! Read on to see how you can win a eBook version of all three of my books: Building WordPress Themes from Scratch, Responsive Design with WordPress, and The Web Designer’s Guide to Google Glass.
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