Daniele Rossi and his recent doodle blog

That is the name of my new blog over at superspud.com. But more precisely, it's at http://www.superspud.com/recentdoodle.

For now I am still learning the ropes and seeing what fits in my blog. I talk about social media, illustration and bodybuilding. I know, where does bodybuilding fit in? Like I said, I'm still working out the growing pains.

See you there!

Fun with WordPress

I've spent most of the day customizing my WordPress blog which you will find at superspud.com/recentdoodle. Talk about finding needles in a haystack. You have to change the right css styles you'd like. I am still not complete but I will continue tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have it ready by then.

Worldwide SketchCrawl

As I still try to find time to finish setting up my WordPress blog over on my site at superspud.com, I will do my part in promoting the World Wide SketchCrawl which will be happening in May. I will try my best to join but I will be vacationing in... PARIS! Yes, France, not Ontario ;) Anywhoo, here is the press release:

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!
WHAT:
14th World Wide SketchCrawl, drawing marathon/fund-raiser for Emergency

WHO:
Artists of all ages and skill levels

WHEN:
Saturday May 19, 2007

WHERE:
Around the globe

INFO:
Free registration and location information at www.sketchcrawl.com/forum

CONTACT:
Enrico Casarosa, casarosa@gmail,com, phone(415)317-2731

All artists, whether they be professionals or just habitual doodlers, are invited to participate in the 14th World Wide SketchCrawl May 19, 2007. While the event is free, participants will be encouraged through their art to raise money for Emergency, a nonprofit international organization based in Italy that provides free medical care to civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty.

SketchCrawl was created to enable people worldwide to share their passion for drawing, says founder Enrico Casarosa. But, he adds, “I believe there's a second thing we should do through SketchCrawl, and that is giving. There is no better reason to come together as a global drawing community than to give. Together, we can raise awareness and money -- with our drawings -- for this worthy and peaceful cause.”

So, dust off that old sketchbook or peel off the wrapper from that nice, new Moleskine. The next SketchCrawl is sure to be around the corner -- your corner -- soon!

WHAT IS SKETCHCRAWL?
SketchCrawl was founded in 2004 in San Francisco as a marathon for the sketch artist. Artists are encouraged to slow down, watch the world around them, and record it through nonstop drawing or writing – whether it be for 20 minutes or eight hours. The event is free, and no skill level is required. More than a dozen events have been held worldwide, with hundreds of artists participating from Singapore to San Diego. In 2006, a SketchCrawl event raised nearly $2,000 for the Pakistani earthquake relief effort.

HOW IT WORKS
Artists can work alone or in groups. Some groups are already established in some cities, including San Francisco. After finding inspiration from their chosen locations, artists share their day’s sketches and other artwork online at Flickr.com and www.SketchCrawl.com. The collaborative spirit of the event brings artists together by sharing views of places and details from all corners of the world. To help raise money for Emergency, artists participating in the 14th SketchCrawl will be encouraged to seek sponsorships of either $1, $5 or $10 per drawing. They also will be invited to donate their work for an online auction, proceeds of which would go to Emergency.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Founder Enrico Casarosa started SketchCrawl in 2004 and has organized and spread the word about SketchCrawling since. A storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif., he has been in the animation industry for more than 10 years, publishing comics and artbooks in his spare time.

SketchCrawl partner Ronnie del Carmen, Head of Story at Pixar Animation Studios, is a legend among the animation industry. His career includes work for “Batman: The Animated Series” television show, DreamWorks Animation and many other amazing projects.

ABOUT EMERGENCY
Emergency is a humanitarian organization founded in 1994 in Milan, Italy, that offers free medical care to civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty worldwide. The organization also builds hospitals and health-care centers, physical and social rehabilitation centers, and first-aid posts. All of its facilities are designed, built and run by specialized international personnel, who in turn train local staff. More information can be found at its Web site, www.emergencyusa.org.

Header fixed

Ok, the header was fixed. My bad. I didn't update some links in my customized template. I promised I'll have my PodCamp Toronto review up. I've been busy and too tired. But over the weekend I will be installing an dconfigurin gmy new WordPress blog going on my superspud.com site. Watch for it!

Dude, WTF happened to my title bar??

I don't have time to fix it right now. Need sleep. Later!

PodCamp Toronto 2007

I don't have much time because I have lots of contacts to get back to but just a quick note to say that I just came back from PodCamp Toronto 2007 and it was fantastic! Links and a lot more info (boy am I vague!) to come this week. For now to a google search.

By the way, I spotted 4 people using Moleskine notebooks.

Finally... almost done... but not quite

Oh boy, what an oreal. Who thought that such a simple site could take forever to finish. My redesign and consolidation of my various sites is complete expect for the WordPress blog which-- no thanks to my webhost-- I still need to upload and configure.

Long story short: the webhost didn't mention that it didn't have the proper version of My SQL to accomodate the latest WordPress while they advertise they support it. BAH! At least they upgraded it as of yesterday. Thanks for the stress, ehosting.ca!

Not to mention the css nightmare I went though. Honestly, CSS is the best thing for the web along with XML. The two together are fantastic but... a big huge pain in the butt is Internet Explorer which requires a number of sensless workarounds and hacks to get CSS to look right.

And not to mention the slight disruption in my plans in the form of a Toshiba Satellite A100 laptop I got for my parents-- turns out the stupid thing doesn't support WPA encryption for wireless. WHY NOT?? That's what I want to know. Wasted the whole day trying to figure out if it was my useless Netgear router or the computer. A search on the Internet reveals other customers expeirenced the same ordeal and loa nd behold, the computer doesn't support it. And the tech support from India didn't help as he insisted I use the weaker WEP instead.

Why, why, why, why oh why does the Toshiba manual insist on using WPA when the computer itself doesn't support it? So either I go get a WAP enabled PC card for the laptop or exchange it for another notebook (maybe the HP I saw) and pray it is compatible with WPA. Honestly....

Sorry, I'm a little upset.