Drew Clardy

Walter Lippman Quote

Drew Clardy — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:31:30 +0000

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.

- Walter Lippmann

This is Water

Drew Clardy — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:16:30 +0000

The other day a person that I follow on Twitter posted this video. It is actually a pretty good watch. We have the power to choose how we see and deal with things, and it is a refreshing reminder of that.

Unknown Author

Drew Clardy — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:36:23 +0000

Two things define you: Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.
–UNKNOWN

Half Marathon Complete

Drew Clardy — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:22:45 +0000

This past Sunday my wife and I completed our first half marathon. We are both pretty sore from it, but I know that we are both glad that we did it. We were not the first ones to finish the race, but we did not walk a single part of it! That was our main goal, and we did it. It was pretty awesome to go down the finish line with all the people cheering you on, and Delissa and I finished and exactly the same time.

The real point of this post is to tell you how amazing my wife is. She did all of this will a pretty severe muscle strain. She pulls or strains her back quite easily at times, and it happened again on Thursday before the race. She didn’t think it was that bad, and she decided to do a small run before the race to loosen up some. On Saturday morning, she went for a run, and I get a message from her.

I immediately run outside, and I see her bent over in a ton of pain. I didn’t think that she would be able to run the half marathon at all, but we did everything that we could think of to try to make it easier for her. We bought a brace for her back, and we had some medicine that she took to try to ease the pain. I guess that it all worked because she ran the whole thing.

I am so proud and amazed by her strength. There are people who can’t run half marathons at all, and she was able to do it with a bad back. She couldn’t walk for half the day on Saturday, and some how she made it 13.1 miles.

People have asked are we going to run another one, and we are not sure yet. I know that a part of me wants to, but I am still too sore to think about the next one. In a week or two, I might be a little more open to it. It was a great experience, and I am glad that Delissa and I can cross it off of our lists of things that we wanted to do. Now we have to get back to running for the 1,000 mile goal this year.

Bullying

Drew Clardy — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:00:52 +0000

Over the past few years, bullying has become more and more of a topic of discussion. With the children that are taking their lives because of it, we have been forced to think about the things that we allow children to say to each other, and we have decided to take a stand that we are not going to allow it anymore. In my childhood, there were times that I was bullied, but I don’t think that the level of it was anywhere near the level that children face today. I am sure that some of the things that were said to me changed who I was then, and I don’t know how different I would be without those things.

One of the people who I follow on Twitter posted this video, and it kind of struck a chord with me. There are so many things that you have to worry about as a parent, and you have to add this to the list. A school or playground should be a safe place for a child, but that has changed over the years. I hope that we can shift the world back to the way it used to be. Teasing and name-calling will always be around, but we have to limit the severity of it. We have to take the bite of our youth’s tongues. It is not until you get much older that you realize how much of an impact your words have on other people, and a child will never understand that. We have to teach them kindness and acceptance of all people.

K-Mart Ad

Drew Clardy — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:44:14 +0000

I might be a kid, but I think this is pretty funny.

Half-Marathon Registration Complete

Drew Clardy — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:35:52 +0000

Delissa and I signed up for our first half marathon today. I think that is fair to say that we are both slightly nervous. We know that we can run the distance, but we really do not want to walk any amount of the 13.1 miles. If that means that we have to slow down our pace to make sure that we don’t, we are probably going to go that route. The race is April 14th, and it is a generally flat course. I hope that helps!

We will be celebrating with a big plate of fajitas from Pappasito’s. Hopefully, we will be able to move after running that long of a distance. If not, we can get some to push us up to the table!

Updated ISPConfig 3 Theme

Drew Clardy — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:53:55 +0000

Yesterday, I took the time to update my ISPConfig 3 Theme. I call this theme ISPConfig Clean. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, and you can’t really go back on that. It is a cleaner version of the default theme that ships with ISPConfig 3. I use or used the styling that is on the ISPConfig website as a base, and I am still working on it. I will be converting it over to SASS and Compass pretty soon. I just have to clean up a lot of things that are still in there. I will be constantly pushing updates to the Github Repo as I have time. This version will only work with 3.0.5. The older version for 3.0.4 is still available, but I will no longer be maintaining it.

Here are some pics of it.

Site Redesigned

Drew Clardy — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:42:47 +0000

Over the past few weeks, I have worked on redesigning the theme on my website. I wanted something that was more me, and I wanted to move away from the default WordPress theme. The default themes are nice, but I don’t like everyone having the same theme as me. I guess I just want to be different.

This is my first theme that I have ever designed on my own. I use the term designed loosely. I just started changing the way things look in the browser with a general idea of where I wanted to go. For a base, I used the _s theme. It was pretty easy to customize to my liking, and I think that it was great place for me to start. If the WordPress theme team uses it, it is more than good enough for me. I mean they get paid to make themes, and they use it as a starting point. Who am I to think that I could do any better? I know they know WordPress way better than I ever will.

Since responsive web design is a hot topic, I made this theme responsive. It is a simple single break point that goes to 100% width. It works pretty well for me, and I like the fact that it looks cool on my phone now. It is easy to read, and it keeps the full menu. I am not a big fan of menus that turn into drop downs, and I made sure that mine does not do that.

For compatibility with browsers, I have done absolutely no testing. I styled the theme with SASS and Compass, and I like the way that works pretty well. I will definitely be using that going forward. It is nice to not have to worry about vendor-prefixing everything. I will be happy when we can drop a lot of them, and we are getting closer to that time everyday. I use Chrome exclusively so it looks good in that browser. If you see any issues in any other browsers, feel free to Contact Me about them. I will look into them.

If you have any other comments, I will be happy to hear them. I am not a designer by any means, and I know what I have to improve a lot! The next thing that I will be doing is redesigning my wife’s photography site. I know that is going to take a good amount of time, but I am tired of her having to use flash!

-Drew

January Resolution Update

Drew Clardy — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:31:18 +0000

Since January is over, I wanted to give an update on my resolutions so far. It is only one month in, but it is better to keep track of them so you know where you need to improve in the next month.

1. Shave more often

I have done pretty well with this so far. Shaving far more than what I would consider normal for me. It is not that bad, but it is not fun when you accidentally cut yourself. What a hassle!

2. Run 1000 miles this year

To carry out this goal, Delissa and I decided that we needed to run 83.33 miles per month. Here is my total for the month. I am pretty proud of it. Now, I gotta do it all over again in February!

3. Stop drinking Diet Cokes or Soda

It has been a complete month and I have not had a single carbonated beverage. It has not been easy at times, but I was able to pull through. I just have to make sure that I have tea around, and it is a little easier.

4. Weigh in at 255

I am not there yet, but I have gotten all of my holiday weight off. I am staying steady around 284. Hopefully, I will be in the 270′s at the end of February. It should be doable. I just have to stay focused.