Glen Elkins’ Blog
Elegance is overrated: The importance of just getting it done
I start very project with an ideal picture I the most elegant solution: not a single extra bit used, perfectly formatted code, efficient use of styles, minified static files, etc… Inevitably, by the end of the project I’ve abandoned the bulk of that ideal solution so I can just “get it done.” Continue reading “Elegance is overrated: The importance of just getting it done” »
My newest project: Lionhead
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a website for an the independent film LIONHEAD. Although the trailer is still on its way, I implore you to check out the site because the movie looks incredible. I was extremely excited about the opportunity to get involved in such an interesting project, and now that it’s live, I wanted to show it off! Continue reading “My newest project: Lionhead” »
What I learned from getting republished on lifehacker
I recently wrote a short article here discussing the benefits of a low tech break routine versus normal web surfing. After posting on Hacker News, it stuck in the top spot all day for soem reason. I was delighted! It seemed like my subject was open ended and common enough to interest a large part of the community.
The following Monday, I received a tweet from the “editor-in-cheif” at Lifehacker, asking if I minded if the republished my article. I wasn’t an avid reader of the site, but I said yes without hesitation anyways. Being “republished” sounded cool, and I had heard of Lifehacker, so why not? I could try to play it cool here, but the truth is I was pretty pumped to be part of Lifehacker and curious to see what affect this might have on my site. Continue reading “What I learned from getting republished on lifehacker” »
The over committer’s dilemma
After reading Matt Swanson’s article on the difficulties of being an over committer I was overcome with empathy. I’m a constant over committer, and struggle to say “no” to just about every opportunity. That probably even gives me too much credit, I enthusiastically commit I every possible opportunity.
I commit to small one-off projects for friends, longer-term work with acquaintances, and whip up my own projects all the time. Sometimes the projects are freelance, and sometimes they are simply “free.” All this serves to satiate the needling feeling in the back of my brain that I might just be missing out on something. Continue reading “The over committer’s dilemma” »
Citizenside will hawk your iPhone pics to media outlets
Citizenside will act as your agent and sell your mobile photos of current events to media outlets. As Lifehacker reports, Citizenside will pay out between 50% – 75% fo the royalties earned by your content. The company has “exclusive rights” to your content once you’ve uploaded it, but they can later drop that status if they determine the content isn’t valuable enough to hold onto exclusively.
Every major news outlet these days has a user-submitted portion of their web property. With the advent of smart phones, everyone and their mom has a camera on them at all times. When something important happens someone in the 24-hour news cycle is sure to cover it. Continue reading “Citizenside will hawk your iPhone pics to media outlets” »
Why I take sketch breaks instead of internet surfing
Staring at a pair of monitors for 10+ hours a day can get rather taxing. That’s why I pepper in small breaks throughout the day, like most people. When I need five minutes to untangle my brain I reach for my pile of art pens and the closest post it note (the back of a print out will also suffice).
Compared to the things I used to do on breaks, like surfing the web or secretly playing a iOS game, sketching has a defined end point. Once you put the pen down, nothing jumps up on my monitor or flashes on my desk to tempt me to resume. By doing something nontechnical, it’s very unlikely the break will stretch on for too long because once I’m done doodling, I’m not thinking about it at all. The inverse is also true, once I’m doodling my mind couldn’t be farther from my daily work, which is more therapeutic than getting caught up in any digital distraction. Continue reading “Why I take sketch breaks instead of internet surfing” »
How to build a site in an afternoon
Being a designer & front-end developer at a startup web publishing company, I’m asked to do quick work on small sites with very a short turn-around time. I wont get into the details of exactly what sites I’ve been working on but they’re usually “brochure” sites that consist of less than 15 pages and are used for marketing to end users or other businesses. Having done more than a handful of these types of sites, I’ve learned how to get them done as fast as possible without sacrificing much in the way of maintenance, browser compatibility, or performance.
Feel free to disagree with my approach or offer critiques. I do not contend this is the end-all-be-all to quick iterative front-end development, but it‘s a good start. Continue reading “How to build a site in an afternoon” »
Dr. Waddles Wiki – an experiment in wikihacking
What do you get when you add a plush kitty cat + wiki’s source code?
Aside from an hour of my life I’ll never get back, you get Dr. Waddles Wiki. If there’s anyplace for such hi jinks, it’s the internet.
Know the doctor?
Any additions/suggestions to his bio are welcome in the comments section of this post.
A WordPress Revolution: Child Themes
For a few years now when I’ve built out a small site for a pet project or a client, I’ve used WordPress to power it. WordPress is intuitive, easy to install, simple to maintain, and has a huge variety of free plugins at it’s disposal. It’s easy enough for a client to change their content, avoiding the bi-monthly emails to do this or that page x & y. That ends up saving me time, and them money, so everyone wins!
Ok, so what? The benefits of WordPress aren’t exactly a secret, and even though the platform started off for blogging, it’s morphed into a catchall small-business website builder that can handle mom & pop’s trinket stand or Mary Joe’s cooking blog. All that’s needed is a little set up and some style. That’s where the WordPress themes comes in, and where the relatively unknown child themes truly shines. Continue reading “A WordPress Revolution: Child Themes” »
Now listen here fella: Dead Bird
I haven’t recorded or even played music for a long time, but in the interest of sharing something I’ve made, and hopefully jump starting a long-ignored passion of mine, I’d like to share this song with ya’ll.
Recorded with my friends in a dusty old house on the wheat-filled plateaus of Springfield.
About Me
I'm a web designer & front end developer for the ecommerce and web publishing company Juggle.com and writer for the music blog PlaybackSTL.com.
When I'm not scribbling wireframes, tweaking CSS, or trying to find yet-another way to describe sounds with words, I doodle, play guitar, try to write and kill zombies.