Hot off the press!!!, ummm, well, the digital press anyway. Baby & I is a brand spanking fresh new Baby site providing a range of baby products at great prices. Their products range from maternity and babycare products to care for mother and baby before baby’s arrival to a range of pushchairs (twins, tandems & triples), prams, strollers, and car seats all the way to schoolwear and clothing for all ages up to 8 years of age.

Baby & I provide the latest offers and reviews on top brand baby products from leading suppliers such as Quinny, Mothercare, Bebe Confort, Silver Cross, Maxi Cosi, O’baby, Graco and many more.

I was approached by Baby & I’s management team with a unique problem they had. They wanted to break the mould and distinguish themselves from all the other baby sites out there. So far they seemed to find all the designs they had been previously provided were dull and not quite uplifting or colourful.

Originally contracted with the development of the site and fully managed Content Management System used for the daily running of the site, update and maintenance of their 20,000 strong product database, I was then briefed on the challenging design aspects of the site. I was able to come upo with a bright, colourful and attractive design which ticked all the right boxes in the brief.

Development of the sight was by no means an easy task in itself. Working with a set and existing product database which could not be altered. I had to figure out how I could get the relevant information needed out for product categories, product search results, sitemap creation and so on in a speedy manner.

Over a number of sleepless nights pondering, banging away at the keyboard and a  few stiff drinks (coffee just didn’t cut it this time), I was able to work my magic and weave my php wand through the site code coming up with some pretty impressive results.

The site features a fully managed Content Management System with varying levels of security clearance giving the Baby & I team control over all aspects of the daily running and promotion of the website.

Some key features of the site and CMS include:

• Automatic or managed daily product update
• Automatic or managed newsletter and promotional material
• Built in Link tracking (track best performing links and pages)
• Integrated twitter account (Automatic tweets from CMS)
• Advertising banner management and rotation
• Automatic sitemap generator and management
• Managed Friendly Dynamic URL’s
• Managed Location based Friendly Dynamic URL’s (all to add fuel to that S.E.O fire)

To see what all the fuss is about, drop by Baby & I and have a peek.

This post has been sitting in my drafts for the past couple of months and haven’t really managed to get time to write it. Well, there’s no time like the present.

A few months ago, I completed and launched a couple of exciting new viral widgets to complement the Desperados Beer Die Hards website launched earlier this year and to help drive website traffic.

The widgets were well received overall and gained a number of hits soon after the official launch date.

The first widget is a personal Desperados Beer desktop clock built on the Adobe air platform in Actionscript 3 to help you keep those important meetings with your favorite brand lager.

The second widget is a neat little online app which allows you to upload your favorite pictures and get them framed from a choice of personalised Desperados frames which can be used on all your social networking profiles such as Facebook, Twitter or wherever you like.

Go on, go get framed…

To check out the Die-Hards and for your chance of winning some great competition prices for you and your mates, visit http://www.desperadosbeer.co.uk/die-hards

To also stand a chance on winning some tickets to Relentless Boardmasters festival in Newquay from the 5th – 9th of August hosted by Desperados Beer UK visit the Desperados Beer website.

Recently completed, the development of the eagerley anticipated second phase to the Desperados Beer website. Desperados Beer is a French brand beer with a Mexican bite and is part of Heineken International (Europe) group.

The Die-Hards section of the site was developed to build upon the main site which was officially launched in January 2009 to further promote the Desperados brand and to drive brand awareness in the UK. The Die-Hards is an interactive social networking platform allowing fans of the beer to register and share videos and pictures of their favourite or most interesting Desperados moments.

The website offers regular competitions updated frequently featuring a range of prices from cases of Desperados Beer to weekend getaways to exciting destinations for you and your mates. The site also offers a custom Desperados frame generator (allowing users to frame their beloved pics with a range of Desperados frames to share on social networking sites such as Facebook), a range of wallpapers to trully give your computer that Desperados Beer flavour, oath facility allowing you to swear your allegiance to the Desperados brand by video or image upload and a cool desktop widget allowing you to set an alarm for that special moment you’ve set aside to get better aquainted with your ice cold pint of Desperados Beer.

To check out the Die-Hards and for your chance of winning some great competition prices for you and your mates, visit http://www.desperadosbeer.co.uk/die-hards 

Meet you on the other side Amigo…

Such is life…

I’m going to let this paper soak up the ink from my pen

Just like the water in this shower soaks up my tears

A heart throbbing pain, a mindblowing fear

Days surrounded on all ends by dark night

A wavering flame, heat fighting a dank cold

Such is my life of late

Such is life

As the ink flows through this barrel and coats my sheet of paper

Just like the sheets catch each rivulet from my cut

A numbing silence, so pure it’s painfully loud

Makes me catch my breath – could this be my last one?

Exhaustion wears my flesh yet the journey goes on

Such is my life of late

Such is life

When the ink from my pen runs out

Just like the sands of time will cease in the hour glass

Will my soul continue to endure

The echoes of crumbling hope, the fading scream of happiness

From the corner of my eye, shadows of a past way gone

Is there a light where I am heading

Or does the line end with a full stop?

Such is my life of late

Such is life.

Copyright ©2009  Michelle Tapiwa Manduvi

PS: If you have the time, here is one of my earlier ones. I think I wrote this one when I was 16. http://www.poetry.com/dotnet/P5433740/999/1/display.aspx

Yes, that’s right my die hard fans. Lost is back. Season 5 started on Sunday and its official. We are counting down to the biggest climax of all series ever! Only 34 episodes this season and since we started with a double, that means only 32 to go. Can I get a whoop whoop! I don’t know what you doing, but don’t even try to call me on a Sunday evening. I got a date with Jack and Sawyer. That’s right, Kate aint got nothing on me. (“,)

I use the Recent Comment widget on the sidebar to display recent comments on my posts in the form of “{authorLink} On {postLink}”. I noticed that the author link (links to website of whoever posted a comment on one of my posts) didn’t seem to work in all browsers accept Google Chrome (strangely enough).

On further investigation into the source of the page, I realised that for some reason the link generated was urlEncoded and not formated right.

e.g

‘http://www.example.com%27%20rel%3D%27external%20nofollow’

instead of

“http://www.example.com” rel=”external nofollow”

After a few minutes of debugging and digging around through the wordpress pages. I eventually found the source of the problem located on line 148 in category-template.php in the wp-includes folder.

$return = “<a href=’$url’ rel=’external nofollow’ class=’url’>$author</a>”;

I simply changed the line above to

$return = “<a href=\”$url\” rel=\”external nofollow\” class=\”url\”>$author</a>”;

and that sorted out the format of the output string and PRESTO the links work again.

* UPDATE – 9th February 2009

Just a heads up on this post.

Some WP users have reported that they’ve found the line in question in “comment-template.php” and not in “category-template.php”. So if you cant find it in one of them, it’s most likely in the other.

If only in life we could be happy with who we are. Not envy – because lets face it, it is the green monster when you see someone driving your dream car and they are the same age as you or younger and you have years to go before you can even consider putting down a deposit – others but be content with what we have.  I guess the human race wouldn’t be where it is now if people didn’t always want more.  My boyfriend and I have this conversation often. Before we had a car, we’d bus it everywhere. The main wish in winter was, “Oh, if only we had a car”. But now that we have one, its not good enough. Its too small. Its not fast enough. The interior is all wrong. It doesnt lick my **** and give me a  screaming O. Oh. Go figure, that’s what’s wrong with people today. That’s why the whole freaking nation is depressed.

Sometimes we need to take time and appreciate what we have. Can you imagine if everything you had was taken away from you? Would you then say, “If only I was back where I was”? You can only live for the present. Yesterday is gone, and they say tomorrow is not guaranteed. Be happy with who you are and what you have. You only have one life, hey, so why spend it comparing yourself to the next man who is living his life? Dont get caught up in the paradox of happiness, needing to acquire something to be happy, then not being satisfied with your acquisition.

I’ve been in the movie business for a couple of years now, and I know now never to trust anyone’s opinion of a film. I missed out on what I consider one of the greatest projects to hit the big screen and had to settle to watch it on a measly 42inch screen. Not only that, but Blockbuster didn’t have the title in Blu-Ray, so the whole high def stuff also went out the window. I mean fate must have had it in for me, because I had also just missed a free showing on Virgin 1 and ended up paying £3 to rent it. Why all the hassle? All because I listened to someone who said that the film was a disappointment, not worth me going to the cinema for it. I almost missed out on a film that ranks high in my top 10 favourite films ever.

So what is it that I am raving about? Well, it’s no other than Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. I mean, fair enough its subtitled, but I was so engrossed in the humorous antics of Israel Ríos as Cocoa Leaf, the bloody scenes (and from a diehard fan of horrors and action films, there is a lot of cringe worthy scenes), and also the sad bits that I didn’t even notice I was reading the dialogue. This film has a little bit for everyone – except those who are under 18 (obviously!) – and I think Mel Gibson is an amazing director, writer and producer! His Passion of the Christ is the only film that’s made me cry near enough continuously and he has just gone and outdone himself again.

So what’s it all about? Well, it’s set in ancient Central America, during the declining period of the Maya civilization. Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and destruction of his village. He is then taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

Mel Gibson only cast actors of Native American descent who were not known so that they could not be linked to previous roles, and it has Yucatec Maya dialogue.

All I’m saying is… please visit a Blockbuster near you and watch this.

Kidrobot, the world’s premier designer and retailer of limited edition art toys and exclusive apparel is set to set up a Concept store at Selfridges Oxford Street from January 22 to February 21, 2009 located in the wonder room. Kidrobot merges urban street trends, fashion, and pop art to produce limited edition, collectible toys and apparel.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ll be starting the NEW YEAR on a busy note as usual working on a few colaborations with Chelley Jones Designs, Crazy-Creation and Raw-Dezign on a few art and media projects. Will also be starting the year off with a few web design , 3d animation, branding and graphic design projects for a few big names in the clothing, automotive and entertainment industries.

Well, out the window goes my New Years resolution to work less )

Keep watching the blog for more updates…