Author Archives for Ellen

Reading blogs

When i saw my sister this Easter Monday, she asked how to keep up with blogs. Not mine alone, but others as well. A friend of hers just started one and she didn’t know, apart from visiting it each time, how to keep up with the contents. She mostly visits Facebook.

When i’m happy with a post, i do make a Facebook and a Twitter entry. But that’s usually two or three times a week. And i do post 5 times a week.

I’ve been online since 1995, twenty years already. I’ve seen blogs coming into existence and fade out again. The way i use to get the content is an old fashioned one, RSS.

There are other ways to follow a blog. Flipboard, Bloglovin and many more have ways to follow a blog. I do use Flipboard on my iPad, but i’m not sure if you can add a single blog to it. Bloglovin i researched a bit, but it’s just not that appealing to me.

Until 2013 Google Reader was the main source for most people to have their RSS feeds collected. Most apps used Google Reader to get the feeds delivered to them. And then Google dropped it. Because RSS was becoming less popular.

I had to reorganize my trusted systems. I did some research. Most people were using feedly.com, so i decided on that. I imported my feeds from Google Reader.

Let me explain where you can find a feed on a site. On my old site lfs.nl i made a feed myself. As is my custom, i made this in a present, called rss. I had to do a search for rss on the homepage to find it.

On WordPress blogs it is a bit easier to find than that. The main feed you can usually find at the url of the site with /feed added to it. So on ellenpronk.com the url of the feed is ellenpronk.com/feed.

On feedly my list of blogs looks as follows:

Cooking

  • 101 Cookbooks
  • Chocolate and Zucchini
  • David Lebovitz
  • Lottie & Doof
  • smitten kitchen

Design and Coding

  • A list apart
  • Ars Technica
  • Daring Fireball
  • kottke.org
  • Subtraction
  • Lea Verou
  • markboulton.co.uk
  • Quirksblog

Make up and Perfumes

  • Mascha’s Beautyblog
  • Miss Lipgloss
  • Painted Ladies
  • Beautyscene
  • Dr. Jetske Ultee
  • Fabulous over Forty
  • Lisa Eldridge
  • Nathan Branch
  • The Non-Blonde

Personal

  • Ellen’s blog

Stuff I like

  • Minimal Mac
  • The Dissolve
  • trendbeheer
  • Whedonesque
  • ftrain.com

Wow

  • Blizzard Watch
  • Tobold’s MMORPG Blog
  • Power word: gold
  • Tarou Wow guides

On my iPad 1 i use Newsify to read my blogs. It syncs all the unread posts and gives me a list of around a 100 posts each day. I don’t read all of them, i browse and read the ones i want to.

This is my way to read the blogs i want to read. I actually should go through my feedly list soon, as i see now many blogs don’t update anymore. And there might be other blogs i’m interested in.

For all the people who have less time online, there are many ways to get content to you. You may depend on Facebook, but to me that is a fuzzy way to get content, where many things are out of your control. It’s not my way. Pick a way that fits your life. That can be Facebook, or Twitter, or Flipboard, or any other way. And it might change in a years time!

Published on April 10, 2015 at 6:00 by
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A walk from Rotterdam to Delft

Yesterday morning it was misty when i got out of bed. When i checked the predictions i read that it would get sunny in the afternoon. So I could keep my plan to walk from Rotterdam centre to Delft Central Station.

When i checked what would be the best way to walk, i knew i would go past the Schie past the village Zweth. In Rotterdam i went through the neighborhood Blijdorp. After the big freeway junction Kleinpolderplein i would enter Overschie. Walking through the centre i would get at the Schie at the end of it and enter the countryside. Sort of. There is a freeway at the horizon, a train at the other side. But it was quiet, i could hear the birds sing.

In Delft i walked past some old Technical University buildings. Many were still the same as thirty years ago, when i studied there. But there were also many new areas. The centre i did recognize though. The Brabantse Turfmarkt, the Breestraat and de Oude Delft.

The new railway station is underground. It opened March 1 this year. I ate my apple and waited for the train to arrive.

To be honest, i felt my legs. I was able to walk, but I was tired! I had left my house at 11:25, i got back at 16:10. Glad i got home in one piece. A day rest and then i will go for another walk!

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Published on April 9, 2015 at 6:00 by
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Deacon Blues

Today, Easter Monday, i visited my mother and her husband. I went with the train to Amersfoort, a one hour trip from Rotterdam. I listened to my favourite tracks.

The Netherlands is this very specific country where almost everything is defined and delineated. Even the country side in the west has the lines of the water around it. I do love it, in its way.

One song i turned louder, Deacon Blues.

Steely Dan – Deacon Blues Lyrics
This is the day of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers, wild gamblers
That’s all in the past

You call me a fool
You say it’s a crazy scheme
This one’s for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I’ll make it this time
I’m ready to cross that fine line

[Chorus]
I’ll learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
And I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I’ll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I’ll make it my home sweet home

[Chorus]

This is the night of the expanding man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I’ll be what I want to be

Songwriters: BECKER, WALTER CARL / FAGEN, DONALD JAY
Deacon Blues lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Published on April 7, 2015 at 6:00 by
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Watch

My first canvas and javascript post. I had to do some research on how to make this work. It wasn’t that hard. I already use a plugin to remove the p-tag wordpress inserts. jQuery is used on the site. The script itself is easy.

The first function setCanvas sets the size of the canvas element. There is no way to do this with css, as far as i know.

function setCanvas() {
	var viewportwidth;
	var viewportheight;

	if (typeof window.innerWidth != 'undefined') {
		viewportwidth = window.innerWidth,
		viewportheight = window.innerHeight
	}

	//set width and height to 80% of total width
	document.getElementById("can").width = viewportwidth - (.2 * viewportwidth);
	document.getElementById("can").height = viewportwidth - (.2 * viewportwidth);
}

The function drawPresent draws 2500 (50 * 50) squares on the canvas. For each square there is a random colour mixed with Math.round(Math.random() * 255). I added the 1 pixel to the width, because when testing this, i saw white lines between the squares.

function drawPresent() {
	var canvas = document.getElementById('can');
	var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

	var ctxwidth = canvas.width;
	var I_width = ctxwidth / 50;

	for(var i=0;i<50;i++){
		for(var j=0;j<50;j++){
			var x = j * I_width;
			var y = i * I_width;

			var rgb1 = Math.round(Math.random() * 255);
			var rgb2 = Math.round(Math.random() * 255);
			var rgb3 = Math.round(Math.random() * 255);
			ctx.fillStyle = 'rgb(' + rgb1 + ',' + rgb2 + ',' + rgb3 + ')';
			ctx.fillRect(x, y, I_width + 1, I_width + 1);
		}
	}
}

The following code implements these functions in a resize and a load handler. I did need to set the ready and resize functions inside a jQuery(function($)) function. I found this in the fifth part of this post 5 Tips For Using jQuery with WordPress.

jQuery(function ($) {

$(window).resize(function () {
	setCanvas();
	setInterval(drawPresent, 1000);
});

$(document).ready(function () {
	setCanvas();
	setInterval(drawPresent, 1000);
});

});

I did decide to not use the library CreateJS for the time being. I did use this in the final presents i made on lfs.nl. It is a way for people who are used to Flash to make canvas easier to implement. Since i last worked with Flash in 2006, i have forgotten so many things about it, that it felt like needing to learn Flash all over again. So i’d rather stick with jQuery for general things and get into Javascript itself to make presents.

I’m using a canvas tutorial from the Mozilla Developer Network to get the basics covered.

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Published on April 1, 2015 at 6:00 by
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Paella

It was a drab, grey, stormy, dreary sunday. The windows were wet the entire day. Some bords on my little balcony fell over. I did very little. I watched some sunday morning tv. I listened to some music. I cooked paella.

This evening i watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I have seen it before. Some parts were entertaining. I did enjoy the fight!

I’ll leave you with the paella recipe. My apologies for the out of focus pictures. It’s a nice recipe, which you can adjust to your liking.

Bye bye!

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Published on March 30, 2015 at 6:00 by
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