Category Archives: General

My Pastor’s Newly Designed Website

October 21, 2009

Late night equals a lot done! And that’s the truth for tonight. I’m excited about getting my hands on a website project that is a challenge for me and that brings my pastor’s website an awesome redesign. I am redoing my pastor’s website because the one he has right now is honestly kind of lame, way too bright and hard on the eyes, and horribly done! All that comes down and the blame is on me.

Pastor's new website design

This new website design looks a whole lot nicer and it’s way easier on the eyes!!! It looks more Web 2.0 style and it also looks more fresh and “cool” than the one he has right now. As of right now I’m currently getting the home page styled and laid out correctly. It hasn’t been that much of a challenge, but it has made me think about what would be used to make it look like it was designed to be.

My pastor told me earlier this month that he would like to have a blog on his website, so I told him I would look at that and see what I could do. Well with his current website layout I couldn’t really do it, so I decided to talk with a friend of mine about getting a design from him. In one week (I think) from when I first contacted him about this to when he sent me the files, he had it done and created. I was honestly impressed about it and excited because I knew my pastor would like it and so would everyone else. When I contacted him, I told him I wanted a WordPress style of a page so that I could easily make a theme for WordPress and then just show my pastor how to create post.

I’ve got a good amount of work set out for me to do, but I believe that by Saturday I’ll have all the pages up and going except for the WordPress part. If you want a link to follow what I’ve currently got, feel free to contact me and I’ll give you the link.

Good night everyone and God Bless!
Bradley Hilton

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October 17, 2009
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October 17, 2009
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ApostolicBook

October 11, 2009

I’m sure that all my readers are well aware of the fact me and Aaron are currently working on a social networking site for Apostolic’s only. A while back I got a script that was a base for building a social networking site, but the problem I faced was it wasn’t very customizable and I didn’t have much control. So, I talked with Aaron and we finally decided that we would build our own social networking site up from nothing except our knowledge. Well, here’s my timeline of what has transpired and what I think might happen. I also will quote the introductory statement that we have stated on our Design Document.

First off, I got the idea to create a social networking site just for Apostolic young people around a year ago this month. I searched around a while for a script that made it easy to set up a social networking site that looked good and was easy for people to navigate around. Another thing that I wanted, was a script that took a person’s age and if they were under a certain age it wouldn’t let them join. After searching for a while, I finally found a pretty good script that did almost everything I wanted it to do, except I couldn’t figure out how to not allow people to join if they were younger than the certain age.

I found that script about four or five months after my first thoughts of a social networking site for Apostolic youth only. I had originally called the site “Apostolic Youth Connected” (a.k.a. AYC). Well, since I couldn’t restrict people who put in a date that stated they were under the certain age, I decided to stop messing around with the script for a while (it was also the end of my sophomore year and finals were taking place). So, since that didn’t work out and my school studies were requiring too much of my time, I decided to stop working on it for the time being. But before I stopped me and Aaron had already bought a domain name and set up a Twitter account, we also had decided to change the name to “ApostolicBook”.

Summer came and so did some major decisions. Aaron and I decided that since we had spend the money on the domain, we would try to get this going again, but this time we decided that we would build our own script up from nothing but our ideas and knowledge. It was decided that Aaron would do the main PHP, MySQL, and other server coding, while I would help him with that a little but mainly do the main CSS and styling of the website. As the summer went on we really didn’t get much finished, expect Aaron got some things here and there on the back-end done.

Recently there has been some major work being done on ApostolicBook. On September 29th, 2009 Aaron and I talked about what we wanted to do and how we want things done. After much talk and some research we decided that we would have a document online that was shared between the two of us (if you’re wondering, it is stored on Google Docs). We then set a couple of dates to get things done by a certain time because I knew we probably wouldn’t get stuff done if we didn’t set dates.

The first two dates we set was on October 6th and October 13th. On October 6th we set that we would have the Initial Design Document completed, which included the basic features, first version of our color scheme made up, and the first sketch of the user profile layout. For October 13th, we have set that we will have the “First layout draft complete”. This includes a first draft of every page that we have come up with right now in our Initial Design Document.

Small amount of the acutal 1st draft color scheme

The first draft of the color scheme has been chosen and the picture to the left are a few of the colors chosen. I’ve only included a few of the colors, cause if I did show you all of them, what would be the point of having a first launch date? Ha-ha

As ApostolicBook is under development, is there something that you as a user would like to see? If so, then please speak up and leave a comment on here or send us a direct message on Twitter.

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton

Also posted in ApostolicBook, Personal Life Stuff – 0 Comments

2012?

October 8, 2009

I was sitting in Earth Science last week trying to do the work we were assigned to do, but I just couldn’t get into it. So, I put my head down on my desk and tried to fall asleep, but the people sitting close by were talking and their conversation caught my attention. They were talking about how they want to live their life, but yet they "knew" the world would end in 2012. They were joking about it saying that they would build an ark like Noah did because the earth is going to be flooded. They also were saying how they would be of legal age for three months to drink, so they were going to drink like crazy. In this article I want to prove that earth being flooded is wrong and how i doubt the earth would be totally destroyed.

Please watch this YouTube video of a trailer of a move that is coming out about 2012 and "what’s going to happen":

[YouTube link]

As you saw in that video, they predict that the whole earth is going to be flooded because an astroid or "Plant X" is going to swing by out planet and mess up the magnetic poles. Which in turn will make earthquakes, huge tsunamis, and the earth to go crazy and flood the entire earth.

I don’t and won’t claim to know the Bible good or barely at all compared to people that I know. But I have read the whole book of Revelation and I do know what God promised Noah and the human race after God flooded the whole earth for the first and last time. In Genesis 9:14-16 it says, "14For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 15For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. 16And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."

From that scripture, God has promised the human race that He would never flood the whole earth again. I personally know that God keeps His promises and doesn’t not keep them. We can see His promise that he made to Noah to this day by the "bow" He set in the sky, we see it when it rains. His promise to us can be seen by the beautiful rainbow in the sky.

I personally believe that the 2012 isn’t going to happen, but it really makes me wonder if it’s related to any judgments that were prophesied in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 6:12-17 it says, "12And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" In verse 12 it says, "…the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;". Please do NOT take me by my word, but I think that 2012 "ending of the Earth" could very well be the opening of that seal, but that’s only if the rapture has taken place and the church is out of here. Which means that if it actually is (which I have no idea, these are just my thoughts) one of the opening of the seals, then the rapture will have to take place here some time VERY soon or else the time frame won’t work out right. I also don’t think anything will happen if the church isn’t out of here, because then that give credit to the world and those that had originally "prophesied" it.

So that leaves me with this question, what do you think about this 2012 theory and how it relates to the Bible? Some believe in it (2012) with their whole hear (like the two girls in my science class), while other laugh at it. Will it really happen or is it just a joke and hype for someone to get rich?

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton

P.S.: If I’ve said something that you don’t totally agree with and think I’m wrong and should take this down, please feel free to email at: admin [at] greywolf336 [dot] com (simply replace the [at] with @ and [dot] with a .). Thanks.

Also posted in Personal Life Stuff, Random – 0 Comments

To Be Blogged

September 28, 2009

I didn’t go through with my promise that I had in my previous blog post did I? No, I didn’t and I’m really sorry. I’ve honestly been busy with school and church… Last week I had a ton of homework each night, and tonight I’m even luck to be able to post this entry without getting yelled at that it’s time to get to bed. Tonight I had two hours of homework in Marketing class alone, and I have some other classes of homework, but honestly my brain is done for today. I can’t really think straight enough to post a good blog post.

I have a promise for you all that I think I will keep. Today while sitting in Earth Science I overheard some people talking about different things and what they were talking about caught my attention big time! All I will say is that what they were talking about could possibly (if only i could emphasize that word more) effect the whole world. I promise to post this blog entry when I get done writing it. And for those of you wondering, yes I do actually write down the majority of my recent blog post on paper since I get a good amount of my ideas away from home (like at church or at school [majority at school]). I hope to have it done and completely wrote by Wednesday night or Thursday night. That IS a promise! :)

Another blog post that I might post, without writing it on paper, is about Friday since it’s going to be a awesome day! So, that’s two promises in one blog post. Do you think I can keep one or both of them? Yes, no, or maybe? You tell me…

God Bless,
Bradley

P.S.: Today is @mae_chica’s birthday!!!

Also posted in Informational, Personal Life Stuff, Random – 1 Comment

Week Review and Saturday 9/19/09

September 18, 2009

In my last blog post I told you that I would post again before the weekend and tell you what was going to happen. Well, here it is and I’m really surprised that I actually did what I said I was going to do! Lol

This week has been an interesting one all things considered. Monday at school my P.E. teacher wouldn’t accept the letter that my mom wrote to excuse me from working out since my hands weren’t healed yet. He told me that I had to have a doctors note to fully excuse me from working out. This then caused me to have to go to see a doctor, so that Monday night I did go. CIMG0209The doctor said that I bruised my bone and that my wound(s) were infected. She gave me some medication to take to get rid of my infection and then wrote a note to excuse me from working out until the CIMG020621st. Tuesday another day of school and long one at that, posted a blog post, and then that night I went to puppet practice and meet up with my friend. Yeah that’s him pictured to the left, me and him are really good buddies, we’ve done I think too puppet shows together and we’re really good together! Ha-ha. Wednesday night was a another day of school, but it kind of went pretty fast which felt good. That night I got surprised because there was a visiting preacher, Elder Eldon Eckles. His preaching was AWESOME, but he had a young apostolic lady with him. I was wondering who she was because honestly she was pretty good looking. So, service went on and Pastor Chalfant introduced the preacher and then said that it was Elder Eldon Eckles’ grand daughter. Knowing me, I haven’t got the guts to talk to her because I’m too shy when it comes to talking to girls and meeting new Apostolic people in person… I’m determined to do it though! (I’ll tell you my plan here shortly.) Thursday was a pretty good day because it went by pretty fast, and I learned that I will be paid $600 for working 60 hours, working for USD469 doing technical work and things related to that. Also, Thursday night I worked on converting a website layout and designCIMG0124 that I had done a while back into a Joomla! template, I got a good amount done, just got a whole bunch more to do. Friday (today) wasn’t the best for the first half of the day, but after school things got a ton better! Got home and worked on the Joomla! template some more (fixed some bugs here and there), then left for prayer meeting. After prayer meeting was over I stayed to practice a song for the youth service that is coming up the 23rd at Truth Tabernacle. As we was practicing, they asked me if I could lead song service. What could I say, besides yes? So, I’m leading youth service song service on Wednesday night. That’s been this week. What about this weekend and my plan of me trying to talk to Elder Eckles’ grand daughter?

My answer is as follows. Tomorrow there is a Youth Rally at New Life in Olathe, KS. I’m excited because it’s the first one in a long time and I’m ready to be in a service with other young people that is directed to young people. I’ll try to post some pictures of it if I take any… As for my plan to talk to Elder Eckles’ CIMG0213grand daughter, I’m planning on getting or making myself talk to her tomorrow since they are going (my dad asked Elder Eckles). If any of you read this and are going tomorrow, want to maybe help me out or give me any pointers? Ha-ha

That’s it, except the picture to the right is the starting of what I hope is my second to next blog post. And if you’re wondering, yes I do actually write down some of blog post because I get ideas at school and can’t really type them up on a computer or on my phone. If you click on the picture you might be able to read what my title might be, in case you can’t I plan to title it “Me, Myself, and You?”. Thanks for taking the time out of YOUR day to read my blog!!!

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton

Also posted in Joomla!, Personal Life Stuff, Random, School, Website Design – 1 Comment

Windows 7 Review (short)

September 15, 2009

Let’s start off with saying that I haven’t even tried out 10% of Windows 7. Part of that might be because I don’t know about it, or I haven’t had time to really “use” my computer. Another thing that I want to start off with saying is that my task bar is at the top of the screen because I’ve found it easier to use (different I know). So, here goes my short “review”.

One thing that is a huge difference is the task bar. What’s so different about it you may ask, well honestly a bunch of things. Here’s a screenshot of it: win7 taskbarI know that the image may be hard to see, you can click on it (I think) to make it appear bigger. As you can see it’s a huge change from Windows Vista. The taskbar no longer has the names of the programs, but it has their icons displayed big. Another thing that has changed, is how it now displays that you have more than one window open of a program. For instances in this picture I have two windows open in Google Chrome, MSN Messenger, and Microsoft Outlook 2010. Can you tell how I know that? Because it has what looks like one square on top of another. This helps a lot when you have more than one window open of a lot of programs and you’re a multi-tasker like me. Did yourvista-taskbar icons on the right of your taskbar ever get to much like this image –—>? Well on Win7 they have made it easier to customize which icons actually appear. Whenever you click on the arrow to

“Show hidden icons” you’re now displayed with a window that has an option to “Customize…”. Like this one to the right. I think that this is a really nice feature because getting too many icons over there can be a pain. And I just now figured out how to only make the ones that you want to appear be there. One more thing thing that is different is the “live preview”. This first came out with Vista, and on Win7 they have made it much, much, much better! Not only can you have a live preview of one screen, but now you see both screens of the same opened program. Here’s a link to a video that I took of my screen because I couldn’t get a screenshot of it. I didn’t know how to work the video part of the screen, so bare with me there :) . http://screencast.com/t/OkJwMk08

There are many and may of new features of the taskbar that I didn’t cover because I didn’t realize how long I was going… So here’s the other part that I was going to do.

You know how with Windows Vista it came out with the 3D switching between windows? That’s still here with Win7, but I honestly don’t like it because it is too much of a memory lover. Well, I really like how on Mac computers you can have the open windows tile when you (I think) go across the top right of the screen. So, I searched the internet for a program like that and luckily found one that did exactly what I wanted it to do. It’s called “Switcher” and very simple to set up. Here are two screenshots. One of the windows advanced (memory lover) switcher and the second is the program called “Switcher”.

I think that the Windows one looks pretty cool as far as eye candy is, but like I said before it’s a huge memory lover and just eats it right up. The program called “Switcher” isn’t as nice looking as far as eye candy goes, but it’s not really a memory lover like the Windows one is. There are different ways that you can set up how you want to view the open windows. I personally like it like the picture above, but there are two other options. A gird option (which shows them in evenly ordered rows and columns) and then there’s dock, which is pretty cool cause it has smooth animations and shows the open windows a different way. The numbers on the screens are what you can push on your keyboard so you don’t have to do any mouse clicking. Pretty awesome application if you ask me.

One last thing before I go. Win7 is very fast compared to Vista!!! I was completely surprised, because honestly I thought it was going to be slower. I totally recommend someone to either buy this when it comes out or wait to buy a new computer with this already on it. Hope you enjoyed this LONG (yet short cause i didn’t get to hardly any features) blog post. I will hopefully be posting another one later on this week and then one or two next week. One I know this week will be about what’s happening this weekend, and thus one next week will be about what happened over the weekend (and what’s gonna happen on Wednesday the 23rd). Looking forward to more writing and looking forward to you reading! :)

God Bless,
Bradley Hilton

Also posted in Informational, Reviews, Software – 1 Comment

Job Interview

September 12, 2009

I’m not sure how many of you know this, but I have been looking for a job lately (well ever since I’ve got my own car). I have scouted a couple of places here and there looking for a good paying job with the hours that I can do and a job that i would like. Well, I think that I may have got a job that fits everything like that!

So, you know how I have done my school’s website (http://usd469.net/lhs/)? I have also done the Lansing PTA’s website (http://usd469.net/pta). Both of those sites are based off the CMS called Joomla. I love using Joomla for websites because all that I have to do is create (code) the template and then install it and make it the default theme. Then train the people on how to update their website by creating articles and stuff. After I’ve done that it means that I don’t have to worry about updating their content myself, or I don’t have to worry about teaching them the HTML they would need to know to update the website.

You may also know that my 7th hour is dedicated to updating the High School’s website, Twitter, and other websites we’re doing. I’m not the only one in that class, but I am one of the four. Mr. Wessel is the technology coordinator for USD 469 (my school’s district). I’ve helped him a lot with some server, website, and computer things. Well I decided to ask him one day if there was any chance that I could get a job helping him out or something of that sorts. That was before school started, so about four or five weeks ago.

As time has went on, things have went slowly but surely. First it started off with he didn’t know if it was actually possible since a couple of things. Then after he found out it was possible, we had to create a list of things that I could do or things that I would do with some quick training. So, after we had that done another problem arose – he didn’t know how they would be able to pay me if this went through. He finally figured it out with the help of some other people. Now after 5 weeks (or more), I see the light at the end of the long torturous tunnel! (Got that from a song lol).

This Tuesday (September 15th) I have a meeting with Dr. Bagby, Mr. Wessel, and myself. I was told that we would discuss my pay, the things that I would be doing and/or helping with, and hours. I think that I will be getting $10.50 an hour starting off with, but probably will only be doing a couple of hours a week (like maybe 6-8 hours a week or less or more). That’s not a lot compared to normal jobs, but hey I think the pay is good for a first job.

Please pray that God helps me and He gives me the correct words to say when I’m talking to them. I really want this job because it’ll be a good one and I’ll enjoy it. Sorry for such a long post, thanks for bearing with me through it! :)

God Bless,
Bradley

Also posted in Personal Life Stuff, School, Website Design – 2 Comments

School Schedule

September 1, 2009

School has been going for about two weeks, and it’s relatively easy. My schedule is:

  1. Strength and Conditioning
  2. Spreadsheet/Database/PowerPoint
  3. Earth Science G
  4. Marketing
  5. Pre-Calc
  6. HTML
  7. Working at USD469 District Office on the websites

My first hour is just going to the weight room on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays we do some conditioning workouts (basically running for a while). I’ve set a couple of goals for myself, one of them is by the end of September I will be doing 45 pound dumbbell flys. I’ve set a couple other goals for myself, but I can’t really remember them right now.Microsoft Excel 2010

Second hour for me is pretty easy, except we are just reading a book and the teacher does nothing. I’ve learned a little bit so far, but not very much since it’s a computer class. Right now we are just ”learning” the spreadsheet part, which is we are actually learning Microsoft Excel 2003. I think it’s kind of pointless because I’ve got Microsoft Excel 2010 on my personal computer. I’m sure the techniques are about the same, but getting to all the options isn’t very close. The image above is a screenshot I just took of Excel 2010.

Earth Science G is easy right? Correct. Except the only problem is with my teacher and the way that he approaches teaching. My class is overfilled (which means that there’s not enough seats [desks] for all the students) and my teacher acts like he has a small class. He doesn’t teach much, yet when he trys to he spends time with one table and by the end of class he hasn’t gotten around to everyone which means a table (usually my table) doesn’t get taught. He also raises his hands whenever he wants everyone quiet. Well, that doesn’t work our too good because usually everyone isn’t looking at him, they are either talking to someone and/or looking else where. Also, his appearance isn’t the best and I don’t think he acts like a great teacher. His beard is very non-kept and doesn’t look like it’s been trimmed very much (or at all for all it matters). Overall I think that I’m not going to like that class… Sadly I have it all year.

I took marketing as a filler class and wish that I wouldn’t have because it’s hard and all we do is read and take quizzes. I’m not a fast reader so I don’t get the whole chapter completed before we have a quiz. Which means I haven’t been doing very good in that class. :( Tonight, for example, we had 6 worksheets to do. He only gave us a couple of minutes to do it in class. Thankfully I can do it before that class so I didn’t really have homework.)

Probably my hardest class of this whole year, is my 5th hour. I went into this class knowing that Pre-Calc would be hard and that I would have a lot of homework from it. That has turned out to be true and we have our first test tomorrow. So, we will see how I feel about how I did. I honestly hope that I do good since it is our first test and if you get a low grade to start with it’s kind of hard to get it back up. Please pray for me!!! Lol

Sixth hour is the EASIEST class that I have had and probably will have. It’s also the most boringest class that I have taken because the whole class is like a review for me. Want to know what’s funny/sad? It’s the fact that the teacher looks to me for help when a student doesn’t do something correct. A couple of people in that class told me that I would be a better teacher than the one we have now. I don’t know how true that would be, since I’m not a very good teacher. Mr. Wessel would tell me to shut up because he thinks other wise since I showed him and three other people how to update a website using Joomla!.

You’re probably wondering what in the world my 7th hour class is. Well, do you remember me posting a while back about doing a website for my school? If you don’t then you can read the blog post here. My seventh hour class is devoted to managing and updating the High School’s website (http://www.usd469.net/lhs/). It’s also a time period where I can learn more about Joomla! and other web applications. It’s a fun class (if you could even call it that), there’s only four people (excluding the teacher/leader). So far I’ve done the High School’s website and the Lansing PTA‘s website. Both are using Joomla!, thus I don’t have to worry about updating them myself. All I have to do is train someone on how to use Joomla! to post articles and such. Very useful web application for people who know ZERO HTML!!!

After reading this long blog entry, what do you think of my first semester or my junior year? Leave me a comment or if you want, do a @b_hilton on twitter.com with a comment. Thanks for reading!

Bradley Hilton

Also posted in Personal Life Stuff, School – 0 Comments
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