Live and online, I have redesigned and redeveloped the website for Chattanooga’s Classic Top 40 Radio Station, WUUQ FM.

Built in XHTML/CSS with PHP includes for all blocked areas allowing for easy updates, OpenX Ads running all advertisers spots, and a Wordpress theme to match, the new design is a huge step up from the original version which was hard to navigate, created in tables with depreciated markup, and in frames.

You can read the full case study here, and visit the site at http://www.wuuqradio.com.

So I’ve my newest assignment ready for all you professionals out there. And, oh, by-golly, it is magnificently lovely.

Today, my friends, is Wednesday. Where all of my faithful readers see a picture of mine, and try to come up with a caption that would describe it best.

Let’s hear those caption ideas!

I have planted a seed. And a good seed needs nurturing, pruning and water. So I am enlisting the he help of my faithful readers to help this seed to grow.

My son Mark has talent. Real, pure, undeniable talent. Anyone that is his friend on MySpace already knows that when he writes, you are drawn to read his words. I have always found his writing to be deep, honest and emotional, yet sometimes riddled with unnecessary words that discount the impact of the writing. So, with all that talent, his aspirations of being a photojournalist, and him being on his way ‘out’ of school, I thought it was time to teach him about being a blogger, and doing it right.

I am going to be offering him subjects to create articles on and then post them on this blog for you to comment on, review and critique. This will be the water he needs to grow.

We begin today, and the subject I offered up first was Gas Prices & The Economy. I asked him to shoot at least one photo for his article, and asked that I receive it by 2:00 pm today to post here for you to see.

Here is his writing on the subject:

Things Are Getting Worse

At least thats what Barrack Obama said. Of course from the looks of things, we all are getting a big relief from the recent pricing of many things. Gas, for instance, starting in the beginning of 08 was on a steady rise to around $2.50 per gallon. Somewhere halfway along the year, those prices rocketed up to maxes of at least five dollars within the United States. And now? We are back where we began if not in better positioning to help ourselves and the national economy as well. Gas prices have fallen back below two dollars. Some, like this American-owned BP here are near the dollar-fifty marker. With this new found glory of sales, many have found it easier than previously thought for a family outing to a well-kept restaurant for the holidays. Others can now get by with their overwhelming lists for groceries. Whatever the bargain is for us these days, from the looks of things, were comfy with a dollar-fifty per gallon.

Here are my thoughts on his first offering:

• On the whole, I really liked it, especially since there was not even a single curse word in it – a first for him I think
• I like that really put HIS thoughts into what HE felt about the prices, and how they impact him.
• I am not keen on his title. While it is engaging to me, it does not fit fully with the article subject.
• I would have liked to seen some sort of explanation, or a link to Senator Obama’s specific words on that headline.

I made many suggestions to him about how we could better enhance his blog title, and article, and thought I would post the edited version, however, I opted to leave his fully intact and post it here for more opinions so as to better lead him to his professional blogger status.

Your thoughts and opinions?

I love the holiday season!

Several years ago I found this beautiful photograph on iStockphoto.com and decided to create a Christmas Theme for my site. Since my site is created with web standards in mind, it only took a few minutes to slice up the image and create the theme by just changing a few lines in my stylesheet.

I sat down to read some email just about an hour ago, and it dawned on me to put on my Christmas look. Yeah!

If you have created your site the RIGHT way, it is simple to spread some Christmas Cheer with a few color tweaks in your stylesheet and the addition of a festive photo, and still maintain a professional look and feel.

Do you change your site for the holiday?

Tags: christmas, css, css_theme