Scott LaPlant's website & journal

I recently lost someone very close to me. While the initial shock was probably the hardest thing to deal with, I’ve found myself celebrating, remembering, and enjoying their life instead of mourning the loss.

Sure, I’m incredibly sad and obviously I’m going to miss not being able to pick up the phone and talk. I’ll miss not seeing him and being able to bounce ideas off him but, at the end of the day he’s left me with wonderful memories. I’d rather enjoy these memories right now than cry over his passing. Maybe I’ll do that at some point but, right now it just seems more appropriate to laugh at the good times.

I’ve never been one to make New Years resolutions – and I’m not really sure why this year was different but, I decided to make a resolution for myself. I’ve committed to getting back into shape and honestly, I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. In a very short period of time I’m already seeing benefits.

Despite what the title may lead you to believe, I honestly have no idea what this might mean for you. What I think it might mean for content publishers, i.e., newspapers, magazines, and content/media companies in general, is that consumers will finally have a device that will allow us to consume this content in a more natural, comfortable way.

Well, the new design is up and for the most part I’m pleased with how it’s turned out. It wouldn’t be a redesign if it wasn’t still in need of some further refinement and tweaking. Over the course of the next three days I’ll be tweaking, refining, and completing this theme.

Before that happens, I’d like to give some credit where credit is due! My good friend and Wordpress hacker, Keith Solomon is responsible for things working properly. He’s an incredibly gifted Wordpress developer and I would encourage you to contact him if you’re looking for work done on your Wordpress install.

I’ve fallen back in love with Wordpress. Over the past few years, with the attention to standards based markup, it’s easy to understand code and the vast array of plugins and active development on the platform, it’s been easy to love.

One plugin that stands above the crowd (at least for me) is Gravity Forms. It makes creating forms a snap. I sent a question to their support email and received a response inside of 5 minutes. No idea if that’s the norm but I was impressed.

Speaking of being impressed… creating a form only took me a matter of minutes. I’ve been playing around with it and I’m truly blown away by just how simple it is to use.

Do yourself a favor… if you work with wordpress and create a lot of forms, you’ll really want to check out Gravity Forms. It’s a real time saver.

I’ve been busy getting accustomed to the new job and loving every minute of it. As sometimes happens, you get busy and forget about the other things you have going on in life, namely this blog.

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new design. I’ve never really finished this one – it just never felt like it fit me.

My hope for everyone is that you’re spending the holiday season with friends and family and you’re taking time to enjoy the peace and quiet. I’m looking forward to the extended time off. I can’t wait for the New Year. This past year has been a good one for a lot of reasons and I’m hoping to continue the trend and get on a roll.

From my family to yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a wonderful New Year!