Well, well, well, it’s about time, I guess. Welcome to my little home on the web, ErikaKendall.com, otherwise known as Internet Espionage.

So, who am I? Easy question. My name is Erika Kendall. I’m a [very long-winded] twenty-something web developer and Internet marketer. Nice extremes, huh? I also run an agency named Hype Internet Marketing and Development. I enjoy long walks in the park, puppies, and lunchables with my daughter (alias: The Heathen.)

What is Internet Espionage about? It’s about keeping an eye on your surroundings; using what you can and bypassing what you cannot. I also work in internet marketing, so all day… I’m spying. What’s everyone else doing? How can I do it better? How can I use this to make myself better? What sucks about this? What is everyone else NOT doing? Why? Get my drift?

“What is Internet Espionage about? It’s about keeping an eye on your surroundings; and using what you can and bypassing what you cannot.”

Where did I get the design from? Honestly, I saw a lot of posts for minimalist-style blogs, and decided to take my own stab at it. I’m a person who loves pink yet didn’t want it to overpower what I have going on here, I like dark colors but I didn’t want the look to be too Gothic. So, I figured this might be a nice place in the middle.

In an effort to make every little post useful, I’m going to kick off my first series, a WordPress series still in development, with some links that I found useful in helping me create not only this theme, but one of the more advanced themes I’ve ever worked with, which will be the test subject for the series.

  1. JTPratt.com — Hacking query_posts in WordPress — In his attempt to present readers with 30 wordpress hacks in 30 days, the first in his series discusses the different uses and allowances that messing around with query_posts can provide. Full of examples and juicy bits of code, anyone who wants to present their posts in a more personalized fashion would find use in this.
  2. Darren Hoyt.com — In Praise of WordPress Template Tags, Part II: The Magazine Layout — The creator of Mimbo (and about five billion spinoffs that shall remain nameless) took some time to break down Mimbo’s index.php file and the tips and tools it takes to present your home page’s information in a much more organized and less Kubricky fashion. I think it’s truly meant as a part of a manual for Mimbo users, but any WP template builder will see the value in seeing how he worked it out.
  3. WPCandy.com — Wordpress Help Sheet — With this being my first WordPress theme, it was rough trying to figure out what goes where… or remember what the code was for this or that. I printed this little guy out and taped it to my lamp so that I’d always see it. Biiiiiig help for spacing out. Guess I should also mention the Advanced WordPress Help Sheet as well, huh?
  4. HackWordPress.com — Huge Compilation of WordPress Code — This one may be a tad bit more advanced, in that you don’t receive huge breakdowns of the code like the few links above, but if you have a basic understanding of the way WP parameters work, you can understand these tidbits. Or, you could just say screw it and copy and paste. That always works too.
  5. WPDesigner.com — So, you want to create WordPress themes, huh? — This one was truly the holy grail for me. Even though this post is over a year old and the site has now switched owners, it’s still an excellent overview of what the average WordPress template must have and how to take your idea from the sketch pad to the screen. The entire series was eventually put into a pdf file (and then bundled with “How to design a WordPress theme” and “How to slice a WordPress theme“, all in separate files), but you have to sign up for the feed to get the good stuff. Details on that can be found here How to Code a WordPress Theme.
  6. DevTopics.com — 101 Great Computer Programming Quotes — Okay, this one may have nothing to do with WP at all, but it’s where I collected many of the awesome quotes that I have on this opening theme. They’re mostly for software programmers, but damn if many of them didn’t apply to web developers as well.

So, in the end… I hope to turn this blog into a community where everyone can learn from one another… myself included. ‘Cause no matter how many years you’ve spent in web development… there’s enough information out there to easily learn one new thing every day.

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