Drupal 7 First Impressions

The Alpha for Drupal 7 has been out for a week now so I had to download and install it to see what this new version is going to be like.  I installed it on my Mac running MAMP as that is the sytem I used for development and testing.  The install went easily enough.  Enter the Database name, username, and password and you are on your way.  There were a couple more choices for options during the initial install but those are pretty self explanatory.

The first thing I noticed when I logged in was the Dashboard and admin menu.  I am really liking that this is now part of Drupal Core since I always installed the admin menu module as one of the first things I did whenever I install Drupal.  I love the new menu overlays.  They make things much easier to find.

The other thing I noticed right away is that it seems faster.  Granted I am running with a very Basic system with no extra modules enabled yet but it seems faster out of the box to me.  I am going to take more time this weekend to setup a copy of my Website running on the new version to see how well it works and go through all of the options to see what else i can find.

Based on what I have seen so far, I can't wait for Drupal 7 to get to a Release version so I can convert my existing sites to it.

Good Drupal Training

I have been using Drupal to manage several websites for a couple years now but really have not spent as much time as I should have in learning more about CSS and Drupal theming.  I have been relying on Drupal themes that others have put together and just making some very minor changes to the themes for the sites that I am maintaining.  I spent some time over Christmas break working on a new theme for my Blog site and for my 3 Day Team site.  To learn more about theming in Drupal I ordered some downloadable video tutorials from a group call the Lullabots that do training on how to do things in Drupal.  I have not made it all the way through both videos yet but they are already helping me understand the theming much better than I had before and I consider them a good investment.  The only problem I have now is having enough time to make all of the changes that I want to.

Switched Back Again

A month ago I switched my personal blog from Drupal to Wordpress.  Not I have switched it back again.  I found that I really did want to spend the time to learn how to put together my own theme and not just settle for something that someone else put together.  This is still a work in progress but it is better than I had before on Wordpress and I have learned quite a bit about CSS and theming in the last month.  Since I am now up to four different Drupal sites that I am working on, I need to learn as much as I can about how it works and what I can do with it.  No more Wordpress for me.

New Blogging Platform

I made the switch back from Drupal to Wordpress.  Drupal is a very powerful CMS but it’s overkill for what I need in a Blog so I switched back to keep this simple.  It was pretty simple to switch back and I have a new Wordpress theme that has lots of options.  I will be updating this site with the rest of my information in the near future.  I want to set this up similar to my other platform so that I can integrate this with both Facebook and Twitter.  That will come soon.

My San Diego 3 Day Recap

This past weekend I travelled to San Diego to participate in my third Breast Cancer 3 Day.  I was really looking forward to walking with my team again.  From our team in Chicago we had 8 people travel to San Diego.  We had 3 on crew and 5 walkers.  And even though we were in a different City, our teammate Jacky still took care of us and made us name tags like she does for Chicago.  She does a great job and we always get compliments on them on the route.  

Thursday night we had our traditional team dinner to get ready for the weekend.  Our special guest for Dinner was our teammate Stacie's sister.  Sheila was celebrating 5 years of being Cancer free and this trip was a special celebration for her and her sister.  It's always an honor to have Survivors on the team and joining us.

Opening Ceremonies on Friday were very similar to what we are used to in Chicago just with a bigger crowd.  It did take a little longer to get going because of the large group.  It was not long into the day before we were greated with the sites of the Ocean.  Walking along the coast just never got old.  The biggest challenge on Day 1 was the hilll going into Torey Pines State Park.  That hill just seemed to go on forever.  We did finally make it to the top and I was very glad that was early in the day. We had nice lunch down on the beach and then a long walk into camp in the afternoon.  Day 1 seemed to end differently than we are used to because of the early sunset and the late getting back to camp.  Thanks to the young ladies who were helping setup tents at camp.  It was great to be able to rest a couple minutes before having to unpack.

Day 2 was a little bit of a blur for me since I was really not feeling good.  I was really nauseous all night and got very little sleep.  We still had nice weather for walking most of the day and we were really glad that we did not get the drizzle that was forecast for that morning.  The walk along the Ocean on Tuesday afternoon was awesome.  There were some beautiful homes and awesome beach to be seen.  We actually got back into camp before dark this time so we had a better sense of where we were this time.  It was a pretty nice area.

Day 3 always starts early because you have to repack everything and take down your tent.  I also had to head over to Medical after Breakfast to have the wonderful volunteers there bandage up my blisters before heading out.  I had quite a few this weekend but thankfully they were mostly small and not serious as many others that I saw in Medical.  A couple hours into Day 3 we came to the Hill for the Day.  The San Diego 3 Day has at least one good challenging hill each Day.  This was one of those hills that could have used stairs.  It was not as long as Torey Pines but it was steeper.  It was a relief to reach the top of that one.  From there out it was a pretty smooth walk into holding.

Holding is the area at the end of the 3 Day were the walkers rest and gather before we all go to Closing Ceremonies together.  Holding in Chicago and San Diego are like night and day.  In San Diego they actually do mean that holding is for Walkers only and they don't let in Friends and Family.  They also have a DJ and Volunteers who keep up the enthusiasm of the walkers until all of us are in and we are ready for Closing.  The support for walkers coming into closing and cross the finish in San Diego was simply awesome.  Closing in San Diego was also much different since it was being held downtown and they actually closed off streets for this near Petco Park.  I don't see that happening in Chicago.

There were a number of other differences between the two cities also.  I have never had anyone offer me a Beer or shot of tequilla in Chicago while walking but got several offers in San Diego.  I can't drink like that while walking but I think that is all part of the more festive athmosphere in San Diego.  Chicago has larger cheering stations but San Diego has more people everywhere on the walk.  Community support for the walk is top notch.

I have enjoyed walking in both cities and will again in the future.  I can't wait to get back to San Diego again.  It was an awesome experience and I am sure that this does not do the experience justice.

I owe many thanks to people that have helped me with this walk. I want to thank my teammates who were there to share the experience.  Thanks also to my co-worker Jeff who picked me up at the Airport and helped get the weekend off right.  Thanks to the people of San Diego for being supportive of this walk.  The final thanks goes to all of the people who donated to this walk.  With your help we raised over $9.5 Million to help prevent and fight Breast Cancer.  Thanks again and God Bless each of you.