FREE: Grunge RSS Buttons

No more drop shadows, reflections, or shiny buttons. Destroyed, messy buttons for the masses.

Download includes PSD, JPEG, and PNG formats.

Download

Thanks to Bittbox for some of the textures and brushes.

Posted in Freebies, blogging, design, free | No comments

Needing Some Help

I know I’ve been gone for a while, but an allergy/pollution-induced cold can stop almost everyone. I’m not here to dwell on my absence, but I do need some help. I’m looking for a new WordPress theme. I think I have exhausted my Pixkit theme to the extent that it no longer looks or works like it once did. I’ve screwed around with the code one too many times it’s become riddled with errors.

I’ve spent a couple hours digging through different websites trying to a theme that will fit my blog. There are so many terrible themes that it’s become a chore to find a worthy theme. I’m willing to buy a premium theme, but I’ve yet to find anything.

I am now asking for your help. I need some help finding a theme and with help by my readers I hope to make the process a tad bit easier. Here is what I’m looking for:

White background, black text

2-3 column theme

Customizable header/logo

Relatively minimal design

No large pictures in header or blog

No Magazine Layouts please

If you do have an idea for a WordPress theme (premium or free) please leave a link in the comments. If I do decide to use your recommended theme, you’ll receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

Posted in Blog Update, design | 1 Comment

Saying Goodbye to the Macbook

My Apple Macbook laptop is my first mac and has a very special place in my heart. I’ve used it for school, blogging, graphic design jobs, and even just to mess around. Without my Macbook I would have never started r3fresh.com or taught myself the Adobe Creative Suite. Tomorrow I will be receiving a brand new Macbook Pro and my old Macbook will be sold.

Anyone looking to switch to a mac should consider buying a Macbook. It’s one of the cheaper macs, but it will provide the computing power you need for most projects. I’ve had my Macbook for almost two years and it has just now starting to show it’s age especially with pro apps.

The Macbook is smaller than a standard laptop; making it easy to take on long trips or even just a trip to the coffee shop. When I had first gotten my Macbook, I had people asking me what it was and “How could it be so small?.” The white plastic outside was the biggest concern of mine because of fading and dirt, but after two years I’ve had no problems a little Windex can’t fix. The battery life is okay and will allow for a couple hours of online work or music listening.

The Macbook has been an amazing laptop, especially for a student like me. It’s relatively cheap, but has a lot of power inside the box. I’ve made a list below of my favorite and least favorite parts of the Macbook.

The Good:

  • Bang for your buck
  • Chiclet keyboard takes getting used to, but is better than the regular style
  • Large trackpad
  • Small size
  • Very quick (non-pro apps)
  • Easy to add external monitor
  • Easy to change out memory
  • Mag-safe
  • Front Row (w/ remote) makes watching movies and listening to music a theater experience
  • High quality overall

The Bad:

  • Palm rests tend to get dirty quickly
  • Integrated graphic card has trouble running games or flash
  • Overheating
  • Back-light is touchy, especially on battery power
  • Speakers are weak, especially with music

Posted in apple, design, tech, tips | No comments

InterfaceLIFT: Sleek and Nimble

InterfaceLIFT, the Flickr of desktop wallpapers, has recently freshened the site up. The new design is very simple and is far cleaner than the previous design. With the new look brings faster navigation and fixes the long load times that once plagued the site. The redesign has only been applied to the “Wallpaper” section of the site, but I would expect to see it expand across the entire site very soon.

I’m a sucker for a new look.

InterfaceLIFT

Posted in 2.0, design, free, the web | No comments

The Next Wave of Macs

The iPhone 3G may have taken all of the attention away from Apple’s computer line, but later this year all eyes will be back on the macs. What to expect in a few months:

-Blu-ray drives will be available on every mac computer (including Mac Mini). Blu-ray drives with burning capabilities available only on Macbook Pro and Mac Pro (at first).

-The Macbook Pro will lose the old style keyboard for the new chiclet style similar to current Macbook. RAM maximum will be increased to 8GB.

-Macbook will get a full refresh. New look, still no metal like Macbook Pro. RAM maximum will be increased to 6GB.

-Macbook will get the multi-touch track-pad like Macbook Pro and Air.

-iMac will get its specs updated.

-Macbook Air will get specs updated. Larger hard drive. Quicker. Same price. External USB drive won’t have Blu-ray.

-Cinema Displays will still be expensive and will remain unchanged.

-Going off topic, iPod Touch will see a price drop of about $50 dollars. iPod Classic won’t be updated.

Posted in apple, design, tech | 10 Comments

5 Old and Tired Fonts (+1 More)

Fonts. We see them every day. We use them for work. We see them in advertisements. Like anything we use regularly, fonts get boring. There are thousands of different fonts on the net, many of them free to use, but society seems stubborn of finding new fonts. This unwillingness to change leaves us to look at the same fonts over and over again. Here are five of the worst fonts… Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in design, rants | 2 Comments

The “I’m Starting a Blog” Test

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Blogs are a dime dollar a dozen now and when I see a promising blog introduce itself to the internet only to lie deserted until the hosting plan isn’t renewed, I get irritated. I’m not going to name names, but I have concocted a (YES or NO) test for maybe bloggers.

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Posted in blogging, design, rants, tips | 1 Comment

5 Beautifully Free Fonts

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Posted in design, free | 1 Comment

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