It has always been my goal to write more on my blog. I enjoy writing but I have not had a chance to really spend the time to sit down and write. Of course, one thing that has always stopped me is knowing that my blog doesn't look the way I want it to, but this has now changed.

I've been off from work for the holidays and during most of this time I've been in front of my Mac coding away. My first major change on the site was switching the markup and css to use YUI - Yahoo's User Interface libraries.

YUI is brilliant library that helps to speed up the development of any web site by providing code that can just be inserted into your site and will work on any of the main browsers out there. As a developer, I don't need to worry - for the most part - about differences in which IE6 will render a page than Firefox 3.

So, I've done the YUI switch by going in each of my templates on my site and changing the markup and css to create a much more markup efficient site.

As you'll also notice the blog looks considerably different. I went through and overrode nearly every template (and some actions) in the blog engine to create the custom look I desire. This took a long time.

After that, I've been adding a lot more social features onto the site with the automatic inclusion of my twitter and flickr feeds, with plenty more features to come.

Overall, this the the first phase complete. This is my second week off from work for the winter holidays and I've spent most of it in front of the Mac coding away. I'm going to relax the reminder of my time off and will now work on new features and my writing in the future. I've got plenty of ideas of things to write about including how to use Delicious more effectively.

I'm signing off now, but please let me know if you find any bugs in the site. I already know of at least one on the About page with a gap in the images, but I'm sure there will be a few more.

I love the candid captures and editing.

I've just witnessed an amazing and historical event in United States history, Mr. Barack Obama has become the first African-American man to become President of the United States of America.

I'm so proud to be an American at this moment for this achievement. 

I'm a democrat and over these past 8 years I've become more wary about our nation's politics and most definitely have not liked the direction it's been going in. As a nation, we need change and today we're going to get it. 

I've been quite worried over the past few months about this election. I was afraid it would end up being like the last two plagued with 'machine errors' that allowed the Republicans to steal the election, but I'm so happy that that didn't happen tonight. Instead, people voted and the machines counted correctly giving the people of America the man they want to lead us, Mr. Barack Obama. 

I'm looking forward to at least the next 4 years as Obama as our President. His science and technology plans do excite me as finally we have a President who understands that we need to embrace technology for our every day use and not just to create more efficient weapons of mass destruction.  

Who will be the first CTO of the government? That's something I wondered when I voted for Obama in the California primaries. I hope that as a country we'll be able to raise the speed of broadband from 256kpbs to something that's faster than a 3G network, perhaps 10Mbps is broadband. Why do we settle for 6Mbps being the Ultimate connection when countries in Asia are riding on 30 or even 60Mbps connections.

I'm excited. It was amazing watching the results come in tonight. Unfortunately I was working as 8pm rolled around in California and I missed out on the statements that Obama is the projected winner. I started truly watching during McCain's speech.  

I have to say I believe McCain is a nice guy who truly believes in the goodness of America but just clearly didn't know where to take it. Of course, I couldn't stand the thought of an uneducated beauty queen being next in line to the Presidency. That was just a stupid and dangerous appointment by McCain. 

Watching TV of the crowds in Chicago, the people in Times Square, the people in the streets just watching, the excitement was all around. America wants a change and Barack Obama as our new President will give us that change. I'm relieved today went well for America and world. The world wanted Obama. To me, that's also amazing. People in all countries were following this election, they all wanted Obama to win to give America a new breath of life within the world. To bring hope to the world that America isn't a warmongering nation.  

To Mr. McCain, thank you for your contributions during your career. I wish you the very best in Washington as you continue to be a Senator and now help to bridge the gap between party lines.

And Sir, Mr Obama, our new President elect. I congratulate you on your successful campaign and your victory to the Whitehouse. I wish your Grandmother was able to have been with you to watch this historic event.

Congratulations to everyone, to every American lets pull this country back up.