Blog

Custom Desk Preview

Approximately two weeks ago, I started building the desk you see below. It is made of 1.25" steel plumbing pipe and a sheet of oak plywood. Today, I finished putting the desk together and I wanted to give a brief preview of the finished product. I will post a very detailed how-to within a few weeks from today, so be sure to check for that post in the future.

Blake's Desk
This is an awesome desk - if I don't say so myself.

Blake's Desk

Blake's Desk
From this photo, you can see how everything comes together. Believe it or not, this desk is incredibly stable.

Blake's Desk
Hardwork definitely pays off when sanding and applying your clear coat. The finish on this desk turned out perfectly.

Blake's Desk
Paying close attention to my measurements was worth while; everything fits like a glove.

Blake's Desk
The cable management system you see here works very well and was practically free! The metal cage-like boxes you see were purchased from a local thrift store for ten cents a piece. They were originally in a square shape and I bent them into the box form you see now.

Blake's Desk
The cable management system is suspended from the open-ended hooks you see here; this allows me to easily lower any given side to more easily add/remove cables.

Blake's Desk
This is the desk I had previously been using. I purchased this desk at a local office supply store approximately six years ago.

Blake's Desk
Here is a picture of my custom built desk from a similar angle, to give a good comparison between the two desks.

Kansas vs Georgia Tech End Game Celebration

This past weekend's football game with Kansas versus Georgia Tech was a big win for fellow KU fans. Losing our season opener to North Dakota State the week prior was not a pretty sight, especially considering it was Turner Gill's debut with the Jayhawks as Head Coach. Check out the video below to see the crowd's reaction to the win.

An All New BlakeRohde.com!

Today was an important milestone for me in regards to this website; I have just finished version 1.0 of my custom MVC-based PHP Framework! The framework was developed around a similar file/class structure to that of CakePHP, with the exception that it is far less expansive in regards to a lack of: plugin support, an ACL component, a comparable CakePHP Console, application scaffolding, and a testing sub-framework. However, this framework was originally created as a way for me to develop my personal knowledge in the Model-View-Controller software architecture, and I intend to keep the scope of this framework as such.

Although the back-end code is still a bit rough around the edges, everything that is needed to generate the current features of this website is in working order and I'm not complaining. I do plan on releasing my code in the future under an open source license, however, I still have a ways to go before everything is up to spec for a public release.

On a side note, I plan on releasing a new jQuery Plugin that I created for the "Recommend" functionality you see immediately below this post. I expect to publish the plugin under an open source license by next week, so check back soon if that seems to be something you may be interested in!