Maybe it’s the excitement (translate “awkwardness” for some) of actually doing something you’ve always wanted to do…turning the dream into a reality. It’s a moment that because of that ONE thing, your life will be changed forever.

I remember my first swig of the Kool-Aid and I’ll be the first to admit it: I drink the Kool-Aid, and it tastes like Apple.

It was in the late 1980’s. I was still in pull-ups and rocking a Mullet/RatTail. I sat in front of an Apple Macintosh Computer. That’s right. I can still see the distinct monochrome display of a dinosaur “coloring” book on the screen, where “coloring” meant clicking different parts of the dinosaur to fill it in with a pattern.

Fast-forward a little less than 20 years, a few PC’s, an appreciation for Photoshop (thanks to Brian Cole, my favorite teacher of all time), and “light-years” from my first computer: A little hole in the wall Mexican Restaurant in my hometown on February 20th, 2004. It was my birthday. A few friends had travelled with me back from Virginia (One being Taylor Swift, my photography companion) to celebrate my 20th birthday.

There was one box on the table. I don’t remember what it was wrapped in, but I do remember the shape: A cube.

I knew what it was. I had been on a journey to find the perfect music player. Everything I had found was “archaic” in my illustrious vision of what a music player should be like.

Everything, but this: The 1st Gen. iPod.

It surpassed all expectations. It was simple. It was sleek. It had rounded corners and a “Chrome”-plated back plate. It integrated easily with my PC (PC replaced with MacBook soon after).

Anyone who has owned an Apple product knows what happens next. You buy whatever is next. You upgrade from the 4 Gigabit Classic to the 16 Gigabit Classic…then you need the Nano for when you don’t want such a big iPod…then the Shuffle for when you need to have something REALLY small. Since you’ve now become a frequent visitor to the Apple Spiked Kool-Aid bowl, you break down and get an iPod Touch, an iPhone, and a MacBook to be sure you’re keeping with your the advances in awesomeness & brand loyalty.

I even bought Apple Stock. I bought it extremely low compared to today’s price, and Apple has treated me well.

Here are a few reasons I believe Apple is not only here to stay, but it might be a dangerous threat to most any other technology company:

1. Simple. If you’ve ever used an Apple product, you know it just works. I don’t have to worry about when I turn on my MacBook being barraged with multiple pop-ups telling me that my computer is doing something. If it’s going to do it, it does so without having to tell me.
2. Sleek. Every Apple product has something about it that just makes you want to look at it for a long time. The rounded corners, the blacks & whites that your eyes are drawn to, the saturation and brightness of the screens. Their sole purpose is working eye candy.
3. Sophisticated. All of my Apple products integrate well with each other, and play nice with everything else. I have no problem accessing external hard drives, wireless networks, any iPod, or any computers, whether they be Mac or PC. Everything plays nice, and I don’t have to go through the hassle of looking up drivers for my MacBook, because the computer does it for me.
4. They’re Cool. Like it or not, Apple products are just cool. The only people who will say they aren’t are 1) Getting a kickback from some PC maker, 2) Secretly want an iPod but can’t, for some reason or another, get one or 3) Are afraid of the addiction. All of the aforementioned reasons are enough to dissuade any PC user if they’re given the chance to play with a MacBook for one week.
5. Beta Tests. I have not once had something quirky like The Service Pack 2 upgrade happen on my MacBook (knocking on wood). That’s not to say that Apple products don’t have their flaws, but 999 times out of 1,000, Apple makes sure what they’re releasing actually works before unleashing it upon unknowing consumers. I have bought the Operating System Updates every time they’re released one in the past 3 years, and none of those times have I had something go terribly wrong. Note: That being said, people…back up your Hard Drives before installing a new OS. Actually, just back up your hard drive. You’ll be glad you did.

So that’s my list. If you aren’t using an Apple product, you will be soon. A very close relative/friend of mine who has sworn off Apple for the longest time finally took his sip of the Kool-Aid today and broke down and bought an iPhone. I know what’s coming next: MacBook, Nano, Shuffle & all.

1. The PSD File with the calendar “pages” on it
2. The PHP
3. The CSS

You’ll also need to get the font “Downcome” if you want to keep the font of the Months & Dates the same.

1. First things first, you need to make the calendar. I’ve included a support folder with a PSD file called “datecolumns.psd”. You’re welcome to make any adjustments to it that you’d like, use it as is or completely wipe it clean and make your own, just remember that later on you’ll have to figure out your own background-positions.
2. Second, we need to create an unordered list in the index.php of your site. We’re going to do something like this:

   
   <ul class="smallentrydate">
   <li class="class="date<?php the_time('M'); ?>">
   
   <a>
   
   <?php the_time('M'); ?>
   
   <?php the_time('d'); ?>,
   
   <?php the_time('Y'); ?>
   
   </a>
   
   </li>
   <li class="date<?php the_time('d'); ?>"></li>
   </ul>
   
   

3. That’s it as far as PHP & HTML go. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
   1. Created a class called “smallentrydate”. This is a wrapper for our total calendar page.
   2. Created a class called “date-fill-in-the-blank”. The big M takes whatever month it is and gives an output of “sep” for September, giving you the class, “dateSep” or for August”DateAug”. Using the shorthand for the month with the big M is going to be vital for when we start on the CSS.
   3. We’ve also created a class called “date-fill-in-the-number-date”…So if the post was written on the 5th, it outputs a class=”date05″.
   4. In the <a> tag, you’ll see that we also requested the output of a date in the form of ‘M’ ‘d’, ‘Y’, which would give us “Jan 09, 2009″ in text form. If you turn off CSS, you’ll see this shows up in the place of the calendar image. This is important for accessibility reasons and search engines…so don’t leave it out.
4. Simple so far, right? Let’s move on to the CSS
5. We’re going to start out with defining some things about the smallentrydate class in our style.css:

   
   .smallentrydate {
   	float: right; /* floats it to the right */
   	height: 55px; /* Total Height of Calendar Image */
   	margin: 0 0 10px 0; /* Keeps a good space from text below */
   	padding: 0;
   	width: 60px; /* Total Width of Calendar Image */
   }
   .smallentrydate li {
   	background: url(images/datecolumns.png) no-repeat;
   	list-style: none;
   	margin: 0;
   	padding: 0;
   	top: 0;
   }
   .smallentrydate li, .smallentrydate a {
   	display: block;
   	margin: 0;
   	overflow: hidden;
   	padding: 0;
   	text-indent: -1000em; /* Pushes Text off the page, to keep it from showing up with a stylesheet */
   	width: 55px;
   }
   .smallentrydate .dateJan { background-position: -6px -303px; height: 15px; width: 55px; }
   
   .smallentrydate .date01 { background-position: -6px -318px; height: 45px; width: 55px; }
   
   
   

6. So to break it all down, this is what we’re looking at:
   
   1. We defined the characteristics of our smallentrydate.
   2. Defined the characteristics of our smallentrydate li, most importantly the background-image, and no list-style and the width, which is 55px for every replacing image.
   3. We pushed the text off of the page that would appear on top of the smallentrydate without a text-indent. It gives us the aesthetics of image replacement with the accessibility of text.
7. You’ll also see that I defined .dateJan & .date01 for you. All I did was find the left and top most boundary on Photoshop of January and put background-position: the left (-6px) & the top (-303px) position where I want it to start. (Make sure to use negatives in front of the values), I also defined the height & width.

You’re going to have to set this background-position system up for all 12 months & 31 days, but 43 is a lot nicer than having to do 365 background-positions. You can also use the CSS included in the support folder, which will save you time typing .smallentrydate .date”whatever” everytime.

Hopefully this helps somebody out there. It’s been a great project for me to take on and complete.

Hopefully some of these sites are new, and ALL are relevant or useful to you.