After I wipe off the tears, wouldn't want them doing any irreparable harm, I'll usually chat with the family, or read, or sit outside, or, if I can work up my inner Lombardi, I'll motivate the family for a game of Bocce. While the shock can be a little harsh, I usually find myself pleased when the internet is not available. I try to use it as an opportunity for mindfulness. Try to.
Seems a case of infectious greed to me. I'm with JPhill I would have caved long ago. Sell it, forget about it, and be happy with what I did get, not regretful of what I didn't, but this is why I'll never be a sturdy capitalist.
I wouldn't want Brad Pitt's abs, but I'd take his pinkie toe. Figure it'd give me a lifetime of great cocktail party lies about how I came in possession of it.
I've had that experience myself, finding nothing terribly useful in the forums. On a few occasions it's come through for me, but as I've become more familiar with WP the less helpful it seems to be. I don't really go anymore. I'll either ask for help from someone I know, or wing it and watch everything fall apart, and try learning from there.
And agreed with the Erin rant. Moderation of forums, or the such, is as much a customer service position as anything. Educate for sure, but if you can't be kind doing it, then don't. People ask for silly advice sometimes. We've all done it at some point. Your job is to not make them feel like an asshat, and to get them stoked about the helpful people running the company/organization.
Once upon a time I'd toast an Everything bagel, slice it in half, smother cream cheese on both pieces, throw turkey and swiss in the middle, slap it all together, and chow. I haven't done that in awhile. I'm also smitten with the stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey, onion, mayo sandwich.
Into the Wild is a great call. Right now I'm pecking away at The Great Deluge, which is pretty damn good. And I always recommend people read Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks.
Reading Ben's recent article on categories and tags brought up a nagging question I've always had, but have never explored. Is there a way in Wordpress, or any CMS, to make tags and categories interact with one another in a more hierarchical structure?
Suppose there's a lot of analogies you could use, but I've always thought of categories as a macro organizational tool and tags as micro. I thought it would be useful if the two could work in concert. For example, on an Archive Page a Category Named "Sports" could be further organized into tags such as: Boston Red Sox, Roger Federer, Nike, Camden Yards, Red Uniforms and so forth. Whatever tags you happened to apply to the category "Sports."
You could then choose to display a top tags list, which would be tags across all categories and/or you could choose to display tags broken down by category.
Not sure if a plugin exists, if it's already possible, or if you'd have to code it yourself, which would seem to be beyond me at the moment. Perhaps this is just a personal desire, but would this be useful, the ability to unite tags and categories in a more symbiotic, hierarchical relationship?
Could be I need to rearrange my perspective of tags. They just seem so chaotic and slippery. I've always wanted the ability to herd them more neatly, but don't know if it's possible, or desirable.
I try to validate whatever I'm working on, but like many of you have already said, the important point is if it works correctly. I can also get above myself. Start a frenzy of tweaking madness, and end up in some twisted wood. Validation can help lead me back to the land of the functional. It's also a diversion. I find it fun to weed out "problems." It can be a form of procrastination, but it can also help me learn a bit about how everything relates.
In a bit of serendipity, I'm sitting on an unpublished post about the attractiveness of a weblog. Started when I read an article about how more attractive people are less likely to be found guilty than ugly ones. From there I started to read about attractiveness in hiring practices. Numerous studies have shown that attractive people make more than their homely counterparts. Same holds true for studies on students. Attractive students tend to get more attention, and higher evaluations than ugly peers.
Setting aside standards of beauty, which change with time and culture, I do think aesthetics trump function/substance initially. It may be a spit second decision, but people tend to gravitate towards what they find pleasing to the eye. As it relates to weblogs or web design, I think you're playing catch up if you don't create something attractive out of the box.
Nonetheless, I'll agree with Tyme. I think over time people care more about function/substance. You could be the most attractive design, but if behind it all is a vacuous dolt people will stop caring and drift elsewhere to get their needs met. I think attractiveness can get you attention initially, and is an important consideration. I don't think it will maintain the attention.
I'd have to agree with the sentiment here. Chances are he'll see your arrangement as a bummer for him. Like Ollie said, "Landlords typically look for the most money for the least hassle possible." However, it helps that he's not a front for a big company. Actually the less property he rents the better your chances might be. I'd think. Means the chances increase he'll view you as a human being and less a dollar bill.
Regardless of how we all feel about it'd, be a pity if all this dissuades you from even broaching the subject. You never know unless you ask. So go in there with a plan and sell it to him, or don't make it about all he could lose but all he could gain. Might be helpful to even practice your pitch before the meeting. Long shot for sure, but everyday people walk away with things they normally wouldn't want because someone took the time to sell them on an idea. Take a shot and I hope it works out.
An impassioned note Andrew. I appreciate the emotion behind it. As far as legacy goes, I've always attempted to adhere to a line of sight philosophy. That is, let those who I see and touch on a daily basis be my legacy . Let me communion with those in the room.
Changing minds, shaping events, this is all well and good, but a legacy happens now, at this very moment. It is not a tale to be written at some future point by some distant scholar. You can plan all you want. You can map out goals, and strategies, and ideas, but your legacy is occurring now. It is not a tale someone else tells. It's your own story. Your own narrative, and for me, it begins now with the person in the room.
I'm of like mind with Ozone. I have things on my mind. I share them through a blog, and by other means. Lists, attention, and accolades are besides the point in the end, and I've observed do nothing to help one create a life that can influence others in a lasting and meaningful ways.
Two of our greatest wisdom teachers, Jesus and Buddha, first went off alone and descended into themselves before they began influencing the outer world in magnificent ways. Your legacy is within you and it begins now. It's not status or printable achievements. Or that's how I've thought of it.
To be honest, I'd rather it not be about me :). Tend towards introverted. Unless I screwed something up in the process, the widgets should validate for you now. You'll just need to re-download.
You work with refugees Cooper? In what capacity?
Yeah, the shelves didn't open for me. I'm using Camino 1.5. Wish I could lend assistance, but I'm no pro. It works fine without the lightbox plugin enabled? If so maybe try putting all the lightbox code into the theme yourself. See if that works. I use Slimbox, which is just a clone of Lightbox using mootools. You could give that a try maybe. Wish I could help out more CK though I'm sure there's someone around here that could. Some pretty sharp folks hang out here.
You break my heart Cooper :). That's a nice theme though. Simple and to the point. I like. I was going to say, though no one's asking me to, and motivated by my own needs, that Gathering validates out of the box, which it does.
Of course, that would be only half the story as it appears with widgets enabled it does not. I can chalk this up to the fact I never use the buggers so tend to treat them like an bothersome guest, a poor excuse when making something public, but I owe you for bring the issue to light. It's a rather silly mistake really. Seems I put the widget function above the ul. I'll go fix that now.
I've kinda let my own insecurities spill out here, this is about you and your theme. So nice pick Cooper.
Oh and that Garret Dimon theme is wonderful. Tyme's right. It's got punch to it.
I think it's great Ryan. It's a lot of fun, and has a lot of personality. Think you can feel a bit about Who You Are through the design. Sometimes designs do a poor job of reflecting the person behind them. Not this one.
I'd echo a few of the suggestions about the header. I adore the clouds and raindrops, but the empty space does drawn your eye. I like the idea of it not being "filled" but maybe a little something to make the eyes flow down the page. Or not. Sometimes we're all a bit to hasty to fill things with stuff. In any event, I think it's great. Makes me smile.
And the comment form is unique. Nice job on that as well. I would be interested to know how you put together the Life Stream. Just to quench my own curiosity. Great job though.
Kinda reminds me of the "scandal" in Arkansas with the football coach getting an tsunami of text messages from his "friend."
Guess I'd have to agree with most everyone else. That's an absurd number of messages. I'd imagine it's an absurd number of messages regardless of the context. Hard to really figure without being personally involved, and knowing the people more intimately, but it appears those two have created a co-dependancy. Ultimately, it's doesn't serve any of them. No one's gonna get their needs met.
Looks very nice. Though I'm curious as to what "clips" might be? I could have missed an explanation somewhere, or maybe it's already around and I'm being absent-minded. I'm guessing it's not a kick-ass barber shop in any event. Video?
Oh, and Cooper, no problems. I'm quite pleased when people bring up issues with themes. I'd rather have someone speak up than give up so thanks to you for pointing out the problem. It's an opportunity to make them stronger, and learn a bit in the process. And all love for the look really should go tri stars way. All I did was stuff some Wordpress guts into the frame, though apparently not perfectly.
Well there you go, Bob saves the day. Sorry you had a bit of trouble Cooper. And much thanks for pointing out the issue Bob. I appreciate that.
Cooper, a lot of those validation errors are because of ampersands and equal signs which if you have access to the code you can fix quickly by replacing all the & with "&" - minus the quotes.
You might also want to check to make sure the flickr code in the footer is wrapped in an
Well Cooper, that might be because I don't know what I am doing :), though I'd like to think it's more an issue with IE being rude with code. I'd love to help out but I do not have access to Windows. I believe the theme should validate so it's probably an IE specific glitch. If anyone has a fix I'd be grateful, as I'm sure Cooper would.
I always like the 2813 Theme. Created by Elifoner and working off 9rules own Paul Stamatiou's 281 Theme. 2813 comes across as a minimal design, or no images or other distractions muddy the connection between the visitor and your content. Might be worth a few minutes of your attention.
To echoed what Mike said, invite Thursday into the family. Allow her to feel like she's part of the pack. At the same time, and here's one of those infuriating dichotomies, allow it to be a dog. I become silently annoyed when I see dog owners freak out when their dogs have the temerity to act like canines. So let Thursday express her doghood.
As for discipline, try to avoid only telling the dog what it's doing wrong. Instead, take the time to demonstrate how to do things correctly. Whenever it does something "bad" show her what's "right", and be effusive with love and praise.
Also explain why you're doing what you're doing. Thursday won't understand a word you're saying, but she will feel that you're trying to help, trying to connect. Dogs are feeling sponges. They soak up emotion. If they feel you're invested and sincere in your actions they'll pay more attention. So actually explaining things to the dog when it's done something wrong isn't really for the pooches benefit as much as your own. One method to focus your attention on the relationship and avoid incidents becoming a string of disconnected means to some end.
Hey Sean, I moved my site two or three months back (to a subdomain) and ended up using this:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^NAME.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.NAME.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://sub.domain.com [R=301,L]
I certainly did not come up with it, and I can't recall where I snatched it from, but it was after much trolling for an answer. Worked out for me, though I can't say I'm privy to all the magic it weaves, or if there's better to be found.
I actually enjoyed it, the abrupt ending. Like jen said you could look at it a bunch of different ways. I saw all the suspicious looking people as representing possibility. The editing at the end was great at developing tension, and I thought it was used to highlight this point. That Tony lives in a world where everyone is suspect.
And when Meadow was running towards the restaurant the last sound you hear before it goes black is the ring of the door chime. I assumed she made it into the place. Thus the sound, and the completion of the family.
You know, Tony's with his family. They're doing good, but he still lives in a volatile landscape of deception and possible death. The ending juxtaposed those two worlds. It's sort of a "more of the same" conclusion. He could die in that restaurant. Or not. We don't know and neither does he. He never did. I thought it was fitting.
Yeah I used Ben's tutorial that Cooper links to in conjunction with the Wordpress codex stuff to put inline asides in an old design I used. I had to spend some time massaging it to work with my site and style it, but it worked great. I'm not aware of any plugin that puts asides inline. I gotta think someone has made on though.
This is a great question alisa. Per usual, I find my mind wandering in a few different directions, adding context to the question, like I'm American, live in a democracy, heading towards political, but this is foolish because the first person that popped into my head after reading your question was Buddha for the simple reason that he was an enlightened human being. I'll take directions, and life instructions from the dude that's floating on a tide of bliss.
The second person that popped into my head, after I ran in through a political prism, was Abraham Lincoln. While the history of the Civil War is a bit more complicated, and fraught with competing narratives then "he freed the slaves," I believe Lincoln tried to live his ideals, which is really all I ask. I'm a bit sick of public leaders who abandon their better wisdom, and shared ideals when it looks like it might be inconvenient to do so. Thought, Word, and Action in concert, that's what I admire. I think Lincoln best epitomizes this for me.
I don't want to hijack the thread, but having lived in Alabama for three years now, it is unfair, and quite often untrue, the generalizations Lelia mentions. Since I didn't grow up here and haven't been here for that long I'm not attached to the land and people in a deep emotional way, but I could argue Alabama/The Deep South has a distinct culture, more so than the rest of an increasing homogenized country. Some say it's a bigoted and simple minded one, but that's a bigoted and simple minded perspective if it's gathered from secondary sources and not immediate, direct experience, which is usually the case. The "our way is a better way" or paternal "we know best" mentality is just as prevalent, if not more so, in other parts of the country.
I've done it a few different ways myself. Hard to pick but if I had to the route you're going might have been my favorite. My pooch and I took a similar, northern route back in the late nineties. Northern Michigan is deciduous, Wisconsin was blissfully uncrowded, Northern Idaho was amazing, Montana was long and empty.
Have fun on the trip. For me, I've always enjoyed a cross country trip's freedom and possibility. Leaving obligation and expectation behind. Following your curiosity, changing on a whim. It's refreshing not feeling tied to one place. At the risk of getting too philosophical, I always felt it was a release of the soul. It must get tired being constantly bound by ego. The freedom and possibility I've always felt on a road trip makes me think it must be a little bit like the soul's release from the constraints of "I". You're just out there on the edge of choice. I don't know, but I am happy for you. Enjoy it.
Not sure about a plugin Chris, but I believe the function 'wp_get_links' has parameter that'll let you show your links randomly. So each time the page is refreshed they'll appear in a different order. Probably not as tidy as what you seem to be after, but no plugin required this way.
Hell, I hope the Knicks try to get him. Isaiah can trade his entire team for him, send them their lottery picks for the next decade, and put Kobe on the court with four sheep. Maybe shear little numbers into their sides. Be about as good as they've been since the days of John Starks going 3-18. Thus ends the bitter Knicks fan rant/tangent.
I watched him deliver what I'm assuming is this same French speech last Friday on his "New Rules" segment at the end his HBO show. It was pretty good, made me chuckle quite a few times. You get into politics and everyone loses their heads (case in point, the recent Rosie-Hasselbeck squabble), but I like his HBO show a lot. Good entertainment.
I usually say "New England" when asked where I'm from, and if they seem like they'd like more, or ask for more I'll whittle it down. I grew up in rural Central New York, moved to CT for seven years, went to college in Southern Vermont, and lived for awhile in Portland, Maine. I feel like a New Englander. I'm now living in Alabama, and though my soul will always reside up North, I'm enjoying it in the deep South.
Same here Andrew. Your blog appears to be working great. I'm not exactly sure, but I think with a paid version of Wordpress.com you can tweak to your hearts content. Not sure about the ads though.
I use Feedburner also, but the basic, free package, so it just gives a superficial tale of my subscribers. Feedburner also has a paid for service that'll give you a more in-depth glance. There's a service called Pheedo that tracks rss, never tried it, and it looks to be more geared towards advertising.
I also use Mint, which is wonderful, and I recommend it, but if you need a deep look into your site's performance and visitors Google Analytics or something more robust might be best. Mint is arguably more of a "here and now" look at your site, and it will cost you to boot.
As aidan mentioned reinvigorate looks nice, and then there's Clicky and Basil to name two others. Feedburner also offers blog stats as well. Think they bought a stat service or something along those lines. And then there's a batch of Wordpress stat plugins, including their own, if you're using that platform.
I'd figure out what you want to do with your stats, and then work from there. For example, I have a small personal weblog with no advertising, and I am not all that interested in how it performs over the long haul. I pretty much only want to hear the latest news.
» Quofda: What is your favorite candy? ... Last Reply: 8 months ago by Chavez_Chavez.
I forgot what I was going to answer when I saw the photo RightOn posted. That lovely cola bottle gummy goodness triggered a total blackout. So, yeah, those are my favorite too.