11.Feb.2011 Top Five for Valentines

1. Zombie Love Song
2. Kid Cudi – all along
3. The Submarines – Birds
4. Black Keys – Everlasting light
5. James Vincent Mcmorrow – And if my heart should somehow stop

08.Feb.2011 Music: The Submarines – Birds

dig it:

28.Jan.2011 @p2pu WordPress Development Course: Assignment 1

I signed up for the P2PU WordPress Development course to challenge myself in design and getting a little handle on php, WordPress development and other stuff like theming (thought it might help with my work at Moodlenews.com and beyond).  Assignment 1 was to create a blog for a potential photographer client (in short order).

So after changing a spare domain’s name servers to my Bluehost account and installing a fresh WP via cPanel I was ready to go.  It took about an hour’s time, which really is a testiment to the quality of themes available freely on the web and how great WP just is out of the box.

1. Change nameservers
2. Install WP
3. Cleanup the default info
4. Create the requisite pages (contact, about, gallery, services)
5. Upload some media for use in the galleries and in posts (I just used the images that come default with Windows 7, they look nice and professional so it’s a good proxy for a professional photographer’s style/quality)
6. Find a good theme: I settled on AutoFocus 1.0.1 by Allan Cole which I’m really digging.  It creates a really snazzy landing page for more recent posts.  Something I’d be stoked to see landing on a photographer’s website.  After adding a few (10) posts to fill out the landing page it was on to the next step
7. Creating/installing a nice “gallery/slideshow” type app for the Gallery page wasn’t necessarily required, but many of the peers in the course seemed to be adding some nice slideshow features so I figured I should take a crack at it too.  I chose the Portfolio Slideshow which didn’t require any additional installation of code and could be configured right in posts/pages.  It was simple to setup, though I’m not a fan of the way it requires each image to be listed if you don’t want to display all of them (time-consuming…) “[portfolio_slideshow include="sample19,sample18,sample17,sample16,sample15,...lastimagename"]” in face I couldn’t get that to work correctly so I just deleted the images I didn’t want in the show and voila.  Mission accomplished: http://www.woople.org/gallery/
8. That’s it!  Check out the sample site I created at www.woople.org.

If one thing is obvious, I like really simple/spartan site design:

26.Jan.2011 Sir Ricky Gervais

Last night I dreamt that I was interviewing/hanging out with Ricky Gervais. Run down of the conversation:

• Why isn’t he “Sir Ricky Gervais” yet? (he said he was in queue but that these things take lots of time)
• What are his favorite Netflix Streaming Movies? (Cash Back, Juno, and “Egg Fried Country”…I haven’t checked to see if that last one is a real movie yet)

Those are the only questions I remember…then we went and drank a PBR with my friend and went to a party.

I have to say that my interview questions were a lot better than Jon Stewart’s (from his most recent show where they just giggled the whole time).

14.Jan.2011 1/14/11 Top Five

So busy lately, but here goes:

1. Fitz and the Tantrums – Winds of Change
2. Daft Punk – End of Line (from Tron Legacy)
3. The Black Keys – Lengths
4. The Decemberists – Don’t Carry it All
5. Atomic Tom – Maybe I’m Wrong

I’m not sure what to think seeing as #1 is from an NPR show.  If you don’t listen to Marketplace you should (just for the awesome music).  Tron Legacy was great, especially since The Dude was in it.  Black Keys are the underrated band of last decade, Decemberists can thank Kenny for their appearance here and I just like the mellowness of the Atomic Tom song.

12.Jan.2011 FOR YOU, O DEMOCRACY (Walt Whitman)

FOR YOU, O DEMOCRACY

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America,
and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other’s necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!
For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (read it free at Dailylit.com).  I’m not sure how accurate this poem is anymore…

“Trilling” by the way is “flowing in a small stream or in drops/to trickle”

25.Dec.2010 Running Santa

The following is a work of fiction.  Merry Christmas!

It was cold and dark still.  The early morning traffic was light, if not non-existent.  During the day the steady flow of traffic (both foot and vehicular) changed the available landscape dramatically.  But at this early hour the pavement was clear and open.

I took a deep breath and two bounds down the short landing to the sidewalk and started my music in a fluid motion.  I was off and jogging down the smooth red brick.

After a few minutes I turned to go up through the town center.  The snow on the ground had been reduced to icy lumps on both sides of the walkway.  The shop lights were still on showcasing the holiday decorations adorning the window displays of the hippest clothing, most advanced electronics and other shiny new toys.  Red, green, blue and white lights blinked on all sides, accented with the flashing yellow and red of the traffic lights.

A few blocks later and the shops were gone.  The sidewalk winding down hill towards the running path along the main road was lined with home decorated to various degrees.  The spartan but charming fake candles in each window at one house.  Another with a fat inflated Santa-scene in a snow globe with it’s automatic fan humming throughout the night to keep it inflated.  Hand tied ribbons adorned the next house.  A red velvet bow tied along it’s cast iron railing and on the evergreen wreath on the door.

After 20 minutes I still hadn’t seen another soul.  No cars or dogs or other crazy runners are up this early on Christmas morning, I thought as I veered off the sidewalk onto the paved path along the river.  Most normal people are still enjoying the warmth of their beds.

My breathing steadily coinciding with every other stride as I surveyed the pavement ahead.  Luckily night was starting to fade and the pre-dawn light exposed the worst patches of black ice.  I followed the path to it’s end into a cul-de-sac and continued past the huge brick townhouses.  In the dim light their most severe flaws and cracked bricks were hidden and they were temporarily transformed to their former glorious states.  Their decorations were a little disheveled here and there but the spirit of the holidays permeated the long row of housing.

I took a right and was startled by a shadow moving quickly between the houses up ahead.  Whenever I’m running in the morning I get spooked by the simplest of things: a squirrel running between a shrub and tree or a deer standing perfectly still.  I slowed immediately and squinted to see better.  Whatever it was wasn’t moving again and wasn’t immediately in sight.  I slowed and stopped; straining my eyes to see the movement again.  Suddenly it, rather, he, bounded off of a stoop and ran toward me and to another house on the street.  This was actually a pretty normal sight in the early AM outside the city.  Delivering papers is still done door to door.  But do they deliver on Christmas? I asked myself as I resumed my jog.  We closed the distance and the so-called “paper boy” and noticed that there was no car following where his papers were stashed.  Maybe its the end of his route, I concluded.

At about 100 yards I noticed the all red running suit with white accents.  Festive.  The hat to match was a nice touch.  He bounded up a stoop and crouched just for a second.  He turned and jumped down the 5 stairs and hit the ground running to the next house across the yard; when running between houses he was moving quickly, much faster than my own pace.  At about 10 yards I noticed as he crouched he left a shiny silver envelope at each door step and had a handful in his left hand and a quiver peaking out of the pocket of his red running pants.  He stood, turned and leap down to ground level from another porch and landed soundlessly on the ground poised to move but perfectly still as if startled to see me.  I speechlessly raised an arm to wave and continued by.  He winked and started running as if off a set of blocks.  The red runner sped across the grass and headed towards another porch.  I turned and craned my neck but only caught a flash of red disappear down the street.

I continued jogging on my way back home.  Each house I passed had a shiny envelope at the front door, waiting for the home owners to finish their traditional Christmas morning exercises: rooting through stockings, opening presents and cooking Christmas-y breakfasts.  What a great additional gesture of cheer the Running Santa was bestowing to the neighborhood, I thought.  Cheered myself by the random act of kindness.  I took the next left and headed back towards home.  A few flurries had started to fall and the first early morning drivers were starting to venture out towards their Christmas morning destinations.  My destination was the warmth of our living room with crackling fire.  My plans were hot spiced coffee and a relaxing day of Christmas classics and preparing the traditional evening meal.  A day of rest without the to-do lists or computer screen.

I rounded the final bend and climbed the last short incline.  Despite the frigid air I sweaty and damp, but thoroughly warmed from the jog.  Our windows were still dark inside but each was bordered with a string of white lights.  At the bottom of the steps I stopped to stretch, beginning a perfectly relaxing Christmas.  After a few minutes I started up the stairs toward the door, and just missed stepping on the shiny silver envelop with wishes and words for the holiday and New Year.

Merry Christmas from the Running Santa.

[image adapted from holiday cards on sale at https://www.fargonegreetings.com/; and by adapted I mean that I added the Nike swoosh ]

21.Dec.2010 Quote – That’s why their called lessons…

`That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: `because they lessen from day to day.’

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Chapter 9) by Lewis Carroll.  Read it for free at DailyLit.com.

17.Dec.2010 Top Five (12/17/2010)

What no Kanye?

1. Matisyahu – Miracle
2. Cee Lo Green – F*ck You
3. Atmosphere – My Songs
4. Jeremy Messersmith – A Girl, A Boy and a Graveyard
5. 2AM Club – Worry About You

Ok, I missed the boat on this one, but Happy Hanukkah!  My favorite Jewish Reggae Artist is back this holiday season with a pretty good song (thanks NPR!) and a quality video featuring Matisyahu as Santa.  Enjoy “F*ck you”.  I thought I had all of Atmosphere’s discography but had missed this gem.  If you don’t know Jeremy Messersmith, you should.  It’s very mellow music from a Minnesota artist who has great videos from Eric Powerup [http://www.ericpowerup.net/], who does some of the coolest animations and papercraft videos around.  Finally, 2AM Club…I’m not as keen on the chorus as the verses, but overall the song is good.  Never heard of the group until a Benzi mixtape but I think this song is worth a listen.

16.Dec.2010 Quote, Walt Whitman: “What is all else to us?”

The oath of the inseparableness of two together, of the woman that
loves me and whom I love more than my life, that oath swearing,
(O I willingly stake all for you,
O let me be lost if it must be so!
O you and I! what is it to us what the rest do or think?
What is all else to us? only that we enjoy each other and exhaust
each other if it must be so;)

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass. From “From Pent-Up Aching Rivers”.  Read it free at Dailylit.com.