Shad
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Homepage: http://muse.harleyroads.com
Posts by Shad
Just a weekend recap
Apr 20th
Since my last post describing how I was getting into Drupal, I’ve worked on it a total of once. Not exactly going to get me closer to my goal of figuring out how it all comes together. This seems to be the way I operate; I get excited about something, I start working on it, I build a few pages, get a very low-level basic knowledge of whatever it is I’m working on, and then I let it go idle for a period of time. I’m trying to overcome that, but not having a lot of success at the moment. Too many other distractions.
One of those distractions is back – soccer season has swung into full gear. Our team had its first game of the season this past Saturday, which we won, 1-0. It was a great game, and we had some great plays by our keeper. After the whistle blew sounding the end of the game, we were all giving each other high-fives and congratulations and lining up to go shake the other teams’ hands when I noticed Sarah was in tears. I asked what was wrong and she said she couldn’t breathe. Turns out she’d been trying to get my attention the last part of the game because she needed a break and was having a hard time catching her breath. I asked why she didn’t just run over and tell me or the other coach that she needed to come out and she replied with “I was worried the ball would come my way and get past me and they’d score.”
Talk about making dad feel like a heel!
After being able to rest for about 10 minutes, she was back to her normal bouncy self and was happy they’d won. It didn’t seem like asthma or anything, she was just wiped out.
The rest of the weekend was spent doing the normal weekend-suburbanite chores. I did manage to wipe out the front page of a website I’d been working on. That was lots of fun. Thankfully because I had the page still loaded in a browser, I was able to create it with minimal fuss and had it back online within 20 mins. Hopefully the owner of the page didn’t notice.
And hopefully this will make me start doing backups more often!
Working with Drupal
Mar 25th
I’ve been working on a new site, and I decided to build it using Drupal. Many (OK, none) of you know I’m a big fan of Expression Engine, and are probably wondering why I’ve decided to torture myself with a new CMS. I have a few reasons:
- It’s FREE as in beer (ExpressionEngine costs $99 for a personal license)
- It supports members
- I like learning new things
- It seems to have a strong developer and user community behind it
- Never hurts to have ‘experience developing with Drupal’ on a resume
It’s been a long, slow learning curve. I should throw steep in there as well. I’m sure like Expression Engine, I’ll have an ‘a-ha!’ moment or two. The problem I’ve had lately is trying to sit down for a quite hour or three and dig into it.
I had some time last night so I was playing around with it. If you’re new to Drupal, one of the first modules I suggest installing is CCK (Content Construction Kit). This module allows you to insert fields of any type where you want them. I’m creating a site for writers, which will allow them to post short stories for review. Rather than a typical Title field and Body field, I wanted a place for a summary. This is where the CCK module comes in. Now when someone submits a story, they have three fields: The Title of Your Story, Summary and Your Story. I will probably change these fields to sound better, but you get the idea the flexibility the CCK module gives. There’s so much to this module that I’ve only barely scratched the surface of it.
Otherwise, it’s been trial and error, trial and breaking, breaking and fixing, getting frustrated and giving up, and then having a thought and going back to it. It’s a long process, but I’m starting to feel like I’m making a bit of headway. Once I have the fields in place, and the comments working, then it’ll be putting it into a layout I want. And THAT will be a serious challenge.
Foggy Morning
Mar 19th
It will be during the dog days of summer that I’ll recall mornings like today’s with fondness. As I sit there on my motorcycle, stuck in traffic with all that metal of the cars reflecting the hot, overbearing sun onto me from all directions, the heat rising from the asphalt, the engine idling between my legs cooking my jeans. As I struggle through traffic to try and get some speed up to create a breeze to cool my sweat-beaded brow, as I feel the sweat drip down along my spine to the small of my back. That’s when I’ll recall wistfully of the rides taken in March, when I was snug in my leathers, my head encased in my full-face helmet and the temperature brisk. Mornings where you felt happy to be alive.
But this morning, as I traveled down the road and the fog grew increasingly thicker, I was being anything but wistful about the ride. The weather reports were promising a beautiful afternoon with highs near 70, blue skies and a slight breeze. Completely perfect riding weather. As it’s been a nearly two months since I had been out on the bike, I figured it’d be a great day to ride to work. It was a great day to ride HOME from work, but certainly not to.
When I got on the 6-lane that I take to work, the already thick fog grew even thicker, and I couldn’t see twenty yards in front of my bike. Combine that with the condensation that was collection rapidly on my face shield and the traffic coming up quickly behind me and probably not seeing my puny tail light, I decided it was time to get off the road. I pulled off at the next exit, and found a Chik-fil-a for some breakfast. I couldn’t even see the buildings across the parking lot, so I figured I’d stay until I could. Luckily I had a book of short stories in my saddle bag, so I had quite the pleasant morning sitting and reading.
I do love foggy mornings. Just not so much when I’m riding in them.
Is AIG Hiring?
Mar 17th
I’ve decided I’m in the wrong business, and have started to look for a new career. I have something in mind, something where my talents and skills won’t be necessary. I want to be able to have the kind of career where I can do badly and not have any reprecussions. The kind of job where I can lose my company money, and still be rewarded. Where I can mis-manage funds so badly that the goverment has to give me billions in loans just to keep millions of other people who depend on my company from going under. And then I can take some of those billions and pay out bonuses to all those people that were spectacularly crappy at their job.
Seriously, because they have a contract they should be allowed to keep their bonuses? Did these contracts not specificy that it was based on performance? If not, why the hell not?!
Bits
Mar 16th
Two posts in the same month? Yes, apparently hell has frozen over.
I’m going to concentrate on writing more again. I do like to write, but as mentioned in the previous posting, facebook has been sucking up my time. I’m going to try and make a status update just once a day, and only check it once (ok, maybe twice, once in the morning, once in the evening) during the day as well.
Everyone have a nice weekend? I had a dinner theater performance Saturday night that was a lot of fun. It was one of those mystery theaters where the audience gets to ask us actors questions trying to gather information about who committed the murder. It was quite a lot of fun. Because of the nature of the play, there were very few lines I had to actually memorize. Mostly it was facts one where my character was and other tidbits that could lead to clues. So our answers weren’t scripted, they were all improv. Which in itself was challenging and quite a lot of fun and I can’t wait to do it again.
After my performance, I picked up my friend Eric and we went to a poker game. I actually won the game, taking in $140. It was a twenty-dollar buy-in, so not a bad return on my money. I was pleased with how I played, and considering when it was just down to three of us, and I had two big blinds left, I think I did well. And caught some good cards.
The rest of my weekend was chores and working on Drupal. Which is a chore in itself! It has quite the learning curve, and if I had the money, I’d be buying Expression Engine to use for this site I’m working on. But I don’t and the economy being what it is, I opted to go with Drupal. I have a few friends who are big fans of it, so that helps when I get stuck. Hopefully it’ll click and I’ll understand how it works soon. Otherwise, my head is just going to get flatter from banging it on the desk.
Dust Bunnies in the corners
Mar 10th
Is anyone even still checking in here?
I’ve been woefully absent of late. I blame Facebook, as it’s easy to make a two sentence update and be done, and that’s where it seems all my friends hang out.
Perhaps I need to gear this site towards a specific subject. Harleys, photography, knuckle-cracking. Something. Guess I’ll ponder that for another four months before I write something here again. We’ll see.
Upgraded
Dec 11th
Running WordPress 2.7 now. First impression: nice! The dashboard has a new clean look, everything seems to be working great and the upgrade, thanks to the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, worked splendidly! Just don’t forget to re-initilize your plugins, especially the Askimet Spam protection.
Who really *is* on first?
Nov 14th
BulaCollazo : hey Shad
Shad : And you are?
BulaCollazo : mari
BulaCollazo : why
Shad : Sorry Mari, I think you have the wrong person
Shad : I don’t know a Mari
BulaCollazo : wats ur screen name
Shad : ….
Shad : the one you’re IM’ing with
BulaCollazo : who?
Shad : Shad
BulaCollazo : yes
Shad : the one you’re IMing with
BulaCollazo : huh
BulaCollazo : ?
Shad : my screen name is Shad
BulaCollazo : wats ur real name
Shad : Shad
BilaCollazo : No ur real name
Shad : It is my real name
BulaCollazo : o iight r u sure
BulaCollazo : ?
Shad : that’s what it says on my driver’s license
Shad : So, like I said, you have the wrong person
BulaCollazo : ok ok
BulaCollazo : bye
BulaCollazo : ttyl
Shad : bye
When I get twitchy…
Oct 22nd
The IMs have been scare a bit as of late – usually when they find out I’m not who they’re looking for, they just leave me alone. Which is fine. I had a couple recently I thought’d I’d share. Enjoy; you know I always do.
—
larence32: Hey queer how do I get music off this shit?
shad: you have music on your shit?
larence32: My shit is very melodic.
shad: then eat less fiber
larence32: Tune filled turds
larence32: You make a mockery of our fun
larence32: I there a way for us to send music over this?
shad: You have no idea who you’re talking to, do you
shad: You don’t know who I am…
larence32: Is this Shad at OneVenice way
shad: Nope
larence32: Sorry Peace
shad: later
—
KnoxD08: was good?
Shad: Who’s this?
KnoxD08:This Is Dari…U Dont know me?
shad: No..and you don’t know me either. You have the wrong person
KnoxD08:Is this Rashad?
shad: No
KnoxD08: who is this?
shad: Shad
KnoxD08: wats ur last name
KnoxD08: jus wondering not stalkin or nothin like that
shad: Why do you care what my last name is? you don’t know me YOU DIRTY DIAPER PUS BAG
shad: Christ
shad: sorry about that
shad: I have a weird form of Tourettes
KnoxD08: um chill out im jus tryin to figure out who dis is thats all
shad: I know, I know – sorry. It doesn’t happen often, promise.
shad: you SOGGY WET TOILET WAD
shad: God! sorry about that – some days are worse than others…
KnoxD08: um ok…
shad: As I said, my name is Shad, not Rashad
KnoxD08: ooh okay mah bad
KnoxD08: and wats tourettes?
Shad: it’s a neurological disorder. It makes me twitchy and I spontaneously shout (or type) phrases like the diaper bag one. Usually they’re crass and obscene, but like I said, I have a weird form of it, so it’s not so drastic
KnoxD08: damn, thats sum freaky shit
KnoxD08: u do that all the time?
Shad: Well, it comes and goes YOU USED UP KLEENEX and sometimes I can go weeks without it happening.
Shad: half the time I don’t notice it right away, but I see I just called you a kleenex. Sorry.
KnoxD08: ur a trip
Shad: yeah, it can be weird if you’re not used to it.
Shad: SCRUFFY GOAT NASTY HAIR CAUGHT IN THE DRAIN COFFEE DREGS GROSS EAR WAX ON A Q-TIP PIECE OF CHEWED UP BUBBLE GUM!!
Shad: geez – sorry, I’m really having a bad episode, I’d better go…
KnoxD08: its straight i understand that completely
KnoxD08: mah fault for botheriing u
Pits and Bieces.
Oct 16th
Not much out of the usual has been going on, hence the lack up updates. Mostly it’s been snippets of thoughts that I always think about writing down. Figured I’d share what I had.
—
Watched the debate last night. I think it’s the first full debate I’ve sat through. I don’t see how you can see those two men sitting there, explaining their policies and think that McCain is the right choice. Watching McCain sitting there, flustered and agitated and go on the offense, while Obama sat composed and collected (and admittedly, a bit on the defense at first), it makes me wonder how soon McCain would suffer a stroke from the pressure if elected President.
—
There’s two words that should strike fear into the hearts of not only Americans, but world-wide: President Palin.
—
Received a newsletter from a group downstairs that they wanted posted on the internal website. Took a half-hour and structured it properly. The result was 289 lines of code. Took the same document and did a “Save as HTML” in Microsoft Word. That came up to 3865 lines of code. I consider that a half-hour well spent.
—
Two Bodies of Mass Cannot Occupy the Same Spot #1: To the lady driving the SUV while on her cell phone and brushing her hair; do me a favor and check your mirrors, look over your shoulder, anything to make sure I’m not in the spot you’re currently trying to occupy.
—
For those Windows users that want to switch to Mac but are tied to expensive programs (namely Adobe’s Creative Suite), Adobe now has a competitive cross-upgrade program that lets you upgrade from Windows CS3 to Mac CS4. They don’t seem to advertise the cross-upgrades that much and they’re only available when purchasing the upgrades over the phone (800-833-6687). But if you’ve been wanting to go to Mac, why not go and upgrade to CS4 (Aside from the obvious cost!)? via TUAW
—
Kung-fu bicycle fight. This is what the intertubes were made for.
—
I’ve been researching CMS‘s for work. Which means ASP/NET based CMS’s, as opposed to PHP, which I’m used to. There are a lot more free/low-cost PHP-based CMS’s than ASP (at least that I’m familiar with). And some of those ASP solutions cost as much as $90,000. For that much money, it better design and program itself, follow up on sales leads, integrate seamlessly with the CRM system, never crash, and get me coffee.
—
Two Bodies of Mass Cannot Occupy the Same Spot #2: Don’t scowl at me because I almost hit you on your bicycle. You’re supposed to stop at stop signs just like the rest of traffic. If you’re going to ride in traffic, obey the rules!
—
Evernote is a cool little app - I used it to capture some of these thoughts so I wouldn’t forget them
—
Fall is here! Great riding weather, and hopefully, if I get off my ass, great picture taking opportunities. The wife’s been bugging me again about more pictures.
—
Best example of a tange getting all tongueled up: “A fresh of breath air” – from McCain at last night’s debate.
And that’s it for now!