Our lovely government can’t seem to locate quite a few missiles. I’ll sleep better knowing that. Thanks Barney for the link.
Month: June 2004
Communists!
A boy’s dreams are dashed when high school officials say he can’t take a porn star to prom.
My Mother-In-Law’s Lost It
Not very often does my youngest daughter (10.5-months old) sleep in past 6:00 AM, especially the last week or so as she’s been teething. When I looked at the clock this morning, saw that it was 6:30, and she was still asleep, I was quite happy, rolled back over, and went back to sleep, setting the alarm for 7:30, as I didn’t have to be at work until 9:00 today.
At 6:45, the phone rings. I know it’s my mother-in-law, as she always calls stupidly early. I ignore it, knowing she’ll just probably leave a message. Five minutes later, the phone rings again. I drag my grumpy butt out of bed, get the phone, it’s the mother-in-law.
“Did I wake you?”
What I wanted to say was “Yes you did, you psychopath! What could be so important that you need to keep calling me several times before 7:00 am?”
But what came out was “No.”
Her big emergency that she felt the need to call me at the crack of dawn for? She wanted to make sure that, since she was going to be gone on Friday, that we recorded Ronald Reagan’s memorial service for her.
This is a woman who doesn’t give a rip about politics or the people involved until the people die — then suddenly she has the utmost respect for them (unless they’re Democrat, then she’d probably be dancing on their grave).
And since we don’t get the local NBC affiliate very well on our TV (which is what she expects us to record), we’ll probably be recording the CNN version — which I’m sure she thinks is a stupidly liberal network, and she probably won’t even watch it, even though it will be the exact same video and memorial service.
Bloggers Meetup, and Bend Blogger Mailing List
We need another local bloggers meetup. The last one was a blast, so let’s do it again, shall we? Shannon suggests going to the Sun Mountain Fun Center, which will be a good time (on a side note, I didn’t realize how hideously-ugly their site was). The date set right now is June 23rd at 7:00 PM. And for those of you who care, they do have beer there.
And also, so we don’t have to send mass e-mails around to each other, I’ve setup a mailing list for Central Oregon Bloggers. Feel free to sign up if you were at our last get together, would like to keep informed on our next one, or would like to have conversations that really aren’t blog-worthy. Or if you think having a mailing list is a ridiculously stupid idea, that’s fine, just let me know.
Random Website Generator
I know this site’s been around for a long time, and I could’ve swore I’ve linked to it, but looking through my archives, I never have. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, the Random Website Generator. Just reload the page for new random (and sometimes ugly) design. If you want good designs all based on the same content, you must check out the CSS Zen Garden (and see what CSS can really do). Thanks Rick for the link.
Real Content Management
I’ve worked in a variety of content management solutions, and I helped develop, debug, and test the one in use at Digital Partners (aka ispi). Content management solutions like MovableType are great chunks of software, well written for your basic content manager, but there is one thing they don’t have, and that’s a good understanding of the editorial process.
Amy Gahran has written a great piece (as well as a follow up article) about what she wishes content management vendors and Web site/intranet owners would understand about the editorial process so they can adapt their tools accordingly. A good read, especially if this type of thing is of interest to you.
Optimizing your MovableType blog for Google
Assuming I decide to stick with MovableType and not move to WordPress, I’ll have to make sure I follow these tips to keep a good listing on Google (though many of these tips will work for WordPress as well). Link via Ken’s Side Blog.
Can RSS boost News Site Traffic?
In short, yes. It’s not a ton right now, but it’s increasing it just the same. Bend.com has their feed, and I wonder how much it’s helping them (considering it’s not even mentioned anywhere on the site). Now we just have to convince the Bulletin to get one.
Super Mario War
The idea behind this cool little Super Mario Deathmatch game is to stomp as many other Marios as possible. Network play is in the works. Link via Waxy.