Warning: empty bladder completely before clicking link.
P.S. Yes, the commercial breaks all have Cats in them.
LOLTrek: I Can Has Autograf?
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Monthly Archives: May 2007
No Moar Tweeks Plz! DO NOT WANT
ARGH.
I DO NOT WANT to go through that again.
Well, if you would like to click the PHOTOS link on the menu to the upper left, you will see that I finally got Flickr Photo Album by Joe Tan configured to play pretty well with my current theme, WP-Andreas01-12 for WordPress.
It was… not a pretty process. With David’s help, I had to edit or have him edit several files, have him delete a line of code so that only my own sets are “fetched” from Flickr, and not every public group I belong to, fix a persistent bug that’s been reported (and explained over and over) at the support forum on Flickr, rename a file in the plugin and move some files into the same directory, then edit that file in order to wrap my own CSS divs around the line of code that pulls in the images.
Translation: I (eventually) made it go.
For about 3 hours or more, I was banging my head trying to understand which files in the plug-in needed to be changed, tinkering with CSS (for which Firefox‘s Web Developer was invaluable, with its “edit CSS” feature). David very patiently changed files and gave me “edit” permissions on some that I needed to change myself.
Finally, I gave up on trying to get the guy’s own structure to work, because he had designed it to play most nicely with default theme templates, and pretty much not with 3-column ones structured like mine. So I bethought myself of the instructions at the top of the file that had to be renamed in order to achieve customization:
/*
Template Name: Photo AlbumIf you want to customize the look and feel of your photo album, follow these steps.
You’ll probably need a good understanding of HTML and CSS!
1. Rename this file to “photos.php” and place it into your current active theme’s directory
2. Copy all html files starting with photoalbum- into this same directory
3. Customize the CSS in photoalbum-header.html to your liking.
4. That’s it 🙂The main template files:
– photoalbum-albums-index.html shows all your Flickr sets (aka albums)
– photoalbum-album.html displays a highlight photo and all the photos for an album
– photoalbum-photo.html displays one photo, along with next and previous photo linksTroubleshooting Tips:
Not all WordPress themes are created equal, so default look and feel might look a little weird
on your blog. Try looking at your theme’s “index.php” and copy and paste any extra HTML or
PHP into this file.
*/
Feh. It was not a “4. That’s it :)” experience, but I got there in the end. There’s a tiny amount of tweaking…. NO.
No moar tweekz plz. DO NOT WANT. Kthxbai sleepytime.
links for 2007-05-07
Junk Fax (Printer)
This is the closest approximation I can find to what was "liberated" for me at work:
It needs a power cord (though there may be one already at the desk it's at that fits) and probably needs new ink cartridges. No telling if it works – would need a phone/data cable to attempt to hook it up. The pillager who found it for me mentioned in passing that the "fax part is busted." We'll see about that once I get a chance to find the online documentation.
Buy supplies for Officejet 6110 direct from the HP Home & Home Office Store
Actually, a less fancy model that would suffice is available for around $99, possibly for less through the company's link to Staples. And I found an even better deal at HP's.
It's the simple things that make life easier, but other peoples' decisions conspire to make them more complex than they need to be.
Godspeed, Wally Schirra
BBC NEWS | Americas | Pioneer US astronaut dies aged 84
Sad news… I hope that a new generation of space pioneers goes back to the Moon and beyond, but they'll follow in Schirra's footsteps for the first part of their journey.
She Wore Blue Velvet
This little item caught my eye:
CW Blog: Irregular Blogging by Irregular Writers …: Urning Potential
Evidently, the editors at the Provo Daily Herald have realized how useless online surveys are and have just whimsically started asking whatever nonsense questions pop into their heads. Here’s this week’s bizarre poll:
Which statement best describes your view on cremation?
( ) Makes resurrection difficult; cremation should be avoided
( ) Cremation should be encouraged; God doesn’t care… because, of course, there are people in the United States who, after much thought, have realized that cremation is just a huge incovenience for God. He’s got enough to do on Judgment Day without looking all around the world for your dispersed ash particles and then gluing them all back together in the right order before breathing life into your incinerated carcass. Sure, The Omnipotent One could do it, but what a pain in God’s ass! I wouldn’t be surprised if He just decided to call the whole thing off.
The last time I saw Mom, she was wearing blue velvet, sitting in the middle of a patio table as my sisters and a couple of my nieces sat around toasting her, singing to her, and laughing over old family stories. There was even singing – “She Wore Blue Velvet” was the big number that day.
Okay, well, her cremated remains were in a little container that was tucked into a decorous little blue velvet bag, and my sisters and I had just returned from the business of picking her up from the historic, rather stuffy old funeral home where we’d made “the arrangements” just a few days before. I’m sure the staff was rather shocked at our hard-nosed attitude toward all the nickel-and-dime crap that the death industry sticks on its carefully worded invoices.
One oddity that we had to overcome was that all three of us had to sign the cremation order – apparently it’s a quirk of Utah laws and religious sensibilities that all surviving adult children (and any spouse) must sign, or no cremation may be done. There was an incident in another branch of the family a few years back where one family member refused to sign a cremation form with the other siblings, going against their parent’s wish to be scattered near the family’s vacation cabin (where other close family were also scattered). It was a situation that Mom wished to avoid, and fortunately we were all able to sign the form, approve the ridiculous list of charges, and get on with all the other things we had to do that week.
Mom had made very specific instructions about being cremated with the minimum of expense or bother, and an obit in the Salt Lake Tribune only (she liked reading a well-written obit, and hated the smarmy-warmy gup that passed for death notices in both Salt Lake papers, but preferred the Trib’s). We probably shocked the hell out of the mortuary counselor, or whatever his title was; but he was far too well trained to show any trace of disapproval. I did form the opinion that we were expected to spend money in proportion to our love and respect for our mother, but we knew better and actually had a couple of charges and services 86’d, because we weren’t paying for frills or junk fees.
When went back to pick Mom up and cast a carefully deadpan eye over the final invoice (gosh, it costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars to drive a dead person to the crematory and back – one at a time? I think not!) we three weird sisters waited out in the boardroom of the historic mansion while a functionary in quiet shoes fetched Mom’s remains from the nether regions at the back of the house. When the young woman appeared, carrying a blue-velvet bagged object carefully by the base, Timmy and I made sure not to look each other in the eye, because we were both thinking one thing:
Not only did Mom’s new outfit evoke the evuls of drinking, in a staid Utah funeral home no less, but it reminded us all strongly of how she and my Aunt Lucy used to keep their penny poker stakes in little Crown Royal bags sized for mini-bottles, so there was an air of gambling about her new look, too. Mom used to go up to Lucy’s condo at least once a week to play poker and gin with Lucy’s neighbor cronies, and it was a running joke between them that Mom must remember to bring her stakes, though “it was only a penny to play.” It was pretty cuthroat stuff, but nobody ever lost more than a few bucks. Lucy, though, had a lot of pennies stashed away. She’s been gone for years, though.
Anyway.
So here was Mom, resplendent in blue velvet, looking almost respectable and decorous, and not dissolute or fallen in among drunks and gamblers at all. I can’t remember which of us carried her in solemn procession to the parking lot as we tried to cope with the absurdity of it all without making asses of ourselves.
We were almost to the car before the rot set in.
We started to splutter and get the giggles, and made snarky remarks about some of the fees we’d just signed off on. Hysterical laughter was breaking out all over, so we hopped in the car as quickly as we could.
We spent a good few minutes in the parking lot lot of Evans & Early, making speg tiggles of ourselves in the car over Mom’s new outfit, and laughing off the whole encounter with the professionals of mortuary care. Then we ended up calling my oldest niece and meeting at her little house in a funky old Salt Lake neighborhood, sitting around on the patio drinking and laughing and singing. It was not Crown Royal – it was some fancy-shmancy stuff that Holly had – but it sufficed.
Mom’s last wishes were to be cremated and the ashes scattered near a certain scenic overlook near Rabbit Ears Pass south of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It was at this spot (or near it since the road has probably been realigned) that she and Pop got engaged; it was their favorite smoochin’ place when Mom was in Steamboat with my sisters at a family-run dude ranch. Pop would drive up from Grand Junction, apparently, though I have to do a little more research on the details there. When Pop died, his ashes were scattered near there at Mom’s request, and so next month we’ll scatter her there, too.
It’s been almost a year… but now that I think of it, I wonder what we’re going to do with that blue bag?
links for 2007-05-06
Testing ecto 2.3.3 – a later revision for YouTube
Okay, according to Alex at the excellent ecto support forum, he probably uploaded a fix for the YouTube problem right after I downloaded the previous revision.
So: the search function works, and I’ve already seen the warning that says it won’t display in the edit window, but would be visible in the preview window. However, it isn’t. Why not?
Try publishing and see what happens. The point is trying to get videos show up in Bloglines, though, so I think I still have to put in enclosure tags. Object has been resized to 300px wide X 245 high in the hopes it fits the center column.
UPDATE: Works! Visible in preview pane once published. Does NOT show up in Bloglines with the enclosure tags. Dang. I’ll try removing the enclosure tags this time.
The video is of an over-exuberant Gospel procession at a church somewhere – unsure whether it’s Catholic or Episcopalian. The joy I get, but watching the awkwardly dancing torchbearers slopping hot wax all over the floor and the earnestly twirling priest waving the Gospel book overhead like the Stanley Cup I do not get. The temptation to make a “whirling dervish” joke is there, too.
The music and banners are nice, though.
Where the big Akinola/Minns Event Was Held
Welcome to the Hylton Memorial Chapel
Hylton Memorial Chapel is a nondenominational Christian Event Center that opened in 1995. The facility does not accommodate a local church or congregation on a regular basis. It seats nearly 3500. The facility was designed to host large Christian events and facilitate renewal throughout the region.
Whoa – a gigantic thing like that, and there's no regular services there? What a strange concept to someone like me, who's been on the Bishop's Committees of more than one small, underfinanced mission parish. All this money that evangelicals throw at ginormous facilities just boggles my mind, while we small churches struggle to put together a viable food pantry program on literally nothing but donated food, donated grocery bags to be distributed in the neighborhood, and the cost of photocopying flyers for the bags explaining the program. Also – we can't afford things like air conditioning in the summer, and heave a huge sigh of relief in the spring when the gas bill goes down for the season after a mild winter. We welcome everyone. Therefore, why do so many people flee for large megachurches that DON'T welcome everyone.
It's a puzzlement, but if we were larger and better financed like many other liberal-to-centrist parishes, I suspect that most members like me in the pews wouldn't have the vaguest idea about all the skirmishing about amongst the various schismatic factions (I didn't know the Nigerians and the Rwandans weren't all that cozy, for example).
I'm just a very small fish in a very wide and fractious Anglican River, which seethes with cross-currents, eddies, and hidden snags. Sorry for the ridiculous image, but I just read John McPhee's Uncommon Carriers, and rivers and streams are on my mind at the moment.
Anyway.
I wonder who's on this Hylton Chapel's board of directors? The link to their annual report information is intriguingly stonewallish:
PUBLIC NOTICE: THE ANNUAL REPORT – of the Cecil D. Hylton Memorial Chapel Foundation for 2005 is available for inspection during regular business hours of the Foundation by any persons who request it within 180 days hereof.
Contact Norris L. Sisson, Secretary of the Foundation principle office,
14640 Potomac Mills Road, Woodbridge, Virginia
Monday through Friday (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
Telephone number 703-590-0076
Apparently, Cecil D. Hylton Sr. was a very wealthy man, if this document relating to a natural grandson refers to the same person (tut-tut, a family scandal).
The chapel is politically connected, arranging to have deep pockets:
Financial data as reported to IRS for tax period ending: Dec 1, 2002
Assets: $52,294,700 Total Revenue: No Info Income: $5,490,140 IRS registration data
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The IRS actually has their last 5 years of tax returns online, and here is the one for 2004. It helpfully includes a list of board members and their treasurer's name, Malcolm Cook in Falls Church, VA. Conveniently located, wonder if Mr. Cook is a member of Rev., now Bishop Minn's church?
The board members are apparently…
Hmm, well, no connection to the evul IRD, maybe it's just conveniently located…
Uh, and there's some kind of video of the proceedings at YouTube, let's see if this custom field thingy of WordPress' works:
Not sure if that is working, drat. Nope. Drat.
But the whole thing was liveblogged at babyblueonline.blogspot dot com, with pictures and videos. They all seemed very happy about the event.
The Baby Blue Blogger, who is (whoops, a person of consequence in Anglican Reasserter circles, as she's a Truro Church vestry member and former member of the IRD board) is amused, elsewhere on her site, whenever someone takes "the usual silly swipe at IRD" and cites people like Louie Crew when conspiracy theories about the IRD must be denigrated. It's weird for me to see such enthusiasm for the IRD and its goals. Really odd… but personal friendships are powerful, if you read further down on that last link. Can't fault her for her beliefs. But gosh, that "silly swipe" comment sounds an awful lot like "pay no attention to that guy in the pointy hat behind the curtain."
I suspect we'd have a lot in common when it comes to movies and books, based on her Blogger profile, but we'd have to find topics other than religion to discuss, as she's clearly a deeply committed person of the self-named Orthodox stream in the Anglican river, and probably would think my beliefs were anathema and a dreadful sucking eddy to Hell down the River and all that. It's a shame, really. She likes some of my favorite hymns; it's a pity we can't sing out of the selfsame hymnal.
Left-wing liberal that I am, I do not think that the stated goals of the IRD are good for my church, and I don't get a warm fuzzy from the way IRD press releases are worded so as to dismiss anyone who doesn't believe and live as they do as "sinners," or fodder for conversion to their strict views on belief.
I'm still wondering about the underpinnings of this extemely well financed Christian event center, and the weirdly intriguiging part is that I got to BBAG via this simple Google search: hylton IRD. It got some hits based purely, I think, on the location of today's event, but also because of one specific article (see bottom).
Other interesting events related to the Current Unpleasantness have been held at Hylton Chapel, reported elsewhere by the Baby Blue Anglican blogger. So it seems to be the go-to place when several thousand charismatic, Bible-believing, fundamentalist, charismatic quasi-Pentecostals in Episcopal vestments want to have one or two big revival meetings several years ago that were likened to the start of a Second Reformation, with similar hopes of martyrdom at the stake, maybe, before the strife is o'er, the battle won.
Among the interesting side-topics: this interesting Smirking Chimp thread from February 2007 about the IRD accusing the National Council of Churches of being an under-financed and spiritually bankrupt shill for liberal groups like MoveOn.
But there was this interesting and carefully worded press release:
IRD Supports CANA, All Orthodox Anglicans on Eve of Bishop Martyn Minns’ Installation
WASHINGTON, May 4 /Christian Newswire/ — On Saturday, May 5, Bishop Martyn Minns will be installed by Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Anglican Church of Nigeria as missionary bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). Bishop Minns served as the rector of Truro Church from 1991–2007. He was consecrated as a bishop in August 2006. CANA is a missionary arm of the Church of Nigeria for Nigerian Anglicans in the United States and other orthodox Anglicans who cannot in good conscience remain in the Episcopal Church.
IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb said,
“Bishop Minns has served faithfully as an Anglican rector in many different types of parishes. His strong leadership qualities, unwavering commitment to orthodox theology and social witness, pastoral heart, and great concern for the poor are but four of many traits that will serve him well in his CANA responsibilities.
Guess I'd better find myself a tasteful tin chapeau for church tomorrow. There is no conspiracy, you know.
[tags]IRD, Episcopalian, schism, conspiracy theory, tinfoil hats[/tags]
ecto 2.3.3 and YouTube
Well, I don’t know if ecto can help with YouTube videos showing in my feed, or if I should use WordPress’ custom field for that.
Guess not, at least for now:
And the WordPress custom field didn’t work for me either, though I know nothing about how to use it. I do know that the automatic enclosure WP used to wrap around media URLs is reportedly not working for some people, though I don’t know much about that either.
I suppose this latest version of ecto – 2.3.3 – has some other nifty features that I’ll discover later. All my HTML snippets seem to have made it over the gap, though.
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