Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Melissa’s Site and Whatnot

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It’s been a super-busy few days. We celebrated Chinese New Year with our family and some good Chinese food and Melissa’s had a bunch of art stuff going on too. I’ve been focused on a project I’ve had on my to-do list for a while: the redo on Melissa’s web site. She came up with a new design, and I did a template implementation in both WordPress and ZenCart. Now her portfolio and store all look like they’re part of the same site, which is good.

I’m also working on a few other long-standing to-dos that I haven’t done. Maybe, eventually, I’ll feel at least somewhat caught-up. Maybe.

On top of all that, I’m feeling like I might be coming down with a cold or something. Not cool!

Something is Wrong With This Picture

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Something is wrong with this picture. I couldn’t get the photo as clearly as I wanted (given the road-salt-encrusted windshield and ambient lighting conditions), but the bumper sticker captured here says something like this:

Worried about the economy?
BUY AMERICAN
(name of some labor union)

Fine sentiment, I suppose, but a bit ironic seeing it on a Toyota Sienna. Of course, in this mixed-up multinational world, it is worth noting that the Sienna seen here was likely manufactured in Kentucky . . . so it is, in my humble opinion, more ‘American’ than a Dodge made in Mexico or a Ford made in Turkey.

But it was, indeed, manufactured by a Japanese firm, and by non-union workers to boot. I doubt this gentleman’s Sienna would meet with the approval of the folks who printed the bumper sticker.

Adventures in Changing Tires

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So, thanks to my living in a construction zone at least for a little while longer while they finish the neighborhood, I got a nail in my tire. Then I got a nail out of my tire (dumb move, I know). Then I got a flat tire.

Rather than sit around waiting for AAA road-side assist, I decided it was time for another adventure in automotive repair (following up on three previous efforts). I changed my own tire. It’s a miracle.

The tire is only a few months old and had Goodyear’s road hazard insurance, so the good folks at Hogan & Sons Goodyear were kind enough to have everything fixed up good as new within 45 minutes for free. I would have more pictures, but . . . well . . . I was in a hurry to change the tire, and Melissa was holding the manual ;-).

The Snowpocalypse Proceeds

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This has sure been one heck of a winter for us snow lovers, eh? We had a huge snow back in December, then another this past weekend, and now a third today. Today’s was only ten inches or so, but accompanied by high winds and layered atop the two feet from the weekend that was mostly still on the ground. Earlier today, the National Weather Service accumulation data put the 2009/2010 winter as the snowiest winter in recorded history for Washington, D.C.

The Federal Government has been closed all week (did you notice?), and my employer closes their office when the Feds do so I’ve been working from home all week. Personally I’d rather have gone into the office Monday and Tuesday since the roads were passable, but oh well. I like working from home now and then, but more than a couple days is overkill. I find it easier to avoid distraction in the office, plus the lag of logging into the VPN is pretty annoying and slows down the work.

The Feds have already announced they’ll be closed tomorrow too, which has to be some sort of record. I think the blizzards of 1996 and 2003 only warranted a day or two of Fed closures each, if I remember right.

Anyway, tomorrow will be another day of shoveling, which should be an interesting adventure since I’m running out of places to shovel the snow to. No big deal. I might even make it to the mailbox to see if the Postal ‘Service’ has decided to start delivering mail again.

‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head’ Version 1.3

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I just released version 1.3 of the ‘Gallery Shortcode Style to Head‘ plugin for WordPress.

Version 1.3 re-syncs with the gallery code in WordPress 2.9 and adds support for certain WordPress 2.9 gallery features, like the ‘include’ and ‘exclude’ attributes. If you are already using the plugin, you will be prompted to upgrade within about 24 hours.

The patch I had submitted (a long, long time ago now) to WordPress is floating out there in the ether un-used, which is disappointing. I’m going to work on getting a new and improved version of the plugin put together and then submit another patch using that code, hopefully with more success!

WordPress shouldn’t produce invalid XHTML! You shouldn’t need a plugin to fix this!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.