I spent the weekend relaxing up in the North Woods of Wisconsin in St. Germain where the pace of life is much different than here in Chicago. We enjoyed time with some of our friends who went with us, the Beef-a-rama, and some very scenic drives. I wish I had my phone with me while checking into the hotel because there was a great sign behind the registration desk “Check-in is at 3pm. Don’t Even ask” (with a picture of a revolver before “Don’t even ask”. I loved it. I also learned the locals are not huge Illinois loves. They refer to us as “FIBs” (F***ing Illinois Bastards)…that was pleasant. But – for the most part we had a great time. I am kicking myself for not going fishing while I was there, but I will definitely be ready to spend some serious time on the lake next year. If you are looking for a great time – check out St. Germain. This is a great spot to relax and enjoy the simpler things in life.
Archive for September, 2008
All posts written in September, 2008.
RoundCube Webmail Update
I have been using Squirrelmail since the late 1990s and while it works and is dependable – the interface is still stuck in the 1990s. A year or so ago I looked at another webmail project: RoundCube Webmail but it was quire ready for primetime. The developers just released a new version which looks promising. If you are in need of a webmail solution – give it a shot.
My New Favorite HBO Show: Real Time with Bill Maher
I have been in a HBO slump for awhile now. The Wire and Sopranos are done. Curb Your Enthusiasm nor any other show I am really excited about is on…so I started to question why I was paying to get HBO. A few weeks ago I happened to catch Real Time with Bill Maher and really enjoyed it. I enjoy his humor, outlook on politics, and guests that really make for an interesting look at what is going on in politics today. I am sure Ken would pretty much hate him – but he does make an effort to bring both sides to the table. Anyway – that is what I have been enjoying on HBO lately.
Uncheck Checkbox Values
I recently ran into a situation with a custom form where users had a number of checkboxes where the values were saved upon submit. When they went back through the form to make changes, if they unchecked something that was already checked and submitted the form again, the checkbox value would not change (not empty). The solution (thanks to Demitrious for finding this!) was simple.
Whoa – That is a lot of Water…
Over the weekend, we got hammered with rain here in the Chicagoland area. About four years ago – when I lived in Des Plaines IL – I had the joyous opportunity of sandbagging around the perimeter of our condo before the big flood. On Saturday, we jumped in the Land Rover and headed to see what kind of shape our old place looked like (Des Plaines got over 7″ of rain on Saturday alone). I was completely shocked to see that there was much more water from the rain and the river than when we sandbagged.
Check out some of the pictures taken with my phone while we were in the old neighborhood.
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- The wake as we drove
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- Fun driving
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- Idiot turing out of McDonalds
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- River Road
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- Evan checking out the water
More information: News article on the flood
Seven Years Earlier…
It is hard to believe it was seven years ago today that the US was attacked. I do not think I will ever forget that day. I was working downtown back then – in an office building a block away from the Sears Tower. We did not have any TVs in our office and the only way I found out about what was going on was after chatting with one of my high school friends – she called me and told me what happened in New York City. I had no idea what was going on…I just could not picture two planes flying into the World Trade Center towers…and now I cannot get that image out of my head.
Once I got off the phone with my friend, I walked over to the secretary’s desk and she was on the phone with her sister who was trying to convince her to go home because there were reports (rumors) that there was another plane headed for the Sears Tower. We just had no idea what to do. I then got a call from Amy’s dad who told me I should go home, meanwhile, the big boss did not seem at all concerned but since enough of the staff were freaked out – we had the option to leave – which I did. I tried going to CNN.com, nbc.com, etc but nothing was loading because I am sure everyone else in the world was trying the same thing.
I remember walking out of the my building, past the Sears Tower where people were mass exiting quickly with computer equipment in hand (servers, etc) and then it was a big race to the train.
Everyone was literally running down the streets to get out of the downtown area. The trains were jammed. I took the Metra at the time which has a downstairs and upstairs seating area and I remember standing up in the upstairs aisle – which I had never seen before.
Everyone was trying to use their cell phones but the only people who were not getting a “all circuits full” message were the NexTEL users who had the push to talk. No one had smart phones or anything that could give you news while on the train so when someone would get through to someone who had information – they would share it with everyone else on the train.
The whole time – I felt like I was in a daze…I just could not really comprehend what was going on. I remember getting home and then watching TV non-stop for the next month. I remember thinking – I do not know how they would ever clear up all the debris at ground zero…and I could not believe that not more stuff was there (desks, chairs, etc). I remember hearing the thumps of the people that jumped too when they landed on the pavement…I will never forget the moment I realized that that noise actually was. It was just surreal.
Seven years have passed and how time has flown. I often think about the kids who were not born yet and lost a parent during the attacks…and how they are most likely in 2nd grade now and that blows my mind. Anyway – that is my recollection.
Fall is in the Air
This is by far my favorite time of the year. Penn State football, cooler weather, fall golf, and no more bees…what else can you ask for? It brings me great joy to see Joe Paterno on the sidelines every Saturday – he is truly an inspiration. I hate being hot so the cooler weather (50s-60s) is a treat for me. Fall golf is the best. The courses are in great condition, not as many people are golfing, the prices per round are cheaper, and I always play better with my 2 iron after September 1st. Not dealing with nasty bees is a dream come true because if you know me – you know I am not a bee fan at all. Good times!
Show One Post/Page in WordPress
If you want to have a content area somewhere on your site that shows content from a post or page – and you want to do this with using the simplest of code (no loop, no query_posts, etc), check out the function get_post. The get_post function allows you to simply get one post’s title, content, category, etc by simply adding a few lines (see the example in the documentation) of code to your site. I have used this on a number of client’s sites as well as recently on my company site for the company profile. Keep it simple!
Quick CSS for WordPress Images (Updated)
A week or so ago, I posted some information on how to quickly style your WordPress images. After recently updating my company’s web site (SDAC Inc. – I noticed if you used captions, my custom CSS would not work. Here is some CSS that will work with and without image captions:
.alignright, .aligncenter, .alignleft {padding:4px;background:#ecece2;border:1px solid #c7c7bb;}
.alignright {float:right;margin-left:5px;}
.alignleft, .alignnone {float:left;margin-right:5px;}
.aligncenter {display: block;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;}
The difference? I used img.align.. which worked if you did not use captions, but if you use caption, there is an outer div class called align… The more generic CSS posted here takes care of both issues.
