Will I get one? For sure!

Even the first version? Yes!
(Even though Ben usually gets screwed with version 1 of Apple products – my favorite all time Apple products have been version 1 (my beloved Blue & White, iPhone, Mac Mini, and the Bondi blue iMac)

Will I stand in line for it? Possibly – depends on the weather.

What do I love about it?

1. I have been thinking about getting a new laptop for the kitchen or the livingroom – just something to have around to check email and look things up on the web. Now I can get something cool and cheap!
2. I travel a lot…and with a 3 year old. My iPhone has been great for him (photos, games, videos) – this will be better.
3. I can easily watch my favorite episodes of Modern Family now anywhere, any time – very easily – on a great display.
4. The price. How amazing was that – to be completely shocked with the low price (usually Apple shocks you the other way)
5. Ken will have some crappy complaint(s) about it and I will laugh and laugh as I enjoy mine and watch him get one a few years later

I think Apple did a great job with the initial release and look forward to buying one soon! I really think this is exactly what my grandparents need as well (and my parents if they had high speed or wifi).

What does jQuery TOOLS offer?

• Tabs
• Tooltips
• Overlays
• Expose
• Scrollable
• Flashembed

Last week I decided to finally step out of using what I normally used (Thickbox for overlays) and try something from jQuery TOOLS. One look at their demo and I was completely sold. The overlays were slick, easy to implement and best of all – really light weight. Demo: click on the photo.

If you have any web development projects coming up or in the mix, do yourself a favor and check out the demos at jQuery TOOLS. You can accomplish a lot with a little (and have fun doing it).

• First and foremost – working with images just got a lot cooler!
• Thumbnails Finally after creating several custom plugins for this – there is now a simple way to select and then use a thumbnail for each post. Simply add a few lines of code into your theme’s functions.php file and you are ready to go.
  [php]
  add_theme_support( ‘post-thumbnails’ );
  set_post_thumbnail_size( 150, 150, true ); // Normal post thumbnails[/php]
  (more details)
• Cropping Ever need to crop a photo for your post or page? You can now upload any image, use built in crop functions to select the part of the image you want, save the cropped photo, and then use it – all within WordPress. Say goodbye to opening up Photoshop, cropping, saving, uploading, etc. Say hello to an easy to use streamlined process.
• We’ve got trash! No more “crap I just deleted that post”. Now you have the option to Edit, View, or Trash a post or several posts. Once the items are in the trash you can easily recover them or permanently delete them.
• Repair those tables please.Now you can automatically optimization your database by adding this line to your wp-config.php file: define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true);

Some screenshots of interest

Use As Thumbnail

Crop, Scale, etc

If you have not updated to this version – please take some time and take a look. The cropping alone will save hours of time if you ever needed to manipulate your images! Overall, this update took things one step further to making a solid, feature rich content management system and I am excited to use some of these new features with each new site I create!

I recommend subscribing the RSS feed. The site will not disappoint.

It is nice to see a few things:

1. The series is only available on the web which gives them more control over everything (story, content, delivery)
2. It is much more professional than you would expect
3. Even though it is only 5-10 minutes per episode – it does not bother me. The 5-10 minutes per episode is well spent and I look forward to every Friday to see the next episode.
4. The acting is amazing (not that I would expect anything less than that with the cast

Interested? You can read more about Venice on their web site.

Pita on the lookout

We went and got her and I was happy as could be. She was cute, and Amy did not really have the same love for cats as I did so I would surely be the cat’s #1 person. When we got her home, she instantly went into the bathroom and wedged herself between our tub and sink and I was forced to try and get her out using a yardstick.

Pita and Amy

We moved three times with Pita, added in another cat Salsa, a greyhound Triscuit, Triscuit’s brother Colby last year after Triscuit died, and then our son Evan, and throughout all of it, Pita remained shy, but with no questions, the alpha of the pack. She intimidated her animal siblings, put them in their places, and ran the house. When we moved to our most recent house and I started working from home, things changed a bit and Pita stayed in my office under my desk with me every minute of every day that I worked. If I left my office, she would meow non-stop and I always joked about giving her a raise, etc for all the work she did. She did have her moments of eating my contracts, meowing during conference calls, and trying to sit on my Mac Book Pro as I was trying to work, but I loved having her around.

Sleepy Pita

I met with the vet last Wednesday with semi-hopeful news. Her levels were not great, but the vet was impressed that she seemed much more perky and she sent her home with me…along with instructions to feed her every hour. I did that Wednesday and Thursday but it was so emotionally draining to see her go down hill every time I entered the room I called the vet Friday morning and asked if I should bring her in for another day of intensive care. The vet told me it would be best to keep her at home and to just keep at the feeding – so I did. The 1:30 feeding was rough – she showed no interest in swallowing and it just killed me. The last thing I did with her was brushed her fur and told her that “every girl, even if they did not feel good should still be able to look pretty”. She purred, I told her I loved her, and then left her alone to rest until the next feeding. When I went back in at 2:30 she had died.

She was an amazing cat who died a few months short of her 11th birthday. I wanted to thank the wonderful doctors and staff at Skycrest Animal Clinic for everything they did for her. I will truly miss her presence and will always remember her as my little helper.