After a couple of months of messing with the settings in WPG2 to get my photos/images displaying in a sweet lightbox like container, I have finally managed to do it (go ahead, click on the peanut, you know you want to!). Turns out there’s an issue somewhere with the wpg2 lightbox script and something else that wordpress is running. I don’t know what it is, so don’t ask.

What I do know is that by using the laptop (though I could have done it on your grandmother’s old 386 machine as well) I was able to install a lightbox (version 2.2) script through the plugin manager in wordpress (I love it!) and disable the internal lightbox script in WPG2. This, coupled with my innate knowledge of all things technical corrected the issues and once again let my images live in Lightbox Glory.

Not that any of you cared…

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So there’s been a lot of nothing in the news lately (and twitter noise) about Swine Flu (or 2009 H1N1 as those in the know are calling it). I wanted to do a little more research in to this mysterious aliment that seems to have the world in a tizzy so I hit everyone’s favorite news source CNN.

Luckily, CNN has a plethora of articles on the mysterious flu everyone calls Swine. No, Virginia, you cannot get the flu from a door knob, but you could get it by sucking face with someone who has it. Or, if you’re VP Biden, being in a confined space like an airplane or bathroom, or coat closet with some one who has it. Surprisingly, there are only about 109 known cases in the US and 236 in the world. There has only been one H1N1 related death so far in the states, but more are “predicted”.

In Comparison, there have only been 53 (Pediatric) Deaths caused by the normal flu virus this season. So yea. By the way, I’m not a doctor.

It seems to me though, that if you want to stay safe, avoid planes, trains, busses, offices, other people. Follow Biden’s example and hole yourself up in your house (dark corner of the basement is preferred) until the WHO (not the band, the World Health Organization) says its safe to come outside without a mask on. Or, just wash your hands constantly. Oh, and void kissing Pigs.

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One of the two days out of the year that I dread is coming up in a little under two weeks. Add to the fact that Mother’s Day always falls on our Anniversary weekend and I’m equally screwed. Do I go with Jewelery, do I get Amy a spa day or will flowers and a card cut it this year? In the past I’ve done things as simple as a gold necklace and as intricate as a birthstone ring (which is now going to be incorrect, so there’s another trip to the jewelery store). This year, I wasn’t going to go too outrageous due to the current economic situation, but a special something is in order.

Luckily, I came across a site provided by Bella True, one of the premier online jewelery stores, that provides some really good tips. I happen to like the page of “Special Days” that they have lined up which they talk about the days on the calendar (Valentines, Mothers Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries, baby’s birth, you get the idea). They talk about colors under birthdays (because birth stones are a *BIG* deal when it comes to picking the right stones) and suggest colors for other days like christmas (emeralds) and valentines day (ruby’s).

Not only that, but they also have a bunch of tips to help pick out the right engagement ring (if you’re the adventurous type who is going to pick out the ring with out your love’s input) or picking out the right piece of jewelery (IE: don’t buy the big hoop earrings if she’s in to smaller diamond studs!) because we all know that picking out the wrong piece of jewelery can be as bad as telling her that her outfit *does* make her butt look big.

Whether or not its a necklace, ring or earrings (or maybe even a broach) you can’t go wrong having a couple of simple tips in your knowledge bank.

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Our third daughter is supposed to be joining us any day now (if I had my preference it would have been earlier this week). I came across this little number by Taken By Trees while searching for another artist (that Amie Street ended up not having). The song choice today is “Sweet Child of Mine” and is a really good cover of the original song. Listen to the music and think 80’s hair bands! But hotter.

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I’m in San Francisco for a couple of days on a business trip (my one business trip a year), its a user group conference for our MIS System. We landed yesterday afternoon at about 5:30pm local time (8:30pm at home) and we made our way to our hotel (the Hilton Financial District) and we checked in. I say we, its me and a guy from work. Last year, the conference was in Vegas and Amy went with. This year, she’s a little pregnant and was unable to come. Anyways, we checked in, freshened up (it *is* a five hour flight from Atl to SFO….) and we walked across the street to R&G Lounge for some authentic chinese food.

Rich had the Ling Cod (a pacific fish) and I had the R&G Special Beef. Both were pretty good. After dinner, Rich called it a night and I took off for a little jaunt around the area. I walked a couple of blocks and went up to China Town, thru the eclectic mix of shops and down a couple blocks to the pier. I hit up twitter to find out some good local joints and found a place called the Old Ship Saloon. Had a tasty local brew called Poppy Jasper’s Amber Ale and made my way back to the hotel.

Today was spent in a series of sessions (w00t!) and tonight was a pretty good vendor sponsored group dinner at a place called the Waterfront Restaurant on the pier. It was only about a nine block walk down Kearny to Broadway and then to the pier. Nothing too bad at all. Dinner was good, the company at the table was a riot.

After dinner (and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and two glasses of Cabernet) I decided to go for a walk. I made my way down the piers to Fishermans Wharf. Most of the stuff (stores) were closed, and I hadn’t been there in for ever (my grandparents used to live on the other side of the bay) but it was fun to walk down and see the lights of the wharf. Maybe I’ll make my way back down there tomorrow night. Have to find something for the girls anyways.

From there, I made my way to Ghirardelli Square. I picked up a little something for the Amy (as G&E don’t need expensive chocolates) which I won’t let her have until after Mary ‘The Leaves’ comes due to the Gestational Diabetes she’ll enjoy them none the less. As I was walking along Columbus, I had the interesting fortune of meeting a character named Patrick.

Patrick had a very thick irish accent and apparently a grudge against the insurance and medical industries as he urged me to visit the doctor but refuse to pay the copay. The conversation was maybe five minutes at most, but it was one of the most surreal conversations I’ve ever had. Quite a character. Almost wish I had snapped a photo.

After leaving patrick to go on his way, I continued down Columbus to find a restaurant that my sister and brother-in-law recommended (we plan on eating there tomorrow night) called the Stinking Rose. It turns out its less the five blocks from the hotel. In all, I covered about 3 miles in the time I was walking (my phone showed 6km, which sounds soooo much cooler) at a fairly decent pace of two to four miles per hour. I’ve found that walking in the fresh air is a good way to clear my head and nothing is more fun then walking around a new city.

Hope to have more photos and fun tomorrow, apparently we’re a couple of blocks from larry flynts hustler club…

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Spring is well under way here in the south, indeed most everywhere and as such I wanted to share a little ditty called Flower with you. I know nothing about it, other than its name, and the price is right (FREE). Check it out. Oh, Amy’s favorite Flower is the hydrangea, whats yours?

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As Amy and I prepare for the coming adventure of sending our oldest child off in to the world of “big kid school” and the arrival of the latest addition to the family (any day now she keeps telling me) we’ve been talking with more and more Catholic parents and we find ourselves wondering over and over again if we’re just bad parents. The issue at hand, and the one we find we keep coming back to, is the fact that we’ll be trudging up to the bus stop at the front of the neighborhood every day starting in August (or September, whenever they decide to start school) while a good many of our friends from church will be home schooling or sending their offspring to a parochial (catholic) school.

Several of the people we know are going the private school route because they do not want their children to go to public school for one reason (they feel the public schools do not match up) or another (they’re worried about the ‘extra’ stuff their children will learn). A couple of people (one without children) have even expressed the fact that they wouldn’t let their child ride a school bus today. Of course, among our Catholic group of friends, there’s a strong movement for Homeschooling as well for many of the same reasons (plus the fact that its cheaper).

I was driving to work this morning after attending the “orientation” at the public elementary school Grace will be attending next year and I decided that sheltering my children from the world by sending them to a private school or by homeschooling them would most certainly not be the answer. Instead, I’m going to play the part of active or more accurately, proactive, parent.

The “talk” commercials about talking to your kids about drugs, sex, rock and roll(?), have been around forever and are probably some of the best pointers a parent could have (not that I’m an expert by any means, I’ve only been at it for 5.5 years). It seems to me that instead of wrapping our children in a cocoon of bubble wrap or religion or naivety we should be arming our children with the knowledge and tools they need to make smart decisions for themselves. Decisions that cannot be taught in a controlled atmosphere like a private school (though there is something to be said for charter schools) or a home school program.

I’ve found that my five year old is a sponge when it comes to learning. She picks up on things much quicker than her mom or I do at this stage in the game, and its at this point, as we prepare to send her on her educational journey that we need to be taking the time to point out the right thing to do in situations that arise (like picking on a schoolmate or listening to the wrong kind of music). If we do our jobs as parents, the way we are supposed to, our children will be that much better prepared to go out in the world and take care of themselves. Its not a matter of shielding them from music that has a message we do not agree with or keeping them from watching tv shows with questionable content.

There isn’t any way for us to be with them 24 hours a day seven days a week. At some point, the little ones are going to come in contact with something that will test their sense of ethics and moral character and the best we can do is prepare them to the best of our ability. Does the fact that I’m pushing my child out to the wide world make me a bad parent?

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I came across today’s ASMW group by accident as I was strolling through the recommended list on Amie Street and came across the group Minus the Bear. The song in question, Ice Monster, is a fun little ditty on their album Acoustics and it features a good mix of rhythm and lyrics and is a quality addition to any collection.

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I realize I’m a day early (no worries, I’ll do another ASMW post tomorrow) but I wanted to share the amazing voice of this songstress with you today (tuesday). Maria Taylor has the kind of voice that any princess would love to have. From the fun tune of Cartoons and Forever Plans to the nifty beginning of 100,000 times, the lyrics and melody speak to the listener as few do these days. Taylor is a product of Alabama and has several other groups and projects under her belt. This release will quickly become one of your most played.

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It’s called Jumping the Shark and it usually refers to TV shows who have passed their prime (did you know it takes its name from an episode of Happy Days??). It’s also been applied to web startups, new companies, and ideas that are worn out or before their time. In this case, I’m wondering if EntreCard has jumped the shark. EntreCard is (was?) a pretty good traffic sharing tool and a good way to find some good (and some not so good) blogs to read/visit on a regular basis. Without EntreCard, I would not have found CigarJack’s, Five Blondes or The Hawg. And for periods where I haven’t written anything worth reading, its has provided some steady traffic, ensuring that I keep my blog in front of some eyes.

The original premise was simple. Display the Entrecard Widget. Visit other blogs with the widget and drop your “card” on their widget. In theory, people would visit those that had dropped and would drop their card in kind. A “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” kind of traffic trade. You could use built up credits to advertise on other blogs and sometimes the traffic they generated was good. Really good. Some times not so much. However, having the EC widget on a site didn’t really hurt. Until Now.

On Saturday, Entrecard Announced on their blog that the “beta” of their new paid advertising system was going in to effect. People could ‘buy’ ads on your site in the EC widget and EntreCard would benefit. You however, would not. Currently, the way things are working, Paid Ads are taking precedence over the traditional EC ads. So if you purchased a traditional EC Ad with EC Credits, you could be preempted at any time during your run on a blog. I pulled up my site this morning and was greeted with every ad except the one that should have been there. I logged in to my dashboard and there were over 30 paid ads waiting to be approved. Of course, I couldn’t see them, as ABP was blocking the ads (apparently).

Once I went through and rejected ALL the paid ads, I was able to accept the regular ones and the Card on my blog appeared as it should. All normal like. As I said, currently, the blog owner is not able to benefit from the paid ads at all other than the fact that Entrecard is able to pay their bills (which, if their math is correct, they must have had some hella venture capital for startup money). Eventually, the plan is to ‘pay’ blog owners 25% of whatever the ad was purchased for and allow them to then buy Entrecard credits with that. There by, keeping all the income for EC and basically ‘gifting’ extra credits to the blog owners. How this is going to work out has yet to be seen as that portion of the program ISN’T WRITTEN YET.

That’s why I’m wondering if EntreCard has Jumped the Shark. I, like many others have rejected most (if not all) of the paid ads in lieu of the traditional EC ads. Entrecard had a good thing going. Did they screw it up with this seemingly poor implementation of the paid ad system? Should they have added another set of code for only paid ads? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

EDIT: Apparently, I have my figure wrong. EC is only keeping 25% of the income from the ad’s the other 75% is going to the members through a ec buyback program “The fact of the matter is that 75% of all the revenue we’re generating from the paid ads is going to the members. “

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Sunday will be three years since our little family of three became a family of four. The first one has been rather easy all along. Other than thinking that she’s older than she actually is, Grace was a cake walk compared to the tiny tornado we call Emma Rose. Emma joined us on April 5th, 2006 (4/5/06) amidst a whole lot less fan fair then her big sister. For grace’s birth, everyone was in the delivery room. For Emma, it was me, Amy and Amy’s sister. We went from 15 people to 3. That may have a little to do with it. It could also be that Emma is the younger (soon to be middle) child and she’s just finding new ways to test Amy and I. I don’t know what it is. I just know that she’s a handful.

Of course, since her birthday is Sunday, we’re having a party. A mickey mouse clubhouse party to be exact (I get to bake a cake!). We’ve spent some time hunting down online auctions with MMC stuff, but we’ve had little luck. We’re going to hold this party at the local park (weather permitting) and we’re going to go as simple and cheap as possible.

The problem I have with all of this is that it means they’re growing up. Emma is three and finally getting the hang of going on the potty (a big step for a two year old) and we just registered Grace for Kindergarten. It seems like yesterday that we were anxiously working on the nursery in the townhouse for Grace and here we are working on another nursery for number three. At least this one is a girl too so I don’t have to repaint just yet.

Anyways, what is it that makes it seem like our children grow up too fast? Is it the fact that we’re too busying living?

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I some how managed to discover a whole new world Tuesday while traversing the internet. I was perusing my usual array of Entrecard blogs when I came across a hereto undiscovered game world, Travian.

Unlike the Pandemic II game, this game is a little (ok, a lot) slower. Games can last over a year as you try to build your city while trading/fighting other players in this online world. Its free to play, though there are “gold points” you can earn/purchase to added perks. Registration was simple. Go to the Travian website, click the register link and you’ll be up and playing in less then 5 minutes (I’m on server 7).

Once the game is started, you’ll be aided (for a while anyways) by the “QuestMaster” who helps you along the way by giving you a little guidance and some “payment” for the quests you do. Its pretty simple to get going and it actually is some what of a set and forget game in that you can access it once or twice a day and let it run its course.

There is little strategy to it so far, (as I’ve only been playing for two days) but I can easily see how trade, fighting and alliances could make a big part of the game. If you join the game (on server 7) send me a message, my user name is mcangeli and once I can form an alliance, I’ll invite you.

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Tools for Twitter abound (almost as prolifically as for the iPhone). Need proof? Look on Twitter itself. There is one tool though (outside of Wefollow) that I’ve come to use a good bit. Tweepular.

Tweepular is the brain child of @jasontryfon and is a way to determine your popularity on twitter based on a number of factors. Namely: reach, log ins (to tweepular), follower/followers ratio number of tweets and some other obscure figures (of which JasonTryfon would not elaborate). What I find it most useful for though, is checking to see who is following me and whether or not I am following them back as well as the last time they posted. The fact that I can log in to one area, click a link and viola, everyone who is following me or that I am following is there (and laid out however I want it) is pretty handy. Even better is the ability to follow/unfollow directly from the page. The only thing that is lacking so far is the ability to post directly to twitter from the site.

You do have to log in with your twitter username and password, but it is not stored on the site so much as cached, and it does time out after a period of time. This makes it a little more secure than other programs which require you to create a new account and store your twitter id and password with their service. The service is pretty easy to follow, the tabs are bright and colorful and do what they say. Want to see your tweeps based on their tweepularity, number of followers, date added or latest updated? Simply click the bubble (thats what it is…) and they’re sorted. Check it out. Tweepular is definitely a tool you want to have bookmarked. Oh, and Follow Me.

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In honor of the worm of the day, Conficker, I’ve decided that I CRUSH EVERYTHING. Or least, I CRUSH BUGS! This ditty is from Geek turned songster, Jonathan Coulton is pretty upbeat and a good way to wile away the dreary April Fools 2009.

Maybe next time I’ll be smarter then to answer the phone before 8am.

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