It’s not very often that I hear a quality band on an independent publication with this much musical maturity, here’s to hoping the trend is infectious. When there’s a song I can embed, I’ll surely do so.

Learn more: Pamela Martin website

“XML-RPC Service for you blog cannot be found”

The Support Page alluded to a missing XML tag, but did little to answer how to fix your templates (and switching to a classic template allowed my blog to sync just fine), but didn’t offer a solution. It’s easier than you think, and there’s a couple ways to do this:

1. Edit any header files you use on your Wordpress theme (could be the default header.php or multiple custom ones like me), and add the following above your closing head tag (the </head> tag): <?php wp_head(); ?>
2. Go to your Appearance page in your blogs Admin, (as of Wordpress 2.7) and select one of the default themes. Activate that theme, then connect your iPhone. Once you’ve connected, you can switch right back.

Make sure that you have XML-RPC check boxed in your Settings > Writing Panel for XML-RPC to work! All the iPhone app needs is the ability to find, in your code, that unique XML ‘edituri’ address for it’s records. Once it’s there, it won’t check again. Enjoy!

“It is here the world’s largest annual dolphin kill takes place in a hidden bay that is watched over by armed guards and obscured behind blue tarpaulins. What occurs beyond the patrols and scrims is one of Japan’s darkest secrets: pods of dolphins are herded into the bay, where they are trapped behind a wall of nets and butchered by whalers with spears and knives.

“The goal of The Cove is to stop these barbaric acts by exposing them to the world. The filmmakers risk everything to capture this footage, and we vividly feel the danger they’re in – but as with any groundbreaking film that transcends its genre, there are elements humor, and the touching narrative of one man’s personal redemption.”

The Cove: Trailer

Articles & Links

1. Secret film will show slaughter to the world
2. The Official Movie Site
3. savejapandolphins.org
4. Sundance Film Festival 2009: The Cove
5. Louie Psihoyos, “The Cove”: An Ecological Crisis and Green Filmmaking

Unfortunately, everyone’s reign of cool hits a corporate wall when you’re in the publication world eventually; in the case of Thrillist.com, it’s an email featuring the coolness of Denny’s entitled ‘You are the Decider’:

Riddled with ‘hip’, you can feel the anguish of the writer as he’s forced to pit one of the cheapest restaurants on a site that features the elite:

… something good does happen after midnight. Something wonderful: Denny’s All Nighter menu.*

Not so bad, but wait, there’s more:

… The All Nighter offers a boundless variety of gut-busting options, whether you stroll in before sending a regrettable text message to your ex, or after remembering too late why you broke up in the first place. Feed your need with breakfast staples (like the bacon/sausage/diced ham/cheddar-packed Meat Lovers Scramble), lunch (say, the Philly Melt, or the Super Bird), or get ‘em both with the Slamburger — topped w/ cheesy hash-brown casserole, an egg, and cheese sauce, it’s like an entire buffet line in your trembling, appreciative hands. To truly go for 4am gusto, grab a steak (Country-Fried or T-bone), or one of Denny’s proud newcomers: 4-packs of mini-cheese-burgers w/ piles of onion rings, or Potachos — fried kettle chips with sausage, bacon, peppers, onions, cheese, proving once again that food’s always best when topped with other food.

Best of all, Denny’s also has an All-Nighter Value Menu starting at just $3.99 — lifesaving prices, because no matter what time of day it is, there’s no worse decision than fleeing in shame after realizing you can’t afford your meal

Personal Favorite:are ‘To truly go for 4am gusto’, but if that’s not too bad, Thrillist.com will gladly try to get you to buy the new Acura TSX.

Now that we have two advertisements, we’ve got the Thrillist.com equation for writing

1. Hip intro paragraph that ends with direct link and sales pitch for product
2. Mix second paragraph with forced, trendy terminology and client supplied details of product
3. Sprinkle viral photos within links for entertainment
4. End pitch with short and sweet sales links coupled by hip one liner to close

Enjoy!

On June 16th, 2008 I filed a small claims Case Number: CSM-08-825679 against Randy Vo and submitted certified paperwork to his last known address; this same address is listed for his current bills as up-to-date. The small claims summons was signed and returned with a signature of Randy Vo, and court date scheduled for July 17th, 2008. I prepared for the trial with full documentation of expense, medical issues, phone records and police record.

Kattya and Patrick of CheekoB submitted written documentation that they couriered money directly to Randy Vo, and, noting it was a personal not a business correspondence, asked that they not be involved in further communication. I have since removed their information from any publication that I have control over regarding the incident. Randy Vo has consistently said he is still in contact with their business, but due to his track record of consistently denying information that was eventually proven true, I can only assume they are victims of Randy Vo as well.

Randy Vo’s Judgement

Randy Vo was not present in court July 17th, 2008, although he signed and approved the visit. As he was not present to debate the case, the Judge ruled on my evidence and presentation. The total cost of Hanzo’s medical, begun within the first 4 days of purchase, is as follows:

1. Hanzo’s Purchase Price: $1200.00
2. 14 Day Medical Expense: $2,514.21

Pets Unlimited submitted a signed medical report concluding that Hanzo was not fit for sale and that Parvo must have been contracted prior to sale. I also noted much of the cryptic methods of communication and 52 attempts of phone and text messaging (he responded to 6), including: Randy does not have a voicemail on any phone, Randy uses various addresses to forward mail, Randy has consistently not answered phone calls unless from alternative numbers, Randy has consistently denied he is the person on the phone or at a specific location, although admitted to the contrary.

Citing Health and Safety Code 122160, Judgement was ruled in my favor:

Retain the dog, and reimbursement for reasonable veterinary fees for diagnosis and treating the dog in an amount not to exceed 150 percent of the original purchase price of the dog, plus sales tax on the original purchase price of the dog.

Judgement was submitted that Randy Vo owes Brady Frey $1,899.00 + $60 filing fees for a total judgement of $1,959.00. Randy Vo had 30 days to appeal the ruling, which he did not, judgement is deemed finalized. Per the the Judges request, I was not allowed to ask for payment until that 30 days had passed.

Attempts at Payment

After August 18th, I called Randy Vo and updated him on the judgement. He agreed to be co-operative and to begin payments immediately, citing past experiences with Judgements Made on Small Claims to Randy Kadee Vo.

On September 19th, 2008 Randy Vo delivered a $50 money order to my office. I explained to him he can submit a check, mail a check, or use something such as PayPal online to submit via a credit card or a bank account. He told me that he does not have a checking account- that his previous credit history has not allowed him an account. I asked him about his car and other assets, which he had no clear explanation. He said he would continue to make $50 payments weekly if that was acceptable.

The next week payment was missed due to a leg injury he sustained at work, including the following week. October 10th, 2008 he submitted $60 in cash to the security guard at my office building, and has since not submitted any further payments. Randy currently owes a balance of $1,849.00.

What happens next?

Payment has become increasingly defaulted, and soon to be over 30 days since his last payment. I will then submit a Writ of Execution submitting Randy’s personal information for a Law Enforcement agent to withhold the debtor’s assets. I will also submit this further information to Animal Care and Control to further help their support of the situation and any charges that are needed.

Legal Laws in California Protecting Consumers

The selling of pets in the State of California is governed under California Health and Safety Code 122125-122220 (and possibly 122350-122361 depending on interpretation of sale by a judge) also cited as the Lockyer-Polanco-Farr Pet Protection Act. Randy Vo is, specifically, in violation of the following codes, subject to $1000 fine for each violation listed below in this publication.

Health and Safety Code 122140

122140: Every pet dealer shall deliver to the purchaser of each dog and cat at the time of sale a written statement in a standardized form prescribed by the Department of Consumer Affairs containing the following information:

1. (1) The breeder’s name and address, if known, or if not known, the source of the dog. If the person from whom the dog was obtained is a dealer licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture, the person’s name, address, and federal dealer identification number.
2. (2) The date of the dog’s birth, and the date the dealer received the dog. If the dog is not advertised or sold as purebred, registered, or registerable, the date of birth may be approximated if not known by the seller.
3. (3) The breed, sex, color, and identifying marks at the time of sale, if any. If the dog is from a United States Department of Agriculture licensed source, the individual identifying tag, tattoo, or collar number for that animal. If the breed is unknown or mixed, the record shall so indicate.
4. (4) If the dog is being sold as being capable of registration, the names and registration numbers of the sire and dam, and the litter number, if known.
5. (5) A record of inoculations and worming treatments administered, if any, to the dog as of the time of sale, including dates of administration and the type of vaccine or worming treatment.
6. (6) A record of any veterinarian treatment or medication received by the dog while in the possession of the pet dealer and either of the following:
7. (A) A statement, signed by the pet dealer at the time of sale, containing all of the following:
8. (i) The dog has no known disease or illness.
9. (ii) The dog has no known congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the dog at the time of the sale or that is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future.
10. (B) A record of any known disease, illness, and any congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of the dog at the time of sale, or is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future, along with a statement signed by a veterinarian licensed in the State of California that authorizes the sale of the dog, recommends necessary treatment, if any, and verifies that the disease, illness, or condition does not require hospitalization or nonelective surgical procedures, nor is it likely to require hospitalization or nonelective surgical procedures in the future. A veterinarian statement is, not required for intestinal or external parasites unless their presence makes the dog clinically ill or is likely to make the dog clinically ill. The statement shall be valid for seven days following examination of the dog by the veterinarian.
11. (c) For the purpose of this article, “nonelective surgical procedure” means a surgical procedure that is necessary to preserve or restore the health of the dog, to prevent the dog from experiencing pain or discomfort, or to correct a condition that would interfere with the dog’s ability to walk, run, jump, or otherwise function in a normal manner.
12. (d) For the purposes of this article, “clinically ill” means an illness that is apparent to a veterinarian based on observation, examination, or testing of the dog, or upon a review of the medical records relating to the dog.
13. (e) A disclosure made pursuant to subdivision
14. (b) shall be signed by both the pet dealer certifying the accuracy of the statement, and the purchaser of the dog acknowledging receipt of the statement. In addition, all medical information required to be disclosed pursuant to subdivision
15. (b) shall be made orally to the purchaser.
16. (f) For purposes of this article, a disease, illness, or congenital or hereditary condition that adversely affects the health of a dog at the time of sale or is likely to adversely affect the health of the dog in the future shall be one that is apparent at the time of sale or that should have been known by the pet dealer from the history of veterinary treatment disclosed pursuant to this section.

Health and Safety Code 122145

122145: A pet dealer shall maintain a written record on the health, status, and disposition of each dog and each cat for a period of not less than one year after disposition of the dog or cat. The record shall also contain all of the information required to be disclosed pursuant to Sections 122140 and 122220. Those records shall be available to humane officers, animal control officers, and law enforcement officers for inspection during normal business hours.

Health and Safety Code 122150

(a) Except as otherwise specified herein, any person violating any provision of this article other than Section 122205 shall be subject to a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation. The action may be prosecuted in the name of the people of the State of California by the district attorney for the county where the violation occurred in the appropriate court or by the city attorney in the city where the violation occurred.

(b) Nothing in this article limits or authorizes any act or omission that violates Section 597l of the Penal Code.

Further methods of judgement, penalties, and clarification are listed on the California Lemon Law Section.

What if this happens to you?

Please feel free to contact me, I’m more than happy to guide you, answer questions, or submit information that can further make sure the above does not happen to you.

Soon there will be a slide out for text links by category and name, full search engine indexing for the blog and portfolio, html title changes on the fly, as well as a speed up of the overall engine, hopefully, with a little pre-timed loading (instead of the full load). My only concern is how to make a version that works without javascript, hmmm…

Nevertheless, I made this using Nall Doherty’s excellent Coda Slider, albeit heavily modified for my needs. The goal was to pop out a portfolio that worked the way I like portfolios to work:

1. No Flash
2. I can launch each piece with a new tab
3. I can bookmark each piece, or email them on the fly
4. I can view it all without additional server reloads
5. I can rifle through pieces
6. I can read brief reviews and links

Should the load time become a huge complaint, I may very well do a single page of thumbnails that links to this individual load page. Regardless, your feedback is welcomed and appreciated - look for a spruce of the additional pages soon as well!

Event Details

On Friday, October 24th, celebrate the fundamental freedom to marry by attending the fundraising wedding event Pursuit of Equality to defeat Proposition 8.

Guests will enjoy dinner-by-the-bite, an exclusive champagne lounge, dancing and toasts by San Francisco notables Rita Moreno and former Mayor Willie Brown. Inspired by the informative windows at Wilkes Bashford, models on wedding cake toppers will be exhibited throughout the Bently Reserve.

WHEN:

Friday, October 24th, 2008 - 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Where:

The Bently Reserve

Why:

To increase awareness of the civil rights issue of equality which protects the institution of marriage, and to raise $150,000 for “NO on 8 - Equality California.”

Who:

Current supporters, committee members, prominent San Francisco leaders, their friends and family. We expect 600 attendees at the event.

What:

With the support of Civil Rights Activist and Honorary Chair Gavin Newsom, and the Award winning Film Director Geoff Callan, Wilkes Bashford and Christopher Bently will chair the black tie fundraising event Pursuit of Equality. This evening of food, fashion and world-class entertainment will be held at the historic Bently Reserve, and will feature event design and production from renowned wedding planner Julie Nunn Martin. A portion of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go to NO on 8-Equality California.

Purchase Tickets

EQCA’s Pursuit of Equality Ticket Registration

Learn more about Proposition 8

On November 4th, Californians will have the historic opportunity to protect the foundations of marriage by voting no on Proposition 8. Every Californian should have the freedom to marry the one they love - it’s a right thats protected by our constitution.

• No on 8 – Equality California
• Make a Donation
• Register to Vote
• Equality California

Event Chairs

• Equality California
• The Bently Reserve
• Wilkes Bashford

As I wrote prior, our upcoming move was delayed by the existing tenant of our new apartment rescinding their 30 day notice. Although Sophie, General Manager of the South Market facility, said the existing tenants were personally sorry for the trouble they caused; come to find out from our sales rep it was actually a corporate rented apartment! Now, being in the business, I know it’s much easier to shift a business account than a personal account - though Archstone’s policy, regardless of tenant type, is to cater to the current tenant, I can’t help but feel walked over and misdirected.

Reluctantly, I accepted an additional apartment, and came down to their office with Sheryl for the paperwork. Sheryl, concerned about the situation, asked to see the location of the apartment again just in case (they don’t allow access to occupied apartments, which I think is as plus)… what we found out is that the previous rep, Wilson, showed me the wrong location! This apartment was in a ‘basement level’, with street view and minimal light. Distressed, we negotiated for a smaller place with a storage unit (even though that apartment is also corporate occupied), and signed the final paperwork July 19th to get the process moving.

The current tenant leaves July 30th, with our move in set for July 8th. The one we picked is in a higher, sunnier location with new fixtures that I hope will prove worthwhile. In the end, we’re more concerned than ever but our time is running short for options; if it happens a second time, it’ll be the last.

As an interesting side note, our Sales rep commented that 3 other potential tenants also lost their apartment that day (one moving out from Las Vegas). While that did little to calm my emotions, it is telling that many of the reviews I find regarding this location could be spot on, and I maybe walking into a time-bomb. Here’s to hope they just as much time marketing their corporate business, as they do taking care of their public tenants. After the 30th, I’ll be much more excited about my new place.

On the very day the tenants were to move out of #4301, they called the office administration to rescind their 30 day notice- effectively voting to stay on site. Although the building is not rent controlled, and it’s questionable if that’s legal, Archstone has agreed to keep their current tenants and avoid any potential issues that may ensue to enforce the 30 day notice. The result, of course, is that two weeks prior to us moving we’ve no place to go.

We’re sorry to inform you

The phone call was received by my girlfriend at her office, her to me, and me back to Archstone. The account rep, Wilson, was currently overwhelmed with requests and did not have any current information but the above, and offered me two other apartments in the building: one the same size, $100 more expensive, with upgraded utilities… but on the busy street corner and, due to the first floor location, without a balcony. The second 50 feet smaller all around, but with similar options to our original pick, and also $100 more expensive. I asked to stop by and take a peek at both to make a decision immediately.

I took the quick mile walk from my office, and met the busy Wilson (who called me Freddy). After showing me the options, I sat down with the Community Manager, Sophie, per my request. She apologized for the inconvenience, and noted that she could not offer any discounted cost on the new options or any offsets we may incur. She stated these fees are corporate mandated, and due to housing laws, it was not in her power. I thanked her for her time, and let her know I’d sleep on the decision tonight.

Resounding thoughts

As the Art & IT Director for a business that prides itself in Commercial and Residential Holdings, I found it a bit questionable that should could offer nothing in lieu of this amazing inconvenience. Not to mention that, although we paid a fee, our document was simply a ‘holding’ contract, not a Lease (in all manners, unreliable, invaluable, and flat made up specifically for their business needs); and the office lawyer confirms this, though agrees both sides carry so much potential issues due to the tenant wishing to stay, it is an irrelevant arguement.

Although I can understand things tend to happen, I find it ironic that this happened so close to our move in date. I’m reminded of a statement our initial sign-up representative, Melissa, made during the first walk through:

Wow, you got a good price! Must be because the apartment isn’t renovated yet - we typically try to renovate them prior to renting again so we can add improved features. Are you sure we can’t offer you one of our renovated options?

Those would be the same options I am offered now. The increased options are simply upgraded fixtures for an additional $200+ a month, not something I find valuable (my stove doesn’t need to be black, and my fridge doesn’t need to be chrome). I hope that twist is simply coincidence. Cheers to the mad rush of finding an apartment in under two weeks!

Building off the excellent, but extensively quiet plugin Clutter Free by Mark Jaquith and the globalized configuration by Achim Staebler (I can no longer find a link for him), I’ve branched off the code and renamed it ‘Cloak’ so I may gut and build as I see fit.

Download the Plugin

Installation

• Unzip the downloaded file
• Upload cloak.php to your wp-content/plugins folder
• (As an Administrator) Login to your Wordpress site
• Navigate to the Plugins page
• Select Activate on the plugin line for Cloak
• You’re done!

Management & Configuration

Unlike the previous version of Clutter-Free, I’m assuming my users will most likely not take the initiative to clean up their own screen… and most importantly, they maybe entry-level users. The configuration is therefore a global structure to all users:

• (As Administrator) navigate to the Settings Page
• Navigate to the Cloak sub-page
• Uncheck what you wish to hide, check what you wish to show.

Each list element is titled by either ‘Post’ and ‘Page’ to signify the write area that it controls. By default, all areas are visible for all users.

I look forward to future updates that can allow me to define either ‘global’ or ‘individual’ management; I’ll also inquire with the new editor of Role Manager if there’s any possibility for future integration, as that would be helpful for my current projects.

It’s Yours

Edit it, destroy it, and do with it what you wish. Feel no need to give me credit, but you’re welcome to give the original author credit, I simply upgraded. Wordpress, although a welcomed blogging system, limits me in regards to Content Management Systems, and as I lean towards other excellent engines, I may very well fade into Wordpress oblivion. Feel free to ask for more, though. Thank you!

Now in normal grep, this would be a bit easier than expected by applying a Regular Expression Counter to your replacement:

e%0>

Would sequentially add a number greater to zero. Brilliant! Unsupported in BBEdit!

Now, again, you could code in a different language and accomplish this much easier if you have that experience, but for me, the trick was to step around BBEdit’s limitation with line number.

The Sequential Numbering Trick

1. Under Text, Select the Add/Remove Line Numbers…
2. In my case, I’ve chosen to start at 0 and then add a space (the space is just to give me more grep characters to call). I’ve removed Justified so it doesn’t add any space before my number, skewing my search to come. When you’re ready, go ahead and Number:
3. Now we’ll start a find/replace of our information under Search > Find…
4. In this case, I’m going to edit:

   
   0 <li>Brady</li>
   1 <li>Brady</li>
   2 <li>Brady</li>
   3 <li>Brady</li>
   

   So that the line numbers are remove from the left, and the text ‘60′ is replaced by them using a specific grep pattern:
5. The final result is exactly what I needed:

   
   <li>Brady 0</li>
   <li>Brady 1</li>
   <li>Brady 2</li>
   <li>Brady 3</li>
   

What does that code mean?

As I noted before, Grep in BBEdit is limited, although there’s power to be had (and I recommend Cari D. Burstein’s overview). While I can’t call much in the replacement command, I can call data from the find portion and pass it along to the replacement area.

In the case of the find:

(\d*) <li>Brady</li>

I’ve used parenthesis to tell BBEdit these are ‘groups’ to be recognized later on; these groups are counted as group 1, then group 2, then group 3, and so on. Inside these parenthesis I use the \d command to mean ‘a numerical digit’ and the asterisk to mean ‘as many digits as I’d like’. I’ve now set myself up to search for the numerical line number as a group, and reuse it in my replace.

Now I’m ready to replace my content:

<li>Brady \1</li>

The \1 means ‘replace this area with content from the first group you called in the search’. The end result is that the search number is moved here, and since I didn’t add any command for the group to be repeated at the beginning of the line, the first line numbering is removed.

Using this in an advanced scenario

One of our entry, and rushed, business ventures under my scope is for my Boss’ beautiful new line of Jewelry, Amber Marie Bently Jewelry. She’s recently designed a new series of pieces, and I’d like those designs to be seated at the front of the web list. Since I’ve used a Javascript slider, I’ll have to put all the list content at the top, and then dynamically change the sequential order of each full size image and each Thumbnail… annoying by hand, less than a second with Grep replacement.

• Each line is out of order, and for example, is a long series of code: 0 <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb57" src="thumbnails/test1.jpg" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail 60"></a></li>
• I’m going to search for each line, making sure to call grep in areas where information is different so no line is left behind: (\d*) <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb(\d*)" src="(.*)" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail (\d*)"></a></li>
• Now, I’m going to call the first group into the thumb ID and into the alt thumbnail text, leaving the third group in the same spot so my URL isn’t altered: <li><a href="#"><img id="thumb\1" src="\3" width="60" height="42" alt="thumbnail \1"></a></li>

…and that’s it. 98 thumbnails and 98 full size images magically ordered on the fly in real time.

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment.

Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, and held up a handwritten sign that said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.

People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said: YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER

The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely.

After they were on the ground, the copilot, still quite shaken by the experience, asked the pilot how he had done it.

The pilot said, “I knew it had to be the Microsoft Building, because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer.”

By May 23rd I had not heard a response from him, and sent him a text letting him know that I would be moving forward with my legal direction. He called late in the afternoon a few times while I was in a meeting, and I sent him a text notifying him that he can email or text me, or I will call him later.

At 4:29 pm, May 23rd, Randy called me and this time I picked up. He had heard about this website, and was extremely angry that I would make this information public. I noted I am attempting to document the factual information of the incident, and would be happy to take down any information he viewed as personal. He continued to press his distaste for this site, and I commented that he seemed more angry about this website than what he’s done to my family over the past few weeks; in fact, it was the first time he initiated a phone call to me without me first trying to contact him since May 13th. I reiterated that I am more than happy to work with him to mediate payment, but as I’ve said the past two weeks repeadetly, he needs to be in contact with me frequently that he is working on it and finalize some financial reimbursement plan in the near future. He finalized his conversation with the following quote:

“@$#% you, I’m threw with you, you don’t even know me, I don’t even know you. I wouldn’t make a threat and I don’t like to make threats or anything, but you should watch your back, you never know who you could be @$#% with and when you walk home, you could get @$#% hurt or something.”

I began to comment, when he hung up the phone.

By this time, Kattya and I spoke on the phone and agreed to meet this evening to settle our differences. Before we met, Randy Vo called back at 5:32 pm— this time I put it on speakerphone with an employee in earshot, and let Randy know he was on speakerphone. Randy expressed his financial status again, and I repeated the need for frequent communication to work out a plan, and expect him to plan a path in the near future. He noted that he can get emotional and that it “happens sometimes, I really shouldn’t have made a comment like that”. I told him I understood the emotional stress of the situation although it wasn’t appropriate at this time, and am happy to continue to mediate as much as possible and we should talk about it another time.

To document the incident, I’ve loaded up a personal page of Randy Vo and have submitted this story to Rip-off Report. If needed, I’ll be releasing a press note to editors and submitting documents to local retailers about this situation in the hopes no one else has to deal with it… and, of course, I’ll probably have to finalize my small claims later this evening.

Aside Apartment Ratings scathing review, one of the old tenants kept a detailed blog of his events at the location. This seems to be a large corporation, inflexible and unable to provide the home environment a quiet professional like myself would need… whoever wrote that blog, thank you for the log, you’ve cost them a potential renter.

Tracerhand in this forum post had a quick supported solution. Instead of calling the pseudo element on the class, call it on the subsequent tag while making sure to use first-child to isolate it as the first tag only:

and:

No longer paragraphs in the wrong places, no longer break tags wherever wordpress feels it needs one.

It was a long night with a spunky puppy; I’m slightly scared for my life with the next six months looking forward to staying at home babysitting and not being able to spend time with Sheryl… but he’s cute, and he’s here to stay.

So far, he’s been chipper and happily greeting anyone who comes our way. He doesn’t bark that much, and is quick to train: except for the cat, which he has an instant obsession with and she has no interest in him at all!

I continue to see a bit of mucous on his nose, but Kattya of CheekoB said that most puppies have a bit of this mucous when they’re babies. She noted that it’s a cold, but dogs don’t get colds, we’ll see how he holds up!

The evening will be spent at PetSmart picking up Puppy Supplies such as cleaning agents, food, toys, kennel, sleeping area, the works. CheekoB recommends the Pup Head, which he’s apparently been trained to use, so we’ll make a trip to her store tomorrow.

Photos courtesy of Russ Jang.

Once I saw it, I knew it was a puppy. I’ve been missing dog’s for quite some time, stuck with the typical apartment cat that is easily maintainable but not much for the social life of beaches and parks; though I don’t know how well I’ll do with a baby around the house. Kattya walked in with hello’s all around, and with a quick zipper escape, out pops a gentle 10 week old Brussels Griffon.

Kryptonite for Sheryl - the one dog she’s talked about wanting for years (more than just their association with ewoks). Sheryl picked up who they named ‘Hobo’ from Kattya’s arms, and she sat there cuddling it, staring at me the whole time. After some debate about the issue, I told her if she wanted it that she would have to take care of it and go ahead. We agreed to take the puppy for the evening, and pay them $1200 for the little guy with papers to come.

We packed him tight in the SleepyPod for the evening (we’ll return it in the morning) since he was shaking all over. I noticed a bit of mucous on the snout, but Kattya said most puppies have a little one and not to concern ourselves… and welcome to parenthood.

How about an award for the best of the Web, from a company that has a horrible website? A website with 58 validation errors, one that uses XHTML code sometimes but calls out HTML? Built in dreamweaver, broken in a few browsers, scrubbed together with code that hasn’t been in use since the late 90’s and dripping with empty table tags?

I know we’re in the generation of singular experts, built on 6 months of training and pronounced as soon as you can plop a blog on the internet, but it breaks the heart to see junk defining what is good and what is bad. I imagine all art takes this route over time, as trends move in and out of fashion, but have the merit to bury it; don’t flaunt it.

Case in point- Ever Broke an Aluminum Bat (which actually doesn’t show any breaking of an Aluminum Bat, sad to say) loads with a yellow divider icon on the time lapse bar:

As soon as your time hits that bar, an add will slide out from the bottom window ala slideshow pro style that has an x in the top right of the ad to close:

If you close the ad, it will leave an icon to expand the ad again:

Upon video completion, you’ll see options to view other YouTube videos of similar flavor, and the ad will return, without the option to close it this time:

Goodbye TV ads, hello YouTube and the next generation of marketing.

On April 19th, 2008, the pacific coastal winds burrowed through the avenues of San Francisco and up the hillsides peaked with houses. Very few people seemed out on the town, and the ones who braved the gusts held close to personal items darting abruptly against the 60mph bursts. Perfect day to be a moron.

Sheryl and I were in our Honda Element ZipCar, fresh out of Safeway, when she called out from the passenger seat a huge stairwell that zig-zagged up the hillside on the edge of the Sunset District. Merging abruptly, we drove around a few block till we hit 15th and Noriega, parked the car, and with a bit of obnoxious cheerleading dragged Sheryl from our warm confines up the paved street.

We chose the concrete stairwell over alternate paved loop (well, by chose I mean I just started walking there in determination), and ascended over tree limbs freshly thrown from the still bustling wind. My cheerleading continued, and I helped cold-Sheryl move further to the set of zig-zag stairs we saw from a distance prior- impressed that it was, indeed, as rickety as we originally assumed.

We pushed onward through six stairwells to the mound of the hilltop- our backs to the wind, holding onto the railing as the winds sometimes pushed us heavily to a side. The hilltop was lined with trees to the east and the west, but the north and south lay unexposed. The land was sunspot with grass and sand - dry, and exposed. On the east a graffiti tagged historical marker sited the history of Grand View Park, and the endangered vegitation it guards. The wind continued to fire rounds of sand in our face, but the open top felt eerily similar to the freefall of a skydive. After reading the marker, snapping photos (as best we can), and pausing for the amazing 360° view, we made a beeline for the exit.

Stairwell down was worse by far; the wind lifted more of the hill sand up the zig-zag into our faces as we stepped over branches and slowly inched blind down the rickety steps. We survived it and skipped the concrete stairs in favor of the split road (per Sheryl’s recommendation), back again in the safety of the warm Element.

Although Sheryl considered me nuts, I was rather pleased by my spontaneous adventure; certain I was the only moron who would scheme that on such a windy day.

We started the car, made the route home around the hill with our groceries and our hair full of sand. We stopped only briefly for a young couple exiting the back side of the hill from a second stairwell I hadn’t noticed- we probably missed each other at the top by barely a minute. I set home satisfied that there were others in this city dumb enough for the same small adventures.

After a bit of Googling, the Wordpress forum linked me to the new documentation, noting that random posts are a lot simpler now with the MySQL RAND() function. Previous code for MacCentric was:

…and became:

Something to keep in mind for the designers rebuilding their templates;)

I’ll go more in detail in posts soon about the technical installation and management I oversaw with a fantastic crew at the Bently Reserve, but one thing that posed a more unique problem was a means of guiding potential customers to Conference locations without the traditional confusion of location memorization and without the waste of material.

Each room was given a name of a sunken ship beneath the foundation of the Bently Reserve in the 19th century (idea courtesy of Mark Mayfield, Chief Engineer to the Bently Reserve), with the remaining rooms deck terminology. Although it’s fairly easy to find the name of each room on a map or asking one of our staff, it seemed redundant to have to force people to memorize a spot with all the other experiences of a hurried conference. I also didn’t want a digital ‘mall’ experience with an interactive or stationary map at the front entrances- to me, it’s just another thing to have to find.

I can remember quite a few events where I struggled to find ‘Room 220E, around the corner, past the bathroom, you’ll see a easel out front…’, and assumed, wouldn’t it be easier to put the name of the room as the occupied company or group? Well, for the non-tech, that would require production of signage, even if they’re cheap prints- waste of ink/toner, paper, board material, time to print and cut, time to manage- there had to be a way of managing event signage digitally in a way that’s productive, green, and cost effective.

I sat out searching for ‘photo signs’, but most came up short with the typical kodak home based sign: cheap frame, USB loaded or Wifi loaded on proprietary software. After a bit of a run, I found the RedPost offered a unique sign based system with customized, open source, software that would allow remote management. Perfect, I thought, I want six now, and emailed the company… but unfortunately in the summer of 2007, they weren’t in production yet.

Months went by, I had my Graphic Designers and IT leads contact the company without success, and finally I called straight to the owner over a month to the end of the project, let him know exactly what it was for, and we were off purchasing, installing, and demoing cutting edge signs for the world to enjoy.

The end result is a beautiful, high tech fixture of the Bently Reserve Conference Center: customized by Eric Kanagy and his RedPost team by installing it on the spot with our support staff. I designed an animated fixture for each room name that showcases a personalized scene of the beautiful sunset through night time fog of San Francisco (yes, that’s photoshop and fake)- it’s running the javascript engine mootools as a slideshow in real time of graphics that I’ve created. I’ve scripted an engine on my Mac so that future images will be easily adjusted and updated in realtime to our servers for loading, allowing prompt and user friendly name changes as requested (logo changes as well).

Thanks to RedPost and Eric Kanagy for showcasing my beautiful art, Chris and Amber’s beautiful building, and supporting our staff as we managed the final pieces of the brand new Bently Reserve Conference Center. More to come soon on this beautiful, high tech buildout…