Updated Markdown Image Hack 0.2
I've made some improvements: better syntax, image popup code, embedded CSS styles, and it now can use [id] references. Code is still ugly though, and still in the Markdown source :-)
Atkins 1, Twinkies 0
I felt a pang of anxiety when I read that Interstate Bakeries Corporation has entered Chapter 11 (via BoingBoing). They manufacture Twinkies!
I haven't had one in years, finding them far too sweet, but they're one of America's Great Pop Cultural References. The deep fried twinkie is a testament to this food's continuing ability to frighten and intrigue carb addicts everwhere. And without them, our slang would not be quite as sweet.
Perhaps they will be transmuted to organic form or become haute cuisine, but I'd hate to see the original Twinkie go away. So do your duty and buy a box (just don't eat them all at once, geez). Pick up a loaf of Wonder Bread while you're at it!
Demise of NPR in Rhode Island?
My sister commented that her local NPR station, WRNI, seems to be up for sale...distressing! That reminded me of this article about the rise of 'middlebrow culture' and how the nature of public radio changed when threats to their endowment allowed them to seek advert--er, underwriting from other sources. Also, how the demand for talk and news has displaced classical music over the years. Great article.
WordPress Email Form Hack
UPDATE: You can download a much more useful plugin at from Ryan Duff's site: wp-contactform. There's also a version with more validation of the email address (through DNS, no less) called PXSMail, which I haven't tried.
My own contact page now uses wp-contactform...I hope my email contact woes go away now :-) For historical purposes, I'm leaving the old information up.
UPDATE: Use Ryan Duff's WP-ContactForm Plugin instead.
I decided not to put my contact address directly online, but my original instructions kinda sucked. So I modified the php email script at StarGeek to work for my contact page.
To make the basic form look like the rest of this site, I copied index.php as email.php and replaced everything in the content div with the contents of this text file
Instructions
Just replace with your email address, and this might work for you too. Use email.php for your email links, and this should work. The original script makes some assumptions about how sendmail is setup on your server, so you'll need to dig into it. I'm not a PHP or linux expert, so your mileage may vary.
The CSS class might not work for IE users though unless you are applying text-align:center in a containing DIV outside of this block, or so I'm told.
Other Notes
I also was reading about a built-in email validation function at ScriptyGoddess, so I put that in too.
Hold That Thought!
I'm sometimes distracted by too many project ideas. When the ideas pile up, my productivity sinks because I keep thinking about them, and multitasking slows me down. To keep focused, I evolved a mind trick called The Pickle Jar that, despite its hokey name, actually works for me. It got me through my thesis, when writing was the last thing I felt like doing.
The Pickle Jar is an actual glass jar that once held pickles. Next to it is a square pad of paper, about 4 inches on the side. To get unrelated thoughts out of my mind, I write down a brief synopsis down, fold it twice, and put it into the Jar.
The physical act of writing down, folding, and then "pickling" the idea for later consumption is weirdly cathartic. Since I'm no longer in danger of forgetting the thought, I can relax. The act of formulating on paper has also satisfied the urge to follow up on it. The size of the paper also prevents you from writing too much...there's just enough room to get the essence of the idea down.
The best part: You can see that you've got the ideas queued up, but it's hard to retrieve them. They're in a jar! Getting at the idea entails trying to stick your hand in the jar (which shouldn't fit, if you've chosen your glassware wisely), or dumping them out in a mess and unfolding all of them. It's just inconvenient enough that I tend not to look unless I really am in the mood. The use is similar to that of a piggy bank, in that it encourages easy deposit but prevents casual withdrawal. So you tend to deposit and get on with your life, which in my case is getting back to #&!@*! work.
One side effect of the Jar... after pickling, some of those ideas don't really seem that interesting anymore, so I end up tossing most of them.
Sadly, my official Pickle Jar was destroyed or lost during my last move, so I'm going to try using WordPress as the idea containment system. I suspect it might not work, but I'm curious to see if the physical act of pickling is as important as I thought.
(Update: I repurposed a canning jar as the new Physical Pickle Jar. See the picture!)
