2004
Moving Directories
Yes, I moved the weblog from [http://weblog.janella.com] to the main site [janella.com] And the layout has also changed. The photo header above rotates photos Farrah and I have taken. Photos included in the header right now are:
A new photo may not load if you’re browser caches the photo, but know that it does work. I’m not sure how many I’ll put up for the header, but a new image should load here or there. If you really want to force an image to load, hold down the shift key on your keyboard, then press the Reload button on your web browser. Your web browser will do a ‘hard reload’, asking for new information from the server.
I’ve given up on the whole [geeklog.net] layout. Just wasn’t happy with the way it was looking and how entries are made into the blog. I am going forward with using [Gallery] as the photo engine, the same one used on [nothingcouldbefina] . What I like about Gallery is the way it displays images. What I like about 4images is the information it can store information in a database. So right now: style over handling of information.
Now in Beta
[project.janella.com] has now been changed to [beta.janella.com] What exactly does that mean?
Well, I started going back toward a CMS (Content Management System) solution for this website. See the website is basically made of two components: a weblog (or blog) and a photo gallery. Currently if you access [weblog.janella.com] what you see is Wordpress, a great blog program. When you access [photos.janella.com] you see 4images, a photo gallery program. Both are created by different groups of developers and function great. I just don’t have the time to make them look similar, so navigating between the two can be difficult.
I’ve tried a CMS solution before but it was slow. I think the new one I’m trying, called Geeklog, is decent in speed and works fairly well. For the time being I’ll be posting any new pictures in both the [photos.janella.com] section as well as the [beta.janella.com] If all goes well the site will switch from the beta site to the primary site.
Searching for...
Bobby Fisher? Mr. Goodbar? Videos with Bjork in it?
There’s a new beta search engine by Yahoo! that allows you to search for video clips. Go to [video.search.yahoo.com] to try it out. You can play with the preferences so you’re searches aren’t restricted.
Also available in beta by Yahoo! is [My Yahoo! Search] This one is a little more personal. Sign in with your Yahoo! name and start searching. You can save results, share results, search within saved pages you searched on, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Remember, both of these are in beta so it’s still growing. Changes are afoot in search-land.
Christmas in Egypt
A Christmastime. Farrah, my mom and I went to see Kayla’s play a Christmas in Egypt. Kayla played the part of Delta, an Egyptian with a southern accent. She was one of three southern belle types. The other two were named Cleopatty and … oh, the name escapes me now. In any event, Kayla’s performance was fantastic.
Afterward we went to the Traber’s residence for birthday cake to celebrate Farrah’s upcoming birthday.
Asians and Voting
Farrah told me about [this ad] with Asian actors stating the importance of voting. I never saw it on television, but I did vote nonetheless. If you missed the ad, watch it for gee whiz.
You Too Can Have a Green Thumb
Disposable cell phones that turn into sunflowers??? With the inventors being from Amsterdam I thought the plant/flower type would be different. Interesting idea nonetheless. [Read the story at CNN.com]
Short Weekend...for Me!
Oh its been a short weekend for me. I had to work yesterday because a co-worker needed to take one of their floating holidays before the end of the year. He has one more to take this year so looks like I’ll be working another Saturday soon.
Last night Farrah and I also went to my company’s year end party (called YEP) in San Francisco. It was held at 7th and Brannen in the City as it has been for the last several years. It was pretty cool: food, drinks, fake gambling, and great music. The main music was provided by [Ozomotli who rocked the house! Too bad they came on later in the evening when our feet were already killing us because of walking!!!
Anyway, there are so many things to write about, especially some things from Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll need to find some time to write about more later. Right now I should get to bed. Work tomorrow, y' know.
Shopping List For Tomorrow
(as dictated by tessie)
- *regular baking potatoes (5 lbs)
- *gravy (e.g. turkey - can or jar)
- *beef gravy (no mad cow in it)
- *stuffy (e.g. stuffing)
- *corn, green giant (either frozen canned; nibblits)
- *green bean, green giants (can; kitchen cut - no french cut)
- *two cans cream of chicken, campbells
- *dried french onion
- *block of velveta cheese
- *roll, e.g. dinner rolls - heat and serve or pilsbury (freezer)
- *cranberries - canned
- *apple and pumpkin
- *vanilla ice cream
- *chocolate whip cream
Another Hawaii Album Posted
The last of the Hawaii trip photos are posted. The photos are located under Trips | Hawaii 2004 Part II for both the [photos] and [project] pages. Again, there is no difference in the amount of photos displayed on either page. The photos are just displayed in two different methods.
For this album (Hawaii 2004 Part II) most of the photos were taken with a digital camera. I have yet to upload the raw photos to a linked [Shutterfly] page, but will do so when I get the chance. You can then order pictures and/or see what wasn’t posted on the web site. Any questions? Let me know.
Tiana's First Birthday Party
New albums posted are:
- Tiana's Birthday 2004 - Tiana's first birthday party celebrated at Ko'olau. Currently only the photos taken with the Nikon cameras are posted. Digital images to follow - when I get a chance.
- Grandma's Birthday 2004 - Grandma's 86th birthday celebration at Auntie's home. Again, only the film images are posted right now.
From the description provided within the album, you can click on a link that will take you to a like album on [Shutterfly], an online photo service. You can access the raw photo album for the specific album you accessed. What is the raw photo album? It is all the pictures I took in the album on Janella.com, plus photos that I did not post. Also some of the photos on Janella.com have been edited (e.g. cropped, resized, etc.) so as to make them more presentable. The photos located on [Shutterly] are the full photo size, sometimes taking up to 3 MB of space. This can take some time to load if presented on a web site, but might be ideal if you want to order photos. If you have any question on this let me know.
Spiders, blah!
Farrah and I found this huge spider on our wall after coming home from Toys R Us:
We tried to corral the spider but, unfortunately, ended up killing it. We are still trying to determine what kind of spider it is. Anyone know?
Back From Hawaii
Yeah, we’re back from Hawaii!!! I’m working on getting the pictures posted. Right now I’m a little tired but managed to get the pictures from Grandma’s 86th birthday posted. It’s available through [http://photos.janella.com/] as well as [http://project.janella.com/]
What is the latter site you ask? Just trying to determine if I want to use the [Gallery] engine to post photos or not. I’m still thinking about it, so not all albums are available on the project subdomain. If you don’t have a username/password to the site, just write to me at my email address.
Firefox 1.0 Now Available
The final release version of Firefox is now available at [mozilla.org]. The site is really busy since it is the first day of release, so you may want to try later on in the week.
Can You Hear Me Now?
We’re getting ready for our trip to Hawaii (yes again). One of the things we wanted to do before going was to get a new phone plan. Our current plan is geared toward local use. If we travel outside of the state we are charge for making calls. I know I didn’t want to stay with our current carrier, AT & T, so we should look elsewhere for a national plan. Since Farrah’s phone contract was up we decided to try Verizon. Verizon has received good ratings nationally and [locally too].
When we walked into the Verizon store we were able to get a new phone within 45 minutes, with the number transferred over and working!!! The salesperson said the secret was in bringing the billing statement as it had all the information needed to easily “port over” the phone number. Well, we’ll let you know how the phone works during the 15 day trial.