WordPress as a Content Management Tool

I've been using WordPress as my blog tool everywhere but here. I've experimented with modifying the themes used. On ZeroIntelligence.net and on Never Another Job, I simply used themes I found on the Internet with some minor modifications to things like graphics and exactly what appears where in the sidebars.

More recently, I added a blog in a subdirectory for my BNI chapter. At the time of this writing, though, it's not live yet because nobody but me has actually written anything, which would then seem very silly. Nonetheless, by starting with this alternate home page, you could see that working. All the core pages, though, use basic HTML except for a couple of PHP calls to list articles. It's only a partial integration.

Tonight, though, for the first time I took a layout I'd done for a client and chopped it into a theme for WordPress. Applying this theme lets me set up WordPress and a full-fledged content management tool, one that's easy enough that there's hope my clients (this one and others) will be able to update things on their own. I expect to do this several more times, for other clients and for my own Heatherstone site.

Mucking about in PHP code and lots of CSS has been fascinating. You don't run into PHP at Microsoft!

Jericho

This is the first time I've run into the potential disappointment with network television. I've never really watched much television, but now that iTunes offers TV shows, there have been a few shows I've been getting from there. The convenience makes all the difference.

One of the shows Olympia and I have enjoyed this year is Jericho. We just watched the season one finale Monday night. Today, I learned that CBS has cancelled the show, so we won't get to find out what happens. I guess a lot more bombs go off and the storyline so far ceases to be relevant.

Ah, well. So sad.

Children of Rock

I'm writing this from Union Jack's, a restaurant/bar in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm (mostly) working on my laptop and listening to several bands that are playing a Sunday afternoon concert. All the bands are made of kids from about ten years old to their late teens and they take their lessons at the same music school I attend for my guitar lessons.

The crowd here is really large and these kids are doing a great job. Listening to a bunch of ten-year-olds rock their way through "I'm a Believer" in front of about two hundred people is quite an experience.

I need to find some other people my age and experience level who want to practice as a band. Maybe when Union Jack's hosts another concert, I can get on stage instead of just watching.

Scrabble

The last few weeks we've pulled out the Scrabble board several times. This is a game that I'm pretty good at, although I have no idea how I'd do if I was to enter one of the tournaments. I don't really use the crazy words you only ever see in Scrabble very often. In our last game, I did use "ibex" though. The "x" was on a triple letter score next to a free letter "o", so I got 48 points off that one letter.

It turns out that at eight years old, Katerina's pretty good at it. I showed her how she can make a word that also adds a letter to another word, thereby getting points for both words. She got it after it being explained only once and dropped "re" onto the beginning of "fixed" (same "x" as in "ibex") with the "e" also making "me" on the vertical for 26 points.

For a while, I used to write the word and points gained for spectacular scores on the backs of the letter holders. I had several in the 90+ points range, although never one with more than 100 on one word.

I actually don't remember the last time I lost a game of Scrabble. Ever time I play, though, I have a particular Scrabble game come to mind. I don't remember how old I was, but I was definitely in my late teens, as it took place at my parents' house. I sat down to play a game with my dad and my brother, Adam. We set up the board, drew tiles, and I got to take the first turn. I had a pretty decent seven-letter word, which gets you the double word score for the center spot, a double letter score for one of the letters, and a fifty point bonus for using all your tiles. My score on that one word was 98 points, better than any written on the letter holders.

Very pleased with myself, I started drawing seven new tiles, but my dad and my brother just looked at the score I'd just pulled and left the table. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember precisely, but my memory is of one of them saying, "Well, this is pointless." Neither one of them has ever played a game of Scrabble with me since.

Of course, Adam has played an uncountable number of other games with me and is a very challenging opponent at most of them, beating me many, many times. I've also played Scrabble with other people many times since. Olympia and I used to play it reasonably often after we got married but before we had children. It's interesting, though, how something like that can stick with you so persistently for so very long.

Two Memorable Conversations

First, I spoke with my friend Barry. In November and December, he was dealing with his father being sick, heart trouble in particular. The prognosis seemed worse each time I spoke to him. I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks, so when I did:

Aaron: So, how's your dad?
Barry: Not so good. He arrives tomorrow in the
mail.

A couple days later, a conversation with Elizabeth about what she was doing:

Aaron: What are you up to?
Elizabeth: Studying for exams.
Aaron: When are your exams?
Elizabeth: Next week.
Aaron: You know what I don't have next week that makes me happy?
Elizabeth: Exams? And Ebola?

Morbid, but somehow funny.