Just a quick little post …
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I submitted:
Well Written. Well Read.
Happy New Year 2010
I am sitting here at my desk, writing in the quiet of my thoughts. This is when I take time to reflect on the past year and consider the year ahead. My new year’s ritual.
First, I do not make New Year’s resolutions. I do not feel it necessary to wait for a specific day to make a change in my life, or start a new venture, or … live.
It was in May of this year that I decided to start developing and designing with WordPress. I had been blogging for a few years; I like to work with graphics; I enjoy resolving issues with web sites; and, WordPress was an accessible platform. It seemed a natural progression to actually focus my attention on it and get to work becoming part of the community.
June 4, 2009 was my WordPress New Year’s day. That was the day I saw the WordPress Themes Team approve my popular Desk Mess Mirrored theme. I still use it at BuyNowShop.com the site I use for focused WordPress related activities. August 15, 2009 I committed my first plugin to the WordPress Plugins repository. BNS Login is used on every blog I manage, and I have even incorporated it into a couple of themes, too.
As I look back and see what I have accomplished with WordPress this past year, five publicly available themes and seven publicly available plugins, I can only look forward and believe there is more.
There is more that can be done.
There is more that will be done.
There is more I will do!
That is not a resolution, resolutions can be broken.
That is a promise, and promises I do not break.
Happy Holidays 2009
Merry Christmas!
… and thanks to those artists celebrated with Google logos
Popeye Creator’s Birthday
I love Google doodles, really I do. Today, Google Canada presented one that is another childhood reminder. Today they celebrated E.C. Segar’s birthday, the creator of the Popeye comic strip character.
Here is the doodle:
… and here is a bit from wikipedia:
Evening American Managing editor William Curley thought Segar could succeed in New York, so he sent him to King Features Syndicate, where Segar worked for many years. He began by drawing Thimble Theatre for the New York Journal. The strip made its debut on December 19, 1919, featuring the characters Olive Oyl, Castor Oyl and Horace Hamgravy, whose name was quickly shortened in the strip to simply “Ham Gravy”. They were the strip’s leads for about a decade. In January 1929, when Castor Oyl needed a mariner to navigate his ship to Dice Island, Castor picked up an old salt down by the docks named Popeye. Popeye’s first line in the strip, upon being asked if he was a sailor, was “‘Ja think I’m a cowboy?” The character stole the show and became the permanent star. Some of the other notable characters Segar created include J. Wellington Wimpy and Eugene the Jeep.
Wikipedia
Recognition
Recognition for ones contributions is always a reward in itself.
I like to spend time on the WordPress Support forums helping where I can. Some days I’m able to offer a tip, or a suggestion, or a bit of advice; other days I am learning from what I read. I do what I can to contribute to the community and I was greatly pleased to see it recognized … as well as seeing all the other great people that volunteer their time and efforts on the Support forums receiving recognition for their efforts, too.
The following is an excerpt from the blog post “A Little Support?” at WordPress.org:
The Honor Roll
These people are not official moderators, but their knowledge and activity levels have caught the attention of those who are. A big round of thanks to these folks for selflessly sharing their knowledge with other WordPress users.Most active volunteers, nominated by more than one official moderator for recognition (for the reasons given):
alchymyth – “Overall knowledge”
apljdi – “Overall knowledge and programming skills”
t31os_ – “Programming skills”
whooami – “For her security responses” “Knows her stuff”Generally active volunteers, nominated by official moderators for recognition:
esmi, ClaytonJames, numeeja, stvwlf, buddhatrance, songdogtech, alism, alchymyth, Ipstenu, RVoodoo, jdingman, kmessinger, ArnoldGoodway, Shane G., figaro, jonimueller, blepoxp, cais, mfields, designdolphin, doc4, greenshady, mercime, mrmist, bh_WP_fan , henkholland, krembo99, jdembowski, pboosten, adiant, andrea_r, GDHosting, Gangleri.Some newcomers who’ve been getting active:
a_johnson, equalmark, WebTechGlobal, kymac.
Posted November 30, 2009 by Jane Wells.
Thank you to all those mentioned above, the list is by no means exhaustive …
ARPANET Versus Asterix
Today, October 29, marks an auspicious milestone for two very different items.
The first is the birthday of Asterix, a favorite comic book character that often reminds me of childhood trips to the library. Will they have a new one today?
It’s been 50 years … something I only found by way of the Google Doodle above on Google.ca this morning. Here’s an excerpt from a related article:
This month marks the 50th birthday of France’s most popular comic book. Back in October 1959, writer René Goscinny and illustrator Albert Uderzo had their first comic strip published in the magazine Pilote. The comic featured Asterix and Obelix, two inseparable and delightfully complementary characters from a small village in Brittany renowned for “sticking it to the man” by resisting Caesar’s colonial ambitions. Asterix and Obelix’s adventures did suffer from some ups and down along the way, most notably after Goscinny’s death in 1977, but their popularity never did fade: the comic books sold more than 325m copies worldwide and have been translated into 107 languages.
Jessica Reed at guardian.co.uk
The second, 40 years ago, is the “first message ever sent over the ARPANET” as described in a Wikipedia article. Here is an excerpt (follow the link below to read the complete article):
The first message ever sent over the ARPANET (sent over the first host-to-host connection) occurred at 10:30 PM on October 29, 1969. It was sent by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline and supervised by UCLA Professor Leonard Kleinrock. The message was sent from the UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the SRI SDS 940 Host computer. The message itself was simply the word “login.” The “l” and the “o” transmitted without problem but then the system crashed. Hence, the first message on the ARPANET was “lo”. They were able to do the full login about an hour later.
Wikipedia
As much as I would expect the latter to be more important to Google, it would seem the former. Which is more important to you?
Quotations
I have always been intrigued by quotes. I like to collect them. Quotes are my snippets of inspiration.
As a reader, you may find a particular quote I found interesting posted here. These quotes may be a collection of words that made me think, made me ponder their obvious meaning, or perhaps a meaning that is not so obvious.
The written word can be ambiguous in comparison to the spoken word. Each can be quoted. Each can carry a tone or connotation built on the inflections found in the speaker’s voice. A voice that can jump off the page at you or ring clearly in your ears. One as powerful as the other.
What is your favorite quote?
Why Reply
I believe one should be forthcoming with reasoned answers to respectful questions. Time may be of the essence, but that does not preclude appropriate communication.
Life isn’t about waiting …
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
Vivian Greene
Thanks to @sebs on twitter.com
Simplicity
… hammering a square peg into a round hole rather than notching that same hole to let the square peg slide through.