Monthly Archives: July 2008

A widepread power outage has occurred in Currituck County this evening. I’m assuming it was caused by a severe thunderstorm that passed through the middle and upper parts of the county. I reported it to Dominion Power and just informed it was a widespread outage and should be ban by 8:30 PM. it went off around 6:30 PM. Wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so freaking hot! We didn’t get any of the actual storm here except a few drops of rain. Lot of thunder in the distance though. Must have been a right good amount of damage to cause it widespread like this. I did speak to a friend who lives in the lower part of the county, in Harbinger, as he was coming over to play chess tonight. He reports they still have power there. Glad I have this iPhone and the WordPress app! But unfortunately I was playing a game on it and the battery is low :-( oh well. I will save what’s left to mail my baby tonight ;) just in case

Did that draw your attention? In what way?  never mind I may soon find out from the Feedjit widget ;) and I might not want to know anyway!

Actually it’s on a shopping list I found today at the store. Working at a supermarket you find these lists left all over the store very often. I must have picked up hundreds over the years, it’s always interested me to read them , just to get a glimpse into the person writing them or just curious to see what people go to the store to buy. Not to mention sometimes these lists are written on some strange things, and some very common things too, the most popular medium in the summer time in a tourist area is a paper plate. ;)

I think I may turn these lists into a semi regular series of posts if I happen to come across some interesting ones. Well this one just caught my eye being on the bright green paper firstly and then reading the two items near the middle, ’soft for kitties’ and ‘hard for kitties’. Now I have to admit I didn’t have a clue at first read what it was referring to, well you know where my mind was ;) Then as Alison says , the penny dropped and I realised they were referring to cat food. LOL still makes me laugh though, I must have a recessed Beavis and Butthead gene somewhere in my DNA ;)

I just ut it in my pocket to scan it later when I got home and then I really sat down to analyze it. Now obviously the person(s) who wrote this have very high alcohol priorities. Wine has its own section , on top by the way, and not your cheap wines either, I really doubt they found any of them at the store, but we do carry a higher selection than most of the inland stores so I guess its possible. I only buy Jacobs Creek Cabernet Sauvignon so I don’t know what other types even exist! Yes I moved up years ago from MD 20/20 and Boone’s Farm :) anyway back to the list… next after wines… Beer! yet more alcohol.. Well they are on holiday most likely and why not have a good time. Oh there are going to get something to eat though.. Mussels! Ok sounds like the makings of a nice meal.. just add some Tang  and you will have… TANG? the stuff the astronauts drink/drank? well maybe they are having a healthy breakfast drink.. Or maybe its going to be used with the last item on the list, the Vodka! seems more likely to me, judging from the apparent like of alcohol  evident in this list. Well I’ve already commented on the next two items, the cat food. (God I’m praying that’s what they meant anyway, canned cat food and dried) then paper bowls and plates… ok a common purchase by tourists and most people this time of year, why waste any time washing dishes when you have wine to drink! and beer and Vodka…  Oh yes better get some bread too, always handy to have something to eat during your drunken revelry.. I’ll just assume the crab boil is for the mussels and its not some over the counter medical remedy! , hey you never know what happens when you drink too much in a strange place, you know? And last as I have said is Vodka. Well they wont find it sold in the supermarkets in Carolina. But I do see they have ABC by it so they are thinking to go to the ABC store anyway, still shows they’re not from Carolina as the ABC stores are closed Sunday statewide.

Wish I had scanned or kept some of those old ones I have found, there were ofte amusing notes written onth eside or phone numbers all sorts of odd things. Well i will keep an eye out now for any more of these abandoned lists and maybe turn it into a regular feature of the site, oh that sounds exciting .. sheesh  :-/ Hurry up USCIS and get our visa petition approved so Alsion can save me from this madness I am falling into!!!

And I pray the last~ lol First of all , apologies to anyone visiting the site the last couple or evenings and being suddenly lost in a  completely different layout from one page to another, or one visit to another! :o) if you’ve been here within the last few days you may have seen or read the post where I had some trouble with the original theme just having a few bits of trouble with the latest WordPress upgrade, nothing major but it threw off the look of the sidebar widgets just a little bit, well no one would probably have noticed but me, but its those little things get on my nerves, I dont mind if most of the posts I make are lacking any real depth or information, but I want the site to look right at least. Well I have had my eye on this template now for a long time, the link to the original is still in the footer as it is mostly their work still. The only trouble was that it wasn’t ‘widget ready’ as it was advertised to be. Well yes it had a sidebar that could be edited manually, but I wanted to be able to use the widget administration capabilities available with the last couple of versions of WordPress. Just makes it simpler IF I do change a theme, the widgets are carried over to he next template without a lot of work. anyway I confess to not having any grand knowledge of the workings of a wordPress template. Well some of it. I’m fairly adept, if I say so myself, at playing around with the CSS and even adding a few codes here and there. But when it came to understanding how to make the sidebar widgets ‘editable’ (if that’s the word) from the admin area I was clueless. Well I have had this template now a few moths I think, even had the image header set up and couldn’t wait to use it! it was only then after I uploaded and activated it I realised it wasn’t working 100%. Well i have looked and looked how to widgetize a sidebar and to be honest i was lost trying to understand what to do. So that’s the reason I had that other theme going and I made that header image that I thought was very artistic :) Well you can see where the inspiration of it came from, I had this header image already in my head and really wanted to use it. Anyway this evening I was sitting around just messing with the site and css and the thought struck me… what if I replace the sidebar php page of this theme with one from a theme that had a single simple working sidebar already in place. My first attempt was a bit disappointing though. the sidebar appeared at the top of the page and that wouldn’t do. Well i got to looking at a few of the sidebar php files of a few different themes and happened to notice that most all of them had a specific ‘id’ in the HTML division tag at the beginning… EUREKA! I changed the id to the original one called for, refreshed the page and I was ECSTATIC! :) Can it really be this simple?? Oh I love this theme, even more than the one I had up originally. Its everything I wanted, a prominent place to show my Alison Michelle and me together first, then the layout is clean and simple and, to me, very easy to navigate and view the content too. The color scheme is pleasing to me as well. I just like it period. this is the one I will keep, just pray I don’t run into any trouble by failing to fix something else I don’t know about yet. Well as always with these theme changes, if you notice anything out of whack anywhere or any errors you encounter, please let me know. I’ll see what I can do to straighten it out.

I’ve just been playing with this new WordPress app on my phone and thought I’d add some screen shots of the Safari web browser on the phone. It’s a great browser actually with exception of it not having the best ‘flash’ support and rarely do embedded flash objects render anything other than that little blue icon occupying the space. One of the things in this latest software update was the ability to grab screen caps very easily, holding the power button and home button down simultaneously for a couple of seconds and releasing them will capture the screen image to your photo library on the phone. Sweet!

The first image is the site as it appears when a page is loaded.(unless the photos appear in reverse order from the way I added them, another test…)

however a quick double tap in a certain area will bring the view closer as in the middle picture. Also the zoom can be accomplished by using two fingers pn tne touch screen and spreading them apart over the area.

Here you can see it’s very easy to read the post itself or any area in the page.

Just amazed me to see these sort of abilities when I think it hasn’t been that many years ago I first used Internet Explorer 3 on my PC! Wonder what’s coming in a year or two?!!

Note – posted edited online later as images are only posted inline from the web app at present.

Visitors may have noticed the theme changes over the last few days. I upgraded Wordpress to the latest versiona week or two ago and something in it set off a few problems in the sidebars of the other template that I really wanted to keep. I guess its for thebest though as Ihave been looking into some that werent so heavily built by images and are faster loading. I did find one I really liked. but unfortunatley it isn’t “widget ready” as yet so I wll have to wait until its updated, if it ever is or do it my self, which I dont have the time to mess with at the moment. I was looking around the other night and found this theme I am using now, Sakura 3. It’s a really nice clean open theme, and easily editable with a minimum of html knowlege. I’ve been customising it just a bit, changing the CSS in some areas and of course the header image. I sort of like thmuted green and tan shades and like the cleaner less busy look, of course the content isnt readily visible as you eneter the page requiring a visitor to scroll down so I may have some quick exits if they dont bother to go gown a bit, but nevermind I like this. It will stay.. for now anyway :)  feel free to comment on any thing you see not dislaying correctly or any probless loading the page.

Well sort of indoors, it’s on the loading dock in the back of the store I work with the large doors open and a good breeze. Don’t try this at home though!!
It was Associate Appreciation day and management was treating us to a nice lunch. Just trying still to figure out how much we are appreciated when we ended up doing the cooking and cleaning and preparing? :-/ well hey it’s a free lunch and we got paid ;) a few not so good pics following this link – (more…)

Pics taken from my iPhone on the way home from work when a bad storm came through. Numerous lightening strikes but I couldn’t time the camera just right. Well I’ll test out how this app posts photos ;)

The One App I have been waiting for is out this morning in the App Store, WordPress for iPhone!! Whoohoo!! :-) thanks guys!

Edited 5:00 pm – I posted that message early this morning via the app the minute I got the setup done. It works beautifully. Now that I’m off work for today I will play a bit more, including this edit being done right from the phone. Sweet!! I’ve already tested out posting photos as you see in the entry above. Works great and allows multiple photos as well. I could only post one pic at a time to blogger and I had to email that, then import the post to WordPress! :o) so this will save a lot of time and steps! Great app guys, awesome release! My FAVOURITE APP!!

Edit 2 6:14 pm from the PC -  OK I’ve played a bit with this wonderful app and give it rave reviews right out of the box all around. The one feature I have been looking for is being able to post a photo from my phone right straight to a blog post. I would have settled for posting even just one pic at a time, but the wonderful developers at Automattic have given us the ability to post several, either taken right from the camera or added from the photo library of the cell! Amazing, I have waited so long for this. Previously, in order to post a pic form the cell I would have to wait until I got home and then copied the image to my PC and posted it, or another way was to email the photo to a blogger email address that I previously set up to use with my blogger mobile site, it automatically made a post with it. then arriving home at some point I would import the post into my blog and go and delete the one on blogger. a lot of work and steps! :( but it worked ;)

I was/am using a nice little plug-in called Wphone that lets me access the admin section of my blog through a nice interface, but the one thing is was lacking was being able to post photos. There was another plug-in I used, cant remember the name of it now, but I could write a post by email and I set up a special email account just for that. one the mail was sent I could access a certain page on my site and it would import the email as a post, but I never had a lot of use for it, it was just a bit cumbersome in a way, sometimes it would import, sometimes not.. gone…

So anyway I was tickled to death to see WordPress developing this App, and I’m sure a lot of others are as well judging from the comments there at the Wordpress for iPhone blog.

As I said this is the first release of it and I am sure there will be a lot of updates and maybe some slick features added in the future as its an open source program and some of the best contributors working on it. But its still fantastic just like it is and as long as I can put a pic from my phone to my blog in just a couple of clicks I am set :)  not that I don’t have my wish list already for it though! ;)

here’s what I would like to see at some point

WordPress iPhone App wishlist

• Comments support – managing, viewing, approval/deletion
• more image display options – thumbnail size, alignment
• Tags-  displaying click tags, adding a default tag to any post from the phone (ie. mobile post, iPhone post, etc)
• Something else I’m sure will come to mind ;)

I see this as a really big step to mobile blogging, not only with Wordpress, but any of the other blogging apps available or in the works. The iPhone is an ideal mobile blogging computer and I think that apps like this are going to open up a whole new world of blogging, for better or for worse in a lot of cases, but definitely a welcome change :) Thanks again to the development team for a great application! Cheers!

Tropical Storm CRISTOBAL.

Just keeping a check on the storm brewing off the Carolina coasts. Its about 200 miles or so southwest of Hatteras right now and moving NE at 7 mph so at that rate should it stay the course it will pass just off the coast form us and maybe we will get some tropical storm force winds.. hopefully some rain, hopefully a LOT of rain, we need it.  Doesn’t appear to be much of a danger, but you never know with these things. It was just a tropical disturbance this mrong when I woke up and then became a depression and finally this afternoon was classified as a Tropical storm and given the name Cristobal. Isnt that a champagne or wine? You should here some of the weather announcers in the area pronouncing it though, with their Southern accents it sounds like they are sayign “Crystal Ball”! I love North Carolina ;)

Supposed to be affecting us in the morning, so I guess its going to be a messy drive to work. Should keep the barbequers inside for the day though and give us a break in the market! ;) Works for me :)

More news later… going to check the crystal ball link again < grin >

Here’s what all the fuss was about last week for the mad rush to download the new iPhone 2.0 software, its that little blue icon on the lower left of the screen, the iTunes App Store. the software allows you to download all these apps right to the phone now and they run from there, instead of the old way of using web applications, which really were useless with an EDGE connection, well not useless but definitely slower than if you were near a WiFi spot. 

With the limitation of the EDGE network’s download speed, there weren’t many fancy apps available, and games were often prone to just freezing or stopping or just not working right. I think Apple realised the limitations of web apps and saw their future limited even though I think they would have preferred to stay with them and keep the iPhone’s proprietary programs all bundled in the phone. I believe  personally that it was the success that people were having hacking the software and using the phone as you would a regular computer and downloading apps straight to the cell and running them from there, jailbreaking is what it came to be called and it was becoming a very easy thing to do, sure Apple would come out with a new update and in essence lock up those jailbroken ones, but guess what? In just a couple of days time the sly hackers found a way to jail break the new software. Apple must have seen an endless task ahead in trying to counter each of these new methods as they came up, so it was in their best interest I think to do just what they did , give the people what they want, a real mobile computer with the ability to run their own programs.. well there’s the catch.you are still limited to only the ones available in the App Store. Well its not going to get rid of those using jailbroken phones by a long shot, but it is giving those who just prefer to do things the ‘right’ way a chance to have these apps available in what is a very controlled way (meaning the apps are safe to use and have gone through plenty of checks). I see it as its a start to what I am sure will be an even greater version of the iPhone in years to come, something even more powerful and faster than anything we have imagined… OK maybe I’m dreaming but there is just something about an iPhone that’s different from any other web enable mobile device, it works well. :) I had a Windows Mobile phone before this and it was nice I admit but it was a pain to get things done and buggy too.. the iPhone is the simplest thing I have ever used and a very unique design.

Anyway all of this aside, after I finally managed to get that much anticipated update  I was off to the App Store  to see what goodies were there.. As I said in the post that first day I was a bit disappointed actually as I saw a good number of things that really were not worth any amount of money, not to belittle the efforts of those developing them. but they are just crappy, bottom line. There were of course a few jewels there and I am very sure some of the best are yet to come as its a whole new world here with these things and I’m sure some of the major players are waiting to see how things pan out before submitting their final efforts.  I know a few are in the works and I am checking every day now to see if the WordPress app has been released yet. hint hint

I’ve already given my wish list of apps I’d like see developed, so now i will list the ones I have found to be my favourites… so far… WordPress are you there yet? ;) .

1. AOL Radio  (entertainment) (free) Amazing app and I was surprised to see another music service on the iTunes App store but I have no doubt its going to be good business for both companies. amazing streaming Internet radio, Even on the limited stations available on the EDGE network. a must have app! YT video
2. Google Apps (Utility) (free) I already have many of the Google mobile apps built in through the web but this accesses them all from one screen and remembers my info
3. Pandora  (entertainment) (free) Another very good streaming music App.. YouTube  video
4. Aurora Feint (game) (free) Now you have to see this amazing game to appreciate the awesome graphics and the game play, I cant believe its a free game and I have already spent too much time on it, very addictive and fun. they even have a YT channel! you have to see this to appreciate it. Only thing is make sure you are having your charger near as its intense graphics and sounds suck that thing down quick! ;)
5. Spinblox (game)(NOT free) this is the only one I have purchased as I loved this game to pass some time and was one of the web apps I had. Had to get it. and this native application is having a better graphic system and more options than the web based one. just a personal favourite and of course there is a Youtube video demonstration
6. Facebook  (Utility) (free) Simple interface to access your Facebook account YT video
7. MySpace (Utility) (free) Simple interface to access your MySpace account YT Video
8. WeatherBug (Utility) (free) its a weather report and forecast thing.. duh.. but its cool. I like these weather things
9. Light (utility) (free) – Probably the simplest app there is, just  a blank white screen that gives off a very good light in the middle of the night! There are probably half a dozen flashlight apps available but I think this is the only free one and it works perfectly. Why would anyone pay for something like this?? and a YT video demonstration!
10. Evernote – (Utility) (free)  Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment (text, voice recording, photo) and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
11. PhoneSaber… (entertainment) (free) ok that’s more than 10 but I love this little gizmo! its a screen with a Star Wars light saber on it and using the accelerometers built into the iPhone, it makes different realistic sounds of the light sabers in the movie when you swing the phone around. Ok I am easily amused sometimes… hey there’s even a demonstration vid on YT of it! cool!

I’ll be watching in the coming days and weeks for anything else that comes along that seems interesting to me.