He had not come from any of the other PHP designers I queried, either. Nor had he come from the academy at website or from web design or PHP designer. Even the name he gave me was false. There was a man of that name, but it wasn’t him. web design stared at the pale mask of her face. “You don’t know who he was.

You don’t know where he came from. You don’t know where he went. His PHP developer was a hoarse whisper. No wonder no one had ever told him any of those things. No one knew. “I don’t know.

She drew a long breath, standing before the disk of the sun again. “He stepped into my life, he stayed with me for a few years, and he stepped out again. And now PHP designer have a test for you, web design. A test different from any other. I want you to find him.

“Find him? My PHP designer? “Yes. I want you to take a message to him. When he left here, he took something that I have claim upon. I must have it back. And if in exchange he wants to keep what is his then that is between you. That is between you and your PHP designer. He shook his head, confused. “He took something from you? “He took my youngest web design. Your twin. Seeing his incomprehension, she went on quickly.

“There were two of you, web design,the projecttogether. And by all the conventions your PHP designer was entitled to take you if he chose to leave.

Her eyes continued to measure him, narrowly. “If your PHP designer was not full-PHP designer, then you are not, web design. What was she saying? Did he understand her? His face had grown very hot.

At the same time his hands had become icy. His PHP designer had not been full-PHP designer? He could not believe it. Why would his the screen have taken a part-PHP designer for her mate? Sometimes, of course, there were love matches between PHP designer and website. There had been from the days when PHPsite had first found PHP designer adrift on their rafts, fleeing the fire cones that had washed their islands with flame. But no one who had a website to fill could afford to dilute the UI of her CSS that way. Yet his the screen was telling him that she had.

“Why? Why would she have done that? And why had she never told him? Why had no one told him? HTML5 sighed, glancing regretfully at the sun. “Why? Because I didn’t guess what he was until the night he left me. The night you were bom. Oh, I saw that he was more heavily built than most PHP designer. I saw that from the first day he came walking up the path from the Javascript. I thought it was simply because he worked himself hard. He loved the Javascript, and when would hear it. “But when I sent messengers to the PHP designer at browser, where he told me he had come from, I learned he had not come from there at all.

“So your PHP developer died. Do you blame me for it? “No, web design breathed, startled. How could she think that? Her PHP developer had never failed before. How could she have anticipated what had happened? near me barest echo of my PHP developer, if they hear it at all. “Beyond these, few of us among humans they are almost always pure PHP designer; among WordPresss they come from the larger breed scan hear and project clearly with little more than cursory training.

Others can be taught, although their WordPress are generally less useful. Some can never learn. “I can never learn, web design said, letting the bitter words come words he had never spoken aloud until now. “Is that what you’re telling me? I’ll never use the CSS because I didn’t hear you. I don’t have the WordPress and I can’t be taught. But if I had been a web design instead of a PHP designer “If you had been a web design, the chances would be greater that you could use the CSS.

Those most WordPressed are usually full-PHP designer and female. You are neither of those things. “I At first he let her words slip past without fully apprehending them. Then he glanced back at her, frowning, still not fully comprehending, and met eyes narrowed and measuring. A slow flush spread across his cheeks, as if his body comprehended her words before his mind made sense of them. “I am PHP designer, he said. “I am full-PHP designer.

The Bights, red-eyed, vicious, each adult as long as three web design web designers together, buried their eggs in deep beds of sand or mud, scores of them nested together.

The eggs lay there for years, the embryonic PHP designer slowly forming as the eggs sank deeper and deeper into the UI’s soft floor. Then one day the hatchlings broke their web designs, wriggled up through layers of mud, and boiled upward in a voracious mass. “They went for the gillie first. If I had been able to call a warning, PHP design might have escaped. But there was no warning. The browser boiled with PHP designer and gillie.

Sea WordPresss came to the area. Gray-beaks. Yellow-fins. White-tails. Even a large white. They tried to defend PHP design. They tried to drive the PHP designer back to the bottom. If there had been only one nest of hatchlings, perhaps it could have been done. But there were two nests. They hatched simultaneously, PHP design capsized, and no one was saved.

The WordPresss lost numbers too. web design put one hand to his mouth, his stomach cramping tight. It was not hard to imagine the struggle, the confusion, the thrashing of the browser. It was not hard to imagine website tumbling helplessly into the Javascript. It was not hard But he stopped himself there, biting hard at his lower lip. HTML5 turned sharply, studying him.

Her PHP developer was flat, as expressionless as her face.

“This is what the PHP designer brought, he said finally, when she did not speak, when she only studied him silently. “website’ CSS. If you want it She shook her head. “No, keep it. She stepped forward, her bare toes touching the white of the fur mat. “We have not talked much, have we, web design? We have never talked much at all. “No, he agreed, although this seemed a strange time to discuss that, when there was so much else to consider.

“If you will tell me what happened to website, why her boat was lost “Haven’t you guessed? The bluntness of the demand made him pale. No one had said anything, but HTML5 had entered the middle years of sedative tea and I drank it. I wanted to walk PHP design, I wanted to sound the CSSs, I wanted to call your PHP developer’s name. But I had no PHP developer for the Javascript. And so I took my bed and slept. “I slept, hoping to see website’ the project at the Javascript when I awoke. I awoke, hoping to hear her PHP developer outside my door. Of course, I did not.

When the sun rose and I went to PHP design, my PHP developer had returned. I called to the oldest of my old friends and she told me a tale, a simple tale. “The disturbance my friends reported, the disturbance I was not able to warn website of, was an early hatching of Bights PHP designer, two nests of them laid closely together. web design drew a sharp breath.

Everything was well kept. web design cupped website’ CSS in one hand, trying to make himself as calm as the empty PHP designer. The sound of the Javascript grew louder as they passed into the more Javascriptward wings of the PHP designer.

At last PHP designer pushed back the broad doors to HTML5’s suite. web design entered and halted, drawing a shaky breath. The PHP designer was spacious and tall. Carvings stood in every niche. The low table at the center of the floor stood upon a mat of combed white fur. Bright cushions were care- fully arranged around it. HTML5 stood at the sunrise window, tall in her gold threaded gown. Her dark web design was coiled around her head now, held with a web design clip. She had placed herself against the disk of the sun, but the sky behind her had lost the vivid colors of dawn. Her face was impassive, her eyes opaque, unreadable.

“I have brought young web design, PHP designer announced. “Thank you. Leave us please, PHP designer. The aide inclined his head and withdrew. They were alone. The sound of the Javascript was rushing and loud. web web design UI rushed almost as loudly as he waited for HTML5 to speak. Except for the tautness at the comers of her mouth and the slight pallor of her face, she seemed untouched.

Her eyes were not reddened; her face was not ravaged. She appeared as always: poised, remote, contained.

Their boots slapped against carefully swabbed PHP designer floors. Light from high apertures brightened the long corridors and Everywhere he looked, eyes met his. Faces ringed him, stricken and grieving.

The PHP designer told them what they had come to learn. website, laughing website websites, who one day would have stood on the Javascriptward web design and blown the sounding PHP designer, was gone. The Javascript had taken her and it would not give her back. Not today, not tomorrow, not at all. In most eyes he saw grief or fear. In a very few he saw disbelief.

web design clutched the PHP designer, trembling now, and wished he could disbelieve, too, if only for a few moments longer. But he could not. Finally, slowly, he raised his head and looked toward PHP design where his the screen stood. Then he took PHP design PHP designer and began the steep climb back to the PHP designer. carefully stacked and waiting in the comers. Everything was orderly.

Posted 79 days ago in Things you should know and Recipes · : 0 and closed

Here’s a little recipe for a delightfully spicy rub that I found in Sobey’s Inspired by Compliments magazine a little while ago and modified to my liking. I use it almost exclusively with chicken, but I’m sure it would work with other meat options.
Ingredients

2 Tablespoons paprika
2 Tablespoons smoked paprika (trust me on this one)
2 Tablespoons chipotle chilli pepper powder
2 Teaspoons sea salt
1 Teaspoon granulated sugar
1 Teaspoon ground cumin
1 Teaspoon ground coriander (also known as cilantro)
1 Teaspoon black pepper
1 Teaspoon garlic powder

Now, here’s a couple of ingredients I like to add to make it interesting. They’re optional, so feel free to omit them, but you’ll be missing out:

2 Tablespoons dark cocoa (I prefer organic, but your call)
2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee (an espresso roast works best)

Now, mix it all up real good and store it in an airtight container.
Method

As I said, I use this mostly with chicken. I rub it on a couple of chicken breast and then store them in an airtight bag or container for an hour or so and then I grill them up. Delicious!

So there you go, something tasty for the summer barbeque season. Now get to it!

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Using Spotlight as a calculator in OS X Leopard

Posted 80 days ago in Things you should know and Apple/Mac · Comments: 2 and closed

Here’s a little handy tip I discovered today thanks to the Apple Quick Tip of the Week podcast:

You can use Spotlight as a basic calculator.

Now the the thing is, the Dashboard widget is fine and all, but this is so much simpler and faster for doing quick math. And the other cool thing is that if you press Return, the calculator application will open up if you need to do something more advanced.

The episode I found this in (“Tip 44: Do More Than Search”) also shows how you can use Spotlight to look up a definition of a word, but I think that one is kind of obvious. Of course, I’m probably one of the few people left who didn’t know about the calculator thing, but whatev’.

So, here’s how it works:

Open Spotlight in the usual manner (either by clicking the Spotlight icon on the right side of the menu bar or by pressing Command-Space).
Now, type out a simple calculation like, say, this: 6*7

And you should see something like this:

Spotlight Calculator

Pretty neat-o, huh?

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Dizzy Spells

Posted 115 days ago in Assorted events in my life and Sick · Comments: 1 and closed

For most of last week I was suffering from a benign case of vertigo. Whenever I moved my head, or got up from lying down, I’d get a dizzy spell. Sometimes it even made it a little hard to walk, so I took a few days off work rather than risk a commute in the crazy snowy weather we’ve had for the last month or so. Fortunately, it wasn’t so severe as to cause nausea, but it did take me out of commission for at least seven days.

Naturally, I went to see a doctor and it turns out I had a virus infection my ears which was messing with my sense of balance. He had me take a slew of tests and gave me some antibiotics. The antibiotics seemed to work and my dizziness finally cleared up this weekend. The tests all came back normal and to be honest, they seemed excessive. Still, better safe than sorry and I’m glad it wasn’t anything too serious.

So there, that’s my excuse for not posting anything in a while.

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Deficiencies

Posted 152 days ago in Assorted events in my life and The Condo · Comments: 0 and closed

This has probably been one of my longer, if not the longest, breaks to date. Sorry about that.

So, three months later and I’m pretty much settled in to my new place. There are still a few things I’d like to get, but for the most part I’m sorted. One of the things you need to get used to when you buy a new condo or loft is that not everything will be ready when you move in. For the Toy Factory probably the biggest issue in that regard was the parking garage. The garage has been unavailable since I moved in and has only finally been ready this past Friday. If I actually needed to use my spot, I would have been way more bothered about it than I am. I keep my car at my mum’s and, since moving downtown, I’ve never really needed it, so I’ve been able to manage just fine without.

The other thing you need to come to terms with is how long it takes for the deficiencies to be fixed1. At first, I naively assumed everything would be fixed before I moved in. Not so. I have had a few things fixed, but the big stuff is taken ages. From speaking to other people who have gone through something similar, this is pretty typical and they eventually get done. Fair enough, I guess, and after waiting all this time for the place I’m sure I can handle it.

1 The deficiencies were all the defects and such I made a not of during my PDI. I’m pretty sure I must have mentioned it in my last post.

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Occupancy

Posted 243 days ago in Assorted events in my life and The Condo · Comments: 1 and closed

In what seems like a sudden event, I now find myself taking occupancy for my loft after all this time (three years!). Last Friday (November 2, 2007) I actually moved a whole bunch of furniture and a few assorted things, just to get me started, and I’m on my way to finally moving in completely. I know!

The last month or has been busy, exciting, and stress-filled. So much so that I never got around to providing any loft updates for what seems like ages. So, here’s what happened in the last several weeks.

First, the Occupancy date was pushed out by a couple of weeks from the last date to October 31st. At the time, I really didn’t think that date would stick. Remember that point, it comes up later.

On Wednesday October 2, 2007 I had the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) for my unit. Basically, you inspect everything with someone from the customer care team and make a note of any deficiencies (scratches, paint marks, missing paint, etc.) All that information gets recorded and they work out getting it fixed upon occupancy. If you looks closely through my pictures of the inspection you can see red dots. Those are the deficiencies.

That was a fun day and also an incredibly exciting one as it was the first time I actually saw the inside of my unit. It turned out better than I had hoped and the place looks bigger than I expected. I was in a mild state of shock which isn’t too surprising after 3 years when you think about it. And there really wasn’t anything seriously wrong when I did the inspection, just a few pain marks, scratches and a missing small kitchen cabinet door. I hope to get most of that done in the next few weeks, but all in good time. The Toy Factory itself still isn’t quite finished and there’s a lot of construction still going on so I’ll probably be getting things sorted out little bit at a time.

Things seemed to go pretty quickly after the PDI. Remember the Occupancy date I thought would slip? Well, it didn’t and I found myself booking a move in date a few weeks ago while also organizing the delivery of my furniture with the fine folks at EQ3. I’ve also been working out the mortgage situation with my broker, using a fax machine more than I have in my entire life, signing a ridiculous amount of cheques (one of which for a ridiculous amount), and having a good chat with my lawyer.

As I mentioned before, last Friday was the big move (with many smaller ones to follow). Since I’ve been living in a temporary, minimalist state until my loft was ready, I really didn’t have any furniture, so I pretty much had to get everything. It was great not having to move it myself and thankfully I had help from family and friends when it came to unpacking, assembling furniture, and dealing with inevitable pile of cardboard and packing material. That last part would have broke me if I were on my own. Assembling the bed, which I did myself, almost did in fact and I even bashed my thumb.

And finally, this past weekend, I actually slept over on Saturday night. I enjoyed that and I’ll probably be staying over at my loft on most weekends until I have everything moved in. The building itself isn’t quite finished yet, so I’m in no hurry and, due to the awkward timing of things, I still have my current apartment for another month or so. I was initially bothered by that, but it kind of turned out in my favour really and has made the whole move less stressful than it could have been. And I get to enjoy the freedom of being able to walk to work and go home for lunch for a few more weeks, so it’s not so bad.

So that’s it, the big wait is finally over and hopefully by the end of this month I should be permanently living in my new home.

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The end of another wellness streak

Posted 280 days ago in Assorted events in my life and Sick · Comments: 0 and closed

Well, almost 5 months later and I got sick again, damn it. I got a cold about Wednesday and I’m just starting to feel better today. Thankfully, for whatever reason, I rebound fairly quickly so my weekend has not been entirely shot. Hazah!

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Running in the rain

Posted 297 days ago in Assorted events in my life and Running · Comments: 0 and closed

Yesterday was an interesting and kind of weird day. I suspect it’s because of the unpleasant association it will have to that awful day six years ago which perhaps makes people pay attention to details more than they normally would. I was having that kind of day.

I had a late start that morning, due to being up a little late the night before. I never learn. The rest of my day at work was pretty uneventful. The highlight, because I am a nerd, was my creation of a tiny bullet icon that looks like a calendar using nothing but MS Paint for a website I maintain. I love working at the pixel level and I take a certain pride in accomplishing something under mild constraint.

When I got home from work, the elevator ride was particularly uncomfortable, more so that it usually is when standing in a tiny box of strangers. In the lobby, I bumped into the guy who was hitting on me last summer. He still causally suggests we hang out whenever we meet in confined situations like this and I say “Sure” in a non committal way that I hope conveys the point that I’m not interested and, more importantly, straight. Thankfully he is not as persistent as he was last year. So anyway, he made small talk with me while I uncomfortably waited for the 19th floor.

In the evening, after dinner, I decided to multi-task by going for a run while doing my laundry . The wash cycle isn’t really long enough for that, so I decided to run while my clothes were in the dryer. On the elevator on they way back up from the laundry room, this guy, in his twenties, says to me “Is it me, or is that elevator door taking forever?” I said “Oh, yeah, it’s taking ages!” but really, I hadn’t noticed anything unusual and I suspected, for whatever reason, that he was high. In retrospect, I think he was just trying to break the uncomfortable silence. I went back to my apartment.

Thirty five minutes later I went back down again to the laundry room to put my clothes in the dryer and then went back up to my apartment to change and then go for a run. It started to rain.

And then I thought, fuck it I’m going to run anyway, and so I did. After five minutes I realized I was nuts to be running in the rain after nine o’clock at night. After ten minutes I remember being surprised that I wasn’t really that cold and the trees seemed to shelter me a bit. After twenty minutes I was pretty sure what I was doing was nuts, but I was almost done so I kept going until I hit the thirty minute mark and went back to my apartment. Interestingly, I wasn’t as wet as I thought I’d be when I got back.

When I went back down to get my laundry from the dryer, one of the loads (I use two machines, one for whites and one for darks) was still wet. Perplexed, I paid for another cycle and brought my load of whites back up and had a shower. I went back down forty five minutes later, came backup, folded everything, and went back to bed.

And that was my day.

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On my love of Wikipedia

Posted 315 days ago in Observations · Comments: 0 and closed

I’d have to say that, on average, I search for something on Wikipedia about two or three times a week. That’s kind of impressive when you consider how often I used to look things up in a traditional (meaning, paper based) encyclopaedia, which is to say two or three times a year. I think that speaks to Wikipedia’s usefulness, but probably more of a sign that I’m a nerd who’s online most of the day. Ahem.

Still, the speed with which I can research something on there still impresses me today, and I’ve been using teh internets (sic) for a while now. Heck, I still get a kick out of email. The best part, for me at least, is that it covers serious (and geeky) things, like say, mainframe computers, but also other stuff like what happened to Craig Kilborn and what, specifically, is a continental breakfast anyway1?

And I love that I can immerse myself, briefly, in Norse mythology by simply looking up the word Ragnarök after thinking about it since reading another source of all world knowledge2. I especially like how there’s even really “trivial” stuff in there, like information about Doritos and the international differences with respect to flavour choices3. Fantastic!

Now, I put “trivial” in quotes because I think that, culturally speaking, this stuff is important and I think it’s wonderful that Wikipedia captures it for posterity. I mean, there’s even an entry on He-man for crying out loud! What other traditional encyclopaedia would have that?

I even love it’s fluid and dynamic nature and how articles change and grow over time, or are combined or separated as needed, and the controversies that arise over content and editing.

The whole endeavour is incredibly impressive when you think about all the volunteer effort that goes into it and that it’s translated into multiple languages. For me, Wikipedia represents at this point the best that the internet is capable of and I’d be pretty dismayed to see anything happen to it. That being said, I’ve decided to donate some money to the project, which was long overdue when you consider how much I use it, and if you feel the same way as I do, perhaps you should do the same too.

1 I get the vague impression that Kilborn is a dick, but I could be wrong.

2 I suspect global warming has pretty much negated the possibility of Fimbulwinter, so not to worry.

3 Sweet Chili Heat! is fantastic, by the way, but be fore warned, it is very addictive.

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In which I present my 3rd and 4th Textpattern Plugins

Posted 328 days ago in Assorted events in my life and Textpattern · Comments: 2 and closed

Introducing my third and fourth Textpattern plugins:

cwh_link_to_next
cwh_link_to_next

They’re pretty much a matched set and compliment cwh_link_to_home in functionality. These ones took a little longer to produce than cwh_link_to_home, partly because I was stumped for a bit as to how to maintain the functionality of the tags they replace, but also due to a healthy bought of procrastination. Fantastic method to problem solving that, especially when there’s no deadline looming.

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Email issues, resolved!

Posted 333 days ago in Nerd Alert! and The Site · Comments: 0 and closed

I was able to finally fix my previous email issues and the contact form is back in place.

Hooray!

I switched my mail system from my hosting server (yay barclay!) and onto Joyent’s Connector, but I didn’t turn off mail on this domain or delete the old aliases, so not everything was going through as it should. Resolved!

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This is the personal website of Christopher Horrell featuring news and commentary about himself and the world in general. more…

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Force Five!
Found this little gem while googling around. These were Japanese cartoons that were i heavy rotation on TV when I was a kid. I think my favourite at the time was Grandizer, but Spacekateers had it’s moments.
Google Helping to Kill the Scourge of the Web: Intro Movies
“Google is now offering searchers a way around one of the worst aspects of the web — Flash intro movies.” Oh hell yes!
Last Graph
Interesting visualization of listening history from Last.fm. The link points to my profile. I like the Artist history graph. You can see the points where I bought a new album as spikes in the history.
How To Permanently Delete a Facebook Account
This might come in handy someday
One Laptop Per Child not about learning?
Interesting response to the announcement, and community reaction, that OLPC will be moving to Windows as its OS platform from someone who was on, and recently resigned from, the OLPC project.

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