Manamana Jun 16, 2006
I was in a meeting a few weeks ago, and there was a squirrelly guy with a mustache who kept using the word "phenomenon" incorrectly and increasing the number and length of endings on it.  At first, he said something about "studying the phenomenon that was happening".  After a little while, he said something about "characterizing the phenomenology of the project".  A little while after that, he said something about the project's "phenomenologically advanced technology".  By the end of the meeting, he was just adding anything he could think of to the end of the word:  Phenomenologicallistically, phenomenologicalism, phenomenologicalisticide.  The guy was just going nuts. #language
Sweet tea (4) Jun 15, 2006
When Shara mentioned her sweet tea recipe, it got me thinking.  Man, I love sweet tea.  I don't know what it is about the stuff.  It's just iced tea with a bunch of sugar.  But there's just something so inherently good about it.  Maybe it's because it's a regional thing.  You can't get sweet tea in the northeast, so it's a bit of a novelty for me.  Maybe it's the fact that "sweet tea" and "iced tea" are two completely different things (I believe "iced tea" is equivalent to Nestea or another similar instant disappointment).  Maybe it's the fact that a sugary, icy drink on a blazing hot southern summer day just absolutely hits the spot.  Whatever it is, I love sweet tea.  And every time I visit the south, I order it unashamedly and often. #food
Visiting nurses response Jun 15, 2006
I got a reply about the visiting nurses thing:
Dear Mr. Hosier,

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to inquire about our billboard campaign, "Insist on Visiting Nurses in Their 90's". 

This statement refers to the second line on the billboard,  "95% client satisfaction", meaning our visiting nurses deliver compassionate care that achieves top "grades" -- currently at 95% satisfaction. 

This grading of satisfaction is determined by random telephone surveys conducted periodically by a private firm on behalf of our agency. 

Visiting Nurse Association of Northern New Jersey (VNANNJ) is the premier non-profit healthcare agency serving the greater Morris area, so I'm very pleased to say that our overall client satisfaction ratings have always received top marks "in the "90's". 

One of the most difficult things to achieve in outdoor advertising is attracting attention to the message.  We clearly attracted your attention, but I'm sorry that our intent was not readily apparent to you.  I sincerely appreciate the effort you took to contact us. This is very helpful in our ongoing efforts to communicate the quality of our service to those in need of home health care.
So it appears that Mike and Britt are right.  I still don't get it.  I've read it about 600 times, and it still doesn't make sense.  As Britt said, it's spectacularly poorly phrased.  I'm gonna email the lady back and ask her about it. #entertainment
User-hated website design Jun 15, 2006
This article is about some of the things users hate most about websites.  On the list are the usual things like obtrusive ads and difficult navigation, but one additional thing they talked about was the use of Flash animations.  "Flash animations are an obvious, yet stellar, example of what users hate in a Web site; the skip intro button is the most used button on the Internet."  Amen to that!  Websites that use Flash as a means to display data are often slow, difficult to navigate, and just plain annoying.  Most movie and band websites consist of a ridiculously small amount of content and an abundance of animation, sound, video, and nonsense.  If a website needs to show a "XX%" for how much has been downloaded, it's definitely not worth my time.  (via Digg) #technology
Ubuntu in VMware Jun 15, 2006
I keep reading all kinds of stuff about Ubuntu Linux and how wonderfully great it is.  I've looked into it a few times, and I've even downloaded it and burned it on a CD.  But the more I learn about what's involved in the installation process (or the more I don't understand about it), the more I put it off.  I keep reading something about disk partitioning and reformatting, and I'm not completely comfortable with doing this to my computer.  All the websites I've read have said that it's no big deal, and all I have to do is "back up all my important data and have a fresh Windows install".  That's not as easy as it sounds.  Or, rather, it's not as simple as it sounds.  I have Windows configured exactly how I like it, and I have certain programs and certain settings that would take weeks to transfer to a new install. 

Enter VMware.  VMware is a program that runs virtual machines, which enable you to run an operating system within an operating system.  I tried it once in the past with some sort of Linux-on-a-stick or something like it, but I wasn't all that pleased with the size or speed of the whole process.  But then I found a downloadable Ubuntu Virtual Appliance, which seemed to make it pretty easy to try out Ubuntu without actually installing the operating system.  The download comes with version 5.10 (Breezy Badger), so it's slightly outdated.  But I quickly found that Linux likes to update itself, so I let it do its thing.  I just clicked on the little popup in the upper right corner that said something about updates, and everything downloaded and installed.  It found a network connection right away, and I didn't have to tweak anything.  One annoying thing is that it kept asking for a password to do things, but the password "ubuntu" seemed to work for everything. 

So the next step was to try the latest version of Ubuntu, which is version 6.06 (Dapper Drake).  The thing with Linux is that there's a steep learning curve, and no tutorial starts from the very beginning.  So here's a mini tutorial from my experience:  I clicked on Applications and selected Accessories -> Terminal.  I typed gksudo "update-manager -d" and pressed enter.  (This link shows a screenshot of this, but the text says "gksu" instead of "gksudo".  I have no idea what either of these things mean, but I do know that "gksu" didn't work for me.)  So then it went through some steps of downloading, installing, and cleaning up, and told me to restart.  There was one error in the middle of the installation, but I just clicked on "OK" (or "Oh Well").  After restarting the system, the username and password are both "ubuntu".  One thing that didn't work after the upgrade was the network connection.  So I clicked on System and selected Administration -> Networking.  I clicked on Properties for the Ethernet Connection and enabled the connection.  I changed the Configuration option to DHCP (don't know what that means) and clicked OK.  Then I clicked on the Activate button and loaded Firefox (blue globe icon near upper left corner) to make sure everything worked.  And it worked.  So now I'm running Ubuntu Dapper Drake from within Windows XP by using VMware.  And it didn't change my installation of Windows at all.  Not bad. #technology
Category Sort (2) Jun 14, 2006
The Category Sort plugin was just released a few days ago, and I miraculously stumbled upon it.  I've been wondering why WordPress doesn't have the functionality to sort the_category() alphabetically.  There are a few WordPress support pages about it, and there's even a support ticket that was submitted a while ago. #technology
Can't buy online Jun 14, 2006
If I have a choice, I prefer to buy things online, where I can shop at my leisure and not have to deal with stupid salespeople.  I don't need someone to tell me where to find something, and I don't value the opinions of people who receive a commission.  It's really easy to claim that you don't get any kickbacks or benefits, but I believe otherwise. 

I've noticed that certain things just can't be bought online.  Or rather, they shouldn't.  Most clothing, for example, needs to be tried on.  Unless you're a girl, you can't really just buy something online and expect it to fit or look good (for some reason, this works for Wendy).  Same with shoes.  Different shoe companies have different measurement methods, so you can't count on a certain shoe fitting.  Plus, there's the whole idea of trying things on for comfort.  A few months ago, I tried shoes on in a store, then bought them online at a better price.  That was probably the best day of my life.  But I can't see just buying something online without trying it on or checking it out.  Most times, I'll go to a store and check something out before I buy it.  It's hard to really know how something is gonna look/feel without the first-hand experience. #technology
Mean peep (2) Jun 14, 2006
I was about to chomp down on some tasty little pink Peep bunnies, when I noticed how incredibly mean one of them looked.  Check out the one of the right.  Look at its little mean eyes compared to the nice eyes of the one to the left.  I wonder what made him so mad?  I had my grubby little paws on him, and I was about to rip him off and eat him, when I noticed his mad little face and just couldn't go any further.  I put him back in the box. 

#food
How are you Jun 14, 2006
Most times when people ask me how I'm doing, I reply with any of several variations of "good".  Even if it's the worst day of my life, I don't really want to take the time and burden someone else with all my problems.  Plus, these feelings are usually temporary.  If I just sat in 2 hours of traffic, I'm usually as mad as I can possibly get.  But it goes away.  If I voiced my feelings on it, some people would probably recommend me for psychiatric evaluation.  And it's also difficult to quantify how I am at any given point in time.  At 3:45pm, I might be doing great because I just found a quarter in the parking lot.  But at 3:47pm, I might be doing awful because I accidentally inhaled and swallowed a bug.  So if an answer is even given, it's usually based on the most recent experience.  Taking the average of my feelings over a certain period of time doesn't really work either.  I couldn't realistically say, "I'm doing terrible because I just stubbed my toe on that rock over there.  But last month I bought a new digital camera, so I'm doing pretty well on average."  I think the real answer should depend on how you are at the exact moment the question is posed, regardless of what happened in the past hour, day, or week.  So if you're alive, well, breathing, and remotely healthy, the answer should be any of several variations of "good". 

It's funny when people say how they really feel.  I treat the question like a greeting.  It's normally preceded by a "hey" or a "hello".  Some people treat it like an invitation to tell their life story.  So the conversation goes something like this: 
Them:  "Hey, how's it going?" 
Me:  "Not bad.  How are you?" 
Them:  "Terrible.  Today is the worst day of my life.  I just sat through the longest day of meetings in my life.  I hate my job.  I don't even know why I go.  Then I sat in 2 hours of traffic on Route 80, where people were cutting me off and beeping at me.  Sometimes I just want to carry a gun with me.  Ya know what I mean?  When I finally got home, my dog and cat got in a terrible fight and killed each other.  I got in a car accident on my way to meet you.  And then I accidentally sat on my last Butterscotch Krimpet.  I wish I was never born." 
This is frighteningly similar to a conversation I had last night.  I don't mean to seem like a uncaring jerk, but I guess I just didn't expect to get a real answer to my question.  The question was more of a greeting than an actual question.  I guess I should be careful what I ask. #psychology
Old-Style Upload Jun 13, 2006
I started using another one of Il Filosofo's plugins last week, but it only affects the WordPress admin area.  It's his Old-Style Upload plugin.  It adds the upload functionality that older versions of WordPress had.  There are configurable options, including where to upload the files and what types to accept.  The cool thing is that these options have no effect on the upload capabilities that already exist within post-writing.  The reason this is cool is because I can use the in-line upload tool to upload pictures or other files to my posts, and I can use the Old-Style Upload plugin to upload plugins to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.  And that's exactly what I'm doing!  It's great!  I can't believe this functionality isn't already there.  I used to have to use FTP to upload new files.  What a waste of time and security! 

One change I would make to the plugin is to comment out line 146, which says $img1_name = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9_.]/i', '', $img1_name);.  This line renames the uploaded file by taking out certain characters and symbols.  I think this is stupid, and commenting it out solves the problem. #technology