December | 2003

December 31, 2003

Adding A Little Chaos

PHP Code For Random Image Picker Earlier this month, I got a wild hair and decided to change the name of the site to “That Reminds Me Of A Story…” In making this change, I changed the description of the site (which appears in the upper right corner of the page) to “Ask me what time it is and I’ll tell you how to build a watch.” I initially liked the change, but in the comments to that post Chris suggested that the title and description were too similar and that he preferred mashby.com as the title. I felt the same way and decided to revert back to the original title.

After the change back, I kind of missed the saying “Ask me what time it is and I’ll tell you how to build a watch.”, yet I didn’t want to lose the main description of the site “Michael Ashby’s (aka mashby) weblog regarding technology, movies, travel and other odd rants and ramblings.” That gave me the idea of adding a little chaos to the site by adding a PHP script to select random text and display it where the description is. The entry explains how I did it.

December 30, 2003

Ahhhh What A Day

Christmas Dinner - YUM! I had one of the best Christmas’ I can recall. I had no idea that Christmas Day could be so relaxing and fun. That’s not to say that Christmas is usually horrible or anything, it’s just that, typically, it’s very stressful and frantic. When Holly and I travel to Baton Rouge it’s complete bedlam trying to see everyone as we run from place to place. Even if we stay in town, we’ve typically been overwhelmed with activity, often times to the point that it’s been more about getting the next item complete on the task list, instead of quality family time.
So made this year different? I think a lot of it had to do with the way Christmas fell this year. Having it on a Thursday meant that most people were looking at 5 days off, so the pace of this Christmas was a little less hectic. In addition, I made the concerted effort to take time off. Instead of trying to squeeze in family time with other deadlines, which is my usual habit, I decided to just spend time with family. The third contributing factor to such a wonderful Christmas, was that I decided to cook. Ever since I decided to figure out how to cook Madelines, I’ve been bitten by the bug to get into the kitchen. This year I decided I would try and tackle the tall order of cooking the Christmas meal.

December 23, 2003

A Toast To Dan Westman

Men, raise your glasses high! Today is a happy day for a couple of my good friends – Dan and Rachel. That’s right, they are getting married tonight! It’s one of those happy and unexpected stories of love lost and found again. Boy meets girl. Boy and Girl drift apart. Boy meets Girl again in a new city. Boy is surprised he still has feelings for Girl. Girl is just as surprised. Boy and Girl begin dating again. Boy and Girl move in together. Boy and Girl get married and move to Guam. Who hasn’t experienced the exact same story in their own lives? Especially the Guam part. 😉 I may be making light, but today is a very big day for my buddy Dan. I know that Dan and Rachel are very much in love and I know that they are going to do great as husband and wife.

Last night was his bachelor party and he put me in charge. Luckily Dan is a low key guy and wasn’t looking for the “typical” bachelor party. I’ve mended my ways since then and all my oats have been sewn, so instead we had a nice relaxing evening of cigars, scotch and male bonding. We went to the Havana Lounge downtown and enjoyed a few limited edition Arturo Fuente Opus X cigars and a few glasses of Macallen Scotch. It was a well spent evening as we talked about where we’ve been and where the future seems to be heading and all the fun we’ve had along the way.

I believe that there are some standards that have to be met when a good friend is getting married. It doesn’t matter if it happens at the bachelor party, or not, but it’s important that these “rules” be followed at some point during the process of getting married. These are not rules that I found in some book and adopted, these are rules that I have lived and continue to live by. Allow me to explain.

December 22, 2003

Holidays Have You Stressed Out?

This time of year is one of the most stressful times of all. Christmas parties, shopping at packed malls and getting together with family can push anyone over the edge. Today is a stressful one for me. I had some shopping that had to get done this morning. I have Holly’s office Christmas Party tonight […]

December 22, 2003

Managing Links With MovableType

Links In my last entry, I hinted at the fact that I was going to create a Wish List utilizing MovableType (MT). I had this idea to create this feature of this site based on some work I had done for the Palm OS User Council web site. I had just completed installing MT not as a weblog tool, but as a full fledged Content Management System (CMS) for the entire web site. Yes, that’s right, MT can be used for a lot more than just weblogging. 8)

Since I began using MT for the weblogging software for mashby.com, I’ve found all sorts of interesting applications for it’s use. Anything from links management to task lists, to total content management. I’m still anxiously awaiting the release of MovableType Pro, but until then, I’ll keep bending MT to my will. 😉 To help illustrate just how flexible MT can be, today I’ll show you how you can manage your Links page through some small changes in how you normally use MT.

December 20, 2003

My Letter To Santa

I Need Sleep I’ve been working for about three days with very little sleep. I’ve found a neat way to create a Wish List for the weblog, but I haven’t had a chance to configure it yet. With Christmas just around the corner, it’s now or never, so I’m posting it here for starters. I hope that I’ll be able to get the Wish List weblog configured this weekend, but since I may not, here’s the Internet based version of my letter to Santa.

Levinger
   » Receipt Folders ($12.95)
   » Lamy Vist Ballpoint Pen ($16.95)
   » Lamy Vista Pencil ($16.95)
   » Lamy Vista Rollerball Pen ($19.95)
   » Three-Way Organizer ($19.95)
   » Briefcase Folders ($19.95)
   » Levenger Mach 6 Fountain Pen ($24.95)
   » Time Traveler Clock ($29.95)
   » Private Library Kit ($29.95)
   » Pad Backer, Letter in Toffee ($79.95)

December 18, 2003

Becoming Santa

Me As Santa Claus Tuesday, I performed as Santa Claus for Holly’s Youth Choir. It’s the first time that I’ve ever performed as Santa for children and I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I kept thinking, “At what age do kids start not believing in Santa?”, and I had visions of kids staging a mutiny and saying things like, “That’s not Santa!”, or “I know who that is,” and pulling off my bead. For some, playing the role of Hamlet may be the role of a lifetime, but Tuesday, it was me playing the most well known and beloved holiday character in the world – Santa.

How I Got The Suit
There was a department store in Baton Rouge called Godchaux’s (pronounced “god shaws” ). It was the premier store in town and also was a local store to boot. Even when Dillard’s and other stores came to town, everyone still shopped at Godchaux’s. Godchaux’s was fancy and was very tied to the community, so it was more ingrained in the local culture than any other store. Founded in New Orleans, Godchaux’s had several stores, the largest in Baton Rouge in fact, and it was a mainstay of Louisiana life. Unfortunately, the store eventually fell on hard times, or the owners wanted to sell, I don’t know which, but in the late 80’s Godchaux was sold and went out of business.

December 15, 2003

What’s In A Name Anyway?

Name Tag When I first created this weblog, I always wished that I had come up with a cool name, or slogan; however I was never successful in thinking up anything clever. I’m envious of web sites like Antipixel and NotPretty. Those names are so cool and unique. Although mashby.com may be somewhat unique it doesn’t really describe anything. Well I was thinking about stuff today and maybe it’s the overwhelming amount of caffeine that I’ve had today, or the lack of sleep, but a synapse mis-fired and I may have come up with something. I’ve changed the title of the weblog to “That Reminds Me Of A Story…”

If I’m visiting with someone chances are I’m going to use that in a sentence. Someone will say something and it will remind me of something I’ve done, read, seen, or heard about. When that happens, the very next words out of my mouth will usually be “That reminds me of a story,” and I’ll then launch into some story that could be told in 2 sentences, but I’ll stretch it to 2000. I don’t limit myself to just verbal discussions as frequent readers of this weblog are no doubt intimately familiar with. Heck, I can write 2000 words on Windows Movie Maker without batting an eye!

December 14, 2003

Move Over Mr. Spielberg

Windows Movie Maker I tend to bash on Microsoft products quite a bit. This year I’ve become a Mac convert and just yesterday I was touting the virtues of giving Internet Explorer the boot. Most of my ire comes from the fact I’ve become fed up with the typical bloated, unsecured, buggy products that come out of Redmond. I’m tired of having to patch software on a daily basis and wade through features for the one simple feature that I’m looking for. I’ve got a pretty bad taste in my mouth regarding Microsoft products, so you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon one that I actually like – Windows Movie Maker.

Holly Needs A Video
Holly wanted to submit a video audition to the producers of Nashville Star. My past video editing experience consisted of using the pause button on our old VHS deck as I played captured video on our Hi-8 analog camcorder. I knew there had to be a better way, so I figured I would explore how hard it would be to edit the video on my computer. After a few conversations with Dan, it was clear that I needed a camera with Firewire. This would allow me to import the video directly into the computer.

December 13, 2003

Better Alternatives Than Internet Explorer

I forgot just how bad pop-up ads can be. For the past 3 years I’ve been using Opera as my primary browser, which features a built-in pop-up ad blocker. Pop-up ads were not what drove me from Internet Explorer though, what sent me looking for alternatives was speed, features and peace of mind For those of you still using Internet Explorer, there are alternative browsers out there that offer more and better features and are worth taking a test drive.

Why I Left
I never liked the fact that Microsoft tied Internet Explorer so tightly into the operating system. Neither did the Justice Department, but that’s another story. What I didn’t like about it was the fact that there were big security holes in it and if IE crashed, your whole system could be affected. To me this was ludicrous. The idea that your entire computer could be compromised by browsing a malicious web site is pure insanity, but that’s the penalty for having applications integrated into the OS.

Month / December 2003