Big things happening

Just thought I would take the time to point you good people to Newsforge.  WordPress's own wonderboy Skippy aka Scott Merill is the newest addition to those penning articles for newsforge.

Scott has a very readable, comfortable voice in his writing and the topics he has covered thus far are interesting.  Look for more from him in the coming weeks, you will be glad you did.

Currently there are two articles from the skipster up, you can find them over here and over there.  Enjoy.

One would hope that this is only the beginning of big things from the members of our community.  Scott is not the only luminary we have, he is just one of the first to be recognized.  I will be keeping my eyes open for more from our group, please let me know if someone else from the community has been making waves so they can also be highlighted here.

A small request...

If you are the praying kind, please read the following and do what you feel is appropriate.

For the past week or so I have been experiencing a large amount of pain in my left knee, and hearing a very disturbing grinding noise emminating from it when I would walk up and down steps.  I finally gave in and went to see a physician on Monday, and after some x-rays and consultations they diagnosed me with Patella Femoral Syndrome.

A visit to a physical therapist today confirmed that, and I found out some more info about this condition and what to expect for the future.  Unfortunately there is no way to cure this problem; I will be dealing with it for the rest of my life.  The therapist thinks that I am in pretty good shape right now, and since we have caught it early I might be able to forgoe surgery on both knees.  If I stick to a strict regimine of no high impact excersizes, and keep my weight under control that is.

I am asking for people of the praying persuasion to remember me and my family.  My wife and I are attempting to start a family and I want to be a father to my children.  I want to be vital and strong so that I can keep up with them as they grow; not be left behind because my legs don't want to cooperate.  I ask this for myself.  I ask it for my wife.  And I ask it for my children to come.

May God, the Great Physician of soul and body hear your prayers for this unworthy servant, and visit me in my affliction bringing healing to soul and body.  Thanks for your time and attention.

Changes around the site

You will have to forgive me if there seems to be a lot of worts and blemishes around here lately, I am upgrading the site to the bleeding edge of WordPress, and sometimes things get a little wonky.

I am also adding some more features here and there, as well as refining some of the existing features we all know and love.  Feel free to leave some feedback here as to what you like/dislike and any suggestions you might have.

Oh and the calendar at the top is based on a feature that used to grace the weblog of one Mena Trott.  She hasn't been using it for the past two years so I thought it would be fine to appropriate it for my use.  Of course my version is completely styled with CSS, where she relied on images, but hey to each his/her own right?

New plugin/hack for WordPress

I have completed around 95% of the work for my latest plugin/hack combo.

This time out I am giving you good people the ability to set the text of your comments link on a per post basis.  So if you wrote a post about dreams, the link to leave comments could be like this:
So what are you dreaming? (0)
instead of the normal:
Comments (0)

I have a little more to do on this one and it will be released into the wild.  I am shooting for this evening, but it could be tomorrow.

Busy, busy, busy

Just thought I would drop a line, lest you think I don't care about my readers anymore!

I have become swamped of late, and find it more difficult to write something for the site.  Between a massive tutorial I am writing on CSS and WordPress, my job which is becoming increasingly hectic and my home life which is always hectic, I am running around like a chicken with a head location problem.

Add to that I am writing a couple of books and designing the block for two more, you can see where things are heading.  I hope to return to churning out plugins and hacks for WordPress and posting more tutorials in the near future, but for the short-term I will be hitting a low posting tide.

If you need something I tend to hang out in #wordpress mon - fri 7:30 - 4:00 or so.  If you know me then you can guess which nick is mine, feel free to ping me.

Until later then.

The quintessential guy movie

In the history of "guy" movies, there has been only one that could ever hope to claim the top spot as the very essence of what a guy movie should be, according to me of course.  And that movie is one that centers around the story of an Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa.

I have thought long and hard about what film could claim this distinctive honor and I must say it was truly a grueling task.  In the annals of film history there have been many very good guy movies.  Let's take a look at the films that made my top 5:

• Rocky: Of course no 1 is Rocky, cause I just said that.  Sheesh.
• The Godfather: This was a tough choice really, but I think that Rocky still wins for many reasons I will cover shortly.
• The Dirty Dozen: Jim Brown, running with grenades... do I really need to say more?
• The Seven Samurai: The quintessential action movie, but wrapped within its layers lurk valour, sacrifice and honor.
• The Quiet Man: Now I am sure that many a' man will disagree with me, but I think that this is my favorite movie of all time and more than worthy to be listed here.

Now lets look at each movie in a bit more detail, note: the IMdb ratings are rounded up for ease of HTML entity use.

Read the rest »

Open Letter to the Emperor of America

To my worthy adversary Victor I Emperor of America,

It is I the Lord of Applegrove, Duke of Woodspointe and defender of small furry woodland creatures everywhere.  The good people of America will no longer be subject to your "between homes" regime, they demand an Emperor with an address and a phone number.  I have heard thier cries and I now answer them.

So in keeping with the rights of ascension that you youreself have put into place, I am informing you here in this all-encomposing medium that I challenge your claim to the porcelain throne of this fine land.

If I have not recieved a response from you within 48 hours I will assume that you have abdicated and I am the rightful Emperor of America.  If you wish to settle this dispute with strength of arms, our two armies will meet on the field of battle... by the monkey-bars or possibly the jungle gym.

The Rightful Emperor of America,Lord Christoph.

Give me money

I have updated the Sillystore at Cafepress with postcards made using this photo from my time at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Chicago.

It is a beautiful image, and would be a fitting card for any of the feasts of the Church, but specifically Pascha or The Nativity in the Flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  And you know, you would be helping a brother out by picking up a pack.  I have also opened a store at lulu.com and you can currently purchase as electronic downloads two of my images from Holy Trinity.

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that I would be willing to offer many of the images I have published here for sale, as either an electronic download or a high quality print in a range of sizes, just let me know here on this post, or you can leave a comment on the image itself over on the photoblog Light and Shadow, you can of course just download the images from the photoblog, I will always leave that option open and free but if you would like to pay me for a higher quality version, or a fine product created with an image, I am certinaly not going to stop you.

That is all the capitalism I can stomach for now.