News Archive for January 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
First Blog Ever
Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:37 PM
Well, I've been inspired by my sister to start keeping a blog, so here it is.
After hours of messing around with Mambo, I've finally got a setup I think I can use to create a blog-like system on the main page. I'm calling it What's Going On With Kodi, since I think that makes sense as a theme for what I plan to write about. I've always had a hard time keeping up with a journal, but maybe this will be different, since it's on the computer, and I'm usually on at least once a day (all day, if I'm researching/writing).
I'll try to keep my entries short, but I'm a bard, so I can't make any promises.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Wrestling With Mambo
Written by Kodi Wolf at 12:18 PM
So, I've spent another two days wrestling with Mambo. The trouble is that it's so non-intuitive as to be practically anti-intuitive. The only reason I haven't given up on it by now is that when it does work, it's incredible.
On the upside, I am learning a lot about CSS, since it's basically how you control stuff in Mambo... Well, the look of stuff, anyway. Actually controlling stuff is what involves the wrestling.
Just for my own future reference, I'm going to note a few tidbits I've learned, forgotten, and recently struggled to figure out again.
The copyright text is in the version.php file in includes, but the setup of how the copyright and Powered By lines display is in the footer.php file in includes.
The short date used for the chapter listing table is in the content.php file in components/com_content, but is defined in english.php.
The blog date is in the mambo.php file in includes, but is defined in english.php.
I can't remember what file the main page current date is in, but it's defined in english.php.
At least I got the Terms of Service page done.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Shopping Spree
Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:40 PM
Yesterday, I went on a shopping spree with my wife, Corene. It wasn't really planned. I just wanted to try on some clothes and see if dress pants might be a good new style for me, since they look nice and are kind of upscale, but cost half as much as a pair of Levi's jeans, which is my usual attire. I was also wanting a few nice dress shirts for when Corene and I have romantic dinners with our new china we got over the holidays.
Anyway, I found the dress pants (plain/flat fronts; the pleated ones made me look fat), and I figured out the best waist size and length (34/30). I really liked them, and they were only $10, so I didn't feel too bad about spending the money, even though we're kind of on a budget in order to save up for a vacation with my family this summer, among other things.
Then I saw a nice dress shirt in a deep red, which is one of my favorite colors and it had been marked down to $11, so that ended up in the cart. Then I saw some cargo pants. Tried those on, they fit and were only $11, so I grabbed a tan pair and a dark green pair. Corene liked them so much, she got a tan pair for herself. Corene also talked me into getting a long-sleeve plum-colored corduroy button-up shirt, which was only $10, and then got a dark taupe one for herself.
By this time, Corene was ready to go, so we went off to finish the rest of our shopping, but on the way back towards the cash registers, I saw some cool sueded dress shirts in neat patterns in dark purple, dark navy, burgundy, black, and tan that had been marked down. I just had to try them on, so off to the fitting rooms we went again. Since I already had chosen a red dress shirt, and I had a black silk one at home, I decided on just the purple ($7) and blue ($10). Of course, while I was messing with the dress shirts, Corene was at the next kiosk over finding a new winter jacket for herself, since she'd been needing one for a while. It was only $29, which was a hell of a deal for the kind of jacket (down-filled lining, two layers that zip apart to wear the bits separately or together), and she'd only gotten the pants and shirt so far, so I figured what the hell.
Then I saw some suit jackets and tried them on. I figured out I'm somewhere in between a 38 and 40 short. The glazed look on Corene's face when she saw me in it almost made me get it, but it was $60 and it really was a frivolous buy, so I left it on the rack. However, Corene now says she wants to take me to a real suit store and get me one.
The total damage came to just under $130 with tax. Not bad for 4 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, and a winter jacket.
Anyway, before all that, I did actually work on the site and came up with a few more Mambo tips.
To add a menu to a page, go to Site Modules, choose the menu (sub-tip: menus are Type mod_mainmenu, in case I want to create more by copying a current menu), then choose the page I want to have it appear on by selecting the page in the box on the right side of the page.
To add an item to a menu, if I'm in a Content, Category, or Section Item, I can use the Link to Menu box on the right side of the page, or I can go directly to the menu and add the item by going through the New steps.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Mission Statement
Written by Kodi Wolf at 12:58 PM
Last week, I was cleaning up my bookmarks and somehow ran across a Web site that had an automated mission statement builder thing. I've been working on coming up with a mission statement, both for me personally and for my various work projects (writing, Web design, photo restoration, jewelry-making), for several years now and have never been able to quite hit it. Nothing I ever wrote felt right.
Well, one of the questions on the automated thing was: "Imagine your life as an epic journey, with you as the heroine of the story. What do you imagine your journey to be about? Describe what you are doing, who it is for, why you are doing it, and what it results in."
For whatever reason, that question just seemed to inspire the right response in me because I came up with what I think is a pretty good mission statement:
"My mission is love; giving it, accepting it, understanding it, explaining it, encouraging it in others. I write lesbian romance stories to show people what love can be like if they've never had it, to refresh their memories of what it may have been like for them in the past, and to remind them to be grateful if they have it in the present. Most of all, I hope my stories give readers a feeling of enjoyment in what it is to be a lesbian in a loving, sexual relationship, a sense of belonging in the GLBT community as a whole, and a feeling of gratitude for the love they have, or have had in the past, along with hope for the love they might yet have in the future."
Now, I just have to figure out what I want to do with it.
Friday, January 26, 2007
More Mambo Tips
Written by Kodi Wolf at 7:26 PM
Still working on the site. I cleaned up my code and made it a lot more cross- browser compatible, which is one of my top priorities. Unfortunately, I've run into a couple problems (can't make modules appear on the right side of any page other than the home page, and the right column gets squished in browsers other than IE on pages other than the home page), so I'm still hashing it out.
However, I have learned a few more things along the way:
To change the order of Content Items listed on a Category page, go to Menu and select the menu that has the link to the Category page. Then select the link from the Menu Item list. Then set Order By in the Parameters box on the right side of the page.
The title "What's Going On With Kodi" is found by going to Menu, mainmenu, then selecting Kodi's Blog (Home) in the Menu Item list. It's under Page Title in the Parameters box on the right side of the page. You can also change how many entries appear and how, as well as the window title for the home page.
The polls graphic in the title on the Polls Results page is in poll.html.php in components/com_poll.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Documentary Inspiration
Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:37 AM
So, I've been watching all these documentaries on the Discovery Channel about the technology of the future, as well as current cutting edge technology, and they've really gotten me thinking about some of my stories.
For The Trine (working title), it's helped me figure out the hovercar technology I want to use in the story without having to resort to fantastical anti-gravity tech, which felt really wrong to me for that story (I think it works great in P.O.W.). By using permanent magnets (which means no maintenance and no power usage) buried in the streets, with low enough magnetic fields that they wouldn't affect pacemakers, etc., vehicles with shielded electrically-powered repulsor magnets could be used to make the cars hover, with rotating magnets working for propulsion (or turbines would be cool, too). They'd probably still need retractable wheels for travelling on surfaces that didn't have the embedded magnets, but it would still be effective. It also fits right in with the backstory of an earthquake demolishing L.A. because the new tech would be added in during the rebuilding.
For New Gaia, it's got me wanting to completely rewrite the entire technical side of the story to introduce "green" tech: wind power, water power, solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, etc. It's what I would have put in the story if I'd known about it from the beginning. Of course, there's a ton of other stuff I need to fix with that story, but most of it is technical; the relationship/emotional stuff is pretty much exactly how I want it.
Anyway, here's another Mambo tip for myself:
To create an in-site link, start from 'content/' and leave off the base URL.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Kidney Stone
Written by Kodi Wolf at 11:51 AM
I have a kidney stone. Isn't that fun?
Actually, I have two, but only one of them is making its way down the ureter (the tube from the kidney to the bladder), so that's the one that's causing me all the pain. I just can't wait until it gets to my urethra and I get to pee it out. According to the urologist my doctor sent me to, it should only take about a week. My doctor put me on Cipro (antibiotic), but the stuff is making me nauseous, upsetting my stomach, and giving me diarrhea, so I'm hoping he'll switch me to something more tolerable. The urologist also gave me this little mesh filter thing to pee into to make sure I catch the damn thing.
Well, I'm pretty much wasted, since all this messed up my already eratic sleep schedule. I woke up around 4pm Monday after only 6 hours of sleep. I had two bad bouts of pain at around 7pm and 11pm, then another at 8am Tuesday, just before I was going to go to bed, so I'd already been up for 16 hours when I ended up having to spend the rest of the day running around to doctors. Then I had the bad reaction to the antibiotic, so I didn't get to sleep until midnight last night. I took a few naps in the car and after I got home, but I effectively was up for 32 hours.
You know, I'm turning 31 in a couple weeks (11 days), and I just don't think my body is up for this kind of shit anymore. :) So, I'm going to go be a couch potato and see if I can't get a little more sleep.