Excellent footage of a desert phenomenon.
No, this isn’t one of mine. But it offers two excellent views of a larger-than-usual dust storm bearing down on Phoenix, AZ.
These storms are nasty. Although they can occur a few times during early “monsoon” season, they’re not usually as big as this one.
[Edit Note: The original title of this post referred to this as a “sandstorm,” although it was properly identified as a “dust storm” within the post. I’ve since fixed the title.]
This site was long overdue for a facelift.
Last night, on impulse, I switched this site’s theme from a highly modified version of iNove to WordPress’s brand-new Twenty Eleven. Unless I’ve had an impulse to change it again since writing this, you’re probably looking at it right now.
The site was long overdue for the change. A while back, in an effort to show off more of my photos, I’d added a plugin to pull thumbnail images from my photo gallery and arrange them as clickable links in the header. I realized belatedly that this seriously slowed down the loading of the site. Some people even commented about it. Something had to be done.
There are several reasons it took so long to make the change:
But after upgrading the site to WordPress 3.2, I noticed a brand new theme: Twenty Eleven. Like its predecessor, Twenty Ten, it had clean lines and a lot of built-in features. It also had the benefit of being created by the makers of WordPress, so I knew it would be compatible and show off WordPress features. Working with it would give me a good opportunity to dive into theme customization again. Even though I didn’t have time to play with it right away, there would be plenty of opportunities to tweak it over the coming weeks and months.
And if there’s something I really enjoy doing, it’s tweaking a WordPress theme to suit my needs.
So yesterday, I made the switch. And this morning, I dumped a few of my own images into the random header folder to personalize it enough for prime time.
I’ll be modifying it as time goes on. Would love to know what you think and am open to suggestions for changes. Use the comments link — well, “Reply” link right now; it’s on my list to change — to share your thoughts.
A brief rant about how Adobe software took over my applications folder.
I recently got a new Mac and did a clean installation of my software. Two of the first apps I installed — primarily because I needed them to finish work on a book — were Photoshop CS3 and InDesign CS4. A few days later, I upgraded Photoshop to CS5.
The screen shot illustrates how Adobe invades a computer system and fills it with software that the end user might not want. Yes, I’ve got three versions of Adobe Bridge — which I never use. Two versions each of Adobe Device Central and Adobe Extension Manager. Then there’s Adobe Media Player, which I suppose plays some sort of media. I don’t want it. And Adobe Stock Photos? Who asked for that?
It gets worse, though, when you peek into my Utilities folder (also shown). One of the installers added Adobe AIR, along with its uninstaller. I do admit to adding Flash — although I really didn’t want to. But tell me, does Adobe really need three folders for its other crap: Adobe Installers, Adobe Utilities, and Adobe Utilities – CS5? Digging deeper into one of these folders (also shown) reveals even more from Adobe.
And these are just the items that aren’t hidden away in secret places all over my hard disk. It’s as if I invited a houseguest and he emptied his suitcase all over my house for the duration of his stay. What makes him think that’s okay? And if I ever kick him out, will I ever be able to find and remove all of his crap?
Even Microsoft Office doesn’t do this.
My question: Why?
Here’s a quick slide show of some of my best photos from the past four summers in Central Washington State. (Sorry, but it requires Flash. Ugh.)
Facebook is not that big a part of my life.
I use Facebook. It’s not because I really want to. It’s because one of my publishers wants me to be there. So I am.
So is my husband. It’s not because he wants to be. It’s because his friends talked him into it. He doesn’t know the first thing about Facebook and doesn’t care. I don’t think he’s ever posted a thing.
Yet today, in the sidebar of my page, I found this note from Facebook, reminding me of our upcoming anniversary and giving me a link I could use to send him a message.
Well, Facebook, let me explain something to you. Normal people with normal relationships don’t need you to help them communicate. If I wanted to “send a message” to my husband, I could pick up the phone and call him. Or, if we were together — which isn’t too often this summer — I could simply talk to him, face to face.
I find the idea of using Facebook as tool to communicate with my husband not only idiotic but repulsive.
Is there any part of a person’s life that Facebook doesn’t want to interfere in?