Who is “shia labeouf”?

“Shia Labeouf” is #5 on the Google Trends list. At first, I had no idea if this was a person, place, or something else.  But with 2 seconds of research I see it is the lead character in transformers and that I have seen him act.

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IMDB says:

Shia Saide LaBeouf was born June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California, to Jeffrey LaBeouf and Shayna Saide, and is an only child. His parents are divorced, and he lives with his mom in Los Angeles. He started his career by doing stand-up comedy around places in his neighborhood, such as coffee clubs… See full bio »

His latest transformer movie came out earlier this year.  But why are people searching for him?  He was involved in a street fight

What is “man up” in reference to?

“Man up” is #4 on the Google Trends list.  Why?

 

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“Man Up” is

(Phrases taken from the Urban Dictionary)

The ABC TV series is probably the idea people have in mind when searching on it. Official website

Of course the CBS news article points out:

Unfortunately, most critics felt that the show’s tried-yet-true genre of men being boys failed to hit a comedic chord. ABC’s new sitcom "Man Up!" only received a 39 out of 100 on ratings aggregate Metacritic, due to what most critics pointed out as an unfunny, overly used premise.

Who is Jerome Harrison?

He is trending as #2 at the moment according to Google Trends.

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Jerome Harrison is a NFL player.  Born on February 26, 1983 in Kalamazoo Michigan.  He was playing as #36 for the Detroit Lions and is now #33 for the Philadelphia Eagles. He had previously been with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2010 and before that he had played from 2006-2010 for the Cleveland Browns. 

My youngest son has just started to play football.  One question we have been asking ourselves is “What does it take to be a NFL player?”  Not that this is something we are all really interested in, but it is worth noting that to become a good football player requires dedication, practice, and good coaching.

You can see a lot of these changes by comparing the Wikipedia.org article changes from August 10, 2011 with the latest:

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Harrison&action=historysubmit&diff=456259812&oldid=444105097

It is interesting to see the date and frequencies of the changes to the article:  en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerome_Harrison&action=history

January 2011 – 1 edit

February 2011 – no edits

March 2011 – 1 edit

May 2011 – 1 edit

July 2011 – 3 edits

August 2011 – 8 edits

September 2011 – no edits

October 2011 – 5 edits

If you were following a football player or other sports figure at one point in their career, and you needed to see what changes occurred between the time you last knew them and now, then the Wikipedia.org history feature could be a good way to focus on the changes.  

Also, it would be interesting to see how the frequency in edits is changing across wikipedia articles.  Is there a tool out there that does this? 

Who is Carson Palmer?

According to Google Trends, a lot of people are trying to find out.

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He was a retired NFL player and now he is going to join the Oakland Raiders.  He plays quarterback (QB) position.  He is a winner of the Heisman trophy, “The Most Prestigious Award in College Football”.

Here is some other basic information:

Born: December 27, 1979 in Fresno, CA

College: USC

Drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 NFL draft.

You can get more information directly from Carson from his blog: Carson Palmer: Official Blog

He is married to Shaelyn Fernandes

A Magazine Is an iPad that Does Not Work

 

This cute video has been making the rounds.  It shows a one year old happily using an iPad that seems to maintain her interest and then happily flipping through a magazine that she quickly loses interest in.  The baby uses the pinching and sliding movements on both items, and the producer of the video makes the comment that the baby looses interest in the magazine because to her there is no difference between the iPad and the magazine other than the magazine appears to be broken.  It is a fun video.

This One Works

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This One Does Not Work

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Does Not Work Either

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Is it Broken or What?

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Yet My finger does work.

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I’ve had it.  Off to the One That Works.

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For my 1 year old daughter, a magazine is an iPad that does not work.

It will remain so for her whole life.

Steve Jobs has coded a part of her OS.

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That last slide makes a reference to a concept we talk about called “Digital Natives”.  These are the kids that grew up with technology.  They could not imagine a world without computers, cell phones, email, and the web.  And they have adapted themselves to use it.  Indeed Steve Jobs was one of the enablers of that and in part Steve Jobs has coded a part of this generations DNA.

The comments ranged from cute to mean.  From thoughtful to crass.   One person even suggested that some of the comments were so extreme and hurtful that the parents should consider removing the video.  One eve says ”Wow. People really need to CHILL OUT. It’s just a cute video whether you believe in why the baby’s is doing what she’s doing or not. Sheesh.”  I think that probably reflects my views the best.

Walk Safe & Drive Safe

Our community has been shaken by a recent accident.  First an email goes out about an accident in the area:

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Then we find out that it is a person very near and dear to all the people in our Boy Scout Troop.

We should all take a moment to pray for the people that are affected by this.

We are somewhat relieved that the suspect has been caught.:  Arrest made in hit-and-run that killed dog, injured woman

But this is not the only driver we have to be worried about.  Here are some ideas of how to increase safety while walking and driving.  If you have some ideas then leave them as a comment.

While Walking:

This is a reminder that it only takes one driver to make the road unsafe for walkers.  We must practice defensive walking.

  • Walk with a partner. 
  • Carry a cell phone while you are on a walk.
  • Use the sidewalks if available.
  • Be extra careful at street crossing.  Do not depend on the drivers of the cars to stop or to see us.
  • Try to walk during the day.  But if you do walk at night, then wear blinking lights to increase the chances that drivers will see us.
  • Let other people know about the path you plan to take and what time to expect you back.  Be predictable so that if you do not show up when expected, people know to look for you.  And they have an idea of where.
  • Do not listen to headphones while walking.  Also, do not walk and text or look at your cellphone.  If you need to text or talk, then choose a spot, finish up the call, and then continue on your walk.  We must stay alert.

While Driving

Driving is a privilege.  It comes with a big responsibility to ensure that we keep everyone safe.  Here are some things we can do as drivers to make the roads safer. 

  • Focus only on driving.  Do not talk on the phone, text, mess with the radio, or worry with other people in the car.  If you need to worry about any of these, then pull over and take care of it.
  • Don’t be in a hurry.  Make sure that you have a realistic schedule, and that you leave extra time for unforeseen events.
  • Drive at the speed limit or below.  When it is dark, approaching intersections, turning corners, bad weather conditions then drive slower.
  • When approaching an intersection, go ahead and slow down.  If you are unsure if it is a 4 way stop, then stop anyway. 
  • Do not over drive your headlights.
  • When in an area where pedestrians are common, consider rolling down the windows and turning off the radio.  You may be able to hear people before you see them.  Especially true when in a parking lot and backing up.
  • Carry a phone just in case you need to call for help.
  • Have a first aid kit in the car.  Be prepared to be a good Samaritan.
  • Try to drive during the day.  If you must drive at night, then take extra care.

WP Plugin: Contact Form 7

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Installation:

Step 1:  Dashboard->Plugins->Add New

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Step 2: Search for “Contact Form 7”.  Should be the first result

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Step 3: Click “Install Now” and click “OK” in the dialog confirming this choice:

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Step 4:  Click “Activate Plugin”

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Configuration

Step 1: Click on the newly added “Contact” area on the left navigation bar:

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Here you can create a form to be displayed on your site.  It provides a default form that will be useful in 99% of the time.  

At the top it has the code that you need to put on the page or post that you want the contact form to appear.  Just copy and paste this code:

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Now go to the page that you want to add the contact form.  I have created a page with the title “Contact Us” for this purpose.

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Now just paste the code from the contact form here:

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Click the “Update” button and then view the form on your site:

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When you fill it out and submit it, it will be sent to the email address listed in the “contact” settings page where we had copied the code from.

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After clicking send a little message appears:

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And sure enough, an email appears in my inbox:

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Customization

My first use for this contact form is for a home inspector.  What are some things that a home inspector would like to know?  How about phone number and address of the home to be inspected.  Also, it doesn’t make sense to have the customer put a subject, so we will remove this.

Go back to your admin screen and go to Contact:

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Look for the place where the form is defined:

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The first step is to remove the “Subject”:

<p>Subject<br />
    [text your-subject] </p>

 

Should look like this now:

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Let’s go ahead and add a place for phone number just below email address:

Step 1:  Click on the blank line above the “Your Message” line.

Step 2:  Click on the “Generate Tag” button on the right and select “Text field” on the list that is displayed:

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Step 3: Fill out the attributes of this new field.  It starts out with some default values like this:

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Let’s make these changes:

Required Field: <checked>

Name: Phone-Number

Once you make these changes, it will look like this:

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Now, copy and paste the codes indicated to the right places, and add some formatting codes.  I would make the top part look like this:

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And make the bottom look like this:

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Now let’s add the property address and not make it a required field.  This can be done by change the form code to look like this:

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Change the email part to look like this:

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Scroll back up to the top and click “save”

Go to the front of the site and see the results:

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Give it a test:

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Worked as expected:

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TinyMCE Advance WordPress Plugin

Did you ever want to make changes to the editor window in WordPress?  Then the TinyMCE Advance WordPress Plugin is for you!

When you first start WordPress, the editor window provides very minimal options:

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(The “ABC” with the checkmark was added by the After The Deadline plugin which provides proofreading support.  And the last item was added by the WP-Tables Reloaded Plugin)

Clicking on the expand icon:

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will reveal another row of options:

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The TinyMCE Advance WordPress Plugin will add an option under “settings” for “TinyMCE Advanced”.  This will allow for you to completely alter this and to add many, many more options:

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I’ve added the Table set of functions.  I found that it did not work when I had WP-Table Reloaded installed.  But when I deactivated WP-Table Reloaded it worked fine.

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And now when I enter a new post here are the options I have:

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Photoshop 5.5: Measurement Log

The measurement log is a great idea.  Being able to do multiple measurements (Analysis->ruler tool; measure; and click “record measurement).  And it is great that it automatically labels the measurements “Ruler 1”, “Ruler 2”, etc..  but is it possible to change the label?  Also, is it possible to see where you had measured before?

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Pixels and Fences

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A fence provides a good framework to insert a series of cups or other material to create a message or drawing.  Above is an example of this in front of Windwood Presbyterian Church on Spring Cypress.  What are some examples that you have seen? 

You can find a few scattered examples looking for “fence art” in Google images.