Daily Twaddle

Google has done it again! They found another way for me to customize my search!

I’ve been experimenting with Jello recipes lately. I mixed a tub of whip cream with the last bowl of Jello I made. It was a huge hit. Tomorrow I’m going to try it with cream cheese. But that got me thinking… what fun ideas do other people do with Jello?

When I started my search for Jello recipes, I found out that Google has a custom recipe search! Awesome! Check out my screen shot - a thousand words right?

There I am, sitting on my throne… waiting for little children to come to my dungeon and eat my poison apples.

I had a basket of green apples with one red one on top. My niece came down from college dressed as Snow White (wig and everything). I had a bean bag toss game, darts, and mystery food guess cauldrons. The kids had to play a game to win a prize.

But the best part was my mirror on the wall. I put a little TV covered in black cloth and played the Shrek DVD with the bonus game. I let the kids ask the mirror on the wall if they deserved candy. Then I pressed play on my hidden remote (under my sleeve) and the mirror would tell them yes or no. If it said no, they had to play a game.

It was the best house on the block! What should I do next year?

Update: Go to my Picasa Web Album to view more pictures of this event. You can even order prints!

We’re not really waiting for the bus. And we’re not even at a bus stop.

I’m actually working on a website for a professional Forrest Gump impersonator. He’s a motivational speaker that just moved to Montana. He’s actually the official Forrest Gump for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory. Cool right?

We did a photo shoot in the park downtown and here is a photo of us. Just for fun.

Photo courtesy of my main squeeze.

This sign is located outside the Health Building at the University of Montana.

Erected in 1969.

Why are things like this still funny?

I just installed a couple of really neat Firefox extensions. Both of these add-ons can be described as “what will happen when I click” helpers.

1. Google Preview. Shows little preview-pictures of websites in the Google search results. You get to see what the site looks like before you click on it. I changed the per-page-display preference from 10 images to 20 images. Other than that… it works perfectly!

2. Link Alert. Now this one I really like. When you hover over a link with your mouse, the cursor will change to indicate what kind of link it is. For example, if the link is a Word document - the mouse pointer will show a little word document image. Cool huh?

Enjoy!

I started to change the default icon of all my folders on my computer’s hard drive. I want to be able to quickly find a folder. It takes longer to scan through words than it does to scan through images.

So, I found an awesome website with free icon downloads for your computer. They’re not freeware, shareware or demo. They’re for use on one, personal computer (so don’t print these icons, don’t email them, and for god-sakes… don’t use them on your website!)

My favorite is Chocolate Folders by Saho. I was really surprised by the quality of all the icons on this website (Macs and PCs). They’re quite sophisticated. Shoot! I just downloaded some more. I’m addicted. So beware of Interfacelift if you like to customize your computer!

You know, I’m looking for a specific icon. I want a folder with money hanging out of it. Or a dollar sign - something moneyish. I want to change my finances folder to look like a folder about finances. I came across an XP icon for MS Money. But I don’t know how to make my Mac use a .ico file as a Mac icon. I’ll have to research it a little bit.

Picasa is a free software download from Google that organizes pictures on your computer. It’s like iTunes for photographs.

* Locate and organize all the photos on your computer.
* Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
* Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web.

One of my clients installed Picasa and “starred” his favorite photos and added captions. Then I signed him up with a google account so he can get free online web albums. He selects the photos he wants, pushes one button - and bang! Those images are online in his web album. A little green arrow is displayed on the picture which means the picture was uploaded. Now he doesn’t wonder which photos are on his website - the green arrow tells him!

He used to email me the pictures. What a pain in the arse! Now, I just click my bookmark (to his album) and download the pictures for his website - including captions! Or, I can get a “feed” to my google reader which notifies me when new pictures are added.

Mommy - you should download this program also. This is probably the easiest way for me to get images on your website. You don’t even have to organize them in some special folder. Just select the image and click the web album button! It takes one to two minutes to upload each photo on dial up.

Find out more about Picasa »

Note: For Windows 2000/XP/Vista only.

A gravatar is a small avatar image that appears beside your name when you comment on blogs. It uses your email address to associate your unique icon with your comment. Cool right?

All you do is sign up for a free Gravatar account and upload your graphic. Then, anywhere you leave (or already left) a comment, you’ll see your image!

Of course, it only works on Gravatar enabled sites. And The Twaddle is enabled! Hurray!

← Check out my gravatar! You’ll notice it next to each of my comments too. Righteous!

Tech Stuff

I went through a bit of trial and error when I first installed Gravatar on this blog. So, I’m going to give a quick tutorial for anyone who wants to install this on their blog too.

First I went to the Gravatar site for Word Press and downloaded the plugin. I followed the installation instructions. Then I went into my themes folder, found the comments.php file and stuck this code

<img src="<?php gravatar("R", 40); ?>" alt="" />

next to the commenter’s name div. I messed around with inserting this code in the right spot until the gravatar rested neatly at the left. That’s it!

I had some expectations of college before I began my studies. One of them was political correctness. I imagined the professors, textbooks, staff, and activites to follow the moral majority.

So, I found it interesting when my two English textbooks used controversial subjects. Last semester, a “faggot’s” story of teasing when he was a child. His memoir. He used the words fuck and tits in his story. I was shocked. Not because I find any of these words offensive, just that it wasn’t politically correct.

Then this semester’s English textbook talks of Sally Mann. A photographer who takes controversial pictures of her children. Not the usual pictures (happy, smiley, clean faces). She takes pictures of her kids when they grab themselves, or get bloody noses, or wet the bed. It just surprises me.

I loved the faggot’s story, in fact, it made me cry. And the dirty kids photos don’t look dirty to me. They look cute. Children doing what children do. Could you imagine these kinds of things in a public high school? Holy shit. Parents would go nuts!

I’ve also noticed less structure in the classroom format. Instead of the teacher telling me what, in fact, is going on, she asks me “what do you think?” Really? You mean there isn’t a right or wrong answer? How can that be?

By the way, I’m at school right now and the computer I usually use is occupied by someone else. Which blows because my math homework program is installed on that computer. Dang it. Maybe I should start farting to entice her to exit.

Okay, I don’t want to get on my high-horse about how much I love free stuff, but I can’t help it. I just found something else I can’t live without!

About’s Red Eye Removal Photoshop Action (it’s a mouthful, I know). This action is a quick way to get the best red eye removal results without all the hard work.

This is the first time I’ve ever used an action. My Photoshop knowledge is novice, to say the least. But oh my goodness gracious. There are a ton of default actions I will use in the future (now that I know about them)!

Now I can upload my hideous red-eye photos in a fraction of the time it used to take!