Okay, first political rant of the new blog. Brought on by the debt ceiling crisis. But it’s not about the posturing and brinkmanship going on now, in which both parties seem to be threatening to crash the economy if the other does not submit to their will on what kind of ceiling-raise to pass, both are threatening to screw people out of “entitlement” payments that are not part of the general fund that needs balancing, and both seem to have conveniently forgotten that to default on owed payments is unconstitutional. It’s about the general situation of why and how we keep running up debt, and what the alternatives are. (more…)
July 29, 2011
July 25, 2011
July 24, 2011
flexible width themes
(This is partly for my own reference, so I can go back and look at what I’ve tried.)
A partial list of “flexible width” WordPress themes that are utter failures at having flexible width:
July 22, 2011
free money
I fixed a neighbor’s computer troubles today, and she said I should be paid something, so being still unemployed I asked for fifty, and she talked me down to a hundred.
July 20, 2011
bwotd
Introducing a feature that was a regular part of my blogation experience back when I used LiveJournal:
Lafayette creek and reservoir
a twirling leaf, hanging on a bit of silk in Lafayette Creek:
a view of Lafayette Reservoir itself, with its notorious oversized tower:
July 18, 2011
wordpress themes
I see that WordPress is still struggling with the difficult concept of layouts that adjust to the user’s browser width. Most of their themes involve either a fixed total width or a fixed maximum width — a design decision that, in this day and age, marks anyone who uses it as an asshole. And of the few that really permit arbitrary width, I haven’t yet found one that doesn’t either lack basic features common to the fixed width choices, or fail gracelessly when dealing with wide pictures, or both. (In fact, so far it’s always both.) At least this one, “Silver Is The New Black”, avoids the worst sin: cutting off the right side of pictures while giving no visual indication that you aren’t seeing the whole thing.
Plus, there doesn’t seem to be any way to try out a theme without destroying some of the customization of the existing theme when I go back to it. Weirdly, some customization that is preserved when moving to certain new themes still disappears when going back to the one I’d previously been using.
And it would be nice if the editor could keep up with my typing, particularly when I backspace… it’s not like I’m using a slow computer or a slow browser here.
July 16, 2011
Moraga hawk
Today we hiked on a hill that was producing a strong updraft, and there was a red-tailed hawk hovering stationary for a minute at a time, like a kite.
Look at ‘im giving me the stink-eye. Like a lot of hawks, he probably has an instinctive distaste for having a long black tube pointed in his direction.
That’s a 100% crop.
[update: this hawk is now my Google+ avatar image.]
July 11, 2011
camera gear
What is my photo equipment?
My camera is a Pentax K10D, which in a couple of months will be five years out of date. I’d love to get a Pentax K-5, but I’m still unemployed. (more…)
July 10, 2011
commence emblogment!
I have decided to start adding posts to this blog and see later if I can get any readers to it. For now, the obvious thing to add is photo posts.
Today Supersonic Woman and I were going to go for a hike, but she got tired and opted out. So I went out for one by myself, and on pure impulse ended up hiking a lot faster and higher and further than I’d planned. It was at the Lafayette Reservoir, which is right near my apartment so I can walk there from home.
And as I was climbing the hill near where they’re building the new water tank, a red-shouldered hawk flew past me.
It came out of an oak tree in which I was hearing a whole bunch of acorn woodpecker noises — presumably a crowd of them chased it out of their tree.
More photos below: (more…)
Supersonic Man 
