Raving Amicks

I just went through all the archives and recategorized a large chunk of posts.

By doing this, I downsized the Uncategorized archives from 54 posts to a mere 28. Save for those posts that were “Uncategorized,” I did not move posts out of categories they were already set in.

I also added two new categories: Means of Transit and Books/Movies. “Means of Transit” was created in response to the many posts from Mason regarding his bike, and a few posts about cars. This category is not intended for posts about traveling (as we already have a Travel category), but for posts about how we get around. I suppose if you wrote a post about your horrific experience riding in a plane, wherein you were attacked by poisonous snakes, this would probably fit in “Means of Transit.”

For “Books/Movies,” I chose to combine the two subjects because we don’t seem to talk about books or movies very much. However, it seemed like we mentioned both enough to warrant their own category. Well, actually, we only mention movies enough to warrant its own category. But leaving books out felt like blaspheme to me. Music already has its own category, so we can’t forget about the precious booksssses.

So, now for a word about categories and why the are awesome. Simply put, by setting your post into a certain category (or a number of categories), it makes it easier for to peruse the archives of this blog. There are times when the search bar found on the right side is simply not usable. Case in point: If I remember someone recommended a movie in a post four months back, but I don’t remember who recommended it or what the movie was, all I have to do is click on the “Books/Movies” category and limit the number of posts I have to read through from 200 down to 5. Easy, no?

One last thing: When using categories, don’t forget to un-check the “Uncategorized” check-box down at the very bottom of the list. That way, only entries that truly are “uncategorized” will appear in that archive.

Categories are your friend.

Mason noticed that the secret posts just weren’t secret enough. So I made them even secretter. Comments are now hidden along with the post. But you still get to see who posted them and when, just like the posts.

And in even more biggar news. Stephanie has an account on ravingamicks.com. Hopefully she will be posting momentarily…

I can already tell this website is going to take over the world.

In light of recent happenings on ravingamicks.com, it seemed that there was a need for some family-only functionality. So now whenever you add the “Secret” category to your post, it will only be visible once you have logged in. This also means that the only people who can ever access the post are going to be Amicks+Mindy.

Therefore, the next time Mom wants to post Grandma Susan’s phone/address/email, she can give it the category called “Secret” and ne’er-do-wells will be none the wiser.

And the next time Mason wants to post his take-home exam before it is due, he can use category: “Secret”, and his professor will not accuse him of colluding with cheaters.

Please note that the title, person who is posting, and date are all still visible to anyone, regardless of being logged in or out. So don’t title your post: “MY PASSWORD IS 12345″, or the “Secret” category will not have done much good.

Hummer – Lobster

Originally uploaded by Bernie32.

This is what happens when you follow my directions on posting other people’s photos from Flickr. Nifty, huh?

The downside is that Flickr puts in some ugly text outside of what I’ve written. You might also want to go into WordPress and edit some stuff (such as categories). I left the extra text Flickr crams into the post to show you, but I think it’s ethically okay if you delete it from your posts. The important thing, to me, is that the original picture is not sucking someone’s personal bandwidth, and that the picture also links to their account (which is kind of like a source credit).

Sale #2 happened this morning. Rock lobster! Of all the things to buy, people actually want neck warmers!

Wait! How’s this photo not in your Flickr account but still on your website? Well, I did it the “right” way (no, I’m not looking at you, Mason). Of course, it is my photo, which just happens to be uploaded to my Flickr account. Flickr is an amazing source for photos, and I highly recommend using it when you want to post a photo on the family website of something you haven’t actually taken a photo of.
(more…)

I really, really want one of these. The Nintendo DS has been out for a while, but they just announced this redesigned version in Japan a few days ago. I hope it comes here soon. This is what money is for.

Oh and Mason, you might want to be careful about posting homework before the due date. A professor might find that stuff and get all pissy. If you want to post something ahead of time so we can revise it or something, you can make it private using the “Post Status” bar on the “Write Post” page (this will allow only the family to see it when we’re logged in). If you want specific people to be able to look at it, you can use the “Password-Protect Post” bar instead. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but some teachers might freak out.