joedonahue.org

I did some research (”googling”) last night and discovered that the latest installment of Guitar Hero - dubbed “World Tour” can already be pre-ordered and is set to release at the end of October.  It will include a new guitar, an electronic drum kit, and a microphone, a la Rock Band.

The song list includes Foo Fighters, The Killers, Weezer, The Eagles… and Blue Oyster Cult.

I hope it comes with a cowbell, too.

More info at http://www.guitarhero4.com.

Whenever a shirt gets stained or the car starts making a new noise, I am quick to tell Julie that Entropy is simply running its course and these things are to be expected.  But when it all strikes at once, it can be a little overwhelming.  A host of housing-related concerns have sprung up in the last 2 weeks, with the basement flooding to the dishwasher ceasing to function altogether.  Currently I have a bathroom toilet in pieces as I try and replace a Fill Valve.

We had to replace our washing machine within the last couple months as well, but we really lucked out and that ended up going really well (Our “new” machine flooded on the first load… it ended up having an old sock stuck in it).  I’m hoping we can soon say the same about our current concerns.

Julie and I had a brief conversation this afternoon that was both anti-dramatic and failed to deviate in the least from our normal sort of conversation.  I found it enjoyable nonetheless.

The office door opens and Julie appears; a wide-eyed. pig-tailed 1-year-old peers out from behind her leg.

“Hey Joe, What do you want for dinner?”

Myself, only half-looking-up from the careful formatting I am applying to my newly-created document.

“Roasted duck, with seared asparagus and a light cream sauce.”

Julie, unimpressed.

“So, pasta with a meat sauce?”

“Excellent.”

It’s a good day.

In other news we had another uneventful trip to the doctor’s office this morning.  Like our conversation this afternoon, uneventful is a glorious success.  Julie (”We”) is (”are”) not quite half-way through the pregnancy yet, but, as Julie has been telling me lately, “Our baby is the size of an avacado!”

This week I re-launched our district NYI website, http://www.mainenyi.com.

I was actually a part of the group that first purchased the domain and brainstormed such a site.  I vividly recall pulling an all-nighter within a couple days of graduating high school, busting out code for the first iteration of this site (back in ‘01).  Since leaving and going to college, grad school, etc., it has gone through several more iterations, before finally being hacked and left dormant for about a year.  I saw an ad for someone who would be willing to breathe new life into it, and I am really pumped about working on it once again!

I have posted several times about my love for Wordpress as a Content Management System, and I wasted no time in setting up an installation for the site.  Now up to version 2.6, I get absolutely overwhelmed with each new release - Wordpress is so great.  I have also discovered a new plugin for integrating google calendar into the sidebar (wpng-calendar) that is simple and amazing.  I had tried some plugins before, but this is the best one by far.

Near-future updates will include more social interaction, but I don’t want to install a disparate forum component.  I am hoping to take advantage of Wordpress’s built-in user/subscriber system, and push users towards posting comments to posts and/or pages.

As if I needed another reason.

I am getting ready to begin a paper for my class which starts in a couple weeks, and decide to do a quick search to see what comes up in past papers I have written.  Since all my docs are stored in one place, I can quickly and easily do this. In about 1.5 nanoseconds I had retrieved a paper I wrote about 18 months ago… on the exact topic at hand.

1 down, 3 to go.

I have received such positive response over my post on Pandora that I feel compelled to share this new nugget of joy: Pandora Desktop.

http://pandora.com/desktop

On the technical side, it is powered by Adobe AIR, which allows for desktop applications to be built using normal web authoring methods (as far as  I know… haven’t actually tried it yet).  This isn’t simply Mozilla Prism which slaps a link to a website on your desktop and calls it an app: It will minimize to your system tray and even displays all of your stations in the right-click (context) menu.

I continue to delve into Wordpress design and development as a CMS.  In under 20 minutes I can register a domain name, configure the DNS, add a new domain on my server, install Wordpress, upload my trim-and-clean theme (plus a few select plugins), and fish Flickr for a header photo.  It really is beautiful.

I have also just installed my first instance of Wordpress 2.5 - Wow.  A cool feature I used right off the bat is automatic plugin updating.  It instinctively knows if a plugin has an update available, and upon providing my FTP credentials, it downloads and installs the updated version.  Amazing.

I have gone through several plugins to help build a Flash gallery, but have settled on simpleFlickr as my favorite.  It combines the beauty and flexibility of simpleviewer with Flickr, and rolls it all up into a surprisingly easy-to-use Wordpress plugin.  Flash slideshows built from Flickr sets is just awesome.

Being able to go from concept to reality in such a short amount of time is a profound leap forward in the development of the internet.

Completed: Registered Julie’s car (trip #4 to the DMV, they get me every time!) and got a library card. Also bought tickets for Kansas City so I can attend a Fall module class at NTS - August 15th - September 2nd.

In Progress: I am researching projectors for our church. Suggestions, anyone?

Coming Up: 30 hour famine with laser tag and mini golf Friday night.

My LibraryThing, which is a Facebook application I began to develop only about 3/4 of a year ago, is now able to be installed on Facebook Pages. Specifically requested by the Deakin University Library in Victoria, Australia, the app was quickly retrofitted and can already be seen on their page.

Other fun stats for my little side-side-side project:

Fans: 25
Rated: 4/5
Daily Users: 43
Total Users: 2,629

Tonight Julie and her Mom took the hour-and-a-half drive up to Strong, leaving both Becca (my 8-year-old sister-in-law) and Amelia in my care.  Although I would not normally categorize this as “one of my favorite things,” we actually have been doing alright.  Becca and I played a lot of guitar hero while Amelia bounced around, screaming with a newly discovered high-pitched shriek.  She totally flips out (in a good way) when Becca is around.

Here are three awesome things from the last few weeks.

Number 1: wp-simpleviewer.  This is Wordpress plugin for using the free flash image gallery SimpleViewer. I have started implementing Wordpress as CMS on a couple sites, and have been able to quickly and easily add a sweet-looking image gallery with this plugin. Check it out in action over at my dad’s site and for a community outreach event.

Number 2: Quicken personal finance software.  After a few years of struggling with two versions of Microsoft Money and basically resorting to Google Spreadsheets, I have finally figured out Quicken.  I first bought it last October, and it has literally taken me this long to understand it to the point where I use it exclusively.  I tried out the “Home & Business” demo, but was very disappointed;  The PDF invoices it generated were corrupted and unreadable, and when I tried to edit the layout of the invoice, I received a “page not found” error.  Although I have found it to have a surprisingly high learning curve, I am really enjoying it.

Number 3: Pandora internet radio. Give it an artist’s name and it generates an eclectic and pleasing mix of artists with similar sounds.  It has determined that I enjoy “subtle use of vocal harmony, extensive vamping and minor key tonalities.”  I added John Reuben and MuteMath, and listen to this almost exclusively when at the computer.

Yesterday I had the sheer joy of having a “business meeting” with my co-workers back in Kansas City. At least, that is what I called it when our manager walked by. I was advised to install my webcam so that such a meeting could actually occur, and Adam Spriggs endured about 15 minutes of me struggling to get the video and voice config working so that we could actually communicate. Most of the meeting was us chatting in Gmail while making funny faces at each other, but eventually I got my headet working (which I forgot I even had until Adam said, “Where’s your halo headset?”) and my other co-workers came into view while I showed them the winter wonderland outside my office window.

It has been wonderful this week to just sit back and work. I commented to Julie today that this is very similar to when I was in Seminary: A “vacation” consisted of being able to unwind from school concerns and just have a good week of working. I’ve been really wrapped up in Church and Youth-Pastor-y things these past few weeks, which I love, but it was nice to have a few days with nothing else going on and I can just get some work done. It all came to an end when I heard today that we will be having sports practices twice a week until Festival of Life down in Boston at the end of March. But I have decided to take a couple ping-pong players under my wing for a couple weeks of training - if they’re up for it. Ka-Chow!

I saw Cars recently, I liked it. I also saw “The Ultimate Gift” which I highly recommend! It was a random rental which left me in tears almost the whole way through it. Twice.

I learned a lesson in listening this month. I have been struggling with what it means to “lead” - not just recently, but for quite some time, as I find myself in “leadership” roles, but am so entirely inept that it is embarrassing. For a good laugh, put me in a situation where a decision needs to be made - the aftermath is as painful as the decision itself. But I am realizing that it was in the situations where I have an excellent team of people around me when I thrive, and disaster when I lack such people. Last week we had an event each night in honor of February Vacation, and had Laser Tag slated for Friday. The day came, and brought a snowstorm with it. I had my heart set on going, but found myself at the church, with a dozen students and adult volunteers, an hour after we were supposed to leave for a 2 hour drive, and the snow was getting worse. All the students were ready to go, and all the adults advised against it. I had to recognize the good advice of the adult volunteers, despite my own desire to travel, regardless of the weather. We ended up going out to eat, watching a movie, and having an excellent time.

And if I had a nickel for every time Tim Troxler bailed me out of a bad situation…