Archive for July, 2009

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays are important!  Mine is especially special because I share it with my son, Brandon!  There have been a few over the years that we’ve not been together, but for the majority we enjoy and share the day with each other.  It makes me happy that his girlfriend, Leah, considers his birthday special and has included me in his day for the past two years.

Leah planned another very successful surprise party.  She really puts a lot of hard work into the planning and does a great job.  The party wasn’t a total surprise, as it was last year. Read the rest of this entry »

Lace Cactus

This morning’s email from Amazon.com contained a list of the best books of 2009, so far.  I clicked the link and soon began looking over the selections.  The title that caught my eye, was “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie”, by Alan Bradley.  I began reading the description with interest, all along wondering if it would be something Sherry would enjoy.  Following the description there was an interview with the author, Alan Bradley.  That’s when the “Aha” moment happened.  Mr. Bradley wrote this book at age 70!  He hasn’t always been a published author, although he stated he always thought he could write, even at age 5.  He went on to note, “Seneca, an ancient Roman author, had said something like this, ‘Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms, you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.’” Read the rest of this entry »

Independence Day has come and gone.  The only thing that’s ever the same is the Oklahoma heat.  What made this year’s Fourth of July rare was the rain.  It never rains on July 4th in Oklahoma!  Never, except this once, this year.

I was staying indoors this year, out of the heat, working like crazy trying to get Expression Web 2 to cooperate with PHP like it’s supposed to do.  I believe it’s just another example of how Uncle Billy, et al, keeps giving us software that doesn’t live up to it’s advertising and then doing nothing to fix it until there’s an upgrade he can sell to add another $Billion to his worth.  Anyway, I was busy as could be when I became aware of thunderstorms building northwest of Lawton.  The idea came to me about heavy ominous thunder clouds behind the mountains of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and the bright July 4th sun to the south.  I pictured an extremely high contrast situation with the mountains in full sunlight and the thunderheads behind.  I couldn’t shake the images from my mind, so late in the afternoon I gathered my camera gear and headed to the WMWR.  I was soon disapointed by the realization that I was going to be about an hour late.  The thunderheads got to the Refuge first.  This is what I wound up with.  Not what I wanted, but it gives an idea of what could have been.

It’s 11:40 PM, on a day of web design that began at 7:30 AM.  I’ve made progress, but there’s still a long way to go.  The most difficult task for me is getting my Gallery, powered by Coppermine, to have the same appearance as my blog, using WordPress.  I don’t want to port Coppermine to a WordPress theme because I don’t like the way the gallery functions, or appears, when doing that.  I primarily want the colors to match.  I’m tired and headed to bed!  Tomorrow is another day!

I’m so sorry to hear Governor Sarah Palin has resigned.  She has been so mistreated by the liberal media, I can’t really blame her.  It’s a shame they un-mercilessly attack and smear good role models while at the same time elevate dysfunctional people like Michael Jackson to iconic levels just because they are entertainers.  It’s a sign of how dysfunctional our society has become.  We seem to lack the ability prioritize our value system.

Today is a new day at Okie Dokie Photos!  Gone is Joomla and up is WordPress.  I’m much more comfortable with WordPress, anyway.  I’m also using Artisteer, a great software program for developing WordPress themes.  The webpage making knowledge and skills I already possess, coupled with Artisteer, should make for an appealing and exciting web page experience.  Right now I’m working to get things situated just right, adding plugins, and working with widgets.

I hope you’ll come back often to check out my gallery.  I’ll be working hard to give Coppermine the same look and feel as the rest of Okie Dokie Photos.

Herbie