September 2008 – mccormicky

Going On Vacation-404’s

I’ll be away from the 22 cnd of Sept. until Oct. 6th.

My website is messed up.
If you click on a link in my menu for a page chances are 50/50 you will get a Page Not Found Message.Even typing http://mccormicky.com into the address bar triggers a 404,sometimes.

If you refresh the page once or twice the page will load.But this is not how a website is supposed to work.

I’m very confused by this recent development – thankfully it is only happening on my domain and not on any of my client or friend’s websites.

~~I’ve checked the .htaccess.I’ve changed permalinks.I’ve checked the code in myheader. I have no idea.I am totally stumped.~~
Everything seems to be back to normal.Crosses Fingers.

I was asked to create an advice column type of website recently so in the interest of research I rented Dan in Real Life without knowing much more about the plot than that the Dad (Steve Carell) is an advice columnist.Personally I feel that Steve Carell’s best role ever was in Anchorman.I’d prefer it if he stuck to roles that have him bellowing non sequiturs like “I love lamp”. He is an artist of the absurd and he should embrace this about himself. It worked for Bill Murray and now look at him. I got equally queasy when Jim Carrey went the dramatic route and I still refuse to like him when he is being serious.We have enough serious actors.

My biggest problem with ye old plot was that it was stupid.The writers must have assumed that we would not mind a father of 3 acting like a 12 year old.They probably think that our level of maturity hovers around the 12 year old mark,too.

Total Spoiler
Dan, while home for the holidays, meets a woman in a bookstore, ends up talking to her for hours and then goes back to the family home to find out this woman is his brother’s(Dane Cook,troublesome casting choice) new girlfriend and he is crazy about her.The woman, “Marie”(Juliette Binoche,love love) has fallen for Dan but she is in this new relationship with his brother and is determined to be realistic or at the very least,polite. Dan can’t stand her grown up choice and acts like a complete twit about it. It’s like Geez, you knew her for 3 hours,dude,relax.
Following the formula of boy meets girl, girl is boy’s brother’s girlfriend, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in the end,thank you Hollywood.

A Fully Widget-ized WordPress Theme

Updated August 3rd,2009 » So You Want A NextGen Gallery Slideshow as a Banner(!?!)

Learn how to add more sidebars to your theme and be able to use widgets in any part of your theme. Confused? Well, many plugins provide widgets and if you want to use them they have to go into the sidebar(s). But what do you do if you want to use a widget in a part of your theme that isn’t a sidebar?

I’m going to tell you how to make any part of your theme into a “sidebar”. So you can put widgets in it and be happy!

What is a WordPress sidebar? It contains PHP and HTML, right? Well then, a sidebar doesn’t have to be a long skinny rectangle on the side of your blog or website. It can be a banner with rotating images(or whatever you want) and that is what I am going to show you how to do in this post. You can use these steps and your own ingenuity to stick widgets from other plugins wherever you like. It’s not limited to nextGen Gallery slideshow widget. I’ve used this technique to add Random Quotes, the WP-E-Commerce Shoppingcart widget…etc. If it has a widget it can go anywhere. That is my point. Anyone who is very comfortable hacking their templates and themes can follow this post just fine.
Read on to follow the tutorial on adding more sidebars and getting the nextGen slideshow widget in the header/banner of your theme.
Continue reading A Fully Widget-ized WordPress Theme

Tasty Burgers

I made this recipe up as I went along. My boyfriend ate them all and he said they were the best burgers he’d had in about 10 years. But then not to be too complimentary or anything he added “but maybe that was just because I was really hungry”.

I started with regular ground beef from Fresh Direct, not lean or sirloin-just chuck and less than a pound. You can use more but the more meat you use the more garlic and onion and spices you’ll need.This was one of those days were I just did not want to go to the market so I fished out whatever I had in the fridge…so don’t feel trapped by my measurements and amounts-they’re just a guideline.

I got out a big bowl and dumped the block of beef in then I added Italian seasoned breadcrumbs,2 eggs,liberal Worcestershire sauce,salt,pepper,chopped half of a red onion and 2 cloves of garlic,minced,fresh tarragon (about 4 leaves,snipped up with scissors) and a generous amount of olive oil to help in getting the beef to blend with the other ingredients. I used half a cup of breadcrumbs and the 2 eggs as an extender because A. can eat a lot and the package of meat was small.

I energetically mixed it all up with a fork.As I was mixing I added a splash more olive oil and a dash more breadcrumbs.Then I slapped the mixture into medium sized balls and plopped them in a hot pan.
I sliced some Swiss cheese and placed them on top.The burgers fried for about 5 minutes on the meat side and 1 minute on the the cheesy side.Then I turned on my toaster oven and scooped the hamburgers into a pan and let them cook at a lowish heat(300 degrees) about 15 to 25 minutes.

Because I used a small amount of beef the patties were more like large meatballs and this amount of cooking time ought to be enough for even those who fear undercooked burger meat.I too read Fast Food Nation.I also treat ground beef like it is a radioactive substance.This is why I feel better about buying antibiotic-free or free range or organic when our budget allows.

Additional ingredients
Fancy rolls,sliced tomatoes and lettuce leaves.