Mandolux
I heard via Mac Observer that Mandolux had some new images up took a look and really liked the one of the cat’s eye. Though I have to say the website needs some help; I mean really, dark grey text on a black background?. I then started playing around with the URL to see if Mandolux has any archives (because I’m pretty sure I got my previous wallpaper from the site) and much to my delight, I ended up finding them under this page. *happy, happy*

Update – 08 May 2004, 2:53 pm (-06:00 GMT): Well, I’ve pretty much gone through all the pics on Mandolux and didn’t find my current desktop image. *sigh* I was really hoping I would; so I could find something similar to it. But after looking at the file names, it became less likely that my old desktop image was from this site as they were completely different (e.g. mandolux-egypt-03-1280.jpg vs. 0D0T0900-2-1280.jpg).

This post is just for me to use a reference to any plugins that I am or will consider using with WP v1.2.

Lorem Ipsum isn’t actually a WP 1.2 plugin, but it’s still bloody useful.

Word/Image Count

OpenPGP signed comment plugin

Topic Icon

PictPress

Comment Preview for WordPress 1.2, thread on WP Support Forums

Convert Hacks to Plugins, thread on WP Support Forums

WP Backup/Restore new version, thread on WP Support Forums

WP & Gallery integration, thread on WP Support Forums

Making AMM work with WP 1.2, thread on WP Support Forums

WP Wiki page of WP v1.2 plugins

WP Comment and Post plugins

I was over at Kuro5hin and ran across an article titled How-To: Write your doctoral thesis. I’ve never felt a desire to go for a doctorate in anything, but I’ve had friends who have gone down that path of insanity, so I gave the article a quick look through and found it’s a rather funny piece. Here’s a sample:

HOKAY, SO: You’ve been a slave for untold years. You want to enter the glamorous world where you can be pretentious and have people call you doctor. You want to have a silly hat and a cape. But to reach these goals, you need to produce a doctoral thesis.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘doctoral thesis’ as: A completely worthless document that will not be read, but which is apparently important to someone, because it requires nearly impossible tasks to complete. This definition is spot on.

Another particularly good bit from near the end of the article:

It is a well known fact that the three body problem of celestial mechanics has no solution. For you, it is worse: you must get five professors to be in the same room, at the same time, and with as little animosity towards you as possible. Hint that free booze will be offered post-defense.

I know I’ve kind of been in the habit of updating musings most everyday and in the last few; I’ve been slacking off, but I have a pretty, good excuse. I’ve purchased a new domain name for this website and I’m busy working away at a new theme to fit the new name. I hope to have to ready in the next week or so (and then I need to get back to working on some templates for a friend’s new site).

In other news, I once again succumbed to the lure of buying a new sketchpad. I don’t know why I do this because if I look around my apartment I know I can find at least 4 sketchbooks that I haven’t used all the pages in yet. *sigh* Oh well, this one’s a lot nicer than my previous one. which was a cheapish clearance item from a bookstore, hardcover but with a standard spin so pages are not really removable and one can’t really scan the sketches either. The new one is roughly 6″x8″, has a cover made of a dark corkboard, the pages are bright, white acid-free paper and the book is spiral bound; so I can actually scan the drawings from it without killing the book. I was thinking I would save this sketchbook for my Japan trip later this summer, but last night as I was laying down trying to go to sleep, an idea came to me and the new sketchbook was the first one I could find. So, it won’t be blank for trip but that’s probably just as well; since I only want to take one sketchbook with me and it wouldn’t hurt to have some art in it to show people in the class I’ll be taking.

Umm, what else can I write about to pacify my non-existant audience….. Oh, I know. Last night after I got home from work, Ariesna and I walked down to the local Farmer’s Market. On the way down, we stopped in the library and I picked up a copy of Neil Gaimen’s American Gods to read. Some friends of mine (Bryon & Aizuchi) have been talking about the book in relation to the new RPG that we’ll be starting up soon. From our group’s last discussion, it doesn’t sound like we’re going to be following the premise of the book as closely as perhaps was originally thought but I still thought it would be worth reading through and so there you go. I hope to have the book finished in a week or so and I’ll let you know what I think then.

Err, the last thing I can think of is that I’ve been thinking about getting a digital camera again. The one that I’m currently leaning towards is the Canon PowerShot S 500 Digital Elph. My main concern is that I’ve got no real money to speak of and plenty of bills to pay. To compound the problem, I see that Best Buy is currently offering 10% of all their digital cameras (only when you order online) and I know I could get at least 6 months 0% financing. But I also know that I should replace the following bits on my car:

  • Timing belt & water pump: The estimates I’ve gotten on this tell me it’ll cost between $600 & $800. Ouch!
  • Air bag sensor: $500
  • Front brakes: They still work, but are getting really damn soft and I’ve not checked into this yet.
  • Speedometer: Sometimes when I first start up the car in the morning, I’ve notice it takes it a while before it actually starts registering my speed. Fortunately, my morning drive is all in town, on 25 MPH roads, so it’s pretty easy to guestimate my speed to keep it under the limit.

*sigh* Some days I really hate being an adult and long for those golden days of yesteryear when my parents handled all this sort of thing.