How We Voted (Updated)

Following is how we voted on some of the Candidates/Measures (& How Oregonians voted):

US President – Baraka Obama

US Senate – (Justin) Jeff Merkley, (Peggy) Steve Novick

US Representative, 3rd Dist. – Earl Blumenauer

Secretary of State – Kate Brown

Attorney General – Greg Macpherson (John Kroger)

State Representative, 23rd Dist. – Jackie Dingfelder

Multnomah Commissioner,  Dist. No. 3 – Judy Shiprack

Portland Mayor – Sam Adams

Portland Commissioner No. 1 – (Justin) Jeff Bissonnette, (Peggy) Amanda Fritz

Portland Commissioner No. 2 – Nick Fish

Portland Commissioner No. 4 – Randy Leonard

State Measure 51 – NO (YES)

State Measure 52 – YES

State Measure 53 – (Justin) YES, (Peggy) NO – not yet determined.

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Christopher Lowell’s 7 Layers of Design

Back in 1999, we were on vacation and watch the ____ show (can’t remember the name of the show, but it because the Christopher Lowell Show), and Christopher went over his general steps for redesigning a room.  We wrote them down then, and recently came across them again, so rather than keep the random piece of paper for another 9 years, I figured I’d blog it.  Obviously, this is already online at christopherlowell.com, but following is the basics:

  1. Paint and Architecture (moldings, mantel)
  2. Installed Flooring (any floor surface that is wall to wall)
  3. High Ticket Upholstery Items (sofa, love seat)
  4. Accent Fabrics (area rugs and drapes)
  5. Non-upholstered Furnishings (the work horses of the room, end tables, chairs, coffee tables)
  6. Accessories (pictures, mirrors, candlesticks)
  7. Plants and Lighting
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Less is (not) More

The <!––less––> tag is the opposite of the <!––more––> tag. Where the <!––more––> tag hides all content that follows it when viewing the post on multi-post pages, the <!––less––> tag shows content preceding the tag when viewing the post on multi-post pages and hides that content (with the exception of a <p> if necessary) when viewing the whole post.  This gives a way of adding content for an excerpt in the Visual Editor without having to use the Excerpt box.  When used in conjunction with the <!––more––> tag, it gives greater flexiblity to create an dynamic excerpt without having to repeat content in the Excerpt box.

 

Note on “Requires at least”: The Visual Editor button works with TinyMCE version 3.x, which is in WordPress 2.5.  So the main functionality may work in previous versions, but the <!––less––> tag will have to be manually entered in the Code Editor.

Installation

 

  1. Copy ‘less’ folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
  3. When editing a post, click the Less button in the Visual Editor, or insert <!––less––> in the code where you want it.

 

Q: When would I use this?

A: One example of a time to use this is if you have a gallery in your post.  You may not want the full gallery on multi-post pages, but one image for those pages would be nice.  Conversely, once viewing the whole post, that introduction image would now get in the way, and would be better off gone.

 

Plugin’s WordPress Page | Download plugin

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Oregon Primary Election 2008 Guide: Candidates

The Oregon Primaries are coming up in a few weeks, and there is actually more to vote on than just Hillary or Barrack.  The Oregonian has a pretty comprehensive Voter’s Guide online, but following is my take on several of the candidates for this election:

Portland Mayor: Sam Adams

Adams has worked in the Mayor’s office and as a city commissioner.  He has the knowledge of the city government that comes with experience, along with the understanding that the Mayor cannot do everything and that they need their commissioners (i.e. no “strong” mayor).

Portland Commissioner #1, 2, & 4: no opinion yet.

Multnomah County Commissioner #1, 3, 4: no opinion yet.

US President: Dennis Kucinich Barrack Obama

For most, myself included, choosing between Clinton and Obama is like choosing between cornflakes or rice-crispies. Both are good, but the decision comes down to a gut feeling. To find substantive difference between Obama and Clinton, one must start going through their voting records and introduced bills while in Senate. I opted for the voting record for this section, but you can find their introduced bills here (Clinton) and here (Obama).

In my findings, there have only been seven times when both Clinton and Obama voted on a bill and disagreed (the mouse-over synopses are from Project Vote Smart):

Clinton For: HR 4297, S 2020, and S 3711

Obama For: HR 6, HR 5441, HR 5441, and HR 5631

Riveting, huh? If only these bills were as easy to read as the synopses, but they’re not, and the synopses don’t do them justice.  Other ways to help you decide are political selectors such as SelectSmart and USA Today.

US Senator: Jeff Merkley

Merkley is a better statesman and has better political experience than his competitors, which are both very important in trying to unseat the incumbent, Gordon Smith.

Oregon Secretary of State: Kate Brown

Both Vicki Walker and Kate Brown have the education and experience to serve in this role, along with similar ideas as to what they will do once in office.  For me it came down to endorsements (see, they do matter), and while Walker’s list is longer it is mostly individuals, whereas Brown’s list contains more organizations that I agree with, such as Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Basic Rights Oregon, and NARAL.

Oregon Attorney General: Greg Macpherson

Greg Macpherson has better experience and community involvement here in Oregon.  In addition, I caught part of a debate on OPB between the two, and agreed with Macpherson’s views on Mandatory Minimum Sentences, being that they are too stringent for lesser crimes, and that judges should have more discretion for first time offenders.

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Oregon Primary Election 2008 Guide: Measures

The Oregon Primaries are coming up in a few weeks, and there is actually more to vote on than just Hillary or Barrack.  Following is my take on several of the measures for this election:

Oregon Measure 51: NO

This measure, which amends Section 42 of the Oregon Constitution, is called a “house-keeping measure” since it helps solidify laws that have already been passed, but are they good ones?  Since our legal system is based off the concept “innocent until proven guilty”, isn’t that how it should be? The defendant, until proven or plead guilty, should be treated as innocent, and therefore their rights, and not the victim’s should be more important.  The “victim’s rights” from that section include, among others, the right to refuse being interviewed by the defendant’s lawyer, which could seriously impact the defendant’s case, especially for someone wrongfully accused of a crime.  This measure strengthen laws that should not have been passed in the first place. 

It is also worth noting that the ACLU (www.aclu-or.org) is “neutral” on this measure.

Oregon Measure 52: YES

This measure, which amends Section 43 of the Oregon Constitution, is also a “house-keeping measure”, but unlike section 42, the “victim’s rights” in this section are reasonable; the right to be reasonably protected from the criminal defendant, and the right to have decisions for pretrial and/or bail based on that reasonable protection and likelihood to appear for trial.  Strengthening these rights, which do not infringe on the defendant’s rights, is a good idea.

The ACLU (www.aclu-or.org) is “neutral” on this measure also, but I believe that to be because they lumped the two measures together.

Oregon Measure 53: (tentative) YES

Reading the text of this measure, I am not entirely convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks of abuse, but I try to have faith in humanity.  The sections that concern me are in regards to forfeiture without conviction.  One section allows forfeiture of property for “crimes similar to the crime for which the claimant was convicted.”  If the claimant committed these similar crimes, then why aren’t they being prosecuted for them?  Another allows that “property of a claimant who has not been convicted of a crime may be forfeited in a civil forfeiture proceeding only if the claimant consents to the forfeiture…”  This is where I see a large chance of abuse; if people don’t know that it’s okay to say “No, you can’t take that” to the police (I’m assuming that the police would be the agents of the “forfeiting agency”) and not have criminal repercussions, then there could be a situation of amoral, but not illegal, “forfeitures”.  Again, I say YES to this measure because I have faith that there are more moral officers than there are amoral ones.

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Low-Score Yahztee

Peggy and I came up with an interesting variation of the Yahtzee card game, try to get the lowest score. In order to keep from just burning (taking a 0) every score we made some additional rules:

  1. Unless required to play a hand by following rules, you must use all three rolls.
  2. If a hand meets the minimum requirements for a score in the Lower Section (3 or 4 of-a-kind, or Small Straight) that has not been filled yet, than those dice must be held.
  3. If you roll a Full House, Large Straight, or a Yahtzee, you must place the score accordingly, if you can.
  4. You must place a hand where it gives you the highest score, except for Chance.
  5. If your final roll in a hand cannot be played for any points, then you burn from the top down: Upper section – Aces, Twos, Threes, etc. then Lower Section – 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind, etc.
  6. Chance is the last hand played.

Give it a go, and let me know if you can think of additional rules. 

 

(This is a re-post from my old blogspot account)

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The Movie Game

The Movie Game is something that my friends and I play to pass the time, and test our knowledge of movies and actors. It works by making links between actors using movies they were in, as follows:
The first player states two actors and the movie they were in together, “Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope'”.
The next player states the second actor, names a new actor and the movie they were in together, “Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman in ‘Air Force One'”.
Repeat without reusing actors or movies.
PASSING: If a player can’t make a link, (s)he passes (and drinks if you’re playing it as a drinking game).
WINNING: If every other player passes and the stating player can make a link, the game is over and (s)he wins.
DEAD-END: If that player also cannot make a link, then (s)he must make a different link from the original actor given to them (and drink), “Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones in ‘The Fugitive'”.

Variations:
ELIMINATION: Instead of passing, if a player (named C) cannot make a link, (s)he can issue a “Challenge” to the previous player (B) to prove that player B can make a link. If (s)he proves it, then player C is eliminated and the actor from the challenge link goes to the next player. If player B cannot prove it, the (s)he is eliminated and the actor given to her/him from the previous player (A) goes to the next player (C).
KEVIN BACON: In homage to the basis for the game (The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon) you cannot pass or challenge if you are given Kevin Bacon as your actor.
POLITE START: In the first time around, a player can force the previous player to give them a different actor to link off of instead of passing/challenging.

Sources: The sources used for links can be a contentious subject. How do you define a “movie”? Does it have to have been a nation-wide release? Do TV-movies count? What about mini-series and TV shows? We play that if you can rent it at the video store (or Netflix), it’s fair game. You could also use IMDB (maybe we should call this “The Actor Game” since the term “movie” is being used so loosely).

Additional suggestions welcome.

 

(This is a re-post from my old blogspot account)

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Recent By Author

This WordPress plugin is an amalgam of two other plugins, WP-Authors and Recent Posts.  It shows a list of authors with options to show their total number of posts, and their most recent posts.

Installation is pretty straight forward:  Make sure your theme is widget-ready, upload “recent-by-author.php” to the “/wp-content/plugins/” directory, activate in Plugins menu, and the add it to your sidebar in Design>Widgets menu 

Here is the admin box:

Title: – Like most widgets, there is an option for a custom title.

Show post counts – Shows the total post count next to the authors name.

Number of recent posts to show: – When greater than 0, a sublist is displayed under an author’s name with up to the set number of posts.

Show full names – Displays the authors first and last name instead of their chosen public name.

Hide empty authors – If an author has no posts, then they are not shown in the sidebar.

Exclude admin – Hides the admin from being shown in the sidebar.

Plugin’s WordPress Page | Download plugin

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