Tag

[Enlarge] Naked Ladies blooming in one of our naturalized parks in Sacramento

Well, I still haven’t verified that the site displays properly in Internet Explorer (I view it in FireFox and Safari) but I have gotten a lot of what I wanted done. I have changed the site from the traditional category and calendar-based to being tag-based. If you’re not familiar with tagging—don’t feel left out. It is fairly new but quite useful—so it probably time you caught up. You are going to be seeing a lot more of it around in the future (prediction on my part).

A Tag Cloud is a weighted list of keywords used to identify a number of items, in this case the subjects in entries in this fotoblog. In my right sidebar, you will see list of words. The larger words are more frequently used in connection with entries. And as you might expect, foto is the largest.

The interesting thing is the tags in the list are larger based on how often they are used, which also means it will change over time. When you select a tag, you will open all postings that have that tag in common. That means selecting a large tag might bring in a lot of entries so you do need to think about what might happen if you select fotos. There are several people working on an automated way to bring in tag intersections, but for now, you can join tags by typing something like http://www.memoriafoto.net/index.php?tag=pets+fotos like I did here. I used the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin for WordPress to implement this.

If you are interested in other tag cloud and tagging applications—take a look at Delicious as I have and some of the other popular sites on the Internet like Flickr. Interesting stuff….

wp:thumb src=”2005-08-28-7.jpg” cap=”A low crawling vine also in the park—another reminder of the early family home that once graced this spot.”—> ->

What

I did, or tried to do, some clean up today to finish the change over to WordPress 1.5. I messed myself up several times and I am still not completely sure it is readable by anything other than Safari and Firefox. It should be, but then…

I have to say though, I do have some good news so I really can’t complain. My FM3 came through yesterday which will allow me to spend more time in Mexico and do simple things like setting up a bank account. It might seem minor, but it is something I have been trying to get done for some time.

Tuesday morning, bright and early I head back to Morelia and work—and it is a great feeling. —>

Poco

Well, the new site is up – but it isn’t fully customized yet. The good thing is WordPress is good about respecting past content. With the exception of some small issues I still have to address for the width of the columns and my link lists, everything is working as it should.

The banner will be back—it takes time to be sure, but the loss of a TON of spam from all sorts of miscreants makes it a welcome relief. I am using the Grass Template but I am not into all the green—so it is getting a face lift via Photoshop.

So little by little, things are getting settled. —>

Please

I’ve decided I’m going to upgrade the software I use here to WordPress 1.5. I expect everything to return to normal after getting it customized to my unique outlook on things, but during the change there are bound to be days when you can’t tell which end is up.

No problems, it is a normal thing.

So—stay tuned while we adjust the trimmings here. We will return to business as usual. —>

Sack

[Enlarge] Yes, the tomatoes in the Sacramento Farmer’s Market are that red!

I’m back in Sacramento for a month now, enjoying the hottest part of the hottest summer in many years.

Why, oh why, would anyone in his right mind pick this time of year to return to Sacramento from Morelia>

I haven’t been taking many fotos – or writing much – unless you count proposals which run into some very high page numbers. Today’s entry is nothing more than a few notes, random fotos at the Farmer’s Market and links really. But maybe there is a morsel or two of interest none the less.

I was drifting around the Internet aimlessly the other day when I came upon a foto of a man I worked for many years ago and who gave me the most memorable working experience of my life. This foto of Ed Powers at the fly-in for Burning Tree in Nevada (taken by someone who attended) was not recognizable to me, but I have no doubt it is Ed (I have a comment from his brother’s daughter, who properly identified him for me). I worked for him and his brother Bob Powers as a restaurant manager at the Nut Tree many years ago, when it was at the peak of its climb as an icon of “concept” restaurants. Bob, Ed, and Mary Helen, and their father and mother, “Bunny”and Helen Powers, were the founders of the Nut Tree. Bob was, in many ways, the creator of the Nut Tree experience..

I will not try to recount the many wonderful experiences I had at the Nut Tree. This is a journal, not a book! I will however, mention one that will never leave my memory: I was working in the management office of the restaurant one day. We had one wall in the office that was taken up by several shelves of cookbooks and food references. In a spare moment, I would often pull one down and read some interesting recipe or story. This time I happened to pull down a small volume that had a couple of letters folded in the front cover. They were from the Lanes, the family that started Sunset magazine, and they were obviously a part of a series of letters discussing what the two families, the Powers and the Lanes, were considering as ways to promote a “Western Lifestyle.” Their discussions centered around the freshness of the foods available in the West, the influences of the Pacific Rim, and the use of a seasonal menu. I was amazed. Here in a few words, the two families had summed up what would many years later be described as “Western Cuisine.” They saw it, in all of its color and flavors, expanding in front of them. And here I was, so unaware of that heritage, managing the restaurant that for a long time symbolized those ideas. It was a grand learning experience for a young man who would end up doing many other things in his professional career and one which I am forever grateful. I have kept a copy of that foto of Ed for myself and resisted the temptation to put it up here. It is not mine after all, and that is not the man I remember—but I am happy to see he is still enjoying his life and flying.

[Enlarge] Blue, Yukon and Red potatoes to decorate your table

A couple of other links—there is a story that is interesting reading for people like me that are interested in technology about a security problem that exists in Cisco routers and what it took to make sure the user base was aware of it. The story appeared in Wired, but the original blog entries of the author are better read here, here, here, and here in order.

I will be returning to Morelia on the 30th, but until then, I have been keeping up on the goings on in town from postings in La Voz de Michoacan—a good way to find out what is going on in that part of Mexico (if you read Spanish!). So, that is all for now. But don’t worry, there will be more.

wp:thumb src=”2005-07-31-2a.jpg” cap=”Sunflowers looking like something out of a Van Gogh…”—> ->

August 8th, 2005 by Mike
Tagged as Farmers Market | 2 Comments »