As you all probably know, I use Standard Theme (affiliate link) here on my blog.  I’m a big fan.

I’m a developer by profession.  I’ve hacked and customized this theme a lot.   I’ve been behind the scenes.

It’s a work of art and I appreciate the craftsmanship very much.

The 8bit team is offering a 20% discount on all of there stuff now through February 15th.

It’s a sweet deal.

Purchase once, upgrade forever.

Be awesome.  Do it.

(And get to know the guys that make it happen.)

You won’t be seeing any more  Twitter summary blog posts on Twitter,  Facebook or in my main RSS feed anymore.

At one point I thought it’d be good to have summaries of all of my tweets on my blog.  Yeah, now it’s just noise.

You’re welcome.

(photo courtesy of mmagellan)

OK, all you feed readers, it’s time to come check out the new theme.

After an upgrade to WP 2.9, I switched from customized Glassical theme to John Saddington’s new StandardTheme.

Thanks, John for the opportunity to put it through it’s paces.

Let me know what you think….  All two of you.

I’ve been frustrated lately with Twitter Tools for WordPress. I found a suitable replacement in Twitter Digest.

I decided to draw up a chart of my reading and social media sharing system…so I can keep it all straight myself.

Look, Ma, no hands!

Hope you like my new theme.  I was ready for something different.  It’s a custom version of Glassical that was posted for free on Smashing Magazine last week.

(photo courtesy of grape juice girl)

Top 5 Quotes from John Saddington at the National Worship Leader’s Conference, during The New Media Maze seminar:

5.  Simple is better.  Sustainable.

4.  Soup to nuts

3.  Linear experience model — it’s just something I made up.

2.  Bam!  It’s so good.

1.  Google, you’re the mother-load.  Thank you.

I don’t remember life without you.

I love you, Sweetheart.

Let’s start planning now.

(in no particular order)

Ragamuffin Soul (Carlos Whittaker) – I just can’t wait to see what @loswhit will post next.
Smashing Magazine – Every single post on this site is awesome.  It’s true.  Amazing.
300 Words a Day (Dr. Jon Swanson) – there’s something about Jon’s writing that strikes a chord with me.
SkineArt – I love to see artist sketchbooks.  They inspire me.
Logo Faves – I love clever logo designs.  They fascinate me.
Human3rror (John Saddington) – I love his “caption this” series.  This dude is everywhere on the web.
Net Tuts – Very well done and practical web development and design tutorials.
Arrowhead Pride – Best source for Kansas City Chiefs dirt I’ve found.
Brew Hoop – Gives me my Milwaukee Bucks fix.
Bucks Diary – Love the stats. Wish the Bucks gave him more to work with.
Totally Looks Like – These make me laugh.
Graph Jam – I’m a sucker for a clever graph.
Debbie Schlussel – She’s a conservative Jewish attorney from Michigan.  Also a film critic, political commentator and blogger.  I would not want to be on her bad side.
NewsBusters – Exposing liberal bias in the mainstream media.  Right up my alley.
ReadWriteWeb – An excellent source for web technology news, reviews and analysis.
ToolMonger – A whole lotta tool info.
Brothers Brick – Sweet Lego site.
Lifehacker – Excellent tips for getting stuff done.  Not a big fan of Gawker network sites, but this one is excellent.
Consumerist – Here’s your fight-back-against-crappy-customer-service headquarters.

We had an interesting conversation at the dinner table the other night.

There’s this kid in the neighborhood who seems smart and polite to me, but my kids say he’s a bully.  From what I know about him and his family, he’s going to have some serious challenges in his life.

In the conversation with the kids about loving people and being friends with those that are hard to be nice to, it confirmed to me something that the Lord has been dealing with me about: the careless words that have come out of my mouth.

There are many things I regret as I think back about my childhood.

Maybe it was my need to fit in, maybe it was just that I thought I was better, but regardless, I found all of these people annoying to the point that I said mean things to them.  The things that I said were downright hateful, rude and absolutely insensitive.

If I could go back and change it I would.

So here I am sitting with my kids saying thank-you for the opportunity hinder history from repeating itself — a generation later.

None of these people will probably every read these words, but I’d like to say:  I’m sorry.  Please forgive me.

–

Part of Stephanie’s face was disfigured.  She had a big scar on her neck.  Everyone teased her — including me.

Mike smarted off to everyone.   He was the biggest wuss.  We all picked on him.   He seemed to bring it all on himself.  He was whiny as all-get-out.  I know he just wanted a friend.  I had plenty of opportunities, but couldn’t bring myself to offer.

James didn’t do very well in school.  I teased him all the time because I was in the “advanced” math class and he wasn’t.  He had enough in gym class one day and punched me in the mouth.  He got suspended.  I didn’t, but should have.

Shawn was my nemesis.  An atheist, a Mac lover and a member the debate team — three things I hated.  Three things I hated because he liked them.  He was a good student, but he just annoyed the heck out of me.  Full-throttle antagonist all the time.  I said some pretty mean things to his face and to others when he wasn’t around.

If there was anyone who I’d label “least likely to succeed,” it would be Paul.  He was a jerk to everyone.  He was not a good student.  He was constantly getting in fights and getting suspended.  As he got older, he got bigger and tougher.  I always thought he was so dumb that he’d never amount to anything.  The deck was stacked against him in more ways than one.  I hope life has been better for him.

Melissa rode my bus and went to the special-ed classes.  I cleverly came up with a nickname for her on my own.  This is one that I regret the most.

Todd hated me.  I’m not really sure why.  No one messed with him because he could knock you out.  I wanted to knock him out, but knew I couldn’t.   I met Todd again a few years ago.  I wondered if he remembered grabbing me by the hair holding me underwater at swim practice.  I could only muster a “how’s it going?”

Matt’s dad was a pompous and arrogant and his son was a chip off the old block.  Matt was all that and “proficient” with the ladies.  I privately sneered at him for being such a heathen and a jerk.

I’ve known Jeff and Matt my whole life.   They used to tease me about being younger than they were.  I always resented it.  Seems like a pretty lame thing to be bitter about as I look at it in hindsight.

We had this bald and buck-toothed bus driver named Butch.  Us kids on the bus were relentlessly mean to him.  He took it.  He didn’t deserve it.

John was the one kid  in high school that got teased more than anyone else.   It was absolutely vicious.   The “lead teaser” was a kid from my church, which made it that much worse.  I doubt John will ever be known as anyone other than “that guy”.   I hope he’s shaken it.

Thanks.

Just remembering my childhood friend Shane.

He had a four-wheeler.  Suzuki.  Like this.

There was that log, that we would put on the back.

We’d try to make it fall off by driving around crazy.

The log’s name was Buddy.

We spent hours on that four-wheeler.

He had a Yamaha motorcycle, too.  Like this, I think.

We rode it in Arkansas.

That was a fun trip.

There were lots of tree stumps and trails there.

And dirt.

We chewed bubble gum and got our heads shaved at the barbershop.

His mom bought me a cut-off shirt.

Yeah, one of those.  Bare belly.

It had a razorback on it.

We matched.

His dad drove a four-wheel drive Ford Bronco.

It wasn’t white like OJs.

Shane called his grandma and grandpa Potty-pot and Poppy.

That was weird.

It must have been a big deal for my parents to let me go on that trip.

Shane moved away.

Heard he liked to ride bulls at the rodeo.

And chew tobacco.

He died in a car wreck.

The funeral was at my church.

I still remember it.

OK.   The K2 theme has been getting old, so I’ve been searching around for a decent replacement.

Good WP themes are hard to find.  Pfft.

Anyway, this is a modifed Dirtylicious theme by Arcsin.  I switched the sidebar from the left to right and tweaked a few CSS things that bugged me.

Anyway, hope you like it.

I also added an Intense Debate comment system.  It’s pretty sweet.

Dilemma…. How do I get an RSS feed of my replies?

Ahh, Yahoo Pipes, of course:

Check this puppy out: Twitter Reply Sniffer with Dates

Enter your Twitter username, click Run Pipe and then click the orange RSS feed button.

Voila.

It’s a pretty cool list. Give it a look-see if you get a chance.

That’s the thing with impersonal writing like e-mail, IM and blogging — you can’t see body language.

My post was totally tongue-in-cheek.

On that note:

Dear Mr. Lezak,

Let me apologize for coming being so critical of you in my recent blog post. You are the most accurate, best dressed and most dedicated meteorologist in Kansas City. You love your work and your dogs and all of your co-workers you sing your praises.

The ratings? All you care about is your passion: weather forecasting. Your Lezak Recurring Cycle (LRC) work will surely lead you to some much-deserved international media attention. I count it an honor to have shaken your hand.

Sincerely,

wvpv

First of all, let me admit that I’m not a regular KSHB Weather Blog reader/contributor like my wife. So I went into this blogger meeting with out knowing much of anything about the subject matter. I was expecting a smallish group of bloggers and their spouses. It ended up being a group of around 100, which was a bit of a shock.

Some cool stuff about the climate of KC, a short tornado chasing presentation and a whole lot of LRC (Lezak Recurring Cycle) mumbo-jumbo — with lots of swirly line maps. Rachel understood all of it. To me it reinforced my opinion that weather guys make stuff up to get ratings. It really was a rah-rah Gary Lezak–clap for my cute dog–we’re the most accurate weather team in KC–take this free KSHB shirt and water bottle–our PR team is standing by for interviews–smile your on camera–here’s one of my autographed books kind of gathering.

I would have totally bought in if they had just shown me the $250k weather computer. Maybe next time.

She got an invitation from Mr. Lezak himself last night.

She gets to bring a guest. She picked me.

Amazing, I know.

I’ll try to get a picture of me and the $250k weather computer.

Help me out. What should I wear?