This is the she-wolf statue that Lynn brought back for me from Rome. Unbeknown to either of us, it changes color like a Generra t-shirt in the dryer. After some unscientific experimentation, I believe it gets pinker when the air is very humid. No matter what, it’s ridiculous and fantastic. Best… souvenir… ever!

And yes Lynn, I got out the Swiffer. Didn’t help.

I just received this terrifying piece of junk mail today. Little tip for the sender: using red underlining 30 times in a row doesn’t add emphasis. Rather, it make your envelope look like a blackmail letter written by a 4 year old. And call me skeptical, but somehow I don’t think a blessing from God is coming via a form letter addressed to “Resident”.

First off, I’d like to make it clear that I am lazy. Extremely lazy. There used to be a time when I thought nothing of spending days to hand-code a web site, but now I just don’t have the patience. So if someone else has a better idea, I’d rather use their code then pull my hair out trying to do the same thing by myself. Today’s open-source Internet is perfect for my lazy tendencies, but I still want to give credit where it’s due. So here’s a list of software, plugins, and resources that I used to redesign bdline.net.

The Basics

• WordPress - the last version of bdline.net was created with software that generated static HTML pages. The result looked like a blog, but in reality it was a mess. Now we’re running the site with WordPress, which is 100% better. Finally we have a true dynamic web site, not something that looks like it was hacked together with string and tin cans.
• A Small Orange - our web host. We don’t have giant server needs for bdline.net, but the switch to a A Small Orange gives us more options at half the cost of what we were paying before. That savings is going into the Borderline Booze & Bail Fund.
• Theme - For the new look of bdline.net, I ended up modifying an existing theme, Ambient Glo by Nathan Parikh. The main changes were modifying the header image, removing the 3rd column, and tweaking the fonts a bit.

WordPress Plugins

• FeedBurner FeedSmith - Redirects all traffic from the default WordPress RSS feeds automagically to our FeedBurner feed.
• Flickr Photo Album for WordPress - This is a two-for-one deal. The plugin accesses your Flickr account and lets you easily post your pics with WordPress. It also comes with a sidebar widget to display Flickr photos, which I think looks better than the standard Flickr badge.
• Get Recent Comments - WordPress has a sidebar widget to display recent comments, but this plugin does a better job.
• Swift SMTP - Our e-mail is handled by Google, so this plugin lets us use Google’s servers to send comment notifications.
• User Photo - See that photo of me in the headline? It’s there because of this plugin.
• Viper’s Video Quicktags - The WordPress post editor thinks it knows more than you do when writing a post, rewriting the code and making it nearly impossible to embed Flash videos. This plugin fixes that issue.
• WP Super Edit - Another plugin for the post editor. Adds some nice options for formatting that normally are not available.

Miscellaneous

• Podcast Pickle Player - there are a lot of Flash players out there that read podcast feeds, but the Pickle Player is the nicest one I’ve seen. Plus, we love the Pickle.

I have quickly become addicted to Pirates of the Caribbean Online. Released on Halloween, basic access to the game is free and, surprisingly, the client is available for both Mac & PC.Most of the game involves killing things: undead pirates, giant scorpions, Navy guards, etc. You also get quests to complete which range from easy to nearly impossible. One involved me walking across the street in Tortuga to talk to someone, then returning to the pub to talk to the barkeep. Of course, since I am remarkably adept at following directions, this part of the quest took me over 30 minutes to figure out. After this performance, I decided that the Disney programmers probably had a younger audience in mind, and I was over-thinking these “quests” a bit. And that’s when I shut the damn thing off.

So far in the two days I have been playing, I’ve managed to get to Notoriety Level 7 and join a pirate guild. So, if you be in the Pirates world, me name be Ned Sharkmalley, and I’ll be sailing through rough waters near Davy Jones’ Locker.

Can carving a pumpkin be considered a team-building exercise? This is a question I would have never expected to answer on a Friday afternoon.

It all began when I innocently mentioned to a coworker that my family never carved Jack O’Lanterns for Halloween. Angela was very disturbed at hearing this. Apparently, every red-blooded American child is expected to wield a knife and gut a pumpkin each October, and my childhood was therefore depressing and bleak. Angela then insisted that we were going to carve a pumpkin during our afternoon break. Little did I know that when Angela says we are carving a pumpkin this afternoon, she means we are carving a pumpkin this afternoon. With the raw materials procured over lunch, we informed our boss of the plan and told our coworkers that, if needed, we could be reached in the break room between 3 and 3:15 p.m.

The actual carving wasn’t too difficult. Of course, working with an experienced carver helps. There was a brief moment when I stopped mid-cut while we considered what would happen to the discarded pumpkin flesh over the weekend. Would the cleaning crew take out the trash tonight, or would we return Monday morning to the sickly smell of rotting pumpkin? After some deliberation, we agreed that if they didn’t clean tonight, the pumpkin smell was preferable to the toxic fumes from the freshly-waxed lobby floor, and pressed on. As the curious wandered by the break room to gawk and give advice, we stated that this was a team-building exercise to build trust between the members of the marketing department. Angela had to trust that I wouldn’t cut her fingers off, and I had to trust Angela to hold Mr. Pumpkin steady during his delicate surgical procedure.

So, does pumpkin carving make for a stronger team? In my experience, yes. Today, my colleague and I completed our daily job duties and created a new objet d’art for the conference room. I also learned how to safely handle a deadly weapon in the workplace. And, Angela says that if I die this weekend, she’ll feel better knowing that at least I got to carve a pumpkin once in my life. You can’t build that type of camaraderie with a two-day business retreat.

I am going to drive up and be part of the welcome gang. I am putting together a Welcome Home kit. I had a bath-tub brainstorm and thought how wonderful it would be if we could throw in lots of Welcome Home cards. I have so many cool, fun, creative friends who could draw a funny picture or use the attached for inspiration, write a note, and maybe just include your first name and city. I will print them all off / burn messages / include this in my kit. if you want to contribute something physical I can shoot you mailing info. I know it’s short notice but I thought I would love to fill up his basket with lots of love!