Sean’s Blog

Last week, when I installed the new theme for my site (Xplosive from BlogOhBlog), I noticed my stats in Wordpress.com Stats plugin dropped to 0. I thought this might just be a fluke, since every once in a while I will have a day where the visits are in the single digits. But by day two I was getting worried. Then I received a message from a friend using the Contact page and I knew something was up since it was still showing 0 hits.

I was still getting a page count via Google Analytics, but I love Wordpress.com Stats. The stats are (almost) real time, and it gives me just enough information for a quick over view of what has been going on. After some digging I found that this sometimes happens.

The fix is pretty easy, although it will require you to modify actual PHP pages (which is not that hard with the Wordpress Theme editor. I am assuming Wordpress 2.5 for this (although everything should work in earlier installations). Simply go to the Design Tab->Theme Editor. Now we will need to add the function in 3 places:

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Everybody Here Is A Cloud - From Feel Good Ghosts by Cloud Cult

I’ve been listening to Cloud Cult a lot recently. A lot of people have never heard of them, and it is really a shame because they are just great. I first got turned on to them while I was on Pandora.

Cloud Cult mixes electronica with rock and strings. The whole thing is very unusual but really ends up working well.

The first album I heard from them was The Meaning of 8. I recently picked up Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus as well as their new album Feel Good Ghosts.

Give them a listen, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Pretty Voice by Cloud Cult

Evil Dead - The Musical!

Via flickr, via boingboing.net

Mark Bittman has a post on his blog and a column in the New York Times about visiting Merida, on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Jess and I visited Merida in the fall of 2006 and it was one of the best trips of my life. Merida is an old colonial city in Mayan Mexico and the capital of the State of Yucatan. The streets are narrow and paved with brick. The architecture is exactly what I though of for a colonial Mexican city. The people are friendly and life revolves around the main square (or zocalo).

Although not a huge tourist destination, there are a ton of things to do there. A couple of my favourites:

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Blitzkrieg Bop on the ukulele - via BoingBoing.net

There are a million food blogs on the Internet, but one of the few I subscribe to is Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks.  Most of the recipes are vegetarian, but all look really good.  Most are not overly complex and rely on ingredients that most people should be able to find with not to much problem.

For me though, the real kicker is the photography.  There are beautiful  shots that accompany  every recipe.  And food photography is HARD.  Generally when I try to take a picture of something I made that looks especially good, the resulting photograph makes it look grey, shiny, disgusting … thing.

Take a look and give some of the recipes a try.  101 Cookbooks

I was trolling form my name to keep an eye on the Googlegangers the other day which I do with some regularity and I got a little sidetracked. My name isn’t that common and there isn’t that much movement. My resume over at emurse.com still holds the number one spot and that makes me happy. I’d like to get the blog or the site positioned a bit higher since most people don’t search on me with my middle initial, but all and all it’s not that bad of a ranking when I think of what some more commonly named people have to deal with.

Somehow, the post about a Irish politician always manages to maintain a spot in the top five which is weird.

Regardless, after searching for “Sean Lavelle” I just though I’d try my last name and see what I came up with. I was somewhat surprised with what I found. I knew about Lavelle Rubber Manufacturers in Wisconsin, but there was more!

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I’ve generally gotten pretty good about keeping organized while I am at the computer.  Using MonkeyGTD and keeping my inbox clear have really helped.  But at least 75% of my time is spent not in front of the computer and without any of these tools I’m not much better then my previous unorganized self.  There are tons of methods on the web about keeping organized away from the computer.  But most involve notebooks or PDAs and i really don’t like to carry anything extra.

What I do always have is my phone.  Because I always carry it, making sure I have some important lists on it has really been a life saver.  One of my big annoyances is books I want to read.  I have a context in MonkeyGTD where I keep a list to read, but when I’m actually at the library, I generally don’t have it handy.  So what I’ve started doing is emailing myself a message and then copying it to a memo.

Now there are some obvious problems with this setup.  First off, you need to be able to access your email on your phone.  I have a Blackberry, so this isn’t a problem for me.  You also have to remember to send and update your lists.  There should be some way to automate it so when I enter something in whatever I am using, I won’t need to do these multiple steps.  I’ve tried brining up MonkeyGTD in the built in Blackberry browser, but it is completely unreadable.

I think I am going to try another task manager, even though I really like MonkeyGTD, that may handle mobiles a little better.

I’m messing with some new themes, so that is what’s up if everything looks weird.

Work email has always been one of my real challenges.  I don’t have much choice in what program I use or the ability to really customize it.  So when I realized I needed to take control of my email, I needed something simple and flexible that was almost completely platform independent.  I needed a process since I couldn’t really use a tool.  I liked Merlin’s Inbox Zero process over at 43Folders, but it seemed like overkill for what I really needed.

So I came up with something quick and dirty that knocked out my inbox and has kept it clean for several weeks.

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