Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate

Lots of stuff to plan for this coming week!

Saturday, February 13 is NELAArt Second Saturday

Sunday, February 14 is Lunar New Year AND Valentine's Day

Monday, February 15 is President's Day

Tuesday, February 16 is Mardi Gras

Want to style the sidebar of your WordPress Thesis Theme and learn a little CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in the process?

Copy this little snippet of CSS code and paste it into  the custom.css file of your Thesis themes installation (wp-content/themes/thesis_16/custom/custom.css)

.custom li.widget ul li{
background:#F0F0F0;
border: 0.1em solid #C7C7C7;
-moz-border-radius:4px;
padding:0.5em;
font-weight: bold;
margin:0.5em;
}

.sidebar h3 {font-weight: bold;}

This little snippet will make the sidebar links in the Thesis Theme look like this:

OK.  Suppose you wanted the links to have a different background color... Change the color hex code in this line  background:#F0F0F0;

For example, change that line to read background:#FF00FF;

That will give the sidebar links a hot pink background, like this

Lime green, anyone?  Change that line to read:  background:#ADFF2F;

The Valentine Peace Project presents Poetry & Peace, A Night of Poetry, Music & Art

"Poetry is an act of peace.  Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread." -- Pable Neruda

 
Cindy Rinne
Gloria Alvarez
William Archila
Lois P. Jones
William O'Daly
Ron Baca
Susan Rogers
Kathabela Wilson
Taoli-Ambika Talwar
 
MUSICIAN:  Rick Wilson

We will be creating poem-wrapped flowers this evening as a call to peace

Saturday, February 6, 2010 from 7 to 9 pm

 
Peace
 
Peace is freedom from the
pain. Victory over the
deep hurts. Love that
will flow to others.
Able to be the real me
in my own country.
 
By Cindy Rinne

Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA  90042

323-258-1435
http://www.avenue50studio.com

*   *   *   *   *

The Valentine Peace Project:  February 2010
 
One World Flowers (www.oneworldflowers.org )  - supporting sustainable business practices, human rights compliance, and fair compensation for flower workers in countries all over the world through Fair Trade flowers.

Budding partnerships for 2010: Where Peace Lives, P5Y, The Hub, Transfair USA, and IKV Pax Christi.
 
Where Peace Lives (www.wherepeacelives.org )
Creating a dynamic new vocabulary of images through children's art and peace cards - where the art of peace meets the world.
 
Peace in 5 Years (www.p5y.org )
Working together on a bold vision of world peace in five years - peace defined as safety from politically organized violence.
 
The Hub (www.the-hub.net)
Hub Bay Area opens joining Hub Amsterdam, Hub Milan, Hub Berlin and Hubsters around the world showcasing  'world changing ideas'.  A place for conversation, strategy and celebration of new initiatives for a radically better world.
 
TransFair (www.transfairusa.org )
Fair trade certifier - through Fair Trade Towns "committed to raising  awareness in our fellow community members that every dollar we spend is a powerful decision, with ramifications that echo across continents, countries, and communities."
 
IKV Pax Christi (www.ikvpaxchristi.org ) (www.vredesweek.nl)
The largest peace organization/movement in the Netherlands - supporting peace and reconciliation efforts in conflict areas in more than twenty countries over four continents.  Locally- the Seeds of Change festival, VredesWeek (Peace Week) and other initiatives to serve and broadcast the message and work of peace.
 
You
'The ones we've been waiting for.'
 
Working to spread thoughts of peace worldwide the Valentine Peace Project aims to highlight global citizenship, promote peace discussion and education, and celebrate the many faces and meanings of peace and love in today's connecting world community.  Generate your own involvement or contact info@valentinepeaceproject.org for information.  www.valentinepeaceproject.org; Federico Hewson, Project Director, The Valentine Peace Project, telephone: + 31 (0)6 16 777 520.

OK.  This morning Punxsutaweny Phil, the nation's original weatherman, saw his shadow, indicating "six more weeks of winter". 

Think about that:

When you see shadows, it is a bright, sunny day.   If you don't see shadows, it is cloudy and overcast.  So, "sunny" equals more winter?  What's with that?

February 2 is the middle point between Winter Solstice on December 21 and Spring Equinox on March 20.

And forklore has it that if the midpoint of Winter is bright and sunny, the remaining weeks of Winter will be harsh and stormy.  So ... Seeing a shadow on February 2 equals "bright and sunny" which equals more more harsh Winter weather to come.  More here.

In ancient Celtic traditions, the middle points between solticies and equinoxes were known as Cross Quarter Days and were celebrated as High Holy Days.  February 2, the Cross Quarter Day betwwen Winter Soltice and Spring Equinox, was called Imbolc.

February 2 is also exactly 40 days after December 25.  Ancient Jewish women celebrated a ritual purification exactly 40 days after the birth of a son.  According to early Christian tradition, Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have celebrated this ritual on February 2, 40 days after December 25. 

OK... now let's see if I can add a three column panel for Google Adsense ads above the content columns in the Thesis Theme.

No, you would probably not want to display ads on any of your professional real estate blogs.  But there are people who create multiple separate blogs on various other topics with the goal of generating a little Adsense income.  No, you will probably not get rich from the Adsense checks, but a few extra dollars a month always comes in handy.

Anyway, building on what I learned earlier:

Open the custom-functions.php

and paste in

add_action('thesis_hook_after_header', 'custom_adsense');

function custom_adsense() {
?>

<table cellpadding="30">
<tr>

<td>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-6270001232633363";
/* 336x280, created 4/16/08 Foreclosure Blue Title */
google_ad_slot = "9185194513";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

</td>
<td valign="top">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-6270001232633363";
/* 250x250, created 9/7/09 Image for Foreclosure */
google_ad_slot = "1876038709";
google_ad_width = 250;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</td>

<td>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-6270001232633363";
/* 336x280, created 4/16/08 Foreclosure Blue Title */
google_ad_slot = "9185194513";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

</td>

</tr>
</table>

<p><hr></p>

<?php
}

It worked:

 You'd want to include your own Google Adsense code, but of course, I won't complain if you leave mine in.

For anyone not familiar with my style here:  Active Rain is one of my favorite places to save miscellaneous notes to myself.  But I also figure, if I need to save these notes, maybe someone else will also find them helpful. 

To use a customer banner in the Thesis Theme for WordPress.

Create the banner.

Upload it to your host site.

FTP to your Thesis Theme files on your host server.   wp-content -> themes -> thesis_16

Change the file name  "custom-sample" to just "custom" if you haven't done that already.  Open the "custom" file.

Open (Edit) custom-functions.php (The menu command will depend on which FTP program you are using - the file will open in Notepad or in whatever text editor you have associated with code files)

Paste this code into custom-functions.php at the end of the file, below the instructions and the default bookmark code:

 function mycustom_banner() {
?>
<div id="mycustom-banner">
  <a href="http://www.bobtaylorproperties.info" title="Bob Taylor Properties Inc. Home">
  <img src="http://www.bobtaylorproperties.info/bobtaylorpropertiesbanner.png"
 alt="Bob Taylor Properties, Inc." ></a>
  </div>
<?php
 }

add_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'mycustom_banner');

You'll probably want to change the alt titles and URLs to your own.  Although if you want to use mine I won't complain.  :-)

Thesis works with "hooks" and "functions". 

The "function" is the actual executable code - in this case the insertion of a banner image.

The "hook" is the LOCATION on the page you want the "function" placed - in this case before the Thesis default header.

Now, close the FTP program, go to the wp-admin panel for the site. Click Thesis Options at the bottom of the left menu column.

Under Display Options -> Header uncheck "Show site name in header" and "Show site tagline in header"

Save.

One last thing:  You may want to reduce the spacing before your banner image, to do that, go back to the Thesis files via FTP.  In the custom file, open up custom.css and add this line of code to the end of the file

.custom #header  { padding: 0px; margin: 0px; }

Wayne Golliday left a comment on my post about OpenHook for Thesis.  I had not noticed his name before, so I clicked through to his profile and blog.

This post made me LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!

Are you using the Thesis theme on any of your WordPress(.org) blogs?  And you'd like to use "hooks" for custom styling, but you just haven't had time to get up-to-speed- on hooking?  :-)

The OpenHook Plug In is for you.

You can download OpenHook here:  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thesis-openhook/

After you upload and install OpenHook, it will add a function to your WordPress Dashboard, like this:

The OpenHook control panel looks like this:

The hook in the screen is moving the navigation menu from its' default location above the Title-Header to a position below the Title-Header.

The steps are:

At the "Before Header" section, check "remove Thesis nav menu" and click save.

Copy the little snip of code that is highlighted in the sentence below the checkbox.

In the "After Header" section, paste in that little snippet of code you just copied.  (In my screenshot, you can see I was playing around with some other things, too.  You can ignore those.)

Check "Execute PHP on this hook" and click save.

Check your blog, and the default manu menu will have moved to its' new location below the Title-Header.

Have you seen this scam yet?

You receive an email sent from one of your friend's own email addresses with your friend's own email signature at the end, asking for money because of an emergency.

Here are two variations I have seen so far:

1.  How are you doing? I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling for a Program called Science, Health and Environmental Reporting. It is currently held in Nigeria, Sweden and Kenya. I am presently in Nigeria. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me because i got robbed on my way to the hotel where i lodged. My ID, cash and other valuables i have with me got stolen, I contacted the embassy here to help me out but it will take some time to get back to me. I urgently need your financial assistance of $2,600 to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will really appreciate your help and i promise to pay you back immediately upon my return. Hope to hear from you soon.
 
Regards,

 2.   How are you doing? I am writing you this message with
 sorrow because of what I am going through right now. Am in a
 great sorrow written you this note, I could barely type or
 think straight right now, I hope you come to my
 aid....something very terrible is happening to me where I
 am, I seriously need help from you urgently, I had a trip
 here in West Africa {Nigeria} for a conference.
 Unfortunately for me I got robbed on my way to the hotel
 where I lodged along with my Cell phone, bag where my
 passport was and since then I have been without any money, I
 am even owing the hotel here. So I have limited access to
 emails for now, I urgently need your financial assistance.
 The total sum of money that I would need would be $2,475 to
 sort-out the bills so I can make arrangements and return
 back, I'm in a panic now, the police only asked me to
 write a statement about the incident and directed me to
 the embassy, I have spoken to the embassy here but they are
 not responding to the matter effectively, I will return the
 money back to you as soon as I get home, I am so confused
 right now. I wasn't hurt because I complied
 immediately.  I'll wait to hear from you so I can
 send the Western Union information to use in sending the
 money.
  
 Hope to hear from you soon.
    
 Sincerely,

Number 2. is obviously written in spam-ese; but Number 1 could almost pass for a native english speaker.  If the bad guys ever learn proper syntax, spelling and grammar, we will be in big trouble.  But I digress.

Evidently the spammers hack someone's into email address book, and send out an email blast looking as if it came straight from that person.

If a friend replies to that email, I would imagine the hacker has the reply rerouted to the hacker's op center, where a response goes back out telling where to wire the money.

The person whose email was hacked never knows anything happened until one of her friends says something like "Gee, I didn't know you had traveled to Nigeria, but I hope the money I wired you helped."

Birth of My Grandmother - Mita Cuaron

Sunday, January 24, 2010 from 1:00-3:30 pm

Please join us for a "round table" discussion with the artists of our Testimonies Two exhibition as we explore and dialogue on questions of spirituality in art and thoughts on working towards a theme-based show.  You are invited to bring your questions, or just enjoy the exchange of ideas.

Yrneh Brown, Martin Charlot, Mita Cuaron, Ruth De Nicola, Pat Gomez, Yolanda Gonzalez, Mark Steven Greenfield, Lucy Hagopian, Cidne Hart, Wayne Healy, Heriberto Luna, Rafael Matias, Susanna Meiers/Peter Liashkov, Andrés E. Montoya, Toti O'Brien, Suzanne Siegel, Richard Turner

Light refreshments will be served

Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA  90042
323-258-1435