pacificpelican.us

preview of pacificpelican.us/podcast 50

Dan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:44:07 +0000

To view podcast 50, visit the pacificpelican.us podcast (after Sept. 3, 2010, when it comes out).

Writings on business

Dan — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:25:34 +0000

Over the last few years I’ve offered several posts of commentary, reflection and prediction about the profound crisis in America’s (and the world’s) economy. Here’s a list:

Why web 2.0 is a bubble, and why the deflation will be gradual (8/13/2007)

The American auto industry is not coming back (9/27/2007)

Techcrunch misunderstands basic finance (10/27/2007)

The long-predicted housing disaster unfolds (3/17/2008)

Let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapse (7/12/2008)

Bush’s punks get ready for a government takeover of the housing debt market (9/7/2008)

Paul Krugman rejects Bush’s bailout idea – so should you (9/21/2008)

GM bankruptcy not surprising, should have already happened (6/3/2009)

Techcrunch thinks regulating Google is a kind of free trade (7/13/2009)

Foreclosures now legal in Dubai (1/17/2010)

Upper Silver Lake

Dan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:26:04 +0000

Upper Silver Lake, July 2010

Jessica and I were driving around western Michigan and visiting a familiar site: Silver Lake and its impressive sand dunes. But then we went wandering around the town’s back roads and found another small lake just a bit inland–it’s called Upper Silver Lake and while it is a private, upscale vacation area it lacks the bustling and exciting vibe of the area around Silver Lake (with its dramatic sand dunes separating it from Lake Michigan) in the summer time.

New page – my WordPress themes

Dan — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:19:04 +0000

I’ve set up a new page for my free WordPress themes at pacificpelican.us/themes.
My themes are totally free (licensed under the GNU GPL 2 or later) and open source. You are free to download, modify, and redistribute them (under the same license).
These themes are designed to be configurable and easy to use, but they are intended for a broad audience. If you want me to develop a custom theme for your web site or blog, just send me an email at consulting -at- pacificpelican.us.

Egret free WordPress theme, version 0.0.4

Dan — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:10:15 +0000

From the Egret theme blog:

A new version of the Egret theme is available-it has only one minor fix which I realized would be useful when creating Egret child themes. The goal for this version is that the stylesheet should now be able to easily modify all the divs:

-some div tags had a mal-formed id; now have fixed id declaration

-also: removed gmpg.org link tag

Egret 0.0.4 is a free WordPress theme released under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.

Download Egret theme version 0.0.4 here

(previous [already outdated] version: Egret 0.0.3 is a [...])

Egret free WordPress theme, version 0.0.2

Dan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:53:43 +0000

I have a new free theme for WordPress available. It’s called the Egret theme and it is very primitive right now but is a start in the direction of making HTML5 themes. Following through on what I said, I did not place a link to the WordPress.org site in the footer of the theme. Here is the announcement from the theme’s blog:

An early version of Egret, 0.0.2, is now ready for release. Egret is free software; it is a theme for WordPress, licensed under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.
Here is a list of features:
1. uses WordPress 3+ background image features: the blogger can set background color, or upload their own background image
2. makes use of Gravatars with comments
3. centered on page
4. HTML5
5. minimalism
It’s actually a very simple theme, I hope to improve it but if you want to try it now here is the link

Update: A new version of Egret is available.

Stony Lake

Dan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:38:12 +0000

Stony Lake, Michigan, July 23, 2010

When I was a little kid and would go to up north to western Michigan (from Illinois), I wasn’t a particularly good swimmer, so the turbulent waters of Lake Michigan were a bit intimidating anywhere past the first sandbar. On the other hand, I really liked Stony Lake–a small, placid lake five miles down the road. This photo is actually of the area of the lake I swam in years ago–little has changed. For more on this part of western Michigan, check out the Michago wiki.

A new parakeet joins the gang

Dan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:56:16 +0000

download the video:
(.mp4 file)
(.webm file)

Jessica and I decided to add a member to our flock, so Belle and Sparty now have a very little companion named Dodger (aka Little Blue). Dodger has similar markings to Belle but is a different blue color. We think he might be a male based on his cere (nose) color but we’re not sure.
I’ve already posted a little bit of video on the pacificpelican.us oggcast, but there he was just adjusting to the house from inside a cage. Now in this video we’ve let him out to explore, and as you can see he can be very wild but Belle is a good influence on him.

“Everything is Terrible” live show teaches Cleveland to Boo-yah again

Dan — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:27:17 +0000

The screening by everythingisterrible.com of their new movie (2Everything 2Terrible Tokyo Drift) at the Capitol Theater, accompanied by a kooky, costumed live show, was great inspiration to us here in Cleveland. Watching incredibly scary and awful clips from the VHS era, edited in a way that brilliantly heaps garbage on top of trash, was a great distraction for us in this city, whose setbacks they reminded us would take all night to name anyway.

Sparty lands as Belle and Jessica watch

Dan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:04:47 +0000

6/26/2010