iPod Touch · Monday March 24, 2008
So, I got an iPod Touch last Monday before we took 400ish 8th graders to D.C. I needed something for the ride up, and I’ve been wanting to get one for a while now, and since I’ve been able to do some web design on the side, this was the little treat that I wanted to get myself. I chose not to get the iPhone for a few reasons.
1. I just signed up for a new service agreement with Alltel and I didn’t want to have to break my contract.
2. Most of my family has Alltel and we can call each other for free.
3. The bill for the iPhone is a bit more than I was willing to splurge on.
So, the iPod Touch it was. And it is great. It has everything the iPhone has except for the phone and a camera. I can check email. I can get on the internet. I can watch shows and movies. I can listen to music. I can look at pictures. Awesome.
And now, thanks to Remote Buddy I can now control my computer from my iPod like it is a remote control. I can change playlists. I can make my music LOUDER. I can load a video on the computer from across the room. Very nice…
600 chip poker case · Thursday November 29, 2007
So I found a great deal on a chip case on ebay from some friends at Chiptalk Forums and decided to purchase it. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot since I only paid $18 (s&h included) but when it arrived today, I was happily surprised by how nice it was. I’ve created a quick slideshow of some of the pictures I took. I hope you enjoy! The piece of wood that I am holding was a divider in the bottom section of the box that divided the open section in half. The area was just a bit too small for my cards, so I pulled it out (without much effort) and will glue it back where I’d like the divider to be. I’m sure it wasn’t designed to be poorly attached, but I’m glad it was!
Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.Pictures of 600 count Mahogany Poker Chip Case.
Poker Chips · Sunday November 11, 2007
Alright, the decision has been made and the first set has been ordered and received. I’m getting the pricier Protege’s. I’ve already gotten all the $100 and $500 chips I need. I just need to finish the set with some $5 and $25 chips. 150 of the $5 chips and 130 of the $25 chips. This is what I’ll be asking for for Christmas. And perhaps my birthday. :)
Christmas from a Teenage Perspective · Saturday October 6, 2007
Our pastor was sharing an anecdote last Sunday from this past Christmas. And since it IS October, and we’ll start seeing Christmas paraphernalia in near future if you haven’t already, let’s get in the Christmas spirit!
“I can put my entire Christmas in my pocket!” – Tate Shelby
“Welcome to adulthood, buddy” – Steve Shelby
Steve (our pastor) figured a pocket knife and some cash is a pretty good haul. Tate agreed, but sometimes you just want something big.
And if you are in the mood to buy me something big… I heard that these are some nice poker chips. :) Seriously, if you are interested in getting me some, I need 150 chips worth $5, 130 – $25, 70 – $100, and 50 – $500.
Also, you can use a discount code of “21ace” and get 10% off your order! Nice…
I’m also interested in the Protege but they are a bit more expensive and may be for down the road sometime…
What I learned about myself on Sunday · Monday September 24, 2007
I think it may be prudent to give a quick recount of the past four months since I haven’t written a single word since last school year.
I’m a slacker.
Yeah, that pretty much covers the last four months. Or at least the reason behind my mute fingers.
But my mind was awakened on Sunday after I dropped Kylen off in the nursery at church. He just turned one on Saturday, and therefore has moved up in the nursery ranks. He is now with the bigger kids instead of the little babies. He is so excited. Who am I kidding? He has no idea. When I dropped him off, he crawled away (more like a one-legged scoot) and played like normal. I noticed another child in the room that also had red hair, which isn’t a normal sight. The nursery worker commented, “Look! Another little boy with red hair. And they have the exact same color as well!”
Ummm… You must need some color correcting lenses in those glasses, lady. Kylen’s hair is definitely a brighter red than that other kid’s. No question. Which makes him better. Brighter red hair equals better kid. Google it. It’s a well known fact.
Of course my response was, “Yeah, their hair is practically the same color.” I’m not dumb enough to say my thoughts out loud. Strike that. I am dumb enough, but at least I’ve learned to have a little self-control.
Sitting in church and thinking about the whole situation while listening to our pastor, Steve, speak about Hebrews 6:9-12, I realized how prideful I am. Why did I have that reaction about Kylen? Of course every dad wants his son to do his best, but to be so competitive that I am comparing hair color and then judging who is better is pitiful. I’ll definitely need to keep this in mind when Kylen is playing sports, acting in a play, or doing whatever it is that little Kylen will want to do.
My dad can beat up your dad...
Teaching Settlers of Catan · Friday May 25, 2007
It was third grade. My teacher’s name was Mr. Condon. With an “n”. I’m pretty sure third grade was as high a level as he was able to teach with a name like that (at least when I was in elementary school – now he may not be able to teach anything above first grade). He asked us to go home and count how many board games our families owned. I’m not sure if he was trying to understand our demographics, if we were finding data for a graph, or if he was just curious. I don’t remember the reason for the activity, just that I had to do it.
I sped home and opened the game closet. Most of the games I had played, but there were some that I was too young for (according to the age recommendations). I counted them all. We had 49. There were the more common ones: Monopoly, Stratego, Hungry Hungry Hippo, Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Risk. Then there were the uncommon ones: like… umm… Okay, if it was a board game, it was common. There were hardly any uncommon board games that I was aware of back then. Now there are tons (at least if you aren’t a regular board game player): Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico, Bohnanza, Carcassone (just to name a few).
So with school getting close to the end, I wanted to find something that my students (8th graders) would enjoy while still doing something that would be beneficial. What is better in this day and age than taking the time to learn a game, learn how to interact in a socially acceptable way, throw a little math into the mix, as well as have a little fun. So I will be teaching them Settlers of Catan in a few weeks. I’ll write up some reactions to this activity. I’ve asked for permission from Mayfield to share the game board and pieces I have produced to be able to be downloaded by teachers for the sole purpose of teaching. I’m hoping to hear from them soon. If you are a teacher and want to know what I did, just shoot me an email. If they tell me I can distribute it, I’ll send along my files.
More to come…
What's your favorite board game? [2]
Lightbox FAQ · Monday May 7, 2007
What is Lightbox?
It’s a script that allows images to pop-up above a website. It’s a nice little javascript that makes pop-ups more pleasing. Visit huddletogether.com to see examples and to download the code. If this FAQ has been helpful or if you have emailed me and have found my help donation-worthy, donate away. The amount is up to you. Please know that I am in no way affiliated with the creation of Lightbox. I just help people who have a hard time understanding how to get it up and running.
Lightbox FAQ Topics:
How do you install Lightbox 2.0?
Is there a limit to the size an image can be?
How do I get the overlay to stretch over the entire window?
How do I create a gallery of images?
Is there a way to have one picture lead to a gallery of a lot of pictures?
How do I add a caption to the images?
How do I fix the broken loading images?
How do I make the previous and next buttons always show instead of just showing up when hovering?
How do you install Lightbox 2.0?
Download lightbox 2.0 from huddletogether.com.
Change the name of the downloaded folder from “lightbox2.02 Folder” to “lightbox”. Upload this folder to the root directory on your server.
Add the following code to the head of the html page you want to use lightbox on.
<script type="text/javascript" src="lightbox/js/prototype.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="lightbox/js/scriptaculous.js?load=effects"> </script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="lightbox/js/lightbox.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="lightbox/css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
You may need to change the paths to make sure they point to where you have put the files. I use absolute paths, like:
http://zollinhofer.com/lightbox/js/prototype.js. To make sure that you have set your paths correctly, type whatever you have as the path above into the address bar of your favorite browser. If the file shows up, you did it correctly. If not, try again or shoot me an email and I’ll help you get it set up.
You will most likely need to go into your lightbox.js file and change the paths to the loading.gif and close.gif. You can find these near the top under “configuration”. Again, you can use an absolute path, or just set it to: “lightbox/images/loading.gif” & “lightbox/images/closelabel.gif”.
To make an image use Lightbox, you need to add rel=“lightbox” to the link. So this:
<a href="http://zollinhofer.com/images/picture1.jpg"> First Picture</a>
Would become:
<a href="http://zollinhofer.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox">First Picture</a>
To make a group of pictures add rel=“lightbox[nameofset]” to the link. Add this tag to every picture that you want to be a part of the set.
Is there a limit to the size an image can be?
No, there is no limit, but the bigger an image is (filesize), the longer it takes to load. Also, the bigger an image is (height & width), you may end up having to scroll to see all of it. I manually crop my pictures to around 400 × 600 (at the biggest) so that I know if fits on the screen (and the filesize is reduced). If you don’t want to bother with manually cropping, you can check out the thread about A Solution For Large Images on the huddletogether forum (which discusses how to apply an extra piece of code that will resize the image for you).
How do I get the overlay to stretch over the entire window?
For some reason, there is a bit of a oversight in the lightbox.js code. You can do one of two things to fix this…
#1. Download my lightbox.js file and replace your lightbox.js with mine.
#2. Fix the file yourself. Open up lightbox.js and search for “this.showImage();”. You should see a line that has
this.showImage();
Add the following code right after that code:
var pageSize = getPageSize();
if((imgHeight + 150) > pageSize [1])
Element.setHeight('overlay', imgHeight + 300);
So the code should now look like:
this.showImage();
var pageSize = getPageSize();
if((imgHeight + 150) > pageSize [1])
Element.setHeight('overlay', imgHeight + 300);
How do I create a gallery of images?
Begin with the markup for your pictures. I’m going to use 4 pictures for my example.
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox">My first picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture2.jpg" rel="lightbox">My second picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture3.jpg" rel="lightbox">My third picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture4.jpg" rel="lightbox">My fourth picture</a>
You then need to change the rel=“lightbox” to rel=“lightbox[nameofgallery]”.
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]">My first picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture2.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]">My second picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture3.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]">My third picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture4.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]">My fourth picture</a>
Is there a way to have one picture lead to a gallery of a lot of pictures?
Sure. There are two easy ways to do this.
1. Give each one of the images an extra class (I use the class “hide”) except for the very first image which you don’t want to hide. I’ll use the same example as above:
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" title="Picture 1">My first picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture2.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" class="hide" title="Picture 2">My second picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture3.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" class="hide" title="Picture 3">My third picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture4.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" class="hide" title="Picture 4">My fourth picture</a>
I’ve added class=“hide” to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th images. You will need to add the class “hide” to your css file as well. Open up the lightbox.css file and add the following code:
.hide {
display: none;
}
This way the only image I’ll see on the page is the first one. The others will be hidden. This way is the most accessible.
The second way is to leave the text for the link blank, so there is nothing to click. This way is not quite as good because if for some reason the user has javascript disabled, they won’t be able to get to those pictures. But this is how you would do it if you chose to go that route:
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" title="Picture 1">My first picture</a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture2.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" title="Picture 2"></a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture3.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" title="Picture 3"></a><a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture4.jpg" rel="lightbox[mygallery]" title="Picture 4"></a>
How do I add a caption to the images?
It is quite easy to add a caption to an image. You should start with the regular markup for an image:
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox">My first picture</a>
All you have to do is add a title to the image…
<a href="http://yoursite.com/images/picture1.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="Whatever little phrase you want your caption to be">My first picture</a>
That’s it!
How do I fix the broken loading images?
For some reason, the original lightbox.js file has the wrong paths. You’ll need to go into the file and fix the paths under configurations (which is directly under the table of contents). I used absolute paths for mine.
var fileLoadingImage = "http://zollinhofer.com/lightbox/images/loading.gif";
var fileBottomNavCloseImage = "http://zollinhofer.com/lightbox/images/closelabel.gif";
If you set the paths correctly, you should be able to type the path into your browser and the image should show up. If you installed lightbox in the method I explained above, your path should be similar to mine (with your site’s name where zollinhofer.com is).
How do I make the previous and next buttons always show instead of just showing up when hovering?
All you have to do is go into the lightbox.css file and change a few lines. Find the id for prevLink & nextLink as you see below:
#prevLink:hover, #prevLink:visited:hover { background: url(../images/prevlabel.gif) 0 15% no-repeat;
border: none;
}
#nextLink:hover, #nextLink:visited:hover { background: url(../images/nextlabel.gif) 100% 15% no-repeat;
border: none;
}
and change it to this:
#prevLink, #prevLink:hover, #prevLink:visited:hover { background: url(../images/prevlabel.gif) 0 15% no-repeat;
border: none;
}
#nextLink, #nextLink:hover, #nextLink:visited:hover { background: url(../images/nextlabel.gif) 100% 15% no-repeat;
border: none;
}
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Kylen update - 7 months · Thursday April 26, 2007
Check out some of our new pictures of Kylen. We think he is pretty cute!
