I’ve been using a plugin by Jennifer (the Scripty Goddess) for quite some time. It is a plugin that modifies the [More] tag in your posts using Javascript to open the rest of the post content in the current position on the same page. Back when I used Movable Type, it was an easy modification. In WordPress, Jennifer made it an easy modification as well by converting it to a plugin.

Well, then I wanted to change the words used for the [More} tag. You see, the plugin had default values of "Read more" (to read more on a new page), "Read more right here" (to use Javascript to see the rest of the post in the current position on the same page) and "Hide" (to use Javascript to hide the rest of the post opened by "Read more right here"). I thought, "No problem. I'll just hack the plugin and put in my own values." Yeah, I can do that. All I gotta do is find where those words were located and then replace them.

Next, I thought, "Why go through and change those values when I can make them into variables and declare the variables in one place. That would make hacking the plugin easier." Yeah, I can do that too. And it did make it easier, but I still had to manually hack the plugin. Then I did the blog setup for Jason, and it got me thinking on a different track. Now Jason is a very intelligent guy but in his own words he's a n00b. While I am in no way/shape/form l337, I can hack my way around PHP. I thought "Why not make the plugin customizable via the Admin Panel?" Thus the Content Show/Hide plugin was born.

The plugin has only been tested on my test/development WordPress site (using Webserver on a Stick as a base for WordPress on a Stick) and my personal blog. Both of these have WordPress version 2.x on them. It is just as easy as any other plugin for WordPress. Simply drop the file into your plugins folder, then go to the WordPress Plugins Admin Panel and activate the ContentShowHide plugin. To configure your messages, go to the WordPress Manage Admin Panel and select "ShowHide". There are three fields with default values for you to use. There are a couple of caveats:

• You MUST define at least one of the first two fields. In other words, you must use either the "Show more on another page" or "Show more right here" fields. If both are left blank, a default message (from Jennifer's original plugin) is inserted for the "Show more on another page" so that the [More] tag works.
• If you define the “Show more right here” field and do not define the “Hide” field, a default message (again, from Jennifer’s original plugin) will be inserted for the “Hide” field. This is so the reader can close up the “Show more right here” part of the entry.

So there you have it. It’s a minor modification to Jennifer’s hard work. I thank her for putting in the hard work and I hope to make it easily customizable for all.

You can download the plugin here.

That’s the band my friend Chris is in. You’ll see the link on the sidebar of my website – I have set up their website and they continue to updated content. Saturday night Spatterdash played at the Missipi Brewing Company (No, I didn’t misspell it – that’s the way it’s spelled for this place). Now I like Chris and I really like the music. If I didn’t like the music as much as I do, I probably wouldn’t have done the website for them. Anyway, as you can see two posts ago, today is my birthday and I was at the Brew taking in the Spatterdash gig. When midnight rolled around I had a pretty good buzz going. Then Chris made his announcement. I don’t remember the entire thing (the buzz of 8-10 beers does that to you, ya know?!) but it was a happy birthday announcement and a congratulations that I’m still alive at 50. Yeah, 50. I’m officially old now – or as Breezomatic likes to say, I’m classic (I’ll be vintage when I’m 75, according to her.) Well, after embarrassing me in front of a lot of people I know, Chris did wish me many more. Thanks Chris… paybacks are a bitch, ya know?!

Well, the weekend isn’t over… but it is for me. I’m tired. It all started Friday night; I took a load of the old, fallen-down tree in our back yard down to the compost site in My Element. Just one – that was enough. Later that night we had friends over and watched V for Vendetta. Pretty good flick, actually. We watched it on a purchase via the home improvement:

The next morning, too early for me actually, we went to get a friend’s pickup. It still took 2 loads down to te compost site with the pickup, but we got the tree all there. A big THANK YOU goes out to Austinator, C-Dude and Nick-Knack for all the help they provided. Their young legs make it up the hill a whole lot better than my old legs! Anyway, what used to look like this:
      
Now looks like this:
      

We also got a call from Menard’s that our garage door was in. On our way across town to get the pickup we stopped and snagged our garage door. It took me a few hours to do it, but instead of the ratty looking old fiberglass door that was held together with cobwebs and prayers, we now have this:

If you look closely at the picture, you will see the remnants of the old door in the driveway. I’ll need to get that down to the Transfer Station some time this week.

All of this as well as Saturday night (which is another post) and church this morning where KC and I were a part of the diaconate. Yeah, it’s been a busy weekend.

Yeah, this is all about ME:

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
I look like a monkey
And I smell like a flea….

Not only is it my birthday today, but it’s a decade birthday… 5-0. Celebrated last night at the Missipi Brewing Company. Spatterdash performed and Chris made me feel REALLY old. But that was last night; today I’m not feeling so old. Lots of projects to do, but mostly just glad to make it through another year.

Hey, readers! Gotta check out the latest. I helped Jason set up his blog, The Friendly Confines (yes, he is the most unfortunate of human beings: a Cubs fan!!). His blog is brand-spanking new as he still needs to import his old posts from Xanga. Go on over and give him some love!

I have a Golden Retriever and I was buying a large bag of Purina at WalMart and was in line to check out.

A woman behind me asked if I had a dog. On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn’t because I’d ended up in the hospital last time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.

I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a guy who was behind her.

Horrified, she asked if I’d ended up in the hospital in that condition because I had been poisoned…

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Happy Birthday, Mom!