All posts by Dona

Debatable Comments

Musings, Wordpress

Edited to note that I discovered that in order to comment, one needs to sign up for Intense Debate. So — never mind. Plugin Deactivated….

So I’m trying out a new comment plugin– Intense Debate. It was recently aquired by Automatic — the folks that produce WordPress. I saw it on another blog and signed up to be notified when the general public could use it. I got my notice yesterday and installed it.

I didn’t like the way it looked — different from the regular comments so I deactivated it. Then I got an email from someone named Michael at Intense Debate who noticed I deactivated the plugin and wondered why. Despite feeling a little concerned about Big Brother, I replied that it didn’t look like the old comments, some gravatars were missing and I was concerned about the rating system.

Michael replied that the rating system is part of Intense Debate, but could be customized in the future. He wondered why the gravatars were messing up and asked me to reactivate Intense Debate and deactivate Gravatars. So, being the obedient troubleshooter that I am, I did. No difference — the monster gravatars are not showing up in the comments.

Anyway, I’m going to give these comments a few days to see how they work. Let me know in the comments if you like them or not.

And if you don’t like them, I’ll gladly disable them again. But not before I give everyone a thumbs up.

My daughter’s dream computer

Humor,

Remember I mentioned that my son and I are going to build a computer? Well, if my daughter were to build a computer it would be made of the following:

  • hair (it is biodegradable and a renewable resource)
  • bones of her ancestors (same reason as above)
  • teeth (see above)
  • vanilla beans (she saw two glass vials of vanilla beans that I bought at Costco today and asked if they were parts for Andrew’s computer)

I’m officially worried about my daughter.

My Favorite Veteran

Events, People

Dad's Navy Photo My dad was in the US Navy during the Korean Conflict. His time in the Navy is what he tends to remember the most and he never tires talking about the places he saw while on his tours of duty.

Things I remember him telling me include:

  • Buying a pair of binoculars to spy on the women at the topless beach
  • Driving to and from Philadelphia in a car with a rumble seat.
  • Eating chipped beef (and liking it!)
  • Seeing the Rock of Gibraltar
  • Being offered a job and the option to inherit the family business if he’d marry someone’s daughter (someone he was not in love with)
  • The time he shook hands with Gary Cooper and gave him a cup of coffee. Cooper was on board my dad’s ship because it was being used in the film, You’re In the Navy Now.

Things I didn’t know, but learned today while going through a packet of his papers and photographs, were:

  • he was an associate member of the Thorland Club — a club in Haiti, if the few sources I found on the Internet can be believed

thorlandclub

  • He crossed the Arctic Circle on November 12, 1949 and thus became a member of the Royal Order of Blue Noses.

bluenoseclub

  • That my dad was among the first crew on the ship when it was commissioned, making him eligible to be a Plank Owner.

plankowner

Looking at the post cards my dad bought while on his various tours of duty makes it look like his time in the Navy was akin to being on a cruise ship, but I’m sure he just told me the good parts. He probably had to work hard at his job and I’m willing to bet he was pretty good at it.