Coffee Chat

We had so much fun and learned so much at First Event 2010. About ourselves and about each other. I hugged till my arms hurt, smiled till my cheeks cramped, and loved the pink cloud and blue bedrock of our community. So many highlights it’s hard to process them all. But now that the party is over and we all get back to other priorities a let down can sometimes happen. This is true particularly if you’re newly out of the closet and if First Event was your first or among your first public venues.

You might get bummed as the days progress this week. So here are some tips others have found that can help make life a little less gray.

(1) Look: Did you get a photo of yourself at FE10? Not a glam photo per se, just any photo while you were presenting as you. Look at yourself. It’s not narcissistic it’s like looking at a mirror. Sometimes, when our inside and outsides don’t match and your feeling dysphoric, looking at a photo of yourself can be a nice reminder that who you are inside is who you are outside. This can be a real help for you to get your feet on the ground.

(2) Chat: Friends. You need ‘em and you need to talk with them. Rekindling the memories can be extremely helpful to laugh and get life back on the lighter side when you feel blue as you get further away from your fun and meaningful time at First Event. So chat with your friends DO NOT go back into a shell or into your closet. This is not healthy for you. Virtually, you can chat at TCNE’s Yahoo Group or another good place is at Pink Essence on their terrific chat line.  The Transgendered Planet is another good one.  These are very safe spaces. Talk on the phone with someone you exchanged phone numbers with.  Process your feelings! You need it.

(3) Plan: Your next time out. That’s right. You need to get out and see people. There are many transgender conferences both small and large throughout the U.S.  TCNE’s “TG Conference List” is updated monthly for you to find a conference close to you. And there is likely a support group near you in your own city or town or within an hour or two so you can go out and feel safe and not exposed.  Tiffany Club, the sponsors of First Event, would welcome you if you can make it to their offices in Waltham, MA.  But if they are too far away, IFGE is a great resource to find such places and TCNE has a list as well.

(4) Give: Give back; that’s right, even if it was your first time out you can give back to move forward causes that effect others. And in doing so you give yourself a big emotional boost, banish those blues and help others. What a triple play! There are many transgender rights actions happening all around us, from the national ENDA bill to Massachusetts Transgender Civil Rights Bill (H.1728/S1687). There are many womens issues you could involve yourself in as well, from helping those who are the victims of domestic violence, to womens health issues, to women in shelters (many times with their children). Finally, are there any other trans-persons near you who are homeless or out of a job or who knows what? Reach out to them in some way to help them out. We may not always agree with each other, but we do need to support each other.

This isn’t fantasy, it’s your life..so live it, have fun and if you get the blues, remember to LOOK – CHAT – PLAN – GIVE!

Today is day two of First Event Transgender Conference!   I’ll be there today and Saturday and hope to meet some of our readers, friends, frenemies and other assorted cast of characters.  By way of disclaimer, I’ve been on the planning committee for First Event for the past three years and this year I’m in an advisory role/webmistress.   I might actually get to see a few workshops over the next two days 

And, for those of you interested in this topic, at 11Am I’ll be speaking, along with Gunner Scott, Michelle Madison and Paula Howard on Transgender Rights on a panel called, “The Unlikely Activist”.

Also, if you are not going to the Fashion Show, come join me, Arjay, Michelle, Nancy, Paula, Jamie, and a host of others for an informal community dinner in the Marriott’s Restaurant!  We’d love to have you at our table.

Well we haven’t been around much since Beck’s Cafe got hacked.  Someone came in via our ATOM feed, nabbed our password apparently and shut us down for a bit.  Big KUDOS to my host provider A Small Orange though!  They suspended my account to keep the other servers safe, then let me know right away that I had a problem I had to deal with.  They worked around my time needs and together we got it done!

So, now to perk some fresh post including an award Beck’s Cafe was honored with to start 2010!   We were mentioned in Spirit Magazine back in 2007 as one of Boston’s Blogs To Read but this recent award is very special.  Look for our next post to learn why

Weird things happen when you drive long distances.  Sometime you hallucinate.  Sometimes you hear weird radio programs like the time I learned about the Phantom Hand some guy swore had a mind of it’s own on Coast-to-Coast AM at like, 3:07AM.   Other times you see…… a giant molar.  Molar as in tooth.  As in 15 foot high.

Many thanks from Beck’s Cafe to all our Veterans for keeping our country safe and free and sacrificing so much for all of us.  We all can’t thank you enough!!   There is so much we need to be thankful for to our veterans.  To learn more about this important day

• Click to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs web site.
• You can also learn more about Veterans Day at Military.com’s Veteran’s Day Page.
• The Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation has a nice web page on Women in our Military and special Veteran’s Day remembrance for our valiant women.
• Stories of War from Women Veterans is an excellent podcast done at NPR which tells the stories of women at war
• Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks from Vietnam to Iraq (the biographies of the women are well worth the read themselves)

Today, November 1, marks the first annual Transparent Day! Kicked off at Southern Comfort Conference in September, Transparent Day is:

a day of celebration for all parents and kids that can focus on the family and it’s importance. It will help reinforce the fact that we as Trangendered parents continue to have that bond and that love that all parents share with their children.

This is pretty important topic. Many of us work very hard to be parents and manage our Gender Dysphoria as well. It can be very trying wanting to do what’s best in all cases. TransParentDay.org is the web site that celebrates this day and has some wonderful resources to help parents who are transgender to navigate and thrive in being who they are and in being parents.

So go get that first, fresh, steaming mug of morning coffee and go have a read at transparent.org ….. the go give your kids a big hug and tell ‘em that you love them and that they are your special gifts to you.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

When I first read this article I was shocked. “Do It Yourself” plastic surgery! WHAT! Can anyone really be that crazy or desperate? Well, the answer is yes.

I have friends who are obsessed with plastic surgery (or maybe I’m just jealous I can’t afford it!) but I think some of these items are really over the top. Here is a quick excerpt:

Around two years ago, a reliable English paper called Metro reported the outbreak of DIY plastic surgery. The obsession with celebrity culture, and media pressure that make everyone feel bad if they don’t look amazing, was leading people to take matters into their own hands. It did not go well.

“In the worst case, a man gave himself a nose job with a chisel and replaced the cartilage he removed with a chicken bone,” according to consultant psychiatrist Dr David Veale. “Others have cut their stomachs in DIY tummy tucks, and used glue to try to pin back their ears.”

Over your morning brew you can read the full article at Wisebread.com at their article, “DIY Plastic Surgery: This Is Not A Hoax”

(Photo courtesy of Colros’ Photos used under Creative Commons License)

Well social media here we come!  Beck’s Cafe is now tweeting on twitter.   You can follow us there if you like, our twitter address is http://twitter.com/BecksCafe and we’ll be feeding Beck’s Cafe’s RSS feed to our Twitter site as well so you can stay up to date for what’s percolating here.  Of course, you could skip Twitter and just RSS us too by clicking on our RSS feed for Beck’s Cafe  http://beckscafe.com/feed/

Whatever works best for you!

It’s true, Godiva has gone MOBILE.  That means our chocolate fantasies can all be fulfilled RIGHT from the comfort of your smart phone!  I tried the application out on a Blackberry Curve and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use.  There are menu options for gifts in various dollar ranges, business gifts, gift baskets and, of course plain old CHOCOLATE.  It’s all very cool and you can get your mobile Godiva here:  http://www.godiva.com/mobile/default.aspx

I saw a post on Yahoo’s home page today that was so encouraging!

I know, I know, none of us really cares if we look hot or not, if our waistline bulges, if our hair grays, it’s all about being serious about who we are, standing up for others rights, being true to ourselves …. but you have to admit, “Married … With Children” mom Katey Sagal looks HOT at 55 and we’d all LOVE to look like that.

Okay Katey, fess up your secrets to Beck’s Cafe’s “very serious” cofee swilling readers 

Dolla are still a rage with girls, in fact here is the list of the top 7 from 2007 from the NY Times, About.com site

• Karito Kids Doll
• Only Hearts Club Doll
• Barbie as Princess Rosella
• Corolle Dolls Baby Lia
• Disney High School Musical Dolls
• Hannah Montana Singing Dolls and Pop Star Stage
• Bratz Fashion Stylistz Dolls

I think the doll I hope I never have to buy over Christmas though is the patented, peeing doll….what a joy that would be!   Read all about the pee doll at her patent at Google’s patent site, “Doll having delayed wetting and crying action“.

Suddenly I See…. by *ultra-seven on deviantART

Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she’s a beautiful girl
She’s a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

I feel like walking the world
Like walking the world
You can hear she’s a beautiful girl
She’s a beautiful girl
She fills up every corner like she’s born in black and white
Makes you feel warmer when you’re trying to remember
What you heard
She likes to leave you hanging on a word

Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

And she’s taller than most
And she’s looking at me
I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine
Oh she makes me feel like I could be a tower
A big strong tower, yeah
The power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea
(Suddenly I see)

She got the power to be
The power to give
The power to see
Yea Yea

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)

(Suddenly I see)

Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me (Suddenly I see)
Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see)
Why the hell it means so much to me

(Lyrics from song, “Suddenly I See”, KT Tunstall)
“Suddenly I See” KT Tunstall @ You Tube

Just a couple of things to point out in our sidebar in case you hadn’t perused down that way in a while to investigate our links.

First, you’ll see a fun Daily Cartoon about 1/4 of the way down the sidebar. Our cartoon, courtesy of Andertoons, changes daily and, almost without exception, is always good for a little chuckle.

Second, scrolling to the bottom of our sidebar you’ll see our daily quote courtesy of The Foundation for a Better Life. Their billboards have always inspired me (and almost caused me to lose control of my car) and having them join us at Beck’s Cafe is a nice treat, I feel, for all our readers

Enjoy!

(widget photo – yes that is what a widget is! – from our friends at Wouf_is_Wouf’s Photostream, used with permission under Creative Commons license).

7-14-2008 Update
Replaced “Foundation for a Better Life” quote of the day with “Quotes Collection” plug-in/widget under the side bar feature, “Inspiration and Thoughts”. Foundation for a Better Life was not responding to some tech questions and Quotes Collection gives us a wider library (a less spiffy look though).

It’s true, many of you who visit Beck’s Cafe really do read the articles and for that I am most flattered! Thank you all so much. It’s a joy to write and a joy to be read. So what are you all reading? Well, here here are the top five most read articles of the past three months at Beck’s Cafe. I hope you take a moment to take a visit….and thank you all for having done so already.

1. Thailand: Some Transgender Views: How do those in Thailand view being transgender? Read this article to see the views of Thailand.
2. Gender Therapists, how do you chose? An article on how to chose a gender therapist and some links to some excellent helps, including guidance for teens.
3. Wedding Bell Blues: Who would know that my friends wedding would be the occassion for my first drink bought for me from a guy or learning that NJ really isn’t 8 hours away.
4. Simply Hired and Transgender Friendly Too: This article talks about the new search engine, Simply Hired, and how they can help you find a job.
5. CSI: Sarah’s Goodbye Letter: Perhaps the most sadly romantic moment in TV History. I cry buckets every time I see it.

Thanks to all our happy coffee, tea and cocoa sippers and swillers who spent the time to read

(Photo courtesy of Rachel Sian’s Photos, used under Creative Commons license)

Well, well looks like we are back online with our main url, http://www.beckscafe.com Nothing like duct tape to get ya goin’. For our next repair we’ll have to get some chewing gum.

Turns out the new options in Wordpress 2.5.1 required our barista’s to scarf down more espresso than normal to determine what went wrong and how to fix it. But fixed it ’tis so here we are now

Happy Reading everyone!

(photo courtesy of kylos and used with Creative Commons license)

There may be nothing more boring in blogging than posting about all the “issues” and “delays” one is having in trying to blog or get one’s blog re-started or in anything related to the underpinnings of a blog.

Let’s face it no one cares…they just want you to write again ’cause they enjoyed your writing.

So, I won’t bore you all ‘cept to say were are swilling some java, munching on chocolate and moving things around here. First, you’ll see we have a new Wordpress theme. This might not be the final but, we like it so far though we have some work to do hacking the code a bit. It’s called Tarski and is nicely done and, as importantly, nicely maintained. Nothing like getting a theme you like and having the developer abandon it as Wordpress chugs along.

What happened to the cute past theme with the mugs? Well, we couldn’t get it to work right. The header started to come into shape nicely thanks to two of our readers Mandy and Sonia, but then we couldn’t move things around and, though the underlying structure of the theme, Sandbox, was muy macho we were a little over our heads frankly. A little code we can hack, alotta code and, frankly, we’d rather spend the time writing. A BIG THANK YOU goes out to our loyal readers Mandy and Sonia for helping us get the mug header down. Thank you both very, very much for going out of your way to help

So thank you to everyone for hanging in there with us! We’re slowly getting things back to normal so we can brew up the content piping hot….as you’d expect

(many thanks to Vrogy for letting us use the cute crayon pic for this post per his Creative Commons license)

So, we decided to do a little upgrade prior to writing on some new topics and, well, we have a little issue. Bizarrely, after uploadining WP 2.5.1 our URL, http://www.beckscafe.com isn’t usable! Yes we paid our bill to Go Daddy!

This is a puzzler for sure. Stay tuned, I think we’ll be needing alot of coffee to solve this one.

So to reach us, at last for now, the underlying URL has to be used, http://susan.asmallorange.com/~becki/

If you caught last night’s CSI (in Boston anyway) … it was the “Living Doll” episode. In one of the most sad and romantic moments in TV history, Sara writes a letter to Grishom, the series main character, that she is leaving. She tells him that she loves him; she talks about herself; she talks about what haunts her; and that she must go,

You know I love you. I feel I’ve loved you forever.

Lately I haven’t been feeling very well. Truth be told, I’m tired.

Out in the desert, under that car that night, I realised something and I haven’t been able to shake it.

Since my father died, I spent almost my entire life with ghosts. We’ve been like close friends and out there in the desert, it occured to me, that it was time for me to bury them. I can’t do that here.

I’m so sorry.

No matter how hard I try to fight it off, I’m left with a feeling that, I have to go. I have no idea where I’m going, but I know I have to do this. If I don’t, I’m afraid I’ll self-destruct, and worse, you’ll be there to see it happen. Be safe.

Know that I tried very hard to stay. Know that you are my one and only. I will miss you with every beat of my heart. Our life together was the only home I’ve ever really had. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I love you…I always will.

Goodbye.

In a lot of ways I feel her letter says, from the heart, what alot of us must feel like … at least sometimes.

You can see the scene for yourself at You Tube by visiting You Tube here.

If anyone could help us with the Beck’s Cafe graphics header we’d be grateful. It’s apparenlty too big. The cafe’s ultra-high tech computers can’t tell but some of our readers don’t see the nifty header we mashed up. So, if you’d like to help we’d be grateful because we aren’t sure what to do to make it fit for displays that don’t like big headers.

Thanks

Yep we have been having some serious problems at Beck’s Cafe. First, our beloved server, Sun, died at our co-located facility in Atlanta. Our plucky hardware team at A Small Orange, moved Beck’s Cafe over to Susan. Then we couldn’t get back in the door to do anything about it. But, A Small Orange’s crack tech team got the door open and and now here we are again. We got allotta work to do here in the next couple of months. We have to fix all the links (ick) and we have to fix the upload graphics feature, that’s all broke we have to upgrade our Wordpress to 2.3.1 and we have to upgrade the base semantic structure of A Beck’s Cafe too as that has changed…gosh.

But we haven’t stopped writing. Check our next post on First Event 2008 for news on where we’ve been perking up the prose in the meantime.

So we are sure you have noticed the schizophrenic and seemingly constant construction here at Beck’s Cafe. Thankfully our back end is stable (..and I expect NO comments from Sharon, June, Jenna or Richard on that one!)

But it’s that front end…what is going on here?

Well, we’ve moved the cafe from a standard Wordpress theme to Wordpress using Sandbox. What this means practically is that Sandbox enables some basic Internet programming stuff that we’ll need going into the future such as:

• Advanced, semantics-based theme
• Beautiful clean coding on the inside for easier feature add (or remove)
• For WordPress 2.0.2 through 2.2.x
• Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional
• Widgets plugin-friendly
• hAtom and hCard microformats (XFN was already built into Wordpress)
• Allows our readers to RSS subscribe to only one category at a time; so love Frugal Techie but hate the rest? You can subscribe just to The Frugal Tech RSS feed at Beck’s Cafe and just read those posts. It’s like 10 blogs in 1! We just love choices, just like a well designed handbag.
• You can totally customize it with CSS alone—no need (hopefully) to bother with the underlying php

So quite a bit really. Working with CSS has been alot easier than I’d thought it would be. I’d say tweaking a non-sandbox theme is actually more work. But there’s that learning curve on CSS so the changes will gradually take place here over time.

Sorry for making everyone crazy….now go have an iced cappucino and disregard all the plaster dust and plywood stacked all over the place

When your about ready to sputter out your coffee at the cafe ’cause you see an amazing idea, well, you have to blog about it. The web site Bag Borrow or Steal is exactly that.

How would you like access to bags such as Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Jones New York and more for…$15?

Okay you can get up off the floor now.

The site works like a NetFlix for Handbags. They have a huge selection and you get to KEEP them as long as you want till you need to turn them in. Need a bag for that hot date? Need a bag for a night at the opera? Need a bag to go shopping with mom? No problem…they have bags, and good ones, for every occasion.

Swing your hips on over to Bag, Borrow or Steal to get in on this deal.

Lots of changes are coming to the cafe all of them caffeine charged and good, I assure you! You’ll notice lots of theme morphing going on as we continue to screw with, hack the code for the site and give the Cafe a nice new paint job, some new upholstery, and, umm, finally clean the toilets (where the hell is that toilet brush anyway). We’ll be doing some collaboration too with others and unleash some new content areas that came over wayyy to many Cosmo’s with Boston’s own celebrity Diva, June C.

Thanks for hanging with us and probing our ample archives….thanks to YOU our readers we get 8,000 hits per month on average! And, thanks to YOU all we’ve won the following awards:

• Best of the Web Blogs: Transgender Category
• Spirit Magazine (Boston based GLBT magazine), Transgender Blog to Read

First and foremost though, Beck’s Cafe is not a “transgender” blog per se. It’s a virtual place to share ideas, get some love, tell a story, learn something new, and have a laugh and best of all, do it over a cup of coffee

Well we took the plunge and upgraded to WordPress 2.2.1 Things “feel” like they have to be rung out a bit, so we’ll be doing some testing, drinking coffee, and likely cussing. It’ll be worth it in the end I’m sure

Update: 6-24-07 : Archives are broken; repair in process; ETA based on how much free espresso I give my tech’s

Good underwear. It feels good. Looks good. Doesn’t make you feel like you’ve got sandpaper on or something, umm, reminding you it’s THERE all the time. It’s just nice.

The general way of choosing good underwear is to simply keep using what you have been using until it’s so thread bare that your “going commando”, (as an aside, the whole concept and prevelence of “Going Commando” i.e., wearing no underwear at all, has actually been studied. As reported in the Wikipedia at their site HERE, brief and bra firm, Fresh Pair, in 2004 conducted a study “…of 7,000 people which revealed that 9% of men and 7% of women go commando day-to-day. Those who do so semi-regularly are much more numerous, possibly around 25-30%”. You have to love our unquenchable thirst for knowledge).

But now, fair reader, we’ve got the inside track on a more refined way of getting your undergarments right. The Vote. Or more precisely, “The Undie Awards“. In the words of the lingerie ladden workers managing the contest:

Women around the world voted for their favorite lingerie and the results are here. The Underwear Awards, (The Undies) were decided in 13 categories including Favorite Bra, Favorite Panty, Favorite Shapewear and more.

With the vote tallied the Overall Winners are:

• In the category, Favorite Bra (overall) average figure: Wonderbra Gel Satin Push-Up Bra, model #7234
• In the category, Favorite Bra (overall) full figure: Le Mystere Tisha Bra-Full Figure Renaissance, #9955
• In the category, Favorite Bottom (overall): The Hanky Panky Thong
• In the category, Favorite Shapewear (overall): Spanx Power Panties with Tummy Control #004
• In the category, Favorite Shapewear Tops, “Select Award”: Nancy Ganz Body Shaping Camisole #3310

So there you have it, no more holey underthings, no more breezy briefs and saggy bras! You can read about all the winners and even purchase said garments by visiting the Undies Awards by clicking to their site HERE.

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

Around the cafe’ we’re just happy to have you all feel at home here. That’s reward enough. But when a major local magazine comes a callin’, we brush our teeth, comb our hair and make sure we’re all perty to see what they have to say.

Well, what they said was that, Spirit Boston, Boston’s Premier Gay and Lesbian magazine, has given Beck’s Cafe the nod as one of the Boston Blog’s to Read in the Transgender category. Well isn’t that nice! If anyone has a copy of the Decemeber/January issue we’d love to see it. I heard from the reporter that the mention was in that issue.

Of course the only reason this wonderful award happened at all is because of YOU, our wonderfully caffeine juiced up readers. We just whip out the content but YOU put us where we are ’cause you read us So thank you all very much from the bottom of the team’s heart

Well Wordpress 2.1 has come out, my graphics code is still broken and our links are still out of whack (rendering the long loved on Site Map not very useful).  And the issues I noted in our “Happy New Years 2007” post are still here.  We also learned that not everyone has broadband (perish the thought!) and so our oh so cute article graphics may have made Beck’s Cafe not so much fun to download for some. We apologize for not being a bit more sensitive to those with less than a fat pipe at their disposal.

So what’s a barista to do? Well the team huddled over some chocolate spiked cappucino and decided that some serious rolling up the sleeves was in order. So over the next two weeks or so you’ll notice some test changes and some permanent changes as well. Things might get a little whacky around here in the display and functional department. In the meantime we’ll be whipping up the content and hope you find it worth stopping by Beck’s Cafe to sit for a bit and read over a latte.

OH! And we had one reader who stopped by for a personal (as in in-the-flesh kind of in-person) visit just to say “hi” and to tell us how much he enjoyed the frothy mix of content here. Mr. Reader, and you know who you are, please drop me some mail so we can fix the problem with you not being able to add comments on this blog. I’m not sure where the code is broken on that but maybe between the two of us we can narrow it down. It may also be your comment got marked, but accident, as spam, and so Akismet has been moving your comments out. In either case we can likely narrow it down if you’ll help me a bit here.

Finally, our little Cafe has grown considerably in readership and I want to thank each and every reader who has come by. You could choose to do something more valuable with your treasured time but you’ve come here and for that I and the team are very grateful. We are now serving up hot content to about 600 unique visitors per month (6000 hits per month, from 38 counties! ). Thanks!!

“I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door – or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present (Joan Rivers)

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” (Dolly Parton)

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” (Ella Fitzgerald)

“I have alot of things to prove to myself. ONe is that I can live fearlessly”. (Oprah Winfrey)

“I think the day of selfishness is over the day of really working together has come, and we must learn to work together, all of us, regardless of race or creed or color”. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Happy New Years 2007 to all our happy coffee swillers here at Beck’s Cafe!!
Well 2007 should be yet another exciting year at the cafe: Lots of new coffee sputtering from the espresso machine, fine froths of milk on mugs and hopefully some interesting reading as well. It should be fun.

One thing that was NOT very fun when we strolled in this morning though was the message we got upont trying to load a nice Happy New Years 2007 graphic:

Unable to create directory. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

We’d thought we’d solved that technical nuisance back last year. Apparently not. Either that or the move of the calendar to 2007 has confused our otherwise robust (if sometimes slow) data center.

THEN, insult to injury, we found that some of the links from site back back into Beck’s Cafe didn’t appear to work. So,attempting to see where the code might be broken we went to W3C, ran a validation test and *ouch* here’s the answer:

This page is not Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!

So we’ll be graphics and photo free for a bit, and a little clunky on internal Beck’s Cafe links from the site map whilst we figure out how to fix all this. Guess we’ll need more coffee!

Now onto our regularly scheduled program.

I’m gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone
To lighten up (I’m gonna tell ‘em that)
I’ve got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I’m looking up
I’m gonna soak up the sun
I’m gonna soak up the sun

(Lyrics from Sheryl Crow, “Soak Up The Sun. Photo courtesy of Maia C Photos, used under Creative Commons License)

When I saw the article on September 19th being “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” at The Inquirer (see article here), I thought, “what a bunch of jokers”. Then I realized it’s real! In the words of the offical, International Talk Like a Pirate Day web site:

International Talk Like A Pirate Day began in the mists of the 1990s, when two Yankees, John Baur (Ol’ Chum Bucket) and Mark Summers (Cap’n Slappy), be talkin’ like pirates all o’a sudden. They decided that, to further the noble causes of the sweet trade of piracy, September 19 each year be the day when all souls over the world should be talkin’ like pirates. For years, their valiant efforts were wasted, until they contacted a man by the name of Dave Barry, who be writin’ a humour column for the great masses o’ landlubbers out yonder.

He showed his devotion to the cause by promoting the Day to millions of people across the world from the tropical climes of Miami, to the wild and weary shores of Thunder Bay. From thar, the media across the seven seas carried the story, and it reached every corner of the world!

Back then, we be havin’ no connection with Dave Barry, John Baur, or Mark Summers, but we be enjoyin’ the Day and we be makin’ this site, the first of its kind.

Shiver me timbers! 

(Skull & Crossbones pic courtesy of GeishaBoy Photos, Pirate Women photo courtesy of McBeth’s Photos, used under Creative Commons License)

“I’m furious about Women’s Liberationists. They keep getting up on a soapboxes and proclaiming that woen are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept a very quiet or it ruins the whole racket”. Anita Boos

“If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own”. Charlotte Bronte

“As you climb up the ladder of success don’t let the boys look up your dress!” Jennifer Bunis

“Behind every successful woman…is a basket of dirty laundry”. Sally Forth

“They say getting thin is the best revenge. Success is much better”. Oprah Winfrey

“Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths”. Lois Wyse

“I wanted to be scared again…I wanted to feel unsure again. That’s the only way I learn, the only way I feel challenged”. Connie Chung

“To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist”. Gail Sheehy

“Don’t be afraid your life will end; be afraid it will never begin”. Grace Hansen

(Words from the book, “Witty Words from Wise Women, Hallmark Gift Books, B. J. Gallagher, photo courtesy of Jerry Daykin’s Photos used under Creative Commons License)

Beck’s Cafe has two sides. A big backside that has all the tech weenie stuff in it and the front side where we do the actual writing, recipe testing, frugal tech experiments, coffee swilling and general goofing around. The front side is the nice side for sure and one day, when we finally get the kitchen cleaned up enough, the tables actually shining and some of the crap off the floor (what IS that gelatinous glob over there anyway that everyone avoids) we’ll show the front side too.

But for now I thought the more technically inclinded and the generally curious might like to see what our big backside looks like You can click to see picks of the datacenter we share, as hosted at A Small Orange, at this linke HERE.

(amazingly big butted cat pic from Denise Michelle’s pics, used via Creative Commons license)

  Well that was a barrel of monkeys! Oy Vei! After getting the quite wonderful Chameleon Theme up and running I upgraded to Wordpress 2.04. Alotta love (booze, and swearing) later it’s all working. Dayum what an effort. Through it I learned about keeping proper backups (which I did), about how to modify Becks’ Cafe MySQL database (which I had to learn), how to hack CSS (not so bad really), and how to get around PHP (a bit different and frustrating but I got it).

So now back to regular posting instead of programming – yay!

(photo of woman elated with Beck’s Cafe running again from Quasimime’s Photos, used under Creative Commons License)

Well we’ve upgraded to the theme Chameleon then hacked that a bit. Then we upgraded to Wordpress 2.04. Everying seemed okay until we tried to order the link list in the right hand side bar. As you can see that didn’t work so great, as the items that are supposed to be last in the list are first. We’re using some Wordpress template tags and the mylinkorder Wordpress plug-in from Geekly Weekly to try and solve this. Results? well, I’m drinking a martini right now so that should give you a hint to the frustration level.

The good news is I’m learning more about coding in Wordpress, html and php. Thanks for your patience kind readers as we get the Cafe back in order.

(Women at Work constuction sign from aheaven’s photos, used via Creative Commons License)

If you’ve been clicking here at the Cafe to check out our fresh content and seemd to see the Cafe’s style change pretty often (especially late at night when we ought to be asleep) it’s due to some Summer renovation work we are doing I did some reading on accesibility and usability in blogs and felt the text area was a bit too wide for easy reading. So I’ve tried to narrow the reading area, keep the links column, make it readable in both Firefox and Internet Explorer and make some small code changes to increase the speed of the blog loading. It’s coming along ok I think, but if something seems amiss or horrible or you just want to drop me a comment on the changes, please do so

Right now I’m experimenting with the Chameleon Theme from Ainslie Johnson, and blog.txt theme from Scott Allan Wallick.

(picture of the two people doing some renovation work from Niklas’ Photos, used under license from Creative Commons)

“The things that are truly important – such as courage, integrity, luck and determination – those things are not distributed on your chromosomes.” Rhonda Cornum

“Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth” Erma Bombeck

“Our own success, to be real, must contribute to the success of others” Eleanor Roosevelt

“If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile” Lynda Barry

“Motherhood and homemaking are honorable choices for any woman, provided it is the woman herself who makes those decisions” Molly Yard

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one”. Jane Howard

“Love is the great miracle cure Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives”, Louise L. Hay

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself , instead of a second-rate version of somebody else”. Judy Garland

“I didn’t get here by dreaming about it or thinking about it – I got here by doing it” Este Lauder

(Words from the book, “Witty Words from Wise Women, Hallmark Gift Books, B. J. Gallagher, photo courtesy of Shadrach’s Photos, used under Creative Commons License)

This July 4th is the United State’s celebration of adopting the Declaration of Indepence. It is the genesis of the U.S. as a country. The signees knew that their signatures meant that they were committing treason and would be hanged if caught. It’s worth repeating one of the most well known sections of this historic document. It’s reading is well worth your and my time, constant vigil to put it to action well worth each our effort.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

For more information on the U.S. Declaration of Independence and July 4th in general see the following:

• United States National Archives on the Declaration of Independence
• Fourth of July Celebration Database at American University in Washington D.C.

(Photo of courtesy of Declan McAleese Photos, used under Creative Commons License)

Got the uni-brow look going? Got them big caterpiller eyebrows that seem to squirm on your head?

Well fear not! Eyebrows by Elena can come to your rescue. She’s a Best of Boston winner for eyebrowin’ ya. She does chica’s and hombres so give her a call. She’ll get your brows the way you need to give you a nice look. Yes guys, your bushy brows or unibrows can use a clean up too! I’ve used her and was very satisfied with her work.

You can find her website and information at this link HERE.

(eyebrow photo courtesy of Mirandala used under Creative Commons License)

You know, reading Gentilly Girl’s blog got me thinking, am I ready for a Katrina Class disaster? After sitting down with a cup of coffee and pondering that (while I watched yet more rain fall on New England) I had to admit that I wasn’t. I’d be up a creek, so to speak. How about you, are you ready? I happened on some web sites that might really help you to plan and be ready. Don’t think something as massive as a Tsunami or a Katrina class hurricane can’t hit us – for a historical perspective check out this article on New England hurricanes at Brown University (click HERE).

Get prepared by checking and following what these links suggest:

• Red Cross Disaster Prep Kit (page 8 & 9 have a good checklists, think about 7 days food though not 3)
• Institute for Business & Home Safety has some great tips on protecting property
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security has helpful checklists and guides as well

(satellite image used under Creative Commons license from GISuser.com)