This week in kristarella

I can’t quite believe it: it’s been a week since I last posted; it’s two and a half weeks until Christmas; it’s less than one week until we go away on camp. Hubby and I are leading on a sailing camp for kids about 9–12 years old— the theme is “Commando” (costume ideas are welcome)!

WordPress 2.7

WordPress 2.7 has hit WordPress.com blogs and 2.7 release candidate 1 is available from WordPress.org. Lorelle suggested that we use WP 2.7 RC1 because it’s stable, we can report any bugs, and with the new core updater it should make updating a breeze.

I’m loving pretty much everything about this version! Okay, so some of the button corners are super round and weird me out a little, but overall it’s excellent.

This is the first post I’m writing on kristarella.com from the new admin. Even just on this page: the menu is so handy and yet so out of the way; you can choose from your existing tags, which I was adding to the core code for a while; the colours are so subdued. Soothing.

Cooking

This week I finally got to try Mat’s Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops. They were so quick and easy to make and went down very nicely with a chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

I also finally got around to cooking Donna Hay‘s Chocoloate Fudge Puddings again. Yum!

Blog Tweaking

While I haven’t been posting, I’ve been doing a few code related things that I’ve been meaning to do.

Geo exif data in WordPress

One of which is adding location data to my photos and getting that imported to WordPress. There’s a top notch Aperture plugin called Maperture, which uses Google maps to add latitude and longitude information to your photos. You can also get devices to go on your camera to add it at the time of shooting and there are probably some cameras that do it themselves too.

Despite a strange bug in Aperture, which only appends the geo exif data on photos when the masters are referenced (if that made no sense to you, move on, nothing to see here). I managed to do both of the above things (add location data and import it into WordPress) and you can see it in action in the exif data on my recent photo post, The Red Box.

I plan to post the code for that fairly soon.

Photoblog thumbnails in footer

There was something funky going on with the thumbnails in my footer.

Due to importing my photoblog from PixelPost to WordPress, the photos from before the import don’t have all of the metadata (in the database). Including an image address for thumbnails. So I was doing a crazy mish-mash of thumbnail address retrieval and telling the blog to use that if the post date was before the import, otherwise just use the thumbnail.

For some reason, which I haven’t figured out, but have given up on for now, that only worked in the footer on pages made after the import date. Some mysterious WP_Query thing I’m sure.

Anyway, I’ve given up on it because if I keep using the latest thumbs in the footer the problem is moot and the method still works on individual posts in the photoblog category.

While I was mucking around with the code in my footer, I found some code that I used when I was going to widgetise my footer. So I’ll post that soon too; it’s really simple.

Wii Fit

I bought a Wii Fit this last week! It’s pretty cool. I know I’ve put on weight this year. I was too busy to eat properly, I spent a month sitting on my butt writing my thesis, and since then I’ve been sitting on my butt doing more enjoyable things.

I wanted to join a gym, but they’re soooo expensive! This is cheaper, more convenient, possibly more fun, and I’m more likely to do it regularly.

I saw this site (via Twitter) Wii Fit Mommiis. I haven’t joined them (yet) because I’m not a mommii and even though they said I didn’t have to be, it still feels… not quite right. Anywho, we shall see.

Secret Santa

Finally, I took part in a Secret Santa via the Aussie Bloggers Forum. It sounded like a bit of fun. I’m not sure how it went on their end organising it, but it was pretty simple to participate.

I got my Christmas present in the mail yesterday. A Parker pen.

Ain’t it nice?! I wonder if the sender knew about my affinity for pens. I’ve mentioned it from time to time, although never quite as thoroughly as Rands in Repose. I sure do love me a good pen!

Thank you secret santa!