Here is the simplest form of the code I can find. And some notes follow.

<MTwair asin="0330323121" imagesize="s">

I'm reading <$MTwairName$>, by <$MTwairAuthor$><br /> Here's the cover, click it:<br /> <a href="<$MTwairURL$>"> <img src="<$MTwairImage$>"> </a>

</MTwair>

• MTwairName - The name of the book
• MTwairAuthor - The author
• MTwairImage - The cover of the book
• MTwairURL - The Amazon page for the book
• ASIN or ISBN - number to plug in
• imagesize="s" - you can use s(mall), m(edium), or l(arge)

Here is the code I used in my sidebar:

Well, after talking with Ben, I have tried the "currently reading" plugin again and it is working just fine. I managed to get it on my main index and on my individual archive entries with a new thing called MTInclude that Ben will no doubt be telling everyone about very soon.

Also when I first tried it there was no way to size the pictures. But there is now. You can have small, medium or large. Or tall, grande and venti if you prefer.

In any case, the plugin seems to be stable now. I think I might have had some extra spaces that was confusing it every once in a while. Maybe. I don't know. Computers.

Now that I have the plugin, hopefully I will actually finish books and use it. And maybe write some posts about the books. We'll see. I will post the code I used once again. If you dare to use it.

I had to take down the plugin I was talking about. The errors seemed to get progressively worse. I guess I should have continued testing before posting about it. Anyway, I'll keep on working on it, and Ben and I will discuss it.

It just occurred to me...well, I knew it...but it sunk in...Simon, Chris, Ben, and Gabe are now married. Wow. Four guys that somehow are in most of my pictures from college.

We had good times. I know I did. They welcomed me to the "table," as it were. I miss them. I've only seen Chris once or twice in the past few years. Gabe, I've see around, but didn't get a chance to talk to him. I've not talked with Simon much since I moved back to Virginia, sadly. Fortunately, Ben and I have been able to stay in touch. For that I am very glad.

I praise God for each of these men. Even if we don't all talk as much as we once did. They all helped me to grow in Christ one way or another. And they are all distinctly their own person with different points of view.

With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD; And in the midst of many I will praise Him.


Psalms 109:30 NASB

Benjamin asked me to play around with a new plugin he installed for Bensfriends. Now, I may be jumping the proverbial gun, but at least you can say I did what I was told.

Anyway, I do like the plugin...I think. At least now that I have the design part done, it will be easy to update in the future. Plus, typing in a few numbers is easier than going through all the mess of getting a picture to put on the sidebar.

The only thing that I don't quite like (besides what I state below) is how big the pictures are displayed. But I think I can live with that for now. You can only see this plugin working on my main index. So, if you are reading this from the extended entry, you can use the link above to see it in action.

Here are two links that Ben posted earlier on my blog for more information:

MT Plugin Directory: WAIR, Movable Type

Also, I'm sure Ben will announce this plugin soon. And he might explain it better than I have. Probably.

Here is the code I used for my sidebar. Feel free to use it, modify it or whatever. Just type in the ASIN or ISBN number where it says <MTwair asin="##########">. (note: I used the ISBN numbers for the books. You are supposed to use ASIN or ISBN.)

As you can see this also works for music.

Note: This plugin gave an error multiple times when I went to build/rebuild on both an individual entry and my main template. My solution was to re-save, then rebuild (again). Unfortunately, I am still having problems rebuilding my entire site and individual archive entries. You can see how this might be a problem.

Well, I have been pleased so much with Firefox, it grieves me to complain now.

I want to point out that I am still endorsing Firefox as the best internet browser I've ever used. (Much better than Microsoft's IE, in my opinion.) Nevertheless, I had problems upgrading from 0.8 to 0.9.

From what I have read, several other people had similar troubles. The truth is, the browser part worked fine, it was the Extensions and Themes that wouldn't work.

I suppose if you don't care about extentions or themes, this complaint will seem trivial. But as one who likes to change themes from time to time and enjoys the creative extensions that people come up with, I needed these things to work.

Especially since the theme 0.9 was stuck on was particularly horrid.

Maybe this complaint should be leveled at the Firefox website. It was there that I couldn't find any answers, after all.

Okay. I just finished dinner, things seem much better now. I'll stop complaining. I got Firefox 0.9 to work. It took hours of searching, and then some blind guesswork, but if you have problems with upgrading (either with the extensions or themes not working). I might have your solution. E-mail me.

I bought a chart on HTML. It is pretty cool. It has all sorts of tags and info on CSS and Web colors and notes.

I think it will be helpful in my future blog editing and web designing. After all, we are not all Mr. Big Blue Hats.

"Lord, I don't love You like I use to. No, not really. Oh, but I want You to know that I'll still go to church. I'll sing. Oh, and there's Sunday school and prayer meetings. That sort of thing. I'll even give. And I'll believe the Truth. I'll discuss it with my friends. And I'll fight for it. I just don't love You, that's all."

I can be a "bible believing fundamendalist"; I can have a biblical ministry; I can sponsor all the orthodoxy that anyone could ask for...

But I may not love Christ like I should. And then, He would have something against me.

"Lord, help me always to love You like I should. Help me never to leave my first love."

Revelation 2:1-5

see also How to Meet the Enemy by John MacArthur, Jr.

I finally saw the ABC/Disney movie version of A Wrinkle in Time. Although, there was some resemblance to the book, it was strategically reinterpreted. It was even more strange than the book was.

Oh well. I guess they couldn't just make a movie from a book and not change anything.

My friends got engaged!!! This happened yesterday sometime. Haven't heard the story yet. Dianna's birthday was on Wednesday, and Greg drove down to surprise her. The surprise was a complete success.

Congratulations Dianna and Greg! May God bless you.

After Stephanie's beautiful attempt at drawing (see also this post), I feel encouraged to post my first attempt. I saw this picture on a website and tried to draw it. I've never drawn anything before, so you can imagine I was pleased that one can tell it is actually an elephant...with a mohawk, but yes, an elephant.

Well, I finished the music for the DVD. All 8 minutes and 29 seconds. Or thereabout. It is not for my family reunion, but for my dad's boss's family reunion coming this weekend.

I scanned about 100 slides and my dad made a DVD of them. It will be played this Friday or Saturday. (It's a two day afair.)

I enjoyed writing the music. I was a bit stressed getting it done. I waited until the last minute of course. But, I think it turned out fairly well. It has three parts. ABCCAB, or at least that's how I figure it. Although, if anything B is the main theme, C is the secondary and A is a intro/bridge. I'd like to think I was professional about the music, but I was really just trying to make it sound pleasant. I haven't ruled out the possibility of reworking it completely, but for now I am going to leave it.

I will put it up as an mp3 probably, but it will be a large file, no doubt, because it is so long. Download at your own peril. I will try to shrink the mp3 a little, but computer music loses respectability if it loses sound quality. It also helps to have good speakers. Or if I just had my gigasamplers this wouldn't be a problem.

Here's the music, it's 8meg.

So I went to the doctor again yesterday. I'm going to increase pain pills again. We'll see if that helps. About the trial. Hmm...don't know when that is happening. I won't be going back to Duke for about 8 weeks. So unless the doctor calls to schedule something before that, we'll be into September before anything happens. Meanwhile, I sit at home.

I have been writing music for a dvd that will be played at a family reunion. That has been something to do. Before that I wrote a song for our church's dedication of our Family Life Center.

And I realize I have forsaken blogging. I didn't want to be like some other guy I know, <cough> HatShop </cough> ;-) So that's my life alla breve.

I wonder if the Offices of the Dean of Men and Women can zoom in?

well, so much for the pictures, I tried to shrink them, wasn't paying attention and saved over them with blobs.

This is what I was talking about though.

Gives new meaning to in loco parentis.