cmsharpe.com blog

I had considered getting a CMS (Content Management System) for this site, but decided instead to simply overhaul the XHTML and remove language support. That should make it much easier for me to add/change/delete content as needed. And, to go with the newly fixed-up pages, there is a brand new logo:

This replaces the previous logo:

As I write this, the “overhaul” is a work in progress, and it may take a few days to get all the pages (excluding the blog and gallery) converted. The overall appearance of the site will not change much, but my ability to manage it should be greatly improved.

As of this evening, there is now a page on this site that shows selected travel that I’ve done (obviously, this is intended for friends and family, and is unlikely to be of interest to anyone else).  For now, only the recent trip to Spain is shown, and (for now) the travel page and the associated data are still kind of “rough.”

Speaking of Spain, it was a wonderful trip.  Stu and I spent about a week and a half touring mainly the southeast part of Spain, especially Lorca, Cazorla, Salobreña, and Granada.  Since we flew into – and out of – Madrid, we also drove between Madrid and the southern part of the country. Photos are also available (and have been for several days) in the photo gallery.

It’s been exactly a month (30 days) since I installed Akismet on this site in an effort to reduce the impact of comment spam. In that short time, Akismet has flagged nearly 1,300 spam comments! Only a couple have made it through to regular moderation (nearly all comments are moderated). Spammers:

Today, I upgraded the blog software to its latest version and activated the Akismet anti-spam plug-in. Of course, my preference would be the elimination of all spam, but this will have to do for now. Note to self: the Akismet display line goes in sidebar.php within the active theme, as the next-to-last line.

Today is the day!  It was 10 years ago today that the website that eventually became cmsharpe.com/Cheryl’s Spot on the Web was originally launched.  The site has come a long way since the original black-text-on-gray-background single page started it all.  Lots more is planned — if I ever have time to do it…!

I guess I’ll start posting only new restaurant reviews, unless something significantly different happens at a regular restaurant.  Although I’ve been to Lai Thai (7419 NW 23rd St, Bethany) several times, last Saturday (for lunch) was the first visit since I started these reviews. Lunch consisted of Green Curry, chicken version, moderate spiciness, and Thai iced tea.  The “moderate” spice was actually rather hot, but well within my tolerance level.  I still prefer Thai House, but Lai Thai is close behind.  4 stars.

Like several other things that didn’t deal well with the stupid new Daylight Saving Time schedule, the blog times are off by an hour.  They still show what should be the correct (i.e., Standard) time.  I’ll try to look into it whenever I get some time.  Can’t tell if it’s a WordPress problem, a host problem (probably not, since the time on the front page is right), or something else.

Death to Daylight Saving Time.  (Change work/school  hours, NOT the clocks!)

The blog software has been updated to the latest version of WordPress, and a new theme has been installed. Much better. No more green/brown/oak tree mismatch with the main pages. Not no more. Now, we have palm trees and green/white/blue all around.

The home page has been significantly rewritten, although most of it should look a lot like it did before. The main invisible changes were to remove layout tables in favor of ‘div’ tags and CSS, since that technique is much easier to maintain and should look fine on any recent graphical browser (and even text-based browsers). Thank you, Opera (browser), for helping with the XHTML validation, text-browser emulation, and source code viewing. That last comment was from a dedicated Firefox fan. This type of change is planned for all remaining pages in the website (although true tables will remain XHTML tables!).

Also added with this redesign is a reference to the 10th anniversary of Cheryl’s Spot on the Web.  This website was originally created, according to my records, on September 1, 1997.  It was an extremely primitive site, with nothing more than black text on a gray background(!).

Spam is not permitted anywhere on this website. Someone from IP address 85.255.119.132 has been persistently attempting to post comments filled with weblinks. Stop it. You’re only wasting my time and yours.