Journal

What should I write about? The fact that life is stupid or the fact the fact that we make it stupid. Then we come to wonder how did we end up like this.

One particular thing that itches me every time I hear it is the expression “nobody’s fault”. Somebody dies, somebody is sick, somebody close to you is having a problem, somehow you’re staying in the way of someone trying to solve their problems, yet you don’t take any blame. I can go on and list all the things that you can improve in your life or in the life of the people close to you. But who am I? I’m just somebody that takes the blame.

World would be a better place if everyone will just care. Take the blame, take the responsibility, make your life meaningful. Fight for something, lose something, win nothing or more than you imagine — a better life.

A few guys with PhDs in various fields will contradict me saying that I’m wrong because they’re the smart-asses who can see the truth. Who the fuck am I? Just another web designer. Probably not even a good designer, just web «something».

After all that being said, he agrees that some people are heartbroken, others are just broken.

The recent announcement by Twitter made me sad. I talked about the issues with social networks in A Dash in Space-Time Continuum and Disconnected, so I’m not gonna discuss it again.

Anyway, two days before the announcement I launched my own private column featuring links and news that I find interesting. It’s a twitterrific-delicous-pinboarding kind of thing. Of course, it even comes with a RSS feed and character counter. How did I do it? The main ingredients were: Textpattern, FeedBurner, jQuery and charCount.js plugin.

I used FeedBurner to enhance the feed provided by Textpattern. The links page was set to be the default admin tab. The character counter was added because I need to keep myself limited, not to pollute the air traffic on the interwebs. For everything else, I can always write an article.

Back on the subject

It’s pretty easy to add charCount.js from CSS Globe since TextPattern comes by default with jQuery. All you have to do is to edit txplib_head.php from /textpattern/lib/. The you have to add the code below after jQuery declaration:

<!-- character count -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="charCount.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
	$(document).ready(function(){	
		$("#link-description").charCount();
	});
</script>
<style type="text/css">
.counter { position: absolute; }
.counter.warning { color: #e40; }
</style>
<!-- count the end too -->

Make sure you backup the original txplib_head.php before you do this and upload charCount.js where jquery.js file is located. The same thing can be applied to the textarea for article editing, all you have to do is to add the right ID in the code above.

I know, I know… I shouldn’t have started this article with such a catchy title. I should have gone with “Fruit Madness”, “This is Sparta, Fruit” or maybe “Return of the Fruit”. But making juice is like listening to the summer hit. I don’t know what this summer hit is, but now I know how to make juice.

Back in February, I was watching a movie where one guy loved his blender more than anything. That was weird and I remember it! And then comes my love for juice, any juice, every juice, only juice. Mixing those two ideas was a natural way to start an addiction.

I’m a rookie when it comes to anything that involves kitchen. Things get better over time, I have to admit this too. My first attempt at making juice was a complete disaster. Two grapefruits and a bit of cold water were smashed by the blender. The result was something closer to the worst lemonade you can buy from the cheapest restaurant than juice.

After more than a month of trial and failure, it came to this:

My recipe varies by the ingredients that I have. Although the basics are the same. So, here’s a list of the things I recommend:

• Juicy grapefruits, the big red ones are great.
• Any other fruits that you like.
• All the fruits have to be peeled. Also, check for seeds.
• Honey, but don’t use much. You can add sugar if you want it sweeter.
• Cold mineral water with or without lemon. Schweppes can be a life savior in this case.

Regarding the blender, any cheap blender from Amazon will do the trick. It’s more of a personal taste than anything. I don’t recommend juicy extractors. You lose more than 50% of the content of the fruit by using them, even on citrus fruits.