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September 2009

God is faithful, until he’s not

Posted on September 17, 2009

I grew up as a preacher’s kid, and luckily, despite the stories of how PKs turn out, I think I turned out half-decent, half-full. At least fully witted. Vested with a brain. And through my parents, I was encouraged and allowed to question the fabric of things. The threads that stitch and hold our nature. What a powerful teaching tool that was. Allowing questions. Not a one better in my mind. One I hope to impart to my daughter.

After my brother died, I really hated God. And I mean, I hated the guy. There would be sitting, driving, walking, and biking sessions, where I would just scream the f-bomb at him. I would threaten him, I would bargain with him, I would question the hell out of him. But silence is the only thing I ever got back. And that was pretty brutal. At least for a kid that was taught that God is faithful.

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The audacity of need

Posted on September 16, 2009

So on Tuesday morning, my buddy’s wife woke up and went about her morning routine. She walked their dog, took a shower, ate breakfast, along with all of life’s other basic duties and requirements. Then, she locked the front door of their rental home in downtown Bend,  hopped into their 2000 Honda Accord that was parked on the street, and headed off to work. As she pulled forward, she felt a slight “shimmy” from behind. Stopping and exiting her vehicle, she walked to the rear to investigate. Wondering what in the world was rolling around in her trunk. But after opening the ‘boot’ and Sherlock’ing the hell out of it, she found nothing wrong. Back in the driver’s seat, she slowly eased around a corner near their home and realized that the “shudder” was still present. This time, she got out of her car, and assiduously examined her Honda.  To her great surprise she saw that the rear tire on the driver’s side had mysteriously shed itself of all it’s tread during the night.

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(Story) Payload : I of II

Posted on September 15, 2009

“Pa?” the pilot questioned. The man had just paid a half months wage for use of the phone. And the shopkeeper who owned it, stood hovering over his shoulder, glaring at him. Static audibly crackled along the line and was so fierce that the man worried he wouldn’t be heard. Not to mention the traffic and people which swirled in movement outside the little store. Kicking up dust clouds and an almost intolerable noise. 

“Ja-ames? Ji-jimmy?” the weight of his father’s voice sounded both shrill and joyous while somehow wrapped in disbelieving hope.

“Yeah Dad, it’s me!” James yelled into the receiver. Plugging his open ear with a finger in order to block out the hustle and speed of the people and cars around him.

“Well how are you boy?!? Hold on, your Ma is in the barn-” he could hear his father’s breath start to hold as his dad began to pull the phone away.

“Nah, we don’t have that kind of time.” James took a deep breath. He listened as the phone was brought back up to his Dad’s mouth. Then James’ father spoke directly.

“Ok son, ok. So how are you? No, where are you? State side?” 

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(Nerd) Ubuntu + Vim + ZendFramework-1.9.2 + .pthml syntax highlighting

Posted on September 9, 2009

1) From the command line ‘cd’ to your ‘home’ directory


test-box@jbuntu:~$ cd

2a) Check to see if the .vimrc file exists


test-box@jbuntu:~$ ls .vimrc

If the terminal outputs nothing, then that means the file does not exist.

2b) If you get the following


test-box@jbuntu:~$ ls .vimrc
.vimrc

It means that the file does exist and we just need to edit it.

3) If the file does not exist just ‘touch’ the file. If it DOES exist, just skip this step.


test-box@jbuntu:~$ touch .vimrc

4) From this point, ‘vi’ the ‘.vimrc’ file. You primarily need the following lines and you are more than welcome to copy/paste. Write/Quite when finished.


if has("autocmd")
autocmd BufEnter *.phtml set syn=php
endif
syn on

Now the next time you open VI it should have the desired highlighting for .phtml files found in the Zend Framework.

Below is my ‘.vimrc’ file in it’s entirety. Just for the record. It also allows for syntax highlighting to occur in CakePHP .ctp files along with some other settings that I prefer.


set tabstop=2
set shiftwidth=2
set expandtab
if has("autocmd")
autocmd BufEnter *.ctp set syn=php
autocmd BufEnter *.phtml set syn=php
endif
syn on
set ai

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