Andrea del Sarto: Precise but Passionless

April 20, 2008 by aaron
Andrea del Sarto, in the poem of the same name by Browning, has all the basic elements of a happy life, but he accepts all the aspects of his life that drain him and leave him passionless; thus, accentuating his lack of an artist’s soul. Some, including Andrea, blame his unhappiness and inability to achieve fame on his wife, Lucrezia, but his unhappiness and lack of fame come from his disconnection from the passionate aspects of the world, something that evidences itself in his method of speaking, his paintings, and his marriage.
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WordPress Dashboard Editor

April 18, 2008 by aaron
Of the entire website the Dashboard is seen by administrators the most, but it is the hardest part of WordPress to customize. Well not anymore. This plugin allows you to add whatever you want to the Dashboard through PHP and HTML and allows you to even add Sidebar Widgets. You may also wipe the entire dashboard or individually remove some of the more irritating sections like the Dev news, Planet WordPress and the getting started section.
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My feeds. You’ve kept me entertained, now I’m returning the favor.

April 17, 2008 by aaron
Ever wondered or cared what I read in the mornings? [RSS] Aardvarchaeology [RSS] Accelerating Future [RSS] Adventures in Ethics and Science [RSS] Aetiology [RSS] Anthology of Ideas Yah, I subscribe to my own feed…but only so I can make sure everything comes out nice… [RSS] Astronomy Buff [RSS] Bad Language [RSS] behindthebuzz.com [RSS] Blog Maverick [RSS] Chris Garrett on New Media [RSS] Cocktail Party Physics [RSS] Cognitive Daily [RSS] Comics at GiantITP.com One of my Favorite Webcomics [RSS] Copyblogger [RSS] Cosmic Variance [RSS] CSS Beauty Gallery Entries [RSS] Deep Sea News [RSS] evolgen [RSS] FOSSwire [RSS] Freelance Switch [RSS] Functioning Form: Interface Design [RSS] Google Tutor [RSS] hicksdesign – journal [RSS] /home/liquidat [RSS] I Can Has Linux?
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I’m running WordPress 2.5, and so far so good.

April 15, 2008 by aaron

There are still some issues, but for the most part, everything seems pretty good.

  1. The automatic upgrading is nice, but it still has a couple kinks in it: it says one or two plugins are at the latest version even though it says they aren’t, it died when upgrading wp-phpmyadmin but not until it deleted it, and it upgraded me to a bum copy of Redirection which wasted two hours of time while I thought that AWP was broken.
  2. I still think the Admin panel is way too washed out. If it stays this way, one of my first tasks will be to release an Admin theme. I think everything has a cartoony feel to it, and it is way too bright. (As well as difficult to see.)
  3. For some odd reason the Gravatars aren’t working even though they were on the test install.There is a reason you should allow at least 24 hours between hitting the save button and hitting the publishing. I just forgot to echo it.
  4. Love the new media library. It alone will be worth the upgrade for some people. It auto generates galleries, and makes uploading and editing several pictures extremely easy.

Check out the gallery of screenshots below the fold.

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Hawthorn’s “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccinni’s Daughter” and the pursuit of perfection

April 13, 2008 by aaron
Failed attempts to attain perfection are a frequent subject in Hawthorne’s short stories; these attempts at perfection fail because Hawthorne’s protagonists are misguided and their own innate imperfections cloud their judgments. Hawthorne’s short stories “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” both feature a male protagonist who desires to recreate a woman into their own view of perfection. However, a person’s desires often tell more about themselves than others: the belief that something is imperfect reflects the believer not the thing.
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Medieval society was transformed by trade and “burgers.”

April 9, 2008 by aaron
In medieval societies, the most widespread result of the revival of trade and urban life was the slow decay of federalisms and its inherent lack of loyalty and the infighting it promoted. Because of the increase in the power of the kings, countrywide courts were established that allowed the spread of “real” justice rather than piecemeal justice handed out by the local Baron. Increases in trade allowed for the creation of a money economy which promoted both the urban life and trade with other countries which increased the flow of ideas into Europe.
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