Alexis went first on this date with the twins. The family made squirrel toys to place in the woods on a walk at Veteran Acres Park. It was a beautiful weekend with fall colors and sunshine. Alexis enjoyed running down the hills at the park.
Displaying HTML code on a webpage
A nice way to display HTML code on a webpage is to use a program called SyntaxHighlighter.
Vacation at Kalahari
The family went on vacation and took a trip to Kalahari water resort in Sandusky, Ohio. My mother met us there and we had a great time. We got a room for under $100 which included access to the water parks for 24 hours. We got the deal through the Linked In Christian Travel and Tourism group. The park had lots of water slides for all ages, a wave pool, a surfing “ride,” and two hot tubs (one for kids the other for adults). It was an excellent experience.
HelioHost.com – Free Web Hosting Account
Edit 10/30/09 – I’m changing my mind. This review of Heliohost.com is being changed because Heliohost requires that you login to the CPanel periodically. This is definitely a maintenance problem for people who like to post a site and leave it untouched. The account will be suspended if there’s no activity.
Here’s a better free web hosting account than X10hosting.com has to offer. It’s Helio Host. This company offers pretty much everything a paid host would except puts limits on bandwidth.
- Subdomains of “www.mysite.heliohost.org” or “www.mysite.cc.co”
- There are minimum requirements to have a pre-existing domain name registered to Helio Host.
My example free site is “www.mediasolutions.heliohost.org.”
The control panel login is “http://mediasolutions.heliohost.org/cpanel”
X10Hosting.com – Free Webhosting Accounts
There are dozens if not hundreds of free web hosting accounts each with their own set of features from which to choose. Thus far, the one that I find best is X10hosting. Here’s why:
- Sub-domain URL = “mysite.x10hosting.com”
- Up to 2.5GB of Disk Space
- Up to 45 GB of Bandwidth
- cPanel
- FTP
- Free Subdomains
- No Advertisements
The terms are a bit strict with this account. Only one person is allowed to use the account. For example, if a web designer sets up the account for a client, the client is not supposed to edit files or upload files in addition to the web designer’s work. Proxy, file hosting, and image hosting sites are not allowed to be hosted.
There’s one significant disadvantage with x10hosting with the Inactivity policy.
Accounts found to be inactive are suspended for a 10-day period and then terminated. All data including any type of backup or stored information is removed with the account. To prevent an account from being suspended for inactivity it is required users visit the x10Hosting forums located at http://forums.x10hosting.com at least ONCE every TWO WEEKS. Accounts must also have a working website within one week.
Date with the Twins
Both dates today were scavenger hunts. Rachel was first and then Alexis. Here’s what we hunted for on our dates.
Rachel:
- Lily Pad
- Red Berries
- Mounds Bar – this one was not found even after visiting several stores
- Gorilla Glue – I needed this for some chores
- Neemo clown fish
Alexis:
- Sand
- Rose
- Moss
- Mastic – glue for the tile back splash in the kitchen
- Turtle
When Rachel was home with Heather they had “special time.” Heather typed in a letter while Rachel said the words. Here is the letter.
Dear Mom,
Right now we are having special time. I love you very much and it is very special for me to be able to spend time with you without Alexis being here. It is also very special for you to go out on a date with your daddy. When we spend time together, I feel happy.
I want. I hope that Lexi and daddy come home soon. If they do, i would spend more time with them. I want to play with my sister when she gets home from her date. With daddy. And then i want to for dinner i will sit at the table and eat green beans, chicken, and spaghetti. Red sauce on the spaghetti.
Love Rachel
Shopping Carts
To integrate a shopping cart into one website, cart software must be installed, then connected to a payment gateway. An article about shopping carts recommended a company called digiSHOP. This company is expensive but the writer explained that it was easy to use and customize.
Personally, I tried Zen-cart and it was much too difficult to work with. I spent hours reading and trying to figure out the code without seeing any progress. Although Zen-cart is free, I would pay for it in hassle.
Once the shopping cart is established, then comes the expense of a Merchant Gateway or Payment Processing. The industry standard is Authorize.net for accepting credit cards and placing the funds in your account. Bottom line, if a person wants an ecommerce site, it will require a fair amount of money and a designer.
Easier payment solutions would be PayPal or Google Checkout.
Additional Research:
intelli-collect
2 check out
click bank
company w/ merchant accounts
merchant warehouse
insta-merchant
durango merchant services
merchant express
Chicago Air & Water Show
My father used to take me to air shows in Ohio when I was a boy so it was a special treat to attend the Chicago Air and Water Show this weekend. We took the train and bus downtown to North Shore Beach to join thousands of others for the show. We attended the second half of the show for the sake of the children – they would not last an entire day. F-15s roared across the sky as we arrived, followed by stunt prop planes. The show concluded with the Thunderbirds.
There was the imminent threat of rain which paused the show. We took cover in the Drake hotel to enjoy a masterfully played harp and the countries top rated Ladies Restroom – complete with a dozen flat panel televisions for who knows what sort of entertainment while powdering.
While returning to the busses the rain came. We got drenched and Alexis was in tears from the onslaught. Air conditioners in the bus and train kept us fridgid the remainder of the trip – should have brought additional clothes or an umbrella. All in all it was an excellent trip. We’ll always have good memories of the 2009 Air and Water Show.
The Perfect Trip to WI
We went to Rhinelander, WI for the first time in almost two years since we moved away. The trip was everything we wanted and more. Here’s what we did.
- Stayed with the Dreschers while Bonnie was home
- Day at Squash Lake riding a wave runner
- Saw Jamie and Brougan Willingham
- Visited the house that I built and sold to Mike Jewel
- Went to Fort Wilderness
- Shot a .20guage shotgun at clay pigeons at Outpost80 with Scott Koval
- Went for a canoe ride while Chad Rich slept on the beach
- Water painted with Sandy Robertson
- Made soda at the Nature Center with Michael Lane
- Had a campfire with Mike and Jeannie Baker
- Watched a meteor shower laying on a trampoline with Amy Drescher
Audio Engineering
We had a contemporary worship concert in the sanctuary where we setup drums with the full cage – very unusual for the sanctuary. The drummer had nine cymbals so the set was bigger than the shields. Here’s a photo of me inside the cage.