In fact, a majority of the post I make never make it to the light of day, as most of them are private. The reason I do this is I use WordPress to save a bunch of different things, journal entries, writing prompts, and photos on my site. I have a bunch of pages set up that feedback all the posts matching a certain category (for instance, the “Writing” tab in my header is a collection of all my posts with the writing category. All of that is rather straight forward, but what you don’t know, is that when I log in I see a bunch of extra tabs for private pages up top.

I don’t like the security risk of “password” protected pages, because that lets the public know that something exists. Something I don’t want them to see. So I publish private pages and changed some word press code to display those to logged in users. I should note that I’m the only user that logs into this site, so I can see everything once logged in, there is no need for levels, such as user, contributor, and administrator, but the following code is malleable to that as well.

in $WORDPRESS/wp-include/post.php file

There is a line in the “get_pages” function that looks like this:

$query = "SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts $join WHERE (post_type = 'page' AND post_status = 'publish' ) $where ";

Just below that line, add in the following code:

if ( is_user_logged_in() )
{
$query = "SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts $join WHERE (post_type = 'page' AND (post_status = 'publish' OR post_status='private') ) $where ";
}

UPDATED for wordpress 3.0:

There is a line in the “get_pages” function that looks like this:

$where_post_type = $wpdb->prepare( "post_type = '%s' AND post_status = '%s'", $post_type, $post_status );

Just below that line, add in the following code:

if ( is_user_logged_in() )
	{
	$where_post_type = $wpdb->prepare( "post_type = '%s' AND (post_status = '%s' OR post_status = 'private' )", $post_type, $post_status );
	}

This now checks to see if a user is logged in, and if so, will output private pages to the caller of this function (usually wp_list_pages()).

That’s all there is to it. Be warned, it might will get overwritten during WordPress updates, as I have not gone to version 3.0 yet, and this seems like a feature they’ll add at some point.

When I started work, I was asked my professional opinion on a lot of things, most of which I could only respond with “I’ll get back to you.” A good question is usually asked by other engineers or other developers: How do you do this? Did you think about this? Why does it do that? These are questions that I like, they rely on things that I know or have dealt with before. They are ones on which I can draw from my immense (ha!) experience. Compare that to, say, a manger’s question and you can instantly feel the your feet moving- feel that? That’s the earth shaking. It’s a question like “How long will this take you?” or even worse, it’s a question that has the dreaded binary, yes/no answer. “Can you do it”, is by far the worst question a new hire can be asked, and the reasons are all summed up above with those implications we attach to our response.

Or maybe this whole “no” thing comes from confrontation-avoidance. While this is a whole other topic of conversation, my generation has been raised to think they are the most special people in the world, and any dent in this (mentally created)  armor might cause far away universes to die. But I digress.

As a new employee, I was eager to prove myself, as were many of my peers I’ve since talked to about it all, by becoming dependable and have that “get-it-done attitude”. If I said no, I’d be setting limits on my ability too early and without actually knowing what they were. Of course, we should let the answer be the truth, and not let our emotions or view of what that means move us otherwise. If the answer is disappointing, perhaps the question should be rephrased (re-scoped) or maybe they should ask someone who is more qualified, which is sometimes a staggering few people, as it turns out. But I felt I’d be sending a clear message that other people were better suited for certain tasks than I was. I wasn’t about to let that happen, and as it turned out, I got in over my head pretty quickly.

Now, maybe other people inherently have the ability to say no to certain tasks and people, but I wasn’t one of them, but part of me feels, in retrospect, that I shouldn’t have been asked some of these questions. It’s not that the project failed or I didn’t meet my deadlines, but I had to kill myself to do a few of them. At some point, people need to know what new employees don’t know, or at the very least, multiply what they think the effort will be by 2.5 (at least).

I’ve learned my lesson in one respect, I know my time lines a bit better than before. I still think I’m the right person for every job floated my way (this both a product of my self-perceived talent as well as the nature of the “find your own work or you’re out” job market). But it’s hard for me to say no when people ask me to do something- i might say that it’ll take me a while, but I’ll still say I can do it. I want to do it. I still am young and need to prove myself. And maybe I should let me work speak for itself, but the more that’s out there I feel the louder my words will be- and when something is particularly exciting to me, I don’t want to pass it up.

I added these to facebook and got surprisingly few comments on them. Maybe they aren’t that good, or people aren’t interested in them, but either way, I’m coming to realize that facebook is not a place that fosters creating, only sharing. I am sure a certain level of talent can transcend this barrier, but the majority of facebook users want to write/comment/like things that affect them or things they go through, not appreciate the random, unique, or sublime. I’m not upset about this, just need to come to terms with it. Maybe one day i’ll be talented enough to transcend user’s nominal use of sites and shape how they can use them instead.

And i’m giving up soda and a crappy diet.

That’s probably the only fact that will be written in the rest of this post, as it all goes considerably downhill from here. A recent book I’m reading, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, puts it interestingly regarding arguments between atheists and, well, everyone else. You can’t argue with an atheist if you believe in some god or God (or vice versa) because there is fundamentally no common ground to agree upon with which to argue from. To shore up this point, Atheists rule from the view of reason, logic, and skepticism. It’s that last one that is probably the cornerstone. Believers rule from logic, reason, and a single (I suppose it could be multiple) leap of faith.

So to hell with the facts, right? Well I guess we’ll see. But there are two types of atheists that I’ve met, most of my friends are type one: those who believe it and that’s who they are. They might not “get” why people believe in God, but they don’t always push their agenda. The second group consists of people who need to voice their opinion as an atheist and use atheism as a badge of honor or “holier-than-thou” attitude, which is funny if you think about it.

Logically, though, I don’t understand why atheists take issue with believers, as I guess I’ll call them. It kind of skids the agnostic issue, which is a perfectly valid, if non-committal, position.Why do certain atheists roll their eyes at those who pray or thank god publicly? Why do some people get upset when asked to bow their heads in a moment of silence, taking the act not for what it is: a moment of respect, but rather forced prayer? Why do people argue to remove the “under God” from the pledge of allegiance? I know of not one person, though I’m sure they exist (I believe it!) that had a strong opinion on the matter.

The issue that I think atheism boils down to which presents the problem is that of rationality. Not that believers are irrational, but skepticism is king when it comes to atheism. But “What then?”, I ask. It can’t be about conversion, for a person converted to atheism through argument alone is still a believer, but simply a believer in non-belief. Is it education? Is it Anger? Lack of respect? Wanting to feel correct?

A lot of erroneous arguments are made on both sides, two of which I see often are “This country was founded as a Christian nation” and “Religion causes war.” Both are silly arguments, regardless of their substance (which I don’t really think should be acknowledged), but illustrate how heated and biased the arguments get. We can discuss these things without trying to convert or pass judgment, or at least it is in our capacity. Why don’t we?

I really want to know more about the other side of things, but I don’t want to learn it from a person that will dismiss me because of a belief in God. And here is a hint if you’re out there, calling Him “magic” or “Superstition” is not a good way to start off the argument or introduce yourself as an atheist. Much as I’m sure that telling a person they are going to hell, a place in which he or she doesn’t believe, is a good way of saying “Good morning” to an atheist.

1. Pizza Hut is missing out on an amazing opportunity. Currently they pay drivers to make small, local trips. rarely a high way in use. What other market has people making local drives, and fear of highways? New Drivers. Pizza hut driving school would allow for cheap labor (free) while providing a useful service to the rest of the community. I like the idea of the pizza guy giving my pizza and being so happy he made it here alive he cannot complain about the minuscule tip i am about to give him. Let’s make this work, people.

2. This one has legs. And more importantly, blatant and vicious honesty. It’s essentially a phone bank where people can call in and leave a message and a number for the operators to call. We then call that number and give them the message. Sure it could be used as a go-between for drug deals and other scams, but it can also b used to say things that people are afraid to say. With the advent of the internet, people everywhere have become used to passive communication. No longer can one tell a friend he has bad breath or body odor. Or even break up with a person without a text message. This way, people can have an intermediary give the bad news and remain completely anonymous.

Yes this could be  used against certain people, if someone calls in for you and tells the operator to confess to cheating on a wife, for example, that would suck. But i’m thinking of the money making possibilities. Make these people call in and listen to advertisements before getting the news. Have it tailored to their issue… can’t last in bed? How about viagra or some numbing lotion. Bad breath? Listerine would love this target demographic.

Like I said, this idea has legs… I say we run with it.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more