This woman is braver than you.
Look straight ahead. Looking down seems weak. But looking up makes you seem like a tourist. Look straight ahead. Ignore the periphery. Don’t make eye contact, but don’t go out of your way to avoid it, either. Walk quickly and with purpose. If the catcalls come, just keep walking. Don’t show any sign of having heard. And do not smile, under any circumstances. I’m 11 years old and walking up the street, heading home after school. A man’s voice calls out: “Pssst. Hey baby, hey girl.” I just keep walking, and now he’s walking too, gaining speed behind me. “Oh, you’re just a young thing. But you got a big girl’s body. Where’s your daddy? I’ll be your daddy…” Read More @...
Alphabetizing Group Directories in Buddypress
Buddypress is awesome. It is really pretty amazing. But it is far from perfect. Some things are really difficult to modify unless they’ve been expressly designed to be changed. One of those things is the issue with the sorting of group directories. I’ve built a site where members are given access to follow a group of professionals. I use Buddypress Follow, and it works pretty well. One problem, when the members come with the intent to sign up and follow a specific professional, the group members directory is not alphabetized. By default it is sorted by sign up date (I think?), which is pretty much the last sorting method you’d want to use if you are trying to look up a specific person by name. I’ve spent the past six or seven months off and...
Racism in Miami
When I was younger, I moved to Miami with a friend for fun. I moved into a bedroom in a house owned by gay men. They were friendly guys and we got to be fast friends, but I was used to hanging out with homosexuals and felt comfortable with them from the start. Their home was three blocks from the railroad tracks, though, and in Miami there is a vivid distinction between the two sides. The east side of the tracks is black territory and the west side is white territory. The level of racism in Miami is many times over what I am accustomed to in California. Black people really are kicked out of stores for being black, and nobody cares enough to try to stop it. It is just the way things are for the society there. Cubans and other Latinos are treated about midway...
An Essay on Relationships
Relationships provide us with context for our lives. Every single external action we take is done in terms of a relationship. Relationships with hot water and tea leaves, potassium and oxygen, or wood and heat. But physical relationships are the obvious ones that don’t always have a significant lasting effect on us. The intangible interpersonal relationships are the ones that drastically shape who and what we are to become. Interaction between people is the only way the context of your situation can change. Those skilled in learning from the relationships of others can use that information to find the most effective ways to interact with those around them. When looking for a job or a promotion, we have to know the ways to create an appropriate relationship...
BuddyPress avatar cropping function broken?
You might be getting two images, one smaller on the right, and a larger version on the left. This is the typical layout for the crop interface in BP. But you won’t be getting the crop selection tool. In Chrome, right click on the page and click “Inspect Element”. If you see an error icon in the bottom right corner, click on it to find out if you are dealing with Jcrop not loading. If that isn’t it, go back to your search engine and type that error into your query to help you find the solution you really need. If you are getting this error: “Uncaught TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method ‘Jcrop’” in a BuddyPress Multisite installation of WordPress, make sure you aren’t using ThickBox. The...
Tricks for Writing the Ultimate E-Mail Campaign
The Basics: From Name: Who are you? Your recipients need to be able to recognize this in that instant when they are deciding whether or not the message is from a friend or from another company trying to sell them something they don’t want. Does your company dominate your image, or do you? If you run a small business, your personal name may be a better choice than your company’s. If you aren’t sure, send half of one campaign using one name, and the other half using the other. See how many messages are opened from each group. Your recipients will tell you who they think you are. Subject: This is your first impression. A lousy subject line can turn a meticulously designed message into a complete waste of time. Make a list of the...