nathan jara

stephen’s head is in the cloud too

Watching a recent episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert weighed in on the cloud computing craze during his popular The Word segment. It’s worth a watch : )

what i’m reading

I recently added a new feature to my website. The “My Reads” section to the right contains the latest articles that I found interesting on Google Reader. The articles I most recently shared will show up here. This feature is something I’ve been wanting to add for a while now and I started looking at plugin’s to do the work for me, but then I remembered, “Hey! I’m a developer. I should just do it myself.” A little PHP research let to the quick snippet below explaining a built-in WordPress function that made things super easy. Just plug in my Google Reader sharing feed URL and away we go.
<?php
include_once(ABSPATH . WPINC . '/feed.php');
$feed = fetch_feed('http://www.google.com/reader/shared/nate.jara');
$feed_items = $feed->get_items( 0, $feed->get_item_quantity(5) );
if ( $feed_items ) {
echo "<li><h2>My Reads</h2><ul>";
foreach ( $feed_items as $item ) {
echo "<li><a href='" . $item->get_permalink() . "' title='" . $item->get_title() . "' target='_blank'>" . $item->get_title() . "</a></li>";
}
echo "</ul></li>";
}
?>

i hope batman has insurance

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that the Caped Crusader set up shop in Pittsburgh over the last few weeks for his newest big screen adventure. Thanks to the gentle cajoling of a friend, I made my way downtown this past week to see if I could catch a scene or two. After a delicious Italian eggplant sandwich with marinara and a side of risotto, we walked around Cherry Way, which was closed off for filming. Walking through the downtown area was interesting in that it really did feel like I was on set. Fake snow lined many of the streets and a fenced in area hid Batmobiles and Bat bikes. A shortcut through the downtown Macy’s to the opposite side of the building gave a good view to the afternoon action where, SPOILER ALERT, the Tumbler tumbled into a giant hole in the middle of the street. Geez, I hope Batman called the Gecko, Flo, or that guy with the blue telephone ahead of time.
 

young guns strike again

If you’re not a golf fan, well, you just won’t understand. This past weekend’s 93rd PGA Championship was just awesome. Keegan Bradley took the Wannamaker Trophy in epic fashion. Jason Dufner had the lead going in to the finishing holes, but after some faltering holes and Bradley’s birdies, the two went to a three-hole playoff. I admit, I was cheering at the television when both of them hit stone cold shots into 17 green. Yeah, I was cheering at the TV for golf! Forgetaboutit : ) So cool to see another young rookie win a major event! All those old guys better watch out!

corolla

Summer vacation this year afforded me the opportunity to travel to the sunny shores of Corolla, located in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Vacationing with family, both immediate and extended, provided for a great week of visiting, eating, napping, sunning, reading, sanding, ocean-ing, and general beach bumming. Corolla and the Outer Banks are a beautiful part of the Atlantic shoreline. The beach has certainly become my favorite vacation spot, well, except for maybe that time I went to Italy ; )

In addition to lots of time with my feet in the sand, we stopped in Williamsburg, Virginia and visited the Colonial Williamsburg area. I was able to take a stroll through the colonial town and really enjoyed seeing a glimpse into the rich heritage of our American ancestors. It’s amazing how times have changed. Another exciting aspect for me during the trip was it gave me a great excuse to use my new digital SLR camera, a Canon Rebel T3i. The camera was a ton of fun to play with, hence the pictures below. Check out more of my photos from the beach and Williamsburg on Picasa.

Sand dunes of Corolla

Dragonfly

Ocean evening

Colonial Williamsburg