There’s a nice hike you can do in the Taos Ski Valley that starts near the Bavarian, an Alpine restaurant and lodge stationed near a ski lift terminal at around 10,500 feet elevation. I snapped a quick photo of it as my wife and I walked by it toward the trailhead. My plan was to look at this later if my legs grew tired and my resolution failed. It would be inspirational – something that would help me through any unexpected pain with its promise of nearby civilization. And German beer.

The hike is actually pretty short, maybe 2 miles from the Bavarian to Williams Lake. The terrain starts with small rocks which have likely claimed many an ankle, but then quickly becomes matted pine humus as you walk through tall, lichen draped lodge-pole (or maybe ponderosa?) pines. I don’t know pines, so I cannot say for sure. There are a few clearings early on that let you see for miles, and you hike near a small, literally babbling brook while the trail meanders through pine and aspen stands.

At one point, the stream crossed the trail, and just off to the left an exposed permafrost snowdrift melted slowly in the cool July 5th shade. Its waters bubbled out to join the larger stream heading downhill along the trail I had just walked.

The climb to the lake covers about 500 feet of elevation and tops out near large rockfalls studded with the occasional tuft of pale violet Columbine.

There are really no adequate words to describe the beauty Williams Lake. You arrive and the vista opens onto bowl nestled among the peaks of surrounding mountains, all still showing patches of snow. In this bowl sits tiny Williams Lake, at about 11,000 ft. We lingered for a while, sitting in the grass in the mountain sunshine. As we started our descent, we found a couple to take our picture. Early on the way down, we met several hikers who were climbing in the opposite direction, and we gave them words of encouragement, “You’re almost there,” and they would smile back. Not long after, however, we had progressed too far back down to provide meaningful inspiration, so we just said hi to those we passed.

About an hour into the walk back down I realized that I was hungry, and that we still had a bit farther to go. There was a little panic at first, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to complete the hike. But then I remembered my picture of the Bavarian, so I dug out the camera and paged back through the more recent shots to the one I snapped earlier of the lodge. There it was, with its wide front porch, shallow pitched roof, and yellow coat of arms, a device with two lions surrounding the central shield. I knew I could make it, that I would be able to keep going, and that all would be well.

Soon we arrived back down at the trailhead, and then passed beyond back to the Bavarian. There was a waterfall coming down along the Kachina ski trail, but we bypassed it and headed for the lodge. We both ordered tall Spatens, and I decided to try Wiener Schnitzel from the menu. For some reason, I love saying Wiener Schnitzel – using my best (aka barely recognizable) pretend German accent and stressing the V sound of the leading W, as in, “Ve haff vays of making ze Viener Schnitzel talk.”

When the plate arrived, I was a bit surprised, since I had always thought Wiener Schnitzel was some sort of sausage. The Schnitzel was a thin cutlet of pork, breaded in panko, and fried. It sat on a rustic potato mash, and was served with fields greens and lemon. I let my initial surprise fade, and chalked it all up to simply being an idiot who never bothered to dig deeper into the mystery that surrounded Wiener Schnitzel. Not a sausage dish, but breaded and fried pork instead. I never knew, but after the strenuous morning jaunt, it was exactly the right thing at the right time. That little unexpected pleasure, on top of the rest of the day, made it clear to me that civilization hadn’t completely vanished, or run amok while we were walking in the woods.

Watching the tears stream down Tim Tebow’s face, that’s what.

Public school students in Texas, for their part, are more even-keeled. One student at a Dallas High School was quoted as saying, “Whatever. You know what I’m sayin’?”

Um … no. We have no idea what people in Texas are saying.

The first one is perfect for the Star Wars collector that has just about every action figure ever made. Yes, it’s a little known fact that Kenner came out with The Force action figure in early 1978. Like The Force, the Kenner version is an energy field that surrounds and penetrates all living things in the universe, and it’s a most valuable addition to your collection if still in the original packaging.

As every Star Wars geek knows, however, The Force comes in two distinct flavors. The Dark Side is known to have caused Anakin Skywalker to become the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader – and Kenner is said to have released a limited production run of 128 Dark Sides between August and October 1978. I had two of these – both in mint condition, but I couldn’t resist temptation, so I opened one. Other than being disturbed by other’s lack of faith, I thought it worked out quite well.

Let me know if you see any other cool Star Wars toys, and I’ll keep you posted if I find more too!

Not a lot to say here, but if you haven’t yet gone over to nataliedee.com, then you should. Are her creations amazing? Do both of these guys shit in the woods?

There are times in your life that you have to engage in self-reflection. You know, that introspective soul searching we occasionally do in order to understand who we really are, what we want out of life, or just to get a bit more happiness or satisfaction out of life. Thankfully, Facebook can help. If you really want to dig deeply into the nooks and crannies of your personality, then consider taking a Facebook quiz or three. Be warned, some revelations may be unsettling.

First off, I wanted to validate my self-esteem and sense of identity, so I took the “What’s your ghetto nickname? quiz and the “What’s your Native American Indian name?” quizzes. Eerily, I found the results to be strikingly similar: “Stank Bug” and “Little Brown Cloud” respectively. Any close friend or family member can vouch for these results, and this told me I was clearly on the right path to a better understanding of me.

Next, I wanted to learn a bit more about my personality, so I took the “Which Harry Potter Character Are You?”, and “Which Tarot Card Are You?” quizzes. From the titles of these, I assumed they would speak to the aspects of my being that sincerely love and respect all things magical and wondrously mysterious about the world. Interestingly, I learned that I’m a forgetful geek like the Potter character “Neville Longbottom”, although I possess the “childish innocence” and “mystical cleverness bereft of reason” characterized by “The Fool”. Truly, I was getting somewhere. So I dove in and took quiz after quiz, popping through them like some ancient pac-man gobbling 8-bit dots.

I could recount all the wonderful and exciting things I learned, but that would take way more time than I want to spend. I’ll just hit some highlights: my hidden superpower is teleportation, my eyes say that I know how to fold a map correctly, I would most likely be arrested for helping a Harvard professor break into his own house, and I should probably move to Dublin.

Some Facebook quizzes don’t provide you with much actionable information. So my lightsaber is green, so what? Does it really matter that I’m not country, I’m as mature as a 15 year old, my emoticon is >=D, or I should get a patriotic pinup tattoo? Probably not. I learned that some of these quizzes are just there for fun. Seriously, I was surprised too, but there it is. Some people use Facebook as some kind of diversion rather than to become fully self-actualized.

So finally, inspired by my wife, I was able to come up with my own Facebook quiz. I thought it was time to give back, to provide something of equal or greater value than what I was able to receive from going through countless other quizzes. I created something that would let us peer deeply into ourselves, and determine how we really see the world. Of course, everyone should take the new “Which Photoreceptor Are You?” quiz today. You’ll be surprised at how similar we all are.

Wired and a couple other sites have picked up on insurance.com’s list of the 10 most dangerous foods to eat while driving.

1. Coffee. It’s hot. It can spill. That’s bad. That said, we’re guilty of this. So are you. Admit it.
2. Hot soup. It’s hot. It can spill. That’s bad.
3. Tacos. Very messy.
4. Chili. It’s hot. It can spill. That’s bad. And it’s very messy.
5. Hamburgers. Greasy hands and a steering wheel do not mix.
6. Barbecued food. Um, that should go without saying.
7. Fried chicken. You think burgers are greasy?
8. Jelly or cream-filled donuts. Ever bitten into one and not had it squirt all over the place?
9. Soft drinks. Big threat of spillage, says Insurance.com, and unacceptable risk of “fizz up your nose.” Huh?
10. Chocolate. It melts on your fingers, which makes a mess on the steering wheel.

You can tell this comes from an insurance list. How? Because it’s BORING. It’s also wrong. Who the hell eats coffee or soft drinks? Nobody. I suppose eating coffee while driving is dangerous since the coffee has to solidify, and this either requires dangerously low temperatures or such a long period of time that you’ll fall asleep at the wheel. Ironically, that’s a danger that you could avoid if you just drank the coffee in the first place.

We’ve come up with our own list of dangerous foods. I think you can agree, these are probably much more dangerous to eat while driving than those listed above.

10. Spam. You really need 2 hands to open the can, unless you want to slice a finger and bleed to death. Either way, you die.
9. Raw Oysters. Again – you ever try shucking with one hand? Can’t be done.
8. Fresh Main Lobster. These are dangerous enough when seated at the table. Clarified butter makes these a lethal driving delicacy.
7. Chitterlings. Anything made from intestine is dangerous to begin with. Add the amount of tabasco reuired to force down chitlins, and you’re begging to wipe out.
6. Apple Jacks Cereal. By itself, these aren’t too dangerous. The tune lock you’ll suffer from the Apple Jacks jingle will have you looking for a tree to plow into.
5. Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries. Just don’t eat these while driving. You will die of a coronary, and probably crash into a busload of nuns.
4. A jar of mayonnaise. Extra danger points if you lick the spoon.
3. Fresh Sea Urchin. You’ll probably stab yourself to death trying to get to the tasty bits.
2. Molten Lava Cakes. Don’t let Paula Dean fool you. The original recipe calls for real molten lava. Can it get any more dangerous?
1. Yes it can: Pork Brains in Milk Gravy. The real danger here is that you’ll probably kill yourself to get the taste out of your mouth.

I’ll talk a little about Twitter, since that’s the newest big social kid on the block. Millions of people are on Twitter, tweeting to their heart’s content, and millions of people that don’t tweet wonder what all the fuss is about. If you recall, the same sort of thing happened with Facebook and MySpace before Twitter. And again with Blogging before that. And with email lists, IRC, and web forums before that. All the way back to primitive peoples sharing stories around a crackling fire, there have been those who ask, “What’s the big deal with fire anyway?”

All the way back to primitive peoples sharing stories around a crackling fire, there have been those who ask, “What’s the big deal with fire anyway?”

I’ll tell you what the deal is.

It’s not the technology, it’s us.

All through history, people have had this need to connect, to create community, to share their ideas, thoughts, fears, and hopes with others. We want – we need – those connections, just like we need food and water, and even air to breathe. People are nothing if not social animals, and if you’re surprised that now, in the early 21st century people have discovered new and empowering forms of social media, then you just haven’t been paying attention. We have always found new forms of social media, ever since the dawn or symbolic thought and our ability to share stories and ideas through language. I also suspect that we will always create new ways to do so.

And there will always be those who wonder what all the fuss is about.

So, I believe that social media is much like any other form of community – and you tend to get out of it what you put in. Maybe that’s the only rule, and that’s why people talk about twitter and Facebook karma. If you’re a prick to your neighbors, do they invite you to their big 4th of July cookout? If you play nice in your virtual communities, then maybe you get nice back.

In any event, you have to join in to participate – and that’s just the beginning of the fun.

What do you look for first in a theme?

First and foremost, I look for a theme that I think looks good and fits stylistically with the site I’m creating. The first few seconds of a new visit is where you either convince a user to stay or scare them off. I never want the appearance of my sites to drive away potential customers – because it will (case in point: Fabric Land).

You’ve got to remember that WordPress isn’t anything more than a vehicle to drive your vision home to your customers, readers, fans, or market. It’s a great bit of software – and like all software, what you intend to get out of it is as important as how you use it.

I also keep my wordpress installs up to date, and I test themes and plugins in a sandbox to make sure everything plays together well. This may be easier for me than some other folks, since I’m technically savvy, and have wordpress servers out the ying yang. I also have a full blown wordpress test environment on my computer, so I can try out new themes, plugins, settings, page templates, etc in the privacy of my own system. When I get things the way I want, I upload. Obviously, this is something that you want to outsource if you’re not doing wordpress development.

Some additional questions were:

Some themes make certain plugins obsolete. So which combination are you using?

I try to use the smallest number of plugins I can on each site, but here are some that I almost always include: Akismet, WPTouch iPhone Theme plugin, WP-SpamFree, Google XML Sitemap, All in One SEO Pack, Sociable, Twitme, Adsense Deluxe

The key is to only add plugins if they add to the business value of the site you’re building.

Some themes seem to have too many options and others not enough. I don’t want to have a theme with too many or it may slow the site down. What is a good balance?

This is a bit subjective – you need to know what you’re trying to get done on your site and then you look to see if the theme or a combination of theme + plugins gets you where you need to be. When in doubt – make a list of Must Have features, Like to Have features, and Can Live Without features for your site. At a minimum I make sure the Must Haves are in my site plan – and consider everything else gravy.

I want a theme that allows me to have a description of my site and services at the top and a list of posts below. Is that better to do it with a plugin or a theme?

Again – it depends. If you go with a premium theme like Woo Themes or Elegant Themes, then you’ll typically have more functionality in the theme itself – since they often bundle plugins with their themes. You’re always going to have a mix – right? You WILL have a theme, and there WILL be plugins. You need to find the right mix for you – or be able to describe what you need in sufficient detail that your guy in the Philippines can build it for you.

Can I change the header image easily?

Almost always, yes. Also, almost always, your mileage will vary. Many themes have options or instructions on how to change the header. It’s also not too difficult for a junior developer to change the HTML, CSS or PHP in your theme to make it exactly how you want it to appear.

How do I know how stable a theme is? Does it work consistently on all browsers?

Look for popular free themes for both stability and browser compatibility. Many premium themes need to be both stable and browser friendly, or they won’t sell. The bottom line here is to test, test, test!

Can I start out with a free theme until the business is bringing in income?

Absolutely. Most free themes also allow you to modify them under the GPL, so you can change this part or that to make it look the way you want.

There are lots and lots of great themes out there. I like the style of many of the themes on the smashing magazine list.
I’m even using a custom version of the Dilectio theme right here on my blog and twitter page.