Shashin 3.1.5 is now available at wordpress.prg. Also, I have updated the Shashin documentation to cover using it with Fancybox (the photo viewer now included with Shashin).

Shashin 3.1.5 is a maintenance release with the following improvements:

• Improved installation and activation process (manual re-activation is no longer needed when upgrading, and the dependency on Toppa Plugin Libraries is handled more smoothly)
• Ability to disable Shashin’s Fancybox if you already have your own Fancybox plugin installed
• Improvements to album synchronizing, for handling slow connections and servers with misconfigured SSL settings (which is surprisingly common)

People arriving for the start of WordCamp Nashville, at Watkins College View at Picasa People arriving for the start of WordCamp Nashville, at Watkins College21-Apr-2012 09:55, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 320	My dependency injection talk at WordCamp Nashville (photo by Patricia Melton) View at Picasa My dependency injection talk at WordCamp Nashville (photo by Patricia Melton)21-Apr-2012 00:56, Canon Canon EOS 40D, 4.0, 70.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 1600	@rfair presenting "Less, JS, and WP" View at Picasa @rfair presenting "Less, JS, and WP"21-Apr-2012 16:07, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.04 sec, ISO 400
The Otto and Nacin show - @otto42 @nacin View at Picasa The Otto and Nacin show - @otto42 @nacin21-Apr-2012 12:09, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 250	@ryngrn presenting "Child Theme Frameworks" View at Picasa @ryngrn presenting "Child Theme Frameworks"21-Apr-2012 11:06, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400	@studionashvegas presenting "The Blank Screen: Overcoming Fear of Pressing from Scratch" View at Picasa @studionashvegas presenting "The Blank Screen: Overcoming Fear of Pressing from Scratch"21-Apr-2012 10:11, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.025 sec, ISO 400

I’ve traveled coast-to-coast across the US 4 times, but until this past weekend I had never been in the South (except for a brief visit to UVA many years ago). I was in Nashville for only 48 hours, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The first thing I noticed was how kind and polite everyone is. The driver of my shuttle bus from the airport pointed out all the sights as we drove into town, and he seemed genuinely interested in what everyone on the bus was planning to do that weekend. I spent the day on Friday with my friend Caryn, who I hadn’t seen since we finished grad school 16 years ago. She showed me around town, and it was great to catch up.

This was Nashville’s first WordCamp. The organizers did a great job pulling it together, and they clearly had a lot of local talent to draw upon for their speakers. Coming from Philly, I think I was the only Yankee among the speakers – I felt honored to be included (Nacin, coming from DC, is a borderline case ).

I was in the developers’ track all day. The first two sessions were design focused, and here’s an excellent summary of both presentations. They were followed by the Otto and Nacin show. They are both deeply involved in the development of WordPress, and they gave a preview of features in WordPress 3.4. Their talk was the most popular of the day in the developers’ track.

I was up next after lunch, and my talk went well. It was an advanced topic (dependency injection) so I drew a smaller crowd. But I got some good questions towards the end, and some good tweets:

View at Picasa @rfair's tweet about my session29-Apr-2012 19:40

Here is a non-technical summary of my talk.

Russell Fair wrapped up the day, and he did a great job of sharing his experiences using LESS with WordPress.

I didn’t get to see Joel Norris’ WordPress bootcamp presentation, but from what everyone was saying, I believe he gets the prize for having the most popular session. He stayed in character as a drill sergeant for almost the entire session. And he was in costume – here’s a photo.

The speakers dinner and the after party were both a lot of fun. I learned a lot chatting with Otto and Nacin, made some new friends, and my friend Caryn was able to come too, so it was a great evening.

If you want to read more, WP Candy has a great review, and they also have links to many of the presenters’ slides. There’s also a great photo pool on Flickr. Here are my slides:

The lego Dr. Who set Kai created View at Picasa The lego Dr. Who set Kai created24-Apr-2012 18:46, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 3.2, 5.9mm, 0.1 sec, ISO 800

Over the past few months Kai has burned through all the episodes of the new Dr. Who on Netflix. I was never a big Dr. Who fan, but one thing I enjoyed about the old series was that he would always think his way out of problems. In the new series they’ve given him a more swashbuckling personality – perhaps that’s a necessity for modern TV marketing, even in stuffy old Britain. When I was not much older than Kai, on Friday nights I would watch a Dr. Who episode back-to-back with Blake’s 7 (which I still think had some of the best writing and characters ever for a TV sci-fi show). A few weeks ago Kai designed his own Lego Tardis, as Lego apparently hasn’t gotten around to licensing Dr. Who yet and making a bazillion dollars selling their own Tardis sets.

He made 2 of them, one for himself and one for our friend Catherine, who has already confessed to her inner person being an 11 year old boy. He put a lot of effort into preparing hers. He put it in a box for her, included a parts list, and made a stop-motion movie showing how to build it (in case she ever never to re-build it). Here’s the movie in case you have a small pile of blue Legos and would like to build one.

How to build a Lego set of Dr. Who's Tardis

At that time he was feeling a bit lost – he wasn’t sure what was next for him in life. When I saw him this past summer, when he was in the midst of his battle with cancer, he actually seemed rejuvenated in his outlook. He was incredibly appreciative of the support from his family and co-workers, and was determined – even excited – about the things he would do after his recovery. I didn’t know he had taken a turn for the worse recently.

The rest of what I’m going to say may be too personal for my blog, and may end up sounding like platitudes, but it feels important. I saw another childhood friend, Aaron, in California just a week and a half ago (Maria had a major sciatica attack while we were there, making for a somewhat tumultuous vacation). Seeing him brought back a flood of memories, and it was really good to spend time with him again. I also saw several friends from college, that I had mostly fallen out of touch with, but we picked up right where we left off, years ago. I am incredibly lucky to have such friends.

I am also lucky to have work that I enjoy, and I am always trying to improve my skills. But I try to make sure I spend time with the boys every day, as they are only kids once! Beyond that, I have boxes I’ve been meaning to unpack since we moved here. I try to squeeze in time to support a few non-profit web sites. I barely watch anything on TV. I’m almost always trying to “optimize” how I use my time (in air quotes because right now I’m not sure what that really means). I have ideas for side projects, and improvements to my WordPress plugins, that I will never get to. I have yet to put in baseboards in our bedroom, after replacing the drywall 8 years ago. I keep forgetting to make Kai’s eye doctor appointment. The weeds in the garden grow faster than I can pull them. Maria and I often greet each other with a “howdy stranger,” only half-joking. I barely keep up with my friends and the rest of my family. The list goes on.

Mike and I saw each other less than half a dozen times in the 9 years I’ve been here. 9 years that have flown by. We talked several times about the next time we’d get together again, but that opportunity is now gone.

He told me a while back he never saw The Matrix, and I said we had to watch it together sometime. We never did, but tomorrow I will watch it with Kai and think of him. I think he would like that.

The Golden Gate Bridge View at Picasa The Golden Gate Bridge28-Mar-2012 16:38, Canon Canon PowerShot SD780 IS, 10.0, 7.173mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 80	Aaron and Jessica View at Picasa Aaron and Jessica
Balboa Park in San Diego View at Picasa Balboa Park in San Diego	The model train museum in Balboa Park View at Picasa The model train museum in Balboa Park

It's Aaron, and it's LA, so of course he's customized his car with a boat horn View at Picasa It's Aaron, and it's LA, so of course he's customized his car with a boat horn

Only in California - Sarah has a flamethrower for a heater - it actually set her cat's tail on fire once View at Picasa Only in California - Sarah has a flamethrower for a heater - it actually set her cat's tail on fire once

Lynda's son Grant (almost 1 year old) View at Picasa Lynda's son Grant (almost 1 year old)

Our original plan for Kai’s spring break was a family vacation in San Diego, as the International Studies Association conference was at the same time, and Maria was planning to attend it. Then WordCamp San Diego came up for me, the week before Maria’s conference. We decided to stick with our original plan, but I would go to San Diego alone first, for WordCamp, and then I’d spend the week in between visiting old friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. Maria sometimes leaves me with the boys for 2 or 3 days when she has conferences, so it was my turn

When I flew into San Francisco from San Diego and hopped on BART, I had an almost overwhelming feeling that I was home. We moved away almost 9 years ago, so the Philly area is home now, but it has never felt like home. Philly has an attitude that I do appreciate – summed up nicely in the t-shirt “I’m not angry, I’m from Philly”. But it’s not who I am. Perhaps someday we’ll move back to California, but not anytime soon. Where we live now, we have a nice home with a yard, in a neighborhood where the boys can play in the street, with good schools, and easy access to public transportation: that would cost well over a $1 million in the Bay Area.

I was in the Bay Area for four days and squeezed in visits with six friends. I spent a couple nights with my aunt Tisha in San Francisco, where she’s lived in the same rent controlled apartment since 1972, much to the chagrin of her landlord. I also spent a couple nights with Maria’s friend from college, Sarah. My favorite feature of her place is the 1950s era, incredibly dangerous heater which one could easily mistake for a flame thrower. She calls it the cat emblazinator, as it set her cat’s tail on fire once. I fit in visits with Paul, Hilary, and Lynda – my friends from college at UC-Santa Cruz – and Stewart, who I worked with in the .com days. It was my first time seeing them for many years, but I hope to make it back to the Bay Area more often to see them again – WordCamp San Francisco will be a good excuse!

Next on the itenaray was a flight to LA, for a one day visit. I stayed with my childhood friend Aaron and his girlfriend Jessica. After a fun night out in LA, they drove me back to San Diego the next day to meet up with Maria and the boys. Seeing Aaron again brought back a flood a memories from my high school years (most of them good!). Maria was busy with her conference on their first day, so Aaron, Jessica and I spent the day with the boys in Balboa park. After that I spent the rest of the week with Maria and the boys in San Diego, which I’ll write about next!

Mussels with Sarah at Scratch View at Picasa Mussels with Sarah at Scratch	I come all the way to CA to drink lemonade from RI (note the bottle has a phone number, because they don't have the web yet in RI) View at Picasa I come all the way to CA to drink lemonade from RI (note the bottle has a phone number, because they don't have the web yet in RI)
Mike with the boys at the USS Midway View at Picasa Mike with the boys at the USS Midway	Eidan and Kai at the Balboa Park playground View at Picasa Eidan and Kai at the Balboa Park playground
Eidan at the Balboa Park playground View at Picasa Eidan at the Balboa Park playground	Kai built a hot air ballon out of blocks at the San Diego science museum View at Picasa Kai built a hot air ballon out of blocks at the San Diego science museum