I did another upgrade of WordPress without a hitch the other night. I was talking on the phone with my aunt at the time. I often hear tales of woe when people talk about doing the upgrades. I think the issues that they run into must have something to do with the plugins. Some sites, like a certain one that will go unmentioned in this particular post, have loads and loads of plugins, so a core upgrade can turn into a true nightmare of dependencies. There was one major update (maybe a year ago now) where WP added features that used to be handled by the most popular plugins. How often do you review the plugins you have installed? Are any past their prime? I currently have three that I don’t really use at all anymore, and maybe 6 or 7 beyond that.

I ran into some bnking issues lately. The bank issued a new bank card to me, and I put it aside, waiting for the randomly-generated PIN to arrive. Another week rolled by, and one day, my old card just stopped working entirely. I’m sure that it was a scheduled event in order to secure the account. Of course, this happens when I’m on fumes, trying to fuel up and get to work on time.

Security is always good, and there are tons of new standards being rolled out to increase the security of our data these days. If you are in IT, healthcare, banking, etc., you are aware of the endless acronyms and how much of a headache people are having converting over, and training everyone to comply. Some of these headaches make it easy to dismiss the projects entirely, but these changes are so necessary in our current day.

Speaking of ATM cards, this video is pretty nuts…

http://view.break.com/534959
“This trip is gonna be great, Betsy! Let’s just stop by the ATM for some cash and then hit the road…”

Your nature walk is now “secure”.

Back at the end of the spring, I went to a Friday night Braves game, one of the first games in the season, versus the Diamondbacks. The seats were pretty close to the visitors’ dugout, along the third base line close to home plate. Usually, that is an excellent place to be when looking to catch foul balls, especially since there are lots of left-handed batters on the Arizona team. None of the fouls landed close to us, but thanks to Mark, I had another bonus in store. I suggested a short walk during the end of the 5th inning, and lead the three of them up the flights and flights of stairs to the top level, where there were tons of too-perfect photo opportunities. We went over to see the gigantic Coca-cola bottle constructed from Braves memorabilia, and I pointed out a secure area, “No one is allowed back in this area. Let’s go in!”
Mark greeted us, and showed us around the blast area for the fireworks show, Which is really impressive if you haven’t seen that kind of setup in person before. Several racks made of 2X4′s and large PVC piping were arranged in rows, each with a softball-sized charge wrapped in paper, and miles of wiring connecting each one to a series of control boards and fuses, and then to what used to be a laptop, but that night, they were run all the way to the room where the PA control system is located, so that the firing would be synced to the music. That night’s musical theme was entirely made up of AC/DC songs. From the blast area, you get a really nice vantage point to see the stadium, of course, but also a lot of downtown Atlanta, where we could see many of the buildings still undergoing repair work from the tornado that ripped through downtown the night before St Patrick’s Day.
After leaving the blast site, we headed back down to our seats, watching the game on the monitors on the way. The Braves had a good lead, and they called the game early. We got all the way back down to our seats with only a few minutes to spare before the fireworks show began. Singing along and watching the technicolor starbursts fill the sky with a mild breeze flowing in, I pointed out that one of the shells that had just made the intense green and purple flare had been in our hands only minutes before.
It was a really awesome and fun night for all of us. The Braves won, we got to see and do a bunch of out of the ordinary things, and we made some friends and got to just hang out, too. Sorry no pics this round, dear sweet internet, as they are classified by request. Some video of the show is available at Mark’s blog.