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Question: What is your favorite application?

My Answer: I won't mention one of my own. 🙂 Adium is my favorite application, despite its crashing tendencies (especially when using the logger). iTunes is up there, as is Safari.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: If you could be a sports star, in which sport would you star?

My Answer: Golf, without a doubt. It's an individual sport, and so achievements - and failures - are very individual. It's also a game that lacks the, what shall we call it… rampant indiscretions by players. In other words, it remains a respectful game.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

It's official: I hate hurricanes. Absolutely freakin' hate 'em. This is just fucking ridiculous. I'll be living on pudding for the next few days, as I imagine my power - and Internet access - will soon be no more.

On the plus side, I used Jeanne as an excuse to eat half a gallon of ice cream for breakfast. Gotta clean out the freezer - again - right?

Okay, let's see if we can't get this thing going: a DropCash campaign for a polling plugin for MovableType. Here are the specifics as discussed here. The polling plugin for MovableType should:

• integrate with the blog as a standard MovableType entry, allowing for comments and TrackBacks as normal.
• assume that MySQL and PHP are available (bonus points if this is not required).
• restrict voting by visitor IP or some such method, optionally requiring a TypeKey login to participate.
• allow a poll to expire by setting a date or time frame (i.e July 24 or "five days from now").
• show color graphics (bar graphs and/or pie charts) with legend/key once a person has voted.
• offer different kinds of polls: radio button or checkbox style.
• make it reasonably easy to edit without "breaking" poll results, though understandably this may be quite difficult if poll choices are added, their order changed, etc.
• not require another plugin to work (like KeyValues) if at all possible (this one's not too strict).

That's the feature set as discussed on the post linked above.

If you'd like to see such a plugin developed, contribute to the campaign:
http://www.dropcash.com/campaign/iacas/polling_plugin_for_movabletype/.

If you want to be on the advisory board to determine when the goals have been met, so that the developer who creates such a plugin can be paid, please comment here. I'll be serving no other purpose beyond getting the campaign started.

Remember that golf blog I'd mentioned that I was going to start? Well, I've started it. It's called "The Sand Trap" and is available at http://thesandtrap.com/. My remaining design goals, which which Erica Tesla is (supposed to be) helping, are as follows:

1. Menu needs to align in FireFox (looks OK in Safari)
2. Colors could be tweaked. I just used green everywhere.
3. Fonts need attention. I'm not sure I want to stick with what's there now.
4. Little tweaks here and there to some of the spacing and whatnot.
5. The "back nine" at the bottom of the home page is hideous and needs an idea.
6. Navigation works… but not on IE/Win. I'm not sure what to do about that (it's Eric Meyer's CSS Menu stuff).
7. A little "code cleanup" and possible consolidation/simplification.

That's that. But hey, the thing is "open for business." If you're a golfer or know a golfer, subscribe to the feeds. They're up and running (that reminds me - they need some work too).

Question: What's the furthest you've ever hit, thrown, kicked (etc.) anything?

My Answer: 330 yards. My scramble team made birdie.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

My friend Seth Ellsworth has got his site online. Seth is a:

• musician
• student
• husband

Those three words are all synonyms for "poor." If you like Seth's kind of music, pick up his EP for only $7 and help to put some Rice Krispies in his tummy (a demo track is available).

Seth and I recorded a song called "Knock on Wood" back in high school for Carey. I'm going to try to find the lyrics at some point… the one or two recordings we ever made may be lost forever.

I'm trying to talk Seth into naming his next column "Set Hell's Worth."

Question: What's the most important thing to a successful wedding?

My Answer: A planner or someone who knows when to cut the cake, when to do the first dance, and so on. The last wedding I went to was nice, but not very organized.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What do you hate most about moving?

My Answer: The expenses can be outrageous: breaking a lease, security deposit on a new lease, money for the moving van… it adds up quickly!

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: Are you a memento-keeper?

My Answer: Not really. I'm a bit of a packrat sometimes, but then I go through massive "cleaning" phases where anything that's not important is trashed. I keep pictures, but things like cards and notes go in the trash if they're not part of the current relationship.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Six Apart has heard my request for MT-compatible polling and come up with a possible solution: setting up a DropCash campaign to raise money for polling. I'd like to do so, but first of course we'd need to agree on specifications. My list, off the top of my head, is as follows. The polling plugin should:

• integrate with the blog as a standard MovableType entry, allowing for comments and TrackBacks as normal.
• assume that MySQL and PHP are available (if necessary).
• restrict voting to one time per visitor (by IP or such).
• show color graphics (bar graphs and/or pie charts, user setting) with legend/key once a person has voted.
• make be reasonably easy to edit without "breaking" poll results, though understandably this may be quite difficult if poll choices are added, their order changed, etc.

What other features would you want to see? List them here, and then I'll create a list and start a DropCash campaign for this plugin. If you're interested in being on the "advisory board" (to help to determine whether a developer has met the criteria, I guess), leave a comment or email me as well. I'll spearhead the fundraising effort, but would like to remain a contributor and not a judge after that.

I envision that people can create a separate category called "Polls" or such to create "sticky" polls (i.e. show the last entry from the "Polls" category right here in the sidebar), meaning that trickery of another kind (changing the date of the entry until it expires, etc.) would be unnecessary.

I'm moving to PA soon (October 10 or so) and in Erie, pets are simply not allowed in apartments or townhouses (not for an extra $300/month). My parents and/or Carey's parents were going to take Flint - my 3-year old Weimaraner - but now they are not. Screwed I am.

So my options are thus:

• Find someone to buy Flint and take care of him for eternity.
• Find people to take care of Flint for a year until Carey and I buy our house.

Neither seems terribly likely to happen, but if you're in the market for a great pedigreed male Weimaraner, let me know eh?

Of course, alternative suggestions are welcomed. We looked very hard for pet-friendly apartment complexes, but the market just ain't cut out for it here. I will never really understand what a pet can do that a small child can't do to an apartment. Bah.

Does anyone know of any decent polling software for MovableType? One that can keep track of results (i.e. 43% say this, 35% say this, and 22% say this) and then allow for normal commenting through standard MovableType means?

I'd like to get surveys going on that golf blog I'm working on - a weekly survey or something - but haven't seen surveys used within MovableType very frequently. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Addendum/Clarification: The polling software need not "integrate" really tightly with MovableType, but just "work with" or "be usable in" a MovableType-powered blog. At the worst, I imagine a poll could be in site.com/polls and you could simply direct people there with an entry, but at the best the poll would be an actual entry itself within the blog.

I'm willing to bet that anyone that developed such a plugin for MovableType would be able to sell it quite nicely. I'd buy a copy in a heartbeat.

Question: Who would you let borrow your car?

My Answer: Almost nobody. Carey could borrow my car when she wanted, but that's about it. I've let people drive my car back from the airport after dropping me off, but that's the extent of it. My mom has driven my car as well, and that's OK. I can trust her to have insurance, and Carey, and to drive carefully enough to avoid having to need to use the insurance.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Carey and I played nine holes at Green Meadows today. Green Meadows is the course I first played at when I was 15, and have toured the course in 68 before. It's tough for its length (about 6,000 yards) because the greens are smaller than many people's living rooms, each have a false front, and are typically quite firm. You needn't hit the ball straight, especially on the front, as the course is wide open. The rough can be a bit snarly and spotty at the same time, making for some interesting lies.

Carey shot 71, and I was quite proud of her. About 24 of those shots were putts. She had good form for someone who's never really played golf before - I think she may have uncovered a talent she didn't know she had. Even if she shoots 71 the rest of her life (and she won't - her putting and chipping have to get better, after all) then that's ok - we had a great time with each other. I can't say we wouldn't annoy playing partners, but we had fun together.

Eight is a par 4 with water fronting the green, and my 3W put me in good position. My 5I leaked right and I left myself with a very tough pitch. I laid open my new lob wedge, threw the ball really high in the air, and landed the ball just on the green. It bounced, bounced again, and rolled a foot into the hill. I raised my arms in the air and looked over at Carey, calmly practicing the swing for her upcoming chip shot, unaware of my rather handy birdie. Geeeeez! 😀