This is actually very simple. In your custom_functions.php file add the following code.

add_theme_support( 'nav-menus' );

remove_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'thesis_nav_menu');
add_action('thesis_hook_before_header', 'wp_nav_menu');


Simple, right?

Now for the error you get when running WordPress 3.0 and try to access the Custom File Editor in Thesis. It should say something like:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function use_codepress() in /home/your_directory/public_html/wp-content/themes/thesis/lib/admin/admin.php on line 42

For now to fix this just comment out line 42 in your /lib/admin/admin.php file like so. (by adding // in front of line 42)

// if (use_codepress()) add_action('admin_print_footer_scripts', 'codepress_footer_js');


No more error!

Have fun with WordPress 3.0 and Thesis.

Not sure what Thesis is? Check out http://diythemes.com

Have you ever seen a man, most likely an Asian man, walking around with a long pinky nail? I know such a random topic, but I was browsing through Gdgt and saw this photo of the new iPhone and what appears to be a hand with only a long pinky nail. I remembered that the Gizmodo guy who broke the story was Asian and therefore this popped in my head. Now I could be wrong and it could be a woman’s hand or a person who isn’t Asian, but I don’t know.

gdgt.com

My son’s uncle, who is Cambodian, used to have a long pinky nail and I never really knew why. At first I thought it may be for picking his nose, but then thought about other things it could be used for such as scratching, ear cleaning, opening cans, and other stuff. I never really asked him, but I did grow mine out for a while and found it quite useful after I cut my other nails and had an itch I needed to scratch.

If anyone has any real reasons as to why any cultures may do this, please feel free to chime in. There is nothing wrong with it I just have wondered why. I stopped doing it as it seemed to always get caught on something and break or someone would ask me why the heck my fingernail was long. Is it just to be used as a tool or some sort of status symbol?

Looks like I am not the only curious one.

thestar.com

Let me first start by saying that I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell (link for those who don’t get the reference)… ok no really I’m not crazy, but this is what happens to me occasionally at night. After reading a recent conversation on Reddit, it made me really think about whether I am having sleep paralysis or night terrors. I never seem to wake up screaming or anything, but my breathing does become heavy and I do freak the hell out.

I cannot pinpoint when this all started, but I would venture to say it was about 5-6 years ago. Nothing too dramatic happened beyond a break up a few years before that. I don’t remember being too stressed about anything and I am currently not stressed out except I guess occasionally thinking about money and how I am going to pay for this or that. Other than that I cannot think of anything beyond what I read on Wikipedia about sleep paralysis possibly being a symptom of migraines, which I tend to get quite often. I attribute those to either not having a healthy sleep schedule (maybe another cause of the sleep-terrors) and/or working on the computer plus my glasses/contacts. Anyway let me get to the point of what happens to me.

At night for the last few years I will be sleeping peacefully when I, for what seems like no reason at all, will open my eyes to see in the dark what appears to be either spiders crawling down from the ceiling or a mysterious person/thing standing in the corner staring at me. Now when I say “spider” I mean a big fucking spider like creature that looks like it is dangling from a web coming at my face or my sons. And when it appears to be the person I see them either at my closet or the corner near there and they appear to just be staring at me then slowly fade away. The same thing happens with the spider. After a few secs or being like WTF, starting to panic, and breathing extremely heavy my mind seems to realize the objects aren’t there and they begin to fade away. I do occasionally jump up and turn on the lights to make sure that no one or thing is there, but that has become less frequent as I seem to have trained myself to realize that it is not there quicker.

hypnagogia.com

Now let me get this straight, this shit is freaky. If you have never experienced it, and I hope you don’t, to all of a sudden wake up and feel like something is watching you or coming to get you is a bit scary. I have never screamed or reached for a weapon, but I have “jumped” or been startled and can tell you for 100% fact that I know my heart has sped up on multiple occasions. Let me say that this does not happen every night, well not to an extreme. I do almost every night, wake up to feel like I am at someone else’s house or that someone else is at my house, but maybe that isn’t related as it doesn’t freak me out, it just feels weird. Now I don’t know if these events/episodes would be classified as sleep paralysis or night terrors or maybe even Hallucinatory Sleep Disorder (HSP).

Night Terrors Symptoms: Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of “bad dreams” or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

From this list of night terror symptoms I can see a lot of similarities between what I describe and what people experience who have night terrors. Except I have memories and can recall what happened, I actually can remember quite vividly what was going on. I do wake up fully a few secs later, I don’t believe I have nightmares before it, and I’ve never screamed. So what does this mean? I can’t say. Lets look at sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious but unable to move. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes “by which the individual may experience panic symptoms and the realization that the distorted perceptions were false”.

In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful or dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside one’s normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.

Ok so wtf. Sleep paralysis sounds a lot like what I am having too. When I awake to see these “spiders” or “people” in my room I have this period of being unable to move for a few secs in which I start to panic. Then a few seconds later I snap out of it and that is when I would jump up and turn on the lights before. Was I abducted by aliens or is there a ghost in my house? We were told a few years back that someone who used to live in our house, a young girl, killed herself in the room I sleep in. Maybe she still around and causing this? We have had lots of mysterious stuff happen, but I guess that is for another post another day.

So after reading through symptoms of both night terrors and sleep paralysis I feel I am no closer to knowing what is going on with me. I don’t feel it is anything that needs urgent attention as other than a feeling of panic and freaking the hell out for a few mins a few nights a week, I am in no danger to myself nor anyone else. Maybe one day I will eventually go to a sleep clinic and they can help me diagnose what is happening. I do know when I was young I was told I don’t enter the REM stage of sleep as I am always on the verge of being awake. I don’t remember how they diagnosed this as I don’t remember doing any sleep test or anything, but maybe this is part of the cause too.

For more information on these check out:
Sleep paralysis on Wikipedia
Night Terrors Resource Center

4Player Podcast - A live show about video games

Something I’ve been working on. Some stuff is not finished such as the placement of the search, the posts need to be worked with for better separation, menu isn’t correct yet, and I think it needs a different logo. Give me some advice or ideas if you will.

Had to throw this together.

A little added hoisin and sriracha chili sauce and good to go… Not the best stuff, but it works.

Uhm. I think I would freak the hell out if I walked into the bathroom and found a snake coming out of my toilet. Hopefully if it ever happens I see the snake before I sit down or I might get a nasty bite on my ass. Here are a couple videos from YouTube about such events and the article from ChaCha.

On April 16, 2010 the Associated Press reported that woman found a python in the toilet of her La Vista, NB hotel room. Officials with the Nebraska Humane Society were called and estimated that the python was about three years old. They suspected that the python was a pet, since pythons that old are not typically found in the wild, especially in Nebraska.

Though it doesn’t happen often, it is possible for snakes to come up through the sewer pipes and appear in the toilet. Every year there are about 200 reports of such an event.

Please explain to me why in the first these people scared the snake back down, where it can then in turn come back up later when they don’t expect it. I would have called someone to yank that thing out of there.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

Tonight, April 16th, is the season finale of Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz and I can’t wait! Last Nov/Dec I remember seeing previews for Spartacus, but I had believe that it didn’t start until later 2010. Late in March I learned that I had missed many weeks of the show and figured I’d wait until I could buy it on DVD/Bluray and just watch it then. Until I found it on Netflix and Comcast On Demand.

About two weeks ago I had a free day and I started watching episodes on my new iPad via Netflix. I quickly got drawn into the series after the first episode. For some reason I am really fascinated by Ancient Roman period TV shows and movies (I enjoyed Rome on HBO) so I knew I would like it, but didn’t realize I’d watch 10-11 episodes over 2 days after being hooked. After finishing all the episodes available I was like a addict wanting my next hit, but alas I had to wait a week until the new episode played. So wait I did.

Then on Friday, April 9th, my (what seemed long) wait ended. I almost missed the show, but luckily the red light of my DVR caught my eye around 10 and I watched. It happened to be a great episode that leads up to the season finale tonight with the great words, “we kill them all”. So now I am ready 10pm EST to roll around so I can watch Spartacus get the revenge he has been wanting all season long. But the thought does creep into my head that if he “kills them all”, what will season 2 be about. Oh well, I’ve been waiting for this for 2 weeks and I can’t wait any longer.

Lucy Lawless, John Hannah, Andy Whitfield, and Peter Mensah

If you can’t tell I recommend this series to anyone who enjoys this type of show. I think the acting is great, the story is great, and just the overall feel of it is great (even the exaggerated blood squirting from foes as they fall). Be forewarned that there is lots of nudity and of course violence.

Yesterday I took my dog, Macy, to get spay (spayed?) and to have a hernia that she had repaired. I felt horrible dropping her off as she didn’t know what she was in for. When I picked her up she was still groggy, but eventually came around. Now she just needs to realize she has stitches in her stomach and can’t jump around.

Oh yeah, she has to get used to this e-collar for 2 weeks. She has already pried it off once, so I guess I need to tighten her collar a bit more. Poor girl.

Macy with her e-collar

I wasn’t sure I was going to get this today, but when I called my local Best Buy and they had it I couldn’t resist. So far I love being able just to chill with it and read the news and browse videos or forums.