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Supporting adoption

From Christian Newswire: Brownback, Kudlow Help CFF Promote Adoption at Lincoln Center

Gala Benefit will help fund Pregnancy Resource Centers and Safe Haven Program in the Tri-State Area

Pro-life U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, and Larry Kudlow, CNBC host, will speak at the Children First Foundation’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” at Lincoln Center on Wednesday evening, April 11, 2007, at 6:30pm.

CFF’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” is part of a national effort to raise greater awareness about the important “Safe Haven Laws” that have been enacted in 47 states during the month of April so that, as stated by Tim Jaccard, “not one single baby is ever thrown in the garbage pail again.”

Senator Brownback, the Gala’s keynote speaker, is an adoptive parent and a congressional leader who understands the importance of promoting adoption, family values and a Culture of Life in our nation and the world. Larry Kudlow, the benefit’s emcee, is a renowned economist, host of CNBC’s “Kudlow & Company” and a strong advocate of conservative values in the media.

The Children First Foundation’s “Gala Concert for Adoption” will begin at 6:30 pm with a New York Philharmonic performance of the Shostakovitch Violin Concerto No. 1 followed by a Post-Concert Reception on the Grand Promenade at 8:00 p.m. CFF will honor Tim and Aedan Jaccard of the AMT Children of Hope “Safe Haven” Program and six Pregnancy Centers located in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“The Gala’s important goal,” says Dr. Elizabeth Rex, CFF’s President and Co-Founder, “is to help fund these outstanding organizations that generously provide desperate women with the financial and moral support they so often need in order to choose life and consider adoption for unwanted pregnancies or unwanted newborns.” Charles Rex, a CFF Director and Co-Founder, is a concert violinist with the New York Philharmonic and helped organize CFF’s festive fundraiser at Lincoln Center.

CFF’s Benefit Committee includes leaders of the New York State Right to Life Committee, the Connecticut Right to Life Committee, the New Jersey Family Policy Council and the Family Institute of Connecticut, organizations that support CFF’s efforts to promote Adoption and Safe Havens as positive, compassionate and life-saving choices that deserve greater public understanding, appreciation and support.

Benefit Tickets begin at $250 and must be purchased in advance. Please call the Children First Foundation toll-free at 1-877-386-3236. Donations are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible.

Everything Else

The bloggers toolbox

Mark, of Weblog Tools Collection, posted his list of indispensable blogging tools in What’s in My Blogging Toolkit?.

Here’s my list of primary tools for blogging:

  • WordPress – Code is Poetry because it doesn’t get in the way of content. I started with Blogger and dabbled with Movable Type and both are ok depending on where you are. I wanted something that was robust, scalable, and worked with me. WordPress does it.
  • Automattic Tools – The sidebar widgets plugin and Akismet. Don’t use WordPress without them.
  • Firefox – I use it on the Macs and on my Windows machines. I’ve used it on Linux. It works, it is smooth and nothing in the interface is a jumble of jargonized fluff. Tabs galore, news, E-mail, WP Admin, Poland, and consistent spell checking in one.
  • IE – because I have to use it to use phpMyAdmin. The version provided my my host (Yahoo!) doesn’t seem to play well with Firefox. Tonight I upgraded phpMyAdmin myself (from 2.6.3-pl1 to 2.10.0.2) because I got really annoyed after writing this.
  • phpMyAdmin – for all the back-end database stuff.
  • Google for everything – I use GMail for all my E-mail needs (including the GMail for mobile applications Java app). I have a countless number of E-mail addresses all feeding into one place. I use Calendar, Translate, Analytics, a personalized Google homepage, and all of Google’s varied search functionality.
  • Netvibes – All my RSS, newsfeeds, bookmarks, blog searches, and assorted other knickknacks all in one place.
  • MS Office Picture Manager – for simple image compression and resizing as well as a few image adjustment tools that work well for me.
  • Weblog Tools Collection – where else would I find great info on new plugins and themes. Really, Mark provides a great rundown of the latest in an quick, easy to digest format.
  • Wikipedia – controversy aside over a few hacked articles, it provides lots of good info if you are unclear on something.
  • Firebug – checking out what I’ve messed up.
  • Powered by Faith – that’s what the blog is supposed to be about. While my faith is certainly imperfect and I don’t always live up to the ideals of my faith, I still need to proclaim its saving power and rely upon it for glimpses into the sublime.
Everything Else, ,

Imieniny widget – alpha 0.4

I’ve released the latest version, alpha 0.4, available from my downloads page.

I cleaned up the code a bit more and corrected an issue I had where the option values set in the Presentation – Sidebar widgets tab were reset upon re-opening. The php code was not complete and the options were lost on reloads.

I’m thinking that it is pretty stable now and I’d love your feedback on this version.

Does it work for you?
Does it make sense?
Are the options sufficient?

Thanks.

Everything Else, ,

Imieniny WordPress widget plug-in

As I mentioned in Blog updates, I had added a PHP script to my blog to list the current saints’ name day. I took that script and created a Word Press widget out of it.

As recommended by Automattic, I took their Google widget script, which is very well documented, and worked from there, adding Adam Brucki’s Imieniny PHP script to it.

I had already taken the script and updated it for UTF-8 compliance and tweaked the output.

I’ve now added a section to the script to adjust for server time differences. My server in on UTC so I had to adjust the time by -5 hours.

I am releasing the widget as an alpha 0.1 version. It works for me ‘as expected’ but there are no guarantees… It is being released as-is. If it breaks your stuff, delete the plug-in and move on.

Here are some of the things I’d like to do with it:

  • Allow the end user to adjust the title
  • Allow the end use to adjust the time differential
  • Clean-up the code

For the most current download version please see my downloads page.

To install:

  1. Unpack
  2. FTP the imieniny.php file to your plug-ins directory
  3. Activate the plug-in
  4. Drag the Imieniny widget to the preferred locale on your sidebar (your theme must have widget support and Automattic’s Widgets must be installed.
Everything Else

Blog updates

Spent a little time playing with the blog set-up this evening.

What are you doing, right now?

That question is asked and answered by my first addition, Twitter. This is a really cool social networking tool. It basically lets me tell you what I’m doing at any particular moment. You’ll see the Twitter News box in the first right hand column. I can post updates to my Twitter News when I can’t blog. I can do the posts from my cell phone, from an IM program (limited selection I think), or from the Twitter site. I’m using the Twitter sidebar widget for Word Press from Velvet Unraveled.

Imieniny

I’ve added a PHP script to list the current name day. Name days, in Polish ‘Imieniny’ are the days on which a particular saints are commemorated. In Poland the “name-day” is important and is typically celebrated like birthdays are celebrated in other countries. In Poland only your closest relatives celebrate your birthday. The Imieniny PHP script is from Adam Brucki. I updated it for UTF-8 compliance and tweaked the output. If I get ambitious, I’ll create a widget out of it.

Everything Else,

Stem Cell Research Symposium

National Pro-Life Action Center on Capitol Hill Presents a Stem Cell Research Symposium”

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 /Christian Newswire/ — With the final vote on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research expected before the Senate next month, the National Pro-Life Action Center (NPLAC) has assembled a panel of experts to discuss the latest developments and debates in the science and ethics of stem cell research. This will be the third stem cell symposium that NPLAC has organized on Capitol Hill. Each symposium has featured different scientists and bioethicists addressing the most recent progress and pitfalls of this controversial new research.

This event is scheduled for Tuesday, February 20, 2007, from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m. and will be held in Dirkson Room (SD-G11). Speakers include: David Prentice, Ph.D., Rev. Lawrence A. Kutz, Ph.D. and Kimberly Zenarolla, M.T.S.

The symposium will address the latest advancements in the field, the various proposed bills, and the continuing ethical debate. There will be a Q&A session immediately following the discussion.

For additional information and media requests, please call 202-494-4410.

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