I started toying around with the slideToggle() function, but after a couple hours I had to look around the internet for some help. I couldn’t have done it without Steve Krueger’s tutorial. Although I didn’t follow it exactly, it helped be over a few hurtles.

Here is the code I ended up with.

jQuery(document).ready(function($){
	$('.story').hide();
	$('.title').click(function(){
	if($(this).is('.active')) {
		$(this).toggleClass('active');
  		$(this).next('.story').slideToggle('fast');
  		return false;
  	} else {
  		$('.story:visible').slideUp('fast');
		$('.title.active').removeClass('active');
		$(this).toggleClass('active');
  		$(this).next('.story').slideToggle();
  		return false;
		}
	});
});

Also, as I was delving deeper into this project, I spent a lot of time around the WordPress Codex. I found this great function called wp_enqueue_script for loading javascript libraries. This is for use in WordPress plugins and themes so there is no conflicts or superfluous code. Pretty neat.

Update - June 29
I edited the page so when opening an item it will scroll to the top of your window. So much better. Some help from Learning jQuery and Marc Grabanski. I am using the jQuery.ScrollTo plugin.

Here is the updated code:

jQuery(document).ready(function($){
	var scrollTop = jQuery(window).scrollTop();
	$('#content > div.story').hide();
	$('#content > h2.title').click(function() {
		$('#content > h2.title').removeClass('active');
		$(this).addClass('active');
		var $nextDiv = $(this).next();
		var $visibleSiblings = $nextDiv.siblings('div.story:visible');
		if ($visibleSiblings.length ) {
			$visibleSiblings.slideUp('fast', function() {
				$nextDiv.slideToggle('fast');
				jQuery('#content > h2').each(function(i, h2){
				h2top = jQuery(h2).offset().top;
				if (scrollTop  h2').each(function(i, h2){
				h2top = jQuery(h2).offset().top;
				if (scrollTop < h2top) {
					jQuery.scrollTo('.active', 300 );
					return false;
				}
			});
		}
	});
});

I was just informed by a friend who works for a ballet, that it is customary to say “Merde!” to ballet dancers before they go on in lieu of “Good Luck!” or “Break a leg!”

(imagine yourself backstage…)
“Hey, merde.”
 ”…thanks”

But I wasn’t satisfied. I started flirting with other web browsers: Shiira, Opera, OmniWeb, Camino, Optimized Firefox builds… It was a confusing time. I experimented heavily. Eventually I began to fall in love with Camino. It had the tenderness of real mac app, but also the certain flare of being open source and dangerous like Firefox.

When I upgraded to Leopard, it was back to square one. I went with Safari for a while because Camino was struggling with 10.5. Then Firefox 3 came around with its hype and fancy Smart Location Bar. I fell back into my old ways. I was using a PC at work, Firefox felt right, cutting edge, customizable, fun.

Since then I’ve not settled. I can’t decide. I’m switching weekly. Nobody has exactly everything I want. Here is where I stand now:

Safari 3

• I love to use cmd-1, cmd-2, etc for links on the bookmarks bar
• You cannot set Google Reader as your default feed reader
• In general, works fine, but
• is boring

Safari 4 beta

• “Smart Address Field”, similar to Firefox’s Smart Location Bar
• Top tabs, makes sense.
• Developer Tools are very cool
• Top Sites? Yuck!
• Chokes here and there
  • Especially in Wordpress
  • And with the Tumblr bookmarklet: when I use a keyboard shortcut to open, in my case cmd-1 because it is first on my bookmarks bar, it opens into a new tab instead of a new window. Very frustrating.

Camino

• Uses cmd-1, etc for bookmarks bar
• Uses Keychain to save passwords
• Feels very at home in OS X
• But buttons suck in Leopard
• Some sites still reject Camino

Camino 2 beta

• Buttons fixed for Leopard
• Del key no longer works for going back a page
• Finally has draggable tabs
• No smart location bar, which I’ve become very comfortable using

Firefox 3

• No keyboard shorcuts for the bookmarks bar
• Doesn’t use Keychain to save passwords, which is very annoying
• One million awesome extensions

So I have no idea what to do. I was using Firefox for the last month, but last week I went back to Safari. It is hard to choose. What are you feelings? Do you have such trouble deciding?

The idea is this: The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit organization conceived about a year ago by Patri Friedman and Wayne Gramlich, is proposing a framework that would make it possible to permanently settle on the ocean. Their vision, inspired by the culture of web 2.0, is to crowd-source the development of government.

seasteading

What they have done is designed a bare platform, called a seastead, that is about the size of a city block. They are encouraging everyone to share their idea for a permanent civilization on the ocean through The $1000 Seastead Design Contest (submissions due May 1st, 2009). Contestants are to expound upon the platform in any way they see fit – “It may be a hospital, a casino, a residential community, a cricket stadium, or something entirely different.” The idea is to share and to collectively reach this goal. Designs for the seasteads will be released under a Creative Commons license.

Wendy Sitler-Roddier

[They are] hoping to create a platform in the sense that Linux is a platform: a base upon which people can build their own innovative forms of governance. The ultimate goal is to create standards and blueprints that can be easily adapted, allowing small communities to rapidly incubate and test new models of self-rule with the same ease that a programmer in his garage can whip up a Facebook app.
–WIRED and BLDGBLOG

As compared to other projects of this nature, The Seasteading Institute is trying to build a modular framework which allows for many different ideals. Because they don’t focus on one specific model that could fail, the project is much more sustainable. Although I do not particularly subscribe to Libertarianism, I have interest in projects like this for their forward thinking ideas. The Seasteading Institute is not responding as much to climate change, but to societal change. Maybe there is something we can learn from their model.

A recurring theme for the future seems to be alternative housing. The Waterpod Project intends to be a model for the future of architecture and living. It is concerned with the same basic problems as other projects, climate change and increasing world population, but takes a different approach. Where Polar Cities and Lilypad are primarily concerned with physical survival, Waterpod is interested in creativity and expression.

The Waterpod is inspiring because it has moved past the hypothetical, it is currently being constructed in New York. Being a model for future building, sustainability is the key. The Waterpod is being built on a retired industrial barge using salvaged materials. It features three domes to be used for artistic space, sleeping quarters, and agriculture.

It is currently scheduled to launch in New York in May, 2009, from the Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens, navigate down the East River, explore the waters of New York Harbor, and stopping at each of the five boroughs it will dock at several Manhattan piers on the Hudson River, then beyond.
—Waterpod Structure

Waterpod artist residency building

To begin with there will be five residents who will live and work and be completely sustained on the barge. They plan to travel around to teach, give tours, and have exhibitions. They hope to be a model and inspiration for the future, to prepare and to encourage innovation.

This forces me to focus on certain things that I have been putting off for too long, and forces me to live like we will probably all need to live sooner or later.
—Mary Mattingly

• Every “major” product that Panic has made including Transmit, Coda, and Unison. I used Unison a lot initially, but I can’t say I’ve opened it in a while.
• BBEdit, which I bought a long time ago and has since retired from my applications folder. I loved it.
• TextMate, which came as a replacement for BBEdit. Suckily, I found TextMate just before Coda came out. I still use it from time to time though.
• Adobe CS2/Macromedia Stuff 8. (Before the merger, I haven’t delved into CS4 yet, but I’ve heard many bad things.)
• QuarkXPress 7, still my favorite page layout application.
• Ecto, which I haven’t used in a long time, but it was the blogging tool for me.
• I upgraded OmniOutliner from 2 to 3, and I’ve almost purchased OmniWeb several times.
• Remember The Milk pro, for the Blackberry syncing. 
• And of course Flickr.

(A lot of the other software I use is freeware… Also, I’ve been thinking about purchasing FontExplorer.)

These screenshots are of some really nicely designed forums that I like. They are used as support and bug reporting for different services. Similarly, I use a Vanilla powered forum to manage freelance work and other projects.

Anyhow, use Vanilla, it is cool. Use it.

I needed to hear that. I sometimes get really frustrated with cars and suvs cutting me off or almost hitting me and I yell and flip the bird. It can really get to me, about how cars have more rights, and can just run you off the road, and that the police or whoever would take their side. And how cars contribute to smog and exhaust just choking me and shortening my life. Bitches. 

But like Laura tells me, it is not worth getting so mad and worked up over. Also, like Sally said, you can inspire them to ride bikes, which is like better for the whole world. And they were talking about on the show that anyone on any kind of bike (road, mountain, beach cruiser, fixed gear, whatever) is GREAT because it is SO MUCH BETTER than them driving around in SUVs. There is no reason to be an elitist about it. The main goals of the cycling community should always to have more people riding. 

I have always been inspired by people like that, being so cool and nice to everyone. I feel like there are elitist and accepting cool people in any community. I would like to be more like that, not all aggro and elitist all the time, but be really cool, positive, and accepting. We all have a right to love life and not to be shamed for trying.

I am siked! Stoked! Wack! I don’t know. But I’m pretty pumped. We are at this crossroads in our life, our economy, etc etc and all that yucky stuff, where we can really do anything we want. WHAT HAVE WE GOT TO LOSE? Very little really.

This picture is maybe the third thing to really get me pumped this year so far. First was reading Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. I mean, she has to be the coolest most inspiring person. Like really UP THERE with Gandhi or Dr. King or Obama, you know? She has been swimming her whole life. She swam the Bering Strait! No wetsuit, no special warming nothing, she just swam it in her bathing suit. Not only that, she swam from the USA to the Soviet Union DURING THE COLD WAR. How powerful and inspiring is that? Not only was she swimming in like 40° water, but she was swimming for diplomacy. And swimming the Bering Strait wasn’t her only or biggest accomplishment, she has set all kinds of world records and swam in all kinds of places where no one ever has. In short, read her book! Buy it or get it at the library or borrow mine. It is very important.

So that was the first thing. The second thing isn’t as specific. It is a more general concept, or a movement really. L has been getting pretty deep into the idea of permaculture (to over generalize and state the obvious). She has been an incredible wealth of knowledge and keeps sharing these mind-blowing things that people are doing. Like “…there is this farm run by two ladies near santa cruz and they deliver the CSA on bike.” Whoa! Right? And that is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a quote that maybe typifies the second thing.

…cooking, sewing, washing, cleaning, reading, gardening, fixing, writing, drawing, crafting. woman’s work? perhaps. but i think its better than lining the pockets of someone else, working for basically nothing (for what end or purpose), probably harming the earth more (we have 30 less environment impact by me not working). this work i do at home benefits us, not some unknown corp exec and doesnt pollute the earth.

We have made the choice to live off of one salary (and my husband works only four days a week) and that means that we will always be poor. one car, less “stuff”, nothing new for years, but much more happier. that means we get to see and be part of her milestones, hear each new word uttered and each new task mastered.
 — permaculture of family

It is about making a choice, deciding what you want to live for or to work towards. This may be a painfully obvious and juvenile concept, but I feel like I’m realizing its meaning fully for the first time.

The third thing is, as I have stated, this image from the October 1940 issue of Popular Science. Chet Jr. traveled 1,200 miles in 14 days funding his trip by selling post cards? WHAT? Are you kidding? That is very awesome. AND he made that awesome trailer to sleep in? Can I do that please? But seriously, what is stopping us from living out our dreams and doing very cool things like Chet Jr.?

So for 2009, a year of “change”, I am resolved to really think through what I want to accomplish in my life and start doing it.

In November 2008, Odetta’s health began to decline and she began receiving treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. She was slated to perform at Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009.
 via