A blogger’s final post

I started using WordPress in September, 2006 with the then-current version, 2.0.3. A bit over a year ago I was curious about the differences between WordPress and the previous leading blogging software for self-hosted sites, Movable Type. (Mark Evanier uses an outdated version of Movable Type.) I found this item by a blogger named Derek K. Miller. I was particularly interested in Miller’s discussion of a WordPress plugin that generates static pages, instead of using a WordPress caching plugin as a way to speed up sites on shared hosting services. (I later decided to cache.)

Miller was a writer worth reading, so I checked out some of his other posts. He was a musician, husband, and father, living in Vancouver. Reading Derek K. Miller’s posts, it quickly became apparent that he was a very sick man, and he was being treated for advanced colon cancer.

Derek, you have a big and loyal following — fellow musicians, fellow Vancouver residents, and others whose lives are affected in one way or another by cancer. Because of that I didn’t link to your blog, and I didn’t contact you, but for the past year I’ve been following penmachine.com. I am saddened to learn that you died two days ago.

He’s Mighty Sore!

It’s going to be a super-hero summer! (Especially if you consider Harry Potter to be a super-hero.) The buzz from Europe, where the Thor movie is already out, is that it’s a great, fun ride.

That’s good, because so far Jack Kirby’s creations for Marvel Comic haven’t translated to the big screen as well as the less cosmic characters Spider-Man and Iron Man. Captain America was one of Jack’s first, co-created with Joe Simon. As with Thor, I wasn’t too optimistic about the project until I saw the trailer, which looks very promising.

And there’s another X-Men movie coming too. The X-Men are also from the mind of Kirby, but the movies are based quite a bit on later incarnations of the mutant team.

http://youtu.be/0Yq7Za1JnZg

When I was a kid in the 60’s, Marvel’s summer special double-size, 25-cent comic books were a big deal. We’ve come along way from those days!

DC is represented this summer by Green Lantern, but this trailer leaves me feeling more uncertain about this movie’s prospects than Marvel’s offerings.

http://youtu.be/pHmMh0yikQ0

From Our Gang to Superman

http://youtu.be/1uVu1S7wEOk

Jackie Cooper is gone. After being the biggest child star in the 30’s before Shirley Temple, Cooper managed to have a solid, successful career. To relatively younger audiences, he’s best known for being Perry White in the Christopher Reeve run of Superman movies. I knew him first for his memorable appearances in Our Gang, with June Marlowe as Miss Crabtree.

Stupid is, as stupid does

Here’s a local story in today’s news:

WESTBOROUGH — Police seized a rifle and two handguns from a home on Fisher Street Monday night after they said the owner accidentally fired his AK-47 assault rifle and hit a window at Armstrong Elementary School.

He accidentally fired his AK-47, thinking it wasn’t loaded? How about he negligently fired his AK-47. I don’t own a gun, and I never want to own a gun, but I know that you always — always! — check for ammo when handling a firearm. Either he intentionally fired the assault rifle in his house, or he did it unintentionally, due to carelessness. Either way, this idiot shouldn’t be allowed to own guns.

Related: I assume there’s an Internet site that keeps track of “accidental” shootings like this one.