So, yes, I did install Gallery2, and I’ve even got some albums coming together that will be viewable soon. However, to make this at all useful to me, I needed to integrate Gallery2 with WordPress, and the wonderful folks over at wpg2.galleryembedded.com have a nifty tool to do just that: the WPG2 plugin. [BTW, possibly stupid question: anyone know if the WordPress and Gallery2 folks are the same entity or related entities? They seem rather buddy-buddy.]

At any rate, I just installed the WPG2 plugin, and this here’s my initial run at seein’ what it can do.

96 Wow, ok. that was easy. Here’s a picture of my golf bag.

Hmm, here’s using some advanced options to put the image to the right.

Not sure the worked. Have to check out the CSS. Ok. One more, using a different tag function:
140

EDIT: Well, it seems that the plug-in is doing a nifty job of displaying the thumbnails on the blog, but clicking the links to the images seems to weird things.

So, I get home from a somewhat frustrating doubles round of DG. How two guys shooting fairly well can still combine for a +2 is something I’ll be taking up with the DG gods later.

At any rate, my truffin.com project tonight was to install a photo gallery program and get it running. Only, well, I’ve got to pick one. My wonderful new host makes it very easy for me one-click install 3 different programs for sharing photos. Two of them look really good:

• Coppermine
• Gallery2

Of course, this means making a, gasp, choice. So, I go online trying to find comparison studies between the two. Nada. You know, you folks in the open source movement don’t have to be so gorram nice to each other. A little competitive back stabbing wouldn’t hurt you know.

So, now, after almost two hours of combing the webs in hopes of finding some reason to pick one over the other, here’s what we’ve got.
Coppermine: the installation file for Coppermine is like 1/4th the size of Gallery. Way cool. On the down side, there only seems to be one WordPress plugin to integrate Coppermine with WordPress, and it’s not clear how good or stable it is.
Gallery2 seems to be the choice of more experienced users–and I want to look like an experienced user, so that’s a good thing. And it appears to a very nice integration with WordPress. But, and here’s a big BUT, it’s HUGE. It’s 52 MB compared to Coppermine’s 11. Egads!

Of course, no one wants to say one is better than the other. So I’m just going to have to go and install one of them and hope it’s good. Cuz if it ain’t, well, then I’ll have to uninstall it and do all the work again with the other.

Did I say I had a frustrating round of DG?

Call it the power of advertising. Yesterday, while looking up some info on a gel pen, I noticed Staples was having a crazy sale on flat screen monitors. Now, I’ve been wanting a flat screen monitor for some time. Sure, my 17″ CRT was working fine, but it was like Jabba the Hutt sitting on my desk. Sherry even told me on more than one occasion that I should look into a flat screen. So, trembling with anticipation, I trundled out of the house and to the store. Of course, when we got there, they didn’t have the exact model I saw online. But they did have one for the same price, and they had a Sony for just $20 more. Feeling a bit snobbish, I eschewed the no-name monitor and snagged the last Sony they had in stock. With the $40 rebate, well let’s just say it was an easy choice to make.

So, there it is. The Sony SDM-HS75B. It couldn’t have been easier to install and set up. Truly plug-n-play. And, here’s the great part. My 17″ CRT only gave me about 15.5 inches of actual viewable space, but this, my new 17″ LCD gives me an actual 17″. That’s 1.5″ more real estate in a smaller package. Woo hoo!

——->

Last night I finished cataloging all of the books that are in our bookcases. I’ve still got a couple of boxes to do in the basement, and we’ve still got Sherry’s books in her office.

However, here are some fun facts about our library as it currently stands:

1271 total books
1240 distinct titles
69 Avg # of other LibraryThing users who own each of our books
176 # of books that are unique to us among LibraryThing users
2368 # of LibraryThing users who own Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
95 # of books I’ve had to enter manually
508 # of books published in the 1990’s
28 # of books by/about C.S. Lewis
34 # of books by/about J.R.R. Tolkien

Well, I wasn’t lying when I said truffin.com would be dark until mid-January. Problem is, it’ll probably be dark until February as well. However, when things go live again, you can expect a whole new chronicle of adventure! If you liked the Alaska Chronicles, I anticipate you’ll have warmth in your heart for the tenatively titled “Trek to Texas.” (FIVE T’s in a row! Wow.) Ted and I are wrangling off to Big Bend National Park, so hold your breath; it’s gonna be a doozy.

In exciting site news, you may notice an oddly colored thingamajig off to the right. Psst, it’s over there –>
I’ve started using the amazing cataloging powers of Library Thing to keep track of our books. One of their nifty features is this little box that will randomly display 5 titles from our store of books.

I’ve only got about 77 of our books entered into the database, but as time goes on I’ll make my way through our two rooms of books and the assorted piles laying about. Thus, right now you won’t see much of our fiction, but I’m half-way through the religion section.

Oh, BTW, for those of you waiting for Christmas cards…the Truffins may have to celebrate St. Valentine with our yearly update. Sorry.