Kevin "Skews Me" C.'s Profile

I awoke this morning and put on my Isla Mujeres Mayan calendar t-shirt with only the faintest idea that today was Cinco de Mayo. It wasn't until opening the news that I'd realize it a holiday to celebrate "heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy," as Wikipedia puts it. And with a super moon, too, it was bound to be a fun night.

Well, I like to celebrate all those things in my life, so off to Mama's I traveled, and as fate would have it, there was an immediate opening at the bar. I had already decided on the Nolasco burrito from the online menu, and decided upon their popular strawberry margarita. Who can resist fresh strawberries in season?

The burrito was served within minutes of my order, and was absolutely delicious. It's no wonder Mama's has remained such a popular Seattle eatery for so many decades.

As an activist and content provider, I've copy / pasted countless articles from websites during the past decade to my websites, Yahoo Groups, MySpace, Facebook, post comments, etc. In most every instance, I've needed to include a link / URL back to the original article. This has usually meant manually selecting the URL from the browser's address bar after pasting the text. But recently, I started noticing some websites automatically add the URL to the text selection and so I sought out how to do it.

I eventually found http://Tynt.com, an upstart company, offering their services for free that not only include the JavaScript snippet to include, but also provide statistics for the page hits. As I just set up my account, my statistics won't be available for a number of hours, but I'm sure any analytics http://Tynt.com can provide will be beneficial to knowing how my content is being used.

The JavaScript snippet http://Tynt.com provides for adding a URL link to the copied text assumes there's a master template to be used for all of the web pages. Luckily, when I first created my main website I created a header.js file my essays load to render features common to all pages. So after updating the file and clearing my browser cache, the http://Tynt.com Test feature indicated I was good to go.

But then I had my WordPress blog to consider. Luckily a few plugins for http://Tynt.com have already been written so I went with "http://Tynt.com For WordPress" that seemed the most full featured, and after duplicating my settings from the http://Tynt.com offical site to include the id-key I needed to extract from the code snippet, again, the http://Tynt.com Test feature indicated everything was working fine. It even worked for pages in one of my subdomains.

I have encountered a glitch in the http://Tynt.com code, though, for which I've sent them notice. I have an ebook that uses #name links to quickly jump to that chapter. http://Tynt.com adds a #id analytic tag to the end of the URL which apparently renders both # tags useless. Hopefully http://Tynt.com finds a workaround for this conflict, even if it means convincing browser developers to be smarter about them too... as they eventually did for [ target="_BLANK" ] anchor tags to open a new tab rather than new browser instance.

So now that my essays and blog are set up to include not only a link back to the original article as well as include one to my http://facebook.com/Sk... page when someone shares my material, I'm waiting in anticipation to see just what *is* getting shared.


Complete article: http://skewsme.com/blo...
See also: http://facebook.com/Sk...

-- see what the post added to my paste (plus the cropping done by yelp)? =)

Something Old, Something New lives up to its title as a thrift store. With its reasonably-priced funds helping the disabled of King County, their clothing merchandise rotates on a regular basis such that there's always a new $1 deal for the avid shoppers.

Nestled amidst the art studios near the Pioneer Square district, the first Thursday of the month Art Walk has the store staying open late to feature local artist paintings and new merchandise for the lookie loo.

Something Old, Something New is also on the forefront of helping the disabled get back on their feet in the working world offering positions to train folks in the retail sector. (Former volunteers have graduated to positions with other companies serving the public need.)

Open Monday thru Friday from 10:30 to 5:30, this thrift store surely has what you need.... or if they don't, just wait a day to come back. All merchandised is donated to the store with new stock arriving daily.

As a volunteer at the store, I'm personally grabbing up every good book I can find.

Having grown up on Bainbridge Island back in the Eighties and graduating to Seattle, returning to Winslow is an adventure for me today: there are so many new people and places to visit.

And so for lunch I ate at the family run Big Star Diner as it's called these days after the building was relocated piece by piece from its New Jersey home many years ago.

The diner looks retro, and it feels like the Fifties complete with miniature juke boxes with salt and pepper shakers to match; malts too.

For a taste of Americana, the Big Star Diner is the place on Bainbridge Island. A great place to take your kids.

So you've found yourself down in Pioneer Square and the need of a good meal comes to call? You want a taste for the best Seattle can offer and in that neck of the woods what comes to beckon befall?

Between the clubs that are the best in Seattle's heyday played is nestled this bit of Mediterranean Mix: a quaint little spot on our map of delectable delights.

The Best Gyros in the Northwest their old banner reads, and I surely cannot believe they've been topped by some other eatery here instead. Their spices are possibly only shadowed by their bread. Again I just tasted the yummy leftovers on my tongue from yesterday's spread.

Lamb gyro for the win =)

I found it extraordinary to see someone put up a stand of free samples outside my local Seattle coffee shop, so I felt I just had to discover what my neighbor had to offer.

And thank the stars I tried the Black Eye Pea Hummus!

My taste buds are absolutely alive with her homemade flavor I rarely encounter in this mass market world. (What have I been missing all these years?)

"Made Lovingly With Black eye Peas, Seasonings, Olive Oil, Lemon Juice and Tahini" begs the question: can you tell us your secret?

I'll admit I don't know the first thing about hummus or tahini other than trying them on occasion at Seattle's numerous ethnic eateries, but I can honestly say none of those hold a candle to this "rich, savory Northwest original."

How could anyone possibly resist a friendly Seattle-ite chef who adds community outreach programs to their repertoire?

And according to Kristi's email address, she also offers catering.

So I received in the mail some time ago a menu from Palermo decked out in green and red, and I saw something new that caught my eye:

Chicken Marsala
Tender chicken breasts sauteed in creamy Marsala wine and mushroom sauce, served on top of spaghetti noodles.

It sounded interesting, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't know what to expect not being a wine connoisseur. But Oh My God it tasted absolutely fantastic... my new favorite!

When Palermo says tender chicken breasts, they mean it. And their sauce defies belief... and should patented.

Palermo dishes out a taste worthy of kings. The thick, robust flavor of their Chicken Marsala is nothing like I've come to expect from delivery.

I've been recommending it to everyone I know.