Here is the latest collaboration between my son Rian and I. This time we made a stop motion movie using his Mario toys. Unlike the Star Wars stop motion movies we have made in the past this one actually has a little bit of sound. I hope you enjoy it…

I am proud to introduce my latest WordPress Plugin. This one is called “Konami Easter Egg” and it makes it easy for anyone to create custom easter eggs on any WordPress powered website. If you aren’t quite sure what an easter egg is, let me backup and give you a little history lesson. Easter eggs are hidden secrets that can be found in movies, websites, books, Tivo remote controls, and pretty much anything where the creator has hidden secrets. They are called “easter eggs” because they are hidden treasures that you have to find. The creators of these things often hide them as a wink to other people who know the secret code.

One of the most famous easter eggs was created by video game maker Konami in 1988 when they hid a code in their Contra game that allowed the player to gain 30 extra lives. The code was entered by pushing a sequence of buttons on their controller. The code was “up up down down left right left right b a start select.”

The Konami code has since been used in countless games and has transcended into popular culture. Most recently, the code has been added to Facebook with “start select” being replaced by “enter.” There is even a website dedicated to documenting all the websites that use the Konami code, http://konamicodesites.com/.

I have always been intrigued by easter eggs and have long wanted to be able to add hidden things to websites that I make. When I learned about a javascript file called konami-js available on Google Code I realized that I could make a WordPress plugin for creating secret codes that reveal hidden messages on a website.

My plugin will hopefully appear in the WordPress plugin directory soon, but if you would like to test it out ahead of time, please contact me and I will send you a demo.

The Konami Easter Egg plugin is available now through the WordPress Plugin Directory. Here are the installation instructions:

Click here to view a screenshot of the settings page of the Konami Easter Egg Plugin.

Installation
Installing Konami Easter Egg is very easy and do not require any template modification. Just follow these steps :

1. Upload the folder ‘easter_egg’ to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory.

2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

3. After activating the plugin you should see “Easter Egg” in the sidebar under “Settings.”

4. *IMPORTANT* Before the easter eggs will appear it is important that you enter the name of the outer most Div tag used in your theme templates. This can be found by viewing the source code of a page on your site. The first Div after the will look something like “<div id=”wrapper”>”. Take the name of this div (in this case it would be “wrapper” and enter it in the settings page for the plugin.

5. Enter the YouTube code of the video you would like to show.  Change the “key” if you want a unique key combination to unlock the easter egg. Change the message to say something unique. Customize the CSS to change the appearance of your Easter Egg as desired.

6. Congratulations, you did it!

By the way, I wonder what would happen if you entered the Konami code right now. Only one way to find out!

I have been using Twitter a bit more recently and it has been fun to connect with web designers on Twitter and the huge numbers of designers using Twitter. If you are looking for designer to follow on Twitter, here are some links to websites that have created lists of some of the more noteworthy designers on Twitter. And while you are looking at all the designers who twitters, be sure to add me (@ade3) and I will gladly reciprocate.

100 Web Designer’s to follow on Twitter according to Digital Labs

50+ Designers on Twitter according to Vandelay Design

16 Genuite, Authentic Designers on Twitter according to Six Revisions

25 Most Popular Web Designers on Twitter according to Best Web Design Schools

44 Web Designers to Follow on Twitter according to Think Vitamin

50+ Designers on Twitter, Grain Edit’s favorites

Driving back from Nebraska on Easter earlier this year I was the victim of one of the most blatant gas price scams I have ever heard of. Put simply, the pump charged me a different price than what was advertised on the pump. Fraud at the pump is somewhat notorious on I-80 traveling through Nebraska, and I have complained about a North Platte gas fraud incident before. If you are ever stop for gas in Nebraska avoid the Cenex at the Ogallala exit. Here is what happened to me along with photo evidence of the gas scam they are running there…

We usually stop and eat at the Ogallala exit because they have a Runza at the Cenex gas station there. Being Easter, the station was closed as was the Runza, so we ate dinner at the McDonalds next door. While my family ordered our food I filled up the gas tank. The photo to the right shows what the pump looks like when you drive up. It clearly says $2.199 per gallon. Click on any of these images to see the full resolution photos that show the whole photo.

The next photo shows what the price changes to after you start pumping gas. As you can see it changed to $2.239! When you have finished pumping it switches back to the cheaper price. I couldn’t believe what just happened! There was no sign anywhere showing that the gas cost $2.239. It could have charged me whatever it wanted.

Since the gas station was unattended on Easter, there was nothing I could do but warn another victim who had just pulled up to the pump. Finally we noticed that the sign by the road said “cash price” in tiny letters next to the price. Apparently the advertised price is only if you have cash. And since the station is closed, nobody can pay cash. Credit card is the only option and they don’t tell you what that price will be. If you pay with a credit card they change the price to some arbitrary and unadvertised price. You don’t know the price until you actually start pumping. It could be $7.50 per gallon and you would be at their mercy.

There are dishonest people everywhere, I suppose. Crooks like the owners of the Cenex Station can get away with their scams because they have found a way to exploit their customers. Their scam might even hold up in court, but I wonder if in the long run it is worth it for them. I can tell you that I will never buy gas from that station again. I will tell every person I know who travels through Nebraska not to stop at that Cenex station. The price change cost me less than $1, but I will never buy gas from a Cenex station ever again. I hope you think twice before buying Cenex, too. Hopefully they actually lose money from their rip off methods.

I have been documenting my dreams at dreamfeedr.com for a couple weeks now and I wanted to share some tips that may help you remember your dreams better. I have no idea if these suggestions will actually work, but if you are serious about trying to keep a dream journal, it can’t hurt. So here are ten ways to improve your dream memory:

1. Sleep in a dark and quiet place. This seems obvious, but even the smallest noise or light could disturb your sleep. Even if you don’t fully wake up you may be pulled out of a dream.

2. Sleep alone. This could be hard to do if you share a bed with someone, but trying to dream with a person next to you is harder than if you can sleep alone.

3. Don’t drink anything but water before you go to sleep. Caffeine, sugar, and alcohol could potentially affect how you sleep and perhaps it could interfere with your dreams.

4. Before you go to sleep make a conscious effort to think about dreaming.

5. When you awake, try to think about any dreams you had. The sooner you can capture your dreams when you are awake the better chance you will have of recalling them later.

6. During the day you may have “flashes” or deja vu that reminds you of a dream. Pause and focus on that thought and see how much you can recall of the dream.

7. Keep a notepad and paper by your bed and write dreams down when you wake up. This one doesn’t work for me, but that’s what experts tell you to do.

8. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. If you want to create a habit of remembering your dreams, it might help to create a habit of sleeping the same way every night.

9. Turn on a fan or some other appliance that creates white noise while you sleep. This noise covers up the small noises that might wake you up. Even in a quiet house, there are noises that can be softened by white noise. Floor creeks, pet sounds, heaters and air conditioners, street sounds, and even the smallest sounds can bring you out of a dream.

10. Practice. It seems funny to try to learn how to dream, but practice will actually help. The more you practice remembering dreams the better you will get at it.

Like I said, I am not an expert on dreams or dreaming, and these are just some thoughts I have had recently. If you have some suggestions for improving your dream memory please add a comment to this post.