However, if you need the root folder from within a page that is outside of WP, it’s a little more tricky. You don’t have access to the ABSPATH constant, and you don’t have built in access to the database to check for ‘wp_dir’ in the options table. [Of course, you could query the db if you have access details: something like "select option_value from wp_options where option_name ='wp_dir';" would do it.]

If the page is in a folder that is below the WP root folder though, there’s a nicer way. I wrote a little recursive function that checks a folder for the existence of a named file and, if it’s not there, moves to the parent folder and checks again. If it’s found, it returns the path to the file. So, if the file is below the root folder, this function will eventually find the root WP folder if you search for something like ‘wp-load.php’ or something else that generally lives in that folder.

Here’s the function with some code to demo how it’s used:

function find_file($filename, $path){
	$filepath = $path.'/'.$filename;
	if (!file_exists($filepath)){
		$filepath = find_file($filename, dirname($path));
	}
	return $filepath;
}
 
$path_to_wpload = find_file('wp-load.php', __DIR__);

Hopefully that’s useful to someone. If you have an improvement to the function, or another (better) way to do the same thing, please add a comment.

Credit: berrytokyo

I got a MacBook Pro recently, primarily because all the cool kids are creating the latest, greatest web tools on Mac systems and, frankly, the Windows guys are lagging behind. I found myself increasingly finding awesome tips/tricks/tools that came with the mac-only caveat which finishes with “I don’t know how you do this on a Windows machine, sorry.” I also got it because they’re so brilliantly designed to be both beautiful and powerful, and I dig that.

However, nobody mentioned the gaping hole of productivity that the non-standard (?) weird (UK) keyboard mapping! Argh!

• The @ and ” symbols are swapped. Ever write an email? Yeah, me too. So I’ve had to re-learn where the @ symbols is. Annoying!
• Page Up and Page Down are missing. This is really important to me as I use those keys A LOT to move around documents I’m editing.
• The # symbol is completely missing! Any time you want to add colo(u)r to a webpage, you need that bad boy. Now it’s gone. This the worst change because, as an added annoyance, it’s been replaced with the never-ever-used-in-my-entire-life § (Section) symbol. What? Not to mention the equally useless ± as its shift+ partner.

Suffice to say, my first few weeks of Mac-ownership were filled with never-ending Google searches starting, “mac os x keyboard shortcut for …”. Now, I do know that all of these things can be overcome with judicious use of modifiers (e.g., Page Up is ?+? [cmd + up-arrow]), but even so, it’s a pain.

Then I stumbled on a superb bit of software called KeyRemap4MacBook. It is free and it is brilliant. I have now re-mapped several keys on this laptop to be more useful to me and I am very grateful to the genius Takayama Fumihiko for it. Though I haven’t gone as far a re-mapping the @ and ” symbols, I’ve made the this machine work better for me, and that’s pretty cool.

Right now, here’s how I have it set up:

• When I hit the ‘§’, I get a lovely ‘#’.
• Along with PCKeyboardHack, I’ve remapped the Caps Lock key to be “forward delete”
• The Eject key now shows the desktop
• The right-hand ? key is now Home (“Go to start of line”)
• The right-hand ? key is now End (“Go to end of line”)
• Also really handy: “Press ?+Q twice to Quit Application”

So, I’ve tamed the beast, somewhat. And I’ve forced myself to use the @ key in the wrong place. And I’m now pretty much up-to-speed with my Mac, and am enjoying playing with all the clever toys the cool kids are creating.

I was making this call:
$.getJSON('//remotedomain.com/api/?x=' + someInput + '&callback=?', function(data){…}

and the execution was skipping right over the code in that block, given a response from the server of:
'[{"Error": "Some problem happened"}]'

In the end, the solution was to change the error message from the server from saying “Error” to something else, e.g.:
'[{"Problem": "Some problem happened"}]'

Hope that helps someone out and saves them the 2 hours I just lost. Though I guess I did learn something new!

[Note: this refers to jQuery 1.7.2]

THEN I had the bright idea of checking online to see if anyone else had done such a thing and what, if anything, I had missed in my design. Of course, plenty of folks make these type of devices all the time, so no invention here. Ah well!

Well all the stuff arrived and I pulled it together over a week or so — an hour here, an afternoon there — and the Loopy Deux was born. I named “Loopy Deux” because it loops and there’s two of them. I had “Loopy Doo” in my head and realised that “doo” (deux) in French means “two”, so the name stuck! I learned some things through it and had to assemble a number of tools to produce it which will come in handy for the next two projects being born out of this one.

The nice thing about this pedal is that it solves more than one problem. It’s great for removing a particularly noisy or tone-sucking pedal out of the audio signal, but the other nice thing is that it can help you set up several pedals into a particular sound by allowing you to switch them all off or on with a single switch instead of dancing around, trying to get them all switched as fast as possible.

I have some ideas on additional features that would make the pedal even more useful (buffers, blend pots, etc.), but that will have to wait until version deux!

Here’s some photos of the various stages.

By the way, if you are interested in getting something similar made, let me know — I’m always up for a challenge!

In one way, common sense says spread out the unheaval. Don’t rock the family boat too much at one time. Take the hits one at a time to disperse the pain. I’m not so sure though — I feel all at once is perhaps the best way. Just throw it all at me in a one’r and, “setting my face like flint”, I’ll get through it. Being in a constant state of big change would be a hard way to live. Seasons of constance and short storms of massive change perhaps suit me better.

That’s just theory, of course. I have no way of really knowing as I’ve never really had big changes spread out and, to bring us up to date, it looks like another storm is brewing. Changes in housing, church, job, income and spiritual climate has me wide-eyed. I’m faced with the prospect of all this change like one sitting at the front of a rollercoaster at the initial ratching up. Infact, I’m at the top, faced with the reality of what this all means, and the immediacy of it makes for a big inhale and the gulp and tightened grip before the big fall at the start of the ride.

But I’m learning to lean; I’m learning to trust. I’m getting better at seeing this stuff for what it is. I’m learning to marry up my understanding with my own circumstances. I feel more confident that everything will be alright. In fact, if I navigate in step with Him and remain in Him, I can come out of this much the richer. The opportunity for learning and growth is compelling.

So I say bring it on! All the trouble I see brewing, when viewed from this perspective, just become bigger examples of the “change is good” way-of-life I so espouse. It’s just that there’s more on the line now. But, surely, that means the reward is that much greater.

Please do consider it. We feel we’re doing what we’re called to do, and that it is very relevant and important work. If you fell led, please pray and see what your Dad has on His heart for you to do.

Thank you!

However, I feel that change is coming. Importantly, though, I don’t think it will necessarily come through a coming out from The Union. I believe that, as a people, we are sufficiently different from the rest of the UK that, over time and in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit, our differences will start to pull us in a direction that is away from the rest of the UK. There may be many reasons why we should or should not be ‘in union’, but if God is calling this nation to have a more Godly character and value system — and I believe He is — and we move with it, we will automatically have an independence far more important than the political status of this country.

The release of the Lockerbie bomber was so significant. It was a wee nation showing mercy despite great pressure from the UK and US governments. And, while I have sympathy for the families of those affected by the bombing, and the correctness of the decision from a legal position can be forever debated, the importance to building the identity of Scotland is huge. It showed the way we can become independent. I don’t just mean going against the flow for the sake of political gain, but coming into alignment with biblical principals, particularly when that is not the norm.

So, here’s the point: if Scotland is to become independent, I believe it’ll be, at first, through a spiritual shift and then, if ever, a political one. So, Body of Christ in Scotland, now is the time! Start being an influencer. Start praying for your local area and the people in it. Pray for God’s will to be done. Ask Him how you, personally, can bring that change in your area of influence. Stop believing the lie that you have no influence – you have as much as you want. And stop believing the lie that you don’t want influence! You are called to be a light and to do that you need to stand out and not hide. Come on, Church. It’s not ever going to happen by leaving it to the Spiritual Superstars! Imagine how the nation would look, even overnight, if the whole church in Scotland woke up and realised who they are and what power and authority they carry and what they are called to do with it. A nation so transformed, it would be independent!

Of course, as soon as we got settled in the studio, Lorna immediately put us both at ease and the conversation flowed from there. Plenty of laughs, a lot of good talk about healing and what God is doing in Scotland in this day, and some prayer for listeners who got in contact made for a quick two hours which went pretty well!

It got me thinking though — how great it is that three people talking about something they’re into can be entertaining for others. That coming together and talking is a very simple form of creation. Lorna created entertainment just by asking us interesting questions and others benefited from that act of creation. It also, for me, highlights one of the most important aspects of creativity: that it causes new things to exist simple through a natural, built-in, aspect of our humanity. That’s just crazy to me. But it makes perfect sense. If we are children of the God that defines creativity — all creation is His work — and we are made in His image and likeness, that means we too are creative in the same manner. My pastor, Jake Chadney, writes more eloquently and convincingly about this in an article called “Creative Growth”.

We as a church have had a couple of weekends together exploring creativity for creativity’s sake. We called them Creative Discovery Weekends and there was a good selection of different things to try. The point was to engage in the creative process, not to do ‘good art’. I feel the distinction between arty and creative can be summed up like this: that art is there to be judged and therefore, to some extent, can be good or bad. The creative process, however, is just that — a process. It is neither good nor bad, attractive or ugly. It is the exercise of taking a base substance — clay, paint, ideas, blank film, a musical instrument — and producing something. And that act of birthing something new is exciting!

There is an intriguing article that I read the other day that states this:

The labor one performs transforms something in the environment, which in turn transforms you. The act of creation shapes you as a man, refines your sensibilities, improves your strengths, hones your concentration, and builds your character. Passive consumption leaves you untouched and unchanged. Consumptions breeds indifference; creation begets empowerment.

Wow! The act of creativity can expand your whole character? Now you have my attention!

And that, I suppose, is a great manifesto for the existence of this blog. I hope that the act of occasionally sitting down and forming a thought or making an observation or a connection between things will, in turn, open up more creativity in me. I want to grow in this area. I want to be creative in my thinking because I believe we’re coming into an age where the old arguments and wisdom will no longer cut it. That we will need to have a creative capacity to make the connections between what God is doing and what man is struggling with.

So, although this entry has meandered a bit, it has awakened in me just a touch more creativity, and that’s good enough for me!

So for me to have three good buddies at one time is unusual, and that we all shared a common interest just made our time together cool. Ben, Dan and Allan and I have been in a band together for the last 9 months or so, but it’s all come to an amicable end.

We were never entirely sure how long term the band was going to be or what it would look like. I was personally just enjoying regularly hooking up with these fine men, hanging out and joking around, and sometimes playing music together. It took us a few months to see it for what it was: loads of fun together.

With Dan’s decision to move back to the USA, and with the knowledge that there is a full-time worship leading call on Ben & Allan’s lives, and me knowing that music is not my focus for now, we are all done as a band. We played our last gig at Dan’s recent CD launch night which was fitting as the CD was the only tangible output of the band, it being the main focus for the whole time we’ve been together.

So, this post is a wee tribute to three awesome men of God — legends, even — who have been great fun to walk with.

Dan: thank you for all your encouragement in the area of music, my ability, and the opportunity to take part in the creation of the CD was awesome. I pray your journey is just beginning, that everthing so far is the warmup lap, and now you are heading off for the real thing. Wherever you end up will be a blessed place indeed. You are a very very good man; be everything you can be. Do it!

Ben: you are such a brilliant, brilliant musician. I think you greatly underestimate your skills, but you are so inventive, so precise, so passionate! Thank you for always being the first to pray, the first to encourage and the one who always knows the funny thing to say, even if it is just over the line! Pursue your dreams, mate!

Allan: you are SO gifted, and you are so humble with it. I’m so glad you have known from an early stage what your gifting is and how you’ve been faithful to pursue it. You have me in stitches, especially when you and Ben are messing around, and you are so encouraging. You too need to go for it in a big way and watch how God blesses it.

All three of you are very talented, gifted and annointed musicians, humble and funny, loyal and encouraging. I am blessed, and my life is enriched, by knowing you.

The band is dead, but our friendships live on. Amen!

How can we be most effective? How can God make best use of our willingness to serve?

Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.”

We have set our sights on doing God’s will, but it is Father God that guides where our feet must go and what our actions must be. For those of us who have decided to make the growth of His Kingdom our primary concern, this fact is absolutely key to our success. We know we want to serve Him and to do His will, and we position ourselves for this, but we must learn to rely on His continual guidance through each day of our lives if we are to have the greatest impact possible.

In the Old Testament, for a prophet to hear God’s voice was a big event and sometimes we are waiting for the big unmistakable voice of God to reverberate through our heads, dictating our next big move. However, we are under the new covenant therefore we have an on-going relationship with the Holy Spirit where we can hear His voice through the day, every day and, like Brother Lawrence, I think we need to pursue “The Practice of the Presence of God” to hear that still small voice, to know and understand His ways.

God doesn’t play by the rules. So much of Jesus’ ministry was shocking both theologically and culturally. The Father sent Him into the company of people representing the untouchables of Jewish society. I think Jesus must have been in very close communication with Father to be so determined, to have the guts to revolutionise society’s concept of who was acceptable. He must have been aware of Father God directing his steps so precisely, allowing His day to be directed so completely. So for us to go beyond our own barriers of what we perceive to be ‘right’, we will need that precise guidance too.

I saw this as I was reading the story of Zacchaeus [Luke 19: 1-10]:

1 Jesus was passing through Jericho. 2 A man named Zacchaeus was there. He was the director of tax collectors, and he was rich. 3 He tried to see who Jesus was. But Zacchaeus was a small man, and he couldn’t see Jesus because of the crowd. 4 So Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed a fig tree to see Jesus, who was coming that way.

5 When Jesus came to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down! I must stay at your house today.”

6 Zacchaeus came down and was glad to welcome Jesus into his home. 7 But the people who saw this began to express disapproval. They said, “He went to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 Later, at dinner, Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Lord, I’ll give half of my property to the poor. I’ll pay four times as much as I owe to those I have cheated in any way.”

9 Then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “You and your family have been saved today. You’ve shown that you, too, are one of Abraham’s descendants.

10 Indeed, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save people who are lost.”

Look at verse 5. Jesus is in Jericho, not His hometown, so it’s a good bet that he doesn’t actually know of Zacchaeus either by name or by sight. But He speaks directly to Him, calling him by name, as if they are good friends. He is being directed by Father God to a man that is ready to hear. Zacchaeus’ response is telling: he was glad to welcome him and, further down, his life is so transformed that he gives up half of all his wealth and wants to repay fourfold to anyone he has cheated.

The crowd did not approve of who Jesus wanted to hang out with, but the fruit of the encounter was a whole family turned around: saved, healed & delivered. And the funny thing is that this scornful crowd will be treated more fairly by the transformation of this reformed Tax Collector!

I believe Zacchaeus was ripe for the picking. I believe Father God directed Jesus to encounter him at just the right time and place and in just the right way to unlock that wee man’s heart.

Think about the heavily afflicted man living in tombs on the shore of Galilee. It says in Mark 5 that Jesus got into the boat to cross the lake. When they got there, the man that lived there came out to meet Him and, once Jesus had sent all the demons into the herd of pigs, He said His farewells and got back into the boat and crossed the lake again. The only reason for the trip was to set this man free. He knew why and where He was going. Father God was directing His steps and that is why no storm on a lake stopped Him.

Think about the woman at the well in John 4. We know the story well: a woman living a sinful life meets Jesus who speaks to her of her sin. She changes the subject, not wanting to speak about her past, and Jesus chooses this supposedly unclean woman to reveal His true identity. As we know, the well was in a town called Sychar, in Samaria. The normal route for Jews between Judea and Galilee was the long way around, avoiding Samaria as there was a lot of hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. It seems the only reason He went this way was to have a meeting with a thirsty woman who needed someone to cross the racial divide to bring her a never-ending drink of life.

And that is how He wants to move through us. He wants us to be in close, intimate relationship with Him so He can direct us in the moment-by-moment of our days. He wants us to so know His voice that we have a surety to our actions that will allow us to press through the storms the enemy would bring. He’s looking for a people that know His heart and that are willing to be changed by taking on His compassion for the untouchables of society. He wants to take that willing heart we have and guide our steps to reach a desperate and needy world, unlocking hearts one-by-one, each in the right time and place, in just the right way.