Last winter I took on the task to redesign the Foothills Harley Owners Group web site. The previous iteration of the web site had outlived its purpose and a new site was needed to allow the group to find the information they needed quickly while allowing the group’s officers to manage the content easier.

I used Joomla as the content management system to give the site it’s form and structure. The content was categorized and laid out in a way that would make it easy for the Webmaster to manage and maintain.

There was one area that was of paramount importance. The club needed an online calendar system where they could enter all of the various rides and activities to allow the site visitors to quickly see what was coming up.

Joomla does not have a calendar feature per se but through the use of extensions it offers the ability to augment core functionality with new features. I began searching for a calendaring module and finally settled on JCal Pro from Anything Digital.

This Joomla extension provides not only an online calendar but also modules to display the next few activities in a bulleted fashion. JCal Pro began as a non-commercial product but has since moved to being a full commercial implementation.

Anything Digital offers a subscription plan that allows you to download the latest version of JCal Pro for a specified time. I selected the Develop Special 1 bundle, which gave me access to JCal Pro version 1.5 as well as the newer JCal Pro version 2.

Besides download capabilities the subscription also allows you forum access to post questions and get product support. The Developer Special 1 bundle will grant you access not just to JCal Pro but also for Anything Digital’s application RSVP and Advanced Search.

I downloaded the software and installed it onto the Foothills HOG Joomla site. The installation was fairly simple and follows the standard implementation using the Joomla Administration module.

It did not take long to get the system up and running but there are some caveats to be considered. Joomla does not recognize the concept of daylight saving time so twice a year the JCal Pro gets a little confused. This usually means having to go in and manually adjusting the dates or times to get things on the right track.

JCal Pro manages time itself and Joomla does likewise. Trying to get your hands around how each interact is a logic puzzle that can at times be frustrating. The JCal Pro development is fairly active meaning there have been several upgrades during the first year of implementation.

It has been a little frustrating because the bugs that I have encountered in the application seem to come and go with each successive implementation. There are also some features that are missing that you would just expect to be there. Printing a calendar resulted in a creative hack uncovered through the forums otherwise that was not included in the base package.

The types of data that can be displayed is also incomplete making it confusing to the inexperienced administrator. With each successive upgrade there have been issues regarding the existing data. In some instances it has required re-inputting the data, a very tedious process.

Many of the bug fixes and changes show up in later releases but as beta versions requiring the Joomla Administrator to run beta extensions on a production server. This is ripe for problems and has come into play in more than one occasion.

Despite all of the trials and tribulations JCal Pro has performed adequately. Of all the calendar extensions currently available, it seems to be the most feature-rich and stable. I’m continuing to use it but cringe every time I have to make changes to it since you never know what will break next.

I’d love to give this extension a raving review but given its track record I hesitate recommending this to all Joomla administrators. If you need a calendar system and you don’t mind a little extra work JCal Pro could be just what you’re looking for.

When I first began blogging I was decidedly against having a calendar appear on the front page. I kept telling myself that I already knew what day it was and I didn’t need a continual reminder of how seldom I posted. It served as a constant feedback mechanism of how pathetic I was as a blogger. When I started this I thought I would write every day. Before long I was happy if I was posting once a week. Then it was maybe twice a month. Without a calendar there I lacked discipline of keeping track of my writing frequency. For the exact reason why I didn’t want a calendar on my blog I realized that was why I needed one.

Both Movable Type and WordPress come standard with a calendar system that will display the current month with the days becoming links when there is an entry on that day. I should have been content with this functionality but I was looking for something just a little bit more.

I began looking for a replacement for the calendar that was a little more efficient. John Godley authored a new calendar called AJAX Calendar. I selected this version of the calendar after looking over several. I liked the idea of using AJAX to navigate through the calendar without requiring a full-page refresh for each change of the month.

The AJAX Calendar was a simple installation using the built-in plug-in section of the WordPress Administration tool. The calendar has no unique configuration settings. It is complete right out the box.

Besides the AJAX navigation, this plug-in also displays a drop-down list of post titles for a specific month using the «-» link under the calendar. Overall I’ve been very happy with this plug-in and I have implemented it on each of my text-based blogs. If you’re looking for a calendar with just a little extra I suggest taking a look at this plug-in.

Today is a day I have both anticipated and dreaded my entire life, 09/09/09. I am a self-proclaimed patterns guy and I am always looking at number patterns and trying to understand them as something more than just coincidental. Whether it be when a clock turns 12:34 or if a date comes up with some pattern I seem to try to place some sort of value on it.

The repeating nine pattern though has me just a little bit uneasy. I would normally be excited about a date such as triple nine but my excitement is tempered by the fact that the number nine has been stalking me my whole life and as a result I am scared to death of what today will bring.

It started the day I was born which just happened to be the ninth day of March. At first I thought that would mean that nine would be my lucky number. After all, the day you came into this world was pretty lucky wasn’t it?

Soon I noticed that nine began creeping into my life unexpectedly. When I reached the age when I could begin playing sports I gravitated to baseball. I loved that game and it became a passion (my wife Trina would say it became an obsession but that’s another story).

I played baseball every chance I could get. Whether it was a pick-up game or an organized game I was always on the field. When it came time to receive our first uniform we were assigned numbers. The number I was given? Nine.

That was an odd coincidence but one that I didn’t think much about. The first position I played was first base which was exactly 90 feet from home plate, yet another nine (9 + 0 = 9). Each team in baseball is made up of nine positions. A baseball has 108 red stitches (1 + 0 + 8 = 9). As I got older I developed a lot of speed and a strong arm and I was moved from the infield to the outfield. I played right field which coincidently is position nine in a baseball scorebook.

It is not just baseball where nine began following me around. I also ran track where I ran the 100 yard dash. My fastest time that put me in the state track meet was 9.9 seconds. The track uniform I was assigned was number 27 (2 + 7 = 9).

When I met Trina I was running track and playing baseball. By this time I could choose my own number and I wanted to put some distance between me and nine. I chose 32 as my number. Trina who was also an athlete wore number 22. We dated all through high school and it took quite a while before I realized that nine had got me again (2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 9).

When we decided to get married we chose June 18. It was the day my grandparents had gotten married and we felt it would be a wonderful tribute to them to be married on the same day. Of course nine had to be there (1 + 8 = 9).

After graduating from college I went to work for the Department of Energy where I was given a security clearance. My clearance number when the digits were added together equal nine. When we moved to Arizona and I went to work for Motorola my employee ID was issued and it too was a nine.

As we started looking for a plot of land to build our house in Arizona, I came across a place that looked perfect. We went in to purchase the land and found out that it was lot 9. The streets had not been put in yet and the houses did not yet have house numbers. As the house was finished so were the streets and we were given our address which coincidently is a nine.

When we found out we were going to have our son Dakota it came as no surprise that he would be a boy after having five girls. After all I was 36 when he was born and Trina’s due date was also a nine. Once again, nine finds a way to invade our lives.

For the longest time I wanted to believe that it was merely a coincidence that nine seemed to continually pop up in my life. There comes a time though that you finally realize that it’s not a coincidence. I am being stalked by a number.

I’ve contacted the authorities to see what my options are for putting some distance between me and nine. Strangely enough, it does not seem possible to have a restraining order placed on a number. All of the legal professionals I have spoken to just stare at me when I ask that question. You would think the founding fathers would have thought of something like this. I will continue to work with my legislature representatives to pass a law that will protect you from being stalked by numbers.

In the mean time I plan on being very careful today. There is just no telling what is going to happen. Tonight I’ll be at Chase Field watching a baseball game wearing my Diamondbacks jersey. What number you ask? Nine.

I looked at the calendar today and realized it was time to flip the page. It’s funny, as I have started to get older I look at the calendar with equal parts of amazement and disdain. Every day that goes by reminds me of all the things I had wanted to get done but never seemed to find the time. This leads down the typical range of emotions. First is astonishment when I realize that the calendar has moved forward. You would think that after all these years I would realize that time continues to march forward regardless of whether I choose to acknowledge it or not. Yet every day I still find myself shocked to see another day has passed. Once I get over the initial emotion I usually get frustrated. I have a list of things I wanted to get accomplished and I broke that list down into days and now I find that one day is missing and it doesn’t seem like any of the activities I had listed for this now missing day had the decency to get lost with the day. Activities are kind of like rats on a sinking ship. When they see a calendar day slowly taking on water soon to be gone from existence; they immediately jump to the next day hoping to save their pathetic selves.

This bailing of the activities of course has the effect of overloading the next day thereby causing it to start to take on water and it begins to sink. It’s like my own personal Titanic complete with the really bad musical score but without the Kate Winslet nudity. As the supposed captain of this vessel I am extremely frustrated at the panic these activities are exhibiting. They should just go down with the ship but that never happens. This leads to the next emotion which is anger. You just want to find out who is responsible for messing with the calendar and causing time to increase while my productivity decreases at a similar rate in the opposite direction. Someone owes me an explanation and assistance in cleaning up this mess. No one though with take ownership of this fiasco including me which I think is probably the root of the problem but I am in a state of denial. Not only am I a resident of the state of denial, I think I am the governor. So without ownership the final emotion is one of resignation. Nothing seems to work so why even bother. It is a defeatist attitude but in this case it works. So it is somewhat appropriate that I came to this epiphany today since it is May Day and I am under serious distress.