Oliver Hansen

Green Eyes In Africa — A Spectacular Story

The way I found the site Green Eyes In Africa is a little interesting in itself. Ever since I discovered my old site was on the front page of the Google search for my name I have been curious to see how high I could get my sites. Some call this a vanity / ego search but the point is I found another site that popped up on the same search and decided to check it out. As I read through the site the stories became increasingly interesting to me because of my brief time spent in Mexico at an orphanage which instilled the value of volunteering and had a lot to do with my deciding to join the Peace Corps later in life. For a reasonable donation Green Eyes In Africa will send you one or both of the DVD documentaries An Orphan’s Gift and Green Eyes In Africa.

Reading more about this person who shares two of my names, it turns out Ryan Oliver Hansen is quite an amazing young man. As an art student at BYU he decided to make a touching documentary which in his words in an article at The Daily Utah Chronicle he says

Originally, my trip was meant to be a summer-only endeavor-a fun, feel-good experience that would look smashing on my ever-improving résumé.

That documentary An Orphan’s Gift took place as he spent 7 months at an orphanage in Esmeraldas, Ecuador which would change his life forever. Continue reading “Green Eyes In Africa — A Spectacular Story” »

Post Office Is A Strange Place

I don’t go in there regularly but when I do I am never sure what paperwork I need to fill out or whether it’s priority or express mail I want to send. The really strange thing I noticed just recently was that the Post Office is one of the few places where you go in with something, pay your fee, and come out with nothing. And you’re happy about it! It was just a weird feeling!

A Funny Story About Losing Shipping and Customer Service

Of course, it wouldn’t be funny if it was me. The tone of his conversations just had me laughing pretty hard. It really is disgusting how little help the customer service is and how little responsibility these companies take for their mistakes.

I quickly discovered the downside to the amazing power of the Internet: I have exactly the same information as customer service. You hope, when you call, that they have access to the magic Database of Redemption that holds the keys to your shipping dreams, but they do not. And what’s worse, they don’t seem to realize it.

Australian Youths Get Revenge on Stupid Automated Speed Trap

http://www.davesdaily.com/pictures/908-mischievous-aussies.htm
Niiiiiiiice! Personally, I hate the idea of automated speeding mechanisms. Unless they know it is YOU driving the car, how can they send the ticket?

Digg It

Oh, and I don’t care if it’s an urban legend or not — just the thought of it makes me happy.

SatayTube — My Favorite WordPress Plugin

I like to embed videos in my blog sometimes. It’s so much nicer than making someone leave your site on a link. Especially with a preview image, they are much more likely to watch than to just skip by. When I moved to WordPress from my old site that used Joomla! I spent a while looking for a plugin to embed videos into a post. I found several but none that would do it in an accessible way. I knew about Flash Satay and could modify the embed tags that youtube and others give you but I thought there must be an easier way. Satay Tube allows you to just paste in the URL from one of many video sharing sites and it will convert the embedded code to be accessible and still play in all the popular browsers! It’s that simple! SatayTube allows you to embed videos in your blog and still stay accessible!