• Magento: Debug logging

    Enable logging (System > Configuration > Developer > Log Settings > Enabled = Yes) then add this code somewhere:

    Mage::log("Add this message to the log");

  • Magento: Static Blocks

    In a template file:

    <?php echo $this->getLayout()->createBlock('cms/block')->setBlockId('identifier')->toHtml(); ?>

    ... or in a layout file:

    <block type="cms/block" name="myblock" before="-">
	<action method="setBlockId">
		<block_id>myblock</block_id>
	</action>
</block>

  • On which side of THE fence are you?

    This is a pretty cool looking thing (click on the image to go through to the big version):

    Nice diagram of the right/left political divide

  • Magento: One page checkout gets stuck on custom skin

    Magento, a complex beast for sure but flexibility and scalability will have a cost. I recently had to ponder a problem I was having with a custom skin I was building.  My one-page checkout was getting stuck at billing address and I couldn't figure out why.  I thought I'd walked through the JS properly and established that everything was in order but I hadn't. My custom skin didn't use the col-right class for the right had column where the checkout progress module is housed. This meant that the JS was unable to find the progress module and unable to update it therefore the code was not all being called and subsequent steps in the checkout process were remaining hidden. The solution is either edit the JS to use a class that you are using or maintain the col-right class in your markup.

    It is quite often the case that I end the day tearing my hair out over a Magento puzzle but it must be said that when I fix it, the solution often reassures me that Magento IS the solid e-commerce foundation that it purports to be.

  • Peter Boardman

    I found this at the bottom of this blog post by Adam Curtis. Very moving and beautiful. RIP Pete.

  • There and back again

    There and back again

    Well I'm well and truly back home.  In fact, I've been back for over 2 years.  I recently updated the underlying technology of this blog and gave it a sweet redesign so I thought I'd write this post so sum up the last bit of my trip.

    So, it was a fairly straight forward train journey up to Amritsar.  Got nice digs, stayed for a day or 2 (can't quite remember) managing to take in the beautiful Golden Temple then hot footed it to the bus station all set to catch a ride to Dharamsala.  The bus journey was arduous due to bad traffic about half an hour away from our final destination but we got there in the end. On arrival I quickly found someone to share a taxi up to Mcleod Gange with and got a room.  I then proceeded to be ill for the next 3 days.  I seem to remember that by this point I'd really got quite used to being ill a lot and it didn't cripple me as much as it might have done 4 or 5 months earlier. 

    After spending a few days right in the centre of Mcleod Gange I made the enlightened move to Bagsu. Here I spent what might be the best 2 weeks of my entire trip. Each day I spent 3 hours doing Yoga with Ohmka on the roof top of the guest house I was staying in. I found fantastic places to eat and enjoyed strolling round hills. I was very settled here, I seemed to need less of everything.  I guess it was the yoga.

    I befriended a couple of Tibetan refugees; Gendan and Lobsang. They showed me some sights including Norbulingka where I got to see and touch, amongst many other things, the Dalai Lama's toilet, lovely. One afternoon, with Gendan and Lobsang, I went to a local makeshift cinema to see the awe inspiring Baraka. Amazing to see such a beautiful film in such a wonderful place. When we emerged from the cinema we found very broody skies and it looked like it was going to throw it down so I started to hot foot it back to Bagsu. As I sped up the road the heavens opened and the thunder and lightening commenced. My first Himalayan thunder storm is something I'll never forget. Sat on my balcony watching the forks strike the ground in the vast landscape of the foothills was really quite breathtaking.

    While in Dharamsala I also, for the first time in years, spent easter sunday morning in a church. It was the Church of John the Baptist just below the village of Mcleod Gange. It was quite an interesting service.  The priest took the opportunity to spread the story and the cause of his church rather than preach the gospels. It seems he had found the church in a somewhat abandoned state and had spent lots of time and effort reclaiming the building from the undergrowth.

    After that it was time to leave. I caught a bus all the way back to Delhi where I had a couple of days to shop and prepare myself for re-entry into north of England life.

    What a trip it was and I hope it has broadened my world in all the ways travel can do. Back to India one day? We'll see ;)

  • What I read on my trip to Asia

    What I read on my trip to Asia

    Reading seemed to form such a large part of what I did while I was away that a list such as this seems warrented.

    A short history of nearly eveything – Bill Bryson (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Chronicles (Volume 1) – Bob Dylan (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Galileo’s Daughter – Dava Sobel (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Cosmic Triggar (Volume One) – Robert Anton Wilson (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Buddha of suburbia – Hanif Kureishi (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Northern Lights (His Dark Materials Trilogy) – Phillip Pullman (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Black Album – Hanif Kureishi (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Midnight All Day (Short stories) – Hanif Kureishi (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Midnights Children – Salman Rushdie (View at amazon.co.uk)
    If You Meet Buddha on the Road, Kill Him – Sheldon Kopp (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Holy Cow – Sarah MacDonald (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Myths and Legends of India – J. M. Macfie (View at amazon.co.uk)
    An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth – Mahatma Gandhi (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield ()
    Even Cowgirls Get the Blues – Tom Robbins ()
    The Prophet – Khalil Gibran ()
    The Body (Short stories) – Hanif Kureishi (View at amazon.co.uk)
    The Invisibles – Zia Jaffrey ()
    Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()
    Being Indian – Pavan K. Varma ()
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach ()
    Untouchable – Mulk Raj Anand ()
    The Pilgrimage – Paulo Coelho ()
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain ()
    The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco ()
    Making History – Stephen Fry ()
    Longitude – Dava Sobel (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Villa Incognito – Tom Robbins ()
    Illusions – Richard Bach ()
    Jingo – Terry Pratchett (View at amazon.co.uk)
    Freedom in Exile – The Dalai Lama (View at amazon.co.uk)

  • Quick update

    Quick update

    Am in Delhi again waiting for a couple of things to be sorted before I can move along. Varanasi was OK. I was a bit worried about going to Varanasi for some reason so I had booked my ticket out of there before I'd even arrived. Also I'd elected to stay away from the ghats as these ares have a reputation for being dangerous, particularly at night. As it turns out 2 days was not really enough and having not spent that much time around the ghats at night I ended up finding this bit of the town to be the most peaceful and tranquil. Well next time, if there is a next time, I'll spend more time in Varanasi. The highlight was getting up at 4 one morning to catch the rising sun over the Ganges on a rowing boat. So beautiful it was.

    As you may have noticed my plans have changed somewhat. After realising that I had a week less than I had originally thought my options seemed severely narrowed. I was in Rajasthan and wanted to see Varanasi, Nepal and the Indian part of the Himalaya. I decided to drop the Nepal bit for this reason:

    The political parties and Maoists have agreed on a program of street agitation in Kathmandu from 6 - 9 April 2006, which is likely to include large rallies, demonstrations and a shut-down (on 8 April 2006) of the capital (see Local Travel). You should be careful if traveling in Nepal during this period, expect disruption to your journey, and avoid demonstrations and large gatherings of people.

    Quoted from FCO website Click here (FCO article)

    Maybe that was a little over cautious of me but at the time I was looking for ways to cut down my itinerary and this provided an excuse to cut Nepal out. I had also spoken to many Indians about Nepal, many of which said it is safe and many of which said it is not.

    Next stop is Amritsar, should be leaving tomorrow night. I have just less than 3 weeks of traveling left before I need to be back in Delhi to prepare for my trip back to the UK.

  • 4 weeks left!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    4 weeks left!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Well here I am sat in another of India's scuzzy cess pit towns, Allahabad not far from Varanasi. By this time tomorrow I'll be in Varanasi and by Wednesday morning I'll be back in Delhi, nearly ready to embark on the last leg of my trip which will take place in northern India. Since my last post I have spent a week in Pushkar, a night in Agra on my way to Khajuraho where I spent 3 nights. Then I moved on to Chikrakut for a couple of days before arriving in Allahabad yesterday.

    Pushkar was a wonderful week. For rupees 100 per night I had a clean room with a double bed and shared bathroom. My room opened out onto a rose and papaya tree garden and room service was provided. This made waking up in Pushkar everyday for a week an untold pleasure. Twas wonderful to fall out of bed into the beautiful sun soaked garden and be fed chai on request. Pushkar itself has a wonderful atmosphere. My only regret was that I was there alone. That didn't matter too much, there are plenty of people to talk to in Pushkar.

    Moving on, I knew what to expect from my one night in Agra having been there already. The journey to Khajuraho was a bit tough. The first half, train to Jhansi was a piece of cake but the second half, bus to final destination was a bit of a nightmere. I was sat next to this indian psycho who wouldn't let up for most of the journey even though we had established that we didn't have a common language and therefore couldn't speak to each other. I thought he was gonna get violent eventually. He didn't thankfully. I wasn't the only victim. He had 2 Japanese women close to tears for a good chunk of the journey, it was all rather horrid really. Of course all the other Indian males on the bus thought it was hilarious, wankers. It did make me wish that I was making more effort with my Hindi so I could tell him to fuck off more effectively.

    Anyway, Khajuraho was a bit shit. The temples with the occasional Karma Sutra depictions are wonderful. There aren't many dirty carvings though, maybe 1 in a hundred. I feel all templed out in many ways at the moment, I've seen so many in the last 6 months. I was only really interested in the Khajuraho temples because of the Karma Sutra depictions and was disappointed that there weren't more (te he). Having said this, of all the ancient temples I've seen, the ones in Khajuraho are probably in the best nick. The reason Khajuraho was a bit shit is that it's off season there. This means that I was one of the few tourists and while this is good when viewing the temples, its shit when walking around the town because it meant that every shop owner, rickshaw wallah (rickshaw wanker more like) and scamster was on to me and when the tourists are few, their resolve to not take no for an answer is all the more deeply held.

    Chikrakut was interesting. They don't get many non indian tourists there. The indian tourists that are there are really there as pilgrims. Chikrakut is said to be the place where Vishnu, Bramha and Shiva took their incarnations or to but it another way, were born. It's also the place where Rama and Sita went after Rama's father banished Rama from Ayhodhya. Cant remember why Rama's father banished him from Ayhodhya, I've read the story. It was probably at the rediculous request of some Brahmin. Anyway Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu and in Chikrakut Ram as he is referred to is worshipped heavily. There are several things to do as a pilgrim in and around Chikrakut. One of them, which I did is to walk around a local mountain that I think represents Ram. Its a 5 KM walk and is done bare foot. Monit, the chap I did it with (originally from Delhi. Says he's in Chikrakut because he's a bit mad and wants to concentrate on god. I think he just wants to smoke more chillum in the country air) does it 3 times a day. He believes it gives him power. I kinda wish I'd have stayed in Chikrakut a little longer and got to know Monik a bit more.

    Like I said, now I'm in Allhahabad. By the way. Allhahabad's special feature is the fact that the rivers Ganges and Yamuna (and the entirely imagionary Saraswati) converge at this point. I think this is where the Kumbh Mela event is held. I went to see the convergence today and like pretty much every other inch of india that I have seen, it's just a desolate waste land where people shit and drop litter.

    Home in 4 weeks, big up the mountains!!

  • I hate having to think of titles to posts!!!

    I hate having to think of titles to posts!!!

    Another post so soon? Well it's a bit of a slow day. I'm still in Jaipur, off to Pushkar tomorrow I hope. I haven't done everything I wanted to from Jaipur. I didn't make it to Balaji. I did see Amber fort (today), the museum, the city palace and the observatory. All these things are royal attractions. To be honest, I'm finding that I'm not at all interested in royal things, they bore me, they always have. This is helpful as it means that I can pretty much exclude these types of things from the rest of my trip. I haven't enjoyed Jaipur that much, it's ok. The food here hasn't been great (I'm sure there's great food if you know where to look), Jaipur a very busy place with lots of traffic and the usual array of beggars, rickshaw drivers and general hawkers constantly hassling. here is probably not the best of places to have made my first destination after the preceding few weeks. After 5 days here and before that 8 days in Delhi, I have high hopes for Pushkar's calming tranquility.

    I have been reading a book of abridged and translated versions of some of the legends told in some of the holy books of Hinduism. I have to say that this line of enquiry into the religion has led me to like the religion less and less. It is sooooo sexist. It is not at all surprising that with Hinduism as one the building blocks of Indian society, India suffers from a deeply ground in backwards attitude towards the sexes and what roles in the family and in society people are allowed to fulfill. In addition to this, in tales of great devotion, the devotee (usually a man) will carry out a great deed in honour of a god. He might stand on one leg for a thousand years whilst reciting devotional mantras or sacred texts. I think in all the cases that I have read the man (usually, probably always actually, his wife is probably along for the ride so he has someone to massage his feet and wipe his brow as he toils) does this to bring to himself great power. In many cases this power is unleashed in some horrible act of revenge against man, beast or god. This does not fit in well with my conditioned idea of what kinds of ideals a religion ought to promote, not a religion as such but give me Buddhism any day of the week. My last point about Hinduism is that so many of the tales seem to have the moral that:

    a) You should never kill a brahmin.
    b) You should never argue with a brahmin.
    c) YOu should give cows to brahmins.
    d) Brahmins are absolutely top and know everything and are as gods

    Hmmmmm. I wonder, did brahmins write these texts?? Well, yes, it seems they did. So, as it stands, I'm not about to become a massive Hindu zealot. What am I to do with my Om and Ganesh t-shirts???? (Actually, none of the stories I've read so far have said anything about Ganesh.) If I were to erect a shrine for me to focus such things as prayers on, it would probably comprise of statues of Buddha and Gandhi and maybe an ash tray full of Bob Marley's old spliff ends.

    I am starting to formulate a plan of what to do next, see list below:

    Pushkar
    Jodhpur
    Jaisalmer
    Udaipur
    Ahmedabad (Gandhi's ashram where he was resident)
    Nagpur (Not far from here, Gandhi's other ashram, can stay at this one)
    Khajuraho
    Varanasi (Oooooo, bombs at the station here recently apparantly)
    Bodhgaya
    Kathmandu
    Pokhara
    Amritsar
    ..... some places in the mountains .....
    Rishikesh
    Delhi
    Home

    I have less than 2 months to do the above so it's probably not all gonna happen. Anyway, prolly post again in Pushkar or summink ;~).