On Random Meanings

WordPress comes pre-installed with a plug-in to insert a random line from Louis Armstrong’s song “Hello, Dolly” into the header of the admin screens I see when working on the website. I never activated the plug-in until today because I never saw the point–the song has no intrinsic meaning to me, and why clutter up my screen?

But curiosity got the best of me. I want to understand how .php code works. I stopped by Barnes & Noble this afternoon, bought a book on .php coding, and took a look at some of the plug-ins I’ve installed to see if I can understand what the code does and how it works.

I decided that if “Hello, Dolly” means absolutely squat to me, why not substitute in a song lyric that does?

A quick Google search, a substitution into the plug-in’s code, and now a lyric from The Beatles’ “Revolution” graces the top of my admin screens.

The first lyric to appear randomly? “Well you know, you better free your mind instead.”

Taken on its own, very profound, that.

I still don’t understand quite how the .php code for the plug-in works, but I have a better idea now than I did, say, twelve hours ago.

At the same time, I have a feeling John Lennon is trying to tell me something.

A fortune cookie I had today did tell me something. “You will always possess a charm and a sense of humor that attracts others,” it read. When it’s right it’s right. Chinese oracles know of whence they speak.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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