Last night we had a small “Ask the WordPress Expert” meet-up. We had five people in total. The next WordPress event(s) are posted. Contact me if you need another event to help with your projects.
The ATWE format is fun as people just ask me (and each other) questions. I am booking some events with formal presentations as well. The last event with a formal presentation brought the venue to capacity so I may need to enforce the RSVPs or get a bigger venue. 
Dan dropped in and decided to create a new blog on fish and fisheries. I’m supposing he will come to the next meet-up to set it up or start learning to add content.
Steve came by with his new camera. It’s a cool sporty camera that works underwater as well. I helped him crop, re-size and insert one of his first images into Canadian Energy Issues. We used GIMP.
To crop an image with GIMP you first load the image. I like to have a GIMP icon on the desktop and then drag one or more JPG files from a camera onto the GIMP icon. Once in GIMP, you grab the selection tool (top left tool) and draw a square around the area of the image you wish to keep. In the menu select Image then Crop to Selection. When the selection tool is active you can have it constrain the aspect ratio using the check box towards the bottom of the toolbox.
To re-size an image with GIMP simply use the menu Image then Scale Image. There is a little chain link beside the height and width box. That locks in the aspect ration so you’ll usually want the chain link to be in the “linked” state.
When you exit the image it will prompt for saving and you’re ready to upload the image to WordPress.
Steve also invited Rachael who is also going to work with WordPress. Her band iCarumba! will be attending the open mic at the Royal Oak Canal (221 Echo Drive) on Tuesday the 17th at 8:30pm.
Sanjay came by to work on his blog and the them DynamiX. I helped him work through some of the theme configuration including custom menu and widgets.
I’ve been using EventBrite to handle RSVPs for the events. It’s working out quite well so far. It’s way less work than using email. Last night we had 5 people in total and there was one no-show according to the EventBrite registration. I’ve heard of other people’s efforts at organizing meetups and events and getting a lot of no-shows. This can be an issue with venue reservations and so forth so the plan is that if this turns into an issue I will start adding a $1 fee to the registration.