by Bobbi Miller-Moro Actress Kristin Wallace came from a sizzling hot TV/ Film career in Canada straight to Hollywood, and has not touched the ground since she arrived with back to back films. She has new leading role in 'Fire Watch' (2010) a film shooting this fall with Director Nicholas Kinsey same director from 'My Best Friend's Deception' (2009), Kristin was also the lead, and she signed with Prodigy Talent Management. Her passion for acting is more than just noticeable, it is appreciated as she was just moved up to the master class in the Ivana Chubbuck Studio. Her fiery, balls out performances are breathtaking and just as she leaves you wanting more; she turns into a sweet purring vixen that has the likes of Megan Fox shifting in her heals. Leaving nothing on the table, she has played compelling characters in 'How To Rob A Bank' as Julie; 'Harold Joy' as the lead, 'Righteous Indignation' she plays Maria as a supporting character, and 'For You Trish' as the lead and she played 'If The Devil Comes' as the lead. And that is just in the film world, she has a dizzying array of credits in television and theater. best known is Canada with the wildly popular television hit 'Team Epic' where she plays bad ass "Valkyrie", a hot-tempered super hero in a mini golden bikini. Kristin's bright green eyes and black hair gives her 5' 9" frame a traffic stopping appeal that comes to life on the green screen. No character can escape her intensity, from a high school 'girl you love to hate', or sexy screen siren that makes you want to go hide your husbands. Her bad girl image has you scratching your head as she throws one curve ball after another. She looks as though she can play the iciest Vampire with her pale skin and wicked smile. I sat down with this Canadian bombshell at the Standard Hotel on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. She walked up to the table with a one piece mini dress with ten foot long legs and dark hair spilling all around her thin frame. She graciously shook my hand and I welcomed her to Hollywood, not that she hasn't been embraced by Hollywood already. Bobbi Q: How old were you when you knew you wanted to act? Kristin A: I was born with the acting bug. In fact, some of my first memories are of me on stage as a very young child. But the defining moment had to be when I was 11 years old watching “Dirty Dancing”…my mom is still shocked she let me see this at that age…I fell in love; I dreamt that it was my story and I was in it! I had an obsession and fascination with all of it. [laughs] Movies like this helped shape the actress I am today. Bobbi Q: Who were your major influences? Kristin A: I have always looked up to Rachel McAdams and Ellen Burstyn. Both have inspired me and taught me so much. Rachel has excelled in every genre she has lived in; I aspire to be like her. And I was lucky enough to meet Ellen at TIFF this past year…I could barely speak…I was blown away by her energy and life. I did manage to tell her she was one of my biggest inspirations…then blushed and walked away [smiles]. Bobbi Q: What movies would you watch growing up that influenced you? Kristin A: I loved the Indiana Jones’s films. In fact, all of Steven Spielberg’s films’ have had a huge impact on me. If I had to pick one movie that influenced me, it would have to be “E.T”. This film touched me in a way that allowed my huge imagination to run free. It was so magically, I fell in love with E.T and I was deeply affected by how Steven created everything in the film…I had to know. Bobbi Q: Well obviously you loved to watch a lot of movies growing up, was your family then shocked when you went into acting? How does your family feel about your acting career now? Kristin A: My family is very supportive. They are normally always surprised at what comes out of their little daughter actually (laughs) My dad has always told me to push my boundaries, take risks and go for it all the way. I admire and listen to those words. My mom has always told me to do what will make me the happiest and follow that with all my heart, again wise words to take to heart. Bobbi Q: What was your first major success as an actor? Kristin A: A defining moment had to have been when I booked my first series regular on the TV series “Team Epic”. I played a female super hero, so they trained me in martial arts and quarterstaff fighting, as well as personal training sessions to improve my strength. It was pretty unreal all the cool things I got paid to learn from the top experts in Toronto. I was hooked. Bobbi Q: How long have you been involved in acting until now? Kristin A: I actually was quite shy about sharing any of my acting aspirations for a while. I did some theater throughout high school but really didn’t have the courage to actually go for it with all my heart until university. I majored in theater receiving an Honors Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, performing in multiple plays at a time. But professionally, meaning when I first started to get paid…[laughs]…it’s been almost two years. Bobbi Q: Well obviously you are doing something right then, do you study any specific disciplines or techniques? Kristin A: I’m always open to new techniques. I like to keep things fresh and fun for myself. Whenever I am not working I am studying with multiple teachers. I like to take what works for me from each of them and apply it in my own way to my work. Currently I am studying with Ivana Chubbuck and Margie Haber. Both of these classes have changed my life; I also really love improv. I am constantly looking to expand my knowledge because I think it is very important to always grow as an actor. Bobbi Q: Why did you make the leap from Canada to the US? Kristin A: Riding the coat tales on the success of “My Best Friend’s Deception”, I knew the time was right. I grew enormously shooting the film; it had such a profound affect on me as an actor. With lots of encouragement I decided to cross the border and take my career to the next level. With my dual-citizenship…thanks mom…I knew I had nothing stopping me.
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Hooks are very useful in WordPress. They allow you to “hook” a custom function to an existing function, which allows you to modify WordPress’ functionality without editing core files. In this article, we have compiled 10 extremely useful ready-to-use WordPress hooks, along with examples and coding explanations. Want to learn more about CSS coding and web design? Take a look at our upcoming Smashing Book ( $23.90 $29.90 , available worldwide). Pre-order now with 20% discount! What Is A Hook? To achieve a particular effect on a WordPress blog, you have to modify how WordPress works. Some of these modifications are made to what WordPress developers call “core files,” files required by WordPress to work properly. But modifying core files is always a bad idea. It may create a security loophole. Also, you will have lost the modification when you upgrade your WordPress installation. Still, developers need to overwrite some of WordPress’ functionality, which is why WordPress provides the Plugin API . Hooks are one of the main building blocks of WordPress plug-ins. Almost every plug-in uses a hook to overwrite WordPress’ core functionality. How to Use Hooks on Your WordPress Blog Unless you’re writing a plug-in, you would write hooks in the functions.php file. This file is located in the wp-content/themes/yourtheme directory. A hook, as you would expect, “hooks” one function to another. For example, you could write a custom function and attach it to one of WordPress’ core functions: add_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); In this example, we hook our own custom function to WordPress’ publish-post function, which means that every time WordPress executes the publish-post function, it will also execute this hooked function. Of course, we can also remove hooks using the remove_action() function: remove_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); Hooks resources: WordPress plugin API Codex page Adam Brown’s hook database Hooks from WpRecipes 1. Disable WordPress’ Automatic Formatting The problem . You have probably noticed that, by default, WordPress converts normal quotes to “curly” quotes, and makes other little formatting changes when a post is displayed. This is very cool for people who publish normal content, but anyone who uses their blog to discuss code will be annoyed because, when pasted in a text editor, code with curly quotes returns syntax errors. The solution . Simply paste the following code in your functions.php file: function my_formatter($content) { $new_content = ”; $pattern_full = ‘{([raw].*?[/raw])}is’; $pattern_contents = ‘{[raw](.*?)[/raw]}is’; $pieces = preg_split($pattern_full, $content, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE); foreach ($pieces as $piece) { if (preg_match($pattern_contents, $piece, $matches)) { $new_content .= $matches[1]; } else { $new_content .= wptexturize(wpautop($piece)); } } return $new_content; } remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wpautop’); remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wptexturize’); add_filter(’the_content’, ‘my_formatter’, 99); Once that’s done, you can use the [raw] shortcode in your posts: [raw]This text will not be automatically formatted.[/raw] Code explanation . Our first step here was to create a function that uses a regular expression to find the [raw] shortcode in your posts’ content. Then we hook our my_formatter() function to WordPress’ the_content() function, which means that my_formatter() will now be automatically called every time the_content() is called. To remove the automatic formatting, we use the remove_filter() function, which lets you delete a hook on a specific function. Source: Disable WordPress automatic formatting on posts using a shortcode 2. Detect The Visitor’s Browser Using A Hook The problem . Cross-browser compatibility is probably the most common problem in Web development. You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you are able to detect the browsers that people use to visit your website and then create a custom class wrapped in the body tag. Few people are aware of it, but WordPress can already detect browsers, and a few global variables are available for us to use. The solution . Nothing hard here: just paste the code below in your functions.php file, then save the file and you’re done! <?php add_filter(’body_class’,'browser_body_class’); function browser_body_class($classes) { global $is_lynx, $is_gecko, $is_IE, $is_opera, $is_NS4, $is_safari, $is_chrome, $is_iphone; if($is_lynx) $classes[] = ‘lynx’; elseif($is_gecko) $classes[] = ‘gecko’; elseif($is_opera) $classes[] = ‘opera’; elseif($is_NS4) $classes[] = ‘ns4′; elseif($is_safari) $classes[] = ’safari’; elseif($is_chrome) $classes[] = ‘chrome’; elseif($is_IE) $classes[] = ‘ie’; else $classes[] = ‘unknown’; if($is_iphone) $classes[] = ‘iphone’; return $classes; } ?> Once you have saved the file, the function will automatically add a CSS class to the body tag, as shown in the example below: <body class=”home blog logged-in safari”> Code explanation . WordPress has global variables that return true if a visitor is using a particular browser. If the visitor’s browser is Google Chrome, the $is_chrome variable will return true . This is why we create the browser_body_class() function, which returns the name of the visitor’s browser. Once that’s done, we just hook the function to WordPress’ body_class() function. Sources: Browser Detection and the body_class() Function How to detect the visitor’s browser within WordPress 3. Define Default Text In TinyMCE The problem . Many bloggers almost always use the same layout for their blog posts. Posts on my own blog WpRecipes.com are always displayed the same way: some text, some code and then some more text. What about saving time by forcing tinyMCE (WordPress’ visual editor) to display default text? The solution . Once again, hooks are the solution. Just open your functions.php file, paste the code and let the hooks work their magic! <?php add_filter(’default_content’, ‘my_editor_content’); function my_editor_content( $content ) { $content = “If you enjoyed this post, make sure to subscribe to my rss feed.”; return $content; } ?> Code explanation .
Hooks are very useful in WordPress. They allow you to “hook” a custom function to an existing function, which allows you to modify WordPress’ functionality without editing core files. In this article, we have compiled 10 extremely useful ready-to-use WordPress hooks, along with examples and coding explanations. Want to learn more about CSS coding and web design? Take a look at our upcoming Smashing Book ( $23.90 $29.90 , available worldwide). Pre-order now with 20% discount! What Is A Hook? To achieve a particular effect on a WordPress blog, you have to modify how WordPress works. Some of these modifications are made to what WordPress developers call “core files,” files required by WordPress to work properly. But modifying core files is always a bad idea. It may create a security loophole. Also, you will have lost the modification when you upgrade your WordPress installation. Still, developers need to overwrite some of WordPress’ functionality, which is why WordPress provides the Plugin API . Hooks are one of the main building blocks of WordPress plug-ins. Almost every plug-in uses a hook to overwrite WordPress’ core functionality. How to Use Hooks on Your WordPress Blog Unless you’re writing a plug-in, you would write hooks in the functions.php file. This file is located in the wp-content/themes/yourtheme directory. A hook, as you would expect, “hooks” one function to another. For example, you could write a custom function and attach it to one of WordPress’ core functions: add_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); In this example, we hook our own custom function to WordPress’ publish-post function, which means that every time WordPress executes the publish-post function, it will also execute this hooked function. Of course, we can also remove hooks using the remove_action() function: remove_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); Hooks resources: WordPress plugin API Codex page Adam Brown’s hook database Hooks from WpRecipes 1. Disable WordPress’ Automatic Formatting The problem . You have probably noticed that, by default, WordPress converts normal quotes to “curly” quotes, and makes other little formatting changes when a post is displayed. This is very cool for people who publish normal content, but anyone who uses their blog to discuss code will be annoyed because, when pasted in a text editor, code with curly quotes returns syntax errors. The solution . Simply paste the following code in your functions.php file: function my_formatter($content) { $new_content = ”; $pattern_full = ‘{([raw].*?[/raw])}is’; $pattern_contents = ‘{[raw](.*?)[/raw]}is’; $pieces = preg_split($pattern_full, $content, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE); foreach ($pieces as $piece) { if (preg_match($pattern_contents, $piece, $matches)) { $new_content .= $matches[1]; } else { $new_content .= wptexturize(wpautop($piece)); } } return $new_content; } remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wpautop’); remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wptexturize’); add_filter(’the_content’, ‘my_formatter’, 99); Once that’s done, you can use the [raw] shortcode in your posts: [raw]This text will not be automatically formatted.[/raw] Code explanation . Our first step here was to create a function that uses a regular expression to find the [raw] shortcode in your posts’ content. Then we hook our my_formatter() function to WordPress’ the_content() function, which means that my_formatter() will now be automatically called every time the_content() is called. To remove the automatic formatting, we use the remove_filter() function, which lets you delete a hook on a specific function. Source: Disable WordPress automatic formatting on posts using a shortcode 2. Detect The Visitor’s Browser Using A Hook The problem . Cross-browser compatibility is probably the most common problem in Web development. You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you are able to detect the browsers that people use to visit your website and then create a custom class wrapped in the body tag. Few people are aware of it, but WordPress can already detect browsers, and a few global variables are available for us to use. The solution . Nothing hard here: just paste the code below in your functions.php file, then save the file and you’re done! <?php add_filter(’body_class’,'browser_body_class’); function browser_body_class($classes) { global $is_lynx, $is_gecko, $is_IE, $is_opera, $is_NS4, $is_safari, $is_chrome, $is_iphone; if($is_lynx) $classes[] = ‘lynx’; elseif($is_gecko) $classes[] = ‘gecko’; elseif($is_opera) $classes[] = ‘opera’; elseif($is_NS4) $classes[] = ‘ns4′; elseif($is_safari) $classes[] = ’safari’; elseif($is_chrome) $classes[] = ‘chrome’; elseif($is_IE) $classes[] = ‘ie’; else $classes[] = ‘unknown’; if($is_iphone) $classes[] = ‘iphone’; return $classes; } ?> Once you have saved the file, the function will automatically add a CSS class to the body tag, as shown in the example below: <body class=”home blog logged-in safari”> Code explanation . WordPress has global variables that return true if a visitor is using a particular browser. If the visitor’s browser is Google Chrome, the $is_chrome variable will return true . This is why we create the browser_body_class() function, which returns the name of the visitor’s browser. Once that’s done, we just hook the function to WordPress’ body_class() function. Sources: Browser Detection and the body_class() Function How to detect the visitor’s browser within WordPress 3. Define Default Text In TinyMCE The problem
Hooks are very useful in WordPress. They allow you to “hook” a custom function to an existing function, which allows you to modify WordPress’ functionality without editing core files. In this article, we have compiled 10 extremely useful ready-to-use WordPress hooks, along with examples and coding explanations. Want to learn more about CSS coding and web design? Take a look at our upcoming Smashing Book ( $23.90 $29.90 , available worldwide). Pre-order now with 20% discount! What Is A Hook? To achieve a particular effect on a WordPress blog, you have to modify how WordPress works. Some of these modifications are made to what WordPress developers call “core files,” files required by WordPress to work properly. But modifying core files is always a bad idea. It may create a security loophole. Also, you will have lost the modification when you upgrade your WordPress installation. Still, developers need to overwrite some of WordPress’ functionality, which is why WordPress provides the Plugin API . Hooks are one of the main building blocks of WordPress plug-ins. Almost every plug-in uses a hook to overwrite WordPress’ core functionality. How to Use Hooks on Your WordPress Blog Unless you’re writing a plug-in, you would write hooks in the functions.php file. This file is located in the wp-content/themes/yourtheme directory. A hook, as you would expect, “hooks” one function to another. For example, you could write a custom function and attach it to one of WordPress’ core functions: add_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); In this example, we hook our own custom function to WordPress’ publish-post function, which means that every time WordPress executes the publish-post function, it will also execute this hooked function. Of course, we can also remove hooks using the remove_action() function: remove_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); Hooks resources: WordPress plugin API Codex page Adam Brown’s hook database Hooks from WpRecipes 1. Disable WordPress’ Automatic Formatting The problem . You have probably noticed that, by default, WordPress converts normal quotes to “curly” quotes, and makes other little formatting changes when a post is displayed. This is very cool for people who publish normal content, but anyone who uses their blog to discuss code will be annoyed because, when pasted in a text editor, code with curly quotes returns syntax errors. The solution .
Hooks are very useful in WordPress. They allow you to “hook” a custom function to an existing function, which allows you to modify WordPress’ functionality without editing core files. In this article, we have compiled 10 extremely useful ready-to-use WordPress hooks, along with examples and coding explanations. Want to learn more about CSS coding and web design? Take a look at our upcoming Smashing Book ( $23.90 $29.90 , available worldwide). Pre-order now with 20% discount! What Is A Hook? To achieve a particular effect on a WordPress blog, you have to modify how WordPress works. Some of these modifications are made to what WordPress developers call “core files,” files required by WordPress to work properly. But modifying core files is always a bad idea. It may create a security loophole. Also, you will have lost the modification when you upgrade your WordPress installation. Still, developers need to overwrite some of WordPress’ functionality, which is why WordPress provides the Plugin API . Hooks are one of the main building blocks of WordPress plug-ins. Almost every plug-in uses a hook to overwrite WordPress’ core functionality. How to Use Hooks on Your WordPress Blog Unless you’re writing a plug-in, you would write hooks in the functions.php file. This file is located in the wp-content/themes/yourtheme directory. A hook, as you would expect, “hooks” one function to another. For example, you could write a custom function and attach it to one of WordPress’ core functions: add_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); In this example, we hook our own custom function to WordPress’ publish-post function, which means that every time WordPress executes the publish-post function, it will also execute this hooked function. Of course, we can also remove hooks using the remove_action() function: remove_action ( ‘publish_post’, ‘myCustomFunction’ ); Hooks resources: WordPress plugin API Codex page Adam Brown’s hook database Hooks from WpRecipes 1. Disable WordPress’ Automatic Formatting The problem . You have probably noticed that, by default, WordPress converts normal quotes to “curly” quotes, and makes other little formatting changes when a post is displayed. This is very cool for people who publish normal content, but anyone who uses their blog to discuss code will be annoyed because, when pasted in a text editor, code with curly quotes returns syntax errors. The solution . Simply paste the following code in your functions.php file: function my_formatter($content) { $new_content = ”; $pattern_full = ‘{([raw].*?[/raw])}is’; $pattern_contents = ‘{[raw](.*?)[/raw]}is’; $pieces = preg_split($pattern_full, $content, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE); foreach ($pieces as $piece) { if (preg_match($pattern_contents, $piece, $matches)) { $new_content .= $matches[1]; } else { $new_content .= wptexturize(wpautop($piece)); } } return $new_content; } remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wpautop’); remove_filter(’the_content’, ‘wptexturize’); add_filter(’the_content’, ‘my_formatter’, 99); Once that’s done, you can use the [raw] shortcode in your posts: [raw]This text will not be automatically formatted.[/raw] Code explanation . Our first step here was to create a function that uses a regular expression to find the [raw] shortcode in your posts’ content. Then we hook our my_formatter() function to WordPress’ the_content() function, which means that my_formatter() will now be automatically called every time the_content() is called. To remove the automatic formatting, we use the remove_filter() function, which lets you delete a hook on a specific function. Source: Disable WordPress automatic formatting on posts using a shortcode 2. Detect The Visitor’s Browser Using A Hook The problem . Cross-browser compatibility is probably the most common problem in Web development. You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you are able to detect the browsers that people use to visit your website and then create a custom class wrapped in the body tag. Few people are aware of it, but WordPress can already detect browsers, and a few global variables are available for us to use. The solution . Nothing hard here: just paste the code below in your functions.php file, then save the file and you’re done! <?php add_filter(’body_class’,'browser_body_class’); function browser_body_class($classes) { global $is_lynx, $is_gecko, $is_IE, $is_opera, $is_NS4, $is_safari, $is_chrome, $is_iphone; if($is_lynx) $classes[] = ‘lynx’; elseif($is_gecko) $classes[] = ‘gecko’; elseif($is_opera) $classes[] = ‘opera’; elseif($is_NS4) $classes[] = ‘ns4′; elseif($is_safari) $classes[] = ’safari’; elseif($is_chrome) $classes[] = ‘chrome’; elseif($is_IE) $classes[] = ‘ie’; else $classes[] = ‘unknown’; if($is_iphone) $classes[] = ‘iphone’; return $classes; } ?> Once you have saved the file, the function will automatically add a CSS class to the body tag, as shown in the example below: <body class=”home blog logged-in safari”> Code explanation . WordPress has global variables that return true if a visitor is using a particular browser. If the visitor’s browser is Google Chrome, the $is_chrome variable will return true . This is why we create the browser_body_class() function, which returns the name of the visitor’s browser. Once that’s done, we just hook the function to WordPress’ body_class() function. Sources: Browser Detection and the body_class() Function How to detect the visitor’s browser within WordPress 3. Define Default Text In TinyMCE The problem . Many bloggers almost always use the same layout for their blog posts. Posts on my own blog WpRecipes.com are always displayed the same way: some text, some code and then some more text.