Orderby if null

I'm posting about this today because I feel like this is a very not well known little mySql knowledge and it really saved me. I've got an employee table that has a first name, last name AND nickname.
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Runs, puppies, tris…oh my!

Yea, yea. I haven't updated since I dropped a bomb shell in the form of a furry dog. Needless to say, a lot has happened and yet it doesn't feel like it: - I've completed 2 halfs since April: Coeur d'Alene and Seattle Rock n' Roll. - I've got my first tri not this weekend, but the next and have not really felt like I've trained for it. - Roxie (did I say her name last time?) is still adorkable and very much alive and well (and spoiled rotten--I mean well loved).
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Running update and a SURPRISE

I feel like most of my updates lately have been about work. I apologize about that. It's definitely been a rough few months, but it's lightened up. I also feel like I haven't been posting about running. Honestly, I feel like there hasn't been much to post about. I've done a lot of training. I live on a hill. Anytime I run, it's straight up hill. FUN TIMES. Not.
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The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heros

First off, Happy Easter everyone! Or as my kiwi and I have been calling it, Bunny Day! I won't go into detail what I was calling it--it was less PG and more PG-13. Anywho, not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm a gamer. I've been told I'm a casual gamer though (by some guy I used to know who was more hardcore gamer and jerk but we won't go into that). My video game urgers comes and goes in spurts. There are certain series I pay attention to though. Final Fantasy is one (not the only one ones) and my biggest passion? Zelda. I got into Zelda when my parents purchased Ocarina of Time on a N64. Ahhh..the good ol' days. From then on, I was hooked. I've got all the Game Boy/DS/3DS ones that have come out since then. I never disliked a Zelda game. I've enjoyed them all for different reasons. I have my faves though. OoT will always be my top fave. I think Twilight Princess will also be right up there (I'm a sucker for Epona). I enjoyed Windwaker and Majora's Mask. I'm not a huge fan of Skyward Sword, but I like the gameplay. Overall, I've enjoyed them all.
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SSH and Putty color schemes

I've been using Putty for SSH for over a year now. I really haven't changed the default settings since using it. After having to live in SSH the last couple of weeks, I got seriously tired of the black background and dark blue colors. SO annoying. I tried to do a lot of research on how to change it via SSH and profiles and .dircolors. It just wasn't working. I could get it to work temporarily when I sourced a file once but it never stuck. Tried it through Putty as well, but again, it never worked or the color scheme was replaced when I logged out and logged in. I was finally able to figure out what buttons to push and in what order thanks to one ServerFault thread that kind of shed light on it.
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SSH and aliases

I've had one heck of a week at work. I was given a fresh server and was told to install PHP, mysql, GIT, and everything on it that's required for my application so my app could function and be secure. I had to do this via SSH. One thing that I'm not very good at. Thank god I am surrounded by guys who rock at it and have more SSH experience than me. One thing I quickly learned: Aliases are freakin' awesome.
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A Runner’s Review of the Apple Watch

As I wait in queue for a Live Chat session on Fandago and kind of failing getting into this Valentine's Day movie and trying not to get sucked into Hana Kimi (again), I decided I at least start this blog. It's a topic that I've been meaning to blog about for awhile: What's better for a runner? A Garmin or the Apple Watch? Dun dun duuuuunnn.
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jQuery and Pasting from the clipboard

Ever needed away to detect when a user copies and pastes something into your web application? I ran into this scenario where people were coping and pasting from Microsoft Word and when I tried to export the information using PHPWord, it would corrupt. Now, most of the special MS Word characters I was able to figure out how to replace when I was running the export except bullet points. They were going to be the death of me. I came up with another solution before the export. What if I run a check to see if bullet points were pasted in a textarea??
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