DDBlock is only displaying as a view

I have followed the advanced-slide show tutorial and can't seem to get the pre-process functions to work. I am using the garland theme to try and get this working. Here is my template.php:

<?php
// $Id: template.php,v 1.16.2.1 2009/02/25 11:47:37 goba Exp $

/**
 * Sets the body-tag class attribute.
 *
 * Adds 'sidebar-left', 'sidebar-right' or 'sidebars' classes as needed.
 */
function phptemplate_body_class($left, $right) {
  if ($left != '' && $right != '') {
    $class = 'sidebars';
  }
  else {
    if ($left != '') {
      $class = 'sidebar-left';
    }
    if ($right != '') {
      $class = 'sidebar-right';
    }
  }

  if (isset($class)) {
    print ' class="'. $class .'"';
  }
}

/**
 * Return a themed breadcrumb trail.
 *
 * @param $breadcrumb
 *   An array containing the breadcrumb links.
 * @return a string containing the breadcrumb output.
 */
function phptemplate_breadcrumb($breadcrumb) {
  if (!empty($breadcrumb)) {
    return '<div class="breadcrumb">'. implode(' › ', $breadcrumb) .'</div>';
  }
}

/**
 * Allow themable wrapping of all comments.
 */
function phptemplate_comment_wrapper($content, $node) {
  if (!$content || $node->type == 'forum') {
    return '<div id="comments">'. $content .'</div>';
  }
  else {
    return '<div id="comments"><h2 class="comments">'. t('Comments') .'</h2>'. $content .'</div>';
  }
}

/**
 * Override or insert PHPTemplate variables into the templates.
 */
function phptemplate_preprocess_page(&$vars) {
  $vars['tabs2'] = menu_secondary_local_tasks();

  // Hook into color.module
  if (module_exists('color')) {
    _color_page_alter($vars);
  }
}

/**
 * Returns the rendered local tasks. The default implementation renders
 * them as tabs. Overridden to split the secondary tasks.
 *
 * @ingroup themeable
 */
function phptemplate_menu_local_tasks() {
  return menu_primary_local_tasks();
}

function phptemplate_comment_submitted($comment) {
  return t('!datetime — !username',
    array(
      '!username' => theme('username', $comment),
      '!datetime' => format_date($comment->timestamp)
    ));
}

function phptemplate_node_submitted($node) {
  return t('!datetime — !username',
    array(
      '!username' => theme('username', $node),
      '!datetime' => format_date($node->created),
    ));
}

function garland_preprocess_ddblock_cycle_block_content(&$vars) {
  if ($vars['output_type'] == 'view_fields') {
    $content = array();
    // Add slider_items for the template
    // If you use the devel module uncomment the following line to see the theme variables
    // dsm($vars['settings']['view_name']);
    // dsm($vars['content'][0]);
    // If you don't use the devel module uncomment the following line to see the theme variables
    // drupal_set_message('<pre>' . var_export($vars['settings']['view_name'], true) . '</pre>');
    // drupal_set_message('<pre>' . var_export($vars['content'][0], true) . '</pre>');
    if ($vars['settings']['view_name'] == 'news_items') {
      if (!empty($vars['content'])) {
        foreach ($vars['content'] as $key1 => $result) {
          // add slide_image variable
          if (isset($result->node_data_field_image_field_image_fid)) {
            // get image id
            $fid = $result->node_data_field_image_field_image_fid;
            // get path to image
            $filepath = db_result(db_query("SELECT filepath FROM {files} WHERE fid = %d", $fid));
            //  use imagecache (imagecache, preset_name, file_path, alt, title, array of attributes)
            if (module_exists('imagecache') && is_array(imagecache_presets()) && $vars['imgcache_slide'] <> '<none>'){
              $slider_items[$key1]['slide_image'] =
              theme('imagecache',
                    $vars['imgcache_slide'],
                    $filepath,
                    $result->node_title);
            }
            else {
              $slider_items[$key1]['slide_image'] =
                '<img src="' . base_path() . $filepath .
                '" alt="' . $result->node_title .
                '"/>';
            }
          }
          // add slide_text variable
          if (isset($result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_slide_text_value)) {
            $slider_items[$key1]['slide_text'] =  $result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_slide_text_value;
          }
          // add slide_title variable
          if (isset($result->node_title)) {
            $slider_items[$key1]['slide_title'] =  $result->node_title;
          }
          // add slide_read_more variable and slide_node variable
          if (isset($result->nid)) {
            $slider_items[$key1]['slide_read_more'] =  l('Read more...', 'node/' . $result->nid);
            $slider_items[$key1]['slide_node'] =  'node/' . $result->nid;
          }
        }
        $vars['slider_items'] = $slider_items;
      }
    }
  }
}
/**
* Override or insert variables into the ddblock_cycle_pager_content templates.
*   Used to convert variables from view_fields  to pager_items template variables
*  Only used for custom pager items
*
* @param $vars
*   An array of variables to pass to the theme template.
*
*/
function garland_preprocess_ddblock_cycle_pager_content(&$vars) {
  if (($vars['output_type'] == 'view_fields') && ($vars['pager_settings']['pager'] == 'custom-pager')){
    $content = array();
    // Add pager_items for the template
    // If you use the devel module uncomment the following lines to see the theme variables
    // dsm($vars['pager_settings']['view_name']);
    // dsm($vars['content'][0]);
    // If you don't use the devel module uncomment the following lines to see the theme variables
    // drupal_set_message('<pre>' . var_export($vars['pager_settings'], true) . '</pre>');
    // drupal_set_message('<pre>' . var_export($vars['content'][0], true) . '</pre>');
    if ($vars['pager_settings']['view_name'] == 'news_items') {
      if (!empty($vars['content'])) {
        foreach ($vars['content'] as $key1 => $result) {
          // add pager_item_image variable
          if (isset($result->node_data_field_image_field_image_fid)) {
            $fid = $result->node_data_field_image_field_image_fid;
            $filepath = db_result(db_query("SELECT filepath FROM {files} WHERE fid = %d", $fid));
            //  use imagecache (imagecache, preset_name, file_path, alt, title, array of attributes)
            if (module_exists('imagecache') &&
                is_array(imagecache_presets()) &&
                $vars['imgcache_pager_item'] <> '<none>'){
              $pager_items[$key1]['image'] =
                theme('imagecache',
                      $vars['pager_settings']['imgcache_pager_item'],
                      $filepath,
                      $result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_pager_item_text_value);
            }
            else {
              $pager_items[$key1]['image'] =
                '<img src="' . base_path() . $filepath .
                '" alt="' . $result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_pager_item_text_value .
                '"/>';
            }
          }
          // add pager_item _text variable
          if (isset($result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_pager_item_text_value)) {
            $pager_items[$key1]['text'] =  $result->node_data_field_pager_item_text_field_pager_item_text_value;
          }
        }
      }
      $vars['pager_items'] = $pager_items;
    }
  }
}

/**
 * Generates IE CSS links for LTR and RTL languages.
 */
function phptemplate_get_ie_styles() {
  global $language;

  $iecss = '<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="'. base_path() . path_to_theme() .'/fix-ie.css" />';
  if ($language->direction == LANGUAGE_RTL) {
    $iecss .= '<style type="text/css" media="all">@import "'. base_path() . path_to_theme() .'/fix-ie-rtl.css";</style>';
  }

  return $iecss;
}

Here's a link to the staging site

Any input appreciated as this module looks fabulous!

Brooke