Day: August 27, 2005

The Technical Stuff…

If you run a blog and use Movable Type, you know that Six Apart has released a new version of the blogging software. I upgraded from 3.17 to 3.2 last night. I’m a fairly technical guy, so I don’t usually have any difficulties with this kind of stuff. Well, here’s a word of warning. Even though the Moveable Type website says that upgrading from previous versions is a no brainer, and easier than ever, your mileage may very. It seems like the bigger blog you have, the more likely you will have trouble. Oh, and another thing — if you have been sloppy about putting files on your server, and some are in places that are different from the original MT install, then of course, that will cause problems.

Be sure to give your .cgi files the proper permissions too.

Once all your files are in the right place and MT knows everything it needs to, the upgrade is easy.

The new version does appear to have more features, and there are new plugins that deal with SPAM and stuff, which is cool. MT has needed this for some time.

I’m still a fan of Movable Type, so I’m not jumping ship to WordPress or (back to) Blogger.

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Summer…

August in Washington State is a great time of year. This is when Summer shows itself. Now that the month is almost over though, I can feel a bit of Fall coming on. This week it’s supposed to get cloudy again, and a bit rainy…the kids are gearing up to go back to school, and this household will be back on a routine once more. Phew.

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Lawn Care Life Lessons…

Mowing the lawn. I’m not a big fan of this job, even though I’ve done it all my life (starting when I was about 10 or 11 years old). I’ve got my 12-year-old boy doing it for us now, and his talent is about as good as mine was at his age. Crooked lines, uneven grass patches, completely missed spots. So today I got back out there and did it myself. I was proving a point to him, illustrating that if you mow slowly, and if you allow the mower to pull itself along (instead of giving it help by pushing as well), you’ll do a good job. Only once did he say, “Well, you’ve been mowing lawns for a long time and I haven’t so of course you’re better at it.” After I was done, he could see the difference patience makes.

Someday he’ll teach his kid how to mow too.

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I Got The Music In Me…

I’ve got four or five different MP3 software packages on my machine. Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Musicmatch Jukebox, iTunes, etc. I’ve never been able to settle on using just one. I’ll work with Windows Media Player for awhile, index all my MP3 files, try to clean up the music library a bit, but then something just doesn’t go right, or sound right, and I open up another application and do the whole thing over again. Well today, I finally decided to use iTunes as my default player. There are two things that I like most about it. The first is, the sound. The built in equalizer just has better tone than any of the other players, especially Real Player. To use a decent EQ you have to subscribe to their service. Otherwise, you just get a cheesy three slide EQ.

iTunes does a great job at naming my files (once they’re imported into the library). I just haven’t done a great job with standard naming conventions, so my files have upper case, and lower case, and partial names, at such. Well, iTunes somehow knows what it’s doing here, and displays the titles, bands, and album names better than the other players. It doesn’t get them all right, but most of them are. Today, when I imported everything in, I only had to adjust a few files. Very cool.

iTunes also deals with duplicate files, and that’s a big help because I have a bad habit of storing MP3 files in various folders, and I do forget if I’ve copied some of the same ones in both directories. iTunes shows me the dupes and helps me get them outta there. That’s ultra cool.

So, for now, iTunes has me organized and sounding good.

Until the next “cool” MP3 player comes out.

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Playing “Catch”

When your 6-year-old boy asks you to play catch with him, do it. By the time he’s 12, he won’t be asking anymore. 

Headlines and Commentary for 08.27.05

Louisianans Told: Head for Higher Ground – Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations Saturday as they rushed to get out of the way of Hurricane Katrina, a vicious storm that is threatening to gain even more strength and make a direct hit on the New Orleans area.

And Bourbon Street will be packed with partiers, as usual, drinking liquid Hurricanes.

Tiny Crawford Braces for Dueling Protests – Several thousand people descended on President Bush’s adopted hometown Saturday, most in a cross-country caravan for a pro-Bush rally and others to support an anti-war demonstration led by grieving mother Cindy Sheehan. Bush supporters gathered for an event marking the culmination of the “You don’t speak for me, Cindy!” tour, which started last week in California. The crowd of about 1,500 chanted, “Cindy, go home!”

This isn’t about Casey Crawford anymore. This isn’t even about the war in Iraq. It’s chaos and it’s a waste of time.

Martha Stewart Confinement Set to End – Unless she gets into trouble with her probation officer again, Martha Stewart will gain her freedom this week from her “hideous” home confinement sentence and that bothersome, unstylish electronic anklet. After five months in prison for lying about a stock sale and five months of court-ordered restrictions at her Westchester County estate — plus three weeks tacked on for misbehaving — the queen of domestic marketing should be able to move around like any other convicted felon who’s done her time.

I’ve got to hand it to Martha. When she realized she would have to spend time in jail, she stopped her complaining, she didn’t try to continue her appeal, she just went in and did her time. Hopefully, she’s learned something and she’ll be an example, not play the victim.

Wax Head of Mozart Is Stolen From Museum – Thieves snatched the head of a life-size Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wax figure from a Salzburg museum, police said Saturday. The figure of the composer was on display at “Next to Mozart,” a multimedia museum that opened last year. The wax head has an estimated value of $18,427, but museum employees told Austria Press Agency the work was truly unique — and appealed for its return.

A wax head for 18 grand? There’s something seriously wrong with that…

11-Year-Old Is Accused of Carjacking – An 11-year-old boy is accused of forcing a teenager and two young children out of a car and then driving the stolen vehicle to school the next morning. The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was charged with aggravated robbery in juvenile court on Friday. A detention hearing was set for Monday. “This is very unusual,” said District Attorney Jerome Gorman, a prosecutor for 24 years.

11 freakin years old. When I was 11 years old the worse thing I ever did was throw rotten plumbs at a neighbors house. What’s happening to our kids?

And finally…

Along came a spider – A German woman was so shocked by a spider crawling across her face that she lost control of her car and crashed head on into a roadside tree, police in the western town of Rheine said on Thursday. The 23-year-old woman screamed and let go of the steering wheel, causing her small car to veer off the road into the tree.

At least that’s what she told her husband.