August 2007 Archives

I'm in the middle of revamping the site. I've made the upgrade to Movable Type 4.0, but I have a lot of work to do to bring in a new design. What you see now isn't my design (I'll update this post when it's actually done). Until that time, I'll have different bits and pieces of the site working and not working the way they should, and with different pages looking different than others. Thanks for showing some patience as I work through this. To keep you guys a bit updated on what I still have to do, I'm making a list (it's probably more for me than anybody else):

1. Implement New Designs for:
   • Blog
   • Billboard Charts - maybe time for that overhaul too? Certainly get at least a search form built in.
   • Implement new design for other parts of site
2. Move over Page Copies/Rips
3. Move over AboutMe/Contact page and get that working right. Maybe even separate those out for the new design.
4. All Entries:
   • Tag
   • Possibly Markdown-ize
   • Possibly re-edit to dump "Excerpt"
   • Possibly get rid of intro and merge with body
5. New favicon with new design
6. Ma.gnolia:
   • Incorporate into lifestream feed
   • Make a new bookmarks page that pulls over a JavaScipt feed.
7. Twitter
   • Move latest Twitter to my About Me page
   • Incorporate into lifestream feed
8. Possibly re-enable Google Coop
9. Enable/publicize LifeStream feed
10. Fix print css on IE 6 and 7. Grr
11. Flickr
    • Make random not just most recent?
    • Fix formatting to be square as opposed to one column – if so, make 4, not 3 (duh)

Things I've done:

• Fix commenting error - 500 Server Error when comments are left (with Captcha enabled). Funky error reporting in logs. Already have thread going in MT forums (Fixed 20070828-2110. Just reloaded all the files, based off of Clifton's suggestion. Apparently it must have been some corrupt file. Rockin.)
• Rename "search" to "Blog Search" (Done. 20070901-1730 (when I moved back from Google Coop))
• Fix feed so I advertise my Feedburner-based feed in the header (Fixed 20070825-2130. Just need to update sidebar feed pointing (Updated. 20070826-2320))
• Move over (Moved 20070826-2320. Still need to update styles for it) and implement new design for recipe page (this might involve a much bigger revamp I've been considering) (Done. 20070901-1730. Whoa. I think I love it.)
• Update Recipe page to possibly have recipe search box in the side bar, and remove blog search bar (Fixed 20070901-1730. Scratched Google Coop… didn't like it.)
• Link to all my other index pages (recipes, billboard, photos, about, rips/copies/portfolio) (Fixed 20070826-2320. Maybe move to left column?)
• Fix issue with links not pointing to correct location for blog entries - Fixed 20070826-1615. Fixed issue in MySQL that didn't have Entry template set as preferred template. Couldn't find something that would do this through the MT UI.
• Google Analytics back up and running (Done 20070917-1945. I'll be curious to compare this and Mint. I still love Mint.)
• Finish looking into Mint and possibly do that (Done 20070828-1530. Holy crap. I love Mint. Totally cool. Really love it.) instead of Analytics (maybe both? - yep… both.)
• Flickr Pro? (Signed up. 20070903. I really like it. So much more robust than a dinky open source app that is hardly getting developed.) Seems to be a question I've been toying with for too long - if so, update all entries accordingly (Updated 20070909-2315. Should be good to go. Maybe a couple straggling things out there.). Maybe just use built-in photo stuff in the new MT 4. (No.)
• Move old BlogRoll links to my Ma.gnolia roll (Done 20070906. The dates didn't get moved properly, but the links are there.)
• My Ma.gnolia links incorporated. Done 20070906.
• Get my unimpressive Twitters incorporated too (Done 20070906.)
• Print CSS (I really want to do this one, but I really should do other stuff before I do this) - Done. 20070901-1530. Implemented it when I moved over all the recipes. Could probably be optimized a bit, but it works for now.

Should be easy enough, right?

It's weird to have a job where nobody else (there) knows how to do your job. There are some people who know how to do parts of my job there locally, and there are some that probably know how to do my job at other locations… but I can't turn to really… anybody there for a helping hand. To me, that's weird.

Usually the question is asked when we when we step onto the tee box of a Par 3… "Have you seen one?" My father asks it almost every time. If not him, then maybe my brother does. The answer has always been no. Today on the 15th hole at Navy Golf Course in Seal Beach that answer was changed. Apparently no more than 1 minute after telling himself that maybe he was done for the day, and maybe even for longer (since he was playing so bad), my father took his 6 iron and at a smooth 165 yards did the most efficient thing possible in golf, and just put it in the hole. Congratulations. I wish I could have been there.

I was a little busy the other day, but I wanted to mention that Becky laughed for the first time on Monday 8/13. I wasn't able to hear it myself, but Maria tells me that it was a nice, belly laugh, like babies usually do. She hasn't done it since. Maybe she's just not enjoying my Laffy-Taffy style jokes I've been trying on her. Oh well. Welcome to the laughing world Becky. Hopefully you do it a lot during your life.

The other day I went to Wal-Mart (which deserves it's own whole blog entry about why it's evil, etc) and purchased some food from a little deli area they have. When I was done with my transaction, the lady said to me, “Tell your friends about us!”. Excuse me? You want me to tell people about what? About Wal-Mart? You think people need to be told about you? “Hey… psst… come here. You're not gonna believe this… but there's this place… down the street, right… that sells stuff for super cheap, right… but is generally filled with WT and totally rude customers, and all the employees look disheveled and angry all the time (because they're pretty much gettin' pimped by their employer). … … What's that?… Yeah, I know… it's hard to believe something like that exists. It's called… Wal-Mart” I can only hope she meant to tell people about their little deli area there. While I'm on the topic, they were selling cooked turkey legs at this thing, and all I could think of was the Flintstones with that big 'ol thing. Sick. I opted for some popcorn chicken and a white peach.

How much did you make fun of them as a kid – the kids who gathered together to play a little D&D, Magic card games, talked about mythical beasts (like Ligers – bred for their skills in magic), had little figurines they had hand-painted so carefully, or carried on about the latest in, what was to me, the lamest thing around. They just seemed to be in their own world, incapable of having a legitimate conversation with others about normal, non-imaginary, real things. Whatever your tactic was in school, most people knew to stay clear of them, otherwise you would soon become among the victims of endless taunting and harassing. Little did I know that years later I would secretly come to thoroughly enjoy that f word they were all about… Fantasy.