I decided to play hooky; I'm only feeling 85-90% today. When my brain is foggy with antihistimines, I thought that was the best time to make major, technical upgrades. Voila, WordPress 1.5 is installed. The default "kubrick" theme is up for now; I'll convert the old templates one at a time. If you notice anything … Continue reading WordPress 1.5 "Strayhorn" Update
Category: Technical
Computers, blogging, technical stuff. You wouldn’t be interested.
WordPress 1.5 "Strayhorn"
Non-techie warning: Chasing the Wind might be offline sporadically tomorrow as I upgrade some software. Techie warning: WordPress 1.5, "Strayhorn," was released this week. From your end, not much has changed, but the back end will give me much better tools to kill off spam. Believe you me, deleting 250 pieces of spam one at … Continue reading WordPress 1.5 "Strayhorn"
Dale Earnhardt and Chim Chim
This post will be too long, so here's the end of the story first: I bought my brother this t-shirt (click for larger image): OK, now I'll back up to the beginning. A synopsis of random nonsense all munged together for your amusement. 🙂 I still get a lot of visitors here looking for Dale … Continue reading Dale Earnhardt and Chim Chim
Unceremoniously Dropped From the Blogroll
Short & sweet: I'll be pruning the blogroll, the list of other blogs on the left side. If you're reading one of them and it suddenly disappears, I snipped it. When I link a site, it's usually because I read something interesting there and I intend to go back. Sometimes when I go back, I'm … Continue reading Unceremoniously Dropped From the Blogroll
Comment Spam
Yuck. Comment Spam. You don't see very much of it on Chasing the Wind because I've put a few key phrases in a spam filter, but I think the only two words I need are "viagra" and "poker" in that file. If you attempt to comment using one of those words, it goes into a … Continue reading Comment Spam
Nikola.com Added to Blogroll
Via Michelle Malkin, I read that Ambra Nykol has lost her job and that Michelle thinks the Mainstream Media should hire her for her fresh, interesting, and diverse point of view. Off I go to check her out. I find this very well written post about rapper Kanye West's song, "Jesus Walks." Nykol examines the … Continue reading Nikola.com Added to Blogroll
Microsoft Virus
Microsoft has plans to offer a virus removal tool for sale later this year to compete with Norton and McAfee. For now, you can get a free virus removal tool from the main Microsoft website, http://www.microsoft.com. What a fantastic idea. First, sell a product prone to viruses (virii?). Then sell a tool to remove the … Continue reading Microsoft Virus
Blogrolling Changes
I added Sand in the Gears after a recommended by the venerable Miss Vox. Sand in the Gears doesn't write often, but his writing is superb. You can sign up to get his stuff by email so you don't have to check so often, or use an RSS reader like I do. I ought to … Continue reading Blogrolling Changes
Cell Phone Destruction
This just in: The number one cause of cell phone breakage is dropping it. No surprise there. The number two reason is because your pants are too tight. A survey of 300 retailers Sweden found that squeezing handsets into snug-fitting pants is the second leading cause of broken phones. Apparently, the phones simply can't handle … Continue reading Cell Phone Destruction
Virtual Credit Cards
I received some junk mail from my AT&T credit card, but I read this one. They're offering a free (free!) service for shopping online: virtual credit card numbers. Before I buy something online, I can login their site at http://www.universalcard.com and fill out a short form for a new credit card number. I can specify … Continue reading Virtual Credit Cards
A Large Mammal
Those that know me already know I'm a Large Mammal, though I've been losing weight. 10.5 lbs in the last month, in fact. I'm still a Large Mammal, though. Even when I'm back down to my fightin' weight of 190 lbs, I'll still be a large, muscle bound, hulking mammal. Rawr. Now Chasing the Wind … Continue reading A Large Mammal
Phone Oddity
I've had this phone problem for a while, but only recently got motivated enough to fix it. If you dial my home phone number, it rings 3 times and then rolls over to SBC Call Notes, an automated answering service. You hear my voice saying, "Hi, this is Michael..." If you hang up and immediately … Continue reading Phone Oddity
Big Brother and Your Laser Printer
I saw this news article last week, but my brain was compressed by Thanksgiving turkey and I didn't remember until this morning. Did you know that every document you print on a color laser printer or color copier has tiny little yellow dots with the serial number in it? According to experts, several printer companies … Continue reading Big Brother and Your Laser Printer
StoryCorps
Sean sent me a link to StoryCorps, dedicated to record an interviews with your favorite person. They take care of all the technical details, including helping with the questions you can ask. You get an hour long recording of the experience for only $10. Have you wanted to interview your grandmother? An uncle? A favorite … Continue reading StoryCorps
Broadband over Power Lines
My brother has been waiting for this for some time... high speed internet over electric power lines. It's coming, bro! BURNET -- High-speed Internet service is coming to about 120 homes in this town of 5,000 using a novel technology that connects residents to the Web through power lines. Broadband Horizons, which provides Internet access … Continue reading Broadband over Power Lines
Verse of the Day
I made some minor tweaks to the sidebar tonight. The weather forecast wasn't as useful as I thought and I decided it didn't deserve the prominent place it held near the top, so I dropped it all the way to the bottom. At the bottom used to be the Daily Manna, a bible verse for … Continue reading Verse of the Day
Cleaning Up After the Party
I'm tweaking a few things, but I don't think anybody will miss it. I've removed the Shoutbox/Tagboard that we weren't using, I deleted the "## Days Until George Bush is Re-Elected" pieces. In a week or two I'll remove the Bush/Cheney '04 news box. I'll probably randomly remove other stuff, too, just to see if … Continue reading Cleaning Up After the Party
My Yahoo RSS Feed
My home page for my browser is My Yahoo, partly because my home internet connection is furnished by a SBC / Yahoo partnership. I was reading some of the tech stuff behind the Yahoo pages tonight and found this little gem: Is My Yahoo! becoming a Newsreader? Yes. A newsreader (sometimes called a news aggregator) … Continue reading My Yahoo RSS Feed
Wizbang Poll Tracker
Courtesy of Wizbang, I've added a little box at the top this page to see the latest poll numbers for the Presidential Election. You can click the name of the poll to see how they came up with their figures.
Right Choice of Host
Would GoDaddy do this? I think not. Not only does Lisa have the more personal touch I was looking for in a host, she also has a great heart. She works in hospice care and will driving 30 minutes to pick up a former POW that will probably be casting his last vote ever. That … Continue reading Right Choice of Host
20,000 Visitors
As I get ready to turn in for the night, I notice Chasing the Wind has had 19,911 Visitors since I started this on April 14th of this year. Most of those were Dale Earnhardt fans, I think. When I wake up, I'm expecting to break 20,000. I hope y'all have been as amused as … Continue reading 20,000 Visitors
Desktop Google
I use Google often for searching - images, news, websites. I wouldn't be surprised if you do to - it's the most popular search engine, followed by Yahoo. Google today released Desktop Google, a new utility for search your stuff. It searches email, chat messages, and anything on your hard drive. And it's a tiny … Continue reading Desktop Google
Skin Me!
Lisa from Elegant Webscapes and Just a Girl has added an elegant touch to Chasing the Wind. On the left menu is a "Skins" button; take a look at the "Chasing the Waves" and "Chasing the Stars" skins she's added. I haven't decided which is my favorite yet. I love the Hubble telescope pictures on … Continue reading Skin Me!
RSS Feeds: Mea Culpa
After digging into the problems Miss Vox reported last week, the problem turns out to be on my end. In the move from the old GoDaddy servers to Blogs-About.com, the path for the RSS Feeds changed. I knew the old feeds worked, I knew the new feeds worked... what I didn't realize until just this … Continue reading RSS Feeds: Mea Culpa
Green Eggs and Spam
Bulk email now accounts for all email traffic on the internet. Yahoo catches and diverts one billion spam messages every day. I receive 80 pieces of spam a day. Fake phishing emails that look like they're from eBay or Citibank, ads to buy cheap drugs, online poker, get rich quick schemes, free credit cards. And … Continue reading Green Eggs and Spam
Success! (So Far, Anyway)
If you're reading this, you're successfully reading the new site. Propogation came quickly for me last night and I was accessing it within 2 minutes of changing name servers. You know what that means: I overslept this morning. If you're not reading this, be patient. Assuming, of course, that you're even aware you're not reading … Continue reading Success! (So Far, Anyway)
Bork! Bork! Bork!
Yes, Chasing the Wind is borked. Or munged. I don't know what the right word for it. Wait, Swedish Chef says "bork" was the right word. I really don't know what the problem is; the bad thing is (even with the expert help from Podz over at the WordPress forum) nobody else seems to know … Continue reading Bork! Bork! Bork!
Upgrading to WordPress 1.2.1
An upgrade to the WordPress software came out tonight; it fixes a couple of bugs and patches a couple of exploits. Let's hope a) the Trackback problem is fixed and b) the formatting problem from last month doesn't reappear. If all the blue swirlies disappear, let me know. If you can't post a comment to … Continue reading Upgrading to WordPress 1.2.1
RSS Feed Fix
Are you using an RSS Reader to read Chasing the Wind? If not, the rest of this is Greek, ignore it. If you're having trouble, click for more: According to some WordPress gurus, I should create a text file called .htaccess and place one line in it that says, "AddDefaultCharset utf-8" I've loaded Sharpreader and … Continue reading RSS Feed Fix
I just realized I can open a PDF document and print it to an Adobe distiller postscript file. Then I can convert that to a PDF file. Ok, I'm amused easily.
Stable For Now, I Think
With the help of a WordPress moderator named Podz, I reverted back to WordPress 1.2, and everything's been stable for 5 hours now. I'm going to start adding in the style sheets and stuff. I need some duct tape and some super glue and I'll be set. The scary thing is seeing my entire blog … Continue reading Stable For Now, I Think
Day 19. No Longer Impressed with WordPress
I don't know why it's broke. I've learned a couple of tricks; if I go directly to the login page, I can login, make a post, and Chasing the Wind works for 30 minutes. Then it goes kablooey again, redirects everywhere with references to wp-smilies and other folders. For nearly 3 weeks I've been on … Continue reading Day 19. No Longer Impressed with WordPress
Something Went Boom
I didn't touch nuttin', yet all the formatting went kablooey this morning. That's the technical term. Kablooey. I reinstalled, reupgraded, regurgitated, rerereeverything, and finally you can see my posts again. I think that enables comments again, too. I still don't know what's causing the kablooeyness, so I'm just going to disable eveything for the rest … Continue reading Something Went Boom
Search Queries: Overwhelmed
At one point, I wanted to do a regular reporting of what people searched for on Google that led them here. For a while, it was fun; pastamancer, mispelled watermellon, Michael Moore's movie, etc. But for over a month it's been Dale Earnhardt Jr and his girlfriend or some variation thereof. Here's the search word … Continue reading Search Queries: Overwhelmed
Bug Squishing
There's a problem. I know it. I've called Pest Control to track down the bug, but the bug won't show itself when Pest Control (the WordPress experts) come visit. Formatting completely disappears. The address bar gets filled with a very long web address. Trying to post a comment redirects you to a login page. I … Continue reading Bug Squishing
So Quiet You Can Hear a Pin Drop
I'm not my usual vocal self. It's not that I don't have things to say, it's just that I don't have much time to say it. I'm working a lot of overtime - yay, that's a good thing, I think I paid for my son's room and board in the last month alone. The O.T. … Continue reading So Quiet You Can Hear a Pin Drop
Poetry in Motion
Jo at Spin the Moon teaches me how to write poetry about my site. Chasing the C5 button. *click* SOLD OUT. Clinton mostly balanced the case had been robbed! The War? record. I think, the minimum level, it originated at Patty’ s wedding over the Fox & Hound, a quarter comes out Bummer. Ok. Yeah. … Continue reading Poetry in Motion
Technical Trouble Update
Still not fixed - you can't link to my posts without me telling you what the post number is, and you can't comment for the same reason... But the good news is somebody on the development team has duplicated my problem, so it's just a matter of time, I think, before I have a solution. … Continue reading Technical Trouble Update
Oops. Technical Trouble.
Do not adjust your set. We are in control of the horizontal. We are in contr;lieneqw;el/.... I upgraded to a beta verstion of WordPress tonight and broke something. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to fix it, nor am I smart enough to go backwards. In the meantime, comments are broken. I'll just have to talk … Continue reading Oops. Technical Trouble.
Blogrolling List
If you're visiting the list of blogs on the sidebar, I'm tweaking how they're displayed. They were displayed with the most recently updated blog at the top, oldest at the bottom. That wasn't working for me, took too long to find a particular blog sometimes. Now they're in alphabetical order. If the blog has been … Continue reading Blogrolling List
Bug Me Not
Do you dislike providing personal information in order to access a web site? Preregistered logins for 11527 sites (so far): Begmenot.com (Found at e-Claire) Need a temporary email address to go with that? Mailinator Wanna see something? I mean, really see something? Something
Blogger Tip: Trackback Pings Redux
Let's go through an example of using a trackback, step by step. First, make a post on your own blog that talks about Chasing the Wind. "Michael said something interesting at "Chasing the Wind." If you're on Livejournal, at the bottom of the post you just made it says "Link." Click it, and that's your … Continue reading Blogger Tip: Trackback Pings Redux
Blogger Tip: Trackback Pings
Since blogger.com and livejournal.com don't support trackbacks directly, I thought some of you bloggers would be interested in this handy little tool. It's a manual trackback ping form courtesy of Wizbang. If you write on your blog about information you found on somebody else's blog, you can use this form to send a trackback ping. … Continue reading Blogger Tip: Trackback Pings
Traffic Report Update
We're (dang, there's that royal "we" again) I'm suddenly seeing a lot more traffic, as I mentioned yesterday. Now that the daily stats are ready, it appears almost all of it is from http://moorewatch.com and http://mparent7777.blog-city.com. Don't click that last one, the header shows Bush morphing into Hitler, it's an offensive site that claims you … Continue reading Traffic Report Update
Firefox Fix For Friday
A reader contacted me and told me that my style sheets don't display in Firefox. All those fancy blue swirlies aren't displaying. Other style sheets *are* displaying, oddly enough. I had been wanting to try out Firefox anyway, and after downloading it and loading Chasing the Wind, sure enough, it's just a big white screen … Continue reading Firefox Fix For Friday
This Afternoon's Traffic Report…
Since I've been blogging in mid-April, I've logged 1800 hits here; that's the number of unique people visiting daily. There have been 500 hits since lunch. Gadzooks. From the referrers, it appears it's not a single site coming here, but a smattering from several sources. Chasing the Wind was mentioned in Chronically Biased today for … Continue reading This Afternoon's Traffic Report…
Trackback Etiquette
Nothing personal... I deleted a trackback today. I tried to Google a description of "trackback etiquette" and came up unsuccessful, so I guess I'm on my own. Note to non-bloggers: Gobbledy-gook approaching. Choose a different post to read. The previous article linked to Wizbang to thank him for the tip on the 9/11 report. I … Continue reading Trackback Etiquette
Yuck
I know the colors are icky, but at least you can see them. I have the Blogrolling links back, which my fellow bloggers know is the most important part. Update your URL for me, if you don't mind; you can remove the "/blog/" from the end and just referrence http://www.chasingthewind.net directly now. I'll redirect you … Continue reading Yuck
Yay, I'm Back!
Grrr. I was gone. I'm accelerating the conversion to WordPress tonight, so things may be broken - the menu colors on the left are terrible at the moment, and most of the blog links are gone, and I think I've lost the comments everybody made. Hopefully, I won't ever have to start over again like … Continue reading Yay, I'm Back!
I Am Not a Victim
Some people are, or at least they claim to be. "Oh, I didn't WANT to take a nap, but I just HAD to!" or "I couldn't stay awake; I needed a nap."Not me. Oh no, I SIEZED the NAP. It was MINE ALL MINE MWAHAHAHA....When I take control of the situation, I feel good about … Continue reading I Am Not a Victim
Switching to WordPress
I was --> < -- this close to making the conversion to WordPress tonight. I've been playing with it behind the scenes and happy with it. I found I could add a "style switcher" so that I could add a couple of professionally designed templates to appease those that do not care for the blue … Continue reading Switching to WordPress
Better Background, But Not By Much
I spent the first couple of hours tonight trying to get WordPress up so I could see if I like it. I started at Livejournal.com, switched to Blogger.com, and now I wonder why I need Anything.com. I should be able to bypass any 3rd party blog host and post directly on Chasing the Wind. Since … Continue reading Better Background, But Not By Much
Chasing the Wind….
My move is complete. I managed to integrate a web template so the blog integrates seamlessly. Or, ahem, will integrate seamlessly. My blog is now located at Chasing the Wind.
Reset the blog template this morning…
I reset the blog back to a standard template this morning, hoping it would be useable today. It's not - I have to figure out why there's a path missing, so in the meantime pictures don't show and you can't comment on the entries.If you see anything else wrong, please let me know, but do … Continue reading Reset the blog template this morning…
It's 1:00am. This was harder than I thought. :)
I'll try again tomorrow.
I guess I'm Moving…
What I really wanted was a way to embed a blog *into* my site. Livejournal offers that for paid users, but for free users you have to use some sort of Frame html setup. I had been considering upgrading to a paid account. Except Blogger.com revamped their site today. One of the free features is … Continue reading I guess I'm Moving…
My First Blogger Entry….
I'm trying out Blogger.com (owned by Google) for 2 reasons. 1, it let's me publish on my site free (unlike Livejournal which requires a fee) and 2) I'm trying to get listed on Google. :)I must have stumbled onto Blogger at the right time - it's all over the news that Blogger was revamped. It … Continue reading My First Blogger Entry….
Mom's Day Weekend Recap..
Great weekend. "Babysat" my brother-in-law Saturday morning and took him out for "ice cream" later. (Euphemisms for "golf" and "a pitcher of Shiner Bock"). Sunday took Mom out for brunch and visited with my sister & niece & step-father. My son was nowhere around this time - he was playing D&D Friday, then I left … Continue reading Mom's Day Weekend Recap..
Thank you thank you, I'll be here till Tuesday. Try the veal.
I was on one of those roller-coaster highs yesterday. Don't know why; might have been as simple as a good night's sleep. Whatever it was, yakked all day, told goofy jokes, sang that cow song that got stuck in my head, kept it up nonstop all day. Put a new MasterCard/Visa logo on my website. … Continue reading Thank you thank you, I'll be here till Tuesday. Try the veal.
Ow^2
Up late again. Same reason. This morning I'm driving to work, listening to a country music love song. I cried like a baby. I gotta listen to something else. Maybe go back to listening to talk radio. No, wait - politician talk about raising my taxes on talk radio. That makes me cry like a … Continue reading Ow^2
Ow.
Ow. Up way to late last night and my head hurts. It's not what you think though - I don't party hard anymore. I'm not sure I ever did - or at least I can't remember. Ha! No, I was up late last night playing with Dreamweaver and Paintshop Pro. New toys are fun. My … Continue reading Ow.
Cure unsuccessful…
Brother still has his virus, both computers now. Looks like he has 2 of them, a Beagel variant and a new strain of Gaobot. He has this NS.EXE program hogging all of his resources and he's unable to delete it. He can surf the web, but the major virus software sites are unreachable. I've punted; … Continue reading Cure unsuccessful…
Now I know why I have a website
There's nothing on it at the moment except a lot of "blah blah blah". My brother who lives 300 miles away apparently picked up 2 viruses on his wife's machine. One of the features of the virus prevents him from going to Symantec's website and picking up virus updates. So I'm copying large sections of … Continue reading Now I know why I have a website
Not my planet…
The more time I spend reading various blogs here on Livejournal, the more I feel like this is a different planet than the one I grew up on. I'm accepting of other people; it matters not on a social level what they do. But I don't think I'm going to be able to converse over … Continue reading Not my planet…
Perhaps the term is "bloguer"
I know why I didn't want a journal. It's a much easier question to answer than why I *do* want a journal. I don't want a journal because I'm a listener (or on blogs, "voyuer" might be a better term). I'm a gatherer of information, just soak up knowledge, useful or not. Reading other people's … Continue reading Perhaps the term is "bloguer"
And so it was in the beginning…
Notice that I have -0- entries. Doh. Now there's one.
Chasing the Wind 