Tuesday, March 11, 2003
I'm taking the plunge and moving this thing to Movable Type. It's going to be a little rough for awhile, as I get things sorted out. For instance, I'm trying to export all of my old posts from here on Blogger to MT, and I have only been able to get the posts dating back to 3/16/03. Everything before that stubbornly refuses to export, and I'm a little lost as to how to fix that. I also need to get my template adjusted for MT tags. In the meantime, I am not going to post anything else of import on Blogger. The URL is changing slightly. Instead of http://irvingplace.net/blog.html you can drop the html and go straight to http://irvingplace.net/blog/. Update your bookmarks or links or what-have-you.
Monday, March 10, 2003
I've been headachy all day, so I've skipped choir tonight. As penance, I am listening to my recording of the Mass in C minor over and over, soaking up the parts.
At the moment, I am working on getting MT working. More accurately, "your mom" is working on it, while I do my impression of a really lame technophobe. It's is wonderful to have friends who are smarter than you.
Sunday, March 09, 2003
Still unable to get the new template to publish.
Still no news on status.blogger.com.
Still unreviewed on BloggerControl:
Welcome to BloggerControl. Your personalized issue reporting and tracking system for all Blogger products and services. Your Current Issues Report a New Issue
I will fully admit to the fact that street people make me nervous. However, business people also make me nervous. Strangers in general make me nervous. I am an equal-opportunity source of nervousness. It doesn't matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, male or female, or what race, religion, or creed you may have. Until I actually get to know you, I will be an awkward basket of nerves. I have learned to cover it better through the years, but the feeling remains. So if you ever meet me and I seem a little distant, cold, or otherwise snobby, don't take it personally.
This photo-essay is about some poor people who live on the street. They are not cardboard cutout poor people; they are real, living, breathing, human beings. They have problems and feelings. State Street in Madison, Wisconsin is a pedestrian mall that runs from the capitol building to the University of Wisconsin campus. It is home to some of Madison's least fortunate. These are the discards of our society: the poor, the veterans, the homeless, the drug addicted, the alcoholic, the runaways, the abused, the unemployable, the people that nobody wants. They deserve something better than the lives they lead now, but these photos are not about how bad their lives are. These pictures are mostly about how good their lives are. Stop and talk to these folks that you have previously been ignoring. You will find out something that you didn't know before. You will discover that they are just people.
I know I've been whining a lot about Blogger lately, and I am now going to whine a little more. I *still* can't get my new template to publish, after all the work I did on it, and I see that the same thing is true over at my "re-direct blog". I've been all over the help sections of Blogger, and have found them particularly unhelpful. Status.Blogger.Com has zero information on this problem, neither does the knowledge base and queries to BloggerControl go unanswered. There doesn't seem to be any other way of getting ahold of anyone at Blogger for answers, short of becoming a stalker (and I so don't wanna go there.)
This is so frustrating, because not only am I having a difficult time figuring out Movable Type, but I still have warm fuzzies of loyalty to Blogger. (Which I keep typing as "Blooger". Freudian?) I want things to work out. I want to stay with Blogger...cripes, this sounds like some sort of bad dating situation.
Blogger, I think we've had a good thing going. Can we work this out? We've had good times you and me, but lately we seem to be growing apart. I know you've got that Google thing going, and I'm flirting with another publisher, but can't we get past that? Can we at least still be friends?
Tonight, I may be going to the Madison Music Awards at The Barrymore. However, the show is "sold out" and seating is on a first come, first serve basis, so there is no garantee that I can get in. Eh, what do you want for free?
I almost forget, yesterday I got an e-mail from someone offereing to sell me irvingplace.com for only $89.95. Ah thanks, but I already have irvingplace.net and it is totally cozy and just right for my needs. Besides, I think .net is somewhat cooler than .com.
Friday, March 07, 2003
Extra tickets are funny things, especially when they are not in pairs. Over the years I have had friends offer, give, and/or sell me extra tickets when the ticket's original inteded recipient bailed. I have seen Stomp, Moby, and Weezer this way, among others.
It is a little different when one is the holder of the extra ticket. It can be difficult to find a taker for one last minute ticket. (Of course, this would depend on the event.) If you can't give it to a friend, most ticket seekers want pairs.
Which brings us to this evening, and the sudden spare for Richard Shindell. Now, I am the sort of person who has no problem attending concerts unaccompanied. (Sometimes it is even desirable, as latecomers can score great seats if you only need one.) At the same time, I can't bare to see a perfectly good ticket go unused. Last minute on a Friday is not the easiest time to find friends lacking prior plans. Long story short (too late!) I decided that if I could sell someone just one ticket, I would use the other myself. However, if I could only find a taker for the pair, I would give them both up and see RS next time he came to town.
I felt a little funny standing outside the club asking people if they were going to the show, and if they had tickets yet. Very illicitish and whatnot. (Is "ilicitish" a word? It sounds like a camdy.) A nice older couple was indeed going to the show, and had not in fact purchased their tickets yet. Day of show tickets are $2 more than advance, so by selling him both of my tickets for exactly what I paid, I got my money back and saved him four bucks. (Somehow, I don't think I have a career as a big time scalper ahead of me.)
Yeah, it was too bad to miss the Richard Shindell show, and I am sure it was fabulous. However, as I have already posted, there are a gajillion people that I want to see coming to town in the next month or so, and I didn't think I could see them all anyway. C'est la vie. I think I'll go get my Dar Williams ticket tomorrow.
Waaaaaaaaaah! Blogger is frustrating me in its constant bugginess. Movable Type is bugging me in that I can't bloody figure out how to use...nay...install that damn thin! I downloaded it ades ago, but I can't make heads or tales of any of the instructions. I've gone from feeling fairly computer savvy to feeling like a total moron. Waaaaaaaaaah!
Thursday, March 06, 2003
I have a wonderful new page design. Really, I do. It quite a loverly blue, with thorns. Someday you may even get to see it, if Blogger starts behaving. Till then, you get:
Error 506:Unable to contact view generation service: http://127.0.0.1/frameworkTemplates3/BloggerService (server:page)
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Having now seen The Graduate, I have to admit that I didn't like it. I have a very hard time with movies in which I find none of the characters to be terribly sympathetic. In this case, I found them all to be annoying nutjobs. Even Elaine became grating after a couple of scenes. Yes, yes I know. It's a classic of American cinema. Whatever. I never want to have to see it again.
On the upside, the music and cinematography kept the experience of being too painful.
Thoughts upon seeing an image file entitled "memorial_crop.tif":
What kind of crop would you use for a memorial? Soybeans for our fallen brethren? Wheat for those who have been lost? I guess it would have to be poppies (between the crosses).
It wasn't until a little later that it occured to me that the image was a picture of a memorial (Vietnam) and that the photo itself had been cropped. Duh.
Ok, one more try, and then I'm going to bed. If it works this time, I am going to back away slowly, hoping not to break anything. If it doesn't, I will hope that it magically reappears in the morning. If it doesn't reappear, then there will be a serious run for the MT learning curve. Have I mentioned that I've had it up to here?
Current sitch: I entered the new template information, and republished the page. None of the old template code remained. I republished and the changes went in just fine. I deleted a post, republished, and reloaded the page to check the change, and the old template appeared! I checked my template code, and according to it, all my code is the new one, and the old code is nowhere to be seen. I have been resaving and republishing (including my archives) and the template keeps going back and forth between the old and the new. Who knows what it will be this time?
I have been having constant publishing problems with Blogger since this past summer. Archives not publishing properly, delayed posting, sudden template shifts....they have been consistently bad, with no sign of change. I've been too busy/lazy to make the change to MT yet. Any other Blogger users out there experiencing these same errors?
...when sending out forwards, remove all of the excessive "this has been forwarded" info. I really don't need to know the names and e-mail addresses of every person who has ever received this particular forward, or the dates and times that they sent it. I also don't really need to see a long row of >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> before every line.
A word or two about forwards. Before sending out a forward, stop for a moment or two and think:
1. Is this true? Is this petition/virus alert/news story really what it claims, or am I helping to spread some utter BS?
2. Will the recipient(s) really be interested? Am I sending "The World's Greatest Poop Jokes" to my pastor? Am I sending "God loves you" ASCII art to my nietzschian/pagan/atheist college roomate? Am I sending a "pass this on to 10 other people or you will suffer a horrible fate" note to *anyone* I like?
3. Do I send this person any other correspondence besides forwards?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then take your mouse off the "send" button. Seriously.
(Ok, I'm not Catholic, and no one ever made me give anything up for Lent, though I had to go to church every Wednesday. Still, it can be an interesting excersize in self-control. I haven't made any decision yet this year. I'll let you know.)
Have mercy, people! I don't have an unlimited concert budget, or enough time to get to everything. Couldn't y'all space your tours out a bit more? Please?
I got my film fest tickets today. I'll be seeing six film showings, and attending one party. Everything I wanted to see was still available, and I got the tickets for dirt cheap, as some friends and I went in on a 16 ticket package.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Currently rotisserie cooking a turkey breast. It wasn't quite the way I expected it to be, from the way the frozen package looked. The was too much bone to skewer the bird through the best place, and the only way I could get it through required a bit of bone breaking and removal, and lots of trussing string. It is spinning away right now, so we shall see if the end results are edible.
Saturday, March 01, 2003
Let's hear it for the flooded basement. At the moment, all my stuff is dry and out of the water, but we aren't allowed to run anything until the Roto-Rooter guy gets here. Of cousre, now I really want water.
Copyright for all images and text belongs to Katherine Olson, except whether otherwise noted.
(If I've cited something of yours and somehow missed the credit and/or link, let me know and I'll fix it.)
Irving Place
