I like that word… awry. It means something is not quite right. My date tags are missing the month name. I don’t know why. I’ve been checking everything and it seems OK. The thing is that I’ve checked out all the PHP function calls and they seem to be OK. They only went awry after I posted from w.bloggar, so maybe I’ve got to go back to the drawing board from there. The underlying code has changed, but none of the templates that create the code have.

Oh well, more checking out to do…

Thought I’d check and make sure I could post from w.bloggar. I use t at home, but not at work. I’ve also got to completely test the email blogging capability. That entails sending an email to a user on my website and WordPress picking up the email and posting its contents. I’ll have to try that soon.

I’ve completed migrating my blog from Movable Type to Wordpress. Hopefully it doesn’t look too much different than it did before. Let me know what you think!

Has anyone else noticed that the default background for Windows XP looks exactly like the field from the movie Toys?

My transition to Wordpress is going rather well. I have the index page looking like I want; I had to customize both the template and the CSS page. The reason it is taking a while is that WordPress comes with a two column layout by default and I prefer a three column layout. Not that it is difficult to change, it just takes time as I tend to “fat-finger” a lot of typing and end up with typos. If I wanted to simply use the canned skin or maybe a skin with only a few modifications, I’d be using it now.

I’m also trying to figure out and work with both WordPress plugins and WordPress hacks. From what I’ve read, hacks are what used to be used and they are moving (with the latest version) to a plugin system. I believe they do the same thing, but in different ways and with different interfaces. Next it will be on to the comments and archives templates. Oh boy!

After playing with b2evolution for a while, I found it had some shortcomings. The biggest one is that I could not log off the admin portion. I’d log off, close my browser and then go to the admin page for b2evo and find that I didn’t actually log off. So, I was always logged on as admin instead of my user name. This led to problems as it kept choosing the wrong blog.

THEREFORE, it is on to WordPress. So far I’m impressed. I’ve easily converted a number of the template settings and find it is easy going. WordPress is very similar to b2evo, but the interface isn’t as graphical. Seems to be a bit faster running the pages as well. Maybe this will work out. I was rather disappointed with b2evo as it didn’t deliver what it had promised. I hope that WordPress is not in the same category. So far, it is looking good!

Ain’t it funny how real life tends to get in the way of blogging life? Here it is on Sunday night and I’m finally getting around to my first post since late Friday night (or early Saturday morning depending upon how you look at it!).

Well, I’ve made my decision. As you may recall, I did a rant on the fact that Movable Type is going to begin charging for their software. Now I’m not against companies making money. I think it is what makes our country great: you can start a company and supply a product that you think some one or some company will want and make money, sometimes a LOT of money. What bugs me about MT is that they had said on all of their beta versions that they would not charge for their new version 3.0 software. And now they are. Oh yeah, I can download and install the free version. However: 1) I get no support - NONE whatsoever; and 2) I can only run 1 author on only 3 weblogs. Now for me, issue #2 is not that big of a deal, but I still don’t like the fact that they have crippled the free version. The version I am running now is free and I can use it for an unlimited number of weblogs with an unlimited number of authors. Heck, their original documentation (which can’t be accessed any more through their web site without having a pay-for version) showed a screen shot with 4 or 5 weblogs - this would cost $69 right now, $99 when the entry pricing scheme is lifted. What is to keep them from changing their pricing scheme in the future so that there is no free version?

With changes like this, I am making a move. I am going with b2evolution. I have checked out b2, WordPress, Nucleus, GeekLog, phpNuke, Pivot, Serendipity, Drupal and Textpattern. While each of these are fine products, here are the reasons for me going with b2evo (as it is called):

1. First and foremost, it has a Movable Type import script. This was essential for any tool I was going to use. I have over 500 entries and comments that I simply don’t want to manually import.
2. It is open source. I want an open source product. Open source won’t go to a pay scheme - that’s on of the big points of open source.
3. I have seen the admin tool and it is a nice interface; while it isn’t a lot like Movable Type, it is quite polished.
4. It is a mature product. Originally, the programming team developed b2. Some members of this team went on from there to develop WordPress. Another team went down a different road and developed b2evo.
5. It has easy plug-in technology to allow expandability to whatever I want. Movable Type has plug-ins but you have to manually add the plug-in manager and then you could automatically add plug-ins. b2evo has that built in from the start.
6. Lots of on-line tech support. They have a forum and email support. While I’ve never resorted to email support with Movable Type and I don’t plan on using it for b2evo, it’s nice to know it is available.
7. I can use w.bloggar on my home PC to post. I like the interace of w.bloggar and it does make posting easier from my home PC (it isn’t functional at work as our firewall blocks it’s posting process).

So now, it’s download and begin the conversion. I won’t be converting right now as I have a lot on my plate, but I will be doing it very soon.

Jiggety jog. That was a line from a series of books that we got for our kids when they were first learning to read. It also sums up what happened today. I had my flight moved up a day; so I left LA at about 8:00am and headed back to the Silicorn Valley. On the way out and the way back, I did a lot of reading; I started and finished “Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix”. Hey, I was on a plane for about 4 hours each way and there really isn’t anything else to do and all of the Harry Potter books are easy reads.

ANYWAY….. We were delayed at Chicago O’Hare (United Airlines) for over an hour. I was supposed to take off at 3pm and we finally ended up taking off about 4:20pm. (That delay is how I finished the book.) Also on that leg, I couldn’t get an exit row seat so I was eating my knees for the hour or so that it took. I have a real problem with folks who get the exit row who are “normal” sized; I have a NEED for the extra leg room. In a typical airline seat my knees are jammed into the seat in front of me so hard that I get marks, sometimes bruises, from the seat in front of me. Also, the seat in front of me cannot recline at all as my knees are in the way of any seat motion. Those who are “normal” sized (SHORT for all the dense folk) who take exit rows are a real pain in the leg to those of us who need that seat. Thank God it was only an hour flight (with about 20 minutes of sitting on the runway waiting - UGH!).

Well, I did get home on a safe (but not quite comfortable) flight and we did what we set out to do at our South Gate plant. So I guess it was a success.

Jay Leno once quipped when he was alone in an elevator his mind always reverted to the lowest song he could think of: “Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed…”

Love them or hate them, TV theme songs stick with us for years! If you’re stuck on some lyrics, click here for a comprehensive page with words I never even knew existed. (Who knew I Dream of Jeannie had lyrics???)

On that musical note:

1. What is your favorite TV theme song? Probably the theme song to “Weird Science”. They used the same song as the movie and you can’t go wrong with Danny Elfman (of Oingo Boingo) as the composer.

2. Which song drives you crazy enough to hit mute on the remote? Probably the theme song to “All in the Family”. I know Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapelton were trying to be bad; and they accomplished the goal.

3. Which song are your proud to say you remember (most of) the lyrics to??? I don’t do song lyrics much. How about “Mr. Ed”? I know it was a rip-off of the “Frances” movies, but it was still a decent show.

~Bonus~ Put the lyrics on your page (from memory), and I’ll list you next week in the TV Tuesday Theme Song Hall of Fame. Don’t forget to leave a comment so I’ll know you posted!

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course,
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He’ll give you the answer that you’ll endorse.
He’s always on a steady course. Talk to Mr. Ed.

People yakkity yak all week and waste your time of day
But Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And this one’ll talk ’til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse? Well listen to this.

I am Mister Ed.

I’m coming to you live from LA - well, almost. I’m at our South Gate plant. South Gate is a suburb of LA; in fact, I had to drive through Inglewood to get here and we drove right by the Great Western Forum. I’m out here on our CIR project, Corporate Infrastructure Refresh, which is a fancy way of saying that all of our plants are getting new servers. I’m doing the desktop end of this. Since we are changing servers, a lot of folks’ network printers aren’t going to work without us resetting the addresses to the new server.

So far, I haven’t been TOO busy. We have a migration script that has done the change over for most people automatically. If things keep going on in this fashion, I won’t have much to do tomorrow and even less on Wednesay and will probably change my flight to go home tomorrow instead. Maybe, if we are far enough ahead, I can call Kenny and Molly and get together with them tonight. Who knows?

Everything is either ceiling white or antique white. I did the edger and the brush and KC did the roller and we knocked out the living/dining room and the hallway and the foyer. Now we wait for a few hours and remove the masking tape and voilá - everything to do with painting is done. I’ll have to go back and do some touch-up but the biggest load is done.

My nephews A-Train and C-Dude were over here this morning and we borrowed a friend’s pickup. The boys did well loading up all the old willow branches on a tarp at the bottom of the back yard hill and pulling them up the hill to the pickup so we could take them to the compost site here in town. Took two pickup loads, then we took the old dishwasher and a bunch of other sundry junk to the transfer station for disposal. KC even planted her flowers in our front yard flower bed. We really got a lot done today.