Month: May 2004

the fridge & dishwasher arrived today while I was at work…and the old ones magically disappeared. by magically, of course, I mean that C. was good enough to pry the old dishwasher out of the cupboards, disconnect it, and drag it out into the front room for the gents from Lowe’s to take away, along with the planet-killing old fridge.

I’m totally psyched about the new fridge. 🙂 it’s bigger than our old one, possibly too big to fit back into the old spot, which, along with the change in dishwasher (as yet still in the box), means that this is almost certainly step 1 towards the grand kitchen remodel plan. we may be going into this ass-backwards, but that’s okay.

anyway, the fridge is big and white and shiny, and it makes me happy, at least for the moment. this evening, each time I’ve walked into the kitchen and looked at the scary gaping hole where the old appliances used to be, and the fscked up floor underneath, I’ve just gone back into the front room and given the fridge a little pet.

nice fridge. shiny fridge. happy fridge.

# fix search form I’d like it if the results page showed the search term(s).
# fix syndication page just had to update my .htaccess (something to add to the upgrade guide?) (perhaps these 2 need to be better integrated into the WP install? that turned out to be dead easy. unfortunately, there’s something wonky with the auto-generated feed URLs.)
# look at Shelley’s hack for multi-blog support and work towards moving snapping links over to WP
# expand on my thoughts about upgrading
# see what’s up with quote encoding in my feeds

don’t know when any of these things will happen, of course, but it’s good to have a plan.

a few nice touches in the 1.2 beta of wordpress, mostly in the administrative features. the moderation in particular is improved, or at least I’m assuming it is. (normal visitors, there’s a much greater chance that your comment will just go straight through, while spams will continue to be held for my furious deletion.)

as promised, here’s my thoughts on upgrading:

# you *must* delete your old folder. I don’t know why, but there it is. so…
# first, back up the database. there’s a script kicking around to do that really easy, but I found it pretty simple to do in phpmysqladmin.
# then, back up the whole current folder of your WP install. this is necessary to preserve any template changes or other hacks (I don’t have any hacks in mine, so I can’t really speak to that).
# unzip the new version.
# open wp-config-sample.php and put in your old information. save the file as wp-config.php
# delete your old folder.
# upload the new version.
# run upgrade.php.
# delete upgrade.php and install.php.
# redo your template tweaks.

I’ll try to write this out a little more completely in the next day or so. as it is, it’s getting late and I haven’t had any dinner…and I need to see what’s thawing in my fridge.

# flat tire. luckily, there’s a service station at the end of the block which will patch it, but that’s not the one that’s been having a slow leak lately, either. new tires will be in order shortly. update: C took the tire down in the wheelbarrow; it only cost $8! but it looks pretty cheesy, so we’ll have to start saving up for those new tires.
# dead refrigerator. “didn’t you notice it was less cold?” asks the repair guy, after telling me that it’s run out of planet-killing freon, and they can’t fix that sort of thing anymore. many hundreds of dollars later, and there’s a new fridge coming from Lowes tomorrow. that, and a new dishwasher, since ours has never worked quite right.
# reinstalling XP. not me, thank goodness, but it’s hard to avoid it when someone else is trying to get their system to some sort of optimal state.
# garden troubles. the cats (I’m assuming) have killed all the cucumber and zucchini starts, most of the eggplants, and half of the sunflowers. the peas aren’t attaching themselves to the lattice. the spinach is looking sunburnt. at least I have arugula and radishes.

and of course there are a million things needing to be done around the house and at work that fell by the wayside while I spent 4 days (+) unable to breathe, too tired to move. (yes, I’m feeling better now.)

and now I want to curl up in a little ball and go to sleep. nose is clear, but ears are stuffed up and I’m exhausted.

the movable type foofurah feels like a storm happening around me, or in some distant space. another week, and I would’ve had lots to say, some of it contradictory. now, I just shrug. software, even nifty social software, is in no way more important than sleep.

I feel like my eardrums are imploding.

so, Monday night, while I was in the process of getting a cold, we were playing D&D. our little party is in an abandoned monastery looking for some sort of mystical documents, and maybe a magical opal. and I think we’ve gotten ourselves into a little more complicated trouble than we really wanted to; we captured a disreputable noble, only he escaped, and has persuaded a happy bunch of pseudo-lawful-good fighters to come after us. and we’re backed into a corner, fighting out way out; my character, and J’s, trying to shout that, no, we’re not the droids you’re looking for. only S’s character, who is a rogue, and sort of a shifty fellow at that, starts offing the guys who are just knocked out (because they tripped on the broken down door) or paralyzed (hold person spell).

and I kinda freak out, partially in character, and partially not, and I’m not entirely sure why, and then later, I’m reading about Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, and thinking with a sour stomach that maybe we are on the bad side of history this time. and I don’t like the idea of killing guys who are just doing what they think they ought to, at least not when we could be gracious and let them go and warn them that, yeah, we can kick their ass whenever, but we don’t want to, we just want to find this thing so the monk can get nifty powers. (even if it would be in character.)

which is by way of saying, if she’s reading this — and I’ll say it in person later — S., I’m sorry if I was a little snappish during the game, but this war shit is getting me down, and I’d just as soon go after a phase spider or a black pudding if it’s all the same to you.

[inspired partially by “Rage“]

spent most of today sleeping and breathing strangely. my ears are stuffed up, and I can distinctly feel the lymph nodes in my neck.

did I say I hate being sick?

I could feel it coming on last night while we were gaming; C had a cold a good part of the weekend. this morning, I woke up with my alarm, mostly because I was already awake from not being able to breathe properly.

I thought about going to work for a bit (“I don’t feel that bad, do I?”), but C heard my coughing and whacked-out breathing and said “stay home.” So I made my calls, took some decongestant, and went back to sleep.

I’ve been up for a bit futzing about, but I think I’m going to veg out with a movie and maybe take a nap….

1. How did you get into web design and web development? Was it by accident or design?

Entirely by accident, if by accident you mean random curiosity. I have a BA in English (with a Creative Writing emphasis!) which means that 6 years ago I was working as an administrative assistant when I had the good fortune to have a cube neighbor who worked on the Web site for our office, and a boyfriend (now husband) who was a computer nut. I started asking Tom about Web stuff, he showed me Webmonkey, and the rest is history.

2. If you could replace all the Muzak in the world with your favorites, what artists/styles would you choose?

All New Wave, all the time. 😉 Actually, I remember being really disturbed at some point in college when I was sitting in a Sherri’s and I heard Depeche Mode in Muzak.

3. Give your pitch for the world’s worst reality TV series.

What is this “reality TV” of which you speak? I suppose CSPAN is untoppable for reality TV; it would be “cool” if they added a survivor-like element, take the congress to some desert island. or better yet, make them live on poverty level wages. or something.

or conversely, watching the aspens, blackberries, and morning glories in my yard battle for dominance.

4. Your 30th birthday is this year. [Sept 10…start your shopping now!] Any regrets about your 20s? Are your approaching your thirties with optimism or pessimism?

I wish I’d been more assertive: at work, with my personal life. There’s a relationship that ended when I was 22 that I wish very much that I’d handled differently, but I don’t know if I’d say that I regret the way it turned out.

I’m not of the philosophy that things happen for a reason — the idea of fate annoys me — but I think every event has positive and negative results, things that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. You can spend your whole life thinking about what would’ve happened if, but that’s a poisonous way to think.

Most of the time I’m feeling pretty optimistic about my thirties. I’m finally starting to get the hang of being a grown-up, and I like it.

I do have moments of violently intense nostalgic, where I wish I could live things over again, be the person I was then; but they pass. And sometimes I’m terrified of the passage of time. I was at a party over the weekend where most of the people were Evergreen students, and someone asked me what I was studying in school, or something to that effect, and I realized that I haven’t been in school for eight years, which is a little freaky.

On the other hand, I still have this feeling of having all kinds of things out there ahead of me that I don’t necessarily know what they are, and that’s a good feeling.

5. Any food allergies or aversions we need to know about?

No allergies, but I don’t like onions or peppers. It’s the texture, mostly. And I don’t do very spicy food, although I’m willing to stretch a little every once in a while.

Dylan posted on the Interview Game the other day, and I figured it’d be fun. I’d love to spread the love…leave a comment if you want to be interviewed!

THE RULES:
1. leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. i will respond; i’ll ask you five questions.
3. you’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. you’ll include this explanation.
5. you’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.