I’ve been Tagged: 6 random things
Posted by monogodo | Filed under Blogging, Odd stuff
I’m back.
Kathleen tagged me, so what the hell:
The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
#1:
I can’t whistle. Well, I can, but it’s weak and only dogs can hear it. I’ve tried to learn how, and just can’t do it. Every now and then I’ll get a good, solid tone, but it doesn’t last, and I can’t vary the pitch. It’s sad, really.
#2:
I was my high school’s first National Merit Scholar. And I didn’t even try. I wasn’t valedictorian, didn’t make straight-A’s, and only took the SAT once. I just test really well. From what I understand, the second National Merit Scholar from my HS was the very next year.
#3:
Even though I got a full scholarship to college, I never graduated. In fact, I dropped out after one year. I’ve since gone back to various colleges/universities and picked up classes here and there, enough to be classified as a Junior, but not enough for a degree. I still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up.
#4:
I was the best trombone player in my HS graduating class, but I can’t/don’t read music. I’ve even performed on stage at the Meyerson Symphony Center, twice. Oh, and I can’t do jazz improv, either. But put a piece of music in front of me and I can play it. I learned to play by position, so when I see the note on a page, I see numbers. It works for me.
#5:
In another 15 months I’ll have lived half my life in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. I’m including the summer my brothers and I lived here with our mother back in the 70s. The other half of my life has been spent mostly in various towns/cities in Wisconsin, but also in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, & California. Of all the places I’ve lived, I prefer Dallas.
#6:
I love cats & don’t really care for dogs. Dogs smell, and are very needy. Cats take care of themselves, but can still tell when they’re needed. There, that makes 6. Can you tell I’m struggling here?
On whom shall I inflict this?
Tags: memeRelated posts
It’s been a while
Posted by monogodo | Filed under Blogging, Life, Personal News, Pets, iPhone
I see that the last post I had was back in July, almost 3.5 months ago. It’s not that nothing’s been going on, or that I’ve been too busy to post, I just haven’t felt like it. Although, there were a couple times I tried to post from work and got an error, so I gave up. But I’m back now.
The MacBook is working well for me. I did drop it on the concrete floor one evening while it was running, but nothing was damaged. I’m more careful now.
We moved at the end of July to a new loft in a new(er) building. Our old loft was in a 100+ year old building. Our new loft is in a 50+ year old building. It’s a smaller space, but the layout is very efficient, and we like it.
Work is work. Nothing new there.
We’re now down to two cats. We had to have Lorenzo put down at the end of July. His ear cancer had come back, and his kidneys were failing. The best thing for him was to humanely have him euthanized. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do, but it was the right thing to do. Lance & Arianna have adapted to his loss fairly well, but I can tell they miss him.
I got an iPhone recently. It’s great, as I expected. I’ve downloaded lots of free apps for it. I’m afraid of downloading non-free apps because I don’t want to run up a huge iTunes bill.
We went to the NYC area for a week from the 18th through the 25th. I’ll go into detail in another post.
Tags: iPhone, miscellany, moving, Pets, shopping, WorkRelated posts
Geekdom
Posted by monogodo | Filed under Blogging
Me (while sitting ten feet from MC Frontalot): I feel like a sub-par geek.
My wife: You have a blog, what more do you need?
Tags: NerdcoreRelated posts
Transitioning to WordPress from ExpressionEngine
Posted by monogodo | Filed under Blogging
I’ve been blogging since 2003, when I first got Blogger to publish to my server. I used Blogger until 2006, when I got tired of their interface and lack of uptime. At that time, I researched various blogging software applications, trying to find the one that would work best for me. It had to be free, and it had to work well. For some reason, I chose not to check out WordPress. Of all the options available, I narrowed it down to ExpressionEngine and Textpattern. I couldn’t get Textpattern to install, so i went with ExpressionEngine.
For the most part, EE has worked well for me. The main drawback I’ve been able to discover is that when it’s time to update the software, I found it easier to completely uninstall the old version and do a new install of the new one. Even doing that, updating the software generally took me a couple of days to do. Because of that, I’d been using version 1.4.2 for well over a year. I know that I needed to update to the current version (1.6), I just wasn’t looking forward to doing it.
Last week, I attended WordCamp Dallas with my wife. I figured I’d pick up general blogging tips (I did), and also learn more about WordPress. I fully intended to update the software to the current version, but also considered switching to WordPress.
Earlier this week, I made the attempt to update. As usual, it didn’t work. Finally, in frustration, I decided to install WordPress 2.5 and start over. But I didn’t want to simply install it on my current host. I decided to finally purchase monogodo.com, and install it on that. I’ll keep monogodo.org and have it redirect to the .com version eventually.
The WordPress installation was the easiest software installation I’ve ever done. I’m amazed at how simple it was. Adding plugins & widgets and themes is extremely easy. In EE, all of it took some doing. Now I understand why my wife loves WordPress.
I am still going to try to export my old posts from EE and import them into WordPress at some point. I think the best way to do that is going to be to install EE locally on my computer at home, and fiddle with it there.
Oh, another thing I like about WordPress vs. EE: In EE, if I want to add a Category, I have to create it in a whole different submenu. In WordPress, I just add it during the post. I also hated the preview in EE. The theme it used for previewing posts was the Dashboard theme, which looked nothing like my blog.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to using the software even more as time goes on.
Tags: ExpressionEngine, WordPress