Does this mean the return of The James? I certainly hope so.

Ok, I've finally got my website set up how it used to be. The "Quickies" are back, and so is the poll. It took me forever to troubleshoot the quickie entries. I created a new weblog in MT, then imported all my old GM quickie entries into that blog, but nothing showed up in the main index file (which is included in my MAIN main index file using SSI). After messing with it for about an hour, I gave up and chatted for awhile. When I was done chatting, I came back to it, and the answer hit me like a brick--MT was displaying the last 7 days worth of entries, instead of the last "x" number of entries. Since I hadn't posted to the quickies in the last 7 days, MT was displaying zero entries. I added "lastn='10'" to my <MTEntries> tag, and BAM! There you have it. I don't know where you get your Movable Type, but where I get mine, it don't come seasoned.




I've just got to do a little HTML rejiggering to get the formatting of the quickies and the main entries looking better, but the hard part is done. Oh yeah, the comment pages aren't like they should be, but I think I'm going to try something different and use a different template than the main index for the comment pages this time around. I'll sober up a bit and take care of it tomorrow.

I just found out last week, quite by accident, that there's a huge meteor impact crater not far from where I live. On my way back from Grand Junction last Wednesday, I marked a couple of waypoints on my GPS near interesting-looking areas. After I got home, I downloaded the waypoints to ExpertGPS and looked at the areas on the topo maps and satellite images. I zoomed out from the satellite photo and saw an odd formation called Upheaval Dome.




It's in Canyonlands National Park (there's an even cooler picture here), about a two hour drive from here. People used to think it was simply an eroded salt dome, but a study funded by NASA shows that it's probably a meteor crater.




I've talked Traci into going there with me in April or May, when the weather warms up a bit, for a day-long hike around the crater. I'd even like to camp there overnight, but I'd be pushing my luck.

It looks like I've got some of the bugs in Movable Type worked out. After several tries, I finally got the individual acrhive filenames to mirror my Greymatter filenames. I also fixed the problem with the comments being jumbled together. So the only problem now is getting GD installed so the captcha system will work.




I'm going to gut all the MT templates and use SSI for the layout--that way I can simply make changes to one file, then FTP it to the server, and it'll automatically be visible throughout the site, with no rebuilding of files. I may not get around to that tonight, so I'm stuck with this ugly default layout for now.

I ordered a Canon PowerShot A95 today to replace my old PowerShot S10. I really wanted something nicer, but I couldn't justify spending more money on what is basically just a toy for me. Besides the greatly increased image size and quality, the features I'm looking forward to are the 15-second exposure time and the use of "AA" batteries rather than some proprietary rechargeable. Capturing video will be nice as well, but it's a feature I can live without.




So...I'll be selling my PowerShot S10 shortly, and if anyone reading this wants it before it goes up on eBay, give me a holler. I'm willing to part with the camera (including all the original boxes, manuals, cables, etc.), the DK110 power supply kit/charger, and the IBM 340MB MicroDrive for around $120, including shipping.

I broke the passenger-side mirror clean off my car just now. I'm pretty pissed at myself. I was driving in Spring Glen on a narrow road, and there was a truck coming the opposite direction. He had to angle to his left to clear a few mailboxes that were close to the road, and I had to do the same to avoid a garbage can on my side of the road, but I didn't get far enough over.




The mirror is just hanging by the bundle of wires for now, but I'll probably disconnect it until I can get a new mirror. Ford wants $127 for just the housing, which is the only part I need, but I've got a request in to a junkyard to see if they've got one and how much it'll cost.




Why the hell couldn't Ford use a hinged mirror like everybody else does?

Well, it appears that I wasted my time installing Movable Type. I can't get the captcha system to work, I think because this server doesn't have GD installed (and I don't have access to install it). Right now, I've got it set so I have to approve comments the first time somebody posts one, but it will add the user's IP to a whitelist so they won't have to be approved after the first time.




Another big problem is that, when MT imported all my GM entries, it named the files in reverse chronological order. I wanted all my archive files to have the same filenames so search engine hits would be accurate. I don't think there's any way around that one, and I may go back to GM if I can't figure this one out.




Also, the imported comments are jumbled together as one comment. Even though I followed the import instructions to the letter, MT still screwed everything up. This is something I can fix, with a lot of work, but I'm still pissed about it.




One other gripe: MT is SOOOOO slow. I could rebuild my entire site (about 1500 entries) in GreyMatter in just a couple of minutes. Movable Type takes about 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Also, GM has the option of rebuilding only current entries (from the past seven days), but MT requires that you rebuild all entries. This is a big pain in the ass when I'm testing a template change.




I've still got a lot of other little things to try and work out, but none of this is a priority for me. I can revert back to GreyMatter much more easily than if I were to continue using Movable Type, but then I'd be back to the same old blog spam problem.

Well, I switched over to Movable Type, and so far I'm not impressed. I've still got a lot of things to fix, and I can't figure out how to fix half of them. I'll have to play with it more over the weekend.




Our trip to Grand Junction went well--as well as a trip can go with kids, anyway. Traci and I voted just after 8:00 am on Tuesday, and we hit the road immediately after leaving city hall. I pulled over at the Colorado state line, and Michael and I got out and braved the cold wind to find a geocache there.




Once we got to Grand Junction, we headed straight for Mesa Mall and killed some time. Afterwards, we ate lunch and then checked into the Grand Vista Hotel (crappy website, but it's a nice place). We did a little more shopping, including a stop at Fisher's Liquor Barn. I got a 12-pack of Rolling Rock and a 1.75 liter bottle of Bacardi rum. Getting cheap non-Utah beer was nice, and the rum was way cheaper than here--$18.99 instead of the usual $23.95. It's pitiful--I could bring back a few of those and it would make up for the money I spent on gas.




We did a little more shopping Wednesday, and we almost made a quick side-trip to Moab, but didn't want to add an extra two hours to the already three-hour drive. The kids slept all the way to Green River, where we had to stop and fuel up. We hit another cache just outside of Green River on the old US-6, under a bridge. It was really creepy, since it was dark outside and we were in the middle of nowhere snooping under an abandoned bridge.




We got home and carved our pumpkin that we didn't have time to do before Halloween, then roasted the seeds and ate 'em. Today, I sprayed some Thompson's Water Seal on the kids' playset, and I'll wait a couple more days before hoisting the roofs (you'd think that would be rooves, like hooves--damned English language) up and hanging the swings. It'll be nice to have it done, but it's a little late for it to do any good with the way the weather has been. A combination of bad weather and pure laziness is what kept me from finishing up before now, but they've still got years and years to enjoy it.




Tomorrow morning (technically today), I've got to help my wife's uncle with some computer troubles. I don't know why people still come to me for help, because the further away from 1999 it becomes (the last time I considered myself very knowledgeable about computers), the less helpful I am. Not that I mind helping, but most people, especially those who can afford professional help, could have their problems solved much more quickly without me.

Comments are disabled once again. I'll have to implement some sort of whatchacallit like Ty has for his comments, but I haven't found anything easy for Greymatter yet.

Well, time to vote tomorrow (good thing the polls open at 7:00 am). The bad news is that I'll be out of town when the results come in, so I won't be able to see how the local races turned out until Wednesday night. I remember staying up late four years ago to see how the presidential election turned out, and waking up the next morning only to find out they still hadn't straightened things out. I hope this year is different.




I parked my truck in my front yard today, with a "For Sale" sign in the window. I already had a guy call asking about it and the Mazda, and he sounded half-serious about the Mazda. With as long as I've been trying to sell it, I'm beginning to think it'd be worth it to register it and get some use out of it while I'm waiting. My truck's pretty worthless to me, though, since it won't seat all of my family, nor does the four-wheel drive work. I hope I sell them both before winter really sets in, 'cause I'd like to buy a new 4X4 to get me around in all the snow (which I hope we get a lot of this year).