June 22, 2010

Update feeds

Please update your feeds and links. I've moved over to Wordpress and everything as changed.

New Feed

June 9, 2010

PHP I loathe thee

I've been messing around with Wordpress themes for the last hour. I am amazed at peoples' creativity, and I can't believe how I've allowed myself to slack in this department. What can I say, real life took over?

And because I have to be cool, I refuse to install a theme and just let it be. I need to look at it, see how the css was applied, and then create my own. I'm just that stubborn. I'll never finish!

Woe unto me.

May 28, 2010

Goodbye MT

I haven't written in this thing for months. For one I've been busy. I realize it's not much of an excuse. I keep repeating to myself that work stays at work, and while I'm at home the hobbies must take over, which for the most part has turned out splendidly. Of course the easiest hobby to manage has been my love affair with television, but now that network tv has more of an interest in lukewarm storytelling I find myself watching less of it than usual. Then I look at Newsvine, which has been run amok with trolls and this blog that is just screaming for a new layout, and well hibernation just seems so much more interesting. That is until I start thinking about work again.

Moveabletype has become convoluted. There's just no way I could take my blog's current configuration and succesfully upgrade it into a different layout. So I'll be shifting everything over to Wordpress in the next few days. In the meantime, I think I'll try to get back in the swing of things.

I missed this.

January 18, 2010

Test

test

edit: permissions will be the death of me! Thank goodness I own this domain. Error logs have saved the day!

Second edit: permissions and php on this server hate each other damn it!!

January 16, 2010

Missing people

It's a yearly thing I suppose, but I'm sitting here trying to ignore the sinus infection that's attempting to develop, tinkering away at all my sites. MT hasn't behaved in months, and I know I need to upgrade. I logged into blackglass, and I started checking the stats. My domain still gets some pretty decent traffic for being somewhat inactive. And yes, shame on me for not doing much with it this last year, but I have plans. Working in the real world just put them on hold for a while.

Back to the stats- looking at the referers was like glancing at an internet graveyard. There were two dead links, but 4 links lead to blog entries written by a dear friend dating back to 2002! I haven't heard from him in years. It was almost heartbreaking. He's still so popular, that I can only hope he's still writing.

I hope you're well, where ever you are, Machine.

August 8, 2007

The upgrading continues

I'm now on the 4th release candidate of MT. I haven't really run into many bugs during the upgrade process. The only minor annoyance has been fiddling with the templates to make them compatible with this layout, which may see its final days anyway.

The biggest problem has always been and still seems to be my server. Making any changes to the templates seems to throw the script into a kind of white out phase. Deleting more than three comments does the same. Since I can now place my archives into a dynamic state, I'm sure the load on my server is remarkably less, but it shouldn't have been a problem to begin with. The truth is my server can't handle MT right now, and my host can't explain why.

July 29, 2007

MT4 Test

Coming to you live from Moveabletype RC 1.

January 27, 2007

Site redesign

It's going to be pinkish. I'm positively disgusted with myself and bemused. The graphic is no biggy, but the css is giving me issues. MT really decided to make things complicated!

Anyway, as soon as I'm satisfied I'll upload the site design. At least it won't be this dull blue thing I've been staring at forever. I seriously wanted to do green, but I guess V-Day won even if I'm secretly cursing couples everywhere.

Ew.

January 10, 2007

Shortie

I finally updated the blog list. If I have my way I'll be doing some major overhauling on this blog. Oh gee, a new layout would be lovely, ya know. I finally got my hands on Photoshop CS, but the touchpad on my laptop does not agree with my finger. We're currently in the middle of a love-hate relationship.

June 23, 2006

PHP Improved!

Update your links if you have to. This weblog is now published in php. I think I sprouted a few grey hairs in the process too. What a pain! I never imagined anything would give me as much trouble with permissions as this.

So, if you have trouble viewing the blog, please let me know. I'll cry, whine, and eventually figure it out. Unless it's your problem. ;-)

January 3, 2006

RSS issues

This is a test. Third entry down and so far Sage is showing that it's not updating correctly. So hopefully today.

edited to add: ok it's working now.

September 2, 2005

Like old times

Well, I messed around with the css yesterday, and I managed to make the layout work a bit better. The blue is killing me though. I guarantee that this will change, but for now I'm comfortable enough to post to my heart's content.

And yes, I have a lot to say.

August 27, 2005

The muse is not amused

I think the last upgrade ate some comments, but anyway...

I can't avoid Photoshop any longer, and this default style is driving me batty. Hopefully I'll be inspired.

August 12, 2005

:(

I spoke way too soon! It's taken me four hours to figure out why I couldn't rebuild my files, and now I'm behind on everything. Ugh. Links aren't up, neither is my counter or who knows what else.

Anyway, I'll keep working on this behind the scenes. It's actually rather thrilling to be getting my hands dirty again. And if I'm quite for a day or two it's because I'm flying to El Paso to see the family.

Update #3

AAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I couldn't get this to work! I couldn't get it to work. It wanted templates I didn't have!! And apparently it throws out my stuff automatically. Sheesh. That means everyone else's layouts just got trashed.

Oops!

I think I know how to fix that...

Oh so cool

So, the upgrade went successful. And it went even better once I emptied my browser cookies, which I didn't want to do. There's a new error going around which seems specific to Firefox, but also occurs when a webpage is directed to do a redirect, and I've seen it twice now. Both instances happened with my install of MT, and after I did a google search, it seems to affect other sites as well. It's a "redirection limit for this url has exceeded blah blah blah" error. Though the error is different, apparently something happens in IE too. It's annoying.

Anyway, have I mentioned how nifty the beta is? I'm still playing around with it. I want to reset my templates. This will force me to actually come up with a new layout for the blog, but I haven't quite figured that one out yet. The admin panel has nicer colors, and more control. This control freak is pleased.

Now I'm going to nag my hostees and be a royal witch to them. ;-) Which reminds me, been to blackglass.org yet? There's new stuff to read. I'm quite pleased.

Beta, beta, beta...

So, I'm about to upgrade my blog to the latest beta version. Here's hoping I don't screw things up.

July 10, 2005

Stats

There are no rss stat counters, and if I want to know my stats I would have to join a site like feedburner. Um, no thank you.

Fortunately, my host has AWStats, which after much scrutinizing and disecting I've determined that my counter is worthless. Last month I had over 1100 hits to the .xml file and close to 700 for the .rdf file, so um, yeah, you crazy people like to read my ramblings.

I'm so sorry. ;-)

January 11, 2005

Belated Anniversary

The bad news: I took down the Greymatter archives for this blog. I realized the archives had my email unprotected, and well, a little lightbulb suddenly went off in my head. People are just so evil! Only me, damn it! Only me.

Good news: I started my blog sometime this month or late last, exactly three four years ago. The muse is still around. She still hates me. I so rule!

Update: Let me see, if this blog was started at the end of Dec. 2000 beginning of Jan. 2001 that would make this place exactly four years old. I. Can't. Count. Another reminder of why I chose the legal profession instead of accounting! Besides, secretaries can add up the number of billable hours, right?

January 8, 2005

Ack!

Comments don't work. Why didn't anyone let me know that comments weren't working!! Email, people. Unless a simple "test" is enough to get rejected, and I'm just a loser...

Must run more tests...

update: I am invincible!! Actually, it's kinda impossible to post when "http" has been blacklisted by accident. For shame. And here I thought the spammers had finally disappeared and forgotten my little blog. I guess I should upgrade.

November 14, 2004

Website changes

I realized yesterday that I hadn't touched my personal website in over a year and a half. I think I was appalled. It's not that I forgot about it. It's more like I've been busy with other things, and I have yet to create a layout to top the one that was on there prior to the one there now.

The reason I messed with it yesterday? The site was unreadable in Firefox, and this was just unacceptable. It's been nagging me for weeks, so I went and deleted the tag that was causing the text problem. It took three hours to find and delete one measely tag. Imagine how long it's going to take to remove the scrolling javascript effect from every page, because I guarantee that's not coming back (that and I noticed some chick ripped it from my site and used it on her site without changing any of the values...how stupid can you be). It's the other reason that kept me from adding my newer writings yesterday. At least the site is readable, and it now states that I actually graduated from law school!

And if you haven't noticed already, I messed around with the blogroll. Added a few links here and there. Seperated them into sections. There's now a RSS 2.0 feed as well.

October 29, 2004

Failed implementations

I just failed at adding the Typekey authorization code to the comments section. All because I was too lazy to modify a tag here and there probably, but never fear, there's still tomorrow (if I'm not too hungover)!

The upgrade to version 3.121 did go ok. Apparently I still know how to do that! Then again, they way my server was hiccuping maybe it had one too many? The 'new entry' screen is kinda nifty. What I really want to do is implement subcategories and finish off the css tags and other templates that have been untouched since I first installed MT almost two years ago.

Hmm, we shall see. I have a bundle of nerves to kill these next few days, assuming that is, I don't kill myself. Here's to being productive.

Oh yeah, and somebody slap me! I'm five minutes away from signing up for NANOWRIMO.

September 8, 2004

MT 3.1 test

I just upgraded, but I'm wondering if I have to add the Typekey specfic keywords to the templates.

August 9, 2004

Die, spammers, die!!!

Every time I'm tempted to upgrade to MT 3.01D I'm constantly reminded by email notifications courtesy of MT-Blacklist that scream, "Baka, bad idea." Today alone Mr. I-Wonder-What-I'm-Having-Trouble-Holding(EM)-Up-Once-I'm-Done-With-You got me twice before I blacklisted him, and then I checked the activity log. Had I ignored the emails I would have been swamped with twenty of the suckers. Definately not an option though it is nice to see the 'denied' line over and over again. A little sick satisfaction goes a long way.

May 29, 2004

RSS feeds parte dos

I guess I'm too subtle. Maybe I'm not.

I do enjoy going to a library and opening a forgotten book or two to do research. Sometimes the pages stick together, and you have to carefully pry them apart with your fingernails. Sometimes you have to go in with a mask because there's just too much dust on the poor things. Accidently sneeze and cause an asthma attack as the light powdered stuff goes flying in all directions. Then of course you have the idiots who underline in the precious tomes. As if these were your personal copies! Dish out the nickles, make a xerox and scribble to your hearts content, but don't be an idiot and leave a mark where it's not wanted.

And, if you're going to use an analogy, make sure it works. Online research is useful, but it's incomplete without the library, unless you work in a rich firm that can afford Westlaw. Besides, in my original post about RSS newsreaders, though I was making fun of the whole idea, I was also making fun of myself, since I linked to the one I use, and my RSS feed is at the very bottom of this page sans the orange button, which I still consider to be unaesthetic.

May 24, 2004

Want a cookie?

Yay! They work again. Cookies work on my blog again. The fact that I no longer have to put in all the lovely details everytime I want to answer someone's comment amuses me to no end! I'm hopeless. ;-)

By the way, I hope this means cookies work for everyone else too.

Curtis, chocolate or oatmeal?

May 21, 2004

MT 3.0

A little over a week ago a very shocking thing happened. Movabletype 3.0 was released, and it came with a few surprises. Needless to say it was a tough week, more so because as a alpha/beta tester, I had no clue this was coming.

I'm not disappointed, and I'm not taking the time to rant about it now because there's no point. I love MT, and I hope that Six Apart keeps listening to the community.

Now Mena is asking how we use our MT installs. Well, this is my breakdown: past, present, and what I had planned for the future.


Currently I have two MT installs on my domain, version 3.0 which I'm still testing and may eventually use for something, and 2.661.

I run three weblogs and each has an author. This is one weblog, and the other two blogs I run for the people I host on my domain. One is used frequently, the other lapses. Sometimes it's not used for 90 days.

I plan to replace a group blog with an MT blog, which currently runs on greymatter. It's password protected. Right now there are about 7 active authors on that blog.

I've previously run a group blog on a different domain with MT using one blog and 5 active authors, 3 inactive.

The licenses need to take into consideration group blogs. There are some great group blogs out there with the ability to discuss relevant issues, or even post pretty pictures. Whatever. The fact of the matter is, the ability to have multiple authors is just a unique and relevant tool as the weblog, and many people count on having that. I think it would be more agreeable to add a few more authors to the licenses.

May 14, 2004

Resolving

My domain would have resolved overnight except that evil Network Solutions decided to replace the new domain servers with their own. I don't know why, but needless to say when I discovered the error this morning it was not pretty.

The change is taking place now, and I have tons of bandwidth and space. ::bounce:: Be patient until things go through.

May 12, 2004

Switching servers

Crossed fingers and toes. This will be the last time damn it!

April 24, 2004

Comment issues

Alright, here's a question. And I need answers from everyone who comments on my blog. Please. ::smiles sweetly::

When you comment, is your info being remembered, or have the cookies died suddenly? Use this post to test to your heart's content.

April 22, 2004

MT 3.0

The secret is out! Moveabletype version 3.0 is now in beta stage, and I can now say that I was an alpha tester, and I'm still testing it. It doesn't like me very much though.

I may upgrade this blog to the beta eventually once one of the minor/major kinks is fixed. That, and well I'd be lost without MT Blacklist. Stay tuned.

March 7, 2004

vidrionegro

My lovely domain is back up, though it is missing a few things. There is no forum or link database. A few hostees are missing as well as the guestbook and the mailing list.

The shell is there. This is what matters. I'm high on migraine drugs. I'm a happy camper. We can all be happy together!

The webmistress is in no way, shape, or form responsible for any psychological damage you receive by reading the materials on this website.

March 6, 2004

Lists

My scheduled migraine wants to rear its ugly head. The obvious solution to this is to take a zomig except I'm not symptomatic. I get the tension first, then the tension headache, and then the migraine from hell. Except they're all from hell, or something like that. I have a concert to sing at today. I have the same one tomorrow. I have to be around smokers on Monday. The migraine is banished till Tuesday, ya hear!

Of course, since when does it listen to me.

I have this need to make a list. Things to do, people to do, places to go, etc, etc. I have a semi-functional control panel but this only impairs me counter wise. Everything else is alright. Have I mentioned how annoying it is not being able to say that 78,000 have visited blackglass since August 8, 1999 but I'm cool. I could just put it in the text and then aggregate the amount later. Hmm...

Anyway, these are my goals for March:

- study every day this week for the MPRE
- email the hostees today
- put the domain back up
- install a form script
- install dada mail (formally mojomail mailing list). Now this would be an interesting case if the guy had enough funds to sue. He started the script years ago but some upstart company filed a trademark using the name Mojo a year or so ago and then threatened to sue him if he didn't change the name of his script. He would have a case I think, but again it's a situation where it's the little guy against the big guy, and I'm not familiar with trademark law. It's still infuriating to know.
- new layout for blog
- put my personal website back online
- go see A Perfect Circle (yay)
- write!

If I can do all of this in a month then I will consider myself accomplished.

January 25, 2004

My server, endore.com, has gone to hell. They've killed their live support, taken down their phone numbers, and they don't answer support emails anymore. I can't use my morphiadream.com email accounts because they won't tell me if they're fixed. If blackglass goes down I'm screwed because that's going to be alot of money down the drain. How could such a good service with such a good reputation let itself fall like that? Needless to say, I'm peeved.

August 2, 2003

After almost a year I finally fixed the guestbook on my personal website. I actually had time to fix it, and it only took less than five minutes! I have a guestbook. ::laughs::

I also fixed the blackglass guestbook, and I realized why I hadn't received any hostee applications all summer. The form wasn't working. But no one tried to email me either, so I guess they really didn't want to be hosted...

I also did pay on time. On the 30th to be exact, with a day to spare since my domain expired on the 31st. I am now paid through till 2006. Blackglass.org will be a household name one of these days, though I promise I won't make it my legal name any time soon.

Now I just have to decide what to do next. I still have to fix the mailing list program, which will not be easy. I also have a few emails to reply to, and I want to add a few links to this blog though my ultimate goal is to give a new layout. My first priority though is to email one of the members of my study group and fix a time with her soon to get her MPRE materials since I probably should start studying for that exam soon.

April 17, 2003

Stop the presses. There's a new private entry.

Edited to add: My mailing lists are down so if you know someone on the list, let them know.

April 10, 2003

I meant to blog about this yesterday, but I forgot. The email was specifically directed to me, which surprised me. I'm not sure if I'll try it. I did tell F. about it who said I should go for it and he'd tape it. We shall see. I want to send him the email and see what he thinks. It's rather amusing because when I spoke to him yesterday he told me he was in LA and a bunch of people he met there were trying to convince him to become an agent. I think he would be good at it, and it cracked me up when he said he'd be my agent if I do the blog thing.

That does make three people I know who have received the email.

March 26, 2003

I yelled at everyone I host on my domain, and now I hate myself. I just lost another good hostee. I think I just suck at being a webmistress. I should just stop asking anything of them and let them mooch off my webspace.

Yeah right.

Oh, and what about Angel!!!! That was the best episode ever. I really enjoyed tonight's, and Gunn looked snazzy!. Review tomorrow.

A milestone of sorts was reached today. I went to pick up my graduation invitations. Of course now I have to mail them to my mother because she's going to send them out.

It doesn't feel like I'm going to graduate. There are still so many things left to do, which is why it's hard for me to swallow that it's just right around the corner. It hasn't stopped senioritis from settling in. My friend and I were joking yesterday about how finals were 5 weeks away and we hadn't read anything for any of our classes. Of course we can't tell 1Ls this because they look at us in utter shock. We 3Ls don't read. I do sometimes, which has garnered me the title of nerd on those occasions I actually mention that I read the day's assignment, but this semester has also been the one were I've passed twice in a class. I hate having to say 'pass.'

I have so much to do. It feels like I do. There's the 15 pager on fan fiction for my copyright class that I have yet to start, and the treaty analysis for my International Human Rights law class has to be written, much to my chagrin (sp?). 2,000 words to be exact. That's like a 10 pager and it's only 20% of our final grade.

Let me see, morphia still doesn't have a layout, and my poor neglected personal website needs a serious update. Today I need to fix the rest of the cgi on my domain and post up the challenges and new writings I've received. Four of us get the entries and I'm the only one putting up the damn things. Why? Well one I know, but the other two are lost in limbo. They said they would help me out with this, but have they, no. That irks me. It irks me more that one of them is supposed to be my friend, and yet he doesn't have the time of day to send me an email or even log on. At all. Last time I heard from him was Christmas. And I know he hangs around the forum, but does he even leave a message to say hello? No. He doesn't even post! He doesn't participate. Neither of the two do. Neither of the three actually, but the third one is excused because I know his reasons.

It's time for me to find new volunteers otherwise my domain is going to fall apart this summer, and I will not be amused.

February 25, 2003

CONTEST

There are three days left to participate in the contest, and you could win $25. Do try it out.

February 11, 2003

Y tu mamá también was nominated for best screenplay, and El crimen del padre Amaro was nominated for best foreign film. That's two oscar nominations for Mexico!! I don't know if Amaro will win because I've heard that Hero is really good. But who knows.

I like that Queen Latifah was nominated. And hell yeah. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was nominated for best picture.

I need to go and see what songs were nominated.

January 31, 2003

I'm an irredeemably eejitous, liberal, not-too-generous, not-too-selfish, relatively well adjusted human being!
See how compatible you are with me!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

I'm 75% compatible with jonni. hehe

January 24, 2003

I have a thief. http://www.livejournal.com/users/scar_me/

That's a wallpaper I made for blackglass, which she is using for a background. It just bugs me. She could have at least given me credit for it, but then again a thief is a thief, and that's my graphic. That and she's stealing my bandwidth too, and that's just a big no-no.

I'll probably rename the image and replace the one she has with a really nasty graphic.

God, I'm brain dead today.

January 22, 2003

The new layout for blackglass.org is up. I'm quite happy.

January 19, 2003

I did it, I did it, I did it!!!! I have the most awesome layout for blackglass. At least it's different and spiffy and it's a white layout with black and that's it. It will go up tomorrow so stay tuned.

Oh, Brad Pitt is at the Golden Globe awards. Yummy!!

January 17, 2003

I'm redoing the new blackglass layout. It's not dark enough, and I think I sat on it too long. If I'm not inspired today I'll put up the layout just because the domain is desperate for an update. It's just frustrating. Sometimes I wish I could come up with something different and amazing and gothicky cool. hehe

January 12, 2003

It's official. I'm never going to finish. I'm not even 50% done! By tomorrow I will be sick of html. Actually, I already am. At least Dreamweaver MX is cool, once it stopped suggesting things. Sheesh.

Bloody hell, there is no end in sight!

In other news I read this interesting article about Angel and Spike and their soulful status. hehe. It left me drooling. Not because of their analysis exactly, but rather about what they said would be interesting if it did happen. Can you imagine Spike as a future cast member of Angel. The thought is enough to make me giddy!!

And I don't care what everyone else thinks, I think Buffy and Spike are great for one another. I mean, look at Showtime. I almost cried.

/pathetic

January 7, 2003

I decided to re-add the webcam, but let's just see how long it lasts. I cringe when I see it, but that's more an issue I have to deal with.

And no, I will not pose nude, or do any of those other things some cam girls do these days to get presents. ;-) I have my dignity, damn it.

As for Buffy, I'm so pathetic. I sniffled when Spike realized it was the real Buffy who came to save him. It was so touching. Now all I need is for Faith to come back. And I swear, if Giles is dead I will throw a fit. He just can't be dead, ya know. Not him.

Watching: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

My hand is finally getting better. It blistered up and burned for a while, but it finally stopped hurting today. I'm still trying to take it easy, but tomorrow I will start working on the domain again.

Great news hit the wire today. The Norwegian kid who created DeCSS has been acquitted. Now I'm waiting for the DMCA to be declared unconstitutional.

January 1, 2003

Listening to: Baz Luhrman's La Boheme

Alright, I fiddled around some more and I'm starting to like it. Of course it looks alot like the member's area, but there are differences, and I didn't even look at the code so all of this is new.

I'm still far from finishing the configuration. Comments work, but the page isn't configured. Same goes for the archives and the individual entries. I have added categories, which I positively love.

Moveabletype has all these nifty goodies, and it can handle mysql, which is what I need since I make too many entries methinks. Who cares, right? I'm thinking of the endless possibilities here.

Anyway, here's the new layout. If you get the chance, let me know if you like it.