PLANET3RRY

If you’ve staring at my site all day refreshing to see what exciting content I am going to be up next, do yourself a favor… get a RSS feed reader. It’ll  save you TONS of time.

But if you are still living in 2004, then you’ve been hitting F5 (or if you are in-the-know) Shift-F5, then you’ve seen a possessed blog with white space showing up, disappearing, moving, disappearing… something like The Excorsist.

Actually, I wanted a 3 column theme but I love the color scheme and so I decided to go ahead and just change my theme to a wider, faster, sexier theme. Well, once I figure out what was going on…

The code was written like a TV season finale… to find resolution of the code in the current PHP file, you had to go to the next PHP file to get it. It’s like a puzzle. Instead of a box of smooth squares that where it’s own piece by itself, these were true puzzle pieces… So, in something that I wish I knew Yesterday! (adam sandler)… I figured out one out.

Thanks to Sam I Am (short name version) for sending me to a tutorial about expanding the column function of a column impaired Word Press theme, I was able to mash together something that didn’t look pretty but works.

I now have to work on the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) (read: make it look pretty) and as much as I want to love GIMP… it’s so annoying because it’s not potatoshop (borrowed slang). I don’t think that I will be able to work on the image files until later tonight. So, if the screen looks a little messed up, it’s okay, you can have another Tequila Shot, or shot of espresso… you aren’t imaging things (I don’t think)

I ran into a wall yesterday as I was migrating our family pictures from Coppermine Gallery to Picasa Web Albums.

Our evolution in web pictures: I originally constructed webpages by hand to host our pictures. Cut and Paste Code to construct the pages, format the pictures, upload, etc.. Then, I found this great tool that built the web albums for me, but I still had to have space to host the albums and I had to upload all the files myself. I could batch resize pictures within the program and all the coding was done for me and such things such as auto-navigation and thumbnails were a nice treat. Next came Coppermine and the other Database-type web albums. You had a TON of options and uploading and constructing the webalbums was much easier. Then, after seeing my brother in law using his Picasa Web Albums from Google, you could just select the pictures you want in a GUI interface and a couple of clicks it was done… I could create 10 albums in about 90 seconds…

However, despite you having a 1 gig of space to use, you can only create 250 web albums. So right now, I am stuck and I still have 750+MB of space left. I can’t make anymore albums unless Google ups the limit or I open another Google account. The latter being that I have to have 2 URLs for our pictures which is something that I want to avoid and was my reason for moving stuff over to Picasa since it was so easy, fast and user friendly.

I have an email to them inquiring about Picasa, so we’ll see…

My computer has lost the ability to copy and paste! I am trying to duplicate posts from here over to PLANT3RRY my running blog but I can't do that. I wonder if it is hibernation related? Maybe I need a new keyboard… hmmm… let the experiment begin! CTRL-A (Select all works), okay CTRL-C will copy to the clipboard and I can paste in Word via icon button. HUH… I can CTRL-V in Word, maybe it is a Firefox bug…

Well, I tried reinstalling Firefox and restarting… it doesn't want to share across tabs…

OKay it's definitely Firefox because the transaction works perfect in IE… yucky icky. I will have to see what they can do to fix it.

Now, after the 5th edit of this message… I d/l and installed FF1.5b2… Hold your breath!!!

IT WORKED!!!! MY COPY AND PASTE IS BACK… welcome home old friend!

My computer has lost the ability to copy and paste! I am trying to duplicate posts from here over to PLANT3RRY my running blog but I can't do that. I wonder if it is hibernation related? Maybe I need a new keyboard… hmmm… let the experiment begin! CTRL-A (Select all works), okay CTRL-C will copy to the clipboard and I can paste in Word via icon button. HUH… I can CTRL-V in Word, maybe it is a Firefox bug…

Now… all of a sudden it works… strange things are afoot…

copy and paste between tabs is not reliable, like it only worked once…

Crap Crap Crap! I left my USb drive “Da Kruza” at home and now I am lost without it. Aaaaahhhh, it has ALL of my stuff on it and so I have to go through the day doing nothing. All 4 websites are on there, so no real web updates today. Well, I do have FireFTP so I could update if needed.

I am locked out of my pixelpost… and am not sure how to get inside. Of course if I could get to the admin screen, I don't have any pictures to post… well, that's not exactly true. I do have my Dimage x20 here, so I could use a recent photo. Okay, so my quest is to either hack into my Pixelpost or reinstall. Oh wait, all my password and FTp site information is on my USB drive. SIGH…..

I should be updating my photoblog today, but I reinstall my computer and it ate my pixelpost cookie. I, of course, forgot my password since I didn't write it down. So I either have to hack my website or wait until i get home! I'm already 2 hours late getting the pictures online. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh

Monday was filled with installing programs back onto the computer at work. Yes, more geekiness by Terry. It seemed that right when I was about to update my blog here, the computer wanted to restart each time. Oh well.

So on Saturday we had a representative from Townecraft come and do a show of their greaseless, waterless cookware. Good Stuff, but very pricey. Not something that I would want right now, but when we can replace what we have with high-end pieces then I might consider it. The pieces use technology to actually heat more evenly and in the clean-up process it easier to clean. A much better investment than purchasing pieces at Wal-mart where you end up eating the non-stick coating over the years.

Also on Saturday, I watched some of the games where UT's hopes of a decent postseason are all but gone. The loss to Georgia has left many of the Vol fans here wondering what they are going to do for the rest of the season. Where is the offense? Why so many penalties? Fulmer makes $5,400 a day… so why the poor performance? The list goes on and on…

UVA lost to Boston College as well. That game was not aired where I could watch it, so I do not know how their performance played in their loss or is BC a good ranked team. Furman (I-AA) beat Appalachian State which is a conference game for them, so that is good!

Sunday we made it back to Sunday School for the first time since Ryan's birth. We also got to meet the New Orleans' Family that our class adopted, The Davises. I don't have all their information, but I think the husband and wife have 4 kids… I'll have to check on that. We then went to a social at our of the class mate's house. Lots and Lots of food. I could have kicked myself since I didn't have any camera with me. Terry feel shame. Anyway, it was a nice social experience even though I was herding Eric most of the time.

Green Bay won easily, breaking their winless streak. Yeah. I still have to check to see if my fantasy team has won yet… I don't think so because I had no players for last night's game.

Didn't get to run either. I actually didn't really try because of the weather Sat/Sun morning. I did want to lift weights but did not get a chance to do that. I was able to get Eric out of the house and play in the yard… so that was fun.

At the office, the 3 of us on the bottom floor went out yesterday to CompUSA, Circuit City and Best Buy to purchase: 3 80G Hard Drives, Canned Air, and brackets for the Hard Drive (for my computer). We each have 10G Maxtor External drives, which about 2 weeks ago 2 of the 3 failed on the same day. The Hard Drives, our sole backup where destroyed. Actually, I somehow was able to resurrect my Maxtor with out breaking out the animal sacrifice and VooDoo. Unfortunately, everything was a total loss… nothing was salvaged. On the other hand it wasn't a whole loss: The mp3s I had brought from home, Ghost Backups, Samoa Backup (I actually have a burned disk as well as on my main HDD, redundancy! Rock on!). Everything could be replaced if needed.

So we went to CompUSA to get the HDD since the price there was the same as Circuit City, but one of the rebates was instant… less money upfront. So we got the hard drives and I looked for the brackets for my computer. My computer was a early 2000s creation where companies would make their equipment so customized that upgrading was very near impossible to do it yourself. It guaranteed that you'd have to rbing it back to them if you wanted to upgrade. So, I needed brackets so that my 3.5 HDD would fit in the 5.25 bay (I had to remove my Zip drive (that technology is SOOOOO 1997)). THe only thing that CompUSA had that I could use was a fan/bracket combo, which is very smart but expensive. So we decided to just get the HDD there and go to Circuit City and get the brackets there, plus John could get another HDD with their rebate for his home.

Circuit City, after winding through the maze, had the exact same piece that CompUSA had, but for $10 more!! No Thank you. I'll just bring one from home and go from there. Well, Best Buy is right across the street, so we decided to go there to get the brackets and the compressed air. Best Buy did not have ANY brackets, at all. We found the air spray and it was $2 more expensive for a smaller can than CompUSA. Since we are some cheap bastards, we decided NOT to get the spray there, but for Tom to go back to CompUSA later and get a couple of cans.

We made it back in time for me to put in one HDD, which went into Tom's computer. I went through Step-by-Step on what I was doing and how to configure the software such that the drive would be usable. I had to give a short class on the difference between Primary and Secondary Masters and Slaves. Finally, the drive was in and the day was over. I had to look forward to coming in today to install the other drives. Everything went pretty smoothly, I ended up using the bracket that the Zip drive was in to house my HDD. I am in the process of moving stuff off the drives so that I can reload Windows and all the other software. What Fun…

I just got finished running on the treadmill… 3.2 miles in 27:00. It was TOUGH to just make it that far, I am not conditioned to be a hamster! Crap! I mean the first 1.2 miles was set at 8:30 pace and it was all I could do to keep that pace. I had to stop the treadmill and get some water and stretch. It was bad. I managed to crank out the rest of the distance with some trouble. I ended running the last 1/2 mile at excessive speeds… the first 0.2 mile was at a 7:30 pace, then up to a 7:00 minute pace and then the last 0.2 of a mile was at a 5:30 pace! My leg rotation was OUT OF CONTROL!!!! It BAFFLES me how the Elite can run at that speed for 2 friggin' hours. I thought that my nuts and bolts were going to shake loose and I would fall apart. I survived though and it was pretty rewarding.

I am actually backing up my USB drive I call Da Kruza, it's a SanDisk 1GB USB drive and it has been over a month since I have backed it up. It holds most of my life on it as in my homemade Excel Calenders from 1997 to present, running log, jenandterry.com, Jen's Mary Kay website, my photography, video, ALL of the fonts I download (for convenience)etc. It still has 27 minutes to copy to the desktop, then I'll burn it. But I am listening to Our CD Collection, all 500+ CDs that I ripped to the computer… I use Musicmatch to store my MP3s and right now have an AutoDJ playlist of 1500 tracks. Most of them aren't worth listening to as they are Artist's “C” and “D” songs, but enough played to have me post this blog, hence the title.

The first couple of songs reminded me of when I was in Charlottesville getting my Nuclear Engineering Degree:
“Nearly Lost You” from the Singles Soundtrack
“Gett Off” by Prince - a little early for Cville AND I prefer Violet the Organ Grinder, but it was a significant song when I was there
“Tukka Yoot's Riddim” - US3 the second song off the US3 album that released Cantaloop. I went to see them with UB40 with Jo Ann Foltz and her roommate
“Down” - 311

and to boot, I am drinking some Rolling Rock I found (THANK Goodness - I need it after the run) in the downstairs fridge. Gray and I would go to Macados on the Corner where they had $2.95 Rolling Rock Pictures ALL DAY EVERY DAY. That is what I thought you paid for pitchers of beer because that is all that we drink. Can you imagine my surprise when I learned the REAL price of pitchers of beer???

Miles for May = 202.5

I have communed with the computer demons and have reached a conclusion. I must exorcise my old hard drive! On sunday, I went out to Best buy to purchase a 80GB HDD that after rebate would set me back only $40, something that I can handle. After playing some dosey-doh with my existing hard drives, my computer is back online! Woo-Hoo! I am now in the process of taking stuff off the corrupted drive and moving it to the new drive. I have come across that some of my American Samoa pictures are corrupted, but I have back-ups. It looks like Eric's pictures are all intact, so that is a relieve. I will have spend some time installing some software, like Office. Hopefully, and I mean this lightly, that I will have some new stuff for you next week, make that late next week. I know that some of you are going through Eric withdrawals right now… let me just tell you that Jen got a great picture of him!

I did not run all weekend due to the rain and cold. I am being a wuss and I know it. I really should have ran Saturday morning, but it was rainy and 40, so I was not very motivated to do a training run. As a result of Saturday, I am not in a short and quick taper period. Huh, what?! Marathon 101 in session, your teacher… Professor T-money aka Daddoo. The taper is a period of time, usually 10-14 days, before a marathon where the runner decreases the distance and amount ran per week. It is intended to rest the body and thereby having peak strength/stamina on the race day. I can see that you are already doing the math in your head… the Knoxville Marathon isn't until March 20th, that's FOUR weeks away. Congratulations, your intuitive thoughts have figured out that I am doing a marathon very soon, err, Saturday to be exact. On Saturday, I am going to run the Myrtle Beach Marathon for the second time. It didn't start out as this, I was originally supposed to run Straw Plains 1/2 marathon and Jen was going to Myrtle Beach for two Mary Kay events. When her transportation fell through, i.e. flying was too expensive, she decided to drive and I stepped up to be her driver. Now, I had originally tried to sign up for the half marathon, but it had already met its 2000 person limit. So, it was either run the marathon or run the 5k on Friday night. I was not going to pay $30 for a 5k, that is outrageous, so I signed up for the marathon. I can use this as a training run seeing that it will still be 4 weeks out from Knoxville. I should not have any ill effects from MB Marathon unless I get injured badly during the race. Myrtle Beach is really flat, so I doubt that any of that will happen. It will give me a good idea of how I will do at Knoxville, kind of like a dress rehearsal.

Miles for 2005: 91.2

Eric had a good weekend. we didn't get to go outside at all but he had some fun times inside playing. His language is improving every day. He can clearly say “Bubble” and can blow bubbles using the wand. He does the Ring-Around-The-Posey dance and falls down when we fall down. He is pretty strong too. He can carry almost 2 quarts of water from one end of the house to the other. He wanted to help filling up the humidifiers, so I let him. we noticed yesterday that Eric has been eating a lot the past few days, perhaps the onset of a growth spurt here. Jen said that he'll eat a whole banana by himself. He enjoys eating at the dinner table with Mommy and Daddy (Daddoo) but doesn't have the patience to stay there the entire time. Eric knows how a door knob works, but since all of our door knobs and light switches are a little higher than normal homes, he can only grab the doorknob, but can't turn it yet. When we sign “Old MacDonald” he can do the E-I-E-I-O except he says something like AH-E-AH-E-AH.