mind? what mind?

I decided that I am too lazy to dig into the css files to fix the problem that I’d been having with the link on these pages, I decided to simply change the theme that I am using.  I’d been using the “ChaoticSoul” theme for two or three years, and felt that it’s time for a change.  This theme is “Pixelated”, created by Sam Karathanos.  I like it.

The following is a cross-post from my blog’s old site:

This blog has moved to a new location. After much vacillation and angst, I’ve finally registered a couple of domains and moved my blogs away from WordPress.com to a hosted server where I have complete control over, and responsibility for, my blog. As a blogging platform, I think that WordPress is one of the best (actually, it’s my opinion that WordPress is the best blogging platform, but hey, what do I know?), and the free blog hosting at WordPress.com is the best of the best: consistently being kept up to date; a knowledgeable bunch of users in the forums to provide assistance when needed; and for those that wish more flexibility or features, a number of options that are priced very competitively. And, best of all, the platform is - what else? - WordPress. The WordPress software, whether the free service at WordPress.com, or used independently, has a loyal user base that is near-fanatical. The forums at WordPress.com and at WordPress.org (WordPress.org is where you get the full software package to use on your own servers) are full of knowledgeable, honest and out-spoken users and developers, where everything about the software is discussed - both the good and not-so-good, ideas for development are shared, problems solved, challenges overcome. I’ve moved my blog, not because I am dissatisfied with WordPress.com - quite the contrary, but because I want more flexibility, and because I want to learn and stretch my knowledge of PHP and web development. With the free, group hosted service at WordPress.com, one does not have that flexibility, and rightly so. Who wants to have their blog hosted at a site where the system can be brought down because someone else made a change that didn’t work? My personal blog “mind? what mind?” has moved: a6acdde65da1ae8ed2f0f9d9f002b61d My amateur radio blog has moved: 0672b2f2a9ee1bd89652eba7508e4b3b My several web sites are, or will soon be, hosted at the excellent 1&1 Internet Inc.

I made a minor change to my WordPress.com settings.

Does this change make a difference?

edit: Nope.

I’ve decided that I do not really like Microsoft’s Live Spaces as a blog site.  The blog pages are just too ugly - I’ve tried several templates, and don’t like any of them.  Also, all of the different modules, or whatever they’re called are too cumbersome.  Bottom line, I’ll stick with WordPress.com.

Some of the other feature of the Microsoft Live web site are not bad, and I might continue to use them.  For example, the Windows Live SkyDrive seems pretty good - better than Google’s “Google Docs”.  I will continue to use the Windows Live Writer blog editing tool, since it seems to do a pretty good job, working well with WordPress.  I am still playing around with Windows Live Photo Gallery; it remains to be seen if it’s any better than Google’s Picasa, or Adobe’s Photoshop Album.

Where can I be found on the web?

• WordPress.com: mind? what mind?
• Microsoft Live Spaces: empty mind
• FaceBook
• MySpace
• WordPress.com: n9ik

Why do I have all of these sites?  Beats the hell out of me.

I’m writing this test post using Windows Live Writer.  Do “tags” work?

Peace and Blessings!

edit: the tags did not get entered into the WordPress database field; instead they were included in the body text (above).  However, clicking on any of the tags does bring up a list of all blog entries here that are tagged with that tag.

Today, I purchased a few of the items on my wish list, so I can strike them from the list (DivX Pro software, FlickrPro and LibraryThing memberships):

wish list - noun: a usually unwritten list of things one wishes for: Money is on everyone’s wish list.

• Gadgets
  • Cell Phone: AT&T Tilt, by HTC
  • Bluetooth Headset: Jawbone
  • Digital Video Camera: Flip Video Ultra
  • SLR Digital Still Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTi ,with lenses.
  • mp3 player: iPod Touch

• Software
  • Trillian Pro
  • Nero 8 Ultra (upgrade)
  • Ecto
  • DivX Pro

• Web Service Subscriptions
  • Flickr Pro
  • LibraryThing Lifetime Membership

• Computer Hardware
  • RAM upgrade: 2 GB
  • WebCam: Logitech QuickCam UltraVision SE
  • CueCat Barcode Scanner from LibraryThing

• Life: Peace

It is interesting if you follow your own thoughts as they teeter-totter from one thing to the next.  This morning, I am sitting drinking my first cup coffee, looking through past comments here on my blog, some of the thoughts flitting through my head included people of different religions co-existing peacefully, and my God-mother Leena, who is from the Pilipines, who I had not thought of in some time, and then on to other things.  And then my attention was caught by a comment left by “sadulagnideedee” on my post about “annoying blogging habits”, and I decided to go take a look at her blog.  As it turns out, she’s living in the Pilipines, and the first post that I saw was “The Bell Tower In Payatas”, where she tells us about a bell tower donated to a local Catholic church by a Muslim couple.  Wonderful.

Linda kept saying all day yesterday that the baby was going to be born today.  She said it over, and over. 

She was right.  As usual, her “connection” with the people in her life was at work.  Lane got the call this morning at 05:05; his daughter, Mackenzie Jo Strickland,  was born at 02:21 this morning, healthy, and was about 8 lb. 2 oz., or thereabouts.  He wasn’t exactly sure when he told us, being in a pretty emotional state, as any young father would be who’d been denied the Life Experience of being present when his first child is born.

The baby’s mother, Lanes “ex” girlfriend (I won’t use her name here, out of respect for her), whether she meant it to be or not, executed one of the greatest cruelties possible towards a young man: she did not call him to let him know that she was going into labor, allowing him the time honored privilege of all fathers for generations past - to pace and fret about the maternity ward waiting room, awaiting the magic of seeing his first born daughter, of hearing her first wailing cry, of seeing the purple confusion of features on what must be the most beautiful baby ever born, even if she has been made a bit ugly and deformed from being squeezed through the birth canal.  All babies are beautiful-ugly, ugly-beautiful, but no young father ever sees the ugly part, or at least never acknowledges it in his heart of hearts.

Now, as Linda says, Lane is “too nice.”  As badly as I know he must have wanted to rush right over the hospital to see this wondrous new life he helped bring into the world, he decided to respect the girl’s wishes, let her sleep, and not arrive until visiting hours at 11:00.  Me, if I wasn’t already there, I’d be in the car and on the way before I’d hung up the phone.

Another cruelty pressed upon Lane - the baby is not to carry his name.  Mackenzie Jo Strickland, not Mackenzie Jo Strickland-Farrow, or Farrow-Strickland, as Lane had hoped.

While playing around with the trial version of Ecto 2.3.10 for Windows, I selected the “Refresh profile” menu item, which resulted in all of the previously used Tags disappeared, from both existing posts and from the new post window.  This is really annoying, and there does not seem to be any way of grabbing the list of tags from the WP server, like Ecto does the Categories list.  I’ll post this as a feature request on the software publisher’s forum.