GREEN BAY, WI:3tacon (part two-o)
[3tacon on Flickr]
One of the funny things that Amy and I talked about when we were sitting around in the pub was how when we got MikeIAm’s emails that simultaneously we PANICKED about somehow not being able to get to Chicago.
“As God is my witness…” the phrases seemed to start out every time we mentioned the fact that o’Hell might not be accepting incoming flights. Then the discussion moved onto the aftermath of the weekends; where we all get home to our respective families and they see a tired, somewhat hungover, slightly physically broken, yet grinning stupidly, husk of a person and they say “I don’t think I’m going to let you do this again.”
Once the initial panic passes (that point when we realize that no one is capable of stopping us from doing this) we say “you aren’t the boss of me.” and then start planning for next year.
I was surprised to see how pervasive this whole scenario was amongst the con folks.
Its a funny thing these gatherings.
Now, we’ve all discussed it ad nauseum, however, I finally think I get it. (‘It’ being that whole thing about my invisible friends and how important they are to me.)
I’m invested in these people. I read about their lives (well parts of them, not everyone goes into total detail) and, depending on how long I’ve been reading them, I know a lot of the back stories. Most of the time there is sympathy and empathy for them (generally if I don’t sympathize, I tend to fall off on the reading). These people are witty, human and when we all get together, its generally a giant reunion even with the folks I’ve never met before.
You get an inkling of what is going on in their heads even if they aren’t loquacious in person because you know what they write and that tends to be how they think.
So, with that all in mind, 40 of my best friends and I proceeded to freak out Green Bay freakln’ WI in the dead of winter.
We missed the storm of the century by a few weeks with the equivalent of the AT’s trail Magic in what I will here after refer to as “Con Magic” (until I come up with a better name for it-like Gertrude or something equally ridiculous.)
Friday night in Green Bay was at an Italian restaurant.
We stuffed our faces with carb-y goodness (to absorb the impending alcohol at the Bad Bar II(TM)) and then proceeded onto the bar.
I’m not a huge drinker.
I think I’ve had maybe a glass of wine in the last year, not because I am a teetotaler or morally against it (I’m morally against violence as a part of religion), but because I promptly go to sleep after drinking it 99% of the time. So I wasn’t buying anything at the bar and I didn’t notice that I lost my driver’s license and one of my credit cards on the way over there.
Oops.
I did notice after midnight or so. I backtracked where I went that night as much as I could, but certain areas were covered by a new layer of snow. Didn’t find either of my items.
No one reported it or called me back with success.
The next day I spent calling my card companies and getting them de-activated (after checking that they hadn’t been used) and then got Tex to scan my old passport and DL’s for a half-assed photo ID at the airport. I also checked with the rental car company and the hotel to make certain that they got their pound of flesh; luckily they were pre-authorized charges and no arguments there.
I did miss the Door County tour (which I didn’t like) as well as hanging out with Kari (which I REALLY didn’t like) but I did get to hang out with Bullshit and Amy (which I liked a lot). I wasn’t wigging out…which was very strange for me.
Also during the day, Amy and I went out to some stores to forage for emergency rations of PeptoBismal and Pedialyte for Trancejen (who effectively missed the entire weekend with a flu that was a monster) and for a toothbrush, toothpaste and other necessities for Mare (her luggage went AWOL and didn’t show up until about 10 minutes before she was scheduled to leave for home-stupid Merc Rx.) I did still have one card that I had left in the room when I pared down for the evening, so I wasn’t without funds.
Saturday night was the sleigh ride, so I donned my fox ear hat and beelined for the barn kitties. I picked one up and he/she hopped up on my shoulder and rubbed my hat’s ears.
So sweet.
The night was a bit more low key but still good and we all stuffed our faces with booyah and traded swag and hung out. Quote of the night was “Fredlet, you are cute, but you are SO evil!”
I came back to the room took a shower (taking care to close the dang blinds…especially the gap where it opens on its own…because mooning Green Bay when you aren’t drunk is just lame.) pawed through my stuff again in the vain hopes that I was just a disorganized dork then went to bed.
Next up:Sunday.
(Should only take me ’til next year to get that done. You are in luck!)
geekitude
Crap, its almost May.
I guess this is the first time it has occurred to me that the year is moving right along.
Anyhoo, I’ve spent the last several nights figuring out how to install WordPress on Eden’s server.
The funny thing about internet servers is that they are all slightly different.
Some, for instance, like for you to ftp into your site using your domain name and their servers figure out what directory you need to be dropped into. Some want you to login to an ftp server address (IP or otherwise) and then you navigate to the right sub-folder.
Its all very different and I don’t usually care since I generally can figure it out then set up Dreamweaver of the FTP app to compensate.
BUT… when I have to reverse engineer the path to MySQL on a new server that I haven’t mucked around in, it takes me a while.
I felt bad that Eden had to survive my learning curve… Not only with her server but also with installing wordpress… You’ll note that I am horking up *wordpress.com’s* bandwidth instead of putting an install on my server. ;) It was the most expedient method of converting at the time.
So, Eden, sorry its taking me so long! I actually like learning about the nuances of wordpress though and I really need to get in there and learn PHP and I think this is the universe pushing me now.
So, for posterity, most of the issues that people will run into is: the obvious set up (figuring out the path to MySQL on the server-its vastly different on my ISP vs hers) and the other issue that I have found to be a consistent bear is the FTP file corruption.
Because most ISP’s time out in a short time period, a lot of files were being put to the server, but damaged in the upload. Corrupted files never ran (install.php) or ran with fatal errors in the code (login.php). Re-FTP’ing certain files made a difference.
Also, in my travels I found a set-up wrapper for the WordPress install[SetupWP.com]. Its pretty nice, but still suffers from the FTP corruption occasionally.
It walks you through the placement on the server (you put your FTP credentials in and it browses your remote server in a windows-like interface (much more accessible to the population at large)) and then asks for certain vaues to fill in. The help isn’t terribly useful. Examples would help more… though this might do more harm than good as all servers seems to be subtly different… different enough to break it.
I also had to add the mime type for php to the folder on the server. This might have been an extra step, but I can’t guarantee that. It might have been a false positive, whatever the case, it ran the file instead to trying to download the php file. I actually like (and am somewhat disturbed) by the level of control Eden’s users have over their environment on the server she hosts at.
What I still need to determine is whether or not wordpress needs to be installed in the cgi-bin folder… and I’m getting the idea that it doesn’t. (Though thinking it through, there is a sendmail function that might need it… Arg)
Not sure how that idea got into my head in the first place, maybe just because I’m used to having things that needed to be in there historically.
I think there might be some more shuffling of files going on this weekend.
5 minute installation, my arse. (Granted, I was doing this after work with a sinus headache, somewhat remotely telling Eden what to do on Google Talk and with a new server, so I clearly had some obstacles, but still… NOT a 5 minute installation. It would be 5 if you were running the server from your desktop and built the server from scratch.)
Oh and as an aside, MikeIAm, I can’t read your blog anymore…well, I have to wait a week until I have seen Heroes and Grey;s Anatomy on my own.
Your spoiler king you! ;) But conversely, I think you and Eden and I should have a conference call on Skype when we all get our Cottage Living issues and ooh and aahh all together like.
Minerva kitty
Eden’s new kitty.
yo quiero.
I’m having serious shoe jones.
Worm sign.
SPICE MUST FLOW
How geeky are you?
(the comments are the funniest part…)
how you know easter is over…
all the 75% off chocolate bunnies that you bought from Target have been eaten.
RSS
Most excellent.
I finally found a RSS converty thing for the Sony Reader. The Connect store has some RSS capability… As long as you choose from a set of pre-selected feeds.
Give me a break.
RSS2BOOK spits out .lrf file (Sony Reader format) files with the titles in a larger font and the text of the feed in a smaller one. It isn’t rocket science, but its very readable.
So far I am just using the full feed RSS blogs that I already subscribe to, but there is a way to hack it to get the full feed of the ones that just have blurbs, but haven’t wrapped my head around how to do that yet (and it might have been just that it was a Monday night and I can’t even see straight on Monday’s after work. Tuesday might be better…I’ll keep you posted.)
They actually have it documented pretty well, so an actual code geek would see it and hop right on it. You just have to figure out the pattern of the page’s feed you are subscribing to.
In addition it will also suck down Wikipedia articles, HTML pages, Gutenberg books (I haven’t worked out all the tweaks on that on yet) but the other ones popped into my reader pretty easily.
THIS is what was missing from my reader.
Now I just have to go track down that book formatting app and make a bunch of nicely formatted books that I want to read (if the lovely folks in the mobile read forums haven’t already done them… Funny how they had already done quite a few that I wanted to read anyway. =) )
Girl Friday
One of the DVD’s in heavy rotation chez fredlet is Girl Friday with Joanna Lumley. I saw this on telly years ago on Oxygen (back in the late to middle ages when I had satellite tv) and finally managed to find it on DVD some years later. Though I haven’t managed to track down the audio book she put out yet.
It has an accompanying book* which is much more in depth than what is on the video.
I really love that the BBC does this.
Its kind of what the Travel Channel used to be (and another that I watched to the exclusion of all else, save HGTV and Boomerang.) before it became the Poker Channel.
*I do this with Michael Palin’s stuff (80 days, Pole to Pole, etc) as well, watch the series over and over, get the books and read their associated travelog.
kitty intervention
So, bunny was acting like crack-ho kitten gone apeshit today over the canned tuna fish that I haven’t let her have since Wednesday. (Well, not really, but she did turn her nose up to the sashimi I fixed for her.)
Oh sure, she’d take little nibbles of the Newman’s Own here and there, so she isn’t starving, but I think she was a bit hungry anyway.
I screwed up and left out the yogurt container (grr.) so I didn’t have yogurt for her this morning (or myself) so I ended up having to drag myself out in the rain to the grocery store.
Perused Trader Joe’s for a while, then, in the absence of plain regular fat yogurt there (I did score a free range chicken to rotisserie roast tomorrow night), I walked next door to Safeway to get some. I figured I’d have a look around to see if I needed anything else.
There is a particular brand of Safeway turkey sandwich meat that bunny has never ever been able to resist… and I figured if she turns her nose up to this I’m in trouble and my poor crack baby kitten is lost.
Thankfully, she ate some.
I think I am finally calmed down about her diet. Its way more manageable than cooking for her. Not that I minded it in the least, but I was always concerned about leaving perishables out in case the ants got to it or it went of when the room gets warm.
I am gone for work for about 10 hours or so and that’s 10 hours of her food being stale or bad.
Now I can give her stuff in the morning and then leave the dry food out all the time and then give her more nibblies when I get home.
Whew.
oh yummy
“**Currently on backorder** until late August. The round style is in stock.
It was love at first sight with this teapot. The black and white (our choice for this season) overall floral pattern is modern and traditional at the same time. Drawing from baroque influences, life long ceramic ware designer Yvonne Schubkegel elevates tea service to opulent luxuriance with the unique black and white glazes on pure shapes offset by attractive ethnic patterns. Serves up to 4 people. 6″ tall (teapot not including handle) and 6″ wide from tip of spout. Also available in a round style. Matching teacups sold separately.”
Currently on backorder til August? Hmmm, what major national holiday is in August? I wonder….
ms project
“And that’s how it stayed for a week, as I planned the rest of the assault on the rooms. The main goal was to move the desk out of Bitty Bedroom 1 and into Bitty Bedroom 2, replace the desk with the microwave cart, move the footstool into our bedroom and back to its matching chair, and then hang a bunch of pictures. It’s amazing that I didn’t use Microsoft Project to track it all, except that I hate Microsoft Project.”
[Mary]
Oh I second that.
Stupid fekkin’ MS Project.
Frankly its good if you work with contractors and hourly things, but otherwise? its infuriating and rather unforgiving (which is certainly something you have to be a bit on day or week shifts in project schedules.)
Bunny on her new bed.
Yes, its a dog bed, but she hates the sides to touch her and the reason this was acceptable (that you can’t see in this picture) is that the fake woolly sheepy covering the pillow that she lays on can be flipped over to the smooth fabric covered side that matches the exterior.
…and then I put her heating pad (baked cat, anyone?) and her towel in there.
Well, I think we may have a winner.
It was even 20% off.
Bunny update
Not that many people have dismissed Bunny as “just a cat”, in fact, most people care very much, so don’t think that there are a bunch of horrid folks out there.
Anyhoo, so I was telling Valerie today:
“Bunny is doing fine, but she’s decided that canned tuna is crack. She shouldn’t eat it for all meals since it doesn’t have any cat nutrients, just people nutrients, but I was just trying to get her to *eat* after she decided that only Jack in the Box was good enough for her.
Sheesh.
I just decided that Newman’s Own cat food will be safe and I have her bowl full and I tried to feed her the canned version. I don’t know why I bothered. 
She hates canned food (unless its people tuna) and she turned her nose up at that but scarfed a bit of the dry and is now yowling at me for canned tuna.
I think the next few days will be hell on my ear drums and I’ll probably wake up to her staring at me furiously, but I’m absurdly grateful that she didn’t die and I can (hopefully) get my mind out of worrying that I will wake up/come home/turn around and find her little self dead.
(I’m not enjoying my mental state of late).”
Newman’s even wrote me back promptly after I asked them if ANY of the ingredients were imported on the organic pet food.
“Fredlet,
Newman’s Own Organics pet foods are NOT part of the mass recall by Menu Foods or the extended recall. We DO NOT use wheat gluten or rice protein concentrate in any of our pet products. All our pet foods are made in the US and certified organic by Oregon Tilth, a USDA accredited certifying agency.
L. Phillips Brown DVM”
I’m quite certain that I am not the only worried mom out there so while I’m sure that this might be a copy/pasted response, it certainly wasn’t a canned response and they have gotten past my not insignificant paranoia about killing my cat inadvertently and I am am feeding her their food.
As an aside: I’m sure Purina and all those other pet food manufacturers are just insane over this. Not only because they have caused deaths of pets (and I am not that cynical to think that the folks there don’t love animals and that they aren’t hurt to know that they contributed to the deaths) but because they will probably lose a crapload of business from this gluten fiasco. They certainly lost my business.
This is a textbook PR fiasco.
I got Bunny the kitten/cat formula since she needs easy absorption, but I might get a bag of the senior eventually just to see how it works for her. I doesn’t even smell bad like the other “high quality” cat foods. (Hooray for small victories.) At $9 a bag, its about 3 times the amount that the kitten chow cost, but I don’t care. Would you really quibble about paying $6 to not have a dead cat?
I can just have Starbuck’s every 2nd week instead of once a week as a treat. Hell, I’d give up Starbuck’s for Bunny if I had to.
I’ll keep you posted on her progress and how she reacts to the food.
