On dogs

You have to understand. This is not a mainstream blog. I get one or two visitors a day, and on good days, I get maybe five. So, I was baffled when I went to StatCounter and discovered that over 120 people visited my blog and they all went to the same page. By time the surge ended (it ran from the 18th to 19th), I had 198 page views which boiled down to 152 unique visitors.

I have no idea why that page is so popular. Also of interest is that so many visits came from Europe and especially the U.K.. A number were multiple visits. My first thought was that possibly my sight was being used as some type of portal but considering how aware I am of setting up security protections, that seems far off. No, it seems that I chose a picture of dogs that is pretty popular, because most of the searches came from Google images.

Search fixed

I finally figured out what the problem was with the search feature and permalink problem. Clicking on the title of any post should take you to its permalink and comments page (each post has its own page). This wasn’t happening. Anyway, it turns out that though some posts were labeled as “published” the “status” was unpublished.

The problem now is that this has to be corrected manually,… post by post. I’m working my way backward to 2004. I’m about halfway finished.

New theme installed

The Deserta theme is now installed and it appears to be very clean (visibly and as far as code is concerned). I think the problem I was having with the search function may be fixed now. Before, if you did a search, whether using the search function or the comments or tags or any mechanism for looking at past posts, on occasion, you would get a 404 error message. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it. If I refreshed the permalinks sometimes it would fix it and sometimes it wouldn’t. I think it had something to do with the way the Default theme is written. All of that is to say, if anyone has a problem retrieving past posts or get a 404 error code, let me know.

Meanwhile, it is good bye to the Default theme… it served well.

UPDATE RE: Searching

Searching, I have discovered, works perfectly well for the first item but if you need to see the comments (for example) of that posts you have to be registered.  Only registered users can go past one search.

Here’s an example to try.  Type the word Sicko in the search box.  You’ll get all the posts containing that word. Go to the post labeled Sicko 2 and click on comments. If you are registered, you’ll see those comments, otherwise you won’t.

I’ll make a note on the About page.

There’ll be some changes made

Due to the overwhelming number of votes for the Deserta theme, I will be implementing that one during this weekend. I just have a few tweaks to make to it, like StatCounter, and a HostM tag.

I may tire of the photo at the top, but once I have the theme up and running, I’ll be able to completely test if that can be changed.

Narnia

Tuesday was my wife and my anniversary of nineteen years (thank you, thank you… ). So, we decided to go see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It was very enjoyable. I had seen the original release (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Contrary to what many critics seem to say, I think the first movie was much better than the second one, because the story is woven so much more skillfully. The second movie is just a “lets do it again” (though I’ll admit, it is done well). It just isn’t as good.

My wife, who had not seen the first movie, really liked Prince Caspian… so much so, that she wants to see the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Though you can understand what’s happening in the second movie without seeing the first, I’d suggest getting and watching the first movie before seeing the second.

Don’t forget to vote (on the right) for you favorite theme.

Themes being considered

I’ve been looking at some of the newer released themes for WordPress, have found two that are interesting.

• One is called Andrea
• and the other is called Deserta

There’s a third one that I’m not sold on called Jeans.

Feel free to let me know which you prefer either by email (if you’re registered) or by poll (on the right side of the Main page). Right now, I’m leaning toward Deserta as the first test. I think I’ll run a theme for a week or two and then change to the next one… depending on how it goes. Again, opinions welcome.

Typing test fun

I was testing out a piece of software called TextExpander, and reading the various links in the help-files, when I came across a typing test.

Now, I always knew I was a slow typist, but this slow?

46 words

Speedtest

And that’s after I took the test three times. You can try it yourself by clicking in the graphic or the Speedtest link.

Anyway, I’ll write more about TextExpander after I have played with it some more. So far it seems really cool, but mostly for those who often have to type the same phrases over and over. For example, by simply typing a series of letters (which you define), the program will replace them with whatever you have assigned to that combination, whether it be a word, or a short story.

Old Starfire Gone

I cancelled the old Starfire account this evening. If you go there, you will get a 404 error message. It was great while it lasted, but alas, all the entries live here now. Use the search tool to find old items. Now the search begins for a more interesting face for the new StarFire.

That early phone call

I’ve been avoiding the name calling sort of stuff that seems so prevalent in the Democratic primary and only reporting facts, but (you knew there was a but) I couldn’t resist this one. I got the link from Senior Moments.

If you have ever seen a TV show with a stalker or even experienced being stalked, then you will identify with this scenario. Reminder: Stalking can go both ways. It just happens that in this instance, the stalker is female.

The Ex-Girlfriend

Happy Birthday to Me

Well, today is my birthday. It is one of those decade markers. I don’t really feel that old, but when I look back, I sure have had a lot of experiences.

Anyway, I don’t really feel like celebrating it. I’m not depressed or anything, it just feels like just another day to me. I’m really happy I”ve made it this far, especially considering all the medical stuff I’ve been through the last couple of years.

Thanks to ramblintadpole for the image. I’m not that old though.