Normal America

Ugh, it took me from around 10pm to 2am but, I have installed Moveable Type. You know for those that say this whole process is easy, WHATEVER. Ok, ok, one or two of the mistakes were pretty simple. So yeah I am tired I'd figure I'd make this the first post. I am gonna try to change the header soon, and replace it with the Normal America image. Ok, tired I am.

I will probably post something tommorrow. Hasta

This is a test

Ok so it's around 9:10 am and I am a little more rested (though I can tell you groggy I was this morning around 8am). Right now I am trying to figure out how to change templates on this thing. I am guessing that with Moveable type, they just give you one basic template with the free version of it, otherwise I got no clue where you can switch templates in this thing. If anybody is even reading this, and has any clue on how to change up the templates, comment on here and let me know.

Ok, well I tried to install the StyleCatcher plugin, and all I gotta say is the heck with that. The installation instructions on it sucked and pretty much after a point your just doing a whole trial and error thing, I might go back to trying to using StyleCatcher later but, that's iffy. I think I am just gonna have to create my own templates which I guess means I am gonna have to learn some CSS, I knew I was gonna have to know it sometime, so I guess that time is now. Well at the very least I got the site updated with Moveable Type. It's not as artistic as the old site but, I figure, give it awhile and maybe as time goes on that'll change. Well lunch hour so hasta.

Well I just about got everything packed. Gotta go to pick up snacking food, case of bottled water, and a couple of packs of ice for the cooler before I leave though. Pretty much from here on out I am gonna be updating from here whenever I can. I'll update next, when I am able to, maybe with some pictures.

(Note: Pictures have been uploaded an linked)

Ok, so far I have done a crapload of driving and the most I have had time to do other then that is sleep. I was gonna post some stuff last night but, alas Motel 6 doesn't have internet, anyway the breakdown:

Saturday:
I woke up late and left about 5 hours later then had planned. Passed through Louisville, which I was use to that. Then I drove and drove and drove. Saw a school bus graveyard midway. Craploads of school busses just spaced out sitting there, some gutted I think, it was kinda eerie I guess. I eventually got into St. Louis posted an audio log on livejournal, and well drove some more, drove by a car that looked like it had been recently blown up, singe marks were on the doors, least from what I could see, police were there, I can only guess what that might have been about, probably nothing. Missouri was just ,well long, and kinda weirded me out with the numerous bodies of water I kept driving by on the road through there. Kansas was a different matter, by the time I was getting near Topeka I think it was already close to 10 or 11pm our time. I was tired but, would have kept going....then the sleet came. I am determined as much as the next guy but; sleet+really freakin tired= staying at the Motel 6 in Topeka, KS. So I caught the tail end of Saturday night Adult Swim and pretty much that was it for Saturday.

Sunday:
This was the mother of all drives. I drove from Topeka, KS to Beaver, UT. After this drive I have decided to NOT go back that way. Imagine the worst driving conditions possible and you might have a slight idea of what I drove through today. Kansas was well boring, after a point I kept saying to myself: "Am I ever gonna get out of this freaking state or what". Course in retrospect I should have shut up cause a couple of hours later getting close to Colorado, craploads of hail for about 10 or 20 minutes. The drive from Topeka to Denver, CO was kinda uneventful which given what happened next was probably a good thing. So I drive through Denver (which is very reminscent of Cincinnati by the way) and eventually I start getting near the Rocky Mountains . These mountains are beautiful, I mean there are just one of those things you gotta see, their size alone just makes you go, DAMN THOSE ARE BIG. The pictures I took of them while driving, just doesn't capture them well enough. Twenty minutes or so I forget about the awe inspiring mountains and start cursing them and every driver near me. Two words for you folks: Winter Conditions. Apparently me being the idiot I am, I didn't think about you know, the snow on the mountains, and the possibilty I'd actually have to drive through the snow. My car is barely getting up this mountain side, transmission just straight up is working hard but with little success. Pretty much when I saw I was running low on gas I said. SCREW IT. I pulled over at the nearest gas station on the mountain, filled up with some gas and I guess did the whole, "Dude it's just snow, calmness, you drive as slow as you want, screw the other drivers if they got a problem, they can just pass you". After about another half hour of driving, hands gripped tightly around the wheel, I was able again, to enjoy the awesomeness that is the Rockies. Something I didn't know, those mountains are spread out over a freaking wide-ass area. I drove for almost 2 to 3 hours through them. It was around 7 or 8pm (our time), when I started to get into Utah more. The last leg of the trip was well a tad spooky. Mind you up until now I had been driving since 9am our time with little to any stops, with the exception of Gas/Bathroom pit stops. So till now I have been driving about 10 hours, which is pretty much what I drove the day before. I put the pedal to the metal and got out of the Rocky Mountains only to see them transition into rocky ranges. I knew what was coming up, red rock, very cool rock formations. Alas, it was night already. Knowing I was gonna miss some of the coolest parts of US Western landscapes, I was determined to get to Las Vegas, or at the very least get pretty freaking close. As the drive progressed I kept noticing little signs that weren't exactly making me feel at ease driving in the desert at night. "Dust Storm", "Icy Roads", etc. I am not quite sure but I think for about 10 or 20 miles I drove through a dust storm/ice storm. I do know I freaked or for the first 5 minutes, as the car slid all over the road, after a point though I just reminded myself, no hurry, just drive slow, eventually it let up. I was happy when the roads and the storm or whatever it was let up. I'd seen a lot of other cars that had gone off the road, and looked like they were getting assistance. I felt bad about not stopping to help but, in retrospect what could I have done, my car was about as useful as theirs, the ony difference being I drove, really freaking slow, so I wouldn't slide around. My cell phone was acting wonky the whole way so I am not even sure I could have even called anybody to help them. Anyway. I drove a couple more hours till I got to Beaver, UT. Why Beaver, UT? Cause after the I-15 Junction, it was the closest place with a hotel. I wanted to drive into Vegas and get a room but, I figured I would have ended up getting in at like 5am, and what good would that have been I would have slept all of Monday and got nothing done. So I checked into this Super 8 Motel, it has internet, a bed, and a shower, so I can't complain too much. I have been missing the internet a lot. I am about 4 hours give or take, from Las Vegas. I figure tommorrow I'll get there, see what I can see then check into a hotel there, and enjoy the Vegas night life. Well it's getting late and I gotta make an online reservation somewhere and plan some other things out before I get some sleep. I'll update this journal entry with some pictures when I can.

Got into Las Vegas early today. Hotel check in wasn't until about 3pm, and I had give or take 1hr an a half to kill, so I parked in the hotel parking lot and walked to Bally's Casino. As a time killer casinos are great. I played the slots and more or less came out with about what I started with, I have never been lucky when it comes to gambling, I'm just happy enough that I just about broke even. I think later on I might walk to the Bellagio an see what their casino is like. Tonight I'll probably spend an hour or two at the blackjack tables. I was going to go see Penn & Teller at the Rio but, yeah 75 bucks a seat. I like Penn & Teller but, I also like not being broke. I wanna check out the whole Area 51 thing but, timewise it's just not looking likely. Next time I take a trip I need to take two weeks off instead of one, then I'll have more time to stop and see stuff. Tommorrow I am probably gonna get up early so I can get to the Grand Canyon around sunrise. I figure it'll be cool to see the Grand Canyon at first break and, I'll get a head start on my driving. Pretty much the game plan is tommorrow: see the Grand Canyon and get to San Antonio,TX other then that, that's it. I'll post some more pictures on here later. To see the ones I already posted click on the links in the below entry, a pop-up window should appear with the image in it. Normally I'd have found a way to just put them on the page but, it's my vacation and that means extra work, lol. Later

Ok well I left San Antonio at around 10am their time and just got back here in Frankfort 10 or 20 minutes ago, the clock on the computer showing 4:35 AM!!!. I'll post what the heck has been going on tommorrow, you know AFTER I SLEEP. I guess in this sense it's a good thing I have run out of minutes on my phone, that way I won't be woken up by any calls, I would think. Anyway, tommorrow I'll post what happened on the rest of the trip, hasta.

Well the trip ended officially Fri. morning at 4:35AM. A lot of stuff happened over the last two or three days.

Las Vegas: Great city but, if you stay there bring lots of cash. The Bellagio was really nice. I looked around the place and thought, now THIS is what a casino should look like. Very swank, I did not stay here as it is SOOO out of my price range but, yeah the place is very cool. The water fountain show outside it is neat but, it's like Stonehenge you see it and then after you see it your like, ok where to next. Bally's was a nice place to gamble in as well, mostly I played the slots which FYI apparently the newer 10s didn't work in them. I wanted to see Penn & Teller at the Rio casino but sadly 75 bucks at that point was a lot of cash, if I wanted to get back to KY, partly with what I had left. The weather was nice but, the freaking wind chill, brr. If you go to Las Vegas ever, walk up and down the strip it's something to experience.

Hoover Dam: ... ok I took pictures as I drove over it. I just didn't see the point in stopping here and taking a tour. I think at this point I just wanted to have a somewhat smooth drive that didn't seem as rough as that hour or so I spent in the Rockies (LOL, little did I know what was coming up next.). I just didn't stop here, I just took some pictures while I drove over it.

Grand Canyon (yes it's a city look it up yo): So despite the fact that I was running into snow and ice, I stubbornly traveled still all the way to the Grand Canyon to find that the view I got was mostly just white, lol, oh and I was very cold once or twice while trying to take pictures. Next time I won't be so stubborn about going to see something when there is ice/snow coming down so bad that even driving at 20 mph your car is slipping and slidding.

When I traveled from the Grand Canyon to San Antonio I TRAVELED. This wasn't no 500 mile trek, oh no no, we're talking close to 1,000 miles folks, which is quite a bit different. When I say I didn't really eat much of anything or sleep for almost two days, I mean it. By the time I was getting close to San Antonio the darkness of Tuesday was giving way to the sunrise of Wednesday. I just about got into an accident while in some city, the sun was so blinding at the stop light (sleep deprivation probably didn't help). The rest of the drive to San Antonio I kept having momentary seconds of drifting off.

San Antonio: The moment I got into San Antonio I was awake, big cities will do that, mainly cause of all the other cars around I guess. I spent about a half hour trying to find my friend Kim's place, Mapquest.com is faliable even one time out of three I guess. I thought some of Frankfort's shopping center roads were screwed up, pft, San Antonio's, least in that one section I was in, was confusing. Kim's a cool gal, she was leaving the next day so we just hung out, she took me out to lunch, which considering the lack of food, I was grateful. I would have paid but A.) Knowing her she would have fought me over it and B.) At that point I was hungry and there was no WAY I was gonna turn down a free meal. I got a chance to meet Kim's mom/bro/and sister too, so that was kinda cool. I left there at about 9pm and proceeded to look for the elusive hotel room. I found one which was moderately cheap I guess, it wasn't no 70 or 80 bucks like a lot of the others though, I can tell you that, crap I'd rather sleep in my sleeping bag then pay that. I missed the continenal breakfast that morning by about a half hour, which I was kicking myself for. After leaving the hotel and freaking out over the directions for a little bit, I passed through Austin, Dallas, Nashville, etc. The only times I stopped were 4 or so times for gas, other then that I was determined to get back to Frankfort, and I did, it was around 4:30am but, I DID get back.

Well, I started back work today. I found I had forgotten 2 or 3 passwords so that's great, lol. Tonight I think I am gonna tape Prison Break & 24 and read some books on Web Design, my book reading as of late has been in the fiction category and I need to start brushing up on my web skills again. That's all that's really going on. I might try to make this site look a little bit better tonight, should I get the mood. That's it. Hasta.

Ok so the first thing I decided to add on this nice simple blog was a section to the right that led to some of my favorite podcast sites. Here's how I did it:

(Process works best if your using Moveable Type 3.2)
1.) Login to your admin side of your site.

2.) Under My Weblogs, click on the name of the blog your wanting to edit. In my case it was Normal America

3.) Under Configure , on the left hand side, click on the link that says Templates

4.) There should be a list of templates on the page that has just loaded. Left-click on the template link that says Main Index

5.) Find where it says Template Body, in the box beneath this heading is essentially the code of your template.

6.) Pretty much here is where you add the code. You wanna first decide where to put it, for the purposes of this example I wanted to put it in between the Archives and Recent Posts modules.

7.) I looked for the beginning of the Recent Posts module. Usually it's pretty obvious where it is, this is what the code looked like in my index template:

8.) Put your module before that code. The code for your new module will look something like the followiing

9.) Click on the Save and Rebuild button at the bottom and your done

I might post something else later on today, but I thought this might be something that beginning MT users might wanna know about it. Props to learningmovabletype.com which is where I got this info.

That's right it's Wednesday which can only mean one thing. NEW COMIC BOOKS. Okay so maybe I get a little more excited then most people my age about something like this but, hey I likes me some good stories and artwork. The new Iron Man written by Warren Ellis is suppose to be coming out but, I'll believe it when I see it. A new issue of Kirkman's Walking Dead is also coming out today, so much goodness all around. I'll post more later tonight, maybe some images. Till then I think I might take a crack at trying to figure out how to install this image thumbnailer thing so I don't have to keep editing and resizing images in Paint (which after a point, let me tell you becomes ANNOYING). Well that's all for now, hasta surfers.

Let's try this again

Ok so your pretty sure you don't have the ability to create thumbnails in Moveable Type, but you wanna. Well you've come into the same problem as me, lucky for you though I am gonna tell you how to install a thumbnailer.

Chances are if you go to SixApart they'll tell you to use Image::Magick. Forget THAT! A thumbnailer is a thumbnailer. In this situation we are gonna use something called Netpbm. Now again normally your hosting service should have this already but we're gonna assume they don't. This is gonna be a straight up local install on your own server space.

Click Here to see full tutorial

Click Here for the demo of the cool effect

The above is what I accomplished after messing around in javascript for a couple of hours. If you wanna learn how to incorporate the above effect into your Moveable Type Blog, keep reading.

1.) Create a folder named javascript on your server if you don't already have some folder you use to store javascripts on.

2.) Go to http://script.aculo.us/downloads

3.) Scroll down the screen and download scriptaculous

4.) After you have downloaded scriptaculous, unzip the file.

5.) The following files you need to copy from the unzipped folder into your javascript folder(prototype.js which is in the lib folder and the effects.js which is in the src folder)

6.) Ok you have one more file to put into your javascript folder. The combo.js file you can either create yourself or download by right clicking here and selecting "Save target as". For the purposes of this tutorial, just download it, it'll be easier on you

7.) Copy the combo.js file into the javascript folder on your server where you stored the other two .js files

8.) Login to your MT Admin side. Go click on the BLOG you want to be able to utilize these files. Under Configure click on Templates

9.) Click on the Main Index under the list of templates

10.) There are three lines that need to be added in your index.html, these lines should be in the header of the code (see picture below)

The lines of code tell the html document where to look for the combo, effect, and prototype.js files.

11.) Remember after changing the template to hit the Save and Rebuild button

12.) Ok start creating a new entry and put the following code in.

13.) Save and publish your entry, an it should work.

Sites I used:
http://script.aculo.us/
http://24ways.org/advent/introduction-to-scriptaculous-effects

Note: If you want these effects to work in BLOG entries after they're archived, remember to go into Templates and add the code in the templates under Archives where appropriate. Rebuild the site after you make these code changes, otherwise the effect won't work.

World of Warcraft playing will occur, oh yes, it will happen. Yes like many I have found World of Warcraft addicting. I think I'd find WoW more addicting if not for the fact that something fritzes out on my computer soundwise, at this point it's either the speakers OR the Sound Card. I find it unusual that this sound problem on my computer happens only while playing WoW and not on other stuff (like when I am playing music on Windows Media Player, Itunes, etc) though.

Ok so you wanna free up some space on your MT Blog and your Recent Posts amount is getting to be a bit much. Well you can change it.

1.) Go into your MT Admin Side

2.) Click on Templates

3.) Click on Main Index

4.) Click inside the text box with the code in it and hold down Ctrl and then f. Type in Recent Posts as your search criteria

5.) You should be down in the code where the Recent Posts module is, scroll down below it a little till you see something like : MTEntries lastn="10" and change the 10 to a 5.

6.) Hit the Save and Rebuild button below.

7.) There you go your site should be changed to where now you only have five recent posts displayed instead of ten