February 27, 2004
The Milkman
More popularly known as the man the stay-at-home wife is tupping, the milkman has become nearly a myth, a historical nod to kinder, gentler days.
Turns out the Milkman isn't extinct, just an endangered species.
For the past years and more we've been getting dedicated weekly service, as the Milkman arrives on Thursday mornings about 3:30am (or so my dog's barking would indicate).
It's a fantastic, wonderful way to get extremely fresh milk, less than 24 hours from cows' teats to my treats.
And it's great because it's a bit of nostalgia rolled together with fresh products and it turns out to be cheaper than buying organic milk at the store! Yep, not only is it delivered fresh and cold, it's delivered cheaper than going to the store and picking through the shelves of milk looking for something not expired.
I've certainly been less than pleased by the efforts of grocers such as Safeway to keep their supplies turning over in a timely fashion. Now I don't care.
It's just too bad they don't deliver yoghurt and diet pepsi. Now that would be something.
February 26, 2004
Cooking Classics #3 - The Secret to a Vinaigrette
This was our first "menu-based" class. Instead of cooking foods just to get techniques down, we would try to put together a 3-course meal.
We prepared grilled asparagus and spinach salad with caramelized shallots and orange vinaigrette.
For the main course, we piled gaufrette potatoes on a plate, added a 1/2 Florentine-marinated grilled Cornish Game Hen on top and reduced sweet marinade drizzled on top.
To finish the main course plate we flanked the bird with grilled pears with figs and grape-leaf wrapped roasted, spiced goat cheese.
For dessert we made tuoille cookies (tulipe shaped), kind of like slightly soft fortune-cookie dough in a bowl shape. On top we added scoops of chocolate and mascarpone ice cream and criss-cross drizzled it with caramel sauce. In fact, if you dry it out a bit and fold it differently, you can make your own fortune cookies, that would be a kick!
For drinks, we enjoyed a red Zinfandel and an Italian Primitivo (considered the origin of the Zinfandel grape) with it.
Today's premiere moment was probably learning the pastry stuff, because there are so many secrets to getting it right. The best grilling tips included how to cut apart the game hen so it could stay whole, but lay flat for great grilling.
We learned about vinaigrettes and marinades -- and why, if a bottle says it is both, that's impossible. Basically, a vinaigrette needs 4 parts oil/fat, 1 part acid (vinegar, wine, citrus) and salt to taste. After that it's up to you... If you like a more acidic flavor, try 3:1 oil:vinegar on the vinaigrette.
BTW - A marinade is the opposite, approx. 4 parts acid and 1 part oil.
In today's world (as opposed to when our grandparents cooked), brand is sold over what the actual product is. So, when the chefs said to use bleach and water for cleaning, someone had to ask: "Is Clorox okay?"
Yes, of course it is, but we're so used to thinking of the brand Clorox that we've distanced ourselves from the fact that it's simply bleach.
Same thing with all these sauces and marinades and creams and dessert toppings (i.e. Creme Anglais). Once you understand the base for all of these (such as the vinaigrette described above) then you can start to make your own professional-quality stuff, and spice it however you like. You save money, and get better products.
Store-bought salad dressings, for example, can often contain up to 1/2 water -- so you're paying $4/bottle for water. Mmmm.... that's expensive.
February 24, 2004
Cooking Classics #2
Had a bit of a cold, but took some medicine, washed my hands well, and got on with the class!
In a bit of good timing, we made homemade chicken noodle soup, excellent for my condition, and perfect for the snow which moved in while we were in class.
Since this is a techniques class they choose--at least for the first two weeks-- foods that may not go together necessarily, but that have a lot of techniques needed to prepare them.
For example, we poached a chicken, learned how to cut and debone the completed, cooked chicken, made some stock (in this case for soup) and made our own pasta from scratch.
For dessert we had grapefruit with candied zest. The secret was a bit of Pernod (anise flavored liqueur) splashed on the grapefruit sections and then the basil strips and candied zest sprinkled on top. Good flavors. I guess basil is part of the mint family, so actually goes well with fruit.
After class I went home and made orange with candied zest for dessert for my wife and kid so I could go through all the parts of the recipe. The candied zest was sort of done for us once we'd cut the zest off the fruit, so we didn't actually do that hands on, I think we were poaching while one of the chefs was in the pastry area candy-ing.
Cutting was part of today's class, so we had to julianne the grapefruit zest, chiffonade some basil, dice a bunch of veggies for the Mire Poix, mince garlic with a knife, etc.
I'm finding that each cooking session invariably leads into the next. I had leftover candied orange zest and orange-infused simple syrup, so the next morning I made orange crêpes which we topped with nutella hazelnut chocolate and orange zest. Yummmmmmy.
All in all, good stuff!
February 23, 2004
Directions to Sesame Street
It's been, what, 30 years?
You can't make me believe that somebody can't tell me how to get to !@#$#@ Sesame Street by now!
Sheesh.
Sorry, children's television getting to me, I think.
February 22, 2004
Asian Ginger Lime Soda
Mmmm....
Had some at Big Bowl, where we went with a gift card from decent, kind relatives.
Ginger Lime Soda was a good try for lunch, and I can verify that we all enjoyed it (wife Kathy, 2-year-old kid Maxwell, and myself).
I decided to attempt making some at home. With my new cooking class confidence, I went to it. (See earlier entries on cooking, more coming up this week!)
First, create a simple syrup: 1 cup sugar boiled in 1 cup water.
Add Grated ginger, I added about an inch of fresh ginger, grated with the ol' Microplane Grater.
Simmer for 25-30 minutes and really infuse that sugar syrup with ginger aroma.
Now, to prepare the drink:
Tall Glass
Lots of ice
Fill with Perrier (lime flavored or add squeezed wedge of lime)
Add generous amounts of ginger simple syrup (now cool), perhaps 8 or 9 little spoonfuls (I just measured it, and it came in at about 3 Tablespoonfuls for proper sweetness).
Garnish with lime wedges and, in this picture, a candied mango fruit slice.
Sweet, delicious, tangy... Enjoy....ahhhhh.... Great for summer days or any day (even early evening).
Oh, Danggggg! I just made another glass, but this time I added a 2oz pour of quality vodka. Wow, this is the drink when you don't want an overpowering alcohol taste or smell. Mmmm....
And, if your wife is pregnant, she can try the Izze Co. grapefruit and carbonated water beverage next to it... :-)
February 21, 2004
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad SUV World
A buddy forwarded me an intriguing--if a bit lengthy--article about the myth of SUV prowess.
First, let me preface this entry by saying that just because you can buy something, doesn't mean you should. With affluence should come obligation to your society, future, and children.
Now, to continue...
Turns out that SUV's seem safe, but really aren't, but it doesn't matter, because as humans we think that things that are bigger and taller are inherently safer, but really aren't in this case.
Understand?
If you'd like clarification, read this article by Malcolm Gladwell for the New Yorker magazine.
In psychology, there is a concept called learned helplessness, which arose from a series of animal experiments in the nineteen-sixties at the University of Pennsylvania. Dogs were restrained by a harness, so that they couldn't move, and then repeatedly subjected to a series of electrical shocks. Then the same dogs were shocked again, only this time they could easily escape by jumping over a low hurdle. But most of them didn't; they just huddled in the corner, no longer believing that there was anything they could do to influence their own fate.
Learned helplessness is now thought to play a role in such phenomena as depression and the failure of battered women to leave their husbands, but one could easily apply it more widely. We live in an age, after all, that is strangely fixated on the idea of helplessness: we're fascinated by hurricanes and terrorist acts and epidemics like sars--situations in which we feel powerless to affect our own destiny. In fact, the risks posed to life and limb by forces outside our control are dwarfed by the factors we can control. Our fixation with helplessness distorts our perceptions of risk. "When you feel safe, you can be passive," Rapaille says of the fundamental appeal of the S.U.V. "Safe means I can sleep. I can give up control. I can relax. I can take off my shoes. I can listen to music."
For years, we've all made fun of the middle-aged man who suddenly trades in his sedate family sedan for a shiny red sports car. That's called a midlife crisis. But at least it involves some degree of engagement with the act of driving. The man who gives up his sedate family sedan for an S.U.V. is saying something far more troubling--that he finds the demands of the road to be overwhelming.
Is acting out really worse than giving up?
February 20, 2004
North facing Driveway & Snow
Very pretty, but today's storm got lost and went south and missed greater Denver for the most part. A western suburn of Denver, we got 3-5 inches.
I had to take pictures fast, though, because it was 65 on Wednesday, 50 degrees yesterday and, apparently, below 32 degrees last night... :-)
I doubt the snow on the ground will last through the day.
With a north-facing driveway, I had to get up early this morning to shovel about 5 inches before Kathy went to work. All the while, I could jealously look at my neighbors across the street whose driveways face south, and were completely clear, if a bit wet.
Note to self: next time I buy a house, get a south-facing drive, and maybe one that doesn't slope as much as ours does. Of course, I may have to live with this current mistake for the next 15-20 years so I should write this tip down and keep it somewhere safe where I won't forget it.
You can definitely see it was a wet snow. Here are a couple of pix from the front and back yard as the sun is just rising. We always get great sunrises due to the sun filtering through the smog from Denver...is that a good or bad thing?
You can see it was a warm, wet snow as it stuck nicely to the trees. This is what happens in May, but with leaves on the trees, they bend down and break, so I have to get out in my PJ's and slap the branches with a broom.
February 19, 2004
Colorado Conflict: Growth is Unreasonable
If I could sum up the conflict that is affecting life in Colorado as we know it, it would go something like this:
"We came out here for the peace and solitude. So did everyone else."
An article in the Denver Post yesterday is subtitled: "Ideals clash as county faces high growth" Denver Post Article (only online for 10 days, then use their Advanced Search, look for "Growing Pains in Adams.")
Basically, whoever lived in the country before wants things to remain idyllic. Whoever is just moving in wants roads, stores and convenience. This leads to older owners' property being condemned for roads and schools and such, and it pisses them off, because in Colorado, as in most Western states, growth always wins. I feel sorry for the couple in the article whose house in Adams' county is likely to be paved over.
We have the same issue near my house, but at least I've been aware of it since buying my house, and my house won't actually be leveled. Cities to the north of me want to widen state highway 93 (50 yards west of my house) so they can build malls and new subdivisions up north (i.e. near Rocky Flats Nuclear cleanup site. Yep, you read that right) and get people from down south to drive up there to visit said shopping extravaganza.
Two state-sponsored studies have been done which show this road isn't necessary, and that people won't drive 10 miles west (to where I am) and then up north, and then back east. Yet, studies in these suburban cities up north must be showing some good tax base revenues, because they are pushing like crazy to get the road widened and built up into a true freeway (get rid of the occasional red light intersection and house in the way).
If you want to know the outcome, I'll just say again: Growth will win.
Visit the Institute for Justice, a center dedicated to individual rights (vs. eminent domain used by corporations to grab land they want at below-market prices).
The important issue to try and wrap your brain around is: It's not a matter of reasonability. Growth is unreasonable. You can't argue with it, it just happens (or so it seems around here).
So, if you are in the market for a house, don't think, "oh, well, we were here first, there's no way some new person can come and take my property and my lifestyle." You'd be wrong to think that, no matter how good your "reasons."
Because? Well, because you're matching your feelgood reasoning up against cold hard numbers (i.e. usually new tax revenues for growing cities) and the numbers always win, because people can count them. I mean, how much is it worth for you to lose your home? Just buy another one, right? Right?
February 18, 2004
iPod - a.k.a. Walkman 2.0
Apple's iPod music storage/playback device - it was finally time to follow the leader.
Reminds me of my first walkman, pretty impressive for its time, still pretty cool, but nothing like this.
The iPod is so cool and complementary to our lifestyles of today, even my mother-in-law "gets" it -- and she doesn't own a computer. "You mean I can bring all my music with me? Wow..."
It was a convergence of features, price point, Valentine's day and my honey suddenly really wanting one for her workouts and commute to work, all combined with my inability to say no to a pregnant lady.
So, there you are, and here is our new 15GB iPod, which holds our complete music library and is really nice to have.
Cool beans!
iPod mini versus the iPod regular. What I found when I was researching what to purchase for my wife on Valentine's Day.
| iPod mini | vs | iPod (15GB) | |
| price | $249 | $269 ($30 online discount) & free engraving |
|
| storage | 4GB | 15GB | |
| screen | 6 lines | 7 lines | |
| screen | 1.7" | 2.0" | |
| colors | several | white only |
Other Notes:
1. Availability: mini not sold in time for me, available February 20th.
2. Future: buddy Dan the Mac Man expects a $199 price point for the mini for Christmas season (this gets the $249 desperados cleared out first)
3. I added the iRock FM transmitter ($29 at Radio Shack) and it works great in the car and also to my home stereo, which now gets a lot more play time since I can pump my entire iTunes library to it. It plays on either of the following FM stations: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5 or 88.7.
4. My iPod shipped directly from China, which I found out when I checked the FedEx tracking info at iship.com
5. The iTunes music store is really great, and $.99 is a decent price given that you don't have to buy complete albums.
6. I had the original Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox a couple years ago. My biggest complaint was not being able to store my full music library. The iPod mini at 4GB would hold less than 1/3 my full library (currently 11GB and probably topping at 15GB when I get done ripping the rest of our CDs). That would have forced choices my wife may not want to make. So, the mini would not have held enough music for me.
7. You don't need to buy the docking station (it's just one more thing to put on your desk). The firewire cable also powers and recharges the unit whenever it's plugged into your computer.
8. The iPod has an address book and calendar, so if you are an occasional user of these who just likes to have your addresses handy, it's perfect for that and will replace an old Palm device or whatever you are carrying around and barely using.
February 17, 2004
Damn Gnats!
Smack! "Got another one honey!"
Damn.
No.
Damn Gnats!
Yep. We've had them flying around our house for on about 3 months now.
Little bastardaccios, the size of a pin head, basically small mosquito-sized jobbers, but without the sting.
Brought in by our love of greenery, they arrived in transit with a ficus we bought in early Fall.
It's mid-Winter and we're still not rid of them. In fact, we kill so many a day, we've developed a new language for them.
Yesterday was a "tenner" (10 killed) for me, and I've become quite proud of my ability to "one-hand high-five" 'em out of the air. For some reason they don't settle down on walls, windows and counters very often, so it's a 3D air battle royale.
The secret to a one-hander is to grab them into a closed fist -- and then not check to see if you got one. Go over to the sink and run water over them, washing them down to InSinkerator oblivion.
Our house has been like a weird, apoplectic clap-a-thon of late, with a side of Turrets Syndrome thrown in for good measure. Random loud claps, bangs and whooooshes as we attempt to keep the bugs at bay. We had several key sites they seemed to appear around, such as the sink, the computer, and the left side of the big couch. Why? We're still not sure.
Late research seems to indicate they like CO2 (carbon dioxide) which is found, basically, swirling around our heads. Great.
It's been regular enough that Max, our son, has even taken to taking swipes in the air and saying "Got bee! Got bee!" If he decides to become a veterinarian or ornithologist, we'll know we had an impact on his life.
Max also goes around shaking plants in the house, emulating our search to find out where the bugs have been hiding. Yea. Glad we could teach him that. He thinks it's funny to slap the wall and look at us like he's done something great. Technically, I suppose, he has.
So, finally, after most of the plants have been put outside (a.k.a. left to die) by my wife, we decided today to look at the rest of the plants in the house -- again.
Despite repotting several plants, the bugs kept coming back and infiltrating our lives. We were told that just scraping the top 1/2 inch of soil should do the trick, but that was a laugh to the gnats, they still came back.
It was embarrassing. Mom-in-law (Mean Jean) was in town for a few weeks, and she became quite an expert gnat-gnasher, despite a severely broken elbow and limited mobility.
This time, however, we didn't look in the plants, so much as we looked under the plants. Success!
Turns out that they were pooling in the base under the plant which caught excess moisture after a good watering.
So, we spent a couple hours cleaning the house again today, this time putting allllll the plants out. They won't be let back in until the house is cleared and they've been repotted. Again.
Such is life, but I'm dang glad to be rid of them, or so we hope. I can hear the lead gnat laughing at our misfortune already.
But, I'm confident, and optimistic. I bought a new ficus today. Of course, we'll leave it in the garage until I can repot and confirm no new infestation. Optimistic and cautious, that is.
Cheers!
February 16, 2004
Cooking Class - Technique is everything
Here's what the cooking school website had to say about techniques we'd be learning in our Classic Techniques classes:
Class 1: egg cookery, blanching, cold emulsion sauces, stocks, meringue
Class 2: basic pasta dough, knife skills, poaching, chicken stock, boning chicken
Class 3: marinades, vinaigrettes, grilling, home-made ice cream
Class 4: classic soup construction, roasting, tart dough, express chocolate mousse
Seems simple enough, but they went deeply into each subject.
For example, for grilling, we learned how to cut a raw Cornish Game Hen bird so that it would lay flat and could be easily grilled with nice grill-hash marks.
For knives, we learned that the "steel" that we often sharpened our knives with--the long metal rod you sometimes see chefs sliding their knives against--doesn't really sharpen, it simply refreshes the already sharp knife by realigning the microscopic teeth found at the business end of the stick. Once you get to the point where using the rod doesn't work, then you need the knife professionally sharpened, which should keep you for another year or more (depending on how much you cook and the surfaces you cut on).
More on cutting: We learned fast, safe, and cool ways to cut onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, citrus fruits, etc. We learned to chiffonade and julienne and effectively dice -- all good stuff to generally know.
Blanching was useful in terms of quick ways to prepare veggies as well as ways to help veggies stay fresh in the refrigerator longer. Simply blanch them (boil them for a few minutes in boiling, slightly salted water, then shock them in ice water) and you've got veggies (asparagus, carrots, whatever) that will stay fresh longer in the fridge, and are half-way cooked so very easy to prepare quickly!
Anyway, there's more, but this gives a sense of what went on behind closed swinging doors of the kitchen.
February 15, 2004
Cooking Class - Elevate your Life
I recently got educated. No, not a computer programming class, not a history class, not a language class (all of which I'm sure I need), but a cooking class.
4 Saturdays, 4 hours a day, decently intensive. Called Classic Techniques, it was a blast.
These classes gave me the essential basic tools and confidence to understand HOW to go about experimenting, enjoying, and improving my culinary prowess.
I always hear/see chefs saying, just a pinch of this, that or whatever you have around the house -- which made no sense until now.
An example of the great result from this class:
This morning I was inspired to throw down some eggs benedict with poached asparagus spears and crackled turkey bacon. An excellent contribution to the culinary arts from the French (Benedict) or maybe the Dutch (Hollandaise sauce) or maybe New York City (See Brunch.org for creation mythology of Eggs Benedict).
Suprémo! And the best part...I just sort of glanced at the recipe to get the proportions for the Hollandaise sauce and went from there. It was great.
The chefs talked about "elevating" our food in class and it sounded a bit stilted and cheezy until you realize, as you're searching for the right word to explain what's happening when your family and friends start to mean what they say when they compliment your cooking, that elevating your food is exactly what you are doing.
Here is the menu (pdf format) of the 4 weeks of cooking. It was designed so that as many techniques of cooking were used, and the last two weeks are set menus whereas the first two weeks' of dishes are a bit more eclectic.
I went to the Cook Street Culinary School in Denver, but there's one in most larger cities. Try Culinary Ed to find a school in your area.
I highly recommend it as the best money you'll ever spend. Of course, once you get into cooking, and you begin to want better knifes, ladles, mixing bowls, etc. you'll find it can get a bit more expensive ;-)
Think about it: what other education can provide such immediate, useful, lifelong and tasty results? And your friends won't get bored when you give them hands-on results of what you learned.
February 14, 2004
I blame Florida
I'm thinking a lot lately, always a bad sign.
Looking for a root cause, I blame Florida (circa 2000 elections).
I hate it when that happens. Thinking a lot, that is.
February 13, 2004
Accidentally Left of Center
Turns out I'm a Leftie in sheep's clothing! Just took a little "Match your issues to the best Presidential Candidate," located at President Match and found that out.
They also have a comparison sheet, so you can easily see and compare each candidate's stances (current Democratic candidates and Pres Bush) on about 50 issues or so, pretty useful.
I grew up Republican, but I've changed to being independent but wanting the Republicans currently in charge out of office. (i.e. I voted for Ralph Nader, and could be forced to vote Democrat in the November '04 elections).
Hmmm... What a strange, strange world.
February 12, 2004
Less Content, More Marketing
Recently, someone explained that they enjoy breaking down and analyzing commercials as much or more than actually watching the tv program.
I was put out by this, because, in a sense, that's my line! At least, it was in the 90s -- heck, even as late as a couple years ago. I was quite proud of ignoring the content in favor of dissecting the marketing.
Well, you know it's time to change when everyone's jumping on my bandwagon.
I thought about my jealous reaction for a second, and asked myself, "Why R so many people suddenly becoming idiot savants of the commercial world?" More importantly, "Uhhh, is this a good sign or a bad sign?"
The answer is unknown, of course, but here's a thought...
I used to be proud of breaking down an advertisement, because I was so smart I could see what they were "really" up to, the hidden messages, the innuendo, and the blatant and crass manipulation of our thoughts.
Of course, on a deeper level, I missed something: The marketers were gleefully looking at me and saying, "We know that you know what we know."
Once again, they were a step ahead of me. What they know is that as long as my mind is focused on the commercial, it doesn't really matter whether I like it or understand it:
How do I know this? Take, as recent examples, Jessica Simpson or Paris Hilton. Either has proven to be quite an idiot on television, and not someone we'd probably enjoy hanging out with. Yet, every week, we watch them on television and our brains have completely been unable to separate popularity and celebrity with concepts like "good" and "bad." Just knowing about these people is enough, it doesn't matter what they've done.
Sort of the (in)famous criminal concept, where people are popular because of crimes they've committed.
Well, dang. So much for watching advertisements. In fact, I've become a Tivo fan lately partly to reduce my reliance on watching such ads.
Mostly, however, I've started ignoring the ads because what I realize now is that I now know that they know that I know what they know.
Yep, simple as 1-2-3.
February 10, 2004
Installing Movable Type
Yup, the journalling software I'm using is from Movable Type. In one sense, it's simple, but I've got complications including multiple websites (i.e. my wife wants to do a graphic design blog on her site), multiple blogs on the same domain, as well as incorporating a blog into an existing site (this one).
Here are notes between me and our webmaster/programmer regarding thoughts and work on getting it set up...
Each number represents a different email exchange between me and our webmaster, Tom, over the course of a few days. This may give you insight into some of the esoteric issues that arise during a complex incorporation of blog software into existing websites. As for actually doing a text or image and text entry into the blog, it's been easy as pie (although my cooking class is indicating that a good pie ain't that easy).
1.
Is there an issue with setting them up for multiple websites? I'm going to initially set them up on travelpete.com and katfishdesign.net
Anyway, I'll be on it this afternoon after I get back from gaufretting potatoes at my cooking class.
2.
Tom: I might set one up for myself, possibly for tomandjp.com since we've been lame about keeping it up to date. I'm curious if it has any photo gallery type features. (I also want to see about setting it up for multiple sites.)
Me: Yeah, I just tried to add one to travelpete.com and it doesn't seem to show up at http://travelpete.com/blog/
I'm guessing it's a permissions issue... I'll let you know more this afternoon, gots to cruise!
3.
Question answered. Same username/pw whether I go to bilfish/mt or travelpete.com/mt
Either one seems to show up in the right place, but, I believe that from, say, bilfish.com/mt I can't actually set up a blog for travelpete.com/blog.
The problem COULD be that it's really only set up for one blog per domain, and could be having trouble because it probably wants to overwrite the blog I already installed on travelpete.com (Max's Meat Market). I think there's a way to do more, of course, but perhaps there's a permissions problem or something.
Now, I just did my first post for travelpete.com/blog/, from bilfish.com/mt.cgi -- so that worked fine.
Here's a few quick notes:
A. Username Melodious is the one who posted it... That's not what I wanted.
B. In the configuration files, there are two things I would change that are pre-filled in for you. For Site URL, it just put travelpete.com, I'd change to travelpete.com/blog/. For Archive URL to match where it wants to put your Local Archive Path, you need to change travelpete.com/archives/ to travelpete.com/blog/archives/
A final note -- after your first post, you'll realize just how bad the site looks without a full template makeover!!!!
4.
You can set up unlimited "authors" as well as changing the primary (Melodious) to another username. This solves that particular problem. Also, you can associate an author with one or more of the blogs that have been built.
In regards to photoblogs, check out http://chicagouncommon.com for a photo blog using movable type. This actually looks like a sophisticated site...
There's a feature to do thumbnails of uploaded images, if you have the Image::Magick Perl module installed. See http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_uploading.html#uploading%20files for more on uploading files / images). Basically, log into the control panel for a blog, then along the left-hand nav bar the 3rd option is upload file, then it'll ask if you want a new blog entry from that, or just the html to point to it...
As for how it looks, they've got 7 default styles you can check out (see them at http://movabletype.org/default_styles.shtml ). To use one of the Default Templates, here are the instructions. It's easy to do and works great, completely rebuilds all the pages and entries you've already done, so you can "fix" stuff later.
5.
I deleted the original one it made, and then I wanted to make one for Max, as a photo blog.
So, I set everything to bilfish.com/html/maxwell/blog/ and /blog/archive etc....
Then, when I rebuild, it doesn't work and gives me the error that files can't be found. I can't tell, without telnetting in, what's going on. Can I telnet it from the Mac?
6.
Yeah... it does a thumbnail, and then you can have it link to the full picture if you want... I'm probably going to stop doing that and just export smaller pix from iPhoto.
Now that I can ssh I'll play around a bit and check out files and directories.
I'm definitely not up on style sheets and layers and stuff. If you check out http://travelpete.com/blog/ you'll see what I mean, as I attempt to merge server-side includes with layers and a style sheet and the whole thing doesn't quite come out right...
7.
Okay, so far, so slow.
I'm getting up to speed, very slowly, in regard to the dramatic effects on web pages caused by externally linked style sheets. I knew what .css was in a general way, but had never used them. Should've, but haven't.
So, now I'm getting an education.
First, I realized that, for some reason, when I copy/pasted template information from the movable type website into what would become my index.shtml template file (oh, and before that I had to realize that the movable type editing interface was writing to index.html -- so my ssi's weren't working, of course) it was translating open and closed arrows < > into %3c and %3e respectively - so the index page wasn't calling the style sheet for information!
Phew!
Well, I'm getting there, as you can see from http://travelpete.com/blog/
I still don't quite know how to get back my background image and several other attributes, but things are definitely coming along. The template style sheet they include is, actually, rather complex with about 12 different sections of every document described in some detail!
8.
Phew, okay, GoLive has a decent .css editor, so I was able to add the background image back in. Basically, I still think about this like good 'ol html 1.0 days when I pretty much knew all the tags... now, of course, there's no real way to know them, so you have to use a graphical editor to figure it out.
BTW - the template .css file Movable Type provides has about 33 elements defined... so definitely an editor is necessary.
And, I'm stuffing into all my files server side includes as well as adding all this stuff into layers (for reasons of exact positioning).
All of this, of course, doesn't even have anything to do with content for the blog! Sheesh....
9.
So, do you have a sense for whether there's an issue with each and every file pulling from so many different external files such as .css and .shtml files?
It looks like the blog can be rebuilt at any time, so once I get a number of files, I'd be interested in finding out whether you think I need to consider "rebuilds" of all the pages only during low-usage times.
February 09, 2004
Moonrise over Golden
Moonrise Over Golden, looking west as sunrise "descends" the mountainside.
Mornings are often a visually elegant time of day around the Fisher household. Max is looking cute, the sun is just rising across the mountains, and the homemade cappuccino steams in the streaming sunlight just soooo.
I've found that, in combination with my favorite new kitchen colors, it's a wonderfully creative and energetic time for me.
The kitchen can be seen at Casa de Fisher. Just click on the kitchen.
February 08, 2004
A Golden Morning
Welcome to my breakfast view each morning.
Cheers,
BilFish
February 07, 2004
Entry #1
I'm sure this should be momentous, but I'm busy testing, so instead it will be short.
Travel Pete is in the house.
Cheers,
BilFish