Just blogging along

I've had enough!   - 2004-Jun-05 17:13:45

For about a month now I have not been able to blog via Blogger. com, and I am getting quite irritated to be honest. I know my issue is being looked at by the developers, but I have had no update even after asking for it. I work in the support world myself, and can understand that it takes time to solve a problem like the one I am seeing, but it would be easier to handle if I would receive a reaction to my request for an update. Sigh! I have so many items I want to post, and the only way I can let you know about them is by using my not so temporary blog. Stay tuned, and you'll see what I mean.

Metateque, a great little blogging tool!   - 2004-May-17 18:31:37

Metateque is a small program which runs on your pc. If you have server space out there like me, and if you are not allowed to run scripts on that server, like me, Metateque is the perfect solution for creating your own blog. OK, so it has its little glitches here and there, but it's for free, and it works! The files are ftp'ed to your server from within the program while the database resides on your harddisk. As you should with any other important stuff, make sure you have backups of your files just in case. If you know html programming, creating your own template is quite easy. I don't know if it will let you do style sheets, but there is nothing wrong with pure html. Have a look at the Metateque website.

I've got the blues   - 2004-May-17 17:33:07

I have always liked the different shades of blue, and now seemed as good a time as any to change the looks of my web page. It is not the most exciting of websites, I guess, but I like it. It is nice and calm and blue ;-) The layout resembles the one I used before blogger even got into the picture: blue and white with all the links on the left. In addition, my old layout had frames. I could probably modify the layout so that it uses frames, but why bother? Someone once said "Less is More", and I suppose that goes for web pages as well. As you might have seen, I have imported all my posts from the past so that everything now resides in this "temporary" blog. By the looks of it, this blog is not going to be so temporary after all. I still cannot publish anything via blogger :-(

553 archive error is driving me nuts   - 2004-May-17 17:29:28

Ever since the layout of Blogger.com was changed, I have not been able to publish anything. I am running into the following error: 553 archive: File exists. on file:archive/2004_05_01_archive.htm I have removed the complete blog from my website before trying to republish, but even then I get the annoying error. I contacted my ISP to see if they are blocking any IP addresses and to check if the file permissions are set correctly. The answers were no and yes. The log at the ISP even showed that Blogger.com has had successful ftp contact with my website, so why am I getting this error even if I remove all the files? This is getting on my nerves. I have contacted support at Blogger.com for assistance, and in the meantime I keep posting in the hope that I will be able to publish everything in the near future.

Blogger.com went to the beauty parlour   - 2004-May-17 17:29:00

I logged in again today, and couldn't find my way around. Blogger.com has changed the layout of their site as well as of the pages I used to access my blog with. It's like starting all over, but I am sure I will get used to it. I like the new layout at Blogger.com, but what I don't like is the fact that I cannot publish my posts anymore. This is a major disaster if you have just recovered from tendonitis and would like to blog some more. I hope the techies at Blogger.com will be able to help. Otherwise I am going to have to think of something else. I am so used to the blogging stuff that I would hate to have to stop. HELP ME!!!

Ennio Morricone  First published 07.05.2004 - 2004-May-17 17:28:35

I just heard a nice piece of music on the radio, and wanted to know who played it. It turned out it was from the movie "For a Fistful of Dollars" starring Clint Eastwood. Enrico Morricone was the name, or so the presentor said. Now, I've been searching Google for some information, and all I get are pages referring to Mr. Enrico Morricone, but nothing about him. I want to read his biography, I want to know what made him create such beautiful, mysterious music, but the thing is there is not much published about him on internet. I have never experienced lack of information when searching Google, so something must be wrong, and what is wrong is his name. He is Ennio Morricone, not Enrico Morricone. Type "Ennio Morricone" in Google, and you are bombarded with information. That's more like it! Mr. Morricone was born in Rome, Italy, on October 10th, 1928, the oldest of five children. He studied at the Conservatory of St. Cecilia. He married, got children and continued composing. Show the man a little bit of respect and read his astonishing biography. He composed music for more than 400 movies. Most people think of spaghetti westerns when they hear his name, but only a small portion of his "movies" were westerns; 30 one source says. Visit the official site, http://www.enniomorricone.com/, for a discography as well as some information about his work. Unfortunately, all information is in Italian. http://morricone.coolfreepages.com/ has a lot of information in English. The filmography is amazing.

Mosquitos, I hate them!  First published 06.05.2004 - 2004-May-17 17:27:59

I seem to be one of these people that mosquits love to pester. I can sit among friends, and the only one attacked by mosquitos is me. The worst thing about it is that I get a really nasty reaction to their stings as well. It is as if they do it on purpose! Last night I was attacked again, and today I am having trouble keeping my right eye open because it hit me right on my upper eyelid. In addition, it stung me on my forehead. Why is it that these little horrible creatures seem to like some people more than others??? Maybe how stuff works can give an answer. Luckily for me, only the females bite, otherwise I would probably have twice as many swollen, red, itchy spots on my skin. Tomorrow I'm off to the chemists to get some artillery against these pesky beasts. I'll try to get hold of some heavy combat ammo that will not only numb them, but kill them with one push of the aerosol nozzle. My revenge will be very sweet.......

Who was Henry Pu Yi?  First published 05.05.2004 - 2004-May-17 17:27:26

I take it you have seen the film "The last emperor directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and brought to you by Columbia Tristar Pictures? If you have, you know who I am talking about: China's last ruling emperor. As you will have seen in the film, he lived in the Forbidden city situated at the Tianenmen Square (aka Tianamen Square) in Beijing. The square is said to be the largest in the world with its 440.000 square meters (880m X 500m). Nowadays the square is more famous because of the massacre on June 4th, 1989. Factmonster features the most famous of the pictures taken during the protest: the lone student challenging the tanks. I am getting a bit off track.... back to Henry Pu Yi! He was born in Beijing some time during Februay 1906. You see, some sources say he was born on February 7th, others say February 17th. I am not sure which sources to believe, so let's leave it at February 1906. His reign started in 1908, and ended in 1912. In October 1911, China was declared a republic by rebels. Few months later, many of the provinces joined the rebels, and in February 1912, Pu Yi abdicated. He was allowed to stay in the Forbidden city, but could not walk through the gates to see what was happening outside. He was allowed to keep on living like he was used to within the imperial court. In 1922, he married his first official wife while his consort became secondary wife. A few years of happiness passed by, and Chiang Kai-Shek made his entrance. To make a long story short, Pu Yi was made to give up his rights and had to leave the Forbidden city together with his family. They sought asylum from the Japanese embassy, and were received with open arms; at least so it seemed. From this point on I find the events to be quite unclear, and would like to refer to official Chinese websites (search Google to see if you can find any) as well as this very nice site about Pu Yi. Read more about Pu Yi at http://www.royalty.nu, and find a lot of interesting links at Chinese Dragons. I am going to have to explore the latter link at a later time. It seems to be very interesting indeed!

China  First published 02.05.2004 - 2004-May-17 17:26:54

I have always been fascinated by China. Don't ask me why, but as far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by this humongous country. There is something about it.... maybe the movies I have been watching with all their beautiful colours; bright red and yellow. Maybe it is the pictures of the nature, or just simply my own curiousity about the history and culture. I have been dreaming about taking the trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Beijing. I have no idea what to do if I ever get there, but I still have that dream. In the meantime I can only imagine what it would be like. I really enjoy cooking, and Asian food (including Chinese) is something I cook as often as possible. Just imagine the strong flavours of ginger and garlic mixed together with soy sauce and spices like sereh, trassie and chilipaste. Yummy! I am going to have to dig up some recipes and links to go with the fascination. How about I start with Henry Pu Yi?