ardenstone – Page 14

WordPress shenanigans

28. January 2007 · 2 comments · Categories: WordPress

First off: my apologies for anyone who caught me in the middle of this today. You probably saw a very broken website for a while.

This post is mostly for my own reference, so unless you’re interested in the intricacies of WordPress, you might want to move on. I decided (after already moving WordPress manually the other day) that I wanted my WordPress installation to be installed using Dreamhost’s one-click install. This would let me easily upgrade it in the future, instead of having to do it all by hand. Unfortunately, that feature only works on installing it to a totally emptydirectory, something one only learns after deleting all the old WordPress installs and telling the installer robot to go ahead. This would have meant nuking my entire website, and then restoring it after the install. That would have taken hours over FTP, and the very thought makes me nervous.

So I reverted back to installing it in the WP subdirectory. However, I wanted to make ardenstone.com pretend to be the new site, so I followed the directions to do so. This works fairly well, but this situation requires the following notes for future upgrades:

If I upgrade in the future, I’ll probably need to copy index.php from WP to the root.
After copying this, modify fourth line to say:
require('./wp/wp-blog-header.php');

Not too bad, but unfortunately at last the theme I modified and am currently using also needs some modification. I have the sneaking suspicion that this means I can’t easily change themes anymore, which kind of sucks. Anyhow, the other thing to change is the third line in header.php:
require('./wp/wp-blog-header.php');

Good times.

Leave me home for a day…

27. January 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Linky

So it turns out there’s a website where you can paint a stick figure (or other object, you can really muck about with the canvas) and then it animates it dancing. Brilliant!

Me in scooter gear, dancing better than perhaps I do in real life:

On second thought, it definitely dances better than I do. There are lots of other creations on the website including lots of doodles, a ninja, skeleton and lots of male genitalia. Just so you’re warned.

Christy’s Chocolate Martini

26. January 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Cocktails · Tags: bailey's, chambord, chocolate liqueur, cocktail, drink, kahlua, recipe, spirit, vanilla vodka

Since I’m apparently posting about drinks I’m not a big fan of, I might as well put this one up. I just don’t enjoy very sweet drinks, although I’m not opposed to the occasional White Russian. That being said, lots of fabulous folks like sweet alcohol, and if you’re one of them, this is for you. Although it’s not a real martini, it’s named after the restaurant and bar drinks that inspired it, and in honor of its greatest fan.

Christy’s Chocolate Martini

1 1/2 oz. vanilla vodka
1 oz. Godiva chocolate liqueur
1/2 oz. Baileyâ€™s
1/2 oz. KahlÃºa

Shake with ice until quite cold. Strain into a cocktail glass.

It’s that easy, and ridiculously popular. Feel free to add or substitute some Chambord for raspberry flavoring, although I tend to drop the Bailey’s and KahlÃºa when I do that. One final note is that I think the Godiva has a poor aftertaste, so it might be worth finding a substitute. CrÃ¨me de Cacao tends to be a bit thin, but it’s been years since I stocked it so I’ll leave experimentation as an exercise to the reader. Especially since my alcohol is currently relegated to a small space in a relatively small apartment, and new purchases are on an even smaller budget during grad school.

I have no idea what this post is about

26. January 2007 · 2 comments · Categories: Me, Me, Me, Me, WordPress

Ok kiddlies, gather ’round the campfire for an exciting yarn about internet links and procrastination.

{sound of crickets}

Shocking. Anyhow, the other day Tavern Wench added me to her list of links. Of course, as soon as she did this, I changed the location of this blog (my sense of timing is a well oiled machine). Now, if you haven’t already visited her, I’d highly recommend you go there now and read a talented story teller recount tales from the bar industry. In addition, you can find a myriad of drink recipes, and easily kill the rest of your day (week?) in a most enjoyable manner.

But we’re here to talk about me. I noticed she’d added the link because WordPress has this feature where it notes incoming links. This is total nerd gold, so of course I poked around to find that it’s using Technorati. Now, Technorati’s been around a while and I’ve heard a few folks who really love it. Mainly it seems more status symbol than useful site, but perhaps that’s just because I haven’t really explored it. Anyhow, I go and search for “Ardenstone” and get nothing. After some mucking about, you need at least “ardenstone.com” to get that one link. Either way I’m not included in the “Blog Directory.” Now this upsets my inner nerd a little.

So I go to add a link. Except you can’t unless you register. I just went through process of trying to figure out which of my 900 registrations link to the old address for this blog, so that just isn’t going to happen. The other thing I can do is add a little link back to Technorati, which its search engines will find and I’ll be flagged a blog (or something). Except this is the first time I’ve been to Technorati for months, so why am I going to direct my 3 readers there? So instead I look at their popular search terms, and see a lot of rubbish except for Violent Acres which I’ve never heard of and ends up being just the sort of blog that gets all the other bloggers in a tizzy. And loves it so adds fuel to the fire, and queue endless circles. Isn’t the internet awesome? Of course a I read too many articles (it is a fun blog) and end up a couple of links later at Inkscape which is an open source SVG editor. This keys off an interest of mine and I’m tempted to download it because vector graphics rocks, and so does free & open source software. This is when I come to my senses and decide that none of this is helping me get done what I want to do today. So instead I spend fifteen minutes writing a blog post about it.

I love the internet.

I’ve moved!

25. January 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: General

It’s long overdue, and just in time to break a bunch of folk’s links, but I’ve changed this blog to be the main page on my site. As such, it’s now http://www.ardenstone.com without the “/wp/” at the end. This had been in the works for a while (hence the recent additions of resume, older non-flickr photos, etc. to the right hand menubar). I need to go add a redirect to the old address now. My apologies for breaking everyone’s (and by everyone I mean all three of you) links, but it’s nice to get rid of the old homepage.

Sidecar

23. January 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Cocktails · Tags: brandy, cocktail, cointreau, drink, lemon juice, lemon peel, recipe, spirit

This entry is unusual in that I tend to avoid posts about drinks I don’t really enjoy. It’s often a sign that I haven’t figured the drink out, yet. That may be the case here, but perhaps it’s just my lack of interest in brandy and general wariness of lemons. Sidecars do come up somewhat often, and since they’re a good way to use up some of that brandy that’s hanging around after making mulled wine, I wanted to revisit it. After some experimentation this is the version I’ve enjoyed the most:

Sidecar

1.5 oz brandy
1 oz cointreau
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake over ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass (I’ve also seen it served in an old-fashioned glass). Garnish with a lemon twist, preferably flamed if you’re really classy.

This is less brandy and less lemon juice than is usually called for, although I do tend to pour the brandy somewhat generously. I also like more cointreau than is usual, something reflected in this recipe.

This cocktail came about since I had accepted a dubious mission. Namely, making dinner. Now, I don’t mind cooking dinner, it’s just that I have a few things I know how to do well, and when I move beyond that arena there is a high potential of Bad Things Happening. I just don’t have the familiarity with the terms and process so end up with everything needed to happen at one point, and finding myself chopping the garlic as the onions are burning. I decided to get myself in the mood, I’d revisit the Sidecar. I happened to have fresh lemons on hand, which provided enough juice for me to experiment a couple of times to find the version I liked the best (above).

Having succeeded in something that seemed close to cooking (a recipe, multiple ingredients, what can be the difference?), I opened the cookbook and started working.

Alas, the Sidecar was of little help. I eventually managed to get my way through a really quite simple recipe involving a forest of some theoretically enchanted broccoli without mucking it up too badly (ok, perhaps there was too much dill). Still, I had my usual moments of panic as all the timers went off, things boiled over and ingredients that needed adding were yet to be chopped. In the end, I have another recipe I now know enough to probably prepare more cheerfully next time, and the feeling that I’ve finally got at least a handle on a cocktail that’s been on my mind for some time.

So, professor: would you say it’s time for everyone to panic?

12. January 2007 · 1 comment · Categories: General

Yes I would, Kent.

Don’t worry folks, while it might get down to the 30’s (wait, stop panicking!), the governator has, “ordered officials to place 16 additional “warming centers” on standby.”

I love this place. Although it occurs to me our heater doesn’t work. WHAT WILL WE DO???

Youtubes, away!

07. January 2007 · Comments Off · Categories: Pictures

We were fortunate enough to see a bunch of friends over the holidays. During The Dayton Gathering, Robin mentioned the video of the hermit crabs we’d taken at Cabrillo National Monument (a few months ago). I figured that was as good excuse as any to play around with YouTube, so here it is:

Some hermit crabs in the tide pools of Cabrillo National Monument. Unfortunately, the conversion to YouTube lost a lot of detail, so you can’t see the crabs’ legs, etc. Looks more like a bunch of wiggly snails.

Christy and I went back there yesterday, and stopped by the tide pools about midway between the two tides, and they were all quite covered.

Linky

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