Blog Moved

After I wrote the previous post, I decided to take a look at WordPress and see what it would take to get it configured. Next thing I knew, I had my new blog set up. I've even posted a couple of entries on it. So this will be my last post on this blog here in Blogger.

My new blog is at www.ashtonland.com/blog

The new website is not yet finished. I'm slowly working my way through. So if you go and check it out, be prepared for dead-end links.

Bye bye Blogger. You've served me well.

Deanne

Upgrade going well

The new website is coming along nicely. It took me hours to get it set up the way I wanted with the web builder application provided by the web host. I was beginning to think that hand coding was better, because I could not make the site look exactly like I wanted. I had to work within their template limitations. But now that I have it together, I'm happy with it.

One thing I didn't realize was how many files are involved with the new photo galleries I'm creating. Big albums that have several hundred photos end up generating a couple thousand files! Thankfully, my phone has a fast connection so I'm not sitting for hours trying to upload everything.

I'm probably about a quarter of the way through the upgrading and uploading process. I will definitely meet my November 1 deadline. I actually thought I'd get it done by next weekend, but when I was finishing off an album yesterday, I decided I was really quite sick and tired of the whole process. So I don't see me spending the majority of my waking hours working on the website like I originally thought.

I have definitely decided to move my blog to the actual site. When I have WordPress configured the way I like, I will make the move. Until then, I will remain loyal to Blogger. As for the archive conundrum: For now, I'm just going to keep a link to Blogger available on the site. I know Blogger keeps inactive blogs available for at least a year, so I have awhile to figure out how I want to store old posts. I imagine I'll end up cutting and pasting the contents. Which, like everything else involved with this upgrade, will take time.

Today is Saturday and Steve's at work. F1 qualifying has been postponed due to rain. Steve didn't mail off my Netflix on Thursday, so I have no DVDs arriving in today's mail. All of my friends are busy with either school work or their families. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself today. As my friend Beth said on Facebook: I'm living the high life.

New face for Ashton Land

Our web hosting contract with our current provider is up and we've decided to move to a different service. The move will both save money and provide greater perks. I'm excited. I haven't done anything to our website in ages, and I'm totally caught up with the notion of redesigning it.

I'm particularly thrilled to have discovered Shozam software. Easily 99% of our website is photographs (the other 1% being links to this blog and to some short videos hosted on YouTube). I have wanted a Facebook-esque photo album for our site for years. Steve said he'd create one for me, but he never found the time to do so. Most of the digital album programs out there allow only for the photos and maybe a short tag. I wanted an album that allowed me to write long descriptions of the photos. Happily, Shozam gives me everything I wanted and then some. I've been spending a lot of time (too much, probably) converting all the photos currently on the website into albums. I'm hoping to have them all done within the next few days, so I have time to add new pictures for the relaunch of the site. It's a lot of work, but I'm loving every minute of it.

The hosting service we chose has a lot of perks, including a Premium Web Builder and WordPress. The web builder supposedly will help me make fancier web pages without the need for a lot of coding. Up until now, I've been a purist. I design our site myself and write the code on Notepad. That all stemmed from someone once telling me that since I was a "feeler" type of person, as opposed to a "thinker," I could never write computer code. I set out to prove the jackass wrong. Having successfully done that, I think I may take advantage of the Web Builder this time around.

WordPress creates another conundrum. WordPress is a blog program. I tried using it on this site years ago, but it wouldn't play nicely with our hosting service. That's how I ended up here on Blogger. I really prefer having my blog on my site, so I'm very tempted to use the WordPress. The issue is what to do with the three years of archived blogs stored here? I have found no way to download the files. I may have to just use cut-and-paste and create them in WordPress. Of course, the other issue is that by being on Blogger, I'm connected to my friends' blogs more easily. So I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do.

My goal is to have the new site launched by November 1. Which is also the deadline for UH admissions. I found out that the graduate committee won't make a decision for Spring until after the application deadline. Quite annoying that. Anyway, when the site is ready to go, I will make an announcement via email and/or Facebook. We're talking about changing the domain name for it, too. So it will be all new. I'm so excited!

Which I guess makes me a huge nerd. :-)

Interesting health tip

I happened to catch today's Dr. Oz show. I don't normally watch the show. I happened to have the tv on that channel when I finished watching a show recorded on the DVR. One of his topics was dehydration. Since I have an ongoing battle with dehydration, I watched to see if he mentioned anything of value. He did and I'm glad I caught it.

I know that caffeine is a diuretic. I don't consume a lot of caffeinated beverages, but I don't avoid the stuff, either. When I do have some coffee, or tea, or a diet soda, I don't count those drinks in my daily fluid intake. I thought I was being smart by doing that. Come to find out, that's not enough. It turns out you have to drink extra water to counteract the diuretic in the caffeine! So it's not enough to drink two liters of water along with your two cups of coffee. You have to drink two extra cups of water, as well.

This explains a lot. As I mentioned, I battle dehydration. My body is very sensitive to it and I will retain water the moment I fall short of the needed fluid intake. The other day, I indulged in two glasses of Diet Cherry Pepsi over the course of the day. I also drank about a half gallon of water. The next day, I was retaining water. I was baffled, but now I know why. I didn't compensate for the two large glasses of soda.

It makes a lot of sense, but it's something I never thought about. So I wanted to share with my friends out there this health tip. Especially my friends whose primary fluid intake comes from Starbucks.

Off to Houston

I fly out to Houston tomorrow afternoon. It's a direct (and cheap) flight on Southwest from Jax, so it takes less than 2.5 hours plus airport time. I'm traveling with my aunt Jody and meeting up with my cousin Jason, but my main purpose is to go and see what Houston's like. Where it's a holiday weekend, I won't be able to go and meet anyone at the university. But I hope I can at least go and see the campus and have a walk around.

Mainly, I hope I like Houston. I'm going to be living there for a few years. It'd be helpful if I liked it. When Steve and I travel somewhere new, I always imagine what it'd be like to live there. Some places speak to me when I do that, like New York. Others do not, like Chicago. And others have to grow on me a bit first, like Boston. Here's to Houston being either a New York or a Boston rather than a Chicago.

Master Ashton

I graduated yesterday with my Master of Arts degree in history. It's been an intense but rewarding two years. My friend and fellow history GTA, Amanda, graduated with me. I'm glad we shared the experience. It made it more special. Especially since Amanda leaves in just a little over two weeks for Kentucky, where she's going for her PhD. I'm envious that she gets to start the next round so soon, and in such a lovely place, but I'm also glad to have a few months off before I go for my doctorate. I need the down time. I also have a lot of packing to do.

Festivities began Thursday, but first, I had a paper to finish. I took a Crusades class over the summer and its final paper was due Friday. I wanted to graduate knowing I had finished everything, so I was trying to get the paper finished by Wednesday. I didn't quite make it. I still had a couple of pages of information to add, so I was in the GTA office at 6:15 a.m. doing just that. I spent the morning doing that, getting my haircut, and editing my paper. I wasn't quite done making the edits when my parents arrived, so I schlepped my laptop to their hotel room and, like the good little student I am, got them done and submitted my paper. It was a nice feeling.

Three of my aunts were coming to help me celebrate graduating. Paula and Jody arrived shortly after I finished and we all gathered in the hotel lobby to visit. It was a really fun afternoon. We went to Sticky Fingers for dinner when Steve got off work. It was good, as always, although Jody's ribs were a bit tough (very strange - ribs at SF are usually fork tender). I had some of the best chicken tenders I've ever had! They were super crispy outside and nice and tender inside. Mmmmm. Auntie Bambi arrived just as we finished and we spent the next hour or so visiting in the lobby before everyone decided to call it a night.

Graduation now was a whirlwind of anxiety and excitement. It was also bittersweet, but I made a concerted effort to not think about the sad stuff. The ceremony only lasted an hour (a VAST improvement over Flagler's droning commencement) and we were off to lunch at Olive Garden. My cousin, Kristy, came down from Georgia with her adorable little girls to have lunch with us. We all had a good time. I'm so glad my family came to share the day with me. It was so fun!

After lunch, Steve and I popped by BJ's and visited the Verizon kiosk. My phone isn't due for upgrading until September, but we got a letter offering us an early renewal if we went with a Droid phone. Well, I was planning on getting a Droid X, anyway, so we decided to take advantage of the offer. We got the phone for half price, and then we'd have a $100 mail-in rebate. As the rep was updating my account, though, it didn't require the rebate. It took the $100 off instantly. Verizon must have known I just graduated . My phone's being shipped (all Verizon stores are sold out), so I hope to have it in a week or so. It can't be too soon. My Blackberry Curve is the old 8330 model. I can't update the OS and it simply does not do what I need it to do. I'm thrilled at the idea of having a new phone with great functionality. And it was a fantastic end to a great day.

Today has started like many Saturdays. We're watching F1 qualifying and Steve's munching on some toast. Later on, we're back in Jacksonville for me to empty my desk. And then it's off to O'Brothers to bid farewell to James, the first of my grad cohorts to head off. He starts at William and Mary in the fall and moves to Virginia tomorrow. It will be an emotional day and I think the reality that I'm actually done may start seeping into my brain.

It's weird having a to do list that has no real deadlines assigned to it. I have a lot of possible scenarios on my plate. It's a bit unsettling having to wait and see what develops. I'm very goal driven. It's hard for me to just . . . hover. So we'll see how it goes. For now, I'm just going to try and absorb the fact that I have a master's degree and bask a bit in the accomplishment.

World Cup

I'm totally into the World Cup this year. This is my third World Cup series since I married Steve, but this is the first time I'm really engrossed. I think it's because of my thesis and its intimate ties to the birth of football in Preston. I feel a kinship with the English team, and am rooting for them wholeheartedly.

We went to Five Points Theatre to watch the England - US match live. I went thinking I'd be happy regardless who won, but quickly discovered I was pro-England all the way. A big part of that was the behavior of the US fans. And that continues to be my beef as England and the US advance to the next round.

Soccer is not a big deal in the US, which is a shame, really, because it's a great game. But we have our baseball, football (the one played with your hands), and basketball to dominate our sports channels. So soccer is an also ran. That means, most people don't know the game. Which can be a pain in the ass when you go to a big match like England vs USA. Lots of sports fans attended to root for their national team, but they were pretty clueless on what was happening. They'd cheer when England kicked the ball out of bounds (please folks, it happens all the time) and act all offended if one of their players gets knocked down (this, too, happens all the time). But what really got me annoyed was when the England keeper made the stupid mistake heard 'round the world and bobbled what should have been an easy save. That mistake tied the game at 1-1. I expected the fans to cheer. But what I didn't like was the taunting arrogance declaring the awesomeness of the US. A point is a point, but a goal is not a goal. The US scored not because it was an awesome kick, but because the England keeper (perhaps in his own burst of arrogance) made an amateur mistake and failed to properly block the ball. The US scored not because it was awesome, but because the keeper screwed up big time. The fans really need to get a clue.

Prior to today's England vs Slovenia match, I was hit with another bout of American arrogance that turned me off. During the pre-game show on ESPN, an advert came on with Martin Sheen doing a voice over. The US wasn't even playing England today, but the entire ad was an anti-England campaign. Talk about unsportsmanlike behavior! I felt like I was watching a political commercial. Instead of just talking about how well the US team was doing, it had to trash England by comparison. Yes, it concluded with a oh what the heck, good luck anyway conclusion, but that was too little, too late.

The US has played some brilliant ball so far this World Cup. The come-from-behind goals versus Slovenia and the 91-minute goal by Donovan against Algeria to win today are some incredible feats of athleticism. I want to be proud. I want to be as happy to see the US advance as I am to see England. But it's difficult for me to support a team that carries with it such unsportsmanlike behavior in its fans.