User's Blog

Hey P. Long time, no see.

Back story on Word Press. It was my first choice, but there was a back room problem I couldn't resolve so I used B2evo, instead. I like B2evo, but don't like that common embedding tools don't work. People who know how to embed on other sites can't do it, here, without explanation. But, your post made me think to look and I'll be darned if Word Press didn't just release a new version 2 days ago!

I set up a test site. I'll post a link on the front page in a minute.

I don't know about anyone else, but I've been more "local" lately because I'm really in a holding pattern. Between not having the time to keep up with EVERYTHING any more, and the new administration/congress not having much time to fix/fuck up things, I want to see what happens for a while.

I generally like Obama, although I definitely disagree with him on occasion. Congress is another story. More often than not, I don't like *either* side.

I don't think we'll be out of Iraq or Afghanistan any time soon, but I think we'll be out of Iraq before Afghanistan. I saw that the Brazilian government is BRUTALLY repressing indigenous people, but don't know what I can do about it besides complain. I guess, to be short about it, I think we need to fix too many things at home to worry much about doing anything externally, right now. I could go on, but...

Hey P. It's good to hear from you. Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi!

I don't know how you did that, but I guess I haven't disabled comments, yet... ;->

Hey, P! I've missed you! I hope you at least check in for comments before running off for months -- again.

I'm still mostly the same. The circumstances have changed. I went on and on about foreign policy -- before -- because it was and still is my priority issue. I don't talk about it -- anymore -- because I'm satisfied that it's as much or as more a priority for Obama and he's working on it.

He's handling Iraq and Afghanistan much the same way that I've always said I would -- so -- unless somebody says something I disagree with -- for the time being -- I've got what I hoped for. We always knew that any "security" gains Bush was making were likely be counterproductive means -- so -- I expected to see a little more violence when somebody started undoing his security measures. In addition -- unlike past administrations that would have been willing to cut deals with would be oppressors -- Obama's not trying to oppress anybody for our interests. So -- Obama's going to be working against more enemies -- not being willing to align himself with a bribable potential client.

I'm cool. As the international situation improves -- the domestic stuff will slowly take care of itself. Man still has so much evolving to do -- and we don't do it quickly -- so -- I enjoy what I can -- and don't sweat the stuff I know I'm unlikely to live to see.

I see in various disciplines the beginnings of a next big step. I may not be here to see it -- but I'm pretty damned excited about seeing the little things -- knowing how they're going to come togther to take us one big leap forward. It makes me glad I have children -- knowing there's something big and good coming down the road -- knowing my children (or a few levels of grand -- whatever) will live what I wished I could see.

Heya Tim. You surprised me with your comment about repression of indians. I never heard of it.

It is true that I havent been following the news for some time, but something like that, in our current political climate, the desperate opposition would be crying bloody murder every day, everywhere, and no matter how isolated I am, Im would still heard something about it, but I didnt.

What I do know is that thee were some conflicts with indians in Peru, and they fled to Brazil, causing some turbulence, but no "official" violence.

I also heard that we were demarking (finally) the indigenous territories, and some farmers - that were illegally occupying some indian territory - attacked a tribe.

There was also something about indians invading a farm and our supreme court granting them the right to remain there until the issue is fully debated. Maybe there were some conflict with the police at the time, but I didnt heard of it - nor I found in a quick search in local (and oppositionist) newspapers.

So, I might be wrong, but I dont think something like that happened. Could you get me a link to it, please? Im very interested in that subject.

Changing the toppic, I was joking about the whole Worpress thing, but Im kinda happy you are going to take a look at it. I think you will love it. I have been using it - and currently Im developing a theme for it from zero - and I think it is great, specially if you know some (not much, really) php, like myself.

The multitude of widgets and plugins avaiable is almost frightening, actually. lol

There are a couple plugins that I think you would love. First, GD star rating (or something like that). Without any coding (well, maybe some minor adaptation in the css, depending on the theme you will use) every single post (and optionally comment) show a star rating. Very handy and well made.

Also, NGG (Next gen gallery), if you plan on using lots of pictures in your blog.

Zemanta is also worth a look. It is a plugin that look for additional info when you write a post, abou what you are writing about, and allow you to paste it into your post in some ways.

You migh also find plugins that add a "related posts" to every post usefull. And one that lists the most read/commented/rated/etc, too.

Oh, and dont be afraid of playing with the theme. It's quite easy. And one you start dealing the the_loop, you will see how powerfull and well built is that thing... lol

Sorry if I got carried away. Im in the middle of one of my obcessive swings lol

Now, about being more "local", I didnt mean anything about it. Was just an observation, and I guess it is quite natural, as Bush was specially mad regarding international relations. There isnt many people that can say they started not one but two wars, one being unmistakenly illegal, at least.

Obama would have to work really hard to do any worse than Bush lol

OTOH, as far as NK is concerned, and the general discourse about how "our nukes and our friend´s are good, yours are bad because we say so and we have them" sounds too much like Bush.

To be frank, I dont know how Obama will perform in domestic matters, but the only real change I expect from him in international relations is a)not start illegal wars and b) pay some lip service to multilateralism (actually, given the UN structure, this "multilateralism" is to real "multilateralism" as plutocracy is to real democracy).

Lol, I was just dropping by to say hello and here I am getting carried away with worpress and nk. But is is kinda nostalgic to write about those matters in english. It has been too long lol

Hi back to you icy! :)

Glad to see you. Or read you.

Hi PNH. Glad to see you are doing fine and are optimistic.

About me running away for months, that´s something very likelly to happen, unfortunatelly. But I will try to make it weeks, instead lol

And you will be missed, too :)

Tim, I didnt get this "I don't know how you did that, but I guess I haven't disabled comments, yet... ;-> "

What did I do wrong? lol

That was directed at Icy. I was trying a couple of things to get people to use the new blog. I thought I had disabled comments, but apparently I didn't.

Right now this blog is running just like it always did.

"some conflicts with indians in Peru"

That was my mistake. It was Peru, not Brazil. I had only read a bit about it, and was wondering what you knew.

"Could you get me a link to it, please?"

The violent face of free trade: Government forces kill indigenous Peruvians defending the Amazon (Kos)

Indians Shot from Helicopters for Peru Free Trade Oil (Kos)

Deadly clashes in Peru's Amazon (BBC)

Peru tribe battles oil giant over pollution (BBC)

Peru to protect isolated tribes (BBC)

"I was joking about the whole Worpress thing"

Yeah, I knew that and wasn't offended, but B2evo really wasn't my first choice. The software is a couple of years old, now, and should be updated regardless. When I checked my ISPs site, they no longer "support" B2evo, just Word Press, so updating this software was going to be more difficult.

I don't think B2evo is bad. It has a couple of quirks I don't like, but it's done well for a couple of years, now, and I'm not interested in being a "developer", just hosting a spot where I can talk to some old friends. At the same time, it's only a matter of time before some spammer hacks this code and I won't be able to use it any more without updating, anyway.

So it was easier, for me, to just convert to Word Press. Everybody will have to get a new ID, but once they do that I don't think most will notice much difference.

Ok. I thought I was even more clueless than I normally am these days and missed something as big as governmental violence against indians in my country.

Tks for the links, anyway. :)

Oh, and about wordpress... I really really reccomend you get at least one plugin, the GD star ratings.

It is painless to set up - just install and activate and it will place itself in every post (the comments ratings needs to be enabled in the dashboard, I think). Fiddle with some options to get the number of stars you want, choose the set of stars you want to use and forget about it.

And if you dont like it, just disable and deinstall and nothing will change.

Thanks, man. I just rated both of your posts "5 stars".

"It is painless to set up"

Thank God FSM for WS-FTP.

BTW, my favorite feature is nested comments because there's less cut and pasting to make it clear who, and what, you're replying to.

I didnt get the mention to WS-FTP. I assume you uploaded the plugin manually and, if that´s the case, maybe you didnt know you dont need to do it by hand... just go to the plugin´s panel, click in "add new", search for the one you want to add and then click on install, on the right side of the plugin´s description.

WP will download, put it in the right places and ask you to activate it.

To update them, WP will show a link to do it automatically, too.

I love wordpress lol