It’s been a long and laborious process but like a phoenix starring in Groundhog Day, llamaSpit is once again reborn. As with most of its rebirths, there isn’t yet much to see or do. After being totally frustrated with my website’s past failings, I decided to divorce myself from MovableType and migrate instead to the fertile grounds of WordPress. This has been an entirely pleasing experience, but there is still a certain amount of work needing to be done to integrate the overall design I have in mind with the functionality of WordPress’ templates. I’m trying to recall the CSS I swear I used to know not so long ago, as well as the rules for clean and functional design I’ve picked up since, but neither comes very easy at 4am. And so, until tomorrow…

I spent some more time today tweaking the general layout. There is now, featured stage right, a handsome navigational bar of enviable quality and design. Granted, there’s nothing else to which you can navigate anyway, but rest assured that once there is, it will be with a by-then-familiar interface.

There still remains much more tweaking to be done, and on top of that I’d really like to figure out how to import my older content into WordPress, even if it’s just displayed under a separate, non-bloggy “Old Archive” page. I tried reading a few guides to importing old MovableType content, but they all assume that the user still has working access to their MovableType installation. This, as you may recall, is not the case with my situation, since my web host decided to upgrade some hardware/software/widgets which completely b0rked my MT installation. So I connected to the friendly #wordpress IRC support channel on Freenode, where it was confirmed by some kind folk that without access to my MT installation, I am out of luck. This leaves me with the option of somehow manually importing all of the HTML files MT had generated, which is surely possible, but potentially laborious.

I had this in my MSN name the other day, so it’s about time I explain it. You really ought to watch this on video, but since video clips are bandwidth-hogging, pictures and audio will have to do until you can find a decent torrent.

It may be helpful to first set the scene. The TV show in question is “Blackadder” (or “Black Adder”, if you wish), a popular British comedy that has had four different incarnations. In this scene, we are in the fourth and final incarnation, wherein Blackadder and chums find themselves on the verge of being sent into battle during World War I. In fact, word has just come down from on high that tomorrow morning at dawn, “the big push” will be taking place and the British troops will go “over the top” of their trenches, venturing into no man’s land. Each of our three soldiers takes the news differently: Lieutenant George (or Dr. House, as he is known in some circles) accepts the news in impossibly good spirits, and goes off to prepare the other men. Private Baldrick, a self-professed poor, gormless idiot, seems unperturbed and takes it in stride. Captain Blackadder however is quickly moved to hatch a plot; an old trick he picked up while campaigning in the Sudan, involving two pencils, a pair of underpants, and “wouble”.

You can listen to an MP3 clip, and the images below are linked to larger versions.

Certain people that I might possibly know, may or may not have a birthday that is conceivably on or somewhere around the day of May 12. If you were to know someone who fit this description, I would hope that you would wish them a very happy birthday. And if I were to know someone who did (or perhaps even did not) fit this description, then I would certainly want them to know I wished them a very, very happy birthday as well. Now the rest of you lot, move along: there’s nothing more to see here.

Over the past month, several friends and I have been having fun getting our feet wet in the world of MMORPGs by playing Guild Wars, which more accurately brands itself as a “CORPG” (”Co-operative” or “Competitive Online RPG”). I’ve never played any of the big MMORPGs before, not since my days of dabbling in MUDs and MOOs, primarily because of the monthly fees which I simply cannot afford on a student income. Guild Wars is unique however, in that it offers free online play after purchasing the game, available at EBGames for $50-$60. That fit into my budget, and the budgets of Mike, Gregg, Keezer, and several others who have all bought the game within the past few weeks. Continue reading… »