Monthly Archives: February 2011

KeithMcD Network

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Yesterday I spent most the day configuring WordPress MultiSite. This is a feature that the WordPress team introduced in version 3.0 and expanded upon in version 3.1. This allows me to basically run my own blogging service – similar to WordPress.com or Blogger.

So, I now can run my own blogging service – what is the benefit of doing this? I have no current plans to offer keithmcd.com blogs, however the benefit I have in doing this is that I can now manage all the sites my family has under one global umbrella.

However, last night, I found that after I had already migrated three other sites to the new platform, my main site (KeithMcD.com), was exhibiting some oddities in the blog posts. A “” was showing up at somewhat-random places in all posts regardless of how far back I went, but was not showing up in the database itself. However, new posts I created to test had no such characters shown. It turns out this was a remnant of my early WordPress days.

Back in the days before WordPress 2.1.3, the database used latin1_swedish_ci collation for whatever reason. As such, my blog was using that for all tables created at that time onward. Any new blogs I created were created with later versions and as such, were created with utf8_general_ci, so did not have this issue. So, now that I knew what was going wrong, how to fix this?

First, you have to take a complete backup of all the affected tables. After I had a dump of those tables, I simply edited the CHARSET which is used by those tables and re-imported the tables. My dump included drop statements so the tables were dropped then recreated immediately which would minimize any issues from random WordPress tables in a production environment just suddenly going missing. However, this didn’t quite fix it. It made the “” visible in the database table. Next, I had to run the following SQL statement which replaced the “” with nothing and cleared up this issue.

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ‘Â’, ”);

I haven’t checked other tables to see if they are effected as well, but this resolves the user-visible items at the very least.

So, with those issues fixed I can now shift my attention to migrating two remaining sites and fixing any issues which may crop up from those as well.

This brings me to a minor topic which is this: the KeithMcD logo is in dire need of a refresh.  Have any ideas or design suggestions?  Currently there isn’t much of a logo – it is really just the favicon which is pretty bad and lacks any design at all.

Site Upgrade

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Yesterday WordPress, the software which powers this and other sites that I host and support, updated to version 3.1.

I have upgraded this site and am playing around with some of the new/updated features.  As such, a few very minor changes will be coming up.  I will also be tweaking the theme some and trying to make it a bit more fluid in its appearance.

Full Moon

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Tonight just before work ended Jaime asked if Justin and I had any plans for dinner and asked if we wanted to go to Sharma’s Kitchen with her as Jeremy (her husband) was working late. We thought it sounded better than leftovers so we all went together. After several plateful of Indian food later and some good discussion on Chinese culture, history and religion in general, we headed home. On the way home Jaime noticed the harvest full moon just coming up. It was quite beautiful.

Since it was pretty early in the night I decided to try to get some good photos of it with my Canon EOS Rebel T1i. My first attempts were OK, but yielded fairly blurry shots. The issue was that I was using the tripod but zooming into something that far away while touching the camera makes the camera shake a lot when attempting to use the auto-focus. After some quick research online for settings that others had used with their great photos at a similar focal length. I then went out front with my tripod, camera, laptop and a long mini usb cable.

My next attempt used tethering. This is where you hook the camera up to the computer and use software to control the camera which lets you not touch the camera at all – reducing the shaking considerably. After some tinkering, I ended up taking the photo below.  Not too shabby if I may say so myself!  Note that the image below is only using optical zoom.  Digital zoom (which looses resolution, producing blurry photos) was not used and the image was not stretched or enhanced in any way.  It was simply cropped.

f number: 5.6exposure: 1/350focal length: 250mmISO: 100

Gay marriage across the states

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Gay marriage is an issue which is coming up in several states right now.  Let’s briefly talk about two of those states.

First, we’ll start with Iowa.  Iowa legalized gay marriage on April 9, 2009 through their Supreme Court by a (I believe) unanimous decision.  It was a shocker to many because so far, it has only been the New England states which have acknowledged that I’m actually a human being who deserves the rights given to every other person in the country.  However, not long after it was legalized in Iowa, the crazies, such as NOM, started to fire back harder against the Court.  In the last election, several of the justices were removed by the voters.  This is now leading to possible repeal of gay marriage in Iowa.  I’ll let Iowa Grandmother Jean Argus take it from here.  Jean?

Well said Jean.  Justin and I haven’t made it to 30 years yet, but then we’re only 26 now.  We have however made it to 3.5 years and see our future together to be very strong.

Moving to another state, let’s shift the focus to Indiana.  Indiana is the state in which I was born, raised and have lived my entire life thus far.  However, that will be changing in the (somewhat) near future.  Once I move from this state I know that I will never be moving back.

I was born and raised in Union Mills, Indiana.  It’s a small town in the northwestern part of the state.  I went to school at South Central Community School Corporation.  It is a K-12 school which is self-contained in one building.  After I graduated with Academic Honors, I went to college locally at Purdue North Central.  Once I graduated college with my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems Technology, I worked in several fields before eventually moving to West Lafayette to be with my boyfriend, Justin.  I simultaneously obtained my current position as UNIX/Mac Desktop Support Specialist for the Physics Department of Purdue University.  Purdue is a great place to work.  It is an inclusive place to work.  While the state may not recognize who I am, I have Justin included on several of my health benefits as a recognized same-sex domestic partnership.  I am completely out at work and make no effort at all to hide it.  I have pictures of us both up all over my cubicle and we both are in a picture together with Pres. Cordova from last year’s Purdue Challenge.

However, Indiana is looking to push me out of the state and guarantee that I’ll never come back thanks to blatant discrimination.  Indiana already does not allow gay marriage thanks to the passage of DOMA at the state-level back in the late 90′s.  They’re looking to further grind that into the ground through House Joint Resolution 6, 2011.  This so far has passed two house discussions and will head to the Senate soon.  After that it will be up for discussion again in both segments and then will head to the voters where it will almost definitely be passed due to the mostly Republican nature of the state.

As I stated in a comment recently to the Journal and Courier, I find it appalling that the state in which I was born, raised and have lived my life, my home, is so sick as to write hate and discrimination directly into the state constitution.  This is the first time that this has been done in this state.  It is also sick because there are real issues that need to be resolved in this state such as a failing education system, budget deficit, etc.  However, let’s further discriminate against a group of people who just want to be recognized for loving one another.  A group of people who are no different from anyone else except for what goes on in the bedroom.  A group of people who are allowed to die for this country, pay for this country and state, support this country and state through the health care industry, education system, public works, etc yet are constantly being told that we are second-class citizens who deserve less than those standing right next to us.

It is truly sickening and disheartening indeed.

[pdf versions of the above two links for archival purposes]
Joint Resolution 0006
Journal & Courier Feb 13 Rapid Response

Isotretinoin – Week 4

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This post is a bit late and I see that I skipped last week’s post as well.  However, better late than never.

My treatment with Isotretinoin is progressing.  In the last few weeks I’ve gotten old-people hands as I’ve affectionately referred to them.  Effectively this means that my hands are quite dry and get cut pretty easily.  In the last few days the easy-cutting has lessened somewhat, but the dryness is just as bad.  Tonight when I applied hand cream my hands actually burned for about 10-20 minutes until that feeling finally diminished some.

My face was very  flakey but thankfully that isn’t as bad in the past week.  I do apply moisturizer though when needed.  I can tell that my back is getting better but that it will definitely be the last thing to truly have real results shown.

I feel that I’m more tired than I used to so in my last round of blood work I had a few more tests ran and I’ll be finding out the results tomorrow when I go back to see my dermatologist.

I am taking the opportunity though to try something that I’d normally not be able to try.  Typically my oily skin makes me want to have my hair cut short (a number 3 trimmer guard if that means anything to you).  However, since I really am not producing oil anymore, I’m taking the opportunity to try to grow my hair out longer.  I most likely won’t like it and will want to get rid of it ASAP, but I’d like to see what’s possible.  Now, how do I manage my hair while it’s on that journey?  I have no clue whatsoever!  :-)

Running is now work

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Today was the first time in two weeks that I have actually ran at all.  I ran one mile tonight on the treadmill that my parents brought down last weekend (thanks Mom & Dad!)

While I only ran one mile and (including a slow one minute warmup) it took about nine minutes to run, I couldn’t really go any further afterwards.  The main cause to this is just that my knee was acting up and I could actually feel my pulse from my right knee down through my lower leg.  Hopefully that’s just temporary and it should be due to combined with not having ran for two weeks due to the bitter cold temperatures along with the fact that this isotretinoin does wear me out quicker than if I weren’t on it.

Covert Sparky

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Yesterday we made a startling discovery here at home.  It would seem that Sparky has learned how to get in the kitchen even when the gate is closed.

We have a gate on our kitchen so that Sparky can’t get into the cat food.  It has a human door along with a small cat door.  Typically he would look at us in the kitchen either through the grates or put his paws on the top to support himself.  However, sometimes he would stick his head through the cat door and look at me.  I thought he was just being a dog and didn’t think anything more of it.

Last night though, I heard a noise in the kitchen after dinner and looked – he was trying to get something off of the counter but the human door wasn’t open at all.  The video below is from just after that when we were watching him be a bad Sparky.  Justin gave Sparky some incentive to actually go into the kitchen.

Snow Recess

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It’s been a long time since I have actually been able to have a recess, but after many years, I’m having one again.  Of course, this isn’t the same as going to the playground during lunch in elementary school as this is the term that Purdue University uses when the weather is so bad that the campus closed completely, except for essential staff.

The campus is supposed to open up again tomorrow, but I’m doubting it with the weather forecast for tonight calling for a blizzard and the current weather being ice pellets.  I’m not sure how long it’s been since the last snow recess on campus, but I’ve heard it was back around 1999 and before that was around 25 yrs earlier.

This morning I went outside to shovel and the picture above is of Sparky looking around just before I started.  At least this morning the accumulation was about 3/4″ of sheets of snow.