And now the upgrade is complete. I am writing this blind and don’t know if my index template has changed, so I have no idea what the new look is, if it has changed at all. My interface has certainly changed, so it stands to reason that the appearance has also changed.
Don’t worry, I made a backup of the template so I can put everything back, but that will have to wait until this weekend. Here we go, pressing the Publish button in 3…2…1…

Okay, I figured out what I did wrong and I am in the process of straightening it out. You may not be able to maneuver around the Zone for a while, but that can’t be helped. I’ll see you on the other side.

I don’t know if this is working yet. I’m making this post to reconstruct the front page and check to see if the version number changed. If this work I’ll have to wipe the entire directory and reinstall the entire thing and start from scratch. That ought to only take all weekend. Oh, Joy.
UPDATE: Apparently this thinks it’s still MT 3.2, which means that it needs a fresh install. I’m so excited that I could just lean out the window and start screaming. Like I said, don’t be upset over the weekend if you can’t read the Zone. It just means I’m cleaning up behind the scenes and making it look pretty again.

After about 16-20 hours of downloading about 2,500 files from the old setup, then uploading another 1,900 files to complete the upgrade, things are finally done. I’m posting this to build a new front page and see if it all works.

I’ve picked up a copy of MovableType 4.0, and I plan on installing it over the next couple of days. Don’t worry if the Zone appears gone or something, that’s me just straightening everything out after wiping the directories and reinstaling.
Hopefully the new look will be aesthetically pleasing. Hopefully I won’t pull out too much of the few remaining hairs that I have left.

Did you know if you played a Microsoft CD backwards it plays satanic messages? What’s worse, if you play it forward it installs Windows…

This should speak for itself.

Last week, while walking his dog, my son became a crime statistic. For no discernible reason, four Black toughs from the other apartment complex down the street decided to follow my son back to our complex. When he got here, the animals (I have no other words to describe them) jumped him, hitting and kicking my son. The damages were my son had his nose bloodied, they chipped a tooth and the animals took his house and car keys.
So begins the monetary cost of this crime. $150 to rekey the locks the next day. A visit to the ER that I still don’t know the cost of, but will likely cost $500-$1500+, considering the time in the ER plus a CAT scan to make sure no facial bones were broken. We just got back from the dentist, and a root canal and capping his tooth cost $342, and that was at a teaching college. It could have cost $1000+ if I had taken him to a regular dentist.
But worse than that, my son is now afraid to go out by himself. With his Aspergers Syndrome, he is a pretty naive kind of young adult. Even with something like Martial Arts training, I do not know if he has the wherewithal to actively defend himself against such acts. To have such a fact of real life thrust upon him so violently has changed him so that I may not be able to counteract what has happened to him.
He will be 18 very soon, and as an adult he must be able to go out into the world by himself, despite what has happened. We are measured in this world by not only in the deeds we do, but overcoming the obstacles that have been placed in our way. I fear that this obstacle will take a long time to overcome, if he can do it at all.
Everybody who knows my son knows that he is a sweet and innocent kind of kid. Everybody who knows him wants to find the animals that did this and do very violent acts upon them. I know that the police will do nothing, or very little, as no one was seriously hurt and no large amount of property was stolen. Not when there are hundreds of more serious robberies and other violent acts being performed on a daily basis.
I hold no false hope of making these animals face justice, and they get sent away for long terms. IF they get caught, IF it makes it to trial, IF they get a conviction, it will likely be time served and a small fine.
I am just sad, for my son and for the world he is inheriting. To let such thugs go around assaulting people with impunity makes my blood boil, and I sincerely hope they end up as victims of the very types of crime they perpetuate.