I decided it was time to upgrade my WordPress version for my blog. Things have been a bit hectic with life, school, and work, that my blogging has taken the backseat in my ever so crowded car. As I was saying, I upgraded my WordPress platform from like 2.1 to version 2.5 and I have to say, I kinda like it.

From what I can tell the major improvements affect the user Dashboard rather then the actual website. I’m sure there may be some changes, but… i can’t see them. The Dashboard was rearranged and seems to have a smoother layout which is much easier on the eyes and seems to come of as ‘eye candy’ rather then a blogging platform.

One thing I really like is the ability to automatically upgrade your plugins. Not sure exactly how it works on the server side, but what happens is you click the “Automatically Upgrade Plugin” button and you’re pretty much all set. WordPress downloads the new plugin and automatically installs it just as it says. Pretty easy, takes about 2 clicks if even and you’re all set.

I did get screwed on one front. Some how I managed to mess up my theme a little bit. Actually a lot. For some reason my sidebar wasn’t loading and stupidly I forgot to copy over those files to my computer. BLEH! So I restored the file from the original theme install folders but I lost my customization. I’ll have to go through that one day and fix it back up to my liking.

I also seemed to have a problem with my database for the blog and some how my users lost their information. I don’t know how or why it happened, it it was a preexisting condition or if it was an error caused by the upgrade. I guess it doesn’t really matter. Also the whole interface seems to run a bit slow but I suppose that can be a server issue rather then a platform issue, but it could go either way.

Overall, I have to say I’m very impressed with the new upgrade for the WordPress system. Here’s to hoping things only get better from here.

UPDATE: I’d also like to add a few things. Adding images to your post is a lot easier now, as you just click a button within the “Write Post” section and it’ll ask you for the URL or location on your computer and then it asks you what alignment you’d like as well, Left, Right, Center. This makes it much much easier to put pictures in your blog posts. Before I used to have to go and find the code to have it allign to a certain point but now WordPress does it all for me. Pretty awesome.

Also, it seems the, “Preview”, section of the Writing section has disappeared. I used to use it to see how my posts would look, but alas, that is not possible without first publishing the entry. I stand corrected, there is a “View this Post” button located in the “Write a Post” section which you can click to load a preview, however, it’s not as convenient as the other versions of WordPress where the preview was right below the text box.

So Bil got deployed, sigh, and we’re still here thinking of him. I got a Facebook message from Ashleigh saying Bil wants a care package, actually I think it said he wanted Jacks Links Beef and Cheese or something. Anyway, I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff for Bil. It’s amazing how quickly the money goes and I’d get him more if I could. Here is a list of stuff I’m sending for our Marine.

Food Stuffs:

Chewing Gum!
- Orbit Citrus Mint (3 packs of 14 pieces)
- Eclipse Polar Ice (3 packs of 12 pieces)
- Propel Vitamin Enhance Powder Packet (Berry Flavor - 10 packets)
- Crystal Light On The Go (Raspberry Ice - 14 Packets)
- Lipton Green Tea To Go (Mandarin & Mango - 10 packets)
- Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (Variety Pack - 4 Choc. Chip, 2 Oatmeal Raisin, 2 Peanut Butter Choc. Chip, 2 S’mores)
- Gold Fish (6 - Snack Packs)
- Rice Krispies Treats (8 bars)
-Jacks Links (Original - Beef Jerky)

Hygiene and Practical
-Wet Ones (48 Individually Wrapped Packages)
- Shout Portable Wipes (12 Individually Wrapped Packages)
- Hand Sanitizer (4 - 2 oz bottles)
- Sewing Kit
- Chapstick Classic (SPF 4 - 3 sticks)
- Deck of playing cards.
- Air Wick Stickups (2 - stickups)
- Axe Dry deodorant (Phoenix)
- Axe Shower Gel (Recovery)
- Coppertone Ultra Guard Sun Block (SPF 50)
- Dr. Scholls Air Pillo Insoles (2 pairs)

Wasn’t really sure what he would want or need and Bil wasn’t really specific about what he wanted, other then the Jack Links and Axe deodorant and body wash. I’m sure he’ll like it all and if he doesn’t, I’m sure there will be plenty of people around who might want it or need it. Now I have to figure out how exactly to ship it, what the best way is. Hmm..

Hmm, I say. It’s been a while, lots of things going on between work and school. I’m pretty much busting my ass for school and it’s getting very exhausting. I had some problems in January (which I’m taking care of in this next week or so) that led me to talking to my doctor and having very frustrating experience with my heart. Fast heart rate tends to freak people out I guess so after staying in the hospital for a bit and then being released and then being told I couldn’t work and then having to go back to the hospital to get ‘fully cleared’. WOW, what a mess.

Anyway, things are good now and I’m probably as healthy as I’m going to get. *shrugs*. There isn’t really much to update on, I mean things are the same. Me and John had a bit of a spat on Valentines day which kinda sucked but we kissed and made up (after he admitted he was wrong, j/k).

Then Bil got deployed to Iraq last friday so that kinda blows. I was actually a little upset that he didn’t call before he went, I tried calling him earlier that week but didn’t get a return call, boo. Sigh.

So I got a new job and started last Saturday. While I can’t tell you exactly where it is or what company it is, I can tell you they are obsessed with red. I’m not sure red is a good color on me but I like the job so far. Really it’s not too bad at all. I was worried at first but now that I’m getting more and more into the hang of it, I’m starting to enjoy the job more. The people I work with are awesome, they’re funny but at times I still feel like the outsider and I’m not sure what to do about that. I mean, I can only try to be “in” so much before it starts to look weird. And it’s not like my coworkers are alienating me, but a lot of times I have no idea what they’re talking about or we’ll be doing work in the back and then they’ll just all walk away chatting and horse playing leaving me to do the work by myself.

I don’t mind doing the work, not at all, that’s what I get paid for. I just want to feel like I’m part of the group. But I suppose that takes time. I think I actually feel more comfortable with one of the other new employees. We worked together a couple of days ago and it was fun, but then again it was a bit weird. Do these people think I’m clingy and needy? LOL. I mean in all honesty I don’t know what they think of me and it’s kinda disturbing. Since I’m new I’m supposed to have a trainer every day for two weeks, this is to make sure I know what I’m doing and I don’t screw anything up, so of course, I have to be with another employee for my entire shift which makes me wonder if they think I’m clingy. At first it was really weird, my first two shifts, it’s like no one wanted to train me. But at least my last shift my trainer actually quickly volunteered to take me under his wing for the day. I thought that was kinda cool.

So, I’m becoming more comfortable with the job so that’s pretty cool. The day even seems to go by really fast which is always a plus. Next week is going to be more hectic but I work evening shifts so I guess we’ll see how that goes. Anyway… I love the new job, hopefully they let me stay as right now I’m in a “Seasonal” position, but hopefully they give me some more money if they “hire” me for a permanent position, I ended up taking a major paycut but I guess you have to sacrifice somethings if you want to go to school full time.

I went to my local HEB about a week ago and was surprised when I walked in. They’re doing this massive remodel of my local HEB and I was kinda unaware of it because I haven’t been in that HEB for over a month. Well I was that out of the loop, firstly they changed the main entrance, which I love! It’s more open and easier to get in. The old entrance was really small and lead right into the vegetables section and oh my God it caused the worst backups and people walking slow didn’t help the issue any. In the end it made it very difficult and frustrating to get into that HEB. Anyway, so they fixed that up and removed the Chinese Kitchen area and replaced it with probably about 6-8 half aisles of wine and liquor mixers.

They also expanded a few of the grocery aisles as well as added a few and then did a complete revamp of the aisles. The first day in I couldn’t find anything that I needed, it was pretty bad. But they did have a large number of employees on the floor to help the customers find the items they were looking for. So things are moved around and it’s really hard to find something as common as Tostitos Medium Salsa, I could not find it for anything. I ended up going to Walmart to get it, oh well.

But one thing I did notice was that when they were expanding the aisles they ended up pulling out some of the shelves and you could tell how they just tiled over the old tile leaving gaps where the shelves were. It looks really nasty and I guess they’re trying to figure out the best option they have for covering it up. But if you saw this in the grocery store you’d probably be turned off as well. Hopefully they get that fixed soon so it doesn’t have to be such an eye sore. Overall though, I think I’m really impressed with the remodel. The store looks a lot bigger and it seems like they are more products, especially wine products. The organic section of the store has also grown to full full aisles which is pretty cool. They also added a section where you can pour your own cinnamon and other spices and herbs so you can get as much or as little as you want. They also added that selection for cereal too, and I believe it’s in the organic/healthy section as well. Pretty cool things.

I guess I should mention, I guess this is why stores don’t want you to record video or take pictures in their stores. *GASP*

Yesterday, November 2nd, I got up at 6:30 AM to go to Walmart! The background story, Thursday night I saw an article on a website called Engadget about a secret special sale Walmart was having on Friday morning. Most of the time I don’t really care about these specials, I mean, I have taken advantage of a few but I’m not a big holiday shopper. I’m not one of those crazy folk who go out to all the retail stores on Black Friday, and I’m definitely not one of those people who camp out overnight in front of the local Target or Walmart waiting to get that discount on the TV or the full priced game system.

What makes this Friday different was that Walmart had a sale on an HDDVD player. The Toshiba A-2 to be exact, and guess what the price was? It was on sale for roughly $98.98 cents. The regular retail price for this HDDVD player is $199.99 so this is a huge discount! Over 50% off! I told the parents about it and told John about it and they took a few hours to decide if they wanted to get one. They both came back to me and said, “Sure, we want one.” Great, that left me in a dilemma, will Walmart allow me to buy two HDDVD players? Probably not was my thinking. Usually when there’s a sale like this they only let you get one of each item. I figured, I would try and see what happens. I also tried calling Walmart that night asking a manager if they knew how many of the HDDVD players they would be recieving and they said they didn’t know. All they knew was they had them, but didn’t know how many. Great, apparently none of the Walmart employees knew about the sale until Thursday night. Wonderful.

Originally I was going to get up at 7:00AM and would be at Walmart no later then 7:15AM, but then I saw a little note on the Walmart website that said if the store carried the item they would have at least ten. Ten?! That’s it, I moved my plan up a bit to be there by 7AM. When I got to Walmart, there was already a line in the Electronics section! One of the people waiting in line said he had been there since 5AM and he asked about the sale and no one knew there was a sale scheduled for 8AM. It was interesting to see Walmart keep it’s employees out of the loop.

Eventually they got to selling the items, a bit early too! Anyway, I needed two, but didn’t want to ask them in fear of them saying that there was now a limit to one item per person, so I kept my mouth shut. I got to the line and asked for two of the Toshiba HDDVD players and the lady gave me funky look but handed them over as I handed over the cash.

Talk about a great deal! You can’t find a HDDVD player anywhere for $100.00. Anyway, the Toshiba HDDVD Player A-2 plays HD DVD, DVD, DVD-R/-RW, CD, and CD-R/RW formats. So I can play my old standard DVDs on this HDDVD player and it’ll actually upconvert the regular DVDs to a ‘near High Definition” resolution. It’s probably not that great, but it does look better. So I got the two HDDVD players and I’m all set, now all I need to do is to start buying HDDVDs which are actually a bit pricey. Anywhere from $25.99 to $34.99 for a new release. Old releases are still pretty expensive, considered you can get most old titles for less then $10.00 at Best Buy. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before the HDDVD prices start to come down. For now, I’m happy.

Halloween was a disaster this year! First of the parents bought candy for the little people. That’s great and dandy because I didn’t have any money to buy candy myself. Anyway, so they got a couple of good things, one bag of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, one bag of Almond Joys, one bag of Hershey’s Kisses with Almonds, and of course… the greatest candy of the world, Tootsie Rolls.

Who in God’s green earth likes Tootsie Rolls? Absolutely no one! Well… I’m sure there’s a few weirdos out there who enjoy it but bleh, something about chocolate flavored… taffy? Just doesn’t rock my boat. So, now we’re going to be stuck with two bags of Tootsie Rolls and no one in my family likes them. I suppose we might be able to use them next Halloween.

Anyway, so my dad got dressed in this crazy costume with a mask he got at Big Lots. Was pretty scary, even in the light it was an unusual mask and was definitely very creepy. What he ended up doing was dressing in all black with the mask, and sat next to the candy and acted like a doll. When people would come up to get the candy he would move and it scared a bunch of people. Well… the whole ten people who came to our door. The funniest was a group of teenagers, they totally weren’t expecting it and all five of them jumped up and were completely freaked out, a few curse words were shouted during the incident, was definitely funny. If only I had a video camera at that moment I would have put it on YouTube, lol.

Yes, my economics professor canceled my class’ third exam in favor of two group projects. Now, this is just plain ridiculous. I mean come on! This is literally a class of 250 students and he’s going to require us to do 2 group projects instead of that exam. He says it’s a great way for us to earn extra needed points in our grades but I’m not sure that’s what’s going to happen.

We have to write two papers in groups of 2-4 people. I’ve done plenty of group papers to know that it doesn’t really work out at all. It’s too difficult to get everyone together to write the paper and do the research. If you can actually get that done, it’s hard to get everyone to do the same amount of work too! Some people just have no idea what’s going on, or just don’t care. Others are gung-ho about the project and expect everyone else to spend every waking moment on it. This just isn’t do able. At least, not to the satisfaction of everyone. Someone isn’t going to be happy, or someone isn’t going to be happy with the grade that is given. It’s just a headache in the making. Especially because most people in the class don’t know anyone so they’re freaking out about joining the groups.

I joined a group organized on our school’s WebCT page. Basically our online portal to class information, discussions, and grades. One girl in the group had me and another guy email our schedules to her so we can figure out a date to get together but she hasn’t responded to either of us. He text messaged me today and I told him I was out of commission for the day because I was sick, he said he would try to get a hold of her. I’m not sure if he was able to get a hold of her or not, but I honestly wouldn’t mind dropping down to a group of two if necessary. Supposedly he has a good understanding of the subject matter which is a plus, I suppose we’ll see how things turn out.

This weekend is going to my free weekend and I can’t wait. The past two weekends I’ve been helping my mom with some home renovations and it’s kicking my butt. I think it might be the real reason why I’m sick. But like I said this weekend is up to me, so I’m just going to kick back and relax all weekend, assuming I’m not too sick.

Hopefully John mailed off the movies to Netflix that we just finished watching so we get some new ones in. Hey, we can even make meals together give us some time to hangout. For a while we’ve been really busy too busy to really do anything together.

I hope this is a good weekend, I need the down time. I’m exhausted.