the weblog of m.kelley

If you’re looking for the magic link to the new site, just leave a comment here and I’ll pass it along via e-mail.

Before we start, I want to let everyone know that this will be my last post. I came to a rather stark realization that I’m not who I was when I started this some five + years ago. I’m not even who I was a year ago. How can you keep your “voice” through so many changes?
Well to answer that, I decided to talk more about the things that seem to catch my attention. Some place where I can cuss and bitch and moan without having my name everywhere on the site. I’m just wanting some freedom from the persona I use here.
I’m gonna duck under the radar for a little bit while I get my next site up and going. If you’d like to know the url, please just leave a comment here and I’ll e-mail everyone when it’s ready.
While I’ve decided to never (or hopefully never) kill this site’s archives, it will eventually be combined with my mkelley.com to be more of a portfolio site as I try to get back into web design.
Like I said, I’ll still be blogging, but going somewhere else to do so (and actually this has been something I’ve been debating for the past 2-3 years, that’s why I also have the brentwooddrive domain)
Thanks for all of the comments, e-mails, and everything else that couldn’t be covered in a blog post.
That’s it….the end.

Just wanted to pass along this article about Blogmedic. I don’t know if too many people remember him, but he started out after 9/11 and is also
Eric Costello’s (of flickr and CSS Layout Techniques) Bro-in-law.
10/20/2005 – Paper Chain Getting Shorter For Six Gienapps In St. Elmo – Breaking News – Chattanoogan.com

Andy Gienapp, who has been supervising a team of about 15 medics in Iraq for the past year, is due to arrive back home soon along with more than 3,000 fellow soldiers with the 278th Regimental Combat Team

Here it is, almost 2006 and I’m still having to use hacks in order to get a proper footer in a tableless layout. I just don’t get this. Sure, we all hacked for IE5, but this is something that is broken in the standards. I should be able to type in :

.footer
{
position:absolute;
bottom:0;
width:100%;
}

And have it fill the bottom of the document without crowding any other divs. Works in Safari, Works in Firefox for the Mac. But on Windows, IE and Firefox display this incorrectly.

Comments are now available, I’m testing out an actual solution instead of hacking on files. We’ll see if this works.
later
I wound up running UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status = "open" ; to close all comments. I think Al (Thanks!) passed this along and I also saw it in the WordPress forum. We’ll see if this works.

Ringgold, GA – M.Kelley Public Works, a web development and design firm for small businesses, has reopened for business after a year hiatus.
MKPW is currently working on updating their portfolio sites as well as building the foundation of new projects that will showcase the design and programming services as well as providing small businesses with expert IT services at an affordable price.
For More Information, please visit http://mkelley.com

10-ish p.m.
i’m sitting here, pushing 15-16 hours at work, because a (now) massive fucking company can’t do proper testing to ensure that over half of my fucking computers will be able to reach their software. This wouldn’t be too big, but the last update we ran, caused a huge problem with automation and they had to fly people in to fix the damn thing.
I wonder if I should ask if we’re being compensated as a beta site, because we tend to trip across those bugs that no one else would. Heck, my guys haven’t even started hammering the system yet.
Granted the dude helping me via email and tele, has been nothing but great for what he’s doing. He’s really one of the the really good techs they have at ***** where they have some of the best support, aside from companies like Apple. Just wish their product development geeks would put more eyeballs onto their code.
Midnight
Yep, still here. My Canadian help has transferred the baton to the Australian desk so I’m awaiting their call. Had to trackdown a spoon to eat some peanut butter that I stash in the desk. Not my finest moment, but I’m po and had enough for a Diet Coke and nothing else. Note to self : stash more bread and chips here.
I’m tired, but I figure that Diet Coke and the sugar that’s in my natural peanut butter might help me stay awake. The iTunes jam going on is just making me flashback to my time on 2nd shift in the mid to late 90′s.
:30
I figure I’ll give these guys till oh-1:30 before I call it a night. Granted, this has to be working before the mornin’ comes, so at worst I’ll have to roll back to an earlier version. Wait a minute! That’s really gonna suck.
I don’t see that I’ll be able to come in late, regardless of the outcome. I’d like to say I’d be in at noon, but more than likely it will be about 9 a.m.
oh-1:30-ish
I was on the phone for around an hour with a very knowledgeable Australian chap who’s name I can’t recall (ed note : minutes later…it’s steve). He found some issues with files not being where they should, or something like that…as it’s late, I’ve been at work since around 8:10 a.m. and things are starting to blur together. We’re talking a break from the phones for now, mainly to give our ears and bladders a rest.
I’m in this for the long haul now, mainly waiting to see what we can come up with before we even think about going home for the evening. Hopefully we can get it back up and running before the Aussie goes home and forwards me to the Belgium desk. I guess I’m giving it till oh-3:30 now….
3-ish
Ok, the Aussie fixed my problems, or a nice working majority of them. So I’m going to drive home and sleep now…..

1.)
Oh, before I forget. I’m heading to see Mr. Adrian Belew tonight. He is one of my earliest musical inspirations even before I heard him on Zappa’s “Baby Snakes” soundtrack. So if you’re going to Nightfall tonight, look for me and I’ll even have a camera handy.
2.)
Does anyone have a method to effectively close comments on an entire WordPress site in less than 5 clicks? Plug-ins aren’t bad, but they’re mainly for closing after a specific date.
3.)
WordPress sucks, btw.

The slowdown on the site has been due to a few things going on in the analog world….well not all in analog, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Analog world first. That bout with sinusitis knocked me down for almost a week. Bad bad bad. Before that though, we had to deal with massive time going toward work. Going toward feeling bad and then having to work about 10 hours. Crap. Then on top of that, we’re dealing with the IRS. Crap Crap. So that, in and of it’s self, is enough to just drain someone beyond repair. We’re talking borderline breakdown/burnout here. Because of that, I just haven’t felt like writing.
Now the digital world. The LinkBloggy-Blog gets a majority of my attention now. I like writing there. Probably more than I’ve liked in the past. Writing here, I haven’t enjoyed in a while. Not to say that I’m stopping, but going through an evolution.
I have decided that for the most part, this part of the site has ran it’s course. I’ve also decided that I want to evolve/mutate what blogging I do into another site that will supersede this site and the LinkBloggy-Blog portion. That site is setup, minus the design…which is in my head. The only thing that’s kept me back, has been the long hours and projects that deserve more time. I’ll keep posting here and mainly on the LinkBloggy-Blog, but eventually I’ll announce the new site….hopefully before the end of October.
The new site will in a format similar to Scripting.com. Links, a couple of droll comments and/or a little commentary. Nice and simple and something I can update quicker on the road or when I have some more spare time.

Sinusitis sucks.
I had a hell of a week and toward the end, I started having just horrible toothaches….then headaches. Aspirins, Ibuprofen tablets, heating pads, etc just didn’t help. I didn’t sleep work a darn on Saturday, so I wound up sleeping literally all day…doped up on Benadryl. I thought I was ok, after that. My mouth and the right side of my face were tender, but that wasn’t too bad. After dinner I wound up with probably some of the worst pain in my life, other than the knee problem I had a few years back.
So, late on a Saturday night. One that had a full moon, usually one of the most busiest times. We headed to the ER to get me taken care of. Everything was bothering me. The lights, the sounds, smells, etc. I was not in a good mood. So we got in and in the back rather quickly.
Once in the room, I was hooked up to give some blood. Then they came back after that, with an IV….something I’ve never had. This held a nice little pain killer that, while it wasn’t the type that would knock your ass out. It took care of the pain quickly.
So after I finished a bag of that, we headed out of the ER at 2am heading to the all-night pharmacy, looking to fill the anti-biotics and painkillers I was given. So we got home and I got some decent sleep, but nothing to write home about.
I’m dealing with a bunch of stuff right now and this just made me calm down and do absolutely nothing today. Drugged up, sitting down, trying to just fight the pain and trying to center. Maybe this next week will be better….