Back On The Air
The Oddball Update returns! I am now running ExpressionEngine 1.2b as my weblog system, and while I haven’t finished restyling all of the pages yet, I’ve got a firm foundation in place and posting is ready to resume. I figure the site’s been offline long enough! Once again, all of your user accounts, logins and passwords should be exactly what they were before. If anyone has any trouble, let me know. I think the only thing that got screwed up was the timestamp on some of the comments for the last few entries, but I’m too lazy to go into the database and fix ‘em, so deal. Oh—and the inline “show/hide” feature that lets you simply open up the rest of each entry on the homepage is back, so that’s cool. I haven’t worked out a handheld-friendly version of the page yet, but that shouldn’t be too hard.
And now, some brief updates on what’s going on! I took KITT out again the other day, and once again smelled the sickly sweet odor of something burning, along with wisps of smoke. It was on-and-off, strangely enough; I’d be driving along, then suddenly I’d smell burning, then I wouldn’t anymore. I’d only see smoke when I stopped at a light, but probably only half of those times. I am somewhat disturbed by one thing, though—I don’t think it’s oil. There’s no smoke from the exhaust, and I don’t see any oil seepage anywhere on the heads or under the car. Plus, the odor is different. I was behind some dude who was definitely burning oil yesterday, and it didn’t smell the same. I think what KITT’s burning is transmission fluid.
I was heartened, however, by today’s drive. I took KITT out again this evening, and he behaved beautifully. Absolutely no problems whatsoever. No burning smell, no smoke. All readings on the instrument panel were normal. Sooooo…I’m going to hope this continues, for as least as long as it takes me to drive downtown to the auto shop! After that, KITT can act up all he likes, in the presence of the mechanics at least. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m sitting out on the patio right now. The weather here in Florida is finally cooling off, and it’s great to be able to sit out on the lanai and surf the Internet (thanks to the wireless router stationed way over at the other end of the house). The only problem is, when I came out here to work on this update, it was about 5:00…and now it’s 6:00, because I found a few more things in the site templates I wanted to hack up. With that done, it’s now almost completely dark outside. I can’t see the keyboard at all, so it’s a good thing I know by feel alone where the keys are. 
Been typing for so long, I can play “air keyboard.” Which I think makes me a nerd of the highest order.
Gaming news: This week marks the release date for two great new entertainment titles. One is the long-awaited Halo 2 for Xbox, which, with 1.5 million preorders, has become the most preordered game in history. Second is Need For Speed Underground 2, a sequel to the awesome ricey-racing sim of last year (it may be ricey, but it’s awesome—and the sequel at least includes some American cars like the 2005 Mustang GT and the GTO).
Halo 2 is actually going on sale at 12:01 am tomorrow night at the local Gamestop, where I preordered the game many moons ago. I’m contemplating going down there and picking it up then. I’m also contemplating asking the boss for the entirety of Tuesday off. That’s the day I’m taking KITT to the shop, so I was planning to ask for the afternoon off anyway. If I can get the whole day, I’ll probably go to the midnight sale and then nerd it up all night long. Question is, do I really want to do that? It’s likely that there’s gonna be a hella long line, so perhaps I should go early. But if I do, I’m just gonna be standing there alone with a bunch of geeky guys, shrieking children and impatient parents, so it’s not likely to be Fun Times. I’d skip, but then I might not get my copy for a week, given that I highly doubt they’re getting as many copies of the game tomorrow as they have preorders for. Hmm…what to do. I guess I’ll decide tomorrow.
I’m going in now—it’s time for dinner. Mmmm…fried chicken and baked beans. I’m starved. And of course, Voyager for dinner theatre entertainment factor. After that it’ll be GTA: San Andreas all night. Gotta love it.
More posts soon! Now that the site’s back online, there will be plenty to post up. Looking forward to it.
Categorized as Life