August 2008 Archives

So, I finally got my official, from the President, pack your crap, you're going to Iraq, involuntary mobilization orders. This past Thursday I showed up, as ordered. For the most part it was a non-event. Several of the other soldiers teased me about joining late but in large part, I simply fell in step with everyone else. During the month that everyone else was out in the field training and being miserable, I did manage to get in to the unit office and complete the necessary paperwork so that I was ready for deployment on Thursday. Most of the activity on Thursday and Friday centered around fixing pay problems and after action reports from the previous month's training. Most of which did not involve me.

Tomorrow we will travel to Fort Dix to begin the mobilization process in earnest. Should be a lot of fun. Once we get into the rhythm of things, I really kind of like being Army. I absolutely hate goodbyes. I have that to look forward to tomorrow morning, or very late tonight depending on your lifestyle. The really early morning flights will put us into Fort Dix in the early evening which means we might get a reasonable night's sleep tomorrow night, which would be cool.

Today is day three of the deployment.

Smittie

I upgraded from 4.12 to 4.2. The upgrade from 3.5 to 4.12 went flawlessly. So, this should be a simple thing, right? All the templates for my blog are gone. I did exactly that same thing I did when I upgraded from 3.5 to 4.12. Copied the files to the MT4 directory on my server. Went to http://www.server.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt.cgi. Got redirected to the upgrade cgi which appeared to proceed without incident. Once it was done, there was a button to go to Movable Type control panel. Off I went. Hum, looks OK. Let's rebuild and see what happens.

Uh oh. Error. Oooh look, edit template button, how cool is that!! Hey, that's not a template I've ever used. Better go look at the templates and see what's changed. Uh, whadda ya mean No Templates found?? That's not good.

So, that's where I'm at. I was planning to go looking for the templates. I have no idea where they are stored. My guess is the MySQL database which is where I was planning to look next. I should also point out that I cannot Create New Template from the MT Control Panel either. Which probably implies deeper problems.

I always installed from downloads on the download page at Six Apart. I had 3.52, I think, for a long time. I avoided upgrading because of this very reason. A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded 4.12 from the Six Apart download page and upgraded my install. That upgrade went off without a hitch. Hence my confidence in upgrading from 4.12 to 4.2.

All in all, a lousy upgrade experience.

So, the blog design that I liked so much is gone. Partly my fault for not making adequate backups. Mostly Six Apart's fault for not finding data loss bugs before shipping their product.

With deployment so close I do not have time to learn the new architexture of Movable Type 4.1 and then re-create my weblog design. That makes me sad. So, Minimalist Blue, as Movable Type calls it, is my new look. It's boring. I'm not sure how long I'll actually be able to stand it. But, for now....

Crescenta Valley High School in 1978. One of the many things I will miss as a result of the upcoming deployment is my 30 year reunion. I'm actually rather bummed about that. I was looking forward to going. I was looking forward to talking to old class mates and hearing what life had done.

A few years ago I was talking to a friend who is some 10 plus years older than me. He had gone to all of his high school reunions, 10, 20 and 30. He had an interesting observation. At the 10 year reunion, most people were still trying to impress each other. Broad brush caveats apply, obviously, but for the most part that seemed to be true at my own reunion as well.

I did not go to my 20 year reunion. My friend said that he enjoyed the 30 year reunion the most but that the 20 was better than the 10. By the time everyone got to the 20 high school really was a thing of the past. When the 30 rolled around, many had children who were teenagers and thus were seeing the teenage years from the other side of time. It's funny but adolescence viewed from the vantage point of a middle age parent seems but a caricature of what it was when we were living it. This usually plays out in the form of an argument, the teen accusing the parent of never listening. Yeah, that's mostly true but the reason that parents don't listen is because we know the script. We're embarrassed at the realization of how ridiculous we sounded when we uttered the same words now being flung at us. The wise among us also remember how important the statements and the emotion behind them were as a teen and parent accordingly.

So, according to my friend, the 30 year reunion is far more relaxed. By the time people reach their late 40's, their pretty comfortable with whoever they've become. Even if they aren't yet comfort in their own skin, they realize that their old high school class mates probably can't help them.

I wish I was going to be there. I hope that I can somehow hear about it.

aloha

Obama, just returning from his trip to the Middle East and Europe, said recently that he was told by Iraqi leaders that nation does not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces and that now is an appropriate time to start planning for a reorganization of troops in Iraq. He also noted that the war costs about $10 billion a month, which could be used to shore up the U.S. economy.

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Several interesting points here. Everyone, including Mr. Obama, is assuming an open-ended presence in Iraq in the form of a residual force. How big that force is, where it is based, and what its mission will be are open questions but everyone on the US side is planning to leave a residual force in or near Iraq.

That the Iraqi leaders think now is the "time to start planning a reorganization of troops in Iraq" is a direct result of surge. The 16 month time frame that Mr. Obama talks about today is significantly different that the one he originally proposed, which was intended to put pressure on the Iraqis. In fact, what Mr. Obama does not mention is that Iraqi leadership is actually beginning to put some pressure on the US to plan on leaving completely.

Lastly, given that Mr. Obama wants to shift the military focus to Afghanistan, increasing troop strengths there and possibly expanding military operations to pursue al Qaeda and Taliban into Pakistan, I have to wonder just exactly how much of that $10 billion a month would actually get spent on shoring up the U.S. economy.

aloha

[posted with ecto]

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