CAT | Geeky
The Starbucks in University Village uses sugar dispensers. It’s bliss.
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Haven’t updated the blog in a while, and the Super Bowl is as good a topic as any! So, this was definitely one of the most exciting and action-packed Super Bowls for me in recent history, right up there with and likely exceeding the 2008 Giants-Patriots game. I was actually rooting for the Colts going into the game, but when the Saints stumbled to a ten-point deficit in the first quarter, I found myself starting to root for the underdog. There were just so many reasons to root for the Saints; first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history; the spirit of New Orleans, Drew Brees actually being a likable quarterback; and of course, the spectacle of Bourbon Street partying like its 1999 with a Saints’ victory. I am a big Peyton Manning fan, and I have a lot of respect for him and the Colts, so I wouldn’t have minded seeing them win. But by the fourth quarter, it seemed like the come-from-behind victory for the Saints was in the stars, and it was just so much more fun to root for that. The first half felt like a bit of a snoozer, but things really picked up in the second half. I was impressed with Sean Peyton’s gutsy display of trickery and strategery; the onside kick to open the second half was a real stunner. What a way to write yourself into Super Bowl history! And the fourth-quarter Manning interception had us all screaming. All in all, I’d say this was a very satisfying Super Bowl. I think the only part that didn’t live up to the hype was the commercials, which I’ve frankly already forgotten about. I guess even the Super Bowl isn’t immune to the effects of a down economy.
Hmm, anything else? In a bit of geeky news, I ditched Microsoft Security Essentials and moved to avast! antivirus. Security Essentials was okay, but it lacked some pretty basic things (like a frickin’ pause button) and it doesn’t have as many realtime scanners as avast!. So, avast! it is. I think it’s a superior solution and so far I like it, but staying virus free is ultimately dependent on the actions of the user, don’t you think?
Oh, and one last thing. I’m going to be in Vancouver in two weeks for the 2010 Winter Olympics. 
Huzzah!
avast · colts · drew brees · football · microsoft · olympics · peyton manning · saints · security essentials · super bowl · vancouver · virus
I’m pleased to report I’ve solved the odd database issue I was experiencing. Sadly, I don’t think I can go into much detail about what exactly I did; I am just no MySQL wizard, and I placed complete trust and confidence in the expertise of others. I do know it had something to do with my database’s charset and various differences between MySQL 4.0 and MySQL 5.0, but I honestly couldn’t explain anything beyond that.
For those who are experiencing the same problem and are looking for a solution, I followed the instructions at this blog.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…
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As you can see, there’s an oddity with various of my WordPress posts. This is due to an apparent incompatibility or bug when upgrading from a MySQL 4 database to a MySQL 5 database.
All of this hooplah was precipitated when I attempted to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. WordPress told me, as it did to many, many others, that my version of MySQL was outdated and that I had to update. When I contacted my host about this, they basically told me that my only hope was to update to a new hosting package that supported a later version of MySQL. Fortunately, I was able to do this without incurring any additional hosting costs (and actually the package I switched to is rather feature rich). In any event, I exported my MySQL 4 database into a newly-created MySQL 5 database, made some configuration changes, and was able to successfully update WordPress. However, upon viewing my newly-updated WordPress blog, I discovered the odd “junk” that you now see.
I’m sure a person more skilled in the ways of MySQL could fix this problem in their sleep, but unfortunately I am not that person. So, if you have any thoughts on how to fix this problem, feel free to let me know in a comment.
