Chaotek Thoughts

This site is now live on WordPress, having converted from b2evolution.  While there wasn’t anything specifically wrong with b2evolution, my recent experiences with a few sites using WordPress has shown me how much easier WordPress is to use.  I have my old theme back, since the b2evo version of the theme was broken by an application update awhile back.

I used a conversion script to convert.  It was half successful.  While it did import users and posts, it did not import any category or tags, requiring a lot of rework.  The real problem with the script is that roughly 1/3 of the posts got truncated.  This required a manual check of every post, which took far longer than I would have liked.

Overall, I’m not sure how much time the conversion script really saved me, because copying all of the posts manually might have been easier becaus e it would not have required all of the rework and double-checking.

I helped setup a website this week, check it out: http://www.desertwheel.com/

The site uses WordPress, which I am strongly debating moving this site to. While I don’t have any significant issues with b2evolution, I really like the ease of use that WordPress offers.

I haven’t been posting too much lately.  I have been having problems getting Google to crawl this site since moving to b2evolution.  I was a little nervous that I’d have to move all content to new blog software, so I was a little de-motivated to write too much.  However it looks like the crawl issues have been resolved, as I figured out that b2evolution doesn’t handle obscured URLs very well (or Google didn’t handle them very well).  Either way, it’s resolved now—so I’ll start posting more often again.

I’ve completed the campaign summary for the Mutants and Masterminds campaign “Control & Variable” on RPGHerald.net that we finished last Tuesday. Check it out. Perdue did a great job GMing the game, and I’m looking forward to the Serenity RPG game that I’ve been dying to play for months now.

I think the campaign left off at a good place, the end of the major story arc, but is left open for future games. I think there’s a lot more stories to be told in that world.

We’re starting to save our campaign information to RPG Herald. We used to use Tiki-Wiki to save our information. In the past, we’ve run into two primary issues with saving our campaign information: attention span and ease of use. The problem with ease of use was that it was difficult to teach others to use a wiki, and how to use it correctly. The attention span issue was that only 1-2 people would ever have the ability to change the wiki, because it wasn’t always easy, and while a campaign might start well it quickly was forgotten until the start of the next campaign.

Hopefully the ease of use will be resolved by using the new RPG Herald web site as it is pretty simple to use while allowing for a lot of customization. The attention span issue will also hopefully be resolved as we’re going to have everyone in the group involved, to different degrees I’m sure, but involved enough to help keep the site updated. There are other sites which offer services similar to what we’ve setup on RPG Herald, but most of them are either pay sites, not any better than our previous wiki, or limit the number of campaigns you can have.

Additionally, RPG Herald is open for anyone else to use as well, free of charge.

I’m trying out b2evolution for this site instead of Drupal. I don’t have any specific issue with Drupal, however I wanted to try something new.

Naturally, the one thing I didn’t work on when rebuilding the engine is going to be the thing that fails. The transmission looks like it might be dead. Its not working, at all. Its possible that the torque converter was damaged when we dropped the engine back into the truck, which would be cheaper and easier fix, I’m betting that its the transmission itself. Judging by the condition of everything else that I’ve fixed so far, I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t require a complete rebuild or replacement.

And just when it looked like I was going to drive it soon…

I started used the comic collection database on ComicBookDB.com.

• Mopar 383 (6.1L) V8 Engine
• Mopar 787 Automatic Transmission
• Edelbrock Performer 383 Intake Manifold
• Edelbrock Performer 1406 Carburetor
• Plymouth Volaré Torsion Bar Front Suspension
• Painless 12 Circuit Street Rod Harness