Relapse

Ever take a business call while on vacation?  Me, too.

So just consider the three items that follow some stuff I phoned in.

NewMexiKen

I think I’ll shut NewMexiKen down for a while.

Knowing my record you may find me back in a few days or a week.

Or maybe not. We’ll see.

UPDATE: JULY 1ST

Hey, thanks everybody.

1. I’m fine — or at least I’m as fine as ever.

2. I just really needed a break from the day-to-day pressure obsession, which I feel even when I skip a day or two. So maybe I’ll take three or four days or more off this time.

3. I’m sick of the election and reading about the election and the media coverage of the election. I needed a break particularly from that, but just doing the birthdays and a few best lines doesn’t keep me going.

4. I need to do some re-coding, hence the drop back to the default style temporarily. The site may look the same as it did when I come back (or not), but the code (CSS) has to be cleaned up.

5. I’ve done this blog an estimated 330+ days a year for almost five years. I really should quit.

Maybe it’s time to try something new

NewMexiKen feels a lot like digby. When I began blogging almost five years ago I had to tell people what a “blog” was.

Most commented post

As some newer readers have chimed in lately about reposting older entries, I thought I’d mention Star gazing. It remains the most commented post ever here at NewMexiKen with 39.

So, who is the most famous person you’ve spoken with? And who is the most famous person you’ve seen in person? And what is the most famous/notorious event/performance you have witnessed?

No rules. Whatever you’d like to brag (?) about.

New comment thread starts here.

Question for my eight regular readers

Should I repost the birthday and other date-specific posts from past years?

Today for example is Geronimo’s birthday and I have posted about him every year. Today is also the anniversary of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech, another event I’ve posted about every June 16th.

Should I publish these posts again every year even if I don’t add anything different?

Top Commenters

NewMexiKen has added a little box in the far right sidebar. It lists the top commenters — by quantity, not necessarily by quality. At the moment it lists them for June. It’s flexible, so I could change it to week or year. We’ll see.

All Fixed

NewMexiKen thinks everything is working, but I’m not too sure about the comments.

Maybe you should test them.

So Here’s What Happened

At its core, a website such as this (a blog) is generated from three sets of files — a database that holds all the content, some template files that manage the layout, and some code files that fill the layout with the content when a reader clicks on the site. I guess somewhere in those files for NewMexiKen there was a bug, because late Wednesday I used up more than my allotted share of the server (for the third time) and the company that hosts the site shut me down. (It surely wasn’t due to too much traffic.)

For the past two days then I have been scrambling to find a suitable landing place and then getting the unresponsive former provider to redirect the URL newmexiken.com to the new server. They made the switch overnight last night (early Saturday morning).

And so I am back, but in a limited way — I don’t have to worry about any bugs, but I can’t do much with the look and I can’t restore the archives.

So I’ll just blog here while I figure out what I want to do.

NewMexiKen (He’s baaack!)

Howdy. We’re going to be starting over from here — at least for now.

[Technical difficulties took this site down May 15, 2008.  This was the first post after service resumed.]

NewMexiKen is home

I’m back, but I think whatever muse I have got left behind — maybe she missed the connecting flight in Minneapolis last night.

What should I be writing about? Surely enough has already been said about Miley Cyrus and Jeremiah Wright.

Poor Kenneth

In answer to the comment:

I love Seattle and believe, perhaps foolishly, that the weather wouldn’t bother me all that much.

But I have no plans to make my April Fool’s Day prank actually happen.

If I ever change the name of this blog, it will become “Poor Kenneth’s Almanack.” Benjamin Franklin’s famous serial publication (25 years) is somewhere in my mind as I do this, even now.

I gotta find another way to spend my time (rather than blogging)

Here’s the top four search strings in the past few hours here at NewMexiKen:

katrina campins 306
virgen de guadalupe 13
warning sign 11
“katrina campins” 9

Katrina Campins was among the first group on the Apprentice. It’s no doubt her photo they want now. I’m guessing this is the one.

I feel used. I’ve never posted that photo or linked to it before. The one I have that gets the traffic headed this way is, I suppose, this one from four years ago.

Omarosa almost naked

Finally, I have found the blogging holy grail — The Celebrity Fugprentice, none other than Omarosa.

Thanks to Jill, the official tacky celebrity website scout for NewMexiKen.

New Mexico Icons and Avatars

Girly B Icons has a great selection of icons (or avatars).

If you use, be sure to credit Girly B and do not hot link.

Pointer via Duke City Fix.

Suggestions please

NewMexiKen has decided to move to Seattle. Obviously I’ll need a different name for the blog. Any ideas?

Still movin’

NewMexiKen is still away and doesn’t have convenient internet access. Stay tuned.

On the road again

As my regular seven readers — many of whom are where I am — may have guessed, NewMexiKen is away for a few days.

Bear with me, the usual blogging will return one of these days.

New NewMexiKen poll (well it started out that way)

A reader has written offline to ask that NewMexiKen delete a comment — “It’s not adding anything at all to anything, and it’s just ruining a nice post.”

As a blogger who encourages comments (and requires medication whenever comments are too few), I am troubled at the thought of deleting comments — though I do reserve the right to do so and have, on occasion, done so. (Rather arbitrarily I might add.)

I thought maybe I should ask you, my seven readers, what you think. Do you come to this website seeking diversity of discussion, or do you visit here because it is a sanctuary for correct, intelligent political thinking?

Update: I decided I wasn’t comfortable with the personalization of the poll and have deleted it. I think the comments to this post have been unusually good though, and hope there will be more. Sorry about the change of heart.

Best blogging buddies

If my memory serves me correctly — something increasingly in doubt — Hugh was just the second blogger ever to link to NewMexiKen. (The first was South Knox Bubba, long gone.) You may remember Hugh’s blog, Three Bed, Two Bath.

After a hiatus from blogging he’s back at Permanent Qui Vive.

Hugh, Tom, Luis, Dwight and Annette have been around these parts for four years or so now. And, so far as I know, none is even family. Thanks guys.

Excuse me?!?

“But it’s one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother’s basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they’re a pathetic get-a-life loser …”

Bob Costas quoted in The Miami Herald

Happy Birthday Dear URL

The URL newmexiken.com is four years old today.

(The blog itself began seven months before that.)

By the way, the first mention of Barack Obama on this blog was four years ago today as well.

I Got Nothin’

Blah blah blah.

There is this from Conan:

“Past couple of days — you’ve all heard about this — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have all claimed that they are the person who should answer the phone at the White House if it rings at 3 a.m., but most Americans think the White House should just get a receptionist.”

And this from Letterman:

“I like that John McCain. He looks like a guy who waits all day for the mail to come.”

And —

Bottom line, I’m thinking Elliot isn’t on Hillary’s or Obama’s short list for VP or attorney general anymore.

Oh, and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl. Pretty good, but Natalie Portman was better off as Queen Amidala of Naboo than Queen Anne of England.

Dis ‘n dat

From time-to-time NewMexiKen has linked to mental_floss quizzes, the most recent just yesterday. Some of these quizzes are pretty difficult. I have a subscription to their magazine (thank you again Nora and Jason) and browsing through the letters to the editor I learned just how difficult. Last December they had a quiz about discontinued Ben & Jerry’s flavors. According to a letter, Jerry got just 8 of 10 correct.

More than a thousand page views yesterday (not counting feed readers) but just 12 votes for the day’s Oscar poll.

You will remember that Albuquerque’s Mayor Marty ordered the red light cameras off last week when the legislature passed a bill removing all profit from the city. He was, I guess, trying to bluff the governor in hopes of getting him to veto the bill. Yesterday the mayor ordered the program back on again citing the increase in infractions — and probably because the city council was threatening to overturn him. According to a local political reporter when the mayor “was asked about settling his differences with the Guv,” the mayor “said, ‘He’s got my cell number.’” He’s got your number all right.

Some snow overnight here at Casa NewMexiKen. Covered the bushes and trees, but not the pavement. The temp is above freezing. I haven’t seen any awesome photos of last night’s eclipse yet. If you see any, let me know.

I briefly posted an item yesterday about Lindsay Lohan’s photo shoot to see if I could generate a bunch of Google traffic, but after a few minutes I thought better of it. Just rely on the old standbys I thought — you know, Omarosa.

Some blogger swiped a photo of one of The Sweeties® to illustrate a post about a child spilling ice cream onto the court during an NBA game. I guess this guy was never a kid himself. Anyway, he gave the photo no credit and is using my bandwidth to post it. But, after consulting with the mom, I figured c’est la vie. I wonder if he even knows I know.

The TSA Blog

Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune has found “the soon-to-be-propagated Rules” for the new Transportation Security Agency blog. The first three:

1. Commenters must arrive at the blog 45 minutes before attempting to post a comment.

2. Comments cannot last more than three paragraphs.

3. Comments that are longer than three paragraphs are subject to confiscation. For more on the handling of comments, see our post, “Why 1-Quart Zip-Loc Bags are Much More Secure than 1-Gallon Zip-Loc Bags.”

Johnson has more. He also has a funny item about spam here.

A very technical question

I would like to change the structure of the NewMexiKen permalinks. I know how to do that. What I cannot figure out how to do is create the .htaccess rule that will redirect existing permalinks to the new structure.

The current permalink is ^/%year%/%monthnum%/00%post_id%.php

What I want is ^/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

The existing .htaccess file is:

RewriteRule (^archives/)(.*) $2 [R=301,L]

# BEGIN WordPress
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</ifmodule>
# END WordPress

The blogger as celebrity

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, reports:

So, [Saturday], I went into work for a little while, and then took a break to buy a birthday gift for a friend of mine. I was shopping at a very cool store near Union Square when I saw a familiar-looking, ultra-hip woman sitting on a couch. I couldn’t help but recognize her — it was Heather Armstrong of dooce. I went up to her and said, “You’ve been recognized.” She laughed, and we introduced ourselves.

I told her a really liked her website, etc., and we chatted for about 10 minutes. She’s…really pleasant. I thought it funny that I felt a bit star-struck when talking with her — the blogger as celebrity. When I got back to my office, I wished I’d asked her: “So is it weird talking to me knowing that I read your website and therefore know all these intimate things about you while you know nothing about me?”

Stuff

NewMexiKen’s visit with some of The Sweeties continues through Saturday. Blogging primarily via iPod is limiting, though I’ve been following the comments and especially appreciated all the birthday greetings. Next year you’re all invited for ice cream and cake and a rousing game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

I’d be very interested in reading your thoughts on the remaining presidential candidates—Clinton, Obama and McCain—especially if you feel strongly for or against.

Addendum: How do you people live in this Eastern time zone? It’s early afternoon by the time the day seems to be really underway. Living out west I’m used to blogging at 8 or 9 in the morning and things are already happening. Bad things more often than not, but things to blog about nevertheless.

There Will Be Blogging

Sincere thanks for all the fan mail — even us utility infielders like affirmation.

(And unlike Matt Hasselbeck, none of you sent a message asking me if I could get you a real blogger’s autograph.)

I know I stood there like a puppy demanding that you pet me, but truly what I am hoping for is a little more conversation along the way. I always find NewMexiKen wise, whimsical and witty. I just often question whether you do — and when, of all things, “Omarosa nude” returns after four years as the most searched item, I think it is reasonable of me to wonder.

Keep dropping by and I’ll keep blogging away. And if you see something you like or something you detest, please share the thought.

OK, I gotta go see There Will Be Blood. (Which my desktop widget lists as re Will be Blood, The).

Tipping point

The only thing external I get out of this blog are comments. Think of them as a tip.

Agree with me. Disagree with me. Jeez, find Ephraim and tell him to come back. Anything.

Or shall I just assume my service has been poor and you don’t think this blog is worth the occasional comment?

Why I question this whole blogging thing

Here is a post of mine from more than three years ago that is wildly popular this week with hundreds of visits — Man says fish stick has Jesus’ face.

Here’s a map of NewMexiKen’s last last 100 visits: