I found and updated the template again, to something similar to the Forest Green template I had earlier

I searched around the web, and discovered the Rounders4 template originally developed 2 decades ago, which is similar to the Forest Green template I'd been using for 15 years or so from Gecko and Fly. After all these years, it's great to have discovered some early classics, and I guess for now, I'll make use of it.

I do miss the Forest Green template, which was one of the best drawing from what was originally offered by Typepad, and honestly, I hope it does become operable again someday, but for now, I found it great to discover this early template, which I can use in an "everything old is new again" way, and hope it'll work out in the long run. There may be a few parts I need to smooth out here, but overall, it works fantastically, and it's delightful to discover these classic early templates again, which were common years ago, and now can be great for use again today.

After many years, I changed the template because the previous one didn't seem to be working anymore

I must've had the previous template for over 15 years, and because it seemed to stop working about a week or so ago, I felt I'd inevitably have to change it. I'd gone over to Gecko & Fly, where I originally got the previous template from, and even there, it didn't seem to be working on the demonstration page where it was set, and there were at least 2 more that didn't seem to be working either. So, aside from how the forest template was admittedly old, I felt the time had come where I'd inevitably have to change the template on the blog to something that did work, and for now, fortunately, this one does appear to be working and loading properly, there there's some parts, like how all the statistics counters I so love to try out may not be centered properly, that I'll have to try and smooth over. For now, I'm glad I found this one that worked, if only because the counters didn't all seem to work on newer templates, and it's not like I want to discard them just like that.

Again, it was surely inevitable I'd have to change the template one day, and I hope for now it'll work okay. That said, if the older template is repaired by the host, I may restore it, and then must hope all will continue okay from that point onwards.

Grumble, grumble: one of my statistics counters now has "malvertising" on it

At least that's what my AVG program is telling me. It's sad to discover that one of the counter sites I use, Webstat, appears to be generating a frame above the counter itself that's laced with "malvertising", and for me anyway, it leads to a situation where the AVG tells me it's intercepted the potential viruses and phishing trash that could come with it almost every time I load the main page.

So I though it best to write this post to let everybody who might've gotten similar messages know that I'm aware of the problem now affecting a statistics counter I've had for possibly over a decade now, and I wrote a message about it to the Webstat server's support system, but if no promising reply is received, I realize I may have to jettison the counter after all these years. Fortunately, I do have others that're also good, and hopefully won't be affected by such unpleasant issues.

Update: there are some ads turning up now that seem to work properly without prompting the AVG to say malvertising was intercepted. Maybe things are improving on Webstat's end, but even so, it's a shame when annoying cases like these occur, and it's not like anybody actually wants ads put on their statistics counters that easily.

Unable to convert to Disqus, so I'm switching back to standard Blogger commenting

I tried signing up for and installing a commenting system from Disqus, but I could not comprehend any of the features, nor could get their options to work on my template. Total madness. I found a page on Ask.Com that told to select "generic code" yet their was nothing like that available on the Disqus dashboard to help.

Great. So now I'll have to revert back to the standard Blogger commenting feature. I tried to save all the comments from the account Haloscan will soon be shutting down as part of their change of system (when I logged in today, it put up a wall telling to either convert to their paid options or just export everything to another system), and with any luck, maybe I can install them manually on past posts. But for now, it appears that I'm forced to return to the old commenting feature. I'll try to use something new in the near future if I can find a program that's comprehensible, and most importantly, works with the template properly.

Edit: okay, I did my best to restore some of the past comments as best as possible. I suppose I could keep trying to install Disqus software, but it was way too challenging for me. Even Intense Debate, to my astonishment, was an incomprehensible mess. Clearly, we've come a long way since Haloscan, which was pretty simple by comparison.

Haloscan being turned into pay service. I hope to replace it with Disqus

It seems that Haloscan, which I've used for almost 4 years now, is going to be discontinuing its free services as JS-Kit, the company that took them over, turns them into a new pay per service called Echo. And since I cannot afford to pay almost 10 bucks for the new system - a real ripoff price IMO - that's why I'll be trying to see if I can replace Haloscan with Disqus, another free commenting service, or even Intense Debate, if they also have free accounts.

I hope I can import/export all the comments I have in Haloscan to another service I'll get, but there's no telling for now if I can. I'll try to spend time working on it tomorrow, and hope I can get the changes in gear accomplished as best as possible.

Was Sitemeter having problems?

According to Hot Air, they made some changes to their code systems that caused problems with Internet Explorer 7. I hope it's been fixed by now, and won't cause any browsers to crash.

Great, the computer's motherboard blew

Just a few weeks after the home computer came back from repairs for the hard drive, now the motherboard crashed. I turned on the computer on Friday to discover this, and that it couldn't boot up. So again, I'll have to use the work computer for another two days as the home system goes to the repair shop again.

Oh well, that's something I'll have to get used to expecting, as these things are bound to happen in any computer.

Oh well, back to this template I go now

It was quite an ordeal finding a new template, because surprisingly enough, those I tried from at least four other websites did not seem to work; only the ones from Gecko and Fly did. I suppose I could've gone back to the default templates, which actually do work without coming up like gibberish, but this way is faster for me, since I keep special files in which to store all the many details for the site, at least one more of which I've gotta make sure to reinstall.

Still, it's astounding that the templates I tried from a few other sites didn't seem to work. That's something I'll have to try and figure out someday as to why it wasn't going through.

Oh great, the template isn't working now

If you're visiting this site through Internet Explorer, you may have found, as I just discovered, that the template does not seem to be working on that browser anymore, and probably not on Netscape either. I think I've been able to figure out why though: the site that was providing these templates may have moved them onto a different server! Oh well, I knew I was going to have to change the templates yet again sometime soon, so I'll be getting around to that soon. I may try and use the Newsline or the K2 template this time, certainly if they're available.

Yes, it's a new template

I thought this might brighten things up a bit too for a change. Isn't it great? If there's anything I certainly do take care to look for when I want a new template, it's that the background for the text be white, and the text be black, so that everybody can read at ease!

Well, there we are, it's done

I was always so nervous about making the transfer, but, there you have it, I made it there at last. So now, here I am in brand new Blogger mode, and ready for action, baby!

Update: it's excellent, the new controls and such! Very good!

I'm going to switch to the new Blogger mode soon

I realized that in time, it would have to be done, and so soon, I'm going to switch to the new, updated Blogger version soon that uses tags and various other more advanced features.

I certainly hope that, when I make the switch to the new mode, that it'll turn out well. I know that there are some people who've experienced errors and such on their blogs when switching before being able to get things sorted out properly again. So, here's to hoping that I'll be able to manage the switch when I do it.

Previous template broke down; had to switch to new one

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, but there you have it, the template I used prior to this one crashed and didn't recover. So, I had to take the time to switch to this one.

So, I hope all visitors will like this template just as well as the previous one. I'll make a few more adjustments later on when I can, and then it should be complete.

Is this template showing correctly?

It first happened yesterday, that the template suddenly failed to load, and I got a collosal white display in its stead. If it continues that way, I may have to look for another one. Oh well, I suppose it was bound to happen.

And now, we have Haloscan comments too

And so, with this post, I hereby move from the regular commenting options on Blogger to the more sophisticated ones on Haloscan. Which allow for everyone to comment without having to register, and for me, to maintain better pest control! Isn't that a wonderful thing? And, since I like to make things as easy to access as possible, I also set the options so that they load on the same window.

I just hope I didn't knock out the backlinks code when I installed them; I may have accidentally erased the code for that, not something I wanted to do. Oh well, if I find that it needs to be fixed, I can always go back and look again at the template to see how it's done.

Tagged by book meme

Book meme from Rhymes With Right.

1. book that changed your life: Fantastic Four. As a comic book, it was the first I read, that being FF #138-139 from 1973. It was quite a lot of fun suspense, as the Thing and the Human Torch faced off against a mad metahuman called Miracle Man, who was menacing the town of Wyatt Wingfoot, before the villain was snatched away at the end by Indian spirits who wanted to hold onto him until he could be cured of his madness. Comics like these are what led to my becoming not just a comic devotee, but also a voice to protest the current moonbat abuse of them!

2. book you've read more than once. Oh, there's plenty like that. I'd read Alexander Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo more than once, that's for sure, and found it engrossing.

3. book you'd want while on a desert island. I think I'd want it to be issue #13 of The Outsiders, the deluxe format series that continued from where Batman and/Adventures of the Outsiders left off, because, as it so happened, the story was set on an island!

4. book that made you laugh. It was actually a short story, but Mark Twain's story about a jumping frog that was filled full of pellets made me laugh!

5. book that made you cry. When Gwen Stacy was murdered by the Green Goblin in 1973 in Amazing Spider-Man.

6. book you wish had been written. One that could expose the hypocrisy in showbiz today, in movies, comics, television, showing just how low they've sunk into moonbattery, and even how the MSM covers for them!

7. book you wish had never been written. I'm going to say ALL the ones written by nazis, Islamofascists, and communists.

8. book you're currently reading. A compilation of Spider-Man issues drawn by John Romita, that's what!

9. book you've been meaning to read. I'd very much want to read whatever Bertrand Latour's written about capitalism, and why it helps!

Made slight template change

Another blogger told me that a white background for the text works better than gray. I have to agree, and I would've thought of this template before, but finding it was difficult. Fortunately, with a little effort, I was able to obtain it sooner than I thought, and now, there you have it, a forest-green template for the blog. One minor drawback is that it doesn't seem to have the "posted by blog author" note at the foot of the posting, but maybe it's possible to add it later on. Fortunately, it does have the commentor's name displayed!

Until then, I think this template should work pretty well.

Update: and, I also managed to position the Haloscan code correctly so that it can display right within the posts as well (I'd initially put it in a position where it only turned up on the main index pages). Very well done!

Added new template

I thought it could help spruce things up around here. But man, was it exceedingly difficult getting it to work! I had to get the Haloscan code in the right place, and just barely succeeded in putting it there. The same goes for trying to get various other codes installed as well. Good thing I thought to make a backup file in which to store the essentials. That'll help me if I need to fix anything else here in the future.

Guest blogging

I will be guest blogging this week at Adam Graham's blog, while he's on vacation. I wish him good luck and a happy vacation.

Website tagging

Okay, following the tag concept that Jammed Gun showed me, I too will give it a try:

Four jobs I've held:

• Assistant librarian
• Farm assistant
• Help with Word files
• Lawnmowing

Four movies you could watch repeatedly:

• Sullivan's Travels
• The Muppet Movie
• Abbot and Costello
• Spaceballs

Four places I've lived:

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• Kfar Adumim, Israel
• Jerusalem, Israel

Four TV shows I've watched:

• Capt. Kangaroo
• Sesame Street
• A-Team
• Kojak

Four places where I've been on vacation (yes, there've been plenty):

• Paris, France
• New York City
• Amsterdam, Holland
• Eilat, Israel

Four websites you visit daily

• Israel National News
• Michelle Malkin
• Debbie Schlussel
• WorldNetDaily

Four favorite foods:

• Schnitzel
• Potatoes
• Pizza with olives
• Yogurt with chocolate sprinkles added

Four place you'd rather be right now:

• Philadelphia
• Australia
• Normandy, France
• Copenhagen, Denmark

Four people to tag:

• Meryl Yourish
• The Last Amazon
• Israel Perspectives
• Ace of Spades HQ

Hat tip: Jammed Gun. Thanks for the note!