Category: blogging

I’m Still Switching From Movable Type to WordPress

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I recently wrote a comment on Ask.MetaFilter, the gist of which is that I plan on switching this blog from Movable Type to WordPress (probably with the next major WordPress release, to save myself at least one upgrade cycle).

And, Anil Dash — the vice president of Six Apart, the Movable Type company — saw my comment and e-mailed me personally to ask why I had decided on that. Though I’ve e-mailed him a reply as well, I’m posting my response as an open letter here, in case other bloggers are considering the switch to WordPress.

Hi Anil,

Fancy running into you on the InterWeb. And, I believe we’ve met before at SXSW — I’ve played kickball both in ’03 and ’04 :). I also found a picture of me from the SXSW 2004 moblog.

I’m still planning on switching to WordPress and it’s primarily due to Movable Type’s new licensing. Sure, I can use 3.x for free as I limit my blog to one author and three or fewer blogs — which currently is the case — but why not switch to a publishing system without those limits, in case I want to add another author or a few extra blogs sometime later?

I think my thoughts on this are summed up well in DiveIntoMark’s essay "Freedom Zero":

“I do not have the freedom to run [Movable Type] for any purpose; I only have the limited set of freedoms that Six Apart chooses to bestow upon me, and every new version seems to bestow fewer and fewer freedoms. With Movable Type 2.6, I was allowed to run 11 sites. In 3.0, that right will cost me $535. […]”

Continuing along those lines, I can’t be sure that Movable Type 4.0 won't limit free use to one author + one blog — or even start charging for non-commercial use in general. Now, I take to heart that Six Apart is one of the most non-evil companies around and that such a scenario may be unlikely; but that’s not to say that it couldn't happen.

Anyhow, Anil, please don’t take this as anything against you personally. I’ve had a great time playing kickball every year and if you’re ever in Dallas I’d be happy to take you out for a beer (HHOS).

--
Alex Bischoff

WordPress Meetup on Saturday

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I was reading over the WordPress Development Blog and discovered that there’s a WordPress Meetup on Saturday (at 4:00). Of course, I use Movable Type on this blog, but ever since Six Apart changed their licensing terms for Movable Type 3.0, I’ve started looking into alternatives. Granted, even under the new licensing terms, Movable Type would still be free for me. But, who’s to say that Six Apart might not change their licensing terms again?

And, in any case, WordPress has some intriguing features that aren’t available in Movable Type. There're a couple niche features like blogging-over-email (which I’m not sure I’d use), but the big one for me is that WordPress is entirely database-driven. So, pages are generated on-the-fly without any “rebuilding” (as opposed to MovableType which creates static pages that have to be written with each update).

In the entry on the WordPress Dev blog, Matt also links to his personal entry on the WordPress Meetup. And, I learned that there’re several active WordPress developers here in Texas. So, if enough people sign up for the Dallas WordPress Meetup, I'm hoping that I may be able to chat with Ryan Boren, one of the WordPress developers here in Dallas.

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event: October

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

This month’s DFWBlogs cocktail event was at Mike’s Treehouse. Though their URL is fairly straightforward (MikesTreehouse.com), it took me a little bit to find it. I generally search Google for this kind of thing, just in case the restaurant have a goofy URL such as MikesTreehouseDallas.com.

As it turns out, their website is the third hit on Google for “Mike’s Treehouse” and I’m not terribly surprised — the only link on the splash page is JavaScript-based, so search engines are only able to see the splash page itself.

Looking up their address in MapQuest, it was only about two miles down Greenville from my apartment. In my head, lower Greenville seemed like more than two miles from here and I was hoping that’d be the case (since parking is such a hassle in that area of Greenville). As I drove there, I soon realized that it was in lower Greenville after all; fortunately, Mike’s had its own parking lot.

As I walked inside, I found our group right away (near the entrance). And, after a few more people arrived, we moved to the “rooftop” seating area. And while I looked over the menu, I ordered a Dos Eqis. It arrived shortly (with a lime, natch), but in a cheap plastic cup. That surprised me, actually — the vodka-and-cranberry that someone else ordered arrived in a proper glass, but the beer was served in a plastic cup (go figure).

Quite a few items on the menu tempted me. A club sandwich is always a good bet and it’s not every day that you see a blackened tuna sandwich. But, I was in the mood to try one of their burgers.

In contrast to their online menu (which lists several burger variations), the printed menu included just the Build You Own Burger for $5.95 (with any combination of toppings). There were about ten toppings to choose from and I selected a few easily (tomatos, pickles, ketchup, mayo). I would have selected a cheese as well, but none of their cheeses interested me (just American, Jack, and perhaps a third cheese).

Bacon was also on the list and I hesitated at first — but I then realized that the burger would cost the same with or without the bacon. So, I had nothing to lose and added that to my list as well. I also had to choose between waffle fries and onion rings; as I’m not much of an onion-ring person, I defaulted to the waffle fries. Satisfied with my choices, I placed the order (which our waitress took to memory without having to write it down).

The food arrived soon and I started with the fries. With a dash of pepper, they were great — hot & moist and still somewhat flexible. These days, it seems that many restaurants don’t put an effort into their fries, but these were some of the best I’ve had in a while.

The burger itself was also good. The bun was a bit boring and white-bready, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. And, as a whole, the burger worked out very well. The warm and crumbly beef was arranged in a pleasantly thick patty — some restaurants shape their half-pound burgers as just a huge flat patty, sticking out the sides of the bun, but that helps no one.

And, as a welcome surprise, the bacon was above par. I find that most bacon used on burgers tends to taste as if it was cooked earlier in the day and only added onto the burger at the last moment (which is likely the case). But with this burger from Mike’s, the bacon was tasty and crispy (not the usual soggy bacon-wannabes that often end up on hamburgers). So, I was especially glad that I didn’t hold back on the bacon among my toppings.

The food at Mike’s was better than I expected. And, the wait staff was fairly attentive. But, I’m still not sure if I’d go there again. The plastic cup didn't even have the pretense of keeping my beer cold and I’m still wary about the parking situation in lower Greenville (sure, Mike’s had its own lot but what options would I have if that filled up?).

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – August

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was at Old Monk. With such a name, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I became quickly intrigued as I read the GuideLive review:

The menu has only 16 items, which range from traditional pub grub such as German sausages ($7.50) and fish and chips ($7.50) to the national dish of Belgium, moules frites (mussels and french fries, $8.95). The mussels and fries are as good, or better, than versions I have eaten in France. […]

German sausages? Well, say no more! That made my entree choice very easy :). The GuideLive review also mentioned their Belgian and German beers, so I went to see whether I could find their beer list. Normally, I'd check their webpage, but a search on Google for “old monk dallas” turned up nothing.

However, I did find this Old Monk section on BeerAdvocate (Beer Advocate is apparently a user-contributed site of restaurant reviews with a focus on beer). And I was pleased to see that some of the reviewers mentioned some of Old Monk’s beers.

So, it wasn’t a complete beer list, but it was a start. As usual, I cross-referenced those beers with the ratings at RateBeer.com — the numbers below include each beer’s score (out of five) and its percentile-ranking.

There were more beers than just those beers listed at the Beer Advocate page, but I didn’t include beers that I couldn’t find at RateBeer nor those that didn’t score well. And, since some of the beer descriptions on Beer Advocate were vague, I wasn’t sure about some of the specific brews (Chimay has serveral, for instance, though only “Chimay” was mentioned).

Once I arrived at Old Monk, I ordered the German Plate and I was about to order a Chimay Bleu, but I then noticed that they didn’t actually have that Chimay variety (though they had Chimay Red, Chimay Grand Reserve and Chimay White). (I just now discovered that Chimay Grand Reserve is an alias for Chimay Bleu — oops.) However, I quickly noticed that they had Fuller’s Porter — a beer I hadn’t seen previously mentioned in any of the Old Monk reviews.

I needed no encouragement in ordering the Fuller’s Porter — I’m not only a fan of porters but the Fuller is also the top rated porter at RateBeer.com! The 16oz bottle didn’t hurt, either.

The porter soon arrived, along with the sausages. The sausages were of two varieties, though I can’t recall their names at the moment (one was pinkish while the other was more whitish). They included some mustard on the side which went perfectly with the sausages — full of flavor and spice but not too hot.

The porter itself was fantastic and I’m not surprised by its high ratings. It had almost a coffee-like taste but without coffee’s bitter aftertaste (as my roommate Mike put it). I don’t even like coffee but I still found this to be a delicious beer. This is easily my favorite porter and possibly my second-favorite beer (Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock is still first).

After the Fuller’s, I gave some thought to my second beer. Before arriving, I was all set on ordering a Chimay Bleu. But, of course, that was seemingly the one Chimary variety that Old Monk didn’t have. So, I went for a Chimay Red (“only” in the 95.4th percentile). The Red was a good beer, to be sure, though I’m not sure it lived up to its high expectations. It had more carbonation than I expected and a slight sweetness (which isn’t a bad thing, but just not what I was in the mood for at the time).

I really enjoyed Old Monk and on the drive home I was trying to think whether there were any Cocktail Events that I had enjoyed more. Up to that point, The Meridian Room was probably my favorite (their service, in particular, was exceptional). But after thinking it over, I don’t know if there’s anywhere other than Old Monk where I could get some tasty sausages along with such a good selection of beers in Dallas.

(And, Old Monk apparently has a website after all, though all I see is a broken puzzle piece <g>)

Roger’s Birthday at Texas Roadhouse

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

We celebrated Roger’s birthday at Texas Roadhouse last night. Interestingly enough, the chain is actually based in Indiana and only came to Texas relatively recently.

Since they have their menu right on their site, I checked that out beforehand. Before looking, I already had a fillet in mind, and they had two to offer (6 oz & 8 oz). At first, I wasn’t sure whether I should go for the 6 or 8 oz, but I quickly realized that it’s not every day that I have fillet (8 oz it is!).

And that wasn’t the only decision. Each entree also comes with two sides (cup of chili, baked potato, sweet potato, steak fries, green beans&hellip). So, I had more decisions. But, I quickly narrowed that down since they included house and cesar salads among their sides. And, since I wanted a salad anyway, I could just include my salad as a side and not have to order it separately.

I could have ordered a baked potato as my other side (you can’t go wrong there), but I figured that I’d have plenty of carbs from various birthday goodies. So, I just selected the vegetables as my other side.

The food arrived relatively quickly and it looked great. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the vegetables, but the vegetable side had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots (a reasonable combination). Before tasting anything else, I cut right into the fillet to check its done-ness — it seems that some steakhouses don’t account for meat’s tendancy to continue cooking after it’s removed from heat. But, it was pleasantly pink — a perfect “medium”.

The meat looked good, but how did it taste? Fantastic. It was warm and very tender — I really cherished each bite. Maybe it wasn’t the best fillet I’ve ever had, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with which ones were better.

For birthday merriment, Leia and Ru made some double-chocolate cupcakes earlier in the day. As I understand it, Ru helped mix the batter while Leia baked and iced the cupcakes. They brought them along to Texas Roadhouse for dessert.

As cupcakes go, these were possibly thesecond best from-a-mix cupcakes that I’ve had. I’m also a chocolate fiend and the double-chocolate nature was an added bonus. Leia even adorned them with sprinkles/jimmes.

As it turns out, these cupcakes featured the dot-type sprinkes. The dot-type sprinkle adds a pleasant color to the cupcakes but they can be rather crunchy — somewhat like adding sugar-flavored sand to a cupcake. Don’t get me wrong — I like dot-type sprinkles as much as the next guy — but perhaps the cylindar-type (softer) sprinkles could have been even better.

I’m not one to turn down a steakhouse, but I was a bit skeptical about Texas Roadhouse. After all, could a good steakhouse really come out of Indiana? In the end, it worked out great and I’d go back to Texas Roadhouse anytime.