ecto
Posted on January 30, 2005
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It’s been a while since I posted in [ecto](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/), generally known as one of the best blog editors for Mac OS X. I’ve gotten very comfortable editing with [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) so it was easy enough to post through a browser. Any browser. But it only takes once or twice accidentally hitting the “close” button to miss a stand-alone editor with an “auto save” feature.
I had gotten a little frustrated in earlier versions of ecto 2 because Rich Text formatting murdered the HTML and at least for me, made editing more difficult. But now there’s a new editing window that so far, makes much more sense. I still don’t like and can’t get used to the rich text editor, so I’ve managed to set ecto to always work in HTML mode by default and the “Preview” window is customized to look like my blog for very fast and easy editing. I don’t know why, but it’s easier for me to “see” what’s not right about an entry when it’s in the right typeface even if the HTML/Markdown is minimal.
Big changes to the way images are added, but the most recent post on the [ecto blog](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001282.php) does a good job of explaining how it works.
Now I may take a moment to see if the [Windows version](http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001033.php) has closed any ground with the Mac OS X version.
**Update:** I’m editing this with the Windows version, now at 1.0.8.4. Verdict? Eh. No chance that I’ll pay for it. It’s better than I remember when it first came out, but it pales to the OS X version. In particular, the preview does not parse Markdown formatting. Yes, I can see the preview in my font and with my spacing as it appears on my blog, but what good is it if the HTML-like syntax is not converted? It’s a deal-breaker.
**Update Update:** [Erik](http://www.nslog.com) IM’ed me to let me know that ecto for Windows was beta testing version 1.5. So I’m trying it. Multiple windows now like the Mac OS X version, but still no integration with Markdown. I may use this for a quick post if I need to copy/paste something from Windows, but not likely once the trial expires.
Cleaning houses and Oprah
Posted on January 30, 2005
Filed Under Relocating | 2 Comments
What timing. I’ve been Tivo’ing [Oprah](http://www.oprah.com) (yeah, I know Tivo hates when it’s used a verb, sorry) and I just watched [Friday's show](http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200411/tows_past_20041118.jhtml). The subject was, “How Clean is Your House?” and they had those British women from the [Lifetime show](http://lifetimetv.com/shows/clean/index.html). We just spent time attacking the clutter in our house, so how perfect was it to watch that show now?
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Progress
Posted on January 29, 2005
Filed Under Relocating | 1 Comment
You know you’re making progress decluttering your house when you walk into the family room and it echoes.
The girls are at my mother’s for the day and our house has *never* looked as spotless and organized as it does right now. We only have one or two small spots that still need work. The fun part will be keeping it this way on a daily basis once the kids are around.
Why did we have to wait until we’re getting ready to move out to finally move in? 
House for sale
Posted on January 27, 2005
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We did it. Yesterday we signed with a broker to sell our home. We’re getting it ready quickly, hoping to take advantage of the fact that there is very little “inventory” on the market right now. It should hit MLS next week.
My mom is taking the girls all day on Saturday so we can do the final “de-clutter.” [A house on our street,](http://www.prudentialct.com/Property/listingdetail.asp?LN=98223533) considerably smaller than ours, was bid up in under 24 hours. I’m not expecting that ours will sell that fast because it’s priced much higher. But our hope is to have the house under contract by March-April with a late June closing date so the girls can finish school. It’s a family house, so we’re hoping the buyer doesn’t want to pull their kids out early either.
I met with 4 realtors, and we decided to sign with Fred Kenyon of [William Pitt Sotheby's](http://www.williampittsir.com/) Fred was Eric’s boss years ago at UBS and is a really nice guy. He’s friendly and soft spoken and doesn’t come across with the hard sell like some of the others. One company made me downright uncomfortable with how hard they pushed. While I found the other realtors competent, I didn’t find them comfortable to deal with. I have to feel at ease with the person selling my home. All of the realtors came in with pricing recommendations in the same ballpark.
I didn’t realize how big my house was. The city has it listed at 4200 sq. ft. I thought it was 3600, tops. So we’re selling it by what’s on the city record: 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, .46 acre, 4200 sq. ft. What will something like that set you back in a good neighborhood in Stamford, CT? A mere $1,059,000.
And here I thought no one cared…
Posted on January 25, 2005
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When I reinstalled Movable Type a few weeks ago, somehow I stopped getting notifications about comments (non Typekey). I have no idea what happened, but there were 100s of comments sitting in my “pending” list that I didn’t know about. 95% spam. I’m going through it all now, so if you commented and I didn’t let it through or seemed to ignore you, that’s why! I’ll respond to the legitimate ones if needed once I get the queue cleaned out.
Thanks to Eric Albert for bringing the problem to my attention.
P.S. I think I may have accidentally deleted one or two legitimate comments. If you commented, and it had nothing to do with that card game people play for money or medication you think someone can use and it doesn’t show up, please comment again. So sorry!!
