Back in 2010 I announced the formation of Tschipey Achtu lodge as a result of the merger of Ty-Ohni 95 and Ganeodiyo 417.   At the time I was told they would use the number 397, which is also their council number.   This created a bit of controversy as that number is currently in use by Chilantakoba lodge in Louisiana.   I also announced their first flap.   Other than a 2010 Jamboree issue no further news from this lodge made it to me.

I was talking with a Roger Ward last night who was at the recent Winter South Carolina Trade-O-Ree.  He tells me it has not been quiet in that lodge.   The use of 397 was problematic.  Many wanted to choose a different number.   Some wanted to claim the number zero, but that was not well received given the special place Unami 1 holds in the Order of the Arrow.   The Scout Executive, I am told, stepped in and told the lodge they will use the lower number from the two merged lodges.

The lodge is now known as Tschipey  Achtu 95.    I have updated the site to reflect this current information.   Several new issues have also been added.

Some of those who know me personally, know that I have gone over to the “Dark Side” and have started using Apple products.  I bought an iMac a couple of months ago and just recently got an iPad.   My brother is trying to tell me that my Droid’s days are numbered.

I really like my iPad and started day dreaming about an OAImages app for it.  I have no idea how to go about writing this and it would take me into an entirely new area from what I know.   It’s not something that would happen easily or soon.  Here’s your chance to give feedback.   What do you think about an OAImages app?  What would you put in it?   Do you have any thoughts on how it would be distributed  or how much it would cost?

Please feel free to comment.   Comments are moderated for those who have not successfully had a comment published on this blog before in order to control spam.  I will do my best to approve comments as quickly as possible in order to facilitate a discussion.

Amangamek-Wipit 470 S132?

I have added special pages on this site for the 2011 Indian Summer and 2011 Summit Corps.   I still have a few images to add but most of what I have images for is now on the site.   Thanks for Rick Horne for most of these images.

To view these items, go to OA Images: National and Special Events Patches page and select either of these events from the “Other Specialties” drop down box.

It’s kind of odd to come out of hiding to post about a topic like this.

I’m hearing from some brothers that there have been gullible readers to this blog over the years.  I would have thought it was obvious from the context of the posts, but the various posts made on this blog throughout the years that have appeared on APRIL FIRST are all satire.   None of them are true.   Read them and chuckle but please do not complain to your friendly OA National Committee members, Scout Executives, lodge advisers, or official website administrators about the “changes” that are “announced” in them.

Be aware, please, that in the grand scheme of the National Order of the Arrow, I am a nobody.   The BSA and the OA have established methods and procedures for announcing changes to the program.   They will be published in official publications such as the OA National Bulletin, appear on the official OA website,  be unveiled at national events, or be communicated through your Scout Executive.   They will never be announced on someone’s personal blog!

The Order of the Arrow is a brotherhood of cheerful service.   These April Fool’s posts are no more true than the old tales of the Vigil Lottery or the August Merit Badge Special.   I offer my apologies to you if these changes caused you grief, but please be more skeptical about “announcements” that appear here on April First.   They’re not true.

This is strictly an “FYI” post for those familiar with the issues facing those who maintain blogs and message boards where readers can post comments.

Recently I had been having issues here with comment spam getting past this blog’s filters. I deleted the inappropriate posts as quickly as I could but this was still unacceptable to me, as well as additional work. I since have required that readers register before they’re allowed to post comments here. That seems to have stopped the spammers.

I still see a number of probable spammers, mainly from Russian domains, registering on this blog but so far none have had their comments posted successfully.

I may test my luck for a short period of time in the near future. At some unannounced time, I will turn off the registration requirement for posting comments for a day or two. I want to see if the spammers have been chased away, or if they’re just awaiting an easy opportunity to push their garbage

This blog is being hit with a large number spam comments lately.      There have been over 12,000 attempts to spam the blog with comments just within the past 60 days.   Recently a few dozen comments, hawking service and goods I deem inappropriate for this blog,  made it past the filters.   Since I don’t desire to spend more time deleting the spam as I find it and don’t want inappropriate information to sit on my blog, I am tightening up the policy on commenting here.

Those who wish to comment must now register and be logged in before being to post comments.   Registration is free and is not the same as membership to this site.   This is a common practice on many blogs especially among sites run by more “traditional media” type companies.

I hope this reduces the amount of inappropriate spam here.   If it doesn’t the next step would be for me to moderate all comments.   Given the amount of time I have had to work on this site over the last year or so, that could effectively kill the ability for readers to have input or any significant two way communication amongst each other here.

It is with shock and sadness that I pass along this message Tim Brown forwarded to me this morning:

With deep regret I must announce that my son, Matthew Thomas Kirkland, 31, passed from this world at 9:30 this evening. Matt suffered a massive stroke last night. We are having Matthew cremated and will hold a private ceremony in Memphis at a later date. For those who knew Matt, if you desire, to make a donation to the Transatlantic Council, Boy Scouts of America in his name. http://www.tac-bsa.org/Home.html

Matt was a significant contributor to this site, especially for Black Eagle lodge 482. He will be missed.

The Old OAImages Home

Finally, a couple of weeks after pulling the plug, the old server was returned to me.   My old server hosts guys were very good to me while the server was there but failed in returning it quickly to me.   When it came back I didn’t even get the power cord for it returned to me, no less any disks CDs that were shipped with it all those years ago.  I’ll get over that.

Anyway, over the weekend I decided I needed to set it up to recover the last few missing image files that for some reason were not backed up on my hard drive here at home.   All has not gone well and I am having trouble getting the server to boot without an emergency diskette (yes, diskette) or CD.   I knew the hard drives were failing and had been having trouble so this is not surprising.

I thought a few readers might be interested to see where this site was kept for many years.  The monitor and keyboard were taken from the store of excess parts I have here at home.

“I got plenty o’nothin’ and nothin’s plenty for me…”

Wow, where did August go?    Most of the month has gone by with nothing new appearing on this blog.   It seems like it was only a few days ago that I was struggling with the server switch and site relocation.    That is all done now and things appear to be going well.   There are still some issues with broken links and missing images but I may be able to resolve that over the weekend.   It’s good to not have to worry about possible hardware failures.

The SQL server that powers this blog also has the annoying habit of shutting down without warning.   I may have an idea how to solve this, too, but that may have to wait a little longer.   In the meantime, if you see that the blog is down,  please drop me a line to let me know.

Regular blog entries will return soon.   I have much I need to write about.  I also have (literally) hundreds of images that need to be added to this site, some of them going back over a year.   I may evern write a few posts for the techie patch collectors out there about my experiences setting this up.

Many thanks to both Brett Estrade and James Ford for getting me through this switch, and just for putting up with my gripes and pleas for help.   Without them, this could not have happened as smoothly as it did.

A few days ago the old server arrived here.   I plan to set it up here at home.   I may use it as a “sand box” or test server.   I also need to extract some files from it that were not copied during the move and weren’t backed up on my pc here at home.   That’s plenty for me, for now!

The mail server at OAImages’ new home has now remain unblocked by what I call the “internet gods” for over 25 hours now.  That’s a very good sign that they agree my server is clean and not a spammer.   It appears my email problems are now resolved.

I only wonder who had this ip address before me and what were they doing to merit notice by CBL.

I will continue to monitor this situation.  However if you have trouble getting email from this site’s server, especially concerning passwords  for the members area, please see my previous post on this subject.

Update:  8/7/10 @ 1400: The block by CBL has been lifted for over four hours now.  This is a good sign, but not a resolution of the problem below… yet.

Automated emails from this site’s mail server are currently being blocked by many or most ISPs.   It has been listed on the Composite Blocking List for being compromised in some way.   I have already had it delisted, but it has been listed again.

This most directly affects subscribers to the site as it prevents automated messages concerning passwords from being delivered.  I consider this a critical issue.  If it cannot be resolved soon, I will return to the old server and hosting solution.  In the mean time, please read the rest of this message if you are experiencing difficulties logging into the members area!

1. If you recently subscribed and don’t get your initial password right away that means the email has probably been rejected. Please email me at jpannell@triad.rr.com.  I will try to find the rejected message and send it on manually. Please be patient.   It may be several hours before I can respond.   If I cannot find the message, send you a password, or the wait is unacceptable then I will return any payment you made in full.
2. Until I know this is working well, please do not try to recover a lost password. The email probably will not get to you and I have no way of knowing what your password is after you change it!
3. If you absolutely must have access to the members area before this can be fixed and have forgotten your password, use the “request new password” link ONCE, then email me at jpannell@triad.rr.com and be patient.  I may be able to find the rejected email and send it on to you manually.  Kindly remember, I do have a life of my own and may not be able to respond for several hours or more.
4. If you recently subscribed and don’t get your initial password right away, please email me at jpannell@triad.rr.com.   That means it’s probably been rejected.    I will try to find the rejected message and send it on manually.  Please be patient.

Yes, I consider the above to be an unacceptable answer but it is the best I can do until this situation is resolved, short of returning to a server I know is on its last days.  Please be patient!

The matter of broken links and missing image files is a less serious problem.   The site sends me emails whenever a missing image is found.   Usually this is due to me not converting all the file names to all lower case when I downloaded and upload them between the servers.   As these emails are between users on my server, they are not blocked and are not affected by the first problem.

I’ve been watching the traffic flow into the site since I flipped the switch here last night. It looks like DNS entries propagate very fast these days! That’s a far cry from what I remember when I first built this domain when it still took several days for a DNS change to take effect.

If you want to see what sort of traffic this site gets, you can view the stats here:

http://www.oaimages.com/webalizer/usage_201008.html

On another note, I was made aware of a couple of problems so far.  One dealt with this blog and was very easily fixed.  When I rebooted the server last night, I forgot to restart the mySQL server.

A more serious issue deals with the process that automatically subscribes someone to the members area after they pay.   This should be fixed soon.

I also had a “d’oh!” moment.   I never created an email address for webmaster@oaimages.com on this new server.   That will be done shortly!

If you see this post you have accessed OAImages on its new home. It has been running at its IP address for over a week now. A few days ago, oaimages.net was pointed here. Late Thursday night, the switch was flipped for OAImages.com. It may take a couple of days for the DNS changes to propagate around the internet so some visitors may see this site sooner than others.

I expect there to be a few hiccups. Please let me know, preferably in the comments, if you experience any problems.

Thank you.

“Everything is in a state of flux, including the status quo.” – Robert Byrne

Another portion of this site’s move has been accomplished.     This blog’s software, WordPress, is now installed and running at the new location.       Perhaps I should call it “OAImages Blog 2.0″?

Until the move is final, this blog will continue to be updated periodically.   However, my primary focus now is on the site move.     All previous blog posts and data will be transferred to the new location in due course.

My goal is to be moved into the new location by the time everyone returns home from the Jamboree, or shortly thereafter.

I was only recently made aware of this announcement made by Roy More some five months ago, concerning an interactive Blue Book website.         Some are under the impression this website will be discontinued.     That is not true.

It has been my hope that Roy and I could work together on the Blue Book in the future.   I still hope that happens and look forward to hearing more about this in the future.

While the rest of the patch collecting world is at the BSA National Jamboree and the trade-o-rees around it, I have been working on relocating this site.     Thanks to Brett Estrade, webmaster of patchlodge.com for the invaluable help he has given me thus far with this move, and for listening to my sometimes stupid questions.     Thanks, too, to James Ford for his help throughout the years with keeping this site going.

You can follow the move in progress at:   http://204.109.59.2.     As you can see there are still many issues that need to be resolved.

Maybe some day soon I’ll even start answering my email again!       I know I have a lot to answer.     Some I have been deliberately putting off until after the move is done.     Please remain patient.

The move to a new server and location is now in progress.   It is taking priority over any other site work, projects, or even maintenance at this point.   It would be nice to be settled into a new virtual home by the time everyone returns home from the Jamboree but I am making no promises.   In the meantime, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I have no other hardware failures.

Once I get a bit further along, I may post a link to the ip address for the new location in case anyone wants to see the move in progress.     Then in time, the virtual change of address forms will be filed and the site will be officially at the new home.

Does anyone realize how long it takes just to upload the images used on this site?

More details will follow.

As many have noticed this site’s server has been having a lot of problems lately.     It appears to be running alright now, but I don’t know how long that will last.   The short explanation is the current server appears to be dying.     I have already started making the preparations for a move but have my doubts if I can avoid further interruptions.

Please be patient during this frustrating time for all of us.

For those about to go to the Jamboree:   Have fun.     Trade lots of patches and send me images when you return.   Work and finances do not allow me to be there at all this time around.

I have discovered some issues with this server last night.     Most users will not experience any problems, yet, but this may require me to take down the server for an extended period of time to repair the problem.       I don’t yet know when this will be but will try to give some sort of warning if possible and practical.     Please be aware of this and don’t panic if this site is unavailable.

Thank you for your consideration and continued support.

I recently added two new pages to this site.   These are for lodge issues for the BSA’s centennial and for the 2010 National Jamboree.     These may also be reached from the National & Special Events Patches page.       There are only a few issues on each of these pages right now but that should be changing soon.   I have a large number of issues accumulated that have yet to be added.

Thanks to all who have helped make this possible.