Our network has gotten the name ZeroNode and consists of 3 servers currently. We currently host the IRC channels for Argusoog and Teramai Healing.

Come visit us on our main channel, #Zeronode or try our webchat.

Wordpress 2.5 got released earlier this week and it’s got quite a few nice new features, like a new admin interface, concurrent post protection and an updated version of the visual editor (TinyMCE).

Updating was again quite simple, since I’m using subversion. All I had to do was type the following:
svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.5/

After that, I had to run the obligatory upgrade.php of course to get the database updated. Overall it was again a matter of less than 5 minutes.

Updating was fast and easy again, with a total time of 5 minutes again for two blogs. Disable plugins, then run:
svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.3.3/
After that, enable the plugins again.

Now I wish that the plugins would start working on subversion too, so I can update those the same way.

Total update time for the two blogs running now: 5 minutes.

Maybe I should check into a way to make multiple blogs share sources .. that way I would only have to run the subversion command once.

Of course I used the subversion way of setting up this blog as well. This way I can keep them updated easily.

I’ve added an integrated gallery into this website called NextGen Gallery. So far, this seems to be working nicely.

Next up is to see how Google Maps can be integrated into this site. No idea yet how I’m going to tackle that.

The site can be found here.

1. The Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington. If you go there for just one thing, get their Cheese & Gravy fries. They’re delicious. Other good things on their list include the Jalapeno poppers and Buffalo Style chicken fingers. Their brewfries (beer-battered) are pretty tasty as well. Their own microbrews are definitely recommendable, especially the smoked stout (smoked over maple, hickory and applewood).
2. The Magic Hat brewery in South Burlington. They have regular tours available and their artifactory sells a variety of merchandise. But most important is their tap (of course). They have a variety of beers available for tasting here and you can also buy “growlers“, which is a great way to bring home some of their beers that they don’t sell in stores.
3. Quiznos. Even though it’s a chain restaurant, I like it better than Subway. I think they’re subs are more varied and tastier than the ones at Subway.
4. Tiny Thai in Winooski, VT. This is a small restaurant, be prepared for a wait. The food makes up for it though. Tasty food, generous portions. If you like Thai food, you’ll love this place. Their Tom Yam is delicious.
5. Henry’s Diner in Burlington. This place has great food. I can definitely recommend the Philly Cheese Steak skillet breakfast. Bring a good appetite, though. It’s a big plate of food.

Overall I had my fill of typical New England food (and some Thai) over the weeks of my vacation and I found some places I will surely want to visit again.

From Burlington, we took the interstate to Montepelier, where we went onto Route 302.
This took us to Barre, where we saw a few very interesting sculptures along the road. Defnitely a place to check out further.
After Barre, we drove on along route 302 into New Hampshire.

In Bath, NH we saw an old covered bridge along the road that we just had to cross. It was quite long and a bit scary to cross the first time. On the other side we found out it was built in 1832.
Of course, we had to cross back to continue our journey, though that wasn’t as freaky as the first time.

From Bath, our trip took us through Lisbon on the way to Littleton, where we spent about an hour trying to find GG Allin’s grave in St. Rose Cemetery. His grave was covered in broken bottles and what seemed to be a small pile of human excrement.

After Littleton, the trip took us south past Franconia along I-93 to the Indian Head resort near Lincoln.
The view of this face in profile in the side of the mountain was very nice, especially when the sun was starting to go down a bit.

On the way back north to Franconia, we saw the “Sleeping Dog”. That’s not the official name of the mountain range, but it really looked like it. We took a small detour to watch the Mt. Washington hotel at night. It looked really nice all lit up.

After that, we checked in at Hillwinds Lodge in Franconia, had dinner, went to a store for a 12-pack of beer and spent the remainder of the evening just hanging out in the motel room with beer + music.

The next morning after breakfast, we went south into the Franconia Notch state park, where we stopped at regular intervals for more scenic views. We visited ‘the basin‘, a pothole that was eroded at the end of the last ice age. It looked really nice with the landscape mostly covered in a layer of snow.

From there, we went south to Lincoln, where we went onto route 112, also called the Kancamagus Highway. This scenic route took us all the way to Conway, with frequent stops along the way, most notably at Rocky Gorge. Some wild turkeys accentuated the scenic beauty of this route.

After a nice mexican lunch at Cafe Noche in Conway, we traveled up north along route 16 towards route 302 (a familiar number by now). After traveling through Crawford Notch, we stopped at Willey House for some more pictures. Unfortunately, the area looked to be closed down for the winter. Even all signs had been removed (except for a sign about black bears).

Shortly after Willey House, the trip was completed by a sudden moose sighting. After quickly turning around the car and backtracking a short bit, we were treated with a great view of a young female moose standing along the road before disappearing back into the forest.

The last stop on the trip was back at Mt. Washington for some pictures of the mountains lit up by the setting sun. After that, we took Route 302 back towards Barre, VT (with a mandatory two way trip over the covered bridge at Bath). From Barre, we took I-89 back to the Burlington area. Just before getting back to Burlington, a couple of meteors from the Leonid meteor swarm gave the trip a final finishing touch.

Overall, the trip into New Hampshire was definitely worth our time. I really enjoyed the trip, the scenery was stunning and the moose sighting just completed the whole package.

Pictures to follow, once I get around to editing them.

Some samples:

More pictures here!

We left from Burlington to South Hero and then took the Grand Isle ferry over to Plattsburgh, NY.
From there we drove around a bit, mostly going north until we got to Fort Montgomery (also called Fort “Blunder”) near Rouses Point, NY (very close to the Canadian border). We went back to the Vermont side of the lake there across a bridge.

Right after that, we got to the town of Alburg, VT .. or should I say Alburgh, VT? I don’t know .. but neither do the people that live there, it seems. There’s a whole disagreement going on about whether or not the town’s name should end in an H or not. Alburg(h) is sort of unique in that it’s the only part of the USA that actually only touches Canada and is surrounded by water on all other sides (Apart from Alaska).

From there we traveled back southwards towards Isle la Motte and visited St. Anne’s Shrine. It’s a really pretty outdoor church (though the church itself wasn’t open now).

After St. Anne’s Shrine, it was pretty much directly back to Burlington. The sun was setting anyway, so there wasn’t much left to be seen outside, except for the sunset over the Lake Champlain islands.

Overall, I took about 120 pictures today. I will try to upload some of them soon.