beancounters

Friday dog-blogging: back to basics

I started an entire, pretty lengthy Friday blog post this morning. Suddenly all the text disappeared, leaving just the picture below. This isn't the first time this has happened since Typepad "improved" its product. I walked away from the computer and spent a few happy hours out in 3-D Land to try and calm down. It worked, to the extent I can now sit back down and try again. But once more, I am marshaling my limited powers of concentration to try and arrange a different blog hosting situation. If you want to talk, I'll be over here, with a cardboard tube on my nose. (And now the picture has disappeared! Excellent!)

Taking a break

Lately, I have been feeling slightly guilty desperate perturbed because I have nothing to blog about. At first, I was going to tell you this was not my fault - the internet is just not funny anymore. But we all know that's  not true. Everyone knows there are still terabytes of LOLdoggery and Star Wars humor out there, just waiting for me.

The real problem is, my head is chock full of the un-funny, 24 hours a day. I am writing two reports - one for work, and another one in the evenings, for school. One report will keep me in good stead at Dream Job; the other will enable me to (finally) graduate. If you'd like to read a blog post about a fiscal analysis of volunteer firefighting, or the regulation of the CPA profession, by all means let me know. But after everything you've withstood here over the years, such a post might finally send you over the edge.

So, I've decided to temporarily place this blog on hiatus until the reports are completed, or at least in very good shape. I'll try and continue the weekly roundup on Fridays. I'll still be on Twitter. And in a month or two I'll send you an email to say hello again.

Wow, just typing this ... I feel so relieved!

A Marvel-Disney roundup

Internet, you so crazy! I wish I could have gotten in on the big Marvel-Disney purchase meme while it was still fresh. Monday morning, I kept an eye on the initial flurry of news, Twitter reactions, punditry and parodies, but soon I was obliged to go to a lunchtime appointment. And by 1:00, it was just sordid.

Memo to Marvel from Disney

Excelsior!

Gooflactus

Hulk smash castle

Duck vs. Duck

From @scalzi: "Yes, yes, I know. Disney bought Marvel. You all make it sound like the inevitable 'X-Men Babies' cartoon series is BAD thing."

Spidermouse

Team-ups we'd like to see - actually, the article is so-so, but some of the readers' ideas might make cool movies ...

Unmoored

I just started reading Coming Unmoored, a most excellent blog. Stephanie has recently moved from a fancy Arizona mansion into a two room, one bath house on the waterfront in Oregon. Her Balinese cat, Rumi, took the move with aplomb except for one ... tiny ... hitch.

Just before lunch, Rumi was lazing on a sunny window ledge in the front room when a fishing trawler roared by at top speed.

Rumi’s ears flattened and his eyes bugged out of his angular little head.  “That’s a BOAT.  What the freak is a BOAT doing tearing through our front yard?!”

And before I could field that question, the wake from the boat hit the house, rocking it violently from side to side.

Rumi hastily scuttled from the window sill to the floor where he did his best impression of a two-dimensional object until the worst of the rocking had stopped.  Then he looked up at me in abject horror.  “Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!  You’re telling me we’re on water?  WATER?!!” he finished with a squeak.

I tried to scoop Rumi up into my lap to comfort him but he was having none of it.  Instead, he scurried to his carrier and tucked himself inside. If he could have figured out the zipper I’m pretty sure he would zipped himself in, too.

Managing to reassemble some small modicum of dignity, he blinked once sagely and then informed me: “You can take me back to the airport, now.”

Read the rest here.

Copier unjamming = my super power

I recommend that you bookmark 1000 Awesome Things and read it every week day, just for that 17 seconds of positive feelings before holing up alone in my office. Loved today's entry:

#778 When someone unjams the photocopier for you

And there you stand at the scene of the crime in your pleated pants and button-down shirt. Yeah, I’m guessing the last thing you feel like doing right about now is dropping to your hands and knees and poking your fingers into a steaming engine of paper trays and twirly knobs.

That’s what makes it so great when a bugle blares softly the background and out pops the King Of The Office from around the cubicle wall. Yes, it’s Unjammer-Man, that young techie kid from the IT department who can de-clog the photocopier in no time flat and is happy to lend a hand.

Except that wasn't the kid from IT - it was me, Pam! Unjamming the copy machine is not hard. Success depend on part bitter experience, part willingness to get toner all over my hands, and part knowledge that all you need to do is unhinge all the bright green levers as you make your way into the depths of the machine.

Searching for Angelfire

Boy, this takes me back: The Vintage Web -  I used to work for an agency that regulated diploma mills private schools, and half of their websites looked like these. They'd advertise the opportunity to come to America, have an advanced degree printed, see Disneyland, and go home as a tanned and well-rested Doctor. And even if we managed to track them down and threaten them, they'd just buy themselves another mailbox and put up a different crappy web page. Good times, good times.

Tweetbook

Tweetbook
Originally uploaded by STML

James Bridle says he may be the first to have his own collected Twitter tweets hardbound. Click on the picture to see the whole Flickr set.

I'm not a fan of vanity fiction, but I still think it'd be cool to produce a set of my blog posts or Scrine posts - not to inflict on strangers but to keep.

Quick query

Has anybody checked out self-publishing services such as Blurb or Lulu? After the holidays, I want to make two hard copies of our parodies website. I thought having the posts printed in book form might be the way to go.

Fun with Twitter this week

Me: Whoa. Someone just walked past my window. And I'm on the third floor.

Pops: which is why red nyquil is for day and green nyquil is for night

---><---

Me:           Figured out it's my arm waking me up at night. I WILL keep my appt w/ the orthopedist this time. Sheesh.

Littlemee: you're hitting yourself?

Me: I'm not hitting myself! (?) I'd like to be less passive, but that'd be going overboard. :-)

Littlemee: no,i meant your arm waking you up...

Me: ROFL

Me: Yeah, the damn thing keeps slapping me awake. Says I owe it money.

Littlemee: well, pay it! all inna family, after all.

Doing nothing? Nothing doing

Here's your guided meditation for a Thursday.

You sit down to write a paper. You’ve done all the research you could possibly need to do, but for some reason, you just can’t get started.

Does this mean you’re procrastinating? Ask most anyone and they’ll tell you that you are, but it’s not necessarily true. The things we write aren’t simply a culmination of the research we’ve done into a topic. The mind needs to process new information before it can work with it, and even then, there’s still the matter of what you are going to write about it.

You might think you just need to do some research and get writing, and this is why you sit at the screen unsure of where to start. You haven’t let the project germinate, and it’s like trying to harvest the fruit from a tree while it’s still a seed in the ground. Your brain needs to process that research before it can work with it.

Sometimes I sit and stare around at all the literature I've amassed for a report I've been asked to write, and I just can't think what to do next. The problem may be that I just haven't finished processing what I've read. I should learn to forgive myself, relax and let the pieces of information fall into place naturally.

Of course, sometimes the problem is a dangerously severe chocolate deficiency. But that's another story.

Thank you, Molly!

Your valentines are beyond compare! And so is your poetry. Blogfolk, please, please read Molly's ode to her Valentine. You'll love it. In fact, this is your 'It's Saturday' assignment.

Cyber lists

Check this out. With StuffSafe, you can create and maintain an online inventory of your home's assets, for insurance purposes.

Hmm. One could also create such an inventory on Google Spreadsheet, and cut out the middle man. It'd be smart to keep this list in cyberspace, in case your home computers are stolen or otherwise rendered unusable.

There go my productivity levels

Gawker's newest sister site is io9, dedicated to science fiction and cutting edge science geekery in all its many forms.

This guy will probably like io9 (and vice versa) ... and so will those of us who want to order these.

What's your cyber personality type?

Take the Pew Internet Project quiz and see.

My result? Omnivore

Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.

Basic Description
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. Omnivores are highly engaged with video online and digital content. Between blogging, maintaining their Web pages, remixing digital content, or posting their creations to their websites, they are creative participants in cyberspace.

Ha! makes me sound way more plugged-in than I really am. I do watch news videos online, and blog of course, but the quiz didn't ask how often I do certain cyber tasks such as texting (hardly ever) or posting dog tricks on YouTube (never - but it looks like fun).

Well, obviously, Pew just wanted to know what we're capable of. The other categories in this quiz appear after the jump. What'd you get?

Leading the way to safer toys

I'm impressed. Two Sacto area residents are getting the jump on Christmas. From their blog:

In light of numerous recalls, we've created a listing of brands, toys and products that are NOT "Made in China." We have included links to various sellers and the country of origin for your convenience. Protect your kids and your family!

I thought of my mom when I saw this. She goes to great lengths to buy her grandkids classic toys they'll love. The absence of lead-based paints on them will be a real plus in her book. (BTW, why are lead-based paints still being produced anywhere?)

As for me, I was pleased to see that Slinkys are still manufactured in the U.S.A. I've just decided to give one to everybody on my Xmas list ...
 

Twitter

OK, I just signed up for Twitter. And so far, I don't get it. People log on and say what they're doing at any given point in time. And half of them write in Japanese. And nobody is conversing with anyone else. It's enough to make one miss the formality of a chat room. Does that about cover it?

Besieged

As a last resort, I'm closing comments for now. Really hate to do that, but the spam siege has gone on long enough, with no word from the Help Desk.

This is whatcha call ironic

This week, TypePad has repeatedly blocked friends from commenting on this blog, because (according to the Help Desk) the company is trying to control spam. These are friends who have always had the same IP address, same e-mail address, same handle, same everything. Friends who have never had a complaint submitted about them by a TypePad user (namely me). Friends who have never had a problem with this service up until now.

Meanwhile, this blog has been inundated by real spam this week, in record numbers. --->

TypePad, I have to ask, W, exactly, TF?

Continuum question

We have a Sacramento light rail operator who blogs about his job on RT Driver ... and we have a light rail commuter at RT Rider.

But will they ever meet?

And if they do, will it create some sort of temporal rift in the blog space/time continuum?

Well, all right, then ...

I give up. What would you like to talk about?

a) The whales: delayed, or doomed?

b) Dream Job asking me to find in three days, using Google alone, the exact same data that Dept. of Water Resources has been allocated $5 million and 18 months to find.

c) Celebrities turning to religion in time of crisis. It is, in fact, possible to absorb the wisdom of the Bible and the central tenets of Buddhism through one's skin. Discuss.

d) Unintended consequences: will the act of banning trans fats cause the rise of a new black market for onion rings?

e) Would you accept travel advice from this man?

f) Other (Be specific!)