Archive for March, 2008
3/2/2008
where they hang up their keyboards
I found out yesterday that a blogger decided to hang up his keyboard and say he’s not blogging anymore. It wasn’t because anyone was giving him crap or anything like that.. he basically said he doesn’t feel like doing it anymore.
This isn’t a big deal but I’ve been noticing a lot of people doing this recently. It started in very-late ‘07 and continues on into ‘08. People are either stopping blogging altogether or “going private”.
Heck, fine by me.. it means I get more traffic.
In addition it pleases me when those who can’t write worth a shit “go private” or stop blogging. What they wrote previously sucked anyway and no one cared.
(This of course doesn’t apply to Kat at all because she’s a monster-good writing force of biblical proportions. Seriously. Doesn’t apply to Shane either.)
it came from CL
I posted another dopey personal ad on craiglist, and of course I got my usual volley of responses - including girls who contacted me before but completely forgot they did previously. Very annoying.
Every time I get one of these “new” responses I block their e-mail address.
One response said, and I shit you not, the following:
Again, forget that you I responded and remember that I didn’t respond… if you could please…thanks
Can you figure out what that means?
I sure couldn’t.
I responded and told her I had no idea what the fuck she was asking.
She responded back with this:
Nevermind…I didn’t mean to carry on my nonsense this far…
Whatever, dopey girl..
Okayokayokayokay.. yes I know I’m complaining.. for good reason.. but I have to remember that fact that I actually get responses. I am very happy that it actually happens.
Better to get shitty responses than none at all. Besides which, not all are shitty. Some are good and lead to dates.
Rawr. :-)
sticking with what works
On a whim I tried out MovableType 4.1 which is now listed as open source. I did this because WordPress pisses me off. More on that in a moment.
Modern-day MT works very nicely. It’s solid and a good performer. However I found it to be slow compared to WP. The admin section is a bit too bloated and you have to hunt’n'peck around to do simple functions.
My first biggest yap about WP is the template system. I haven’t liked it since day one. Being that I’m the type who likes to customize, WP’s way of doing things just seems a bit backwards at times.
My second biggest yap is the fact there’s shit in WP you can’t turn off in the admin panel, like “curly” quotes for example. Sure, if you’re willing to “hack the code” you can turn it off, but who wants to bother with bullshit like that? I don’t.
WP’s saving grace is how well it works with Akismet. Blog spam basically doesn’t exist when you have that running. Yes, I know MT has their own spam prevention and Akismet can be integrated into that software as well, but it works best on WP.
In addition, MT isn’t like it used to be. Years ago it was bitchin’ fast but now it’s only a shadow of the speed it used to be.
So.. for the time being it’s WP for me even though the template system pisses me off.
GPS club not to exist?
On CL I tried advertising to start up a GPS club but got no bites at all. Kinda disappointing. I was hoping at least one person would have been interested in it. Alas, there wasn’t.
Maybe I went about advertising it in the wrong way or didn’t say the right things? I dunno.
Sooner or later I’ll find some Tampa Bay Florida locals who are into GPS like I am - that I’m sure of. :-)
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3/5/2008
scheduled e-mail send-outs
My e-mail program is Mozilla Thunderbird. I switched back to this since I stopped using Gmail entirely (and haven’t gone back to it since by the way). One feature in t-bird is “send later” but the problem is that you can’t specify when to send later automatically. Your only option is to manually send.
But then I found a t-bird extension called Send Later, and YES it allows for scheduled sending of e-mail. ROCK ROCK ON. :-)
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking.. “Whatever man.. big deal..” Oh it is a big deal.
Here are several really good reasons why I seriously dig this:
If I’m up @ 2am and reply to a mail, I can schedule it to send @ 6am to give the appearance I wasn’t up @ 2.
If someone sends me a mail that pisses me off and I write up a really nasty reply, I can future-send it for 2 hours later. Chances are that after an hour I’ll have calmed down, examined what I wrote, edit out all the “I’m angry at you” crap and then write something more civilized.
I have my best ideas for an e-mail response when I first receive the e-mail, but I don’t want the recipient to get my reply 5 minutes later because it makes me look like I’m tied to the computer. In this case I’ll reply anyway and do a future-send to give the appearance I read and replied later.
Some people read their e-mail at specific times of the day. I can now schedule e-mails to pop into their inbox when I know they’re there. This is cool because my e-mail shows up first as newest. :-)
no ring for you!
I found something so simple.. yet so effective.. in my MOTORAZR phone.
A “no ring” option.
No, I’m not taking about turning all rings off.
I’m talking about specifying “no ring” for specific people.
Example: Some moron keeps calling you and you don’t want to talk to them. Yes they’re easy enough to ignore but it would be nice to just never know they called. Having “no ring” set for that specific idiot is the answer. Yes they’ll probably waffle into your voicemail but whatever.. at least you don’t have to deal with the ring when they call.
Rock rock on. :-)
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3/5/2008
Just because she’s that awesome. See vid below.
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3/7/2008
Here’s the short list of things I’ve been up to:
I’ve been blogging a bit less than usual because I’ve been busy with work stuff. Last night I spent a few hours on live cam fielding tech questions for chatters and that was cool. I’ve also been writing (i.e. blogging) a lot for work as well.
Concerning the hunt for a date, I had a phone conversation with a girl and it didn’t last too long. She was a bit on the annoying side because she called me from her car (bad move) and didn’t seem too interested in me. That’s okay because I wasn’t too interested in her either.
Ah well, what ya gonna do.
There’s a tornado watch in the Tampa Bay area tonight. Right now I’m writing this from Pop’s place, so hopefully on the trip back I won’t be swept up in a wind funnel of doom. :-)
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3/9/2008
About 10 or so minutes ago I logged off the live video stream that is in fact for work purposes. I stayed on for several hours and chatted with the “locals” on uStream.
I was reminded, once again, that it is the host that makes a show even if the host is blabbering on about nothing (more or less).
Yeah, I had a blast doing it. I helped a few folks here and just shot the breeze with others. The audience seemed to dig my brash personality and really took to it well.
Several times there were other uStreamers that offered to rally around the channel and promote it just because they thought it was cool.
Why? Because I’m real. I don’t try to put on a “television face” for webcam streaming because people can see right thru that. Instead I’m just my usual brash self.
They like that.
And so do I.
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3/9/2008
In my freshman and soph years of high school I went to a Catholic high school, then transferred to a public school for my junior and senior years. The reason I transferred was because of one teacher in particular. In a future post I’ll tell that story, but not now. I mention this to note that it wasn’t any one of my peers that drove me away from that place.
On Facebook a girl sent me a message that was at that Catholic school the same time I was. We were in the same grade. I’ve been trading messages back and forth with her.
During those years I was socially inept (particularly with girls) but some I felt okay talking with, and this girl was one of them. For whatever reason she just seemed more approachable than other girls. She said she remembered the conversations we used to have and liked what we talked about.
For the life of me I can’t remember a darn thing we spoke of, and that bugs me. I want to ask her about what I said that stuck with her all these years, but that means I’d have to admit I don’t remember a frappin’ thing. ;-) So I guess I’ll have to be content to live with the mystery.
In one of the messages sent I told her I always thought I was invisible to everyone. She said she knew I felt that way so maybe I wasn’t as invisible as I thought and that yes, that whole “people don’t know I exist” b.s. really was all in my head.
I admit, I like it that I was remembered and moreover remembered in kind.
Kinda makes me wonder if anyone else remembers me from that school..?
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3/10/2008
Yes I know I haven’t been coming up with good blog post titles lately. Whatever. :-)
Doing the live stream thing for work has been interesting to say the least. In the short time I’ve been doing it I’ve learned that chatters get a bit shocked when dealing with a brash personality (as I have). I guess most online hosts choose to go with the “nice guy” route but there are times when I just don’t. In particular if some kid enters the chat room and does that me-me-me gimme-gimme attention thing, I will usually give it to him. The funny thing is the kid doesn’t know what to do at that point, gets scared, and leaves.
Ah well, what ya gonna do.
I’ve also been reading this blog from the stomping grounds (which I’ve mentioned here before). I don’t know the author but it’s plainly obvious absolutely nothing has changed in 2 years up that way - and I don’t say that with praise. The comments from the locals basically state everything you’d want (and not want) to know.
There’s part of me that has a good chuckle when reading that blog but another part that feels a bit ashamed because I come from there. Granted, I moved away and did good for myself, but still.. it’s where I grew up. Maybe I have some subconscious desire that one day the place will get cleaned up and become a better place to live. But I honestly can’t see that ever happening, or at least not happening for a very long time.
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3/12/2008
Earlier this eve I co-hosted an online tech show with the boss. It was good and actually brought in more traffic that last week which was really nice.
I can tell the show is already starting to get popular because the chat room attracted a few trolls. They spewed their usual standard fare. I kicked; I banned; I moderated. That’s what chat room “ops” do. Fortunately it stopped after I turned moderation on (if you don’t know what that is, don’t ask, it’s an IRC thing).
. . .
I haven’t been blogging as much as I normally do because I’ve actually been (gasp) busy. But even so, here’s the poop on what’s going on with yours truly:
The tax thing with Killingly - to the best of my knowledge - is 100% resolved. I should be receiving a receipt from that office in the mail before the week is out.
April marks my 2-year anniversary of living in Florida. Doesn’t sound like a long period of time to most, but when you consider this is the longest time I’ve spent away from the stomping grounds, it truly is a long time.
At the 2-year anniversary mark I will be upgrading to a 1-bedroom apartment.. FINALLY. I’ve been living in what’s known as a “studio” all this time, and while some consider it way too small, it’s mine and I love it. And I’ll love it even more when I have a bedroom and a small utility room with washer/dryer hookups, thank you very much. :-)
The Buick restoration has been a slow-going process, but in all honesty I am in no rush. The car is acquired; I got it. However it’s very low on my to-do list; this is why updates have been few and far between.
I have a big-ass post I’ve been working on for a while listing all the old haunts at the stomping grounds. It includes a mall, hang-outs and other places. The post is big. Really big. I haven’t posted it yet because there are parts of it that are a bit angry-sounding, so I’m debating whether to let that loose on my blog. Why? Because I’m 100% sure word will get around and it may ruffle a few feathers up north. True, I don’t have to care, but also true you have to think before you speak when blogging; that’s just the way it is.
More on that later.
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3/14/2008
Upon recent inspection of my blog I’m not all too happy with how the information is presented. Things seem to be sorta/kinda slapped together in a jumble.
What I’m going to do (soon) is re-org this thing in a way where stuff is much easier to get to. Easy is good.
Short post, but yeah it’s time for another redesign. :-)
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3/14/2008
Well, I changed around my template but it happened unintentionally. I was working on the template and accidentally deleted the CSS files for the old template (oops) so I was forced to use the new one.
Turns out this was for the best because I actually like this one because I like this one better, so good deal there.
Now I can get on with my regular blogging. Yay. :-)
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