Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Opportunity Cost
I continue to be hyper busy. I have to be at a client’s office at about 10:00 AM and will be lucky if I can get home by 9:00 PM. Though the pressing part is over about 5:00 and after that is just more casually taking care of this and that for my big, currently on autopilot client, and doing things in my own office.
I wonder if other people who do service work by the hour start to think in terms like:
Typical drive, wait, and cut time for a haircut will cost about $160. Plus $10 for the actual payment to barber.
I found myself thinking that one specifically yesterday, and it’s not the first time. Yet sometimes when there are things I could be doing for my big client, in my own building, I let myself be distracted by blogs. Maybe I take them too much for granted, or they are less exciting to work for.
Anyway, I can just picture myself torn between spending a few hours with my kid or generating a few hundred bucks more revenue, and I am not sure I like that image.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Rest In Peace
Gennie lost her nephew, Jeremiah Savage, to shrapnel while he was giving children candy and Frisbees in Iraq.
Need there be any further discussion of the difference between us and the enemy, or of the oversight in not killing enough of them to show them the futility of being our enemy? No, I didn’t think so.
Sorry about that.
I was off doing my domestic goddess impression. Regular programming may now resume…
The case of the gaslit belly.
Maybe the most amusing thing about pregnancy is the myriad of little discomforts and indignities that sneak up on you when you aren’t looking. These usually frighten you in some way, then laugh in your face before heading for the corner to tag the next one into the match.
Case in point: last night I felt uncomfortable in a slightly irritable-painful-but-not-enough-to-really-weird-me-out sort of way, as I seem to more and more often in the evenings, presumably because that’s when my belly reaches maximum stretched-ness for the day. So then I wake up this morning feeling sort of vaguely strange and crampy, and I can’t figure out where it’s coming from, and I lie there in bed for a while imagining all of the terrible things that might be happening, including that I might take a little discomfort too seriously and be laughed at by a large group of medical personnel, which was quickly followed up by the conviction that I must be killing my baby by not freaking out and going in Right.Now.
Then I got up to go get a glass of water. Upon standing, I farted. In fact, I let loose with one of the most impressive examples of the genre that it has ever been my pleasure to host.
Discomfort gone.
That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about.
It’s just so damned interesting living in a body that has altered so much I have no real idea what it’s doing at any given moment. It’s sort of like puberty on steroids. Except that the effects of puberty weren’t offset by being able to feel baby kicking and squirming inside and going all gushy and cute and teary-eyed every time I do.
Thank God. High school was bad enough the way it was.
I’m alive!
I did actually post this morning, it’s just that I did so over at the baby’s page.
Warning: said post contains bodily-function humor.
Yes, I am working hard to abandon the last shreds of my dignity. I won’t need it where I’m headed...do you know how they expect me to get this baby out?
It’s an absolute marvel that the human race has survived despite this ridiculous setup. But that’s a whole other post…
XML Error?
When the pMachine Control Panel was processing the previous post, it gave me an error it has never shown before, just before the spot where it says weblogs.com was pinged and a trackback was sent. It said:
XML error: junk after document element at line 2
Nothing is overtly wrong with the post, naturally, and no changes have been made that would affect pMachine. It also sent a mangled trackback followed by a good one.
Very strange.
Blogiversary Traffic Jam
This is the kind of naked request from a fine fellow blogger that I can really appreciate.
It also gives one more example of my observation that Site Meter will always act up and fail you just before a major benchmark.
Monday, May 17, 2004
I want that smiley that bangs his little head against the little brick wall.
Why do I try to do *anything* on Mondays?
WordPress made me cry.
OK, I’m pregnant. Everything makes me cry.
I’m not bitching, because I’m not ready to ask for help yet and I’m sure this has to be a problem that’s related to my being a total dumbass, but I can’t figure out what’s going wrong with my attempts to install WP. Which just goes to show you that for every theoretically idiot-proof process, there’s an idiot who can defeat the proofing.
Sigh.
And this I chose to do rather than housework or shopping. The husband’s going to be *thrilled* when he gets home.
Question for you ex-smokers out there...do the cravings ever lay off a bit? It’s been almost three months since I quit, and other than a bit of a drop-off after about 10 days (subject to periodic flares that make me want to scream), it’s every bit as hard not to smoke now as it was when I stopped. If I didn’t believe myself when I lie and tell myself that I can have one in about four and a half months, I think I’d go completely insane.
Four and a half months? I’m going to have a baby in four and a half months? *jaw drops open* It’s going by so quickly!
Anyway, I’m still stuck at that place where I’d do just about friggin’ anything--including starting again after the baby’s born (I’m not enough of an asshole to start again now)--to not have to feel like this. Somebody please tell me it gets better. Note that this is one of those rare instances where I give you permission to lie to me.
‘m going to go curl up on the couch now and watch some bad TV. I’ll see y’all in the morning, ‘eh?
Hello in there…
[Originally published to the old baby blog]
So we were at 20 weeks as of yesterday. Halfway! We might even be ready by the time the little squirt arrives. We have a nice highchair hand me down, and my mother landed us a good used crib for $15 Saturday and volunteered to buy a new mattress for it. She also offered us a toybox my great uncle made for my younger brother when he was a baby. Great storage.
Deb has been feeling the little gymnast for weeks. Even though it was improbable, she kept having me try to feel what are still modest little kicks and bouncing of the walls. Which, incidentally, seems to go in not always predictable sleep/wake or active/inactive cycles, which sometimes appear to change abruptly in response to given foods.
Saturday I had my hand on The Belly™ and Deb watched me get a funny look on my face. “You felt that one, didn’t you?” I did! Kind of a smudgy brushing of pressure against my hand below the fingers. So light I needed that confirmation to be sure what had happened. That was so cool!
It’s still so early, we can only imagine the pummeling Deb will get as the baby gains size and strength. At least the wall-bouncing, gymnastic mobility will lessen. I can’t wait to be able to feel it more clearly and regularly.
Positively Monday.
I slept incredibly well last night, thus depriving myself once more today of a fully functioning brain. If I manage to do so tonight, too, I predict I will wake in the morning filled with a weird energy that will result in something like cleaning the bathroom floor on my hands and knees.
It could use it, it really could.
Anyway, I’m late to the party today in more ways than one. I have the cash to do the grocery shopping I was planning on, but I just looked up from what I was reading and realized that it’s almost 1400 already and I haven’t even showered. Something tells me that I’m not going to make it to the store today...at least not for the big weekly shopping trip thing that I had planned. Of course, tomorrow will do just as well, but I was *so* trying to get myself psyched up for today.
I have a weird thing about not wanting to go grocery shopping lately. I have no idea what that’s all about.
In the meantime, Battle Gay Marriage is underway at Iron Blog. Both contestants seem to be off to a rocky start, but it should shape up to be an interesting battle.
I’m going to go try to hurry up and finish reading what I was reading, so I can move on to the RL stuff I need to get done. Back in a bit…
…and balance is restored to the universe.
Carnival of the Cats. Here. Go.
Mornin’. Coffee?
Squirmy Little Squirt
I just made a post, mainly about feeling the baby for the first time, on the pregnancy blog.
A Marginal Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Flaunt
This is so wrong. Never had the kind of thing happen to me, exactly, but I have encountered plenty of stupid people in workplaces and even made some of them uncomfortable.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
So I Don’t Have To
Joe comments on the latest voting irregularities. Close enough to the kind of thing I might have said.
Juxtaposition
Seeing this, via here, made me remember this. For whatever it’s worth.
May 17 Carnival of the Capitalists is Up
Check out the May 17 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists hosted by Josh at d-42.com. If you sent an entry and don’t see it, the spam filter may have become overzealous, so he asks that you add it to the comments. You also have the option of sending it in for the next edition instead.
Startup Skills will be hosting the May 24 edition. Send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide -dot- com and they will ultimately get to the right place.
Have I mentioned Carnival of the Dogs? Send your canine entries to mickeym -at- comcast -dot- net while you’re at it.
Future hosts and info can be found here. Past CotC locations can be found here. The fixed URL that will take you to the latest CotC is http://elhide.com/solo/cc.htm.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Well Hello Running Girl
I just discovered through my referrers that a friend of mine has a blog on LiveJournal called Another Polite Rant. That’s so cool!
Woof? Meow. No… woof!
Mickey has this week’s Carnival of the Dogs, but it is sadly underpopulated. Come on folks, you can do it!
Send your entries for the next CotD to mickeym -at- comcast.net. If you don’t, the cats will have won.
Even more MT 3.0…
This is not a good sign.
Not to mention that I’m annoyed now because anything that annoys Kevin out of blogging annoys me. And I thought I could be a semi-impartial observer of all of this drama…
MT Saga Still Unfolding and Intriguing to Watch
Mena has posted changes and clarifications regarding the new MT licensing as a result of the firestorm.
Will it be enough? I don’t know, but it will be interesting to watch. Again, this is lively fodder for business analysis blog posts, which can be submitted to Carnival of the Capitalists.
I suspect enough damage has been done to seriously erode their user base. It was already starting. Deb went from loving MT to wanting pMachine for this blog, then hand-coding the pregnancy blog and testing out WordPress for a possible blog by a client of mine. I went from being somewhat intrigued by MT to chosing pMachine when I setup my first non-BlogSpot blog, mainly because it was easier to setup and MT struck me as too zealously popular. Whatever they do with the pricing structure - and they should be able to charge for it - there is still the issue of how comment spam was handled or lack thereof, and the over the top way comments will be handled in the new version. I saw them losing user volume even at a price of free. Thus many people were primed to react in the worst way possible to what they see as bad pricing and licensing arrangements.
So is it better to lose people you’d have lost anyway, and some, but generate good revenue from those you keep? Will the bleeding go too far? This is a business case study unfolding before your eyes, at the same time it’s a study of blogosphere behavior.
Friday, May 14, 2004
The Unbearable Sleepiness of Being a Puppy
There’s nothing like puppies for being adorable, laid back, full of life, boisterous, and… shamelessly sleepy? Let’s pull back the “do no disturb” sign for a moment and check out a prime example. This is Gracie, my cousin’s new puppy…
Can you just stand all this cuteness? If so, remember you can click the pics above for larger versions. Heh. Now that’s what I call total relaxation.
I got nothin’.
Yeah, I know I’ve been pretty quiet this week.
I seem to be going through one of those phases where the back of my mind is working at full speed, but it isn’t sharing with the rest of me. Times like this I wind up with a condition that isn’t exactly writer’s block...it’s more like writer’s constipation.
*dropping that metaphor before it can do any more damage*
...this post has been sitting in Notepad for an hour now and I haven’t been able to think up a cute elaboration. This is what I mean…
Pity the ‘sphere when my voice comes back.
Happy Friday, y’all.
Biz Analysis of MT Good Topic for CotC
Looking for a business practices topic to post about for Carnival of the Capitalists? How about analyzing Six Apart past and present, perhaps speculating on the future, or proposing how you would go forward from here if you were them. They are in a PR and marketing nightmare that makes one wonder if they ever fully understood their own customers and product.
I never liked MT much myself, and the following for it seemed too cult-like. However, I could see it ramping up a revenue stream far more gracefully than this. Indeed, this may be a study in pricing as an aspect of marketing, and what happens when you misjudge elasticity. The Kool-Aid doesn’t taste or look like champagne.
But this is not intended to be an analysis; merely a suggestion that it is a prime topic for analysis by bloggers. I’ll be curious to see who says what in CotC posts examining Six Apart’s gory growing pains.
MT3
It seems to me that explaining the outrage is really pretty simple. It’s not that they’re charging for it, it’s that the licensing scheme betrays a total misunderstanding of the way people use their product.
Sad. Very, very sad.
Via, oh, just about everyone.
And Another Reminder…
Then there’s the new Carnival of the Dogs, to be posted for its second edition on Saturday at Mickey’s Musings.
Send your doggie entries to mickeym -at- comcast -dot- net for inclusion. I haven’t posted anything yet myself, but expect to do so tonight, if only about my cousin’s new puppy.
CotC Reminder
It’s past time for my usual reminder about Carnival of the Capitalists. Monday’s edition will be hosted by Josh Cohen. Submit your entries by Sunday evening to capitalists -at- elhide -dot- com per usual.
No ideas on what to write? Rob has an excellent suggestion for generating inspiration to write about good or bad business practices.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Sigh.
Blogging is most likely over for the day due to continued connectivity issues. Until I can drag my husband in here and convince him to figure out what’s going wrong, I quit.
[Long description of exactly how the thing is pissing me off deleted out of mercy.]
I am also having trouble getting into my e-mail, so my apologies if I haven’t replied.
Luckily, I have a backup plan: shopping. Heh. I’m not someone who enjoys shopping for clothes, but I really don’t enjoy doing laundry, either, and I’m down to one outfit I can leave the house in.
Maternity racks, here I come.
I’ll see y’all tomorrow. *waves*
Search Engine ‘Lanches Can Be Fun
James Joyner is having an outrageous traffic surge on account of Nick Berg Googlers. He points out other bloggers having similar traffic issues.
For my part, I have been meaning to comment about the sheer volume of traffic we have been getting on two posts. One is about MCI making obnoxious, obsessive phone calls. Another is indirectly about the Sasser worm, with the thing people search for being lsashell. Which Google helpfully wants to search for you as lsa shell instead.
The MCI post gets hits on 713-331-0146 when people angrily search the number to find mention of it. At one point, anyway, I was the lone hit. Commenters have helpfully added other numbers, some of which I also had gotten additional MCI calls from:
973-437-2125
410-864-0019
The lsashell post was partly about the computer guy bane, people who hound you for free help, often more demanding than people who are willing to pay. In it, I ended up determining that the person who’d called me must have Sasser. With the vulnerability it exploits, it can provoke and lsashell error. Thus all those searches lately on that term.
At least for us it’s been a nice boost in traffic and, who knows, maybe a public service connecting people with Symantec’s security response page or a place to vent about the MCI calls. It’s not gotten out of hand like mentioning Nick Berg or pointing to the video did for some bloggers.
This Is Rob Galt Speaking
Speaking of audio blogging, Rob the BusinessPundit experimented with audio so we could hear what he sounds like. No surprises; he sounds as I expected him to sound. He’s looking for your comments on the idea.
The Goal Is To Win
Ian Hamet, who has quite a nice looking new design, is rather close to what the AV plan for victory would be had one of us written it up. You guys miss out on a lot of one on one “audio blogging” we do to each other but don’t post for public consumption.
There is too much, so let me sum up. A few items, anyway.
Bush should give a speech to the press in which he reminds them that they report the news. They do not make the news, set policy, etc.
It’s absurd that the notion of Rumsfeld resigning has even been uttered.
The administration is bordering on being too muddled and letting the press run it, perhaps as a temporary measure on the idea it will aid the re-election.
Mary Jo couldn’t be reached for comment, but she’d no doubt agree Teddie has lost what little of it he had left.
Prison abuses? Way out of line. Being dealt with. Prison abuse scandal? Way over the top. Too much delight and self-flagellation, depending on the side or perspective.
The beheading? Way out of proportion in relation to the scandal it allegedly pays back and in lack of press reaction. Lots of people need to die now so they learn not to pull this shit again. Those people just happen not to be Catholics, Anglicans, Buhdists, or lilly white. Oh no! I must be a Muslim-hating racist.
Probably forgetting something here. Oh well. And after this we’ll no doubt go back primarily to personal blogging until the news and reactions to it become less boring and obnoxious.