Friday Fun: The Blog Edition
Mood
Content
1. What different blog formats have you used (i.e. Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, your own HTML, etc.? Which did you like the best?
When I first started blogging I manually entered in my updates on gURLpages a long, long time ago.
After that I switched to Blogger about a year after it came out and was hosted on there for a while, then switched to being hosted on Geocities (before Yahoo! took away free ftp access). I hated how Blogger kept eating my posts though and I also hated the need for remotely hosted comments.
Several years after that I got my own host and used Greymatter for awhile. I started chaffing though when I saw all the cool plugins that Movable Type had, and it seemed like Greymatter was being abandoned. Then our hosting company did a fly by night and I lost all of my archives from the past four or five years. It was very devastating.
We switched to a new host, Dreamhost, and installed Movable Type there and I've been using it for years now. That being said, I am looking to switch to WordPress, because once Movable Type started charging for installs their user base dried up and all of their plugins now require way more work than I strictly require for my little set up here. So, WordPress it is.
They all had their pluses and minuses, but I have to say I'm looking forward to WordPress and what it can do. I'm ready to go fully php and maybe throw in some flash while I'm at it.
2. How did you get into blogging? How long have you had a blog?
Well, I got into blogging thanks to a little site called Full Moon Graphics. They made the graphics that I used on my site on gURLpages all those ages ago and I was quite a fan of the artist. She got into blogging and using Blogger and I decided to tag along. I have been blogging on and off for eight or nine years now. I don't have my original archives but I started coding websites in 1998 and I know that I must have gotten my first blog in late 1999 or early 2000.
3. Why do you blog?
It was a nice place to write and easily publish updates on my thoughts and what was going on in my life. Later it became stress relief during school, and a great way to connect with people and let off steam about classes because I was to shy to do so in class. During 9/11 blogs were the only way I had to find out what was going on as all the major news sites and search engines were either timing out or crashing from the load of people just as worried and scared as I was.
Now? I'm far more careful about what I blog. When I started I could honestly say I was probably the only girl in the school who had a blog. I posted my essays and stories on my blog and had it get picked up by search engines and then was accused of plagiarizing from my own website by teachers that couldn't believe that a girl my age knew what a computer was let alone had coded her own website and blog. But, things have changed and now everyone and their mother has a myspace/xanga/livejournal type thing where they post far more personal things than I ever would have risked and then some. It's become passe. People ask why I don't have a myspace or facebook account and they don't seem to understand that I've been "myspacing" for nearly a decade now on my own terms and in my own way.
When diaryland came out I stayed away because it wasn't why I was blogging, I was blogging for me and not for other people and diaryland (regardless of the word diary) seemed more like a way to fight with people in RL with words and by posting slanderous and scintillating things about themselves and others. Then the "new thing" because livejournal, then deadjournal, then xanga, then myspace and now facebook. Same shit, different site. I said no 10 years ago to diaryland and I'm still saying no today. No, way. That's not why I blog.
I blog for me, really. To hold myself accountable to my goals, to organize my thoughts, to answer some questions for myself outloud. I have other blogs for other purposes, but really this one is just for me. That's probably why it's so neglected, actually. When I want community I go to a forum, but (aside from the stray commenter) that's not really what my blog has ever been about.
4. Do you have theme blog (i.e. crafting, cooking, deployment, pregnancy, etc.) or is it all in one?
I broke down my blogs into several different groups. There's this one which is my main one, my photo blog Graphica, my book blog Fabula, my video blog (which might or might not survive the restructuring) Pixi Agito, and my Sims 2 blog Somnium. Each blog does it's own, pretty self evident, thing and the only place where they overlap really is here.
5. Do you let it all hang out on your blog, or do you keep it light?
I keep it pretty light for now, I have a personal RL journal where I really let go. But here? If I have something I'm ready to say to someone, I'd rather say it to their face. Like I said, I'm not into the passive aggressive online back stabbing.
My blog has always been my way of getting away from the heavy stuff in one way or another.
6. What is your favorite thing about your blog? What has it given you?
It's helped me learn a lot about web design to the point where, when I went to college, there wasn't much new to learn until junior year. It's given me a place to be organized, to be publically accountable for my goals and dreams, and even a place to enjoy telling some stories for the Sims 2, to share some of my photography and post some bits of code that might help someone else with their site.
Even if I have no readers at all I still feel like I'm heard just because my thoughts are now out there. Whether that's true or not is beside the point. Just posting helps you feel not so very alone after all.
Posted by Bitsy at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
Booking Through Thursday: Autumn Reading
Mood
Productive
Booking Through ThursdayAutumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?
I think every season might affect what I read a little bit. But, I always thought this was especially true in fall. It's been ingrained in me for many years that fall equals back to work. I think that's why I decided to rush the 101 in 1001 when I discovered it in mid august. I wanted to start it on the first day of september because that's when you go back to school.
A large part of my 101 in 1001 is reading. I have a habit of squirreling away good reads but then never get around to that long stretch of time when I feel I can devote hours to reading them. So they are unread. Mine is especially ridiculous because there are over 100 books in my 400 book collection that I haven't read. Eep!
But, now that I "have" to read them I'm finding enjoyment in reading books again. Even if does feel just a teensy bit like an assignment. It doesn't hurt that I'm rewarding myself with more books as I go. Before now the only thing I was reading was fanfiction of various works that I had already read. It was because I knew the characters and already cared about them and so there was less effort to get into the story, both on my part and on the writer's part. Now that I'm reading new books I find that, while sometimes its hard to care for these new characters, through poor writing or poor characterization, other times the writer makes it all too easy and I'm glad I made the effort to read the book.
So, is this a habit for autumn? Yes and no. I normally find myself gearing up for a back to work mentality in autumn regardless, whether it's organizing things for work or play, doing fall cleaning to get ready to shut up the house for the winter, or looking for a new reading list or new recommendations, I always find something new to focus on for fall. My reading habits often, but don't always, get impacted. I guess I just feel like it's time for a change and a change of season is a good enough reason as any to go ahead with it.
Posted by Bitsy at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)
Honestly Try 101 New Foods and/or Drinks: Canadian Bacon and Pineapple Pizza
Mood
Blah
We decided to order pizza on Monday and, as usual Two Brothers was closed on Monday. We always want to reward ourselves for enduring a hard Monday by getting take out and the best pizza place in town is always closed on Monday. Argh!
So we decided to *gasp* try a different pizza place. We tried out Pizza-Ria. And, since we were trying out a new restaurant anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and try a new type of pizza while I was at it. So my husband ordered a half ANSE standard, half canadian bacon with pineapple. He loves this type of pizza and has been hoping I'll try it and love it too.
It was fully as weird as I expected it to be. It didn't taste bad or anything. It was just... weird. I guess I would be open to it as a breakfast/brunch option because that's what it tastes like to me, a breakfast food. If I'm in the mood for something sweet I might go for it, but otherwise just give me my ANSE standard.
As for Pizza-Ria in general I have to say, meh. The crust was really dry, they didn't have canned mushrooms as an option and the pizza was served in squares in the size we normal get (16") instead of in pie slices. They are an okay emergency option but I think the next time Two Brothers is closed we'll just try some place else.
Posted by Bitsy at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)
Hike 101 Miles: Miles ? - ?
Mood
Relieved
We ended up going on a hike this weekend. Sort of. Kind of. It surprised us, let's say. So, naturally, I didn't have my pedometer along. Another unlogged hike.
We got a phone call that was automatically sent out to everyone in the suburb advising us that sand bags were available for our drive ways, that flooding was severe, and that Salt Creek had been allowed to empty out into the abandoned quarry. This sounded interesting, a river flowing into that huge empty quarry! Naturally we headed out to see just what this looked like and we weren't the only ones. There must have been about a dozen people there checking things out at any given time. Slow Sunday, and with all this rain, what else is there to do?
The above is the first part of the quarry where they had made a drain off of Salt Creek and a small river bed to lead to the quarry. Those little "bushes" in the river bed are actually trees!
And, here's the quarry. It wasn't a lake before, I can tell you that!
Next we drove to a nearby park to see how bad the Salt Creek itself was, only to find the parking lot completely flooded. Those concrete lines in the water are the parking bumpers.
Here's the rest of the parking lot.
Hopefully whatever is in that storage unit is water proof. Also, check out the dumpster in the background. Flooded all the way up to the holds that the dumpster trucks use to pick it up by!
We went to a different park because the first one was a) flooded and b) had boarded up fences all the way around so you couldn't get to the Salt Creek at all. We ended up on a bridge that went over it that is part of the Illinois Prairie Path.
The poor trees were flooded up to their branches.
The current was moving incredibly fast. Between that and the dark day it was hard to get good pictures.
That and the sun was starting to set. With the drop in temperature we decided to head home.
It was probably a good thing it all went into the quarry. Don't want to think about how bad the flooding would have been otherwise!
Posted by Bitsy at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
Monday Peeve: Annoying Marketing Tactics
Mood
Angry
Two Words: Antivirus 2008.
So many people I know have been affected by this virus and the way that it is implemented and done is so incredibly sleazy and takes horrible advantage of people that only use computers and don't know them. If you don't know what this is, you are incredibly lucky (and probably have a good ad blocker).
Antivirus 2008 is a "product" that advertises itself through pop ups on sleazy websites. It looks like a normal windows xp type window that is advising you that there is a problem with your system. It tells you that you have a virus and they have detected it and to click here to get it taken care of. It's fairly obvious that this is totally bogus, if you take a moment to consider how your computer works.
How long does it take a regular antivirus program to scan your computer? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? 30 minutes? How long does it take this totally bogus ad to tell you that you have a virus? What? In the time it takes to load a page? Really? What makes you think, for even a second, that it isn't totally lying to you then? Though, the fact of the matter is, I know that people do think the pop up tells them the truth and click on it and download this software to their computer. You've just opened a big can of worms.
So, next the virus installs itself. It is a virus, or more specifically malware. AVG, Avast and Computer Associates can (usually) all pick it up. The .exe for the virus is constantly updated though and all three main antivirus programs are struggling to keep up. Sometimes it does not detect it, though often an adaware or spyware program will, to little effect, as they can't uninstall it.
What does this virus do? Essentially it just seems to be a bloated trojan that you can't uninstall through conventional means, there is generally a keylogger involved as well so that when you give them your credit card number it can send it off to them since this software is in no way legal or accredited. Lovely. Don't make any credit card purchases using your computer until this is out of your system.
How do I get this damn thing off? The way they want you to get it off is by paying them to take it off. This is why I am labeling this as a market tactic. I bet they are making a fortune right now off of this with all those stolen credit card numbers. The better way leaves you with two options. One, you do this yourself. Two, you take it into a shop and have a professional do it for you.
So, you want to try and uninstall this monster by yourself.
Step One, if you have AVG, Avast or Computer Associates, run an update on it and then run a full scan. If you have done this and it hasn't found Antivirus 2008 wait an hour, run an update and do it again. If it still hasn't found it skip to Step Three. If it picks it up you may be lucky and get that virus out of there on your first go. Reboot and run the scan again, full scan. Then run any adaware type program such as Adaware and/or Spybot. If it's truly gone then go to Step Four.
Step Two, if you have crap like Norton or McAfee in your system, uninstall it. It's crap. You can reinstall it later if you really feel strongly about having crap on your system but for now we need to take the kid gloves off and use some real software to fix this problem, ok? Install any of the three above antivirus programs I mentioned, two are free for personal use, one has a free trial so all three will work for our purposes. Once it's installed, update it to the latest version and run a full scan. If you have done this and it hasn't found Antivirus 2008 wait an hour, run an update and do it again. If it still hasn't found it skip to Step Three. If it picks it up you may be lucky and get that virus out of there on your first go. Reboot and run the scan again, full scan. Then run any adaware type program such as Adaware and/or Spybot. If it's truly gone then go to Step Four.
Step Three, the virus scanner didn't pick it up? You must have a very recent copy of the virus. Try using Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware and this guide. Reboot and run the antivirus scan again, full scan. Then run any adaware type program such as Adaware and/or Spybot. If it's truly gone then go to Step Four.
Step Four, preventive measures. Finally, install Firefox along with a decent Adblocker and delete the IE icon from your desktop, quick launch bar, etc. That way there is no chance that any user of your computer will ever do anything like that ever again. If it happened once, it will happen again, spammers, scammers, and worse are getting better and better at tricking the average computer user into compromising their passwords, their system and their pocket book. You need to get better too and having none of their stuff ever display for you in the first place works to that end.
The best way to avoid an annoying marketing tactic is to not give it a chance to market to you in the first place.
This was a participation in Monday Peeves.
Posted by Bitsy at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
Monday Progress Report: 101 in 1001
Mood
Amused
My second week was no less stressful than the first, but for different reasons. There was a miscommunication between one of my clients and his partner that resulted in a mock up being confused for a finished site and so we had to rush to finish an entire web site in only three days. From mock up, to approved design, to writing up the copy for the client, to finished project, whew! That took up the greater part of my week. As a result I didn't end up getting nearly as much done as I would have liked.
35) Read all unread books in personal collection (not including reference, text books, supplemental).
I only ended up getting two books read this week. I am in a long stretch of boring books that I am determined to get through. I am just very glad that I decided to reward myself and, for every five books that I get through, I get myself a book off of my wish list, whether through book mooch, amazon, or other means. It has been a god send in a dearth of good reading, like I'm experiencing now.
40) Go out on a date with Matthew once every other week.
Our first date ended up being a stay at home date due to the heavy rain that has been bombarding Chicago all weekend. We watched the BBC's Pride and Prejudice (the 1995 rendition). It definitely had it's differences from the 1985 one which we already own. The 1995 one was more human (the actors expressed a wider range of emotions and touched more on the improper scenes of Wickam's debauchery, etc in Pride and Prejudice). It also had children, which 1985 lacked, and depictions of other classes than the rich and the lesser rich. And yet, at the same time, Lizzie's parents were depicted as more inhuman and selfish than they were in the 1985 movie.
In the 1985 movie it was all for humor and the characters were more like characitures of themselves. Yes, the father was distant and spent more time laughing at his family than raising them, yes the mother was thoughtless and simple, but they still clearly loved their children, if not each other. In 1995 they were more in earnest and the mother appeared far more self centered then I like to think of her as. In the 1985, yes, she was silly, but she still loved her daughters and had their back, so to speak.
Anyway, enough of the review. We had a lot of fun eating popcorn snuggled up on the couch and, as it was a made for TV Series that we started late, we ended up staying up until nearly 2AM. It was still lots of fun though.
53) Finish unpacking from the move.
We got no where with this this week. I managed to sort through a stack of some 100+ CDs we had. Mostly programs, old course CDs, burned CDs, back ups, music, games, and more Linux versions than you could shake a stick at! As for the rest. Well... we did get several things listed on Freecycle and we shipped off several books that had been hanging around to people on Book Mooch. We also got our other bulletin board up, but Matt's clothes still haven't been sorted and his art supplies have still conquered the dining room table. Alas. Maybe this week.
66) Clean out my inbox.
Made some progress on this. Managed to get through 2002 and 2003. The strange emails I came across in my work though. There were old emails from my high school teachers and principal, stuff from the reporters who did articles on me when I graduated, stuff from Scholastic from when I won that award for my senior writing portfolio. There were strange forwards from friends, and even stranger memes from the same. One was so idiosyncratic that I had no idea who it was from and couldn't guess even after reading a whole survey about them. Well, two years down, only five to go.
68) Finish and organize this list.
I made two more goals this week. Only 25 more to go. Any ideas at all would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by Bitsy at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)
Honestly Try 101 New Foods and/or Drinks: Magic Moon Tea
Mood
Cheerful
The other tea that we picked up at Serene Teaz was a tea called Magic Moon. I tried it hot and without my usual condiments (milk and sugar) at the store and, while interesting, found it too strong. I need my milk and sugar! My husband brewed it up cold with honey and I decided to give it a try.
To understand how amazing it is that I am trying cold tea you have to understand that in Pennsylvania we have Turkey Hill Iced Tea. It is the iced tea. It is what we mean when we say iced tea and it is absolutely delicious and, generally speaking, can only be found in Pennsylvania. I can only imagine what it would be like if the rest of the world discovered this amazing drink. Anyway, I've gone without for several months, living in Illinois I can only partake of Turkey Hill Iced Tea once a year, if that. So desperation drove me to try something else.
Normally I hate anyone elses attempt at iced tea because it just isn't sweet enough, or interestingly tasted enough. It tastes bland and bitter. This tea did not. With the addition of honey and it's own Magic Moon mix of ingredients (floral, sweet and a bit fruity) it was delicious. Not quite Turkey Hill, but a close second. I enjoyed it very much and loved having it as a cold alternative to my morning tea over breakfast.Yum! I'm glad I gave it a go.
That makes four! I have to keep count here on my blog or else I think I will lose count very quickly.
Posted by Bitsy at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)