The Asinine
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Too Many Things to Blog About
Yeah so it's been a while. How are you guys? Don't answer all at once cause the division by zero error would cause an implosion in the space time continuum. [sidebar] How many words actually have two u's in a row? How freaky is that? [/sidebar]
Man there are just SO fricken many things to talk about I don't know where to start. Hmmm ... I could talk about how having a MONTH off fricken rawks. I could also talk about how having a month without a pay check fricken sucks. I could talk about how the wife and I have been spending $$ like drunken sailors ever since I QUIT MY JOB, but that really doesn’t make ANY sense so I'm not even going to try and post it because I'll have to try and defend it. So that ain't happenin'.
I could talk about how much I like NBC's Heroes, but that might be a little passé by the time someone actually gets around to reading my blog, and someone will one day read it because someone will one day get to the end of the internet, and my blog will be there waiting! That's depressing me so I won't blog about that.
I could blog about my visit to my family in the previous week. I could post about how the wife and I spent much of our visit trying to find WiFi hotspots. If you had told me two years ago that I would be concerned with finding WiFi hotspots I would have laughed in your face so I apologize for hypothetically doing that in an alternate possible past that didn't actually ever happen. Oh I could blog about how McDonalds in Hometown, MS is a WiFi hotspot but you have to PAY to log on. The McAllister’s Deli however in the same Hometown, MS gives theirs away for free. I guess we know who the slut is and who the whore is in my hometown. (Sorry I used such language, but the joke just wouldn't have been the same). I could also blog about my little puddin's hysterical terror of my older brother. That one is in this paragraph because it happened during the trip. To explain all that would be a LOT of work so I'm going to skip it for now.
I could blog about my growing re-addiction to a card game that I had thought behind me. Actually make that two card games. The first is Magic: The Gathering and the second Legend of the Five Rings. I've been out of Magic for close to two years or so, ever since the "day of rain that flooded the trunk of my little beater car". L5R I've mostly been out of since nobody else plays. [Insert a sad lonely face here ... perhaps with a touch longing for laminated cardboard behind the eyes]. The whole card games thing is kinda painful so I won't blog about it right now either.
Man what else is there? I've only begun to scratch the surface of all that I have thought about blogging about in the past week or two. Now it has left me. I guess I'll have to settle for a blog about some of the things I could have blogged about. I hope that you don't feel jilted because ... well ok ... feel jilted. I mean here we are at the very end of the internet and instead of a climax you get a ... what? ... an anti-climax. Yup, I jilted ya all right.
Enjoy! ¶ 7:59 PM 0 comments
Yeah so it's been a while. How are you guys? Don't answer all at once cause the division by zero error would cause an implosion in the space time continuum. [sidebar] How many words actually have two u's in a row? How freaky is that? [/sidebar]
Man there are just SO fricken many things to talk about I don't know where to start. Hmmm ... I could talk about how having a MONTH off fricken rawks. I could also talk about how having a month without a pay check fricken sucks. I could talk about how the wife and I have been spending $$ like drunken sailors ever since I QUIT MY JOB, but that really doesn’t make ANY sense so I'm not even going to try and post it because I'll have to try and defend it. So that ain't happenin'.
I could talk about how much I like NBC's Heroes, but that might be a little passé by the time someone actually gets around to reading my blog, and someone will one day read it because someone will one day get to the end of the internet, and my blog will be there waiting! That's depressing me so I won't blog about that.
I could blog about my visit to my family in the previous week. I could post about how the wife and I spent much of our visit trying to find WiFi hotspots. If you had told me two years ago that I would be concerned with finding WiFi hotspots I would have laughed in your face so I apologize for hypothetically doing that in an alternate possible past that didn't actually ever happen. Oh I could blog about how McDonalds in Hometown, MS is a WiFi hotspot but you have to PAY to log on. The McAllister’s Deli however in the same Hometown, MS gives theirs away for free. I guess we know who the slut is and who the whore is in my hometown. (Sorry I used such language, but the joke just wouldn't have been the same). I could also blog about my little puddin's hysterical terror of my older brother. That one is in this paragraph because it happened during the trip. To explain all that would be a LOT of work so I'm going to skip it for now.
I could blog about my growing re-addiction to a card game that I had thought behind me. Actually make that two card games. The first is Magic: The Gathering and the second Legend of the Five Rings. I've been out of Magic for close to two years or so, ever since the "day of rain that flooded the trunk of my little beater car". L5R I've mostly been out of since nobody else plays. [Insert a sad lonely face here ... perhaps with a touch longing for laminated cardboard behind the eyes]. The whole card games thing is kinda painful so I won't blog about it right now either.
Man what else is there? I've only begun to scratch the surface of all that I have thought about blogging about in the past week or two. Now it has left me. I guess I'll have to settle for a blog about some of the things I could have blogged about. I hope that you don't feel jilted because ... well ok ... feel jilted. I mean here we are at the very end of the internet and instead of a climax you get a ... what? ... an anti-climax. Yup, I jilted ya all right.
Enjoy! ¶ 7:59 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 05, 2006
GroupLoop's PayPerPost Experiment
GroupLoop (see below) is one of the several PayPerPost offers that I have taken in the previous month. I figure you either knew that or are dense as a brick since it is pretty obvious. Of course there is the other respectable option where you just didn't care, and I can live with that one. With all the "controversy" surrounding PPP and the whole "ethics of blogging" it is interesting to see a business's actual input on the subject. I even got a mention via a link as the "final blogger" in the discussion. I'm always happy for a link ;-)
When I hear about people being scandalized by the thought of individuals paying for blog ads, I sometimes snicker and I sometimes harumph. What is the real difference between keeping your blog content "pure" and selling ad space around it and putting actual ads in the blog itself? Is it that the "conversation" portion of the blog is supposed to be unbiased? Who the heck ever writes an unbiased blog? Or is it that individual bloggers feel that selling their opinions is beneath them but selling ad space isn't?
Well let me emphasise that my integrity is worth more than the mere pittance that an individual post opportunity may pay. IF I decide to take an opportunity then it is probably about something I might blog about anyway. Good examples include my Scrubbies post and my CollegeFashion post.
Readers will also notice that I have not taken opportunities that I could have easily taken such as the PayPal Freud opportunity. I originally thought that opportunity would be "protect yourself from people trying to get your PayPal info" but instead was "PayPal is one huge fraud" which I don't believe. The opportunity was easy enough, something like 50 words and a link, must be a positive review. I couldn't give their site a positive review and thus did not take the opportunity.
Will there be people who use their blogs to do nothing but raise funds? Sure. But it is my basic observation that readers will soon come to understand what those blogs are all about and will eventually either drop those blogs or put up with the blatant advertisements. The majority of the country seems to have done exactly that with our major media outlets. If you come to my blog expecting fair and impartial discussion on everything important that day then go somewhere else. I'm going to talk about stuff I'm interested in talking about, and whatever it is that I talk about is going to be all about my views, not reality, but Joeality. It's my blog, I'll cry if I want to.
Sigh.
Anyway there's my take on the whole blog thing, mostly.
I did get a link for doing a review! To date I think that makes 2. Viva le revolution! ¶ 2:40 PM 2 comments
GroupLoop (see below) is one of the several PayPerPost offers that I have taken in the previous month. I figure you either knew that or are dense as a brick since it is pretty obvious. Of course there is the other respectable option where you just didn't care, and I can live with that one. With all the "controversy" surrounding PPP and the whole "ethics of blogging" it is interesting to see a business's actual input on the subject. I even got a mention via a link as the "final blogger" in the discussion. I'm always happy for a link ;-)
When I hear about people being scandalized by the thought of individuals paying for blog ads, I sometimes snicker and I sometimes harumph. What is the real difference between keeping your blog content "pure" and selling ad space around it and putting actual ads in the blog itself? Is it that the "conversation" portion of the blog is supposed to be unbiased? Who the heck ever writes an unbiased blog? Or is it that individual bloggers feel that selling their opinions is beneath them but selling ad space isn't?
Well let me emphasise that my integrity is worth more than the mere pittance that an individual post opportunity may pay. IF I decide to take an opportunity then it is probably about something I might blog about anyway. Good examples include my Scrubbies post and my CollegeFashion post.
Readers will also notice that I have not taken opportunities that I could have easily taken such as the PayPal Freud opportunity. I originally thought that opportunity would be "protect yourself from people trying to get your PayPal info" but instead was "PayPal is one huge fraud" which I don't believe. The opportunity was easy enough, something like 50 words and a link, must be a positive review. I couldn't give their site a positive review and thus did not take the opportunity.
Will there be people who use their blogs to do nothing but raise funds? Sure. But it is my basic observation that readers will soon come to understand what those blogs are all about and will eventually either drop those blogs or put up with the blatant advertisements. The majority of the country seems to have done exactly that with our major media outlets. If you come to my blog expecting fair and impartial discussion on everything important that day then go somewhere else. I'm going to talk about stuff I'm interested in talking about, and whatever it is that I talk about is going to be all about my views, not reality, but Joeality. It's my blog, I'll cry if I want to.
Sigh.
Anyway there's my take on the whole blog thing, mostly.
I did get a link for doing a review! To date I think that makes 2. Viva le revolution! ¶ 2:40 PM 2 comments
Monday, October 02, 2006
Grouploop
One of the best things about the web in general is the availability of free services. GroupLoop.com offers once such service. For businesses, groups, or even families that have a difficult time keeping in touch, an account with grouploop can really help.
Imagine that you want to collaborate with five other people but you don't own your own web space and everyone has different agendas. The director of your group can set up an account with grouploop (for free) and post messages, files, calendar events, and such for everyone to see. Want only a few people in an expanded group to see certain events? That's possible too.
I remember several years ago using something similar with yahoo groups, but grouploop's design, interface, and feel are cleaner and easier to navigate. I suggest at least a preliminary try.
¶ 11:43 PM 0 comments
One of the best things about the web in general is the availability of free services. GroupLoop.com offers once such service. For businesses, groups, or even families that have a difficult time keeping in touch, an account with grouploop can really help.
Imagine that you want to collaborate with five other people but you don't own your own web space and everyone has different agendas. The director of your group can set up an account with grouploop (for free) and post messages, files, calendar events, and such for everyone to see. Want only a few people in an expanded group to see certain events? That's possible too.
I remember several years ago using something similar with yahoo groups, but grouploop's design, interface, and feel are cleaner and easier to navigate. I suggest at least a preliminary try.
¶ 11:43 PM 0 comments
NeverWinter Nights ... 2 !!!!
Oh the agony. NeverWinter Nights 2 is soon to be released. By soon to be released what I really mean is in a few months. I hadn't remembered that I loved NWN so much. Now, going back to BioWare's Website I am reminded and it hurts so much.
My friend from Oklahoma and I tried playing online a few times but that was in the dark ages when the wife and I were on dial-up. *shudder* The lag was horrible. The fact that only 2 of us were playing was a bit of a drag, but it was MUCH better than playing alone. It never did take off with us though.
We had other friends playing online, but their drug of choice at the time was EverQuest. I played for a while but again dial-up equals teh suck when you are playing a game like that online. NeverWinter Nights however seemed so much more "my style" and I wasn't wrong.
Have I ever mentioned that at one time I owned a Juzam Djinn? From the moment that I started playing Magic:The Gathering I wanted a Juzam Djinn. Why? Not because it is 5/5 fat for 4 black mana, but because the picture freak rulez! Well my Juzam was the crown jewel of my collection and I sold it for $75 so that I cold afford a new video card for my computer. I had just purchased NeverWinter Nigths and my old stuff just wasn't up to snuff. I often lament having to sell the ole boy, but given another chance to do the same I would. NeverWinter Nights was just that enjoyable for me.
Well NeverWinter Nights 2 looks to be so much like the same and more than the original too. I can't wait. I have to wait, and in fact I couldn't afford to run out and buy it if I could right now since if you scroll down slightly you will see that I QUIT MY JOB!!! *sigh*
The minimum specs for NWN2 starts at a 2GHz processor. !?!? Well my box is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5GHz so maybe if I turn off shadows and textures, and everything super cool I won't lag. We have broadband now so that's definitely a plus. On top of all that it seems that I've finally connected with a pool of folks who not only play but have their own campaign worlds on persistent servers.
Muahhahahahahahah ... I can't wait.
I was going to say "TO HECK WITH MY OLD JOB" and never go back, but since I can make $50 a week as a plasma donor with close to NO stress (beyond showing my face there again) I just might have what I need to power up my computer AND maybe reinvest in Juzzy again. (I call him that, Juzzy, cause he's special). ¶ 10:45 PM 0 comments
Oh the agony. NeverWinter Nights 2 is soon to be released. By soon to be released what I really mean is in a few months. I hadn't remembered that I loved NWN so much. Now, going back to BioWare's Website I am reminded and it hurts so much.
My friend from Oklahoma and I tried playing online a few times but that was in the dark ages when the wife and I were on dial-up. *shudder* The lag was horrible. The fact that only 2 of us were playing was a bit of a drag, but it was MUCH better than playing alone. It never did take off with us though.
We had other friends playing online, but their drug of choice at the time was EverQuest. I played for a while but again dial-up equals teh suck when you are playing a game like that online. NeverWinter Nights however seemed so much more "my style" and I wasn't wrong.
Have I ever mentioned that at one time I owned a Juzam Djinn? From the moment that I started playing Magic:The Gathering I wanted a Juzam Djinn. Why? Not because it is 5/5 fat for 4 black mana, but because the picture freak rulez! Well my Juzam was the crown jewel of my collection and I sold it for $75 so that I cold afford a new video card for my computer. I had just purchased NeverWinter Nigths and my old stuff just wasn't up to snuff. I often lament having to sell the ole boy, but given another chance to do the same I would. NeverWinter Nights was just that enjoyable for me.
Well NeverWinter Nights 2 looks to be so much like the same and more than the original too. I can't wait. I have to wait, and in fact I couldn't afford to run out and buy it if I could right now since if you scroll down slightly you will see that I QUIT MY JOB!!! *sigh*
The minimum specs for NWN2 starts at a 2GHz processor. !?!? Well my box is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5GHz so maybe if I turn off shadows and textures, and everything super cool I won't lag. We have broadband now so that's definitely a plus. On top of all that it seems that I've finally connected with a pool of folks who not only play but have their own campaign worlds on persistent servers.
Muahhahahahahahah ... I can't wait.
I was going to say "TO HECK WITH MY OLD JOB" and never go back, but since I can make $50 a week as a plasma donor with close to NO stress (beyond showing my face there again) I just might have what I need to power up my computer AND maybe reinvest in Juzzy again. (I call him that, Juzzy, cause he's special). ¶ 10:45 PM 0 comments
A Cool Use of Google Maps
browseip.com is a new internet tool that allows you to enter an IP Address or a web site name and it will show you two maps (one national one zoomed in) of the physical location the web site or IP is hosted. How cool is that?!
When you first go to the site your IP Address is defaultly loaded into the IP Address & Host Location input form. This allows you to see where your ISP's servers are. It is spot on for me.
I get my web space from a friend of mine who lives in California. I was really suprised to find that his server is in Texas. That's something to talk about the next time I see him :)
Check it out!
¶ 7:33 PM 0 comments
browseip.com is a new internet tool that allows you to enter an IP Address or a web site name and it will show you two maps (one national one zoomed in) of the physical location the web site or IP is hosted. How cool is that?!
When you first go to the site your IP Address is defaultly loaded into the IP Address & Host Location input form. This allows you to see where your ISP's servers are. It is spot on for me.
I get my web space from a friend of mine who lives in California. I was really suprised to find that his server is in Texas. That's something to talk about the next time I see him :)
Check it out!
¶ 7:33 PM 0 comments
More free time
So I'll be having more free time these days since ..
I QUIT MY JOB!
Not the pay per post one, I'll actually have more time for that one now, but my 40-50 hour a week hell job that I was leaving anyway. I walked out Saturday 2 minutes after I punched in. I'm not proud of it, and I feel pretty guilty about it, but they just pissed me off one too many times.
An incomplete list of grievances includes:
Ok ... now I'm just getting into the stuff that I don't like, not the stuff that drove me away.
Let me say this though, if I ever say "I _blank_", whatever blank may be, and I'm not smiling and joking around then I MEAN WHAT I SAY. So if I'm not yelling and screaming but I say something like "I really hate closing and working open-to-close shifts" and you close me a lot and work me open-to-close shifts when you tell me "we have more than enough people to work the lab" I'm going to be ticked off, really ticked off. I won't tell you how mad I am, because that's not the kind of person I am. I will give you time to make things right. I am rather forgiving, but the next time you screw with me I'm just going to get madder. It will take longer for me to forgive, but I will. Then if you do it again I'm just going to get madder and madder and so on until I quit you because that's so much better than all the "insane crap" running through my head.
Ungh. I'm so tense I could pop.
Now I have plenty of free time. Free time that I am going to have to fill with making some dough to feed my family. If anyone knows any quick jobs out there let me know. Also let me know if you are doing anything that doesn't cost anything! Wink
Peace, love, and the number of a good psychologist please
TheAss ¶ 6:50 PM 0 comments
So I'll be having more free time these days since ..
I QUIT MY JOB!
Not the pay per post one, I'll actually have more time for that one now, but my 40-50 hour a week hell job that I was leaving anyway. I walked out Saturday 2 minutes after I punched in. I'm not proud of it, and I feel pretty guilty about it, but they just pissed me off one too many times.
An incomplete list of grievances includes:
- Working almost every Saturday for the past 2-3 months (so I missed DragonCon, HubCon, going to my mom's, several magic tournaments, etc)
- Working more than one open-to-close each week for the past 1-2 months with no added benefit (such as Saturday's off hell any other day off)
- Working me (or trying to work me) 6 days a week just didn't seem to bother anyone else.
- Erratic schedules that change not just from week to week but every three or four days. How the samhill do you make plans when your schedule changes like that?
- The only time I was able to take more than 4 days off in a row (counting Sundays which we have off anyway) I was either in Tampa on my training (which technically was work, but it was so much fun it was like a vacation) or my baby was born.
- Some people seem to be allowed to get away with murder while those that actually took our jobs seriously were just added the burden of mopping up after them.
- While I don't CRAVE positive reinforcement, the number of times that I was told "good job" I can count on one hand (hell half a hand). The number of times that someone criticized me a room full of people don't have enough fingers on which to count. Supposedly I'm was the best thing to ever happen to the lab. WTF?!?
- I hated the job anyway. NOBODY thinks working the lab is tough, and EVERYONE thinks that there is all the time in the world to do as much added work as needed. Well there is only ever ONE person in the lab at a time who can only do ONE thing at a time. If the lab gets behind then that person just has to work that much harder to get caught up, where other areas have multiple people to help distribute the load.
- The job is more janitorial than it was technical. Do you know how frustrating it is to be a touch anal retentive (just a touch) and have people constantly coming into your workspace and messing stuff up that YOU and only YOU have to clean up? Well, I'm not even full blown Anal Retentive, but that fricken drove me up a wall. When one of my co-workers asked if the people from the floor could break down their boxes after they stock (just break the boxes down and we'll take them out), management went so far as to completely change how the floor stocked supplies AND made it the lab's job to clean up the entire mess (including breaking down boxes).
Excuse me while I have a fit.
;oaishfeiqwhjfuasdojsiga;oh;i2wjfj0efagociw'llsilekjvjlkjowf9ienmwepjeei
* niassne pants *
Ok ... I'm a little better now ... - -40 degree Celsius freezers. Nuff said.
Ok ... now I'm just getting into the stuff that I don't like, not the stuff that drove me away.
Let me say this though, if I ever say "I _blank_", whatever blank may be, and I'm not smiling and joking around then I MEAN WHAT I SAY. So if I'm not yelling and screaming but I say something like "I really hate closing and working open-to-close shifts" and you close me a lot and work me open-to-close shifts when you tell me "we have more than enough people to work the lab" I'm going to be ticked off, really ticked off. I won't tell you how mad I am, because that's not the kind of person I am. I will give you time to make things right. I am rather forgiving, but the next time you screw with me I'm just going to get madder. It will take longer for me to forgive, but I will. Then if you do it again I'm just going to get madder and madder and so on until I quit you because that's so much better than all the "insane crap" running through my head.
Ungh. I'm so tense I could pop.
Now I have plenty of free time. Free time that I am going to have to fill with making some dough to feed my family. If anyone knows any quick jobs out there let me know. Also let me know if you are doing anything that doesn't cost anything! Wink
Peace, love, and the number of a good psychologist please
TheAss ¶ 6:50 PM 0 comments
