I've done it again!
Very Special Mail Day
Long gone are the days of paper submissions and eager trips to the mailbox. It's electronic everything: Google docs, Dropbox. Except a few things require the good ole mail. Like advance checks!
Yes, the second half has arrived, which means ... Find out here!
Yes, the second half has arrived, which means ... Find out here!
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| MacBooks are so awesome, even babies can use them. |
How to Fix those Horrid Bratz Dolls - Finally!
Mud Pie is a doll girl. She has Barbies and an American Girl Doll, but I've cringed every time we've seen any sort of made-up-to-absurdity doll, like Bratz. This woman has a brilliant fix! I happen to know from experience that doll faces can and do come off with nail polish remover. I had a creepy faceless Barbie for years (she wore a veil). I remember trying to draw her face back on, but it never looked right. Maybe it's time to try again. I'll be sure to post if I do.
The Joy of Robots - Or What Happens When Some Slimy Poo-Head Steals Your Name AND Posts!!!
A few weeks ago I did some digital housekeeping. I switched from GoDaddy to Hover, went from Blogger (set up as a website) to Squarespace, and had to decide: what to do with my blog? This little place with all its beautiful randomness? I didn't want to roll it into my website because, really, it's so random. But I didn't want to lose it either. So I did what any indecisive, foolishly trusting individual would do. I went to that little "settings" tab in Blogger and changed the address of my blog.
"I'll be a little more anonymous!" I'd still have my 'News' section for writing-related things on my website, but here I decided I would post to my heart's content without worrying that my son's school chum would find all the juicy details of his childhood, or my homeschool friends would realize I - gasp - cuss like a sailor, drink wine, and believe in ghosts (maybe). And my left-wing writer friends won't know I've - double-heart-attack-gasp - voted Republican. More than once and not by accident! I felt so free! I could sing, I could dance, I could-- Ok, never mind.
I switched the address, and a few minutes later checked to see what the 404-Page not found page looked like. I typed in my old address and saw, "This blog has no posts." It seemed weird at the time. Like, What blog? There shouldn't be ANY blog there because I had just not five minutes earlier owned that little square of internet real estate. I didn't think much more about it for another week.
Fast forward that week. I noticed something annoying: my page views had plummeted. POOP! I guess I needed to re-think this switch. So I decided, oh so decisively, to go back to my original address (I mean, it's my NAME for heaven's sake, it's not like Nike or TasteTheRainbow or anything anyone else would want). I typed it in and got the error message: This Subdomain is Unavailable.
What? WHAT? My own name is unavailable? In the course of one week another person with my exact name took my blogger subdomain? So I typed in my old address and my stomach dropped into my socks. My. Own. Posts, interspersed with spam-like affiliate links.
Yes, my friends, someone trolled my blog archives and STOLE my content. Like this post from June 4, 2007:
Did this spammer-thief-moron think I wouldn't notice?!? Wouldn't report them to Blogger using every report-link possible? Wouldn't post about it? Yeah, bub, look forward to having your blogger privileges revoked and your cyber ass kicked from here to Sunday.
Yeah, well. I feel a new sympathy for those who suffer identity theft. I mean, if I'm this upset and feel even slightly violated for having my name and a few posts stolen so someone with WAY too much time on his/her hands can earn a few bucks with affiliate links, I can only begin to imagine the helpless rage someone would feel if their name, bank accounts, finances, even reputation were lifted and/or ruined. Hopefully Blogger will remedy it soon, and Google will learn to forget that old blog address. On the plus side, I'm having fun playing with the Wayback Machine. I guess everything we post really does have eternal life - on the internet.
"I'll be a little more anonymous!" I'd still have my 'News' section for writing-related things on my website, but here I decided I would post to my heart's content without worrying that my son's school chum would find all the juicy details of his childhood, or my homeschool friends would realize I - gasp - cuss like a sailor, drink wine, and believe in ghosts (maybe). And my left-wing writer friends won't know I've - double-heart-attack-gasp - voted Republican. More than once and not by accident! I felt so free! I could sing, I could dance, I could-- Ok, never mind.
I switched the address, and a few minutes later checked to see what the 404-Page not found page looked like. I typed in my old address and saw, "This blog has no posts." It seemed weird at the time. Like, What blog? There shouldn't be ANY blog there because I had just not five minutes earlier owned that little square of internet real estate. I didn't think much more about it for another week.
Fast forward that week. I noticed something annoying: my page views had plummeted. POOP! I guess I needed to re-think this switch. So I decided, oh so decisively, to go back to my original address (I mean, it's my NAME for heaven's sake, it's not like Nike or TasteTheRainbow or anything anyone else would want). I typed it in and got the error message: This Subdomain is Unavailable.
What? WHAT? My own name is unavailable? In the course of one week another person with my exact name took my blogger subdomain? So I typed in my old address and my stomach dropped into my socks. My. Own. Posts, interspersed with spam-like affiliate links.
Yes, my friends, someone trolled my blog archives and STOLE my content. Like this post from June 4, 2007:
I've had trouble stringing two thoughts together lately, largely because we're planning to list our house soon. I've spent far too much time scouring MLS listings and wondering why the hell everyone can't just be like me. Who would ever call a 6'x8' closet a fourth bedroom? I have rugs larger than that.And this one from May 23 of the same year which I had DELETED off my blog because it was a book review that I felt later was a little too snarky. I had to find it on the internet archive. Here's a screenshot:
Did this spammer-thief-moron think I wouldn't notice?!? Wouldn't report them to Blogger using every report-link possible? Wouldn't post about it? Yeah, bub, look forward to having your blogger privileges revoked and your cyber ass kicked from here to Sunday.
Yeah, well. I feel a new sympathy for those who suffer identity theft. I mean, if I'm this upset and feel even slightly violated for having my name and a few posts stolen so someone with WAY too much time on his/her hands can earn a few bucks with affiliate links, I can only begin to imagine the helpless rage someone would feel if their name, bank accounts, finances, even reputation were lifted and/or ruined. Hopefully Blogger will remedy it soon, and Google will learn to forget that old blog address. On the plus side, I'm having fun playing with the Wayback Machine. I guess everything we post really does have eternal life - on the internet.
The Judy Effect
At least once in any lifetime we'll meet someone who instantaneously irritates every nerve in our bodies. For me it was the guy who sat behind me in college. I think it was a history class, but I don't really remember. I only recall the way he'd wiggle his glasses back into place without use of his hands, and his habit of wearing crewneck sweaters with no shirt (collared or otherwise) underneath, and the anal precision he'd use when asking me out again, and again, and again. The mere sight of him made my skin crawl with a thousand tiny spiders. The sound of his voice made me ... ok, I'll stop there. I'm feeling ill.
It was my husband who invented the term for this phenomenon: The Judy Effect. Thus named because the person who made his skin crawl was (is still, I'm assuming) named Judy. Sadly, unlike my "Judy", Dr. D's Judy was someone we had to deal with frequently. I saw mine only a few times after college, while Dr. D had to endure his at frequent intervals. I didn't know Judy had the Judy Effect on my husband at first. When Judy stopped by I'd grow irritated with him. "Why are you hiding out in the kitchen? Aren't the dishes in the dishwasher yet - wait, why are you washing them all by hand?" or "Can't you find a better time to reorganize the cupboards?" and "Wait a second bub, you're taking dishes out of the cupboards to wash?"
Then he told me. And we discovered the Judy Effect. I bring it up only because someone had the Judy Effect on me today. A comment on a post on Facebook. A know-it-all crewneck-sweater-without-a-shirt sort of comment that instantly made my skin go prickly with those pesky spiders. One might say, "That's what you get for using Facebook," and they'd be right. And the person who posted, "Actually, fortune cookies are Japanese American not Chinese" was also right. But after hours of compiling funny sayings, printing them, cutting them out, wrestling with homemade fortune cookie dough to make a plate of crispy golden fortune cookies as a very special treat to celebrate finishing a unit study on China ... well, let's just say the information, while accurate, was not appreciated.
I later gathered my children and told them, "Hey, did you guys know that fortune cookies aren't actually Chinese?"
They stared at me a moment, then, "Yeah, Mom. They were invented by some Japanese immigrants in, like, California." Apparently that factoid was in one of the books I forgot I'd had them read. The next question was theirs. "So we get fortune cookies again when we're studying Japan, right?"
It was my husband who invented the term for this phenomenon: The Judy Effect. Thus named because the person who made his skin crawl was (is still, I'm assuming) named Judy. Sadly, unlike my "Judy", Dr. D's Judy was someone we had to deal with frequently. I saw mine only a few times after college, while Dr. D had to endure his at frequent intervals. I didn't know Judy had the Judy Effect on my husband at first. When Judy stopped by I'd grow irritated with him. "Why are you hiding out in the kitchen? Aren't the dishes in the dishwasher yet - wait, why are you washing them all by hand?" or "Can't you find a better time to reorganize the cupboards?" and "Wait a second bub, you're taking dishes out of the cupboards to wash?"
Then he told me. And we discovered the Judy Effect. I bring it up only because someone had the Judy Effect on me today. A comment on a post on Facebook. A know-it-all crewneck-sweater-without-a-shirt sort of comment that instantly made my skin go prickly with those pesky spiders. One might say, "That's what you get for using Facebook," and they'd be right. And the person who posted, "Actually, fortune cookies are Japanese American not Chinese" was also right. But after hours of compiling funny sayings, printing them, cutting them out, wrestling with homemade fortune cookie dough to make a plate of crispy golden fortune cookies as a very special treat to celebrate finishing a unit study on China ... well, let's just say the information, while accurate, was not appreciated.
I later gathered my children and told them, "Hey, did you guys know that fortune cookies aren't actually Chinese?"
They stared at me a moment, then, "Yeah, Mom. They were invented by some Japanese immigrants in, like, California." Apparently that factoid was in one of the books I forgot I'd had them read. The next question was theirs. "So we get fortune cookies again when we're studying Japan, right?"
something exciting!
I can't say or I'll jinx it! But oh, what a happy day it is! Good Friday indeed!
To find out about the picture, check my website.
Mama pig goes weeweewee all the way...
to the bank! Penny calls me Mama Pig, quite the honor because Peppa Pig is her all-time-favorite YouTube hero. Well, along with that lady who plays with PlayDoh and the one who bathes baby dolls and the one who opens weird little easter eggs with toys inside (a million views? Wha?). So why am I so excited about going to the bank?
To find out, hop over to the latest post at N&N!
To find out, hop over to the latest post at N&N!
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