KirstenL4W

The President is visiting Las Vegas.  Unlike most visitors to this town, his will not be a visit filled with debauchery,  but like most visitors, he is here to try and make some money.

Enough about politics.  I really hate political discussions.  What I’m here to talk about tonite is some plane spotting.  I’ve talked about how easy it is to spot airplanes coming and going from McCarran International Airport here, and honestly, even though the majority of the planes I see are the Southwest Airlines 737s, I still never get tired of seeing the planes.  I drive along the 7/25 runways on my way to and from work every day, and since Las Vegas is a world famous destination, I do get to see some nice foreign airlines.  Tonite, however, I was eager to see Air Force One.  This is the 747 that the US Air Force keeps and maintains, and it is called Air Force One whenever the President is on board.

Security is predictably tight.  Normally, tower communications for traffic on the 7/25 runways is broadcast over an FM radio station, which I can tune into while I am driving along the center and eastern portion of the runways.  Typical conversations are pilots looking for landing clearance, getting taxi instructions to get off the runways, and the tower giving takeoff clearance.  Tonight, however, there was a sense of urgency.  All departures were routed off runway 1R, which sits at the western end of the airport and since it uses a different radio frequency, I was unable to monitor radio transmissions.  I was able to hear air traffic control demanding that all traffic switch to the other frequency, so I knew Air Force One was close.

Normally incoming traffic lands on runway 25L, which is closer to Sunset Road, where I was watching for the plane.  Planes then get taxi instructions to cross 25R, which normally has outgoing traffic on it.  Since there was no traffic on 25R, I had a feeling that 1) they were keeping 25R clear so as to move the few incoming planes off the active runway and to their gates as soon as possible, and 2) Air Force One would be directed to land on 25R.  Like I said, 25R is further away from the road, and therefore the public, so it would be less of a security risk.  Point 1 is just a theory, but I was correct on point 2.  The flight was due to land around 8pm, and ended up being about 45 minutes late.  The observation parking lot on the north side of Sunset Road was closed off, so Boyfriend and I parked across the street at an industrial park.  Boyfriend brought the camera and tried to get pictures, but since it was dark and the aircraft was still moving rather fast, he did not get to capture the image he wanted, or anything close for that matter.  It was still a memorable sight.  I could vaguely make out the blue and white paint, but I did (almost) clearly see the US flag that is on the tail.

One more note on security.  In the parking lot of the industrial building, there were a number of people with cameras, sitting in their cars listening to the radio.  It was really no more than a dozen people.  As soon as the plane touched down, a nondescript, tan, older model SUV went speeding out of the parking lot, heading west, presumably towards the executive terminal.  I believe that the President gets off the plane near the executive terminal, which is the place where all the rich people go to take a limo directly to their private plane.  Trying to coordinate security so the Prez can pull up to a gate would be a logistical nightmare, and the news did report that commercial aviation would not be affected by the speical flight plans.  Private flights are grounded, though - at least out of McCarran.

I haven’t read about the President’s departure plans, but since he has a speech and luncheon planned for tomorrow, I assume he will be taking off sometime around the time I leave work.  I’ll check the news tomorrow to see if there’s anything, because it could always affect my commute in some way, but if I’m lucky I can see it take off.  I’ll have to remember to bring my camera to work, so I can have the possibility of taking a bad picture of a tiny plane (no way will Boyfriend let me take the DSLR to work, so I’ll be stuck with my point and shoot.  Wait, that sounds bad considering it’s a matter of national security.  I’ll be stuck with my regular, not so magnificent camera).

So that is the highlight of my extremely casual plane spotting.  What is your favorite plane-spotting experience?

Something that is a new experience for me since moving to Wordpress is pingbacks and trackbacks. For those who don’t know, these are, to the best of my knowledge, links to your content on another website. I’m not talking about blogrolls - no, this is when your work is quoted, in part or in full, on another website and links back to your site, which is how it gets picked up in your comments as a trackback.

My Music on Mondays posts seem to be the most popular posts for this. Yesterday I checked my comments to see 3 of these, my highest number yet. I’m sure they will spiral out of control as I get more and more popular. Check this out:

Now, I always check these out, just to make sure that at the very least there is a link in there and I don’t have to bitch-slap anyone. But what I don’t get is the name. It’s always different. See those bottom two? Despite the URL, they are the exact same website, yet on one I am “The Gossip Girls” and on another I am “Barbara”. I don’t get that. I mean, I can see how the first one is a trick to get more people to the site with the name of a tv show, but Barbara? Not sure about that one. In all cases, though, the links to go my site.Right now this is a slight annoyance and also somewhat amusing, but at least (to my knowledge) no one has copied my site. Sites like Copyscape can help you figure out if someone has.

One of the first TV shows I really remember being influential in helping shape my musical taste was Felicity. It was a show that debuted in 1998, about 4 years after I had given up on college but still while in the midst of my wanderlust and general dissatisfaction with my place in life, at least, geographically speaking. Felicity was a young woman about to start college who threw away the sensible plans and followed her crush to a school all the way across the country. I could never relate to the following your crush thing, but the moving cross country thing struck a chord with me. I watched that show and lived vicariously through her. The show was on for four years, one for each year of college, and a year after the show ended I finally packed up and followed my dream.

There have been TV shows on in the past that featured popular music of the day. Felicity was, in my mind, a bit of a trendsetter because it not only featured the music, but did so prominently. At the end of each episode, there would be an announcement that showed the artists and albums where one could find the music. The show produced not one, but two soundtracks - Freshman Year and Senior Year. These two albums don’t even come close to the tip of the iceberg as far as music that was featured on the show.

Now I know, some of you will argue with me about which show really was the first to put music in the forefront like this. But Felicity was the first show that I can remember watching that made such a musical impression, and this is my blog, so my memories rule here.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, the music. The music set the theme for the show, or scenes within the show. I think like that a lot - depending on the situation, I might have a song in my head that goes along with that scene in my life. Often times, music in a scene, be it theater, tv, or a movie, helps cement the mood of the scene and make it that much more memorable. Unlike the days of yore, music is no longer just a means of entertainment or a way to show off some talent. It is so intertwined with our lives. Can you imagine life without music? Try watching some of the deleted scenes on one of your favorite DVDs. You’ll notice that many times, the special effects are missing but so is the music. It’s a bit odd watching the deleted scenes right after watching the movie, having the song or background music in your head, and not hearing it from the speakers. My life without music would be…flat.

I’ve found some sites online that claim to have complete listings of all the songs played during the course of the Felicity series. One is here and the other is here. There are some discrepancies between the two lists, and some of that may be owing to the fact that when the DVDs came out, some songs were replaced because of licensing issues. Just look at it this way: it’s that many more songs you can check out for your collection.

Dear AARP:

Earlier this week my boyfriend, insert Boyfriend’s name here, received an invitation to membership in your organization.  Mr. Boyfriend will not reach the minimum age for eligibility until 2016, so we respectfully request that you stop sending literature until that time.  For your reference, the authorization code on the literature you sent is 1234567890.  I will also be returning the form in the postage paid envelope you so conveniently provided, so that there is no mistake that he does not want to receive any communications from you until which time he is eligible.

Sincerely,

KirstenL4W
on behalf of Boyfriend

Can you believe this stuff?  Boyfriend is only 41 years young.  He is not old.  I can see sending out literature a few months in advance of membership eligibility, but honestly, who is sitting there saying, “Gosh, in 8½ years I’ll be able to join AARP.  I can’t wait!”  Come on now, AARP.  Lighten up a bit.  Boyfriend has already hit his 40’s and thinks he’s old, which he is NOT.  Thanks for the blow to his self esteem.  Now I have to spend at least the next week trying to convince him that he is not old and does not need the blue pills.

I don’t often blog about holidays, especially foreign holidays that I don’t know a heck of a lot about. Ok, honestly, I had a vague idea that there was a holiday called Australia Day, but thanks to all my Aussie blogger friends over at the Aussie Bloggers Blog, I’m learning more about the land down under. I may not know any more about the history of Australia, but by reading their blogs I’m learning more about the most important thing a country can have - its people. I have found Aussie Bloggers to be some of the friendliest people I have (n)ever met.

In fact, a bunch of them have got themselves together and started a forum to help ordinary bloggers who may not know so much about blogging, but really want to have the blog of their dreams. The Aussie Bloggers Forum is not just for bloggers from Australia. Oh no, don’t let that hold you back. They speak English and use all the same blog platforms that you do, so they are not only capable but willing to answer any questions you can throw at them. I’ve been on the blogosphere for nearly 2 years now, and have been perusing message forums for nearly 10 years, and this is the first forum I have come across that not only caters to bloggers, but is extremely friendly and helpful. I have another forum on my blogroll that I never really got into because all the posts are titled “Please Help” or something equally vague. Not here. The friendliness of everyone involved makes it much easier to get the answers you’re looking for, whether you’re looking through older threads or posting a new question.

So stop by the Aussie Blog or Forum and wish some friendly Aussie bloggers a Happy Australia Day!

It wasn’t hot out today.  Far from it - average daytime temps for this time of year in world-famous Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada are in the mid-50s F (55°F = 13°C).  It was, however, a hot news day.

The Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino caught on fire today.  I work just south of the airport, with a really decent view of the strip.  Frank and I were just coming back from a meeting down the street when we heard there was smoke appearing to come from New York New York.  A quick online check revealed that it was actually the Monte Carlo that was burning.  From our vantage point, the smoke had an eerie 9/11 look to it, since the “skyline” of NYNY totally blocks the view of the Monte Carlo, so the smoke looked like it was rising from the NY skyline.  Kinda freaky.  Of course, it was Friday, and getting close to lunch, so we went online to watch streaming video of the news reports.  I was on the phone with Boyfriend as he watched it on TV.

I wasn’t surprised to see that news of the fire quickly spread around the world.  Las Vegas is a world famous city, after all, and big news like this that has a direct effect on tourists visiting our city tends to travel fast.  Luckily, even at this late hour (it’s 8pm local time, the fire broke out around 11am) there are still no reports of injuries beyond a few with smoke inhalation.  The casino is closed for the time being, but since the fire was contained to the upper floors, and seems to have mostly affected the facade of the building, I expect that the casino itself, which is on the ground level, and at least the lower floors of guest rooms will be reopening in about a week.  There’s a news special on tonite at 10pm, which I intend to watch.

It’s always weird when the news in your city makes the international papers, even when you live in a world famous city.  Before the news special comes on, I have a ton of blog posts to catch up on since I spent quite a bit of time watching the news online and then in a lunch meeting, so I didn’t get my midday fix.  Off to read what all of you are up to…

I had my first weigh-in today after being on WW for a week now.  I can feel that I’ve had a change in the right direction, so I was really eager to get on the scale.  (I know, I’m insane, right?)  I am happy to say that my feeling was right.  I lost … drumroll please … 5.6 pounds (that’s about 2 ½ kilos).  Woot!  Boyfriend did his own weigh-in, and he’s happy with his weight loss as well.  This gives me the motivation to keep going, that’s for sure.

WW has two plans now, Flex and Core.  Flex is the points system that pretty much everyone has heard of, and Core is just a list of foods that are permissable (it’s quite the list, too) and you just eat what you want from the core foods list until you are satisfied.  On both plans, you get 35 flex points per week to use however you want, the only thing is you can’t save them up week after week to go on an annual buffet bender or whatever.  Anyway, I am doing the Flex plan, because even though I am horrible at planning meals and such, I like that if I’m having a craving I can indulge it as long as I watch the points.  I like the accountability aspect of it, and I fear I may become lazy on the Core plan.  I’m still eager when I write something down in my book that is a core food.

I’ve gone and written down points values on everything in my desk drawer at work, and on a few things at home too.  I did that so I wouldn’t have to get out my points calculator all the time and so that if I am having a craving and just want to grab something, it’s still in my face how many points I’m using.  So far it seems to be working.

Tonight is the weekly oil change at The Greasy Spoon.  About a month ago I switched to having a salad and grilled cheese instead of onion rings and grilled cheese.  I’ve been feeling good about eating healthier there and not feeling deprived either.  The dining out guide I have gives points values for all sorts of restaurant food you might encounter, and I did the calculations - my new favorite meal there is low enough to not use a whole bunch of flex points.  Today, that means I’ll have used all my daily points and not gone over.  Yay me!

…so that my permalinks show an actual post title and not random numbers!

Here’s a few random bullet points for today:

• I was putting a load of laundry in the washer tonite. As I picking clothes out of the three part laundry sorter, I noticed something colorful. Apparently a colorful beach towel that I could not remember using lately made its way to the black clothing section. I smelled it to make a determination on its state of cleanliness. It smelled like ass, so I threw it in the proper section of the sorter - the towel section. Then it dawned on me that this was the towel that I gave Boyfriend to use to soften things for his tushie when he’s sitting in his desk chair playing WOW.
• A few of my imaginary internet friends have posted in their LiveJournals about how cold they are inside their homes. Pollyhyper ran out of oil while CTG has an inexplicably cold room. Now I am cold, even though the temp here in our house is normal, it’s still below 80°, which is my hot/cold threshold.
• Zac is at it again. He’s shooting a new movie, which looks to be his biggest yet. Read his blog to keep informed or to just read a really good rant. I’m always laughing my butt off at his posts.
• I am revered at work. Some changes to internal procedures are in the works, and one of my tasks looks to be taken away from me as a result. I am not the right department to be doing this task, so my boss wants it off my desk. Problem is, I do it so freaking well that no one wants it out of my hands (except my boss). Feels good, I tell ya.
• WW going pretty well, so far. Weigh-in tomorrow, so we’ll see if I’m on the right track. Boyfriend, while not officially following the program (as in, he didn’t pay and doesn’t go to meetings), has been very supportive and following the general principles of it. He has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and will have to step on the lying sack of shit scale, so it will be like we are weighing in together (awww).
• Does anyone know how many points regular potstickers are from an ordinary Chinese style takeout place? Because I have been craving them lately, and I can’t find anything in my Dining Out companion book. I don’t want sauce with them, just the damn potstickers.
• And to my Mommy: He’s growing, exploring, and testing limits. It’s very NORMAL - he’s just doing it the ImpMaster J way. Just because I understood adult rationale at an absurdly young age doesn’t mean everyone does. As you well know, I am not normal so quit trying the tactics that worked on me.
• For those trying to understand the above bullet point, my mom told me how she got me off the bottle when I was a baby. She was expecting my sister to be born and I was just over a year old. She explained to me that I couldn’t use the bottle anymore because the new baby needed it. And so I used the sippy cup, just like that. Yes, I am strange. I’ll leave you all with that thought.

The past few days have been less than idea between Boyfriend and myself, mostly due to me.  I have been extremely bitchy towards him, and it isn’t necessarily PMS, because it’s a bit early for that and I have no other symptoms.  I don’t know what it is that has been making me want to argue with him on every little thing, but last night when I was making dinner I remembered something.  Boyfriend said to me quite a few months ago that when someone is going through a personal growth period, it is a very difficult time.  That must be it, because even when Aunt Flo visits I am not usually this bitchy.

The thing about times like these is that I won’t really know when it’s over or exactly what kind of growth occurred.  Years down the road I may be able to look back and say with some definition that this experienced shaped me or taught me xxxxx, but right now it’s just a pain in the ass.

Welcome to my new feature, Music on Mondays! Many of you know that I love music, as evidenced by my participation in mix exchanges, and I like to share all that with you by listing what I’ve sent in for my mixes. I love that it’s a way to find new music. With that, I’m going to talk about where to find new music.

The mix exchanges are a fun, great way to find new stuff, but not everyone has the ability or desire to participate in them. They do require a CD burner, and a bit of cash to purchase blank CDs and postage to send them out (the mailings are about $1.31US, and there are usually 11 to send out, so it adds up). But what you can do is network. Ask your friends, co-workers, and others what kind of music they like and why. As you expand your likings, they will be better able to recommend stuff they think you might like.

Amazon.com is a great one because they have a fairly decent recommendation feature. If you have an account with them and have purchased stuff in the past, they will recommend stuff based on your purchases. Also, they give you the option of editing your recommendations so that items you already own are taken into account, or the weird CD you purchased for your great-uncle when you drew his name in the gift exchange doesn’t come into consideration. Amazon.com has 30-second clips of songs on nearly every CD that they sell, and recently they have started selling some albums in MP3 format and yes, you can buy individual tracks.

The iPod is pretty much the standard when it comes to digital music players. I know the Zune is doing a good job at getting themselves some of that market share, but I have an iPod and would marry it if I could, so all digital music players I talk about will be the iPod. With the iPod there is also iTunes, which is a free download and a great way of organizing your digital music collection. iTunes also will let you upload your CDs to their player (unless you have a copyright-protected CD, which I just avoid in general). iTunes also has a recommendation feature based on purchases and browsing history, there is the iMix feature where people make their own mixes and upload them to iTunes, and their Free Song of the Week. Many people think that if they have iTunes and and iPod that they must purchase music from iTunes, but that is simply not true. You can purchase from other sources and import the music into iTunes. Just go to File > Import > Import File to Library and it will bring the songs you have saved elsewhere on your computer to iTunes. And don’t forget the mixes! This is the program I use to make all my mixes, since it’s so easy to create a new playlist and burn it.

I don’t listen to much commercial radio, because frankly, it pretty much sucks. I listen to CDs in the car or nothing at all. But other sources can be great. I used to listen to Radio Paradise a lot at my old job. They play an eclectic mix of anything and everything. Listening to RP has the potential to do some serious damage to your music budget, because in addition to playing everything under the sun, they have a great database of where to find the music. Click on a song link and you come to the album it’s from along with other albums by that artist and offers a few suggestions.

CD Baby is another great source. They sell music by independent artists, bypassing the record companies and their huge portion of the profits. They have an amazing selection of great music you’re not listening to, and they sell their CDs by actual CD that they will mail you or MP3, which you can upload into iTunes.

Those are my favorite ways to find new music. How do you find new music to listen to?

I have spent the better part of the day (ok, all day) online, reading blogs, searching for new blogs, stumbling, and basically farting around looking for something to blog about. I did find some sites that help bloggers find inspiration for posting, but they all seem geared towards metabloggers. What do all you personal bloggers do when you want to post, but are uninspired? I’m not talking about posting the minutiae of my day because I feel like I have to post. I really want to post about something, to keep my blog current, to draw readers in. I just have no idea what.

Where do you find inspiration?

At Big Company where I work, they have some pretty nice benefits. One of the benefits is that they pay half the cost for a 10 week session of Weight Watchers, and meetings are held on campus. Since I gained a few more pounds that I care to admit, thanks to my experience with antidepressants, I figured that it would be a good way to lose weight. I had my first weigh-in today (no, I’m not telling you) and I feel good about doing this. Reading over the materials for this program, I am quite impressed that this is the only diet I’ve seen that allows you to eat your favorite foods, so long as you are aware of the points values. I got a restaurant guide to help me make choices when I eat out, which is inevitable in today’s society. And hey, I can still go to Cold Stone Creamery! According to the guide, a Love It Sinless Sweet Cream with cherry pie filling as a mix in is only 4 points. Knowing that I’m not breaking my diet by indulging a bit is a relief, not like other diets where so much as thinking about dessert is enough to bring on a severe scolding.

Boyfriend, while not formally participating in the program, will be supporting me by following the guidelines and making an effort. He also wants to work towards a healthier lifestyle, so I think this will be something we both can live with.

I’m not going to turn this into a total diet blog by journaling every morsel that passes my lips and every ounce I lose (or not), but I will from time to time blog about more abstract thoughts about this journey and trying to stay positive. Maybe if I’m nauseatingly sweet with positive thoughts I won’t crave chocolate so much. So, positive thought for today: I’m glad that going off the Paxil caused me to stop gaining weight and that I work for a company that cares about wellness so much.

For the record, it won’t happen in this 10 week session, but my overall goal is to lose about 60lbs.

I talked to my sister yesterday, and she was complaining that it was cold out a few days back. She even had to bundle up the baby! That’s great, because it’s cold all over the place right now, but I have just one issue with that - what Sis calls cold was actually 70°F. She lives in Southwest Florida! It just doesn’t get cold there. Even here in the desert, the current temperature in Las Vegas is 40°F, and with the wind chill the weather report says it feels like 30°F. That’s below freezing. 70 is not freezing, I don’t care how many sweaters you thin-blooded Floridians have to put on. We’ll get 70° weather, in the spring, and for about a week before temps soar past 100° and stay there.

When freezing temperatures cause the orange crops to shrivel up and die, making oranges as hot a commodity as copper is right now, then you can complain, but please don’t complain about 70°.

I’ve been reading in the news that the plague seems to be making a comeback.  Dr. A. even had a post about it today.  Not to make light of a serious disease, but this year’s cold season feels like a plague.  Everyone is getting a cold, and just when you think you’re all better and have had a couple weeks to get used to having your relative health back, a relapse occurs.  Then another, and another.

I had my first part of this back in October, when an ear infection knocked me out.  I had stabbing pain in my ear and was getting dizzy.  I went to the doc, who prescribed ginormous pills to get rid of the infection, some prednisone for the inflammation, and some Nasonex to help with the nose stuff.  I hate nasal sprays, so I slacked on that one.  I much prefer a pill or yucky yummy liquid of some sort so that I can do shots.

So I got rid of the ear infection and saw no ill effects of it during my flight to and from Florida at Thanksgiving.  A week before Christmas, however, all heck broke loose.  The coughing, hacking, and nose blowing started.  I felt well enough to go to work, but during the holiday pot luck they wouldn’t let me near anything, so in order to eat I had to employ Frank to get me some food.  Shortly after Christmas I was finally feeling better.

Now it’s back in yet another form.  All last week I was waking up with a sore, scratchy and swollen throat that would get much better as the day went on.  I looked at my throat and it was red, but nothing else.  Every morning this happened, and over the weekend I noticed that I was congested too.  Not enough to blow my nose, nor enough to cough anything up.  It was a (TMI warning here) thick, sticky mucous that was stuck way up in the back of my throat in that area where the sinuses meet the throat.  I wasn’t feeling any better yesterday, so I took the day off from work to go to the doctor.  That was an effort in futility.  There were about 500 people in the waiting room, and I know from experience that if I did register there was no guarantee that I would be seen before, say, 2025.  I have things to do in this lifetime, so I decided instead to go to the pharmacy and talk to the men in white coats pharmacist.   I decided on some super-strength Sudafed, and except for a bit of a scratchy throat, I’ve been feeling better.

Boyfriend is sick now.  He’s been putting it off, but this morning when I said goodbye to him I noticed he sounded raspy.  On the way home from work he informs me that he called out of work today (which actually makes him feel better considering what jerks they’re being to him lately) and he’s been sitting at home with a blankie wrapped around him.

I went to the store in search of comfort food, and came home and fed Boyfriend.  He seems to be feeling better, since he’s playing his silly little game now.  I’m about to make my comfort food, Smiles, which is what happens when a Swedish immigrant hears about this Italian delicacy called spaghetti, tries it, and fails miserably.  Good stuff.

I hope everyone out there is surviving this cold season.  My office resembles a ghost town on some days, and I’m sure it’s the same for offices everywhere.  Just take it easy, load up on comfort foods, and get plenty of rest.

Last night I spent way too much time going through all my posts and fixing my backlinks so they point to this blog, not Blogger.  I do need to fix my photos also, but right now I’m so not motivated to do that, so it will be awhile until that happens.

I’ve also made a few changes to my sidebar to clean it up a bit.  Categories and archives now have a drop-down menu, the blogroll has been moved completely to its own page, and I did a bit of fine-tuning to make it look nice.  If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.

New Feature Coming Soon!

That’s right!  I’ve been talking about it for awhile now, and my new feature will debut on Monday, January 21.  I had originally set it for February 4th, but I’m impatient and it’s about ready, so starting next week you’ll get to see it.  It’s called Music on Mondays and I’ll be focusing some of my musical chat into a weekly column.  I also have a new page that will list all my Music on Monday columns, along with previous blog posts having to do with music.   So go check out some of my old posts about music to get a taste of what’s to come!

When I moved in with Boyfriend, I had to find somewhere to put my desk.  The living room wasn’t an option because his desk was already in there, and the only corner where it made sense to put mine was taken up by a fireplace.  So that left the bedroom, which used to be spacious before I moved in.  Now my desk is crowded in the far corner of the room, without enough room for a proper chair.  I sit on an overturned trash barrel with a pillow on top in lieu of a proper stool.

Since my desk is so out of the way, Boyfriend really doesn’t like it when I spend time on my computer.  He has 2 laptops, one of them a brand spanking new HP Something that runs Vista.  Since the arrival of the HP, I’ve been using that a lot more because it allows me to spend time with Boyfriend - we can both be on the computer yet in the same room together.  It’s been nice, but there are lots of things on my desktop that I still need - all my iTunes, my personal finance software, all my files that I do stuff with - and at this point it’s just going to have to stay that way, because I don’t see us getting a server or even an external hard drive anytime soon.  I prefer to have everything in just one place, anyway, so I’ve kept it all on my desktop.

Since I spend so much time on the laptop, however, I figured it would be wise to try and merge some stuff.  I have zillions of bookmarks on my desktop - not that I use them all regularly, I admit that they could use some cleaning out - but I wanted the bookmarks for my main computer with me on the laptop.  I went online to see what extensions Firefox had, since I had heard they had one that syncs bookmarks.  I downloaded Foxmarks on the desktop and laptop and went about doing my thing, being careful to keep the ones I already had on my desktop as the dominant set.  This is when the trouble began.

When I finished syncing (spellcheck says that is right, I don’t know) them, I had a whole bunch of blank bookmarks on the laptop.  That wasn’t right, so I set about deleting them.  Once that was done, Foxmarks wanted to sync again.  I chose no.  Throughout the day, it kept wanting to sync.  Tired of the popup, I finally clicked yes, thinking that because I had set my desktop bookmarks as the dominant set, it would shut this thing up once and for all.  Boy, was I wrong.  All those blank bookmarks were the folders that I had to organize stuff.  All the bookmarks I previously had in folders were gone.  Now all I have is the miscellany that I had floating at the end, waiting to be organized.  Everything else is gone.  I don’t even remember half of what I had, but it’s all gone.  I know I had clothing stores and shoe stores and all sorts of other stores that I liked to visit.  Some of those I’ll never find again, so no more window shopping for me.

Now that I’m completely fed up with the Great Bookmark Syncing Fiasco, I’ve uninstalled Foxmarks and will never try that again.  Perhaps a site like PortaPortal will be a bit better, or not.  Perhaps I will just keep separate bookmarks on each computer.  I don’t know, I haven’t figured that out yet.  I’m still hurting from losing all my cool bookmarks.

My latest mix CD exchange is just that - music I loved in High School. I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, and quite frankly, a lot of the music from that time is forgettable (as in, when will everyone forget this stuff ever existed). I was a bit embarrassed by my mix, but it turns out that a lot of other people in my group liked it and the memories it brought back for them, so I’m quite happy about that. I related my mix to certain memories, good and bad, that they brought back. Here’s my mix:

1. Angel by Aerosmith
2. Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard
3. Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer
4. You Got It (The Right Stuff) by New Kids on the Block
5. Straight Up by Paula Abdul
6. Love Shack by The B-52’s
7. The Look by Roxette
8. What I Am by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
9. Fade to Black by Metallica
10. Thinking of You by Sa-Fire
11. Unbelievable by EMF
12. Twice as Hard by The Black Crowes
13. Dream On by Aerosmith
14. Fall At Your Feet by Crowded House
15. Wind of Change by Scorpions
16. Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
17. Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel

Boyfriend also made a mix, since he went to high school in the early 80s and he listened to cool alternative music (not to be confused with the heavily synthesized New Wave music that you hear on 80s flashback programs. Here’s his mix:

1. I Could Be Happy by Altered Images
2. Blue Shadows by The Blasters
3. Avalon by Roxy Music
4. Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division
5. Belly of the Whale by Burning Sensations
6. Stand or Fall by The Fixx
7. Major Tom by Peter Schilling
8. Christian Boy by Robert Seidler
9. 88 Lines About 44 Women by Nails
10. Fade to Grey by Visage
11. I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass by Nick Lowe
12. Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads
13. Warm Leatherette by The Normal
14. People Who Died by Jim Carroll Band
15. The Card Cheat by The Clash
16. A Rush and a Push & The Land Is Ours by The Smiths
17. California Kid by Beat Farmers
18. The Fanatic by Felony
19. My Wife and My Dead Wife by Robyn Hitchcock
20. The Unguarded Moment by The Church

I think I’m going to enjoy Boyfriend’s mix a lot more than my own, since I rarely listen to anything on there anymore (except Crowded House - they’re in my current playlist). What did you listen to in high school? Don’t worry about revealing your age, either!

If you read enough pro blogs, you might get the impression that there are certain rules that must be adhered to if you are going to make money from your blog, and that the only goal with blogging is to make bucketloads of money.  But quite honestly, that is not the goal of most bloggers, at least not most of the bloggers I know (of).  Most bloggers get into it because they have something to say or just want to get their voice out there.  Over time, they hear of the possibility of making money with a blog, and I’m sure it goes through everyone’s mind at one point or another.

I read a post yesterday about monetizing a blog.  You can read it here.  In the article, Lightening asked lots of questions and had some very intelligent comments about monetizing (or monetising, since she’s Australian), going pro and whether or not monetizing is a good idea for smaller, personal blogs.

I’m not a problogger.  I never intended to be, and I still don’t want to be.  Blogging is a hobby, and the second it starts to feel like a job it won’t be a fun hobby anymore.  Also, I know my personality.  I’m just not very entrepreneurial, so working hard to find a new and exciting way to present my blog in such a way that people will just want to click on all my ads and make me rich beyond my wildest dreams is just not something I want to put any effort into.  I just want to babble on incessantly about whatever comes to mind.

That being said, I do have an affiliate program.  They can be a decent way to make a bit of extra money, but I had another goal mind.  When I talk about certain things that I love, I want to share them with you in whatever way I can, and leaving you with something to put in a search engine isn’t quite what I had in mind.  I mean, let’s say your BFF calls up and starts raving about this awesome new thing they just got and how much they love it.  Then when you express your interest in obtaining AwesomeNewThing, they tell you that they bought it at a store and if you look around you can find one too.  Ok.  Um, which store?  That’s all I’m trying to prevent.  If I mention something that you might be interested in, I certainly hope it would be handy that I provide a link for you to check it out immediately.  If I make money from it, that’s great.  Then I can buy more of the sort of stuff I mention (usually CDs and movies).  I’m not looking to pay my rent from this, just to provide a service and perhaps get a little pocket change.

I have always hated sales, especially sales with the dreaded SALES GOALS.  The one commisioned/goal-oriented retail job that I had only worked out because I worked mostly on weekends, where I could have a much higher chance of a good hours to sales ratio.  But other than that, I hated that I had to use certain techniques that, while effective, were aimed solely at parting this customer with their hard-earned cash.  I don’t have any conversion goals on my affiliate marketing.  I just want to spread the love for the stuff I mention and make it easy for you all to check it out further.  Any income from it is just a bonus.

There are no rules to monetize your blog.  There are certainly techniques that have a high success rate, but there are no hard and fast rules.  The only rule is to do whatever feels right to you, because it’s your blog.  If you do want further advice on what techniques will work for you, it is super easy to do a search on the subject, or just surf fellow bloggers’ blogrolls, because most of us, whether we want to monetize or not, have at least one pro in our rolls.

Boyfriend is playing his silly little game, aka World of Warcraft. He’s a Level 70 dude of some sort. He keeps trying to get me sucked in so we can play together and I can make all sorts of imaginary internet friends.

I blog on the laptop while sitting on the sofa, which is right next to his desk, so we do play together, in a way. I tell him about funny blog posts and comments, and he tells me about funny comments from his peanut gallery guild. I like my imaginary internet friends, and have even met some of them in person (one at her Vegas wedding!) I have also met some of Boyfriend’s imaginary internet friends, whom I can have a conversation with even though he listens to them through his headset.

I’ll stick to blogging, Boyfriend can stick to his silly little game, and we’ll happily laugh at each other’s obsessions.

I just read this post to Boyfriend before publishing it, and he said “Amen to that, sister!”

I’ve noticed that, during the course of being a blogger, there are a few things I have done correctly to help my blog along. The most prominent (to me) is the name of my blog. All About Me - And Then Some. I have seen other blogs with similar names, but here’s what I think is right with this name.

1. It is obvious from the title that it is a personal blog, but it also leaves open the possibility that I might actually talk about a subject other than myself. The title is relevant and stays relevant as my blog grows and changes over the years. Since I don’t think I’ll ever be a pro blogger with a specific niche, this works very well for me.

2. It’s at the beginning of the alphabet. Not the total beginning, since other blog names do come before me, but if people put me on their blogrolls by the title of my blog, then I’m up near the top. Now when cruising other people’s blogrolls, I’ll start at the top and work my way down, but very often I run out of steam by the time I get to the M’s. Consequently, this gives me more traffic by blogroll surfing than “Mary’s Blog” or something like that. So that makes me an “A” blogger.  Ha, ha!

3. Except for the title of this post (and a few other rare exceptions), I never forgot what I learned in my English classes, specifically the writing classes.  Many pros say this, and I am in total agreement - a little bit of good grammar goes a long way.  The way kids text these days, with all their “ur” for your and 2 for two, to, or too, is just really annoying for those of us who learned to spell from weekly spelling lists, not telephone keypads.

4. I remembered what I learned by osmosis from working as a receptionist at a graphic design firm.  For over two years, I was surrounded by people who not only appreciated, but were huge fans of good design.  It has turned me into a nit-picking design freak.  At work, a flyer advertising a Weight Watchers 10 week session was distributed, and it only took me a few seconds to pick out the two biggest design flaws in it.  Good design is as such that one does not need to think about it.  My new blog is not perfect, at least as far as I’m concerned, but I’m gonna get myself a book and try to tweak it to my satisfaction.

Now, things I done bad

I started on Blogger.  This wasn’t a fatal move in itself - it did allow me to learn about blogging, html, css, and of course make lots of blogger friends, all for free.  But it was limiting too - I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to do, and I didn’t have control of my content.

I just didn’t know lots of stuff.  Again, this is not a fatal flaw because I eagerly learned what I needed to know rather than claiming ignorance.  I could have just picked a standard template, left the colors as they were, and typed some stuff in the box and hit “Post.”  I might have even had a halfway decent blog that way because my content rocks (It’s my blog, so I can say that).  But it still would have looked like all the others.  I need to be unique, even if just in my tiny way.  So, I learned and did just that.  You might never see a totally built from scratch by me template and design on here, but I intend to learn enough about wordpress to know what to change if something is bugging me or I just need a tiny change.

As time goes on and I see how well the things I done right work for me, I’m really glad that I had the foresight dumb luck to make the decisions I did, because I didn’t totally screw myself and was able to build myself quite the decent little blog.