July 2006 Archives

RPM strikes again.

1. What is your favorite body part on the opposite sex? Eyes. Eyes catch me on everybody.
2. How many hours of sleep did you get last night? Maybe six solid hours. And a couple hours of lighter snoozing after that. I'm finally just getting adjusted to Pacific time. Just in time to go back home, blah.
3. Do you still keep in touch with any of your childhood best friends? I take "childhood" to mean pre-high-school, so in that case, no. I do keep in touch with a couple of high school friends (one of whom I visited with today, in fact).
4. What is your favorite trick for stress relief? Walks. Throwing things. That sounds more violent than it actually is. I mainly just mimic throwing something. Or I throw something soft.
5. Do you have any addictions? The internet. To a far lesser extent, Reese's Miniatures.
6. What city besides the one in which you reside would rather live in? San Francisco is still my top answer, although the cost of living is starting to turn me off of that a bit. Even though I can afford it better now (and command a better salary if I were to move). Seattle's my second choice.
7. What bodily noises that people make in public really irk you? Snorting and hocking of loogies.
8. Describe the worst haircut you've ever had. Probably the 7th- and 8th-grade bangs. The glasses and braces didn't really help.
9. What were you doing yesterday at this time? Out for sushi with friends.
10. What's the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you today? I almost fell a couple times getting on and off the bus and streetcar, on account of my sore legs and foot.

• I'm getting there with the pictures.
• It took me two whole days to figure out that Robert Scoble has been here videotaping sessions since the beginning.
• Three words: Me and Dooce.
• Three more words: Me and Amanda. !!!
• Lauren: So cute! I wish I had more time to catch up with her. Her panel talk was fabulous.
• It's harder to summarize the Day 2 stuff. It's less nuts and bolts and more issue-based. I had to pay more attention to participate. I absorbed quite a bit, but it's hard to digest and regurgitate on the fly.
• You'd think folks would know to turn off their damn cell phones when they're in a session. Put it on vibrate, people.
• I never want to hear the word mommyblogger again. Ever.
• Overall, I'm so glad I went. I had a fabulous time, met some folks I've been wanting to meet, met some cool new people, and had some great conversations. Like, I met some seriously internet famous people, and they were all totally cool and nice and generally awesome.
• I didn't think I'd ever go there, but I totally want to go to the next SXSW Interactive.

Wish me luck! I'm nervous as hell. And if you happen to be up at 8:00 central, watch me run! My bib number is 18475.

Staying naked as your body (of work) changes.

Panelists: Mecca Ibrahim of the London Underground Tube Blog, Lauren (formerly) of Feministe, and Maryam Scoble.

Jory Des Jardins was a fantastic moderator. She had questions ready when other people didn't. She was able to fill in and get good clarifications on people's comments. She was able to segue between topics. She's articulate. Waaay better than that chick from Chicagoist.

Each panelist had very different experiences, so it was interesting to hear about all the different responses to the same stimulus: e.g., the author's shift to a more or less personal point of view and the audience response. For Mecca, she got more personal after the London Tube bombing and her readers didn't know what to do with her. For Lauren, she started out really personal and tried to back it up and couldn't get out of it without quitting blogging (as herself) all together.

Questions and comments that stuck out in my head:

• Audience member: You can't be anonymous and naked.


• Audience member: Do you feel an obligation to create "safe space" in your comments when you're naked?


• Jory asks: How responsible do you feel to your audience (via comments, content, etc.)? Maryam doesn't so much. Lauren feels very responsible because her readers have been very generous. Mecca feels very responsible because she's gotten very positive feedback from her work.


• Jory asks: How does popularity play in? Lauren's found that it didn't matter much at all. She got the numbers up, but the level of feedback was the same, so she got nothing out of it.


• Leah Jones comment: She was forced to become a political blogger because she converted to Judaism. She doesn't necessarily know or want to address the topics, but feels the obligation to point her readers in the right direction.


• Audience member: What are the elephants in the room (e.g., his friend committed suicide)? Maryam: Her stepson, not being his bio mom. Lauren: Lost three friends and two family members (three of them to suicide). She talked about the first one, but not about the second two. She'll turn off comments when she's blogging for herself. Mecca: not much, except where libel and the London Underground is concerned. She was reluctant to talk about the guy who was shot by the police when they suspected he was a terrorist.


• Jory's last question: Is it worth speaking? Lauren: Shyeah! (Except for certain subjects.) Maryam: "Sexy lingerie is more attractive than being naked."

For more info than I was able to capture, visit Karl, who liveblogged the session.

Blogger as entreprenur... fact or fiction? I chose this one by default because the others didn't interest me. And because Heather Armstrong was speaking.

I was turned off by the fact that the moderator writes for an -ist site. I was turned off by the fact that the other panelist, Arieanna Foley, writes for something like 30 different blogs on teen celebrities. I lend more credence to Heather just because she grew her audience organically, and chose to capitalize on the audience she already had. Most other folks come off as money-grubbing, IMO. Apparently paid corporate bloggers are a hot commodity right now. Feels dirty to me.

Heather herself is so entertaining that she was worth it all by herself, even if I have no use for what she had to say. The conversation got off topic for a bit and it became the Dooce show. I think I liked that better.

Do you feel obliged to represent for your gender, race, culture? The panelists were:

Dawn Rouse whose husband is black guy from Detroit with a Ph.D. I'm pretty sure she was on an episode of Addicted to Race. No, that was another white woman married to a black guy with a Ph.D.

Karen Walrond from Trinidad with Chinese and Indian heritage. Her husband is English and her adopted daughter is Mexican/Colombian. She had a magical voice. I was mesmerized every time she spoke.

Maria Niles, representing the belief that you have no obligation to Represent. She calls herself an "undercover black woman."

Carmen van Kerckhove of Mixed Media Watch and the Addicted to Race Podcast. It's trippy to see her face, having listened to her voice so much.

Marisa Treviño, a professional journalist who refused to use race as an angle to get hired and decided to create her own outlet.

Great session. Talked to Dawn and Karen after the panel. I love that Dawn is so attuned and attentive to the issues that her biracial daughter might face. Karen articulated a number of things that I strongly agreed with. There was a lot to this, so I'll come back to it later.

The opening discussion is about how your blogs are changing your world.

They started off with a rep from Windows Live Spaces, who then introduced the Be Jane chicks. Totally unimpressive. They've been walking around in matching outfits. And not just shit they made themselves on CafePress. Do you believe that these two are home improvement experts? I don't. They've got their whole shpiel down pat. Clearly a rehearsed presentation. The room got pretty loud. Folks were not paying them much attention. The second they stepped off the stage, room quieted right back down.

The BlogHer conference application posed this question about how blogs are changing your world, so we all had to answer it. Folks with particularly good answers are getting up on stage and talking about how blogging has changed their world. We've got Hurricane Katrina relief, mommyblogging *cough*, web design/internet consulting business startups, a chef/food blogger who got involved in the immigrant protests, a feminist single mom, and cute little old lady blogger Millie Garfield (Steve's mom).

I probably could have slept in. The intention was good, but it's a hard conversation to have in a room full of 600 people.

From this session comes the Quote of the Day, courtesy of Elisa Camahort: "Blogging is like the gateway drug for technology." Amen, sista!

I was reminded today that that does not make for a very good post title. But I'm tired and it's late.

Sherri's anti-mommyblogger rant has stirred up quite the shitstorm. The rumor is that Sherri is (officially) liveblogging the conference, which she's not. That makes the BlogHer people unhappy, and rightfully so. They are concerned, and a disclaimer will be made.

That shit got around quick. I love it.

Watch the Video

I'm experimenting with video hosting, so this might move around or be posted from another service or something.

Workshop #3A: Videoblogging with Ryanne Hodson and Zadi Diaz (who are both so cute). There's going to be a "Birds of a Feather" session on this tomorrow, too. These are impromptu interest groups put together here at the conference for people to further discuss topics they want to address.

They recommended blip.tv. I like blip.tv. The interface is nice enough. Haven't played with the uploader program yet. They have some neat extras like a flickr-like sidebar thingie and easy iTunes integration. But it doesn't have a flash player embed like YouTube does. The video quality is better and the audio/video sync was fine. But I don't want to post the jpg and then have you click to the video file itself. I want it to play on the page or else go to the file's page on blip.tv. They have flash conversion, it's just slow, so I have to wait for it to show up. The flash conversion is only for viewing on blip.tv. Files on your own blog are still in their original format. Hrm....

The hard part for me is not the technical details, it's having the content in the first place. I might be too lazy and uncreative for all that. In the mean time....

Workshop #3B: Design/Style/Customization with Miriam Verburg and Tiffany Brown. They started with a great overview on whether or not you should hire a web designer and what to look for/expect. On to CSS! Summary of the syntax of CSS, then we stepped through a 2-column layout. I thought it was great for someone who's monkeyed around with this stuff but isn't a web designer (i.e., me).

Miscellaneous #1: I met George Kelly.
Miscellaneous #2: I saw someone using Internet Explorer for Mac. *gasp* Who does that?

I really liked this one. Lisa and Lynne did a pretty good job with it, and they made their deck available online. They covered a bunch of different aspects of writing and gave great examples of blogs that do these things well and poorly. I wish we had more time for that one.

I'm not necessarily trying to "find my voice" as a writer/blogger, but it did make me think more about whether or not what you're reading and what you're seeing is not too hard to process.

Miscellaneous #1: Self-promoters piss me off.
Miscellaneous #2: Between all the people and all the electronics, it's hot as hell in here.

Photos:

Lynne Johnson said she read my last few points and that it's clear to her that I haven't been paying attention! She's kind of right. I promise to do better.

Although I did just walk out of the Audio/Podcasting session. I grabbed the informational booklet. I suspect all the useful information is in the booklet. I was so turned off by the presenter, though. I know there are always going to be stragglers, so it's a little distracting at the beginning of the session. And I know it would be easier if we were set up in, say, a classroom, not one end of a sectioned-off ballroom. They're trying to get people to use microphones as much as possible because they are recording all the sessions, and she refused. But it's not like she was talking very loudly, either. It was all just too disorganized for me.

So Sherri and I are chilling in the lobby. She's defending herself against mommy bloggers. I'm having a hard time focusing on anything in particular. I'm thinking about either the digital photography session or 10 types of web writing next. Mainly only because audience building doesn't interest me at all.

Oh, and I test drove a Saturn Sky. *hawesome* The new Saturn Aura looks pretty smooth, too.

Entitled "What's Next?" With Meg Hourihan and Caterina Fake, hosted by Marnie Webb.

I'm not really paying much attention, frankly. But it's cool to see internet famous people on stage.

Stole this from looking over Sherri's shoulder. BlogHer on flickr. (Duh.)

The print version of today's San Jose Mercury News has BlogHer as the second front page headline.

On starting a community-based blog. Sponsored by blurb.com. A free book for the tote bag. I'm sure it does something cool. I'll examine it later.

Cords. Cords everywhere.

Lynne d. Johnson is sitting at my table! She recognized my domain name. *geeked*

I see knitters.

So far folks are volunteering their experiences of their blog-based communities. We've got food bloggers, mommy bloggers, anonymous disgruntled grad student bloggers, and the Cambodian blogosphere (this woman is not Cambodian, but her kids are).

The panel speakers talked a little about their own communities. We've got women in law school. We've got "an information resource and social network for and about people of color in the digital media making community." Heavy stuff.

I keep hearing the term "second wave adopters" which apparently means people who are not blogging yet, but are about to start.

Seriously, really should have taken the time to make business blogcards.

We broke up into groups to roundtable on some aspects that folks wanted to address. I went to "care and feeding" and "technology/tools". There was also "legal" and something else I can't remember. The care and feeding discussion was mainly centered on how to build community, because a sense of community is what fuels both authors and audience. The technology and tools discussion was more on how to structure a site in the first place. Picking the appropriate software is secondary.

And then we reported back at the end. The chick who "represented" our group just got up and talked about all the shit that she said. Left out everyone else's comments. She had a dirty baby on her hip the whole time.

So many Macs!

I heard from several folks that the Primp Your Blog session sucked. Too basic.

Lunchtime! I'm hungry.

...watch me play with my new toy.

Not very exciting, I know. Looks like it's way out of sync. Not sure what happened in the upload to YouTube. I watched on my hard drive first and it was fine.

So, after walking three-quarters of the way around the Hyatt, I find the entrance to the BlogHer madness. There's the registration table, and then all the exhibitor tables. As I'm in line to grab my bag, I see Steve Garfield (and drop Chuck's name). That's a skinny mofo.

I get my badge and my tote bag (emblazoned with the Six Apart logo). This is now in addition to my backpack full of electronics and my goodie bag from Saturn that I picked up outside the door. I wandered back and forth for a minute and then decided I definitely needed to consolidate bags. So I meander into the ballroom for the opening address, and there are tables and tables full of women with laptops.

And who do I instantly see across the room? Mocha Momma!

P.S. I really should have made up business cards. I was gonna, but I ran out of time. Should have made time.
P.P.S. I'm gonna be a little slow with the pictures.

I made it to California. Got in to San Jose late last night and chilled for most of the day today. The weather here is glorious. It is waaaay past my bedtime.

BlogHer starts tomorrow!

The shock of my fellow AssEng leaving has worn off. I'd like to be able to absorb as much information as I can from him, but aside from that detail, I'm ready for him (and the other engineer who quit) to be gone.

They were both told that if they're going to work through their last two weeks that they need to keep a positive attitude. Thing is, they didn't really have one to begin with. I can appreciate a sarcastic sense of humor. I can dish it as well as I can take it. But there's only so much of that one can handle.

On top of that, there's the double standard that's firmly in place.

Anybody with a PC have an IRC client that they like? I need to get on IRC for something tomorrow, but I'll have to do it from work.

I tried mIRC but the network I need to log onto (irc.freenode.net) wasn't anywhere in its long ass list of networks. And it's only free for 30 days.

HydraIRC has also been suggested, but I haven't checked it out yet.

Just farting around with Bloglines Publisher Tools.

Get 'em while they're hot.

Promiscuous Girl by Nelly Furtado and Timbaland. Cannot get this out of my head. This was marked as the clean version, so if someone knows anything about a dirty version, let me know.

Make You Move by The New Congress. Local band. Amazing live show. The first time I heard them play this I totally wanted to have sex right then and there. Okay, I still do.

Today in the "On This Day" section pops up this from 2005. If I had a pithy comment to make, I would. I'm rather speechless.

*sigh*

Chaz remarks and receives comments on how to get your blog traffic up and what makes a successful blog. To which I say...

1. Whatever happened to blogging for fun?
2. This whole "successful blog" stuff is definitely a guy thing. I'll call it "penis blogging."

Fly Girl was asking me about BlogHer.* She's wondering what the heck a blogging conference is gonna be like. No doubt she thinks is going to be nerdy. I said that I'm really curious to see what it's going to be like, too. Because a blogging conference full of women is going to be totally different from any other blogging conference, which is almost certainly going to be dominated by men.

There are women out there who certainly are focused on expanding their audience. In fact, there's at least one session at BlogHer dedicated to this very thing. My feeling, though, is that women want to expand their audience because they think they have something useful to share and they want to reach out and help others and connect as much as they can.

Guys want to expand their audience because they want to have an expanded audience. They think they have something important to say and want people to hear it, but their intentions strike me as far less altruistic. More traffic. Bigger penis. *argh*argh*scratch*

That's a pretty blanket statement. But every stereotype has root in the truth.

I had caffeinated coffee with my breakfast this morning afternoon. Three cups. I was jittery as hell. Part of it was because I was thinking about work which instantly induces low-grade anxiety. Part of it was because I was thinking about the hot professional basketball players across the room. But it was mostly the coffee. Crikey.

*shakes*

RCA Championship. One of the big hard court tournaments leading up to the US Open. Andy Roddick vs James Blake in the final. Who to root for? Okay, James Blake. But Andy's been having such a tough time of it lately.

And on account of this match running late, it's cutting into beach volleyball on NBC. I swear if I miss one second of Kerri Walsh and Misty May, I'm-a be upset.

This after seeing Amber Jacobs and Kristen Mann while out for breakast this morning. I went over and said hi to them, but I didn't have the balls to ask for a picture. It was kind of crowded and stuff. I didn't want to make a scene.

<12-year-old-girl>Kristen is sooooo hot. OMG OMG OMG. And she has her eyebrow pierced.</12-year-old-girl>

So, Friday was not a great day at work. Remember how those two guys from my department quit a month after I started?

Right, well on Friday the other remaining guy quit. My whole department right now is just me.

Just me.

Me, myself, and I.

I'm freaking out a little.

Photograph this blog post (including your monitor and its immediate surroundings), and post the resulting pic on your blog. Then the next person photographs your blog post and posts it, and so on. Leave your post URL in the comments so people will be able to follow the chain, and link your image to the post you photographed… this way people will be able to zoom into the monitors by clicking.

I will piss my pants if I see Amanda Congdon at BlogHer.

I've been listening to the Financial Aid Podcast. About two-thirds of the information isn't really useful to me, since my student loans are already consolidated and mostly paid off. But Chris Penn* does have some good info on financial news and tips and stuff.

In a recent episode, he reported on a startling bit of news about how the nation is heading into bankruptcy. From the show notes:

The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country’s central bank.

A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

Experts have calculated that the country’s long-term “fiscal gap” between all future government spending and all future receipts will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters.

Prof Kotlikoff said: “This figure is more than five times US GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one’s head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc.”

Oh my god. Oh. My. God.

I know y'all have been asking for weeks. Aside from the fact that the the heat and humidity have been deathly oppressive, training has been mostly unremarkable.

I had a really great, early morning 8.6-mile run along the Mississippi River a few weeks ago. That was immediately followed by the never-ending boat trip with some co-workers. Which really was fun, but an 8-hour boat trip with very little water and no food and lots of sun is probably not the best way to recover.

Last weekend's 9.86 miles in 90-degree heat and humidity were awful. I was delirious for the rest of day. I came home and did manage to get in the shower right away. Then I fell asleep. Woke up starving, but was too tired to get something to eat. I finally went out in the awful awful weather to get something to eat. And then I slept some more.

In Great River Relay news, Bosslady is likely out of the race with a stress fracture. I'm not only disappointed because we're short a person, I'm disappointed because she was really excited to do it. I may require her to volunteer anyway. Actually we would have been fine, numbers-wise, without her, but a few other people dropped out, coincidentally right when it was time for them to pony up some cash. Folks do have legitimate reasons, but it still pisses me off. I think we'll be okay, though.

I've been checking out all the local running stores and picked up a new pair of shoes over the weekend (Tiffany, they're white, navy, and carolina). I also got some Michigan socks, a FuelBelt (which I might return), and I returned a pair of shoes I got a long time ago but didn't want, for which I got a pair of heavier winter tights and another pair of shorts.

I needed all that stuff. Really.

No, I really did need the shoes. I didn't think I'd be able to break them in in time for the half marathon, but they're pretty comfy and I haven't had any problems with them on three runs so far. If I make it through this weekend's 11-miler okay, then I'll wear them for the race.

The race, which is next weekend already! Eek! I know that the weather there will significantly improve my times. But I'm not very confident having had only one longer run that felt comfortable. It's only supposed to be 82 this Saturday, so I've got high hopes for this last long run before my taper week.

...as seen by the Germans:

...as seen by the French:

...as seen by the Italians:

...as seen by the Americans:

...as seen in Hong Kong:

The Italian view is my favorite.

Mocha Momma is conducting interviews in anticipation of next weekend's BlogHer conference.

When did you start blogging and why? I started blogging in September '02. I quit my job in Minneapolis earlier that year and spent a few months road tripping. I had just moved back to Detroit and moved in with my folks. I had copious amounts of time on my hands. Blogging was the only light in my world for the next 12 months.

Who do you read every day, rain or shine? Assuming everyone updated everyday. In no particular order. TC Metblog, the iVillagers (Sherri/Lasadh, Malia/seal daze, Casey/All I'm Saying, Dee/liminal musings, Mel/thirtyo), Bayou/A Perfect Anomaly, Tiffany/Blown Fuse, Dawn/Caterwauling, Day by Day, Feministe, Kazoofus, Lachlan/My So Called Blog, Mac/Pesky'Apostrophe, Neil/The Queue, and Kelley/Suburban Blight.

What don’t you write about? Anything considered a no-no in your book? No details of my sex life (but you'll hear plenty about the lack thereof). I'm stingy with details on who I'm dating. I try not to overtly identify anyone or anything about work. And I really ought to be more careful about that because on account of Metblog my real full name is getting out there and while it's not explicitly on this site anywhere, it's about three clicks away if you google me. I don't think you can find my name from this site, but you can find this site from my name.

What is your favorite thing that you wrote or got a strong reaction from readers? The most mundane stuff is what gets the response around here. It tickles me that people will come out of the woodwork to tell me what kind of deodorant they use. Or my pet peeve of the day. I don't do much exposition or punditry, so there's never any of that kind of excitement.

If you had a super power, what would it be? Absolutely it would be teleportation. Think of the cost savings!

KathyHowe, this is for you!

I don't usually pay attention to the search terms that lead people here. Mostly because they're not very interesting. It's mostly "erica" and sometimes "varbarg method." But this one made me take notice.

Someone in Rochester, MN is looking for a "mn gay femme slut."

Ha!

MN? Yes.
Gay? Yes.
Femme? More so than the alternatives.
Slut? Hardly.

Wonder if she found what she was looking for.

Blog-themed.

1. What is the first blog you remember reading? I vaguely remember Dooce, Schoolgirl Sophistry (defunct), Girl in Camo, and Dean Esmay from way back in the beginning.
2. If you have a blog, how long have you been blogging? If you don't, how long have you been commenting on blogs? It'll be four years in September.
3. What do you think are the best aspects of blogging? Meeting people. Having a chance to express myself, especially since I'm generally introverted and at least half of the stuff I blog would probably never come up in conversation. Not because I wouldn't say it. Because I don't have that much conversation.
4. And the worst? Sussing out if people are genuine.
5. Do you find yourself sensoring what you write (either in your blog or in comments) based on who you think will see what you've written, or do you tend to throw caution to the wind and bare your soul? I censor myself.
6. Have you ever written anything you wish you hadn't? Have you ever deleted your posts or your comments? I think I've regretted maybe two posts ever. I've deleted a post, but at the request of someone else, not because I regretted posting it.
7. About how many hours a week do you spend blogging or and/or reading blogs? Now that I'm back at a cube job, a lot more than I was, although I am actually having to do some work at my cube job. Maybe four or so hours a day. Does that sound like a lot?
8. If you blog, do you think there will come a time when you just stop doing it? If you don't blog, do you think you'll ever start? At the moment, I definitely feel like I could keep doing this for a while. It'll evolve into something different from what I'm doing now, I'm sure. But who the hell knows? Even when I've been feeling burned out I haven't really stopped. I've only taken a week's hiatus here and there for emotional distress.
9. Do you share things on your blog or in comments that you don't necessarily share in your "real" life? Not really. The kind of stuff I say here is not stuff I would absolutely not ever say, but in "real" life I might need some prodding. Or some alcohol.
10. Ask me something blog-related. If you could/had to change your domain name, what would you change it to?

I'm not sure I could go so far as to say that I like my job. But, much to my surprise, I don't not like it.

By the time I quit my last job, I hated it. I was so unhappy. There was never a point in the whole time I worked there that I didn't feel uncertain about what I was doing. That was very unsettling.

This job, even though I'm reasonably familiar with a number of things, most of what I'm working on is still new to me. And this doesn't worry me at all. I have no qualms asking people to help me out and check my work. I have no trouble defending or justifying what I've done (not that I have to do that a lot).

A big part of this is me maturing over the last six years. I have confidence in my work. People trust my judgment, and I really like that. I have a fair amount of responsibility, and I really like that. I like my co-workers. I like my boss. My workflow, having so many different projects ongoing, is much more suitable to my short attention span.

I don't intend to be here for a particularly long time, but I'm not actively counting down the days or looking for some way to escape. That's a huge relief. That's a huge turnaround from how I felt just six months ago. I wonder how different my perspective would be had I not taken the path that I did. Had I not been out of work for so long. Had I started here in the role I'm in now, three years ago, instead of taking the detour down the career ladder and back up again.

I can choose to regret the choices I made, but I'd say this scenario makes a strong case for how the end justifies the means. Because I absolutely would not be where I am right now had I chosen differently. And I rather like where I am at the moment.

Spent all day Friday out on a boat with some work peeps.

I'm a city girl. I don't do this boat stuff. But it wasn't so bad. I had absolutely no intention of getting in the water, but I did eventually take a spin on the tube. That was pretty fun. Especially since my ears are fixed and they don't get all plugged up with water anymore.

All in all, it was great for the first few hours. But then nobody had any food and there was a fiasco with car keys being left in other people's boats (other people who had already left). It dragged on for about two hours past my comfort zone. I skipped on going out to dinner because I was completely unable to be adequately social at that point.

I got home and was so tired I didn't know what to do with myself. Couldn't decide if food or shower or nap was more important. Just sat there staring for a few minutes. Ended up doing them in that order: food, shower, nap. The food and shower were each surprisingly rejuvenating, but they sure didn't keep me from napping. It didn't help that I had gotten up early and done my long run before going out on the boat.

I tried to take it easy yesterday. I'm still pooped.

And I loves the Rum Raisin.

Remember that interview? Yours truly will be heard on Minnesota Public Radio Monday morning. Or you can go to the MPR website and read the article and hear the audio at your leisure.

I'm afraid I might be liking the PT Cruiser more than the Ion.

The main thing is that it's a little taller, so the seat is higher up, so it's more like sitting in a chair (like the Jeep was). The Ion has the low-to-the-ground seat where your legs are more out in front of you. I don't necessarily care about being higher up relative to the ground, but I like being able to bend my knees.

It has less of a blind spot. It feels a little more open inside. It's got a great cupholder that accommodates different size mugs (with handles). The gear shift thing looks kinda like a really tall joystick.

Progressive called with an update. They ended up replacing the bumper panel, the absorber behind it, and repairing the trunk floor. It's being painted today and should be ready mid-week next week. Not sure what else they have to do that takes two more days, but whatever. So I'll at least have the PT Cruiser through the weekend. No word on whether or not I'll have to pay my deductible. I should probably ask about that instead of being surprised when I show up to pick it up.

I returned the Airport Express. What was probably not smart is that I looked around the Apple store to see if there was anything else I might want. I did end up getting a car charger for my iPod mini. $20. Not so bad.

What was bad, however, was the new camera I bought at Ritz Camera. I was just gonna stop in and do some research, I swear. I was trying to remember what cameras y'all had suggested. I vaguely remembered a Canon and a Nikon Coolpix. That's all the detail I could muster.

They had a Nikon Coolpix 4600 on clearance for $130. That was a pretty swell deal, I thought.

Of course, like, no camera uses compact flash cards anymore, so I had to get a new memory card. I splurged and dropped the $$ for a 512MB card. Because the better resolution means bigger pictures, ya know. Normally I don't have that many pictures on my camera at a time, but I have been on vacation and run out of space and had to go back and delete some photos and you know the drill.

The not so great thing is that it runs on AA batteries. I've read all of Dawn's frustrations about the short life of AA batteries in her digital camera. So I'm a little worried about that. We'll see how that works. I bought some rechargeable batteries and a charger. Hopefully I won't run into any camera emergencies.

I prefer taking pictures with my cameraphone because I can just send them straight to flickr instead of downloading them onto my computer first and then uploading them.

I wish I could take better pictures with the phone. Or I wish the camera could access the internet directly. I'm sure someday these two features will merge. I know there are phones with better cameras, but I can't imagine they're all that great for what I'm willing to spend.

It might be too soon to call it.

I came home to find that the new access point was in the bedroom, and the router was indeed under the bed. They put in a funky little doodad that has replaced the phone jack/modem combo we had before (which had me wondering just what the hell kind of internet connection we had in the first place, because it looked more like a DSL connection, but supposedly our ISP has a deal with Time Warner).

I've been able to keep steady access for about 10 minutes here, and the connection appears to be a tad faster than the pre-storm-outage. I could just be imagining that because it's been so bad the last few weeks.

Gawd, I hope this takes care of it. I'll be taking the Airport Express back to the Apple Store this evening.