Society for Aesthetic Deletions

Or, how you know you've become addicted to blogging.

Lou and I are driving to work this morning. We've had a ding on the passenger side of the van's windshield for about two years now. I even called the insurance company about getting it fixed before, but never got around to doing it. I even have insurance to cover the fix.

I noticed first on our way to New Hampshire that the ding isn't a ding anymore, but a crack. About an inch or so long.

Wow, I comment to Lou. We really need to get that fixed.

Pan to this morning, driving to work. We have just enough ice crystals on the windshield that it's a little hard to see, but there's nothing there worth scraping off. So Lou puts the fans on high, pours the heat (eventually) on the windshield, and we set off to work.

Windshield gets clear. I turn the fan down to the lowest setting, move the bar to be windshield and feet.

A few minutes later, the crack leaps from both ends, becoming about three inches long. Whoa, I comment to Lou, thinking in my head, I am going to have to make a blog entry about this! He asks me what, and then sees for himself.

We watch in horror as the crack spreads across the window at a rapid pace, until it is at least two and a half feet, maybe even three, in length, crossing all the way over in front of Lou.

My side only grew about two inches. Neither end has hit the edge of the windshield yet, but I watch the progress, looking at the little bits of dirt and salt and marking the progress by if it has hit those bits yet. My side has settled down after the initial spurt and a small amount of growth. Lou's side grew more slowly, but appears to have settled as well after about 10 minutes, it has advanced only a small amount, but it has advanced.

Of course, a big part of me is going ... I can't believe my first thought was about blogging the crack in the windshield. I am an addict.

Paula told me that I should take a camera and my Palm IIIc with me to Vegas and take pictures and make comments for a blog vacation report for when I return (no, I'm not taking the laptop with me). I thought about it, but thought I'd probably not actually do it.

Now I'm thinking I'll do it whether I plan for it or not. I just can't stop.

Oh, and I've got an appointment to have the windshield replaced on Thursday. Whoo-eee!

Anne told me that today. She said to me in ICQ today that she has to read my blog every day, and then reads 90% of the links from my side blog, too.

I told her that I can understand that. Part of my morning routine now is checking out all those blog links.

I added two of Meera Barry's links to the sidebar today. She'd linked to me a while back from her Amber blog, and I'd just never gotten around to adding her. But I was reading her MT Fierce blog today, and had to comment on this. And in commenting, realized I needed to add that link in.

Of course, with Anne telling me that she checks my blog every day made me realize that I hadn't entered anything today.

I'm still trying to get BlogScript to work with MT. But I see that he has a new version up (today, after I spend all day yesterday trying to get it to work), and Ben from MT has volunteered to give me the new xmlrpc.cgi for MT 2.0. I'll have to see if the new one fixes what I had problems with on the old.

Of course, it probably won't fix the title problem, since it's just copy and paste text. I really need to learn XML. I'm sure I could make it work if I knew that.

I started a maneuver. Decided to comment on one of Wil's posts about how his stepkids are taking on his mannerisms, and everyone is quoting Eddie Izzard back at me.

Maybe it's just cause the latest posts haven't been able to be commented upon. Or it's just the synchronicity of me again, finding Izzard-lovers everywhere.

Movable Type 2.0 is out.

Must finish Ask Aunt Flora redesign tonight.

ARGH!

Ah well, I can play with MT tomorrow night, while Lou's at his game.

the blogger code!

And here is mine:

B3 d t k s u- f i o x-- e- l c-

I was relating a tale to Paula via IM today (thank the $dieties for Fire) that happened earlier this week.

I was at my boss Kate's desk, leaving her a note as she wasn't in. A co-worker came by, someone I'm friendly with (okay, I'm friendly with everyone, I'm just more friendly with some), and she was looking for Kate. Noting that I am not she, I agreed with her. Then she added, "You're like Kate..." to which I responded with, "Only less gay!"

Said co-worker looked at me in astonishment. One of those, "Did she just say what I THINK she said??" looks, still smiling, but obviously taken aback.

I laughed, and kept on writing my note. I later related the story to Kate, who laughed with me, and asked me how surprised the aforementioned co-worker had looked when I had said that.

In talking to Paula, she lamented that everyone is so mercilessly PC these days that simple jokes between friends can get blown out of hand by those who aren't in the same social circles. I told her to blog about that, but she declined, saying that she's gotten enough grief from the tom+cruise+braces people, amongst others, that it just isn't worth it.

Now, that's sad...not being able to speak your mind in a weblog because of what the few loonies will say to you, either in your comments or in email.

I told her she's just too popular. It's things like this that make me glad I don't have a ravening horde of fans, reading my every word. It makes me glad that I have maybe a comment a week. It also makes me glad my husband doesn't read my weblog, or even really care about it. If I got nasty emails/comments, it'd drive him crazy.

I think he prefers the ignorance. So do I sometimes, so do I.

Monday Mission

Like Anne, I'm doing this because I wanted to answer some of the questions, but it may not become a regular thang...

1. What caused your last case of psuedo-road rage?
I don't drive all that often. My husband prefers to drive, so I let him. We have occasionally silly times where we race to the car to see who's going to drive. So I drive maybe once a week, which means I really can't recall the last time I got pissed at a driver.

2. Tell me about one of your favorite television shows that was cancelled (past or present).
Hmm...

I went through this phase, back in the 80s, where whatever show I was watching and loved with all my heart, would be cancelled. So I started watching things like the A-Team, just to get them cancelled. Didn't work, alas.

I have no memory for this stuff. I was disappointed that Invisible Man got cancelled, but Lou and I had stopped watching it before then. I am enjoying the reruns of Now & Again on Sci-Fi, but I didn't watch them on network TV. I recall being upset when Square Pegs got canned. I recall being really upset when Spy Game and Strange Luck were bagged. I'm still cheesed that Batman Beyond is gone, though moving it off of Saturday mornings to weekday afternoons meant I didn't see much of it.

3. Have you ever gone online and pretended to be someone else? What's the story there?
No, not really. I do have a hotmail account I have told no one about, and use it for two specific mailing lists, which do not have my real name on them. And no, I will not talk about them with you.

In my early days online, back when I was on local BBS's, people (read guys) didn't believe I was a woman. We all finally met up at the people's house from where the BBS was run, and then they began to believe.

4. What was (is) one of your favorite Children's books?
The Black Stallion series. I read and reread and reread them all the time. Have them all somewhere still, I think.

5. Can you recommend a CD (tape or otherwise) for me to listen to on the drive home?
For me, driving home is relaxation time, and many times it's no-words-to-music time. So I love to put in any of the Final Fantasy Soundtracks I have, and head home. Unfortunately, they're four CDs each, and I don't carry them with me. I want an MP3 player for my car.

But if you want to bop to some groovin' tunes, put on Barenaked Ladies Gordon. Totally rocking CD.

6. What is your online nickname and what is the story behind how you selected it?
I have two, do you want to hear about them? Sure you do...

My first online handle started on Compuserve. My brother (who is 11 years older than me) and I were playing Bard's Tale on the Commodore (64, maybe 128), and needed help. So he told me we could sign on to Compuserve, there were forums for downloading stuff. We used my credit card (I had one for college), and his handle, Dazzler.

Later on, since I was paying for the account and it was pay by the hour, I changed the password so that he couldn't go online on my dime. But I kept the nickname.

It comes, by the way, from the way he "dazzled" everyone on the golf course, or so he said. He's a golf pro.

I kept Dazzler for years. I even respond to it when people call me "Dazz" or "Dazzler." I had no idea there was a comic book character until someone told me, and gave me a few of the roller disco issues so I could read up.

My first email account outside of CIS kept the Dazz name, dazz@io.com. But as things moved on, I left the name behind. I needed a new name, I don't know why, but I just felt like I did.

So Glyneth was used. Glyneth was my original Heartwood character, a RuneQuest 3rd edition game using the GMs own world, not Glorantha. That name I got from combining Glynis and Gwyneth. Glyneth was a very tough, take no crap character, who had a sweet spot for one guy, but was going to remain a virgin, frell it, so she could become a StarRider and get her unicorn mount!

The game slowly disintegrated, as the GMs marriage dissolved. I tried to keep playing, but the spirit of the game wasn't there anymore.

I started with glyneth as my handle when I stopped paying for CIS, and needed local dial-up access (io.com being in Texas). I found a provider, and glyneth was used. I've kept it at various email addresses since then.

Glyneth is not likely to be used, but Dazzler and its variations were. I think that's why I switched. There is only one other Glyneth out there (though looking online tells me of a Jack Vance character of the same name, in some book somewhere), and she took my name on yahoo, frell it. So there, I'm glynethkoromov, my character's last name (well, she was Glyneth Blackthorne, then found out her da was not her da, but another man, with the last name of Koromov).

I was glyneth on AOL once, and have long-since forgotten the password, so on AIM I'm CalderCFS, for a Fading Suns game called Children of the Fallen Stars (aka CFS), wherein I played Calder.

There, more than you EVER wanted to know about my online handles.

7. Ever been bitten or stung before (snake, wasp, dog, etc)?
Probably by a wasp or bee, once or twice. My cats have bitten me, but in play. As my dog Casey did, when I was younger. But other than that, not that I can recall.

BONUS: Does anybody love anybody anyway?
I love you whether or not you love me.

Actually, it's 2.11.

Downloading now, and going to be installing soon. Whoo-hoo!

UPDATE 1:11 p.m.: Update went well. Once I downloaded the correct files and uploaded THEM instead (sigh).

Stupid me.

Rebuilds seem to go a lot quicker too.

The Brunching Shuttlecocks have done it again. This time, they turn their wit to Weblogs.

I'm just glad I've seen the Spider-Man picture they were talking about, via Sekimori, otherwise I'd be clueless.

Courtesy of ***Dave.

Kitties! Kitties on the cover!

It's not out yet (August), but I think I'll be taking a look at it, and not just for the kitties on the cover.

Larger picture of the cover can be seen by following this link.

Courtesy of Paula, who IM'd me the link.

Been meaning to do this for a while, just haven't had time.

the tiny blog survey

Ethics/Personal Life:

Has a blog post ever got you into trouble?

In trouble? No. But some friends have indicated I have a TMIblog. Hey, if you don't like it, don't read it. Or read it for the quizzes. You can even go right here and just get the quizzes alone.

How many people do you know face-to-face who read your weblog?

Oh geez...well...(counting)...some? I don't know everyone who reads my blog. I know Anne and Paula and Michael, and Ian. I think there are a few others that read it who don't have blogs or web pages, like Jack, and Betsy has said she's read it (and feels like a voyeur while doing so...hi Betsy!) I know some of the Ann Arbor crowd have read it, and I've met some of them at Ambercons. So, let's say 10.

Have you met any of your regional (or even remote) bloggers?

See, the thing is, many people I know on the 'net I know from online, and I've met them at gatherings, like AmberCons or Feng Shui (Ian and Jeanne). So yes, but before they blogged, not since.

Do you modify or delete posts? How often? Why?

Modify - all the time. To fix errors. Occasionally to add in something I forgot, or to give updates. I've only deleted one post, and that's because it was double-posted.

How much is your weblog a part of your personal identity? Do you feel like people who don't know about your blog don't really know you?

Two parts. Second first. No, I don't think so. My husband doesn't read my blog, and he knows me best out of anyone.

Now, part of my personal identity? Not really. I could still take it or leave it. Maybe I'm just used to it at this point, or am just busy. I'd miss it, but I could deal without it.

How has blogging changed your life?

My friends know more about me than they wanted to know. I find myself sometimes looking at things or experiencing things (like the drive back and forth to NH), and going - "I have to blog about this," or find myself composing part of a blog post in my head.

I don't read my online comics as much as I used to. My morning routine, when I got into work, was to start up email, fire up a browser and hit the three comics I was hooked on. Now, I do the same, but I fire up my blog page and hit all the links.

If I linked to my comics from my page, I'd probably hit them daily.

But other than my husband hearing about what I've blogged from other people, nothing's changed significantly.

Technical/Design:

Do you know how to code at all? Did you learn how to code by blogging?

I've done HTML since very early on. Not pre-images, but back when you'd browse using Mosaic. So I know how to code.

Nothing database-y (tried php...there was a reason why I didn't go into programming in college, even though my mother wished me to desperately), but I can html and stylesheet with the best of 'em.

What weblogging tool do you use and why?

Movable Type. I started out using Blogger, back in the day, then stopped blogging. Started up again last year, using Blogger, then decided I wanted a more reliable tool, something that didn't depend on other's servers for posting. Looked at Greymatter, but it just wasn't intuitive for me.

And I work hard at converting others to MT. Two and a half converts so far. Half because Ian tried, but his host was screwy, and he hasn't bothered after he moved, because the space is only temporary. He says.

Does the design seem like something that is just something that has to be dispensed with in order to be able to write publicly, or is your design an integral part of your writing and presentation?

Design is cool, but not enough for me to spend hours on it. Color schemes are important; I need to play with those some more. And I do have a design in mind for this site that's not so basic Movabletype template-ish. I need to get back to it, though.

By the time I'll do that, I'll want another design, I'll bet.

How many times have you changed your weblog design entirely (or nearly so)?

None, see above.

Readership/Motivation:

How many people would you guess (educated guess based on hit counts/logfiles) read your weblog on a weekly basis at least?

No idea. I'm not a StatHo. I love to look at the referrals, though. I could go look it up, I have Extreme Tracker and SiteMeter, but I'm too lazy.

What have you done to get more people to look at your site?

Nothing other than post.

What one or two characteristics make a blog really popular? Are there things that you could do to have more people read your weblog that you consciously do not do? Why?

There are tons of things I could do, but I'm not blogging for the world to read. That's not why I do it.

I think humor and thoughtful posts are what make a blog really popular. And not humor as links to funny things, but humor in the posts themselves. Like what Doyce often does with his posts, like this one.

I could try to be funny, but it's not me. I could try to be more political, or current-topic active, but I'm not a discussion board. While I love getting comments, I've dealt with the fact that I rarely do.

What really popular weblog do you think most deserves it...and/or least deserves it?

Hrm. I don't read a lot of popular blogs. I read friends' blogs, or acquaintences. People whom I know through mailing lists, mostly the Amber Mailing List, which I'm not even on anymore, or through games.

I think Wil Wheaton's blog is great, but maybe overrated.

And I agree with ***Dave that Doyce deserves to be more popular.

How do you feel about your readership? What makes for a quality readership to you?

Good lord, I have no idea. I love it that people want to read what I have to say, even if they say nothing back to me. I love it that people read quizzes I've posted, and then go off and take them and post the results on their own site. I must admit, I get a little thrill when someone links to me from their blog.

Influence of Other Bloggers:

What other blogger is most responsible for you starting your own weblog.

Urgh. No one. ::sighs::. I think reading articles on blogging back in the day was what got me going the first time. The second time - this time - it was 9/11.

Who was the first other blogger (that you know of) who put you on their sidebar, and how did you feel? How did it influence your blogging?

***Dave, I think. I was thrilled, excited, shared the moment with Anne, and was a geekgirl for a time. Loved it, someone wanted to link to ME, and I was thrilled.

It made me want to write, and better posts. But then I got over it, and relaxed.

What other blogger do you most admire for her writing skills?

Huh. Just realized this says "her", as does the following question. But I must say, it's MT Fierce, though as I was typing this, that changed. I was originally going to say someone else. Huh. Funny how the brain works sometimes.

What other blogger do you most admire for her design skills?

Paula, hands down. And she can write too, when she gets around to it.

Who is a blogger that you think is really good but doesn't get nearly the attention they are worthy of?

Oops, I answered that above. Doyce.

Do you feel obligated to have people on your link lists/sidebars that you never read?

Nope. Those links are there because they're the ones I check daily, or multi-daily.

I really should take Cassie Claire's link off. She's not updating until later this year, and I've got her on my friends list on my LJ anyway. But it does up the number of hits I get from search engines (heh).

What one or two characteristics define a really quality blog (in your humble opinion, of course)?

Didn't I answer this already? Humor and thoughtful posts.

Bonus Question:

Do you fear The Booge?

No, should I?

Google! DayPop! This is my blogchalk: English, United States, Massachusetts, Fall River, The Flint, Julia, Female, 31-35!

Courtesy of ***Dave.

Do you actually have to have TB installed and running on your site before you can start pinging other people's installations?

Or do you only really need to put the Trackback ping URL into the ping entry field?

Inquiring minds and all...

And here, I was going to post earlier today about how anxiously I was awaiting MT 2.5, since it is supposed to remove the "ping on edit" problem that makes my blog seem like it's updated when it's not.

And now, it's here! Off to upgrade.

Does anyone know of a way, short of including everything in the excerpt feed, of enabling the RSS feed in MT to include my whole post, instead of just the excerpt?

Mood Hack for MT blogs. There's also a smiley hack, though I don't think I'd want to go that far. Maybe.

So this will be on December's To Do list. Digitalspace gives me access to MySQL, I just haven't bothered to try it out. A move to Hosting Matters will have to wait until next year.

Courtesy of PromoGuy.

I *heart* Movabletype. I think Ben and Mena are great people who have built a wonderful tool.

But how can I resist something that uses, as an example, my absolute favorite comedian?

Will have to keep an eye on Textpattern. Oh yes.

By the way...ma grand-mère est flambé. (please forgive any misspellings - it's been 15 years since I took French!)

Courtesy of Blogatelle.

I heard about this on SixApart, when I was browsing some old posts today. I had tried to use BlogScript to post to my blog, and it worked fine back when I was using Blogger, but it just didn't handle MT very well, especially with categories.

So, this post is my first test with the new tool. Mac OSX 10.2 or higher required.

Ooh, and it can insert an iTunes track! Ginger, have you been using this? I think I may need to play with the tags for that more, develop some new CSS tags...

Edit: Okay, so we have to figure out the convert line breaks thing, 'cause it ain't working. Also, it didn't pick the category...

Current Music: The Hurting from the album "The Hurting" by Tears For Fears.

You know guys, it's likely not even her fault Blogrolling got hacked. Give her a break, would you?

Some people are just assholes by nature.

Of course, if it DOES turn out to be her fault...let slip the dogs of war!

No, I'm not talking Starcraft, though I heard the words often enough over Thanksgiving break...

The upgrade to MT 2.65 seems to have gone swimmingly on all my sites.

And I personally can't wait for 3.0.

But since it's only been two days and it's gone from 2.66 to 2.661, I'll give it through the weekend before I upgrade.

NP: Blitz Off from the album "Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack, Disc 2/4" by Nobuo Uematsu

No, not that ecto, but the new version of what used to be Kung-Log.

I wondered today why I hadn't gotten any update notices for Kung-Log, and went looking and found this. Still not sure if I'll end up using it (and paying for it) or going back to Kung-Log. If I had a Mac OS X laptop at home, I'd be more likely to consider paying.

Will have to try it for a bit, I think, and then decide. Meanwhile, I should take Kung-Log out of the Trash in my Dock...

Jew.

Courtesy of kitanaor.

Well, this has sure got the blogosphere in an uproar.

I just got my notice of admission to the beta test on Tuesday. I hadn't even had time to download it and install it anywhere yet, and it's gone "live," at least the developer version.

Will Six Apart lower their pricing? While a lot of people are hoping for it, I really don't think it'll happen. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it is going to kill gaming blogs. Yes, if I upgrade, I'm going to have to pull some of my blogs. But many of them are inactive. I can easily just save the HTML pages and delete the blog, then upload the pages back as static sites. (for example, the Weight Watchers Blog is now defunct, and I was just keeping the pages up for reference.)

I did contribute to MT back in the day. Pre 2.0, possibly. But right now, and within the foreseeable future, I can't afford the $49.95 that it will cost me to keep the semi-active blogs I have and remove some of the authors. And there's no way I'll be paying $99.95 just to keep all the authors I currently have.

My personal thoughts is that the amount of authors/blogs is on the small side, at least for the collaboratory stuff a lot of us were/are doing. But I don't know that we're the typical blogger user, which probably is one author, one blog.

I wish Ben and Mena the best of luck with Six Apart. And lots of drinks to drown out the shouts of outrage.

Mena has posted some clarifications to the new MT 3.0 licensing agreement here. It will mollify some folk, but not all. The change in the blogs/authors is a good one, but I don't see this satisfying everyone.

But it may make me reconsider how my blogs are arranged. I could put all my blogs on one page URL and I would be covered under the new agreement. But it doesn't look like I can have them on separate pages, like I do now. Or maybe I can.

Ah well, I've got another blog installation where I can play with the beta and see how it works first. There's not so much there that if I ended up going to another platform, it wouldn't be a huge hardship.

A bit windy today here in Fall River. It's keeping the temps down, but making it hard to keep the $100+ worth of comics and gaming materials we picked up yesterday (been a while since we cleaned out the folder) hard to keep on tables.

They want to know what we're doing with MT, it seems. How we use it. So, here we go...

Six Log: How are you using the tool?

I run this blog, and that's about it for now that are actually *live*.

In the past, I had

* Weight Watchers blog, which had three authors who posted consistently and two more authors who never actually posted, I think. One of them may have made one entry.

* Pop Goes the Culture, which at its height had four authors (only one (besides me) was overlap with other blogs), but only had two who ever posted regularly.

* Whitespace, my writing blog, which has been defunct for some time.

* A family blog, wherein all members of my family had the opportunity to get logins (only two of whom asked for logins, and then never actually used them) and post updates on what was going on in their lives. This was "secret," the URL only shown to the family members. I have 6 brothers and sisters, and 9 nieces and nephews, and my mother as potential authors.

* An RPG blog at a hidden URL, set up with Anne, supposed to be used for her to play while she took a break from my game. It didn't actually go very far, alas.

* Another RPG blog, started when Lou started his new Sunday D&D 3.5 game, which I haven't actually ever posted to, since I take a decent amount of notes in game, and I haven't been bothered to rewrite them up afterwards.

* A blog for a friend who was taking a class. It was for a project, but it was also free and I had the space. It's still there, not active, but she had just considered restarting it for another purpose when all this happened, and indicated she was willing to remove it, if it was going to cost me money.

I also have another MT installation where my other writing is located, on another domain name. But I am the only author there and there is only one instance of it.

Boy, stay home sick for a day and not read blogs or LJ, and suddenly get blindsided by the news that Six Apart [is going to] Buy LiveJournal.

One can only hope that Six Apart, as much as I love Movabletype, leaves LJ well enough alone.

Not that I expected it to be any different, but it was announced today on both the 6A site and LJ.

Six Log: Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal

Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal.

Six Apart: LiveJournal Acquisition FAQ

Big news... Six Apart and LiveJournal!

Already, LJ folk are screaming and crying, having laughed and laughed at bloggers who were upset with 6A's licensing issues. Now they fear ads, cost increases, and a general "different LJ" than they were used to.

Only time will tell. I think it's a good thing, for both LJ and 6A. But those who are "Amish" about change have already started crying foul and heading to other places.

So I've installed the nofollow plugin, and it does appear to work very well after a quick rebuild.

My only question is...since it has to be installed, how many folk won't install it, and therefore the spammers keep spamming? I know that ou can't have it be something that you don't have to install; that's pretty much impossible.

Anyway, here's hoping!