Recently Found… Randomly Shared.

Every now and then, I get burned-out (internet-wise). I sit down, open the browser, and decide that there is nothing left to read; so I close the browser and find another way to occupy my mind and my time. After a few (days, weeks, months, who knows?) time, I spend time searching for new (to me) and interesting (possibly only to me) sites. I decided that I would share some of the sites I have recently discovered, in no particular order. Click. Enjoy! Feedback is welcome, as always.

1 The Printed Blog The world’s first daily newspaper comprised entirely of blogs and other user generated content. Sadly, due to cost issues, it is not currently being printed… maybe with enough readership and help (ie, money) it can live once again. As it is now, 16 issues are available for each of a few different cities.

2 The Periodic Table of Videos Shared primarily for having a different layout; not only are there videos here for every element, but the site plans to offer “films about other areas of chemistry, latest news and occasional adventures away from the lab.” My kid is taking Chemistry in school, so I thought this would be useful to her.

3 The Morning News The Morning News is an online magazine, published weekdays since 1999.

4 Best Ever Recipes The best recipes on the internet. (Submit your own–become famous!).

5 The invisible internet Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity. Seeks to change the way people share and interact with news from the world around them. This reader-submitted content website is designed to function as YOUR HUB for connecting us with blogs, articles, photography, music, events and other content that YOU deem worthy of sharing with your own community. (Many city editions are available for download).

Well, if nothing else, that took up a bit of your idle time. Happy Reading!

Crapcircles. They do exist.

I feel unwell, and the dog is SICK. It is my day off; the first one I’ve had in a while, since I have been picking up any available shift lately, and I am beyond tired.

Normally, I have trouble sleeping. Normally. I was sleeping SOUNDLY this morning, and around FOUR O’CLOCK, the dog comes into my room, moaning and whining. I know what this has meant in the past, so I get up to let him out. Then I look into the livingroom and find crapnel, circling around in a spiral pattern. The only term I can think of that can give you an accurate image would be “crapcircles”. It mocked me. “Ha ha ha! Good morning to you, sir!”

“SH!T,” I think, quite literally. I spent the next twenty minutes picking up droplets of crap, spraying carpet cleaner on the darkened spots of carpet, and scrubbing the carpet in smaller circles with a brush, and disposing of paper towel waste in a plastic bag. Once that task was completed, evil whispered in my ear, “Check the room that serves as the office.” I wandered into the “office” and turned on the light. More crapcircles.

Sometime around 5:30am, I finished cleaning up the crapnel from the floor. My very light beige / near white / carpet seems unstained… but I am not entirely sure yet. I have the Bissel Carpet Steamer out and ready–I just wasn’t wanting to use such a noise-inducing machine when there were people sleeping. I have an appointment and an errand to run today, afterwhich I will steam-clean the areas affected by the dog.

This is not how one should start his or her day.

Now, I Begin to Wonder…

Regarding my previous post (the one demonstrating my mini-mid-life crisis), I was asked why some such part of my site is taking up too much space in the browser window. (more or less, here you will find a screen shot of the word exchange).

I am fully appreciative when people alert me to random issues with my site (and believe me, there are many issues), and I actually encourage them to do so. If they find an issue and know how to fix it, I applaud them when they not only point to the problem, but also offer a solution.

The problem now is, I have run a “cross-browser” check, checking the browsers I CAN actually check, and have not replicated the described problem. (Of course, I do not have AOL), so if she was indeed using AOL, I have no way of checking that without installing AOL, which I will not be doing at this time, since I no longer use AOL and do not really want to have such software occupy over 100 MB (I don’t know exactly what space it requires) of my hard drive.

Being that I needed to test my site across many different browsers, I decided to utilize the tool found at browser shots dot org, and found out that in most of the browsers (or at least the most commonly used ones), it appears normally, (or as it should). This can be found here, for a limited time. I am sure they will not keep this available for very long due to server space and other related things.

It frustrates me when I hear that my site has some display issue that I can neither replicate nor view myself. I cannot fix what I cannot see, and cannot understand what I cannot see. Since I cannot see what she saw, I have been unable to fix the problem. However– if that was the first time that issue appeared to her, since my site has not been re-written (but merely had been recolored and had a new graphic placed for the header), I think it might be more of a local issue with her browser. [?] This is not my way of saying, “It’s not you, it’s me”… I have not made any major changes to my site in years [2003], and quite honestly, I am not even really finished with the changes I started in 2003.

I am working on it, I promise.

Lately…

purposefulness: the quality of having a definite purpose

Lately, I have been wondering why I am here. Lately, as in, well, lately… the past few weeks. Here, as in on the Earth. Work is still work. I get up most mornings (extremely early), go for a run (treadmill or street, depending on the weather conditions), shower and shave, get dressed and leave. I work for the duration of my shift, and leave.

I head home, often pausing as I drive past the many pubs along the way; think, “I could use a drink”, but never stop to have one. Soon after that, I arrive at home, usually before my daughter arrives home from school. I shower, change into regular clothes, and typically spend the next hour staring at random images on the television screen. I cook dinner, and attempt to talk to my (not such a) kid about her day, then go to bed to start all over the next day.

My point is, I feel as if I have no purpose. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Cook dinner. Go to sleep. Get up… (sigh).

Sick Burn!

Last weekend, while cooking dinner, I burned my arm when reaching into the oven. (Sure, I realize there are ways to avoid this… but I cannot really shield my entire arm just to reach in the oven to fetch an item once it has completed its cooking process.) It is only a FIRST degree burn, so it wasn’t really as bad as the one I received from STEAM back in 2003. That burn was about the size of a credit card and was a 2nd degree burn. That one was much more painful and took a (very) long time to heal.

This one was doing well… until this morning. I had managed to keep it from “peeling” — that is, I was able to keep the “scab” from peeling or falling off up until today. I know, that is “GROSS” (in the words of my daughter), but lately, I have had a lack of post topics.

The skin on the burn softened as I showered, and it came off (partially). Partially is the key term here, because that means that it is still somewhat attached at one end. I have, in the past, pulled on these, and it not only hurt but also caused more trauma to the layers of skin. Indeed, I did know better than to PULL on the skin, but sometimes we act against our better judgement.

This hurts a bit, and to prevent it from snagging on (sleeves or anything else)… AND because now, it isn’t just a darkened area, but a skin peeled off, exposing the tender new skin beneath it spot… I don’t want it to STICK to my clothes, or get debris in it. (Yes, again, “GROSS”. )

In any case, I have applied BURN STUFF” to my wound, and have been doing so since I burned myself. It is healing, slowly… although today’s events certainly will slow the process.

It’s OFFICIAL.

I am old. I know this, because my FREE preview for Prevention “sampler magazine” arrived in the mail late last week. Inside the front cover was a short letter, which read:

“Please enjoy this FREE sampler of Prevention magazine.

Dear Friend,

In the following pages, you’re going to discover dozens of simple ways to take charge of yoru health and happiness All in less time than it takes to brew your morning pot of coffee!” For example:

A simple way to melt away the pounds. (I have not included the paragraphs that accompany these bullet pointed items, because I am sure you can get the idea from them being here without them)

How to make your food work harder for you

Warning to anyone with a whirlpool or hot tub. (This one talks about fecal bacteria and other disgusting things and informs you of ways you can prevent it).

An article on why it isnt always best to sit up straight. I am not sure what this one is about.

Common mistakes people make when drinking tea that strips it of its health benefits. (are you making this mistake?)

Best makeup tips for women over 40, according to a celebrity make-up artist (I can’t say that I even care, since I do not wear makeup)

Why over the counter cough medicines are worthless (and what to take instead)

Foods that help you sleep better (Wow. an article I would actually read… amazing)

OK, while there is a lot of usueful information in this magazine, I did not really feel that I was included in its target audience. I did not realize that I was “among the old” — I guess I am… A bigger concern is, and I MIGHT be wrong, but–isn’t Prevention magazine for women???

Sick and Tired

Lately, I have been having problems sleeping. I know that those of you that have read this site in the past may be thinking, “yah, so, what’s new?” The point in my stating that I have had problems sleeping *lately* lies in the fact that for the first half of last year, I slept 7-8 hours each night – consistently. Things in my life had fallen into place, and I felt at peace with my life. If you were to look in the dictionary under LETHARGY- I just might be listed as its definition.

Yesterday, I should have ventured to the grocery store. By five o’clock pee-emm, I still had not gone to said supermarket… I realize they are open (24 hours a day, even). I simply lack the energy to go to the store, push the cart around in a zig-zag pattern, pick up miscellaneous items (I have a list made) and then wait in line for the checker to scan them and give me the total dollar amount that I owe.

Among other things overlooked or unaccomplished by me, would be the fact that I have not finished washing the laundry, and I have not emptied the dishwasher… BUT the dishwasher has been run and is currently heating / drying the dishes.

As far as the list of things I actually did accomplish– I can add vacuuming the house, cleaning the bathrooms, and dusting the furniture.

–added this paragraph at 7:30pm Saturday–
I did get the rose bushes in the backyard pruned down, as rose bushes like to be trimmed sometime in January/February — depending on where it is you live, during their dormancy period. I feel a sense of accomplishment due to this.
—- now back to the end of the post as it originated —-

Even with all that I have done, there is still a long list of things I should get done. It’s just that I have little ambition to tackle most of those items on the list. I guess I’ll get them done eventually. I am just really damned tired.

I have plenty of time to decide…

I have been wondering if I should attempt FebNoWriMo, a challenge to post 50 thousand words during the month of February. I have attempted this in the past, and failed severely. I have decided that I just might try again. (This, of course would not count such things as posting the list of words just added to wordalizer, or other things similar to it.) Before you get excited and go looking for new words in wordalizer… I have not updated it YET… but it is coming in the near future.

I have approximately 285 words to add, and my goal is to get the word count up to 2010 before the year ends. Currently, it holds 1715 words… so I only need ten more.

Please contribute! It is much more worth knowing that your contributed words are indeed in the wordalizer.

The sooner you submit words, the sooner I’ll hit the 2010 point and do the update! (It would be great to be able to surpass 2010 words and leave that in the dust) — let’s go for 3000 by the end of the year!

Home Invasion – Stage 2

For the past few weeks, I have been finding these nasty little beasts in my home. I despise them–and want them to die.

I have been looking for information on some kind of environmentally sound approach to ending their existence on my property, and will let you know if I find one that works. I am not looking for non-cruel methods, since I intend to kill them — but I want to select substances toxic to them – without harming the non pesty inhabitants that might be lurking in the flower beds and yard.

(Stage 1 – was an ant invasion that took place a few years ago).

Play Ball!

I am currently assisting Tim work with a monster baseball card collection in order to find out the value of the set in its entirety. There are literally cases and cases of these things… which used to be at his place and have now “found their way” here – parked in the closet of the spare room, and scattered around the floor area between walls and furniture.

(OK, in his defense – the mess has the look of some attempt at organization, although nobody other than Tim would ever really understand it.)

Baseball card collecting is not something I was involved in while growing up, and I have to say it is not something I would care to take on myself even now; but, since it is difficult for one person to go through each box, find out which cards are not in “the set”, and input them into the Beckett website. It is kind of a set precedent that whenever he has some mundane or P.I.T.A. task to get through, he comes to me for help.

More likely than not, after today he will probably be off doing whatever it is Tim does, and leaving cases (and cases) of boxes of baseball cards in the third room of my house. This will lead me to believe he is “never to return”, and I will get tired of looking at all of the mess and spend my days off finishing what he started (entering all of this into the Beckett website) so that I don’t have cases of boxes and boxes all over the third room. After all… WHAT IF someone drops by and needs to use the third room?

Maybe I should peruse the collection for the one single MINT condition card, worth some obscene amount of money, which he has no idea is in the collection, and keep it for myself as a consultant fee?

Current (Estimated) value of cards entered: