Sunday, March 07, 2004
Pet Peeves
Like everyone, I have quite a few-here are some of my current "favorites":
1) People who ring the doorbell and then instantly KNOCK; each of these things is intended to summon the occupants within to the door, and each does that perfectly well, so what bonus do you get from doing BOTH?
2) People who say "feel" when they mean "think," because they think that saying "feel" makes their comment more powerful and harder to argue with, never grasping that by using a word in a totally wrong way they sound like morons. Feelings are things like anger, sadness and fear; a line like "I feel that all people should receive free healthcare," does NOT describe a feeling, and to use the word "feel" like that is just plain WRONG, no matter how strongly you "feel" about the subject.
3) People who, upon hearing/reading you make an intelligent and factually-based point, jump in and say/post something so stupid that you can't believe they said it; a recent example of such a rebuttal was the claim that psych meds won't help unless the person taking them is also in therapy... as if the meds are magic, and won't affect the body unless they "know" that the person who took them is going to a therapist.
4) The tech support departments of virtually every company that provides an online service; they are apparently all given training to respond to EVERY bug report by telling you to delete all your cookies (and thus have to re-login to every site you visit), and/or to blame your computer, browser, etc, even if you include the fact that ONLY their site has this bug, and that it does it with all your browsers, and that you already deleted all your cookies... it's nearly impossible to get them to admit that their own site is nearly always the reason the user had a problem.
5) People who have no relationship, and often have NEVER had a successful long-term relationship, who advise everyone within range about THEIR relationships.
6) People who, upon hearing you say that you like or dislike something, instantly try to prompt you to say the opposite: "I hate beer" "But don't you think that beer tastes wonderful?" "I love dogs" "But don't you think that dogs are stupid?"... and somehow they think this is more polite than ridiculing you directly.
7) People who fail to grasp the difference between a fact and an opinion, especially when they feel free to argue any facts you give, but want their opinions to be treated as inarguable facts.
8) People who rarely initiate the contact between the 2 of you who, when you haven't bothered with them in a while, take a scolding tone with you about how long it's been since you called/wrote/IMed them, even if THEY haven't made the effort in months or YEARS.
9) People who think that their own personal experience counts for more than what has been scientifically and/or statistically proven for the vast majority of people; sorry, you're just NOT more important than the thousands of people who had a different experience.
10) People who believe every ridiculous email they get claiming that some kid dying of cancer needs them to forward the email, or that AOL will pay them to forward the email, or that signing an online petition will accomplish something, especially in another country.... and who then forward this garbage to ME.... and who are insulted and outraged when I point out that what they forwarded is a hoax, along with a URL to the article on http://www.snopes2.com/ which proves that it's a hoax.
Gosh, it feels good to vent!! :-)
1) People who ring the doorbell and then instantly KNOCK; each of these things is intended to summon the occupants within to the door, and each does that perfectly well, so what bonus do you get from doing BOTH?
2) People who say "feel" when they mean "think," because they think that saying "feel" makes their comment more powerful and harder to argue with, never grasping that by using a word in a totally wrong way they sound like morons. Feelings are things like anger, sadness and fear; a line like "I feel that all people should receive free healthcare," does NOT describe a feeling, and to use the word "feel" like that is just plain WRONG, no matter how strongly you "feel" about the subject.
3) People who, upon hearing/reading you make an intelligent and factually-based point, jump in and say/post something so stupid that you can't believe they said it; a recent example of such a rebuttal was the claim that psych meds won't help unless the person taking them is also in therapy... as if the meds are magic, and won't affect the body unless they "know" that the person who took them is going to a therapist.
4) The tech support departments of virtually every company that provides an online service; they are apparently all given training to respond to EVERY bug report by telling you to delete all your cookies (and thus have to re-login to every site you visit), and/or to blame your computer, browser, etc, even if you include the fact that ONLY their site has this bug, and that it does it with all your browsers, and that you already deleted all your cookies... it's nearly impossible to get them to admit that their own site is nearly always the reason the user had a problem.
5) People who have no relationship, and often have NEVER had a successful long-term relationship, who advise everyone within range about THEIR relationships.
6) People who, upon hearing you say that you like or dislike something, instantly try to prompt you to say the opposite: "I hate beer" "But don't you think that beer tastes wonderful?" "I love dogs" "But don't you think that dogs are stupid?"... and somehow they think this is more polite than ridiculing you directly.
7) People who fail to grasp the difference between a fact and an opinion, especially when they feel free to argue any facts you give, but want their opinions to be treated as inarguable facts.
8) People who rarely initiate the contact between the 2 of you who, when you haven't bothered with them in a while, take a scolding tone with you about how long it's been since you called/wrote/IMed them, even if THEY haven't made the effort in months or YEARS.
9) People who think that their own personal experience counts for more than what has been scientifically and/or statistically proven for the vast majority of people; sorry, you're just NOT more important than the thousands of people who had a different experience.
10) People who believe every ridiculous email they get claiming that some kid dying of cancer needs them to forward the email, or that AOL will pay them to forward the email, or that signing an online petition will accomplish something, especially in another country.... and who then forward this garbage to ME.... and who are insulted and outraged when I point out that what they forwarded is a hoax, along with a URL to the article on http://www.snopes2.com/ which proves that it's a hoax.
Gosh, it feels good to vent!! :-)
Saturday, March 06, 2004
Cause and effect
There's a school of thought amongst believers in karma (in the broad sense that includes science, particularly quantum physics) that time doesn't actually exist, that it's something we invented to explain duration and change, based on the way our brains work. In a related thought, there are questions as to whether cause and effect exist; if there's not really any time, the answer is of course no, but even if time really is more than how the chemicals in our brains allow us to perceive how things in the universe don't all happen at once, cause and effect may in fact be an illusion, at least some of the time.
Because precognition exists, we know that the immediate future at the very least is pretty close to being set in stone in most particulars; given that, it's not to hard to imagine that, with the low-grade psychic ability that everyone has at the very least, we sense that something is about to happen and "go with the flow" and take the actions that will cause that event, as described in endless scifi stories, or take action that is most beneficial to us because we know what events are coming up, which is often called "instinct" or "I had a feeling"... but, since we take the action BEFORE the event, which is the cause and which is the effect? Is something in the future the cause of an event in the past? If precognition is taking place, and you act on it, then yes, the effect comes BEFORE the cause, in the same way that you hear the echo of a sound before you hear the sound itself under some circumstances.
Time may exist, but it's not just a one-way line; if it was, we couldn't see even one second into the future. What shape or form is it, then? I visualize it as sort of like traveling through uneven terrain in a heavy fog; you can go in many directions, but the farther away your destination is (in time or space) the vaguer it is, and the harder it is to get there, because the fog shifts and changes and you can't always see the goal or the path to it... but at times the fog lifts and you can see well ahead with perfect clarity. Time would therefore consist of, or be created from, or perhaps be controlled by, the energy of karma in a somewhat undefined state that solidifies 100% the moment before you enter it.
I truly think that what we label cause and effect is often backwards, but because most people don't believe in karma or the existence of the future, what else can they go by but linear time? I have a friend who's convinced that he caused an earthquake because he had all these intense earthquake thoughts moments before a quake occurred, and he won't accept that he had those thoughts BECAUSE the earthquake was coming, rather than having somehow generated the power to shake the earth within his own head.
In the realm of quantum physics, cause and effect as we understand it just doesn't exist; the outcome of experiments often depends on what the probability is that someone is watching, for example. Since this is a thoroughly-proven scientific fact, why is it so hard for people to accept that cause and effect are less certain than we think OUTSIDE of the quantum realm as well? Next time you find yourself taking actions based on "instinct" or "a feeling," pay attention to what happens and ask yourself..... what was REALLY the cause, and what was REALLY the effect?
Because precognition exists, we know that the immediate future at the very least is pretty close to being set in stone in most particulars; given that, it's not to hard to imagine that, with the low-grade psychic ability that everyone has at the very least, we sense that something is about to happen and "go with the flow" and take the actions that will cause that event, as described in endless scifi stories, or take action that is most beneficial to us because we know what events are coming up, which is often called "instinct" or "I had a feeling"... but, since we take the action BEFORE the event, which is the cause and which is the effect? Is something in the future the cause of an event in the past? If precognition is taking place, and you act on it, then yes, the effect comes BEFORE the cause, in the same way that you hear the echo of a sound before you hear the sound itself under some circumstances.
Time may exist, but it's not just a one-way line; if it was, we couldn't see even one second into the future. What shape or form is it, then? I visualize it as sort of like traveling through uneven terrain in a heavy fog; you can go in many directions, but the farther away your destination is (in time or space) the vaguer it is, and the harder it is to get there, because the fog shifts and changes and you can't always see the goal or the path to it... but at times the fog lifts and you can see well ahead with perfect clarity. Time would therefore consist of, or be created from, or perhaps be controlled by, the energy of karma in a somewhat undefined state that solidifies 100% the moment before you enter it.
I truly think that what we label cause and effect is often backwards, but because most people don't believe in karma or the existence of the future, what else can they go by but linear time? I have a friend who's convinced that he caused an earthquake because he had all these intense earthquake thoughts moments before a quake occurred, and he won't accept that he had those thoughts BECAUSE the earthquake was coming, rather than having somehow generated the power to shake the earth within his own head.
In the realm of quantum physics, cause and effect as we understand it just doesn't exist; the outcome of experiments often depends on what the probability is that someone is watching, for example. Since this is a thoroughly-proven scientific fact, why is it so hard for people to accept that cause and effect are less certain than we think OUTSIDE of the quantum realm as well? Next time you find yourself taking actions based on "instinct" or "a feeling," pay attention to what happens and ask yourself..... what was REALLY the cause, and what was REALLY the effect?
Friday, March 05, 2004
Supertasters unite!!
Ever since I mentioned being a supertaster a while back, I've been planning to circle an essay around it; the topic came up several times in the past few days in my offline life, so now looks like a good time.
I've always hated the term "picky eater," as it makes it sound like the person so named is CHOOSING to not eat certain things, not because they taste horrible, but just from being a prissy, finicky person... that's certainly what people have labored to tell ME about my long list of food dislikes my entire life, because "it's just not possible for anyone to not think THIS is tasty." {sigh}
One of the greatest days of my life came when science gave me the answer; it turns out that we vary WIDELY in how many tastebuds we have, and therefore the same food can taste totally different to different people... which *I* of course could have told them all along. Those of us with far more taste buds than average, particularly those taste buds that detect bitterness, are called "supertasters"; most people are within the "normal" range, and are called "tasters," and another 25% or so of people have significantly FEWER taste buds than average, and are called "nontasters."
Supertasters tend to have an aversion to foods and beverages with an element of bitterness in them, such as vegetables (particularly cruciferous ones), alcohol, coffee, tea, aged cheese, dark chocolate and many spices, and often also to things that are too sweet or too fatty. Because salt reduces your perception of bitterness, supertasters often use alot of it, and we also often like sour things, as sourness can "cut" sweetness and richness in foods to make them more palatable, and also deflects the perception of bitterness.
I remember with great pleasure the day when I was able to prove to my family that my "picky eating" was NOT the result of some sort of character flaw or moral failing, but based on the physical structure of my tongue; the foods I hated, my heavy use of salt, my love of sour, my dislike of things that were too sweet, my intensive dissection of my meat to eliminate every scrap of fat... all of it was spelled out in the article I quoted triumphantly from, and in the articles I've seen since then and rubbed their noses in.
If there are any parents reading this, and your kids seem to be rejecting foods in the pattern I've described, please, PLEASE don't make them spend their entire childhood with you force-feeding them foods they hate because you think they "should" like them... you're inflicting truly grim punishment on them when they haven't done anything wrong. None of the foods they dislike are necessary for them to eat to be healthy, with the partial exception of veggies, and that can be made up for with fruit consumption, with putting lemon or a tasty sauce on the veggies to make them palatable, or, if nothing else, by taking vitamins; you wouldn't ask an adult to gag down foods they hate, and you shouldn't ask a child to either.
I wish someone has told my parents all this so that I wouldn't have spent my early life DREADING going down to dinner because I hated everything my mother cooked (I'm convinced that both of my parents were nontasters, which is the supertaster child's worst nightmare), and becoming unhealthily attached to junk food because it was the only food I got that tasted GOOD. I've spent alot of time since getting married trying to get a better diet, discovering that I don't actually hate chicken, just the bitter sauces my mother cooked it with, that fruit is really good, especially things like berries (the tarter the better) that my mother was too cheap to ever get, and that I don't have to have a heart attack that every new food means some new form of taste torture because other people don't make food with the intensely bad flavors my parents preferred (and no one badgers me if I taste something and don't like it-people actually, GASP, make an effort to give me food I like).
I often wish that there were more foods in the world that I liked, and that I could eat in any restaurant rather than in the few that have acceptable foods on the menu, but supertasters are usually slim because so few foods interest us, and the older I get the more I value that. Also, when I discover something I like, it's very exciting; if you're a supertaster, try my new favorite, Altoids Tangerine Sours. :-)
I've always hated the term "picky eater," as it makes it sound like the person so named is CHOOSING to not eat certain things, not because they taste horrible, but just from being a prissy, finicky person... that's certainly what people have labored to tell ME about my long list of food dislikes my entire life, because "it's just not possible for anyone to not think THIS is tasty." {sigh}
One of the greatest days of my life came when science gave me the answer; it turns out that we vary WIDELY in how many tastebuds we have, and therefore the same food can taste totally different to different people... which *I* of course could have told them all along. Those of us with far more taste buds than average, particularly those taste buds that detect bitterness, are called "supertasters"; most people are within the "normal" range, and are called "tasters," and another 25% or so of people have significantly FEWER taste buds than average, and are called "nontasters."
Supertasters tend to have an aversion to foods and beverages with an element of bitterness in them, such as vegetables (particularly cruciferous ones), alcohol, coffee, tea, aged cheese, dark chocolate and many spices, and often also to things that are too sweet or too fatty. Because salt reduces your perception of bitterness, supertasters often use alot of it, and we also often like sour things, as sourness can "cut" sweetness and richness in foods to make them more palatable, and also deflects the perception of bitterness.
I remember with great pleasure the day when I was able to prove to my family that my "picky eating" was NOT the result of some sort of character flaw or moral failing, but based on the physical structure of my tongue; the foods I hated, my heavy use of salt, my love of sour, my dislike of things that were too sweet, my intensive dissection of my meat to eliminate every scrap of fat... all of it was spelled out in the article I quoted triumphantly from, and in the articles I've seen since then and rubbed their noses in.
If there are any parents reading this, and your kids seem to be rejecting foods in the pattern I've described, please, PLEASE don't make them spend their entire childhood with you force-feeding them foods they hate because you think they "should" like them... you're inflicting truly grim punishment on them when they haven't done anything wrong. None of the foods they dislike are necessary for them to eat to be healthy, with the partial exception of veggies, and that can be made up for with fruit consumption, with putting lemon or a tasty sauce on the veggies to make them palatable, or, if nothing else, by taking vitamins; you wouldn't ask an adult to gag down foods they hate, and you shouldn't ask a child to either.
I wish someone has told my parents all this so that I wouldn't have spent my early life DREADING going down to dinner because I hated everything my mother cooked (I'm convinced that both of my parents were nontasters, which is the supertaster child's worst nightmare), and becoming unhealthily attached to junk food because it was the only food I got that tasted GOOD. I've spent alot of time since getting married trying to get a better diet, discovering that I don't actually hate chicken, just the bitter sauces my mother cooked it with, that fruit is really good, especially things like berries (the tarter the better) that my mother was too cheap to ever get, and that I don't have to have a heart attack that every new food means some new form of taste torture because other people don't make food with the intensely bad flavors my parents preferred (and no one badgers me if I taste something and don't like it-people actually, GASP, make an effort to give me food I like).
I often wish that there were more foods in the world that I liked, and that I could eat in any restaurant rather than in the few that have acceptable foods on the menu, but supertasters are usually slim because so few foods interest us, and the older I get the more I value that. Also, when I discover something I like, it's very exciting; if you're a supertaster, try my new favorite, Altoids Tangerine Sours. :-)
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Karma can be VERY specific
Last night before bed, as part of a rambling train of thought, I remembered a guy I knew briefly years ago, who had had a grim case of rosacea, and, although he'd had it for YEARS, he was still ignorant enough about it to pronounce it "roh-say-ah" instead of the correct way, "roh-say-shah"... it drove me crazy, not just because of the mispronunciation but because it was an unsightly medical condition and so naturally I didn't think it would be too nice of me to correct him and undoubtedly have to ARGUE with him about it, as of course he'd he sure HE was saying it right-I REALLY had to bite my tongue.
I then remembered when the company my husband was working for was designing some printed materials for a cream to treat rosacea, and the people in the office got into a heated disagreement as to how to spell it (it is often misspelled "rosaceae") which apparently wasn't solved by checking the references, as the spellings were inconsistent; they actually called me at home to ask me to drag out the Oxford Unabridged and verify which spelling was right.
I didn't think any more about it until I was refreshing madly on the recent-posts page, looking for new blogs to read, as I do pitifully often, and a blog came up that was titled "Rosaceae" (this is an actual word, it turns out, and describes a plant in the raspberry family, as was backed up by the picture of the raspberry on the blog). Coincidence? With a word THAT unusual, with a common misspelling that is another unusual word? No way.
Many people have had this sort of experience with words, where they hear, read or think about an unusual one, and it makes an impression on them, and then it shows up again right away, often several times. This is another version of the karmic mechanism that makes the person you haven't spared a thought for in months or years call you 10 minutes after they came into your mind; I don't know whether it's cause and effect, and the first incident leads to the other, or precognition, where you think of something because it's about to happen, or whether, as some psychics say, the present, near past and near future are so tightly knitted together that you can't always tell them apart when you "look with your inner eye" (for example, some psychics don't seem to do well at guessing the order of cards in a deck, until the tester realizes that they are guessing the card looked at before, or the one about to be looked at, with deadly accuracy, not the card that the tester is holding during each guess).
Any thought, feeling or action that comes from you has the power to draw something to it that "fits" with it; although we all accept that actions have consequences, we need to also accept that even our thoughts have the power to make things happen... maybe the Catholic church isn't so far off in saying that the thought is the same as the deed, after all.
I then remembered when the company my husband was working for was designing some printed materials for a cream to treat rosacea, and the people in the office got into a heated disagreement as to how to spell it (it is often misspelled "rosaceae") which apparently wasn't solved by checking the references, as the spellings were inconsistent; they actually called me at home to ask me to drag out the Oxford Unabridged and verify which spelling was right.
I didn't think any more about it until I was refreshing madly on the recent-posts page, looking for new blogs to read, as I do pitifully often, and a blog came up that was titled "Rosaceae" (this is an actual word, it turns out, and describes a plant in the raspberry family, as was backed up by the picture of the raspberry on the blog). Coincidence? With a word THAT unusual, with a common misspelling that is another unusual word? No way.
Many people have had this sort of experience with words, where they hear, read or think about an unusual one, and it makes an impression on them, and then it shows up again right away, often several times. This is another version of the karmic mechanism that makes the person you haven't spared a thought for in months or years call you 10 minutes after they came into your mind; I don't know whether it's cause and effect, and the first incident leads to the other, or precognition, where you think of something because it's about to happen, or whether, as some psychics say, the present, near past and near future are so tightly knitted together that you can't always tell them apart when you "look with your inner eye" (for example, some psychics don't seem to do well at guessing the order of cards in a deck, until the tester realizes that they are guessing the card looked at before, or the one about to be looked at, with deadly accuracy, not the card that the tester is holding during each guess).
Any thought, feeling or action that comes from you has the power to draw something to it that "fits" with it; although we all accept that actions have consequences, we need to also accept that even our thoughts have the power to make things happen... maybe the Catholic church isn't so far off in saying that the thought is the same as the deed, after all.
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
Does size really matter?
Why are men so concerned about this? Guys, by the time you unzip your pants, the woman has already made her mind up about you; it's REALLY not a make or break issue. How'd you like to be female, and be judged by breast size, that IS clearly visible right away, and IS used as part of decision-making, even though it has no actual impact on the physics of sex? You've got it easy, so quit fretting.
Yes, some women like the idea of being dazzled by size, just as some (most?) men do, but, just like a man is perfectly happy with average most of the time, so is a woman; average in America is 5.1", and not many men are significantly different than that, so chances are you're perfectly acceptable and no woman has ever worried about it while with you.
What women DO get dismayed over, that far fewer of you are worrying about, is what you DO sexually. There are few if any women who enjoy kissing that requires them to mop their faces with towels afterwards, breast handling that resembles kneading bread dough or milking a cow, oral sex that resembles what a dog might do or is nonexistent or grudgingly done, or intercourse that is initiated after insufficient foreplay.
Even MORE important than your technique is for you to have bathed recently, and to not have lounged around in holey underwear, swigging beer, belching, farting, picking your nose and scratching your balls, for the hours preceding your attempts to get laid.
Don't blame any failings you have in the romantic arena on the size of any part of your body; if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, even if you're in the, uh, peewee league, the woman will be happy. If you keep quiet about the woman's cellulite, stretch marks and those 10 pounds she's always trying to lose, she'll keep quiet about any sub-optimal parts YOU might have, and then BOTH of you can do the most important thing for enjoyment of sex.... RELAX.
Yes, some women like the idea of being dazzled by size, just as some (most?) men do, but, just like a man is perfectly happy with average most of the time, so is a woman; average in America is 5.1", and not many men are significantly different than that, so chances are you're perfectly acceptable and no woman has ever worried about it while with you.
What women DO get dismayed over, that far fewer of you are worrying about, is what you DO sexually. There are few if any women who enjoy kissing that requires them to mop their faces with towels afterwards, breast handling that resembles kneading bread dough or milking a cow, oral sex that resembles what a dog might do or is nonexistent or grudgingly done, or intercourse that is initiated after insufficient foreplay.
Even MORE important than your technique is for you to have bathed recently, and to not have lounged around in holey underwear, swigging beer, belching, farting, picking your nose and scratching your balls, for the hours preceding your attempts to get laid.
Don't blame any failings you have in the romantic arena on the size of any part of your body; if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, even if you're in the, uh, peewee league, the woman will be happy. If you keep quiet about the woman's cellulite, stretch marks and those 10 pounds she's always trying to lose, she'll keep quiet about any sub-optimal parts YOU might have, and then BOTH of you can do the most important thing for enjoyment of sex.... RELAX.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Drawing people into your life
If you're tuned into karma, and generally even if you're not, if you have needs that could be fulfilled by another person, things you need someone to teach you or help you with, etc, that person will appear in your life. It's like you're a magnet, and what you need is steel; you can toss a magnet into a bag of objects, only one of which is steel, and shake it all around, and BOOM, they'll find each other; karma, which is based on energy, works the same way. (Unlike the magnet, though, you have to CHOOSE to grab onto the person.)
I had been fantasizing about "if only I had some mothering and nurturing, someone to look after ME rather than always the other way around"... and a woman whose face I'd been seeing for half of my life as a character in my novel showed up, I knew instantly it was her, I was RIGHT, and we have so many freaky things in common that it's nearly hair-raising. Note that I didn't find her by LOOKING, she just showed up where I was one day.
I had been whimpering about the lack of truly intelligent and interesting people to talk to on a daily basis, and BOOM, I've found one, and he has a group of bright and entertaining online friends; once again, I wasn't actively searching for this man, or his friends, I just happened to post a note on his blog because I like what he had on there, as I've done many times, but he read MY blog, and we sort of went on from there.
There no guarantee that either of these people, or their friends, will be permanent members of my world (although at this point I hope they all will), but they're what I asked for recently, and I jumped right on them as soon as I found them (figuratively, not literally, although one of them might wish otherwise... or maybe BOTH, time will tell), and I've been very happy so far.
Ask, and often you WILL receive... so be VERY careful what you ask for.
I had been fantasizing about "if only I had some mothering and nurturing, someone to look after ME rather than always the other way around"... and a woman whose face I'd been seeing for half of my life as a character in my novel showed up, I knew instantly it was her, I was RIGHT, and we have so many freaky things in common that it's nearly hair-raising. Note that I didn't find her by LOOKING, she just showed up where I was one day.
I had been whimpering about the lack of truly intelligent and interesting people to talk to on a daily basis, and BOOM, I've found one, and he has a group of bright and entertaining online friends; once again, I wasn't actively searching for this man, or his friends, I just happened to post a note on his blog because I like what he had on there, as I've done many times, but he read MY blog, and we sort of went on from there.
There no guarantee that either of these people, or their friends, will be permanent members of my world (although at this point I hope they all will), but they're what I asked for recently, and I jumped right on them as soon as I found them (figuratively, not literally, although one of them might wish otherwise... or maybe BOTH, time will tell), and I've been very happy so far.
Ask, and often you WILL receive... so be VERY careful what you ask for.
Monday, March 01, 2004
2 months of blogging
It's hard to believe that it's been 2 MONTHS already!!
I started this blog with absolutely NO knowledge of the blogosphere or anything connected with it. Using my minuscule knowledge of html and a vague memory of program flowcharting, I attacked the template to try to make my site easier on the eyes; I resized a few things, restored uppercase letters to the headings, and did a little rearranging. I inserted line breaks to keep the title and sig lines from being on top of the essays. I went through endless color changes before everything looked reasonably attractive and coordinated; sadly, although there's something that LOOKS like it's the visited-link color code, changing it doesn't alter anything, so the real code is hidden somewhere I could never find, or maybe the system just wants those links to be gray no matter what's in the template, so that'll be staying the default color until I find a way to fix it.
Before I actually created the blog, I did an exhaustive search for counters, and picked the one I liked best; that worked fine from the start, which was a refreshing change. I quickly learned that it was possible to have a blog search, but the first 2 I tried didn't work, for reasons that remain a mystery; the 3rd time WAS in fact the charm, though, and I got one that worked courtesy of FreeFind. Next came the struggle to get the stupid thing placed where I wanted it, which entailed frantic searches to html sites to find a command that would right-justify the image AND text created by the FreeFind code (every command seemed to work on one or the other but not both, sigh); I had to use an "obsolete" command, "div align="right"," to manage it, but I finally DID it.
Then, I discovered that my automatic ping to Weblogs.com was NOT working, and thus started my search for ways and places to ping; I've got quite a list to go through each day now.
I figured I should try to get added onto traditional search engines, and have signed up for every one in existence, but I have yet to see any evidence that I'm ON any of them; no matter how cleverly I word searches on their sites, my blog doesn't come up on however many pages I have the patience to check. Hope springs eternal, though.
During the search engine project, I learned of the existence of meta tags and spiders, and the importance of the former to the latter, and so added a bunch of tags just in case anything other than FreeFind ever actually spiders my blog.
A blog I visited had a link to a blog search engine, and I eagerly embraced the idea and signed up; eventually, I discovered a lengthy list of other engines, and have been gradually getting signed up with them, on the off chance that anyone is looking for any of my topics, lol.
This lead to my finding out about RSS feeds, and, while I STILL don't really know what they are, so many sites asked for them that I knew I had to get one (the Atom thing is NOT working for this blog, I checked, so I had to find one elsewhere); the end result is the various ways of subscribing to me that you can now find in my sidebar. Another great technical triumph came when the code from Feedster didn't make the text part of the link show, and I figured out which part of the code to take from my counter html and add to Feedster's to make it work.
I also found a couple of forums for bloggers, but sadly they're sort of dead and don't seem likely to lead to much traffic being generated for anyone; looking for others is on my list of things to do, though, because I'm betting there ARE busy blog forums somewhere.
I've had the pleasure of meeting some of my fellow bloggers on their sites, and have had enough questions repeated that I've decided to address them formally:
1) "Why don't you have any way for people to post comments?"
Because I've had all I'm going to take of being argued with and attacked online, and I know from experience that people will ALWAYS come out of the woodwork to spew venom about even my most innocuous posts; I feel under no obligation to allow them to do so, and, frankly, I get quite a bit of enjoyment out of the thought of the would-be assailants gnashing their teeth in frustration because they have no way to add their 2¢... hehehehehe.
2) "But what about those of us who would have NICE things to say, and/or interesting points to make?"
Dealing with the bad apples would stress me out too much to make it worth letting people give me a few compliments... and, I really don't want to have to deal with ANY debating, even if it's all pleasant and informative... AND, if I know that people are able to respond, I won't be able to write the way I want to; every word would be aimed at forestalling possible objections rather than telling the truth as I see it, and the entire purpose of this blog is for me to be able to tell "my truth."
3) "Why isn't there a way to email you?"
Because I don't want the frustrated nay-sayers to send me emails, and I don't want to risk someone I know verifying that it's ME writing this blog (see below).
4) "Why are there no photos or personal information about you?"
This blog is an absolute secret from everyone in my life except my husband, and it needs to STAY that way; the LAST thing I want is one of my loved ones reading something here that upsets them and being able to definitively trace it to ME.
That's pretty much the entire story of my blog thus far; thanks to all of those who take time out of their day to read my little rants. :-)
I started this blog with absolutely NO knowledge of the blogosphere or anything connected with it. Using my minuscule knowledge of html and a vague memory of program flowcharting, I attacked the template to try to make my site easier on the eyes; I resized a few things, restored uppercase letters to the headings, and did a little rearranging. I inserted line breaks to keep the title and sig lines from being on top of the essays. I went through endless color changes before everything looked reasonably attractive and coordinated; sadly, although there's something that LOOKS like it's the visited-link color code, changing it doesn't alter anything, so the real code is hidden somewhere I could never find, or maybe the system just wants those links to be gray no matter what's in the template, so that'll be staying the default color until I find a way to fix it.
Before I actually created the blog, I did an exhaustive search for counters, and picked the one I liked best; that worked fine from the start, which was a refreshing change. I quickly learned that it was possible to have a blog search, but the first 2 I tried didn't work, for reasons that remain a mystery; the 3rd time WAS in fact the charm, though, and I got one that worked courtesy of FreeFind. Next came the struggle to get the stupid thing placed where I wanted it, which entailed frantic searches to html sites to find a command that would right-justify the image AND text created by the FreeFind code (every command seemed to work on one or the other but not both, sigh); I had to use an "obsolete" command, "div align="right"," to manage it, but I finally DID it.
Then, I discovered that my automatic ping to Weblogs.com was NOT working, and thus started my search for ways and places to ping; I've got quite a list to go through each day now.
I figured I should try to get added onto traditional search engines, and have signed up for every one in existence, but I have yet to see any evidence that I'm ON any of them; no matter how cleverly I word searches on their sites, my blog doesn't come up on however many pages I have the patience to check. Hope springs eternal, though.
During the search engine project, I learned of the existence of meta tags and spiders, and the importance of the former to the latter, and so added a bunch of tags just in case anything other than FreeFind ever actually spiders my blog.
A blog I visited had a link to a blog search engine, and I eagerly embraced the idea and signed up; eventually, I discovered a lengthy list of other engines, and have been gradually getting signed up with them, on the off chance that anyone is looking for any of my topics, lol.
This lead to my finding out about RSS feeds, and, while I STILL don't really know what they are, so many sites asked for them that I knew I had to get one (the Atom thing is NOT working for this blog, I checked, so I had to find one elsewhere); the end result is the various ways of subscribing to me that you can now find in my sidebar. Another great technical triumph came when the code from Feedster didn't make the text part of the link show, and I figured out which part of the code to take from my counter html and add to Feedster's to make it work.
I also found a couple of forums for bloggers, but sadly they're sort of dead and don't seem likely to lead to much traffic being generated for anyone; looking for others is on my list of things to do, though, because I'm betting there ARE busy blog forums somewhere.
I've had the pleasure of meeting some of my fellow bloggers on their sites, and have had enough questions repeated that I've decided to address them formally:
1) "Why don't you have any way for people to post comments?"
Because I've had all I'm going to take of being argued with and attacked online, and I know from experience that people will ALWAYS come out of the woodwork to spew venom about even my most innocuous posts; I feel under no obligation to allow them to do so, and, frankly, I get quite a bit of enjoyment out of the thought of the would-be assailants gnashing their teeth in frustration because they have no way to add their 2¢... hehehehehe.
2) "But what about those of us who would have NICE things to say, and/or interesting points to make?"
Dealing with the bad apples would stress me out too much to make it worth letting people give me a few compliments... and, I really don't want to have to deal with ANY debating, even if it's all pleasant and informative... AND, if I know that people are able to respond, I won't be able to write the way I want to; every word would be aimed at forestalling possible objections rather than telling the truth as I see it, and the entire purpose of this blog is for me to be able to tell "my truth."
3) "Why isn't there a way to email you?"
Because I don't want the frustrated nay-sayers to send me emails, and I don't want to risk someone I know verifying that it's ME writing this blog (see below).
4) "Why are there no photos or personal information about you?"
This blog is an absolute secret from everyone in my life except my husband, and it needs to STAY that way; the LAST thing I want is one of my loved ones reading something here that upsets them and being able to definitively trace it to ME.
That's pretty much the entire story of my blog thus far; thanks to all of those who take time out of their day to read my little rants. :-)
