Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Dyed blue and bleached

I do not know what in the world possessed me to do the laundry today, but I did.



The last time I did the laundry it was a disaster and was thereafter banned from doing the laundry.

The boy has been doing laundry ever since.

Today for some unknown reason I decided to do the laundry – more specifically washing a white slip of mine, the tablecloth we used for wine tasting last night and some tea towels.

Now, all would have went well if I had the presence of mind to separate the colors from the white, but I didn’t.

In fact, in one fell swoop of efficiency I tossed in the tea towels (of various shades of blue) in with the white slip and tablecloth.

The result?

A lovely pale blue slip and tablecloth.

And it wasn’t even a surprise – I found out WHILE IT WAS WASHING because I was so pleased with myself, I actually went into the laundry to check on it and lo and behold! There! Spinning round and round was my lovely white slip and tablecloth – now blue!



I freaked out … naturally!

Richard (Elissa’s husband) walks into the laundry to check it out and comments: “Wow! That’s really blue!”

Gee, thanks Rich! Like I didn’t know that already!

Anyway, Richard very calmly says to me: “Never mind. You can bleach it.”

So after the wash cycle, I dutifully hung up the now blue items and let them dry.

After they dried I poured half a bottle of bleach into a bucket along with some very hot water and let the two items soak for a couple of hours.

The result this time?

White!

Blinding, brilliant white!

So white the eyes hurt!

So white they were even whiter than before they turned blue!

WHITE!!!!

Conclusion:

Deanna and the washing machine do not mix.

Deanna and the bottle of bleach work very well together.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Paper book or eBook or both?

There has been much upheaval in the publishing industry of late for those who have been following the news.



Paper books DTBs, as they call them) or eBooks.



The traditional publishers who do DTBs are struggling to keep up with the changing times in the industry as new self-published and indie authors break out into the publishing market with eBooks and "self-publish" through mediums like Amazon Kindle's Digital Text Platform, Barnes and Noble's PubIt! and broader eBook publishers like Smashwords that delivers eBooks to all other electronic platforms.

A young unknown author, Amanda Hocking, is said to have sold over 10,000 books in a week according to eBook guru and evangelist J A Konrath. 

Huffington Post reports of a self published author, Brian S Pratt, who is going to make $25,000 this quarter in eBook sales

Of course, there’s much more to the story than that. For every one who is a success, there are many who are not. Some publishers are moving towards the digital reading platform and handling it well – eHarlequin is one of them, as are some of the electronic only publishers (whose names I can’t remember right now).



What about you - the READER?

What do you prefer?

What percentage of your reading is eBooks? Paper books?

What eReader do you use? Kindle? Kobo Reader? Nook? Sony eReader? Mobile phone / smart phone device - like the iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry?



How do you compare the reading experience between eBooks vs Paper books?

Do you enjoy one more than the other?

If you don't read eBooks now, do you think or plan to make a switch?

I started reading eBooks in 2001. Why? because I ran out of shelf space.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Bad play, brilliantly acted

Tonight we went to yet another Sydney Theatre Company production. Thankfully it is the second to last and it has been a long and somewhat mixed season.

Most of the plays have been brilliantly performed - the actors superb and their acting excellent. Unfortunately I have not enjoyed the themes of most the plays, most of them leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Granted they explored confronting and angst filled issues that make for fantastic high drama but they just did not appeal to me. I did not enjoy leaving with a feeling of distaste in my mouth and my body rejecting all of the sensory and visual inputs thrown at me.

There was infidelity, adultery, crazy, murder, incest, genocide, dysfunctional families, degenerates, hatred, envy and apathy.

There has been only one play which I enjoyed thoroughly – The Grenade. Oresteia was pretty good too, though that was a Greek tragedy – everyone died and there was mass muder, genocide and incest.

Tonight’s play – True West was awful and brilliant all at the same time.  There’s a review of the play here.


It’s about two brothers who come together in their mother’s house. One is a screenwriter (or at least attempting to be a screenwriter) and the other is an aggressive bum who hustles, steals and bullies.

The mother is away on vacation and the screenwriter son is housesitting. The brother is “visiting”.

There are hints throughout the play that their father is a degenerate alcoholic.

As the play progresses the dysfunction in the relationship between the brothers becomes more and more pronounced as each brother in their own way tries to be like the other – in their actions trying to “one up” the other, only to discover that they are not so different and they need each other after all.

There is a wildness to the play and the violence in character and action is very prominent.

The one thing that sticks out the most for me is the fact that I can stop thinking of the word “degenerate”.

Everything in the play degenerates towards its inevitable flawed, tragic end. You can see everything and everyone spiralling slowly out of control, at the same time rushing to this glorious climax of angst, frustration, jealousy and general all out crazy.

Don’t you just love the way they’ve torn apart the mother’s kitchen?

It left me feeling cranky. Not any other feeling – just cranky. It made me want to hit someone or something – preferably the actors. I’d have loved to hit them. They played their roles so well, their characters so unlikable. There was nothing sympathetic about them.

If you enjoy being put through the wringer and battered around with violence, anger, extreme sibling rivalry and frustration, yes, by all means, do go watch the play. If not, I’d suggest you try something else.

I can't wait until this year's subscription to the Sydney Theatre Company is over.

Sleeping, dreaming, waking

I took a nap this afternoon and for the most part it was a very pleasant nap … except for the waking up part, or possibly the dreaming part, or maybe it was both.

The nap itself was relatively uneventful though I did battle with actually falling asleep for a little while. I was feeling a little tired and I wanted to nap (we’re going out again tonight) but the mind and body would not cooperate. At one point I even turned around and stared at Steve as he got up for a moment to take a drink of water and he said to me “if you can’t go to sleep, get out of bed and stop bothering me”. Nice of him, eh?

So sleeping, dreaming, waking.

One of the things I dislike most about afternoon naps (along with waking up late in the morning) is the dreams - the weird, uncontrollable, incomprehensible dreams.

I don’t particularly remember this dream except it involved a night market in the streets, eating, a little girl with a weird sounding, hard to pronounce Chinese name that looked like a pretty version of Mrs Potato Head and my sister.

What really gets me is that after the dreams there is a lingering feeling of suspension – when I do not know if I’m awake or asleep.

I’m dreaming, I wake up, I’m still asleep, but I’m awake and I’m conscious … sort of, but I’m asleep.

I feel like I’m swimming against the current being constantly pulled under and I’m fighting against the undertow.

 This is a painting titled "Undertow" I found on the Internet. I thought it depicted the feeling in an image the feeling I was trying to convey very well.

I’m struggling with all of my might, my muscles try to fight it, but I can’t move.

I’m still dreaming.

I’m trying to wake up.

I’m still asleep.

This cycle repeats itself over and over again until … finally … with super human effort I give one final huge push and I reach the surface.

I’m finally awake, but I’m groggy, my head is stuffy and I feel like I’m suffering from a bad hangover - all of this without alcohol.

Anyway, I leave you with this little beauty because it’s a much pretty picture than looking at one of me sleeping.

Ps. I don’t know who he is.

Overheated and too much caffeine

Last night we went out to The Basement for a concert with friends of ours – Ric and Cristina. It was a concert I was really looking forward to and knowing that it was The Basement prepared by taking a nap in the afternoon – concerts there start at 10pm and finish at 1am. I wanted to last the night. Oh yeah – we were watching James Morrison and Emma Pask performing there. Both Australian icons and fantastic performers.





I took a nap which surprisingly lasted 2.5 hours – much longer than I had anticipated. I fell asleep quickly enough and then jolted awake to discover that it was close to 5 in the evening. I had slept the afternoon away.

Steve got home reasonably early, in time to lie down for 5 minutes before the concert.

We got dressed and headed out.

As we were going out the door Steve asked if I needed a wrap in case it got cool. I responded that I didn’t need one ‘cos the dress I was wearing had three-quarter sleeves (there is a point to the length of my sleeves in this story, really!)

Off we went.

When we arrived there were a mass of people ahead of us – not a good sign to begin with.

As we were checking in, I discovered that they had NOT printed out an invoice for the night for me and try though I did to get one throughout the night, it was all for naught. Sorry Ric, you’re going to have to do the taxes with a few missing tax invoices.

We were then led to our table and the maĆ®tre d’ kept walking and walking and walking – this being a small-ish space I was starting to wonder where he was going to put us. Turns out we got the farthest corner table in the entire place. Tucked just in front of the sound booth with a ceiling fan whirring above (I should have seen the ceiling fan as a sign), the only table further away was the table for two behind us which was actually squashed INTO the corner.

I was not pleased with our table location. I had gotten used to being right in front of the stage. Unfortunately, last night the front of the stage was dominated by large tables of 8, 10, 12 people. The place was packed!

After being seated, we ordered our food and drinks and that was when we noticed the heat. It was HOT! In fact, I think we got the hottest seat in the house and I mean it literally. No wonder the sound booth had a ceiling fan whirring above it. It was boiling in that corner.



As the evening progressed, we got more and more uncomfortable. I had to borrow a hair tie from Cristina to braid my hair back. Ric and Steve were both suffering from the heat and had developed a fine sheet of perspiration across their foreheads. Cristina spent most of the evening during the performance fanning herself and Ric. Steve took the opportunity before the concert and during the break to head outside for a bit of fresh air.

Have I mentioned it was hot?

I asked for a glass of ice several times to chill my diet coke in an effort to cool down. Which leads me to the diet coke … did you know diet coke has caffeine in it? I had forgotten that. In fact, I forget that often and unfortunately in the evenings. Someone as sensitive to caffeine as I am should NOT be drinking diet coke at night. Unfortunately for me, I did forget about the caffeine. I drank two glasses of that stuff … you know where this is going, don’t you?



When we got home Steve went straight to bed. He’d had a long, tiring week at work and it had been a long night out.

I thought I’d go directly to bed but to no avail.

I ended staying up, sitting in the dark and playing on the computer. Please don’t ask me why I was sitting in the dark. I do not know why I was sitting in the dark. Maybe I thought that if I sat in the dark, I could trick myself to get tired and then be able to fall asleep.

At some point, I put in a status update on facebook: Deanna Lang is wondering why the heck am I still awake at 2:45am? Steve Shipley is going to be so cross with me.

I stayed up in front of the computer to about 3:30am. I read Google Reader subscriptions. I responded to the ARRA message board. I checked out the nook and Kindle boards on facebook.

I finally gave up and went to bed where I stayed, lying AWAKE for the next hour to hour and a half before finally falling asleep close to 5am.

This morning I woke up briefly at 7:16am and then promptly went back to sleep. Jolted out of bed at about 10:15am realising it was really, really late and we had errands we needed to run. I hustled, still groggy from sleep to get dressed and out the door for our trek across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a morning of visiting Ray the Butcher (best butcher in Sydney) and other errands.

I’m awake now … but just barely.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Dropping "Sydney"

I've decided to drop the "Sydney" from my posts. It just seems awkward.

If I'm going to be away and posting from a different location, I'll tag it accordingly.

Next stop - Kuala Lumpur for Chinese New Year 2011.

Sydney's still my favorite city in all the world though. Why wouldn't it be? Just look at this view.

Just lookin'

I came across this photo of a friend on facebook who works as a romance novel cover model.


I just like this picture 'cos it's tall (okay I can't see his height here), dark and broody.

Just exactly my type of hero.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Books I've read in 2010

Here are a list of all the books I’ve read this year – not in any particular order:

But before we start - this is my favorite book cover of the year. Loved the book too.
  1. A Blazing Little Christmas by Kathleen O’Reilly
  2. I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali, Delphine Minoui
  3. Sweet Valley Confidential CHAPTER 1 Free Preview: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal
  4. The Season by Sarah MacLean
  5. Mistletoe and the Lost Stiletto by Liz Fielding
  6. Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right by Kieran Kramer
  7. A Little Harmless Sex (Book 1 in the Harmless Series) by Melissa Schroeder
  8. Seducing the Duchess by Ashley March
  9. Whiskey Sour by J A Konrath
  10. The Ghost Hunter, a Paranormal Romance by Lori Brighton
  11. Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf
  12. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
  13. Sinful Surrender by Beverley Kendall
  14. The Debutante's Dilemma by Elyse Mady
  15. For The Love of Pete by Julia Harper
  16. The Spy Wore Silk (Merlin’s Maidens Series Book 1) by Andrea Pickens
  17. The Scarlet Spy (Merlin’s Maidens Series Book 3) by Andrea Pickens
  18. Seduced by a Spy (Merlin’s Maidens Series Book 2) by Andrea Pickens
  19. Wicked Widow (Vanza Series Book 3) by Amanda Quick
  20. Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase
  21. Tempted All Night by Liz Carlyle
  22. A View to a Kiss by Caroline Linden
  23. Crash Course by Juliet Hastings
  24. When Seducing a Duke by Kathryn Smith
  25. Hot Nights, Dark Desires by Sydney Croft, Stephanie Tyler and Eden Bradley
  26. Seduction is Forever by Jenna Petersen
  27. Desire Never Dies by Jenna Petersen
  28. From London with Love by Jenna Petersen
  29. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by A N Roquelaure / Anne Rice
  30. Beauty’s Release by Anne Rice
  31. Beauty’s Punishment by Anne Rice
  32. The Runaway Duke by Julie Anne Long
  33. Beauty and the Spy by Julie Anne Long
  34. Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long
  35. Never Resist Temptation by Miranda Neville
  36. The Perfect Poison by Amanda Quick
  37. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
  38. Tempted by Midnight by Jacquie D’Alessandro
  39. Seduced at Midnight by Jacquie D'Alessandro
  40. Confessions at Midnight by Jacquie D'Alessandro
  41. Sleepless at Midnight by Jacquie D'Alessandro
  42. Kiss of Crimson [Midnight Breed Series Book 2] by Lara Adrian
  43. Salvation in Death [An In Death Series Novel] by JD Robb
  44. Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
  45. Scandal in Spring [Wallflower Series Book 4] by Lisa Kleypas
  46. Devil in Winter [Wallflower Series Book 3] by Lisa Kleypas
  47. It Happened One Autumn [Wallflower Series Book 2] by Lisa Kleypas
  48. Secrets of a Summer Night [Wallflower Series Book 1] by Lisa Kleypas
  49. At the Bride Hunt Ball by Olivia Parker
  50. Fire and Ice: A Novel by Julie Garwood
  51. Twilight [Twilight Series Book 1] by Stephenie Meyer
  52. Blood Sins [Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Series Book 11] by Kay Hooper
  53. Slow Ride: A Rough Riders story by Lorelei James
  54. Devil at Midnight by Emma Holly
  55. Eland by Allyson James
  56. When Harry Met Molly by Kieran Kramer
  57. Rebel: The Blades of the Rose by Zoe Archer
  58. Half Past Dead by Zoe Archer and Bianca D’Arc
  59. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
  60. Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean
  61. A Christmas Ball by Emily Bryan
  62. Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson
  63. A Little Bit Naughty: A Tahoe Nights Story by Anne Rainey
  64. His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls
  65. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (repeat)
  66. Enchanting the Lady by Kathryne Kennedy
  67. Mad About The Duke by Elizabeth Boyle
  68. Scoundrel by Zoe Archer
  69. Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin
  70. The Taming of Mei Lin by Jeannie Lin
  71. The Unmasking of Lady Loveless by Nicola Cornick
  72. The Unlacing of Miss Leigh by Diane Gaston
  73. Midnight Crystal (Book Three of the Dreamlight Trilogy) by Jayne Castle
  74. The Intrigue Collection by Alice Sharpe
  75. White Tigress by Jade Lee
  76. Warrior by Zoe Archer
  77. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
  78. Riding the Waves by Tawny Weber
  79. Awakened by a Kiss by Lila DiPasqua
  80. Lara: Book One of the World of Hetar by Bertrice Small
  81. A Kiss At Midnight by Eloisa James
  82. Lush Velvet Nights by Tina Donahue
  83. Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly
  84. What She Wants by Anne Rainey
  85. The Wicked House of Rohan by Anne Stuart
  86. A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas
  87. Stopping Time Part 2 by Melissa Marr
  88. Stopping Time Part 1 by Melissa Marr
  89. The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
  90. Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick
  91. With This Ring by Amanda Quick
  92. I Thee Wed by Amanda Quick
  93. Lie By Midnight by Amanda Quick
  94. Naked Edge by Pamela Clare
  95. My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell
  96. Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
  97. Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas
  98. Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn
  99. A Lady’s Guide to Improper Behaviour by Suzanne Enoch
  100. Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
  101. Dead in the Family: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris 
 
Wow! That’s a lot more books that I thought. Of course, these are not exactly ponderous tomes, nor are they difficult to read.

These fall definitely in the category of what my darling Steve would call “brain candy” but I’m happy about it ‘cos I’m reading what I love to read.

Sydney - a little nookie

I just got my new nook. That’s an eReader produced by Barnes and Noble for those who don’t know. One uses it to read electronic books.


Why do you need a nook? One might ask.

Because I’ve got 1,140 books that I’ve bought from eReader.com and Fictionwise.com since 2001 that I need a device to read on.

I used to read them on my Pocket PC, iPaq (from the then Compaq), Palm Pilot, Palm Lifedrive, Palm Treo and then the iPhone. The technology keeps changing.

I can read those books on the iPhone but the iPhone is a very transient piece of technology.

I wanted a dedicated eBook reader that would hold all my books and allow me to go back to it to read whenever I wanted to read the books or re-read more like.

So far the nook is not what I would call a great device. It has surprised me in that it’s better than I thought it would be, but the reality is, it’s not as good an eReader as the latest Kindle 3G device. Amazon has done an amazing job on the user / reader experience with their latest eReader.



The latest Kindle is an AMAZING device for reading.

If not for the previously mentioned 1,140 books, I’d completely ignore the nook. My other alternative was to strip the Digital Rights Management (DRM) but that is illegal and very complicated to do – not something I want to try.

Here’s what I’ve found about the nook:

  • You can’t buy it outside of the US and it won’t be supported outside of the US – I’m taking a chance here. I had to get a friend to buy it for me and then mail it.
  • It was relatively easy to load books onto it from the PC to the nook using the USB cable. Just drag and drop into the correct directory – and they have a video on their support page to show you how to do it.
  • It insists that you have a wireless connection in order to register the nook. I was able to register it using my home wireless connection.
  • I’ve turned the wireless off since I will not be buying new books from Barnes and Noble for the nook. All new books are bought from Amazon for the Kindle.
  • I ran into problems loading my old Fictionwise books (PDB files) onto the nook at around about the 700+ books mark. That was exceedingly frustrating. It would not recognise or load anymore books after that. Spent the entire night fiddling with it and just did not want to work.
  • You would have thought that they would have tested the book loading beyond that number of books.
  • I had to send out an SOS on the nook discussion boards to find out what to do. I’ve been waiting overnight for responses

The next day … update post nook SOS on the discussion boards.

I got lots of good advice. Unfortunately, none of them panned out.

I even went out and got a micro SD card which according to some experienced nooksters (that’s what they call themselves) would solve all my problems.

Nuh uh!

It didn’t happen.

In the end, I deleted EVERYTHING from the nook. Only loaded a few books at a time of what I wanted to read and then go from there.

So far I’ve loaded about 18 books on the nook. I’m reading one which I accidentally started yesterday because I was surprised to find that book there (always a delight). I’ll finish it before I head back over to the Kindle and before I load any other books onto it.

I’m thinking if I’m sneaky about this and only load one or two books at a time, I might over time be able to sneak a whole bunch of books past the nook and land them in the library where I can read them.

I have never had a problem with the Kindle (touch wood!).

One last observation – the nook is a much bulkier device than the Kindle, so with the cover on, it’s actually quite a heavy and unpleasant device to hold – like a heavy trade paperback. It feels much better to be read without a cover though a cover is a good idea to protect it.

I’ll use the nook because I have books I want to be able to read and I need it to read those books.

I do not love the nook.

I still love my Kindle.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sydney - it's on eBay, for goodness sakes!!


We recently upgraded our operating systems on our computers to Windows 7. New operating system, new applications, upgraded the RAM and hard drive on Steve’s laptop. Brand spanking new machines – sort of!

With Window 7, the great thing is that the machines are now running much better.

It was due, the old operating system was Windows XP Pro and I had been wringing the very last bit of life out of it. It was ready to fall over and I decided it was safer for me to rebuild before the collapse happened and I lost all my data.

2 days of backing up data.

1 day to rebuild the machines – thank you little Chinese geek in Epping!

1 day to update all the additional software onto machines.

1 day to find out old printer does not work with new operating system (anyone heard this story before?) My trusty old HP laserjet printer will print and copy but will not scan or fax. HP very kindly updated the drivers to Window 7 only to leave a KNOWN problem with the scanner in existence. No solution has been found since the problem has been discovered since the release of Windows 7.

Result?

New printer!

Lovely, beautiful new printer.

1st I got an HP officejet. Got the box home, thanks to the very surly taxi driver (I did not tip him), Rhett who got the machine from Officeworks to the taxi and the taxi to inside the apartment building, David who got the printer to the apartment and onto the desk.

I installed printer number ONE and as it was calibrating, all the reasons why I hated inkjet printers came rushing back to me.

The printer did not last 2 hours.

Back it went into the box, then back downstairs, this time Joel got me a taxi. Kind taxi driver got it out of the taxi at Officeworks for me. I tipped him.

Returned the printer – thank you Officeworks for your “no questions asked” policy.

I ordered printer number TWO, which is a BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS,WONDERFUL HP Laserjet colour printer. Runs like a dream!!!

But what to do with existing printer that no longer works with Window 7?

Answer: eBay

Listed printer on eBay and idiot buyer (just one of them) decided to ask questions.

Question 1: what’s the page count?

I respond.

Question 2: is the scanner aligned?

I respond (but getting impatient) – this is eBay for goodness sakes. It’s an excellent printer, works perfectly (with anything other than Windows 7) and going CHEAP!

Question 3: how much toner is left in the cartridge?

I respond (am getting surly at this stage). Am thinking to self “how am I supposed to know? I’m also throwing in one full, brand new, unused toner cartridge – you greedy git!”

Question 4: will you package it up for shipping?

Pick up only – it says so on the listing.

Question 5: I’ll pay for you to find packaging and box to pack it up, I’ve found a cheap courier. I live in Melbourne.

What part of “pick up only” do you not understand?

Question 6: when you package it up, make sure you secure the scanner so that it is aligned. If you do that, I’ll bid.

At this point, I’m ready to tell the very annoying potential buyer to get stuffed. Instead I ignore him. It’s safer that way, otherwise I might let loose and tell him what I REALLY think about him and all his asinine questions.

Let me just point out a few things:

1. It’s eBay.

2. I’m selling it cheap. RRP on that printer (on eBay is $699)

3. What part of “pick up only do you not understand?”

4. Why would I go through so much trouble to find packaging, Styrofoam, a sturdy box for an odd shaped printer for you because you’re being a cheap assed punk and have decided to buy and used printer rather than pay for a new one?

5. And you have the cheek to ask me to guarantee all of the above so that you are then going to be willing to bid on an item which you might NOT win?

I’m ignoring the guy, really, I am. Right after I get this off my chest.

Steve and I had already decided that if we don’t sell the printer, we’ll just keep it for him to use in his office when we move back into our house so that  he has a printer of his own.

We’re really not all that bothered if it doesn’t sell and I really am not terribly inclined to go through all that trouble for the greedy git.

Oh, by the way, if you’re interested in a printer that works wonderfully on anything other than Windows 7, here’s the link to the listing on eBay - http://tinyurl.com/293y58n Hurry! Ends soon!

*grin*

Update: it appears that annoying git is no longer watching the item as I have failed to respond to him this afternoon.

Sydney - fits and starts


I have noticed that my blogging is mostly in fits and starts.

I am not consistent.

I go for days and sometimes weeks or months without posting anything and then I have mental and verbal diarrhoea and spit out 3 or 4 blogs in one day, inundating my poor unsuspecting friends and family with all my various and vaporous thoughts.

I would imagine than much of said mental and verbal diarrhoea would go unnoticed anyway, but it’s my way of keeping track of my life.

Don’t mind me, I’m just thinking out loud. If you feel like listening, please do. If not, feel free to switch off.

I’ve actually got one more post for today that I’d like to write about but might save it for another day.

Or I’d write it and post it another day.

Or I’ll just leave well enough alone and walk away while you are still willing to acknowledge me as a friend and claim an acquaintance.

*grin*

Feel free to ignore me (many people do), I’m in a strange mood.

I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out again.

*grin*

See ya!

Sydney - much frustration, technology sucks


The frustration continues with the blog not posting to Facebook because of whatever glitches Facebook has decided to program into its blog import function.

Life is not good in blog-world.

Copying and pasting the post from the blog to Facebook continues to be troublesome.

HTML code from Microsoft Word is excessive. I do not know why Microsoft embeds so much junk into their basic documents. I might just start using the Notepad to avoid extraneous HTML code.

The HTML code does not seem to upset blogger too much to when copied into Facebook it leaves and entire trail of rubbish in its wake.

Not much I can do about it all right now.

Technology sucks at times, yet I can’t live without it - especially considering I just managed to chat with my dear, dear friend in Qatar for 45 minutes for FREE over Skype using my mobile phone. *happy face*

So for now:
Microsoft Word to Blogger – check!
Microsoft Word to Facebook – check!
Blogger to Facebook – BLEH!

This means though that posts to Facebook could be a few days behind, but let’s face it, nobody much cares!

Rant over. Ciao!