Recently in The Blog Category

I'm continually exasperated over this damn blog. It's obvious because I've been ignoring it for the last month after struggling for the past several months with the fucking comments system. I know they don't work but I don't know why and back in the day I could have figured it out. I've trolled through the movabletype forums without much success and so I'm left with that ultimate blog question, is it time to quit? Where I was meeting and linking to new people all the time, now I haven't done a damn thing and I feel like the whole point has sailed for me and I've been left behind. It's so frustrating.

But then I think I've been doing this for eight years, EIGHT YEARS! and I've grown the most wonderful friendships with people I guess I'd never have met otherwise. I wrote some things that I thought were witty and pretty good and then a lot of schlock and dregs of course. I just can't think of not doing and when I try to imagine, I know I'll be right back and then what was the point. So I'm just thinking. I have to divert myself from all my other time-wasters and focus on relearning the MT system to take advantage of the technology that is so different from when I first installed the system way back when.

So I'm just ranting, ranting, ranting. Feh.

per Max who got it from Cully, who got it from Secret Simon, a meme that will simply rock your world.

Links
Your band name from a random Wikipedia article is the first article title
Your album title from a random quotation is the last four words of the last quote on the page.
Your album art from a random Flickr photo is the third picture on that page.

Here is my first and only album. It's a down-tempo chill mix with some deep house velvet vocals:

Ok..did some detective work and figured out the commenting. Now everyone not associated with Movabletype or Typepad can comment without having to register.

Anyone still out there? I need some attention. I'm a whore.

12/30 Update: Of course anyone can comment now but as these things happen, now the comments are showing when you click on them. I've employed the help of the Movabletype elves to help me figure it out (something about the mapping of the archives...blahbiddy, blah, blah, blah). Stay tuned. Almost there.

Not exactly sure what I tinkered with under the hood around here but for some reason, I can't get the authorized signing in for the comments to disappear. I'm still trying to figure out and tweak stuff in the guts to get it back. Sorry.

My main complaint about everything related to myself is that I'm always 3-5 years behind everyone else. Fashion-wise, professionally, emotionally, financially, and usually pop-culturally. Flickr's 365 Day Project where each member takes one self-portrait of themselves and posts it each day for a year has been going on for years on the 'net and Blog but I've only just discovered the greatness of Flickr and these kinds of group projects that much smarter people have not only done but grown so tired of, they've moved on to bigger and better things.

With the impending new job that promises 4-5 days of traveling around the US each week, I'd been thinking that I had a great opportunity to re-infuse this blog's horrifically lagging boredom as well as give me some focus and direction. I think pairing my travelogue with the 365 Day Project makes great sense. I just didn't want to wait until January to start so I'm starting today, inspired by some really great photography on Flickr. Let me be the first to say that I'm under no illusions that I'm a photographer, have any sense of style or composition, or understand the essentials of photography tools to be able to be anything but be another blade of grass in a really big yard. That's my cop-out.

Still, here we go:

My first day on the 365 Day Project

So the redesign is somewhat better then that nightmare before. Not exactly the most creative but it will do in a pinch until I can find something better or figure out how to time-travel back to before my MBA when I actually knew how to do CSS coding and whatnot.

I will eventually get around to updated the blog and fixing all this damnable CSS crap that is fucking up shit around here. In the mean time, I'm in a cast and wishing all my Vicodin had not disappeared.

Update: For everyone who asked about my cast and what happened, prepare to be bored: I developed a cyst on the base of my hand this summer that continued to grow. Seems I had torn cartlidge in my hand that was causing the cyst so I finally went in for the repair and they had to remove the pisiform bone while they were in there so the cast is one for until early December for wrist stability until everything heals. Not too exciting, I know.

All the kids are doing Twitter.com. I'm not sure why but when has that ever stopped me before, ok. You can track my every incessant movement here.

Joe.My.God's second outing of the blogs happened this past Saturday night. Bonus that I was already in town for the NYComicCon so I wasn't going to miss out this year. Obviously from the pic-less texts of this post, even though I had a camera, I declined to use it for no other reason then everyone else was snapping pics off left and right and I didn't want to be that dumb dick-head who fires off the last, blinding picture that makes everyone groan and hate them. No one was that dick-head but had their been one, it would have been me, so I kept my camera in my pocket and tried to make it not appear as though I was the size of a float, which in some pictures I'm seeing, I appear to be. Real pics can be seen at Joe's site and those other's who've recounted the going-on's.

I have never spent much time in the East Village bars although once in the Boiler Room, I seemed to have some wispy smell of recognition but that was about it. For the most part, the bars were perfect: practically empty before we got there so everyone got served quickly and efficiently and room to move around. The Big Lug had the best music by far and honestly, several people agreed that we could have just stayed there the rest of the evening but since it was only number four on the list of six, we all had to carry on and carry out. The Boiler Room almost tied for best music when the 23-minute version of Donna Summer's MacArthur Park was spinning but then the follow up was another Donna Summer song and that sorta put the group over the edge. Also, Curly McDimple was forbidden from using the ladies room (or as Helen suggested, a stagnant slaughter house) so I was quite worried for her micturation issues. I'm nothing if not a caring health-care professional when I get the chance.

The whole night was fun. Boys and girls slogging through the streets with Joe in the vanguard assuring people he had no idea where the next bar was located but somehow ending up right at the front door. He threatens to get a large pole sign for next year so people will know when the group is moving out. It can't be that hard to notice when a bar's population suddenly goes from three to forty seven and then back to three. Dick's Bar hasn't seen a night like that in a long time, I'm sure. Everyone was so friendly and gracious though there were pockets of people I had wanted to meet (I kept hearing the Farm Boys were about but they were always just on the other side of a column or had their backs to me in another group so as far as I know, they still only exist in the blog). Luckily, I met and got hooked into the FutureJunkie and then Jubilee Chris showed up so we were able to pal around the evening and I didn't feel like such an introverted interloper.

Things learned? Bar crawls are fun and bloggers are a very nice, sociable bunch of mens. From the pictures Jeff has seen, he thought the crowd rather beary which for me was the icing on the cake. Also, I had my first and second Black-n-Tan ever. I didn't know they made beer milk-shakes but they do and they're black and tan and get thicker the closer you get to finishing off the second one. As safety cannot be put on hold for blog crawl fun, the Cock is a death-from-fire tragedy waiting to happen. I'm sure everyone was all in their groove getting molested in the dark crowd that was a sea of shoulders and heads but I do need some safety in my life and getting trampled during a fire isn't my cuppa tea. We should have listed to Jeff and Eddie when they wanted to bag out because of the cover-charge and gone to The Urge next door which is where we ended up anyway after escaping the Cock. All in all, I did the crawl, met some great people, and had a great time.

Could I pack any more into one Saturday that will be happening in the city while I'm actually here and not upstate? Good Lord: NYC Comic Con AND The East Village Blarg Crawl on the same day? WOOT! There could be pictures.

And no, haters, I'm not dressing up for the Comic Con.

From the update from my Folsom post via Gizoogle (from the shizzle, Michael):

UPDATE . It dont stop till the wheels fall off: Bizzy fizzy SF, who reminded me that infact I DO actually know someone in SF, sent me this picture as he was clockin' at Folsom pictures on Flickr in all flavas. All I can say is tha proof is in tha mobbin' (Niznot Safe For Wizzle! Seriously, not even if you wizzle in a pork-process'n factory)...I'm so deep in thought `bout see'n this homey (and seein' "CRISCO PIG" written on his back n look'n at tha P-I-Double-Gizzy tizzy butt-plug he had inserted) tizzle I was oblivious ta hatin' else , niggaz, better recognize. I swear I was hav'n a betta tizzy then whizzat tha picture conveys...and dizzay look at thiznat gat I'm carry'n around in mah pants and yo momma.

Word.

In the last few months, I've been anquishing about one thing in particular and it wasn't about my MBA. It was about what to do around the Blog here once my MBA was done. I recognize that I had a pretty solid group checking in a few years ago and can definitely acknowledge that I had a pretty solid vibe in what I wrote at that time. Not surprisingly, all that went to shit with school. I stopped posting or made such ridiculously arcane, unconnected posts that, honestly, were nothing more than place-fillers for me until I got back. Then the looming end of the MBA came rushign upon and I'm now faced with a blog design two years old and tired, serious amensia about CSS coding and webby-techy stuff that I once used to know, and a "how-do-I-pick-up-the-pieces-around-here kind of attitude. That and Barnes has been voicing what I've been feeling for some time: I'm fucking BORING. So what to do, what to do.

Then this morning, as I'm riding the subway into work, reading a little ditty of book I picked up yesterday at the hospital book sale, the perfect moment of clarity hits me. "Eureka," I exclaim, and pump my fists into the air. Subway people at 6am don't like those kinds of sudden movements, by the way.

All the little pieces of my days, past and present are now starting to click and so the blog goes on. Hanging out the renovation signs as I write.

J.Go tagged me ages ago on this meme that I'd dutifully forgot until today. Here goes:

FOUR JOBS YOU’VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE:
Pharmacy Technician
Night Janitor
Waiter at a gay bar
Emergency Room Nurse

FOUR MOVIES YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
BladeRunner
Death Becomes Her
All of Me
How To Make An American Quilt

FOUR PLACES YOU’VE LIVED:
Tipp City, Ohio
St. Louis, Missouri
Morristown, New Jersey
New York City, New York

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH:
Grey’s Anatomy
Project Runway
How I Met Your Mother
30-Minute Meals

FOUR PLACES YOU’VE BEEN ON HOLIDAY:
London
Amsterdam
Cruise up the East Coast to Nova Scotia
Carribean

FOUR NONPORN WEBSITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
SuperheroHype.com
Joe.My.God
Bloghungry.com
Wikipedia.com

FOUR OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS:
shrimp
potato salad
roasted garlic soup
Indian

FOUR PLACES YOU’D RATHER BE:
Delaware River Valley of New York, full time, times four

Well, that isn't true. I can be mean, I just can't seem to share that side of me well. By the time I got up this morning and into work at 7am, the post I made last night at 11pm that WAS really mean just didn't work for me any longer. I'm not saying it isn't true and the feelings about a certain blogger remain very,very real, but honestly, in the light of a good five-mile walk to work this morning, the post just didn't seem that important to publish and share with people, so I took it down. Also, I think my continued use of saying he was fat was rude on my part and could really be taken out of context since I'm not Ab-fabulous either....but then again, I admit that I'm not ab-fabulous and don't go around pretending I'm not. Anywho...

So in short, I CAN BE mean and unreasonable and apparently, according to a friend, completely psychotic, but I prefer to keep those deep down inside and focus my days on being better. I'd be better if I didn't keep tripping over said blogger's (dumbass) blog, but then again, why do we fall? To pick ourselves back up.

Everyone should head over to Barnes' blog. His current entry encourages you to submit your best fictional memory of the two-of-yous. It doesn't matter if you know him or not, I'm sure there is a made-up memory of you guys together somewhere. Mine started out, "Remember that time you were helping me write my Healthcare Finance paper on the impact of bad debt to an organizational budget?" but since even I can't be that lame, I went for chocolate seduction, instead.

I had two very intense realizations a few moments back. The first is that ggwoo.com will be turning six next week. If that was a child, I would be packing it off to first or second grade already. That is scary as shit.

The second thing is that since I've been on holiday for almost the last two years, almost completly ignoring the blog, I've realized that my "who am I" page is woefully outdated and that I have no earthly idea how to access the page to change it. I think I had some freeware that accessed the guts of the site at some point but I don't have it anymore and even if I did, I'm not sure what of my codes and passwords. My quest for an advanced degree has completely melted out my knowledge of the dark mysteries of The Blog.

Spring comes early 'cause Johnny is back.

In catching up with my blog-reads this morning, I found I'd been tagged for a music meme from Barnes so I had to look up on my iPod to see what I've been listening too lately that rocks my world. Here are the instructions for the meme:

List ten songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

I'm going to kill this branch of the meme and not tag anyone else (because I'm not sure anyone actually reads this blog anymore since I've been reduced to almost monthly postings) but here is my current IT-list:

1. Music and Wine (Teksoul Dub) by Blue Six
2. My House (Dennis F Remix) by Aaron Carl
3. Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum
4. Come Rain Come Shine (Extended Mix) by Jen Cuneta
5. Shine (The Lovefreekz Club Mix) by The Lovefreekz
6. Dawn by Vangelis
7. Empty Water by Lisa Gerrard (Whale Rider Soundtrack)
8. Ain't No Sunshine (Groove Corporation Remix) by Stryke
9. Glory Box by Portishead
10. We Don't Have To Think Like That Anymore by Cliff Martinez (Solaris Soundtrack)

Since everyone essentially thinks I'm blogdead because I've basically alienated them either through sheer apathy or totally ignoring them, I can understand why I don't get invited to participate in memes anymore. Still, a girl likes to think she might get invited to the popular birthday party every now and again. So since no one tagged me, I'm tagging myself for the Caesar Meme:

[and yes...I'm TOTALLY self-sabotaging myself by thinking it's much more important to self-meme then, say, do my last three bond-valuation problems for Finance. Word.]

Said meme takes its name from Mel Brooks' A History of the World (Part I), and, upon receiving it, one is supposed to list five things that one's circle of friends or peer group is wild about, but that one can’t really understand the fuss over. Quoth Caesar, "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."

1. Lost. Blame it on my incessant, bordering on almost obsessive-compulsive nature that by missing just the pilot episode of a show, it's complete ruined and off-limits for me because I'll be hopelessly lost in terms of character, plot, and storyline, but there you have it. I do intend on watching the thing when it comes out on DVD but I can honestly tell you, there is NO. WAY. the writers can wrap up what I understand to be so many subplots, in any believable or rewarding way. Red herrings suck as a Deus ex Machina.

2. Scissor Sisters. Ruin "Comfortably Numb" and I just won't have it. Sorry.

3. Blackberry phones. I own one and my work email hasn't been migrated over to Exchange yet so I'm not really totally connected but I'm positive that nothing good can come of it. Also, after texting "tikes" to someone today instead of "yikes", I can find no earthly purpose for text-messaging other then to keep me from being bored between meetings.

4. Blog flavors of the month. What is this, 2002?

5. Umm...I guess that's it. I'm totally into everything everyone else is.

And, because I'm self-meming, I'm not tagging anyone else, either.

Kris is the Web Goddess for many reasons, but this weekend she underscored her deity-ship by marrying the Snook (Well, hellllllloooooo, Mrs. Snook!) in Vegas, at The Little White Wedding Chapel, by the King of Rock-n-Roll, Elvis Presley, while simulcasting over the internet to all her worshippers. And she had on a beautiful dress and the what appeared to be the most comfortable pair of shoes ever so double snaps for being doubly hip. It was freakin' awesome. Don't fret if you missed it, you can see the feed for the next month.

Congratulations to the happy couple.

The price one pays for ignoring the inner workings of the blog machine is to be faced with deleting over 750 ill-begotten comments from the likes of those who'd like you to enter illicit poker tournaments, try lifestyle enhancement medications ('hard-on pills' for those not in the lingo), or increase the size of your already adequate penises and ba-zooms. It only took me the better part of the last two weeks of consistent deletion to finally get to a place where there aren't twenty-five comments a day being posted to old entries. I've also not only closed every old entry to commenting but am making it a point to close new entries after two or three weeks after posting to avoid this bitch of a time-waster in the future. I'm in graduate school for God's sake...you think I need a time wasting activity significantly more mind-numbing than the video game I already play all the time?

And I do apologize for the approval notification message everyone gets when they want to post a comment, but I thought it was the lesser of the two evils, the other forcing everyone to register before their comments are posted. Of course the last option was to ditch comments all together, but I hate doing that because, sadly, everyone's comments actually validate my existence and provide the entire foundation for my self-esteem.

Though I thought the Beau-on-the-mower header had been put to rest permanently, I found some awesome giftage in my mailbox today from Casey over at Ultramundane who thought I needed some movement in my life. So instead of making me look like Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, he has me starring in "Speed 3: The Lawnmower Man".

I have worshipped in the House of Bentkid. There was a miraculous appearance of Tyler this morning in NYC...it was all Madonna statuaries shedding tears of blood, Christ-like apparitions appearing in smeared storefront windows, a rain of frogs, and spontaneous generation of fragrant undergrowth where he stood.

AND we traded various blogger jealousy rants which is standard fare when Blogs collide. Fucking AWESOME.

Obviously things have and are changing around here. Around everywhere, really. In The Blog, while there are thousands and thousands of new sites and voices appearing everyday and it seems like someone else is the newest, freshest Flavor of the Month, my old standbys, those people who were around when I first started back in January 2000 have been in a steady decline. People going on hiatus, people doing their sites in for bigger and better things. It's obvious to me that in the identifiable cycles of blogging: optimistic launches, the cool upswing of linking to the new A-Listers, the Plateau, and then the inevitable "Why Am I Doing This" conversation that either causes them to quit blogging, take a breather, or to press on in some aimless direction hoping to find new inspiration, there is nothing new under the sun. What's old is new again and every other cliche still rings true.

It's true that there have been more times in the last year where I honestly thought about doing something else. Giving up on the Woo and working on a new site, under a new name, with a new purpose. Whether obvious to anyone else or not, I haven't felt the same about blogging since Mom died in March. It was more of a surprise to me how much I blogged FOR her while she was living and how much it became a way of daily communications between her. She loved the life I was leading and found herself riding my days with me through what I wrote. She loved that I was snarky and a bit cynical and never hesitated to call me if I hadn't posted something by the time she got into work every morning. Of course, blogging for her while she was sick took on a purpose of its own and thankfully, while I lost most of my entries prior to May 2003 in a hosting service move, I was able to save all the posts about her and her illness. And then she died and I came back to work and things had changed both significantly and not so much so. I lost my voice, it seemed to me. Posting was nothing more than standing here so I didn't lose my place. To say I even felt mediocre would be generous.

So after so many months of thinking about it and talking about it, I sat down and worked up a new design. I can't remember, if ever, that I've had a site that wasn't somehow blue or gray in theme. It's like a new haircut for me, I suppose...not sure how much I like it right now, but I'm going to give it a chance to grow on me. I also pared the content way down. Does anyone give a fuck what I'm downloading from iTunes or reading? My way to compensate for that very important information is to phase out short filler postings about nothing and concentrate more on my writing posts. I'm looking for my voice again and I remember it best when I thought I really had something to write about and that's what I'm hoping to find. And there will be some added features in the next few weeks once I figure out the guts of the machine a bit better; categories and searching functions and all that.

In the meantime, I'm still here, but the Emperor has some new digs he'd like to show around a bit.