Category: All good things

Making the rounds

Woah two posts in one day? What the..? 🙂

Something I’m kind of chuffed about at work. I know you should never blog about work, you would not want to get Dooced or whatever, but I love my job, so no need to mock coworkers or rant and rave about the work 🙂

Last week the paper had a big redesign that we launched on the readers and while it was supposed to be a fairly smooth switch, my experience with big server moves, file moves and complete layout changes means there will be glitches and problems. It’s inevitable. So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hold a live chat with readers so they can ask their questions and tell us what they think of the new site.

I’d been looking for an opportunity to try out some liveblogging software I found on wiredjournalists.com called Cover it Live. It’s touted as a great way to enhance a readers experience at events like political debates, sports or conferences. So I was thinking we could use it for some sports chat we already do, and then I immediately thought it would b cool to use on 24addict.com when the show is back. I could liveblog it with the folks who hang out there with me. Thought it would be fun. But it had been a while since I found the software and thinking to use it for the redesign didn’t hit me until the day before the launch and I gt aproval, and got it mentioned in the paper just in time.

Well it was successful. And it had the added bonus of having the readers come in and actually tell us about errors they were finding or problems with navigation etc. The immediate feedback benefited both sides. I could fix a dead link and make a reader happy and the reader could tell me they felt it was too hard to find something, so the team could fix that and make the reader happy.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty cool idea. And to my surprise, our use of CiL got a bit of buzz. I was interviewed by a reporter for journalism.co.uk, and that piece seems to have gotten picked up by another news media blog. Good publicity for us, and this whole thing is helping me find another niche area that I love working with: social media. I’m loving finding ways to use applications like Twitter and CiL for the paper, as well as working with the online team to recruit and run grandislandblogs.com. Things are changing for us so rapidly and I’m loving being able to help it out and being a part of it. Neat eh? 🙂

Read More

Thanks a lot Mike

I’ve been haunted by this song for two days now.

I played it for Shannon who promptly bought it on iTunes and currently, I am downloading the damn game so I can play it. I can never resist a smartass computer.

And I can’t get the song out of my head. I woke up yesterday and today with it in there. It’s like a deliciously moist (sorry Tonya) cake.

Read More

Experiments and bad days

I had a bad day yesterday. It was one of those days where absolutely nothing goes right, computer “issues”, dropping things left and right, noisy neighbours at 3am, pounding headache, forgetting routine things and oh yeah, getting hit by a car.

Oh don’t worry. I’m being slightly dramatic on that last one. I was not hurt.

It began with the noisy neighbours. I suppose I should be thankful they weren’t having sex. But still, 3am’s a bit early (or late depending on your POV) to hold a normal, full-voice conversation on the other side of a wall you know to be thin from having to listen to 2 girls laughing loudly (but during normal hours) at the cat or funny Fark headlines.

So being woken up against my will is never a good thing for me. I get… grumpy. So after a groggy start to the day, I decide to stop by HyVee again after dropping the kidlet off to check if they have any of the Hint O’Mint tea I really love. I’ve stopped there in the hopes that they have it about 5 times in the past week and no joy. As I’m walking in from my car, a minivan parked illegally decides to back up just as I’m passing it. He hits me and knocks me off my balance a little. I smack his gas tank and give him a very loud, “OI!” He just looks at me like a slack-jawed idiot. No offer of apology or checking to see if I’m ok. Nope. Just a blank stare. Fucker.

And after that, HyVee STILL DID NOT HAVE MY TEA. Fuckers.

So I get to work, realize I’ve left my red Scheels sports bottle there the night before and so I have no lovely yummy Brita water to drink as is my habit. I grimace at the thought of going thirsty. I hate not having *something* to drink. I make plans to take the bottle home at lunch and fill it up. At lunch, I fill it and walk to the car, feeling better and carrying my water. Then I drop it. Now, it’s a tough sucker. The bottle bounces, and if I had better reflexes I probably could have caught it and had a good chuckle at how weird that was. But I do not have good reflexes apparently and all I could do was watch it land, the lid fly off and all my lovely Brita water spill everywhere.

I’m now late for work and besides, if I went back to refill it, the water would be tepid at best. I sigh, pick up the nearly empty bottle and head back to work where a slowbuilding headache begins powering up.

My computer decides to pick this day to do wonky things and I spend most of the afternoon wrestling with it, cursing at it, sighing frustratedly, and finding myself weighing the probability of getting fired over how satisfying it would be to pick it up, walk outside and heave it at the nearest passing semitruck. 5pm cannot come fast enough.

It finally does, and the minute I get home, I sit down, and stay there nearly catatonic until bedtime. Everything bothered me. I growled at the kid over stupid things and promptly apologised and then felt bad for being such a nitpicky bitch and finally I just crawled into bed.

Thankfully today was fine. Nice even. I didn’t drop a thing, no one ran me over, the computer behaved and I spilled no water. I even got to duck out of work 15 minutes early thanks to a surprise announcement from the kid that she had to work at 5pm and she had the car.

The cool thing I did this evening was venture out to Hastings (a bookstore along the lines of a Borders or Barnes & Noble) with the laptop with the purpose of getting started writing my book.

Other than being completely ignored by the staff there when I really would have liked to order a cup of tea (you apparently have to hunt down a clerk if you want to order stuff. I say screw that) and one screaming kid, I was quite productive in the hour and a half I was there. I was able to outline almost the entire story so that I have a base to work from. I needed that to help me focus. Otherwise I look at the blank Word doc and feel overwhelmed at not knowing where to begin.

I think I’ll try someplace else though next time because Hastings is full of crappy clerks (I did decide to name an annoying character in the story after the crappy store though 🙂 ) I’m just afraid if I go to Starbucks I will not be able to resist the siren call of the beautiful Mocha. God I miss my Mochas. Being good sucks sometimes.

Wow this is getting long. Sorry. Anyway, I made good progress on the book and I can’t wait to get in there and really flesh it out. I was looking at self-publishing options this morning (I’m not getting ahead of myself, I was just talking to a columnist at the paper who wrote a book a couple of years ago and he was telling me how he did it.) It looks like I’m going to use Lulu.com to publish it. They don’t require any dosh up front which is good because I don’t have any 🙂 I’d love to try and get the book published the old-fashioned way via a proper publisher but I don’t see that happening.

Except you know, sometimes bloggers get noticed by publishers. It worked for Dooce and that chick who blogged about being a cabbie in NYC. Those guys are part of the reason I began blogging as CherryPop. That and I want to post as her as much as possible so I can inhabit her headspace and do a good job writing this book. It’s going to be in first person so yeah, better get some practice. And if cherrypopmcgee.com happens to get some traffic along the way, then cool! Besides, it’s kind of fun 🙂 I also hooked her up with a MySpace page for the hell of it too. Why not!

Ok I’ve rambled far too much. I’ve got a Dresden book to finish up and then I think I’m off to bedfordshire. Gnighty!

Read More

ACT time

Shannon is taking her ACTs this morning. It feels like a bigger deal these days than it was when I was in high school (For those outside this area, the ACTs are like the SATs.) Of course, when I was in high school I had no plans to go to college so I didn’t really care about them. Oh I took the and everything but I didn’t try very hard and my results reflected that. What can I say? I was an idiot back then. School wasn’t important to me at all and I definitely paid for that line of thinking with years of struggle trying to find my footing.

All I cared about back then was hanging out with my friends. I wasn’t a bad student or anything – a B average with the occasional C or a dreaded D once (Math you know. I still suck at it.) I did well in language and arts classes. Not so well in Maths and sciences. And I wasn’t a “problem” student either. I only ever ditched once, got caught and learned my lesson.

But looking back, I realize I didn’t really take the whole school thing seriously. It was all about getting there and seeing my friends and having fun. It didn’t occur to me that you could take it seriously AND have fun. I dunno. I think I chafed a lot at restrictions my parents kept setting on me. Not that I blame them. I caused them a lot of grief. Was always grounded. At that time, my friends were more important to me than getting busted for sneaking out to hang with them.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to analyze my high school issues here. But it is interesting to watch Shannon go through high school. I always had some idea that she’d have her fair share of troublesome moments throughout high school. Hell, I had enough people get their rocks off telling me to “just wait until she’s a teenager” until I came to almost dread it. I think that sucks because at 16 – three years a teenager – she’s still a level-headed, smart girl. Not a podperson in sight. I try to give her opportunities to go out with her friends, but she rarely does. Her friends don’t seem to go out much either.

Not that there’s much for them to do around here. But they could think of something. I just asked her why she never goes out even though I’d let her and she replied, “Because none of my friends like to go out.” I don’t know what to make of that. The concept is alien to me.

But I’m not going to complain 🙂 And she takes high school a lot more seriously than I ever did. I’m probably a little to blame for that. I didn’t want her making my mistakes and wasting her potential and all those other cliched parental arguments. Because I see now, that my parents were right. I’m not a stupid person and I wasn’t stupid in high school either – but I did waste potential and I didn’t “apply myself” like I should have. I feel like it took me several years *after* high school to figure out what to do with my life.

Whoa. What an analytical post eh? Anyway, the kidlet just left for the test, all bright-eyed (considering it’s a Saturday and she’s up earlier than she’d like) and ready. I hope she rocks it 🙂

Read More

I am Carmex’s Bitch

Someone wrote a little ficlet talking about Carmex and how they didn’t know much about it. So I left this comment:

Carmex is like crack. Goes on so smooth and warm. And then it tingles delightfully and smells so spicy. After a few moments of comforting warmth, a cool sensation spreads over your lips like a soothing mist that protects you from the evils of chapped skin and leaves you with a luscious, soft mouth just waiting to be kissed.

I’m Melia. I am Carmex’s slave.

Read More

Oh Hai. I iz stuck.

So I’m leaving for work this morning and I hear a mewling kitty. I think nothing of it, assuming it’s my neighbour’s new kitten who likes to popup in their window all the time.

Fast forward to lunch and I come home only to hear the same mewling. “That’s odd.” I think to myself and I look around. I don’t see a thing. And then, I looked up. Waaay the hell up in a tree behind my place is the kitty. It’s stuck, it’s scared, and a wave of guilt crashed into me as I realized that the poor thing had been up there all morning, hanging precariously from some thin branches, unsure of its footing, freezing (it’s cold and wet here today) and I just La La La’d on my way to work and ignored it’s tiny mewly cries for help. I will probably burn in hell.

I called the police (part of me just couldn’t bring myself to call the fire department. I mean really, they only rescue movie cats, not real ones) who forwarded my request to the Humane Society who then called me back to let me know they weren’t going to do a thing. Not going to come and see if they could help it down. Just going to leave it and hope Kitty figures it out on her own. How… Humane. They said they couldn’t/wouldn’t risk themselves just to get a cat out of a tree. Nice eh?

I spent my lunch hour trying to coax it down with some food. I took these pix because I was debating whether or not I should stay and try to keep helping it down and be late back to work. I wanted proof of what I was up to. But Kitty just meowed helplessly at me when I called to it. It tried valiantly to find its footing, but the branches were so thin where it was that it couldn’t get a decent grip. I could tell it was frightened as well. Poor thing was trembling and crying and I never felt so helpless. The kitty wouldn’t come down.

So, I went back to work reluctantly. But I thought maybe I could ask around up there and see if anyone had any ideas on what I could do to coax it down. Or if anyone had a spare ladder. I did call the fire department (after asking them not to laugh, and also asking if they really did rescue cats up trees or if that was only in the movies) who told me they couldn’t come unless the Humane Society requested them. But the HS wouldn’t come so basically, Kitty was screwed.

So I fretted and worried over the next couple of hours. I waited longingly for 3:30 to come so I could go get the kid and run home to check on the cat. Thankfully, by this time, the cat was down from the tree. I do not know how it got down – whether it found its way on its own, or whether a neighbour got it to come down, or whether my strongly worded email to the Humane Society’s director did any good. All I know is the kitty is down, and there’s no little broken body on the ground.

Oh and I was accosted by a duck as I was helping the kitty. 🙂 For all I know that duck is the reason the cat was up there in the first place.

Read More

It’s like Christmas!

Shannon’s been out of it for a couple of days with an ear infection but not even that kept her from hunting down the elusive Wii. (For the record, the doc gave her some meds, and she’s much better, so don’t be thinking I let my sick kid wander around town looking for a game console:) )

As noted in my previous post, she and I have been frustrated and led around by our noses by disinterested and annoyed store clerks who must have had to field a lot of calls asking when they’re getting a Wii in (and don’t think for a second I haven’t felt like an eejit calling around asking for a Wii. My time in England makes me feel like I’m asking to go to the loo.) We started by calling all the stores in town and the ones in surrounding towns multiple times a day in case some came in on their trucks or via UPS. We just missed getting one on Thursday from Best Buy.

When I called Walmart in Hastings yesterday, they said they have 9 of them but cannot sell them until midnight. Now, I was willing to drive to Hastings around then to grab one, but then the clerk told me people start lining up for them at around 7:30pm. I’m sorry but no power in the ‘verse is going to make me hang around a Walmart for 5 hours. Not even for a Wii. I figured we’d just take our chances and go to Best Buy right when they open this morning. A friend from work said that was the best time to go.

But, I also thought it would be prudent to call both Walmarts here in town and see if they were doing a midnight sale of them as well. The South store said they had some, but wouldn’t be selling them until 7am-ish because of some sort of policy or something. I don’t know. Do you see how ridiculous this Wii-hunt has turned out to be? Anyway, Shannon asked me if I would let her get up at 4am and go to that Walmart and wait for it. Against my better judgement, and after repeatedly asking if her ears were up to it, I agreed she could go. I knew how badly she’s wanted a Wii for over a year now.

Well the little widget couldn’t even wait until 4am. She couldn’t sleep at all and I bet anything she had that feeling I used to get on Christmas eve when I was younger. I anticipated my Christmas morning traditions so much I could never get to sleep then. Anyway, she left the house at 3am and went to he South store armed with a book and ready to wait it out.

But when she got there, they told her that the shipment of the consoles didn’t come and they wouldn’t have any. Can you say ‘Crushed’? But then they told her that sometimes their shipments accidentally get sent to the North store. So she called and sure enough, the North store who had previously told us they wouldn’t have any, had them all. They told her there were only three left. So she drove up there (carefully I hope, it was raining hard) and triumphantly got one of the last Wii’s. She came home, woke me at 3:45am and said “We have a Wii.” I had been dreaming about silk trousers being hung out to dry (no idea) so my memory of this morning was a little fuzzy but I do know I had a happy camper who could now get to sleep.

I woke up around 7am and shortly after that, she was up. I asked her why she wasn’t sleeping in, and she said, “It’s like Christmas!” 🙂 I knew it.

So far, I enjoy the boxing. I like kicking ass. I still think the whole hunting down a Wii thing is silly and frustrating though.

Read More