I think it would be swell if more companies had occasional "this is what we're working on" posts, to complement the "this is what we've done" posts. You know, mostly just to allay the (not entirely unfounded) fears of users that development has ground to a halt and no one cares about the site any more. Again, it might have something to do with how much a hang out on the bleeding edge of projects done by passionate geeks. I sympathize entirely-- plenty of things that I've started have just totally fizzled.
Or, in the case of VOX, six new themes does not constitute and exciting new idea in community-oriented blogging.
Gawd, I'm a catty bitch today.
That reminds me, though, you should totally be watching Project Runway Australia. Happily, though, I think PR USA has finally weeded out enough designers that we can actually start feeling some of the interpersonal drama. Also, in case it wasn't totally obvious NEVER, EVER mention your disabled grandmother if you're on a Bravo show. Or a debilitating accident. You will be going home.
In any case, it lets me jot down a couple more things. Part of my reticence is because I want to start using a wiki instead of a blog. I may have mentioned this before, but its occurred to me that my life is not so much a linear progression as a sort of idle loop da loop through a couple of basic themes. Once I post something in a blog stream, it recedes to the horizon, and I'm not the sort of person to come back and review. A wiki, though, is the ultimate void where you can be entirely sure that no one is reading. I have trouble enough putting effort into a blog that occasionally gets comments. Once I cut myself off from that... well... you see what happens. I post nothing.
That gets me to idea number two. When VOX was new, there was some quotient of interesting people divided by amount of content generated that led me to interact more. Maybe not a quotient, but I don't feel like I'm interacting here any more, and I'm having trouble putting a finger on why. The sheer volume of posts streaming into my RSS reader probably has something to do with it. I read and write exclusively at work, so if you can't express yourself succinctly enough that I can read it and switch back to my code without anyone really noticing that I'm not working, you've lost me. Additionally, if you write anything that large, it's likely to look intimidating before my first cup of coffee which is usually the best time for me to get away with not really doing anything.
Those are my faults, and I apologize to you for them. You are, actually, a group of people I genuinely would like to interact with, though maybe I just question blogs themselves as a medium for doing that. (See previous entries mentioning terrified sequential monologues. I would also like to add that I'm now so used to my HTML editor, that I have to remember that it is not the default behavior of most word processing programs to wrap selected text in parentheses rather than replace it witha single opening parenthesis. But I digress.)
Call me an old fogie, but I swear there was a time when I came to the VOX homepage to see what was going on in journals and around VOX in general, rather than just waiting for it to turn up in an RSS feed. The 6A crew are, by definition, far more clever and/or motivated than I am, so I really would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they haven't just ruined the interface. And yet, at this point, I haven't come up with another explanation that sticks.
The other thing that keeps sticking in my craw is the feeling that they've gotten to this point and decided that VOX was "done". VOX, in its current state, is the best VOX it can be. Either that or Six Apart has decided that there are bigger fish to fry and moved on. Disconcerting, really, when you think about what happened to poor old LiveJournal when it started sitting still. Then again, it still means we have six to eight years before VOX is sold off to China or some other totalitarian hegemon in its region. That's deadpan humor, folks.
Anyway, this wasn't so much meant to be an anti-VOX tirade. I'm even bummed out about how PMOG seems to think that collecting points or badges, rather than interacting with other players, is actually the main point of the game. It's sort of like learning that most D&D players really did care more about levelling up than having a djinn in a bottle that talked like a game show host. Hm, yeah. I'm a dork.
OotD: What were you afraid of when you were younger that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by wandie
I saw part of this movie on television at age seven, and had recurrent nightmares about it for long after.
Of course all of my other childhood fears continue to seem perfectly rational.
This is a true story. I did not write it. The names have been eliminated to protect the stupid.
On our way back from dropping [names] off at the airport, we stopped for lunch at Marie Callender's. We both ate a wonderful chicken salad with pecans, oranges, and gorgonzola cheese. Since they were running a 99 cent pie special, of course we were forced to have pie for dessert. [Name] ordered lemon meringue, and I ordered blueberry with cream.As we were walking to the car, [name] glanced down and noticed a large glop on the front of his shirt. He complained about how he can't seem to eat anything without dropping some on himself. Then, he reached down and scooped the glop off of his shirt and popped it into his mouth, while I watched in amazement.His eyes began to bug out immediately, and he gagged and coughed. When I asked him what was wrong, all he could manage was a strangled, "Bird poop!"After a few minutes of hysterical laughing, I asked him why he would scoop ANYTHING off of his shirt and put it into his mouth - no less an anonymous goopy stain.His reply was, "Well, I wanted to find out if it was blueberry or lemon."I think that we need to watch him more closely in the future.
What is the one word that perfectly describes your day today?
submitted by [this is connie]
Shitfuckulous
What were you afraid of when you were younger that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by wandie
I had nightmares every year after watching the annual broadcast of Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer. (Rednose? I forget).
He still kind of creeps me out, but at least I'm over the nightmares.
From a recent BBC6 interview with guitarist Tad Kubler:
When asked his thoughts about Radiohead's 'In Rainbows', Tad had this to say:
"I think they've lost the plot. What are they doing? Where are they going? What's happening? I don't get it any more. They lost me. I still appreciate what they're doing, or what they're trying to do. But I think they're trying too hard not to be Radiohead. That seems a little ridiculous to me".
Tad goes on to say:
"I like them as a rock band, all the buttons and sequencing and stuff
like that I don't really care for. I'm a fan of rock music and what
they're doing now I don't think is very good. When you have that kind
of money, you can put on a great performance regardless of what you do.
If you can't go out and pick up your instruments and play a good show,
that doesn't do it for me. I don't have any interest in that".
goals, or whathaveyous:
- polish sample chapter for memoir submission
- dishes: wash them
- laundry: clean, folded, and stowed
- floors: de-crusted
- gym: twice
- yoga: one official class...
icky:
- did not get up early enough to go to gym
- my brain seems to be stuck in neutral
- too many fucking meetings
- I showed up at a Dr. appointment at the wrong time last week, so now I have to go back... all the way to Lake City
- the "MobileMe" logo... um, Apple?
- pudding addiction
- cruddy, crumby, crusty floors
- not being on one side of the fence or the other, while also not comfortably seated on it
- writing stall
- meeting new people
- cool rain after oppressive heat
- jumping in a lake
- fall travel plans
- good walking sandals
- emotional stability
- paying down debt
- payday in less than a week
- new clients I like
- housing market is looking favorable for my condo plans
- getting a raise at the end of september
