Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Obligatory Election 2008 post (3 of 30)

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First, though… thanks to Cyn and Hotch Potchery for stopping by! While I don’t mind talking to myself now and again, it is more enjoyable to know that I’m also talking to you out there!

Since the first presidential election I was able to vote in was only the second one where 18- to 20-year-olds were able to participate, I have always taken the responsibility and privilege quite seriously. I have also never been as ambivalent and indecisive as I am this year.

I don’t enjoy political debate and I am not any good at it either. So I will just say that I don’t feel I can wholeheartedly support either candidate. John McCain will undoubtedly cause women to lose our reproductive freedom. Barack Obama has way too many associations with some of the most corrupt sleazebags in Chicago and Illinois politics.

It’s after 11:00 pm as I write this. I am still in the process of making my decision. I don’t remember ever cutting it this close. I’ll sleep on it, and hope that I make the right choice tomorrow.

I will be headed to the polls before work. I hope all of you in the U.S. who haven’t already exercised your right to vote via early voting or absentee ballot will be doing the same.

Technology is so much fun! (2 of 30)

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My intent was to produce today’s post early in the day and then get out to enjoy what is supposed to be a nice sunny day with temperatures in the 60’s. So far, that hasn’t happened, unless you consider noon-thirty to be early in the day.

The problem is that, as usual, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and just write something about life, love, laughter or whatever. I had to go and screw around with technology. At first, things went well with the installation of Google Analytics and Akismet plugins proceeding successfully. Not that I will need either one for a while, as very few people even know this blog is out here yet. I can still count visits on one hand without the help of Google or anyone else, and even the porn link spammers haven’t found their way here to invade the comments.

Then, I began the attempt to make my blog posts here also appear on my NaBloPoMo page and generate a one-liner on my Facebook feed. This is where technology decided to bite me in the butt.

Not right away though. Setting up the RSS feed to the NaBloPoMo page was very easy. Quite a few things at NaBloPoMo’s Ning site are not working at the moment (blog list randomizer, and worse yet, the friends feature) but the RSS feed is not on the longish list of problems.

After trying and rejecting Blog It (good app made by the Movable Type folks, but has some known issues with some WordPress blogs that are not part of WordPress.com) and FriendFeed, it looked as though Wordbook would solve the problem. And it would have, except that the server my blog resides on is still using PHP 4. Since it is a VPS server to which I have root access, I’m supposed to be smart enough to take care of all the geekly stuff, including noticing when I need to upgrade anything on it. This has not always been the case. In my defense though, all of the other PHP scripts that I’m currently using on the sites on that server are supposed to run under both PHP 4 and PHP 5, so I just took the path of least resistance.

I’ve got a ticket in for support as I do have a couple of questions before making the move to PHP 5. While I wait for the answers, I’m checking to make sure that all those other scripts don’t in fact have any issues with PHP 5. How fun would that be, to break everything else on the server just so my Facebook feed gets updated whenver I post my deep thoughts here?

I wasn’t planning to do much in the way of customizing or tweaking this blog. I spent quite a bit of time on making graphics, modifying layouts and adding little whiz-bang things to my old Movable Type blog. It was often enjoyable, but it was also very time-consuming and in the end, it didn’t really make things any more interesting or informative for the readers.

Technology was not my intended topic for the day. Before I got caught in the technology trap, I was debating between current events (specifically, my personal concerns about Barack Obama’s Election Night rally in Chicago) or Rottweilers (specifically, my own beautiful and intelligent Rottweilers) as today’s topic. We still have a couple of days to go until the election, so both of those topics can keep for another day.

Back to the wonders of technology. Enjoy the beautiful day if you are in my sector. I hope to be done here and join you outside before it gets chilly again!

Staring at that blinking cursor (1 of 30)

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I haven’t blogged regularly in years, and I’m still not quite sure why I decided to do NaBloPoMo this year. No peer pressure was involved, although I do know that some friends and acquaintances are also taking up the blogging challenge. I don’t have anything earth-shattering, life-changing or even !!really cool!! that needs saying. So I guess this is just one of those “just because” things to do.

My old blog (you’ll find it linked on the About “Look Twice” and me page if you care to take a look) was almost entirely about my dogs, cats and birds. Though I haven’t posted to it in years, I’ve never taken it offline as much of it was health-related and the information might still be of use to me or others. I’m sure I’ll post about my pets several times during the month. So if you don’t like animals, run, run far away now.

A much-needed Hawaiian vacation falls in November as well. I grew up in Honolulu and will be visiting my parents who still live there. Hopefully I’ll have some then-and-now photographs and stories to post during that week.

And of course, like practically every American, I have some thoughts on the impending election. I posted this quote from Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune to my LiveJournal after Election Day 2004 and I think it still applies this year:

The problem is, we’re not all carrying the same country in our hearts. We all claim we want to be safe and free. But each side in this war–the internal American war that’s shaping the whole world–has a different vision of what it means to be safe and free and how we should share those gifts.

Whatever your vision is, vote for whoever you think can fulfill it on November 4.

NaBloPoMo

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National Blog Posting Month, that is. Also known as November. The goal is to post every day for the entire month.

Despite the fact I haven’t blogged regularly in about five years, I’m going to give it a shot. I hope I have enough words left in me. J-school was a looooooong time ago.

Wish me luck!