I’ve finally updated to WordPress 2.7 (wow, Dashboard sure does look different), updated and added some plugins. Just checking to see if this thing is working before I jump into NaBloPoMo for January 2009.
Getting ready for a brand new year
What better way to start a brand new year than another run at daily blog posting? Okay, fine, there are probably better ways, but since they all seem to involve food cutbacks, physical exertion or getting organized, I’m going with the daily blogging. So this space is once again home to a NaBloPoMo blog beginning on January 1! January’s optional theme is “change” and I think I can work with that.
I’m also joining Jenni‘s challenge to the underachieving bloggers amongst us who are not quite up to trying for 100% in 2009. We’re going to try for 75% instead! That’s 274 days. There’s a NaBloPoMo group, Challenge for 2009, in case anyone is interested in joining us.
Oh. No, still haven’t done the upgrade to WordPress 2.7 which is probably shocking to those of you who know of my usual tendency to get caught up, and then bogged down, in the excitement of possible technology improvements. I have a few more days off from work, though, so it really does look good for getting it done this week.
Other than a few “Writer’s Block” postings at my LiveJournal I haven’t had much to say this month. I’m always so ambivalent about the winter holiday season, it’s probably better that way. There’s also been a noticeable lack of action on the Illinois scumbag politician beat (a holiday break, perhaps?) so that’s one less subject to talk about. I do have some dog news to report, though, once I get a few more details in hand.
Once again, cross your fingers for me that I don’t blow up this blog in the upgrade process. See you in January, if not sooner!
It’s the 21st century, in case you didn’t notice
Oh. No, I didn’t do the upgrade to WordPress 2.7 yet. Hopefully I’ll have time to do it this week and hopefully won’t wipe out any of my oh-so-important past posts when I do so!
I doubt my rant today will apply to those reading this, since you’re almost certainly reading it online, via a computer, or maybe a smartphone. But something I heard on the radio yesterday amazed and annoyed me, and I need to rant about it.
I was listening to a talk show on the way in to work. The caller, a woman in her late 40s, was describing her rather lavish outdoor holiday decorations, and the host suggested that she email some photos to the radio station. The caller said she would have her teenaged son do so, because she “doesn’t do that computer stuff.” The host said that was fine, and then suggested that caller not go through the rest of her life without learning how to do it herself.
Well, no shit!
In case caller and anyone else didn’t notice, we are in the 21st century. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no longer cute, or cool, or even acceptable to be totally clueless about “that computer stuff.” It is just plain dumb, and almost bragging about not knowing anything about computers makes you look even dumber.
My mother is in her mid-80s and has a new-ish iMac. She doesn’t use all the bells and whistles (and sadly for me, some of the stuff that I think is most cool about Macs, but hey, that’s between Mom and me) but she can get around the web and we exchange email frequently. I am… ummm…. pretty old… okay, 50, and I would consider myself a power user. I use both PCs and Macs at work and at home, and also run a couple of VPS servers for work, personal and family/friends use. I do use a lot of bells and whistles, but I’m almost never out on the bleeding edge. I’m usually behind the curve when it comes to new products or new releases. Let someone else work out the bugs.
Anyway. If we can embrace or at least call a truce with technology, then so can everyone else. End of story.
Heh, I want to cross-post to my LiveJournal but I guess I haven’t set that up yet ::: adds to to-do list ::: and even worse, I haven’t talked to you all about Axel’s exciting journey towards his American championship that he just started on Sunday.
Back soon!
My brain just exploded
My brain just exploded. Here is one of our felonious Illinois politicians (mail fraud, ghost payrollers), former U.S. Representative Dan Rostenkowski, talking about why we should not consider all Illinois politicians to be scumbags because of Blagojevich. Ooooooo-kay.
In Defense of Chicago Politics – The Daily Beast
I find myself wondering what the late Mike Royko would have said about the Illinois scandal du jour. When I was growing up in Hawaii, our local newspaper carried Mike Royko’s syndicated newspaper column. His topics often featured the quirks of Chicago politics. I thought he must surely be exaggerating about the things that went on in Chicago. It was not until I moved to the Chicago area as a journalism student that I saw for myself that there was little to no fiction in Royko’s columns.
Speaking of other Chicago columnists, or perhaps Chicago scumbags: as I poked around the ‘net today catching up on the news, I was shocked to see Bob Greene now writing for CNN.com. Apparently I totally missed anything he wrote during the election. He really dropped off the face of the earth after he was forced to resign from the Chicago Tribune in 2002. For those who didn’t follow that story, he was involved in a sexual relationship with a then-17-year-old girl some years before that. Totally ironic and screwed up since much of his public persona in his columns was that of a crusader for children and family.
It was a personal love-hate thing for me, and a huge disappointment. I was a big fan of his earlier writing (as in everything before “Good Morning, Merry Sunshine” which simply made me want to hurl). The long-ago days when I wanted to be a journalist were also the days of Woodward and Bernstein. Of course, everyone my age said they wanted to be the next great investigative journalist and bring down a president or at least a crooked businessman. When I was being honest with myself though, bringing down a powerful personage was not all that high on my personal list of goals. I’d rather do something more cool and fun, like Bob Greene or Cameron Crowe, and go on the road with a rock ‘n’ roll band and get paid to write about it, a la “Billion Dollar Baby” or “Almost Famous.” Hey, that was then, and all that.
Okay, bring it back home. I think I still have a copy of my favorite Bob Greene book, a collection of his early columns called “Johnny Deadline: Reporter.” In its introduction was a little description of what a “Chicago story” is. It’s a story that is so strange or gross or sick in some way, but can still make you choke out a little laugh and an “ohhhh Gawwwwwwwwd!” That is what this whole week has been here, every time I click to refresh Chicago Breaking News.
In other brain-exploding news, I also see the news that WordPress 2.7 is now out, and according to my blog Dashboard, it’s time to update. If this site disappears sometime after you see this, you’ll know my attempt at updating was not quite successful. But I will think positive, and say I’ll see you all back here in a day or so!
(small) Cl-cl-cl-cl-clarification
It has been brought to my attention that perhaps I was a bit unclear in yesterday’s post.
I am still somewhat suspicious about the extent of President-elect Barack Obama’s connections with the dark side of Illinois and Chicago politics. I guess that could all come to light fairly soon, though.
I am not quite so concerned about one specific politician riding on his coattails to Washington, D.C. any longer, as if this plays out as it should, he will be in federal prison alongside another recent Illinois governor.
If any of my friends not from Illinois are following the drama, one thing I didn’t realize when I posted yesterday (I hadn’t yet finished reading the vast quantities of words produced yesterday on the subject) is that one of the issues involves shady dealings with the Chicago Tribune and thus was not fully reported upon in that paper. Surprise, surprise. Chicago Sun-Times should have the rest of the story. Or not. You just never know what the Chicago media is covering up.
Man, does my state totally suck on the ethics front or what.
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