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 Posted August 25th, 2011 at 12:08PM
Clearly I don’t have the drive to keep up an all-topics blog these days, between work, play, and my various other interweb commitments. This has been the longest interval between posts since I began this site in January of 2007. I had high hopes of being one of the longest-running irreverent, unnecessary blogs in existence — probably up there already — but perhaps it’s not meant to be. I’ll have to take a long, hard look at what to do with the site, domain, and WP install. More than likely, it’ll just fade from view when the domain and site expire.
Or who knows, maybe I’ll become interested again.
Posted March 23rd, 2011 at 10:24AM
Given that I let another unused domain name I own expire, and that I do not do as much blawging as I have in years past, and that I have redoubled my efforts in designing and maintaining several additional websites out of the kindness of my heart (and to get something of a portfolio started), I am beginning to plan for some changes to this here website, my little home on the 21st century range.
I want to reorganize this space to give more priority to a few sub-pages related to interests and my current activities, and dial back the significance of the actual blog stream, which you can see has slowed to a trickle over the past six months.
Long-term I need to learn how to set aside time for recreational writing, recreational meaning stuff I don’t necessarily get paid for (for this website, the MINI website, and the BMW / MINI newsletter).
I had a reaction to the nuclear issue following Japan’s quake and tsunami, but — just as I was railing against nuclear apologists who immediately jumped the shark and described all the redundancies that they said would make Fukushima Daiichi a non-issue — it was too early to be weighing in with an opinion.
Suffice to say, I do not think that burying nuclear molten caches in sand throughout the globe is a realistic and suitable option for dealing when nuclear goes awry. And the situation in Japan illustrates a distinct lack of premonitory skills among the world’s best minds who undoubtably strive to make things “fail-safe.” All the redundancies in the world planned for today’s and tomorrow’s nuclear reactors can not envision what will happen 10, 20, 50 years into the future — as today’s facilities designed in the 50s and 60s and built in the 60s and 70s demonstrate.
Posted March 11th, 2011 at 7:07PM
…but my EVO has been rooted around like a dirty pig today.
It was actually a very quick, painless, one-click process, and then I was staring at a boot-up screen on my phone, afraid to touch anything because none of the options were correlating with either of the directions I was following along. I used unrevoked 3.
I haven’t had much chance to play with things besides a few necessary new applications.
I’m posting this from my laptop at home. If I have a stable connection here, I might have more time to start dedicating toward wmc, the MINI site, and another WP-based joint currently in the works seemingly about to get the green light.
I let my surfingonarocket.com domain expire a month ago. I’m regretting that, in hindsight, as it could have been a place to do web work from.
Posted July 15th, 2010 at 12:11PM
I purchased a HTC Evo a few days ago, ostensibly in an attempt to figure out my internet at home issue. But coverage on Sprint is still shoddy at my home.
Still, it can do a lot of cool things when I’m not at home, so… I’ve got 30 days to make up my mind. Right now, I’m listening to my last.fm recommendations streaming and typing this up on a WordPress app. At the library WiFi.
I received a discount on Sprint, and even roaming (Verizon) at home is hit or miss. Verizon would be a decent chunk of change more, so I might just keep the Evo despite it not solving my home internet woes. It gets reception everywhere else… I live in a mini Bermuda triangle that sucks cell reception out of thin air.
Some day I might get to a 4G area and be really impressed. Rochester and Syracuse have it, NYC will probably be my first opportunity sometime this year.
Posted May 18th, 2010 at 11:05AM
Last Friday I received an e-mail from Google stating that my website was in violation of the terms of service for its AdSense advertising service. They flagged a post from five years ago, where I linked to an interview with the creator of “Real Dolls” and complained that a great deal of my site traffic was coming from search engine searches for said sex dolls (I had previously posted a link and excerpts from an article on them – they start at $5000, and apparently there’s a market. It had piqued my curiosity, what can I say?)
AdSense’s TOS restrict service to websites with “adult, mature, or pornographic” content. I’ve kept this in mind, but guess I focused on the key word of pornographic, as I tend to think of politics or even the weather as “adult” or “mature” topics – obviously there’s little sense in such a vague proscription. And my personal definition of pornography revolves around the express intent of getting off, which this website has never attempted to provide for anyone.
I requested a clarification on how exactly to bring my blog in line with their expectations – was their problem with the content, the linkage to the manufacturer’s site, or the long-broken image anchors? I received no response and my service was interrupted as promised three days after the initial notice.
It seems like Google allows itself to be the premier conduit for pornography the world over, but AdSense advertisers are expected to maintain a puritanical theme of fluffy bunnies and stork-delivered conception, suitable for the rug rat set whom Google’s advertising apparently targets.
I never made a dime with AdSense as this site never generated enough traffic to drum up the required threshold earnings (before they send your check), and I’ve only intermittently displayed ads in the first place. I might investigate alternative services, but for now it’s a low priority. Self-absorbed schizophrenic personal blogs have never been big money makers, after all.
So long, AdSense, it’s been nice sending you what limited traffic I could, for no compensation.
Expect a post soon about my Monticello track day. I had a blast and the car performed without fault.
Posted March 30th, 2010 at 12:13PM
The warmer weather has definitely brought out the ticks already, as so far I’ve picked a big juicy sucker off of each dog. I’ve already dosed them both with Frontline – which typically works for about 3 weeks in our experience, not the month claimed – but our stuff might be out of date. Both doggies have gotten Lyme disease before, and one, Ehrlichiois. Considering that we got a dusting of snow within the past week, the grass and weeds have yet to take off and it’s hard to say where they’re picking up the buggers.
Speaking of parasitic bloodsuckers, I’ve been noticing a new form of comment spam that Akismet is rather hit-or-miss on (they’re mostly picked up, a few get through). They appear to be legitimate comments except for not relating much to the post in question. Usually generic “thanks for the post” remarks, and the only link is entered into the website field, directed toward garbage sites with no real content.
But one of these spam comments was nice enough to point out their MO – linking to a blogger page with an automated commenting software for ‘backlinking’ and building up search engine ranks. It’s at the “dofollowblogcommenter” blogger site for those interested, but my investigation is ending at the trialpay.com link for downloading said software.
For now, I’m flagging most of it as spam, unless the comment text could by any conceivable stretch be considered legitimate, in which case I’ll just strip the website link.
Posted February 8th, 2010 at 1:52PM
I’ve been actively plugging away with both this site and other projects in the past few days. The employment side of things is also looking rosy, so while posts might come slow over the foreseeable future, rest assured it’s not for lack of time in front of the computer!
I completed the promised site redesign here, switching to the Atahualpa theme but keeping the same color palette from the previous incarnation. Everything is running smoothly for the time being but I need to work on the archive page. I’ve been running a pretty sleek plug-in for displaying archives, but displaying all 700-odd posts on a single page is asking too much so I’m on the hunt for a better solution.
In related news, I’m currently working on an e-commerce site running CRE Loaded. While I don’t know if I’ll ever master that particular package or the concerns and issues of e-commerce security, its great experience to get under the belt. I’m making a small sum and its given me the crazy notion of monetizing more of the various coding and design work I’ve played with for years.
To that end I’ll be retooling surfingonarocket.com to function as a professional portfolio site. Eventually I’ll be able to point potential employers there for proof positive of various skills, from writing and editing AP style to coding and designing, Web 2.0-style. I want to become more productive to that end, finally putting out some original WordPress themes and completing freelance work of any variety. We’ll see how that goes.
I took the census entrance exam the other day and answered 27 out of 28 correctly. I couldn’t for the life of me determine what I got wrong, since I was able to work through the entire test twice in the 30 minutes they gave us and wasn’t uncertain over any answer. But then when I took the practice I filled out the incorrect bubble on one where I knew the right choice, so its anyones guess. Apparently 10 correct will get you a job so I’m not concerned enough to re-take the test, and hopefully missing one won’t preclude me from an office job or anything besides being an ‘enumerator’ (the people responsible for going door to door, and, apparently, getting guns pointed at them on a regular basis – according to a 2000 census veteran). Office job will pay better too.
The final word? Even without the certainty of employment I’m planning my first track outing of 2010 – it’ll be at Monticello Motor Club with SCDA, May 17th. There will be a MINI contingent and associated discount, and I’m officially pumped. My MINI is still tucked away in the garage (now completely enclosed with very nice electric garage doors!) but it’s just a tech check and fluid change away from being ready for the event. Well, not quite, but close enough.
Till later, intrepid readers!
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