This afternoon, I merged another blog project of mine called Big Guy Little World into this blog and redirected the domain to bigdan.us. Since it’s just a second personal blog I figure it can be dealt with here using categories.
Sunday started out great, I woke up a little after 9 figuring I’d get started on my morning walks however mother nature had other thoughts. It was pouring out. 
No walk for me this morning, I guess I’ll start morning and evening walks tomorrow. It’s about 2:30 and it finally stopped raining so it looks like I’ll be able to walk this evening.
Not much on my agenda for today, I try and keep Sunday’s light on website work anyhow. I did install a couple of plugins on my wordpress powered sites. A nice contact form plugin which you can see on this page and an SEO hack, which mucked around with a bit.
It looks like there is another Google Page Rank update going around so far all of my blogs have gotten hit. Not that I live or die by page rank like many blogmasters but it’s interesting to see how Google calculates the ‘importance’ of my sites.
Other than that I played around on MySpace a bit earlier, sent a few messages, comments, etc. Logged on to one my friends computers over the internet and fixed their anti-virus software and while I was in I decided to update all the stuff that needed updating. It boggles my mind that people don’t keep their software up-to-date. So that’s was that. Then I finally got to play Hoyle Casino. I love their software and buy the newest version every time I buy a computer, I bought Hoyle Casino and Hoyle Card Games back in March when I got this computer but never really played it all that much as I’m normally busy doing other stuff. The Hoyle Card Games CD got scratched (not by me) when I was in Florida..so I have to buy another one. 
Not much else is up we may be getting some company, Mom’s friends Rosie and Bob their good people and I always enjoy having them up but who know if they’re going to travel all the way from Jersey in this weather.
Later to night I might want Failure to Launch which I’ve had from NetFlix for like two weeks but haven’t got around to watching..Thank the good lord for no late fees. 
Recently a buddy of mine called me the IM Nazi ala Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi. I asked him why and he said you never sign on unless you schedule a time to meet with someone and I know you’re on the computer.
Well he’s right. I find instant messengers intrusive. There is nothing like being in the middle of writing an email, forum post, blog post, or reviewing some code and some one popping up asking “What’s up?”. Well nothing now you nim-come-poop. It just disrupts my thought process, makes me loose my place and flow with what ever I’m doing.
Interruptions of any kind really annoy me. I hate the when phone rings or the doorbell rings and I’m in the middle of something or someone starts talking to me about nothing. I guess I wouldn’t last long in your typical office. 
You gotta love the folks that sit online under invisible mode then pounce on you the minute you get online. Why sit invisible if you’re going to talk to people? I don’t get it never have. I do sometimes sit under invisible if I’m waiting for someone but make myself available when then get online.
I even go so far as not to IM people unless I have something worthwhile to say. I’m considerate I know I don’t like the interruption of instant messages maybe they don’t either? I get the ole “you never IM me” comment from people and it makes me wonder do people really want to be interrupted with small talk are they that bored?
For as much as my generation and the generation after it is known for multitasking I like doing one thing at a time. I may have several things going on at once or several programs open but I’m rarely doing more than one thing at once. On the rare occasion I’m on the phone, I get off the computer to BS on the phone. If I’m IMing with someone chances are I’m not writing an email or surfing the web as we chat. I cannot be the only one who prefers to “unitask”
Don’t get me started on messaging. I cannot stand sites that have built in message systems and don’t allow people to email you. Friends will tell you that it generally takes me a lot longer to respond to MySpace and Facebook messages not to mention forum PMs unless it’s a forum I visit all the time. I look at my email inbox as a to do list. I read your message, decide if I need to respond and how long it’s going to take me. If it’s a quick 1 or 2 liner you get an instant reply. If it’s more involved I’ll set some time aside later. Myspace and Facebook notifications keep getting moved to the bottom of the list as I get more emails.
What about you? How to do you deal with IMs while working and website messaging?
As I mentioned in my last post, I planned on quitting smoking this past Monday. Well as usual from as many times as I’ve quit before it didn’t work out. I woke up and said ahh I’ll just have one, then 1 turned into 2 and 2 turned into 3 and well yous all know the rest of the story. I stayed positive and said I’ll try again today (Tuesday) and well that didn’t work out either, same thing happened.
For me I think a big part of the problem is habit: I’m use to waking up throwing a cup of coffee down my throat and smoking a few cigarettes. Additionally, I’m really not a morning person and pretty much brain dead in the morning which means I’m impatient in the morning. Trying to quit smoking + impatience = failure.
So here’s the deal, I’m thinking I need a different method of attack. I currently smoke about 2 packs a day which is a lot, and quitting cold turkey means a whole lot of nicotine is no longer there that my body expects to be there.
My new plan is by the begining of November at the latest I want to be down to 10 cigarettes per day. Once I get down to 10 cigarettes a day or less for a week I’ll go cold turkey. Now I have to set weekly goals and figure out how accomplish them which I’ll list here as soon as I figure them out.
Today I spent the most of the afternoon working on my blogs finding plugins and installing them. Most of the time was spend writing about pages. I finally ‘kicked off’ Big Guy Lil World and wrong a nice about page. I also found some nice themes for the blogs along with a new theme for this site! I just have a few more plugins to find and muck around with.
Mom cooked a nice dinner of corned beef and mashed potatos, I haven’t had that for a long time and I did the dishes. Jen’s been bugging me to play Phase 10 with her all day. I’m not in the mood for card games today.. I only like to play once in a while. Other than that Sunday pretty nice.
Now finishing off the evening watching two movies from Netflix that I’ve been holding on to for over a week. First up: “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry” second is “Failure to launch”. I’ll write about them tomorrow.
Well I’ve stalled for as long as I can on this blog, I keep putting it off and putting it off doing my normal procrastination thing. :p Now that my leg is pretty much healed and I’ve only got a week or two left of the boot I can get back to walking and other exercising.
To kick off the blog I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. Quit smoking! I’ve been talking about it for years and am finally going to do it. I wake up nearly every morning hacking away, my chest always feels conjested and after 10 years of smoking it’s about dam time.
I plan on going cold turkey I know that’s often called “the hardest way” but I really cannot afford the patches or gum..So, we’ll see how my quitting smoking goes. Wish me luck and lets hope I don’t rip anyone’s head off over the next few days. :p
This is too funny not to write about. I’ve been toying with the idea of using Dropbox. Dropbox is basically a free cross platform sync tool. Essentially what that means means is Dropbox automatically saves a folder on your computer to the internet and makes it available to any other computer you own and syncs it so all the copies on all your computers always contain the same files and version. It could be useful for lots of stuff, I signed up for the private beta but it went public last week so this morning I’m up early, bored, and figure I’ll give it a whirl. So, I visit the website and am reading the product tour.
The second tab entitled “It Just Works”
Now, I’m sure this is no reflection on how the service actually works, I just found it funny.
I’ve been a busy bee this morning. I woke up about 8 AM which is normally the time I’m going to bed. When I woke up it was freezing, I shut the windows and blasted the heat for a little bit. First day of the winter of 08 as far as I’m concerned even though it’s not fall yet.
Been doing some work on my music collection this past week. Found a little program called FixTunes which downloads song information from the internet along with album art then corrects the tags. I found a coupon code that the made the purchase only $10. I found out later that there’s free programs that do the same thing but FixTunes worked really well it got about 80% of my songs right. The job or retagging my music went from about 12 hours to roughly 2.. For $10 it was well worth it. 
Also on the music front, I got this little MP3 player from woot a couple of weeks ago. It’s a Sansa Clip here’s the link: http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=5759. I just finally got around to putting music on it. For a small player it’s pretty nice at only 2 GB it holds just enough to have a decent selection when I walk but not have a hard time finding songs. I plan to use it for walking and stuff like that. My other MP3 Player, a Creative Zen 4GB is nice but it’s bulky and not very easy to navigate. It’s also pretty expensive and I’d rather not risk dropping it while on my walk plus the cold cannot be good for it. This smaller one is cheap enough where if the cold ruins it, it’s not that big of a loss.
Earlier this week I also ordered a Sansa Express 1 GB MP3 player for mom as she wants a little music player. I just got an email from Woot saying they “really want to get rid of them” so they’re sending me two. Awesome! Everyone loves free stuff, me included. :p However, the seller “really wanting to get rid of them” makes you one about the quality of the product. Well it’s cheap enough anyway, I may use the extra one as a spare.
This afternoon I got a doctors appointment. Get this their making me come in early because my usual appointment time of 4:30 is now reserved for kids to come in after school. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the reasoning of setting aside time after school for the kids but I’ve had a standing 4:30 for a good month. The reason why I go at 4:30 is because the office closes at 5 and the docs like getting out on time a 4:30 appointment insures I’ll be out of there pretty fast; as this office has a walk in policy which is BS if you ask me. I have an appointment you see me first not some idiot who cannot figure out that you need to schdeule and appointmet to see the doctor but what do I know..
I’ve been a busy bee this morning. I woke up about 8 AM which is normally the time I’m going to bed. When I woke up it was freezing, I shut the windows and blasted the heat for a little bit. First day of the winter of 08 as far as I’m concerned even though it’s not fall yet.
Been doing some work on my music collection this past week. Found a little program called FixTunes which downloads song information from the internet along with album art then corrects the tags. I found a coupon code that the made the purchase only $10. I found out later that there’s free programs that do the same thing but FixTunes worked really well it got about 80% of my songs right. The job or retagging my music went from about 12 hours to roughly 2.. For $10 it was well worth it.
Also on the music front, I got this little MP3 player from woot a couple of weeks ago. It’s a Sansa Clip here’s the link: http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=5759. I just finally got around to putting music on it. For a small player it’s pretty nice at only 2 GB it holds just enough to have a decent selection when I walk but not have a hard time finding songs. I plan to use it for walking and stuff like that. My other MP3 Player, a Creative Zen 4GB is nice but it’s bulky and not very easy to navigate. It’s also pretty expensive and I’d rather not risk dropping it while on my walk plus the cold cannot be good for it. This smaller one is cheap enough where if the cold ruins it, it’s not that big of a loss.
Earlier this week I also ordered a Sansa Express 1 GB MP3 player for mom as she wants a little music player. I just got an email from Woot saying they “really want to get rid of them” so they’re sending me two. Awesome! Everyone loves free stuff, me included. :p However, the seller “really wanting to get rid of them” makes you one about the quality of the product. Well it’s cheap enough anyway, I may use the extra one as a spare.
This afternoon I got a doctors appointment. Get this their making me come in early because my usual appointment time of 4:30 is now reserved for kids to come in after school. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand the reasoning of setting aside time after school for the kids but I’ve had a standing 4:30 for a good month. The reason why I go at 4:30 is because the office closes at 5 and the docs like getting out on time a 4:30 appointment insures I’ll be out of there pretty fast; as this office has a walk in policy which is BS if you ask me. I have an appointment you see me first not some idiot who cannot figure out that you need to schdeule and appointmet to see the doctor but what do I know..
I haven’t been doing much lately, just hanging around trying to stay off my leg so it will heal and maybe stop hurting some! I skipped my docs appointment on Friday then rescheduled for today (Tuesday) and skipped that one. I’m just tired of the boot, it feels good when it’s first put on then is slips and gets too tight so I rewrap it and the part from my foot is all dirty and winds up further up my leg which cannot be good for business. I’m going to go back Friday for another boot, since last Thursday I’ve been using the stocking for compression which is a lot more comfortable but not strong enough to do the job.
Aside from that, I’ve stalled out on my new blog project, Big Guy Little World because I cannot really walk with my leg all messed up which puts my diet on hold.
On the website front, I’ve just been maintaining my customers sites and mine not much new starting up.
I’ll update when I’ve got something to write.