Category: Technobabble


I’m too old for this.

Filed Under: Adherents of the Repeated Meme, Technobabble by Julie — 14 Comments
December 1, 2006

So several months back I decided to sign up for MySpace and another similar program because all the cool kids were doing it. Yes, this is a repeating pattern in my life, and yes, I would totally jump off a bridge if everyone else were doing it. I’m a lemming like that.

While I think I’ve figured some of it out (I’ve found a bunch of you bloggers out there, reconnected with some high school friends, and Rick Allen from Def Leppard has linked me as a friend), I’m still not sure what the hell I’m supposed to be doing on it. Is it just leaving messages on other peoples’ walls in a giant “tag, you’re it” game? Is it about sending the messages? And how in the hell do I get my page to look a little less generic? Right now it’s so pathetic I sing that “Bo-bos, they make your feet feel fine! Bo-bos, they cost $1.99!” every time I look at it (do you all know that song, or is it just a SW PA thing?).

I’m asking for advice. I know I don’t want music on it, because that’s obnoxious if someone is checking it from, say, work. I don’t want to link this blog to it because I’m hesitant to let people who know (or knew) me in real life see it. But other than that, I’m open. All you MySpace people, teach me how to to pimp MySpace.

Oh, yeah, and if you want a Christmas card from me this year, now’s the time to send me your address. Even if you think I have it? Send it again, because I am notoriously absent-minded and probably put your envelope aside last year meaning to write it down, and then tossed the envelope in a mad cleaning spree in August without ever having done so. Click the gmail link on the sidebar to send me your addy, and I will send you a card. That simple.

Permalink

Aaaaand we’re back.

Filed Under: Random Insanity, Technobabble by Julie — 8 Comments
September 21, 2006

Sorry for anyone who’s tried to see my blog in the last hour. I’ve been upgrading to WordPress 2.0.4 manually, and what they neglect to tell you is that waaaaay down at the bottom of the “uploading” instruction page, it tells you that you don’t have to do half the steps if you’re only going from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4. Of course. After I have nerve-wrackingly deleted many files, worn off my beer buzz, cursed to high heaven, and eaten some chocolate, then I find the damn shortcut. *sigh*

In the meantime, if you’re here because the Yarn Harlot sent you, welcome. There is no knitting in this post, or many others because I’ve been lazy with the camera lately. Knitting of mine (and that of friends) can be seen here. There will be more knitting in both places soon. However, if you want to read about my meeting with the Harlot, go here.

For those of you not caring about knitting (*gasp!*), I have something that Vince tipped me off about: Cumming, the Fragrance. Go, watch the commercial. You get to see nekkid Alan Cumming buns in it. We’ll wait. Actually, you don’t have to come back. Just remember that it was Alan Cumming who shattered my innocence with whispers of velvet ropes and pens in my ear.

Permalink

You Know It’s Hot…part 8,675,482

Filed Under: Shorty, Technobabble by Julie — 7 Comments
July 31, 2006

…when you look at the little weather icons in the lower right corner of Firefox and the next two days are marked with little flaming thermometers. Not little suns, not little clouds, but little thermometers with heat waves just radiating off of them. Apparently that means: “Mostly sunny, humid, and very hot, five million degrees in the shade, your ass is gonna burn if you venture out.”

Permalink

Cat Scratch Fever

Filed Under: Da Cats, Rick, Technobabble, Urban Family by Julie — 9 Comments
July 24, 2006

I noticed a spot of blood on my jim-jams yesterday while I was staggering around in my morning routine. I was confused. It’s not that time of the month, I had no wounds when I went to sleep that could have reopened during the night. What the hell was going on? I peeled back said jim jams to discover a little scratch-like puncture thing. Apparently, the nightly cat wrestling match had continued after I fell asleep. Continued over me. And included me. All without my knowledge. Before this, I thought that the spot of blood I found on my sheet last week was from the cats tearing into each other while playing WWF. Now I wonder if the blood was from me while they tore into each other. Damn cats.

I did get one very important thing accomplished this weekend: I ported my cellphone number over to Verizon. The porting was completed in short order, the awkward “how the hell does this new phone work?” phase is at least partway over. Anyone who is on Verizon whose phone number I do not have, let me know. Because calls are free to anyone else who has Verizon! And free is good. Next Friday will be spent getting Rick his Verizon cell so that he and I can talk for free. He already has phone envy over my new one, so his original plan to get a simple phone might be in the garbage.

I also spent the better part of two hours yesterday at an insane going out of business sale at Wet Seal in the East Village (the one on Broadway and Bond, for any interested New Yorkers). Crazy discounts and buy one, get two free on top of that. I got a pair of capris, a dress, and a sweater top for $14.99. Jordana got a pair of jeans, two pairs of pants, a dress, and two tops for $35.99. We rock the discount shopping.

The only thing ruining this?  That I had to go back to work this morning.  I really need to win the lottery.

Permalink

Damn iTunes

Filed Under: Shorty, Technobabble by Julie — 5 Comments
June 14, 2006

So I was cruising around on iTunes while uploading some songs to my iPod, and I came across the soundtrack for Rescue Me. (“Came across” of course being code for “They were hyping the damn thing up so much on last night’s episode that I found myself looking for it.”) And before I knew it, it was in my shopping cart. And then I was checking out and somehow 1-click shopping got turned on, and now it’s downloading. Damn iTunes for being so easy to use! There was a time when I would actually have to leave my house, go to the Virgin Megastore or Tower Records, have a debate about whether or not I wanted to shell out cash for another CD, and buy it (or not) blind, without having listened to more than a couple of songs from the CD before purchase. Those days are over. Now there are $9.99 downloads that make sure the $5 I saved tonight by staying home from Stitch N Bitch got spent anyway. Twice over.

But the album is good.

Permalink

Flickr Update

Filed Under: Technobabble by Julie — 2 Comments
April 3, 2006

I actually managed to get one thing done today!

Especially for Vince, I got my Queen + Paul Rodgers photos from the Nassau Coliseum show uploaded to Flickr. They’re in the second half of this set.

Permalink

In the works

Filed Under: Technobabble by Julie — Comments Off
March 22, 2006

Something exciting could be happening for this blog as soon as this weekend. I’ve found a publishing platform I like, and although it has some little irritating quirks, I figure if I don’t get rid of my cats or my boyfriend for little irritating quirks, I shouldn’t be too picky about a blog publisher either. I’m working on the uploading and categorization and all that fun background stuff and while it won’t have all the perks of this blog template and the HTML coding I’ve gotten so used to just yet, I think it’s workable.

Watch this space.

Permalink

I’m not my usual top billing.

Filed Under: Technobabble by Julie — Comments Off
March 16, 2006

Image hosting by Photobucket
Railroad turnaround, Hudson River

For at least the past year, I’ve been thinking of all the things I want to do with this blog. I’ve been plotting my own domain name, a move away from Blogger into Moveable Type or some other customizable publisher, a relaunch of this blog on some more professional-looking level. I’ve struggled with my blog “voice” since I started blogging, and I think this is part of it. My blog is a presentation of my self, and what I’ve got here is not quite the shilling. Close, but lacking a certain je ne c’est quois.

So, this weekend while I’m celebrating my Irishness with corned beef and cabbage and beer, I’ll be looking into making the switch, whatever that switch may be. Those of you who have switched away from Blogger before me, I welcome your advice. Is there an easy way to go through and change my address with the many blogrings I belong to? What publisher do you use, and are you happy with it?

This is one of the few times in my life I’m asking for advice, people. Take advantage of it.

Permalink

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away

Filed Under: Technobabble by Julie — Comments Off
March 10, 2006

Image hosting by Photobucket
San Remo ~ NYC

Yesterday, for a bright and shining half hour, I had in my possession an iPod video. How did I get it? A student left it behind in my office. The woman working the counter brought it to me with no idea what it was, and said “Well, if the student doesn’t claim it, I guess you get to keep it.”

Now you see why it was a bright and shining half hour.

Unfortunately (for me), the student re-traced her steps and came back to get it. She was extremely happy that we had it, and I was actually pretty glad that she came back for it. Because I had called our campus Lost & Found, and they were on their way to pick it up when the student came back. And I’m pretty sure that an iPod video in Lost & Found would “disappear” by the end of the day. I don’t trust those guys anymore, just because when I called and said “A student left an iPod in my office, has anyone called looking for it?” the person on the phone said “What office are you in? I’ll send someone right over for it.” I could have taken the damn thing over, but noooooo, Grabby McGrabster from Lost & Found was going to take care of it personally. He was pretty disappointed when he got here and found out it had just been retrieved, too.

Ah well. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. And as Regan said when I told her, “Damneth.”

Permalink

Shafted

Filed Under: Politically Incorrect, Reviews, Rick, Technobabble, The Girls by Julie — Comments Off
March 5, 2006

Image hosting by Photobucket
Bethesda Fountain, Central Park

Is it wrong that I cheered when Brokeback Mountain didn’t get the Best Picture Oscar? Because I did. I didn’t even see Crash, but because Brokeback was so damned over-hyped, I would have cheered anything that beat it. The only Oscar award I actually cared about this year was Best Actor, and that turned out the way I wanted it. No other actor came close to what Philip Seymour Hoffman did as Capote. I was a little irritated that Good Night and Good Luck got shafted in so many categories; the much-hyped films won out over a great film that came out at exactly the right time. We need to be reminded that our government officials do things to serve their own purposes, and that they can be held in check and even brought down by ordinary people asking questions and not accepting the line of bullshit we are fed by politicians.

End of soapbox rant.

The weekend went well. Rick’s eyes are doing much better now. He’s not in pain, only minor discomfort, and when he peeks around his vision is definitely better. He gets the bandage contact lenses off on Tuesday, so his near-vision should improve after that as well. The horse show was an all-day event, but both girls did really well. The Youngest got one blue ribbon and one green ribbon in her first show, and the Oldest ended up with two blue and one red ribbon. She qualified for the big event at the end, riding against winners from the other advanced classes, but her horse crapped out on her, literally. It was a sudden-death situation, and she had outlasted six other riders when her horse stopped short to take a crap. Apparently some horses don’t like to go when they’re on the move. So she was out in fourth place, and didn’t get a ribbon for it. But hey, what a great punchline, right? “I was in the championship, but lost. My horse had to take a crap. Ba-dum-bum.”

I got a fair amount of pictures of the event, but still haven’t learned the best way to capture action on the new camera – a lot of the pictures came out blurred. I’m thinking that for next year’s show I’ll need a monopod. Some of it might be the exposure time, but I’m sure that Steady Shot cannot compete against a cantering horse and my hands shaking because I’m starting to have an asthma attack. (Oh, yeah, we discovered that even with allergy meds, I have asthma attacks if I’m around horses and hay too much. And since the riding ring was inside, welcome to Asthmaville. Fuuuun.)

Tomorrow, another sprint at work before I’m out on Tuesday for another all-day software presentation. Good times.

Permalink

Bad Behavior has blocked 679 access attempts in the last 7 days.