Not Today...

Cool Apps/Websites:
...just a "test" using zoho online writer...

http://del.icio.us/ is a "social  bookmarking" site that I have had a difficult time embracing because the interface doesn't really appeal to me.  Everytime I've visited this site, though, I've come away with something pretty neat, handy or both.  The sites "little sister" is http://ma.gnolia.com and I do have to say that at first glance it is a lot prettier.  A smaller user base means less useful info, however I think it's still a site to keep watching!  Both sites do require the addition of a few toolbar links (if you want to creat an account & store your bookmarks, otherwise you can just browse away).

http://lesliefranke.com/files/reference/firefoxcheatsheet.html contains a pretty handy list of keyboard shortcuts that work in the mozilla web browser.  Shortcuts are always appreciated!

...a list of I don't even know, they say over 350 links to sites that will help you...


http://www.zohowriter.com Online office "package" with an online presentation app, spreadsheet app, planner/organizer and word processor.  I gave the word processor a spin.  It seemed fully functional (considering I can use it online--wherever) and you could use it to work collaboratively with others on the same piece.  It also has the ability to transfer document projects to blogs such as Blogger, LiveJournal, Typepad or Wordpress.  It's free to use, nothing to install on your system.  You do need to set up an account but this only takes less than a minute.
In a word?  Sweet.

http://www.pandora.com  set up an account on pandora and begin creating your "stations." Enter songs and/or artists reprensentative of music you enjoy listening to and then... just listen while you surf.  Pandora will offer up artists who are similar in sound & you have the option to rate each new song with a thumbs up or down.  Each rating further refines the music you are presented with.  The free account is supplemented with ads, but I didn't find them inhibiting to site use at all.  Definitely a great way to a) listen to music while you're online and b) discover new music.

http://www.spongecell.com is a pretty easy to use online calender interface.  I'm currently using http://www.localender.com for the library website, but am not sure how that is going to go after our free trial is over & the ads start popping up.  I'll keep spongecell in mind for future reference!

I'm not sure about it yet, but I keep coming back to eye http://www.traineo.com, a fitness & weight loss online community.  The idea is, you sign up & enlist four friends to cheer you on, while the site evidently keeps track of how well you're reaching your goals.  I don't necessarily want to lose weight, personally, (aside from the five pounds worth of cookies I think I managed to put on over the holidays! :) but I think I'd like some encouragement with getting back into the fitness routine this year!  Hmmmm... (how about get up off the computer and DO something?  :)

...not a mid-life "crisis" or anything like that...
More like I find myself disappearing into my thoughts these days & feeling antsy in a not-so-good way... it's kind of like boredom but that's not quite right, exactly. (I hate thinking, "I'm BORED" anyway) I think it has a lot to do with applying for a new job... FT as opposed to PT. & coming to the point of desperately (thinking) I wanted this new job... which led to a sudden and intense dissatisfaction with the old/current job. & that's not really "true" either. I adore old/current job. I want to work there forever. I think I'm experiencing a certain amount of frustration because I know there is no real "future" there in terms of ever being FT or having benfits. Which really fucking SUCKS as it would seem, as jobs GO--this one WOULD have oh... at least some possibility of SOME sort of health insurance or some fucking thing. My Mom works as a cashier in a fucking grocery store and SHE has health insurance. I work in a library and I don't and most likely WON'T... EVER. I continually find myself pissed off that they don't at least have some sort of program that I could participate in through a payroll deduction based on part-time hours worked or SOMEthing.

...so, of course, the more I think about it the more I realize that as much as I like working there--this job is pretty much a complete dead-end.

So NOW I'm wondering why I'm even bothering...
Of course then nothing has happened with the New Job so I'm thinking it's a no-go, so that's tremendously disappointing. I'm kicking myself in the ass for not adjusting my resume to "downgrade" my previous job experiences... I'm afraid I came off as WAY-too-fucking-overqualified for a receptionist position.
SUCK.

So...
I just keep coming around to this place where I feel frustrated & filled with this feeling of "ok, what now?" that doesn't really seem to have an answer.

I haven't ever really used this site because I honestly can't seem to figure out how to flippin' NAVIGATE it. It feels very awkward, I can't ever seem to find my friends... pfffttt...

What's been going on...

...pretty much a whole lot of conflicting bullshit. That pretty much sums up 2005 and 2006 seems to be running to keep up with that so far...

Quoting from "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold

"I must have been listening to his hints on camera angles and composition when I took the pictures he held now. He had had no idea what order the rolls were in or what they were of when he had them developed. There were an inordinate number of photos of Holiday, and many a shot of my feet or the grass. Gray balls of blurs in the air which were birds, and a grainy attempt at a sunset over the pussy-willow tree. But at some point I had decided to take portraits of my mother. When he'd picked the roll up at the photo lab my father sat in the car staring at the photos of a woman he felt he barely knew anymore.
...
He didn't undertand how two people who were married, who saw each other every day, could forget what each other looked like, but if he had had to name what had happened--this was it. And the last two photos in the roll provided the key. He had come home from work--I remember trying to keep my mother's attention as Holiday barked when he heard the car pull into the garage.
"He'll come out," I said. "Stay still." And she did. Part of what I loved about photography was the power it gave me over the people on the other side of the camera, even my own parents.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw my father walk through the side door into the yard. He carried his slim briefcase, which years before, Lindsey and I had heatedly investigated only to find very little of interest to us. As he set it down I snapped the last solitary photo of my mother. Already her eyes had begun to seem distracted and anxious, diving under and up into a mask somehow. In the next photo, the mask was almost, but not quite, in place and the final photo, where my father was leaning slightly down to give her a kiss on the cheek--there it was.
"Did I do that to you?" he asked her image as he stared at the pictures of my mother, lined up in a row. "How did that happen?"

As in:
http://elouai.com/doll-makers/candybar-doll-maker.php

...I installed my wonderful wonderful 160 GB portable HD this weekend. My husband took a great amount of pleasure in calling me "Geeeeeeeeek" all weekend because I was so excited. So all my photos and music etc are now stored off my system and I am delighting in all these free Gigabytes. (woo hoo! :)

...at any rate. The title. Yep. I wasted a goodish portion of my weekend listening to the Garden State ST and making stupid dolls on the internet.
(but it's sooooo fun!!! :)

*sigh*

'eh. I'm still not feeling great. The girl was sick today and I felt like shit all weekend so I jumped at the chance (CRINGES) to call in (AGAIN. FUCK) sick to work. All the same I slept all damn morning. I just got up a half hour ago... (she slept too) and it's now 2pm. I wanted to actually wrap up January's update...
you know seeing as how January is wrapping itself up...

But shit.
I'm just so damned tired.

Watched this weekend:
Napoleon Dynamite
Pieces of April

The first was silly and I liked it and the man said he wished he'd spent that 1 1/2 hours staring at the dog and watching its hair grow... he felt he'd have accomplished more. I think it's a movie that appeals to the Geek Within. mho & all... thus I liked it.
Pieces of April--OMG. I cried HARD at the end. Which was wonderful for my sinuses! It was a great movie in that (both of them really) it was like watching a film about the people down the street or your own righteously fucked up family... y'know? I mean. Neither was flashy "hollywood" this is a movie... anyway. Thumbs up for both but I liked Pieces of April tons more. (cuz it made me cry and you know...
"sometimes it feels good to cry." :)
It DOES!!!

...in the meantime...
Consider the "ripple effect"...