Friday, February 23, 2007
New (Not Necessarily Improved) Blogger
There's a pattern out there with things constantly being "improved". It brings back memories of an old All In The Family episode when Edith and Gloria came home from the grocery store with some product labelled "New & Improved". Mike asked, "What were we using before? Old and lousy?"
When something is touted as "New & Improved" it should be...well, improved. I recently switched over to the New Blogger after much procrastinating, because I had heard a few horror stories from some other bloggers out there. I was reassured by a trusted friend that it is, in fact, better. It enabled him to post pictures easily, which is something I have been fighting with for quite some time on Old Blogger. I decided to take the plunge the other day.
I began typing all the info into my trusty Commodore 64 (nah, just kidding). The first roadblock came when it asked me to sign in with my Google account. Well, I didn't have one, so I followed the path to set up a Google account. The first thing it asked me for was my existing Google e-mail. Or so it appeared to me. Well, I didn't have one...that's what I was trying to set up! After many failed attempts, I entered a seldom-used Yahoo address, and bingo, I was in business. After uploading all the posts from Old to New, it took me to the new posting page which looked...pretty much exactly like the old one. In fact, I'm not finding a whole lot different except that I now have to type in my long-winded e-mail address to get in here.
The other night I attempted to upload some new Brynn pictures and discovered that it works just as shittily as it did before. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.
This just screams of "change for change's sake". If you're going to make something new, fix what doesn't work. Make it a better product. You can say something is better all you want, but you better be able to back it up. "New & Improved Olestra. Now with 20% less anal leakage!" Prove it!
I tried replying to a post earlier today and jumped through about 15 hoops before it recognized me, and then what I had written was gone. WTF? I was about one error message away from packing my trunk with rubber tubing, garbage bags, a knife and a mallet, putting on a wig and an astronaut diaper and hunting down whoever invented the New Blogger. You know...just to talk.
When something is touted as "New & Improved" it should be...well, improved. I recently switched over to the New Blogger after much procrastinating, because I had heard a few horror stories from some other bloggers out there. I was reassured by a trusted friend that it is, in fact, better. It enabled him to post pictures easily, which is something I have been fighting with for quite some time on Old Blogger. I decided to take the plunge the other day.
I began typing all the info into my trusty Commodore 64 (nah, just kidding). The first roadblock came when it asked me to sign in with my Google account. Well, I didn't have one, so I followed the path to set up a Google account. The first thing it asked me for was my existing Google e-mail. Or so it appeared to me. Well, I didn't have one...that's what I was trying to set up! After many failed attempts, I entered a seldom-used Yahoo address, and bingo, I was in business. After uploading all the posts from Old to New, it took me to the new posting page which looked...pretty much exactly like the old one. In fact, I'm not finding a whole lot different except that I now have to type in my long-winded e-mail address to get in here.
The other night I attempted to upload some new Brynn pictures and discovered that it works just as shittily as it did before. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.
This just screams of "change for change's sake". If you're going to make something new, fix what doesn't work. Make it a better product. You can say something is better all you want, but you better be able to back it up. "New & Improved Olestra. Now with 20% less anal leakage!" Prove it!
I tried replying to a post earlier today and jumped through about 15 hoops before it recognized me, and then what I had written was gone. WTF? I was about one error message away from packing my trunk with rubber tubing, garbage bags, a knife and a mallet, putting on a wig and an astronaut diaper and hunting down whoever invented the New Blogger. You know...just to talk.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
I Need a Vacation
Yep, I'm back at work today. I've been off nearly two weeks, and quite frankly, it's not enough. I spent the first eight days looking after my little girl while her mother was vacationing in Cuba.
I was pretty stressed out preparing to look after Brynn, but once she was at our place, The Squeeze and I couldn't get enough of her. It took a day or two for her to get used to the house and the two big men who clearly were not her mother. It took me a few days to get into her routine as well. Seven month old babies have a whole slew of rules and procedures and schedules. Rule number one is that schedules are subject to change on their whim.
I seemed to be doing ok with feeding, changing, napping, playing and entertaining. The bedtime routine was a bit tough. Nothing is more heartbreaking than to see your little girl sobbing while she gets her nightly bath before bedtime. Luckily, this only happened the first two nights, then she was back to her old splashing self. Yay me!
She slept pretty well at night, but I dread the time that she no longer needs that bottle at 5 am. There is just something magical about cradling my baby in my arm in the silent house while she has her bottle, touching my face and holding my fingers. I would sit on the bed in her room with just a sliver of light from the bathroom to push away the darkness and allow me to see the little angel I was holding, and gently rock her while she drank. After finishing her bottle and nuzzling into my neck until she gave up a burp, I would place her back into her crib and she would sleep for a couple more hours until we officially started our day together.
One morning I woke up to see The Squeeze getting dressed for work and noticed it was after 8 am, and panicked. "Oh my god, she didn't get up for her bottle. Something is wrong!" The Squeeze calmed me down and told me that he had given her the bottle that morning. She hadn't cried to announce her hunger, but he heard her moving around and chatting to herself. I just love how involved The Squeeze is in Brynn's life.
The day before Weezie got back from Cuba, I was getting ready to take Brynn to Hooterville to visit my folks. The killer snow storm we were walloped by the previous two days had finally stopped and the roads were clear. I prepared a couple of bottles, selected her food for lunch, stocked the diaper bag with diapers and wipes, and that's when I made a scary discovery. Six days earlier I took her to visit friends and I forgot that I had changed her and put the wet diaper in the end pocket of the diaper bag. Well, that wet diaper sat in there until today, and it certainly funkified that pocket. Several treatments of soap and disinfectant spray were no match for it, so I just decided to avoid using that pocket.
My parents just can't get enough of Brynn, and apparently the feeling is mutual. Brynn can be a very serious little girl at times, but when she sees Grandma, her whole face lights up and the arms and legs start flying.
The next day I took her back to Weezie's for the big reunion. It was sad to let her go, but I felt a lot of pride knowing that I did a great job of looking after her. It was strange to see Brynn crying when she saw Weezie. I'm sure she was quite happy to be back home with her mother, but I guess it's hard for babies to express their emotions at times. Perhaps it was delayed seperation anxiety. Who knows?
It was strange going back home after dropping her off and not having her with me. There was just a livingroom with an empty exersaucer on the floor. Luckily, our good friend FWG was there with me, so I wasn't able to wallow in my sadness.
Several friends have asked me how I liked looking after Brynn for over a week, expecting me to be exhausted and glad to have a baby-free house again, but you know, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's tiring, it's endless work, it's a lot of baby talk and Treehouse TV, but I loved it. I understand why Weezie needed to get away for a week. Looking after two kids 24/7 can take a lot out of you, but when you don't have them with you, you sure wish you did.
I was pretty stressed out preparing to look after Brynn, but once she was at our place, The Squeeze and I couldn't get enough of her. It took a day or two for her to get used to the house and the two big men who clearly were not her mother. It took me a few days to get into her routine as well. Seven month old babies have a whole slew of rules and procedures and schedules. Rule number one is that schedules are subject to change on their whim.
I seemed to be doing ok with feeding, changing, napping, playing and entertaining. The bedtime routine was a bit tough. Nothing is more heartbreaking than to see your little girl sobbing while she gets her nightly bath before bedtime. Luckily, this only happened the first two nights, then she was back to her old splashing self. Yay me!
She slept pretty well at night, but I dread the time that she no longer needs that bottle at 5 am. There is just something magical about cradling my baby in my arm in the silent house while she has her bottle, touching my face and holding my fingers. I would sit on the bed in her room with just a sliver of light from the bathroom to push away the darkness and allow me to see the little angel I was holding, and gently rock her while she drank. After finishing her bottle and nuzzling into my neck until she gave up a burp, I would place her back into her crib and she would sleep for a couple more hours until we officially started our day together.
One morning I woke up to see The Squeeze getting dressed for work and noticed it was after 8 am, and panicked. "Oh my god, she didn't get up for her bottle. Something is wrong!" The Squeeze calmed me down and told me that he had given her the bottle that morning. She hadn't cried to announce her hunger, but he heard her moving around and chatting to herself. I just love how involved The Squeeze is in Brynn's life.
The day before Weezie got back from Cuba, I was getting ready to take Brynn to Hooterville to visit my folks. The killer snow storm we were walloped by the previous two days had finally stopped and the roads were clear. I prepared a couple of bottles, selected her food for lunch, stocked the diaper bag with diapers and wipes, and that's when I made a scary discovery. Six days earlier I took her to visit friends and I forgot that I had changed her and put the wet diaper in the end pocket of the diaper bag. Well, that wet diaper sat in there until today, and it certainly funkified that pocket. Several treatments of soap and disinfectant spray were no match for it, so I just decided to avoid using that pocket.
My parents just can't get enough of Brynn, and apparently the feeling is mutual. Brynn can be a very serious little girl at times, but when she sees Grandma, her whole face lights up and the arms and legs start flying.
The next day I took her back to Weezie's for the big reunion. It was sad to let her go, but I felt a lot of pride knowing that I did a great job of looking after her. It was strange to see Brynn crying when she saw Weezie. I'm sure she was quite happy to be back home with her mother, but I guess it's hard for babies to express their emotions at times. Perhaps it was delayed seperation anxiety. Who knows?
It was strange going back home after dropping her off and not having her with me. There was just a livingroom with an empty exersaucer on the floor. Luckily, our good friend FWG was there with me, so I wasn't able to wallow in my sadness.
Several friends have asked me how I liked looking after Brynn for over a week, expecting me to be exhausted and glad to have a baby-free house again, but you know, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's tiring, it's endless work, it's a lot of baby talk and Treehouse TV, but I loved it. I understand why Weezie needed to get away for a week. Looking after two kids 24/7 can take a lot out of you, but when you don't have them with you, you sure wish you did.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
All Quiet on the Scam Front
Following my last post, not much has happened with the scammer. I noticed on the call display that he had called a few times before I opened on Friday morning. I was expecting him to call at some point, and that morning, sure enough, the phone rang and there was the California number again. But it only rang once and that was the last I heard from him. So far no contact.
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but the police officer that was looking into this ----
well, speak of the cops! Just while I was writing this she showed up for a visit.
where was I?
Oh ya...the officer who was looking into this informed me that there was an electronics store nearby who was getting calls from what she thinks may be the same guy. Thick African accent, wanting to use a number of Visa and Master Card numbers, wanting shipment of the items, but not to Africa, to a nearby city.
So today the officer popped in to see if anything further has happened and I updated her. She told me that there have been a number of similar things happening around this area. They believe that what is going on is that the caller is using stolen SIM cards and using them in phones which show up as different callers. They believe the calls are being made from this area. Most likely, the plan would be to have the glass shipped to this same local city all of the other stuff would have been sent to "on route" to Africa. wink, wink.
Electronics I can understand, but glass? WTF?
Now we wait for instruction from the fraud unit as to what to do with the money we have in our account from this whole transaction. It could take a couple of weeks to get it all figured out.
And now for something completely different....
Tomorrow I go pick up my baby to begin my week-long full-time father role. I get a bit of a knot in my stomach when I think of it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I already have plans for visits with her on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately I've been fighting a bit of a cold the past few days which I'm sure I got from Brynn or Zoe, I'm just hoping that Brynn is going to be feeling well while I have her.
I just might be able to post during nap times if I'm not napping myself.
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but the police officer that was looking into this ----
well, speak of the cops! Just while I was writing this she showed up for a visit.
where was I?
Oh ya...the officer who was looking into this informed me that there was an electronics store nearby who was getting calls from what she thinks may be the same guy. Thick African accent, wanting to use a number of Visa and Master Card numbers, wanting shipment of the items, but not to Africa, to a nearby city.
So today the officer popped in to see if anything further has happened and I updated her. She told me that there have been a number of similar things happening around this area. They believe that what is going on is that the caller is using stolen SIM cards and using them in phones which show up as different callers. They believe the calls are being made from this area. Most likely, the plan would be to have the glass shipped to this same local city all of the other stuff would have been sent to "on route" to Africa. wink, wink.
Electronics I can understand, but glass? WTF?
Now we wait for instruction from the fraud unit as to what to do with the money we have in our account from this whole transaction. It could take a couple of weeks to get it all figured out.
And now for something completely different....
Tomorrow I go pick up my baby to begin my week-long full-time father role. I get a bit of a knot in my stomach when I think of it, but I'm really looking forward to it. I already have plans for visits with her on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately I've been fighting a bit of a cold the past few days which I'm sure I got from Brynn or Zoe, I'm just hoping that Brynn is going to be feeling well while I have her.
I just might be able to post during nap times if I'm not napping myself.
