Fonts

This is kinda not exactly television-related. BUT, let me stress that I love looking at the logos of show titles, since they're often done in a special font, or at least in a steady color scheme. Simpsons and Brady Bunch come to mind for starters. Plus, Frasier had a different colored title every season, which is how to tell them apart really quickly in reruns. But let's look at a list of fonts today...

I am kinda a font freak. In the late nineties I would scour the 'net for the most accurate font to express my personality. Then I'd have my closest friends get it too, so they could read it in AIM (well, technically AOL IM back then, LoL). In college, I couldn't stand the look of the standard, Times New Roman font that I had been required to use on science fair projects (which was pretty much the only thing we had to type in high school, aside from Extended Essays and World Lit papers). So I used Arial. For everything. It's generally accepted by professors, although I did have a classmate in graduate school question my choice.

Honestly, serifs bother me. Those are the little tags on the tops and bottoms of letters in a TNR-esque font. And I hate them. I think they're annoying and ugly. Verdana is my font of choice in a non-professional setting, although I do use comic sans in IMs. (and yes, most of my blogs have serifs because I have been using the default forever, LoL.)

Anyway, the "periodic table of fonts" has recently been brought to my attention several times, and I decided to make some comments about it. At first I was appalled at the focus on popularity as opposed to order. But, the author of the short article does mention that he tried, but it really wouldn't suit his purpose.

Now, let's review his ordering (which was based on several lists)...
#1 is Helvetica. um, what?
#6 is Garamond. If I have to use a serif, I try to get away with this one. ;)
#7 is Times. ::eye roll::
#12 is Lucida. ridiculously useless font.
#17 is some awful thing called Trinite. way too much serif.
#18 is Syntax. Remember that awful font? from back when you still had a printer that spit out accordion paper?
#26 is Thesis. no lie. and it's only been around since 1994. how much do you want to bet someone found a way to create a font that takes up slightly more space per line without anyone noticing... resulting in a few extra pages over the course of three chapters... I'll have to look into this...
#29 is Clarendon. It's a nice font in general, but it's difficult to find the right occasion to use it.
#33 is the oldest font in the book. Gutenberg B-42. it looks just how you'd imagine it might.
#50 is Century. fairly common, but still ehhhh.
#63 is Courier. Yes, it's butt-ugly, but how did it end up so low on the list??
#96 is the newest font of the bunch... 2002's Neutraface, a sans-serif. Tied with #71 Prokyon, another sans-serif. AND #62 - Fedra, another winner (aka sans-serif).

Cranium Calendar, Volume V

May 4th : Blankout : Hint: yes means no. _ E_E_ _E _ _Y_ _ O_O_Y (struggled for a moment, but got it after re-reading the hint)
May 5th : there's a photo and question, but wanted to share the fun fact that: Buddha was under the Bo or Bodhi tree (a type of Indian fig) when he was enlightened and realized the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path that are the foundation of Buddhism.
May 7th : Starstruck : Philly, Ali, Bel-Air (Easy)
May 11th : Selectaquest : Which country was the first to allow women to vote? Canada, New Zealand, United States, France. (got it)
May 12th : Zelpuz : Hint: harbor icon. TRUST YE LIFEBOAT (missed it, and was surprised with the answer)
May 13th : Polygraph : A frontrunner in the furniture business, Ikea was originally a religious commune. (guessed incorrectly)
May 14th : Odd Couple : Hint: dinosaurs. Gynormasaurus; Apatosaurus; Brachiosaurus; Stegosaurus; Tabascosaurus (yep!)
May 18th : Blankout : Hint: clean sweep. _ _C_U_ C_ _A_ _ _ (missed it)
May 19th : Polygraph : Vanilla flavoring is derived from the cured, unripe fruit of a tropical climbing orchid. (missed it)
May 20th : Starstruck : legal blonde, June, Alabama (duh.)
May 21st : Matchbatch : Sir Edmund Hillary; Charles Lindbergh; Robert Peary; Roald Amundsen; Yuri Gagarin to be matched with Atlantic; Everest; outer space, North Pole, South Pole. (I got outer space and South Pole backwards, the rest correct)
May 25th : Factoid : What is the largest animal ever to inhabit Earth?
May 26th : Zelpuz : Hint: Gardener's Delight NUTMEG HERB (nope)
May 28th : Translator: Hint: Card Games blaze-tenging implement; vital organs of symbolic significance; outrageously peculiar multiples of four (only got the second two, but should have gotten all three)
May 30th/31st : Turbo Factoid (not sure if I've shared this type before. it's when you have three factoids to complete in the amount of time usually given to only one factoid). 1) In a round of golf, what do you have if someone gives you a mulligan? 2) If you shoot an eagle on the first hole while your opponent makes a birdie, who's leading? 3) In golf lingo, what's the bar at the clubhouse called? (only got the second one, wouldn't have even come up with adequate guesses for the others)



May 4th : Reverse Psychology
May 7th : Will Smith
May 11th : New Zealand - in 1893, 27 years before the US 19th Amendment
May 12th : Statue of Liberty
May 13th : False. Although some do think of Ikea as a religion (or at least a religious experience), it was the appliance company Amana that was founded by members of a religious commune.
May 14th : Gynormosaurus and Tabascosaurus. (the other three were from the Jurassic Period, alrite!)
May 18th : Vacuum Cleaner
May 19th : True. Vanilla beans have no scent when harvested, and develop their fragrance during the weeks-months of air drying (not sure how the two are related)
May 20th : Reese Witherspoon
May 21st : Sir Edmund Hillary - Everest; Charles Lindbergh - Atlantic; Robert Peary - North Pole; Roald Amundsen - South Pole; Yuri Gagarin - outer space
May 25th : Blue Whale (90+ feet long and 150+ tons. bigger than all the dinosaurs AND were nearly extinct before protections were established)
May 26th : Green Thumb
May 28th : Poker; Hearts; Crazy Eights
May 30th/31st : 1) a second chance to swing (not in the standard rules). 2) you are, an eagle is two under par while a birdie is only one under par. 3) the 19th hole (hahaha)

Cranium Calendar, Volume IV

April 1st : Starstruck : hip shaker, sun records, teddy bear (got it easily)
April 2nd : Polygraph : There is a link between the color of a chicken's eggs and the color of its earlobes. (T or F) (missed it)
April 6th : Zelpuz : HEROIC JAM LAND (hint: sports legend) (got it easily)
April 7th : Selectaquest : Which of these materials was not used in George Washington's false teeth? wood; human teeth; walrus tusks; ivory (missed it)
April 9th : Zelpuz : GREAT HUGE NEST (hint: spring ritual) (missed it. :()
April 13th : blankout : _O_ _C _ OO_ (hint: barrier breaker) (missed it)
April 14th : Punch list : how many of the six largest Hawaiian Islands can you name? (I only got 3)
April 15th : Zelpuz (there were a bunch this month) : NEXT FRAUD (hint: tax time) (got it, but had to write it down)
April 16th : Factoid : Talk-show host Jerry Springer once held what political office? (got it, although I didn't know the location)
April 20th : Translator : (hint: beer brands) More Knowledge Plant Sprout; Cereal-Grinding Personage; Male Child of Espionage Agent; Tumbling Mineral Matter (got three of them, missed the third of the group - which I'd never heard of)
April 21st : Selectaquest : What didn't Leonardo da Vinci sketch a design for? helicopter; odometer; zipper; bicycle. (missed it)
April 23rd : Odd Couple : Which two don't belong: Princeton Perfectos; Buffalo Bisons; Hickory Crawdads; Auburn Doubledays; Fredonia Freaks (hint: minor-league baseball teams) (got them)
April 27th : Polygraph : The oppostire sides of standard dice always add up to seven. (knew it)
April 28th : Zelpuz : SPIN DREAM (hint: character) (got it in a few seconds)
April 29th : Punch list : How many of the seven James Bond movies starring Sean Connery can you name? (yeah, no. I don't think I could name seven James Bond movies at all. I got none)
April 30th : Matchbatch : math fromage, poulet, champignon, boeuf, vin, pain with capon, filet mignon, baguette, Bordeaux, Camembert, morel. (didn't have a clue how to even begin)



April 1st : Elvis Presley
April 2nd : True! Hens with white earlobes lay white eggs, hens with red earlobes lay brown eggs.
April 6th : Michael Jordan
April 7th : wood.
April 8th : Easter Egg Hunt
April 13th : Sonic Boom
April 14th : Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai
April 15th : Tax Refund
April 16th : Mayor of Cininnati (in 1977, age 33, won by a huge margin)
April 20th : Budweiser, Miller, Molson, Rolling Rock
April 21st : zipper. was first exhibited in 1893. but, fun fact: da Vinci did also design parachutes, diving suits, and military tanks
April 23rd : Fredonia Freaks and Princeton Perfectos (Princeton is Devil Rays and Fedonia doesn't have a minor-league team)
April 27th : True
April 28th : Spider-Man
April 29th : Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds are Forever (1971), Never Say Never Again (1983)
April 30th : fromage - Camembert; poulet - capon; champignon - morel; boeuf - filet mignon; vin - Bordeauz; pain - baguette

Ah-Choo!!

So today's challenge (Day 18, more than halfway!) is to create a "sneeze page." Apparently it's just a list of "best ofs" or "popular posts" or something, to help new readers get hooked. When I went to decide on which posts to pull for this, I was surprised that this is entry #129. I guess I didn't realize I had been around this long, LoL!

You can check out the "favorite posts" on the left, should you want to see what I consider some of the more interesting ones. And, please suggest others that should be over there! :)

Catching up

So I went several days without posting. And I did this consciously. When I was looking at the challenges of the 31DBBB, I got discouraged, thinking it wasn't worth it since nobody reads my blog anyway (as previously mentioned, I have Google Analytics). Well, tonight I got a link to feedburner (who manages my RSSing), and I was really surprised to find out how many subscribers I have. So while the analytics aren't doing all that great, I still have readers so I shouldn't give up. And so, I'm back and determined to make a great comeback! I'll start by doing the challenges I missed, and sometime Tuesday I'll do the post that should have come out today (which is a transition from the previous series to the next series). Thank you, readers, for making this possible.

Day 4: analyze a good blog in your niche. well, I'm new to my niche, technically. I'm going to use TV Squad. They cover shows in many categories, including Dramas, Comedies, Realities, Sci-Fis, American Idol, Retro Shows, and Others. It's hard to find anything they ignore because there is so much covered in their "other" section, like game shows, children's shows, talk shows, and the news. BUT, it does seem they don't cover reality family shows, like Little People, Big World and 18 Kids and Counting. Their voice/style is third person, and use lists and opinions. They posted 13 items today (7 yesterday, 6 the day before, and 17 the day before that), and are shooting for a beginning level audience. They focus mostly on current shows and what's going on in the immediate future. Readers seem to connect mostly with television specials and late-night shows, and finales. In comments, readers are asking mostly things of other commenters, who mention things not included in the entry, or agree/disagree with the post. Tool-wise, they're using the hell out of RSS and video clips, but not much else. The design of the site gives an impression of funness, but I would prefer to have a "view by date" sidebar, since they post so often and I don't want to scroll forever. I'm not sure about their advertising. They get 6k-12k hits each day, and 73% are from the US. I don't know what SEO is.

Day 5: Email a new reader. This one is kinda impossible for me. I personally know everyone who has ever commented on my blog, and so I know about them and their blog preferences to some extent already. It suggested an alternative would be to respond to comments made... which I have done already, too... The last alternative is to go comment on other blogs. I do this semi-regularly anyway.

Day 6: Read 27 blog entries and declare which is most useful and why. This one taught me about why I should use Flickr to get images rather than Google Image. Also, how to do a pillar article is a good thing to consider. Why people don't leave comments was also interesting, but not as helpful. 50 tips is also good, and I should consider thinking about many of them. So, my overall "most useful" goes to the 50 tips.

Day 7: Link to another blog. It gives examples of how to do this, and speedlinking would be my preferred method. I only read a few blogs in my genre, so here goes!

- Three days ago, TV Squad wrote about when ABC would finally air the last episodes of shows like Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.
- Mark Blankenship, over at The Critical Condition, posted yesterday about the changes in The Office.
- Polite Dissent already has a review of the medical problems with tonight's House, MD episode.

okay, that catches things up! Day 8 will take place tomorrow, along with the regularly-scheduled TV post itself.

Promotion!

okay, so for today's challenge, I need to promote a blog post.

well, 75% of the time, I tweet (and therefore it also goes to Facebook) when I have a new entry on either or both of my blogs. But, I only vaguely mention what the new entry is about, and I link to the main site instead of the individual post.

Another suggestion is to include a brief thing about it when you send out newsletter emails. Well, I have two groups I "newsletter" (yep, gonna use it as a verb and call it a day), and I haven't done either in a long time. I'll get back to that shortly (after this conference, I swear).

I'm not about to add a link in my email signature. nope.

I do comment on other blogs, so check!

I already do blogs that build on previous ones to some extent, but I do that a TON more on the other blog.

Pitch mainstream media. You know, I've been thinking about this for a couple weeks, and might be able to get around to it. I would have had the perfect opportunity Monday night when they wrote off Kutner's character on House, MD. oops.

I'm not going to state my thoughts on the other suggestions. So, what will I do today for this? besides twittering (which I will do after I post this), I'll go ahead and write a newsletter email (but I can't send it yet, other blog needs a little more updating at the moment).

However, I'll throw this out there: if you want to be included on the list to the right on "suggested blogs," let me know, and chances are, I'll add you. The challenge suggested I seek out bloggers and ask them to list mine, but I'm a little shy on this aspect, LoL.

An Elevator Pitch

so the first assignment for the 31 Days to a Better Blog challenge starts today. In 100-150 words, I'm supposed to describe what my blog is about. That kinda sucks, since that's way more descriptive than this blog really is.

Okay, so thinking about it... This blog is about stuff I like to read. More specifically, it was about television and internet, with random other things thrown in. As you may have guessed when I didn't post last Friday, I'm not doing internet any longer, in an attempt to solidify an audience. I talked about this idea on Friday with my husband, and I am considering using Fridays as a television review day, of the things I watched that week. Let's not lie, I watch a LOT of television. I have a TON of shows I keep up on, and when I'm doing my at-home job, I keep the TV on so I'm not lonely, LoL. Another idea was incorporating the other "voting suggestions" into the other days... so maybe television courtships on Wednesdays in addition to the M and F series plans.

But going back to today's task... This blog is for entertainment purposes only, since I'm not an expert, just a fan. Because I've watched a lot of television from a young age, I've seen a lot of episodes from a lot of shows, from every genre. I discuss what's going on in primetime television, as well as series blogs on older shows, like long-running shows, shows canceled too early, and relationships on television. Expansion is planned, as these series become overdone and new countdowns are conceived. Blog length is less than five minutes, but I am considering switching to a more two-minute format to accommodate readers who skim twenty blogs a day instead of those who read just a few. Additionally, I like to support my entries with videos from YouTube or similar websites.

I used 128 words. cool.

The 31 Day Challenge

Starting next week, I'm going to be taking part in the "31 Days to Build a Better Blog" Challenge. This means I'll probably be posting much more often than usual, and I don't know how relevant the posts will be to my normal format, but we'll see. I wanted to go ahead and let my readers know that, and take this opportunity to do the pre-challenge checklist.

The first thing that needed to be done was installing a metrics program. I already have Google Analytics on both of my blogs, so that was already done.

The second was to invite a friend to join me in participating, for accountability purposes. My husband and I are both participating (he'll be launching a new blog through this program, so stay tuned). Check.

The third one is a little more work. It asks me to perform a SWOT analysis of my blog (I am using this one and not my other one, just for clarification). SWOT has 7 steps, so here we go.

1) Define your Mission/Goals. Well, this is an entertainment blog. There's an emphasis on television (evidenced by Mondays) and fun webtools (Fridays), and I also cover other things that amuse me.

2) Blog Strengths. Well, the fact that I dedicate certain days to continuing series is a strength. That way, if you only want to read about television, you can count on a new entry every Monday. Another strength (which I've been slacking on lately) is the inclusion of images and videoclips to illustrate entries. I really think that I'm offering interesting tidbits not found elsewhere on a single websource. I also have a lot of suggested blogs for others to read, helping promote blog traffic.

3) Blog Weaknesses. Well, sometimes my mid-week posts are too random to be entertaining to everyone. I don't always publish at the same time of day. I have a difficult time gaining a steady readership since I don't focus on one thing... perhaps I'd have more loyal readers if I focused on television OR internet antics, since many people don't have interest in both. My title is kinda lame, and it was only meant as a placeholder when I started, but I never updated it.

4) My Blog's Opportunities. I do have a couple friends who list my blog in their "blog list" and I think I've gotten a few hits from those. My other blog references this one from time to time, most recently about my airport entry. When I comment on other blogs, I include a link back to his blog. Wow, I guess I need to find more opportunities.

5) My Blog's Threats. I don't know of another blog covering my television series (past or future), but there are many, many blogs out there that review webtools and programs. I do not use AdSense or AdWords because of a conflict of interest, which could be holding my blog back a little. I don't use a lot of technologically-advanced tools on this blog, mostly because other blogs I read don't, so I'm not too familiar with them. Television has a season, which is coming to an end... so while I don't often discuss "current television," I am probably preparing to take a hit in readers because television is not at the forefront of interest during the late Spring and Summer months.

6) Reflections and Strategies. Well, I can utilize my strengths by using images and videos more often, and I should par down my "blog roll" because people are more likely to click on a few links instead of a dozen. I can help fix my weaknesses by changing the blog's name, publishing more regularly, and considering focusing on a more specific topics as a whole. I can make more out of my opportunities by asking the authors of other blogs I read to include a link to mine. I can fend off a few threats by continuing to write in a niche that is not frequently covered elsewhere, and reviewing some of the latest eye-catching things in other blogs and figure out how to incorporate them into mine.

7) Make an Action Plan. Okay, let's see. First off, I could make an improvement by changing the title. Since I generally just do whatever I want on Fridays, I should stop that and write more about television. Maybe Fridays I can write about that week's shows, since I do watch a lot of tv. Stepping away from three focuses is a great idea, although I'm not sure I could write 3+ blogs per week on it, so that will have to be worked on. I'll make it a point to include at least one image or videoclip per entry. And that's good for now. :)

Cranium Calendar, Volume III

As with the first two editions, there are a bunch of questions from my calendar, and the answers are all found below the end of the questions. :)

March 2 : Punchlist : There are ten countries with a four-letter name. How many can you name? (I was definitely struggling on this one for some reason. My brain just wasn't in geography mode, I guess)
March 3 : zelpuz : ATE DRY BED (hint: infant toy) (I got it)
March 4 : polygraph : In a game of Monopoly, the odds of landing on Illinois Avenue are greater than those of landing on Boardwalk. (got it right, and if you missed it, I don't want to know)
March 5 : starstruck : breakfast, Sabrina, UNICEF (got it)
March 9 : blankout : N_R_ _ _ _ R_ _ M_ (hint: tot tale) (realllllllly easy)
March 10 : factoid : If seven cars are parked bumper-to-bumper, how many bumpers are touching? (I missed this one, probably because I thought about it too quickly)
March 12 : matchbatch. LHR, LGA, CDG, YYZ, IAD, LAX to match with Washington DC, Paris, New York, London, Los Angeles, Toronto (got it, but had to get YYZ by default of what was left)
March 14/15 : turbo factoid : (not sure if I've done one of these before for you, so basically all it means is that you have to get all three answers in the amount of time as the normal factoid).
- From what city would you send a postcard of Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia? (missed it)
- If you live at Mies van der Rohe's Lake Shore Drive Apartments, what's your town? (missed it)
- If you're checking out Jimi Hendrix's guitars at Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project, what city are you in? (got it)
March 17 : zelpuz : A NESTED SLICE (hint: lunch stop) (missed it)
March 18 : odd couple : Stopwatch; Sheetrock; Hackey Sack; Emery Board; Thermos (hint: trademarks) (got it)
March 19 : punch list : How many of the six playing pieces used in chess can you name? (I got five, the sixth one just wouldn't come out)
March 23 : matchbatch : Cassius wins one gold; Bonnie wins two gold; Nadia wins three gold; Jesse wins four gold; Eric wins five gold; Michael wins six gold to be matched with Montreal 1976; Lake Placid 1980; Albertville 1992; Athens 2004; Berlin 1936; Rome 1960 (messed this one up royally. definitely the hardest so far this whole year for me!)
March 24 : blankout : H_ _ _ T_ _ _ (hint: lunar beach shrinker) (got it)
March 26 : translator : (hint: identify the following things from the '60s)
- liquid coloring agent for men's neckwear (got it right away)
- ankle-biter in heap of ground wheat kernels (still don't get it)
- store measure of arboreal material (guessed something else)
March 30 : factoid : If you're choosing between pho and bun (accent over the u), what kind of restaurant are you eating in? (easy one for me)
March 31 : blankout : P_ _ E_ _ _T _ _ _ A _ E (hint: dad's due) (I only got the first word)

***********

March 2 : Chad, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Mali, Oman, Peru, Togo. (I got Togo, and added in Guam)
March 3 : Teddy Bear
March 4 : true. (you have to factor in card-draws, but Illinois if the MOST frequently-landed on property)
March 5 : Audrey Hepburn
March 9 : Nursery Rhyme
March 10 : twelve (I said six)
March 12 : LHR - London, LGA - New York, CDG - Paris, YYZ - Toronto, IAD - Washington DC, LAX - Los Angeles
March 14/15 : Barcelona; Chicago; Seattle
March 17 : delicatessen
March 18 : stopwatch and emery board (fun fact, dumpster is trademarked)
March 19 : rook, king, queen, knight, pawn, bishop (bishop was on the tip of my tongue!)
March 23 : Cassius (Clay, as in Muhammad Ali) is 1960 Rome. Bonnie (Blair) is 1992 Albertville (no idea what sport). Nadia (Comaneci) is 1976 Montreal. Jesse (Owens) is 1936 Berlin. Eric (Heiden) is 1980 Lake Placid (again, no idea what sport). Michael (Phelps) is 2004 Athens.
March 24 : high tide
March 26 : tie-dye, flower child, Woodstock
March 30: Vietnamese (pho is a noodle soup and bun is a noodle dish) (if you didn't know this, maybe you should read the California blog some more, LoL)
March 31 : Paternity Leave

Woot!

no, not w00t. woot!

Woot is a website that only sells one item per day (except for woot-offs, hang on there). Shipping is always just $5, and you can order up to three of the item at once. Sometimes the item sells out early in the day, other times it doesn't sell out at all. The new items go up about midnight, Central time, so back in Florida, sometimes I don't stand a chance at getting the item, since it sells out before I even get up. Now that I live in California, I can see the item before I go to bed, which is rather helpful.

What do they sell? Well, most of the time they are electronics. Everything from DVD sets to computer chips to monitors. Power squids, remote control cars, marshmallow launchers, headlamps. On Tuesdays they sell two of the items at a time, like two bluetooth headsets, earbuds, laser pointers, or cell phone chargers.

There's also one shirt for sale every day, and one wine. The shirts are generally very interesting, and certainly original. I wish that they would re-issue some of their most-popular shirts, as I've missed several that I woulda paid $15 for ($10 is the general shirt price, and then $5 shipping). I've not bought any wine (nor do I know of anyone who has) but the deals seem pretty interesting most of the time.

Okay, now the woot-offs. Woot-offs have a great little theme song, and are basically days when they put up a new item as soon as one is sold out. Although there is a little meter on each item to indicate how many are left, there could be any number of items remaining, so you have to act fast. These are usually days when I am able to get a surprise gift for the hubby, since when there's only one item per day he tends to see it at some point. But, during a woot-off, I've got a chance at ordering something without him noticing that it has gone on sale. Woot-offs are completely random, and don't take place "every other Thursday" or anything like that. They have them when they have them, so you kinda just have to check the website (easy to remember, www.woot.com). If it's a woot-off, there will be a flashing light on the screen, and the "I Want One" button may be bouncing around.

A woot-off started yesterday morning, and is still going on. So, head on over and check out what they've got going. You can RSS the woot-offs (that's what my husband does), or follow them on twitter (that's what I do).

Tip: sometimes the "bag of crap" is good. google around and see what other people ahve got (some people film their reactions for youtube as well)

Hours

It occurred to me the other day that I really enjoy working my own hours. So much so, in fact, that it's been an indirect perk of almost every job I've ever had.

My first job was really easy. In fact, I scrapbooked a year's worth of photos, read 8-10 books, and did a few arts & crafts projects on the clock (my job was pretty dependent on the phone actually ringing, and sometimes nobody would call). It was an office job, so it was 8:30-5, but I could pick my days of the week for the most part (there was one other woman who served in the same position, so between us we made our schedules).

Then I worked as an RA for three years. Aside from the hellish training week and hours during finals weeks, the only set hours I had to work were the weekly meetings. I chose the nights I wanted to be on duty, and the weekends I had to stay in the building. Again, pretty sweet.

There was the summer I spent as a Girl Friday, doing office work and a little babysitting... but I kinda just worked when I wanted. I didn't have a lot of choice, since I didn't get called every day for a job, but if I wanted to have other plans, I could.

I spent two summers working at a camp, and those were real hours. Real as in, 7am-11pm, every day (we generally got Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sunday mornings off... but I was doing a major commute so I wasn't really "off" until 9pm Friday and headed back 8am Sunday). The second summer we got 2 hours off each day. But the first summer was pretty much constant work from wake-up to sleep, and even sometimes middle-of-the-night stuff. Don't get me wrong, I loved that job to death, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I spent another three semesters as a TA. I was able to choose which section I wanted to handle, and otherwise was only guided by a weekly meeting. Another semester I worked in Research, and only had a weekly meeting to govern me.

There was the year I spent working another easy-peasy job. We only had to go to a meeting once a MONTH, so hours were pretty much whatever.

And then there's my current job. Except for training it's been COMPLETELY whatever-hours-you-want.

I can't say I've ever met anyone else who has had such an easy work schedule. Probably because most people have had either a minimum-wage, part-time job in retail or food service or some other typical-teenage job.... or they've worked for an industry that needs to make use of daylight hours. I hope to have a regular-hours job at some point, since I love routines... but at the same time, it's very nice to take days off whenever I want. It makes traveling ever-so-pleasant. :) and let's not lie, I do enjoy a lot of travel in my life.

anybody else out there never have set working hours?

Wiki-what?

Web Friday. Today is Wikipedia Day. Why? Because somehow there are people who have not yet realized that Wikipedia is there to help you.

Now, I'm going to start with a disclaimer... Wikipedia is NOT always accurate. And sometimes they are VERY wrong. But, they have really great "lists" of things/people/events, and they can be a good place to go for a quick and easy answer to a simple question.

I wanted to link to an example of a very bad Wikipedia article here, but it'll shortly fix itself. Why? Because the entries are user-created and edited. I personally went and fixed part of the entry for Mrs. Warren's Profession, a play that I did a dramaturgy casebook on my first semester of graduate school. However, on every page you can check out the history of revisions made to that page.

Wikipedia has been around since 2001, and I think I discovered it sometime around 2005. Last August, we surpassed 2.5 million articles in English. There's over 200 languages that you can find articles in, and only about 25% of all articles are in English.

Wikipedia has spurred the creation of many other "wikis." Now, the word "wiki" is Hawaiian for "fast," but it has come to mean "user-edited" and even many online classrooms use a wiki of sorts.

China, Iran, Tunisia, Syria, the UK, and Uzbekistan have all blocked Wikipedia for their countries at one point or another, and Qatar was blocked from using it by Wikipedia admins for a short period of time. China blocked Wikipedia on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, for one.

And no, just because it's user-run doesn't mean that you can have an article about yourself. All articles need to be worthy of publication... as in, there needs to be secondary material supporting it, in magazines, academic journals, or other media.

Now, a word about reliability and accessibility. Because it's pretty easy to use (although the "sounds like" has been plagues with issues forever), a lot of people use ONLY Wikipedia, rather than relying on it as a starting point from which to build additional research. During the three semesters I spent as a TA, I caught several plagiarizers who used Wikipedia exclusively to write a paper. I'm not going to lecture on plagiarism, but just remember that Wikipedia should NEVER constitute your only source of information. Reliability... while there have been many arguments that users ruin articles by writing about random crap on article pages, the amount of "serious errors" rivals that of any other encyclopedia. That said, I've also talked with students who got entire summaries of plays from the site, and they no don't understand the play.

(flashback to "Frankenstein goes to the Mountains" for my readers who went to high school with me)

If you have not yet gotten addicted to reading about one thing after another (the inter-linkings on the site are crazy-fascinating), go try it. NOW.

Airports

Airports fascinate me. My first flight was Miami-Heathrow, so I experienced very large airports (and very large aircrafts) first. The first time I flew out of Tallahassee, I was shocked that sometimes you have to actually walk out onto the tarmac and climb stairs to board the plane... as if it was still the 1970s. This past summer I flew in and out of the tiniest airport... Cedar City, Utah. It was pretty much a lodge, with a whopping 40 seats in one room, with a fireplace. There were about five employees in the whole place, and you had to wait until someone was "manning security" before you could pass through an all-glass room to get to the "terminal room." But, there was free internet, so that worked for me.

When I'm planning a trip (which I do quite a bit of), part of my planning process is choosing airports for layovers. There are a few airports I've hit several times, and a bunch that I loathe (along with a few that I LOVE). I'm sure you feel the same (assuming that you enjoy flying, since there are people who don't, and tend to book non-stop flights if at all possible). What makes a good layover airport for me:
- good choice of eateries of all types. if they only have good lunch places, they're not going to be ideal for an early-morning flight. this also means that they need to have more than one coffee shop, in the event I want something caffein-y, as I do not enjoy a 20-minute wait.
- no more than three terminals. I inevitably end up needing to travel from one to the other, and if the layover is short, I freak out about rushing to the far-end of the airport.
- some neat shops. not the typical bookstore and Brookstone, but something regional. I VERY rarely buy anything, but I love to browse.
- free internet. when I travel, I tend to get behind in correspondence and other reading, so I try to get online when possible (especially if I'm staying at a hotel that charges big bucks to get online).
- accessible wall outlets. I know that many airports now have charging stations. But those areas are generally crowded, and I appreciate being able to find a more secluded spot, yet still be able to charge my cell phone or plug in my laptop (because I think it's selfish to use more than one outlet, and people at the charging stations generally feel there's no shame in taking up four spaces each).
- interesting architecture. this one isn't as big a deal as some of the others, but particularly if I'm traveling alone, I love to wander the entire airport, marvelling at the design of the place.
- terminals that don't regionalize their gates. Meaning, I don't like sitting in a terminal (example Salt Lake City) and every gate around me is going to a really close place (in SLC, I sat near people going to various California, Utah, and Nevada cities). I much prefer sitting in a terminal where people are going to NYC, Chicago, ATL, Vegas, etc. This makes for much more interesting people-watching. ;)

Using these standards, my absolute favorite layover airport is Cincinatti. My least favorite is LAX.
Cincinatti: Wetzel's Pretzels (2), Auntie Anne's, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks (3), Peet's (2), Quizno's, Subway, Carvel/Cinnabon, Mrs. Fields/TCBY, Sbarro, QDOBA, a chili place. Then there's a "Kentucky" shop and a toy store. Internet's free in Terminal B. And there is a ton of seating with NOBODY there... outlets are a little sparse, but worse has happened.
LAX: omg useless. the place was designed a million years ago, and the trams and planes share travel space. Don't change terminals (and there's like 8 of them) or you have to go through security AGAIN. There may be a Boudin (2) but not much else of interest aside from See's Candy. The place is crowded. And delays are everywhere. People drag their kids behind them. There are no outlets. The only thing I like about LAX are the commuter flights to San Diego... easy.

Other thoughts I have on airports:
Airports I favor: Orlando.
Airports I have no opinion about: Atlanta. Miami. Denver. Raleigh. CDG.
Airports I avoid: Tampa. Salt Lake City. SeaTac.

This weekend, I'll add Phoenix to the list of airports I've had a layover in, and I imagine I'll talk about it a bit over on my other blog. Which airports are your favorite? What qualities do you look for?

Facebook Changed... Again.

I wasn't planning to write about Facebook this week, but since they just rolled out a new homepage, I thought it would be an appropriate topic. And in case you're unfamiliar with it, it's very different from MySpace. Facebook is to re-connect and stay connected with people you already know. MySpace is more about finding new friends and being able to express yourself through music and HTML, LoL. After all, Facebook started out only being for colleges and universities, then extending to the workplace, then high schools, and finally, anyone.

If you're not on Facebook, get on it. There's no reason not to. It makes it easy to keep contact with friends, relatives, neighbors, and colleagues. And you can set your privacy settings to control what people see. Meaning, if you don't want to put up your job information, don't. If you don't want people to see your photo albums, you can make that happen. AND, if you only want certain lists of friends to see certain things (like, block your photos and wall comments from your co-workers), that's easy, too. Just group people together, and set a preference to keep that list from seeing stuff. You can also block individual people (ideal if you're a gamer and added a few friends solely for gaming purposes and you don't really know them in real life).

For those who have been on Facebook for years (I joined in the Fall of 2004), you've seen a TON of changes. Back before you could add pictures. Before there were applications. Before there were notes. When there were a finite number of groups, and it was still plausible to browse through ALL the groups in your network in just an hour or two. Before events. I fought just one of the renovations (the one that put "new" in front of the URL for a while), but I got over it.

The current homepage now has three columns, although the first one is pretty much just designed to allow you to navigate the middle column. I think that it made it much easier to see what's going on with certain people (for instance, I'm living in California, away from anyone in my LARGE family, so I created a group and put all my aunts, cousins, etc. in that list. Now I can get all the latest updates on them with one click). So far, while a lot of people have been complaining about the new format, I only have one complaint. My "lists" are now on my homepage, and I have a lot of groupings that are not for public viewing. Not that I'm in the library checking my Facebook, but still.

Because there are so many different sections of Facebook, it's not really ideal to cover all of them. However, they're not hard to explore, and while some people are only on it because it's "the thing to do," I really do support its effectiveness in keeping in touch so much more than classmates or reunion.com or Friendster, or any other website designed for this.

"I Love Chocolate"

When we were last in San Francisco, there were tons of people handing out flyers and pamphlets, especially in Chinatown since it was the week of the Chinese New Year Celebration. One of the most interesting ones was a trifold entitled, "I Love Chocolate" (with a cartoon girl drinking a double mocha espresso). The cartoons are kinda dumpy, but amusing.

The inside goes on to read:
"Surveys show that more people prefer chocolate to any other comfort food. (kids eating chocolate) Chocolate can give you energy when you're feeling burned out... (boss encouraging worker) Chocolate can keep you company when you're feeling lonely... (girl eating cake and crying and saying she doesn't need friends) Chocolate can make just about anything seem better than it really is... (guy sells girl a chocolate-colored car) But the 'comfort' we get from chocolate doesn't last. Thing seem better for a little while, but then we inevitably crash! (boss fires the worker from before; kid with bag over head holding Clearasil is called on the phone about a party he missed; brown car breaks down with girl driving) Pretty discouraging, huh? Well, cheer up - there's a comfort far better than chocolate... ...and it's found in Jesus - the one and only, no caffeine, zero calorie source of comfort! He has promised us, 'come to me all you who are weary... (guy holds classifieds, girl holds steering wheel) ...and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Mathew 11:28). Jesus won't let you down like some chocolate sugar high. He fed the hungry, he healed the sick, he died for your sins and he'll 'Be with you always, until the end of time' (Matthew 28:20). That's more than Mr. Goodbar every did for you! Try the ultimate comfort food (the Bible) and see for yourself: with Jesus 'You will rejoice and no one will take away your joy' (John 16:22).

it's a Jews for Jesus pamphlet, with a "please don't litter" message at the bottom of the back fold.

Really? Comparing Jesus to chocolate. that's new. and weird. and I really don't think it's a good metaphor.

Oh, and if you don't know what Jews for Jesus is... there are branches of them throughout the world, and San Francisco is the homebase. They are more about being Jews by birth, not by faith. They're really into being evangelical and converting other Jews to Christianity. They're rejected by all sects of Judaism, from what I know.

Mint.com

Hello folks, another Friday here. Today I want to talk about Mint.com, a banking website. It's been around since late 2007

Now, my first qualm with the idea is that you have to put in ALL you bank accounts, credit cards, etc. to use it. Hello, identity theft, is that you calling? But, the accolades of the site's security and privacy are high and praised, so I guess it's worth it. Once again, my husband is the one who turned me onto it, pretty much by default (he was already using it when we got married). However, I now check it more often than he does, mostly because I'm paranoid about being charged multiple times for a purchase (happened on three occasions so far since I've had a credit card), and I love to see "where my money goes."

The concept is pretty simple, actually. It sorts all charges (restaurant, entertainment, utility bill, shopping, gas, etc.) and creates a big pie chart. Within each section you can see the breakdown in another pie chart (food & dining is broken into groceries, fast food, restaurants, bars, coffee shops), and then each of those makes another pie chart if clicked on (like in 'fast food' the pie chart is made up of the different fast food places you go to). You can make it do these pie charts for any set number of months, from the past year to the past month, and any combination in the middle (like how much money did you spend on movies last summer... yikes!). Oh, and if you don't agree with the way it sorted something (for instance, we consider Subway fast food but I think Mint originally thought it was a restaurant), you can change rules and then it'll back-fix and future-sort from that point on.

Something good... you can compare month-to-month pretty easily. Something even better... Mint will recommend credit cards for you based on your credit history and where you spend your money. It recommended a great card for my husband and myself (we didn't go with it in the end, though), that gave 5% back if you charged more than $200/month on dining out and entertainment (and it had a broad definition of entertainment), and some other good rewards. Something pretty cool... you can set budgets (or use default averages as budgets), and on your home page, it'll show you a bar graph on how you're doing on different budgets throughout the month (we have one for food and one for entertainment, for instance). The only bad thing about budgets are expenses which hit only a few times a year (like car insurance or tuition) make it seem like you went over in an area (like Education) at first.

Not only can it let you know whenever you have a credit card bill coming up, you can also set it to alert you via email or text message whenever your available credit drops below a certain number, or you make a purchase over a certain amount, or even when you have a bill due in xx days.

The really strange things about Mint is that the people who need to use it the most don't. The average user (and there are over half a million users) makes more than $100k/year, meaning most people who live at the poverty line or are working minimum-wage jobs aren't using this great tool. Because it's so easy to use, I really don't understand why they don't jump on the bandwagon (unless people are stubborn and are still using Quicken. yikes). The only thing I can come up with is that they aren't reading enough and therefore do not understand the there's not as much risk involved as an onlooker may assume.

One thing I wish... that I had used it during graduate school to better track how many thousands of dollars I spent on books. Let's not lie, Amazon and Half.com got a huge chunk of my salary for two years.

Do you use Mint? Quicken? Wesabe? Geezeo? something else? tell us about how you like it.

Cranium Calendar, Volume II

I've been saving the good ones from February, so here we go! There are definitely more than in January. All of the answers are below all of the questions. :)

- Feb. 2 : Polygraph (T/F): Halfpipe, slopestyle, and boardercross are all competitive skateboarding events. (I got it right but it was a semi-guess)
- Feb. 3 : zelpuz (scramble): OUR CD STANK (hint: movie melodies) (got it)
- Feb. 4 : starstruck (guess the celebrity): Wayne, man of mystery, green ogre. (got it)
- Feb. 5 : punch list: How many of the ten federally recognized holidays in the United States can you name? (I came up with ten but only nine were correct)
- Feb. 11 : starstruck: Fordham, Malcolm, gangster. (didn't get it)
- Feb. 12 : blankout (fill in the blanks): _N_E U_ _ _ _ _I_E (hint: before ever after) (totally got it in like a second)
- Feb. 16 : zelpuz: HE GETS GOING ON WAR (hint: wig wearer) (didn't get it)
- Feb. 17 : Matchbatch: Match Marmaduke, Snoopy, Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, and Spuds Mackenzie with collie, German shepherd, bull terrier, beagle, and Great Dane. Answer below. (got them all with one left that just matched in the end!)
- Feb. 18 : translator: identify the following hairstyles: nectar collectors' family home; Confederate general's palindromic nickname; plot turn on the Riviera. (got the first and third ones right away, was stumped on the second)
- Feb. 19 : polygraph : Identical Twins have the same fingerprints. (got it)
- Feb. 23 : blankout : _U_ _ L_ C_ _ (hint: well-toned wheels) (got it)
- Feb. 24 : odd couple (pick the two that don't belong): tulip, amaryllis, sunflower, nasturtium, garlic (hint: bulbs) (yeah, nope. didn't get it)
- Feb. 26 : selectaquest (multiple choice): Who was the first woman to appear on a US postage stamp? Susan B. Anthony, Betsy Ross, Martha Washington, Queen Isabella of Spain. (got it)



*Answers*
Feb 2: False. They're all snowboarding events. Halfpipes so appear in skateboarding and in-line skating competitions, though.
Feb. 3: Soundtrack
Feb. 4: Mike Myers (starred in Wayne's World in 1992, the Austin Powers movies, and the Shrek films)
Feb. 5 : New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day. (I had Flag Day instead of Columbus Day)
Feb. 11 : Denzel Washington (graduated from Fordham University, starred in Malcolm X and American Gangster
Feb. 12: Once Upon a Time
Feb. 16: George Washington
Feb. 17: Match Marmaduke - Great Dane, Snoopy - beagle, Rin Tin Tin - German Shepherd, Lassie - collie, and Spuds Mackenzie- bull terrier. (Spuds is the one I had to leave until the end)
Feb. 18: beehive; bob; French twist (I'm guessing bob comes in with Robert E. Lee, but I was too busy thinking of better nicknames, like"The Marble Man" and "Old Flintlock" and "Stonewall"
Feb. 19: False. similar, but not identical.
Feb. 23: muscle car. after getting it, the hint made me giggle.
Feb. 24: sunflower and nasturtium (they grow from seeds)
Feb. 26: Queen Isabella of Spain (the stamp was part of a series printed in 1893 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World)

Google Reader

Continuing in the Friday series on websites and webtools that I love, and fittingly to go with RSS feeds, may I introduce... Google Reader!

Google Reader is a Google tool, obviously. Like I briefly mentioned last week, its basically used to capture all the new stuff on blogs and bring it to you, so you don't have to visit a bunch of websites every day, just to check if there's anything new. You have to have a Google Account to user Reader, but if you don't have one, get one. It's free. It's easy. It's great. And you get the use of a ton of tools (omg, Google Docs, I love thee).

Something to beware: not every website or publisher sends full articles to readers. Sometimes they only send headlines or a few sentences, and to read the rest you have to click on the title and be directed to the website.

To search for new stuff to add, you can try publications (like "New York Times") or authors (think "Dear Abby"), or even topics (play reviews, parenting, new movies). You can preview the subscription by reading previous posts, and decide to either click "subscribe" or "no, thanks." After you start using Google Reader often, it'll suggest things you may be interested in.
You can organize things with labeled folders.
You can "star" favorite things for keeps or to read later.
You can SHARE your favorites automatically.
When you become really advanced, there is a huge list of shortcut keys that can be used.

Now, I probably have very different interests than some of you, but if you're looking for some starter suggestions on things to read, here's what I subscribe to...
Theatre. Should've guessed. There are a TON of things you could subscribe to in that arena, but I don't want to spend 8 hours a day reading play reviews, so I limit myself to seven subscriptions. Broadway Scores and Sheet Music is seriously a feed that gives you links to download these items. Fascinating. I also have New York Theatre and The New York Times Theater section.
Board Gaming. Yep, it's a big hobby of mine, and I subscribe to nine blogs that write about it.
Yehuda and Boardgame News are my favorites.
Disney. I read eight Disney feeds. Jim Hill Media and Magical Mountain Disney News are great.
Education. Only four subscriptions, and of course one of them is The Chronicle. Another is hilarious yet still covers breaking news, DetentionSlip.
Zune. It's my mp3 player of choice, and I follow nine writers to find out the latest software and free downloads. The downside is that they all post multiple times per day, so I read very little other than articles that are of extreme interest, so I won't recommend any.
Local Stuff. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I subscribe to stuff around here, mostly to find out what's going on, what bands are coming to town, and what free stuff there is to do. I would highly suggest finding similar subscriptions for where you live. If you happen to be a local reader, I suggest Fun Things to do in the Bay Area, and Outdoors in the Bay Area.
I also read six blogs about Facebook, because I like to be current on all of the evolution of the site. And a bunch of other, non-grouped things, which I won't bore you with, because those are probably uninteresting to most, LoL.

If you use a Reader, what do you subscribe to?

That orange RSS button on the left

So, as you may have noticed, the dates of the posts are back, but the timestamps seem to be permanently lost, for no apparent reason. But oh well, dates are good enough for me. It's Friday, so another webtool is being featured.

It recently came to my attention that there are a lot of people who read blogs, but do not know what an RSS is. So, since I have had one on my blog for a while now, I figured it would be appropriate for me to explain it.

Now, even I had ten blogs I was reading daily before I jumped on the RSS Bandwagon. I had them all bookmarked in a folder, and every morning I'd click on each one to see if there was a new post. I was skeptical of the "Google Reader" that my husband uses for no good reason. So, after many arguments, he finally convinced me to give it a try. Needless to say, it became another addiction, much like Twitter. Basically, you either go through and click on a "subscribe" button in each blog you read, or if you choose to use Google Reader (there are others out there), just put in the web addresses of the blog homepages and it'll figure it out. Then, you can put them in categories (I have one for Friends and Family blogs, another for Disney blogs, one for Board Game blogs, and a few others) if you want. But, it'll go through and update immediately when someone posts. That way, you can read blogs like you read email in Outlook... meaning you don't have to hunt for it, you just check and see if there's any there or not.

Using that little orange button to subscribe just makes it easier for you to stay updated with my (or other) posts. You don't have to be very tech-savvy to start it up, and after you input a few websites, it will even begin to start suggesting similar ones you might want to follow.

Only about 10% of internet users subscribe to RSS feeds, even though it is FREE. So, I encourage you to give it a shot and subscribe to my blog. It'll help me see if anyone still reads this, since comments have gone few and far between, and I don't have a "hit counter," although I should probably consider adding one. I also added a poll to the left to try and generate some readers through giving them the power to choose topics, so we'll see how many votes that gets in the next month as well. My other blog also has a RSS option, so if you read that one too, hit that up.

Twitter

As you may have noticed, all of the date/timestamps on my blogs have disappeared. I don't know why, and I can't figure out how to get them back. They're still checked correctly in my settings/layout, so no idea. I'll get my husband to look at the html later and see if he can figure it out.

Anyway, on to today's topic. It's Twitter.

Twitter is yet another social networking tool. But it's pretty streamlined. No lists of favorite movies or birthdays to remember. Your profile is pretty much your name, location, a pic, a website, and a sentence about yourself. What it is that you frequently update is your status. It defaults by suggesting you write about "what you're doing" but many people add in links to news articles, write about songs on the radio or books that they're reading, or quotes that they've heard. You can follow certain people so that their updates (known as tweets) show up on your page (think Facebook's old-school wall). The catch? you only have 140 characters. :)

Your username gets an '@' in front of it, and that's how people refer to you. For instance, I'm @AmyKB. When you write a tweet and want to reference someone, using the @ will make it act as a reply to that person. So you can respond to tweets this way, or even through direct message (which don't go out to everyone like the @ messages do).

There are a ton of applications to make it more user-friendly, for your iphone or firefox, and you can even update via text message from your cell phone. You can link them, as my twitter status shows up here on my blog (and on my other blog) and my facebook. Lots of famous people are on twitter, including the Dalai Lama (@OHHDLInfo). I've found a bunch of friends to follow, as well as people I admire (like those who are developers of my favorite online game). You can also find people tweeting about a specific topic, marked by hashes, like #election or #SF (for San Francisco).

It's not something for everyone, and if you stop paying attention to it, you could quite possibly forget about it and that'll be it. My husband has been on it for probably close to a year by now, and I joined up last summer, just before "conference season." I would totally recommend it to anyone. If you haven't heard of it, I'm not sure what rock you've been under. We're already at the point where there are regional "tweet-ups" and "twestivals" (of which there was one in Mountain View just last night, and one in Charlotte last week), and it is doing a fair job of taking over some attention from various organizations. Several universities and even some K-12 schools have implemented Twitter for various purposes. It's pretty awesome when you think about it that way.

it's twitter.com if you want to check it out!