Category Archives: blogging

Friday Links!

blogging,

Asteroid With Six Tails Looks Like A Lawn Sprinkler.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to Sign Marriage Equality Bill on November 20.

Meet the 32 Senate Republicans who voted to continue LGBT discrimination in the workplace.

ENDA: Stuck in a ’90s Time Warp.

A College Freshman Turned in Jezebel Blog Post as His Homework.

Rand Paul is sinking fast — but hopes we won’t notice.

Burglar Invades Old Lady’s House Only to Find She’s a Competitive Axe-Thrower.

I think he’s underused on Arrow, thought they had made better use of him on Teen Wolf, but in neither case did I know that Colton Haynes could sing:
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Friday Links!

blogging,

Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month! If you’ve never tried NaNoWriMo I highly encourage it.

9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher.

Wyoming’s smallest town, population 1, is set to become the birthplace of a Vietnamese coffee empire.

Surfers ride ‘biggest ever’ waves at Nazare during St Jude’s Day storm (and barely live to tell the tale).

Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who has been a loyal defender of the NSA, breaks ranks to oppose US spying on allies.

“Lost World” Discovered in Remote Australia.

Creating Great Guerrilla, Sabotage and Ambient Marketing.

Op-ed: LGBT Kids In The Bible Belt Need Our Help.

I’ve had this song on my phone for six weeks… and this is not how I imagined he might make a video of it. And it’s a little freaky how a costume and facial hair change can transform someone:
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And a couple of naughty songs from Mister Chase:
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This is incredibly wonderful (and thanks to Rahirah for the link!)
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Friday Links!

blogging,

First, read this: THE BILL AND TED SHOW AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IS SUPER HOMOPHOBIC (AND ALSO RACIST AND TERRIBLE).

Then this: Universal Studios axes ‘Bill & Ted’ show with gay, mincing Superman.

And this: Black Teen Cuffed, Put in Cell After $350 Barneys Purchase Because Cops Don’t Believe a Black Kid Can Make That Much Money.

And this: How Texas’ Voter ID Laws Affect Women.

And then tell me again that there is no discrimination or bigotry any more?

Meanwhile, McDonald’s helps workers get food stamps. Um, instead of, maybe, paying a living wage?

Little evidence yet that Obamacare costing full-time jobs.

Undercover Seattle cop trained as drywaller to investigate abusive contractor.

Enough of the serious stuff, here’s a silly interview with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Cat vs Windshield Wipers:
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Stalking Kitten vs Cat:
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And why do we have to wait until next year for this:
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Friday Links!

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The Octopus That Almost Ate Seattle.

What year is it? KKK Battles With Town Over Renaming School Named For Klan Founder (Our local alt-weekly paper headlined it’s covered of this story, “If the KKK Doesn’t Want You to Change the Name of Your School, You Should Probably Change the Name of Your School” my thought is, if someone thinks refering to people uncomfortable with the name as “many bestial blacks and other criminal elements out for revenge” should seal the deal)

The creator of Calvin & Hobbes: Mental Floss Exclusive Interview with Bill Watterson.

This, Right Here, Is The Problem. “…this is why women are routinely mocked by sexist, skeezy shits who think that finding us attractive must necessarily invalidate whatever point we’re making…”

The Marriage Equality Movement Could Change Dramatically In The Next Two Weeks.

What we Teach Men.

Houston Chronicle Expresses Regrets For Endorsing Cruz.

Morning Radio Host Interviews Psychic and Puts Him to Shame.

The religious right is a fraud: Nothing Christian about Michele Bachmann’s values.

Rachel Maddow sums up the government shut down fight’s accomplishments (click here if the video isn’t embedding properly):
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And sometimes you need a band and a bus to propose marriage:
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Friday Links!

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It’s National Coming Out Day!

Set some time aside to look at all the pictures and watch the videos: The cave so huge it has its own weather system: Explorers discover a lost world with thick cloud and fogs trapped inside.

The Oatmeal explains: Columbus was an awful person, but Bartolome de la Casa was not.

While that was being shared, other people wanted to remind us: The Oatmeal Sucks, Even if Buzzfeed Was Wrong.

I don’t even know where to begin: Landlord discovers 11-foot python in rental property: undernourished, abandoned, burned because it had wrapped itself around a water heater for warmth. “the second time in a month that law enforcement has asked for assistance from WSU to catch a large snake according to College of Veterinary Medicine officials.”

25 years of National Coming Out Day:
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SCIENCE: JERKS DON’T UNDERSTAND SARCASM.

Public Couple Fights Anti-Gay Bullying and Alleged Censorship.

Why is Betty White changing her name:
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Friday Links!

blogging,

This is an (almost) all-video edition of Friday Links. Enjoy!

Better This Way:
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Ralph Bear, Father of the Video Game Console, still inventing at 90:
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Maru has a younger sister:
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A Capella Science – Bohemian Gravity!
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You don’t have to understand the lyrics to enjoy this music video (the dancing alone is worth it). The title translates into English as, “Dad, where are you?”
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Don’t forgot to check for a new comic at Deerme.net.
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And what week would be complete without a Mr. Cow strip?

Friday links

blogging,

Every now and then, I just want to share cool things found on the web.

Patrick Stewart recites a poem his aunt used recite, in his native Huddlesfield accent and dialect:
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John Barrowman responds to a question at this year’s Dragon Con about finally be able to get legally married:
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And once you mention John and Dragon Con, you have to go look at this clip from last year’s Dragon Con:
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This one is in two parts. First, a couple opens a business on Orcas Island, and on the flagpole in front of their business they flew a U.S. flag with a rainbow flag beneath… until someone objected:

Guest Opinion: Fear is Ignorance; Anonymity is Cowardly

As news spread, other businesses were displeased that one or two of their neighbors had anonymously made the new couple feel unwelcome…

…so dozens of businesses banded together to have rainbow flags flying on their buildings by Labor Day.

Then, this not-safe-for-work response to the strangely homophobic “Roast of James Franco” on Comedy Central:

REMINDER: When anti-gay Christianist hate groups call for nationwide boycotts of LGBT-friendly companies, that is a righteous use of the free market in order to preserve morality, marriage, family, and The American Way. But when GAY groups use or threaten the use of a boycott, THAT is homofascist intimidation, intolerance, bullying, and a “mafia-style” attempt to deny the freedom of speech. (Hello, Oregon!) Just so we’re clear.

Jon interviews the UN Refugee Agency representative in charge of the refugee camps in countries surrounding Syria. It’s not comedy, it’s a serious interview covering a story everyone else is ignoring.

Mr. Cow adjusts after being returned by the aliens.

And check out Deer Me!

And now, your moment of What???

Edit: I was trying to link to a Daily Show clip, but it doesn’t seem to work. Try this link to a Crooks and Liars story that contains the video instead.

Juggling chainsaws

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I often use the metaphor of juggling to describe my work load. Particularly since my work is often covered by multiple non-disclosure agreements, it’s best I keep things metaphorical and oblique.

Because of re-orgs and various forms of attrition, we no longer have a technical writing team, instead we’ve been separated so that divisions and/or groups of the company have one (singular) tech writer each. For months my boss (a director of software development in a group within a division) has been worried about my workload this summer, because when we plotted the projects, based on my estimate of the total hours required for the doc sets of each of the projects, their deadlines, and the typical distribution of my workload (for waterfall projects most of my time and effort is needed during the last two and a half phases), July and August looked like they would require more than 80 hours each week from me.

It hasn’t come to that, for several reasons (one being that I know what that kind of workload did to my health when I was stupid enough to do it in my thirties; I don’t want to find out how much worse it would make me feel in my fifties—so I found ways to pull a lot of the work into earlier phases), but I am running very ragged, juggling the six or seven full-sized chainsaws, a couple of lighter chainsaws, plus a couple of knives and at least one flaming baton.

I’m surprised I managed to keep the blog going as well as I did in July. Things may be very spotty for a while.

Better to stay silent and thought wise

blogging,

I finished a long post last night. I’ve been working on it a few days. It’s highly personal, though I think it contains important information that I think people should hear.

Because most of the people in the story are members of my extended family (which is very extended), I even came up with fake names for everyone. But as I re-read the finished piece, I felt uncomfortable putting that much detail out there, even when it is somewhat anonymized. At least not without the permission of those involved.

And I know quite well some would never give permission.

Which left me wondering why I thought it was a good idea in the first place.

I know why this particular string of events, a story that meanders through a couple of decades of my life, has been on my mind this week. Maybe I just needed to process it all from today’s perspective, now that some years have passed since the “ending.”

Or maybe I needed a good reminder of why not everything is meant for public consumption.

What I ate for breakfast (not)

blogging,

My friend, Sheryl, likes to characterize a particular form of blogging as “what I ate for breakfast” posting. It’s easy to fall into the trap. You feel as if you should post something, and you may think of your blog as being the equivalent of sitting down to coffee with your friends, so you just babble about minutiae of your life without regard to how many people might actually be interested.

One reason that that sort of thing works in a face-to-face conversation is because there is (usually) a give and take. If you start to talk about the scrambled eggs you made, a friend might comment that they have never been any good at scrambled eggs, or another might comment about how their spouse is allergic to eggs, and the next thing you know, the topic has drifted to something else that everyone is interested in. But with your own blog, without any immediate nonverbal feedback from your friends, it’s really easy to just go on and on…

I try to avoid that, but one problem is that we don’t all classify minutiae the same way. I have posted, over the years on various blog and blog-like places, about my continuing battle with hay fever. That’s why I started titling those posts, when the topic comes up again, “Why I hate hay fever, reason #NNNN” with a new number in the thousands. I hope that the headline conveys to people that I know I’m about to babble about a topic that I’ve mentioned a lot, and even if you are a close personal friend who regularly comments on my blog, I will not be offended in the slightest if you just skip right over the post, perhaps thinking to yourself “Oh, no! Not again!”

A related phenomenon are long and/or frequent blog posts about the purpose of the blog, the nature of blogging, or the philosophy of blogging. Which is perfectly fine to do every now and then, particularly if you’re making a major change, and want to give people fair warning that this blog which used to be about your favorite local sports teams will from now on be all about collecting porcelain dolls.

I’m not making a major change. But based on a couple of comments I’ve received (not as comments on the blog, but either in email or in person), I thought I ought to mention that I’ve been using the Schedule feature here on WordPress, a lot.

Before I moved my primary blog to WordPress, it had always been the case that at any given time I had three, four, or a couple dozen essays/posts on various topics in various stages of completion. Some were completely done, and I was waiting for an appropriate time to post them. Most are only partial drafts. I poke at all of them from time to time, until they get finished and then become tomorrow’s post.

Frequently, thanks to confluences of events and the fickleness of my muse, three, four, or more will all get finished in a single evening or over the course of a Sunday afternoon when we don’t have anywhere else to be. So I wind up scheduling posts to go live around noon my local time over the next three to five days.

One of the reasons multiple postings will get done at nearly the same time is because they are on related topics. I have more than one aspect of a particular thing that I want to comment on, so I break it into different posts and set them to publish on consecutive days, for instance. What can I say? I am something of a motor mouth.

If something comes up that I feel I have to post about right away when I already have a bunch of days scheduled, I bump the others back and post the new thing.

In case you were curious.