dixiblog.com

“I had a question,” Mom says. I know what that means–it’s tech support for Mom time!

“Yeah?”

“Do you think I could type something on the internet to see if hotels in certain cities are pet-friendly?”

“Well, that’s what I’d probably do if I wanted to know that, yeah.”

“What would I type? ‘Pet-friendly hotels’ and the city?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d try.” Mmmm hmmm.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if that would work.”

“I dunno, Mom. I haven’t tried that specific search. But the internet has lots of information, and lots of hotels are online. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to find some that way.”

“Where do I type it?” she wants to know.

“Whatever search engine you use. Do you use google?”

“I don’t know. I type stuff in. Sometimes I get the Google, sometimes I get the Yahoo. I have that little e thing i use…”

“Yeah, that’s internet explorer, Mom. That’s your browser. I don’t know what start page you have set.”

“How do I get to that Google?” she wants to know.

“You type ‘google.com’ in the top. It takes you to the Google.”

“Ok, I’ll try that.” She’s happy. I am too. It wasn’t too painful to tell her how to get the Google.

“Don’t you get tired of me nagging you?” I ask her.

“Yes, actually I do.”

“Well, there’s one sure fire way to end all nagging forever! It’s easy…simply take care of your business without me nagging you about it, and you’ve just permenately cashed in your ticket for the guilt trip express for all eternitiy! End all nagging in one easy step. Doesn’t that sound great? You can end all nagging without resorting to killing me in my sleep. Much easier. And your shit gets done at the same time.”

“I don’t have to kill you in your sleep,” she responds. “The Roomba’s gonna do it for me.” (She had gone off on a tangent yesterday trying to convince me the Roomba is demonic. Of course, I know Roomby is my close personal friend. Any entity who does the vaccumming without bitching cannot, by definition, be demonic.)

“Don’t count on it! Doing your shit is much more reliable. And the Roomba is my friend. You know that.”

Roomba is a good little robot. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. He’s just scared of her. He’s heard tales about the carpet in her room.

The Caucus - very short video of me and the fam.

We went to the Republican Caucus this morning to vote for Ron Paul…It felt WEIRD to register Republican, but whaddya gonna do? There was a HUGE turnout…somewhere close to a thousand people, I am sure…the pic from the line wasn’t even all of it! We waited in line about an hour to check in, which ultimately consistend of getting a colored sticker to put on the ballot. Then we waited about another hour, sitting on the floor by the wall, for others to check in and finally, for people to speak briefly for each campaign, and then to vote.

The biggest cheers during the speeches came for the Huckabee speakers, followed by the RP speakers. The McCain speaker got some token applause, but that’s about it. I only saw one McCain sign the whole time there-the lady looked just like the “funny glasses lady” on the Old Navy performance fleece commerical-and one small McCain Button (and that was on the guy who spoke for him).

And we were far from the only Paul supporters there, as you can see. In our district, about 23% voted for Paul.  (Click on an image for a larger version. Had to doctor the pic with the overall guy, because the damn Huckabee guy in front of me covered part of it with his sign. So that’s why it looks funny.)

My kid was there, too. She just isn’t in this pic. She was playing “Diner Dash” on the cellphone while we were waiting.

Now, I’m not clueless. I know RP doesn’t have a lot of delegates and with Romney dropping out, there’s less of a chance of a brokered convention now, which was his best chance to win the nomination. But you know what? It still feels good to be involved in the process. It’s been YEARS since I felt like my contribution mattered at all, let alone felt inspired by listening to a politician speak about freedom and liberty, and I’m glad that’s changed. So screw “electibility.”  I think that the only real way to “waste my vote” is to vote for someone I don’t believe in or skip voting at all because I don’t think my choice is “popular” enough. I’ve never made my decisions based on popularity, and I have no intention of starting now.

We had a really good time, even though it was tiring and a HUGE amount of waiting. Afterwards, we went out to eat at Old Chicago’s and then made a Walmart run. I’m really glad we went…

I think I have a nap in my future… Best of wishes to everyone who is involved in the process this year, regardless of who you’re supporting. It’s pretty damned cool to live in a place where we have the option of supporting what we believe in, after all. Pretty damned cool.

Peace out.

mercury going retro the 28th of january. that’s now, ya’ll.

i give “merc retro alerts” when we hit the roughly 3-week patches a few times a year when mercury, the messenger, goes retro. standard advice includes avoiding new projects, reviewing old ones, allowing for technology glitches and delays and the like…many times, my web server goes down during mercury retros. this time, i just have a couple domains that will be down, so i hope that has me covered for the tech gliches. ha!

 elsa-my favorite online astrologer - has a 1-minute astrology video about this merc rx here.  (note: even if you’re not into the astrology in the least, i still highly recommend elsa’s 1-minute astrology video series. you can totally ignore all the astrological references, and you’ll still get some damned good food for thought out of it.)

in short: communication slooooooowwwsss down and must be controlled and responsible. elsa’s advice: don’t let anybody push you to rush. good luck, friends!

Testing the software I installed at LCE to do social networking stuff for blog and forum posts.

This is my blog post here..

 Trying with the VBSEO url now..

This is a linkback to an LCE Test Post! I’d like to be able to show the folks what a linkback looks like!

I’d been to the grocery store. She’d slept. A lot.

“I got you some Dr. Pepper in bottles instead of the cans. I figured your room could use a change in decor.”

She laughed. She couldn’t very well deny that the most prominent feature of her current “decorating” scene is about seventeen kabillion empty popcans. My daughter takes procrasitination beyond the level of ordinary humans.

“And I got you a can of Oust. Outdoor scent. A whole can. Just for you. So you can get some idea of what the rest of the world smells like.”

“Are you joking?” She’s incredulous.

 ”No, I’m totally serious. I picked it up and it made me laugh. Thought it would do you good to smell simulated outdoors. So I bought you your own can of Outdoor Scent Oust.”

I also suggested she might want to engage in some productive activity.  :mrgreen: 

Damn. Has it been that long since I’ve posted here? Holy shit.

 Well, yeah, I’ve been busy as Hell. Everybody and their brother wants to do web projects at the first of the year, man. They drive me nuts.

I’ve also been real busy on LCE. After the move to the new site, I had a bughunt; any big move is bound to bring out little weird shit afterwards. This is a complicated site running complicated software configurations, and there is stuff to work out. I still have lots of the content to bring over. (I’m also taking a hit on earnings because of this–less pages = fewer search engine hits = fewer ads = less revenue. Ow!) So lots to do still! I thought I’d have a break after the move, but it’s not been much yet. And I want to stay active on the site, too. I think it makes a difference to the members there, and that’s important to me.

Plus day-to-day life. It’s a lot! I’m not stressed. Well, ok, there is stress, but it’s not heavy, unbearable stress. It’s stretched-schedule stress. I’ve been here before and I know how it works.

 Anywho, that’s the scoop.

Hope all of you out there are having a lovely Holiday season…I finally got my low carb site launched, more or less (LCE). I’ve been working very hard, and I’m glad to take a couple of days off. Still lots to do, but my biggest task–switching from the old server to the new one–is done.

Anyway, I’m taking it easy tonight, and hope you are, too. Merry Fuckin’ Christmas, folks!