Back to Work

When you are your own boss, how do you complain about management? I haven't had an outside boss in quite a while. I am the boss. Of me. I get to determine what I will do and when I will do it. It's heady stuff. Until you need to blame someone and there is no one to blame.

So I decided I needed a break. I had "things to do" and "places to go." So I took some time off. In fact, since my bibliography has time stamped items in it, I know I took 20 days off. I'm not sure what I really did in three weeks time, but I know what I didn't do. I didn't write.

Oh, I wrote a blog entry or maybe even two. I wrote some flash fiction. I wrote a few lead articles for my Wednesday RGQ issue, since I volunteered to take on another free writing assignment. What I didn't write was any history essays.

I baked eight types of cookies. I went to visit family in Florida along with the regular visits to Hilton Head. I decorated the house for Christmas. I continued with my hospital volunteer stint. I did lots of stuff.

My old laptop was trying to die. And rather than wait until everything was lost and computers were once again full price, I got a new laptop. That meant I had two days of setting up a new laptop to get it to where it was once again functional for me. I had to install the programs I wanted. I had to update the things I needed to update. I had to delete the preinstalled stuff I didn't want. It took two days.

Much of that time was spent downloading the games I play on the computer. I had many, many games. I have some games once again installed. I really didn't play all the games I had on the other computer, but I played lots. I have been doing that as well. Playing games.

I find it relaxing to play games but I always look back and think what I could have been doing instead that would have been far more productive. I know I could have January completely finished instead of only one-quarter done if only I had been writing instead of playing games.

The trouble is the boss didn't make me. The boss let me slack off for a while. I gave myself a free pass. And now I feel like I'm behind. I'm not really behind, but I'm not as far ahead as I like to be.

So today I got on the Wii and then the elliptical. I got showered and dressed and sat down to write. I know all about an ice storm that hit Canada and the northeast US in 1998. I know about Prague Spring and Alexander Dubcak's efforts to bring freedom to Czechoslovakia. I learned about Marie Montessori and a horrible fire at Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa.

And I remembered why I enjoy doing this. I love learning. I knew about Montessori schools, but not as much as I know now. And I had never heard about any of the other stuff. I suppose I knew about the ice storm, but it didn't really register. I was in Ohio and unaffected.

Now I know things. They aren't Earth shattering things and I lived quite well before today in spite of not knowing them. But my life is now richer; my experience of history is broader. And if I'm going to broaden something, I would much rather it be my horizons.

Ah, the glory of being back to work. 

Learning to be Unobservant

I've been online for over a decade. I pay my access fee and do very little shopping via the Internet. I'm told shopping online is a wonderful way to outwit the maddening throng and save gas. Great.

I shop mostly in the Clearance Aisles and it is difficult to find what I want online. I also always try on the clothing before I purchase anything because they aren't truthful with the sizing. I can wear anything from a size 6 to a size 12 and have it fit. So I have to try clothing on.

Shopping online is not an adventure for me. I don't have a PayPal or an eBay account. I've used neither – ever.

Online advertisements are an irritating fact of life. Watching television offers one the same delight. The promotional time is when I fast forward my not-TiVo recorded shows or when I get up and hit the kitchen or bathroom, depending on where I was during the last commercial break.

That's not so much of an option with webpages. Instead, I've learned to just not really see the ads. They have flashing crap and five second animations that play over and over and are supposed to draw the eye. Instead, more and more people are learning to simply ignore the distraction.

The really annoying ones are those that scream at me as I load a page. Thankfully, I'm not out there reading Dear Abby while I'm supposed to be working. Those loud ads can really get you in trouble in a cube farm. I'm not sure what the creator was thinking. "Let's make this so horrible that no one will use any site that uses our ads during working hours." Perhaps it was devised by someone who actually owns a company.

Since we all installed Pop-up blockers, they went to Pop Under ads. There you are reading some text and all of a sudden, the page shifts to the IQ for Dummies or something. They tell you they think you are stupid for even looking at the ad and this is supposed to help somehow? TIP: If you leave one pop under ad open, it will just keep reloading and let you read subsequent pages without flashing the screen all over.

Lately, Webshots has been using highly intrusive ads. They usurp the entire screen and make you click something to get to the page that was the original URL. I don't click on anything I haven't selected for myself. TIP: Hit refresh or F5, or simply click on your Favorite or Bookmark again – the annoying thing only loads the first hit of the day.

Why are the ads getting so annoying that the pages themselves are almost unusable? What good is this supposed to do? I understand a recession and downturn of the economy. What I don't understand is making life so miserable for the consumer, they don't even want to use your product. The smaller ads pay by the number of hits, and who will visit a site that becomes so annoying?

People who make ads: Your advertisement is not the feature of the webpage and should not usurp the page in question. Businesses that run websites: Don't tick off your loyal users, because there are billions of pages out there and we may just get too tired of trying to outwit your scheming little hearts.

Protip: Left click and hit close and you never have to see the pop under ad.

The computer is your friend, it's other users you need to watch out for.

Circles

Life just keeps on even when I'm too tired to match the pace. Or, time flies when you are having fun. I don't really know which is the problem, but I do know it has been too long since I've posted something here.

I have no idea why I feel I must continually post something here. That may need examination.

Things have been happening.

1. I was sick and it took much longer to recover than I thought it would.
2. We went away for Thanksgiving and I was away from my computer. This should have made the world slow down if not come to a complete stop. It didn't. I will need to find the reason for this.
3. While at my son's house, I spied a grainy picture on his desk. It was the Nugget! My newest grandchild. But I wrecked his surprise and that saddened me. He told me I could use his computer. He even came into his office and started it up for me. But I wrecked the surprise. Morgan is getting so old already. She will be almost three before the next one gets here. Another chance to get it all right. I can't wait.
4. The writing forum where I'm a moderator had a firestorm over the weekend with me smack dab in the middle of it. It was time consuming (hours and hours of time consumed) and the teenager on the provoking side still, to this very minute, does not see anything wrong with his behavior. He is aggrieved and his little feelings are destroyed because Copernicus was correct. It is all so sad. I got a headache, this kid got a dose of reality, and the forum got to see a public tantrum thrown by a self-righteous whiner. This kid does not need any help in raising his self of steam. He has more than his share already.
5. Bruce retired from RGQ. Mike writes the Monday and Friday lead article. He also works. The administration side of RGQ fell into his lap. He could, if absolutely needed, write a Wednesday article. The ezine could go to a twice a week format. Or, I could write the Wednesday article. Bruce approached me this past spring and asked if I would mind doing that. Bruce, Mike, and I all agreed that my history piece would remain even on Wednesday – me reluctantly. Today was my debut.

So, I've been running in circles without accomplishing as much as I had hoped. I was to have completed and proofread June by now, but I'm still not finished. I really need to get working on my upcoming history pieces so when I have to write the lead, I have the space to work.

I need to finish up Christmas shopping. I need to write my Christmas letter and get my Christmas cards sent out. I need to start baking my Christmas cookies. I need to begin working on scrapbooks I wish to build. I need to ….

I have a massage scheduled for later this morning. That's what I really need