Names are very important. Yes.

Exhibit A: Screenshot of
late afternoon otter talk

I've been meaning to address a name issue for a little while and am finally doing so now as I've found the reference I've been searching for. In this reference (see Exhibit A: Screenshot of late afternoon otter talk), mention was made of pup 540 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium hopefully getting a proper name in short order. A happy German asian small-clawed otter celebrity remarked that "all otters should have proper names! Where I come from (Aquazoo) we do get names. Yes."

Nemo is adorable, and of course his sentiments are something hubby and I have worked into conversations more and more. Like, "I think we should have fish for dinner. Yes.", etc. Notice that I've blued out the last part of my name - that's because I use my maiden and married names on Facebook, mainly as I never use my husband's last name otherwise. I'm not sure if he'd like to be well known on this blog since he's more of an introvert than I am, so I've greened his name out. For all intents and purposes, my legal name is pretty much obviously obvious in this blog's url, so I'm not hiding who I am, I'm just sharing my more personal side under a different name in the Facebook screenshots. Just wanted to clear that up for anyone wondering.

Speaking of the importance of names, descriptions are also very important, especially when people are involved (more so than inanimate objects anyway, even though Ikea has done a great job with naming their products). Yes. Like how hubby is an INTP and I'm an INFJ (unless he's temporarily INFP and I'm temporarily ENFJ). Like how the Texas Rangers are the 2010 and 2011 ALCS Champions. (Hopefully they'll be the 2011 World Series Champions as well; it's 1-1 with the St. Louis Cardinals at present. This is a Very Important Thing here in North Texas, this description.) Like Nancy Upton is not the Next Big Thing but doesn't need to be since she's perfectly awesome as she is. If you're not familiar with the name Nancy Upton or the whole Next Big Thing thing, educate yourself here. And swoon over her hotness here and here. You're welcome.

I'm so confused (but not really).

I'm eagerly hoping that the DNS propagation thing finishes quickly so my website can resolve. Um, the website that I'm consolidating everything under, like photography and writing and social media and whatevs. I decided to pay a little extra for an easier interface and I am flipping out still. I'm so used to DirectAdmin that cPanel so far is seemingly shockingly suspiciously easy to work with, or would be when I figure out where everything is. It's confusing. I'm not used to my interface opening every single thing-I-wanna-work-with in a separate tab. It is freaking. me. out. big time. but I'm sure it'll get easier.

I'm mainly curious as to if it'll be easier for several of my peeps to work with since I'm aiming to transition web work to them. Like, will my kinfolk be able to grok which feature does what? Will my small business owner friends be able to pick things up more quickly with this interface or the other one? Like I said, hopefully my site will resolve soon so I don't get error reports and can actually see what the page looks like live. I'd be able to see what it should look like if I were using DirectAdmin, so I'm sure the feature is in cPanel somewhere but I haven't found where yet. This is confusing me way too much, for something that should be easier to work with. Then again, one of my mottos is, "Why do things the easy way when you can do them the hard way?" so *shrug*.

One of my Facebook friends shared a text photo that says, "Missing someone isn't about how long it's been since you've seen them or the amount of time since you talked. It's about that very moment when you find yourself doing something and wishing they were right there by your side." I commented, "Very true. Some days, like today, it's pretty sucky, but for the most part it's great when this happens. :)" Today's a private anniversary day for me (when there is celebration of something significant in one of my past lives within this life), and this one has me not as nostalgic as past years but more frustrated with lack of overall communication with a person related to this day. I'm not going to describe this as well as I'd like because I don't have the perfect words, but I'm a bit sad that I can't talk with this person as I used to. There were years of friendly banter and these conversations of greatness that would occur, and for some years there's been nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. (Okay, maybe 1 or 2 brief things if whatever subject was interesting, I guess.) And that's fine, really, since life changes, but to me it's such a shame when people don't maintain friendly relationships even superficially (like dropping a random note a few times a year). I'm on friendly speaking terms with people who've been way more involved with huge intensely messy parts of my life, and most of them are not as nifty as the person I'm thinking about, so I'm all "what a waste" right now. Sigh.

That said, there are somewhat equivalent people in my life I'd rather not hear from more than once or twice a year (and I'm sure I'm in this category with said person above), but I'd still love to hear from them and catch up with them about life things. There are also people I converse with on Facebook a bit more superficially than that (dropping random comments whenever, and sometimes sharing various media bits), and I miss them and they know it. That's how things should be. Most times they miss me too, and that's always neat. I haven't seen any of these people I'm talking about in for-freaking-ever, but that's okay. Now I'm a little confused on what my point is, besides that I wish I heard from some people more often and like before, but some things are too much to ask from life, and that's sad. It's like, some people are idiots, and they can't help but be idiots, but they could at least try to not be so idiotic. (See, not a good description, but you know what I mean.)

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Hrrrm.

The iPad actually seems to be doing great. It hasn't crashed and hasn't gotten stuck. Amazing. I think it's because I gave it a static IP address. Why this didn't work on the other two, who knows, but it seems to be working well enough that I'm comfortable with putting an anti-glare sticky on the screen. Still not sure about upgrading to the iPhone 4S any time soon.

I had two mild heart leaps while looking at Google News, both because of past jobs I've had. My diocesan past life made me wonder if I knew the Catholic bishop in Kansas City charged with not alerting police about child porn. (Don't know him.) My disaster preparedness past life made me wonder if I knew the deputy director at the CDC arrested for child molestation and bestiality. (Don't know her.) It's a small world but thankfully it's still plenty spacious for me.

I'm savoring the first block of Ghirardelli's Sea Salt Soiree bar - dark chocolate with coarse sea salt and roasted almonds. I've been wary of the sea salt dessert epidemic even though it sounds tasty in my mind. So far, me likey. Later tonight I'm going to try a Woodchuck Pumpkin cider. I'm so thrilled I actually found a 6 pack - the production run is only 2 1/2 hours so there aren't a lot of bottles of the stuff out there. Very much looking forward to enjoying it!

OMG!!! SO EXCITED!!! CAN'T SLEEP!!!

Brian is one of my husband's most favorite people in the history of ever. They knew each other back in college and I really really really need to meet Brian in person someday. Brian is an art professor and designated me as his muse ages ago. I adored him to begin with but I adore him even more for this. Also, he's very, very hot. :)

At around midnight, birthday boy Brian and his partner Tim "got engaged. Barefoot in the grass. Under a full moon. Surrounded by a circle of hippies spinning fire. Who raised a canopy of flaming swords over them. After Brian proposed with a hand-woven copper ring, laden with historical significance." Best Marriage Proposal Ever!! Many many congrats to them!! *smooches and hugs and more wine for all!*

Since I have a lifelong mission of spreading the damn love, lookie here!

Part 1

Part 2

Beautiful photo

*swoon!*

In other news, I started tweeting a little again, and deleted all the photos from 3 different photo services used between 320 and 699 days ago. Gonna go through the last few years of tweets and remove the crap ones like Foursquare bleats and various other craps, but am going through my photography discussion groups on LinkedIn since I haven't done that in like three months. Oh, the Vicodin I took earlier kicked in after 2.5 hours, and it's helped somewhat with the muscle relaxation (along with a bottle of Woodchuck Fall cider - nom!). I'm still awfully stiff but am just kinda spacing now, from that and from the need to get to sleep, but I'm in work mode, and blah! Did you see that photo and the videos above? Were those not uber-cool!?? :)

Blah blah update

I think I'm done adjusting the look of this blog, with the fonts and colors and nachos and car keys. The background photo is one I took earlier this year. I need to prep it for sales but today is not that day. Today is the day for thieving a generic Vicodin from my husband, who has a few left over from wisdom tooth surgery from a few months ago. It's only a 5/500, so will only make my stiff muscles feel better for about 30 minutes. Mrawr. I need it today though - more later on that.

I'm pretty convinced that my router is working fine and dandy, but because I have better things to do with my time, I'm going to get another one and start a new setup for everything. I'm looking for a good wireless dual band gigabit router since I won't have to worry about overlapping surrounding networks or equipment upgrade-this-and-that for years. I'll get right on that, eh, probably tomorrow. So far the new-to-me iPad has only dropped 3 times, but I haven't been on it as much as before (yet).

Tomorrow I'll also look at new mobile phones in more detail. I have the iPhone 3GS and am thrilled that it's working again (guess who dropped it in the Apple store the other day and caused it to not be able to shut off or snap screenshots?). However, I surf less on that since I downgraded to a cheaper data plan, plus I'm on the computer or iPad more often. It makes and receives phone calls plus gives me access to quick checks of email, and I'm good with that. I don't use many apps so no biggie there. The 4S would be nifty but pre-order fulfillment is at 21-28 days (last time I checked, anyway), and the 5 should be out by next June or October... another year at most to wait, anyway. I have a separate "real" compact camera and separate iPod classic and separate Kindle so don't need to waste the phone battery for pics and entertainment and books (oh my). It's great while out and about, but for full time non-stop use, eh, kinda weak.

I will be vegging for the rest of the day. Seeing my LMTs and chiropractors this morning helped with wellness, although I have to go back in 6 days (next Monday) because I'm still jacked. I feel 60% improved overall compared with last week, when my main chiro squeeze for the last 9 years couldn't move anything at all, but I saw a different guy today and he had better luck. Everything was pretty much back to normal except for the neck. C4/C5 moved on my right side, but that was it. He told me that I impressed him very much, since my neck was being very resistant to him using more force than usual. I don't think he's experienced this with anyone else so far, based on his amazement at my bulletproof Cardassianish sternocleidomastoids. My SCMs aren't usually an issue, either. My usual involves the trapezius, rhomboids, scalenes, omohyoids, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and I'm probably missing something. Occasionally there'll be gunk with other muscles, but only occasionally.

For the record, my chiro peeps are not woo. They work with evidence-based science and promote nutrition with exercise instead of simply trusting energy waves to do physical work for them. They are also very highly trained in Active Release Technique and 20 minutes of ART helps me more than a 110 minute sports-type table massage. Really, it's literally that awesome. I know there are cases of people being seriously injured with chiropractic care, but these people work on local tri- and other athletes and Olympic medalists, so I trust them, especially as they're not woo. I think woo chiropractic harms more than helps, and is probably the cause of why injuries happen. (I don't know this for sure; research is needed, but I wouldn't be surprised.)

Speaking of science, I got put on the e-stim machine at the end again, for the 4th visit in a row. This has not been a normal thing for me. I'd much rather do my 2 minutes on the VersaClimber before getting iced, thankyouverymuch!! Today I got a heat pack instead of the usual ice packs, and it helped. Next week they're moving me from the initial hydrobed therapy straight to the e-stim and heat, and then the usual work. Yay. Oh yeah - the e-stim and heat relaxed my muscles enough that I went back to bug the chiropractor to check to see if I had a rib out on my left side. He felt around, said he didn't feel anything, then got me into position for a reset. Sure enough, I had one out on my left side, which is unusual for me. Ribs 2-3 on my right side have gone in and out so many times over the years (aggravated by repetitive motions like housework or filing or breathing) that I think I may have popped them back in this morning on my own. Yeah, deffo getting that Vicodin (aka hydrocodone/APAP) now.

Use the right kind of protection.

This art "has been commended as being strongly
vaginal, which bothers some men. The word itself
makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina."
(Maude Lebowski) 

Yesterday I went back to the local Apple store with the replacement iPad, which was also wonky in the same way (dropping wifi every few minutes). The store is in a mall and this year's Canstruction is in full swing. Some of it is nice. Some of it is great. One art was so Lebowskian that I had to snap a pic.

Frustrated 3rd techie to work with me/it that day walked off after 15 minutes trying things. He then brought me another new one. All replacements have been iPad1, 32 GB with wifi since that's what I had. He suggested WPA / WPA2 personal instead of WEP security, and I'm like duh. (Turns out he has hacker friends who could hack into WPA-protection in an hour but can hack into WEP in 10 minutes, and hackers like quick and easy so there you go. I giggled to myself since the canned vagina was still in my mind and he was talking about protection. Insert your own joke here.)

He advised to set this iPad up from scratch as a new device instead of restoring from backup. If it doesn't work, I should call the router people. Even though there's only 4 wireless connections at the most at any given time. Even though several others haven't had problems connecting, that I know of, anyway. He also suggested someone may have hacked in and is using my line and bumping a device off, so to check number of devices the router can handle. Besides having WPA2 personal security in the first place, most of the time only the desktop and Wii for Netflix are using the wireless connection, aside from the occasional iPad attempts. I use my iPhone on the home wireless when I remember to take it off 3G, and I have it set to 3G because I don't trust public wifi.

iPad with full bars and no connection.
Every 5 to 20 minutes. ANNOYING.
Oh, and this is the article I mentioned
yesterday. Please think before you pink.

I haven't surfed on iPad 1.3 too much, but so far I have 2 screenshots of THE SAME THING HAPPENING. I haven't even connected it to my computer at all and haven't downloaded any apps from the app store app, so it does appear to be a straight iPad issue. I'm currently looking for router info, and I found a page that actually addresses iPad wireless connection with the home Buffalo AirStation router since the router is AOSS-equipped. Yay! Except for one small detail. The page is in Japanese. I don't know Japanese. Can't read it, can't speak it. At all. Aside from "arigato" and "domo" and "sushi" and "sashimi" and "Genki-kun."

Grr. Arggh.

Thanks to Google translation magic, it looks like they're compatible and that I need to input the router info manually. Which I have done. Many many many many times over. I'll deal with this later though, as I am declaring it to be naptime. We FINALLY have rain going on, for the first time in 5,000 years. We'll still be in a drought for 9 million more years, but at least this is something.

Interconnectivity

Today was a lazy day and the iPad is still giving me agita, but not as often as it was. I just set it to a static IP address that will hopefully work, and will test connectivity during Fringe tonight. I reallly really really don't want to bring it back and go through the whole thing with a new one again.

A few days ago on Facebook, I shared some info about pinkwashing. Today in my Facebook feed, I saw a link to an article about it in the Dallas Morning News paired with these comments from the article's author: "An interesting Facebook note: The way I got this story is that one of y'all -- damned if I can remember who -- posted a link on FB to the Think Before You Pink folks and their objections to Promise Me. I thought that it was interesting enough to pursue -- and journalism ensued."

Think Before You Pink.

I left this comment: "It might've been me, since the info is on my wall from a few days ago. I'm really tired of all of the pinkwashing, and as a triple negative breast cancer survivor, them knowingly pushing a toxic product pisses me off. Especially as people going through treatment need to stay away from anyone wearing perfume or cologne, which one would think the folks at Komen should know. One of the directors I interviewed with there 6 years ago had the same type of breast cancer I did, so I'm pretty sure she knows. Thanks for bringing awareness of this to everyone."

It's a small world after all.

I mentioned this on my wall, right after mentioning some exciting related news. It's not every day that one of your childhood friends gets quoted in Reuters. I learned about this from one of her relatives, who I hope isn't having to deal with the protesters occupying Wall Street. I'd have to drive past protesters every week for quite a while when I worked for the local Catholic diocese some years ago. This was when the priest shuffling and sex abuse issues went nationwide. Back then, I wished things were handled differently, but I loved my job and what I did to help people. I'd mentioned to him how weird it was for me to see the different viewpoints in the media, anyway. Those who know me well know where I stand on these things, and btw I added a Zeitgeist category to my Pinterest earlier today. You're welcome.

Well then.

Bringing my iPad1 to the Genius Bar at a local Apple store was a nice experience. The whole Apple Store experience is great, with the minimalist zen design, many friendly staff, customer-oriented service, etc. I showed a guy screenshots I took of my being fully connected to home wifi and not being able to connect to the internet via friendly auto-message from Safari saying it couldn't connect to the internet. I explained to him how I'd tried everything, reset the router, got a new router, redid security settings, blah, how everything else on the home network worked just great, blah, and he ended up replacing it with a new iPad1. Score!

But. *sigh*

I found myself a bit worried when syncing the new iPad with my iTunes backup, since it had the same "not charging" in the upper right corner. There's been no problems with charging at all so I've figured it should've said "now charging" instead. I guess. Anyway, iTunes told me that this iPad had been synced with another iTunes library before and did I want to back up from my backup? My brow furrowed while I thought, "Great, I wonder if this had or has the same issues as the last one." Sure enough....

Looking online again, scouring more Apple forums and support boards, I came across some poor sod who went through this 9 times. With 9 different iPads. Holy. Crap. I did see a suggestion that I'd not tried, so I'm trying it now and hoping for the best. I'll go back to surfing on it for a bit before going back to the Apple store and hitting up Genius Bar Guy again, but it'll be trippy if turning the auto-brightness to off is what fixes the dropping wifi issue. Really, HUH??? (but it was an official Apple suggestion, so I'm trying it)

In other news, my chiropractor wants to see me again in 5 days (on Tuesday) because my neck is so jacked. My SCMs on both sides are practically bulletproof, they're so tight. The usual Active Release Technique treatments helped, but only a little, so I got sent to the e-stim machine again. (For the third visit in a row.) After 3 different guys worked on me. For about 30 minutes total. My throat feels way swollen but I think it's half due to the muscle tightness, half due to allergy drainage. If this sounds like fun to you, I want to know what drugs you're on, because this sucks. Hubby has developed visible allergy bumps on the inside of his eyelid again, and this hasn't happened in a few years so the allergy misery is being shared by many others here, I'm sure. The orange level ozone alert days don't help either, and of course the chemical plant that blew up this week 40 miles from home isn't helping either.

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. (apple.com/stevejobs)

I and several of my friends found out about his passing via notice on our iPhones. (Naturally.) As a cancer survivor who last year lost a cancer buddy to the same thing Jobs had, it amazed me how most of the media consistently misreported the nature of his cancer. Pancreatic cancer is way different than a neuroendocrine tumor in/on the pancreas*. Cancer is so different in each individual regardless of type, and even people with the same type have varied experiences. You'd think the media would do some quick research and get things right but I guess they've gone from fact-checking journalists to being honey badger. Honey badger don't give a shit.

My first computer was an Apple II+ and I loved it. Back then, my dad would take me with him when he visited one of his friends across town. They were total Mac geeks. Dad's friend had a Lisa and I remember thinking it looked really cool compared to what I had. I smile when thinking about the total RAM of the Apple II+ maxing out at 64 kB. Heh, how things have changed over the last 30 years.

It's nice to see non-Apple fans and Apple haters giving props to Mr. Jobs. Words like "visionary" and "inspired" and "revolutionary" keep appearing on all sides. My Facebook and Google+ feeds are blowing up with friends sharing the news. Out of all of the remarks and remembrances I've read, the most poignant sentiments are perfectly captured here:

Steve Jobs was an amazing human being, and his passing will be mourned by millions. Though I was only seven years old and not aware when John Lennon died, I think I now know what that could have felt like. (Kevin Lowe)

Just one more thing? Weirdly Steve Jobs passing reminds me most of the death of Jim Henson. Two men with transformational vision. I fear Apple without Jobs will be too much like the Muppets without Henson. (Jeffrey Weiss)

I'm kinda dreading going to a local Apple store tomorrow but am also wondering how bummed out the grunt workers are. The iPad I acquired through eBay has been dropping wifi for the last month or maybe two, I dunno. I'm finally tired of resetting the network every 5 minutes so reserved my space/time at the Genius bar for tomorrow, about 20 minutes after the end of an appointment happening down the street. (I did this about an hour before the news broke. Great timing.) From what I gathered online, this 32 GB wifi + 3G 1st gen tablet caused a lot of people to be upset from the same issue back in April 2010, so maybe I'll get a replacement. I have the AppleCare Protection Plan so I shouldn't be out anything, whatever happens.

Here's to Steve Jobs and everyone doing their best to make this world a better place. I close with a final thought from the man himself, from his commencement address at Stanford University in June 2005**.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. (Steve Jobs)

* http://www.npr.org/2011/08/25/139942326/with-a-spotlight-on-jobs-time-to-talk-about-cancer?ps=rs

** http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

And now.... for something completely whatever.

I'm making progress with figuring out what I want my online presence to look like. Ideally I'd love something simple, elegant, and easily managed since I'm spread across social media. Sorta. My Tumblr is dead to me and my Twitter is mostly filled with Foursquare bleats, although I'd love to get back to tweeting soon. (It's only been a year or so.) Facebook is a constant and I'm on Google Plus and LinkedIn as well. I'm trying to not spend a ton of time on Pinterest, too. I've decided to go with having a main website for consolidation and random whatnot, using the various services for various things. I'll likely go with 500px for portfolio stuff but may still use Picasa / Google Photos for photo album stuff to share. Still thinking on that though.

She loves technology, always and forever.

On Facebook, I'm rocking the bald look from chemo in 2004 to raise awareness of pinkwashing since it's Breast Cancer Season month. I've already had one person ask for my skull when I'm done with it, but hubby already has dibs since he actually uses skulls and other bones for studies. He's gotten amazingly awesome with his drawing skills over the last few years. I also wrote a haiku about a vacuum cleaner for one of my friends. I love writing haiku about odd things and for no reason whatsoever. I love life. *whisper* I love lamp.

This also reminds me of some poetry I wrote back in high school days as a transition during humorous interpretations at drama competitions. I still remember it since I memorized it so well. :)

Ode to a Piece of Gum

Oh, to be a piece of gum on the floor...
People trample on me and say nothing more
Than what I do say, which is nothing at all.
To be a piece of gum in the hall
Of a high school would be such a horrible mess.
I'd hear whispers and gossip as shiny shoes press
On and step on and smear me to kingdom come.
So this is what life is for pieces of gum -
To be used and abused after once being used,
And to end up on shoes being nastily crude.

*takes bow*