Category: Crankypantsing

Crankypantsing, Meta

Adventures in Fake Blogging

Shelly

Catalog Card
Library Catalog Card = Old School!

I’m supposed to be learning about blogging, and a whole bunch of other Web 2.0 stuff, for work. No, really. It would be funny, except it’s not. I do get a certificate at the end of it all, but first, I have to set up a blog (oh, but seriously), a Flickr account, listen to a podcast, and do a few other things.

My initial reaction was that the library was a few years behind the curve. Not that that in itself would be surprising, but surely, you would think that my coworkers would know about blogs, social networking, and whatnot? Well, you (and I!) would be wrong. One coworker seemed kind of repulsed by the idea and a couple of others have asked me to help them. These are folks who really ought to have a grip on this stuff as it’s sort of job related, but apparently, not so much. I am ashamed to say that I was at first amused–yea, mightily!–at watching coworker #1 try to set up a Blogger account and format her first post, but then I got a kick out seeing her “get” it, and I felt like a giant meanypants for being impatient. Not everyone is having fun with this stuff, but the ones that are, are entertaining. And those who aren’t? Well, like eating spinach, it’s good for them, whether they like it or not.

So, I spent half an hour this morning setting up Fake Blog. I can think of better ways to waste my time. I asked if we could test out of it and got the stink eye. I thought it was a reasonable question! Apparently not.

Crankypantsing, Photography

A Prune by Any Other Name

Shelly

Fall

Do the Sunsweet folks really think that tarting up prunes in little cellophane wrappers and calling them dried plums is going to fool people into thinking they aren’t prunes? And who in their right mind thinks that wrapping pieces of fruit in plastic is a good idea? It’s second in bozocity only to individually wrapped tea bags. What a waste!

In other news, it’s laundry day, and The Shadow only knows whether or not one or both or neither washing machine will actually work. And, if they work, will they continue to do so for the entire wash and rinse cycles?

It’s a another beautiful day, though, so I shouldn’t be wasting time complaining. The sun is out, the sky is impossibly blue and cloudless, it’s not too warm (but warm enough for a lone hornet to be dive-bombing my studio window), and DST is finally over for the year.

Yay.

(Photo: a composite of four photos I took yesterday while out in Owen County. This was the view from the fire pit, looking across to the state forest. The fire pit itself being the source of the nifty burned copper leaf in one of yesterday’s photos.)

Crankypantsing, Meta, Photography

Stones and Seeds

Shelly

I think I might be done tinkering for the time-being. I’ve been trying to find a WordPress theme that’s been ported to Coppermine that I can stand to live with. Just about every one I’ve tried has been broken in some way or other. The blog template doesn’t work in IE, or the gallery portion has fatal errors. It’s been frustrating, but for once, I would like a set of towels and washcloths that match, dammit! If you know what I mean.

So, as much as I’m not really keen on using someone else’s artwork right out of the box, I think this one will do for now. It’s not too ugly, it matches, and it works in IE. Hallelujah!

Of course, this theme does not in any way match my website proper, but I’m refusing to think about that right now.

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Fragment of Seed Pod

100_4371
Hole in Stone

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Quartz Crystal

I’m not sure what the heck that thing in the top photo is. It could be bone, it could be a tooth, or it could be a weird piece of a seed pod. I just really can’t tell. Ms. Lea may know, though, being as it was sitting on a stump by her front porch. I meant to ask her, but got sidetracked.

I also meant to snag the burned out guts to the wacky polyester-fabric-and-copper-leaf circuit board. They were very cool, and would be a nifty addition to a collage or three.

And, dear lord, if the stompy girls get any more stompierierier, they’re going to bring down the staircase. My computer table is directly on the other side of the wall, and they’ve been running up and down the damned thing (the staircase, not my computer table, though it’s just about the same difference) for the last ten minutes. Aieee!

Crankypantsing, Meta

Adventures in Coding

Shelly

I’ve been tearing my hair out, trying to figure out why all the captions for the final image in every post were flush up against the following paragraph. No matter how many paragraph or hard breaks I stuck in the damned things, there was still no space between the two lines. O gross! That’s the sort of thing that would make the baby Shelly cry.

It occurred to me, after fiddling with it for nearly an hour, to try sticking a couple of hard breaks inside the end center tag. I don’t know why it worked, but it did. Weird!

Crankypantsing, Meta

Sod’s Law

Shelly

And, of course, once I find a tolerable theme that has already been ported to Coppermine, and after I finish massaging it into something I can more or less live with, I think to check it in IE, where it is all kinds of b0rked. Damn! The lovely sidebar, which ought to be along the side (duh!), is down at the bottom. Gaaah! I hate IE!

Crankypantsing, Photography

It’s Random Wacky People Week

Shelly

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Carriage House and Pear Tree in Spring

It’s been gross and blustery and cold here the past few days, so I thought a little springtime imagery would be nice.

To add to an otherwise craptacular week (yes, the city inspectors did finally show up yesterday afternoon), I overslept this morning. I think the wind must have made the power flicker, because when I finally woke up at 5:30, my clock was flashing. Yikes! I threw on some clothes and started to take the dog out, when I noticed that there was a strange guy lying on the steps to the upstairs apartments. Double yikes!

I haven’t a clue who he was. He may have belonged to the stompy girls, but I decided I’d better take the dog out back, instead. When we came back inside, I heard some fumbling around in the stairwell and assumed it was Mr. Sleepyhead leaving. I called work to let my boss know I’d be late, then took a shower and finished getting ready. When I finally left, I found the guy passed out in front of my door. I decided that no matter who he was, he didn’t belong there, so I called the police.

It wasn’t even so much that I was creeped out by his presence, but if he did belong to the stompy girls, and was kicked out last night for some reason, then he had no business sticking around. Rather than take a chance that he was intent on causing trouble for them, I thought it would be better to let the cops handle it.

And then, wouldn’t you know, as the cops pulled up, the guy left. They said they saw him leaving our front door and getting into a car that had pulled up.

It must be Random Wacky People Week[tm] in my building!

Crankypantsing

Laundry Woes

Shelly

Because life doesn’t suck enough, when I tried to wash a couple of loads of laundry this afternoon, the second washing machine did not drain after the wash cycle. It’s b0rked. I had to fish all my clothes out of the tub of dirty water, put them in another washer, and start all over again.

Alsotoo, obviously, I’m stuck at home again today. And I am clearly brimful of Not Bitter[tm].

Grrrr.

Crankypantsing, Pets

Apartment Life

Shelly

I took Harriet out for a last potty break at about 11pm last night. While we were walking across the parking lot, I noticed that there was large group of people in front of one of the other apartments (why, oh why, don’t people par-tay on their patios, instead of in the parking lot?). A couple of small children, presumably belonging to the partiers, were running up and down the terrace in front of my building. While screaming at the tops of their darling little lungs. At 11:00 on a school night. Mere feet away from the bedroom windows of a whole bunch of people who were most likely sleeping.

Charming.

What the hell were those kids’ parents thinking?!

And to make things worse, when Harriet and I returned from our walk, a young, unleashed dog was added to the mix. We re-entered the parking lot to the sounds of small children yelling, “Come back here!” and the sight of a goofy, young adult Pit Bull barreling toward us.

I know the dog, actually, because she is always off leash, and she always follows me when I take out the trash or do laundry. She’s super sweet and friendly, so I wasn’t at all worried about her picking a fight with Harriet. Quite the opposite. I would hate for such a nice dog to get the Cujo treatment from Miss Brown. Thankfully, a car pulled in at the right moment, which broke the puppy’s attention just enough that she heard her kids yelling for her.

All’s well that ends well, but I still think 11pm on a school night is a bad time for a parking lot party. What the hell is wrong with people?!

We also seem to have random people from off the street using our laundry facilities. Not a huge deal, I guess, as the machines aren’t free. Still, we only have two washers and two dryers in our court, so getting a unoccupied machine can be a little bit of a challenge.

I went downstairs to do a load of laundry on Wednesday, and found a girl folding clothes into a large duffel bag. I thought it was a little weird, but whatever. Maybe she didn’t have laundry baskets? She finished and left before I did, so when I got back upstairs, I looked to see where she went. Out of the complex and toward 3rd Street, was where she went!

Even weirder was that she left a wadded heap of clothes on top of one of the dryers. They were lots of different sizes of mens’ jeans, two pairs of sweat pants (one small and one huge), and a 2xxL T-shirt. As of last night, the clothes were still sitting on top of the dryer, only some kind soul was nice enough to fold them.

Weird.

Bumpass Update: They set up a screen room a few weeks ago, halfway on their grass and half on mine. As far as I could tell, they never actually used it. They didn\’t set it up very well, either, because it caved after a couple of days, and then they took it down. M’kaythen!

Friday night, they must have had a party, because when I got up the next morning, the cardboard packaging from a case of Bud Light (o gross!) was lying on the grass between our patios. Nice. It sat there all weekend. I really don’t feel like picking up other people’s trash, but I’m also sick of looking at the damned thing. Harriet’s reaction was priceless, though. She saw it through the patio door and barked at it. Obviously, it Did Not Belong.

Mr. Upstairs Update: He was doing pretty well the past few months, but he’s slowly sliding back into his old habits. I woke up in the middle of the night one day last week to the sound of his dishwasher running and him vacuuming. He’s also back to, um, “playing” the keyboard at random times during the night, and the midnight workouts have recommenced. Complete with dropped free weights. Right on top of my head.

Art, Crankypantsing, Doodles

Staff Meeting Doodle

Shelly

Staff Meeting Doodle
Staff Meeting Doodle
gel pen in steno notebook
9 x 6 inches

I’ve been working on this one through several meetings (phase 1 and phase 2). We had a two hour presentation this afternoon, and I think I’m just about out of room.

We also had a carry-in meeting-slash-party for a coworker’s 10th anniversary. I may have mentioned that I’m not a big fan of the office carry-in? I don’t know why they make me cranky, but they do. And the worst part is that there are always leftovers, and the leftovers always get stuck on a book truck right behind my cubicle. You know, where the phone is. Because the only thing more irritating than having to answer and/or listen to everyone’s phone calls is being distracted by an endless parade of people bellying up to the snack bar.