Category Archives: blogging
New Year. New Look. New Me.
Check out my awesome new template that Tom whipped up for me. Is it not badass? Yarn, technology, chicago, and a healthy helpin' o' helvetica all in pink for your viewing, and my writing, pleasure. As it turns out, my most recent template, ganked from a free template site, just wasn't very me nor was the template or two before it. The less this website felt like me the less attention I wanted to pay to it. I also struggled a little bit with the much minimized uniqueness of having a blog in 2008 as opposed to having one when I first got serious about kristyland in 2001. I'm consoled by the fact that my page rank is still pretty astronomical and that my Grandparents, among a few others, still check the site regularly. Kristyland has always been a personal blog with a small reader base for the express purpose of keeping friends and family informed as to my whereabouts, perhaps to offer them a chuckle now and then, and also to help me remember how I spend my years. If you think my duty as a blogger is to focus on one specific topic, become an independent journalist, or seek any sort of fame and fortune you're probably looking for someone else's blog. No, dear reader, kristyland is a totally self serving endeavor (in that I write here so I don't have to write individual emails to everyone I know) and I intend to keep it that way. All said and done, hopefully this will help me keep up with it a bit more. Thank you Tom, for all your help.Speaking of, I have been doing a lot of self-serving introspection lately - the kind that's not usually shared on a public forum such as this until some conclusions are made. Well. I got me some conclusions, so I'll probably be sharing those. A Kristy 3.0 if you will (to steal from the software industry or the cadre naming convention) or, as I like to call it, "getting my shit together before I'm 30." GMSTB30. I've got some ideas and things that i'm working into a plan as well as some experiences and items that I would like put a few words on screen about.
It seems as if I have some writing to do.
01.20.08 6:19pm(9 comments)
A day in the life
I haven't been blogging as much as I had hoped; between working full time and going to school full time, I've been keeping myself pretty busy. A shout out goes deservingly to Tom, who has managed to keep our home in good shape in my absence (thank you). Instead of a full post, I'll just give you a few interesting tidbits:From the small world dpt:
My stepdad ran into one of my college roomates on a pest control call in Bartlesville. He was chattin her up while doing his thing and somehow got on the topic of Ohio and college and then me. Strange thing is that this is the old roomate who was from Chicago. I guess her husband got a job with Conoco Phillips and they recently moved to Bville recently. Talk about six degrees of bartlesville- i swear i know so many people who have some sort of strange connection to that place.
From the bandwagon dpt:
After five years of active resistance to any pc games, I've started playing World of Warcraft. Why start now? Well, I needed something to help me get out some aggression and let me tell you, slaying some monsters really helps. Also as much fun as playing is creating characters and getting set up to play. Right now I've got a few different characters that I play, but my main is a level 19 Orc Warrior whose name is an old norse word for sword goddess. I started another character whose name is esperanto for 'made of candy' which I think is incredibly funny. I play on Icecrown and usually at night after for an hour or so with my workmates (it's teambuilding right?) and my pal E set me up with this tricked out, super-ergo game pad, so I've got a really nice setup.
From the nostalgia dpt:
Thanks to many years of tv, video games, and especially the Internet, my attention span is short, so I find myself day dreaming in class sometimes. My management professor kind of looks like a hipster David Hasslehoff (young Hoff, not old, creepy, plastic face, drunk on the floor, videotaped by his kid Hoff) so at the point when I can't absorb any more information, my mind laps into a dream where some of the students turn into karate choppin' bad guys and then Kit drives into the classroom to the knight rider theme song. Dodo Dodo Dodo. Dodo. Dodo. Yeah - a three hour class and Kristy's brain do not mix very well, but making fun of David Hasslehoff is fun :)
This one is just hilarious:
I have a newfound admiration for Steve Carell who informed NBC that he is unable to work due to a case of "enlarged balls." See more about the WGA strike at United Hollywood
From the 'I can't believe it's so awesome' dpt:
Guitar Hero III is awesome, but I really don't like battle mode. Ooooohhh Barracuda!
Ravelry.com is also awesome - and a ruby on rails app to be much admired. If you <3 yarn, you should join. Speaking of yarn, my pal E went to peru and brought back some fabulous alpaca yarn for me that I've finally decided to turn into my first fair isle project - maybe a scarf, hat, gloves combo if I have enough yarn. So now I'm looking for some super geeky fair isle - I know there exists some star wars, pirate, and 8 bit fair isle, so I'll let y'all know what I come up with. The yarn is maybe a fingering / sock weight, so whatever I do will be very fine and feminine with a little geek thrown in for kicks - it is all very exciting.
11.08.07 7:40am(0 comments)
Do you want to know a secret?
Yesterday, there was a PostSecret event at the DePaul Center bookstore, a few blocks down the street from where I work. Frank, the post secret guy, stopped by to tell us a little bit about this project that is more than a project now, his experiences from it, his secrets, some of the interesting postcards he's received and also to sign books. It was fascinating. If you haven't checked out the blog or perused the post secret books, you really should. There's something about these anonymous little confessions that make you feel like you're not really alone in the world - not to mention the benefit that individuals get from submitting secrets.I had made a few secrets of my own, but after Frank had mentioned his issues with copyrighted images (both my secrets contained them) I decided not to give them to him.
Last night, I mailed them anyway and it was incredibly freeing. I'm making more :)
10.25.07 6:44am(1 comment)
First post from my iPhone!
Yes that's right. I have an iPhone! My awesome husband, bound to make sure I have the newest gadget for once (since he always gets the new stuff), got me one for my birthday. The big one even! I'm still getting used to the keyboard, but OMG is it awesome - I love it and fully recind every bad thing I ever said about it. Yes, I was so wrong about you dear iPhone; you're everything they said you would be and more.You may be wondering why it took me this long to blog about it. Well, I have been spending most of my time on the train knitting, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, my ball of bamboo silk turned into the goddamn gordian knot with which I have been battling since last night. Obviously, I'm not knitting this morning, but I will conquer that damn yarn and rule all of the scarves or something like that.
In keeping with my 10 year old tradition of naming my computers and other devices after Beatles songs, I named my iphone " Hello, Goodbye." I thought it was appropriate.
08.30.07 8:04am(1 comment)
Kristyland and t3h Quest for the Perfect Template
Oh everyone seems to be changing their blog templates these days (or getting new blogs and making their own nifty templates). Naturally, I'd like a change of scenery too. The templates I've had on kristyland really haven't felt quite right since I had the postcard on the self coded blog site.
And that postcard was f-in awesome. The background was aqua and retro - it felt very *me*. Then I switched to word press, mostly so I didn't have to keep going into phpmyadmin and editing my posts straight from the database (I never did get around to coding an edit function, but I didn't need it that badly and was WAY too into geek-pride to use blogger for my blog). Then I fell in love with pink and decided to reclaim it in the name of all that is the intersection between feminism and geekiness, so the aqua had to go. A few templates have come and gone since then, but they all seem to be lacking something. This one is alright, but there are about a jillion little nitpicky things wrong with it. I want geek and pink with a little chicago / wiener / knitting thrown in and definitely a whole heapin' helpin' of awesome in one template. Is that so much to ask?
So I will continue to search and what will probably happen is that the weather will get bad one weekend and Tom and I will go into one of our "Hey lets do a geeky project this weekend" and we will arise from our geek lair after a few days with a glorious pink/geeky/awesome template in triumphant hands (or uploaded on the website or whatever).
08.10.07 1:37pm(7 comments)
It’s nice, you know it?
Tom's mom, Anne, has a new blog:If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
Check it out and leave a comment!
this is also my test of "scribefire" a firefox plug in. I think I like it.
Powered by ScribeFire.
07.18.07 5:43pm(1 comment)
7 Random Things
I saw this on lay-c.com and I'm tagging myself. The idea is that you blog about 7 totally random things and then tag 7 of your friends. If you want to do it, feel free to tag yourself like I did.1. Whenever i throw away a plastic baggie or grocery bag, I always think of myself as an 80 year old woman, eating my soylant green and waxing nostalgic about a time long past when I used to just throw away plastic instead of saving up wages in order to get a scrap of it.
2. I've never been the best speller or had the best grammar, although I've been working on improving both. However, sometimes I make spelling and grammar mistakes intentionaly to see if people will say something.
3. If I could do anything with my life, I would be a perpetual student. I love learning new and varied things, although I'd probably switch between humanities and sciences every other year.
4. I always make a concerted effort to say please and thank you and to be as kind and polite as possible to people working in service jobs. I think it makes them feel appreciated (they are but noone says anything when things go well)and hopefully my thanks makes their day a little brighter.
5. I often sit on the train and make up little adventures for the people around me. I'm on the train right now and let me tell you that there are plenty of adventures.
6. I hate chic lit, sex in the city and desparate housewives, but I secretly hope that Paris Hilton is a genius.
7. I currently have three different and very good ideas for crafty enterprises and domain names and business models to go with, but I need to finish my masters before I pursue any of them.
Alright. have at it with the randomness.
06.12.07 7:57am(3 comments)
Say hello to my new wordpress theme
I decided to switch things up a bit here at ole kristyland. While I loved the in-yo-face pink of the old theme, I didn't really have the resources to make it mine or to remove the highlighted map of the Philippines which only a few of you with the biggest monitors and highest resolutions saw anyway. That and I wanted a theme that supports wordpress widgets because my side bar (namely my archives) needs a little taming. I found this one and Tom made it pink for me. It's simple, pretty, pink, and widgetized. All I need :)06.11.07 5:44am(0 comments)
mobile geekery
Holy crap! im posting to teh intarweb from my new toy, the at&t 8525. I love this little device! Ive been so reluctant to enter the world of smartphones, and i love my little pink razr, outfitted with the finest pink cell phone danglies from japan. However, i can get absolutely no reception with my razr in my office, even though it's in the heart of the financial district and across the street from a verizon store. I plan on keeping the razr but if the reception issue doesnt change, i might have to cancel my contract - which is really too bad because i heart my razr.Smartphones, of the feature rich awesome variety that would be of use to me, are notorious for poor call quality. However, this phone is incredibly clear, even in my office, so i could see myself using this as my only device. It's small, considering what it does, and it is finally a pda that meets my needs. I've had other pdas, jornada 540, toshiba e740, and the ill fated palm tx that showed me how much i really hated palmOS. The first two were really great devices for times in my life when i had enough going on in my life to warrant the use of a pda. Now that Ill be going to school full time, working full time, and starting up Getting Things Done (GTD) as a part of GMSTB30 (Getting My Shit Together Before 30) effort, I find myself needing a pda again - one that runs pocket pc. Problem is that the pickins are slim for ppc pda only devices since smartphones are apparently the wave of the future. This is how I came across the 8525 - it has everthing I wanted, a slide out qwerty keboard, windows mobile, a touchscreen (not all smartphones have this), the ability to view and edit files. I also signed up for the unlimited data plan, so now I can also surf, blog, connect to work servers, and harness tehp0war of teh interpipes from my device and just about anywhere i go. while i only get EDGE in my apartment, I can connect via 3G while riding the entirety of the brown line and in the lunchroom at work (to satisfy the need for wikipedia and imdb lookups during heated debates). I installed opera mobile and a wordpress mobile plugin, both of which allow me to blog from my 8525. Also, kristyland is now accessible via mobile, so if you have a cool mobile device too, you can surf to my page. YAY!
So yeah, I hope to blogging more, at least on the train since i seem to have no free time anymore. Tom and I are going through our entire apt. and reorganizing and getting ris of a bunch of stuff. Last week, I had take home final and will start up witb summer classes next week - change management for the first half and accounting the second half. Busy busy busy! See, now you can see why I need this shiny new toy, er, I mean new productivity and organizational device.
06.09.07 10:58am(4 comments)
RSS / Wordpress question
So what happens when you use profanity in a blog post title - and that blog's RSS feed is linked to someplace where profanity is inappropriate? Is it possible, in an RSS feed, to designate certain posts as not transmitted through the RSS feed - or rather is that something that can be done in WordPress? I mean, I wouldn't want to deny the readers of kristyland my foul mouth, but I also don't want to get anyone's panties in a twist because I used the term "fucked up" in a blog post title. I'm not sure if I want to censor myself either.If the site that pulls info from the RSS feed shows only the top post, perhaps I've already solved my problem?
01.24.07 9:22pm(1 comment)