My former rat, Winston, was featured on Cute Overload last month!
I miss this cutie. All he ever wanted to do was cuddle with me.
Category: Web
Google Reader
Yesterday it was announced that Google Reader will be no more as of July 1st. I couldn’t be more disappointed, as well as pissed off at Google. I’ve always disliked Google to a certain degree because they seem really inflexible. It’s part of the reason why even though I have two gmail accounts I still use Yahoo for my main emailing. A lot of my dislike stems from the fact that the company I used to work for had arrangements with them to provide a service for which they would not accommodate any of our requests which made it difficult to make a profit. In fact last I heard they were coming up with other ways to bill our clients for the services we were getting from Google because the reports they provided did not allow us to automate the invoicing, thus it wasn’t making us any revenue.
In any case, I use Google Reader constantly. I do mean constantly. If I’m not checking the updated feeds via the Google Reader site in Firefox I’m checking it through Feeddler on my iPhone or iPad. I can’t imagine a better way to keep on top of the newest posts from my favorite sites and being able to keep my progress and starred articles synched. It seems a lot of people would agree, and on top of that, there really aren’t any comparable alternatives right now.
I understand that RSS feeds aren’t as popular as one might hoped, which is apparent from the crickets I got in response to my Facebook update yesterday bemoaning this development, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful or appreciated. They’d probably be utilized by more people if they understood what they were, or more importantly, how beneficial they are. Who reads articles on actual websites anymore? I rarely do. I get the majority of my news via Google Reader and Twitter, and with Twitter I send the articles to Pocket to read later.
Needless to say I’m really upset about all this and will likely delete my Google+ account soon. Might as well before Google decides to do it for me. Besides, it’s not like it’s going to end up being the Facebook killer they hoped it would be. Oh, and I might just switch to Bing for my search needs as well.
NaBloPoMo November 2012
Hey, look at me, I’m going to actually participate in something! November is National Blogging Month and I’m going to post an entry each day for the entire month. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my entire blogging existence so it should be interesting. Probably more so for me than you since some days I’ll probably have crap to talk about, but on those days I’ll pull from the topic of suggestions on the site. I’ll have to set a reminder in my phone or sure as my name is Nicole I’ll forget one day and have failed before I even really began.
So today’s topic/question is: If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Well, it would probably be easier for me to tell you where I wouldn’t want to live: Indiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, oh the list goes on. I *think* I might like to live in Colorado, Utah, or Oregon, but seeing as how I’ve never visited any of those states this is merely a guess.
Ideally I’d like to live somewhere close to shopping and destinations but tucked away with enough land that I can’t see, smell, or hear my neighbors. I love quiet, but having lived in apartments and a townhome my whole adult life I have never enjoyed any such luxury. I grew up in a house in Chicago but houses there are very close together so you still had to deal with neighbors. And while statistics claim that less than 50% of the population smokes, we have always lived in-between smokers – my home growing up, the apartment Joe and I shared when we first got together, and now in my townhome. WTF?!? I read that the smoking rate in Utah is the lowest in the nation so that alone makes the state all the more appealing to me.
In any case we wouldn’t even considering moving to another state until the kids are older and are out in the world doing their own thing as we don’t want to miss out on spending time with them.
Well, I think that’s a good start to this whole blogging every day for a month endeavor, don’t you? Good thing I happened to post about Halloween yesterday since I didn’t learn about this challenge until today! “See” you tomorrow!
Every day I’m shufflin’
I wish Facebook had a feature where you could unsubscribe from follow-up comments other people make on a status update that you commented on unless it’s the person who made the original update. I hate getting updates on crap that doesn’t matter to me. It’s the reason why I don’t comment as much on people’s updates as I otherwise would, especially if they are one of my more “popular” friends who tend to get 20 comments on one update.
Anyway, here’s what’s been going on around these parts since I’m a sucky blogger.
Home
Our garage door started acting funny a week or so ago where it would start to close and then halfway down it would go back up. It was doing it here and there before then but it got to the point where nothing would make it go down all the way. Joe had to open and close it manually to get our cars in at night and out in the morning which sucked since it’s been getting colder around here. Also yours truly didn’t have a nice warm car to get into when I left for work. But hey, at least I didn’t have to mess with the garage door! Joe figured out what was wrong – the plastic (yes, plastic) gear was shredded, so Sunday we went to the Sears parts store. $40 and an hour of Joe’s time later and it’s all fixed. That was our excitement for the week.
Movies
Hmm… what else? We saw Puss in Boots with Joe’s daughter last time she visited (his son couldn’t make it) and I thought it was a pretty good movie which was lucky since I had no idea what it was even about going in. I want to see The Muppets even though I’m not a muppet fan, because I like Jason Segal. Remember the Muppet Babies? I did watch that as a kid but I never liked the regular muppets. Rowlf was my favorite, but I hated Miss Piggy and always will. Someone needs to turn her into a BLT already. Oh, and we saw a 3D movie for the first time in years – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. It was legend-… wait for it… -dary. So much better than their second movie. Possibly even better than the original.
Kids
I don’t think I wrote about the fact that we got K’s iPod Touch replaced by Apple for $150. They let us purchase a refurbished one. We took the money from K’s account since she broke it, though. Sucked to have to do that, but better than buying her a brand new one. She also broke her Kindle. Well, we aren’t sure if she broke it or if it had something wrong with it, but either way Amazon replaced it at no charge which was good. So when she was over last time it was like Christmas for her getting a new iPod Touch and Kindle.
Speaking of Christmas, I’m glad that the kids are older because instead of buying a ton of little things I only have to buy one or two things which means less time dealing with the crazy shoppers. This year we’re getting E a Kindle Fire (he already knows since he asked for it) and I don’t want to mention what we’re getting for K in case she knows about this site but I think she will find it very useful.
Holidays
We’re both off work Thursday-Monday so it will be a nice extended holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving! What’s not to love about being encouraged to stuff one’s face? Hopefully all the exercising I’ve been doing lately will lessen the weight gain.
I have no plans on shopping on Black Friday, and didn’t want to go outside at all that day but I have to get a cat scan in the morning and then pick up the kids in the afternoon. I’m staying away from all the stores though!
I don’t even know what I want for Christmas. Nothing, really. I would like an iPad, but not the one that’s out now. I can’t justify spending $500 (and let’s face it, even if it’s a “gift” from Joe it’s all the same moolah) on a device that has a lower quality screen than my phone. Plus if I had it my way I’d prefer a 7″ tablet. Maybe next year they will introduce an iPad 3 mini. I’d be all over that.
I do like opening presents, but I’m so not into buying stuff just for the sake of it. I keep trying to get rid of stuff either by donating to Goodwill or selling on Craigslist and Facebook. I recently sold Dance Dance Revolution 2 to someone I used to work with. Joe got it for me because I asked for it but I ended up hating the game because I have no rhythm; plus the stupid dance pad took up too much space. I’m glad to see it gone. Another thing I need to get rid of already are the Disney souvenirs I bought for my coworkers on my honeymoon six years ago. I’m sure I wrote about this before but I was so pissed when I came back from my honeymoon to learn that essentially nothing was done the entire two weeks I was gone that I never handed them out. They’ve spent the last six years in a hall closet and I get angry all over again whenever I see them so it’s time to let it, and them, go already. I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to wrap them up for our annual game of Crazy Bingo this year. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I often have a hard time parting with things I’ve spent money on but I’ve come to realize it’s silly to hang onto things you’re never going to use just because you feel like you wasted your money. It’s wasted either way, so you might as well get rid of it and clear some space in your house. It’s been getting easier letting go of stuff once I see how less cluttered the closet looks without it around.
Anyway, I don’t know whether Joe and I will be exchanging gifts this year. He’s a pain to buy for and I can’t think of anything I really want, so we might go small this year. Maybe I’ll have him get me a few CDs or something.
Music
Speaking of music, in case anyone cares, these are the top five songs I’ve been playing lately. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I love discovering new music.
You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People
2010 Year in Review
2010 was a pretty good year although I didn’t blog much. Some of the highlights with a few low points as well:
The first part of the year was slow going, the highlight being seeing the Windy City Rollers in January.
I got a new computer in March.
We hatched mantids in April.
During this time there was a huge transition at work in my department specifically which was scary at first but ended up being a really good thing.
Oreo passed away and we visited Ohio and Kentucky in May.
In June we saw Aziz Ansari live and Miss Toad came to live with us.
Nutterbutter died in July.
Nothing worthwhile happened in August. Or at least anything worth writing about.
In September we visited a new area of Wisconsin.
We had a lot of fun doing Fall activities in October.
November and December were filled with family and holidays which is always fun and I got my Kindle which I love love love!
In all, a pretty good year, although it was marred a bit today by a trip to the emergency room. Remember that attack I had on Valentine’s weekend? Well last night at 11 pm I woke up with one again but this one lasted all night alternating in intensity and I didn’t get a wink of sleep. It showed no signs of going away so finally around 7 am I asked Joe to drive me to an urgent care center but they were all closed (apparently illness DOES take a holiday), so we went to the hospital, the same one all my doctors work in and I’ve had all my procedures in. I love the people at this place! Everyone is so nice and caring and this morning was no exception. They hooked me up to an IV and heart monitor, then did an EKG, took blood and urine, and did a chest x-ray. They also gave me a shot of Ativan to calm me.
We were there about three hours while we waited for all the test results. The ER doctor felt my heart was perfectly fine (same thing I was told earlier in the year by a cardiologist) and that I had suffered from a panic attack. He gave me a low dose prescription for Xanax which I plan to only take at night since that’s the only time I ever have these attacks. I just wish I knew for sure what was causing them. I think it’s a perfect storm of food and stress because last night I ate onions and drank a can of Coke Zero (onions and caffeine were present the last time I had an attack), plus Joe’s kids said some hurtful things to him in relation to my family so I had that on my mind too. I really wish I could just not care about some things but how do you do that? You try to be a good person who thinks of others but that doesn’t necessarily make the other people in your life return the sentiment. Kids think divorce messes them up, and I will never argue that point, but it’s hell on the adults too, particularly when you’re a step-parent who has to keep their mouth shut regarding a lot of things that go on.
So anyway, I’ve gotten just a few hours of sleep since yesterday morning and I’m wondering if I’m going to make it to midnight. Joe is already asleep on the couch. How old are we?
I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and that 2011 is just as great, or better, than 2010!