Tag Archives: UnTagged

I Am My Niche

This says more than it means just as much as it confuses the situation all together, so let me clarify, or maybe muddle it a bit more, whichever helps most, hopefully. And it goes something like this:

There’s a lot of talk, or advice, going around about covering the topics with which you’re familiar but also that aren’t heavily covered already. (A niche.) So? Ta-da! Here I am, right? I mean, there’s some sense to it. Of course I’m going to know all about me, and understand why it is the factors that push me to and fro cause me to behave and respond the ways I do. It just goes without saying, and it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Not to mention, I’m pretty certain no one else is writing about me, and if someone is then I’d like to know about it.

Here is where it takes a turn for the better, though. I’m not meaning to write about me as I would in diary form. No, I have an email blog for that particular activity. This here niche I’m intending to cover is all the goodness that comes about as a result of the stuff that happens to me which is written about in the email blog. Simplified — A bunch of cryptic gibberish about the goings-on that are my life is what I write in emails to people I call at home; and whatever I can learn from those happenings, or whatever ideas pop into this oddly shaped head of mine, is what I aim to pen in this here space.

Whether you read me here, there, everywhere, or no where (which doesn’t work too well,) know that I’m always writing something somewhere for, or to, someone. Today, here and now, it’s this and it’s for you.

Thanks for reading.

It's Being Done Differently Now

It was time. I had to do it. I changed the site layout, or “theme” as it is referred to in the loop. I’m announcing this obvious fact for the folks in the feed-readers; they can’t see a layout change. For the most part, at least.

Anyhow, like I was saying. It was time. The previous layout was too dark and difficult to read (look at.) I’m not a fan of sites that use light-colored text on dark backgrounds. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like the _look_ of it, but it does not read well. If you’re planning to have anyone read your stuff, it needs to be easy on the eyes. I don’t want to get into a long UI discussion (although, maybe I should), but trust me when I say that this new layout is much better.

I’m not sure if the spark for change came from a talk I had with a fellow blogger, or a conversation I had with a colleague about her business’s web site. Probably it was a combination of the two and, either way, it sent me out tinkering with all sorts of pre-developed WordPress themes. (An added bonus to using WordPress is the many site layouts that are freely available for personal use.) After several hours of working with Gimp and creating my own CSS from scratch, I decided it was a better idea, and also much quicker, to mash together a bunch of already existing lines of code. (Why re-invent the wheel, just make it more round. What? I mean make it roll farther.)

This was only half my problem. I spent a bit of time this evening, searching for a reason as to why my PHP was not working with WordPress 2.6, which I had hesitantly upgraded the site to late Monday evening after trying it on another site I host. 2.6 was working great everywhere I used it, with all my plugins in tact and new features working flawlessly. But then I loaded up my new layout, which, silly me, I was testing locally on a linux box running WordPress 2.5. (Imagine that! It was working in one set of conditions, but not another.) “Warning!” “Error!” “the function() requires a string at line 18.” Oh my.

What I’m getting at, is that there are going to be some kinks for a few minutes, and I’m doing my best to work those out of the mix. So, if you would be kind enough, bear with me a minute or two, and, if you notice any errors, please draw them to my attention so I can remedy the situation. I’m just getting back into the old smell of PHP and, honestly, I was never a CSS fan. However, it’s proving to make a whole lot of sense now that I’ve plopped myself in the world of web site development. (Is it still a client if you do the work for free?)

I’ll leave you with it so I can get back to it. My next goal is to clean up the tags and categories. Both of these are useful tools when used correctly, but we’ll have to let that sit a moment.

It’s Being Done Differently Now

I’ll leave you with it so I can get back to it. My next goal is to clean up the tags and categories. Both of these are useful tools when used correctly, but we’ll have to let that sit a moment.

Walking The Path That Is Your Life

Roughly eight years ago, I wrote a letter to a close friend complaining about the amount of time it takes to grow old and sit back to enjoy all the nonsense a person has to live through, should he live long enough to look back upon his life. I was complaining about always wanting to get to the next stage in my life so I could get to the next step beyond that. I told her, “I’m always doing what’s needed to get to the next place in my life, so I can get to the next step and start working toward the place after that. I just don’t get it. So I want to hurry up and grow old so I can be done with it all.” (Silliness, I know.) The whole process of _achieving this so I could work toward that_ seemed absurd, whatever _that_ might actually be when it arrived. Why couldn’t I just enjoy what I was going through and not worry about whatever was supposed to happen after? I didn’t have a name for this, nor did I think too much about what the idea meant. I only knew that it had been driving me crazy for years and finally I had to tell someone. So I did.

All these years later, last week, I come across the post Not Being a Real Person: The #1 Self-Development Anti-Hack by Clay Collins over at The Growing Life . Clay, in his first four bullet points, managed to sum up everything I was trying to say many years ago, and he did a much better job of delivering the message altogether, coining the term “stepping stone lives” to describe what I was trying to convey. He says, “We spend the majority of our waking hours working for goals that are merely stepping stones to other goals.” He goes on to say all sorts of things about being a real or an unreal person, but you can read his article for those details. You don’t need me to re-write the entire thing for you.

I hadn’t given much thought to my idea since I’d written my letter all those years ago until reading Clay’s post, which prompted me again to start examining the life of stone-stepping. If you step not from stone to stone, how do you get from there to here? Do you hop randomly to whichever stone is nearest? Or most convenient? Without giving away too much, I never wanted to be a real person. At least not once I’d decided that most of what other people do is mostly for what I consider to be ridiculous reasons. At the same time, I don’t think it’s possible to avoid living a stepping stone life.

Sure, it can get pretty boring and a person can feel very trapped living a so-called stepping stone life, but no one can live a life that involves no stepping. You’re always going, moving, growing. You step with your family. You step with your friends. You step alone. You step out. You step in life. You step in shit. You get the idea. And you get to decide whether you step to the tune of what the rest of the world around you is doing, or whether you step to the tune that’s playing in your head. (Assuming you have a tune in your head, and it’s different from what’s being pushed through, or down, your throat.)

I stated back then in my letter that I wasn’t going to do it anymore (work for the thing beyond the thing that’s supposed to be next just so I can look back at it), and I would go with the flow – but apparently not till after I finished college, which was a real process for me and another stepping stone – whatever it may have turned to. It’s turned to this. Me sitting here writing to you about a letter I wrote many many moons ago.

For The Cost Of A Dime

Every so often I’ll start thinking about getting rid of just about everything in my apartment that I don’t really need and that wouldn’t be a hassle to unload. Essentially, I only need a computer with an Internet connection, and a place to keep food fresh. Maybe a few other things, but not the point.

Thompology suggested I sell all my DVDs on Amazon.com. When he sold his this way, it was a quick and painless process which resulted in some extra cash. Sounds great. I want the easy process with very little effort, and I could use the extra money to further expand the research of my vice. (Whatever that may be.)

I grab a few DVDs from my shelf, figuring I’d try it with a few before bothering with the entire collection. No point in listing these things if no one is going to respond, right? The first was The Matrix, which, if I was willing to, I could sell for $0.46 plus $2.98 shipping and handling. Wow! Not going to buy too much with that. So I skip that one figuring it isn’t worth my time for $0.46. I list Dumb and Dumber, which I can sell for $2.50 + $2.98 S&H. I figure this amount is worth my time to start clearing the shelf. I start entering all the information to set up my account and post the listing, when Amazon tells me their commission fee for this sale is $2.17. Are you kidding me? A joke and a half, surely. But no, it’s not a joke, this is what they will take from my sale. Fine, I’ll take the $0.33 difference since I’ve started the process.

The listing posts.

An order is placed within a few hours.

I make my way to the post office the following day to package and ship the order. After spending $3.41 on an envelope and postage, it tuns out I am $0.10 in the hole on this transaction. All I could do was laugh as I paid the fee, I’d come too far to turn back. Not to mention, I’d already written on the envelope. I say, “screw you, amazon dot com.”

Maybe this is just their way of teaching me I don’t know how to make money. I suppose that’s not a bad lesson for the cost of a dime.

Pay It If You Have It

I hadn’t given much thought to the taxes paid by other people until this week when I started talking about how I just sent mine in Sunday, and I was surprised with how many people told me they’d already sent theirs in, received a refund, and spent it. Which makes me think that if I receive a refund, then I need to spend it. I’m thinking gigantic party “down by the river on a Friday night. Pyramid of cans in the pale moon light.” Who’s with me?

Stupid taxes. Ah, not really. I can go either way on this one. It’s not very exciting. Except that today is the last day if you didn’t request an extension. It’s my understanding, though, that the extension doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay by today, just that you have more time to complete the paperwork. But, if you’ve completed enough paperwork to know you have to pay, why not just send in the entire package? Plenty of reasons, I’m sure.

All is well.

You Probably Can’t Tell

I have a bike-less seat and a seat-less bike. Yes, those both make sense, and the piece I’m missing measures 28.6. (I’m thinking diameter in mm.) Nevertheless, once I removed the rack and basket from my orange beast I was able to ride in the cool night air. That’s right, it was cold last night. But nothing that a little drink couldn’t protect. Ha! That and a pair of jeans and a jacket.

For some reason this seems like one of the longest weekends in a while. I think we’re on week 16 of the year. I think that.

I haven’t been to the market in 2 weeks, so as soon as I finish here I’m going there to buy food. The rest of you need to return my phone calls. I’m not interested in broken parts or dead batteries.

And there we have it.

You Probably Can't Tell

For some reason this seems like one of the longest weekends in a while. I think we’re on week 16 of the year. I think that.

And there we have it.

April Fools' Day

What is that, anyway? An April Fool? I don’t get it. Generally I can’t, for whatever reason, get interested in this holiday of non-holidays. A day of joke-playing and practical pranks. Elaborate hoaxes. Maybe it’s just that I’m upset at never having been the punchline for one of these laughable scenarios. I don’t believe that, but let’s leave it at that for the sake of not having to think about it any longer.

Even though I’m not a fan of the practical prank/joke, I do enjoy an unexpected outcome. While moving through the day with my boss, she received a call from her son where he told her that he’s engaged to be married to his girlfriend. His mom, my boss, is not immediately jumping for joy with excitement, the response I’m sure her son was seeking so he could then holler “April Fools!” Instead he was met with the sound of fear in his mother’s voice and the dreaded “Why?”

It was all I could do to keep from laughing, and I wasn’t on the call. Needless to say, my boss was much relieved (and jumping for joy) when she found out the engagement wasn’t real. At which point she directed her son to tell his girlfriend that “she was excited” when she heard the news and “let down” when she found out it was just an April Fools’ Day joke. Ha!

I’m not sure which of the three characters is the true butt of the joke, so we’ll have to wait and see how the story plays itself out. Until then.

April Fools’ Day