I have absolutely no idea how to theme this list. None whatsoever.

Dec 07, 2006

Folks curious to read the posts I mentioned in last week's Thirteen can view that entry...and follow the links to the corresponding posts.) So after my grand announcement last week, I realized that while I may be able to tell you about the neon sign (tomorrow, poppets, tomorrow [I know — you're all going to gang up and kill me. You're all fully justified.] )...I haven't the faintest clue about what I can list for this week. Zippo. Zilch.

Well, there's always the old fallback:

Round 70::6 — Thirteen utterly random things pulled out of thin air (or from the locked cabinet behind my pineal gland)

{The first number is the round-count for the overall meme; the second number is my round-count.}

1. I am largely introverted, and often think that my ideal home would be a hermit's cave...with a DSL connection. There are times, however, when I get a bit extroverted. This seems to be one of them.
2. The 'social' swings often coincide with starting a new gig. Not always, but quite often.
3. This isn't all that hard to predict: when I'm at a gig wherein I'm desperately unhappy, I try and shut up because otherwise I know I'll gripe and whine like a cranky four-year-old. When I leave that particular gig, it's as if a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. In four instances, people have actually remarked how much happier I seem two weeks after leaving a particularly unpleasant gig.
4. I have held over a dozen jobs in my career. Two of them have been 'regular employment' situations, the others have been temp positions or contracts.
5. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I've been fortunate enough to be in a time, place, and position (skills-wise) that I can work at many different gigs. I learn different skills, don't have to deal with long-term office politics, and avoid the whole company-holiday-party foofaraw. RAWK
6. I do not ever want to be a manager.
7. Not for some other company, that is. Four years ago I started my own web hosting company. There have been some bumps, and working at contracts means that I have to pay more for managed servers so that my clients aren't ever left hanging; but it lets me have the best of both worlds: steady income (from the tech contracts) and the luxury of slowly building a long-term client base (from the hosting company). Once the client base is large enough, I'll slow down my rate of outside contracting. (Sure, it means that I've effectively spent the last four years in transition; but I've never had to make the choice between keeping my servers running, or paying my own rent.)
8. Part of the reason I don't want to be a manager is the same reason I don't want to be a parent: I have enough work keeping my own act together. I don't want to be responsible for helping several other people keep *their* respective acts together, as well.
9. And now, for something completely different: does it not suck that spammers and other rude things are so...so...so...damnedpushy that many of us either have to moderate all site comments, or disallow them completely unless the person is signed up with our site? (And it's worse when a service, like Yahoo360, won't allow a site member to turn on moderated commenting. Or possibly it doesn't even allow that feature, for fears of clogging the whey out of Yahoo's bandwidth pipes.)
10. I wish that the various browser makers would agree on a standard for JavaScript support. I do not even have MSIE installed on my computer, so whenever I come to a site that uses the Mr. Linky boxes, I can't leave my link. I worry that this makes me appear antisocial to some of the folks upon whose sites I've left comments. (And just where did I pull that sentence's tortured, quasi-Victorian syntax?!?? Wherever it came from, I'm putting it back.)
11. Blogrolling and Technorati are both having fits. My CMS software pings each of them whenever I post a new entry, sure; but then I actually *go* to either of those sites and...nope, my site is not indicated as having updated recently. So despite the software working as it should, not passing back any unwarranted errors, I have recently started to manually ping both Technorati and Blogrolling. (Though Blogrolling's 'recently updated' list is so full of spammy links...I think they're just overwhelmed. That must be the case; because when my site finally does show up as being updated, that 'updated' marker stays there for a the better part of a day.)
12. I added another snowflake background to the site's design.
13. I'm thinking that I'll add the ability to easily link to individual comments, too. (I certainly appreciated that ability in some other sites...though honestly, previously, I wasn't entirely sure why it would be necessary.)

Other T13 Participants

1. J-Dawg's Realm — where we take a trip around the world. Or certainly around the T13 world :D
2. Tug — who also loathes spammers, but on the other hand, is getting a case of the warm fuzzies this week
3. Di's Book Blog — where we talk about things that are just wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong
4. Yada yada yada — where we learn thirteen trivia-bits about St. Louis, MO
5. Writing Aspirations — where we help rashenbo usher in their inaugural Thursday Thirteen
6. Philly Transplant — where we see the inside of his refrigerator
7. ~*~Tinkerbell~*~ — where we read about thirteen methods of divination
8. Yellow Rose Garden — where we get a list of thirteen Christmas movies
9. The Zeus Excuse — where we read about bewildering holiday behaviors
10. The Median Sib — where we are asked to ponder thirteen questions
11. Dark and Twisted Ink — where we read several "first sentences" in a novel
12. The Miller Way... — where she shares her thirteen dream jobs (after being laid off...just as the holidays begin. Go send encouragement!)
13. Write from Karen — where we read about the weird, weird things other humans have been up to as of late. (Haircut rage?!??!??)
15. Mouse's Lilypad — where we view 13 Monty Python sketches (though...for T13 #42...shouldn't it have been Douglas-Adams-themed?..)
17. Musings of a Domestic Goddess — where we read a list of favorite Christmas quotes from movies, and add our own
19. The Naked Truth — where we read about pop-culture-famous movies the author has never seen

Keywords: | work | usability | Thursday | rude people | memes | antisocial software |
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