Rantings, mostly…

As of 6 minutes ago, 6:25PM EST, I have declared myself in a (mini) Vow of Silence!

I’m doing it as an exercise in understanding my children better, learn to better think before I speak, and to take time to do things myself and stop relying on my children as static delegates.

Of course blogging (yeah, like I do so much) is not included in “the Vow.”  Nor is writing and written school correspondence.

I’d say I’ll keep you updated — you being the whopping 2 people who subscribe to this blog and you being the 15-20 bounces I receive a day — but we all know I’m not capable of maintaining this blog on a routine basis.

Evidently my previous article was “worthy” enough to get a pingback from “Delete Blog.”

At first I thought, wow, my first ever pingback (I think).  Then I thought, “Oh that’s right!  Successful bloggers use the success of other bloggers to promote their blogging!”

That’s when I knew Delete Blog must be on crack.  I furthered verified this by seeing that for the data of November 12 alone there were 100+ posts, November 11 (the day I got the pingback) was similar.

Then I decided to check out a few and some of them are completely horrid, such as:

http://deleteblog.com/how-do-i-get-the-file-to-restore-my-itouch-to-an-earlier-software/

Which leads to:

http://www.officialappleitouch.com/?p=934

You may notice that it is a blog that without JavaScript is completely devoid of content.  After allowing script I see that it is a “cry for help” post.

How in the hell did that make it to the front page of a “website” that “collects the best and most interesting news, blogs, forum and articles from around the world about recent topics?”

For that matter, how the hell did my post about my kids and I make it to the front page on November, 11th?

Here’s one that I found via their “Featured Articles” widget:

http://deleteblog.com/5-blogging-tips-every-blogger-should-know/

Looks like the editor-in-chief has been stealing material from SiteProNews, Squidoo and Top Blogging — and not even doing a good job of it either.

Unless I’m mistaken, Delete Blog you are useless.

I thought to myself that it must be amazing to perform improvisation on MadTV — from an actor’s perspective at least. I also thought how difficult it must be when it hit me.

The point is improvisation requires effort not necessarily training and education although I’m sure it doesn’t hurt.

Last night as a fear exercise my oldest kid snatched the “stirring stick” out of our lit and roaring fireplace to stir it a bit because it needed it and — now get this — because it was not completely on fire.

My fearful little angel had ascended into this brave creature that we saw walking among us snatching fire from the belly of the beast to wave above her head in triumph as it sent chills down my spine.

The greatest moments in my life are based on the beauty and joy my children share as a child and the developments they make toward being an adult.

The point I’m trying to make I guess is that never again will I be afraid to accomplish something and if I am I will willingly admit that I need guidance and seek it on my own.

I’m off to see what sources of drama and improvisation they have in my area.

Ah, don’t worry. That’s about as deep as I’ll be getting in this post.

I was just a mite bummed out about 12 hours ago (7PM yesterday) when I called the local fire department and the conversation went a bit like this:

Fireman: “City” Fire Department.
Me: Hi, who am I speaking with?
Fireman: What?
Me: Sorry! Who am I speaking with?
Fireman: “City” Fire Department.
Me: Oh. Ok. Well, nice to meet you “City” Fire Department, I’m toe.
Fireman: Alright.
Me: I was wondering, what measures do I need to take or what do I need to arrange with you cats to snag this CRT monitor off my hands and dispose of it eco-friendly like.
Fireman: Say what now?
Me: How do you guys get rid of computer monitors?
Fireman: We don’t.
Me: You don’t know how to dispose of computer monitors or you don’t offer that service?
Fireman: Neither I ’spose.
At this point bear in mind that I full well knew that improper disposal of a CRT monitor is a seriously environment unfriendly action.
Me: Do you know if there is anything special I should do before throwing it away?
Fireman: No I don’t believe you need to do anything but set it out for the garbage man.
Me: Alrighty then mister. Thanks.
Fireman: *click* He hung up.

Besides the fact the exchange between me and the hillbilly fireman was absolutely mind numbing I find it amazing that a fireman anywhere doesn’t have the slightest clue about how to dispose of something like that.

Even worse is my local chamber of commerce said to “check with them, they’ll know.”

Pocket SharpMT - not exactly sure of the origin of the name, but so far a decent utility.

Assuming this is posted correctly that is.

UPDATE: Which — it didn’t. Actually, it works nicely and has a much nicer UI than MoBlog. However, it failed to upload the image I inserted via the XML-RPC/WordPress API. *shrug*

After being swamped with offers and requests for this domain I have finally sifted through all 4 of them.

Yep, four.

• Declined
• Violation of DreamHost’s TOS
• Never replied to initial correspondence
• Accepted

The final of which being a friend who offered to share the costs of this site and provide some experience elsewhere.  So there you have it.

Oh wait.

She wants me to continue blogging whenever the hell I get around to it because it is therapeutic.

*shrugs*

And not a single one of them used the comments.