Try BubbleShare's new GUI goodness!

I'm not saying I'm the best judge in the world, but this is a feaking cute little kitty.

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BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Check out the new User Interface goodies at BubbleShare.com--and make sure you scroll down when you click the "Share" tab -- you'll find LOTS of new ways to add albums to your blog. Big, Bigger, HUGE!

You have a MySpace blog? (doesn't everybody?). Now you can add a scrolling bar with photos, zippy flash slideshows, and more with BubbleShare. Weee!

meow.

Tags: cats, kittens, bubbleshare, photosharing, MySpace, Blogs, Blogging, Web2.0 = Powered by Qumana

i'm supposed to be working

I have a shitload of work to do. For my Canadian friends, allow me to translate: It's a busy time, eh?

And it's not so much that I can't do the work, but that I seem to be unable to actually get the work done........ because I keep falling asleep.

It's not me, really. It's my bed. The problem is my bed. (she said.)

There's a certain point with this old king-sized mattress sandwich that I'm completely unable to resist. It's when the sheets are just about ready to be changed, and they're all crinkled and rumpled and askew, and I haven't made the bed in days, and the pillows are every which place, and my laptop and canvas SXSW bag that now contains too many items I need to address are at the foot of the bed, and what am I supposed to do? Ignore it?

The strange thing is that I have always adored a well made bed dressed in textures and layers, pressed cotton sheets with tight seamed corners. Oh!

But now? This is not my beautiful bed.

This new era Jeneane can't resist burrowing down into a mis-made, half-assed, crumpled-up, laundry-imminent, unmade bed. Taking an all-akimbo, acid-washed two-hour nap. Say my prayer of thanks for having a fine roof (even if it leaks) over my fine head (even if its roots are showing) in a fine room (even if it's a disaster) in my fine house (even if it's in disrepair) on this fine, fine, fine (low-end) king-size bed.

I find it ir-fucking-resistible.

So what am I supposed to do?

George says: "You know, you could work at your desk."

Sure, but where would I sleep?

[[Breaking News: Amyloo corrects my usage -- suggests the right word is "irre-fucking-sistible". I stand by my mashup: "ir-fucking-resistible" for two reasons--1) it uses a first-syllable break, and 2) sistible's not a word. We are writing ourselves into ex-fucking-istence over here. Let's get it right. You are welcome to weigh in on the matter in comments.]]

Tags: sleep-working = Powered by Qumana

That Guest Blogger Thing?

Don't do that. Okay?

Thanks.

Tags: guest blogging, you're not that important = Powered by Qumana

New Tools for the Working Mom

WORK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

With the MomTop(TM), From IBM.

Think the night nurse is a working mom's best friend? Think again.

IBM's new MomTop(TM) Notebook handles 12 hours of labor and gives birth to fully-clothed, 10 lb. infants by ejecting them from the DVD R/W drive right into mom's ergonomically-supported, waiting arms.

That's right. Get your MomTop and never leave the office again. Baby due in the middle of a conference call? NO SWEAT! MomTop covers the baby's entire face with a winter cap so clients can't hear that pesky newborn's cry.

How DID your mother and grandmother do it?

With the MomTop, you really don't have to give a shit.

Available now for $3,499.00

USB-ready Breast Pump Add-On Only--$69.99!

Hurry...Time Limited Offer.

Tags: parenting, kids, children, tech, web2.0, MomTop = Powered by Qumana

image from dreamtimes.

I didn't realize...

...that Albert had eaten so well at Mix06. It looks like his usual diet of nutrition bars was momentarily interrupted.

Tags: bubbleshare, albert lai, clif bar, mmm mmm good = Powered by Qumana

The old Top 100 They Ain't What They Used to Be...

Interesting post on the rapidly changing face of the t'rati top 100.

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Only 35 school days left in the South

HOLY SHIT!

Tags: parenting, summer vacation, kids = Powered by Qumana

Clue for sale? Anyone?

I think I need to buy one, because I don't understand the purpose of GM's new FYI Blog, which Steve reports is allowing "all GM employees to contribute in one way or another."

I don't see all employees. I see Directors and VPs spinning so far

As someone with a brother who's put in 27 years and will soon be out of a job, I think an innovative move would be to bring the guys from simplyhired.com and other HR/Job sites over to the blog to give advice, resources, and info that could help steer the thousands of career GM employees who are going to need the help toward new opportunities.

Employee blogs are nice. Before anyone did them, they were cutting edge. It's time for some new cutting edge moves, and that edge has to be a lot more edgy than having your Brand and Communications people posting about how great thou art.

Tags: GM, FYI Blog, Steve Rubel, PR, Corporate Blogging, Employee Blogs, Tech = Powered by Qumana

Web 2.0 Office Fun

As you package your own Web2.0 tools together to replace those annoying old desktop apps, make sure you include a cool new invoicing tool like blinksale.  I'm going to try it out. The only thing I found a little too webtoo.cavalier was the answer to the data security question:

Is my data safe?

Our servers are housed in a secure, state-of-the-art colocation center in Dallas, Texas. You may export your data in a variety of formats, and though we hate to see you go, you are free to cancel Blinksale at any time.

That leaves some privacy questions unanswered, some what happens when you cancel questions unanswered, but hey, I'm not billing the White House (yet).

I think there should be an optional interface on invoicing/billing tools that make them fun. I HATE DOING THAT PART OF MY BUSINESS. Everyone does. I'd like a time sheet widget that pops up every couple of hours saying, "want to record anything?" and then I choose from a drop down of my clients (this is all while whatever I'm working on is uninterrupted), i choose from whatever projects i populated it with, and I toss in another hour or two. It keeps track for me. And, like, can it reward me? Like can I set it to say, "When I add my 70th billable hour, launch my amazon wish list and one-click me a $10-$20 gift for myself."

I'm an indie. So are a lot of us. I'd love new ways to incent MYSELF. Creative ways to add some boing-boing type fun inside of my everyday, lonely processes.

Tags: web2.0, tech, billing, invoicing, software = Powered by Qumana

50 Ways to Leave Your Notes, Yah.

SolutionWatch just blew me away by providing a handy list of 50 web 2.0 tools that help people who have to write shit down.

The fact that there are 50 Web 2.0 tools that help us take notes is, itself, indicative of our meta-fetish nature in the age of the interweb.

I would like to have seen Qumana included, because it's one of the fastest ways to keep notes and links together, then publish your thoughts to a blog (or several, across various blogging platforms). There is a difference, I suppose, between Web publishing tools and web-based word processors, but the quickest route from thought to publish for bloggers is bypassing Blogger's and Wordpress's interface and posting through Qumana.

Nonetheless, a useful list of helpful tools. Next week, SolutionWatch will provide a list of the top 50 Web 2.0 tools for double-clicking!

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while i'm out...

Anyone who knows anything about prosper.com, or has lent or borrowed there, I want to know about it.

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off to meetings...

keep your powder dry, gotta make a living. see ya lateron.

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Rollercoaster of Love, Say What?

Smartmobs says researchers are tracking bloggers' moods. Good Thing We're So Happy!

today, i'm feeling.... splenetic.

Tags: smart mobs, blog mood, splenetic, bowels = Powered by Qumana

what makes will be the boy

we all have them. at least he's honest:

...by request: My Favorite Compulsive Behaviors

Drinking coffee
Making up songs about chickens
Making lists
Chart making (this one is new)
Skee-ball
Alcohol related blackouts (this one is currently under control)
Eating things in even numbers (ie: 4 cookies, not 3)
Checking the locks
Gambling (this one is mostly under control)
Singing the names of street signs
Listening to this song by ’68 Comeback: Shotgun Saw
This song by Townes van Zandt: To Live is to Fly (live version)

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You Mean The World Doesn't End with The Valley?

Euan Semple tells it like it is, exploring the value of physical connections at conferences which -- unbeknownst to some U.S. UberMouths -- still matter in places other than the valley, boston, and new yawk. And they don't even need to be "un" to count!!

I was also very aware of the unconferencing meme going around at the moment but to be honest I am getting pretty tired of a small group of people who have attended mind-bloggling numbers of conferences, along with pretty much the same group of geeks, over the past four years in the US getting bored with themselves and declaring conferences dead. I know from experience that there still a lot of people for whom "real" conferences continue to have value - especially for people who are new to a subject and not one of the chosen few.

And anyway - people like Chris Corrigan, Jon Husband and Johnnie Moore have been applying open space principles to group working for years very effectively. Getting a bunch of people to self-organise round things they feel passionate about wasn't invented by Dave Winer.

Amen. As a soloist, I wish I could afford to go to more of them and get burned out too. More reasons for a nap!

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Dream a little dream with me...

Doc revealed the true world leader in his sleep last night.

That's funny, last night I dreamed that the links to my archive list, down there at the bottom right starting in 2001, were tattooed on my right arm.

I am not sure what would have happened if I clicked them.

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sick web 2.0 ad revenue models -- here's a gimme

so you start a blog now, you write a bunch of posts detailing future big-news events that are destined to happen, say for instance, a spoof release on the death of an ex-president, you watch the post rise to the top of google, tracking the random referrals you get on the search string. (Amazing how may folks THINK Gerald Ford is dead, you know?) Then, you sell ads based on potential traffic from specific event trigger, say, the actual death of said president hitting MSM sources, and the ads begin running only once your blog receives the first rush of hits for a given search string from google and other search engines. So, you put about 5,000 of these future news nuggets on a blog, seeding the future, and you charge advertisers an 'event price' for future ads that will run for, say, a week or month after the trigger is tipped.

Is it a spam blog? not if it's creative. More like the Onion, but SEO-ed.

I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying...

Tags: gerald ford, business model, advertising, twisted sister = Powered by Qumana

oh. oh dear.

i think i just figured out what fastblogit is, which i never really 'got' when people would send me there. in light of this recent discovery, expect to not see me until i come back out of disneyland for dweebs!

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SHP Surpasses Huffing Glue As Leading Cause of Brain Damage

I keep finding beautiful dark coils of wonderful writing on the Shiny Happy People (SHP) topic that say what I wanted to say so much better than I said it.

And no, I'm not ready to shut up quite yet. There are times when I like beating dead horses. I've lost a couple of horses in my lifetime. It's hard to see a loyal equine friend dead--do you know how big a horse is? Do you know what it takes to bury one? It's not like a dead cat or hamster--it is pure enormity.

So if I decide to beat a dead horse, beat I will.

Let me turn it over, though, to the Head Lemur, who bought and paid for my smile tonight by getting -- perfectly -- the "it" that's wrong with SHP.

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Perfect!

The passive-aggressive wingnuts have arrived at the comment party from the wingnut vector himself to declare that liberals are unhappy because they're wrong -- keeping in the neocon style of planting catch-22 bait like land mines on Main Street.

It's enough to make a bi-polar rapid cycle!

How fascinating that Kathy's post has turned in on itself now to prove the very thing most of us were critiquing it for to begin with: happy people are always good for you right? Uh, wrong.

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This Just In...Scoble Goes Kenya-Only

Upon returning from his blog break, Robert Scoble will now be blocking comments from Romania and allowing only Kenyan bloggers to contribute to the discussion on Scobleizer.

This decision comes on the heels of intensive study that shows Scoble's U.S. blog commenters hardly rate in a 2003 study of who's the happiest.

"Well no wonder everyone's a bastard on my blog," Scoble said. "I've been writing to the wrong audience!"

Scoble plans to open his blog to comments from Mexico, which is ranked the second happiest place, once he becomes fluent in Spanish. Upon hearing the news, Tech Memeorandum pledged to launch a Spanish-language only version of the site sometime in 2008, if the bubble doesn't burst before then.

Tags: U.S Micro Obsession, Happiness, Tech, Blogging = powered by Qumana

Go Golby

Mike I've been missing too long. Reading you is remembering, in this time and this space, it's like going home.

Bar the homeless, the tramps, the whores, and the usual detritus flowing like effluent from suburbia's drain, there are few refugees in Kenilworth. I guess the crows, like the Buccaneer pilots, don't care. They prey on other birds or, like the seagulls blown in on the high sea winds, scavenge whatever they can find, their harsh, throaty cries broadcasting success.

In 1976, we sailed into Las Palmas, an island belonging to a Spanish enclave off Morocco. Drifting in to the quayside, I saw — through one of the dining-hall scuttles — curio sellers and hawkers lining the harbour wall. Alongside me, a leathery, taciturn petty officer remarked dryly: "Fucking crows."

I was only eighteen then. I had no idea we were supposed to hate the Spanish. It took me years to learn that white people in general, be they South African or not, tend to despise other nationalities, races, and cultures. It took me only a short while longer to learn that their suspicion, bigotry, and loathing are underpinned by an unhealthy dose of fear.

Sorry to be so long quiet. I'm back home.

Tags: Mike Golby, How to Write a Blog, South Africa, Skateboarding, Iraq, U.S. Politics = Powered by Qumana

What Is Beautiful.

I didn't realize that Stowe Boyd had another-nother blog called Ambivalence, which I arrived at today by clicking a sidebar link from /Message. There I came across a wonderful, touching post about Stowe's life as a solo, traveling man in the age of the Web, a consultant with an office in the wild, at a time when the connections that arise from connectivity are creating home-bases out there, no where in particular, between this place and the next place, with long-time friends and net-neighbors whose faces we are only now coming upon, one after the next.

In a period of a handful of days, this week, I will have as many as a dozen meetings, with savants and seekers, entrepreneurs and engineers, and companies large and small. I will see a never-seen-before product, learn about a company's recent formation, and hear some juicy bit of gossip that would have passed me by at home. I will walk many miles, ride trains, cabs, and planes, and flit around within an unforgiving schedule like a nightingale in a silver cage. I will stay out late with new friends and old, laughing and learning, and I will work alone in coffeeshops, here, there, and everywhere.

I am a modern nomad, carrying the minimum of possessions in service to the maximum of obsessions. And it's different sort of strength that comes from this wandering, from staying in different hotels instead of the same old bed, from seeing the sun rise from different windows, through different branches, reaching for the light.

They say that migrating birds can sense the magnetic fields of the Earth, and calibrate their flight with the arcs of the stars, swirling through the skies. What forces am I skating along, as I swing westward, like some 21st century hobo? I feel a humming in the blood, a deep murmuring in my meat: a call, some nearly intangible sensation of being pulled, going, like the birds stroking the air, like the stars sweeping westward.

A fascinating, honest, and beautiful read.

Tags: Stowe Boyd, Blogging, Tech, Web2.0, consulting, /Message, Ambivalence = Powered by Qumana

Virgin Birth Reported--Universe Nears Collapse!

In the Shiny Happy People (SHP) department, the most positive guy in America, Tom Cruise, just became a daddy.

No one's saying if Katie was allowed to scream, or if Tom was able to shut the fuck up, during the birth, which the tenets of Scientology advise should take place in total silence.

The baby's name is Suri, which means either "red rose," "princess," or "save me, i'm the baby of freak hollywood cultists," depending on your native language.

Doctors and nurses were not allowed to talk during the birth, and had to learn sign-language to participate in the birth (AKA: get paid large sums of dianetics-inspired cashola).

It's reported that Collin Powell sent well his well wishes during Holmes' labor as he said, "nanu nanu" under his breath...



As fate, hollywood, and cults from outer space would have it, Tom "Psychiatry isn't a sicence" Cruise's nemesis Brooke Shields also had a baby today! Word has it she won't be sharing any of her magic Prozac pills with Katie if the post-partum blues come a callin'.

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Love and Light, Y'all!

Original image courtesy of dreamstime.

Positive Psychology Is All You Need....

click the picture bucko.

courtesy...

the artist formerly known as...rageboy

The world is black, the world is white
It turns by day and then by night
A child is black, a child is white
Together they grow to see the light,
to see the light
And now at last we plainly see
We'll have a dance of Liberty,
Liberty!

(lyrics by David Arkin)


Is everybody happy now?

Good, we can go home early.

"Drive-Bys Are Conversations"

Cover art courtesy of RageBoy.
Limited Edition, exclusively available on allied.

consulting rates vary - inquire within.

He's so smart and nice...

that it's hard to tell sometimes, but i think AKMA may be pissed. ;-)

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words

the ruins by river bank, his house is in shambles, mama gambles with the cash, it's last, just a preamble, she's dressed in linen, flowers and confection, just what she's got to be seen in, around it goes, no affection, just shots fired in every direction, insurrection, blessed are the peacemakers and department of corrections, you know what help means? seems useless, a friend is anyone who hasn't abused us, but what moves us is the bass drum, the shit where we came from, groove hard, dig down down to sound, don't you think she's been around? watch her ass shake, legs like a snake, makes his thing ache, it's like that, teeth like a rat, nails like a cat, she slice his back til he comes to, no place to go home to, next lie down anyplace he can roam to, maybe the bank of the river, the sun's already a sliver, in the sky, the day is past, kick away the trash, take aim and watch the cans splash.

words

even grass is fluent, in what she asks, you know, telling stories of the hooves and feet, how many, how long, touching and bending and brushing through on the way to somewhere or to sit on my favorite patch, where everything stretches out, a world map in a small town, but to get there you climb, scramble up the steep gravel path, you fall and the skin rips off your knees in sheets, I still have the brown pebbles inside, thick scar on my right leg, using safety pins to dig them out never enough, up up, pushing one thigh at a time, clumps of clay reach forward, say, hold onto me, and so it goes the whole way up up, scramble-fall-catch-pull-claw-up. Until. At the top nothing but green and the still-bare patches that mark the graves of the palamino and thoroughbred, turned under two summers before, in deep graves the back-hoe dug, and the best two farm dogs I ever knew.

I should have been reading Tony

Holy big bad shit. I should have been reading Tony. I knew it was a mistake to get involved in this meta blog bullcrap, because you know, people can say they know who's an asshole and who's happy and nice in blogland, and people can blog all day and put up nice pix that show they are so white and harmless and freckled and breadbaseket-americana, and then they:

rape
torture
kill
decapitate
rape again
cut up
and plan to eat
ten-year-old little girls

even if they only get to the torture, kill, decapitate, rape(2), and cut-up parts. it can happen. you might like them, who knows, they may have you on their blogroll, and they might dig what you write a lot, they might come around your place and comment, and even quote your posts on their blogs, and all the while you don't know that they have a dead freckle-faced kid in the cooler whom they have finished murdering but haven't eaten yet, and ...

when they confess, you find out that this pretty average blog guy who looks weird in retrospect but described himself as "single, bored, and lonely, but other than that, pretty happy," seemed like any joeblowblogger at the time, this guy who has swapped blog spit with you, is the killer, and you see a trail to other blogs where he wrote some way fucked up stuff, and did you know? no--that's not the part he showed you, hell you even threw him a link once.

And you feel like you are going to puke and you feel like the world has opened up and showed you the belly of the devil on Good Friday.

Just ask tony pierce how that feels.

Tony points to a roundup of news stories here.

jesus.


Tags: kevin ray underwood, jamie rose bolin, blogging, murder, sweet jesus = Powered by Qumana

Once more with feeling.

Tags: robert scoble, shelley powers, nakedness

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He Took the Words Right Outta My...

yep, that's for sure.

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Actually it's ScienTOLogy that cause problems for mother and child after birth, not "talking."

More from the land of cults and the upcoming birth of the soon-to-be-abused child of Tomboy and Katie.

In his book Dianetics, the religion's founder L. Ron Hubbard instructs: "maintain silence in the presence of birth to save the sanity of mother and child."

According to the tenets of Scientology, words spoken during birth and other painful times are recorded by the "reactive mind," or subconscious.

Those memories, Scientologists believe, can eventually lead to problems for mother and child.

Actually, it's scientology, not memories, that can eventually lead to problems for mother and child. Did I say can? I meant will.

Loonwads.

Tags: cults, mind control, scientology, dianetics, eugenics = Powered by Qumana

Essential Reading on Tax Day in the Blog World

From January of 2004, this post will provide you with KEY new information on how to save on your TAXES than any other post you've read.

In fact, I guarantee if you read this post, your tax return will be quadrupled--ASTRONOMICALLY IMPORTANT, perhaps LIFE SAVING advice developed for bloggers only -- all outlined in OPML here Go, now. Go.

Tags: three quarters of the way over the shark, blogging, tech, conversational era = Powered by Qumana

Everybody Must Get Stowed

New addition to the valleyspeak phrasebook.

"Getting Stowed": Your web 2.0 logo is worn on Stowe Boyd's chest as many times as he can launder (and intersperse with other logoed t-shirts he receives) between May and December.

The new line of 2006 Stowewear fashions will also be displayed on /Message in return for saving Stowe on his annual clothing budget.

The ROI of blogging goes on and on!

Tags: stowe boyd, /message, advertising, logos, web2.0, tech = Powered by Qumana

Did We Know Amazon Had Product Wikis?

When Werner Vogels talks about performance and scalability, one look around Amazon these days will tell you why. From a 'conversation-enabling' standpoint, I'm not sure what they are not doing. And IM-coming-soon may be more than an April Fool's joke.

Which leads me to note, I have no idea when product wikis were launched on Amazon, but a look at the most edited wikis makes me think maybe February or March?

Uber-amazonian-spendthrift, new age decipherer, and Cluetrain co-author Chris Locke pointed them out to me this morning, and naturally I went to the Cluetrain product page and started one.

The 'wiki toolbar' mentioned on the "Learn More" help page doesn't exist--at least not however I'm using firefox to add/edit/view the wiki I can't seem to find it. I wanted to add a definition, but I don't see the "editor toolbar" to do so.

That's also how you add new pages, apparently.

Anyway, another day, another feature to play with. wee!

[[p.s., earliest mention on technorati I see is from Ross Mayfield.]]

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The Four Agreements and Comment Moderation in the 21st Century

Posted this comment at Shelley's about Robert's recent comment moderation and Four Agreement/Happy People discussion:

...There is usually something else going on with people who grab on to new age nonsense about "unhappy people" being the cause of their angst, and doing away with whatever isn't "positive", and other contrived cultish answers to what is the INHERENT COMPLEXITY OF REALITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION. It's bullshit. It's actually worse than bullshit--it's dangerous. And incidentally, it's the opposite of naked conversations.

If you want to moderate comments to get rid of anonymous trolls and folks posting as different people (who cares, they out themselves), then delete them. Or allow us to register--I'd much rather register once and see the comments keep flowing than watch them sit in moderation limbo.

Or if you really feel like you have to, then fine, moderate them. It is your blog. Whatever.

BUT please decide whether you're moderating comments to get rid of anonymous and false posters OR to get rid of whatever doesn't "ADD VALUE TO YOUR LIFE OR THE LIVES OF YOUR READERS."

You don't know what adds value to my life. What the fuck does ADDED VALUE TO YOUR LIFE look like in a comment? Is it strokes and ego kisses? Is it really Kewl New Information? Is it a couple screwing while they type in the comment? Is it a nun joke? WTF?

All I'm saying is, you're mixing something benign (moderated comments) with something malignant (filling my life with happy people) here. Make sure at least YOU know the difference.

You said you look at blogging more like talk radio. I look at it more as the antidote to talk radio. And I guess that's just that.

ADDED EDITOR'S NOTE: Remedial Study of Mystic Bourgeoisie is in order.

Tags: scoble, scobelizer, comments, comment moderation, tech = Powered by Qumana

Scoble Morphs into Tom Peters?

Okay first I said this about that. Tonight I read that Scoble is going to have a guest blogger for a week in a move most often attributed to Tom!  Then dropped by Tom and frequently implemented by Joi.

So does that mean that Bubba will be moderating too while at Scoble's? I mean, is it the blogger or the blog who decides? Do we know? And do we care? Is Scoble begging us not to care anymore?

And where do naked conversations come into this, because it's feeling more and more clothed by the minute.

No comments over at scoble's at this hour. Guess they're awaiting moderation. 

Tags: scoble, scobelizer, comments, comment moderation = Powered by Qumana

Moderation isn't good enough.

Robert Scoble has decided to start moderating comments the wordpress way, which is of course his prerogative. I like what Toby at Diva Marketing says on her blog about the importance of honest feedback and fluid discussion between business and marketplace and why not moderating comments enables that process.

But then there's the reality: Robert is a sitting duck, a visible target for competitors and detractors with saddlebags full of ammunition. That has to get tiring. I get it. Still, he is also a hardhead sometimes. I can say that because I'm one too. Most bloggers are. It comes with having opinions.

That's why the current comment moderation systems won't work for someone like Robert who is 1)Triple-A-List and 2)Sitting Duck and 3)A vector for conversation within a CorpoGiant. We need more options for comment systems as blog conversations and roles become more complex.

Maybe the fact that Robert's a technology evangelist will spur some innovation on comment solutions--an under-served blog tool area for sure. We need an alternative to the Either-Or current structure of moderation. Either you're executed and buried, or your set free to speak. That doesn't work.

I'd like to see some kind of system where I have the say, but readers can overrule me if I'm being hardheaded. Maybe I could tag a comment as "troll" or "flaming asshole" but Shelley might come along and tag it as "valid point" or "shut up and listen for once." At which point I could tag her comment as "point taken," or "i'm right i'm right i'm right!"

Better alternatives for managing comments would help both blogger and reader -- we might all learn something -- and the conversation wouldn't suffer from the black hole of moderation.

AND as I said in comments on Toby's blog, I'm more worried about Robert's newfound interest in "The Four Agreements" and getting "unhappy people" out of his life. Nice try, but life doesn't wrap up that neatly. If I need to be continuously happy to be in someone's life, I'll bow out now, thanks.

Originally posted at BlogHer.

Tags: blogs, comment moderation, scoble, tech = Powered by Qumana

Shelley Made My Week

From Shelley, I came upon THIS, and if you have not gone, you will go now, because you must.

Tags: http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2006/04/07/4991= Powered by Qumana

"Clouds of Acid Swirl Around Venus"

Cool! I hear RB has booked a flight. Several thousand bloggers have also purchased tickets, undeterred by the reported 200 mile-per-hour winds or the fact that it's actually 'sulphuric' acid.

"I've been known to mix a few potions of my own," RB said, reading aloud from his five-star bestseller* The Bombast Transcripts.

Film at 11.




*never you mind.

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hamsterface

frank wanted me to blog a pig. here is a pig. (shhh) m2y.us

hamsterface Originally uploaded by Jeneane.

Lots of news on how hot domain names are in bubble-take-two

This news naturally leads me to offer for sale two prized domain addresses that your double wide would look GREAT parked in front of:

mom2.Org (perfect!)

m2y.us (me to you dot us--the rallying cry for the social software revolution -- incidentally coined before Edelman's "me2" nonsense, by the way. hmmm...)

other fine domains just waiting for a home on your mantle piece include:

BlogProper.com

Jeneane.net (hey, I'll change the way I spell my name for the right price)

sessum.com (wait--no way. well.... unles$....)

It's Web 2.0--let's make a deal!!!

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media relations freelancers, where are you?

it's like this: I don't do mainstream media relations because 1.) I never liked it and 2.) I don't have access to my former network of agency-day MSM contacts (read: the thing that takes $3K/month access to media map and other media-access engines to maintain because people move all over the place and fold and startup and etc.).

Sidebar: These closed members-only systems are the SINGLE BIGGEST remaining competitive advantage of BigPR cos over independent ex-agency pros--hey, that's what you're paying pay them $225/hr. for. That and their lawyers.  (p.s., not to worry, me and a few buds are working on breaking that barrier...but that's another post for another day).

SO ANYWAY.

In the mean time, I must get two golden opportunities every month for freelance media relations folks -- especially tech and healthcare -- that I can't source. This is the old-school media relations work that all PR people say they can do but only the pros are good at.

Send me your links, your results, your contact info, and talk to me so that I can refer you. Our mutual reputations depend on you being good at what you do (you know, even tech folks want the cover of Business Week and that spot on Oprah ;-) ). But they'll all settle for some ink.

NO BIG PR COS NEED APPLY. Everyone who can afford you already knows who you are. Jeremy, Steve and (best for last) Constantin, when you decide it's really not better inside, you are welcome to reapply.

Okay, now that I've told too many PR secrets for one day, I'm off to do the less glamorous work...

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Bomani Tells It Straight About the Black Greek and Beat Thing

Nothing I can say that he didn't say. For the love of  your brother's mother, cut this shit out.

Bomani puts it like this:

Stop pretending as though hazing isn't condoned or tolerated because it is. Every black fraternity I know of has a ridiculous process, one where getting beaten is just par for the course. Lines are "underground," but everybody knows the deal. I'm tired of these organizations and schools pretending like they don't know what goes on during pledging processes because they do. In fact, many university administrators endured these same processes themselves, so they're just trying to piss on my head under the guise or rain when they say they don't tolerate this stuff. Schools have spent years turning blind eyes to students walking around like zombies because they don't get sleep, probate shows where the neos wear shades to cover the bruises on their faces, kids walking around with limps and hair that hasn't been cut in weeks and kids going ghost from class for weeks because they can't be seen in their physical conditions because it would give away that they're on line.

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seven reasons seem very reasonable

every too-isolated mother knows these seven reasons are more than enough reason for a vacation at the nearest institution where IV valium can make life worth living. A highly under-estimated way out of the house.

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Panthergirl's trapped in a seinfeld episode in florida

so the least you can do is go visit someone on her blogroll and tell her what you think.

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I am left wondering...

If Mark's April 7th post has anything to do with his April 11th post.

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here kitty kitty kitty

Dr. Bill K. reports on reports of the black-death-carrying-house-kitty of the future, but says he's not so worried as to have paid a visit to the pound with his neighbor's pussy.

Or else he said something way more professional. i'm too tired to click back.

no i have not hit him up for any RXs so far. tho i would if i thought he'd put out.

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what i want to know is...

...precisely how our friend euan semple worked with sir paul mccartney?

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i swear to god

ms. esther dyson has the most interesting life of anyone i know or have yet to know.

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Peterme coined "Blog," or so says the OED. And he didn't even know it until his dad emailed him. gottalovetheinternets.

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Cult Bastards

the art and science of mind control practiced by an organization steeped in layers and layers of high-paid lawyers is an evil, evil thing.

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sometimes i'm so dumb i amaze even myself!

all this time the sweet little blogger's group i started on flickr back in 1923, back before Stewart and Caterina splashed across the cover of Time Magazine (or was it Newsweek? and does it matter?), had been in the top 10 flickr group list, with more than 6,000 members and a long-running era of success.

Suckass admin that I am, i missed my ENTIRE ERA of glory, and now we have drifted down to 12 or something. Replaced by 'grandmas in polyester pants' or something--i really didn't notice.

WTHOOEY! (me spitting)

THAT WILL NOT STAND.

Not in these times of TERROR and TERRORISM and NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION and THREATS and BIRD FLEWs.

YOU can do your part to do what's right and do your duty by day and night.

That's RIGHT: only you.

YOU can help get our group back on the Flickr top 10 list and become a flickr-uper in my life.

I could sure use some excitement about now.

The bloggers group needs you.

I invite you to invite me to invite you.

join today.

p.s., yah i know i said i was quitting flickr because of their stupid community guidelines but a friend in an influential place told me to stay and beat the system from the inside. plus i think i yelled enough that they haven't done anything stupid with the stupid rules.

just think what we could do with a top 10 group full of bloggers. heh.

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dads, ready your nipples!

Puts a whole new light on attachment parenting. Dads, unbutton those oxfords!

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That's "Led" Led...

Not "Lead" led. Unless you're talking pencils.

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damn this was good

funny thing is, people searching up when gerald ford died (which he hasn't... yet) find this work by yours truly. goes to show you--don't always believe those Internets. you gotta read the fine print.

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It's In the Job Description

This album is powered by
BubbleShare - Add to my blog

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my flawless sense of time says...

something big is due to happen.

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Put this on your calendar

p.m.

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doin some shit

im up to 2002, july. got a long way to go. unearthing what makes me tick. going unpro. find grind unwind. steel and cotton, rotten broken sliced and found. that's where i'm going with this place. Over here, the less abstract, but me still. spinoffs r fun. we go so fast. we blow so hard. we'll see what happens.

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Florida's kicking some PR ass

In Orlando, they're not buying into the "all PR is stupid" meme--in fact, the Orlando Chapter of the FPRA is hosting the FPRA blog week, where practitioners are practicing all up in the house!

Thanks to Josh for the tip.

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my friend and her birdie

Phyllis and Birdie. how lovely!

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let your children play

it was so quiet.
i said, can i go outside and play?
she said, no, we are mourning.
i said, what is mourning?
she said, what you do when someone dies.
i said, stay inside?
she said, it shows respect for your father.
i said, then can i go next door and play with debbi?
she said, no.
i said, because of mourning?
she, yes.
i said, is debbi in mourning?
she said, no, just our family.

If he were there i would say
can i go outside and play?
he'd say play what?
i'd say, I want to look for acorns in the pasture.
he'd say, what kind?
i'd say, whole ones, not cracked ones.
he'd say, what will you do with them?
i'd say, put them in my box. i want to show debbi.
he'd say, look under the tall tree in the back corner, by the fence we fixed right before your birthday.
i'd say, did you see some there?
he'd say, at least 100 of them.
i'd say, Really?! i'll need a pail. I'll bring them to show you!
he'd say, go on now and bring back some for debbi too.

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Montgomery St. lamppole screed

I see.

Montgomery St. lamppole screed Originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge.

when all is said and done in the great world of blogging

the one they will remember is ray, quiet craftsman, steadily weaving a tapestry of flesh and bones. He has been remembering forward for as long as I can remember.

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this blogger's creed

what i don't owe you/what you don't owe me:

an out
a pat on the back
a lie
a kiss
a cover up
a glass half empty or half full
a snow globe
a flashlight
a mother
an intervention
kindness
30 lashes
anything flannel
the truth
Xanax or Ecstasy
bare naked ladies
fact checking
a sunny day
a snow cone
links
roses
a dozen or so Lincoln logs
a whipping boy/girl
six inches
smoldering embers
a reason


[ X ] clicking confirms your agreement. thank you.

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sad

i'm sad.

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I'm back and further reflections

Offline for four days, or was it five? I'm re-amazed every time how easily I adapt to a world sans net. Sans keyboard. Sans even writing. Especially when I go to Rochester, where, except for the weather, life is simpler than it is here in the megalopolis of atlanta.

The first funniest part is driving. How in other places, people work together on a highway to make sure no one dies. How in Atlanta, it's you versus me, and if I don't look in my rear-view mirror, it doesn't count if what I do kills you.

I was telling george, it's like the motto of Rochester in all things is: We do our job. On the highways, in the schools, shoveling snow, work, shopping, cooking, whatever. It is an industrial age town caught in time between how things were and how things are. I don't know what will happen to a place that has lost so many jobs from defections of Kodak, Xerox, and Baush & Lomb and soon General Motors that the University of Rochester is now the largest employer. But when you've lived in hyperthrillville of "the city that doesn't hate" (now: "every day is an opening day") for a dozen years, feeling good about getting by and surviving another blizzard sounds kind of nice.

I visited my dad's grave for the first time in a decade. My grandmother's for the first time ever. They're together in the family plot. I hadn't seen the big stone with her name on it. I try not to fill in the the name for the remaining spot in my head, the empty one. Never mind.

----

My dad's headstone is overgrown with grass, clumped around the edges so you might miss his stone altogether, one solid clump of sleeping winter green covering up the cross at the top of the headstone.

I don't understand. Look around: The Tomaselli's are so well groomed, and the Fischers. Maybe it's the family's job. With all the death and dying, I forgot to learn who manicures the headstone. I think that job has been bought and paid for.

Whatever--I cry.

I have no tools. I'm a tourist.

But I have the key to the PT Cruiser rental car in my hand. That's all, except for the Kleenex, which is soaked and yellowed now.

Kneeling, I use the key to dig, a crude edger carving a path around marble, shove my fingers deep until I feel the stone's edge, and pull away dirt, grass, clumps. Three more sides to go.

The grooves in the key fill with dirt. I don't care.

When I finish, I see the grave of someone dead too long.

Family doesn't come often. The least visited is the least tended to.

My uneven uncovering of unforgiving marble makes this all the more obvious.

The dampness remains on the stone too long covered.

I brush away twigs and broken limbs, collect two pinecones to bring home, and say I love you still.

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Let's see how we do... thanks to blogger support

Over the last two weeks, this blog has gone through more poking and prodding than a proctologist's girlfriend (i dunno, just let it go) at the hands of Jason and the gang at blogger.com technical support.

If anyone's blog would get the bird flu, it would be mine.

How fitting.

Seriously, allied came down with the malady the likes of which no one, with their high-tech eyes and MILLIONS of blogs, had seen before. I like to call it blogus interuptus. Readers would attempt to do their daily deed here and be abruptly  interrupted by a blank screen.

RSS worked. Feeds were fine. You could get to any individual page, but not main URL. In essence, mine became the first no-blog, RSS-only weblog on the net. No blog at all, just RSS. Nothing but feed. How slick is that?

Except I didn't want to be slick. I wanted my house back.

SO, Jason and his team have now done everything humanly possible, and then some, to get this place cleaned up and running. The next couple of days will tell a lot. I'll be on vacation, so blogging will be light. Hopefully, you'll still be able to get here.

And I want to thank the blogger.com/google folks for stepping up and trying to sort this out. AND for the folks that spoke up for me and this blog when it was broken.

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Big News for Qumana, Bigger News for Lycos

If there is something that can help rejuvinate the legendary Lycos' positioning versus The Newer Bigger Guys, it's today's news from Lycos re: Qumana:

Lycos, Inc. (www.lycos.com), a leading media destination for creators and consumers of quality content, today announced a new desktop blog editing tool, powered by Qumana, making blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers everywhere.

With the new Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor (http://lycos.qumana.com/), Lycos enhances the freedom of blogging, allowing users to publish to their Tripod and Angelfire Blogs on Lycos, as well as to other major blogging sites, from the desktop. Additionally, the Lycos-Qumana Desktop Blog Editor works with Qumana’s Qads, an integrated ad program, allowing bloggers to insert ads into their blogs, while revenue from these ads is shared with the bloggers.

In a landscape of hyper-acquisitions and VC bulimia, it's nice to see an old-school-netco-meets-web-2.0 alliance where both companies gain--and so do their end users, especially those million++ Tripod and Angelfire folks who now have easy access to a super-easy blogging platform.

More on the alliance on the Qumana blog and at Jeremy's place..

Cool cool news.

Pass it on: Lycos just got lucky. ;-)

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cgm, ugc, ppm, pms, let's call the whole thing off.

Hey, I got them off of "consumer-generated media" back in January. Look on the bright side already. A rose by any other name... ;-)

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congrats to the bubbleshare bubblewrap contest winners!

Check out the winning entries from our recent BubbleShare BubbleWrap Appreciation contest. You're gonna dig em. And they're pretty fond of BS too.

The Winner of the iPod Nano is Brandon of One Child Left Behind. I'm a frequent reader of One Child now and glad to have found Brandon's blog, and our other winners' blogs, through the contest. That's the best thing about being on this end of a contest--you get to find new folks to read that you might have never happened on otherwise.

Check out Brandon's take from his side of the contest. You sorta gotta know the guy. ;-) When Joey told me that Brandon had chosen "satiragram" for his free domain, courtesy of Tucows, I thought: Hmm, makes sense. Satire. Satiragram. Sending a telegram of satire. Nice. Depressing. Nice.

Wasn't 'til I read Brandon that i got why he really chose satiragram. heh.

And the guy never heard of Scoble til last week.

What all of that means is not the reason I'm ending this post with: If you're a photo buff or frequent photo sharer, BS's new Desktop BubbleBar is right up your alley. We did that weird thing-->put out a release on it. Which makes it easy for me to say: read more here!

BONUS LINK: I don't CARE if you've seen this already. RB sent it and he wonders if everyone over 12 has seen it but i don't think so BECAUSE I ALMOST WET MYSELF. SO watch it.

la la la la la la...

luckiest bear around

i would not mind being a stuffed bear in this house. you get to do some beary beary cool things. like eat toast and watch tv.

{mmmmm, magic genie, mmmmmake me a bear!}

didn't work.

crap.

blogdisappeario

Everytime you go away,
You take a piece of me with you.
-- daryl hall


Jason with Blogger.com support has been a champ over the last week and a half. And you know it has to be true if it comes out of these hatin' lips: Blogger folks have been working very hard to figure out WTF is wrong with my blog. Last night they think they may have hit on something that makes sense. So stay tuned and please stay patient, and if you miss something, check jeneane.net, my soon-to-be-home for all the news that's fit to pimp, or something. I haven't quite figured it out yet.

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Q makes it easy to cross post

A great part about using Qumana right now, as we sort out why allied has been disappearing and I play with blogging on wordpress, is that it makes cross posting to different blogs on different platforms painless and so fast.

It's as easy as writing the post and choosing allied from the drop-down menu, publishing, then selecting jeneane.net from the drop-down menu and publishing there. It doesn't matter that one blog's on Blogger and one's on Wordpress. It just works.

I never figured I'd need a feature like that. I've been kind of a type-in-the-url person forever. But when you're trying to keep one blog going and one blog starting, it's pretty freaking neat!

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Ra-Cha-Cha Bound

Can't really imagine who would head NORTH instead of SOUTH on spring break, except me and jenna, who are heading off to visit family in Rochester, NY this thursday through monday. I'm really weighing the pros/cons of NOT taking my laptop. Votes?

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The Rest Get the Best

Converseon makes the smartest new hire move I've seen in the whole of web 2.0 bru-ha-ha by bringing on board class act and new media smartguy, Constantin Basturea. I'm a little disappointed that Constantin won't be running the entire PR industry, but will DELIGHT in following (and referring clients to) his new adventure.

smart move by what must be a smart firm.

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Tell it like it is.

"Godin is fetishizing the bossman - the love of the Corporation trounces all other loves, including the crass love that is born of the declasse need of filthy lucre. This is the clean, self-enslaving hard love of White Respect from the guy who drives a Sunday car worth more than your mortgage. This is love of the workplace, of the Gaze of the fellow citizen of the corporate state, which has no citizens, the burning endless gamed homemade shitforbrains give-it-to-me-one-more-time Amurikan Maleasshole. Takes all that respect home and mows his lawn."

--tom matrullo

That's so good i can't leave it in quirky Blogger comments.

Tags: Tom Matrullo, Seth Godin, Amerika, Lost Wages, MONEY, Innovation My Ass = Powered by Qumana

Just Skyped AUDIO to Jon above North Dakota

Jon Husband of Qumana just called from just above North Dakota via skype, on a Lufthansa jet bound for Paris. Freaking AMAZING! Free. Clear. Ear to Ear.

I could hear Jon better than I can hear Albert on the ground in Toronto, or George on his cell phone from the grocery store, for that matter. Oh LORDIE I love the net.

Think I should let Lufthansa know that they'll be arriving ahead of schedule? I heard the captain say so as he made the announcements.

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Until you grow up and get real.

Seth Godin says that money is a demotivator in the workplace -- at least in the form of bonuses. I guess in terms of salary increases too given the lead of his post:

"It's not about the money."

Usually, when people say this, they are lying.

Except, it turns out, at work.

Money, it's been shown time and time again, is a demotivator. I'm not talking about a fair or even generous salary. Being a cheapskate is no way to find a great employee. But once people have joined your team, incremental money--bonuses and the like--usually demotivate people. They demotivate because sooner or later, people feel as though they're being treated unfairly.

Exsqueezeme?

Thanks, Seth. What HR department isn't going to hang THIS news on the wall next to the fair labor practices bulletin and minimum wage posters?

Money is the reason most grown-ups work for a living. If creativity and love were all we needed, we wouldn't be working in corporations AT ALL. Most of us would be either relaxing on a tropical island or chasing our dreams and opening animal shelters and orphanages around the world.

I have participated in bonus programs that were well thought-out, fair, and well received. I have also participated in bonus programs that were LAME, funded with pretend money that was never intended to wind up in the savings account or college funds of employees.

With the draw to independent living and work (thank you, Interweb), corporations have to find NEW and BETTER ways to motivate employees to stay -- and that INCLUDES MONEY. Try telling employees with mortgages, families, kids, pets -- in other words, real-world responsibilities -- that the chance to work on a new project should be reward enough and see how fast the revolving door can spin.

People who really and truly love their jobs are in every single industry. And people who do great work because they love their jobs are paid at every salary level. What they have in common is a boss that gives them respect and freedom and responsibility. A boss that listens when they have something to say. Which, not coincidentally, is exactly the way the best companies treat their customers, too.

They also have managers who act as advocates in making sure they are compensated and incented properly.

Do you want to reward creativity? Then tie bonuses to innovation. But don't you dare take the sweat and intellectual flesh of your employees, pat them on the head, give them a plaque with a flaming torch on it and call it a day.

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I think they're wrong

i turned off comments and republished and it STILL disappeared.

wtf.

Blogger Throes and Wordpress Knows

 jeneane.net /  jeneane.net /  jeneane.net /  jeneane.net

I don't blame the folks working on the "problem" with this Blogger blog -- really. They are great people.

But for crying out loud, you can't keep a blog from disappearing with Google's resources behind you? What. What?

For me, this is like trying to start my car and having the Highly Annoying problem of it not starting and not being able to go where I walked out of the house with my keys intending to go.

SO, what they they HAVE uncovered is the possibility that as soon as someone leaves a comment here, the blog disappears.

Isn't that ironic for a chick who was just bitching about not getting comments.

damned if you do, damned if you don't - the stuff madness is made of.

THAT is why I have turned off comments for now. To see if it helps or not, and if it does help, I'll find another comment utility. Or go back to YACCS.

In the mean time, I'll be writing over at my adjacent wordpress blog, jeneane.net. Come and play with me there until they figure out what's wrong over here. And maybe longer.

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weirdest damn thing ever

So ten years ago we bought this house that we still live in, right, and poor 30somethings that we were, we set out to paint the inside, up down and sideways, ourselves. Now you may not know George personally, but you should know that he would rather not do something than do it half-assed, which means, you guessed it, he sanded (ask him about taping the shop vac to his forearm to suck down the dust as he used the electric sander) and we primed all of the rooms -- the whole damn house -- before painting the two coats of paint necessary to make it look good.

Which it DID look. Ten years ago.

Unfortunately, the little exercise RUINED both of our right shoulders and we vowed never to do it again, which is why our walls look like homemade shit today.

But back to the shoulder thing.

For the last TEN years I've suffered with pain in my right shoulder every day and every night. To lift my arm near or above shoulder height has been something I avoid at best, and suffer through mostly.

I sleep with two pillows under my right arm so that no pressure is on my right shoulder when I sleep on my right side. It hurts. It always hurts. I live with it.

Today, I was talking to my sister as she put some things in the back of my van, and I had my right arm on the headrest of the passenger's seat. She was saying, "Look at these pants I got for Jenna," and I twisted WAY back putting my right shoulder in a raised, painful predicament, then I stretched even further backward, when, suddenly: SNAP, ZING, GASP something popped in my shoulder and the zing of pain literally knocked the wind out of me for a second after which I anticipated SEARING pain. I heald my breath or it held me.

The pain didn't come.

And all of a sudden I realized in the quiet between anticipation and what-is: HOLY HECK, MY SHOULDER DOESN'T HURT ANYMORE.

For the first time in 10 years. It didn't hurt!

Could it have been out of place all of these years? I mean, can that possibly be? Through childbirth and carrying baby and swimming and getting laid off and blogging and grieving and all the stuff I've done over the last decade?

What happened? How? And can it possibly last?

For now, I'm celebrating. I can't believe it. It really and truly doesnt hurt.

holy holy cow, thank you Jesus, amen.

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With Apologies to Frank Paynter

THIS is perhaps the cutest dog I have ever seen.