Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Hello (Again) World

OK guys... I'm sorry for my extended absence without any warning. Everything is fine, I've just been really busy. Well... busy and I felt like I needed a bit of an attitude adjustment

Do you ever feel like life is just overwhelming? I've been there a lot lately, so I decided to take a step back and survey the situation.

Here's the deal. I feel like I've been drowning in sand.


I may have blogged about this before, but there's an analogy out there about putting your big rocks first.


Basically, the analogy goes like this. Your time is an empty jar. Your tasks are rocks, pebbles and sand. The big rocks being the important stuff, the pebbles the stuff that sorta matters, and the sand is the stupid little stuff that only really serves to distract us. If you put the sand in first, you'll never have room for the rest. But if you put the big rocks in first, there will be plenty of time for the small stuff around the edges.

So I've been on a mission to get the pebbles out of my shoes, and deal with some of my big rocks... or watermelons, as the case may be...


Now... I'm not saying that you guys are sand, because my blogging buddies are important to me. But it's just soooo easy to spend an entire day cruising the blogosphere, getting all self-righteously indignant about anything out there to be indignant about, feeling inadequate compared to all the people who really have their shit together... yadda, yadda, yadda.

So here's what I've been up to.

1) I've been working. 


I know... say it isn't so! But here's the deal, I've totally let my webpages languish over the past few years, and, well, my income had dwindled to a level where even my frugal little self is having trouble making ends meet. So I've pulled myself out of mothballs, and I'm re-tooling my old MySpace glitter graphics/meme sites to work on mobile platforms for use on Facebook & Twitter. I got an extra shove in this direction by the fact that Facebook recently announced support for animated GIF's (all of my glitters are all animated GIFs) - that was the carrot... and Google provided the stick by deciding to demote all webpages that weren't mobile compatible.

Sooooo... this all meant that I had to get Facebook & Twitter accounts (lots of opportunities for sand there) but I'm trying to remain strong. I have to say that web based programming is a bit like trying to speak a whole handful of languages simultaneously. HTML, PHP, Javascript, SQL - holy moly! But I'm getting my brain to work again, and it's all good.



2) This will horrify the minimalists out there, but I decided that I really needed to buy some things.


Specifically, I decided that I needed more bike clothes, and more cat food dishes. Because, while my cats and my bike rides with CatMan are big rocks, but laundry and dishes are most decidedly pebbles. I have to say, that having enough of these items to comfortably make it through until there's a full load to be done has made a world of difference. I guess sometimes, having less is not always the answer!

BTW... remember my Commando dream in the last post... the part about having ID printed on your socks? Well, one of my new pairs of bike shorts is a cheap made in China brand (I know, I know, it's an eco-sin, but bike shorts are expensive and consider point number one above.) Anyhow, I almost died laughing when they arrived in the mail and I looked at the tag:


My, oh my!

3) I've been trying to take better care of myself.

So, I've been doing yoga again, trying to eat better (back on the veggie bandwagon) and get more sleep. It's all wonderful, but it does take a bit of time. But I figure this is "big rock" time, so it's totally worth it. The sleep part has been a tad bit challenging what with Princess needing to eat every 4 hours or so... plus, she also requires some rather um... "intense snuggling."


But she's doing wonderfully, so it's all worth it. Seriously, the other day I got worried because she wasn't in one of her regular spots, so I went looking for her... found her at the top of the kitty tree looking out the window. Not bad for a cat who is supposed to be on death's door!

So that's what I've been up to... oh... and the zucchini harvest has begun... did I mention I wanted to get more veggies in my diet?

Anyhoo... that's the news from the funny farm...



Hope life is treating you all well!




26 comments :

  1. Sounds great! I hope your new/improved websites turn a better profit for you! I've been doing more yoga too (had to cut back in the 1st trimester because I was so tired) and it feels good!

    I love the kitty in the shopping cart, haha! :)

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    1. Yoga while pregnant must be a bit of a challenge. I imagine balancing poses are a tad bit... um... different! Glad you're making it work though! :-)

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    2. That would be tough! I'm using prenatal yoga DVDs from the library so everything is modified based on what trimester you're in. And all the balance poses are done with a chair! :)

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    3. I was going to say something sort of like what Amanda said, but I'd prefer to just second what she says which is much better.

      I have a friend who likes to go on cruises. Yoga on ships, when the waves are going, is pretty interesting, too.

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    4. I know... yoga on a merry-go-round! :-)

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  2. Ha, I was wondering why my google traffic went down. I went in to Blogger and selected a mobile template...hopefully that helps. :)

    Glad to see you writing and to hear you're making some big changes! Keep us updated.

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    1. Hopefully it will help. It seems to take Google an incredible amount of time to notice the change though. I got my test site up with a mobile friendly design 2 weeks ago, submitted sitemaps and used every trick I know of to get Google to crawl it, but it still sees the old layout in webmaster tools. Sigh. Patience, grasshopper...

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    2. Good luck getting noticed. When I had all the trouble with my blog the information I received was that google makes copies of our blogger blogs for each country but then punishes us because there is duplicate content of our blog out there. My traffic dropped significantly and when I tried to get noticed found I had been given a rating of zero by google because of the duplicate content. Supposedly that is supposed to end soon, but when that will be who knows.

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    3. Well you know... Google giveth, and Google taketh away. Trying to outguess them is nearly impossible. I've even heard that they don't use page rank anymore - it's some more complicated algorithm that isn't available to the public. I guess I just have to trust them when they say that mobile friendly sites do better in mobile searches...

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  3. sometimes we do just need a bit of a kick in the rear :o) I know I often do. I hope things turn around for you!

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    1. Well... the one advantage of waiting until things really suck to do something, is that there is little to lose if something goes badly! :-)

      Sounds like you've been through a lot... I've lurked on your blog but haven't had the energy to form a coherent comment. Hope you're well!

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  4. It's nice to hear from you again! And it's nice to hear you're taking care of yourself, taking care of your "job" AND that Princess is doing well. :)

    All things considered, I lean toward the minimalist side myself, but only when it makes my life easier! If more clothes will do that for you, I say go for it.

    Maria

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    1. Princess is doing amazingly well. This evening she was even begging for an extra bowl of food! It makes my little kitty-mom heart so happy!

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    2. Begging for more food! Makes my heart happy also. She's a beautiful cat.

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    3. If only she'd eat the food that's good for her instead of the other stuff. But hey, beggars can't be choosers! :-)

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  5. Yay, you're back. I was starting to wonder, although I totally understand and commend you for taking some me time.

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    1. I'm hoping that I'm "over the hump" with this web programming stuff. It just took me forever to get my head back into it, and there wasn't much room up there for anything else! :-)

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  6. I'm so glad to hear you are doing well. I have been thinking about you and worried something had happened to Princess. Just taking care of your big rocks is a good thing. :-)

    Sorry to hear your income is still down it seems months ago you had some problems with google and your income but I thought you had it sorted out. Guess Facebook is good for something, hope it works out for you.

    If I had to chose between not enough clothes for a load of laundry and wasting water to do small loads I'd buy extra clothes too. The label in your shorts is hilarious. I'm sure the first thing an ER doctor would do is look inside your shorts for your blood type. :-)

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    1. Yes well... returning to the land of Facebook has been, um... interesting. I was gonna try to do it without adding any friends, just so I could test things, but I had my 30th high school reunion this past weekend, whereupon I was discovered, and my hopes of remaining incognito were dashed. It's kinda fun to re-connect with people, but holy moly - Facebook is a repository of self-righteous indignation. I'm thinking I'll stay out of political discussions and stick to kitty videos this time around!

      Anyhow, that label totally made me giggle. If you want a good chuckle sometime, just do a Google image search for the word "Chinglish." You'll get a plethora of hilarious signs displaying botched attempts to communicate with English speaking tourists.

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  7. My husband used the rock, sand, pebble example with our kids all of the time. It's a very good visual for all ages. You are setting a very good example for the rest of us. My problem is the big rocks seem too big to carry sometimes, so it's easier to revert to the smaller things. But I try.

    Look forward to hearing more.

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    1. I know what you mean... they do get heavy. Sometimes I just have to try to roll them into place! :-)

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  8. Welcome back, and kudos to you for taking some time for yourself and to figure out your priorities. It's a good idea for all of us to try from time to time!

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    1. Thanks Kris. Hopefully I'll get a few of those big rocks nudged into place soon!

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  9. Know where you are coming from. My blog has been quiet of late too.

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    1. Well sometimes you've gotta spend time doin' before you can spend time writin' about! :-)

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