25CentLife.com

Don’t go when you URGENTLY NEED to go. Only go when you have to. There’s a fine line that shouldn’t be crossed when you’re dealing with an automatic flusher. Sudden uncontrolled movements may trigger the flush mechanism — and then you’re dealing with a highly unsanitary, non-temperature control bidet.

Luckily, I’ve got the puffin.

Yes, the New Adventures of Puffin has now moved to my little half cube. It’s perched atop one of my cabinets, serenely overseeing the day to day activities. Really not too terribly exciting.

I should be so lucky that my 9-5, 5 days a week does not imitate the movie, though. Very very happy. Normally the day just flies by… but I think it has to be today’s particular day that doesn’t let time move faster than a handicapped inchworm.

This morning’s commute threatened to imitate the Philippines monsoon season, though. That was a little terrifying — and not to mention disappointing, since the temperature matches the dreary-level of today. Bah.

I’m going to do something more scintillating, like finishing reading The Time Traveler’s Wife or something.

Stationary goose.
Car pulls up.
Woman exits vehicle.
Goose suddenly animates, scaring the crap out of the woman, who then runs, squealing, towards the office.
Stationary goose.

Result? Instaneous hilarity. Too bad I can’t get it on rewind.

No one in my department has a kid to bring in… either they’re too old or too young.

I have rather vague memories of the times my parents took me to their respective offices. The unplanned visits were always more fun. Besides, if I wanted to go to work with my dad, I’d either just stay at home or sit in a car all day. He doesn’t have a physical office. Works from home or all over LI.

We just saw them in the cafeteria. Lots of little mini-employees with their own badges. “_______ employees of the future,” we said. While oohing and awwing at their projects and posters.

Yeah, I probably totally wasn’t one of those kids way back in the day.

Gas prices are dependent on oil prices. Not the government’s whimsy. Most Americans really are brainless — blaming EVERYTHING just on the government.

I try really really hard not to laugh when recruiters keep contacting me to reply to them concerning this “AWESOME POSITION” that’s “FILLING UP QUICKLY” and “OTHER PEOPLE WOULD KILL [well, not exactly that particular terminology] FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY.” How generically upbeat of you.

It’s not just that. It’s the fact that this one guy appears in the TO: section as one name, yet has an email signature with a completely different name. And on top of that, gives me a completely generic email to reply back to. Like recruiters@*******.com

Really now.

Last night, I sneezed. And wouldn’t you know it, I actually needed a tissue. For most people, a sneeze would normally signify use of a tissue — don’t get me started on how I’m unlike 99% of the population.

I felt the juices flowing, [thought I had] finished wiping. And ended up stoppering my nostril with more tissue.

Damn nosebleed. First one of the year. Too violent a sneeze? I may never know. But those things usually occur few and far between for me.

So, in defiance of this new dashboard… karma has been depositing all manner of vulgar and vile spam in my Akismet box. At least Akismet is smart enough to stop them where they are. But now I don’t know if I get any comments!

No, wait. I don’t have any comments. What silliness do I speak of?

I headed over to gently moderate 25cents.wordpress.com (the original incarnation of this site), and was greeted by their new dashboard. Good lord. I’m happy I escaped back here. The UI is totally unfriendly and clunky. And, dare I say it, a bit like the latest version of LiveJournal (also some heinous design). The worst part is that they seem to have destroyed any option of going back to the previous UI (which I still have on this blog, thank god). Unlike LiveJournal, which has still managed to preserve the last (or 2nd to last) site layout… which means I can still use it.

Back to WordPress’ boo-boo. Tiny font. Not cool for those of us with 22 inch widescreen monitors and maximum resolution. Did I also mention my horrible eyesight? Bad enough I get eye fatigue on a normal-use basis… but this is horrific. Maybe I’m happier that I have my own site and only need to gently moderate once every couple of weeks. This could quickly convince me to be super happy I do have my own site.

Don’t get me wrong, I like easy access to info. But I don’t like everything being thrown up (literally) in my face. This is the same problem I had with Facebook’s NewsFeed. TMI, much? I don’t like that the stats graph is crammed into the same space as the comments, and a full short description of incoming links (wait, full AND short?). All the useful stuff is at the bottom, and all the useless shit (yes, I really meant that) is cluttering up the top. No, I don’t need to know how much spam has been blocked. I don’t like spam, I don’t care for spam, that’s why I delete my spam. I really don’t need you restating what theme I’m using — I chose the theme, I should know what theme I have. I don’t need to know how many widgets I’ve put in it. Why do I need an RSS of my incoming links? Especially when a good portion of them are from spam blogs — USELESS!

The text to the right of the squished stats graph? Useless. The squishing? Useless. If you thought the ‘What’s Hot?’ section was so hot, then why is it cooling off at the bottom of the page? Useless. If we’re supposed to know what’s going on with our account and our blog, then why is the feed for that at the bottom? Useless.

Wordpress (and Matt), you have just been one massive pile of useless to me in the last 15 minutes. I know a decent UI when I see it. And anything that isn’t readily accessible by me in 15 minutes — is really, just USELESS.

I seem to have forgotten to examine the new ‘Write Post’ page. Where did my ‘Categories’ go? Why are they at the bottom? Okay, points for having Post Page and Link at the top. Why do you not explain the difference (for Links) between top and none? What happened to the convenient popup you used to have? Why is everything squished towards one side of my monitor? Last layout had me using the entire display. That’s become a waste of good space. The color scheme is a WashOut. Literally. The orange swatch on the Dashboard is out of place.

You’re turning into Blogger. That’s NOT a good thing.

I guess I should say at least ONE good thing about this… Widgets win. That’s it.

Wordpress, I am no longer recommending you as an awesome free service. (Even though you power this site)

Some other view points:

My Errant Mind and his original comment
Daddy’s dig

…when your life suddenly changes direction and you’re in the first few weeks of your new job, the little things you take for granted like free time and mentally awake time — suddenly seem to evaporate.

Just in case anyone was wondering where I’ve disappeared off to.

And another teeny rant, that on any other day, I’d have more time to expand on — I really hate the new iTunes store. But I can’t really hate my “purchases” because I’ve been “purchasing” using an awful lot of gift cards. I really really hate the new iTunes store (please keep in mind that the last time I purchased anything was back in August 07 — so think of the 7 month window that I hadn’t “purchased” anything).