Testing

I've just set it up so I can post from txt. Neat huh?

Edited to add: it would be neat if it didn't have my phone number as the Title...

Mellow and hollow but crisp

OK, I'm not blogging very often at the moment and as I have only 1hr 28 mins of battery for the next two days I'm not going to write anything much now.

I'm intending to write an entry about schema in sports, maybe one on the concept of marital insurance, post some pictures H & K have taken on my phone and update you on my life in general.

Meanwhile I hope that you're having a happy Xmas and are planning a merry new year.

Please livejournal me

Some of my dear readers have expressed a desire to read this humble blog on livejournal. This requires syndication and syndication requires a paid or permanent livejournal account. If you have such a thing and you'd be prepared to take not usually about penguins there please let me know.

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Thanks! This is on livejournal here.

Happy blogiversary to me

Here I am one year, 172 posts and a few new friends since the beginning.

I've invented a meme, posted about H & K, being a mum, medical madness and occasionally penguins.

Thanks to everyone who has commented - sometimes you make my day.

Commentary

I have just added 'RECENT COMMENTS' to the sidebar. This lets you see links to the five most recent comments posted here. The first blog I ever read frequently had a feature like this and I really liked it. It helps readers notice each others comments and respond to them. Let me know what you think.

In which Sony are given brickbats and bouquets

Until last week I had a wee computer that I was very fond of. It was little, fast, wireless and copper.

It had a problem though. It was very picky about DVDs, particularly burnt DVDs from friends, particularly burnt DVDs from friends with TV shows that I am very keen to watch (Regenesis and Heroes to be precise).

So I took it into Sony on 2 March. I told them about its problem and they told me that it was the disks. So I took it into Sony on 5 March with two disks of different makes that both had the problem and showed them that they were OK on other computers but not mine and they told me to come back with the recovery disks. So I took it into Sony on 6 March with the recovery disks and they sent it up to Auckland.

I told Sony it must be back by 14 March for i to take away with her. They said OK.

I rang Sony in Auckland on 12 March and they hadn't even looked at it yet. Sony in Auckland rang me later that day and told me that it was a codec problem and I explained to them that the files can't copy (which it said on the job description). Sony in Auckland rang me on 13 March and told me it was the disks so I explained to them slowly in words of one syllable that the disks work elsewhere and that it is disks of different makes burnt by different people. Sony in Auckland rang me on 14 March and told me they would replace the DVD drive but they didn't promise that would fix the problem and they'd courier it back to Wellington to arrive on the 15th.

Note: 15 ≠ 14.

I talked to Sony in Auckland on 15 March and they told me there appeared to be a problem with the motherboard as well so they'd replace that and courier it down to me to arrive on the 16th. Then they rang me and told me that there appeared to be a problem with the hard disk drive and was it OK if I lost all my data? Go ahead I said. Just get it back, fixed, by the 16th.

Note: 16 ≠ 14 but I had some contingency built in to my original estimate.

Then they rang me to say that they were no longer sure what was wrong with it and they weren't sure when it would be fixed by. So I asked them to provide a replacement, either for i's trip or permanently and they said "I'm sorry but we can't do that".

So I went into Sony in Wellington full of the righteousness of the just and Sony in Wellington were lovely, understanding, calm and kind.

Until last week I had a wee computer that I was very fond of. It was little, fast, wireless and copper.

Now I have a new computer that I am very fond of it is little, wireless and copper. On the outside it looks just like my old computer but the windows have a new vista. The vista looks sexy and so far all the things I've tried on it work. I haven't had enough time with it to know how fast it is but i told me my computer "is being VERY good and super convenient!"

There is more to the saga of why I haven't been posting so much. The second part involves other computers which I am not fond enough of to tell you about and will now blow a raspberry at:

*pbthpbhprtbp*

[I still haven't worked out how to do angle brackets without blogger eating them.]
[This post seems to have mysteriously unpublished itself sometime.]

I rule the blog

This post has spent a long time gestating, lurking in the darkness and slowly growing. It is finally ready to come out. So here you are Jenni - the guidelines I use for this blog:

Titles: My ideal title is a quirky, ambiguous misquote that relates to the post in more than one tangential way and creates a new snowclone. I often misquote songs but, because I have an abnormal inability to remember music, I can't actually remember what the song sounds like when I pick the title.

Language: Proudly New Zealand English. I think one of the great things about the internet is exposing people to other cultures and this is my culture. In this post I did a nifty definition thing for my readers but I've never bothered again.

Sensitivity: Nothing I really wouldn't want people to know about me in an job interview. Nothing that I wouldn't tell my colleagues if they asked. Nothing that my work would be too uncomfortable about. Exactly what I don't talk about here changes over time. You can email me about that stuff at ruthlessly at gmail dot com and I'll answer at my discretion.

Content: Whatever takes my fancy, particularly whimsical thoughts and events, also obsessions of the moment and things that I think ought to be out there for others to read. I enjoy expressing my own quirky sense of humour. It's my blog and it is all about me.

Audience: Aimed at friends and potential friends, random strangers welcome. I've discovered that the blogosphere is a great way to meet people who I have something in common with and explore that something.

Quality: This is something I've struggled with and I've settled on first draft. I'm a perfectionist and it bugs me when I find I've posted stuff with bad punctuation, spelling and typos but I try to remember if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly. If an error bugs you let me know and I'll probably fix it.

Frequency: Varies with the demands of my life, 5 times a week is a very approximate aim and anything from once a week to once a day is fine.

One hundred posts of blogitude

This is my hundredth published post so I thought it was time to take stock.

I started blogging because I had the desire to put some of the things I said or wrote to individuals out there to the world at large. Things like this conversation I overheard about books, musings on the world, rants and whimsies. I've kept going because it gives me a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and only very rare pangs of guilt.

Here is a list of posts that are hanging around in draft, leave a comment to vote for what you'd like to read and I'll probably finish it:

1. Wikifamily - written after wondering 'who else am I related to with an entry in Wikipedia?'
2. Andy Knackstedt is my star - I come out as a fan girl
3. There is method in their madness - a post about understanding what children do
4. Two bobs each way - the joys of amateur hairdressing (possibly that says it all)
5. H rules the world - the trouble with being lawful good
6. Fitness vs fatness - PCOS, the obesity myth, etc
7. Untitled - about the advantages of my physical limitations
8. Untitled- [I rule the world] - the guidelines I have for this blog

Thanks to all my readers, especially those who comment and JK, a friend I never would have made without this.

test by blogger.com

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Updated by the real RUTH to add:
Look, look. Down below. Now you can see the labels for each post. I'm so excited.

Do you like my style?

In particular are the links visible enough?

Any other comments on the look and feel of this blog also welcome. I am just starting to add labels.

Memories of this

I realised somewhat after I'd posted this with a link to Orisinal that I'd already done that before, here. I'd blame this failure of memory on motherhood except... well... you see... um... let me tell you the story of an embarassing incident that happened to me long ago.

Once upon a time I had a very nice boyfriend and after we had gone out for many moons I broke up with him. I tried to do it not too unpleasantly. Afterwards though something festered in my angsty teenage mind. I felt I hadn't told him the "real" reason I'd dumped him. I agonised about it. I wrote letters and ripped them up. I tormented myself about it on and off for a long time. Eventually I didn't rip up the letter and I sent it to him. It started something like "I'm sorry I never told you this but...."

And when I saw him a short time later and I asked him if he'd got the letter do you know what he said?

He said I'd told him already - I'd sent a letter before.

Posting the same link twice may show a certain lack of recollection and originality but at least it does not have the same cringeworthiness as forgetting you have bared your Soul (with a capital S for extra melodrama).

Template update in progress

Please do not adjust your set.

I have updated to a new beta-Blogger template (which naturally I am trying to make look just like the old one).

The sidebar is still a little odd and I want to sort out the font spacing (some of it is a bit cramped).

Normal transmission will resume shortly.

A toe in the water

Here goes my first post.

The water seems inviting and there are lots of people splashing about out there already but I feel rather exposed standing on the edge in my togs so I'd better dive in.

-- splosh --

[That should have angle brackets but I haven't worked out how yet]

Welcome to my blog. Built as a place for odd whimsies and occasional rants which as the title claims will not usually be about penguins.