Shelley’s Neighborhood

My husband will get all huffy and say "not until the 21st!" but to me, once the temp dips 35F and below and snow/sleet/ice start blowing around, it's winter. My least favorite season (I'm not alone there, I know) because driving is stressful and just getting anything done or going anywhere is a big hassle.  Not to mention it's fucking cold, and as I get older, cold hurts more. Why can't I convince my husband to give up this farming gig so we can go move someplace warm? I don't care if we're poor, we'll be warm!

Right, now I've got that whining out of the way - who's ready for Christmas?  Another thing I'm grateful for as I get older - Christmas/Holidays is FAR less of a big deal than it used to be.  I do enjoy buying gifts for people, but no longer am I all excited/concerned about what I'll be getting back.  Some might say the loss of that excitement is a bad thing - to me it just means I'm more self-sufficient, and that's a good thing!  (If I really want/need something, I just go buy it now.  Anything extra is nice but nothing to get all worked up over!)

I also gave up (pretty much before I ever started) the stress of holiday cards, decorating, and all that extra jazz.  I send cards to the people closest to me (and the in-laws because they'll get huffy if I don't!) but we don't bother with decorations or parties or anything like that anymore. YAY.  True, I'm still forced to do the holiday parties at work, but even those are low key and require very little from me.  I show up with food, and all is well.

Speaking of food - damn I do hate this section of the year because no matter how hard I try to keep it from happening, the pounds pile on.  That's what New Year's is for though of course, and like billions of people I'll be making that resolution to "get back to a healthy weight".  If only just so my pants fit comfortably again.  I'm annoyed that my favorite trousers are currently all too tight!

Sooooo.  There we go, that's my boring update. Hope your lives are all well.

It takes me for-freakin-ever to read nonfiction.  Not sure why I can fly through fiction but nonfiction takes me at least three times as long to read.  Am I paying more attention or something?

Anyway, right now I'm making my way through Moab Is My Washpot, which is Stephen Fry's autobiography.  The

Moab Is My Washpot

Stephen Fry

 wonderful thing is that he did write it himself and it's completely in his "voice" so it's rather like sitting across from him as he tells you the silly tales of his childhood and school years.  I always wonder how people can remember their earlier years with such detail.  I certainly remember "scenes" but if pressed I doubt I could put them into an actual factual timeline.  It's just as well since I doubt anyone would want to read my life story anyway.  Although I did have a damn fun childhood.

Bad Science

Ben Goldacre

I'm also plowing (slowly, slowly) my way through Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.  I say "plowing" only because I read so dreadfully slow, not because the content is laborious.  If anything, Goldacre makes what might be snore-worthy and makes it fun and interesting.

This is a book that has been known in the Skeptical community as a must-read... along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, and Simon Singh's Trick Or Treatment. It reveals what commonly-held beliefs are misplaced and generally teaches you to question what often sounds too good to be true.

What makes reading both of these books even more fun is both of the authors are also on Twitter so I'm "getting to know" them both through their writing and through their day-to-day twitterings as well. 

I'm still in a bit of a shock that's it's already Thanksgiving.  When did that happen?  Wasn't my birthday a couple weeks ago???  I plan to spend a couple days with my family and then a couple days at home.  The perfect Thanksgiving in my mind.

Grey Star Stitch Scarflet

Work: No change from September.  Which means it's still chaotic and unorganized and no one knows what the hell going on.  Add in the fact that there has been discussions of those of us at the capital to the other building (which is a good 30 mins away from the capital) and I'm frustrated and incredibly disappointed with certain people.

Home: No progress at all beyond cleaning out the craft room closet.  And all of that stuff is still sitting in my hallway *eyeroll*

Crafts: I finished the holiday gifts last month.  So I made this cute scarf for myself.  I just need to finish up the green socks I started a while ago so I can start on some newer larger projects.

Damage from where the idiot hit me

Flute!: I finally got around to contacting a flute instructor and had my first lesson last week.  I've decided one hour biweekly lessons is the way to go.  And it's coming back to me despite it being 2 years since my last lesson.

And Car:  And I will keep it clean.  Some idiot (who lives several doors down from me) decided he could not wait for me to turn left into my driveway and decided to go around me.  On the left.  Which means my car is now sporting a large dent above the driver's back wheel.  Needless to say I was beyond pissed.  That he got charged for following too closely is the only bright spot.  I'm waiting to hear from the insurance to get the fixing details worked out.

I hope everyone has a marvelous Thanksgiving! 

Helpful/useful information for us all.

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First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

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A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

Well, the weather outside is frightful and the MOO warehouse staff are getting ready for the Holiday rush. Our trusty elves are enjoying their last silent night before a few weeks of rigorous stocking stuffing. Soon your MOO orders will be walking in the air and climbing down your chimney.

You'll need to make sure you get your orders placed before our cut off dates, as we would not want you to have a blue Christmas. We thought you may want to see some of our packers at work in the MOO grotto, so here are some festive snap shots from our Rhode Island office...

If you're worried about your cards getting stolen by frosty the snowman, then we are offering a London, UK collection special. If you want to collect your order, simply send us your order number via the contact form, quoting your order number and "COLLECTION" in the subject line. We'll then flag your order for collection and give you instructions on how/where to collect your order. This is for a limited time only (until the 16th December), so be sure to get your order in ASAP.

I sympathize.

Recently he appeared on a new episode of England's "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" - a sort of panel "game show" that is less about points and winning anything and more about acting silly.  Which Tim is good at doing, in his disarmingly charming way.

Here's a clip -

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

I don't like admitting it (who does?) but I'm not feelin' the NaNoWriMo this year.  I know, I know. I'm supposed to "just keep writing anyway".  It's the exercise in making yourself write, not necessarily the story that comes out of it.  I know this and yet, I've just decided not to do it this year. 

I will, however, fiddle around with this story idea a bit more, here and there.  I think there's something to it (and hey, I DO have an ending for it!) and maybe it's more that I think it deserves more time/effort than a violent 30-day writing gorge can give it.  Or, that's a hoity-toity excuse.

I do feel shame, and I do feel guilt. I read the cheering-on emails I get from Chris Baty and others and for a moment or two I think, hey, I'm only a week behind. Maybe....?

And then I think, don't be silly.

And then I think... well.... ..... maybe?

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