Every once in a while I find it interesting to go through my logs and see how people got to my site. Sometimes, it can be downright weird.

For your enjoyment, here are March’s most popular and weirdest search phrases and the entries they “hit.”

• march 15, 1984
• andy mashburn (5)
  
  This is a kid I had a crush on in elementary school. He was popular then too. I hope he’s not the one doing these searches.

• december 15, 1999
• hurt injection
• giant syringe

I don’t even want to know why someone is looking up “giant syringe.”

• december 22, 1999
• my ankle cast crutches
• variations on “plaster leg cast” (6)

Fellows sufferers or kinky visitors?

• december 29, 1999
• chunking
• hair chunking
• cool lightening effect
• multiple ear piercings
• pigtail fun

People seeking fashion tips from a fashion victim?

• december 30, 1999
• nt sucks

Ok, I’ve found one thing I miss about NT - the ability to kill processes from “Task Manager”

• january 6, 1999
• variations on “Mambo #5,” “Combo #5,” and “Lou Bega” (20)
  
  I still giggle every time I hear Combo #5

• january 8, 2000
• playstation+subliminal messages
  
  Actually, I was claiming Sony Dreamcast’s “Soul Calibur” contains subliminal message.

• january 10, 2000
• stuck glue feet girls
  
  Don’t ask me. I have no idea why that combination of words pulled this entry.

• january 13, 2000
• sprained my ankle
  
  see december 22, 1999

• january 19, 1999
• wunames (12)
  
  yo, yo, “Spunky Misunderstood Genius” is in da house
• Noses Webcams
  
  what??!

• january 23, 2000
• courtesy flush
  
  no comment

• january 30, 2000
• Giant Breasts

pervert

• jubblies (2)

perverts

• marrying tribe (2)

perverts or anthropology students

• january 31, 2000
• spanghew

Yes! My favorite word!

• pee dance
  
  These words do appear in this entry, but not in that order. Anyway, I’d refer to it as “the pee pee dance.”

• february 5, 2000
• variations on “Reborn from Hell: Samurai Armageddon” (11)

why is a movie this bad so popular?

• february 6, 2000
• healthy socks
• pompom socks
• sprained ankle fetish
• sprained ankle woman fetish
• sock fetish
  
  Freaks. All of you. Nothin’ but freaks!
• dirty laundry fetish
  
  This is just too weird.

Believe it or not, “pamela” only appeared twice as a search time. It must be obvious that this ain’t Pamela Anderson’s journal.

OK, I’m still not dead, but I’m beginning to wish I was. The scavenger hunt was a LOT of fun, but extremely exhausting.

Around 4 pm, the 5 person teams were given Polaroid cameras, two packs of film, and papers with clues, rules, and the lists of teams. Then everyone dashed madly for the elevators and stairs. My team decided to take the stairs, at a run. Did I mention we started on the 5th floor?

Out in the parking lot, we met up with our driver who’d gone down early to get her minivan. We crammed in and headed for downtown Austin.

We had to read the clues and figure out what site or landmark they referenced, find and get to that site, and get a picture of the team in front of it. (I designated myself photographer.) The clues had values of 10, 20, and 30 points. We had two hours to get as many pictures as we could then get to the “end” of the hunt, the Copper Tank Brewing Company. (Yes, they brew beer there. Yes, in big copper tanks. Pretty cool looking, actually. Don’t know about the brews, as I don’t drink beer.)

Kyle started reading the clues.

“You’ll have to be sly not to get caught at this crossing.”

“Ride your bicycle over to this foundation.”

“This hotel recently had a face lift.”

“Don’t stub your toe on the way to great BBQ.”

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera….

I don’t go downtown that much, and I don’t really know my way around Austin, so most of the clues were beyond me. We still managed to guess most of them and had time to begin arranging itinerary before we reached downtown because once a site was identified, Tracy knew where it was. I was totally amazed at how that woman not only knew how to get to most of the places, she could rattle off the cross streets!

We hit our first stop, jumped out of the minivan, I took the picture, then we busted ass to get out of there.

Oh, I forgot to mention that if another team spotted us and got our picture at a site, they’d get our points for that site. That added a good dose of paranoia to the event.

We reached our next site at the same time as another group. We huddled down, but they still made us. The other car then followed us in circles around the parking lot, waiting for us to get out, until we gave up and drove out. As we did, we noticed they went another direction so we managed to get our photo anyway. As we were pulling away, we saw a third team just getting out of their car. Kyle (who was riding shotgun) put down his window and yelled, “Cheese!” as he took their picture.

That pissed off the driver of that group. He proceeded to herd everyone back into his jeep, then they followed us to the next stop. We kept driving around but they kept following, so we gave up on that site and just tried to ditch the other team. We ended up giving up another site before we lost them.

Things pretty much went the same after that. Drive like maniacs to a site, check for other teams, dash out and take a picture, bust ass outta there.

We were doing pretty well until another group got us outside a miniature golf course dominated by a giant statue of Peter Pan. Then we ended up in a turn lane, had to turn, and nearly got lost trying to take a “short cut” back to the road. We got back on track after finding the next site.

Next on our list was the Barton Springs Pool. Another snag. The road to the pool was closed for construction! There was another road down, but it was one-way only, and going against us.

We drove down it anyway. And into the construction zone in front of the main poolside building. The team lined up, and the camera wouldn’t work. I depressed the button a couple of times, but nothing happened. Until I was turning it to check the film. Then it went off, getting a nice shot of the sky.

We got the photo and skedaddled. Heading back north of the river, we ran into heavy rush hour traffic. (Why the heck was this planned for 4-6 pm on a work day??) And we realized we were out of film. We’d started with two packs and already used up all 20 pictures, and wasted one on a sky shot. We tried to take another “short cut” and ended up having to back track. Fortunately, we came across a 1-hour photo place. Kyle and I jumped out and bought a 2-pack of film, not bothering to get a receipt. (Stupid, that was $27 we could have been reimbursed.)

To find our next target, we just decided to ask a guy in a suit if he knew where the Cloak Room (some bar next to the Capitol frequented by politicians) was. And he knew. It was a block down, but on the other side of a building. Rather than drive around, we parked, ran between buildings, and got our shot.

The next site was on the other side of the Capitol. It was a park. Easy to find, but we needed to find a sign or marker that would identify which park it was. We found a weird Aztec-looking monolith and posed in front of that. Then we heard honking, and nearly killed ourselves getting back into the van. There, a couple of cars back, was that first team we’d photographed. They were high-fiving. We were busted. 30 pts lost.

Time was running out, so we went for one more site. We got the picture then headed to the Copper Tank. Liz, the driver, couldn’t stay, so the rest of us were dropped off a block away, rather than make her circle the block to get us to the front door. Downtown Austin is a nightmare of one-way streets.

Inside the bar, we were finally able to relax. And eat. And pee.

I was really impressed. The Marketing department had actually paid for a private party. Work badges were required for admission. Inside, all the food and drinks were free. And I’m not talking just vegetable sticks, but these little gourmet hors d’oeuvres and roast beef served so rare it was bloody (ick) and sliced to order.

Once we were able to rest, I started to really hurt. The middle row in Liz’s van had seat belt buckles that we couldn’t push far enough down between the seat cushions. Three of us sat in that row and at some point, each of us threw herself onto those seats and landed on the buckle receivers. That fucking HURT!! I know I have a bruise on my ass. I did that several times, but the worst time was the first time.

Once, I got out of the van and rushed forward as Liz opened the driverside door, and I ran into it. My right arm was raised, so I caught the edge of the door across my wrist. I have a thin red welt that’s 2″ long running parallel to the tattoo on my right wrist. It’s very tender, though it doesn’t ache constantly like my ass does.

On top of that, we ran. From the van, to the van, and once way across a field to get a picture in front of the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan. My right ankle still isn’t over the Dec. 22 sprain, so it insisted on sending sharp twinges of pain through my leg if I tried to run. It felt like I had glass in my ankle. Plus, I’m decidedly less than svelte and pathetically out of shape, so running was a challenge anyway.

The first time we ran, I had an Ally McBeal moment where I imagined hearing this comic “BOING BOING” sound as my breasts bounced, er slammed, up and down.

Note to self: keep going to the gym and wear a sports bra next year.

I hung out, chatted, watched my coworkers dance like teens in a high school gym to the live music of a cover band with a predilection for disco music, and waited for the winner to be announced. I was pretty sure it wasn’t us. We’d amassed over 400 pts, but we’d been photgraphed at least twice by other teams.

To my surprise, there were multiple awards. Prizes were given to the teams for 1) winning, 2) most sites visited, 3) most creative photo, and 4) lowest points. I was right. We didn’t win any of those awards. But I did have to laugh that the “lowest points” award was Clue board games.

The evening frazzled a bit. It had taken a while for the judges to announce the winners. That done, I was ready to leave, so I went out to wait for the shuttle back to the office. I was supposed to meet Kathie online at 7 pm to help her with something, and I was already a half hour late. The damn shuttle didn’t show up until 8. Back at the office, I had to go up and grab my stuff. It was creeping on towards 9 by the time I got home.

And now it’s 12:30 am, my knee, wrist, and butt hurt, and my whole back is killing me for some reason. I’m trying to decide whether to take a hot bath or just go to bed. Hmmmm, it was rather warm out, and we were all sweating like pigs.

The bath wins.

Well, that chicken pox vaccination hasn’t killed me yet. And I actually made it through last night without passing out from lack of sleep, though it was tough. (I’d wanted to stay up to see the “Sopranos,” since I missed the show Sunday night.)

After I got home from work, Dale cuddled with me on the bed as I told him about how crappy my day was. He was wonderfully sympathetic and even insisted on staying home to coddle me, though I promptly sent him out to fetch me cheese fries. Hey, I was starving! I’d had a small breakfast, then skipped lunch because I’d eaten breakfast. It was 8 pm and had been 10 hours since I’d eaten.

Dale returned with the food that is like no other, and I promptly made a little piggy (ok, a big fat pig) of myself, chowing down on cheese fries while watching “The Witches of Eastwick.” I spent the remainder of the evening channel-flipping.

At roughly 8:55, I realized the time and berated myself as I flipped over to HBO. Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit! All I managed to see of “Sopranos” was the last few minutes, which made no sense without having seen the rest of the episode. Crap.

At least “Pushing Tin” came on to console me. Dale left his computer game to watch it with me. I must say, I was rather disappointed. It just wasn’t a very good movie. I mean, Cate Blanchett playing a “New Yahk” hausfrau? And what was with the imaginary kids? John and Cate talk about their kids all the time, but it seemed like no one was ever home to take care of them. The actors playing the kids only appeared briefly in 2 scenes, and they were even listed in the credits as “Falzone boy” and “Falzone girl.” Must be the most convenient kids on the planet. Only around when you want ‘em.

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this to turn into a movie review.

Surprisingly, by the time I headed to bed, I was feeling the best I’d felt all day. I even felt up to some bedroom hijinks with my sweetie. But once THAT was over, it was lights out for both of us.

Sorry to make this so short (for me), but I’ve got to get ready for a work-sponsored “team building event.” The marketing department (of which yours truly is a member) is having a scavenger hunt. Around here, that means taking almost 100 young professionals, grouping them into teams of 5, giving them a list of city landmarks and Polaroid cameras, and unleashing them on an unsuspecting city with the task of photographing themselves at the specified sites in order to gain points while trying to avoid being photographed by any opposing teams. (Yes, I could have made that sentence longer.)

I’ve never participated in this before. If I survive it, I’ll relate the details later.

I’m a little scared right now.

I just got back from getting a chicken pox vaccination. I had a handy little paper listing all the possible adverse reactions I should watch out for, including death.

5. What if there is a moderate or severe reaction? What should I look for?

“Any unusual condition, such as serious allergic reaction…”

Well, I’m allergic to everything else. Why not a chicken pox vaccination?

“…high fever…”

My body temperature tends to run high, usually just over 99º, though I guess that’s not really high.

“…or behaviour changes.”

I’m flighty as a hummingbird. Who’d notice behavioural changes in me?

“Signs of a serious allergic reaction can include difficulty breathing, hoarseness or wheezing…”

OK, since getting the shot, my throat and chest have felt slightly constricted, though I’m not wheezing.

“…hives…”

No hives yet.

“…paleness…”

If I were any paler, I’d be translucent.

“…weakness…”

I’ve always been a weak sissy girl, and working out Monday night has left me unable to fully raise my arms anyway.

“…a fast heartbeat or dizziness withing a few minutes to a few hours after the shot.”

Yeah, I had that, but it was likely just from trekking across the parking lot under a blazing Texas sun at noon.

My vision is also a bit wacked, I can’t walk straight, and I have this funky jittery feeling.

Of course, all that may be due to getting only one hour of sleep, then actually drinking a cup of coffee this morning.

I’ll have to let you know in “1 to 6 weeks” if “fever or seizure” occurs.

It’s 5:45 am. No, I’m not up insanely early. I’m up insanely late. (Does that make sense?)

After Dale and I got home from Aaron’s birthday dinner last night, I decided to see if I could get my digital camera software working again. I’d almost filled the 48 mb memory card, and there were photos on it dating back to the beginning of the month.

It took some fiddling, a couple of restarts, two crawls to the back of the machine to unplug and replug my cameras, and a reinstall, but I finally got the digital camera AND the web cam software running. At the same time.

Yay.

So, once I pulled my pictures, I started to work with them to get them web-ready. I started with three weekends worth of new house pictures and finally updated those pages.

Then I moved on to my SxSW photos, so those have been added to the appropriate entries. (Well, all but those of the Dawi Forte drummers and dancers from the Frog Design party.) If you want to see the SxSW photos, start here.

I also got my tornado pictures up with that entry.

One thing Dale and I had noticed over the weekend was that the date stamp on my camera was wrong. (And I’d forgotten to shut off that feature while I was at SxSW.) So most of the pictures displayed a date from May 1999 in ugly orange text. THAT was fun to Photoshop out of every picture.

And once all that was done, I had to write this to let all of you know.

So you’d damn well better go take a look!

I was extremely wired last night. I still don’t know why. But shortly before I planned to go to bed (around 2 am), my sister sent me a link and I ended up reading The Misanthropic Bitch for the next 5 1/2 hours. I crawled under the covers and snuggled up to Dale at roughly 7:30 am, and I still wasn’t tired. Or so I thought.

I woke up at 11 am to the alarm. I was rather confused as to why I was hearing it, since it was supposed to be Saturday. Dale had set it because he wanted to go race his RC car. I probably should have gotten up then, but I fell back into sleep.

And didn’t wake up again until 3:00 when Dale called to say he was on his way back home. While I was talking to Dale, Spritel curled up next to me and was just so damn cute and cuddly that I didn’t get out of bed until Dale actually walked in the door a half hour later.

Before getting up, I already knew just how much my elbows and forearms ached from yesterday’s workout. What took me by surprise was the pain at my waist from some stretching exercises Aaron and I had done. Ouch!

After some whining to Dale, I had to shower and get dressed quickly because we were supposed to meet at Aaron’s at 4:30 to get ready to go out for Jericho’s birthday dinner. We were the last to arrive at Rick and Aaron’s. Mandy, Steve, Rick, Aaron, Dale, and I then headed out to some middle eastern restaurant to meet Jericho and his girlfriend, Amy. I can’t say I was crazy about the food, but it was a fun meal. Dale and I came back home afterwards.

I was hurting a lot, so I took one of the Vicodins left over from when I sprained my ankle.

Whoooeeeeee!

Within an hour I was giggling and babbling and talking to web sites. Yeah, I was feeling pretty good!

I called my parents to wish them a happy anniversary. I’m a bad daughter, because their anniversary was yesterday, but by the time I remembered it was too late to call them. Fortunately, I got their answering machine because I don’t think I was in any condition to talk to my folks. I left a hyper message.

At 8:45 I felt like crashing, but Dale and I were off to Rick and Aaron’s again. This time to pick up Rick, Aaron, and Mandy to go see “Romeo must Die.” Dale had gotten the time wrong, though, so we had half an hour to kill before it started. The others headed into the arcade to wait, and I decided to go save us seats because I really needed to sit down.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t think it was particularly good. I won’t mention details here for fear of spoiling the movie, but there were a few things that just bugged me about the film.

And now, it’s 1:30 am, and definately time for me to go to bed if I want to be up at a decent hour tomorrow.

Still feeling crappy, I stayed home from work today. But after Dale got home, we decided to go out to a couple of stores to get a few things. I was rather surprised when Dale readily agreeing to go to Linens ‘n’ Things with me to look for some sort of magazine holders. (We went there because we had an unused $100 gift card from Christmas.) I decided to look for magazine racks because our living room is starting to drown in periodicals. I get a few catalogs a week and a couple of magazines, and lately I’ve been grabbing those home and garden type magazines at the check out line. And I got about a dozen trade magazines in my SxSW Big Bag. As it’s simply impossible for magazines to remain in a neat stack when there is a cat (let alone three) nearby, some sort of containment was required.

I didn’t find any magazine racks that I liked, but I did get a couple of rectangular wooden baskets that are a suitable size and will fit into the bottom part of the coffee table. We also decided to get a cutting board, since our larger one broke in half when Dale accidentally dropped it on the floor. I’d eyeballed one at LnT before so I knew what I wanted. This sucker must be 2×3 feet. One side is marked with concentric circles, a ruler, and measurement conversions. I love it. We also grabbed a much smaller synthetic board. And Dale found a picture frame he liked, so we got that as well.

Grand total at the register? $97.00 (And rather than just give me change, I got the gift card back with a $3.00 balance. *sigh* That goes well with my $5.00-left Bed, Bath, & Beyond gift card.)

Next on the agenda was Home Depot. Dale wanted to look for a tool box for organizing and transporting his RC car stuff. He didn’t find anything he liked, but HD had this huge plastictool organizer. It had 2 wheels on one end and an extending handle on the other. I thought it would be really good for my craft stuff, so we got it as it was only $40.00, which seemed like a steal.

After we got home, Dale discovered that his RC car fit perfectly in the bottom of my new organizer, and the multiple compartments were perfect for all the little parts, so my new toy was confiscated. He’s promised we’ll go back to get me another. Dale didn’t get to play with his new toy much because he had to get ready to meet Aaron at the gym.

For some reason, I decided to go work out with Dale and Aaron. I haven’t even been inside a gym in over 6 months. Dale’s and my 1 year contract to the Q recently ended (big friggin’ waste of money), and Dale had joined World Gym so he could work out with Aaron. So I signed in as Dale’s guest. I started out on a treadmill. I did 15 minutes plus a 5 minute cool down. The treadmill claimed it was running a cool-dowm program. I figured it would progressively slow down until the end. Nope. I’d been walking at 3.5 mph. The treadmill dropped itself to 3 mph for all 5 minutes, then stopped abruptly. I almost fell off the damn thing.

Afterwards, I felt kinda weird for about 10 minutes. My balance was all whacked, and I kept feeling like I was standing in a hole, like my perspective was off.

Nevertheless, I persevered and followed Aaron and Dale around, doing what they told me to do. I discovered that I can’t do shoulder flys with free weights without my upper lip curling in this funny way. And it was during the free weight session that I began bugging the guys about dinner. Jeez, I go to a gym, and all I can think about is eating afterwards.

They guys were surprisingly supportive and encouraging. I rather wussed on the shoulder flys, but did everything else. Even some torturous exercise that involves a weight suspended from a dowel by a length of rope. (The idea is that you hold the dowel in both hands at shoulder length then roll the rope up, lifting the weight. Then you lower it. It SUCKS!!)

I think we were at the gym for almost two hours. Wow. Pamela sets a record!

Showers were definately in order once Dale and I got back home. Then we picked up Aaron and headed for Waterstreet. Dale doesn’t like seafood, so I was happy he agreed to go there. For some reason, I had another hyper night at dinner. I wasn’t babbling incessantly, but I was literally bouncing in my seat. I have no idea why I was so wired. I had a great time at dinner, though. Dale even surprised me by trying the fried crawfish tails (he liked) and my salmon (he didn’t like).

Overall, a pretty good night. Shopping, seafood, and a sense of accomplishment from going to the gym.

(Technically, it’s March 24, but since I haven’t been to bed yet, this is the 23rd’s entry.)

It’s been a while….

Let’s see what my list of excuses is this time: I’m still really swamped at work. I’ve been out of work the past day and a half (damn my sinuses, damn this weather), so when I get back to the office, I’ll just be further behind. I’ve been playing with Blogger. I’ve been trying to see if it would be a useful tool for journaling. I like the idea of being able to quickly record and upload thoughts/feelings/events, but I don’t know if that will detract from the cohesiveness of a one-sitting entry. Not that my writing tends to be very cohesive. I know it rambles and wanders, which is also the way I talk. Long-winded* describes me well.

I’ve been worried that my writing is boring. I’ve been worried about my usual inability to stick to just one topic. I suppose these are normal fears for anyone who puts his or her writing out where anyone can read it. But, I don’t think I should have these fears. I mean, is this writing for me or is it for others? In the few months of having this journal, I think I’ve forgotten why I started it.

I just read an interesting essay by benbrown. I’d never heard of him before the day he stood up during the SxSW panel on weblogs and declared how much he hates them. Not the panel, but weblogs. He stood up in the middle of this crowd and he was so passionate, I couldn’t believe it. He was shaking, his voice was trembling as he decried weblogs for being “the easy way out” of online writing. It had been often stated that many people choose to do weblogs because they don’t have the time to do more. And that’s what bothered him so much.

And is that what I’ve been doing with Blogger the past week? I’ve definitely been taking the easy way out. Sometimes writing a full entry seems to take so much time and energy. Then once the writing’s done, there’s putting it into code, updating all the links on the appropriate pages, etc. Shit, sometimes I think the linking takes more time than the writing.

But, haven’t I felt better after every entry that’s gone up? Yeah, I have. I get a really nice sense of accomplishment. I also get to look forward to the reward of a response. Rarely does that happen, but the few times it has, it’s been a thrill.

I guess if I’m looking for a response, then that means I’m writing for the approval of others. Or at least to get a reaction. So I must be seeking attention. But can anyone who posts to the web not be an egomaniac? I think if this really was just for myself, it would be scrawled into one of the little hardback books sitting in the bookcase in the other room.

None of this may even make sense to you, but it does to me. And I think I’ve made a few decisions. I will continue to use Blogger, but not as my method of journaling. Just as a way to record the things I want to write about later. I will write about what I want, but I won’t give up the hope and the desire that someone out there will enjoy what I write. And I won’t try to limit how much I write. Because, really, it’s a very good reflection on how I speak, which is a reflection of me. So why shouldn’t my writing not be a reflection of me as well. I’m sure there are people who won’t read my site because it tends to be wordy. There are probably more people who won’t read because I’m just boring.

And though I’d like to know what you think, that may not change a damn thing about this site.

Finally, I’d like to thank Ben for having the balls to say what I never could have; especially not in that room.

* When moving around withing a MUD (multi user dimension, or what have you), you usually have two options for viewing room descriptions: brief and verbose. Brief just shows the room name and exits. Verbose gives you a lengthy description. Last week when I couldn’t shut up at dinner, Dale told me that I perpetually run in verbose mode. I was annoyed by that at the time, but I have to admit it’s true. I love the details in life. And I like sharing them. [back]

I feel like crap. Dale’s been sick the last two days and I think I may have caught his cold. I woke up this morning with a mild sore throat and a lot of sniffling. DayQuil took care of the sniffling, but not the sore throat. Nor did it prevent the sinus headache. The kind that builds up so much pressure in your head, your ears plug up and it’s hard to hear.

Since the important meeting I’d dragged myself in for was rescheduled for tomorrow, I decided to go home at lunch time. After I got home, I took a magazine to bed and fell asleep reading. I think I was out for 3-4 hours. When I awoke, I still had the damn head ache. Dale brought me Tylenol Sinus, but it hasn’t really helped.

It’s after 9 pm now. I should probably go find something for dinner.

*grumble* I’m supposed to have 300 megs of disk space for my website. Yesterday Dale and I discovered that our account is set to 150 megs, and we hit that limit. This was learned after I went to check stats and noticed that all the records prior to March 18th were gone. Dale poked around and found out about the too-low disk limit. Unfortunately, that still screwed up my stats. He also discovered that another stat program (the one supplied by the host) was hogging about 15 megs of space. I went in and manually deleted log files for 1999 and opened up 6 or 7 megs.

Later, I discovered that the disk space problem had also fucked with another part of my site - the new message board I’d installed for my high school alumni site. For some reason, random files lost content. Out of 75 registered users, 10 lost their password files, including me. Random post files were also lost, and a couple had bad code. I fixed what I could, but Dale and I ended up just deleting the files that had 0 data.

This has really upset me, because I end up looking really stupid when I have to ask 10 people to re-register for access. And, I’ve yet to get a complete month of traffic reports from my chosen stats program.

Dale and I have contacted our host about the disk space problem. Hopefully, that will be cleared up soon.

From Kathie:

talk about NOT naming a file correctly… This is the URL for an Associate Producer position at Idev…

http://www.idev.com/AssProducer.html

Sounds like a position in the porn industry - no pun intended.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s almost 2pm. Today’s gone by so quickly.

This weather is really getting to me. It’s hot then cold then wet then hot then cold and wet…. My joints have been aching for a week. Last night, my thighs ached as though I’d been doing squats while lifting a house. I drove out to take Dale dinner (poor guy had to work late) and my knees ached durin and afterwards. Fibromyalgea sucks.

SxSW was a week ago, and I finally got around to sending out those few “great to meet you” emails I’ve been meaning to write.

It’s been interesting to visit the sites of people who were at SxSW to see what they had to say about the conference. Overall, response has been pretty damn good, which is my opinion as well.

Shit, just remembered a couple of other people I need to write.

I’m sorry that I haven’t done many much writing this past week (aside from the extensive rambling of the SxSW Stories). I’ve been frightfully swamped since returning to work. Wednesday morning, after being back at my desk for all of an hour, I got a call about a project. I knew we were nearing crunch time, but this was the first I’d ever been told that I had to have my part done by, uh, last week. I ended up promising that I’ve have more than a dozen pages of a UI fully coded by the end of the week. Fortunately, some of the pages are just variations of each other, but that’s still a lot of work. And, I have to thoroughly comment the back end and make the code as neat as possible since it’s basically going to be ripped apart as sections are replaced with code for Oracle and JSP.

Lucky me. My week began Sunday with SxSW. I got today (Saturday) off, but I have to be back in tomorrow to help with the integration, which I’ll also be doing all day Monday and Tuesday. At least I finished the HTML work so that I didn’t have to go in today.

My free time this past week has been limited. Since SxSW, I’ve spent much of experimenting with Blogger and redesigns for this journal. Don’t expect any changes any time soon, though.

Shit, I’ve sorely neglected my own site. I’m so far behind on projects for all the areas. I’ve been stalled out on a database project for my high school alumni site for 8 months now. I’m really getting tired of emails asking when the roster db is going to be reopened, but I’ve not sat down with the PHP3 book in weeks.

I’m also still trying to decide if I’m going to give this journal a link from my main site. I don’t plan to get too personal or write about nitty gritty details, but there’s definately been stuff said in here that I wouldn’t say to my parents or in-laws. Not that I’ve said anything bad, but the stuff I write in here is what I’d say to my friends. I mean, as much as I love them all, I can’t picture myself telling Dale’s grandmother about the time he and I went to a porn store.

I guess I need to find my comfort level, though I’ve already half-decided to go ahead and link, and tell our families about the journal. An tell them…. oh, crap. I don’t know what to tell them.

Well, I’ve got to go. Dale and I need to find a monitor for Phaedra’s new computer.

I sent out a few emails today asking my friends to take a look at this page and give their opinions on the look thus far. My sister likes it. My husband doesn’t. In his own words, “I really don’t like the half bust thing; that went out with Waterworld.”

I’m feeling quite happy and generous today for some reason. In addition to passing out about two dozen Kinder Eggs, I made a beer run when I went out to get my lunch.

Since the Greek place was right across the street from a liquor store, I stopped by to get some St. Patrick’s Day refreshments for the web team. I came back with ice, a 6-pack each of Guinness and Killian’s Irish Red, a case of Shiner (for those who don’t like the Irish beers), and a 4-pack of Kahlua Mudslides (for those who don’t like beer).

Quite a haul for a non-drinker to make.

The other day I received a box of Kinder Überraschung (a.k.a. Kinder Eggs) from one of my high school classmates. The package was a delightful surprise. After opening and gobbling a few myself, I brought the rest into the office. They’ve been a big hit, both with the one other person who’s ever seen them before, and for everyone else.

For those of you who don’t know, a Kinder Egg is a fragile milk chocolate/white chocolate egg-shaped shell. Breaking the egg reveals a little plastic canister that contains a toy of some sort. Sometimes it’s a little figurine. Sometimes it’s a complicated little thing needing assembly. The quality of these toys is astounding, considering the eggs probably only cost about a buck apiece.

Unfortunately, they’re not available for commercial sale in the U.S. because of the danger of kids choking on the tiny parts. (I guess Australia, Canada, and Europe just believe parents have better sense than to let kids under 3 play with the toys.)

Today we had a bit of a scare at the office. The voices of coworkers penetrated my bubble of concentration.

“Storm.”

“Clouds.”

“Tornado.”

Tornado??

I got up from my desk and saw several people clustered at the windows. The view from the 5th floor is always good, but this time it was awesome. Some unknown number of miles away, a dark twisting snake danced between the clouds and the horizon.

I happened to have my digital camera with me so I took a couple of pictures. (Unfortunately, cam software isn’t working at the moment.) We ooh’d and aaah’d, and the funnel cloud quickly dissipated.

(Added 3/28/00 — my photos)

Hard to judge distance

A closer view

It dissipated quickly

A short while later, an announcement came over the PA system, advising us to stay away from the windows and to stay inside. I was chatting with Scott via IMs and he’d been checking out the Austin weather. Apparently Round Rock was getting golf ball sized hail. Within moments, we could hear the clattering of ice on the windows. I went back to look. Definitely hail, but no where near golf ball size. More like shelled peanut size.

About the time the hail started to fade, only minutes later, we heard another announcement. A tornado had been spotted at 183 and McNeil, which was only 2 miles away as the crow flies. We were told to get into the stairwells. The 5th floor is the top floor in our building and there was a skylight above the stairwell, so we ended up moving down to the 4th floor landing.

There was some nervous chat and worried expressions but nothing ever happened. After 10 minutes people started heading out of the stairwell. There were dark clouds outside, but it wasn’t raining or hailing. Sunlight and blue sky were peeking through. And there wasn’t a single dent or scratch on my car.

This picture of the tornado sighted at 183 and McNeil was taken by Dale Blankenship and lifted from the KVUE25 web site.

Dale and I went out to dinner. While we were at La Morada, the power went out. Oddly, what concerned me the most as we sat there in the dark was, “How are we going to pay? We can’t leave until we pay….”

After dinner, we drove out to the new house site. I had this paranoid fear that today’s storms would wash away or damage the fill. Obviously, the builders had been prepared. The fill had been covered with huge tarps.

Dale and I went out to dinner. While we were at La Morada, the power went out. Oddly, what concerned me the most as we sat there in the dark was, “How are we going to pay? We can’t leave until we pay….”

After dinner, we drove out to the new house site. I had this paranoid fear that today’s storms would wash away or damage the fill. Obviously, the builders had been prepared. The fill had been covered with huge tarps.

Today was the last day of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. I’d say it was more of the same (as yesterday), but only in that I sat in on a lot of panels, met more interesting people, and went to a couple of parties.

My second panel today wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, so I left after about half and hour and decided to pop into the weblog roundtable. It looked to be almost the same crowd that populated the online journaling roundtable from the first day, with one remarkable exception. Seated at the end of my row was a highly recognizable tattooed and bewhiskered face. Katzen herself was sitting in on the weblog roundtable!

I was disappointed I hadn’t gotten to see her and The Enigma at the frog design party, so I was thrilled to see her there. My attention at the roundtable was evenly divided between the topic and her.

When the roundtable ended, I tried to catch her and succeeded. In just a few minutes, she impressed me with her friendliness. She also gave me one of her business cards and a flyer advertising a show she and The Enigma are going to be in next week. While we were talking, Zach came out and mentioned that the panelist were giving out free T-shirts. Katzen and I scurried back inside to grab one each for ourselves. Until now, I’d deliberately not picked up any free T-shirts. I have a ton already and I don’t wear the ones I have. But, I like the Blogger T. It’s navy blue with a bright orange logo. I dig it.

Katzen and I tried to continue our chat, only to be interrupted by someone wanting to photograph her. Ah, the price you pay for having a full-body tattoo theme…. As I was pulling out my camera to take advantage of the moment, John arrived with his. So I took a picture of him with Katzen and then he took one of me and Katzen. Again, thanks to Win98, you’ll have to wait to see the pictures.

Katzen saw one of my white tattoos and commented on it. I hadn’t known she had her own studio. Not only that, but she does a lot of white work. She pulled out another one of her cards, this one about her tattoo business. It turns out that Katzen is starting to learn HTML and working on her own site, so I offered to give her any help that I could. Stoopid me, I wore a different jacket today, and left my damn business cards on the other, so I had to hand her a professional-looking torn piece of paper with my email and url scribbled on it.

After the last panel, I happened to run into her again, and this time her husband was with her. I must admit that I was surprised when she introduced me to The Enigma and remembered my name. I don’t think I’m that memorable, and I’m notoriously bad with names. (Thank goodness for the SxSW badges everyone was wearing.) I got to do a little more chatting, and I got my picture taken with Katzen and The Enigma. I’ll have to send that one to mom and dad, to show them they have no reason to complain about my and Phaedra’s tattoos.

I’ve been fascinated with The Enigma and Katzen since I picked up a book about the Jim Rose Sideshow Circus and flipped through it at a bookstore. (I should have bought the damn thing.) I’m awed by the dedication and mindset it takes to make such visible and permanent changes to their bodies. I must say I wasn’t expecting to see The Enigma looking so ‘normal,’ despite the tattoos. He was wearing a baseball cap that nearly hid his horns and nerd-style glasses complete with a bent paperclip holding one of the earpieces in place.

After I said bye to them, I ran into Zach again. He was talking to a woman named Kristin, who turned out to be another Austinite. As we stood there talking, Ann joined us. Together we decided to head to Twist, the site of the SxSW closing party. Somehow, we lost Ann when the other three of us stopped off to use the restrooms.

We were originally going to go to the parking garage so Zach and I could drop off out bags, but one of the complimentary limo drivers (to one of the hotels) offered to give us a ride to Twist. Hmmm, walk a few blocks or get a short ride in a stretch limo.

Home, Jeeves!

Damn, I’ve never ridden in a limousine before. This one was sleek and black, decked out with leather seats. I could have done without the funky color changing light decorations, but the fully stocked bar was cool.

Once again, we were too early. The Twist staffers slapped wristbands on us, then made us wait outside. When we got in, Kristin, Zach, and I quickly claimed seats near a coffee table. By the time Kristin had gotten her drink, Ann had arrived. We did basically what we did at the Chickclick/Smileandactnice party. People-watched, talked, and drank (just soda for me *sigh*). Cameron came by to talk to Zach. It was an interesting debate about what the defination of a weblog is, and whether a weblog could be mixed into a journal or if they should be separate. I still don’t know why there’s so much issue about trying to define weblogs or online journals.

Around 8 (I think), Ann, Kristin, Zach, and I all decided to leave. I actually wasn’t heading home, but up to River City Tattoo. I wanted to talk to Mike about doing the second run on my newest tattoo. Zach decided to go with me, rather than head over to Babe’s. Unfortunately, Mike wasn’t in, so Zach and I headed down 6th Street. I had no idea where Babe’s was, so after several blocks I pulled out the SxSW program book to check the map there while Zach scolded a man for being inappropriately dressed for 6th Street. “You need to take off that tie right now!”

We finally found the place and took over a booth. The band that was playing was pretty good, though the volume was way too loud for such a small venue. It took a bit for me to realize they were playing cover songs with the lyrics changed to stuff about being geeks.

By the fourth or fifth parody (and the second making fun of geeks being arrested for viewing child porn) the place was still pretty empty and there was no sign that the Sexiest Geek Alive ceremony was going to begin, so we decided to leave and head back to Twist. Damn. Twist was nearly empty. Tired, I bailed on Zach. I think he headed back to Babe’s and I walked back to the parking garage, overshooting it by a block.

Now I’m home and writing up my final SxSW Story. Well, it was certainly fun while it lasted.

(This page was edited on 3/28/00 because I finally got my SxSW photos off my digital camera.)