MadMup.com

It was five years ago today that I started this blog. I wish my first entry was something memorable and different from all the other first entries to blogs, but it isn't. I remember wondering if the thing would even work and if I would ever do anything with it. Here I am, five years later, desperately clinging to some sort of misguided hope that this blog will turn me into some kind of writer.

In Internet years, five is an eternity - All Your Base gives way to Badgers gives way to Dramatic Prairie Dog gives way to who knows what else. It turns out that five years in "real" life is a long time, too. So much has changed in the last five years that it's hard to grasp it, really.

I don't believe any current reader of my blog has read through all five year's worth - and I'm not suggesting anyone take the time to do it now! - but take a look at the posts on the left under the heading "Some Favorite Posts" to see what I've enjoyed writing, if you're so inclined.

To mark (ha!) this grand occasion, I've decided to hold another contest:

How many posts have I written for this blog? This is kind of a trick question, because you won't be able to go back through and count them and get the right answer. I have written some/many/several entries that are not posted, were posted then removed, or have not been posted yet. I am going by the number listed on my Blogger Dashboard, so no one but me has any idea what it is.

Tie-Breaker: How many reviews/articles have I written for DEN? I've been writing for that site for four years now (even though I'm currently extremely behind on an article), and have enjoyed that as well.

So, leave your guesses in the comments. The person who guesses closest to the actual number will win either a set of DVDs of Episodes IV-VI of Star Wars, or something from the MadMup.com store - winner's choice. Second place winner will get whatever the first place winner didn't want. The contest closes at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, 4/24/2008.

EDIT: Since it's been asked a couple of times, let me clarify: it's just "closest," not "closest without going over." I couldn't get Bob Barker or Drew Carey to help out, so that's how we're rolling.

EDIT #2: The Star Wars DVD set is Region 1, so a winner outside of the US or Canada will have to be happy with MadMup.com gear.

Thanks for reading. I recently registered the domain name for another five years. I'm curious to see what they'll hold.

Labels: contest, meta

16 comments

I'm planning to liveblog the Star Wars Marathon tomorrow. I've liveblogged once before, and it wasn't terribly exciting, but I thought it might be fun to have an historical account of this momentous occasion. I'm sure it'll be all "So-and-so showed up" and "Darth Vader just killed a dude" and "Now we're watching the next movie," but it seems that a geeky event such as a Star Wars Marathon deserves another geeky event like liveblogging.

So if you can't join us (which you should!), you can at least experience it vicariously.

Labels: geekery, meta

4 comments

This week’s been a busy one at work for me. I had to upgrade the servers, which is always tricky business. People were warned that they needed to back up their stuff just in case, as it’s never a sure bet, even with a good backup. Three of my four servers are done now and it looks like nothing was lost. I had to copy a few things over manually after the fact, but it all seemed to work out fine. It’s funny, though, how a little thing like taking the servers offline for a week can make a person a lot less invisible. I instantly become the biggest jerk in the world because I have to do my job. Never mind that I warned people ahead of time, I must be mean and spiteful because I have to upgrade the servers. Argh.

I have a touchlamp by the side of my bed that has three levels of brightness. Nutmeg has learned she can turn it on by touching it with her nose. Now, if I don’t get out of bed soon enough for her liking, she’ll nose the touchlamp through a few cycles. It’s funny and annoying and cute all at the same time.

I’m doing a lot of traveling this summer! Illinois last weekend, Kentucky this weekend, Wisconsin soon… it’s crazy! But it’s with enjoyable people, so it’s all good. This weekend Jason, Jeannie, Melissa, and I are going to visit Josh and Gretchen. Should be a fun time!

The latest game I reviewed was Forza Motorsport 2 (EDIT: link to review), which allows people to decorate/paint their in-game cars however they want to. I am amazed by some of the designs people have come up with, as it took me twenty minutes to put my name and a penguin on a car. I can’t imagine how many hours it took them to create a likeness of Harlequin from Batman: The Animated Series. Crazy!

If you’re not looking at my Flickr and YouTube accounts regularly, then I’m afraid you’re missing out on at least half of the total MadMup experience. Add in my Twitter page and that’s fully three-fourths. Flickr’s great as a photo organizer, but I tend to use it as a random picture collector. I can send pictures to it from my cell phone, and I often do. YouTube gets my random videos, and Twitter is all the little mundane “what I’m doing” updates a person can handle.

Speaking of cell phones, I got a new one recently, a Samsung Blackjack. I’ve been a Nokia Guy for years now, and I’m fiercely brand-loyal, as many of you know. They didn’t have the Nokia I wanted, so I thought I’d try the Blackjack. It’s a SmartPhone, so it’s all Windows-y, and it’s got a full-QWERTY keypad on it, which helps with the grillion text messages I send a month. (Seriously, it’s like I’m a 14-year-old Japanese girl, with all the texting I do.) I’m really impressed with the phone and I’m happy I got it. It’s slim and light, and it does pretty much what I want it to do. Now if only I knew XML and could design my own start page for it…

Anyone need a futon? I’m thinking it’s time I sold mine. I’d let it go for a pretty good price.

I’m sure there are other significant bits of info people are dying to hear about, but none are springing to mind currently… You know how it is – you get old, you start forgetting things…

Enjoy the rest of your week, eh?

Labels: apropos of nothing, meta

9 comments

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow - it's a sick day, but I actually took a vacation day because I've got more vacation days than sick days. Follow?

I'm about to take NyQuil, so I'll be asleep 'ere long, but since I'll be home tomorrow, I thought I'd take a stab at liveblogging. That means exactly what it sounds like it means: I'll be blogging all the minutiae of my day throughout the day. It'll be one entry that keeps getting updated, and I apologize in advance to anyone who follows the site with an RSS reader - I'm sure this will mess it all kinds of up.

So tune in tomorrow if you want to know just exactly what time I hack up a lung or feed the kitties.

Labels: meta, new things

3 comments

It isn't much of a change, but I wanted to mention that the "Some Favorite Posts" section over on the left has been updated. These are posts that I personally like for one reason or another, usually because I liked the topic or because I feel it reveals something about me.

The Movie Count on the right has changed, too. The fact that I'm on track to watch at least a movie a day this year probably also reveals something about me.

Labels: meta

4 comments

So right after I announce I'm going to do a 13-part series of blog entries, I disappear from sight. What's the deal?

I'm not really sure. Generally when I've disappeared from my blog it's because I can't muster up the gumption. That's ... pretty much the deal here, too. I can't point to anything specific, but I've just not felt like I could write anything.

I still don't, really.

I'd like to blame SAD, that seasonal thing that affects people because of lack of sunlight, but I never get much sun, so I don't think it applies. I've just been more antisocial than usual and really tired and all the other stuff that goes with it. Nothing holds my interest and it's hard work to interact with people.

"Classic signs of depression," you say. Maybe. I don't care.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back some time. Usually a "everything is bleah" post loosens the cork, but I don't know.

Be well, friends.

Labels: meta

6 comments

I finally got around to making a way to browse my webcam picture archives. I basically set up another blog on Blogger's servers and made a blog entry for each pic. The first few are just guesses on the date but I started putting dates on the pic so those were easier to pinpoint.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, mostly for my benefit. Feel free to enjoy them or mock them or whatever, and feel free to comment on them as well.

Just click on the webcam pic to the right and you'll be on your way!

Labels: meta

5 comments

I'm still alive, in case you were wondering.

I just don't have much to say these days. I realize that hasn't stopped me in the past, but it seems to be stopping me now.

If there's a subject you'd like me to ramble on about, leave a comment to that regard.

Other than that, well... hi, I guess.

Labels: meta

5 comments

Let's try a little something this week. And by " 's " I mean "me."

I am going to try to write post of substance every day this week, starting tomorrow. That means that by midnight of each day, from Tuesday to Friday, I'll have a post up.

This may not be a big deal to you, but for me it's a reachable mini-goal in a time when reaching any goal could be important to me.

So let's see how it goes. And by " 's " I mean " all of us."

Labels: meta

3 comments

It seems foolish to talk about a site re-design since

a) You're looking at it
b) If you weren't here before the change, you won't care

I still wanted to mention it, though, because the site finally looks like I've been wanting it to look for over a year now. The last change gave me the colors I wanted, this change gives me the layout. There are likely to be a few small changes yet, but this is basically it.

List of changes, for the curious:

1. Color scheme now reflects my current favorite color pair: green and grey.
2. Three-column layout lets me split things up better: left column for internal stuff, middle column for entries, right column for external links (mostly - the hot chocolate counter and webcam are there because they fit better there).
3. Webcam picture can be clicked for a larger version.
4. Email link is now separated from the other links. It's been bad and needs to be taught a lesson.
5. Text size is now smaller. I always hated that gargantuan type.
6. Text in middle column is justified which, strangely, gives it a more professional look.
7. Addition of a "Favorite Posts" section in the left column. These should not be construed as my most popular posts - they are simply my favorite posts of mine.
8. 23% fewer calories per post.

Things yet to come:

1. A MadMup store. Really. Mostly for fun, and because I want to buy a MadMup.com T-shirt myself.
2. A PayPal link. Because every blog needs to have an easy way for people to donate money, right?
3. A webcam archive page, mostly so you can see that the hairstyle never changes.

So there you go. Many thanks again go to Brian A. for all of his work on this. I presented my ideas for the design, he would design it and show it to me, and I would say, "That's good! I like that! Can we change this one thing?" He'd change it and we'd repeat the process. I think maybe he might have slapped me around if we'd been working on it in the same room instead of in Indiana and New Mexico. But he was patient and I love the design.

Now if only I would have more worthwhile content...

Labels: meta

8 comments

There's a word I know way too much about.

In this particular instance, though, I'm referring to my updating this week. I promise to do better next week - I see much more free time on the horizon.

I'm about to leave for Wisconsin for what's left of the weekend. Have a good weekend, all ya'll.

Labels: meta

0 comments

I had a really long piece written and it disappeared into the Matrix somewhere.

Grrrr.

I don't have the time or the patience to try to recreate it now.

Labels: meta

0 comments

I've been ill for the last several days, and I hope that excuses me from my lack of blogging lately.

I apologize unreservedly.

I have a few entries in mind and will try to do one this evening.

Consider yourself warned.

Labels: meta

0 comments

Over at the THorum, we have a webcam portal. Basically that means members can include a link to their webcam pictures and other members can see them all in one (usually) happy place. The idea is to change it frequently so as to keep people's attentions.

Turns out, I've got 26 pictures in the archive. I thought I'd use this program to put together a video of them.

Here's the video. It's 2.7M and it has audio, so be careful at work or wherever you don't want to awaken people. The song is "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day, and it is one of my most favorite songs ever. It immediately infuses a semi-sad feeling of nostalgia on whatever is happening along with it. I first became aware of the song when they played it over a video montage in the clip show preceding the Seinfeld finale, so I always think of it as "the Seinfeld song."

So, anyway, enjoy.

Labels: meta, Seinfeld

0 comments

Let's try this for a while and see how it goes. I apologize that the Archive links don't take you to any actual archives - I will continue to work on that. I've added some links for your viewing pleasure (as always, MadMup.com is not responsible for anything on any of those sites ever), and I've even added an e-mail link so you can write to me if you so desire. Comments are always welcome, even if they are snide.

Labels: meta

0 comments

Okay, I thought this was pretty cool. I was checking out the site traffic stats and noticed I've gotten hits from people in France, Brazil, and Canada! Cool! Now, I'm not noticing that I got return visits from them, but one visit was a neat start.

I also noticed that many of my visitors come here via bookmarks, but some come from Blogger.com. And then I noticed the hit from reuben sandwich. Say what? So I went and checked it out. Sure enough, it's another blog, but she mentioned my song-by-song review of Weird Al's latest album and had a link to here. I'm giddy!

Labels: meta

0 comments

Okay, see, a "blog" is kind of like an online journal ("diary" seems so...feminine). Of course, since I've never been any good at keeping a pen-and-paper journal, we'll just have to see how this goes.

Soon enough I plan to add links to things - pictures and so forth. Once I figure out how all of this works, I'll change the design, too. Some of you are thinking, "Wow! I really like his new design! It's better than anything I've seen him do before!" Well, thanks and all, but it's not my design. It's a cookie-cutter design provided by Blogger.com. So for those of you thinking that, consider me offended.

A week from tomorrow is my last day at Sayers. I've never stayed at a job longer than three years, and I wonder why. I was told just the other day (Monday) that a person graduating from college today can expect to have 7 different jobs after college. That leaves me with about 2 more to find the right one to keep. Yikes!

Labels: meta

0 comments

Hi-ho, and welcome to The Muppet Show!

I've been wanting to try this blogging thing for a while, so we'll see how it goes. You might get like three posts and that's it, so don't hold your breath or anything. Deal?

So, here we go. Thanks for coming.

Labels: meta