ETA: Fixed! Yay for having a husband who knows how to do things with databases!

Comments are down, in case you hadn’t noticed – apparently the comments database crashed, and I need to do something to it. Since the extent of my database savvy is “Step 1: Identify the Problem” I’m hoping the internet will come to my rescue and tell me exactly what I need to do.

This may take a while, since I took a “mental health” day yesterday (ha!) and the house, totally of its own accord, siezed the opportunity to become a complete disaster. House: why do you have it in for me? What did I ever do to you? You seriously do not want to know what I found in one of Happy Fun Baby’s sippy cups (be glad I was too grossed out even to take a picture). So I am cleaning, obviously, and not geeking. Except for right now. And, um, a little bit ago.

In the meantime, you can a) Pretend I’m one of those antisocial bloggers who (gasp!) don’t allow comments, or b) go over to Flickr and bug talk to me there. (Hint: clicking pretty much any picture will bring you to my photo stream. Handy!)

Tags: wordpress, comments database, database crash

I am a cool kid. Know how I know? I got an invite to the invite-only beta of Ravelry. Social networking for yarnheads! (And yes, yarnheads is a word of my own devising. I am allowed to make up words, being a cool kid and all.)

Already being cool has upped my productivity, as I was so eager to get projects listed in my profile that I finally finished that hat I’ve been crocheting for my sister since, like, March. Now I just need to finish the matching scarf, and the first part of finishing (as I understand it) is starting. I thought about starting it last night, but I was bored and easily distracted. Tonight I may do some crocheting, but I might also sit in front of the computer and eat chocolate. I guarantee nothing.

(By the way, if you’re wondering why this picture looks so cool, it’s because Matt got a Lensbaby for his birthday – from me, because, as I mentioned, I am hip and cutting-edge – and it is more fun than kittens. There will be much fighting for the camera while we learn how to use it, I think.)

Tags: lensbabies, crochet, ravelry, beta, yarn, hat, cool

As if the mounting frenzy surrounding the July 25 opening of Portland’s first Ikea was not enough, I give you the Ikea Mobile:

Blogged with Flock

I finally scored a beta invite to Skitch! The happiness, it is all mine. Mine, I tell you. Here’s my first image, all notated and simple-like.

Uploaded with Skitch!

(Yes, I know, the bags under my eyes know no rivals. Have I mentioned I’ve been having dreams that I am a) trying to find an apartment in a country where no one speaks English or b) trying to kill my sister for borrowing things without asking? The sleep, it is not a thing I have these days.) (That reminds me, I need to set up my sister – who I don’t want to kill, even a little bit – with an Akismet account so that her site doesn’t get quite so much spam. I am totally going to do that now, even though I said that very same thing on Monday.)

Um, yes, but Skitch! Skitch is the rockingest, especially if you have a Mac. Which I have. Because, see, it only works on a Mac, so the rocking does not so much happen on the PC. I mean, sure, Grab is fine for screenshots, but it inexplicably insists on saving everything as a tiff. I have nothing against tiff files per se, but they are somewhat…how shall I put this…useless. I have to go through a ponderous opening Photoshop and saving as a jpg process every time I want to do anything with a screenshot, and do you think I have that kind of patience? Because I do not. I am very important and have many lofty responsibilities. You see.

Skitch is lovely in that not only does it solve the whole pesky tiff problem, it also lets you do other things. Neat things. Like, I can browse my iPhoto library! Without opening iPhoto! And I can take pictures with my iSight! And write on them! And upload them to Flickr! Wheeeeeeee.

I’m going to go play with my new beta account some more. At some point I will have invites, and when I do? You, my lovely friends, just have to ask and I will send one. I am nice like that.

technorati tags:skitch, plasq, grab, screenshots, isight, beta, beta whore

Yeah, so I’ve finally transferred all my POP mail over to Gmail. I wanted to love the BlackBerry Push service, I really did, and I would have if it didn’t SUCK SO MUCH. Seriously, when I can’t find messages from my clients in the daily barrage of “Enlarge Your Penis!” and “I am a lonely Russian girl…” (apparently the SpamBots think I am a hetero male, who knew?) it might be time for BlackBerry to come up with some sort of filtering thing, possibly, yes? And the Gmail client on the Pearl is so lovely and responsive. Love the lovely Gmail client.

When I’m not espousing the myriad ways Google owns my soul, I’m pledging my eternal love to Apple. I’ve got an ancient – er, three year old, which is close enough to ancient in the tech world – iPod with 40 gigs of storage, and I’ve been using it to transfer work files to and from my work computer. Why use an iPod when I could use Box.net or something similar? I will tell you why: no internet at home right now. This means if I need to design something, I need to do it the dumb way, with no impulsive internet searches or fortuitous downloads. I’m getting the hang of it, but I can’t say I will be sorry when the folks at Covad finally give us WiFi.

technorati tags:apple, ipod, geek, mobile office, google, gmail, blackberry

I’m posting this from my BlackBerry Pearl, which I have to say is pretty seriously cool. Not as cool: the fact that the internet is down at the office *again*. WTF, ISP?

Technical difficulties abound at Chez Cranky and its satellites. I trekked out to the office yesterday, despite the obvious foolishness of attempting anything that involves being awake and functional the day after the time change, only to discover that our internet is down again. The point of being at the office? To get work done. Instead, I had some lunch, nursed an increasingly cranky baby (see time change, above) and fought a headache while searching fruitlessly for images on our hard drive. Lightroom was behaving abominably, refusing to serve up about a quarter of my images and freezing at inopportune moments. I’d troubleshoot, but: internet. Sigh.

Finally I gave up and headed out, but not without having the brilliant idea of trying the Ergo in the hip-carry position for the first time. See, to do that, one has to reconfigure the straps and remove the chest latch, which seems so easy in the comfort of, say, my own office. Reversing the process once it became abundantly clear that the hip-carry is the most uncomfortable thing ever and my shoulder was burning like it was on fire? Not so simple, especially with a wriggly, cranky toddler. I got him out, finally (after a dodgy moment in which I couldn’t undo one of the straps) but Happy Fun Baby darted for freedom every time I tried to use both hands to re-attach the chest latch to the straps. I ended up just scooping him and the carrier up and clutching them both to my chest while running for the bus.

Luckily I’m all set up to work at home, which is what I had planned for today. Ha! Did you hear that? I had a plan! And I’d have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for you damn kids.

I was up late last night doing my patented combo of work/geek/online window shopping and finally got to bed about 1am. I mention this to illustrate the level of not-awake I was at 7 when Not So got up for work. I always sit up and say goodbye to him and what have you, but the minute he steps out the door I’m out like a light.

This morning Not So decided to change things up a bit. After some banter about socks, he casually mentioned that the monitor downstairs had died. The brand new monitor we got from Amazon two weeks ago.

Me: What? What? The monitor?
Him: Yeah. It just powered down in the middle of working. I tried everything I could, but it’s dead.
Me: But…what? [Note: not awake.]
Him: So, I don’t know what sort of warranty stuff we have on that…
Me: What? What? Okay. Um.
Him: It was obviously defective. We’ve only had for a couple of weeks. I’m sure whatever warranty we have will cover that.
Me: Okay. Okay. I’ll…but I have school! And there’s no internet at the office! And -
Him: I can leave you my new MacBook.
Me: No, none of my stuff’s on it. I need my stuff.
Him: I can probably get us a new monitor.

So we’re getting a new monitor, and Amazon has a lovely return policy, so all is well. Except for the fact that I was up at 7am, blearily tracking down return and warranty info while yesterday’s headache crept slowly from where it was hiding at the base of my spine to the place just behind my eyes. Nothing like having to deal with technical difficulties first thing in the morning to get the blood pumping, am I right?

So today, instead of working from home in my pjs, I am battling a nasty headache and engaging in an endless argument with my iBook about whether there is a such thing as the internet. Fun! Let’s all sing the praises of the Samsung SyncMaster 740N and its amazing disappearing picture. It’s a good thing I have Advil.

technorati tags:samsung syncmaster 740n, working from home, wahm, technical difficulties