Rediscovering Lost Hobbies

It might be hard to believe, but I have hobbies that don't involve electronics. One of them is engraving and staining glass. For the past year or so, however, I'd had to give it up due to limited space.

Our space issues have recently been resolved, luckily. So earlier, I was in my work area with some glass and the engraver. And I hadn't really noticed until I got started marking out the design just how much I missed it. I can't believe I actually gave it up for that long. At this rate, though, I'm thinking I need some way to give away or sell the finished product. I give some away as holiday presents, but since I've missed so much time, I'm thinking I'm going to have a lot more stuff than I have people to give it to.

So I have a question, blogosphere. Any advice on running an online store?

Later Than I Thought, Sorry

Was hoping to blog while the sun was up for a change. Unfortunately, while I had the time to blog, I was using a wi-fi network that blocked just about everything. Guess that's what you get for free wi-fi in waiting rooms.

Waiting rooms. I spend a good deal of time in them, and not all of them have wi-fi. Today was different though, because it wasn't a doctor's waiting room. I finally managed to talk my grandmother, who is a proudly stubborn woman, into going for an oil change in her car. I've only been trying to get her to do that for 3 months. (Not being sarcastic here, usually it takes longer to get her to do something.)

I'm sure people are wondering why I don't just do this stuff for her with or without her consent. Well, while I am her sole caretaker, I've learned that doing something like that is the best way to get her to do the exact opposite of what I'm trying to get her to do. Which, since she's in not so great health, is a recipe for disaster. The last thing anyone living in our area needs is for her to get ticked at me and deciding to take the car for a drive. (She does still have her license, but unless she's on a stubborn tear, realizes she shouldn't drive.)

While waiting, I pulled out the trusty handheld, figuring the wait would be tolerable, since there was free wi-fi. Since someone had tuned the TV to MSNBC, I thought I could just blog and tweet instead of watching that. (While I am a news junkie, cable news tends to just annoy me.) Start the trusty handheld, and load the Twitter program. Nothing. So I thought maybe Twitter was throwing a tantrum again. Open the browser, try to go to the Twitter site. Get a page about the network block. Okay, fine, I can still write a blog, right? Open the software and start writing a blog about how I'm pretty sure I'm in the wrong waiting room, which is full of Corporate America types on laptops and cell phones. And they're all trying not to stare at me. I'm not sure if it was the ripped out knees in the jeans or the Invader Zim hoodie, or maybe it was the nose ring, but a lot of eyes kept shifting my way. I get done typing out the blog and hit the upload button. Get an error message about the server not connecting. Still not a problem, because I can save a draft, I think. Start looking for that option in the software. There isn't one. Go to the browser again, thinking maybe I can just copy the text from the program into the blogger site. Get the page about the network block again. So now I can't tweet and I can't blog. The wait is going to be on my nerves now, since not only is there no tweeting and blogging, there's nothing to do but watch MSNBC. And I've lost a pretty funny blog to boot. Just as I'm deciding which staring idiot to stab with my handheld's stylus first, luckily, the service techs are done with the car. And then, we go on with the rest of the list of stuff we had to do. And I completely forgot about blogging. And by the time I remembered that, I forgot everything I'd written earlier.

Portable blogging may be my friend, but free wi-fi sure isn't!

Portable Blogging Is My Friend

As much as I love Twitter for its portability, I'm beginning to like blogging as well. I haven't posted as much as I thought I would, for various reasons, but I think that may change. While exploring the software catalog for my handheld a couple of weeks ago, I discovered a blogging program for it. I installed it and promptly forgot about it. That's standard for me, especially when I install software around sunrise.

Yesterday, I found the program again. Which is good, because I've been waiting to blog, but haven't had much time on my laptop. Or at least time where I haven't been doing a million other things at once.

It's been an interesting time period since my last blog. Aside from the time issue, I also wanted to keep my last blog near the top of the list, since the glitch I hit doesn't seem to have a resolution forthcoming any time soon. I've lost count of the follow requests I've gotten since this started, but it's quite a few.

But now I've got portable blogging. If it's anything like the twitter client I found, I may have to charge my handheld in a different room at night to make sure I don't get less sleep than I usually do.

I Don't Understand My Brain Or Twitter Glitches Sometimes

As anyone who's read this blog before knows, I'm a Twitter person. Unfortunately, I have been hit with a somewhat annoying glitch. I keep my account protected to avoid the millions of spammers that roam the servers. In the last few days, people who want to follow my tweets can't, because Twitter isn't showing me the people on the follow requests page. And since they can't follow me, I can't even tell them that Twitter isn't working right.

It's frustrating, and I have checked out Twitter's help section to see about a solution. Apparently, they know about the problem, but haven't given any sign that they're even working on this problem. In fact, the help section page says that they put a fix for this on hold a couple of weeks ago. So if anyone who's reading this was looking to follow me, it could be a while before I can accept your request.

As to the brain part of the title, I don't understand it because I read a news story on how this 14 year old kid was forced to get a tattoo. Horrible story, but it got me thinking about getting another tattoo myself. I have 9 already, but they get addictive. So now, I'm working on artwork for number 10. Hopefully, I'll get it tweaked just right soon. I'm kind of exacting when it comes to tattoos.

Speaking of the artwork, back to it!

I Really Wasn't Going To Post This, But What The Hell

I was trying to write this post earlier. It made no sense to me then, and I don't know if it's going to now. I'm working from memory here, since I deleted the original. If anyone's reading, please be kind.

I haven't posted in a few days. Things have been kind of crazy, even for me. Found out on Tuesday that one of my great-uncles (I only have 2 left living, out of what used to seem like a few million.) had a stroke Monday night. Having just seen him a few days beforehand, I'm having a complete "does not compute" time with this. So I haven't been inspired to write more than 140 characters at a time.

While writing my 140 at a time, I noticed something. As a geek, I get asked a lot of tech questions. They don't bother me in the least. But I have a friend from another forum I spend time on that's just found me on twitter. Since I haven't been on this other forum for more than 5 minutes at a time lately, he's been without someone to ask about all this crazy tech stuff that I adore and confuses other people. (I said I'm a geek,right?) So, he's found me on Twitter, (I had no idea he'd signed up), and now has a reliable place to ask me about tech stuff.

As I've been helping him and others navigate the tech and electronics waters, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that answering tech questions in 140 characters is not that easy. It usually requires at least 2 tweets to answer. It probably doesn't help that if I'm not typing with my thumbs, I have this speed problem that seems to annoy the HELL out of Twitter's API.

So right now, I'm at a loss on what to do. Do I turn this blog into a Q&A on tech stuff? Do I spend more time on the other forum? (Note: I don't spend much time on the other forum because a lot of immature people have pretty much taken it over. Immaturity and I don't get along.) Do I give people looking for help my e-mail address and start checking it more than once every couple of days? Or, do I cave and finally get myself a facebook account?

I could use some advice, blogosphere.

Late Night Posts And News Before Bed

For those that don't know me very well, I am a news junkie. I like to know what's going on in my little corner of the world. However, I'm rapidly realizing that I probably shouldn't watch my local 10pm newscast. Yes, I'd like to know what the weather is going to be like the next day, but having Twitter open, some of the stories give me reasons to be a bit snarky on there. And that's just the ones that mildly annoy me. The truly stupid ones, though, I tend to leave alone. Except for commenting to myself, since I tend to have a sailor mouth, that is.

So I tuned in tonight, and after a snarky tweet or two, I remembered I have an early day tomorrow. Instead of turning off the TV and heading to bed, I realized that I didn't want to go to bed without seeing all of it. Which has led me to the conclusion that late news is bad for me. Or at least bad for my chances of getting sleep like a normal human being.

So I Got Bored

And here I am. Of course, it doesn't help that Twitter (my favorite pastime) is damn near dead, since I think everyone I follow on there has gone to bed. Ah, the joys of insomnia. So, I decided to start a blog. I don't know how often I'll be updating, but at the rate I'm going, it'll be quite a bit.

Not much of a start, I know (and all the *real* bloggers that follow me on Twitter, etc, are probably going "What the HELL??" by now), but stay tuned for the craziness that seems to follow me and the zoo I call my family.