Domestic Geek

Thanks to Google Alerts, I found another "Domestic Geek" blog. This person has found some pretty cool things to share, so go check out another Domestic Geek. (We're going to take over the world!)

Oddly enough, I'm being neither Domestic or Geeky lately. OK, still knitting and stuff, so a little domestic. I still haven't finished coding this site. My 101 Things in 1001 Days site is atrocious! I found a neat Wordpress theme that I'd like to try to make work, but don't have the energy. I bought myself a new mouse for my birthday last week that is still sitting in its box. I want to sew. I want to scrapbook. I want to draw. I want to bake. I even want to clean my house. I just don't have the energy. I blame work.

Work is literally draining the life out of me. I'm on my feet 12-14 hours a day doing manual labor. It's not even work I enjoy doing. I've lost all respect for my superiors. I was actually told my my main supervisor the other day that my standards are too high and I need to quit expecting so much out of others. Really? Is it too much that we have guidelines as to how things are supposed to be done and I expect other employees to do things right? Whatever happened to expecting more and people will rise to the challenge? It isn't like we've been particularly busy and people have more than ample time to double check their work. There is absolutely no consequences for those employees that do a half-assed job and jack stuff up. Some days I'm amazed we're still in business with all the stuff that gets screwed up. <sarcasm>I guess I'm out of line.</sarcasm> Also, I don't have time to cook healthy meals for half the week, so I end up eating crap late at night. My insomnia is back. My feet hurt so bad some days I can barely walk. I know I need to find something else to do with my life, I just don't know what yet.

OK, that's not true. I do know what I want, I just don't know how to get there.

So, today is the first day that I got to look at my site in that piece of crap Internet Explorer. Yeah, this is why I don't do web design for a living. My site blows in IE (a tiny apology to those of you using IE, but then again, upgrade to a real standards compliant browser and your Internet world will look so much better). Part of me says screw it. IE sucks and don't waste my time getting perfectly valid code to work in a POS browser. Another part of me wants to figure out why it's broken in IE. I'm not sure which part will win, but the battle won't be fought today. I'm going to go surf Ravelry and knit instead. So there, IE. Suck it.

Gah, I am so out of practice with all this web coding stuff — use it or lose it. I've definitely lost it. I spend hours today jacking around with css that wasn't working. My sidebars are a mess, I totally forgot to make sidebar headers, my comments page is nowhere close to done. It'll be wonky for a few days while I mess with it, but since I'm live, perhaps I'll be more inclined to actually get it all fixed.

If you read here at all, you know of the poor demise of my stand mixer. I really miss having one but have decided to hold out for a really good one.

Well, here's a chance to get an really cool one! You or I can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer, but hurry because the contest ends today!

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

The Prize: The winner will receive a brand new Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow!!



It's yellow — can you believe it? PINEAPPLE YELLOW! I LOVE IT! You can head over to her site to read more about the mixer and the contest.

This blog advertising stuff is getting out of hand. I understand the need to make money. Really, I do. I was weak and put paid blog posts on here while I was unemployed and underemployed to get by. I'm really starting to wish I hadn't. When I move my blog, I won't be taking a lot of those posts. I'm tempted still to sign up for these new ad companies as they pop up to see if I can make any money and the rational side of me prevails and resists.

The fact is that now there is so much of it, that it's making my blog surfing less than enjoyable. There are some blogs with so many sidebar ads, paid blog posts/text links, google ads, etc. that their actual site never loads for me. As I'm roaming around, I'm finding I quickly move on if I see any sort of paid posts or badges for paid blogging sites. Fair? No, but it's what I find myself doing. It used to be safe to get around a lot of that by reading feeds, but even those are being infiltrated.

I think I'm just weary of the whole thing. It's like trying to watch a movie on network television...it is constant commercial interruptions interfering with the enjoyment of the content. I miss being able to read random blogs without links to drug rehab or payday loan sites. Part of me wishes the whole thing will fail, but I realize that probably won't happen. What I can do is pledge that when all my obligations are complete that I will no longer participate in it and just post whenever and whatever I feel like. If people come and visit me, great. If not, that's fine, too.

To my online friends that are doing paid blogging and the like, please don't take my disdain for this personally. I don't like any of you less just because you still have or want to do this for whatever reason. I just can't do it anymore.