Sleepypete's Pillow

Cake for birthdays is always a good tradition, no matter who buys them. It’s just spreading a little sweetness! LoL 🙂

Netchick sent me over this time!

Aye – the instability is another factor. I think if the list of links was changing daily or even weekly, there’d be a case for using a site like Blogrolling to keep track of it. But mine doesn’t change that often … (although I might be making one or two more Netchick inspired additions 🙂

I do miss the * that I used to have active to show blogs that had been updated in the last 24 hours. That’s one area where the Blogrolling service scored.

Carmi – your blog will always be on the blogroll 🙂 Although I don’t comment too often over there, it’s always worth a read 🙂 Kinda wish I took more pictures so I could join in TP more 🙂

I’ve always viewed the Blogrolling service with more than a little suspicion. The ads are annoying, sure, but I would have been willing to put up with them if the service added some sort of value beyond what I could already get within Blogger.

It’s the instability that gets me. If I had a dollar for every time someone says “Blogrolling is down” or “I lost all my links in Blogrolling” I’d have a lovely new camera by now. As Blogger itself has bolstered its own link management tools, the value proposition of services like Blogrolling has eroded.

Thank you for keeping me on your list! I need to spend some happy time with my own (manual) blogroll to ensure my faves are there.

Tanya sent me today. You two are definitely on my list of faves!

I will say one thing. You do draw out the story in the spaces between the words. It’s clever how a story that, while devoid of the asthetic details, manages to draw from the reader’s past (I’d say many of us have ‘admired’ from afar) and make it personal.

I had a Miss AB once, and I remember how once she took me to a work function because there was another fellow who had shown interest and she wanted a ‘buffer’. Her manner of ‘being’ is reflected in your descriptions, always there, but always out of reach.

*shrug* All I can say to you is next time… next time there’s an AB… work to overcome whatever ‘it’ is that keeps you from her.

I can recall a girl who would even come to my apartment and wake me from afternoon study naps (as I called them) and years later, looking back on things, I never told her I liked her. At the time, of coruse, I wondered why she never sought more than our casual friendship, but maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe she just needed that single affirmation that would have taken less than 10 seconds.

Never underestimate a cake fiend ! Especially if she likes wearing platform soles.

I can only have followers on the Techie blog 🙁 That one has a new template 🙂 This one still operates on the old HTML template.

cake fiends – hehehehehehe

I do my blogroll the old fashioned way – and I am seriously outdated and with the advent of ‘followers’ I was considering just getting rid of the blog list and then I just don’t do anything

I posted a little while ago about how I loathe advertising …

There’s a couple of changes in the template today, although I’ve still not taken the plunge and upgraded the template to something Blogger would prefer.

Negative subject :
Blogrolling’s gone

Positive subject :
It’s Unbirthday month !

I like to end on an upnote, so a little mention for Blogrolling. I’ve used them for a few years now, no complaints. They got severely hacked a while ago, which restricted the functionality of their site so much we couldn’t edit the blogrolls. Heh – kinda glad I removed the Mercs site before that happened, as the Mercs site was also under assault, this time by pornspammers.

Blogrolling 2’s just been unleashed on an unsuspecting world and I have to admit, I was very close to sending over the $20 to register for no-ads in order to help keep them going. That ain’t happening though cos the advert pushers they’ve used are, as is usual for ads, slowing down the loading of pages. Ah well, it’s pushed me towards doing my blogroll myself, which can only be a good thing.

Why push a job on to someone else when a little less laziness means you can do yourself 🙂 So I now have a blogroll template that I’ll use when updating the Blogroll, which doesn’t happen often enough to spend $20 a year on Blogrolling. I’ll add that template to my Techie blog, in case people want to copy it.

I’ve also taken the chance to update the blogroll a little, cutting some and adding some as well as keeping a couple of links for old times sake 🙂

Positive news time !

It’s Unbirthday month ! As sponsored by the lovely lady Sunshine. My birthday’s away in November but I’m hoping there’s a few birthdays with the work people this month. We have a simple tradition in our project :

Whoever has a birthday buys the cakes.

Simple traditions are often the best. It’s a happy birthday to CPA Mom today and tomorrow it will be a Happy 60th Birthday to Sandra’s Mom.

Many Happy Returns 🙂 And remember to keep the cake fiends happy.

Heh heh heh – I had one teenager threaten to commit suicide on me after he got booted out of the Warcraft guild (he’s ok, a year or so later he appeared in one of the capital cities to give me a heap of abuse). And there’s another who said (to others) that he’d be hunting me down with a knife.

There’s some seriously messed up people there – I think one reason I’ve come away from the online games a bit is because I’ve seen what the game does to susceptible people, they get lost in the game and a good person gets submerged.

As for work – there’s usually no need whatsoever to mention who we work for 🙂 Plus it’s good to get home and put the work to one side. Helps with relaxing 🙂

I go for anonymous too… it’s much more freeing when most people don’t know who you are! I also stay away from mentioning work though I will sometimes write about how it’s making me feeling I feel I can do that as I never mention my employer and so my opinion cannot be linked to them. It is rare though. Mostly I keep things to myself but then that is true of me in life too!

As you say, there are some right nutters out there. And siteful teenagers with too much time on their hands….

I’ve noticed for a little while that there’s a contrast between the levels of anonymity of the various bloggers.

Some bloggers are Out There, with their details, vocation and location available for all to see. Others prize anonymity a bit more. I’m more in the anonymous camp, primarily because I personally know a few people on my blogroll who prize their anonymity. I’ve added a few other reasons too since this Blog started, mainly based on the general quality of wildlife I’ve come into contact with in the Warcraft world. There are some crazy people out there and that’s not counting the dangerous ones.

So I’m in the anonymous camp for a few very good reasons and I haven’t even mentioned that my employers wouldn’t like it much if I said exactly who I work for. I have an interesting job that gets me in contact with cool toys and I’d like to keep it that way 🙂 We’ve just seen another lesson in this from the girl who got fired for posting “I’m bored” comments on her Facebook account. Doh ! I think she’s learned a lesson there, if you’re bored then let your boss know quietly instead of having him hear third hand through the office.

Anonymity helps another way too, it allows me to talk about the various people I come into contact with. I’ve attached a few names to people, usually based around shortening their name to a “Lady P”, “Miss A”, “Mrs C”, “Miss L” or a fake name like Snow Queen, IT Girl, The Boss or WT. Even if readers know me and where I work, then it still takes some figuring out to match faces with names. So the anonymity of the fake name allows me to happily lavish some well earned praise upon the various people who keep me sane, while keeping the post simple and flowing.

There’s another side though – my imagination can be a little limited, there’s people who I may have given a mention to but will not because the name would not be appropriate. I will not put anything here that I consider would upset a colleague or a friend. I’m not a saint but I do keep my rants away from the internet 🙂

Keeping the secrets is also why I’ve made the hit counter details private. There’s a little too much information available behind that hit counter and seeing some of the patterns there would endanger that anonymity. Although one of the patterns is that about 10-12% of my hits come from searches for “indoor cricket tactics” and I’ll be totally honest there and say I ain’t a cricket coach 🙂

I’m proud of who I work for and it’s been a real struggle on occasion to not give more information on what I do. But I won’t endanger my or other people’s anonymity. I have a craving for knowledge but I don’t have the urge to tell people everything I know. Kinda like a collector of curiosities who keeps them locked up in a cupboard.

Couple of Heinlein quotes :
“Only a sadistic scoundrel – or a fool – tells the bald truth on social occasions.”
“A skunk is better company than a person who prides himself on being frank.”

I’m not sadistic and I like to think I’m no fool 🙂 (although a pretty smile can turn me into a fool!) And my view of people I like is probably a little too rose-tinted to be considered frank 🙂

This post partly sparked off by how I’ve been feeling today … Picture an engine. It’s not too well maintained, so it shakes & rattles when it goes. Now picture that engine going full throttle, shaking itself to bits. That’s kinda how I’ve been feeling today, ever since around lunchtime. I know exactly why and the reason is something that I simply will not mention here* but it’s kinda worn me out today. Hyperactivity and nerves are the engine and my muscles feel as if they’ve been shaken apart by it.

*(If I’m quiet for a while, someone’s tried to get the secret via thumbscrews and cos I won’t tell, it’ll take a while for my thumbs to heal enough to type 🙂

Right – teatime in the cricket, time for me to hit the motorway for gaming ! I have respect for both camps in this one but have my reasons for keeping the anonymity.