Archive for the ‘The Web’ Category

Slowly but surely….

Friday, May 13th, 2011

In just a few weeks I will be closing the book on a major part of the past 3 years of my life. Today I sat down with my manager and informed him that I will be leaving the company. I’m no longer capable of working for a company where having a conscience is considered a handicap, where employees and vendors are used up and then spit out. I’ve been blessed with friendships that I hope will last for years to come, but I can no longer physically have anything to do with the company. The corporate office can go fuck themselves as far as I care, the ladies in the east coast office… I’ll miss them deeply.

So where do I go from here? This should really be titled “Guess Who’s Back?” I’m going full force back into the world that I left so abruptly. There will be no begging for money, no bull shit internet dramas. I will be solidly working in the code/design world and am spending the evening, and the next few weeks getting myself back into the swing of things. Unfortunately the position I was previously in required the ability for me to retain as much information as humanly possible. With this, I’ve lost a lot of the key skills to be successful elsewhere. I’m doing everything I possibly can to get back into things and hope that with just a few weeks of a refresher course, and a lot of reading (HTML 5?) I’ll be able to get myself back into it with absolutely no problems at all.

This will not just be a personal domain, I will be working with sponsors and frequently updating for just about everything. Twitter will more than likely overload, projects are in the works (in my head) that have yet to be put on paper (err… Photoshop). I purchased a new laptop in September that I haven’t used more than twice. It’s fully loaded and capable of handling everything I could possibly need. I just need to get my hands on a copy of Microsoft Office Outlook. I’ve been using it for the past three years and the functionality really fits where I’m looking to go in reference to mailing lists, contact storage, calendar dates, etc. If there are two things that I picked up in the past few years it’s my love of Outlook and the ability to bite my tongue.

Obviously with my personality the ‘bite my tongue’ will go out the window the second I punch out for the last time. Thankfully I will be leaving on good terms with just about everyone, if there’s a big ‘ol fuck you coming out of my mouth it’s primarily targeted to the corporate office.

In any event, it’s going to be a few weeks but a new template is coming up (well, recycled old one that I was in love with) that will be compliant for whatever standard is the norm these days. Alternate sites (AGN Designs, Health Blog and other stuff in the works) will be popping up as well. I’ve got a lot of space just sitting here and little time to fill it up, but bet your ass I’ll get it done.

Rollin’ along…

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

It’s only Wednesday and I’m itching for it to be Friday.  I can’t wait until my paycheck comes in so I can get some bills paid and enjoy a little bit of self-pampering.  I’m going to pick out a new uber-cool nail polish and head down to the salon to get my eyebrows done, I’ve let them go for three weeks and even though I’ve been maintaining them myself I’d really like to get them touched up.  I’m also going to dye my hair because the gray roots are getting way too freaking long and it’s about time I do something about that.

I’ve already noted on acidgloss.net that I’d like to start doing a little more with my sites and I know I’ve been saying it here for a while but with the way things are going lately I think I’d be able to properly budget my time for a little while so I can actually get something done.  Lately I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime at work and being as it’s approved for my department it’s not such a major deal anymore.  I’m now doing the Saturday afternoon shift completely by myself. Originally I was alternating with another co-worker but she doesn’t really like coming in on the weekends and noted that she’s not hurting for money as badly as I am right now.  Sean is bringing in really good money with a few clients he’s working with but I’m pretty much stuck within the same price-range every two weeks.  It’s paying the bills, and that’s all that matters right now.

Over the course of the next few months we’re really going to be skimping and saving just about everywhere we can.  We both have agreed that it’s time to move on with our lives and we need to get ourselves into a larger apartment and I really need to have my own car. I set my car budget around $12,000 and that’ll be more than enough to get me a 2007 or 2008 Chevy Cobalt that includes everything that I need in a car at this point in my life… power windows and decent gas mileage to get to and from work.  I’m going with a sedan as it will give me a little less to worry about on my car insurance and I’ll have an alarm system to give me even more of a break.  There’s also a defensive driving course that I could take to drop things down as well.  I’ll take as many deductions as I can at this point of my life.  I’m hoping to put about $5,000 to $6,000 aside for a down payment so I’m not stuck with a loan for an extended period of time.  It would help me out in the long run considering I’m still paying back my personal loan and all of the credit cards that I’ve managed to max out over the last year.

I’ve been at my current job for over a year and if you didn’t notice it’s put a major damper on just about everything INTERNET related for me.  I hardly check my email, and really had no interest in blogging for a very long time.  I was dealing with getting used to a 10-7 and that took up just about all of my energy.  Now that I’m in a fixed routine with all of that I’m learning to deal with everything else going on in my life.

My best friend passed away in February and that’s really been kicking my ass for the past few months because it was the last thing I’d ever expect.  Sean and I were rocky for a little while but now we’re back on course.  Bella went through surgery to have the tumor removed from her stomach and a few other things have sprung up over the rest of the year that have had my attention – mainly health related issues with both family members and myself.  It’ll all work itself out in the end so I’m not going to get that far into detail about it.

In any event… it’s after 10pm which means it’s past my bed time.  I don’t ever actually fall asleep until after 11:30 anyway… but I do try to be in bed so I can get some decent amount of sleep.  I’m working on about 5-6 hours a night and I’d really like to sleep for a full 8 hours once in a while.  There’s always the weekends I guess… that’s typically when I make up the time.  I make up for it more on Sunday than I do on Saturday considering I have to work but either way things are getting done and that’s all that matters.

So yea… I’m still working at the same job… I’m still dealing with my own gripes and issues with life.  I’m also hoping to get some time to myself so I can actually start doing something with the sites that I own… it’d be great.

Hrm, not bad.

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

So I’m working on a template for a client and I have to say, I like it way too much.¬† So much so that I think I’m going to change a few key aspects of the design and then use it as the new template on acidgloss.net.¬† It looks more like a CNN kind of template, and there is one available for like $90 but when you know how to code with heavy CSS and then work it into WordPress, why pay $90?¬† I’m getting like $150-$200 for the job but that’s only because there are a lot of function changes and I’m also going to integrate a forum into it.

During the process I took a while of poking around the net to figure out a way to get each entry to have it’s own individual post icon, something like what you can do with LiveJournal.¬† There’s no official “plugin” for it, it’s really dependent upon a template file and “Custom Fields” I haven’t used that option in so long it’s unreal.¬† Either way I have figured it out.¬†¬† I did shoot the idea over to Sean though.¬† I know exactly what I’d like the plugin to do – there just isn’t one available.

To give a quick break down, if you use LiveJournal you should be able to understand where I’m coming from.¬† When you’re posting an entry there should be some kind of a drop-down menu or browse button for images you’ve uploaded¬†onto your server via WordPress.¬† Now typically this is a “Browse” option but that’s for pasting the icon directly into the entry, I want it to be part of the index.php template file itself.

When you’ve chosen your image and published your entry it will appear wherever you pasted the include file.¬† Now you can do this with the custom field, but the option it doesn’t have is the ability to automatically set a default image to the entries that don’t have a related images, and I don’t want to have to go back through 2 years worth of archives to paste the image into the article – you know?.¬† I’m sure there’s a way to just rewrite the default WP custom_meta code but who knows.¬† I have asked Sean to consider creating the plugin so that he can add it to his list, and I’ll certainly pimp the hell out of it because I think it’s a decent idea.

Note: I just had him come in and write up a quick if-statement and the rest is cake.¬† Now I’m just going to have to come up with a default image.¬† I’ll have to play around in photoshop for a little while for that one.

So I’ve been busy with that and right now I’m hoping to get a few things completed so I can take a shower and get out of here.¬† I have some errands to run, Bella’s out of food and I want to stop into a few stores to check in on my applications.¬† I’m also hoping to apply at the beauty supply shop down here but that’s because of my experience with it while I was at my grandmothers store.¬† This place is kind of like¬†a Sally’s but they don’t have a lot of Sally’s specific supplies that I use on a regular basis.¬† Either way they’re over loaded with hair products so it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.

So I guess I should get my ass in gear.

Talk about pay day…

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

I have to say I’m a bit shocked about the news I found on MSNBC this afternoon. I missed part one of the story but part two told me more than I really needed to know.

You walk into Best Buy with a mission to purchase a new laptop to use for work. You pay a little over $1,100 which includes a $300 warranty in case something goes wrong with it. A few months later your on/off switch is broken and you, under warranty, bring it back to Best Buy to have it fixed. From there you spend about 6 months before ever hearing anything truthful about where your laptop’s status lays. Why? Because more than likely an employee of Best Buy has stolen the laptop from a secured back room and after 3 months of emails, phone calls and letters you’re told that it’s lost.

So what do you do? You file a $54 Million Lawsuit with Best Buy in hopes to make up for the fact that not only have you lost thousands of dollars worth of music but you’ve also lost thousands of important photos and did I forget to mention all of your TAX INFORMATION?

They then offer you $2500 to shut up and buy a new laptop. Yea, how well is that going to work out for them? While you may never win the case, you’re still going to fight it for as long as you possibly can.

I wonder…

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

I just downloaded this new program, Mars Edit, I’m trying it out for 30-days to see if I like it or not. It allows me to log into all of my blogs by only using one program. Now while there is an option for “WordPress” I did experience some trouble with getting things to publish to a self-hosted WordPress blog. It very easily can connect to wordpress.com though, I know that much.

Anyway…there’s a pretty big sale going on at Kmart this weekend. King sheet sets are as low as $20 which is pretty sweet. Target finally shipped my duvet set this past week as well. It was about damn time considering I ordered it over a month ago. But I figured it was going to take a while considering pre-orders and what not. It’s a tan duvet set that comes with two shams. At only $30 I have to say that’s a bargain considering the $75 duvet that’s currently on the bed. My mistake was in purchasing an Ivory color to brighten up the room. It certainly makes things seem much brighter, but every little speck of dust and dirt shows up on it. And we had a previous sheet set on there that was fleece so you could clearly see all of the little green balls building up on all sides of it as well. Drove me nuts!

Sean’s currently playing Halo so who knows when we’re going to get out of here. Either way it’s time to get ready to cross the street…heh.

Slacking Off

Saturday, February 9th, 2008

I’ve been slacking on just about everything lately.¬† I finished the template for my interview but I have to say I really don’t like anything past the main header image.¬† I don’t know what’s wrong with my creativity lately.¬† I used to have inspiration busting out of the seams but it just isn’t that way anymore.¬† I’ve been down to the beach pretty frequently over the course of the last few weeks and I have to say it gave me enough creativity as one would require to tie their shoes.¬† I wear slip ons 90% of the time, so you can imagine my annoyance.

Right now I’m staring at a blank screen in Photoshop in hopes to be able to come up with a new template for AGn Designs, the current one is bothering the crap out of me and even surfing around template related sites for ideas – I still can’t come up with anything.¬† While everything looks great in my little bookmark folder of favorite templates, when you start merging things together and doing it for yourself – it just doesn’t come out the way you’d really want it to.

There’s really nothing going on on the ‘net either, same BS different day as far as blogs are concerned, there’s nothing interesting in the news either.¬† Something tells me this is just going to be one of those down days where nothing’s really accomplished.¬† I would like to head down to the beach but since it’s a bit warmer than usual I assume that it’s going to be packed and that’s really not worth it – I’d prefer peace and quiet instead of barking dogs and rowdy children.

I’d like to clean the office up today but Sean has a “day off” so he’s more than likely going to be playing Halo or Assassins Creed for the entire day.¬† Either way he’ll be in the way so getting a vacuum in here is going to be damn near impossible.¬† I’m sure a fight will break out between someone and he’ll head to bed to go to sleep to get away from it – then I can get the vacuum in here and get some shit done.¬† My desk is in shambles and cleaning it up before I sit down and get my taxes done is pretty important to me.¬† I owe money this year, I know that already.¬† Unfortunately there’s no money to pay it with.¬† I may wind up having to have someone do my taxes for me, just so I can do some kind of “pay with installments” option.¬† I’m sure I owe about $1500 (at least) considering my income last year on just paid blogging alone, I didn’t even factor in the business aspect of things.¬† This is just going to be HEAPS of freaking fun, I can sense it already.

Sticky: Helping Honey!

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Note: New posts are underneath, this is a sticky.

Alyssa is looking to get a free 16GB iPod Touch from MP3Players4Free. Head over to this entry on her site for more information.

Unreal

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Unfortunately I had no choice but to bring Bella to the filthy vet. After three hours of waiting (almost too patiently) we were finally in the exam room. Ten minutes later the tech showed up and just kind of looked into her ear. The Vet showed up a few moments later. Bella has a pretty nasty ear infection that requires a lot of cleaning and even more ointment. I have to clean her ears out with a special solution twice a day and following each of those cleanings I need to pump a few drops of the antibiotic ointment into them. The vet said that her ears had a few months worth of caked on wax which made no sense to me considering I clean her ears but she told me that I don’t go deep enough into her ear canal which may explain why the infection formed in the first case. The moisture in her ear from after her bath probably didn’t dry very well so that sat on the wax and then the rest is history. Either way I’m going to have to invest in longer qTips so I can get down into her ear canal and I’m going to now have to make it a point to clean much deeper into her ears. She gets a bath once a week (the same time-period on cleaning her ears out) and it’s hard enough getting her to sit still for it, hopefully it’ll be easy for me to accomplish once she gets used to it.

In other news, thanks to the flea/tick bath she had a few days ago, on top of adding a second ointment to her for the month she’s really cut down on the itching. I really wish I could find out where this started. I partly believe it was from the groomer, but she was a bit itchy before she’d left the house that morning. I just don’t know if it’s based on the fact that she had some matting on her side that was bothering her. Either way all seems to be clear there.

The letter didn’t show up today, I’m going to give it a few more days. If there’s nothing here by Thursday I’m going to be making a phonecall to HSBC and requesting that the forms be faxed to me because I’m personally sick of waiting. A letter showed up yesterday but it wasn’t mine so that annoyed me. And I also received a check yesterday from some affiliate program that I signed up to months ago. I had no idea that anyone had even used my referral for anything. When it comes to referrals, I am still patiently waiting for six more people to be a valid signup through the notebooks4free account. I’m six away from $1800, and that would help me out as far as moving expenses are concerned. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come in when I’m supposed to get it. Or whatever they (points up) have in store for me.

Quest for Bedding

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

I’ve taken a break from the hosting search for a little while, now I’m in the mood to decorate. I’m looking around Walmart, Kmart, Target and Kohls for a bedding set. I typically do this whenever I get a new mattress, something about everything being NEW that makes me a happy girl, I don’t know.

I found a few interesting sets in Walmart (cheapest of the bunch) but none of them were appealing enough for me to actually go ahead and purchase them. Kmart absolutely sucks when it comes to bedding; I’ve always hated their products, and their pricing. Target is proving to be completely useless. Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever liked them. Their commercials are beginning to freak me out. I’m all for new and interesting ways of advertising but when you get a creepy feeling anytime you see a stores commercial, you aren’t really going to just walk into their store, you know? As far as Kohls is concerned, they’re the most expensive out of the bunch and I can’t seem to find anything there either.

I now understand why so many people mix and match things, it’s impossible to find a complete set that meets all of your personal requirements. We have a reversable black and grey comforter that I picked up from Walmart. I also loaded up on pillow cases because having everything match is a big thing for me. I guess my only option now is to purchase the fitted and flat sheet from Walmart as well, and then for the extra color just pick up some throw pillows. Or probably just an extra blanket to drape over the bottom of the bed. I naturally want to decorate, it’s just hard to maintain when you’re the only one making the bed in the morning.

Slow your roll

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

I’m having some trouble with WordPress today and I’m not quite sure why. I keep getting a 500 error every time I go to login and get some things done. It only shows up at random, I’ve got Tony working on it at the moment. Didn’t mean to interrupt his lunch but hey – I’m paying him so hmph! Yes, childish I know.

I’ve noticed a rise in people having a complaint about the new way of doing things with a paid blogging company I work with. Instead of 3 posts per day, per blog in the database, there’s now only 2 posts per day and those new to the system feel as though they’re being raped out of money. Thing is, the intent for this company was never for these people to fully switch their sites over to a money making machine and any true paid-blogger knows that putting all of your eggs in one basket is just plain dumb. Many bloggers earning the $2000 a month and up income aren’t only working with one paid to blog company, they’re working with about 10 of them – trust me, I’m one of them.

However, this doesn’t mean that the only reason I have a blog is for the sake of making money off of it. I work from home, yes, but more than 70% of my income is WORK based, I do run my own company you know? I’m not sitting at a website at 9am to midnight hoping to get an opportunity as it’s posted and then participate in the op orgy to post articles completely irrelevant to my website. Everyone wants to go for that $20 and up post, even if it has nothing to do with their daily lives. I’m sorry but a 18 year old blogger knows nothing about refinancing student loans for college graduates so why are they going to take it? They want a fat wallet.

Yes, everyone wants a fat wallet. This is why people work their asses off on a regular basis. The difference is, when you’re sitting on your ass just crossing your finger for one of these ops to show up, you’re really not doing much of anything. Many blogs around the internet are losing their readership because of sponsored blogging. I’ll be the first to admit that I use my site for monetary gain but I’m also still keeping up on my daily life here as well. Posting sponsored entry after sponsored entry is something being done all over the internet and many people have noticed that they’re no longer getting the hits that they once used to.

Some have smartened up, they’re no longer paid posting on 10 different blogs and found an actual income from outside sources. You’ll still see entries popping up here and there but for the most part they’ve gotten themselves on an actual payroll that isn’t based post-to-post.

I completely support anyone who writes sponsored posts. I just won’t be floating around those blogs as frequently because the bulk of them all have the same entry just written a different way and I’m sorry but if your site has absolutely NOTHING to do with the entries you’re posting, it’s really nothing more than a waste of time. A fat wallet is great but no readership won’t keep that wallet very fat for long. You can easily be taken from a PR6 to a PR4 with the loss of back links due to paid blogging, no more high paying ops for you, no more fat wallet, and no more actual visitors. Something to keep in mind the next time you log into your paid blogging system. Pace yourself with other companies outside of a fast-paced-blog-orgy and really think about what you’re writing about, if it doesn’t connect to your website, even if it’s a quick $30 – it’s really not worth the write up.

VoIP Phone Systems for Businesses

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

If you run a small business and have shown an interest in VoIP phone systems, than this entry is for you. Today I came across a website for Xpander Communications which is a company that specializes in hosted PBX small business VoIP phone systems. This system is for companies looking to improve and explore new technologies. With the rise in broadband for business, naturally working with your old phone setup is going to seem kind of pointless. VoIP is proving, time and time again, to be a pretty decent service to use. Xpander offers the most user friendly phone systems available thanks to it’s focus on simplicity, reduced costs and drastically reduced maintenance. Small businesses with office branches scattered across the country can share the same phone system on the same private list of extensions. So say you have an office in California and you’re looking to get in touch with someone in your Denver Colorado branch, you just dial their four digit extension and you’re instantly connected. I think it’s a pretty interesting route to take.

I know that my server master, Tony, works at two different datacenters. They have the same kind of VoIP setup so he’s able to contact his boss easily at the main branch while he’s at the sub branch a few towns over with just a few clicks of a button. Sure you can easily keep someone’s number in your phone book but going through this system stops you from having to pick up your cellphone and spend money where it doesn’t really need to be spent.

I think it’s worth checking out, honestly.

Pick a holiday already, will you?

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

It’s kind of weird that I went from talking about Christmas to Halloween but I just came across a really cool site that’s in full dedication to Halloween. They’ve got everything from Halloween costumes to decorations. I found a “Dog, The Bounty Hunter” costume and almost fell out of my chair laughing because it’s one of the same outfits that you’d see Beth wearing. It’s even got the big puffy curly white hair to go with it, I thought it was pretty cool haha. They kind of remind me of a Party City kind of store. I know they’re primarily just for Halloween based items, and that’s fine. The store I’m used to going to has nothing but Halloween decor but things are changed out seasonally for Christmas. All in all they seem like a fairly interesting resource.

New Resource: Thoof

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

I came across a new site tonight named Thoof, it’s kind of a personalized news based website where you can submit articles you’ve written and are proud enough of them to want to share with a larger audience, it’s more than likely a great way for someone to pick up some hits as well.

I signed up and submitted a post I recently made about Bella, I’m sure I could have found something better but going through all of my archives can be a pain sometimes, especially considering Alexa and Technorati were down today and really putting a damper on my loading time. But anyway… back to the site.

It was pretty easy to submit my post once I was all logged in. You just copy the title and the URL into the required field, write up a very quick 300character description and then go from there. I found it pretty easy to use, maybe I’ll keep up with it and submit a few more articles from other domains. I’ve been writing a lot lately about technology and business on AGN Designs so I’m sure there’s an article in there that someone will find interesting. Most of it at the moment is iPod and even iPhone based so naturally there should be some interest there considering all of the hype surrounding these Apple products – right?

Either way, you should consider checking them out. Maybe you’ll find something cool as well.

Thoof

Planning a party?

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

I don’t know about you but something I really enjoy is planning a party for friends/family members. If I happened to be in New York for the past couple of months I would have probably had a hand in planning a shower for my friend who is about a month away from giving birth. It’s her first child and she’s so happy about being a mother that the glow on her face could light up a room.

She’s having a girl so I’ve kind of been poking around on sites like partypail.com looking for extra cute and extra girlie baby shower decorations. I just wish that I could actually give her the party but our friend seems to be handling everything. Kim doesn’t know about the party itself, but thank god for AIM or I wouldn’t know anything going on with these people anymore! I’ve always been a fan of cute little ducks for some reason so when I came across this Baby Duckie Baby Shower theme I almost instantly bookmarked it, I sent it over to Jamie first – naturally. She fell over too heh.

New Resource: Goth Singles / Goth Dating

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

A few days ago I posted about an online dating resource that I found rather interesting. Today, I came across a new one that was equally as interesting to me. This site is in full dedication to goth singles, located at gothscene.com. If you’re living the Goth lifestyle than it’s understandably going to be kind of hard to find someone who you’re compatible with. There are goth based clubs and groups all over the US but when you hang out with the same group of people for too long you’re naturally going to be looking somewhere else. This site is here for anyone in the goth dating scene looking to meet new and interesting people that share the same kind of interest as you. This site is completely free, you sign up and post your profile and from there begin meeting new people. You should check it out. gothscene.com.

Sponsored

New Resource: FitnessDating

Friday, July 20th, 2007

PPPI came across a fitness / health resource today that was out of the ordinary. It wasn’t telling you how to lose weight or how many laps around the track burn off 1,000 calories a day. It’s a site for people who already know this information and is entirely based around fitness, just adding it into the world of using the internet for serious or casual dating in the process.

It’s got the same setup as your typical dating website but it’s entirely based on fitness dating. The basis of the site is not to have people just meet up at the gym at work out together but naturally considering you are posting a fitness personals you may wind up doing that. This is for those who seriously care about fitness and are looking for someone with the same respect for fitness. It’s a completely free site to sign up for. Like every dating site you enter your name, age, location, upload a photo and list your preferences. Then you can float around the database for people who share the same preferences as you, get to talking to them and go from there.

If you’re interested in fitness and looking for that special someone for either casual or a serious dating relationship, maybe even just someone new to work out with, head on over to fitnessdates.com.

FitnessDates