Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Waxing Moon
Saturn Retrograde
The Ides of March
Sunny with frost on the ground.

It snowed. I cried. I had a glass of wine.

That nowhere near sums up the day! 😉

I spent the day on the Tele-Seminar. First, I realized I had to move the conference board, because, on the site I originally placed it, when you clicked to register, everything was in Swedish. Now, I enjoy Swedes and Swedish as much as the next one (especially Swedish hockey players), but that is not the most user-friendly way to deal with seminar participants who pay to attend a conference.

So I moved it somewhere that “English” was the default language.

Then, it turns out the subdomain I set up for it via 1and1 — I couldn’t embed the code for the registration button. Oh, I COULD — if I “upgraded” my package and paid the additional monthly equivalent to my three month fee every month. I think not.

I designed (again) a page on iWeb, and I was pretty happy with it.

HOWEVER — since 1and1 won’t give me access to the FTP –for which I PAY — in order to upload the site, I couldn’t upload it. They gave me every excuse under the sun from “technical difficulties” with the FTP to everything else slimy. Now, realize, that if they actually give me access to the FTP — for which I pay — that means I can download the web files they’ve been holding hostage for the past three years. Once I have the web files, I can move hosts. I can’t lose over 10K of emails including contracts and business correspondence, and that’s what would happen if I switched hosts without being able to download the web files to my hard drive. Nor can I forward everything. I’ve tried. And if any of you dare mention “Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Explorer” I will drive a stake through your heart, because you ARE the most evil vampire — I’m on a Mac, damn it, and I’ve been trying to find a way to download since I switched (not that they let me download my files to an FTP when I was still on PC with access to Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Explorer anyway — they had excuses for that, too).

1and1.com should not be allowed to do business, because all they do is cheat you.

Anyway, I whimpered to AppleCare, who taught me how to upload the site to Mobile Me (guess I’m renewing that in April).

And, Ta-Da, here is the site for the Confident Freelancer. I hope you’ll come join us and get inspired!

Now, that took me from the time I logged on to the computer in the morning until dinnertime, along with going back-and-forth with my lovely partner and making sure we both ok’d copy before it was posted anywhere. She was working her ass off on other aspects of the project, too.

On the upside, it was the best possible day for this to happen. We’ve troubleshot as much as possible in advance, and now people can register and have a great experience. Yeah, I didn’t get to do other stuff I would have liked to get off my list — but I’m not behind, and I’m not scrambling. So it’s fine.

It’s the only day all week I could spend a big chunk of time on it, because I actually have to be in specific places at specific times every other day this week, meaning at X time, I have to walk away from the computer, no matter what is going on, come back later for a bit, leave again at Y time, etc.

Managed a quick trip down to the library to return some books due and get out another interesting stack — three Cape-centric mysteries and a book about Van Gough and Gaugin sharing a studio for nine weeks in Arles. Started one of the mysteries — hideously written. All telling, no showing, sloppy writing, cliched characters. I’m taking all three of the books in the series back today. I only managed to get to page 28 of the first one, and my time is too valuable to spend with that kind of bad writing.

In the library, I found a “biography” “written” by an actress I worked with on Broadway. Of course, I had to flip to the sections dealing with the shows on which we both worked. Wow. I don’t know if she’s delusional or trying to rewrite history to look more kindly on her or that’s the way she really thinks it happened. My diary entries for that same time period are VERY different (and no, I’m not mentioned in it by name — we were on the same show, but I was working directly with other actors).

I’ll only be on line briefly today — a little this morning (after I work on the play) to comment on student work (they have a deadline today), work on the conference board (I need to make postcards to take to the dinner tomorrow), start getting ready for Costume Imp’s visit, go to the grocery store, and, possibly, get to Ashumet, if it stays sunny. And I’m going to start the layout on the e-book.

Gotta love Canon customer service. I forgot something really basic on the camera last night (and needed the answer before the Flower show on Thursday). My instruction manuals are still packed goodness knows where. Shot them an email; got a response in under two hours — at night! Now THAT’s service! As frustrated as I’ve been with this last generation of printer, in general, they’re a fantastic company.

There’s frost on the ground this morning, which means I’m glad I didn’t put the rosemary plant out last night. It’s not happy inside, even in full sun, but I think it’s still too cold to set it on the back porch.

So that’s that, and the play needs attention, or it won’t get out the door by the end of the month.

Devon

Friday, November 13, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009
Waning Moon
Uranus Retrograde
Rainy, raw, cold
Friday the 13th!

Woo-hoo! It’s Friday the 13th, always a good luck day for me.

I’ve got a post up on Sole Struck Fashions about “Holiday Prep Work” and a post up on Kemmyrk about “Daily Chakra Cleansing”. Stop by and drop a comment!

Do I even remember what I did yesterday? Hmm, I wrote, always a good thing. The Christmas story is coming along very well. I have to keep stopping to research, since, although it’s set in a fictional town (inspired by Saratoga and the Adelphi Hotel), it’s in a real time period.

I dashed to Greenwich to put something into my safe deposit box. I stopped at the library sale on the way back and picked up some interesting books. One, that I got on a whim, is a biography of Marjorie Merriweather Post. Her father, CW Post, was the cereal giant and invented things like Postum (shout out to Lara). Not only is the book exceptionally well written, it contains social history of the period in which I’m writing, and even mentions Saratoga!

Seshat, the goddess of libraries and scribes, was certainly looking out for me!

Back to the page for a couple of hours, and then I head to the site job. it’s my favorite site, so I’m really looking forward to it. The work there is fun, and I also have quiet time to work on my own writing and reading.

I probably won’t blog tomorrow, but I’ll check in on Sunday, and then, while I’m in DC, there will be various this-and-that posts — I’ve got articles going up at various sites while I’m gone. I’m supposed to have wi-fi in the hotel room, and I’m lugging the laptop with me, so I’ll try to blog from DC.

My goal this weekend is to finish the first draft of the Christmas story so I can edit in on the bus to and from DC and then finish the design and get it to the printer before I leave for Maine. I also want to do some more work on “Digging” — it’s coming along decently. I’m thrilled that so many of you are enjoying it!

I’ve got some business correspondence to get out today before I leave for the site, and a trip to the post office — hopefully it will be open; otherwise, I’ll have to make a detour to another town on the way to site.

Have a great weekend!

Devon