I did start on the redesign of my site on 7/5 (the date of the last post), but I had to start preparing for a trip. My oldest got married on the 16th, in Saltillo, Mexico. The younger kids and I went to Mexico for 6 days to be at the wedding and do a bit of sightseeing.

I spent a year on Duolingo trying to learn Spanish. I got down there and realized that I need a whole lot more practice before I can understand what people are saying. I’ll have to keep at it. I am better at reading Spanish, but still not great.

I got sidetracked while writing this today. My daughter started band camp – it’s the two weeks before school starts. She kept forgetting things and I had to go bring them to her. That burned up much of my day. We had dentist appointments and grocery shopping that needed to be done. today as well.

I’ve started journaling once a day to get everything out of my head. I’ve got plans and ideas that I want to start on while I am still job hunting.

But it’s late and I am tired. Laterness and g’night.

I started writing this last week. June 28 we had the primaries in OK. It’s interesting. I’m registered as an independent so I can only use the democratic ballot in the primaries. Republicans don’t have open primaries like Democrats do, at least here in Oklahoma.

Every time I vote, I’m reminded of some of my former coworkers. At least one didn’t vote because she said her vote didn’t count. I can’t see that. I vote in every election I can (sometimes there are no Democrats in a primary so I can’t vote). And really, living in Oklahoma, my vote in the primaries doesn’t matter. The democratic candidate won’t win.

But I’ve always believed that voting is a civic duty. I follow a blogger at stonekettle.com. He always says that if you want a better nation, be better citizens. That includes voting.

I have kids, and maybe someday grandkids. I want a better nation, so I vote every chance I can.

G’nite

I started going through my pages – like my about me page. I had written it so far back that much of the information was out of date. I have updated it.

I updated the Apoc page with the information on Apoc 6. I’m not sure if Apoc 6 is an official version or not.

I’m working on the new design, it’s just taking me a bit.

I’m having trouble finding the picture I had wanted to use. I copied it to a thumb drive, but don’t ask me which one. I’ve looked at two of them, and neither has it. I do have a copy of the picture on Facebook, but it’s not wide enough.

I might just use one of the pictures I took of a covered bridge when I went to Vermont in 2015.

I need to find somewhere to upload all of my pictures so everything is in one place.

I’m also getting rid of the little elf at the top. I found some fantasy art that has a license allowing me to use for a personal site.

I’m also going to work on my author site at some point. I’m really just waiting for my friend to send me the cover designs we had talked about. That’s why I haven’t uploaded the book to Amazon either. I need to find out what she wants for them, as I’m not expecting her to give them to me when she sells her art.

Anyway, laterness

I finally got everything together to move web hosts. Unfortunately, there’s been a blip.

If you happen to see a picture that isn’t loading correctly, can you let me know?

So far it’s only been on this site. The other(s) are fine. Of course, one of them is a plain site for when I finally finish my fiction books.

I reached out to a friend to create the cover since my daughter says she’s not sure how to do it, blah blah blah. I need to work with her on her self confidence. She’s been away for school stuff, so I haven’t had a chance to talk to her.

She can draw the covers for the next series, since the main character in that one is based on her anyway.

In the meantime, a friend from elementary school has been selling her art. I’ve offered to pay her to make me a few drawings for some of the books.

I know I said I’d change the design on my site when I moved it, but I’m still working out a few kinks. I should have it done within the next few days. I want to find a piece of clipart that I used way back when I first registered this site.

I just had to edit to remove all of the run on sentences. I’m not sure what’s up with that today. I shouldn’t just do stream of consciousness, huh?

I just went back through my posts to make sure everything transferred before I delete it off the other hosting server. I can’t believe I’ve been posting on this site since 2007.

I have some posts that did not stand the test of time. I unpublished them when I started looking for a job.

Anyway, laterness. Have a great one.

I remember watching the Newhart show growing up. It was in reruns, but would still play after school.

My husband has been watching a show (I think Deadwood) with the actor who plays Larry in it. Every time I hear his voice on the TV, I keep expecting to hear him come out with the whole phrase he uses every time he walks into the scene on Newhart.

Just a short post today, I’ve got a bunch to do. If you’re looking for something funny to distract you, watch the above clip. Or you can look for more of them on YouTube. They have videos with a composite of all of the scenes in a season. I watch them when I need a laugh.

Laterness

I was reading a paper from a copywriting place talking about how 27 years ago, let the Internet go beyond a research/non-profit platform. Amazon, eBay and PCWorld all got started that year.

That was in 1995. The year after I started MUDding. It doesn’t seem like it could be that long.

I’m listening to a summit on copywriting. In the summit, they’re talking about Web 3.0. Eighteen years ago, they were talking about Web 2.0. I remember the changes that were made to web design.

Heck, my blog is an example of it, since it hasn’t changed since 2007. (I went back and figured out when I started this blog.) The design on this blog is an example of how we designed when I was working for the web design company in 2000. It is so far out of date.

I’m working on updating it, and it should go live around the time that I move my sites to SiteGround where I can have a security certificate and get rid of the ‘not secure’ warning that everyone sees when they visit my site.

Yet, 27 years ago none of this existed.

Now, no one hardly has time for anything. Short snippets of information.

Blogs should be one line or two lines of sentences in each paragraph. Never more than 4 lines. I get it, it makes it easier to scan, but it’s still just… different.

I also get it because I don’t have a lot of time myself. I’m almost ready to publish my fiction book. I’ll link it here once I do. I’m really just stuck on a title. I’ve got 7 different books outlined. That’s just for the first series.

I’ve been uploading books about marketing businesses online. I had planned on just 4, but after the writing summit today, I need to write one more. I’ll probably wait until after I start uploading my fiction books. That one is going to take longer because I’m going to have to do a lot of research.

Anyway, I’ve got work and job hunting to do.

Laterness.

I recently set up a playlist on Spotify. It’s an interesting mix of songs, some one-hit wonders from the ’80s and ’90s, some Weird Al, some country, and some contemporary Christian. Every once in a while I add other songs. I might need to add We Don’t Talk About Bruno. It’s one of those earworms from Disney+

I think I got a wake-up call today. I’ve had a headache for 2 days and finally figured out that my blood pressure was a bit high. Or at least high for me. I listened to a meditation track on YouTube, but I might need to find something to reduce my stress.

Not that I have much to be stressed about.

My stepson’s grandmother died last week. Less than 3 months after his mom died.

I’m still job hunting.

My daughter is out of town until Saturday for a Robotics competition. She’s on the marketing arm of the Robotics team.

My dog is hit or miss with eating lately, which is very unusual. She’s about 40 lbs. overweight, so she usually doesn’t miss meals. She turns 9 this year, so I worry.

I’ve got my marketing second book almost done. I’m about 4,000 words short. I have to have it done by Friday so I can upload it. I’m playing musical names on the ones I’ve got in pre-order. I had originally uploaded them under a pen name. I’ve decided I’m changing it to my real name. My fiction books will sorta be under my real name as well. It’ll be under the name I grew up with, which isn’t the same as I use now. My daughter keeps saying I’m doing too much. I guess they never saw how much I did when I was working. There was a reason that I worked 45 hours a week, I always put my all into my work.

Anyway, my marketing book isn’t getting done with me posting here.

Laterness.

My daughter has been getting headaches at least 3 times a week in December. I had her wear her old glasses to see if that was the cause. Of course it was.

So off to the eye doctor. He said she had a slight astigmatism. She asked what that was and I explained about the spikes from the street lights in the dark and other signs. She looked at me and asked ‘you mean that’s not normal?’

We had a talk about what each of us saw around the street lights when I brought her home last night. Today was her first day with her new glasses – I’m not sure why they took so long to come in. She said no headaches.

Between job applications, I’ve been writing little non-fiction books (like 65 pages) about things that I have researched as I’ve written for various sites over the years. I’ve accumulated a bunch of PLM books about these subjects as well. I’m combining my knowledge with anything in these books that’s still relevant and uploading them to Amazon.

At some point, I need to do a 2nd draft on my fiction book and outline/write more of them. I guess once I exhaust my knowledge for the non-fiction books, I can start publishing those. We will see because the fiction ones take longer, though I might be getting better at that the more I write.

I really have other things to do, but I’m fighting anxiety since my severance runs out at the end of this month. It’s easier to focus on writing when I am like that.

I saw this on Facebook the other day and sent it to one of my kids – probably my son since he’s in middle school. I do find it entertaining when I remember that the author of the above book used to teach middle school. I’m not sure if he still does after over 20 best selling kids books.

And this my daughter sent to me. 😀 Maybe my son isn’t the only one who has my sense of humor. We always say she takes after her father until she agrees with me on something, then he calls her my mini me.

Anyway, it’s just about time for bed. The kids may or may not have school tomorrow. We will find out by 6:30 am