I’m just going to geek out here for a minute or two. I have been doing a refresher on HTML and learning CSS since I never really got into it when I was designing sites in the early 2000’s. I think CSS had really just started coming on the scene when I stopped with the full time design in 2003.

I started learning more about CSS tonight and I gotta say I’m excited. All these things I used to have to do with nesting tables can be done more easily and cleanly with CSS than it could with tables. I’m having a lot of fun playing with the code and the colors in the text.

I think there will probably be a redesign of this site for the first time in at least 13 years. I don’t think I’ve touched it much in that time. The only thing I need to work on is redesigning the WordPress theme I’m using to accommodate what I want to do. We shall see what happens. I just need to download a graphics program – maybe GIMP if it’s still available. I’ll have to do some looking. The design is the most fun part 🙂

Anyway, it’s getting late. I still need to do some Duolingo and then read to relax before bed. The kids bus gets here early in the morning.

Laterness and g’nite.

I’ve owned this domain a long time. It was the first one I bought for myself when I started in web development in the early 2000’s. I bought a second domain in 2002 or 2003 (I’d have to look at WHOIS to remember when, but I’m leaning toward when I was making and selling candles). It went from there to a website talking about my web design. Since then it has been through many iterations, and now is a blog where I can just post my crafting stuff. I post finished projects and ones that I’m working on. Not that I posted to that much in the last almost 2 years as well.

If you let it, life will derail your plans.

I need to find a new domain for my web content writing, and WordPress work. I know I can do this, but I let my doubts affect my self confidence. I will probably focus on a few Udemy courses, while I am job hunting. That way I’m not just sitting idle. That’s the best way to get anxiety.

The real problem with multiple domains is checking them all every day lol. I currently have unlimited hosting, though I’m not entirely crazy about GoDaddy since they just added that we have to pay for our email hosting as well.

I hate looking for new domains. The longer it goes, the more difficult it is to find what I want LOL. I know there are several different sites that’ll help with that. I think I should start there.

Laterness

On Friday I decided to start doing some real WordPress training instead of just the dabbling that I’ve done over the years since I started this blog.

I’m kinda excited. I haven’t done any major programming since I left my web design/programmer job in 2003.

My plan is to start freelancing so I can work from home. I want to spend more time being able to do what I want.

I want to be able to start traveling more. I keep seeing posts from my cousin on Facebook and I want that. I want to be able to see things I haven’t in a long time.

I haven’t been to Washington, DC since I moved away in 1998. I haven’t been to parts of North Carolina and Myrtle Beach since 1999 right after Hurricane Floyd passed through.

I miss the coding anyway, so it’ll be fun to learn.

Lateness and g’night

https://www.businessinsider.com/tired-trucker-explains-driver-shortage-cant-support-families-low-pay-2021-11

So, I have a unique perspective on the so called driver shortage since until Friday 11/12 I was working in supply chain. I worked with corporate transportation and carriers to get materials to the place I worked for.

I can remember talking to one logistics company saying that routes out of Nashville were difficult – not because they couldn’t find carriers, but because the carriers didn’t want to take a route where they would have to return empty. They lose money that way.

The same rep from the logistics company would complain that the company o worked for wouldn’t offer enough for some routes. They would lose money if they took the route for what was offered.

It seems like maybe there isn’t so much a driver shortage as a shortage of companies willing to pay a decent rate to the driver’s delivering their product.

*Edit: I found this as well.

I haven’t been around in a long time. I was talking to my youngest about the websites I have, and I was surprised at how long it has been since I posted.

Work has been crazy. Even crazier with supply chain disruptions. So I’m tired when I get home.

I also went through a phase of depression. Then the craziness in January just blew my mind. I do have my opinions on it, but it’s rather late to share. Instead, I have a joke.

That’s all for today. Laterness.

Tonight I have this silly song stuck in my head. It’s one that I first heard when I was living in Branson. A good friend had me listen to it one day at work. I’m going to paste the YouTube link below for tonight. I’ll try to figure out how to embed it later. It’s harder from my phone.

I really miss the friend who showed this song to me. He had named his dog after a line in the song. She was Liddle Lambsied Ivy, or Ivy for short.

He was one of my closest friends. He died in 2006. I miss talking to him and asking his advice even 14 years later. I miss talking to his wife too. Since he died, she and I have fallen out of touch.

I think the song is in my head tonight to remind me that I’m not stuck in a job that makes me unhappy. There are things I can do to change my life even now.

I miss the web development work I did back in Branson. I even miss the writing I was doing 10 years ago. I just haven’t been very creative lately.

It might be time for me to start looking at my options instead of letting myself just slide by with the minimum like I’m doing right now.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to make some changes in how I do things. I’m more worried about money than I was back then, but I can work around that and still be happy.

We were all worried about Skynet. Meanwhile, nunchuck bears.pic.twitter.com/ZfGMIkYFl3

— Kevin Brackett (@KevinRBrackett) July 12, 2020

This is mildly entertaining. Bears will play with anything they don’t understand.

I try not to say much about mental health, but I’ve been having some issues with anxiety in the last couple of years. I finally hit the end of my rope. Part of it was from work, and part of it was just the stress from other things going on in my life.

When I hit the point where I didn’t care if I still had a job – though I still did my best at work – I went to the doctor and we switched up my medication.

My anxiety is getting better, some of the time. I still have my days. I’ve been staying on the Ketogenic diet as much as possible hoping that the lack of sugar would help my moods. It hasn’t really affected things, but I still feel more clearheaded when I don’t eat empty carbs and sugar.

In June, I decided I needed a vacation. I combined my vacation with the holiday off for the 4th so I could use fewer vacation days and still get a full week off. Part of me was worried that they’d find that they didn’t need me. Instead, my boss texted me on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday asking for my help. It makes me feel a bit better, but I’m still anxious about going back tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

My anxiety was mostly better this last week, but I think it’s a good idea for me to take a break from social media. Twitter and Facebook have been kicking up the stress and anxiety, with all the current events.

While I was off work, I spent the time working on the roof that we started working on in March. You’d think my husband and stepson would have gotten most of it done, but they got frustrated and stopped working on it most of the time. Now I’m trying to get it done outside of the really hot times of day – which means early morning or evening after dinner.

Starting this week, I’m going to have to just limit it to after dinner hours. That will not be fun, but I’ve made a lot of progress this last week. I did remember something I did in the wrong order when I was trying to sleep Friday night.

I think we can get started on putting up the tin the roofing this week. I just need to fix the trim where I didn’t do it right. That shouldn’t take long – maybe 2 evenings, then I can move on. I need to find a cool evening where I can paint, but I’m not sure when that will be.

That’s about all I have to say tonight. It’s been a long week, and I still need to clean out my email. I don’t check it enough when I’m on vacation. I miss gaming, but I’ve been reading a lot more lately to help me escape from my thoughts.

My next step is going to be to start MUDding again. I miss that as well. I’m also going to start writing again. I’ve missed both of these and they help with the obsessive thoughts that trigger my anxiety.

We have been working on replacing our roof. The roof had way more problems than we realized though we should have expected it. We did buy a house that had been abandoned for more than 12 years, that had been gutted as well.  This home improvement project is taking a lot longer than expected (don’t all home improvement projects??) We keep finding things that we need to do or replace.

Oklahoma opened back up on May 1, and I had bought everything at least 2 to 3 weeks before that, so that tells you how long we’ve been working on it between rain, everyone working, and asking temperamental 19 year olds to help.

With all the walking up and down the ladder and along the slanted roof, my back and knees were really bothering me. I had gone off Keto when the quarantine started when it was hard to find a lot of my regular foods. I know the weight I regained did not help me at all, even though it was just another 10 pounds.

I started back on Keto on Monday and it’s mostly meant eating cheese and eggs, since they are still relatively easy to get. I save the regular meat for dinner unless its leftovers.

Mostly it’s been satisfying. I’m not hungry, and now that the sugar is out of my system I’m not craving sweets.

Tonight I wanted a little something extra, so I went through one of the cookbooks I bought when I was first doing Keto in 2017 and 2018.

I made a mocha frappe tonight, and it’s actually pretty good, though my son thinks it looks gross.

Ignore grandma willow in the background. My daughter is watching Pocahontas on Disney+.

I need to go pick my niece up from work, so laterness and g’nite.

So, occasionally, I take the time to read the MSN home page. There are always fluff stories, and ones that are biased. I also look at whatever pops up for stories on my Chrome new tab page on my phone, and through Flipboard, which comes with my phone as well – yes, I have a Samsung.

I read this story, and I like this. It’s more about protests – this time in OH. The governor is telling the protesters to lay off the reporters and the head of the OH Department of Health, and instead focus on him.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/come-after-me-ohios-gop-gov-mike-dewine-calls-out-obnoxious-protesters-who-targeted-health-chief-news-media/ar-BB13C7id?ocid=spartanntp (as always, all all links open in a new tab).

I’m actually pretty impressed. This is the right way for elected officials to behave. Remind people that reporters are exercising their 1st amendment rights just like the protesters are. We need a free press. This is very important.

Personally, I think they should bring back the fairness doctrine as well, but that’s because I’d rather go back to making my own decisions instead of the decisions or opinions others want me to make.

That’s the main reason why I read a lot of my news from the Allsides as well. https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news. I can look at which way that site typically leans, and I can decide how biased their reporting is.

I also follow Jim Wright with Stonekettle Station on Twitter, Facebook, and I read his blog at http://www.stonekettle.com/. He’s not a democrat or a republican, he just spent years in military intelligence. He doesn’t pull punches with what he says.