January 2009 Archives

I like being warm. I hate being cold. Right now I’m wearing a turtleneck sweater over a tank top and after doing dishes and folding hot towels from the dryer I am roasting. But since I haven’t been feeling well (stupid head cold) I’m not going to start stripping because then I’ll end up fully sick again when I’m already recovering. I woke up this morning and was barely congested, which usually it takes two weeks for me to feel close to better.

So the dishes are done and we have clean towels. The little lady stayed home today due to her head cold and she is still sniffly and coughing. I hope she’s feeling better tomorrow but we’ll see in the morning if i’ll be sending her or not.

Note to parents: Don’t send your sick kid to school. Especially if they go to my daughter’s school. Because then even if they don’t have one class together, she’ll end up sick and then I’ll get sick and it keeps going around here no matter how much bleach or 409 I use to get rid of it.

I’m still not seeing quite clearly with my new contact lenses but hopefully that will change tomorrow when I put them in since I won’t be wearing the old ones before them. They are a touch smaller than my old ones, too and they don’t seem to be drying out like they did. The old ones covered my eyes almost completely and I have small eyes - it was a real pain to get them in! I’m hoping I won’t have any issues getting these ones out since they are smaller.

I was thinking of what to do about dinner but I’m really not hungry (probably because I’m sick) so I’m not sure where to go from there. If anything good happens with dinner, I’ll let you know. Later.

So I had my appointment to pick up my trial contact lenses today. After putting in the new lenses the doctor looked at my eyes and had me read lines but I am still having some blurry issues. I think it’s because it’s such a drastic change that my eyes simply are like “what the hell did you just do?” and haven’t adjusted to the new prescription yet. Which is odd, because they should have. I’ve never had blurry vision when changing lenses, but again, it’s been three years since my last check up. Yes, I am a bad girl. Kind of hard to make appointments for yourself when you can’t pay for them.

So the trial lenses are to be worn for this week and next Thursday I go back to check them and make sure that I’ve adjusted to them and that I can see. Hopefully, that will be the case. I really hate going through the eye exams. I’m the best patient you can have, though. I’m really good at doing what I’m told when moving my eyes and keeping them open - even if my contacts dry out. I have a feeling that I’m going to end up with a headache from them though, so it’s probably best if I stay away from chat rooms and such.

Well, I have to work on a layout, so I am off for now. Later.

With me being sick (stupid head cold) I haven’t done a darn useful thing today. Well, I have been working on a layout for a site, but other than that, i haven’t done anything. And I’ve hardly touched the layout to boot. I couldn’t decide on blue, red or purple and finally decided on a purple color for something specific. Shockingly, I haven’t even taken any medicine today! I shouldn’t be this muddy-headed when I haven’t taken medicine.

The most interesting thing that happened today is that my cat fell on me three times. THREE times! I am sitting next to the window that looks out into the greenhouse and it doesn’t have a real windowsill. But she loves sitting there. So she sits, she dozes off and then she loses her balance and falls. Right into my lap or onto the table. I caught her twice and the third time she made it to the back of the chair. It’s enough to drive me nuts.

I’m still not feeling all that great but I’m not feeling as awful as I was yesterday. I think I might actually kick the head cold before it truly catches a hold of me. I hope so anyway. I haven’t even gone through my daily reads yet and I haven’t read any articles either. I basically just chatted on CafeMom this morning and worked on the layout I mentioned above. There are some pretty cool people on CafeMom. I have been pleasantly surprised. It’s so hard to find decent people on the internet that you can actually talk to without tons of drama. Intriguing, don’t you think? There are real people on the internet!

Alright well, I am off for now. Later.

Crockpot + Chicken Thighs + BBQ Sauce = Yummy!

So earlier this afternoon I threw some frozen chicken thighs ( I prefer thighs ) into the crockpot and dumped a half a bottle of Kraft’s Honey Mustard BBQ sauce on them. I set it for four hours so that it would be done in four hours and then it’ll switch over to the Warm setting to simmer for a bit so that the sauce sinks in to every juicy bite.

I’m also planning on making bow-tie pasta with alfredo sauce and I haven’t decide if I am going to steam veggies (broccoli, califlower, carrot mix) or throw on a can of corn. Other than washing the main amount of dirty dishes, this is all I have accomplished today.

I am not feeling well. I woke up around 2 am with a head cold and have been on Tylenol Cold and Sinus meds since around 9 am. I would have taken them at 2 if I had known there they were ( because they weren’t in the medicine drawer ) and I’d have probably woken up feeling better than I did.

The Little Lady is still having issues with her sprained hip/thigh area but it’s healing progressively now that she has seriously started ice therapy with otc pain killers that reduce the inflammation. If she had done this when she injured it, she’d be participating in phys.ed. and she’d have experienced a lot less pain. So teens, obey your parents when they tell you to sit on your tush and do nothing, take medicine and put ice on it. I mean, come on, what teen doesn’t want to sit around for a few days? Especially if they know what they are talking about, like I do, since I experienced the same thing, and still have issues with, my left shoulder.

I haven’t really been out and about on the web today. I checked my daily reads but people are busy or have nothing to write. I am making the attempt to post something every day so that I can remake my web presence. I’ll do my best to make everything interesting and so forth, but no promises.

Right now Dusty is in the window crying because Daddy is sitting in the greenhouse doing homework ( he’s going back to school for business management ) and wants to join him. He’s so lonely he’s even letting me pet him without making me pay for it ( biting and clawing in return ) so I’m a bit shocked.

Does anyone out there have cats that you can actually talk to like people? Our cats are like that. He’s arguing with me right now, I swear. I tell him no, he can’t go out into the greenhouse and he whines at me like a teenager or a ten year old would. What gives?

Alright, well, I’m still a bit looped from the medicine but otherwise things are good. I hate taking medicine and I think this Tylenol is giving me the shakes. All medicine makes me not be hungry, so it could be that I just need to eat something more than toast. I’m off. Until later.

I made a slight change to the layout, mainly, the widgets. All widgets directly associated with Disillusioned are now on the left (such as recent entries and archives, search etc) and then everything that I’m associated with on the internet that has to do with the site indirectly are on the right (such as Social Widgets and sites that I am a member of etc) are now on the right. I thought this would make things a bit easier.

I’ve also signed up to be an affiliate with HostMonster, so if you are looking for a great host at an affordable price with unlimited space and bandwidth, lots of extras regarding email and more, check them out. I haven’t been with them for very long but I haven’t had any issues I did with my previous host so far (such as being hacked and getting usless help on preventing it) and things have been running smoothly so far. Trust me, if that changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I’ll probably be adding other sites that I have been affiliated with and I have been thinking of adding one of my Amazon Associates widgets as well. I’m also trying to get back into the swing of things regarding LinkWorth and looking into other ways of advertising. If you’re interested, feel free to contact me via email (located in the left sidebar). Later.

Where I've been this morning other than email, that is:

Spinning black holes are ultimate cosmic batteries - Hmm... if only we could harness such energy.

Dakota Fanning on "New Moon" - Never read the books, but with the description of the character she may be cast for I think she'd be perfect! And I may have to watch this one if she does get cast because she'd be my type of vampire.

Heath Ledger wins SAG Award - Sweet.

GM Ohio, Michigan Shift Cuts to Eliminate 2,000 Jobs - Saw this coming.

President Obama Begins Week Focused on Economy - I don't write, comment or mention politics here, I simply read the article.

Girls Basketball Coach Fired After 100-0 Win - I think this guy will get a job REAL quick.

'Villages' Retirement Home is Widower's Sex Paradise - This is news why?

Evidence Suggests US Airways Jet Hit Object That Damaged Engine - Glad everyone safely survived this crash and don't they use hawkers (or is it called 'hawking'?) anymore for removing birds from the airport runways? Or perhaps this was simply bad timing on the flocks part.

Google's Rumored GDrive May 'Kill' the PC - The title of this article freaked me out a bit. I recommended using web-based email for an office I previously worked for because our servers were always crashing and we were always losing info, but it was a bad idea because it wouldn't have our domain name associated with the email address!

Fake Teen Cop Fools Police, Patrols Chicago for 5 Hours - Erhm?

California's "train wreck" a golden opportunity? - Every state has problems with the current economy.

Wouldn't let her sleep, suspect told deputies, so she shot him - Um, ok.  If someone was bothering me and wouldn't let me sleep I'd call the cops and make them leave.  There's no real detail to this story.  Was the boyfriend outside blowing his car horn? Banging on the door?  Yakking away in the bedroom about his day?  Either way, the only time it is ok to shoot someone is if it's to save a life. 

Ok, time for me to start cleaning. I'll be back later.

I so couldn't sleep last night! I went to bed around midnight because I wasn't tired. Yep, went to bed even though I wasn't tired because I knew there were plans today and I needed to be fairly clearheaded. Then honey came to bed and tossed, turned, talked in his sleep and then proceeded to grind his teeth, which drives me insane, so I abandoned him and went to the couch. Which I got to stare at the ceiling in the faint glow of the night light we keep in the kitchen for a time. I thought about getting up and went to see what time it was. It was ten til 6. I hadn't slept at all and my contacts hadn't been in their cleaner for six hours so I couldn't put them back in and find some way of entertaining myself.

I tried counting my breathing, I tried chanting sleep in my head, I did everything but count sheep and since we only have two and they don't jump over fences I didn't think it would work. Yes, there are sheep.

Then I beat up my pillow and determined to go to sleep. I got around 3 hours. It's something though and I'll probably take a nap later, but at least I was able to sleep.

First thing I did when Dusty started crying because daddy abandoned him was check the food and water. The cats had food and water. I poked Dusty and decided to take a hot shower to help me remain awake. Then I threw the kids socks and underclothes into the washer. They are currently in the dryer. It's looking to be a beautiful day and will continue to be if this load finishes by noon (about 25 minutes from now according to the clock) because my sweater is in there.

Oh and I joined CafeMom last night. i have no idea why I decided to finally join but I did. I've joined two groups there and hopefully I'll make some more friends online or something. Other than that, things are grand. Later.

I'm finally feeling as if the blog is finally coming around. I've had to go through my communities at mybloglog and blogcatalog to find missing blogs in my Daily Reads and I've got a couple more useful sites added as well. I feel better as the site starts looking as if it's finally been 'lived in' again.

I have plans to start posting photos again soon and have regular postings. The postings will be about the usual: things going on with me, things I like on the internet, what I happen to be thinking that day, and so on. The categories are changing. I deleted most of them when I wiped out the old entries. I'm going to integrate what I had with Chelle's Reading Corner into Disillusioned as well. I'll have a special category section for Books and subcategories for Authors. Any books I read that have serious mature content (such as Laurell K. Hamilton & Jacqueline Carey) will have a notice in the main entry and be put into an extended entry. I wouldn't want to violate anyone's innocent eyes by mentioning naughtiness. (Pfffbt! Yeah, right.)

Other than that, I'm not sure. Hopefully something interesting will come around and slap me across the face. Later.

I love Queen of Snark's new look. I wish I had known it changed sooner, but then I don't really *do* RSS feeds. Perhaps if I did, I would have known. Anyway, check it out, it's now in my Daily Reads.

I've almost finished with the dishes and there's a load of laundry in the dryer. I got some clothes put away and I have to put my clothes away and then sort the socks and undergarments to put them away. I have added widgets containing information about disillusioned, myself and other sites you can find me at. I have music on and a cup of coffee in front of me and I'm starting to feel human again. Now if I can just keep Velvet off the counter where I put a towel for cups to dry I'll be even more pleased.

I found an interesting link via my Google-page today from Stepcase Lifehacker about selling photos. I may look into this and see if I can get a few cents here and there for photos that I take of landscapes, flowers, etc. Who knows, I might make a buck. I also sent it to my niece who wants to be a photographer but because there aren't any schools nearby she can't learn about it that way and is currently taking the learn it as she goes way. She takes some pretty stunning photos so I sent her the link. I'm old because she's turning 18 tomorrow. Horrible, I know.

I still have a bunch of stuff to do in the kitchen but other than that and the laundry all I'll have to do later is make dinner. What's for dinner? These little round steaks, pasta with alfredo sauce and some form of vegetable (probably fresh califlower steamed). I have been thinking of making myself some scrambled eggs for lunch because I am hungry but I don't know what I want to eat. I have to check and see if our eggs are still good. I can't wait until the chickens start laying again and it looks like the rooster might actually turn into a manly rooster, which rocks, because then we'll have chicks!

Hopefully the Little Lady will be feeling better this evening. She's been feeling pretty crappy and has a strained muscle or tendon in her leg that has been driving her insane. We are treating as if it is a sprain (that's what it seems to be) and she's gotten to sit out of 6 hours of gym class (which she loves gym class and hates sitting out) but we are hoping a lazy weekend (I'm even going to offer to do her laundry) will help finish it healing. She can't seem to sit still and we've had to all but tie her to her bed.

Other than that things here have been pretty normal. Alright, well I'm off and remember, all links leaving the site open in a new window (or if you're new, now you know). Later!

I need to clean the kitchen and throw in a load of laundry but I just don't feel good today. My stomach started bothering me yesterday after I got halfway through my coffee and I have no idea why. So yesterday I spent the day eating crackers until I felt safe enough to eat something more substantial. I don't feel ill, just unsure if coffee would be a good idea or a bad one.

Also I can't figure out why my Technorati widget changes randomly from the old format to the new format. It's really driving me nuts. There isn't any reason why it should be doing that. I am happy that I finally got everything working properly and I still have to add the 'about me' or whatever I plan to call it section to the left hand sidebar but otherwise things are pretty much set here. So either technorati is having issues, which they were when I tried to sign in the other day, or there is something weird going on with the code. Being as it's their code and I didn't make any changes to it, I'm going to say they are having some form of issues and leave it at that.

So now that everything is back up and running the way that I prefer it to be I should be posting a heck of a lot more often and updating my Daily Reads section. I added someone today that I read awhile back and I can't remember why I didn't add them (or if I did why I removed them) but I thought I'd Rather Be Blogging was worth putting back up. If you have a blog like the ones on my reading list, feel free to leave me a comment (since they are working) and let me know about yours!

If you were here earlier when I was complaining about plain boring websites, I found this link on BlogCatalog in my discussions list:

Top 100 Websites With Artistic Design  -  I am looking through this list now and I'm enjoying myself.  I thought there were some pretty amazing layouts to look at in there and I hope that it gives everyone who goes there some inspiration (or a kick in the arse)...

Enjoy!

*Update*

I finally figured out what was going on with the comments although I swear the last time I changed the configuration file for MT it screwed *a lot* of things up.  It worked this time, woohoo!  So comments ARE working.  Enjoy.

Also this layout should be working throughout the entire site.  Now I just have to get all my silly widgets back in (BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, Technorati) etc. and I'll be back in business.

The new layout is not applied to the rest of the site, just the index page.  I've got to go get the little lady shortly and can't finish it at the moment but I'll work on it when I return to get everything together.  The footer is also slightly off color which is aggravating me but every time I change it is isn't any closer to the background but I may have figured out how to fix that, too.

Until then, enjoy the index page, featuring once again, Yoruichi Shihoin from Bleach.  Laters!

I am a touch confused when it comes to people who create these wonderful platforms for people to create sites and blogs. Seriously, if you look at some of their websites they are boring. Ok, perhaps all their creative juices go into their work, but still, when I go to a website that is either for personal or business use and it's so blah looking that I want to cry it makes me wonder what the heck are they thinking?

Ok, so perhaps they aren't the designers for these platforms and therefore prefer no visual aspect to their site at all. That's fine, I suppose. It just looks horrible to me being so plain. This layout I'm using now, can't stand it. It's too boring, it's too streamlined. I'm working on a new layout right now and in order to place my columns properly in the background image I went to look at the CSS file.  Well the CSS file has links to the websites of a couple of people who worked on it.  I decided to visit tthe two sites mentioned to see what they had done and if it would give me any ideas. 

Instead of finding some fabulous layout to make me drool, I found white space and links.  Yeeahhh... 

If they are the ones who created the CSS file, that's great! CSS can do all sorts of things like ADD COLOR to specific areas of interest. Even if they simply used a colorful border to separate things, it would help. If they aren't any good at design at all, then use one of the plain templates! At least then there will be something instead of blank white space.

Generally, I hate white layouts. I've done a couple on occasion. I'm working on one that contains a majority of white in right now, simply because it's a real pain in the ass to work on anime hair when it's a dark color on a white background. Yep, I'm redoing my Yoruichi (from Bleach) layout so that it looks better. But guess what? There will be color! I promise, it won't burn your eyes. Anyway, I saw that site and I just had to vent about it. I see it all the time. It's plain and boring. Perhaps they get so many hits per day they had to take the design away because it was killing their bandwidth? Who knows. It would be nice to see some link to a page called 'why this layout is so plain'. Alright, I'm off. Laters.

Because I have been around, in the background, sort of.  I cleaned out a lot of stuff here at Disillusioned.  I actually stopped and thought about ditching Dis and starting a whole new blog with a whole new name.  But then I decided that nothing has changed really.  I am still pretty freaking disillusioned right now.  I just seem to be one of those types of people.  You know the ones.  They'd rather sit at home and read a book or watch anime or play a game or talk online instead of interacting with real people.  Yes, I am one of those people.  I guess I just get irritated easily when it comes to people.  I always have, I always will.  Everything has to be centered on them and every little teeny tiny thing that happens has to be blown so out of proportion I sit and figure out why on earth the world is still turning and then I remember that they aren't the center of the universe and retreat back into my personal bubble of reality.

If you want to know just how rude I am to people I don't care to listen to, think of it this way.  We had people over for NYE.  I sat and played Final Fantasy 12 instead of paying attention to them.  Yeah. And they didn't care as long as they got to talk.  I was fine with that. Talk all you want as long as you don't need my full attention, all is well.

So what have I been doing?  The Otherside has gotten a new layout (finally I got something figured out) and a warning page.  The splash page has been updated to reflect the actual sites here.  Yep, only two.  I want to bring back the reading corner since I've been reading like a loon, but I don't have the heart to tear apart the layout and remake it for MT4 just yet.  Although I shouldn't have to.  The layout I had featuring Yoruichi works, sort of.  I'd literally have to redo the base_weblog styles in order to make it work.  So I'll probably redo the layout so that it works with the styles already there instead.  It will make things much easier.

Nothing major has been going on.  The biggest thing right now is that I'm finally getting new contact lenses in about two weeks.  It'll be nice to see clearly again!  My prescription has changed drastically, which it wouldn't be so drastic if it hadn't been so long since my last appointment.  I even told the Dr she could yell at me, I deserved it.  She told me I need to take care of myself first in order to take care of others and I agree, I do, but when things come up and that money is all you have, you use it for the necessities.  Anyway, By February I'll be bright-eyed again.

I'm thinking of opening hosting (not that I really ever closed it) and if anyone out there is interested in having a subdomain.sweetly-evil.org; MT4.2 blog; let me know.  I'm not great at doing layouts on this version yet, but I'm working on it and that's what counts.  If you don't need layout help, that is great, too.  I'd like to see a current blog before making a decision.  Just send an email to disillusioned at sweetly-evil.org.  I'm sure you can figure that out.  Laters.