December 2003 Archives

My friend Jen has inspired me to take a new spin on New Years Resolutions and instead create a list of things to accomplish next year. She was inspired by her friend Kelly Sue, who does a wonderful job of explaining the whole thing.

So, I've put together my list. Some items have been on the mental list for a long time now. Maybe putting them to paper and up for the world to see will help inspire me to follow through.

Oh, and these are not "shoulds." They are preferences I would like to see come to pass.

Spam has been a daily part of my life for so long, I forget what my inbox looked like when it was just email from friends. Not surprisingly, I get my share of "business opportunities," "Prozac for cheap," and stories of a "girl and her horse." It seems so obvious to me that whatever the spammer have to say is a lie, a trick, a deceit that I don't even bother looking at it for the humor factor anymore. I honestly can't imagine being taken in by one of their "opportunities." But I guess people are taken in, which is why the spammers continue. It only takes one or two people like Rupert Sessions to make it all worth their while.

What is wrong with people that they are so guilable and, even worse, that there are people that live to exploit that trusting nature?

I just got back from the Christmas Eve service at the Lynnwood United Methodist Church in Pleasanton. I've been missing my father a lot lately and I realized that going to the service tonight was a way to honor him. It felt good to be there, among the community. Even if I'm not a part of it (the only other time I've been there was Christmas Eve two years ago).

When I was real little, we never went to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas - Mormons don't do that. When I was a teenager we often went to the Christmas Eve service at the United Methodist Church in Sandy Hook. Even my father would come with us (the only time he'd go to that church). In high school once I remember going to Midnight Mass with Erik and Michele and Charlie. But as I got older, we stopped going. The day became so busy with working or catching up from working so much, going to church was just another stressful thing to do.

It felt good to participate in an activity from my youth. The prayers, the songs, the readings were all like I remember. There's a comfort in that.

Merry Christmas Dad.

I am so exhausted. I'm now going on at least 5 weeks since I've slept soundly through the night. I'm no longer waiting up at 2 am with lists of things to do at work going through my head. Instead I get stuck between asleep and awake - a neitherland - and I just toss and turn all night.

My doctor adjusted my medication and I thought it was getting better - I'd fall asleep, wake up around 2 and then go back to sleep. Then wake up and go back to sleep. Rinse. Repeat. But at least I was dreaming between waking.

But last night, I was asleep before 10, woke up at midnight, and WAS WIDE AWAKE UNTIL AFTER 5 am. I'm going on 3-4 hours of sleep, and I'm a 9-hours a night girl. This has to end. I feel physically ill, I'm so tired.

Last night was the relaunch of PeopleSoft.com. We fully integrated the content from the J.D. Edwards.com site with PeopleSoft.com for the USA/Corporate site (we get to do 21 international sites in March). This was my third major site launch on the team, and it was the smoothest and least stressful of all of them. I'm trying to figure out why.

First, our scope was smaller. We didn't move the ENTIRE site to a new content management system like we did in 2001. Or launch 21 brand new international sites like in 2002. We redid the products section and did some tweaks to other areas, and that was pretty much it. Global navigation, search, and our new product database all fell within my domain, and they were pretty easy to do. We still have old pages showing up in search results, but I know what we need to do to fix it, and it should be a relatively easy fix.

The thing that feels good about this launch is the site feels much more tidy. We fixed a lot of little things in our QA - random breadcrumb links (yes, our breadcrumbs are still handcoded - and I don't want to talk about it), links to learn more items, corrected banner style on many pages. We still have some things that are off, but we are in much better shape than after past launches.

Good job team!

I stumbled upon a wonderful article about Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.

Hobbes has to be one of my most favorite cartoon characters of all time. I love his insights — he's such the philosopher. To me he smells just like my cat Freesia when she's been curled up sleeping and her fur is all warm and wrinkled.

I was lucky enough to find a comic site that will send you a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon every day. love turning on my 'puter in the morning and seeing what adventures they are having that day. I'm slowly printing out all of the strips related to librarians and libraries. I could go through all the books we have at home, but it's more fun to find them slowly.

I found this link on Rebecca's blog (thanks!). It's a wonderful, creative, and inspiring site. Leslie has created an Advent calendar that includes personal memories, Flash animations, games, songs, and just tons of neat things. Be sure to check it out.

http://www.harpold.com/advent/

I don't know why, but this monkey in his santa suit cracks me up.

Copyright REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon.

My great uncle Italo passed away on November 28. He had been battling cancer for a long time. So long, he was unable to attend my wedding 4 years ago because he was so ill. Death in situations like that feel sometimes like a relief - the loved one is no longer in pain; the living no longer dealing with the pain of watching the loved one suffer.

I've sometimes thought that it is better to lose a loved one this way, since you know it is coming and can "prepare" (at least as much as that is possible). You can say your goodbyes and treasure the remaining time you have together. To loose someone in an accident (like my father's drowning), feels almost that you are cheated. You can't make amends or say goodbye. They are just gone in a blink of an eye, with no warning. Of course, if I had to watch someone I love surcome to cancer, I might feel differently. To watch them waste away and live with horrible pain - I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Well, it looks like it's official. I've joined the masses of web-bloggers. It's something that I've thought about doing for awhile now. Feels good to have the site re-skinned and the blog up and running. There's still more work to do (the lower-level pages especially), but it will work for now.

I'm not sure what exactly I'm planning to write about. Probably mostly personal stuff, but also work related (meaning information architecture related).

So, enjoy! Welcome to my slice of the web.

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

Angel of Darkness