Blogging Timeline

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I had thought to make a post about my “top 5 blogging moments” but I couldn’t come up with a good 5 for the list. I thought about changing it into “my top 5 favorite posts on my blog”, but I eventually turned the concept around a little bit, until it became, “notable events in the history of my blog”. So here is a timeline of sorts of important blogging events:

2/17/2004 – My first post ever. Not very exciting.

8/3/2005 – This was my first post back after a one year blogging hiatus. This was significant, not only because I resumed blogging, but also because it marked a new era. Previous to this, my blog was more of a personal journal, after it became more of a “best of the Internet” aggregator and link place holder, which is more or less what it is today.

8/2/2007 – Announcing the birth of Evie. This post straddles the line of important event in my life vs. important in terms of the blog. However, I think it is safe to say that Evie has had a big impact on blog, both in terms of giving people a reason to check here, and for giving rise to the “Evie Update” category (79 items), and the “From the Mouths of Babes” category (27 items).

3/26/2008 – My first post on WordPress. I can’t say enough how much better WordPress is compared to LiveJournal. LiveJournal has some advantages, particularly in the facebook type community aspect, but in terms of pure blogging power, there is no contest. So switching over to WordPress had a big impact on how the blog evolved after that.

6/21/2008 – Childhood hero of mine, Commander Mark Kistler, comments on my blog post about him.

6/23/2008 – A title mishap (in which I may have implied their product causes rickets) brings me to the attention of Bob’s Pickle Pops, ultimately leading to them sending me some free samples. This was the first and only time this blog led to any sort of compensation.

8/25/2008 – Someone from my favorite store ThinkGeek comments on a post. Of course it is the one and only time I am bashing one of their products (for something that was totally not their fault, mind you), but hey, I’ll take it.

1/3/2009 – First post of the 3rd incarnation of my blog, in which I started blogging every day. It wasn’t exactly formal, I was just sort of testing myself to see if I could do it, and then I just kept doing it. At first I planned to blog 7 days a week, but I eventually settled into a M-F pattern. Coming up with 5 topics a week is extremely difficult, and I was worried that the quality would drop off. I don’t think it really has, though I might not be the best judge.

1/21/2009 – My 500th post.

2/17/2009 – My 5 year blogiversary.

2/24/2009 – My 500th comment.

5/21/2009 – The first post after I started to push my posts out to Facebook (and then later, Twitter). This was significant because I think most people I know didn’t really know I had a blog. So this opened us up to a much wider audience (although they still rarely comment, or comment on Facebook).

I think that’s about it. Anybody else know of any big moments on my blog? Anybody have any particularly favorite posts? What is the first post you remember? Put them in the comments.

It’s like a sign just for Evie

/ Shane / 2 Comments

This sign might seem strange to a lot of people, but not to me. Evie has been eating babies for a long time.

Link via FailBlog.

One Nusiance Cat for Sale

/ Shane / 10 Comments

I am not very happy with the cat.

Just with her general day-to-day activities, the cat always hovers just below my annoyance threshold. I’m talking about the way she constantly begs for food, the way she steals your seat even if you’re only going to be gone for 1 microsecond, the way she’s constantly pestering you for attention, or the way she sometimes gets in a “I’m going to eat your arm when you’re not expecting it” mood.  But most specifically, the problem is the way she wakes Evie up every morning by intentionally meowing outside her door at 5 a.m. until she wakes up. At least once  a day that cat causes me to grit my teeth. Literally grit my teeth.

So, the cat is already pushing its limits with me on a daily basis and any extra thing, any minor infraction, just pushes me over the top. This was not a minor infraction. What happened was, the litter box is in the downstairs bathroom, hidden discretely behind a curtain. The bathroom upstairs has the same layout as the downstairs bathroom, but we hadn’t installed the curtain because we used to use that area as a diaper changing station. So when I installed the curtain, Nala said, “Hey! Good on ya! I hate walking all the way downstairs for my wonderfully private bathroom!” (No, she did, I actually heard her say that)(Actually, I wish I had, it could have saved me from what came next)

But it is even worse than you are imagining. Because of the curtain to contain the smell, it took a while for us to notice. Because the dirty diaper bin is behind the curtain, when we did start noticing a smell, we didn’t think too much of it. And because Nala was using A BAG OF EVIE’S BATH TOYS as a potty, the smell was also somewhat contained. So when I finally did get curious enough to investigate, I discovered probably a weeks worth of bathroom usage covering the floor and pouring out of a bag of my daughter’s toys.

If you don’t have a cat, rest assured that there is something particularly awful about the smell of cat urine. It claws into your brain and won’t let go. I have tried every chemical we have to get rid of the smell, and it is still there. And this wasn’t helped by the fact that after I would get done cleaning it, I would open the curtain up for it to dry out and Nala would help herself to the bathroom again. You see, once a cat decides where it wants to go to the bathroom, you can’t convince them otherwise.

Let me ask you, what value does a cat add? We used to use her as our main form of guest entertainment, but we have a kid for that now. What does a cat do that’s so fantastic that I have to take a shower in urine smell every morning? How does it balance out?

Why do I have to put up with this??

Young Guns 1 vs Young Guns 2

/ Shane / 7 Comments

There was a fine movie franchise at the end of the ’80s known as Young Guns, about the life and times of Billy the Kid. I have seen these movies more times that I can count. The main actors are Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips. In addition, Young Guns I had Charlie Sheen, and Young Guns II had Christian Slater.

There has been some debate recently about which of these two movies are better. I had mostly maintained that Young Guns II was better, but, as I’ve grown older, I’ve been kind of leaning towards Young Guns I.  So obviously, the only way to settle this is with a poll. I don’t want to sway people too much one way or the other, but I will provide you with some good parts to jog your memory:

Young Guns I:

The scene where they are all on peyote is hilarious. “Did you guys see the size of that chicken?”

The end of the movie when they are surrounded in the house is just plain awesome.
“Hey, Peppin. I see you got Charley Crawford down there with you.”
“Yeah, that’s right, Bonney. We got a whole -”
[Billy leans out the window and shoots Crawford]
“Hey, Peppin. Charley Crawford’s not with you anymore.”

One thing I don’t like about this movie is the whole storyline with Doc and that girl.

Young Guns II:

Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi, ’nuff said.

I liked Christian Slater’s character (Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh), and I liked the interplay between him and Billy better than interaction between Billy and Charlie Sheen in YGI.

The part where Dave stabs Chavez through the arm and then Chavez says, “You want your knife back?”

The whole storyline of Pat Garrett chasing Billy was very intriguing.

“Hello Bob!”
[Shoots Bob with a rifle that has eighteen dimes instead of bullets]
“Goodbye Bob! Best dollar eighty I ever spent.”

So, now I put you to the question:

Evie Quotes

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Evie, checking her imaginary watch, “It’s quarter past half.”

“Are you the smartest little girl in the world?”
“Yes I are!”

“Mooommmmy! I want more candy! More and more and more and more!!!!”
“Jeeze, she’s addicted after just one piece!”

It was a little Twix, for the record.

Sara: “Are you disturbed at how much our daughter enjoys seeing people cry?”

Well, I better explain that one.

Evie loves to see people cry. Any book that has a picture of someone crying, is an instant favorite. You can not look at that picture without Evie pointing out the tears. She asks to read books where people are crying and will talk about books with people crying long after they’re returned to the library. Even if there is just a smudge on the page by someone’s eye, she’ll point it out. “She’s crying? Daddy, she’s crying?” I have actually seen her applaud at the prospect of reading a book about crying.

In other words, the plans to turn her into an evil genius proceed apace.