Mia Yawning

Mia Yawning

I propped Mia up on one of Farrah’s pillows while she was in the shower.  I managed to get a few good photos of her. This photo was taken on August 29, 2010.

My Instapaper Links for the Week

What’s this? It’s a list of links I’ve read this week, which I hope you’d find interesting as well. I usually get interesting links sent to me by friends, posted on Facebook, or run across them in my casual browsing of the Internet. Often, I don’t have the time or patience to read the link when I see it. What I do then is place the link in the great Instapaper.

Instapaper saves the content of the link or at least the link, so I can read it later. Instapaper has an iPhone and iPad app which allows me to catch up when I have downtime, usually at day’s end. They also have their website to view the articles you saved.

So for you, a reader of this blog, I’m sharing a few links I found interesting this week. I hope to share links weekly if possible.

  • When Bad is Good Top 10 vices that are actually good for you. I know Farrah and I would like to take more advantage of #1 - Getting your zzz’s. But sometimes that’s not possible. (via Tage and CNN)
  • There’s an Apple event on September 1! If the rumor of a new iPod touch pans out, I might consider carrying that instead of an iPhone. (I said I might).
  • I Thought It Would Be Funny”, so says the British woman who put a cat in a trash can. Did you see that story? I’m surprised she didn’t think she’d get caught, considering the abundance of monitoring in the UK.
  • How to Bully-Proof Young Girls. Bottom line: cliques start early. Oh, and in the long run, girls are meaner than boys.
  • The rise and fall of American Apparel. All I’ve ever known of American Apparel is their risque ads (NSFW). But then again I’m not über hip. Dov Charney, the mastermind behind American Apparel, is an interesting sleazeball, at least from reading this article.
  • Batman, Inc. “It’s really weird. Batman can take anything. You can do comedy Batman, you can do gay Batman…it all works. It is something intrinsic to the character. It’s so strange and amazing.” – Grant Morrison.

...and now Zombies

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Vampires on television are successful (e.g. Vampire Diaries, True Blood). So why not try Zombies? Zombies are getting their shot on AMC’s The Walking Dead. The trailer looks good. It reminds me a bit of 28 Days Later. AMC now has some interesting shows. I just wish they were offered in HD. But I’ll watch this show to see if it should be added to the DVR lineup.

Tumblr Fails as My Blog Replacement

I tried. I really tried. But Tumblr just didn’t meet my blogging needs.

Tumblr was supposed to make my life easier by allowing me to post content quickly. I also wouldn’t have to worry about upgrading any server software, something I worry about with a WordPress self-install. Best of all Tumblr is free.

Where Tumblr failed me

But Tumblr failed me in the simple act of posting when I want to post. I post a photo at least once a week (see GPOMW). This is often a “scheduled post”, meaning it posts on a specific day and time. Also, I often “queue” items that I set to post 3 hours apart. Unfortunately, Tumblr has failed me on both of these types of posts. In fact, it’s happened several times in the past few weeks. Once, Tumblr decided to publish all my posts in the queue. This is, in turn, slammed my Facebook feed. Nobody wants to see 10+ items posted by the same user on their Facebook feed, all within a matter of minutes. Also, at times, I couldn’t do a simple post on demand.

At times, my Tumblr Dashboard takes forever to load. I don’t think it’s my Internet connection, as I am able to get to other sites quickly. P I did a traceroute to Tumblr’s servers and, well, let’s just say I wasn’t receiving good results at the time.

Perhaps they’re going through a growth-spurt issue, acquiring a lot of users and using up so many resources. If that’s the case, they need to correct these issues soon. If it’s just a problem with me, then I guess I just need to live with the fact that Tumblr is not for me - for my blog that is.

I have to say this though: getting my content off of Tumblr and back onto WordPress wasn’t easy. I ended up using the simply elegant Posterous to import my Tumblr account, then I imported from there back to Wordpress.com. Oh, then from there to my WordPress self-install. A lot of work. And you know what? Many of my Tumblr posts don’t have titles, which WordPress doesn’t particularly like. Luckily, I only had to correct fifty posts.

For now, it’s goodbye to Tumblr as my main blogging solution. Sometimes free isn’t the best solution. I may continue to micro-blog, but I won’t devote full blog posts there until things get sorted out.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Teaser

I always smile at these iPhone / iPad killers. I wish they’d come out first before people (e.g. people in blog comments) declare victory over the iPhone/iPad. What we don’t know are important things like price, battery life, how it actually looks and feels, etc. I’m guessing by the time the Samsung Galaxy Tab is released, the new iPad will be out. More (or less) info is available at Engadget.

Mia Boppy Surfing

Mia Boppy Surfing

Farrah placed Mia on the Boppy and I took a series of photos.  The little lens flare is light from the bedroom window, not some Photoshop effect. This photo was taken on August 22, 2010.

The Candwich

Gross.

I do NOT want to try this.

From Eater.com

The Candwich comes in three flavors: peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter and grape jam, and, the most terrifying of all, BBQ Chicken.

You are in Manhattan. Seriously, there must be a better place to get a bagel than Starbucks!