all things me

Why is it that when I ask a question to which I want an actual answer, it’s next to impossible to know if the answer can be taken seriously? Is it a Man Thing^TM to smirk while replying — always?

Oi, how some people complain every time there’s a new .x upgrade to WordPress. “Why couldn’t they make it good enough the first time around?” “Upgrading is such a draaaaaag.” So, you’d rather have an upgrade every 2-5 years at most? You’d rather wait that long for a cool new tweak in a feature or a fix to a flaw? Why is it so difficult to grasp the concept of an on-going open source project where the users actually have a say in what the “product” is going to be like? (And at the same time everyone complains how Microsoft and Mr. Gates are so dictatorial.)

After theme structure was introduced to WP, upgrading changed from pretty simple to very simple. Unless you want to go hacky-hacky with the core code, I don’t see any problem with deleting a couple of files and uploading a couple. Sure, there are some files and folders you’re better off not deleting, but there aren’t so many you couldn’t remember them all. All the important stuff is in the database which you don’t touch during the upgrade.

Simple.

Or am I just too happy-go-lucky?

This time next year I will be in Australia.

It’s weird to know that already but not be able to do much about it really. There are no flight schedules available yet and I have to double check how much information I’ll need for a visa application (possibly flight details). Hopefully I’m eligible for an ETA because I don’t want to mail (!!!) my precious passport to Berlin! I do have to get a new one — and photos for it, uhh — so there’s something to keep me occupied.

Yesterday I was browsing a little, checking the prices (ouch), flight times (gosh), and places where I’d need to change planes (yikes). It’s going to be wonderful, though, no matter the cost. I’ll be in Sydney for about 3 weeks. First for a friend’s wedding, then a week dog-sitting while the happy couple is on a honeymoon, and then a week doing touristy things.

I haven’t travelled abroad properly before. I was 4 days in Berlin with a school group (teacher + 4 students including myself) and “of course” I’ve been to Stockholm, Sweden quite a few times thanks to a childhood (onwards) friend and her mother’s job. Now, in addition to going very far I’ll be going by myself which is going to be stressful but I hope I’ll get back home in one piece (and I hope my luggage will, too).

For the whole story, see category Tourist of Oz.

Nowadays I can’t help but feel like a procrastinator in everything else but work. The infamous magazine article is still waiting for a final glance which shouldn’t be such a big hurdle but in reality I’m terrified. An ontology is waiting to be built, an article waiting to be read, and I haven’t played in ages (except Minesweeper)!

Yesterday I did manage to finish something: a website for a relative, an entrepreneur. Usually I hate taking the smaller screens and Internet Explorers in consideration but this time I had to because of the target audience. It wasn’t so bad after all — no mysterious spaces after I put a doctype on the page. I even left the font size to default and it scales to humongous proportions (on Mozilla and Firefox). Then again, having the doctype in place, I couldn’t do trickery in order to get the smallish boxish page center vertically. Oh well, usability over looks — that’s the way to go. It’s valid XHTML and looks alright even when you remove all the images. No fancy-schmancy JavaScript either. I even made a special stylesheet for printing! Ah, gotta pat myself on the shoulder for once.

Here’s a little tasting. Nothing fancy.

After having been a project manager for a week now I’ve started to get annoyed by the technical people. I’m willing to work without a lunch break (let alone coffee or cigarette breaks (I do drink coffee, but I don’t smoke)) to get something urgent done — I did that on Friday — and in my naïvete I expect everyone else to do the same. I was furious when the person who was supposed to be working on an urgent project (deadline on Monday) was nowhere to be seen. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to do something snap, right there and then. I realise the work isn’t progressing, so I’ll probably have to do it myself on Monday. I can’t really tell the client that I couldn’t keep the deadline because the others weren’t doing their jobs, can I?

I know I’m horrible. I’m sure the others have lots and lots of more work to do than I — even if they have time to frolic and complain that they’re bored. On Friday I was panicking about the deadline and they laughed that I’ll probably throw something heavy at them. I couldn’t, I was too tired.

I’ll be very glad when this 2-week multiple personality disorder is over. I don’t mind doing the technical stuff and I don’t mind doing the project manager stuff (it’s been, despite everything I’ve just said, very interesting and refreshingly challenging). But I can’t do them both, full-time, simultaneously.

Despot — a person exercising power tyrannically

Picture of Mitler from South Park Create A Character

These are wonderful!

• Fun Movie Quiz (score so far: 13. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to write for picture 27!)
• Fun Movie Quiz part 2 (score so far: 15)
• Intelligence Test, Part 1 (score so far: 10)
• Intelligence Test, Part 2

Yeah yeah, it’s ‘quizzes’ but it’s odd how the z doubles.

Intelligence test part 1:
7 days of the week
4 signs of the zodiac
32 is the temperature in degrees fahrenheit at which water freezes
100 cents in a dollar
12 months in a year
13 is unlucky for some
29 days in february in a leap year
365 days in a year
52 weeks in a year
60 minutes in an hour
1000 years in a millennium

No, this isn’t an “I’m sorry I exist” posting.

Today, again, it was cold enough for breath to become visible and as I was standing at the bus stop I tried to breathe slower and slower because the cloud of vapour that was rising out of my nose looked screamingly white. I don’t make noises when I breathe (hey, some people do…) so it annoys me when people can see it anyway!

On another note, I ordered the PostSecret book on a whim. I’ve been reading the blog for a while and some of the postcards have been very apt and touching. I doubt the exhibition ever reaches Finland and I’ve been bummed about the fact that the site doesn’t hold an archive. And besides, I like books.