What I’ve Been Up To
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, General
Lots of knitting. Lots and lots of knitting. (If you’re on Ravelry, you can see my finished projects.) My hands ache from the knitting, particularly the left, because I knit Continental. I think I may have to learn to knit English just to swap off on occasion.
We’ve been going out to hear more live music — three house concerts this fall. I love me some house concerts! In fact, I need to write some music reviews. I’m also in a couple of RPGs each week, one Dresden Files and another 5th edition D&D. And I’ve been doing a little consulting on the side.
I haven’t found anything I’ve enjoyed reading enough to write about recently. That takes love for the subject matter. I am still reading (it’s like breathing for me), there are just more articles, and listening to more podcasts and fewer books. I’m missing the fiction I usually consume, but I’m sure I’ll be back to it soon enough.
The need to re-do my web sites is present again. Know anyone who does good custom WordPress themes?
I’ve been look back on my web content, wanting to update it. Much of it was written when I wasn’t working. I mean, I had plenty of work to do, because I was a SAHM to three kids and we entertained frequently. But I wasn’t working for anyone outside the family. I love working, but it takes up most of my energy, so I just don’t have it to put into the web anymore. I don’t want to give up the site, though — there’s a lot of history in technomom.com, going all the way back to 1995.
Geeky Squee!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Geekery
Those with sharp eyes might notice that the “random quote” widget there in the right-hand column has changed to a fancier one, and a page with all the quotes in the database has been added to the site, too. I switched to a new plugin, but was also able to remember something I’d nearly forgotten about SQL that allowed me to transfer all 824 quotes from one plugin to another without having to re-type all of them. I’m so happy I did a literal geek happy dance around the house!
If anybody out there knows a LOT about transferring posts from an old version of WordPress (php 4 database) to a newer one, I could use some help. I’ve gotten stuck trying to recover the old posts from Katie’s blog and things just keep erroring out. All the other sites came across just fine, but the export function on hers wouldn’t work so I can’t use the sweet little importer and have to actually much with the SQL directly, and keep getting SQL errors without intelligible error messages (my only access is through phpMyAdmin).
Today’s Post is at Fibrant Living
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Blogging, Health
Getting Better is today’s post. I’m going to be alternating between posting here and posting on my other blogs from now on, but I’ll always at least post a notice here.
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New Site — Feel Like Writing?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Blogging
One of the changes I’ve made in the last few weeks is to move the stuff I’ve written about love, relationships and community to a new home, Felis Lunae. That’s a handle I’ve used on OKCupid and in other places for years, so it’s a domain I happened to have sitting around — no other special meaning to the name, honestly.
Another is that Heartsong Handicrafts, where my cross-stitch designs live, is now a WordPress site. That makes it a little easier to navigate, and gives people the option to leave comments or contact me through the comment form.
I finally got all the home education articles moved over to Academy Caritas, where I intend to continue talking about lifelong education (not just homeschooling).
I moved a few more articles over to my writing portfolio, and got the safety and privacy articles settled into their proper home at Cyberstalked.
The only site that didn’t really get changes (yet) is Fibrant Living, but it will get updated. It’s about living a full, vibrant life despite chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia and major depression.
I wanted to go over the list of sites because I’m open to guest articles from anyone I know well here or on the other sites. I know some very good writers who don’t have web sites of their own other than Facebook, which is really more for ephemera. If you’re interested in writing an article or post, please leave a comment here or contact me otherwise.
Well, That’s Done. I Think.
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Blogging
I can’t say that I’ve fixed every broken link everywhere on the site (I didn’t go through all the old posts) but all the internal links are working now, thank goodness. I think I’m done with moving things about to new homes for a while, at least 🙂 I thank you for your patience!
Still working on the site
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Announcement, Blogging, Geekery
But as you can see by the growing list of pages on the right-hand side of the site, I’m making progress. The reading, stitching, geekery and health parts of the site have been migrated to WordPress, although not always rewritten and updated. My professional site has been migrated completely now, too. There are still some pages to be migrated here, but they’re coming, then I’ll work on getting the patterns site migrated and maybe even add more patterns. Fibrant Living needs some love, as does Cyberstalked.org, but that last one is my lowest priority.
I don’t suppose anyone would like to test stitch one of the patterns at Heartsong Handicrafts? It would be nice to have stitched model photographs for that site. I haven’t finished the biggest pattern that I was test-stitching for the site yet.
There are new contact forms up on this site and at CynthiaArmistead.com to offer an alternative way to reach me for those who might be shy about commenting.
Happy Father’s Day!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Family, Holidays, NaBloPoMo
I hope it was as wonderful for y’all as it was for us.
While Daddy was taking a nap, I did a little work on the site here, continuing the process of migrating things from the old format into WordPress. It’s going to take more time, but eventually all the pages will be uniform. Really! If you find anything that isn’t working, though, please be patient and leave me a comment about it?
Cruisin’
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Fun, NaBloPoMo
Plinky asks, “Would you ever take a cruise? Why or Why not? Where would you go?”
Sure. I’d love to take a cruise. In fact, that seems like a lovely way to travel to/through the Caribbean or the coast of Alaska. I know people who have done both who recommend both trips highly.
I think I’d enjoy a theme cruise more, though, like gaming (RPG gaming, not gambling gaming) or filking or maybe even an entire SF Con on board a ship. I’m not particular to any one fandom enough to get into anything like a Trek cruise, but a more general fan cruise could be fun. Combine lovely surroundings and pampering with fun? Sure!
Tags: cruises, fandom, Gaming, travel
Whether…
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Art, Blogging, NaBloPoMo, Relationships, Writing
Such a word that is, indicative of choices big and small. I’ve faced more change than choice in the past 30 days or so, thanks to a major relationship change.1 But there have been choices, and there will be yet more choices in the future—choices that I will be making alone, for the first time in many years.
Choice, reflected in that word, is the NaBloPoMo theme for March. And I’m making a change, by making a choice to return to blogging.
I’ve been journaling privately these past weeks as a spiritual practice and have found it rewarding. I’m not quite doing writer’s pages à la Julia Cameron, but perhaps I’ll return to that discipline at some point. To be honest, my spiritual life has suffered greatly in the past six years, and my writing has suffered along with it (as well as my music, needlework, and everything else).
So, perhaps I’ll write about choices this month. Or about changes. Or about anything else that strikes my fancy. I’m just making a commitment to posting a bit each day, for now.
1 One not yet reflected everywhere on my web sites, because it takes a lot of time to track down all mentions of a 14-year partnership
Tags: Changes, Choices, Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way
What was your favourite part about returning to school?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Education, Memories
The NaBloPoMo prompt for today:
What was your favourite part about returning to school?
That’s not an easy question. It wasn’t cool to acknowledge being happy to return to school each year, of course, so while I was glad, I didn’t really acknowledge it to myself. As a result, it is more difficult to access those memories.
Even though I knew there would be endless amounts of review each year, I was always excited about the possibility of learning something new. After we left Gadsden, I was able to look forward to school library access, too. (The elementary school I attended in Alabama didn’t even have a library, and back then, the Gwinnett County Public Library wasn’t the award winning facility that it is now.)
I also had a secret hope that maybe this would be the year when I would meet someone like me. Someone else who didn’t fit in. Someone who preferred books to most people, who either didn’t go to church or was only there because his or her parents forced the issue, who would be willing to discuss the questions brought up by all the contradictions in the Bible and various church’s teachings (and how preachers and other church leaders actually lived). Someone who didn’t think it was bad to be intelligent, maybe even someone who would admit to daydreaming and making up new stories about people they’d read about, or completely new stories of their own. The kind of people you didn’t run into just because your parents bought houses in the same neighborhood, or went to the same church, or worked for the same company.
I did meet someone who became a dear friend in the first week of my Junior year, on the bus, in fact. She even lived in my neighborhood! I continue to be amazed by the fact that I said something to her first, as she’s far more extroverted than I have ever been. Dorothea is a treasure, and I will always be thankful for meeting her.