Postcards From Oblivion

My Dear Wombat buddies,

As you may have noticed, I have a new blog theme. I’d been wanting this space to look at bit more postcardy, and a friend helped me to make it so. I thought this was fab. That’s not to say there aren’t some elements I’d like to tinker with, but I’m not all that adept at theme tinkering, so there it is.

This brings us to the poll.

Image via Athens Learning

Since I’m generally a people pleaser, I’d like to know what you think of the new design. Not so much “Gee, purple really isn’t your color” or “You do realize horses and dogs can’t read, right?”  More along the lines of one comment a reader left expressing her lack of love for the postcard format itself, forcing you to click on the title to read the full article (FYI–in Google reader, the full post appears).

Do you have a moment to share your thoughts? I’d sure appreciate it.

Merky buckets,

The Wombat

(I can’t even figure out how to make my signature a fancy font. Techie FAIL.)

Word has it, Google’s Friend Connect widget is one of their many apps presently on the chopping block. Well, that is, unless your blog is on Blogger. Mine is on WordPress, so I will no longer be able to glance over at my sidebar and admire all those smiling wombats in training. I love seeing those faces. It’s validating, for starters. Is that shallow? It’s nice to see that someone out there enjoys my content and is kind enough to tell me so by adding their happy mug to my roster.

Likewise, when I am smitten with a new blog, I always join their site with GFC. It’s a quick and easy way to pop them in my Google Reader, and it’s a way for me to show my support for their hard work.

But come March 1, it will cease to function in many, many sidebars. Mine included. Boo.

Their recommendation is that you pull up your bloggy bootstraps and jump on the Google+ bandwagon. I tried that route a while back, and I just never got into it.

[Sidebar confessional: I felt like a complete idiot every time I attempted to access Google+. I could never remember how to get there. If I could have punched that destination into my Garmin, I would have. I seriously felt that lost. I think someone finally pointed out a teeny little icon on my gmail page that would get me there as quickly as clicking my sparkly little red heels, but even then I was unimpressed. So, lack of interest paired with my lack of tech-savvy brain cells was making this a lose-lose venture for me. As a result, I'm not particularly excited about attempting it again.]

Do you use Google+? Do you actively use it as a way to stay in touch with friends and bloggy buddies? I’d love to have a way to connect with readers on a more personal level, so if there’s a simple way to do so out there, please clue me in.

If you use GFC, what will you do to replace it?

I feel like this should be my current disclaimer. My content is here, but it seems be in disarray, and my photos are MIA.

After much to-do, I finally moved to my new host. Many thanks for Go Daddy for going above and beyond in helping me move my files from their site. They really went to bat for me. I’m very grateful for their help.

That said, I don’t know where my photos went. My posts also seem to be out of order, but I’m glad they’re here (I hope they’re all here! Halloo? Are you here, posts?) I haven’t had time to check, and I have a busy few days ahead, so I’ll have to investigate a bit more next week.

Thanks to all who have expressed concern over the disappearance of mah blahg and have sent notes. They meant a lot to me. More later. I’ll soon catch up on my bloggy reading, too!

As the world moves toward a paperless environment, I find myself stumbling over passwords in the process. Technology can be a good thing—auto pay has saved me countless late fees, and shopping online rocks.

The downside is I find I’m digging for a piece of paper on which to scrawl my latest username and password combo for that particular account. I’ll create one that seems so obvious and then not use it for a while. When I go to access my account, I have no idea what I selected for a password. I usually end up trying a bunch of combinations, which results in my getting booted off their system, because my spazzy actions appear to be those of a skilled hacker. If they only knew how far from the truth that is.

If you think about it, we have to produce this information countless times a day. Most people have to punch in a username and password on their computer at work. You check Facebook and have to enter more info to gain access. You get a spare moment during the day and want to do some Internet shopping or check a bill payment online. Hope you remember those passwords. A friend of mine went to update his credit card info for his EZ Pass and had a brain freeze moment—it’s worse with those sites you don’t visit so often. Heaven forbid your cookies get erased and you have to log in with all your info on your favorite sites. Argh!

I finally boarded the Resolution Express yesterday (sans snacks this time) in an effort to get myself into some kind of shape. It’s been far too long since I was what the medical field refers to as “conditioned.” Incidentally, why is it that my overweight dog is classified as “overconditioned.” Shouldn’t that be “underconditioned?” Like she hasn’t gotten enough conditioning so she’s now plump?

Anyway, I finally plugged in the rowing machine, since I’ve been using it without the electronic display up to this point. Mr. Wombat thought it might be a little easier to row if I plugged it in. Not so much, but it’s good to be able to keep track of my progress on there. I input all my stats, and officially became U1. I’m thinking of having a t-shirt made that says U1, so I feel all official when I row.

Ooh, there’s a pacer program. How nice! We’re going to row, row, row together. Maybe the pacer will even push me a little.

Well, that bastard took off like a shot and left me in the dust:

Huh. He looks even with me, but he's 3 meters ahead. Oh well. Whatever.

I wonder if there are any Oreos left in the cupboard. You know. For an energy burst.

Well, Mr. Pacer, you've succeeded in sucking the fun out of this friendly competition.

Showoff. I'm out.

Feeling moderately humiliated, but still eager to embrace fitness in the new year, that afternoon I stepped up to the plate and gleefully registered myself on the new Wii Fit we got for Christmas. This was going to be my thing. I could feel it. I entered all my body info, age, and such, and proceeded with the balance tests. The final test proved to be a bit challenging:

Nice. One of the other screens asked if I trip over things a lot.

It then calculates your Wii Fit age:

I didn't feel quite as bad when I saw my son's age was 26 (he's 8).

{Click link below for soundtrack I heard in my head upon viewing that number}

The Price is Right – Losing Horn

Oh, I don't think you're going to think I'm weak when I kick you in the On button, Mr. Wii!

So. My resolution’s going well. You?

But here I go…

I’m a nitTwit. Twitter both tickles and confounds me all at once. What’s the hashmark at the end of a Tweet (and should I capitalize tweet?). Do they mark a discussion thread? Do you add that to start a discussion? Are they sometimes just used as a sort of punchline? It also took me months to figure out how to see where people had replied to my tweets. So then I looked like I was just being rude by not answering. Ack. Has anyone come out with a Twitter for Twits book yet? {sigh}

I have no idea how to add the blogs I follow to my WordPress dashboard. I’ve left my old blog open specifically for this reason. Yes, I know I can subscribe to RSS feeds, but I really like viewing them in dashboard format. It was an option on Blogger–surely it has to be on WordPress. I suppose my good friend, Google, has the answer. Maybe I should tap that resource.

I still count on my fingers. Recently talked with other adults who do the same. Not feeling quite so dumb anymore. Okay, still a little bit, but I do it discreetly, so it’s my little secret. Oh, wait. I guess it isn’t a secret anymore. Just doubled my dumb. Didn’t even have to use my digits for that one.

I haven’t balanced my checkbook in… what year is it? Yeah. It’s so far gone even my math whiz sister wouldn’t come within 20 yards of that thing now. It’s the numbers thing again. Seeing a pattern? Might be time to close the account and start a new one. Not that I’ve ever done that before.

I can’t figure out where to put the code to run Google Analytics on my new site. For the love of the man, please leave a comment so I know you’ve been here, because right now it’s feeling like a ghost town. {tumbleweed blows by}

I may or may not also need a map to navigate BlogFrog. Okay, I do.

I hid a Christmas present for my husband two or three years ago and I can’t find it. Anywhere. I remember putting is somewhere “safe,” but I was chatting on the phone at the time and did it quite absentmindedly. This is way worse than the time it took us a nearly a year to find one of his “carefully hidden” gifts. Hooray for me for reaching new a new level of ditzy.

I could watch this sketch (and others in the series) about a million times and never tire of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKw8Hsf-ulg

Until very recently I thought BOGO was a brand of shoes they sell at Payless Shoe stores. Yep. It wasn’t until I heard some other retailer mention their BOGO sale and then they spelled it out for morons like me that it was Buy One Get One. Whatever. I’m still not shopping there.

I suppose I should quit now before this becomes an all-out confessional.

Anything you’d like to share?