Categories
Just Shelley

By the light…

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I’ve been in San Francisco one year this month.

One year ago I stopped living with my ex-husband, drove 3000+ miles across country, and established a new life in California.

One year ago I closed down my successful Massachusetts business and bid my friends and Boston good-bye.

One year ago I sat in my new apartment, unsure if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. I sat, quietly in a darkening room and listened to the strange sounds of a new home.

Gradually, I became aware of a soft light coming in through the window. Looking up, I saw the Silver Moon framed in the window. Outside, the Bay was lit up so brightly I could see the ripples of the individual waves.

Well, I wasn’t looking for a sign, but this will do. Yes, this will do.

Categories
Weblogging

Welcome to my new home

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I liked Movable Type so much that I decided to make the move even though I haven’t finished all the back end processing.

For the most part, this won’t be a problem as long as you’ll all be patient with odd fits and starts. Oh, and the weblog might be off at times, too.

If you know Unix or one of its variations then you’ll know what I mean when I say that I love ln — the link utility! Unix will always kick Windows butt by providing access to powerful command line utilities such as ln when you’re making a move as I am with the weblog. The smartest move Apple’s made is basing Mac OS X on Darwin, the FreeBSD Apple derivative. (And the Titanium laptop was a pretty good move, too.)

I love Movable Type. I love Unix. I love Linux. I love FreeBSD. I love my Mac OS X and Darwin. I love all of you! I love the really good margarita I just had!!

BTW — if you link to me, could you please change your link to point to this new location (weblog.burningbird.net), babies? The Bird will be eternally grateful.

Categories
Technology Weblogging Writing

Work, work, work

Working weekend this weekend.

I’m finally finishing my writing for the UPT book after too long a break (with apologies to my long suffering and extremely patient editors). And I’m finally porting my weblog to Movable Type, hopefully finishing by Monday or Tuesday.

I am partial to Blogger, and think it’s the best blogging tool to use when a person is just starting; however, the Blogger servers are just too overloaded and I want to control the hosting of the blogging tool as well as the content on my own server. If there’s a problem, then, at least I can deal with it personally.

Sorry Phil. Sorry Ev. Think of it as one less weblog stressing the system.

Radio’s a good weblogging tool, also, but I don’t care for the Userland Radio cloud and my server is FreeBSD, which means I can’t host my own Radio cloud. There are other weblogging tools, but none seem to have the level of sophistication, adaptability, and usability of Movable Type. It was the natural next choice for me.

BTW, I’m not only porting my weblog to a new tool, I’m also incorporating some features that are very unique, unusual, and abnormal for a weblog.

Abnormal. Yeah, that’s me.

Categories
Weblogging

Taking the new weblog out for a spin

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I’m taking the new MT weblog out for a spin. It’s new location is http://weblog.burningbird.net, existing as a separate virtual host to isolate it from my other web sites.

Be aware that this is a test spin, only. The weblog doesn’t have the backend work finished, which is going to take at least a few days; and there’s no connectivity between the ported entries and the existing comments.

A major change with the new weblog — no Google. I’ve effectively told Google that it isn’t welcome within the new weblogging environment.

If you’re familiar with web spiders and bots, then you’ll know about the robots.txt file. This file is located at the root of the web site and provides information for various bots as to which directories can be accessed by which bots. In the case of the new weblog, I’ve added entries to the robots.txt file that all bots are forbidden access to the entire weblogging web site except for blogging specific bots such as the Daypop bot.

As I’ve found by careful analysis of log files in the last few months, Google doesn’t provide any value within the weblogging environment. For instance, look at recent search terms:

    • email spammer
    • add node to morpheus
    • from hell’s heart i stab at the
    • hallelujah shrek wav
    • fire bird cars
    • romance and respect

I think what finally decided me on this decision is when the weblog got a hit for the term orange prison jumpsuit after my CT scan weblog entry of a couple of days ago.

Yes, these Google search results lead people here, but what does this buy? The people who come are looking for specific information, not personal ramblings with accidental groupings of words. All Google is doing is wasting my bandwidth. And if you think on it, my weblog is impacting on the accuracy of Google searches.

If we had more sophisticated search systems based on a more elegant meta-language such as RDF, then general search engines such as Google could be more effectively combined with weblogging.

I do have weblog postings that would be effective resources for Google and I have a plan in place for these — to be discussed in a future post. I also have a plan in place for people specifically looking for my weblog through Google. Again, to be discussed at a future time when everything’s ready to go.

Unfortunately, one of the negatives with the no Google approach is that my weblog’s Google page rank will be zero — no rank at all. This means that I’ll be one of the weblogging unclean. People will come to my weblog and they’ll think to themselves, “Poor girl. No one links to her. No one must like her.” I will be cast out into the desert of the Google disenfranchised. I will no longer be a part of the Great Collective.

Cool.

Categories
Places

Embarcadero

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The doctor is in. I’ve prescribed myself a daily walk along the Embarcadero, gradually extending the distance until I walk the Bridge to Bridge — Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge and back. Over 12 miles. I figured I’ll make my goal by end of May. 2004.

If you’ve never been to San Francisco, the Embarcadero is the road that follows the Bay, providing access to attractions such as the world-famous cable cars, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Pier 39. The sidewalk along the water side of the road is extra wide, providing plenty of room for bikers, walkers, joggers, inline skaters and skate boarders.

Palm trees line the road, and the sun and breeze are in your face. There’s plenty of breaks between the waterfront buildings to stop and watch the seagulls, pelicans, and other sea birds, as well as the sailboats and freighters. If you get tired of watching the water-based wildlife turn inwards toward the road and watch the stretch limos, stretch Humvees, and stretch SUVs flow past.

Near the Ferries, I walked behind three backpacking kids, tattooed and body pierced to the point that you wonder how they can hold water when they drink.

At Pier 23, a bike passes to my left, ridden by a guy in a red athletic suit, wearing a gold crown with color coordinated red velvet lining. Yesterday another bike rider had a basket attached to his handlebar containing a black cat, front paws on the basket edge, nose into the wind.

Near Pier 30, skate boarders have claimed a wide section of the sidewalk, testing their agility against the cement blocks that are placed all throughout the Embarcadero. The California rite of passage — skate boarding without pads, daring each other to wilder and wilder maneuvers. Strangely graceful. Oddly beautiful. Brainless.

I stopped today at Pier 33 and stood leaning against the wooden fence, looking out into the Bay. I noticed a very old motor-powered wooden boat heading towards me, riding very low on the water. As it got close to shore, the pilot turned the boat so that the side faced land and I saw it was loaded with tourists, all with cameras pointed straight towards me.

What?

I looked behind me and noticed that I was between the tourists and a great shot of Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.

Oh.