Tags and clouds...

Whether we like it or not, or notice it or not, our lives are quickly being defined by tags and clouds. As information becomes available, and relavent, we are doing everything in our power to keep track of it, and make note of it. There's nothing worse that 1000's of links in your bookmarks, or unorganized email, or a list phone number for an important contact.

The concepts of tagging, and the related cloud aspect do indeed bring to mind the concept of "6 Degrees of Separation", and the social aspects of finding people are are interested in the same off-beat things you are. Perhaps there is a small comfort in knowing you aren't the only person who likes the idea of little coffe cup jackets ;-)

Still, as we struggle between more knowledge vo more information, tags seem to be one of the more interesting ways to keep trakc, and organize what we want to know about. I find myself organizing things in the analog world, based on tags, as well. My bookshelf, my analog mail, even my wardrobe. The struggle seems to be in unifying tags, and ensuring that what i mean when i say sweater, is consistent whether it's monday or whether it's March. And therein lies the trick to tagging in the blogosphere. Because of the unpredictable nature of humans, not everyone has the same meaning for the same word.

I did a tag query on shopping over the weekend…. (i get all twiggy when i find a unique on-line boutique)… and yet, the results that cam back, tagged as "shopping" where bizarre, and only a handful of on-line boutiques came back to me. The vast majority of the results were related to XLM and creating shopping cards… not necessarily what a gurl wants to do on a sunday morning…especially when she's thinking of real shopping ;-)

regardless of what you tag, consistency is key, i am learning, as is the nesting of tags… after my dismal attempt at shopping, i added boutique to my query and magically got rid of the coding results. still, nesting only adds another layer of complexity to a situation that is tenuous at best…. and introduces yet another opportunity for humans to be obscure. my tagging expertise is limited, but i've figured out, if even I want to find the stiff i've squirreld away, i have to be vigilent with my consistency. And with my spelling.

Once i tagged something with "tek" - and could never find it again.

;-)

Technorati : clouds, relavence, tagging

it's all well and good...

… to have a blog that meanders and waves, with spices of work and life and hopes and dreams.  Methinks that there is more afoot to the blogosphere than simple natterings.  Hence, the better organization along the left - go - look - see - some more content, that likely won’t be as personal as this, but might be just as rewarding ;-)

anyways, it’s a start. 

rss and readers...

… are so damn impersonal…..

my gut says that if you want to read me, go the whole way into the site, don’t just dip your toes at the edge!!

;-) 

one more for the road...

.. do you hate the way your hands get burned holding a triple triple, or the cramp you get trying to keep your fingers on the top and bottom of the cup, rather than securely in the middle?

 

don’t pop your head off, it’s very cool, in an utterly bizarro sort of way. Cup Couture is here….

and the grins just keep on coming. 

biting...

if you are like me, and you may just be, you might also be the sort of person who ohhs and ahhs over paper products…. i’ve stumbled  over kate’s paperie

go, enjoy the smiles. 

time....

it’s a good feeling, this one… with snow everywhere, and the briefest respite from thinking about (the company that cannot be named) work …. despite the odd goodness that comes from doing something good with a good team, is the underlying weight that this isn’t going to ever be tryly good, or get much better than it is now… and folks who are near and dear to me are beginning to chime in on what a bizarre and dreadful point i’m at.

there are days i can be angry before i hit the parking lot, and days when i’m so very upset that i’m letting a customer down. and that’s no way to be… trying to find the balance between myself and mow work… when does it stop being work and start being life again? 

goodness...

"Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century."
  - Dame Edna Everage

good words to live by, all things considered. 

promises...

all apologies...

…. for bein g so very negligent in being regular with the postings… not that there’s nothing going on, but simply because of the fact that there happenst to be TOO MUCH going on… i think i worked 15 hours yesterday.  and i KNOW i worked longer than that on monday.  despite being under the weather, and over medicated, of course.  Today will be no better, at worok early, and back to the grindstone tonite… 

my only respite this week may be a good customer meeting on thursday.

oh - and don’t forget to remind me about how silly (the company who cannot be named) may be in the coming days. 

gwen's birthday

happy birthday gwen!

this is for you!!

 

this little treasure was found at elsewheres.com

nifty, huh?

:-) 

definitions...

«The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it’s the same problem you had last year.» John Foster Dulles

a very cool thing...

… i wake up this morning with an interesting email….

for the past few weeks, i’ve been trying to mold existing web 2.0 apps into my handy dandy house tracking portal… none have been exactly what i want, and i had abandoned all hope ;-)  and yet… today i receive an email from a guy at rrove.com

Asking me for feedback, etc… and so i did. and his responses were encouraging!  Even tho the features i want may not get added, this whole incident has reaffirmed my love for the web, and the evolution of the web.  Gone are the days of the automated message of "we will get back to you in 5 days"…. a real live guy asked me for input. (insert sigh here). 

human verification...

i just realized…. every other blog i comment in, requires a little human verification test.

mine doesn’t.

does that insinuate that i’m not that picky if the commenter is human or not?

;-)

Happy Friday! 

jumping on the torrent bandwagon...

i’m tentatively doing it - wading into the torrent stream… and i can admit freely that i am fairly panicked about it… which is silly for a pseudo geek to say… but i’m simply not good at it… not really… but a marketing guy gave me all the instructions i need… and i think, hell, if marketing ca do it….

:-)

(hug to friendly marketing guy)

now - the next step will be to see how to actually watch these little bits of demons…. i need a new video card. sigh. did i mention i’m not all that shite hot with hardware either? 

my new favourite thing...

 

Maxwell House Singles. An outstanding idea, if only a tad expensive… they are outstanding… and the coffee is no worse or better than a timmy’s ;-) go. try. drink.

happy valentines day...

amid the chaos and work and insanity, the desire to leave one’s latop at work for the "big night" is strong and compelling… and as it turned out - there wasn’t time to even turn it on, which is likely a good thing, a verra good thing ;-) 

i arrived home to bouquets of brilliance, with, of course, the requisite amount of love displayed as chocolate. then time for a wee nap, and off for dinner - our local japanese haunt… and by the time all was said and done, there was barely time to crawl into bed, giggle over the olympics and wish a happy valentines to all.

thank you mr rogers...

… for adding more bandwidth and making my internet experience less unsatisfying…

i feel like i am whizzing over the internet ice with a newly sharpened pair of skates.

Bless you. I’ll bet i gave you a deal on that same internet service. ;-)

the olympics...

… so - we are now thoroughly entrenched in what may be the oldest sporting event on the planet, and it never seems to amaze me - the IDIOCY of it all now… in times being as they are, to see such excess wealth poured into something that creates no real value, and helps so little.  I think what finally set me off was reading that over $400 Million was squandered on the IT infrastructure alone to support the olympics this year…. wow.  That’s ALOT of electroncs, not to mention the fact that ON TOP OF THAT, vendors couldn’t GIVE away product fast enough to support it as well…

i simply am boggled by it - the time and effort and cash dumped into something that benefits so very few. and for what? Oh don’t give me the old "it’s for patriotism, it’s for national identity" bullsh*t… are you going to be more heartbroken if we only win 15 medals? as opposed to the 25 we are planning on? in March, are you really going to give one fig about who won the 5000, men’s speedskating? Imagine how far $400M would go to places where you have to jig through a minefield to get to school?   Or how about I move closer to home - and dump $400M into the school system of ontario? or michigan? Imagine a university grant for every kid who’s parents make less than $40k a year?  Gee - here’s something novel - how about better/more/cheaper vaccines for avian flu?

don’t even get me started on the infrastructure changes the host city has to go through now to support the venues… It’s reported that the 2004 olympics sucked $12 BILLION from the Greek economy… What is Vancouver thinking?  Bidding on the olympics is simply akin to asking for repeated punches to the soft, wobbly bits of the local population of the host area… we are eons away from the vancouver olympics, and already the costs are now vastly exceeding the estimates?  Now all of Canada is getting dragged into the economic olympics sludge….

are you even going to remember the olympics in June? pfft… simply a waste of time, effort and money.

the olympics goes - we forget about it - but the host city gets to painfully remember it for the next 4 years, until another sucker city and it’s inhabitants gets to feel the pointy toe brunt of the economic "honour".

ohhh the agony...

… this post was originally titled " the antiquities".. and covered an outstanding evening of reuniting with old netcommies, who, if i say so myself are remarkably well preserved…. must be all that good clean living =)

… - i lost the whole posting whilst toasting toast - to make a PB & J sammmie, and the fire alarm went off, and in my hurry, a few extra power bits got turned off in the confusions….. and so did the computer ;-) 

and so - all the netcommies….they are all spread out, in outstanding jobs, doing amazing things, and full of laughter… and i miss that. I miss that plenty.

it’s good to know that, like seeds, the netcommies have gone out and infiltrated all industries and all verticals…. it makes for many options, from my little point of view… bell, telus, at&t, EDS, CGI, sprint… you name it, netcommies are there…..and knowing someone is half the battle….

 and now, here i sit. burned toast and all… realizing i have to get up and go to a meeting in 12 hours…

that sucks. stay tuned! 

faking out the search engine...

…. silly….

sex and candy and kittens and beer and co-ed parties and lobsters and jello.

How ‘bout Osama and Bush and naked mole rats. Maybe add a dash of creative ice sculpture and the Olympics - don’t forget about Frank and Gordon, or Keiffer Sutherland.

There - that should do it. A wee blogger once wrote about silly ways to get search engines to find you... :-) 

Now i too want to see what happens.  With this site, likely nothing.

Pfft.