The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

• How to Use MySpace to Raise Awareness
  not because I like Myspace, but because the ROI and metrics stuff is interesting
  (tags: socialnetworking myspace advocacy)

I love the Christmas season. I love the lights and decorations and music and all that stuff. I hate the Cult of Santa and crass materialism, of course, but I’ve gotten pretty good on focusing on all the good stuff and blocking a lot of the bad stuff out. Before Thanksgiving, I avoid listen ing to Christmas music, I avoid pulling out decorations, I don’t do holiday shopping unless I run into that Perfect Thing that I won’t find again, but… on the day after Thanksgiving, I kick it off. the red sparkly sweater come out of the drawer, the Christmas music is nonstop on the iPod, the decorations come out, and I enjoy every second of it until New Year’s.

So with that in mind, I invite you to join me in kicking the season off with a little commercialism of the uplifting and edifying variety. Eat ‘n’ Park has put their Christmas star commercial online for viewing and download. It’s the heartwarming story of a star who wants to get to the top of the Christmas tree, but who can’t until he gets a little lift. It’s worthwhile, y’all. I find myself watching it several times during the holiday season from my hard drive since I no longer live in a market where I can see it on TV.

Happy Holidays, all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends, family, and readers. Here are a few of the things I am thankful for this year:

- My husband Tom, who… well, too many reasons to name here.
- Our families, who have adjusted to these marriage-induced changes in holiday traditions with grace and flexibility.
- Our friends, who form our family-away-from-family, and who stand with us in both times of joy and sorrow.
- The many material blessings we have received, which can be so easy to lose sight of. We are exceedingly fortunate to have abundant food, clothing, and shelter.

These are just a few, but they’re the big ones. And now, a blessing for our Thanksgiving feast:

Blessed are you, O Lord, maker of heaven and earth. You have blessed us in Your abundance this year, and we humbly ask Your blessings again as we gather to count them and celebrate Your care and provision for us. Nourish us with this food, and make us mindful that it is Your hand which provides it for us. In the name of Your Son, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

• The shady one-man corporation that’s destroying hip-hop. - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine
  sampling, copyrights, and sample-trolls
  (tags: music copyright)
• The lameness of World of Warcraft—and what to do about it. - By Chris Dahlen - Slate Magazine
  an interesting look at my current favorite pasttime
  (tags: wow worldofwarcraft weno game)

(Click for larger image.) So what do you think Microsoft was trying to say with this ad?

Is this a case of unintentional comedy, subversive designer, or is Microsoft really trying to link the Zune to BJs?

(Image IS actually SFW, even if you have to make your boss really LOOK at it to prove it.)

Dear sinuses-and-throat,

Stop it. Just fucking stop it. It’s bad enough that I had to wander through the streets of NYC and schlep to Penn Station with a fever. It’s bad enough that when I got home to my husband I was too tired and ill to have a decent conversation with him. It was totally over the line that I had to spend my birthday sick, feverish, and miserable. But today Mike and Jessi are getting married, and Tom’s whole family is in town. And I’m stuck sitting in a corner trying to stay upright instead of conversing pleasantly with my in-laws, because you chose THIS weekend to get all clogged and gooey and sore. So fuck you. Get better already. I’ve kept you well supplied with the finest OTC pharmaceutical products modern medicine has to offer. How about a little gratitude?

Love,

Tiff

Our new windows went in without incident on Friday.  It took most of Friday night for the house to warm back up, but once it did, we noticed a difference immediately. We no longer have to sit under blankets to avoid shivering like we did last winter.  When we turn the heat on, the house stays warm.

Tom opened the door yesterday and said, “WOW!  It’s COLD out here!”  And I said, “Yeah, but you know what’s exciting?  You’re surprised.”

Of course, in the process of all this, we had to take ALL the blinds down, and many of them didn’t survive the removal.  So now none of the windows have any kind of covering on them at all.  Which means we have to be strategic, like we let the bathroom window fog up a bit before stepping into the shower.  We’re working on some new blinds for the place and saw some we quite liked at Home Depot this weekend.

Also, I got a spiffy new phone- er, “mobile device.”  Helio is so overwhelmed with requests for numbers to be ported that they’ve stopped taking requests for it.  Rather than wait a couple of weeks to have my number or activate my phone, I just took the new number they gave me.  If you have my old one and didn’t get the email I sent out this weekend with the new one, drop me a line.

• Software by Rob :
  good articles on understanding how to hire and retain good developers
  (tags: mpoj recruiting softare developers interview programming blogs)

We’re getting new windows at Hacienda Bridge today.  We’ve been planning to do it for months, and in the grand tradition of the Baxendells, it’s happening on the coldest day so far this fall. 

I thought they were just going to take out a couple of windows at a time and then replace them, but according to Tom, who called me at work this afternoon, they took ALL the windows out at once and then started replacing them then.  So it’s 40 degrees outside and there are TEN GIANT HOLES in my house.  They promise we’ll have windows before dark, though.  That’s good, because this morning they were predicing that itwas going to drop below freezing tonight, and all I could think was, “Wow, I’m SO glad we’re going to have our new windows by then.”

Oh yeah, and our phone/Internet is down, and Comcast can’t set a service appointment because their service database is down. 

So if you don’t hear from me for a couple of days… that’s why.

• MSN Careers - Résumés From Hell… and 10 Lessons They Teach Us - Career Advice Article
  BAHAHAHA… you may have trouble believing some of these examples, but I don’t.
  (tags: mpoj jobsearch resume)