The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

• We Won’t Pipe Down at Like It Matters
  I was going to write a post about Kathy Sierra, but I think this guy said everything I was going to say, but better.
  (tags: kathysierra threats intimidation bullying cyberbullying assault misogyny blogging)

• How Ze Frank became a Web video star. - By Michael Agger - Slate Magazine
  (tags: video webvideo podcasting zefrank web)

Thoe of you who I don’t know personally may not have known that I’ve been looking for a new job for some time now. Without getting into the whole boring story of how the job that I loved (seriously, loved going to work every day, and how rare is that?) imploded, I’ll summarize what happened:

The company I worked for dissolved the division I was in, closed the practice area I specialized in, put me into a practice area I wasn’t at all interested in, and all my coworkers quit. So the job I went there to do no longer existed, and the people I went there to do it with didn’t work there anymore. So why stay?

I can talk about this now because I’ve officially given notice- I have a new job! Starting Thursday, I’ll be at a nonprofit in downtown DC, working in their web department. The job is right up my alley- mostly content stuff, very little code- and I’m really excited about it. It’s exactly what I’ve wanted to get into, so in a way, I suppose I have to acknowledge that the crapstorm at my job for the last 6 months has served a good purpose.

Anyway, I start Thursday. W00t!

• Do British accents make you more successful in America?
  Duh.
  (tags: language accent british bbc culture)

By the way, I haven’t seen a lot of coverage about this, and I had no idea it was happening until I got an email from my father-in-law… There’s a pet food recall happening because some pets are getting sick with kidney failure after eating certain can and pouch food products. The Iams website has info about the product codes you should look for to see whether your pet’s food is affected.

I checked Jack’s food this morning, and discovered that the food we’ve been feeding him all morning was not affected, but the box I was about to open was indeed part of the recall. So take a minute, check your pet food packages, and make sure your furry little buddy is safe, and if you’ve fed him some of the recalled food recently, keep an eye out for signs of illness and call your vet if you have questions. Fortunately, His Jackness has been his normal demonic self all week, so I am resting easy and buying him a box of non-recalled food today.

P&G Pet Care Announces Voluntary Participation in Menu Foods’ Nationwide U.S

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• EXCELER8ion - Online recruitment marketing, social media optimization, and interactive advertising
  I still think that Twitter is the Most. Useless. Web Service. Evar. but I think Julian Gude is smart, so I thought I’d pass this on, since I have a shiny-new Twitter account.
  (tags: mpoj twitter web Web2.0 webtool inanity)

I fixed the comment form- not sure what went wonky with the otherwise delightful antispam plugin I’m using, but upgrading to the very newest and best version seems to have fixed it.

Last night, I crossed off one of my longtime “To-Do Before I Die” items.  I got up and did a set at a local open mic night. It was a good time- it’s the last time my comedy class will officially meet before our Improv show on April 10, and the instructor will be emailing us feedback this week on how we did, in case the laughs we got weren’t enough for us.

For the record, I am funny.

An open mic in a coffeehouse is hard- the espresso machine will randomly start going while you’re doing a bit, the stage is sort of tiny and makeshift, and the mic stand was duct taped together, so I couldn’t lower it.  But none of that was really important once I got my first laugh. Matt and other people who have taken this class had told me that everything else melts away when you have an actual audience laughing at your jokes, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the reality.  I completely forgot to watch for the light that would tell me my time was nearly up.  The day before, performing for just the class at the Improv, I had only prepared enough material for 3 minutes, so I had added a joke or two, but apparently I went over my 5 minutes this time.  I felt bad about that, because I was early in the evening and too many people going over their time means some comedians don’t get to go on.  But at the very least, people laughed all the way through my 6 or 7 minutes.

There was a group of guys at a round table right in front of the stage who were fantastic- exactly the kind of people you hope will be at the open mic you happen to attend.  They laughed a lot.  And loudly.  And occasionally pounded the table.  They were all comedians themselves, and attend this open mic pretty regularly.  They told us afterwards that we were good, that a lot of the Improv classes don’t have a lot of confidence when they do the open mic but that we had looked really good. 

And I felt good about it.  We were clearly not as practiced as some of the people who went on, but it seemed like we were holding our own and it wouldn’t have been immediately obvious that most of us were first-timers had it not been pointed out.  (Which I’m not complaining about, just observing.)

The show ran late- I left the coffeeshop at 11:30 and arrived home about 20 minutes later.  When I got home and told Tom about it, he said, “You’re a rockstar!”

“No, I’m a comedienne.”

:D

Me & The Demon Lord

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I picked Tom up from the airport this morning. Jack was very glad to see him. You can tell from the photo, can’t you?

(I was sitting on the couch this morning in a brand spankin’ new suit, and Jack decided that it was exactly at THAT moment that he Must. Be. Petted. Now, Human.)

Upper Box C

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Here we are, bein’ cute at the ballpark.

I’m heading back to DC tonight (comedy school tomorrow, dontcha know), and Tom will follow in two days.

Yay, vacation.