http://westxdesign.com/blend *blending technology with everyday life *living in a blended family Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:28:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been following, well, um, TRYING to follow, some of the principles of GTD - "Getting Things Done". As badly as I want to start CPORD (Collect, Process, Organize, Record, Do), I can't manage to get past just surviving day to day. I even bought David Allen's book last week. ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2008/gtd/ Whoa. 2008? What happened to July-December of 2007? I find it very hard to believe that 6 months got away so fast, and I never noticed it until now. Let's see if I can get back on track! http://westxdesign.com/blend/2008/a-new-year/ I put this together just to get a rough idea of what I needed to get done over the next 2 weeks. I thought I would share it and make back-to-school shopping a little more optimistic for most of you reading this: My Back to School Shopping and to-do list Here is ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/this-will-make-most-parents-feel-better/ It's now 2 am. After having woke up after 11 am, we got some breakfast/lunch, and headed to the Smirnoff Arena. I'm not going to go into a bunch of detail about the day. It was great, the kids had fun, and it may the only time in their lives ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/ozzfest-2007-the-aftermath/ It is 4:30 am, and we have just checked into our hotel in Dallas. The internet connection here won't work, so I am writing this to post later, probably after we return home. The drive was long, but went well. Besides the massive amounts of rain, it was pretty ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/ozzfest-2007-the-drive/ In just a few hours, we will be on our way to Dallas, Texas to attend Ozzfest. By 'we' I mean Myself, Hubby, and 5 teenagers. In one vehicle. Two hotel rooms. 4 teen girls and 1 teen boy. To quote a friend off jaiku: Hilarity and mayhem must surely ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/ozzfest-2007-packing/ *Note. This post is much more personal than any others, and doesn't apply to either technology or blended families, but it does highlight some of the wonderful things that can come from being part of family and community. Not everything in a blended family is work and struggle! My family and ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/center-of-attention/ .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 2007-07-06 Tinkerbears frst time outside, originally uploaded by westxrenee. Coming outside to play for the first time was too tiring for this little 3.5 ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/lil-tinks-first-day-out/ Here are some of the sites I am currently reviewing: (Beta) Spotplex provides internet users with real-time ranking of blog articles based on actual impression count. In other words, you can find what is the hot news today, this week, or this month in real time at Spotplex. This is not a ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/more-new-sites-to-review/ A comment on a previous article led me to an awesome article about 2 boys getting their first computer for Christmas in the early 80s. I wanted to comment on his site, but had to sign up, so I thought I'd say something here. The 80s were THE perfect decade ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/growing-up-geek-the-80s-way/ Every now and then I come across a quote that makes me want to shout "OH YEAH". I'll start sharing them. Today's quote is attributed to Edward Murrow, host of This I Believe in the 1950s: A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves. I couldn't fine much to substantiate just ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/quote-me/ Using an IMified widget, it's possible to post to your Wordpress blogs via your instant messenging client. I typically use Meebo, and don't IM 'on the road', so I'm not sure this is an awesome find, but I do occasionally use Mundu away from home on my Palm, and since ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/blogging-from-im/ I was goofing around and somehow, don't know exactly how, but somehow, I came across this page about a UFO sighting in Fort Stockton in 1972, complete with mockups of what was seen. I couldn't help myself, I had to look, and here's what I saw: Okay. Gee, that ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/ufos-in-my-hometown/ Moments after my previous post about viralinks, I received a comment from Culture Shiok! with information about another viral linking system. Here is the tag-based link matrix and instructions: Instructions: 1.) Copy and paste the matrix of ViralTags below courtesy of Founders Cafe (to support Jimmy's quest of launching his own ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/another-link-building-idea-for-bloggers/ It's been quite some time since I have posted to either of my blogs, and while I have plenty of excuses, I won't bore you with any of them. Somerset Bob poked me with a sharp stick and I thank him tremendously for it. I need to get back ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/another-live-writer-update/ While surfing, I came across this interesting way to build cross-links to your site. I think this is a much better plan than others I have seen (and refuse to participate in!). This is less obtrusive, doesn't require any special accounts or javascript, and I have more control over who ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/viralink/ After posting the previous entry via Windows Live Writer: Negative: Key words did not integrate into my current keywords Because no key words, related posts aren't generated Technorati links aren't generated, again because of the keywords don't jive with what I use Positive: Image uploaded with the post Link to full-size image maintained I downloaded and installed Andrew ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/writer-update/ I just installed the beta of Windows Live Writer on my XP desktop. After reviewing it, I thought I'd give it a try. Running a program on my PC in order to post to my blogs seems a little contradictory to me, but on the other hand, I usually ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/windows-live-writer/ This weekend was the 1st Shining Star Motorcycle Rally in Fort Stockton. Named after a Texas YES! designation the city received, the rally hoped to raise money for various community groups. The group that organized the rally wanted to incorporate the honor of being a Shining Star city ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/shining-star/ I have slept for 2-3 hours per night, each night, all week. Because of some persistent server problems, which I couldn't be reassured that they would not keep happening as they had for the past few weeks, I moved all of my sites and clients to new servers. All 34 of ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/the-great-migration-is-now-complete/ My host is experiencing some server problems, and as you have noticed, the site has been unavailable off and on for quite some time. I am hoping to have this resolved very very soon, so PLEASE bear with me. The host is hoping to have all reliability restored. I've been ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/server-problems-please-bear-with-me/ I feel like a proud parent all over again. Because of discussions at certain social web sites and this blog, along with the westXdesign blog, I have seen the following over the past few weeks: A writer friend set up his own wordpress installation to host his blog and has been tricking ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/feeling-the-love/ If you work in the web industry, go take the survey. This will be a valuable tool to evaluate and review trends and particpation. http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/i-took-the-survey/ This 404 page is just too funny not to share it with you: This page cannot be displayed because you need some fresh air. The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. Your ISP has told us ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/custom-404-error-too-funny-not-to-share/ Over the past 3 weeks, I have bought 3 brand new PCs from Dell. A 17" laptop for my husband, a 15" laptop for me, and a Dimension desktop for my mother in law. And Windows Vista came on all 3. I don't like it, the systems are slower ... http://westxdesign.com/blend/2007/dell-and-xp-and-vista-figures/