god do i need to redesign this site

I think maybe I would post more if I wasn't SO over this design. I was all set (like, last year???) on putting up a new header with one of my new photos every month, but I wasn't doing my photography for so long that I felt like all my favorite photos that would work were 2 years old. Gah!

Plus, Blogger may be reaching it's limits for me. I put so much work into customizing my site design that I still haven't upgraded to the new version because I'm afraid it'll totally mess the site up (and I don't have time to troubleshoot it.) I also wonder if it's not time to look into a different blogging platform. Right now, I don't have the time to do any of those things.

Add to that the fact that I'm so wedding-crazy right now that I fear that's all I may have to blog about, and I don't want to bore everyone to death.

my blargh

I'm going to start referring to this as my blargh, because that's how I feel every time I think about posting. Not that I don't have anything to talk about, but there's so much going on (in a good way) that I don't even know where to start.

That is all.

Blaaaaaarrrggghhh...

meh new year

It's been a busy holiday season, with family emergencies, lots of travel, more than a bit of allergies on my part, etc., etc.

These days I feel like I have so much going on I'm having trouble keeping stuffthatbugsme updated. I can always find more reasons not to post than *to* post. I'm tired, under-the-weather, and I feel incredibly boring. It feels like it's been ten years since my last post. And so I stress out about how long it's been since I posted. And talk about timely - JR just sent me this link:

Blogging to an Early Grave?

Some bloggers have seen the stress that comes alongside blogging to have a substantial health effect. The New York Times notes three whose stress may have contributed to heart attacks: tech blogger Russell Shaw, 60, and Marc Orchant, 50, who died recently. Om Malik, a well-known tech blogger, survived a heart attack as well. He is only 41.

In happier news, I've picked up a bit of a crafting bug, so that's taking away some of my time too - I'm learning to sew, and I'm doing paper crafts - stamps and paper and embossing and ribbons, etc. I even handmade all the gift tags for my gifts to my coworkers.

So that's about it on my end until I wade through all the photos. Hope you're having a happy new year!

top keywords: october 5th '08

1. ashley veselka
   
2. rant
   
3. rants
   
4. stuff about me
   
5. vomit foam

For at least a month now, I have consistently been the top keyword in the searches that bring people to my site! I am now beating out both "rant" and "rants" for the top spot. I'll say it again: I *love* Google Analytics.

Alas, "vomit foam" has returned to the top 5, but "jerkoff" has suspended its campaign to deal with the current financial crisis, and has dropped from the top 5. It is still in the top 10, but 6 through 10 are so bizarre I won't even post them ... for now.

I will continue to bring you these updates as long as they are even mildly interesting.

keyword standoff: me vs. vomit foam

Sometimes the stuff I find in Google Analytics amazes me. The same number of people come to my site by searching for "ashley veselka" as for "vomit foam". What does this mean? I am as interesting as vomiting foam. Is that better or worse than being tied with watching paint dry? I'm not sure.

I know now that I am THE #1 search result for "vomit foam" - now that is interesting.

Alas, nearly three times as many people arrive at stuffthatbugsme via the keyword "jerkoff".

So, not surprisingly, I am three times less interesting than jerking off.

wow! i'm in the new york times!

That's what I get for sitting at the front table for Heather of dooce.com & Stephanie of greek tragedy.com's closing keynote :). I was an innocent bystander in this photo for this NY Times piece on BlogHer.

photo by Jessica Brandi Lifland for The New York Times

Thanks to Shannon for bringing it to my attention!

EDITED TO ADD: It occurred to me that if you don't know me, you might not know which one I am. I'm the one on the right; the unnamed one in the photo. :( You would think if they had to say "So-and-so, left, yada yada yada..." that they would also name who's on the right. Oh well. Such is life.

BlogHer 08 - i'm too late!!!

One of the reasons I moved to SF, even to the Bay Area in general, was for events like BlogHer. (Specifically, Adaptive Path events and BlogHer.) When I found out BlogHer 08 was being held in downtown SF this year I was overjoyed!!! They didn't have their whole line-up of speakers together though, and our summer plans were a little up in the air, so I didn't register right away.

WRONG!!!

On Monday morning, I woke up with a start, early, thinking, "OMG! BlogHer is coming up! I never went back to register!!!" I jumped out of bed, pulled up the site, saw that it starts on the 18th (!!! I thought it was later!), frantically clicked the register button, my heart skipping along in relief, and got a page telling me it's sold out. I added my name to the waitlist, hopelessly, and then proceeded to mentally berate and kick myself until I ruined my own day.

You see, I had missed the tiny text at the top of the register page telling me "This event is closed for registration." I wanted to scream! Some of my very favorite bloggers will be there, as speakers or as attendees, and being the introvert that I am, I had made a solemn resolution that I would come out of my shell for this.

The long and the short of it is that if you know someone who knows someone whose uncle's plumber's accountant's daughter-in-law can get me in at this point, I will be indebted to you forever. I will paint the toenails of every single person in that chain. I will send a sincere thank you note to them and do a jig!!! I would sing karaoke for you. (*gasp!*) A hush just fell over the crowd because if you know me, you know I don't do karaoke for no one, no how. This is serious.

So I plead to my possibly 11 readers in the whole wide world: "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"

generic & disposable april design

Yes - you may have noticed the temporary design for April that finally went out yesterday. I figured I should post that I did it, for all you RSS readers out there. I considered not doing one at all, with only 8 days left in the month and all, but I said I'd do a design for every month, and I'm gonna stick to that.

I thought of going all grey, or all white, or 404, but I settled on the barcode because I've always liked the aesthetics of the barcode (I don't know why.) So enjoy for the few days you have to enjoy it.

the favicon has changed

You may be used to looking for that good old purple and chartreuse "V" favicon in your bookmarks, so I thought I'd let you know it's changed. Now look for a 16x16 version of this:

You may need to clear your cache to see it.

changes afoot

I've decided to make some changes around here - I've added the Google custom search engine so if you have a favorite post of all time you can now search for it. I mean, I've only needed to do that for years, and I work for the damn company, so... it was about time. I also just went ahead and removed that pesky year graphic rather than replace it. Yes, I am that lazy.

Before I forget, I added an addendum (is that right?) to what I'll just call the "meow meow meow" post - it's at the bottom of the post. As Paul Harvey would say, "And that is... the rest of the story. Good day!"

Soon to come:

• Collapsible tree navigation for the archives! So you don't have to look at a link in the sidebar for every month of every year since I started this blog.
• An RSS standard graphic because I can't believe I haven't already done it.
• Random other fixits and whatnot so I'm in good shape to slap a new look on this puppy. (Just kidding - this redesign will be way more than that!)

Happy 2006?

It is not 2006, as the graphic in my header brazenly states. It's 2008! In fact, it was not 2006 for all of 2007! Yet, I led you to believe that it was 2006 all along! Ha HA!

To be fair, Shannon (wildtexas) pointed out the defect long ago, and I still haven't gotten around to changing it, because I keep thinking my redesign is "right around the corner", so why bother? Well, for her eagle-eyes (ha! get it shannon?), I award her the Detail Oriented Reader Keepsake award. I have yet to decide what the DORK award is. Man! I'm killing myself today! (wiping tears of laughter from my eyes, clutching my side.) Too funny.