Vox Lucens

I just discovered that it has been a very long time since I reviewed my blogroll.  Quite a number of the folks that I used to link to either a) stopped posting, b) made their info private, or c) canned their blogs entirely.  Plus, I know some people I didn’t know before, and these  new folks are posting great stuff.

Thus, an overhaul.  The basic format is the same: those categorized under “Friends” are people that I know who maintain blogs which post some sort of delightful, informative, thought-provoking, or inspirational content.  Check ‘em out.

Plus, in the midst of the hundreds of sources and thousands of stories I skim every week, some truly stellar information sources have made their way to my list of “Favorite Blogs.”

And finally, since I was definitely getting the impression my previous Twitter widget was buggy, I’ve updated that one, too.

If there is anything else that needs to be updated, I’d be grateful if you would point it out in the comments.

Every year, long before I get used to writing the new year number when I scribble out the date, I begin to get that sinking, horrible feeling that I have to do my taxes.  At first, that feeling is a minor annoyance, but as time progresses it gets worse and worse and worse.

I’ve taken a variety of approaches to dealing with this pain.  I’ve hired accountants.  I’ve slogged through paperwork on my own.  I’ve contemplated moving to Andorra.  Long-time friends might remember the year that I actually threw an income tax party in an attempt to reduce the pain - misery, after all, loves company.

This year, I thought that I was going to end up doing them myself.  I’m not next door to my cheap Charleston accountant, and H&R Block is more expensive than I want to pay.  Online programs are expensive, too, and there’s always the fear of the unknown because I’ve never used one of them.  But then, then I found the answer - a tax program that is cheap, and just as important, does not make you pay until you are actually ready to file.  You can be sure that it is going to work for you first.  I don’t know why I didn’t find this sooner.

So I bit the bullet and tried it - and now, my friends, I am on the other side of the pain.  I am on the side of relief, the immense relief that comes from knowing that when April 15 rolls around I will have no worries, for I will not be standing in line or burning the midnight oil.

And finally, I would also note that this year, the relief is even deeper.  Normally, my relief is twinged with cynicism - that though I have done my duty, my duty to fund government extravagance is hardly a duty worth praising myself for.  This year, though, I can rest assured that my tax money has nothing to do with government extravagance, for government extravagance now revolves around spending money nobody has.

But my part is done for another nine months.

I just learned about the Pythagorean Comma.

And I re-learned just why it is I hate Wikipedia - so many links to explore and be fascinated by, so hard to stop learning cool stuff (and incredibly hard to shake the feeling that I just don’t know enough about, well, everything).  Basically, there is so much to love I just can’t help but hate it.

One of the things I am doing, in preparing to start a new job - a new career, to be sure - is cutting back on the news feeds I follow.  At Remember, a large part of my job has been following the news; now, not so much.

So I have been mercilessly hacking my subscriptions in Google Reader.

Four days of hacking, and I’m down to 164 subscriptions.

*sigh*

It’s time.  Time for a few changes.

The first is hosting.  I feel like I’m moving up in the world - but it’s really more that I’m taking advantage of the generous offers of people far more tech-savvy than myself.  You should certainly see an improvement in speed of page loading!

The second is a redirect.  There was little or nothing worth reading on the main portions of this page, so everything now redirects to this blog.  That’s temporary, though, and I’ll be updating you when we have some new and improved main page content!  For now, though, the blog is the place to be.

The third is a background color.  I didn’t like the tan.  So far I’m not convinced I like the grey, either.   Maybe the rest of it just needs fiddling.  Thoughts are welcome.  One way or another, I’ll make the blog conform to the main page - when I have a main page to conform to, but thoughts are still welcome.

Today has been a very lousy day - one of those steady progressions from wanting to pull one’s hair out, to wanting to put one’s hand through a wall, to deciding killing two birds with one stone is better and just wanting to put one’s head through a wall. Though my office walls are yet undamaged, due to steady exercise of self-control and some well-timed water breaks, the emotional scars remain.

Long-time readers of this blog may recall this. I now offer the following update.

It all started yesterday - a day of promise and potential, for it was Download Day. And I downloaded, marveling at the 15,000 bug fixes in Firefox 3 and rejoicing at reports of its infinitesimal memory footprint. After downloading comes installing, and after installing comes that magical checkbox which says, “Launch Firefox 3.”

I attempted launch, and waited. I wasn’t happy with the error box that came up and told me Firefox had crashed. (One is given to wonder how something can “crash” before it even launches, but such semantics do not portray the depth of my present emotional grief.) But alas, at mid-afternoon yesterday I did not have time to fix it, so I simply tryed uninstalling and reinstalling and deleting and redownloading a few times, all with a remarkable lack of success.

This morning I foolishly assumed that I could use IE and survive. I was wrong. Even I, adamant Firefox fan though I am, had forgotten the depth of the slowness and horribleness of that terrible program. I had indeed forgotten that it destroys the formatting of things like the Weekly Reminder. In desperation I tried everything I could think of to fix Firefox’s fatal flaws–and failed. I edited program files. I read web help forums. I tried to find a place to re-download Firefox 2. I tried changing profiles and user info. I even found out what a “command line argument” is. Nothing worked.

So I did what any sane person would do: I downloaded Opera. It is quantum leaps faster and more secure than IE, I will give it that. It has some helpful features. But Firefox it is not, and in spite of my best efforts to make it all work, Opera simply does not cut it. It lacks features I rely on.

So at this point I know not what to do. My laptop got me through today, but I still have no Firefox at work. In my depth of futile anguish, iambic pentameter is my only solace…

Of IE I tried just a bit,
To see if its code just might fit,
But no, it did not.
My attempt just begot
The frustration that comes from the pit.

So Opera next garnered my gaze,
An improvement, it seems, anyways.
But features it lacked,
(And it’s background was blacked)
So short was this one browser’s phase.

I’m a one-browser man, it is true.
And yet, I know not what to do!
For the Firefox dream,
Has gone up in the steam,
Bringing tomorrow’s frustration anew.