paper graffiti

We’re upgraded, sort of. The old upgrade was old AND hosed, so I tried a few different ways to get it all upgraded.

First I tried importing into Blogger, to back it up and then reimport into a new Wordpress installation. That worked except for two things: 1) Blogger has a 50 post per day limit, and 2) it didn’t import in my comments. Argh.

Then I tried upgrading the current installation and received error after error. It just isn’t gonna happen. I did back up my SQL database (comments, etc.) and all the files, so maybe someday I’ll figure out how to get it all in here again.

But, for now, almost every post is here courtesy of BlogSync. No comments, which makes me sad for the Dawne saga posts, but like I said, hopefully I will get them in here once I figure things out. I wonder if I can just export the wp_comments table from the old database and import it into the new one…I know nothing about SQL databases, really. I guess it’s worth a Google. Any experts reading my blog?

In the meantime, I plan on designing a new template and getting my links updated. Fun stuff!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | August: 0 | 2007: 0

Blog posting hasn’t exactly been high on my list of priorities lately…work has been a crazy client nightmare, there have been parties and holidays and trips to the lake, and there has been much lazing about in an attempt to rest up from all the busy stuff.

I will try and update more often, to get rid of older posts if for no other reason.

Word Counts - Today: 0 | July: 0 | 2006: 0

I know many of you were waiting with baited breath for this week’s Vault of Forgotten Children’s TV Shows, but I am just not feeling it today. Given yesterday’s minor quarter-life crisis meltdown, I have a lot of research to do. Hopefully by next week I’ll have a bit of snarky creativity back.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | August: 0 | 2005: 0

My hat goes off to The Phantom Professor, a now-former adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University, my esteemed alma mater. She had the balls to tell it like it is at SMU, a Southern “ivy league” school often nicknamed “Southern Millionaire’s University.” Elaine Liner is a MOL in every sense of the word, and for that I applaud her.

People are up in arms about the content of her blog, calling it libelous and damaging to the university. “Damaging” is a funny phrase from the same university who got caught bankrolling their football players and now can’t even beg, borrow or steal a decent pigskin lineup. Maybe it is damaging to SMU’s sainted rep, but only because it’s out in the open. The sad fact is that it’s not only true, but hardly exaggerated. She calls all the interchangable blond sorority girls Ashleys, describing them with the typical $500 sandals and $2000 handbags and Juicy Couture “dorsal cleavage.” Hell, I lived with one of them! She references the rampant eating disorder culture, the armies of Beamers and Humvees and Corvettes, the astoundingly high percentage of on-campus sexual assaults, the ridiculous excuses given by students plagarizing their papers. I witnessed all this and more in my 3 and a half years as an SMU undergraduate. The truth hurts, doesn’t it?

Don’t get me wrong–I enjoyed my college experience. I had some great classes, a few good professors, made a handful of good friends (even kept a few), and got a diploma in less than 4 years. I was on scholarship at a university I otherwise could not have afforded to attend. I was privileged to learn from people like Jim Caswell, the Vice-President of Student Affairs, who is a real class act of a man, and Constantina Tsoulainou, who made singing an absolute joy for me again. But while at SMU I felt a curious sort of disconnect, because I didn’t really know what to do with the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to be a writer, but for some reason I listened to people when they told me that PR was the way to go. I bought into the notion that I could always go back and do journalism later. I do regret that decision. I wish I’d written for the Daily Campus so at least one of the stories would have been grammatically (and factually) correct. Most of all, I wish I could have found a professor that I really bonded with, who could have helped me start the journey I feel I’m just now undertaking. Just from reading her blog (and the subsequent backlash in local and national media) I can tell that the Phantom Professor would have been that professor for me.

It saddens me that students are going to be without this professor next semester. Sure, she blogged about her experience in a thankless job with a bunch of students who were wasting her time by turning in plagarized work and barely bothering to show up to class at all. However, it’s also clear from her blog that she really CONNECTED with the students, pushed them to be better as writers, and always had her door open for advice, constructive criticism, and a latte from Starbucks. That’s not something that just comes along and plops itself in front of a classroom.

Blogging is here to stay, folks. No matter how many people lose their jobs over a blog that may not even mention their work life, blogging has put down roots as a mainstream form of communication. It gives people a voice. It gives people a venue. It gives people power. Words may hurt, but they also have a right to be said. The TRUTH hurts, especially if, as I told the Phantom Professor, it hits somewhere between the wallet and the change purse.

Word Counts - Today: 0 | May: 0 | 2005: 0