I did it!

I did it! I did it! My website is up!!!!! http://scartsalliance.org I am still tweaking, correcting and updating but I am excited and happy it has finally been launched. This is a photo from our annual Ice Cream Social held in held in July at the local community park.

Keep them guessing!

I created and maintained a spreadsheet for four weeks to try to illustrate to my boss what I do all day. Not only did it tell me I was averaging 50-52 hours a week - which I knew; it showed me where I could pick up time. I have been so busy helping others at the expense of not allowing enough time for me to do my work. I can blame part on my position.  As I once had to tell the CEO after being mis-quoted on a comment....A person in my position would be deemed uncooperative if I didn't help others...... Anyway, there are all those minutes here and there to be re-couped. Easier said than done because I feel a responsibilities to correct things that are wrong. Some have noticed and think that I am pissed at one of them. Think anyone could ask me? Someone could just ask me why I have been quiet. But no, that would be too easy.

Focusing on my work has also helped with some family issues. If I am absorbed in my work then at least for those few hours of the day I am not dwelving on these issues.

It is a very weird way to get respect but people have backed off with the non-sensical demands and sometimes selfish demands on me because they actually see me as busy. Everyone is busy! so why was I the one always there to help and be counted on? I was the one staying late or taking work home and others were leaving on time day after day. I was thinking what is wrong with me that I can't get it done??? I feel a sense of failure if I say no when asked for help. I need to realize I can't do it all.

It is ashame but favors done do become rights expected and all the little niceties I bestowed over the years have given others carte blanche to use me. You do teach people how to treat you and I have always been there for everyone never saying I was too busy; putting my needs last.

It is all my own doing by trying to be everything to everyone. I am putting myself first and it is making people wonder. It will be a period of adjustment for all and I am sure I will fall right back into the Miss Helen Helper mode eventually. For now......I can use the alone time at lunch to stitch. Sounds like a win/win to me!!!!

....stay tuned for episode 3 of the soap opera.

Bureaucratic Mumbo Jumbo!

ARGH!!!! I have been put at least 60 hours into the website I am working on. It is there......it is ready......it is kind of awesome, or at least a bit more up to date that the former site......and it is sitting in Yahoo limbo.

I have updated - months ago - all the info with the domain. New email address of the website developer or registrant - which is me. There is a whole other entity out there call Whois.net. Go to whois.com and type in any website address and this site will give you all the particulars about the website. Who the host is, who maintains the site, where the site is located, all pertinent information and IT stuff.

For whatever reason, the updates I made at the domain have not filtered to whois.net. I cannot move the domain from the current host to Yahoo until the email address is changed because the top secret access code to make the move will be sent to the current address listed with whois.net and NOT my email address. Confused.....you should be sitting in my chair! This is the Reader's Digest version of what has transpired over the last month.

The first email guarantees ease....please submit X and in 24 to 72 hours we will respond. Then please submit Y and in 24 to 72 hours we will respond. And yet again, please submit Z and in 24 to 72 hours we will respond. Now let's add to the mix that with each request a new customer service rep is assisting me. They sign off with names like "DAX", "Svetlana" and "Patel"....no lie. Even though I reply to the email sent I get a new 'case' number each time. Dax tells me all is fine; Svetlana tells me I need to renew my domain; and Patel indicates I must change my email address at whois.net and is attaching the form. Not, done and good until August 2011 and forgot to attach the form. Not to mention each one wants to be brought up to date on what has been done to date. Have you even heard of reading the email trail?
Thursday, I made a call while at work because naturally their hours are 9 to 5, M-F. I spoke with Da-Vid. And seriously, not to offend anyone, this guy sounded like Rahm Das from that wacky British movie. I was assured all would be handled and he was emailing the necessary forms to my personal email. Sure enough they were there last night but I have to tell you.....for a web hosting company, for a internet related company..............they need to get into the 21st century. Their email and pages look like DOS programming. The magical "form" I was to complete was so poorly formatted and seemed to have been copied and pasted as a text into the email.

Not to worry.....some creative printing and copying that could be accomplished by a fourth grader and I have a form that resembles something a bit more professional then what was provided. I have completed, had notarized, and faxed back earlier.

Now I sit and wait for the domain gods to smile kindly on me and allow the sacred passage of the almighty registration key and authorization number to pass to me for my hand off to Yahoo. And just think, I pay for this service..........

Update: It is no wonder I get confused .....I check the info on the domain register and all the info is listed even the correct email address; I check the registration info at Whois.net and all the info is listed except the wrong email address; then I bounce to another screen on the domain host site and link to a search on the domain info......whois.net opens and declares there is no such site as just listed on the two prior searches. I am going in circles and somewhere computer nerds are laughing......no wonder I have verdigo!

Website Progress

I am finally making progress on the website I am working on. The initial problem was it is a site I took over from someone with absolutely no instructions and actual pleading for passwords. Why, if you gave up a job, would you fight tooth and nail to get rid of it? Probably a communication issue. Anywho....

Since it is not my personal website but a site for a board I sit on, everything must be approved. This adds to the turn around time but it is fine. I am not trying to be the end all creator. I want to put on the site what the other Board members and the Director want.

So, seems that when you take on someone else's program is can be difficult to understand their logic. I managed to finally get the passwords and access codes and got into the guts of the site. I made my changes and updates and click on 'publish' and ta-da! nothing. A big bright white page of nothing. Website looks great on my laptop, I just can't seem to launch it. I bought Frontpage for Dummies and was again resolved to make this work. But alas, no success.

I had one of bestest friends who is in IT try to help me. Deb had no success either. I do not believe her failed attempt had anything to do with the fact that we were laying on our respective hotel room beds, each propped with pillows, working on our laptops, with a couple dozen jello shots gone and a couple of dozen more to consume. Nah!

I think the issue lies with my click-mania. You know clck here, click there, click here again, impatients sets in and somehow I feel I lost an important file. It is all I can figure. So I have been granted permission to drop the site we have and develop a new one on Yahoo! So far so good. Just waiting for the authorization codes and registry key from the current host to pass to Yahoo. It is crazy. the standard 24 to 72 hours after we received X, you can move to step 2. Then it is another 24 to 72 hours after we receive X, you can move to step 3. Now the latest delay this morning is because we are within 30 days of renewal of our domain name we must wait to the renewal of our domain registration is complete to move forward. This is not a quick process....but I will not be deterred and have been using the time to work on the 'unpublished' website. I think once the switch is flipped, the Board will be happy. I know I will be!

Quote of the Day

Finally someone is giving us our just dues and it is so true--

Quote of the day:

"Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit." Anonymous

Got it, get it, good

So many times I have thought I had my finger on what is wrong with me. As if a finger could actually cover all the avenues. I mean what is wrong in the sense that I can't seem to get everything done. You know that overwhelmed feeling. Like your to-do list is closing in on you. It is in the sense that I can't seem to concentrate to get things accomplished. Yes, the bar is set at a self-imposed high level of expectation but that is nothing new. I have re-identified what I already knew and it has little to do with the number of things I have on my list.........it is not that I can't work on more than one thing at a time, it is that sometimes I can't focus on something new when I know I have things I have not finished.

Take for instance this website that I am supposed to be developing. I have been hitting a road block. Everytime I devote time to working on the site, I read and reread the info and seem to have my brain swim. I have put in 12 to 15 hours or more of struggling with what someone had established prior. Everything seems to be in place, I hit publish and have a beautiful blank page launched to the information highway! It has been like walking in on someone else's programming. My logic and their logic are not the same. So the decision was made to move to Yahoo as a host site and start from stratch. I have to report I have made progress this weekend. That progress was made easier by my first spending several hours sorting and filing papers. See that is a job I have known was hanging over my head. It was subconciously out there nagging my creative juices like the tap tap tap of a dripping faucet. I guess it is like I don't want to start something new until I finish something.

This does not hold true for my household projects or stitching projects. .......I do not have a banner calling me the "queen of unfinished projects" for nothing.

And about that list I have of the things I want and need to do.......why is it that other don't have a list or if they do, have only two or three things on it? Does it have to do with being brought up that if you weren't busy you weren't productive?

So today, I did it all. I worked in the yard for 2 - 3 hours. I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen. I stitched a couple of hours. And while it poured and thundered, and I watched old movies, I filed and shredded personal papers. And I made some much needed website progress.