This is a problem because the only items I kept on there were my stories in progress, and I’ve been a bad girl and not backed up the jump drive to the main computer hard drive.  So when I was wasting time at work on my lunch hour and wanted to just take some of my old stories and upload them straight from the drive rather than deal with the old Joomla database back-up, I couldn’t do it.  No drive.  From researching the issue I don’t believe the drive is dead, just not working in Win7 for some reason.  I have an older laptop hanging around I’ll boot up and see if the drive works there and if so, then I’ll back-up all the stuff there.  Mostly because I have a story I’ve been poking at writing for a few years now and eventually plan to finish.  And because I don’t want to try rewriting it all.  If I lose the drive, then I’ll just never go back to those stories and in at least one of them, I’m far enough along that it would be a shame to give up on it.

The bright spot though was when I was poking through my old computer back-up file and I found a back-up copy of the database from the blogging system I used before Joomla!  So there are even older updates and files in that database that I can save here.  It really is a PITA, but I think once I have all the various writings and other updates reloaded here, my online “life” will be as complete as I can make it.  Why does that matter?  It probably doesn’t in the long run, but it is rather interesting to go back through some of my old posts and read about what I wrote then.

2012 has started out pretty good.  I got a NOOK Tablet for Christmas and have found several really good, free ebooks on the Barnes & Noble site.  I need to sit down and write some reviews of the stories, because I want to and because I want to get back into the habit of writing again.  I used to do so much more sharing of my thoughts.

The harder part was adding in all the old posts from previous iterations of the site.  All that internet history was missing and I was determined to get it back online somehow.  I’ve since found an old localhost file which is a backup copy of the site back when I was still using Joomla.  This is a good thing since that particular version of the site was probably the most complete it’s been in years, and now I just need to copy-paste it all into WordPress.  Easier said than done, but it’s actually not too onerous either, especially not once it dawned on me that putting the text from the CSV file straight into the HTML tab of post entry makes all those random characters go away (or get rendered properly as punctuation).  Now things are breezing along much more smoothly, although getting that L2 review entered was a chore because it was contained in multiple cells.

Which is another reason I’m glad I found this file – it has all my old articles from when I posted for Grimwell Online.  Multiple commentaries, game reviews and general information – all of it in that little file and soon to be back up online.  It does surprise me how old some of this stuff is; I’ve really gotten out of the habit of writing about my gaming or anything else.  Maybe finally completing this “upgrade” will prompt me to get back in the game again.

I get that occasional members on the OneManga forums think they should be allowed to post whatever they like without regard to the rules.  You get all kinds and the crying/whining/bitching that results when the rules are applied by staff can be amusing.  Most members will simply apologize and go on.  A few will try to reasonably argue their point for why they posted as they did, and in a few instances, have even won their cases.  It does happen.

But then there is a rare member who decides that the mods/admins are just out to prevent their free expression of speech on the site (despite the fact that the First Amendment doesn’t really apply to a private run forum) and so they become commandos, out to defeat the oppression.  Or something like that.

It’s even more cute and endearing when the member starts creating duplicate accounts to sockpuppet their way under the radar.  Except that staff has ways to tell if duplicate accounts are being used.  It’s really not that hard to figure out, to tell you the truth.  And yet, the sockpuppet thinks they are invisible and unknown and therefore able to poke and try to aggravate the admin at their leisure.

Except that I know who you are, dude.  I know about your “original” account and now the two other accounts you’ve logged in on since the big threat you left on my profile wall.  Honestly, if you’re going to try to attack me or make me mad, at least try to post differently on your various accounts.  I know, I know.  Roleplaying can be hard if you’re clueless, which you obviously are.  The first rule of not giving yourself away – don’t come onto my profile wall on one of your other accounts and start commenting about how much of a meanie I am to your original account, which you supposedly have no connection to and no reason to be associated with or commenting about.  How hard is that?

Right now I’m still in amusement mode, which means I reply in a vague fashion, poke back a bit and just hand the idiot all the rope he needs.  It’s fun because this person obviously doesn’t seem to get  that I’m really not invested in their tantrum and only responding for as long as I’m entertained.  Once the entertainment goes away, out comes the ban hammer and away go those other accounts.  I’m debating on whether or not to leave the original one active or not.

Ah, the joys of being a forum admin.

I did exactly that on my “FB game only” account and ended up with almost 200 friend/neighbor requests in a only a few hours.  While it’s been pretty cool for this Farmville character, it’s just crazy when it comes to accepting gifts and returning them.  And the requests to join pages, causes, events, other games…. YIKES!  I think I was very, very naive to think something like this wouldn’t happen, but it did surprise me.

I’m getting over the “guilt” of not responding to each gift request by returning a gift.  I’ve blocked other games I know I have no interest in playing ever.  I’m contemplating just ignoring requests for games I don’t really play any more on that account.  I’ve rationalized it by telling myself “these people aren’t friends.  You owe them nothing in the long run.”

I’ll always make sure to respond to people on my real FB account, especially gifts and requests, but this gaming only account?  Yeah, I’m not turning this into a full time job just to keep up with things.  Sorry, faux FB friends.

I had what I feel was a good interview yesterday for a PM position, but I’ve felt that way about all the interviews I’ve had so far.  I’m planning to be more aggressive with my follow-ups and my determination, because this would be a good fit for my current skills.  It’s just somewhat hard because I have been out of work for a while and you can start to lose confidence in your own abilities.  I know I can do this work, though.

Beyond that, I’m just… blah today.  I have no motivation to do anything at all.  I have to get up early tomorrow and head to my next PMP training class (fourth of five) but that’s tomorrow.  Today?  I just feel like stuffing my face with chocolate (of which I have none) and snoozing in my big comfy chair.  None of which helps me accomplish anything around the house.

Decisions, decisions.

So what does make these games “social” if you aren’t interacting with other people?  Well, you are interacting with them, it’s just not real time.  To be successful, you need neighbors to help you out (and you help them in return).  More neighbors means a bigger farm plot, or easier access to some goods, plus it really helps to have others come fertilize crops and feed chickens, because that also yields higher benefits.  But those neighbors could be anyone and not necessarily someone you actually want to be friends with.  These kinds of games promote what I call “neighor whoring” because if you want more neighbors (for whatever reason) and you don’t have enough known friends who are playing the game, you need to find neighbors somewhere else.

Sometimes, it’s possible to find neighbors by checking out your friends’ friends lists and see if there is a second level contact you can neighbor with.  But many times, random strangers who are also looking for neighbors seems to be the most common option.  Over on the official Farmville community forums, there is even a thread dedicated to people looking strictly for FV neighbors.  Now, this means you end up friending them on Facebook as well, but simple friends lists and monitoring of how you post updates easily keeps information going to the people you want to see it.  I’ve set up customized lists specific for each game I play and when I make an update post from the games, I change my settings so only the people on that list will see the information.  It’s the only polite thing to do when you also have friends who don’t play those games; why should they see all the game spam messages when it doesn’t interest them?

Beyond all that, I can see why these games have become more and more popular now.  It’s right up there in the second sentence of this post – “it’s easy to slip in some time playing in between…”.  Pop into game before leaving for work.  Check out your team’s progress at lunch.  Peek in while making dinner.  One last look-see before bedtime.  There is no pressure to do anything more than what you choose to do within the boundaries of the game itself.  Some of my neighbors have huge farms and just about every special edition item available.  Some have very elaborate farms where the actual “farming” part of the game is minimized.  A few have a nice blend of both.  Some people put lots of effort into making the farm look “natural” and landscape around it.  It suits all play types and there is nothing wrong or right about how you play the game.  There are no real stringent barriers of entry into the game itself.  A new player does exactly the same thing as a long term player, just in different quantities.

And that’s another good reason for why social games are so popular now and becoming mainstream – no barriers of entry means anyone can play.  My dad used to like playing solitaire and mah-jong on the computer; I’m pretty sure he would have loved some of the other similar kinds of games on Facebook as well.  The games can appeal to everyone, not just the hip, computer savvy technophiles.  And that’s a good thing, IMO.

One of the biggest frustrations I have with redoing my entire portfolio online (and the reason I don’t have anything up as of today for Illustration and Colorings) is because I’ve changed how I want the thumbnails to look.  Presenting the whole artwork image or screenshot of a website is easy, but over the years I’ve done the thumbnails in several different ways.  For a while I used tiny 50x50px images, then I went to 100x100px size ones.  I used some slightly larger, vertical sized images and most recently, I’ve settled on the 150x75px images now on the site.  Changing the look of the thumbnails isn’t a huge problem, except for all the work going opening each piece of work, putting the spot I want to feature into the master template file, tweaking how it looks, and then creating the thumbnail.  It’s not particularly hard or anything, just tedious to a certain degree.  Which is why I haven’t finished those two sections yet.  I really do need to get them completed asap.

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