Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

So there is a new feature with Google Reader wherein you can share your favorite items with your “friends,” only these are not people you specifically select in. No, Google just uses your chat contact list and automatically shares the feeds you share with those people. The only way to keep people from seeing your shared items is to delete them from your contact list. I noticed this when I saw that I had shared items from my only ex with whom I don’t have good relations. I’m sure he didn’t mean to share those with me, and I’m sure I don’t want him to see things I share. In order to keep him from seeing what I share, I’m supposed to delete him from my contact list. I don’t think that’s ideal, because what if there is a reason I need to have his email address? So I went in to do that anyway, and I saw that I had already deleted him. So he’s in the share list no matter what. I can’t tell why, and it’s pretty hard to get Google to respond to one individual’s issue. I think the upshot is that I won’t be using this sharing feature. I’ll keep my sharing limited to the blog, Twitter, and sometimes Facebook. To me, I don’t have enough control over this feature for it to feel secure enough for me to use it. Perhaps they will eventually make it where I can deselect all then add in only those people I would actually want to allow access to my shared links.

It’s 3:15am late Sunday night. I’m supposed to be sleeping. Although as I tell everyone, I don’t sleep. It’s sort of true. Sort of. Lots going on, and blogging and being a good correspondent have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully, things will change soon, but in the meantime, I’m really trying to take care of business.

First, the crazy good news: I’m licensed! Yes, I FINALLY got that done. I received my test results from the state exam on Saturday on my way out to the Durham Flickr Shoot. Now I’m allowed to actually apply for jobs again, and tomorrow, it all re-begins. Lots of letters to write and contacts to make.

My birthday is in 4 (well, 3 now) days. What I’ve been wanting more than anything is a camera, but of course, I’m not exactly feeling great asking for anything given the fact that my parents have been supporting me. I’m VERY pleased to report that I have remembered something VERY convenient, and that’s that my ex-husband owed me a little money and is very willing to send me some when he has it, so I’ve contacted him, and between his payment to me and my parents’ kindness, there is a good change I will have a better camera by the end of the year. I have finally settled on the Canon PowerShot G9. Everyone around me is shocked I’m not going straight to a DSLR, but the thing is, I’m a gearhead. If I get a DSLR, then I’ll want the lenses, the tripod, the flash accessories, a bag, etc. This is a habit I don’t want to tiptoe into. I only want to start at the point where I can participate properly. In the meantime, the G9 shoots raw, 12 megapixels, 6x optical lens, and even at ISO 1600, there is very little noise. The images are crisp and lovely. I finally got my hands on one in Circuit City today. The nice man said he could give me a line of credit with no interest until 2009. My response? “Get away from me, Devil Man!” Luckily, he laughed. I was glad I had Shannon (voice of reason) with me, because on this topic, I’m a weak, weak woman!

I’m REALLY loving this picture Oliver took of me the other day at Helios when I was taking pictures with my current camera (A Canon PowerShot A540 with 3 broken pixels and a flash that only works sometimes!). He titled it “But she really wishes she had a G9.” Yeah, that’s exactly right. Good call!

There’s a great play going on in Durham right now called Holding Pattern at Manbites Dog theater. There are four more performances. Answering the question of what it’s about is hard, but in short, it’s about telling your own story, getting stuck, life speeding past, getting unstuck. Check out the link to learn more.

One sharpened pencil, 100 tiny troll men, and a whole sack of nuts conspire to stop The Girl Who Blows Bubbles in her tracks: a fantastical tale of the astonishingly difficult endeavor to tell one’s own story.

Go see Darjeeling Limited, too. So extraordinary and perfect in every way! Lalitree went with me, and I pretty much agree with everything she said in her review/photo description.

Oh, Ask Metafilter, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways?!!

Should I even admit how similar my feed-reading is to this guy’s? There are some differences though. When my Google Reader number gets up to 150+, that’s when I reassess and try to pare it back down to around 100 or less. Also, rather than tech, the content of my feeds is photographs, photography, food, friends’ blogs, social networking feeds, productivity (I know, I know!!), and food. Anyone who’s ever seen me go through my feeds can attest to my rapid filtering speed. What do I do with the links I actually am interested in processing? I Ctrl-click them open, then I either comment, filter them to my friends who I know will be interested, blog them, Twitter/Pownce them, or otherwise get them to the places they “belong”. When I’m being productive, I only check them every several hours. When I’m NOT being productive, it’s MUCH more often. That’s more problematic. I used to read much more high traffic sites like Digg, Boing Boing, and Best Week Ever, but now the only high traffic site I really check is Lifehacker (although I do see some Digg sites because the top stories are on my Personal Google, which I use as my home page.

Just downloaded Safari for Windows. Gotta say, it’s pretty damn fast. Will this end my love affair with Firefox? I can’t imagine such a thing, but I can’t lie about loving the speed.