My dad is currently in Germany on a trip. He has been there more than a dozen times, and now that he is retired he goes every couple of years.
German travel is a huge interest of his, so naturally he has a website on the subject. He was originally using free hosting for it, but I bought him a FTP hosting plan for his birthday last year. (I’ll renew it as an early Christmas present this year.)
Anyway, for the last two trips he has taken, he has been posting updates to his website about what he is doing. I tried to get him to set up a blog to make it easier to update, but he wouldn’t do it — I think he actually likes doing everything the old school way in HTML.
Basically, what he does is to get onto his server and open up the page file in notepad, add to it, and then save it back to the server. So in a way, he’s using his server to do a free file transfer – I don’t think he actually takes the original files with him at all, just downloads them from the server every time he wants to update.
It’s kind of neat to be able to follow my dad’s trip via his travel website, but I wish he would send emails too. Since he’s not doing a blog, there isn’t an RSS feed to subscribe to, and it would be nice to know when there are updates there to view!
Tonight I saw the movie Dead Calm for the first time. My husband, who had seen it before, watched it with me.
I thought it was a really interesting movie because of how much the female lead, Nicole Kidman, kicked butt. She was left alone on the boat with the killer for a long period of time, and not only kicked his butt but also returned to save her husband.
I was really amazed how knowledgeable she was about the boat, but I guess being the wife of a Navy captain would do that. She had a pretty good knowledge of marine supplies and was able to shoot a harpoon, inflate a raft, and even set up the sails and sail the boat herself.
Her husband, who is left on the sinking ship all by himself, also was pretty cool — but that was to be expected, since he was in the Navy and all. He obviously knew all about boat engine parts, and was able to get the boat’s engine going again. For a while it really seemed like he was going to save the day, but then the ship started leaking again, and he just had to wait for his wife to come and find him.
Like I said, I loved Nicole Kidman’s character in the movie, as she was really quite tough. I didn’t like the ending though. You’ll see what I mean if you watch the movie… But it seemed a bit contrived and rather unnecessary, like they just wanted to squeeze in one final near-death scene. It would have been a much stronger movie if it had had a better ending!
I used to have mixed feelings about my friend Erica. She was a wonderful, fun woman who I enjoyed spending time with. And yet, I often felt like I didn’t really fit into her world. Sometimes I’d go months without speaking to her because I wasn’t really convinced that we made good friends. Eventually, I realized that the feeling that I had towards Erica was one of jealousy. I was envious of her life. And it made me feel badly about myself which made it difficult for me to simply enjoy her friendship.
In fairness, Erica’s a really cool woman with a life to be envied. She’s the kind of woman who can walk into any room and dominate it. She can speak confidently on every topic from South American wine to Japanese fashions to European toys. She is good at tango dancing, jigsaw puzzles and running a business. She’s an amazing woman.
In comparison to Erica, I’ve always just felt a little bit plain. I felt like I didn’t quite measure up to the world that she came from. And then one day it hit me; this really cool woman wanted to be at lunch with me. I suddenly had this insight into what was going on for me with this relationship. I was feeling insecure and there absolutely wasn’t any reason to be. Once I saw that, I was able to let go of my concerns about the friendship and just enjoy getting to know this awesome gal who is now one of my best friends. I’m glad I finally grew up about that!
I don’t speak a word of French. I don’t have any particular need or desire to learn the language. And yet, if you give me a product or business with a French name then there’s a good chance that I’m going to think favorably of it.
I’m not sure exactly where my affection for French names comes from. I don’t particularly adore specific things that are from France. And yet, send me to a boutique shop that sells brands like 3 Pommes and Oh la la couture and there’s a decent chance that I’m going to come out of there with something new of my own.
Perhaps it’s just the fact that I’ve read so many books and watched so many movies over the years. They all depict France as so romantic and wonderful. The hint of a flirty French name makes me feel like a product is a little bit sexy even if it’s not intended to be sexy at all. There’s an appeal there that goes beyond what I’m really being sold. Consciously I know that I won’t like the product only because of the name but there’s an emotional attachment that makes it of interest.
I wonder if this happens to anyone else. Am I the only one who gets lured in by a good French name?
When I was in my senior year of college, I dated a guy who was pursuing his master’s degree in educational information systems, which apparently meant anything that used technology to teach — building websites and stuff like that. He knew his stuff pretty well, and designed the website for the school’s writing center, where he worked part time.
Like I said, this guy knew his stuff. If you asked him about where to find an Atlanta colocation provider, he probably would have been able to answer. But luckily for all the rest of us normal folk, you really don’t have to be an expert in order to have a website.
Technology today makes setting up your website pretty easy. The easiest is a blog, which is free to set up (usually) and really quite easy to add to. There are also software programs to help you build a more complex website. Sometimes you can use your web hosting provider’s software in order to build a really professional-looking website.
Building a website doesn’t require a lot of knowledge about coding, or a lot of money to hire someone to do it for you. You can set up a website in a snap on your own — all you need is to choose a blog platform or a web design program!
I used to have mixed feelings about my friend Erica. She was a wonderful, fun woman who I enjoyed spending time with. And yet, I often felt like I didn’t really fit into her world. Sometimes I’d go months without speaking to her because I wasn’t really convinced that we made good friends. Eventually, I realized that the feeling that I had towards Erica was one of jealousy. I was envious of her life. And it made me feel badly about myself which made it difficult for me to simply enjoy her friendship.
I don’t speak a word of 