Author: Simone

Bad Timing.

From the schadenfreude file:

FranklinCovey just sent me an email about a huge sale.

My LLBean Traveler convertible backpack finally bit the dust last week after a hard ten years of use. [Digression: to my deep annoyance, particularly following on Aveda’s recent decision to discontinue the best shampoo of all time, I discover LLBean has redesigned the bag, and there’s no convertible-backpack option, so I find myself considering a $300 handmade Italian bag instead, but that’s another rant].

FranklinCovey has nice totes.
Big FranklinCovey email.
Huge Sale.
Tell everyone, said the email.
Shop now, said the email.
I tried.
I clicked through.
Their site is down for “scheduled maintenance.”

I don’t think so. I don’t think anyone schedules maintenance for the same time as the “everyone come to the big giant sale” email is going out.

The mysteries of Google

Google is keeping me awake.

They apparently updated the page rank system a couple weeks ago. There’s a lot of panicky chatter about it on the webmaster forums. (Mystifying, too. Many people are “quoting” Google as saying that PageRank has no effect on Google listing results, which makes no sense to me.)

My personal Google resume, while still largely referring to me, is quite different than it was last time I checked it. Also, weirdly, it now includes things I recently sent out through Constant Contact. Apparently the new ranking system favors newsletter aggregators (unless those aggregators are new, which I admit is possible).

My professional website’s Google listings are extremely pear-shaped. I don’t even know where to start.

It’s exciting, in a grumblecakey-awake-late-geeky kind of way.

James Burke has been busy.

James Burke, who wired my brain when I was 7 with his show Connections, is busy working on this piece of crazy beauty.
There are lots of ways to help, from buying his books on Amazon to researching and writing grants. I can write grants. I hate it, but for James Burke and what he’s trying to do, I think I’d be willing.
(Because I don’t have enough hobbies. Guess I’m just trying to fill those four pesky free weekends between now and December…)

Ecoguilt Calculator

Patagonia has made me feel a little less crazy.
They have a proto-ecoguilt-calculator on their website (thanks to Jeanne for the tip).
I’ve wanted an ecoguilt calculator for a while, and the Patagonia tool is a good start.
It doesn’t do everything I want.
I want to know exactly what karmic burden I am accepting when I buy a product.
I don’t just care about my carbon footprint, although here’s a nice carbon footprint calculator.
I want to know about:

  • Carbon footprint (including materials, production, and shipping)
  • Virtual water
  • Support of local economies
  • Physical safety (in terms of working conditions, solvents, pesticides, other chemicals) of the people involved in production
  • Degree of admirable-ness/ethicalness of the labor practices in the entire supply chain (good marks to living wages; big demerits for child labor, forced labor, or slavery)
  • Whether any animals are involved in production (either as materials or power) and whether those animals are treated well
  • Organic production methods for any agricultural products

I want to be able to compare (for example) these bamboo towels to these organic cotton towels and know which ones are more virtuous overall. Patagonia makes me feel less crazy for wanting to know this stuff. (Not that I need any high-performance outerwear. Really, right now it’s about towels and patio furniture. I have finally accepted that a linen or cotton patio umbrella isn’t practical, so I’m trying to at least get a used one from FreeCycle.)

Pandora!

Pandora Radio![1]

I have three stations already built and I’ve only known about this for 15 minutes, thanks to a tip from Shital [2]. I am agog at the fantastic potential for time-suckage and serendipity and other forms of pleasant weirdness that result from what could (I suppose) be looked at as a simple replacement for the tyranny of MediaPlayer. I’m anticipating that not only will the music be enjoyable and absorbing, but that the process of training the music stream as to my likes and dislikes will be a source of great joy and outrage. I’d like to apologize to Ehren in advance for the about-to-increase exclamations of “What the hell is this supposed to be? Don’t you know anything??!!”

I’m looking forward to getting the taxonomy for the music I like. (Right now it’s ” folk roots | great musicianship | acoustic sonority | demanding instrumental part writing | intricate melodic phrasing | thru composed melodic style | minor key tonality | melodic songwriting | a prominent mandolin part | acoustic rhythm guitars | solo strings | an instrumental arrangement. (np: Chris Thile, “Big Sam Thompson”)

So I will permaybehaps not need any CDs at work ever again. Now I just have to solve the car-music problem. I’ve been listening to the wireless since my 8-track died. (Just kidding. It was a cassette deck. Yes, I do know there’s such a thing as an iPod. Whippersnappers. Get off my lawn.)

[1] Seems kind of an inapt name. (Is inapt a word?) Memorable, sure, but I’m not getting the metaphoric connection to, you know, Pandora who opened the box, or jar, full of either evil or gifts, depending on who you believe. Her. The Greek Eve, the opener.

[2] Shital never updates her own blog, so I don’t know why I thought she might post here ; )