Whine & Cheese

Rafa Link

Se você estiver procurando por fotos de Rafael Nadal, clique aqui!

For my regular readers... no worries W&C hasn't gone bilingual on you...

Yesterday morning when I checked in my blog stats, I already had a crazy amount of hits and they were coming in at a rate of about 100 an hour... so I knew something was up!.   It was quickly apparent that this tennis website linked to my Rafa post from Friday -- well, technically they linked to my entire blog and not to that particular entry... or better yet to ALL my Rafa posts...

Since I didn't really have all that much to say yesterday, I just decided to keep Rafa as the latest post so folks wouldn't be all "WTF?!?" when they hit that front page.  However, I can only use that excuse for so long, so I'll keep this post "locked" to top until the search hits start to dwindle (which they already have)... but look (or at least glance down for new entries below this one) for new entries. 

Oh, the foreign language thing... well, the best I could figure out was that it was a Portuguese tennis site ... or, at least, that's what Google Translate did the best job at deciphering for me and likewise offering assistance in the other direction (you can probably figure it out, but that first line says: "If you are looking for pictures of Rafael Nadal, click here!")

UPDATE:  Thanks to Alexandre for leaving me a comment... he is the owner of the Brazilian tennis website, who has increased my traffic very nicely this week (as of right now, nearly 700 hits).  I am glad I was able to figure out the language was Portuguese (the official language of Brazil) and lead folks to more of my Rafa pix...

Be Happy

Yesterday, I offered a friend some advice:  If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.

... and my friends... with those 9 simple words.. and in less the 4 hours... I killed off Scott-O-Rama. 

Well, not really... but it sounded pretty dramatic now didn't it?   

While it may not always be better to give than to receive... but, at least for me, when it comes to advice I find it much easier to dole it out.  While I knew it was something Scott truly loves/loved, I had sensed his blog had morphed into something not fun.  And, of course, I wasn't telling him anything that he didn't already know... but I could relate. 

Alas dear reader, it does not regard the very blog you are now reading... for the foreseeable future, you are stuck with me... and in true self-centered blogger fashion, I will now turn this post to be all about me!

Several (several!) years ago, I had the opportunity to do what was pretty much my dream job.  I was a writer and photographer for an online tennis magazine (a very bold idea at the time - and typically involved having to explain the words "online" and Internet)... but it was a fantasy come true, three of my true loves all wrapped into one.  I attended a whole bunch of tennis tournaments as "media,"  brushing shoulders with the likes of Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, the Williams sisters (at the time in their corn-rowed heavily-beaded hair)... even asking Stefan Edberg a question at a post-match press conference and "interviewing" Lindsay Davenport (it was a very odd "walk and talk" across the tournament grounds).

But over time it became "work"... dealing with long days at the tournament site, struggling to figure out a new way to possibly write up something on a tennis match, struggling as an outsider amongst the very clique-y (only made worse, by not being a terribly outgoing, social person), the pressure of deadlines and expectations (many of them self-imposed), and getting a bit roughed up by folks (and egos) within the tennis world and also internally at the magazine. 

It unfolded slowly and I didn't realize until after the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" moment that ultimtely ended it all, that the cost-benefit coin of this "dream job" had been flipped a long time.  There was a great sense of relief when it was over and no long-term regrets, except perhaps that I had not come to the realization sooner and before there were some hurt feelings. 

It is my hope that Scott is feeling that same sense of relief.  I found that particular feeling surfaced pretty instantaneously... while the lack of regret or second-guessing part may take just a tad longer... but I think it will come.

And so, dear readers, I offer the same bit advice to all of you (and for myself, for that matter!)...

If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.   

I wish my friend Scott well.  At a point in my life where "making new friends" appeared to be a thing of the past (working from home definitely limits one's opportunity to do so), I'm glad our online friendship transferred into the real-world and look forward to more fun times ahead! 

Not Much

No, I haven't fallen off the planet.  It was a pretty rare weekday blog skip yesterday... basically a combination of being busy with work and not really having much to say... the latter being the more important thing, as even if I am busy, I can usually find the time to get squeeze an entry in!

So onto why I am glad the first word in my blog title is ... whine!  I think I am in a minor rut at the moment.  Our big trip is within sight in just a few weeks and think I am really starting to focus in on that... the problem is getting through the everyday stuff for the interim. 

Over the weekend, Todd and I had a little work-related discussion and while his is driving him into the ground and the physical and mental health sacrifice is worth far more than this upcoming "once in a lifetime" experience... while I there are oodles of good things about my work situation, I expressed how I don't really *love* the actual work.  Now that's not necessarily a news alert and I dare say I am not in the minority in this respect... I was kind of hoping saying it aloud would have some positive "ok, move on" kind of power... but alas, when a whole crapload of stuff hit yesterday, it didn't make me feel much better about things... so I think that's causing a drag in other areas...

Also, I am headed to the dentist tomorrow for my likely my first non-cleaning dental procedure in several years.  Last week, I crashed my top 2 front teeth into my lower ones (for yet another reason that is plaguing me at the moment)... and now the top teeth are a tad ragged at the bottom edge... cosmetically it's no big deal, but am still feeling the aftermath of it... not pain, but just a slightly "off" feeling... and guessing after a few days that shouldn't be the case, so figured I'd get it looked at. 

So I guess that's my little vent... and blogging will likely be light the remainder of the week... and I probably stick with this strategy of not necessarily posting everyday unless I feel compelled to... though still stop buy and see what I have to say via my little Twitters/Plurk on the upper part of the sidebar.  It's still pretty easy to scrape up a 140 character or less thought...

'Dancing' Banner

Work is not being very agreeable today, so don't have much for ya!

However, while I was waiting around for all hell to break loose (well, sorta kinda) I was reviewing my rotating W&C banner collection... and decided it was time to make some changes... add something new and say goodbye to others.

I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it... but a prime candidate for a banner of its very own was... Dancing With The Stars!   Below is a mini-version of it, if you want to see the full version... just re-load this page until you see it above... or else head over to my banner gallery... right now, the DWTS banner is right at the top.

To keep it "current"... and a tad ironic... the banner doesn't contain any "stars"... though DWTS fans may agree with me that the pro dancers are now as much the "stars" as their celebrity counterparts.  Granted the pros do come and go from season to season, but I included my favorites: Maks, Julianne, Mark, Edyta, Kym, and Derek... and I really loved that graphic of Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno.

Alas, it was time to bid adieu to two banners.  Heading into "retirement" are my Las Vegas and Reality Show banners.  Since it prominently featured the cast of the now canceled NBC "drama" of the same name, it was time for the Las Vegas banner to go. I'm guessing it will be re-incarnated with a focus on the actual city and its entertainers.  The Reality Banner was showing its age as well... while it featured some of my favorite (and still current) reality hosts... the 15 minutes for Bobby Jon, Charla, and Janelle having come and gone... these banners live on in retirement in the banner gallery as well.

The Return

Today is the day!   As I write, Todd is somewhere over the Atlantic and in a couple of hours will be landing on U.S. soil and returns home later tonight.  Thankfully, he's not flying American Airlines or else I think he would have truly went ballistic, though I imagine it can't be fun flying at all domestically given that situation. 

Needless to say, it's been a very long two weeks.  I want to thank my friends, near and far, for all the kind words and in general, just putting up with me.  I tend to go a little bonkers on these longer trips... but this time around, all the messages, emails, posts have truly kept me sane (well kinda).    And I am thankful for this blog as an outlet as well.   Yesterday, I mentioned to Jen that one quote that resonated with me this week was from my current read (I am behind in book posts big time!), The Diary of Young Girl, where Anne Frank wrote "Paper is more patient than people"... and while my "people" have been quite patient, I am glad to have this outlet to write however much, however long I need to.

Continuing on this philosophical babble/rant, one thing I intended on writing about earlier this week was a fun little blogger gathering I went to last weekend.  I was a little hesitant, I didn't really know anyone I was meeting or even their blogs... it was a degree of separation between my friend Scott and the visiting Bossy... and yet another degree of separation between everyone else attending... but given the lack of human interaction on the homefront, that little Liza Minelli angel that sits on many a gay guy's shoulder was whispering "What good is sitting alone in your room?"... so I figured, what the heck (but stop calling me chum, please!).

It ended up being quite a wonderful night.  I am continually amazed how quickly people click in real-life based solely on previously cyber-only (at at least non-face-to-face) interaction... and heck, for the most part, I didn't even have that much with the rest of the group, which just happened to be 5 other women ... all that could easily play "Grace" to myself, Scott, and Buckaroo's "Will."  (Bossy's base is pretty much women and the gays... though that's pretty much my base). 

It was kinda fun meeting up with some new people and sharing our stories.  I think everyone had a moment that was greeted with an "oh, wow" from the rest of the group... whether it was where we grew up, our relationships, or even how we started blogging.  Good stuff.

One common thread was that when most of us started blogging we never thought it would blossom into something beyond a personal pet project... and now here we were, most of us having already made some new real-life friends out of it... and a bunch more that we certainly hope to meet down the road.

Endnote:  You should really read about Bossy's Excellent Road trip... Scott wrote about it, there was an article here... it is a true testament to all I was saying above with Bossy meeting "260 bloggers across 207 cities in 43 states" (yep, she's pretty much a blogging rock star!)... traveling cross-country (and back!) at 25 blogger gatherings... you can read her continuing adventures at her blog (i am bossy) and here's a direct link to the Scottsdale meet-up. 

Around The Cyber-Block... And Back!

I really don't consider myself a geek... I have decent knowledge of most things computer-related, but just dabble in all the code stuff, more trial-and-error than anything else.

I added the Twitter Update to top of sidebar last week... and that took some work.  Twitter has a TypePad widget that easily puts your "tweets" on your blog... but slight problem, I used an advanced TypePad template (mostly for that hard-fought rotating banner above)... and time and time again, the easy add-ons aren't so easy when you have an advanced template.  So I ended up using Twitter's HTML template to show my latest "tweet" on the blog... but what took time was figuring out how to get all the text colors right to match up everything else... accomplished, but after sacrificing a couple of productive hours of my life!

My next "kill 2 birds with one stone" move was to get Twitter to update my Facebook status line.  Again, it was pretty easy to do thanks to TwitterSync app in Facebook... though I had to ditch the whole Facebook 3rd person (Ed is...) thing since Twitter aesthetically doesn't work well in referring to oneself in that way.  Ok, fine.

The next bugaboo was that the Twitter @replies were showing up here on W&C.  I didn't really like that.  In Twitter, you can reply to others in your circle... but these are pseudo-private conversations and most of the time would be totally out of context showing up here.  For example, if I told one of my Twitter friends "Oh, Cool"... you wouldn't know what was "cool" and it would take a few steps to get there... and perhaps just maybe it's none of your business!  Ha!  Unfortunately, the Twitter badges and HTML code do not filter out these @ replies... though in Facebook's TwitterSync they can be ignored.  Nice!   But that doesn't solve my problem.

So my next thought... can I can get my Facebook status (now updated via Twitter) onto W&C?  Yes, by creating/finding the RSS feed of your "status stories"... click "see all" on your mini-feed... click "status stories" under the view menu... voila, there's RSS status line feed waiting for you under "subscribe to these stories"!

Now, to just add that RSS into your TypePad template ... it's there under Design / Select Content / Feeds... Add new feed!   That would normally be it, but guess what?  Can't add it via this method if you're... wait for it... using an advanced template!   Ergh!  So I add this new feed module into a dummy blog I have set up to practice on... pull it up and "View Page Source" in my web browser... find the code and copy/paste it into my advanced template!   Whew!

And there you have it...  I update my Twitter... it updates it in Facebook... my blog picks up the Facebook via an RSS feed!

Okay, I guess I am a bit of a geek...

Oh, and after all this... can somebody please tell me they actually read my Twitter W&C update!

We're #2!

The gay blogging award season is over... well, at least for me... and, as expected... but given my thoughts when this whole thing started, still very pleasantly surprised, I came in #2 in the polling... 31% vs. 27%.

Not a bad showing for a rookie.

Congrats to Queer Beacon for the victory (again something I expected when I saw the entrants)... it certainly is a full-time entertainment blog... and queer!

Congrats also go out to my buddy Scott-O-Rama who (as expected!) added to his cyber-trophy shelf with two awards for Best Personal Blog and Best Blog Writing, the latter nicely shared with his buddy David from Someone in a Tree.

And a big thank you for those of you who voted for me!   Again, I am not sure how the heck I got nominated in the first place... so to make the cut and finish second still is quite an accomplishment... and certainly puffed up what can get to be a deflated blog ego every now and then... while it is cool to say that one blogs for oneself regardless of who and how many people read it... it is still nice to know there are wonderful people out there in the dark.      

It's An Honor Just...

... to be nominated!

That's the politically correct thing to say... right??!   Especially since my lack of self-esteem modesty tells me I won't win.  While I have "won" things in the past... "Did Most For His Class" in high school and even President of my college dorm my senior year... for the most part, I only enter competitions I feel reasonably sure I can win.  This "not of my own doing" stuff and what surely boils down to a popularity contest makes me somewhat anxious.

Anyhow, what the heck am I talking about... well, I have been nominated for a 2007 QueerVerve Award for... ready for this... Best GLBT Entertainment/Gossip Blog.  How about that?!

And my competition looks pretty darn respectable, I didn't see one picture of a drunken Hollywood starlet/heiress on any of their front pages... so it's not that type of gossip blog.  I would provide links to the competing blogs, but if there is anything I have learned from (entertainment reference alert!) The Amazing Race it is not to help out the competition.  You tell 'em which camel has the milk and the next thing you know you're the one that's Philiminated!

Mainly I don't think I will win since W&C suffers from multiple personality disorder... and certainly not focused on any one thing... but if you are so moved... feel free to head on over and vote for me. 

And while you're there feel free to throw some votes to my friend, blog guardian angel to many of us, and perennial multi-nominee and past winner... Scott-O-Rama.  I believe it was only divine intervention (of the Bette Midler variety, not God... pffft!!!  Hooah... gay and an entertainment reference!) that kept him out of my category.  And gosh knows where the heck I would have found a decent grade of polonium this late in the holiday season to surreptitiously poison him with! 

And while sometimes competing in the same category with the mighty S-o-R,  there are some worthy nominees that I have found and lurk to enjoy via Scott's site... Someone in A Tree,  Puntabulous, and Rcktman's Launching Pad (and I am pretty sure I am omitting many others).

May the one with the prettiest pony win Good luck to all !!!

New Banners

It was time to come up with some new banners for some old favorites... and it made sense to give the re-furb to two of our current favorite TV shows... The Office and Brothers & Sisters.

The Office had previously been sharing a banner with My Name Is Earl... why I don't know... when creating this new banner it was tough deciding which Office cast members to leave off, let alone what pix to use of the ones that did make the cut!   The new banner also serves as a demotion of sorts for Earl... still watching it, but not quite feeling it this season.

Next up, Brothers & Sisters... the goal was to get all the siblings of the title into the banner.  Though when I created the original B&S banner, I don't believe "bastard" child Rebecca hadn't even been on the show yet... plus I was never quite pleased with the Nora (Sally Field) pic.

Since the banners take up the whole length of the screen and I am too lazy to create smaller versions of the banners... if you want to check them out, head on over to the W&C Banner Gallery.  At the moment (subject to change), they are the first two banners on that page (you can page down to see the old/retired versions). 

Else you can always keep hitting reload until to they randomly pop up above.

Head On Over To...

... Scott-O-Rama today and check out my guest-blog post... and proof that, given a topic, I can pretty much blog about anything. 

My creative juices haven't been flowing of late, so when Scott asked me earlier this week to guest-blog for today I was a tad concerned.  Ultimately, I decided it would be fun to blog about their vacation destination of Vermont.  Oddly enough, it ended up being one of the easiest posts I have done of late, despite never setting foot in the Green Mountain State

In W&C news, you may have noticed that I did go through with my threat of using a more "tag"-like approach to categorizing my entries.  If I was able to find five-ish or more entries devoted to particular subject or person, I gave its own category.   You can check out all the new categories over on the sidebar, either the drop-down menu or the brand-spanking new "category cloud."

Being consistent proved challenging.  For example, I added "Tennis" which used to fall into "Sports"... but I figured it would be redundant/overkill to classify a post as both "Tennis" and "Sports" so I just made it "Tennis."  But then I added "Roger Federer"... but also kept it under "Tennis" as well.  Go figure!  I am not so sure how often categories are used by visitors anyhow. I use them every so often on other blogs, but not a whole lot.

The category expansion is still "in progress"... it was pretty fun at first, but it didn't take too long to get a tad tedious with only 1,300+ posts to go through!   

Speaking of which, I let my Blog-o-versary pass without any fanfare... as I often say, I didn't think it would last more than a month or so... but this past Sunday the 16th marked four years of blogging... just crazy!