Math Class Antics Pt. II

I had a really bad night at school tonight. Not only are we trying to cram the last couple of chapters in before the end of semester (we’re so behind) but I was having an episode. On top of that it seems that the conversation I had with Prof a couple of weeks back made it to the ears of the chatterbox crew.

Toward the end of class, Prof was handing out teacher performance evaluation papers. When he was giving the directions on how to fill them out properly he mentioned that there were a couple of things he’d like to do differently in class. One of those “women” (heh) yelled that he should separate them. And another said “Yeah, because someone can’t concentrate.” *giggle giggle laugh snort*

I’m not an idiot. I looked at her and said “That would be me, wouldn’t it?” As I’m not really the one to back down from that kind of obvious attempt at shaming me, I stared at her until she looked away. Because that was said prior to the teacher evaluation form being filled out by me, I made sure to mention that the professor showed no respect for the rest of the students because of that nonsense. I also noted that I’d had a private conversation with him and the information I’d shared with him was somehow passed on to a large portion of the class. I was livid to say the least. Not that those “women” thought it would be funny to try to make a scene, but that they found out about my complaint- and who did the complaining - at all. How completely unprofessional!

On top of that, he and another math instructor were discussing their pay rates and other students in front of our class. WTF? She (the other instructor) doesn’t care much for a particular group of students in her class and she was making that very, very clear. I’m pretty sure she made their work extra hard, but I could have misinterpreted that part. Still, to discuss that in front of students? What were these two smoking?

Unfortunately, this particular professor won’t be teaching any classes next semester. If he were going to do that I would make an appointment with the Assistant Dean to discuss this. As it is I don’t see the point. It’s almost the end of semester and I’ll be out of that damned class for good after that. Since there are only two options for the next math class, I’m sure I won’t be seeing that particular group again. I’ve decided to take the class of a more professional, and thusly more difficult, professor. I’m pretty sure that if a group of people behave in a way that disrupts the rest of the class this guy’s going to put an end to it. Those “women” won’t want to take a class where they’ll actually have to act like adults. OH NOES!

This is actually the first University class that I’ve had that the professor hasn’t had complete control of the class. Every other class that I’ve taken (and I’m not counting people sleeping in Intro to Web Tech. That’s just funny.) there has been a group that tested the limits and has been disbanded. I’m pretty sure one of the “women” from math tried that in my Psych class and Dr. Whatshisname made it very clear that if this group wanted to chit-chat he would be more than glad to give them an “F” for the semester and send them on their way. Put an end to that crap right now. I certainly wish that my math prof had acted in the same manner.

If he had I wouldn’t be sticking pins in this voodoo doll. Wonder if his butt hurts yet. Hmmm…

Stuck in The Middle

I guess I picked a good time to stop with the paid posting. Looks like Izea finally decided to update their bloggers’ PageRanks in their system. Unfortunately, the advertisers don’t seem to care much for RealRank right now, so that means that their best and most adoring bloggers are getting smacked again for something that could have and probably should have been prevented from the get-go.

First I’d like to say that it was good of them to put a freeze on their blogger PR updating. For a while bloggers that previously had decent and better PageRank were able to take the higher paying opportunities and get some extra money for the holiday season. Any opportunities that were taken today won’t be paid out for 30 days. For bloggers who celebrate Christmas that falls after. So they were given a little gift of a couple of extra days to get some cash collected. They did well hyping up their bloggers with the RealRank rollout. When the low-folk on the totem pole saw Google coming around doing the slice and dice, Izea stepped up and shined that light at the end of the tunnel. They made some bold promises and got the blood flowing again. It was good for a couple of days.

Except for some RealRank is proving to be a disappointment. Especially with the continuance of PR based eligibility. Maybe your blog is in the top 20% of RR blogs, but that advertiser is still looking for someone with at least a PR 3. Because of the standoff between Izea and Google that meant that a lot of bloggers were just out of luck. Unless they wanted to blog more loans and even Russian dating sites. Most of these advertisers don’t want the traffic. They want the search engine positioning. The RealRank hype has assured that new bloggers will sign up to do paid posting, and some of those will have better PR, so there really is a market for those opportunities.

Izea still gets their money, Google gets to pretend that they care about search relevancy and the advertisers still get their search engine positioning (afterall, they didn’t get their PR demoted, did they?). The blogger who does this work because they need to make ends meet gets hit over the head, thrown to the side of the road and run over a couple of times for good measure. It’s only business, boys and girls.

What I find really sad is that there are still people in the forums trying to rally the troops. Someone questions what’s happening and someone else tells them to hold on “It’s going to get better! We’ll show them all!” And then the conversation shifts to something more pleasing, more hopeful. There are actually people not associated with any of these folks that are watching every word they type and laughing at them. Why? Is it funny to see people who are just trying to earn a buck being pulled this way and that and getting splattered like yesterday’s roadkill? They don’t want to acknowledge the crap that gets thrown at them from the outside ‘Sphere nor do they want to acknowledge that they’re the only ones losing in this little tug-o-war.

But at least the PRs weren’t updated until after the last holiday payout. And SocialSpark is coming in January. And for sure things will be better then. Just you wait. Advertisers will be falling over each other signing up and paying folks. Right? PageRank won’t matter then. Right?

Graphics Problems in Firefox

Recently I ran into a problem with my Firefox browser. Website graphics were suddenly huge and pixelated. All of the sites I visited with Firefox were broken and ugly. I am a Firefox fangirl and there was no way I was going back to Internet Explorer. So, the search was on.

Find Out What The Problem Is

I discovered that many issues like the one I was experiencing can be fixed quite easily. You just have to know which question to type in the search box! Ok, well, there’s more to it than that.

The first thing that you should do is check to see if it’s a profile problem or an extension (add-on) problem. The easiest way to do that is to open your Firefox in safe mode. On Windows go to your Start menu -> All Programs -> Mozilla Firefox -> Mozilla Firefox (safe mode). This opens Firefox without any add-ons or themes. If you still have a problem with your graphics, you probably have the same problem I had. You should create a new user profile because something somewhere is corrupted.

Fix Your Profile

You can fix your old profile and risk the same thing happening again or you can just create a new profile. I opted for creating a new profile because I could move my important add-ons from the old to the new and not have to worry about messing everything up.

**Unfortunately, you have to to shut down your browser to do it. So, make sure to print out or write down these instructions.**

On Windows, go to Start -> Run and input firefox -P.

On Mac, go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal and enter the following command (including the first forward slash): 

/Applications/firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -profilemanager

Then click “Ok”, the “Create New Profile”. Give it a name other than “default” so that you can easily identify it. Don’t select “Choose Folder…” unless you’re an advanced user (and if you’re still reading this I’m going to assume that you’re not an advanced user). Select “Finish”. On the next window select your new profile and then check the box beside “Don’t ask at startup”.

Your new profile is ready to go. Should you start Firefox at this point, you’ll have a seemingly brand new installation because none of your bookmarks, saved passwords, extensions, etc. So, you’ll have to copy from your old profile (.default) to your new one.

Getting Your Data From the Old Profile

If you’re like me you have a lot of data stored in your trusty Firefox. All of that data is stored in your user profile folder. Since you’ve just created a new profile, you’ll want to move your saved data.

On Windows, the files are located in Application Data file under Documents and Settings.

• Windows XP/2000: C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
• Windows Vista: C:\users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
• Mac OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/

Find your default profile. That’s your old one, if you followed the instructions to give your profile a name other than “Default”. Now you’ll want to copy and paste the files you want to move- that means one by one for the extensions.

**Before you move your extension files, go into each one and delete the following- they will be regenerated on startup:

extensions.ini, extensions.cache, and extensions.rdf  **

**You need to test each extension before you continue, in case one of the extensions was the problem (not so in the case with my pixelated graphics).**

Copy from old profile and paste into new the following:

• For saved passwords :

  • key3.db (it’s important to copy this along with your signons txt)
  • signons2.txt
  • signons.txt for browsers older than 1.5.0.9 and 2.0.0.0/2.0.0.1

• For save Bookmarks:

  • bookmarks.html

• For History:

  • history.dat

• For Permissions Cookie, etc:

  • hostperm.1

Congratulations! You’re done. Now start up your browser and take it for another test drive. Look in your tools folder to see if everything saved properly and you should be good to go.

For further reading:

Basic Troubleshooting

Transferring Data to New Profile

Profile Manager

I’m No Longer Doing PayPerPost

I was going to put something else here. But changed my mind. I don’t want that kind of traffic here anymore.

The post you’re probably looking for is at the blog that hasn’t been indexed by Izea and which won’t go toward my “RealRank”.

I’m going to take a breather for a couple of days.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Bambi Helped Make Me a Better Person

My youngest daughter, Maggie, is 3 and is currently working her way through my oldest daughter’s (16) Disney VHS collection. When Missy was little she received, I’m pretty sure, all of the Disney videos available at that time. We have quite the collection. Right now Maggie is watching “Bambi” and for some reason today that movie caused me to stop and reflect.

I have loved Disney forever. When I was a young child I loved “The Wonderful World of Disney” specials on t.v.  I’ve determined that these movies have actually made me a more compassionate person. I can’t eat venison because I always think “What if that’s Mother?” (referencing Bambi’s mother, of course). I imagine a poor little fawn lost and sad in the forest, calling out for his mama. I think like that about other animals too. Rabbits, to me, are always “Thumper”. I take special care with animals because I imagine them suffering like the characters in my favorite Disney movies- “Lady and The Tramp”, “101 Dalmations”, “The Fox and the Hound”, etc.

The older movies had a greater impact on me, I think, because they were more sad in places. When Bambi’s mother died, I cried. Shoot, I still get teary-eyed when I sit and watch it. The movie helped me see suffering and feel for other beings as a young child. And that benefits me as an adult. Both of my children seem to have a special affinity for animals now and they want to protect them. I think that watching those movies has instilled that sense of compassion and care into them, in the same way it did to me. Not to mention the fabulous memories we all share of our favorite movies. I remember watching “Bambi” as a child, so it’s easy to see that movie from my little one’s eyes. I like that.

Recently the VHS tapes have started to really disintegrate. They’ve gotten a lot of use over the years. The first to go was “The Little Mermaid“. I had to replace it with a DVD, of course. “Jungle Book” is getting worn out too now. So, I’m sending emails to relatives that I need Disney Movie replacements from Santa this year. Then when the tape starts to snap on each VHS I’ll be able to whip out the DVD and everything will be a-ok. No more tears because of lost viewing time.

P.S.

Just in time for Christmas, the Disney Movie Club is offering three movies for only $2! If you know someone who needs to replace some old VHS tapes for their munchkin, well….

Join Disney Movie Club and Get 3 of Your Favorite Disney Animated Classics for $1.99 each, and Free Shipping!

_{This is not a sponsored post.}

Comparing Google to 9/11? HUH?

I read this today. A comparison between the Google Smackdown and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

On 9/11 -

I watched the second plane fly into the World Trade Center live on television on 9/11. My sister had called to tell me the first plane crashed. It was about 10:30 at night here and The Other Half and I sat down and watched the live footage on cable. I was horrified to see that plane fly into the tower right in front of my eyes. I was stunned. So was the rest of the world.

A New Fear Was Born -

A few days later I had volunteered to paint houses for a charity organisation that housed women trying to leave abusive situations. About an hour into the painting I heard a plane approaching and I looked up - not with happiness, not with joy, but in *fear*. The terrorists had achieved what they wanted right there - they wanted to create fear.

Change Can Be Forever

The actions of the terrorists changed things forever - from airport security to the laws of several countries, to creating wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I would suggest some of these changes were not seen in the crystal ball of the terrorists. I’d suggest that the anti-Google feeling and the amount of anger their actions would create was not seen in the crystal ball of Google, either. For some, there will be no going back to how things were.

My reply to that post was as follows:

Did you seriously equate the Google Smackdown with what happened Sept. 11 and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do you honestly believe that Google removing pagerank is equal somehow to lost lives? Would you actually look a survivor of 9/11 or a surviving family member in the eye and compare losing pagerank to what happened to them? What about a war widow?

Wow.

Just wow.

Good on you for creating “controversy” and driving traffic, though. Shoot, if Giulani can campaign on the graves of the dead, why shouldn’t someone else compare their lost lives to lost pagerank?

You know, I would poke my own eyes out before I would support my own president in his ongoing “war”, but I have to say that I am deeply offended by your comparison.

Please remove the link to my site from your list. Thanks.

I am literally shaking with rage. I CANNOT even imagine that someone would actually print something like this up and then, for God’s sake, promote it for traffic.

I wrote this in the PPP forums where people seemed not to have read the post (I hope):

Am I the only one so deeply offended by that post that I am shaking with rage? Am I the only one that is disgusted by the comparison to a pagerank reduction to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on 9/11?

Wow.

I left my comment regarding it on the post.

I’m seriously done with this business. When people can honestly compare an insignificant pagerank reduction to the DEATHS of thousands of human beings then the obsession with Google has gone too far. What happened on 9/11 changed the lives of millions of people irrevocably. The flippin’ Google Smackdown pales in comparison. I’m pretty sure the people that were personally effected by the terrorist attacks and the events following would agree with that assessment.

I have seen some really ugly things in the marketing sector of the blogosphere. Almost as ugly as the political sector. I’ve rolled my eyes and mentally marked people off my “must read” list because of stupid reasons for not commenting and considering themselves above other people because of their precious pagerank. But this takes the cake. This is beyond pale. There are comments on that post where readers are congratulating the author and agreeing with her assessment.

Am I too easily offended? Possibly. But I’ve lost a friend because of the events following 9/11, I’ve got friends in mourning now, and I see my country (and others) torn apart because of the real terrorists. How many lives has Google taken with their pagerank reduction? How many lives have been ruined? When will this precious flippin’ pagerank debacle take center stage in my nightly news? Why isn’t my Senator all over this atrocity?

Because when compared to other things it doesn’t matter. Yeah, PPP bloggers are losing money in advertising. How many died? Sure, some people are losing search engine traffic. Did Google somehow maim them physically? Are people actually going to be damaged forever and ever because they no longer have a pagerank?

I may be too harsh here, I admit that. I’m actually take my time between paragraphs. My anger is overwhelming me. I experienced that pagerank drop and guess what? I haven’t been devastated, my family is still intact, and I’m going to wake up tomorrow in the same condition that I am in today (God willing). Col. Keith Nepsa is still going to be dead because he was in Iraq fighting the real terrorists. And, no, those terrorists don’t work at the Googleplex.

I suppose I’ll calm down eventually. Still, I’m done with that kind of thinking. I feel dirty just from reading it. It doesn’t matter if you support the “war” or not, the fact is people actually die because of terrorists. Google’s not killing anyone and they didn’t cause 9/11. They aren’t even in the same class as Al Qaeda, to which they were compared. Are you kidding me?

Pitiful. Just pitiful.

Everyone has their line and that was mine. Gah!

(crossposted)