Posts
OK, this is annoying.
I've been so lax writing the blog that I no longer remember how to fix the recent comments widget, or even where to find it.
I'm actually planning a Whole New Blog, with a good friend, but since it's not up yet, I'm still planning as opposed to announcing.
Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Monday, March 16, 2015
Greetings from the midbrain! and housekeeping and email
Parachuting into my own blog for the first time in (days? weeks?) —I see Le Radical Galoisien is back!
Hurray!
Anyway, I've not been here because I'm there, in the basement of the brain, prowling the basal ganglia. The book's deadline has now been moved to September 1, thank heavens, but it's still going to be a race to the finish, or a slog. A guillotine deadline, as an editor of mine once said, and not happily.
Making matters worse, in the closing moments of 2014 I made a commitment, as my sole resolution for 2015, to clear out my office. Not just my office, but my family room and living room, too, which had become holding areas for office spill-over.
I am clearing out my office, as well as my family and living rooms. The latter two now have nary a file or folder insight. Success.
As of this morning I have scanned, filed, stored, and/or discarded 670 items. (Yes, I'm counting.)
The subset of those 670 items that has been scanned, filed, and/or stored has also been duly recorded on Workflowy, giving me a fighting chance of locating any one of them again when I need it.
(M. said to me the other day: "You should write down where you put things." I said: "I do.")
As it turns out, writing a book about the basal ganglia and decluttering 16 years of office accumulation at the same time was a crackpot idea, not to put too fine a point on it. Fortunately, because I'm writing a book about the basal ganglia (about the frontostriatal circuit, actually) I now know why writing a book about the basal ganglia and clearing out 16 years of office accumulation at the same time is insane:
I can't even begin to estimate how many separate decisions writing a book about the frontostriatal circuit requires. Every sentence in and of itself requires multiple decisions, since most of my sentences go through multiple revisions. That's just for starters.
Which brings me to the next issue:
Each repair of my iMac took another bite out of Outlook, and I am now at the point where I can't retrieve anything from Outlook, not even addresses.
I can fix it, I'm sure, and I would if I had even one single synapse free to devote to the task.
But I don't. Not one.
So: if you've sent me an email and I haven't answered, that's why. I'm now mired in indecision over whether to simply set up another gmail address and post it here on the blog, or post the gmail address I've been using for family and local friends and use that for everything, or what.
I don't have any synapses to devote to that decision, either.
(While I'm on the subject of ancillary gmail addresses, should I set one up to sell the books I no longer want on Amazon? A tall-ish stack of books is sitting on the floor beside my desk, awaiting further action.)
I need more synapses.
OK, back to work — miss you all and will try to be present more often — !
Hurray!
Anyway, I've not been here because I'm there, in the basement of the brain, prowling the basal ganglia. The book's deadline has now been moved to September 1, thank heavens, but it's still going to be a race to the finish, or a slog. A guillotine deadline, as an editor of mine once said, and not happily.
Making matters worse, in the closing moments of 2014 I made a commitment, as my sole resolution for 2015, to clear out my office. Not just my office, but my family room and living room, too, which had become holding areas for office spill-over.
I am clearing out my office, as well as my family and living rooms. The latter two now have nary a file or folder insight. Success.
As of this morning I have scanned, filed, stored, and/or discarded 670 items. (Yes, I'm counting.)
The subset of those 670 items that has been scanned, filed, and/or stored has also been duly recorded on Workflowy, giving me a fighting chance of locating any one of them again when I need it.
(M. said to me the other day: "You should write down where you put things." I said: "I do.")
As it turns out, writing a book about the basal ganglia and decluttering 16 years of office accumulation at the same time was a crackpot idea, not to put too fine a point on it. Fortunately, because I'm writing a book about the basal ganglia (about the frontostriatal circuit, actually) I now know why writing a book about the basal ganglia and clearing out 16 years of office accumulation at the same time is insane:
[L]ots of multitasking requires decision-making: Do I answer this text message or ignore it? How do I respond to this? How do I file this email? Do I continue what I’m working on now or take a break? It turns out that decision-making is also very hard on your neural resources and that little decisions appear to take up as much energy as big ones. One of the first things we lose is impulse control. This rapidly spirals into a depleted state in which, after making lots of insignificant decisions, we can end up making truly bad decisions about something important. Why would anyone want to add to their daily weight of information processing by trying to multitask?Clearing away 670 items requires six hundred and seventy decisions, each one of them momentous as far as my brain is concerned.
Why the Modern World is Bad for Your Brain by Daniel Levitin
I can't even begin to estimate how many separate decisions writing a book about the frontostriatal circuit requires. Every sentence in and of itself requires multiple decisions, since most of my sentences go through multiple revisions. That's just for starters.
Which brings me to the next issue:
In discussing information overload with Fortune 500 leaders, top scientists, writers, students, and small business owners, email comes up again and again as a problem. It’s not a philosophical objection to email itself, it’s the mind-numbing number of emails that come in. When the 10-year-old son of my neuroscience colleague Jeff Mogil (head of the Pain Genetics lab at McGill University) was asked what his father does for a living, he responded, “He answers emails.”Several months ago (in the fall? the summer?) my Outlook calendar and email program blew up again. This has been going forever, along with multiple crashes of my not-remotely-ancient iMac, entailing multiple trips to the Genius Bar and, finally, a long-distance relationship with kindly Brad, who lives and works on the Apple mothership.
Each repair of my iMac took another bite out of Outlook, and I am now at the point where I can't retrieve anything from Outlook, not even addresses.
I can fix it, I'm sure, and I would if I had even one single synapse free to devote to the task.
But I don't. Not one.
So: if you've sent me an email and I haven't answered, that's why. I'm now mired in indecision over whether to simply set up another gmail address and post it here on the blog, or post the gmail address I've been using for family and local friends and use that for everything, or what.
I don't have any synapses to devote to that decision, either.
(While I'm on the subject of ancillary gmail addresses, should I set one up to sell the books I no longer want on Amazon? A tall-ish stack of books is sitting on the floor beside my desk, awaiting further action.)
I need more synapses.
OK, back to work — miss you all and will try to be present more often — !
Monday, January 19, 2015
Vanishing act....
My book is due May 1 and Katie's and my writing curriculum, which accompanies Ed's textbook, is due now, plus I made ONE New Year's resolution, which is to completely and totally de-clutter my office ....
Not exactly sure how blogging fits in there -- !
Miss you guys!
Not exactly sure how blogging fits in there -- !
Miss you guys!
Monday, March 17, 2014
Getting creaky
This blogger interface is getting seriously creaky. It's ancient; no one's updated the code in a gazillion years, and glitches I can't fix crop up.
The latest: I no longer see the "Sign in" menu at the top right-hand side of the screen.
Does anyone have any opinions on the possibility of moving to Wordpress?
I've been using Wordpress for quite a while now, and I love it.
Among other things, on Wordpress I can attach pdfs files.
The latest: I no longer see the "Sign in" menu at the top right-hand side of the screen.
Does anyone have any opinions on the possibility of moving to Wordpress?
I've been using Wordpress for quite a while now, and I love it.
Among other things, on Wordpress I can attach pdfs files.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
MIA
Sorry to be MIA...I've been thinking this winter, which continues apace, has actually affected me metabolically.
I need SUN.
And more DEGREES.
LOTS MORE.
I need SUN.
And more DEGREES.
LOTS MORE.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Revised post
For any of you getting posts by email …. I hit "Publish" too soon on the previous post, which is now finished:
5 years on
5 years on
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Recent comments widget
Looks like Blogger has a new "Recent Comments" widget I'll have to figure out....
Friday, August 9, 2013
Passage from McGuffey's Sixth Reader
I'd been wanting to post a passage from McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader Revised Edition (1879) for ages now, but it seemed too long for a blog.
Now that I've discovered Blogger's Page feature, I've added a Page called "What people used to be able to read."
Now that I've discovered Blogger's Page feature, I've added a Page called "What people used to be able to read."
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
I did it!
I can't believe it!
I have a Navigation Bar!
After wasting an entire day trying to restore the Navigation Bar (the bar at the top with the search window and the "Sign In" option), I finally copied just one line of code from Katharine's blog, et voilà.
I have a Navigation Bar.
Again.
I have now spent an entire day of my life losing my template, finding an ancient backed-up copy of my template, restoring my template, researching how to restore a Navigation Bar and, finally, actually restoring my Navigation Bar.
I should apply for a job at Mycollege's Help Desk.
For future reference, the navigation bar is one line of code:
I have a Navigation Bar!
After wasting an entire day trying to restore the Navigation Bar (the bar at the top with the search window and the "Sign In" option), I finally copied just one line of code from Katharine's blog, et voilà.
I have a Navigation Bar.
Again.
I have now spent an entire day of my life losing my template, finding an ancient backed-up copy of my template, restoring my template, researching how to restore a Navigation Bar and, finally, actually restoring my Navigation Bar.
I should apply for a job at Mycollege's Help Desk.
For future reference, the navigation bar is one line of code:
<div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div>
new search button on left
I found a Search button I can put on, and I'm giving up on restoring the navigation bar for now.
If you want to write a post, it should be reasonably easy to find the post window, but you'll have to go in through Blogger.com instead of through the Navigation bar.
Sorry --- I'm so frustrated.
Will try to figure out a way to get it back.
If you want to write a post, it should be reasonably easy to find the post window, but you'll have to go in through Blogger.com instead of through the Navigation bar.
Sorry --- I'm so frustrated.
Will try to figure out a way to get it back.
Blogger help desk
If anyone out there knows how to write (or copy) the code for Blogger's navigation bar, I would be very grateful. In fact, I would be willing to pay someone to fix it. I've been trying to cut and paste code all afternoon, and I can't get it right.
The navigation bar is what you see at the top of Katharine's blog.
For those of you who want to write posts, sign into Blogger.com and....the blog should pop up on a screen that shows blogs you own or contribute to. That's what I have to do now.
By the way, there's a working Search window down at the bottom of the blog. No idea what it's doing down there, and thus far I haven't been able to move it back.
Resources:
Fix Blogger Navbar issue
Restoring the Lost Blog Navbar
YouTube: Adding a Navigation Bar to Blogger
Google: Page Element Tags for Layouts
Google: About the Navbar
Problem Rollup Navbar Missing
Problem Rollup Navbar Missing
How to Remove or Restore Blogger Navbar
The navigation bar is what you see at the top of Katharine's blog.
For those of you who want to write posts, sign into Blogger.com and....the blog should pop up on a screen that shows blogs you own or contribute to. That's what I have to do now.
By the way, there's a working Search window down at the bottom of the blog. No idea what it's doing down there, and thus far I haven't been able to move it back.
Resources:
Fix Blogger Navbar issue
Restoring the Lost Blog Navbar
YouTube: Adding a Navigation Bar to Blogger
Google: Page Element Tags for Layouts
Google: About the Navbar
Problem Rollup Navbar Missing
Problem Rollup Navbar Missing
How to Remove or Restore Blogger Navbar
old template back, recent comments back, navigation bar gone
Turns out I saved the old template two years ago.
I have now restored the old template, which has also restored Recent Comments.
But the navigation bar, which includes the search window, is now gone.
Annoyed in Irvington.
I have now restored the old template, which has also restored Recent Comments.
But the navigation bar, which includes the search window, is now gone.
Annoyed in Irvington.
old template gone!
Sheesh.
The old kitchen table math template is gone. Not gone, but somewhere I'll never find it.
I decided to try this one out, and I now see that there is no "Revert to Old Template" option on the menu.
Oh, well.
Off with the old, on with the new, I guess.
Can't believe I didn't Save the original. I don't even remember what it was called.
What I really need is Recent Comments.
The old kitchen table math template is gone. Not gone, but somewhere I'll never find it.
I decided to try this one out, and I now see that there is no "Revert to Old Template" option on the menu.
Oh, well.
Off with the old, on with the new, I guess.
Can't believe I didn't Save the original. I don't even remember what it was called.
What I really need is Recent Comments.
Friday, February 15, 2013
recent comments redux
The Recent Comments widget is broken, and I have no idea how to add a different "Recent Comments" widget because the process seems to have changed and the various directions posted around the web have not been updated.
Blogger has a Recent Comments widget, but that, too, is broken.
I've seen nothing on the web thus far indicating that anyone else's "Recent Comments" widget is not working, so no help there, either.
Annoying.
Blogger has a Recent Comments widget, but that, too, is broken.
I've seen nothing on the web thus far indicating that anyone else's "Recent Comments" widget is not working, so no help there, either.
Annoying.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
English 109 has an index!
One of my favorite things about the old kitchen table math site was the index. The book index is a brilliant invention; Google doesn't come close. After the first ktm froze, we moved to Blogger, and I've missed the index ever since.
Now I've got a new one.
Actually, Blogger has been offering the option of creating stand-alone pages for a while now, so I could probably start putting together an index for ktm, too.
In my spare time.
Now I've got a new one.
Actually, Blogger has been offering the option of creating stand-alone pages for a while now, so I could probably start putting together an index for ktm, too.
In my spare time.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
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