So I am left fiddling with my self-hosted setup. Still. Again. Only this time, I don’t care what it looks like. Everyone uses the RSS feed anyway, right? (Insert link to study showing RSS feed use declining, I’m sure there’s one somewhere.)

Also: at what point do I have too many blog posts about blogging? Hm.

Plus, and this was the kicker, I couldn’t figure out how to keep my email and keep my Posterous account both at this address, dannynovo.com.

Maybe if they provide a super easy solution for that, I might be back.

In the meantime, here we are, still.

Now back to your regular silence. Man, I should update this blog more.

This past week and a half “watch Tv” has risen pretty high on the list, given how exhausted I am after a full day of working.  Plus, I was sick.  So there.

In any case, I had something to say, so I’m back.  Less frequently than before.

Update: No breakage involved.  Had to refresh my included images a couple of times, but other than that, everything went smoothly, like a point upgrade should.  Your mileage may vary.

But I have another reason to beg your involvement. A few days ago, I was perusing one of the feeds that I read, and I saw that my friend Mark (or as it turns out, his wife) put the movie I Am Legend in his Netflix queue. I was reminded that I had just seen the movie, and that I’d had a rather interesting experience watching it. So I blogged about it.

Mostly because I knew Mark would comment on it.

And he did. (Thanks, Mark!)

And as a result, I am faced with the fact that I am blogging for one guy. I’m choosing blog topics with the understanding that Mark will comment on them.

I find that a little pathetic of me.

So, I beg of you, won’t you leave a comment? Pretty please?

On the job front, I’ve been searching for a job for about eight months now, and have sent out lots of letters, had a few interviews, and even withdrawn from one search (still a good idea: seven months later they still haven’t found a sucker to take the job). I have a couple of irons in the fire at the moment, and a couple of prospects possibly on the horizon. It has been a bit depressing, but I do still believe it’s not me, it’s them. That is, the jobs that have been open haven’t been up my alley, though I’ve still applied for many of them. So, I’m okay there.

To hedge that bet, however, I’ve spent these last eight months sorta kinda trying to work freelance web design. I set up a business site, set up a bank account, did some soliciting, and while I got some nibbles, I’ve had no bites. I also started blogging in earnest, building my personal brand, and dipping my toes into a couple of niche markets (shopping blog, television blog, sports blog, etc.). And while the personal blog has been pretty successful, the other avenues haven’t. And it takes a lot of time. Not rewarding + a lot of time = unhappiness.

And personally, I’m getting fat(ter), I’m losing my temper more often, I’m ignoring my dog (those of you who know me may be most shocked by that admission), I haven’t made any friends here (and we are well past the one-year mark)…

It all adds up to a little bit of depressing, and a lot o’ bit of frustration, because I still think I’m better at these things than my success (or lack thereof) indicates.

So. I’ve been thinking. And I have come back to the simplest of principles. Keep it simple, stupid.

So. I’m going to pare back the online ventures to just two: my personal brand site, and my design site. All the niche blogging is going to get rolled back into the personal site, which will make it more eclectic even than it is now (which is a whole ‘nother issue). I am actually greatly relieved to have just two work sites to think about: in just the past day, since I’ve been beta testing this idea in my head, I feel more relaxed and much skippier.

I’ll keep looking for work, I’m committing to walking the dog daily again (I know!), I’m going back to my awareness eating plan (which worked well until Thanksgiving last year), and hopefully I’ll find time for some of the things I have been missing: self, books, my lifestream, fun, friends, art.

It’s a good feeling to be doing something, even if it’s all in my head that the doing’s getting done.

By the way, the likelihood of the head trimming is going up.

1. Someone from Israel searched for “novo loudspeakers” and came up with my post on the second time I was approached in the street by someone wanting to unload some hot speakers: “Hey buddy, wanna buy some speakers?”
2. Another person was looking for “robertssnow” and found my post on Robert’s Snowflake, a cool little charity that sells unique snowflake ornaments by illustrators.
3. Finally, someone was searching for “gassiest dog” and found a post from 2004 about a company (now defunct) selling a dog gas prevention product. They had a survey-produced list of the ten gassiest dog breeds, and poodles were sixth on the list.

I just thought you’d like to know.

No, I haven’t tested this in all browsers on all platforms. If you see something amiss in your browser or platform (or just something you think is amiss) do let me know in the comments.

The next version will be coming soon, but not that soon, as I have some other projects to work on before I can get back to this one. Still, I am mulling ads, and I need to change the way I call the gravatars, and the comment layout is not pleasing to me, and the home page needs a little something… anyway.

Now you all know what I have been doing for the last week.