Inertia? I don’t even know ‘er, sha *

In which our Hero screws up his dramatic exit just because he can’t seem to break the habit

You fail me yet again, StarscreamOpen Diary.

We sit together in the dirt, we bleed together and we wonder what’s left. Is this the last page load? Is this the last error message? Are you going to vanish on me while I’m at work? Will anybody else see the marks we’ve made?

I don’t need you, technically. You are as much as shadow as anybody else, and the thing about shadows is that you can talk to them anywhere. But even if I’ve always been talking to myself, OD, I also had you, my Gentle Reader. I’ve hurt and I’ve laughed and I’ve always been able to do that without automatically needing to come here, but I’ve always had the option and I usually did. I’ve never had to deliberately force down the urge to write. And now I put my thumb over the end of those and try to hold things back, but I can feel the pressure building.

For the record I have heard nothing back from the DiaryMaster about the offer to discuss purchase. I’m confident that the staggering traffic on that entry was mostly the same people hoping I had something new to say. I don’t. But [Katesotherdiary] explains some of the potential reasons why he might not want to sell or be able to sell.

(Yes I have checked my spam folder. Which was great because there were some stray emails, but nothing related to the particular topic at issue)

I just noticed this myself so I will point out that in the XML backup of my diary, private notes are not marked. Which could be entertaining if someone builds an uploader to prosebox or one of the others.

And the metadata is gone. What chapters, what tags… The data architect in me is offended so profoundly.

I’ve spent a somewhat painful time grinding through my bookmarks to try to make sure I have a log of how to find as many as I can. My particular gratitude to the folks who made it easy for me, either by leaving me notes directly or by virtue of using the same name. Because then I could just go through prosebox and add people. I’ve also made a note of facebooks but so far I haven’t been able to avoid the reptillian horror at the thought of logging in.

On the other hand… Prosebox.

Ensor commented with frustration about the people who complain that Prosebox is a poor OD, and that’s true. Prosebox is a different animal and criticizing it for not being OD is silly. My issue is that Prosebox is a poor Prosebox, and I’m commenting here rather than there specifically with the idea that my comments are effectively temporary and I can therefore cast aspersions with unrestrained glee.

Exposure has reinforced my first impression. Prosebox is a technical wonder. It’s fast, it’s responsive. But it’s an interface.. I don’t know. Not nightmare. Maybe an interface wet sock. Well, no that’s not accurate either. It’s wrong in a few ways that actively trouble me. I’ve thought about critiquing it over there, but then I don’t want to be a party pooper. Also, I’m sufficiently discomfited by the interface that I just don’t want to post there. Something I’ll clearly have to get over.

I thought about posting a critique but nobody cares enough. I mean, I don’t care all that much, it’s not life-and-death, just mildly interesting as a puzzle or professional exercise. Plus it’s not like the issues I see are subtle. Which means that our host knows and has bigger fish to fry and the users know and live with it just like they did here.

That’s when the nightmare started. Prospective unemployment has clarified my need to develop some of my professional knowledge, and technical learning works better with an actual exercise rather than abstract ideas. So… logically… why not build a diary website just for educational purposes? Everybody’s moved on already, so nobody’s depending on me to be done tomorrow. And I get to learn how to design a system I understand using technologies I have no clue about.

What could possibly go wrong? 🙂

God, writing this entry has me the calmest I’ve been in days. Take that elegance!!

Gentle Reader, I was never here!

*Edit*

Suddenly occurred to me to wonder. 2919 entries. 81 entries and less than a week between me and an even 3000. This may end worse than I thought.