[d] enclosed in brackets chaotic perfectionist for hire

For starters, it was really nice last week, but I didn't get a chance to go outside much... Now I'll probably have plenty of time this week, but it's pouring right now. whee.

So I've been trying to figure out how I want to write, and when's the best time for to write. So far it's sporadic in frequency... I just need to get the ideas down and write them out later. The Twitter-esque posting style (140 characters or less) has been useful, and especially with services like hellotxt and ping.fm to get the word out to multiple places. Of the two, I like them both about the same - it depends on what I want to do. If I want to post from mobile-land, the easiest seems to be using my ping.fm super-secret email address (I don't have a data plan).

I think another thing that would help me write here is a place to quickly write up the post, including formatting. I've been trying out Nvu, but not sure if I like the way it puts the code. Maybe a couple more posts and I'll get the hang of it. I'm actually writing this post in it, and it's nice that I can keep working on an offline copy, in case I don't have a connection (although that happens fewer and farther between).

Any suggestions, on either writing or applications to try out?

I could write out the content by hand (as I pretty much have been for the past 12 years), but I'd rather have something else do some of the legwork (offline, I have Drupal and its lovely modules to do the rest).

New Hampshire and Massachusetts, to be more accurate. Now that it's springtime, we get a wide range of weather. It's been cold(er) in the mornings when I leave for work, usually in the low 40s or upper 30s (F, 0 to 5 or 6 C)... so I have the heat on until I'm almost at work, then gradually make it cooler.

By the time I get out of work in the afternoon, it's been in the upper 70s F (upper teens to lower 20s C), so I have to put the AC on for the ride home. Does anyone else have that kind of weather where they are?

I guess that's better than the summer or winter, where you're either melting or frozen solid. It's beautiful weather in any case, and maybe I'm just sad because I can't be outside in it during the week...

...to say the least. Ick. Who else has seasonal allergies?

I'm not entirely sure, but mine always seem to start when the oak trees start bloomin' (I'm in the Northeastern US). The worst is when it's in full swing, but I can tell when it's about to start. It's usually just a little itch in one eye, then both, then a feeling like a tickle in my throat and ears, then BAM. Time for the... well, I don't have a prescription, but I take either Claritin or sometimes Benadryl or Sudafed (if I don't have Claritin).

Any of those is ok (I started with the Claritin yesterday), but I don't like the medicine-head feeling and the cottonmouth from allergy medications. I had a trial prescription for Allegra a few years ago... maybe I should look into that again.

Although I could just look up allergies on WebMD (or JFGI, or wherever else), but I'm looking for "real people" suggestions. I've heard that taking a teaspoon of local honey every day will help (and even if it doesn't work, it's tasty anyway).

Luckily, mine are only seasonal at the beginning of spring...

On our company Intranet, we have a list of employees with various bits of information (name, contact info, etc). The problem with it is that I had to do all the updates, since it was all flat file and we didn't really have anyone else to manage the HTML. Once we got someone else to help out, it was easier... but still a pain to update flat files.

I'm pushing for another option (which I won't talk about yet, but is known to a couple of people on the outside), but until that happens, we needed something a little easier to update. Since we have an application server, I went with PHP/MySQL to get it done. There may be (and are) other options, but I've done some PHP before, and used something like this a few years ago (code reuse is nice).

Now that it's available to us internally, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a system to manage something like this. When we move to the next iteration of our Intranet, we might keep this going if it works well enough.

So, in reference to this poll on asparagus, I wanted to share some information about what really happens (theoretically, at least).

First, here's a article about why some people's urine smells from eating asparagus. Read up and come back. I'll wait.

So one idea is that there's an enzyme that breaks down asparagus into an amino acids, one of which is methyl mercaptan. That's the culprit... I thought it was interesting that some people have the enzyme, but aren't able to smell it.

You may be wondering why I'm writing about this - it's because I have the enzyme, but I know others who don't (or at the least aren't able to smell it). That's why I set up the poll - I was interested to find out how familiar it was to people. It's anonymous too, so nobody else will know about your stinky pee.

Of course, there's also the humor factor, like in Austin Powers' Goldmember, when he's "filling the fountain" and takes a bite of asparagus. Any other shining examples of high-brow humor?

Let's say you have a ridiculously long URL to share (like something from Google Maps, for example), and you want it as short as possible. There are a few other options (tinyurl, snurl/snipurl/snipr, etc), but then I found is.gd, which is about as small as it gets.

Another thing I like about is.gd - if you put a hyphen at the end of the URL, the link will bring you to their site and show you what the full URL is... very handy for rickroll prevention (unless you like that), among other reasons. They list a few of the reasons as to why the site is so useful, in case you're interested. Oh, and do I need to say I just like the service, and that I don't work for them? Ok, I don't.

Any favorites out there, or do you just use whatever's around?

Yes, it's April Fool's Day. No, I'm not doing anything with the site for it. Oh, and no, I'm not referring to the movie.

Is there anyone who really does a lot for AFD? There are some pretty funny pranks out there (and lists, like this one on Lifehacker), and of course, more lists... like the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time. For some reason I always look forward to it, but I never really do anything.

What's the best prank you've seen (in person, that is)? How about a good prank, gone awry? I'd like to hear the stories first-hand, so it's not just a "friend-of-a-friend" thing.

Maybe I'll have to plan on doing something next year. It's how things work. I find a good idea the day after (or the day of, but need prep), like:

- Filling the window of someone's office with packing peanuts to make it look like the whole office was full
- Fill the back of a toilet with dishwashing soap: the next person to flush gets a ton of suds

As much as I want to do something, I wonder about the retribution that some of my friends, family, and coworkers would exact upon me.