The Big DumpTruck

I tried to be patient, but it's just not worth it. They got massively hacked last fall, it took six months for them to rebuild their site, and then they launched it, sort of. Kind of. Not all functionality works. If you don't pay twenty bucks, whenever one of your readers clicks a link, it puts an ad at the top of the page you go to. Screw that, why should THEY get money because my readers clicked on a link I recommended? Bad bad bad bad business model.

The final straw is that I cannot log in. See, once upon a time when it was a decent service, you could pay for gold level service. Part of that was being able to have a username instead of using your email address. Now with the changes, they don't seem to recognize my username. There is no way to get support. I cannot log in to make changes to my blogrolls. Which really don't seem to be updating the way they are supposed to.

So I'm going to try to figure something out. I mean, I'd love to be able to use their product, but they have blown it big time. So I will no longer be displaying blogrolling links over on the right menu. I'm sure you're all very sad about the page loading just that much faster, eh?

Buh-bye.

Labels: websites

Some hackers messed up my hosting company pretty good. As a result of their shenanigans, Google removed me from their listings. So now, even if you search for this site, you will not see any results from it. I have applied for faster reinstatement (they suspend the site for 30 days but if you fix the issue they'll put you back faster).

I don't have exact numbers in front of me on how much of my traffic comes from Google, but I know it's quite a bit. My numbers dropped into the toilet anyway, what with my sporadic updating schedule, Blogrolling biting the wax tadpole (oh, sure, once a month they tell us they're almost ready to relaunch. You know, I once paid for their gold account service. I'm just saying) it's all melted away. I think the problem is that I don't pay you guys enough to stop by on a more regular basis. I'll have to work out the compensation table "friends of the dump". I'm sure it will be enough for you to quit your jobs. Or something. What if I promise you an original work of art? Or some of my dryer lint? We'll work it out.

Labels: angry, traffic, websites

Wowee! I'm in heaven!

Okay, one of the Dump regulars is a certified USB genius. Without him, apparently, we would not be able to plug in and power up LED Christmas trees, which would make the world a much more horrible place. I post this link for him, as he mentioned wanting the coffee cup warmer. So glad you worked on inventing USB, dude, cause I don't know where I would be without it.

The link that got me to that site in the first place was over on Facebook - it was for the world's largest gummy bear on a stick. Which weighs half a pound. I was thinking of getting one each for the kids but they appear to be out of stock of the good flavors. And who can blame the buying public - such a treat cannot possibly be kept in stock!

I wish I could say I got money for sending you there, but I'm willing to send you there for free. Unless they want to send me something for free. I think the USB Missile Launcher would do. http://www.vat19.com/dvds/showProducts.cfm?categoryID=31

Labels: toys, websites

Oh God I hate when I try to do something and it doesn't work properly and that causes another problem and I don't see it so I don't know to fix it and I get news that some people think my site has been down since Saturday.

It hasn't been. That was operator error. I was trying to create a placeholder home page for a new domain I registered and the turdlett software stored the index file in the home directory instead of the proper subdirectory, but my BigDumpTruck bookmarks point to index.php (that's actually the file I use) so I did not see what apparently you all were seeing.

That would explain why the past few days my hit count has been....17. For the day. Down from the heady years when I was getting 150+ hits a day, I can tell you that.

So please come back! I'm here, I swear!

Labels: stupid people, websites

I let another domain I owned lapse, but replaced it with a new one. So that's two I let go but one new one. No hosting required, it points to a subdirectory on my current hosting account. Lots of storage space = love.

http://www.photojody.com No "real" content yet, just a placeholder photo. I should do something about that, but I realized I don't own HTML editing software. D'oh!

Labels: photos, websites

I set up an account on Twitter a little while ago. I've not said very much over there, because I realized that nobody, not even Mr. Dump, had subscribed to my Tweets. I don't feed too badly about it, because I can be frighteningly mundane. However, I have an application on my iPhone that makes it easier for me to keep up with people tweets, and to write my own.

So I'm officially announcing that you can follow my tweets if you want. If you don't, I won't feel very badly. Much.

http://www.twitter.com/bigdumptruck

If any of you are on twitter, leave your name down in the comments to I can find you and add you.

Labels: time_waster, too_much_info, websites

Hey, if you're over on Facebook, feel free to join the Fans of the Big DumpTruck group (do a search people - I want you to put some effort into this, okay? That will prove your fan-dom.)

I cannot pretend that we'll end up with as many members as, say, the Fans of High School Musical or Obama, but we can certainly break into double digits, right?

Okay, you slackers, here is a link to the group.

Labels: friends, websites

Yes, yes indeed, gas hit a new high today. Thank you CNN. Did you not hear what I said yesterday? Am I just whistling into the wind over here? Sheesh, it's like a girl can't change the world just by writing about it and posting it to her website. I have 60-100 hits a day, are you telling me that one of those is NOT CNN? AP? The Leominster Champion? Sheesh.
Speaking of the Leominster Champion and champions in general, Junior's minor league team, Piper Electric, won the playoffs (North Leominster Little League) on Saturday, so their team will get to go to the cities in August. He's been playing baseball in that league for 5 or 6 years now (I keep losing count) and this is the first time his team has been this good. It was a really great group of kids who were a pleasure to watch. The team we beat, Valliere's, was a worthy opponent and my personal choice for the team to win if we couldn't.
I took a team photo after the game and gave copies to the three coaches. The sister of one of the coaches also took pictures that afternoon, and there's a 50/50 chance that the one I gave them will make the paper. I don't know which paper, but I'll let you know if it does.
p.s. This is kind of a test for people who actually read all the way to the end of one of my posts. I recently signed on with FaceBook. I don't really want to post my info out there for the universe to find, because I do like some level of privacy. If folks who also have a website "advertise" that they are on Facebook, how do you do it? Did you create a separate account for your website readers? Or did you find that people don't necessarily friend you even when you make the info readily available?p.p.s. At least one person from my blogroll sent me a note saying that she's in Facebook, but apparently she's got a hidden profile because I cannot find her to add her.

Labels: baseball, junior, websites

I was on the Accuweather website just now, looking to see if rain is expected to mar Junior's 2nd playoff baseball game tonight. I happened to scroll down past the important (to me) information and spotted the following table. What struck me as amusing is that they just aren't completely ruling out any of the things in the far right column. It's the first day of summer. And you aren't willing to say there is no chance of heavy snow? That there is minimal chance just because that way if the temperature drops fifty degrees you'll be covered? Good to know.

Labels: funny, weather, websites

Okay, all the cool kids probably knew this, but I'm a Hall of Famer. I'm a rock star. I'm a goodness-to-gracious web celeb. CMonks added me to his Hall of Fame over at Utter Wonder today.

This is the moment I've been dreaming of ever since I realized that you can't be Miss America if you are older than 30 and have been married for 15 years. Well, I hit 15 years in 2 weeks, but you get my point.

I said to myself, "Self, if you can't be Miss America, or be one of the kids who gets to be on the box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, you could at least be in the Hall of Fame at Utter Wonder because he has absolutely no requirements other than that you ask. And I can do that! I'm a good asker!"

So there I am.

And for the record, I do like dolphins. They are cool. Not as cool as rhinos, but hey, what is?

Labels: award, fun, websites

Ask anyone who wrote a journal (or letters) when they were a pre-teen or a teenager and they will tell you it was deep and meaningful and captured the deep and important moments of one's life. Okay, so fast forward and read some of those journal entries and cringe, baby. Wait, you didn't write one? Well you have to go share the love at Mortified: Angst Written.

This site is a multi-media journal karaoke for the ages. Real people (some celebs, some not) read from their original journals. The real words. The real feelings. It is as funny as you might imagine.

I doubled over with laughter watching this month's featured video. Real Live Actors perform a script written back when the author was 15. Kevin McDonald's part made me weep with laughter (I love his work, but the lines he was given were the real star here.)

So that's my fun link for the weekend. And don't even tell me that it doesn't make you want to go look for your old notebooks and journals!

Labels: humor, video, websites

Welcome Heathen-Seeker! I really do appreciate all the traffic being funnelled my way by the website that sent you here. I don't have any real plans to pimp my children out for the sake of a charity car wash, just in case that wasn't clear. I don't believe in car washes. On the other hand, I would allow any cute child of mine to open a charity lemonade stand on a busy street.

I kid!

No, I'm not about pimping my children. I'm not interested in short term rentals. The real money is in selling your children outright.

I kid again!

Here are important things that I would like to share with the hoard of Catholics (or is that a "pew of Catholics?") wandering through the front door:

• Dubble Bubble white gumballs are pineapple flavored.
• Disney's Meteos game boy game is very very hard so why make a Disney flavor that implies it's for kids? The Winnie the Pooh level is a killer!
• Mr. Dump made American Chop Suey for dinner. He's my hero.
• I wouldn't be sad if Barry Bonds retired before breaking the record.
• I'm confused. El Presidente said we were fighting this war to make America safer. So then why have the Al Qaeda reformed and possibly moved terror cells back into the US, putting us in the same danger we were pre-9/11 if...and I hesitate to even suggest it...the war in Iraq has nothing to do with Al Qaeda because the Iraqis didn't have anything to do with 9/11?
• CNN - you stink. What the hell is up with the new redesign? There is less branding (and useful information) on there now than there is on my website! And if you don't cut the crap with the video-only stuff I'm going to scream. Don't you even care about the millions of people who want to check the news at work and have video streaming blocked? I'm done with you. I'm going to have to go somewhere else to get my news and that's a sad, sad thing.
• The Vicar of Dibley - how come nobody told me about this show? I adore Dawn French!
  

Labels: News, video, websites, welcome