The Big DumpTruck – Page 86 – Throwing Little Thought Pebbles at Your Windshield Since 1996

10 Years Ago in BigDumpTruck History

Posted on January 6, 2008February 24, 2010 by The Jody

You know, I was all excited about dipping in to the archives to pull out some quotes from 10 years ago, but 10 years ago the Dump was sort of in transition and half the content was hand-edited and some but not all was on blogger, and the end result is that a lot of my content was lost when I moved from my ISP and they deleted a bunch of my files on me before I could copy them. Which is the long, round-about way of saying “Happy 10th Birthday” to Junior, who made his first appearance on “Mookie’s Driver Training Page” way back in the day. (Those pages are, sadly, part of history.)

If any of you are obsessed fans who laboriously saved every word I wrote to your hard drive, I’d be more than happy to have a copy of the archives. You know, as long as it wouldn’t involve me having to have personal contact with anyone who would have laboriously saved every word I wrote to their hard drive.

Junior and Step-Junior went for a morning of skiing with Mr. Dump, who will just be watching. I am as sick as a dog today, and am hoping to feel good enough to continue the birthday celebrations after they get home near lunchtime. Wish me luck!

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How Can I Be Sure It’s a New Year

Posted on January 3, 2008February 24, 2010 by The Jody

I did not realize I forgot to post my New Year’s Eve story. I apologize for making you wait so long. The shame of it all!

But seriously, Mr. Dump and Junior and I stayed home. Step-Junior went out to dinner with some friends but was home by 10-ish. We stayed up to watch the ball drop, our only snack companion some cheese and crackers, and onion dip and chips. (I think I may have out-grown onion dip. Seriously. 4 or 5 chips and I was done).

The men-folk wanted to watch some true-crime thing on the History Channel, but that is not really festive, if you ask me. We ended up watching a DVD of Will Ferrell’s “greatest” SNL bits. (I have a hard time believing some of the ones chosen were the best he did in 7 years with SNL, but I did not produce the dvd.)

At about 5 minutes of midnight we put the tv back on network television so we could watch the ball drop. We watch the countdown, 5. 4. 3. *click* We’re suddenly watching something on I think the Discovery Channel.

So we missed moment the ball finished dropping. We rang in the New Year with completely puzzled looks on our faces. Now we have a Tivo, and it automatically records things that we ask it to, but there is some kind of bug with ours because it’s SUPPOSED to ask us if we want to cancel the pending recording and stay on what we’re watching, but it only does that I’d say 30% of the time now. Often it will just unceremoniously dump you into a new program. Picture the famous “Heidi Bowl” football game from 1968 – with 64 seconds left in the game, the network cut to a showing of the movie Heidi and anyone watching on television missed a 14 point comeback. Our Tivo often “Heidi”s us, often at very inappropriate times.

So we missed the actual moment it became 2008. So did it happen?

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DumpCast Now Officially Available on iTunes

Posted on December 31, 2007February 24, 2010 by The Jody

Do a search for “DumpCast” and you’ll find me over on iTunes. Or, you know, click this link.
I know, any fool can get a podcast added to iTunes, but let’s pretend for a minute that it takes more effort than that.

I need to figure out another camera to use because the sound on the little digital camera stinks royally. I thought maybe I had my hand on the microphone after the first one, but I don’t think that’s the case.

If you want to buy me a digital camera, I’d like an HD camera that records to hard drive. Not asking for too much, am I? Okay, so you all need to subscribe over on iTunes so I will become fabulously rich and famous! Oh, wait, this is all free. Well, nevermind. At least this is fulfilling my dream of being a world re-knowned documentary filmmaker. Cause you know, that’s what these are, right? At least some of the time.

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THE PODCAST!

Posted on December 29, 2007February 24, 2010 by The Jody

Okay, maybe this will go faster once I get used to the software. Or if I hire someone to do it for me. That person will also figure out how to make the files smaller. Sorry.

Here is the first podcast, stored on my mac.com site because all the tools I use made it easy to do that. If you click on the “subscribe” button it will add the podcast to your iTunes list and any time I do a new one it will get picked up automatically. That’s what we all want, right?

THE DUMPCAST IS HERE!

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2008 Goals

Posted on December 29, 2007 by The Jody

I got an email yesterday from Chris Baty, the guy who created NaNoWriMo about this thing he does every year where you are supposed to commit to doing something you’ve never done/have always wanted to do but were too nervous, busy, whatever, to do it. You’re supposed to list one or more of these things and then spend the next year trying to accomplish one or more of them. Some people change careers, some learn a new skill or language, some take up a hobby they’ve always wanted, or just take a class. Most of the things at this level take lots of thought and effort to accomplish, which is why it’s important to actually commit to doing it. I was thinking about what I would put on my formal list. I had a few vague ideas, but as usual, I’m too wishy washy to commit to anything that looks too hard to do.

I did start thinking about things I have wanted to do that I would actually consider fun, and I have decided that I’m going to try to figure out how to do some kind of podcast, possibly a video podcast. The theme would be “being me” so the podcast would involve bits of my beyond boring life. Hey everyone! Come watch me do laundry! and that kind of thing. Maybe. Or maybe just an audio podcast. Still thinking it through, and trying to figure out how people do them.

I also want to submit a photo (or more) to some kind of photography contest. And maybe even submit something to the Bolton Fair this year, which I’ve wanted to do for a couple of years. The key to that is that it has to be printed, matted and framed, so that will be the part that requires effort.

Still thinking about all of it. I’d say I’d leave my life behind and move to Hawaii to live on the beach, but I’ll save that for another year.