The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

New England is in the midst of a huge rainstorm and my front yard is like a swamp. The storm cloud is overhead but not just outside. Sometimes I’m just in a funk… I call it the Funk Fog rolling in. I’m in the midst of a storm right now. Just too many things to do to catch up with in work, and the day to day grind is getting to me. (Note to self: Don’t fall down the stairs and get a back injury that puts you out of work for 6 weeks and still have to get the dreaded Alternate Assessment done on time.) I’ve got lots on my mind, feeling fat, and it’s raining… At least Chloe doesn’t mind the storm..

Twenty-four hours out and I’m still in shock. The silence in my house after the game was incredible. Everyone just went through the motions of cleaning up, mouths agape. Each time my mind has been idle today, the thoughts of the game, the season, and the loss crept in…

For my own sanity, I need to have a gameplan. I know myself and I’ll dwell on this for a long time. So, I’m going to do my post-superbowl website update and podcast, then I’m turning off the NFL Network, sports talk radio and marking all sports blogs “mark all as read” for awhile. If not, I’ll have to re-live it over and over, and listen to all the Monday Morning Quarterbacks and Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda’s. I’ll be taking a posting of Patriots stuff sabbatical for a bit during this offseason to regroup.

Since training camp and most especially during the playoffs, it was all about Patriots football for me. I read, watched, and listened to everything I could find related to my team. I’d have NFL Network on constantly, toggled between WEEI and 790theScore during commutes, watched every video and podcast I could find and subscribed to lots and lots of rss feeds. That was in addition to all of the Patriots content that I created as well.

So, the plan is spend that time and energy and put it into some things that I need to do for work and for myself. I’ll be working on the Alternate Assessment for school, getting back to a consistent workout schedule, chipping away at my reading list, taking my dogs for lots of walks once the weather warms up, and making a conscious effort to get more sleep.

I’ll start updating tomorrow until it’s done, but right now.. I’m going to work on that last one… Goodnight!

Finally got a Mrs. B’s Patriot World Podcast out for this week. After having 2 complete Thanksgivings, (shopping, prep, cooking, & cleaning) this week here we are on Friday already! Tuesday’s Thanksgiving with the kids at school was wonderful as was the one here at home with family yesterday.

Today is technology housekeeping and “fix the little glitches” day for me. I’ve gotten a few things done but I still have some issues to contend with, specifically:

• Getting Frontpage to auto update my Patriots fan site without me having to choose each page to update. It used to work but hasn’t now in months and I get a wonky error message. Contacting host caused them to break the Frontpage Extensions and reinstall them which made even more problems….sigh…
• Get the newest version of Castblaster to work and stop telling me that it can’t find temp.mp3 file then crashing. (Actually, I’m fed up with it and would like to find another software to do “live” podcasting. I also don’t like the fact that editing is nearly impossible and if I have to pause for an emergency, it doesn’t keep recording…sigh…)
• Figure out why my album art isn’t showing up with my podcast if I have to insert it in iTunes, (due to having to use Audacity due to Castblaster errors…) ** IF Castblaster worked right every time then it would be a non-issue because I wouldn’t have to use Audacity or iTunes at all to create a show.
• Wondering why my page looks like THIS to me and not to others. (Be sure to check out @abiteofsanity’s screen shot. Let me know what you see if you don’t mind..
• Figure out why some updates to my blogs work on my laptop but I can’t do them on my desktop PC… specifically, access the Widgets on the Razor’s Edge blog and just as of today, be able to insert hyperlinks in this blog with my desktop PC. (Yes, I had to jump over here on my laptop to be able to finish this blog post.) This is very strange to me and I totally don’t understand any of it because the blogs are hosted on my web server and are accessible via a url to post and update, so the machine that I use to get there shouldn’t matter but it does.
• Figure out why I have a dozen podcasts that I’ve listened to that show up in my “podcast” playlist with a ! but aren’t listed in “Music” or “Podcasts” any longer so I can’t access them to DELETE them. It’s totally cluttering up my playlists…

<bang head on desk> Hopefully that’s the end of my problems for today… I’m getting discouraged and as I said to a friend who I was venting to today.. “Is it too much to ask that things just work the way they are supposed to?!” </bang head on desk>

Technorati technology frontpage glitches errors castblaster wordpress

It’s been a long week.. and at the same time it’s been a very short week. Short because there was absolutely NO way to fit in all I had to do. I’m coming to the realization that I really don’t have time in my life for everything that I want to do right now. Here it is Friday night and I’ve yet to do a post-game podcast… I was up until 3:00am this morning just to get the tailgate done. That is not something that I’ll be able to continue doing in order to function.

The reality is… I have a puppy. The reality is… my job is taking much more time and energy this year than in the past. The reality is… I’m still having some problems with my back and am unable to sit for really long periods of time at the computer. The reality is… I Need exercise in my life to keep me sane, fit, and to help with said back but I don’t have much time to fit it in. The reality is… I’m 43 and I’m starting to feel it if I don’t get enough sleep…. Sigh…

So, apologies in advance, but I need to be spend some time soul searching and setting priorities right now. It’s obvious that there literally aren’t enough hours in my days (at least not this week) to do everything that I plan to do. Without saying, my family and Bella come first as does my need to stay healthy and keep fit and be the best teacher I can be. Following the Patriots and providing scoops for all of Patriots’ Nation is something that I take great pleasure from and totally enjoy but in the scheme of things, It is my Hobby. My family, health, and job are my reality.

Hopefully, there will be a last minute podcast tomorrow and continued tailgate updates and website updates but if not, Go Pats anyway!