Goddess, I Am.

This week, I am sans Octavian. My poor baby has been suffering from a bloated battery for a while (I didn’t know, honest), and I needed to take him in to the service center because the trackpad was becoming more and more unresponsive by the day.

Normally, I’d be all panicky by now, thinking of all the work I’m supposed to be doing. But thankfully I now have a rather substantial external hard drive. Initially, I just backed up my files so I can access them on The Husband’s computer. But then I had a brainwave – what if I cloned my Mac’s hard drive and used it to boot The Husband’s MBP?

I honestly wasn’t sure if it would work because his MBP is so much newer than mine, but it did and IT’S GREAT. It’s like Octavian never left at all; my entire setup is JUST THERE. Everything is exactly where it should be – my Windows virtual machine, the best free website builder, my spreadsheets, my tools, and even my iTunes library. The best part is I didn’t have to tinker with any of The Husband’s stuff at all; I love it!

I know this is probably nothing new to those of you who are far techier than I am. But to me, this here’s a real treat. Oh, I love technology!

- Posted using BlogPress on The Sword of the Morning, my iPad 2.

I’ve just finished watching the latest Game of Thrones, and can I just say, “wow.” They did such an excellent job on the King’s Landing riot – so intense! And of course, any episode wherein Joffrey gets a faceful of shit and a slap within 2 minutes of each other is always guaranteed to be a goodie. I’m totally watching this again.

Now, I spent a good part of 2011 reading all 5 books of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, so I can pretty much tell when the show’s writers are taking liberties. It has always pissed me off when a show or movie strays too far from the original books, but in this case, I’m really not minding the little changes too much. Considering the sheer magnitude of A Clash of Kings (well, of all the books, really), I suppose a little tweaking every now and again can be expected. If anything, I’m actually quite impressed with how little has been changed so far. I hope they keep it that way.

(But are they ever going to introduce the Reeds? Because the time and opportunity to do so has pretty much passed. I don’t see how they can effectively bring them in later in the series, if they ever will. I do, however, love what they’ve done with Margaery. She deserves so much more than the occasional mention in the books.)

And so we’re now on the second half of season 2, and I’m getting so excited about the things to come (hello, Blackwater!). I am, however, also starting to get a little sad because it’s going to be over in a month, and it’s going to be a looooong wait till season 3. I do have a good number of other really cool shows to keep me occupied till then, but let’s face it. Knowing what’s in store for season 3, everything else will look about as interesting as resin Adirondack chairs. Or something.

But I guess I can always read all the books. Again.

- Posted using BlogPress on The Sword of the Morning, my iPad 2.

This has not been a good day. Pardon me while I whine.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. This, after not even being sure that I actually slept! (Do you ever get that feeling?)

I’ve got a pimple right smack in the middle of my forehead the size of Disney World (step right up, Disney World Vacation Packages available!), and it’s pulsating like a light-beacon of sorts. And as if that’s not bad enough, it’s also giving me the most frightful headache.

To make matters worse, The Husband forced me out of the house at high noon for some really idiotic reason, and I had to walk in the heat. Oh, that did wonders for my headache, alright. Who knew it could get any worse?

Then, I decided to cook beef and broccoli for dinner. I followed every word of the recipe, but it still didn’t turn out as expected. It tasted exactly like the bistek that I love, which isn’t really a good thing because 1) it’s not supposed to taste like that, and 2) I’m pretty sure The Husband hated it, even if he keeps saying otherwise.

To top it all off, the Internet has been a bitch all day. I’ve been trying to download the latest Game of Thrones, and it’s been S-L-O-W, slow. It’s just started picking up somewhat, so here’s hoping it’ll be done soon so we can watch it tonight. If not, I’ll skin a Lannister.

What a stupid-assed day. I want cake.

- Posted using BlogPress on The Sword of the Morning, my iPad 2.

As of this writing, I’ve been tossing and turning for hours, trying to get some sleep. It’s turning out to be next to impossible, thanks to my newfound source of stress.

I should stop obsessing, I know. It’s not like I can singlehandedly push our rankings back to page one in one night. I can’t help it, though. If I lose this job, I’m pretty much royally fucked. Not that my boss has given any indication that he wants to fire me or anything because he hasn’t. (And he won’t because he’s totally awesome that way.) Still, I can’t help but get scared, though, and more than a little paranoid because in this industry, there just aren’t any guarantees.

Okay, I’m going to stop torturing myself now because I really need to sleep. I wish there was some sort of electric mattress pad that could zap negative thoughts such as this into oblivion. I suspect that would help a lot of people save on therapy bills. (And me, my tears.)

- Posted using BlogPress on The Sword of the Morning, my iPad 2.

I’m pretty sure that when the Mayans predicted a global catastrophe in 2012, they were talking about the Google Penguin update. (If you don’t work in SEO, you’re probably going ”say what?” right about now. Feel free to skip this post.)

Google rolls out an algorithm update on a fairly regular basis, so this really is nothing new to me. This is, however, the first time I’ve actually seen a huge decline on my rankings. How huge? Well, let’s just say that one of my clients’ major keywords have gone from the upper half of page one to page eight. Page EIGHT! That hurts. A lot.

And you know what hurts more? I’m a very good girl who only ever uses white hat all the way. Yet now I am seeing some obviously spammy sites with higher rankings. I feel cheated.

So I am now on very uncertain territory. I’m still not entirely sure how to fix this, short of holding a gun to Matt Cutts‘ head. But I better figure things out soon, or else we’re going to have some very unhappy clients. I hate letting my boss down because he really is rather awesome. Not to mention I don’t want to lose my job, like, EVER.

This is going to give me more sleepless nights than the side effects of phenteripped that I used to suffer when I took diet pills. Way to have my back, Google. Because this sort of stress is exactly what I’ve been needing. Why don’t you call in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse while you’re at it so we can call it a day?

- Posted using BlogPress on The Sword of the Morning, my iPad 2.