Day: November 7, 2001

  • monsur left as a comment on my last post a reference to a post of his own which I here reprint as a community service:


    Its days like this that really make me love what I'm doing here at Xanga. Recently many of you have noticed network problems with Xanga; in order to alleviate the issue, Dan and I implemented the following:



    • Lowering the number of posts displayed per page
    • Changing the way the archive calendar is implemented
    • Making the pages "tighter", ie removing extra white spaces in HTML, etc...

    Though they sound innocuous, these changes actually lead to a 40% reduction in page size (mostly due to the number of posts per page), making for faster downloads for you and less bandwidth constraints for us. Woo hoo!


    And though they sound innocuous, these changes weren't easy. I spent almost six hours today perusing our most heavily trafficked pages, line by line, and reformatted the HTML to remove any extraneous characters and refactor some code; its a very looooooong and tedious process.


    This is indicative of the work that goes on here every day, though it isn't always apparent to you guys. Personally, I prefer to keep this work behind the scenes, quietly improving Xanga while using my own Xanga site as a personal creative outlet. Xanga is all about community, and I enjoy participating in the community as just another user, rather than as one of the "gods". But with all the recent negativity directed towards us, its really hard to keep quiet.


    We are a few people with a DSL; we're trying really hard to make do with our resources. If you take the time to peruse the site, you'll discover we've built an enormous number of features, to create what we believe is the best blog community on the web. Sure we have our problems, everyone does. But with your patience and support, we are committed to growing this site and quietly eliminating these issues. A little support goes a long way towards letting us know that what we are doing is appreciated.


    And personally, I'll try to keep you updated about what's going on here; I really don't blog as much as I should anyway I'm really excited about what we are doing here at Xanga; I hope you are too.


    Actually, before reading this, I saw lcsaph today who told me about the shortened pages (5 posts) she had noticed and I suggested to her that it was likely an effort to reduce bandwidth usage.  So you see, monsur, john, and dan, some of us are aware and sensitive to such matters!

  • Message while trying to log on 5 minutes ago...


    The Xanga.com website is too busy! Please try again back during off peak hours (12AM-11AM EST).

    Please do not reload! It makes the situation worse!


    Click. Click. Click.


    hrmm....


    Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.


    hrmmmmm.....


    Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
    Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
    Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.


    AHA!nna

  • This past week has been an expanse of extremes.  Perhaps I took on too much.  Perhaps too much was put upon me.  The overall effect felt like a sortie on the surface of Jupiter with a mandate to practice for the Olympic high jump.  And that’s not strange, seeing that Olympus was the home of the gods and Jupiter/Zeus was king of the castle and high-jumping is akin to ladder-climbing which is akin to staircasing to heaven which is akin to Jack climbing the beanstalk.  Yes—that’s it!  I’ve been climbing beanstalks!   And what did I find?  A Giant, of course.  A ferocious, arrogant, commanding, feeding, consuming, indulgent Giant—a Jovian Giant, gadzooks! (god-zeus?)


     


    But it turns out that the beanstalk I was climbing was on one level  my own spinal cord.  And the land of the Giant was the expanse of my limbic system—the reptilian and primitive mammalian brains.  And my own little climbing Jack-self was a pittance of intelligence—the neocortex—bringing light to this gargantuan castle perched upon high.  Except the Giant I encountered this time wasn’t a dumb stupid brute, but a clever one with  a plan.  So instead of fee-fieing, he indulged me by lying and promising me magnificences that would crush me with seductive opulence instead: the world on a mountain high platter! (plateau?)  Otherwise known as: sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll!


     


    Oh-oh—oh-ohh!  I forgot to steal the hen that lays the golden eggs.  Damn.  I knew I had forgotten something…


     


    *puts on headphones, listening to Gentle Giant …
    ”My thoughts never spoken only the
    visions inside my head the truth never broken
    within my silent words left unsaid…” *


    or


    (pick one)


    Be right back...

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