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Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Cloud storage and SEO for middle-aged women

If you don't know what SEO means you might as well pack up your blog and stick your head in the toilet in shame. That's what they would have you think, them, those ones who want you to monetize your blog, flog your blog, flog yourself, flog others. Apparently, the more flogging you do, the greater your success. I already beat myself up about my blog and I certainly don't get monetized for it. Maybe I should beat you up too!
Black and white plaid and stripes, Bag and a Beret
No, flogging doesn't interest me, it's so piratical, neither does self-flagellation, although it does give me an idea on how to optimize my personal SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  

How bad is it, the Mel Search Engine? - Where did I put my keys? Where did I put my glasses? Where is that thingy, that book thing that wrote about, you know, that guy and the green cover? It's like in middle age everything in my home ends up in cloud storage, supposed to be very cutting edge, but jeez, it's not very effective is it? So yeah my search engine sucks - my stuff is in a frickin' cloud. If I had money I'd have Help. But let's get serious. Plan B.
Black and white plaid and stripes, Bag and a Beret
Kids have strings on their mittens threaded through their sleeves. Effective! I could just tie everything I habitually lose to the end of a long knotted rope, belt it on, and drag it behind me like those tin cans they tow behind cars after a wedding. Instead of a sign on my trunk that says "Just Married," my trunk would say "Just Menopausal."

My keys, my book thingies, the garbage I have to take out, O trailing along at the end - I can't forget him - all so convenient. Everything within reach!

Melanie Kobayashi in plaid and stripes, Bag and a Beret
But maybe it would be like that kids' book, Too Much Noise, where an old man covers up the creaks in his house by adding other noisy things until he gives up and appreciates the original creaks. I'm not saying I'd appreciate my creaks, no matter how original, but a trailing rope? I'm envisioning tangles and filth already, and I hate cleaning as much as losing things. 

Well, it was an idea. Too bad I can't patent it and make millions so I can get Help, serious help. The Clapper might be good, but O won't wear a Clapper and everything else in my home would beep when I clap. So back to square one - I'm done before I even get started. What's the point? No, seriously, what was my point? Heh.
Mel Kobayashi in plaid and stripes, Bag and a Beret
The Outfit

I'm jonesing on fluffy white sport socks, flats, glasses, and too-short pants these days. Whaaa...? Feck it. I like it. I'm going to wear the shite out of this stuff - because I can.
  • Weird B&W drop crotch, too-big plaid pants that twist around and bag weirdly; 
  • Striped Zara jacket plucked from the clothing swap leftovers at the last minute at the charity shop. Who brought that? Jane, was that you?* After I painted over a couple of stains with acrylics you can't even see them when I move fast or hold my hand in an odd position; 
  • Scarf/shawl;
  • Sample sale long-sleeve T, white sport socks;
  • Ultra-magic loupe.
How's your cloud holding out? Thunderstorms? Fog? Those dudes in Silicon Valley think they invented cloud storage? Puh. We middle-aged women laugh in their faces.

Edit: The jacket is from Sylvia. Thank you! She wore it here. She also mentioned SEOs when we met up. Hahaha. How appropriate that the two come together in this post. It's meant to be!



Saturday, 26 September 2015

Brain sexy

Ooo-eee, isn't she some sexay biatch in those crazy-ass earth tones? Yeeeah baby, the sweet neutral boxiness of straight-cut vintage with baggy-butt high-waters. And whoa, don't look now - nubbly knee socks. Holy hot non-mama, I'm faint! Can she just stop ramping up the heat? 
Mel Kobayashi does androgeny with Jacqueline Conoir trousers
It's a brainporn outfit. I felt androgynous and sweetly outside the fray-for-pretty on the streets, partly because the glasses were a physical shield between my head, which is my primary residence, and Out There, where everyone else runs around. And while not hot, the cool oddity of the clothing mix still felt attractive and empowering, especially with the Einstein hair and ruby red lipstick. 

For me, this look says, I'm outside the market but you can still gape and be confounded. 

I wielded my toolbox handbag with the fierce abandon that comes from knowing I'm in charge. Of what, I don't really know. I  need staff when I wear this so I can order them around.
Mel Kobayashi in brown, vintage jacket and baggy pants
Wearing brown: boxy vintage wool suit jacket; high-waisted, short wool trousers by local designer Jacqueline Conoir; men's shoes, miraculously narrow, so pointy they have upturned toes; blue T-shirt; vintage men's tie knotted '70s style; magic loupe; brown knee socks. Except the socks, everything was thrifted or gifted, including the Firmoo prescription glasses, which sit low like reading glasses. 

I read an article about a psychological study done at the University of Minnesota, which said women use their luxury handbags as a signal to other women to back off their man.* Yeah, if a rival saw my toolbox handbag she'd be afraid I have a hammer inside. See? O, who gave me the bag, is all about the mind games: I win before the game is even on at a fraction of the price. Hahaha!

There are so many things wrong with the handbag finding - don't get me started - although sadly I don't doubt the result or their other conclusions.

*I found the link at Inside Out Style by Imogen Lamport, her Weekend Reading Sep. 12, but the link destination is persnickety. She always has cool links.
____________________________________________
Melanie Kobayashi, cartoon, drawing at her desk
That's all. Happy weekend!
I'm linking this up to Patti's Visible Monday, of course, at Not Dead Yet Style when it goes live on Sunday. 

PS I've linked this up to TARDIS Tuesday as well because Kezzie thinks this is a very David Tennant Dr. Who look. Although I haven't watched the show, I'm happy to join the party! The more the merrier. You'll find me and the gang at KezzieAG and Maricel's My Closet Catalogue.


Wednesday, 23 September 2015

How to Unfollow Someone on Google Friend Connect, 2015

Oh dear, oh dear. How many times has this happened to you?

When you started following "Natasha's" blog on Google Friend Connect she fed your appetite for Satan worship, but now her blog is full of angel food cake with pink sprinkles and glitter tiaras. No more devil's food! So, you want to boot Natasha out of your feed, and Google Friend Connect laughs in your face.

You may have seen tons of helpful posts telling you to simply click the little gear thingy that appears on the right side of your "Reading list" page in Blogger.

Unfollow a blog on GFC in 2015

When you mouse-over it, it says, "Manage Reading list." Ooh, lovely. With high hopes you click it. And then this pops up.

How to unfollow someone on Google Friend Connect

The "Please try again shortly" tends to lose its promise after several years of BIG MASSIVE COLOSSAL FAILURE. THIS DOES NOT WORK!

So here's what you do.

How to Unfollow Someone
on Google Friend Connect

Type the following address in your location bar:
http://www.google.com/friendconnect/user/overview

Click Settings, shown below, for any one of the sites you've joined.

Unfollow a blog on Google Friend Connect, 2015

You'll then be asked to sign in using your Google, Twitter, Yahoo or other account.

After you've signed in, the following window pops up. On the right side you'll see the elusive miracle link called Stop following this site.  CLICK IT IMMEDIATELY before GFC shuts down this feature.


Un-follow a blog on GFC, 2015

Ta-da!! You're free! FREE!!

I am braced for my GFC numbers to plummet now; I won't force you to stay at my party if you're feeling sick and it's time to go home, and, really, I'd rather you work off that hangover in your own bathroom. 

On the other hand, if I've answered this vexing Unfollow question, maybe you will Follow me on GFC as a reward! - especially now that you know where the Exit door is. Heh. "What care I about Follower numbers?" I trill, biting my own hand with anxiety. 

I leave you now to sweep out your Reading list. Cheers. (Please don't leave me, please don't leave me. Ow, my hand!) If you already know all this, well, yeah, you just wasted your time here, didn't you? Oops, did I just hear an Unfollow click? Gaaa!
_____________________________________________________

Since I'm posting, this what I wore today. I call it:
"White by any other name is okay after Labour Day"
Scandalour white after Labour Day, Mel at Bag and a Beret
Wearing: Is it off-white, winter white, antique white, eggshell white, chemical white, snow-white, alabaster, chalk white, lily white...? Feck that. I'm wearing white: white moto jacket, white long-sleeve T-shirt, way-too-big white silk/linen blend trousers, fully lined (also worn here), men's black leather belt, and black Steve Madden army boots.
"No White after Labour Day" is one of those quaint rules/rituals from simpler, earlier times, kind of like, oh, burning witches at the stake. There doesn't seem to be one clear reason for it (the no-white-clothing rule or the witch-burning for that matter) and most of those reasons I've come across originate with the upper classes. 

I suspect that if I were a housewife in olden times without the luxury of help, human or machine, I would rejoice in a rule of No White After Labour Day too, given the seasonal onset of harvest in cold and muddy fields. 

****
For the first time a few days ago, I heard someone walking by me say to her friend, "That guy was so hot." I've only ever heard the phrase in media or read it in magazines or books, never first-hand. I was beginning to think it was an urban legend. Okay, I don't get out much. Cut me some slack.

That's all. See ya! What am I forgetting? I must be forgetting something.


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