I have changed a lot in two years. At 23, one year out of college and being out in the working world, I thought I knew everything – especially about relationships, love, dating, and men. I had theories about almost everything. Looking back, I’ve come to realize that I’m wrong about many things. The truth is that I didn’t truly understand or experienced a quarter of what I thought I knew at the time.

Karen at 23: The lifestyle of a young professional woman is supposed to be stylish and sophisticated – filled with evening parties, little black dresses, and mixed drinks with fancy names.
Karen at 25: It’s perfectly okay to just go home, eat, and sleep after work. 

I was reading this hilarious post about compliments men might want to hear. The author states that men usually don’t need to hear compliment since they’ve grown up learning to compliment the women around them and that perhaps men would be more receptive to compliments if they were called “mission-critical observations” or “man points.”

Sorry for the recent site problems – last weekend we moved networks, and this weekend we moved hardware.  But now that we’re on a new network and new hardware, the site should be much faster and more reliable!

Some details on the new hardware: we just bought a bunch of new servers: 

• Database server – We bought a faster database with more RAM (72GB ram vs. 64gb with previous db).
• Photo Storage: The new photo storage has 128 terabytes of storage (vs. 75.6tb on the old system).

In addition to being faster and better, the new drives are also more reliable, have faster transfer speeds, and are also faster at reading/writing.  Also: the new hardware is smaller and uses less electricity as well.  All good developments for Xanga! 

I forgot to tell an anecdote about my trip to San Francisco. 

We had gone into Subway to try their Chicken Salad/new Seafood sandwich thing (so good, so fattening), and while we were waiting in line, an elderly man walked into the store, waltzed up to the chips, grabbed two bags of doritoes, and commenced to walk right back out without paying.

The man behind the counter told him to stop — and the man turned and began to yell at the top of his voice, waving his arms — fists still clutching the chips — in a threatening manner.

1. Date a guy who’s rude to waitstaff.

2. Wear trends for the sheer fact that they’re trendy. Figure out what you like and what works on your body type first! 

Some of the joys of technology in being able to bring people together with the convenience in text messaging. For me, it’s done the opposite. Some of you may find the following texts from my mother hilarious, but I cover my face in embarrassment with each text–some more random than others. 

Mom: I deposited all the loose change you had. $43.50. You are a rich man now.
Me: Yessss… 

This past year I moved my college studies to California, where I was introduced to “Ginger Jokes.”

Originally from the east coast of the United States, I didn’t understand what the fuss was about. I know and see plenty of people with red hair up and down the Atlantic coast and well into the Mid-West, and don’t find it in the slightest way odd or amusing. It is simply part of the norm. However, as I began my studies and continued watching my favorite shows, most of which are written and produced in Southern California, I realized that there is a very different opinion of red-heads or “gingers” out west. 

One of my fondest memories from childhood is hearing “Pop Goes the Weasel” playing outside my window in the summer and screaming, “ICE CREAM MAN!!!!!!!!!” before grabbing whatever money I could find and running out to greet this magical singing truck of goodies.

What I realize now, as I walk by the ice cream man strategically placed outside the neighborhood playground, is that this invokes happiness in children as they learn eating habits like ice cream=holy grail. These children, as adults like me, have learned to equate this happy memory with ice cream. And the ice cream man capitializes on that.

I feel like I do this too while working at Bruster’s ice cream.

1. Personal Search and Customizable Private Pages are almost here!

Marc and Justin have been hard at work, and the new customizable private pages with personal search are almost ready!

We’re hoping to make it available on a beta basis in the next week or two.  Let us know if you’re interested in participating!  We’ve been using it in house, and it’s getting raves, although admittedly from a biased crew.  

Hopefully you guys will love it as much as we do!