Hillary DePiano's Blog, page 13

Farewell, eBay Radio, the warts and all Town Hall that made a marketplace into a democracy

eBay Radio is signing off for the first time in 15 years. Hostess with the mostess Lee is retiring and Griff is staying on as eBay Radio takes new form as a pre-recorded, podcast style show that may eventually be renamed.

The first time I was ever really aware that eBay Radio was a thing was at the 2007 eBay Live! in Boston (the only Ebay Live! that I ever attended) where I attended a live broadcast of it. From then I became a sporadic listener to a regular guest on the program, having been o...

How hard is it to switch your WordPress site from one web host to another?

Since about 2005, all my WordPress powered websites have been hosted with GoDaddy. It’s not due to any particular loyalty that I’ve stayed this long. Au contraire! There are actually a heck of a lot of things GoDaddy has done to totally tick me off over the years, but I stayed because I always assumed that changing my web hosting with be really hard, a lot of work and just generally a big frickin’ hassle. Never underestimate the appeal of sticking with the annoying thing you are familiar with...

New Hosting!

If you noticed the site being a bit wonky and a lot, um, down the last week, that’s because I finally switched web hosts, a thing I have been meaning to do for over a decade. I had been with GoDaddy in one form or another since 2005 and while there were things I liked about them, there was a growing list of things I didn’t. Add to this that my new host, SiteGround (referral link because I’m happy to recommend them), offered me a bunch of cool extras for a faster site and less money than I was...

What I’m writing for Camp NaNoWriMo’s 2018 July Session

You know what the problem is with becoming organized and efficient? I really miss being able to write about whatever random thing I felt like it. Sure, I wasn’t getting anything accomplished that way and I wasn’t moving towards my goals effectively in a big picture sense but, man, I felt free! If I wanted to write a random blog post about how my house is being taken over by tiny ants to the point that I FOUND SOME IN THE BABY’S POOPY DIAPER FOR FARK’S SAKE or spend the day obsessively writing...

Q2 Spring 2018: Planting the seeds for future growth

Spring took its sweet time getting here but when it finally did battle its way past all the snow it was nice… for the few days it was here before giving way to the sweltering hot summer-like temperatures… before it went back to a little chilly and now it’s hot again? Go home, Mother Nature. You’re drunk.

But just like Spring is a season of new beginnings and growth and, most of all, change, this was an unusual quarter of writing for me.

Let’s just get down to it…

March

Total Words Written T...

Save Net Neutrality

Update 5.14.2018: Net Neutrality is NOT dead yet. But, to save it, we’ve got to fight like mad. I’m boosting this post again because all this info still applies again this week. Call your reps. Don’t let them take our free and internet away without a fight! When the FCC first announced that they were thinking of doing away with Net Neutrality, I outlined a week of posts on the subject for you because this is a BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL for us online sellers. Net Neutrality is essential for us to ru...

Q1 2018: Winter Writing Wrap-up

This year, I decided to start doing my writing debriefs quarterly. Partly because I just don’t have time anymore to take the incoherent screeds from my private writing journal and make them pretty enough to post every month, partly because it better reflects the amount of work I’m doing (ie, this year I’m only doing about as much work in three months as I used to do in one). But since my writing year starts in December, that divides the year up nicely by season into Q1 Winter (December, Janua...

I’m in the market for a new desk lamp. Preferable one that doesn’t randomly burst into flame.

I’ve been using the same desk lamp since middle school. It’s the world’s most generic black desk lamp with little cubbies on the bottom for paper clips and mouse skulls or whatever people keep in there. I’ve used it this long because it’s perfectly serviceable apart from the fact that the shade part is made from some kind of cardboardish wood that tends to burst into flame if the bulb is on too long.… Read more

The post I’m in the market for a new desk lamp. Preferable one that doesn’t randoml...

Lit on Fire, a comic anthology of school reading list parodies, available now from YouthPLAYS

Remember all those annoying books they made you read in high school? Well, they’re getting the roast they deserve in this new collection from YouthPLAYS called Lit on Fire! Full of funny shorts for classrooms, competitions and forensics, the plays can also be performed in any combination for a full length evening. Featuring some of the most popular youth playwrights writing today… and also me! A slightly abridged version of my play, The Complete Novels of Jane Austen: Now New and Improved!… R...

Work / Life Balance or apparently, you can’t just not sleep?

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was in a production of Cinderella (as Cinderella, naturally) and it was the first time I was really starting to feel the struggle of balancing everything I want to do between extracurriculars and theatre and social life and academics and everything. There was a senior in the play with me, Dave, who was president of a billion clubs, honor roll MVP, salutatorian and in the school play with me… basically doing all the things I wanted to do. He was living...