See you in 2010!
I have very sad news. Doug has osteosarcoma. It's a very aggressive form of bone cancer in dogs and literally has swollen his knee from nothing to huge in less than 2 weeks. He apparently has a fracture above the knee and is a ton of pain. To get rid of the pain, we're having his leg removed tomorrow. And then we'll be lucky if he lives another 4-6 months.
Ethan had a couple of huge cries today. I shed a few tears, which is extremely difficult for me, as I hardly ever cry. We gave Doug a bunch of roast chicken and skin tonight, which I think makes him feel pretty good. He has a fentanyl patch on his non-injured leg and has been given the NSAID Rimadyl. One can only hope these pain meds kick in tonight and keep on going through his surgery and recovery.
He had a series of x-rays today, including chest x-rays that did not yet show any metastasized tumors. This doesn't mean it hasn't metastasized; it just means they're not detectable yet (except through lots of bloodwork, which we're not going to do).
I just want Doug to have as little pain as possible for as long as he lives.
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would...and I really enjoyed the last third as all of the seemingly disconnected bits came together. I haven't read a book this strongly about "identity" since the Auster binge I went on about 15 years ago. (Speaking of which, his new book is next up in the queue...)
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Our beloved dog Doug, who is now around 9 years old (we think), has a torn ACL in his right rear leg. It's awful. His confidence is shot, his morale is low, and he's in pain. We took him to the vet, who immediately referred him for surgery. I definitely don't think I know more than a vet does, but I'm all for other options than surgery for non-life-threatening injuries.
So, I did some research and found a Yahoo! group that discusses Conservative Management. I discovered a company (one of many) that makes prosthetics and orthoses for animals. So we've decided to have a stifle brace made for him from OrthoPets, in the hope that he can avoid surgery and start having the confidence to walk on his bad leg before he tears the ACL in the other leg.
Tonight we made a cast/mold of his leg and Brian will send it off to OrthoPets tomorrow. Hopefully, within a week we'll have his new brace. I was told that they usually start walking on it within 30 minutes of putting on the brace. I'm crossing my fingers.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
There is an amazing episode of "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" coming out this week, of which I've seen a preview. Neil Patrick Harris as the villainous "Music Meister" is simply brilliant. I had no idea he has such a fantastic singing voice. I think it is premiering on Cartoon Network tomorrow (Friday, 10/23, 7:30 p.m.) night.
I've been watching this because Ethan is obsessed with CartoonNetwork.com, and turned me on to this preview, which I viewed a couple of days ago with him.
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
