First, a technical note.

As the world is tending to agree — Blogger is frustrating. Blogger is like the girlfriend that you know you have to break up with but sometimes she looks so adorable and dude, you guys have been going out for five years now. But seriously. When it comes right down to it, she’s a functionally retarded toxic bitch. Sweet and all, but yeah.

…Plus, as one lovely reader noted:

TECHNICAL NOTE: anybody else having the comment box blank out when trying to post? This is the second time I’ve had to rewrite a reply on this blog.

Another hilarious Blogger quirk? At whim, not even giving you the option to post a comment but only showing past ones. Grrr.

That is lame. Because I do want to hear from you, and it should be easy to do so.

Which means — I’m going to turn comments back off on new posts — ha! My comments are like Oprah’s weight, seriously. But yes — that is, until I can move the blog over to Moveable Type.

Which leads me to a question — if you are a programmer who is proficient in working with Moveable Type, for the love of Moveable Type, please email me. Because basically that’s what I need to have done — in fact, here’s an ad:

Needed: A top-notch Moveable Type template coder (with experience using it on at least one previous site) to move the site mandystadtmiller.com currently based in Blogger to a new site based in Moveable Type. Do not need a designer as the design will just be moved to the new Moveable Type-based site. Send a cost estimate and work examples to: mstadtmiller@yahoo.com

This will allow ease in commenting — because it should be fun — not a drag that sometimes doesn’t show up as an option, features outdated user interface technology and gives error codes. Bad, Blogger, bad!

As one supersweet reader emailed me today, “Your site is my morning pick me up.”

Aw.

So nice! I want you to be able to comment on why it picked you up — or made you want to throttle someone — or made you want to throttle someone in order to pick you up. I’m going to aim to get the site re-coded within the next few months so for now, please keep a large notepad next to your bed to allow you to keep track of all the witty, fascinating things you want to say. Thanks, bunny.

Know what was my morning pick-me-up today? Being named Pop Rock Candy Mountain’s comedian of the week, that’s what.

And — to give you even more goodness, I hereby present to you the bits of wisdom cut out and taped up on my walls, and in my workspace, to remind me of what I would never ever want to forget.

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…”And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin

…”It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power so that a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

…”Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” – Thoreau

…”Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D. Larson

…”Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive. I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it, I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others. I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.” – H.H. The XIVTH Dalai Lama

…”Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in the magic will never find it!” – Roald Dahl

…”Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you!” – Christian D. Larson

…”There is a peaceful place inside that welcomes you. A space so safe, so still, that there is no forward or backward — only the eternal flow of now. Enter this radiance where the truth of your being resides, and remember who you are.”

…”Question: Since you are here to remember who you are, why have you forgotten? Answer: Perhaps you have lived another’s dream, and not your own.”

…”The dignity the world awards you is in exact proportion to the dignity you award yourself.”

…”There is no one to compare yourself to, and no one to compete with. There never was. When the Rose and the Lotus are side by side, is one more beautiful than the other?”

…”How would it be to know that when life doesn’t seem to be working, it is STILL working perfectly?”

…”There is no prescribed Way for everyone. There is just your Way for NOW — until you choose another.”

…”When you know you are doing your very best within the circumstances of your existence, applaud yourself.”

…”Wherever you are in this moment is exactly where you are supposed to be, no matter how things may seem to appear.”

…”Hold fast to stars. Hold fast to the elusive, the intangible, the never to be had; for stars fall from heaven sometimes, and kings are born in barns, and miracles rise out of little things.” – Anonymous

…”Happiness is like a cat. If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you. It will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.” – William Bennett

…”To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a little better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

…”I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much, that, while I cannot give you, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take Peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet, within our reach, is joy. Take Joy.” – Fra Giovanni

…”And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

…”Life is so generous a giver but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial or a sorrow or a duty, believe me that angel’s hand is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim, that is all.” – Fra Giovanni