Winter house-cleaning of my virtual home

I admit to a weakness for red brick, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

Apropos of nothing, I have a new cell phone (a Motorola Razr in case you're wondering, now that they're not trendy anymore and are instead one of the most affordable phones in the T-Mobile store). Remember all the freakin' drama I had to undergo over three years ago, just to find a decent phone that worked properly? Well, Motorola's been good to me numerous times since then. The Razr has such lovely sound quality and clarity, I didn't have to ask T to repeat himself even once while talking to him twice in two days (this is a new record for frequency of phone conversations, when it comes to me), even while I was wandering around my house, which has frustratingly horrid reception. Also, my new phone comes with a built-in camera. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm about two years behind the times, but who needs a camera in her phone when she's got a rocking digital camera? I mean, really now.

Speaking of years and time (which is the real point of this post, actually), today is the one year anniversary of Sweep the Sunshine (that means nearly FOUR years of blogging, rockstars. Can you believe it?), and once more I took it upon myself to fiddle around with stuff 'round here.

I've finally been granted the opportunity to switch over to Blogger beta, so I played around with my template a bit, adding labels [that's "categories" to the rest of you] and fixing old permanent-links that still pointed back to good ol' ramblingmonologues. Of course, I've realized that every time I edit and republish such old posts, they show up as new posts in my RSS feed (hello, Google Reader). Sorry, people.

The only template problem I'm having right now is that not all my posts categorized under each label are showing up on their respective label pages. Apparently, it only shows 20 posts under each label, because I refused to switch over to one of the new Layouts templates offered by Blogger beta and am thus missing some necessary piece of code.

Also, here's a question I've been contemplating lately, while getting overly excited about things like labels/categories (features that non-blogspot users have had as default for ten thousand years already): Which is better, TypePad or WordPress? And why? Or, what do you like about either/both of them? I've been contemplating a switch lately, especially since my comments box is sometimes unpredictable and I hate the Blogger commenting system. Such drama. Clearly, I have issues with commitment and I like change (even though I know you all hate it).

Here's a list of all my labels/categories, although they're pretty self-explanatory [I just like making lists, unless they're to-do lists]:

(3)BeautifulThings celebrates all the beautiful stuff I'd noted from any given day or week. A lot of it is in list format. The "3" is in parentheses because I only started the "three beautiful things" exercise recently.

All-Star Crackstar Squad: Friends and buddies and people I engage in hangingout sessions with. HIGHFIVE to my favorite crackstar 2Scoops for originally coming up with and using that phrase while commenting on Baji's April 4th post [turn your permanent-links on, Baji!], after we hung out in Berkeley in late March2006. [Dude, I never wrote about that!]

Bibliothek means "library" in German. Books make me giddy like nothing else can.

Blogistan lists all posts related to blogger meetups or musings on blogging or Blogistan in general.

Casa420 and Familia: While "420" is my house number - and also code for marijuana, which is amusing if you consider my inexplicable fascination with all variations of the word "crack" - this label contains posts related to all various homes I've lived in, as well as posts about my immediate family and what I (lovingly) call the "soap opera drama family" (the relatives). I write about my father a lot. Here's an introduction to my mother.

Conversations and Encounters - This is my favorite category (I forgot to label it as also including [disconcerting] eavesdropping sessions!), and, as such, I can't help but recommend some of the older stuff to those of you who might have missed it the first time around. Since Blogger is being annoying and, as mentioned, only showing 20 posts from each label, here are some of my favorites from the total forty: There's Lily from Borders, little Somiyya, the heartbreaking conversation with my friend Z about self-righteous Muslims and their haste in labeling others as "kaffir," the Persian poet and student activist [two-and-a-half-years old now, this post about a few seemingly simple questions sparked 130+ comments], "Maria" the difficult workshop participant, the "state of mind" girl, traffic school Day One and Day Two, the Target girl to whom I was rude, the charity bell-ringing man at the grocery store, those annoying aunties at that one wedding, the adorable preschool kids to whom I used to read, the Jack Nicholson look-alike with the hard-hitting questions [this is still one of the most intimidating but thought-provoking conversations I've ever had], the man in the panama hat, Dennis the Menace, the girl I wanted to hurt [the comments on this post still make me laugh, especially in light of the previous post], and, finally, the drummer boy on the bike.

Glorious mundanity: Wherein I celebrate the trivial. Contains lists and paragraphs and lists masquerading as paragraphs.

Hit the Road: I spend too much time blasting music while driving in a car on the freeway.

Links to love from across this webbed world we inhabit.

Loss and laments and letting go: Because, contrary to popular opinion, not everything is about sunshine 'round here. I won't pick out specific posts, but please do check the posts under that category, so you understand that even I'm capable of going through gloomy days.

NineToFive outside the 925: All posts that reference work - mainly my old jobs in downtown Sacramento and at university. I had the rockingest co-workers ever.

Rhymes and unrhymed lines: Anything related to poetry, mine or others'.

Rockstar and Crescent: Islam/Muslim-related posts.

Salaam Namaste: Posts dealing with being Desi/South Asian/Pakistani.

Suckool: There's a reason why it's spelled "stuDYING." Other than that, university and I got along really well. As I mentioned to HijabMan lately: "Man, I miss college. It was rocking good times." And then, as an afterthought: "Except for that taking-tests business."