Because MadeByMark.com is so large, moving it from one host to another is no small task. The work is further complicated by the fact that Squarespace offers very limited export options. (In fact, they make it almost impossible to get your photos and media out of their system without a lot of manual labor. If you're considering starting a Squarespace-based site, that's something to consider before making your final decision.) 

I went looking for someone I could hire to help make the transition. After Googling around, I came across Greg Freeman, who offers exactly the service I'm looking for. He provided a reasonable quote for the work; unfortunately, by the time I confirmed that I was ready to go, he was too busy to take on the project.

I did find a plug-in that, in theory, makes the transition much easier. But WordPress All Import has trouble reading Squarespace's export file, and the resulting import is laced with errors and issues. (Worse, a note to the designer, asking questions about the process, has gotten no response.)

I need to resolve this, because I'm having trouble being motivated to post material to a spot I'm inclined to leave. If you have any leads or contacts who might be interested in doing this conversion as a work-for-hire project, I'd appreciate the information. Thanks!

But lately:

- I spend too much time in my head (thinking, debating, daydreaming) and not enough time in the real world (doing, doing, doing). 

- I'm not getting enough done. I have the most sophisticated tools ever available for turning ideas into finished work, but I'm producing less work (and less meaningful work) than ever before. 

- I spend too much time engaged with shallow distractions. I need to spend less time talking about the interesting thing I saw online and more time doing something that idea inspired me to do. I need to spend more time creating and less time tinkering. 

- I fail to meet my commitments to myself and those closest to me. Sometimes, this is because I have too many commitments, but all too often, it's simply because I haven't set the right priorities. Why aren't I willing to work as hard for myself as hard as I'm willing to work for others?

What to do about it?

- Spend more time in the real world and less time online. Reach out to and spend more time with real people. Prioritize personal contact with people who understand the value of personal contact. 

- Set and meet daily quotas. Shipping finished work is the only meaningful gauge of progress. Set reasonable -- but challenging -- quotas. Leverage habit to get you though those patches where discipline and willpower fail. 

- Stop drinking from the fire hose. Break the habit of browsing RSS feeds and Zite and Facebook and television. Instead: engage with real people, trust powerful filters to bring you the important stuff, and finish reading a new book every two weeks.

- Keep every commitment. Prioritize the commitments I've made and fulfill them. Make most new commitments to myself and those closest to me. Limit other commitments to those people and causes that truly inspire me.  Recognize that time and attention and passion are precious and limited. Budget them accordingly.

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/hEDLEfPZmn/

I invested a little time this weekend revising and relaunching an old friend: the TarotTools.com website.

Almost all my Tarot books reference TarotTools.com, which has been offline for at least two years. Frankly? Years ago, I had allowed one particular work-for-hire assignment leech a lot of joy out of my work with Tarot.

Lately, though, I find myself returning to the cards. I've started work on a new Tarot book, and I'm enjoying the feeling of shuffling, dealing, and reading Tarot cards again. 

In addition to providing a permanent home for tools like the Character Generator and the Answer Mining Template, TarotTools.com will be the host for all my future posts on Tarot. If you're following me because of an interest we share in Tarot, it's a site worth subscribing to!

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/gzKCsgvZrJ/

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/gzJ79wvZq6/

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/gzKIsCPZrX/

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/gTT71IPZmm/

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/f-cVFXPZrk/

This great, short video illustrates very powerfully the massive income inequality in our great nation. In addition to the clear, engaging graphics designed to help you see what's going on, it features a simple, straightforward message, and I think it should resonate with Republicans and Democrats alike.

The Vegetarian Festival is on in Bangkok. Here, I'm proving one and for all that anything battered and fried is delicious by definition. (In the bowl: sweet corn, tofu, and white carrots, fresh from the boiling pot of grease!) 

Does my new tailored shirt make me look fat? 

Literally: ice cream sandwiches. 

Think King's Hawaiian Bread, sliced in half, packed full of sweet sticky rice, and stuffed with ice cream.  

This photo was the very best thing I took home from the market at Suphanburi. 

This coffee shop in Suphanburi's Thai Market has been in business in the same location for a century.

Our delicious iced Thai coffee cost just 20 baht per person -- or about seventy cents. (And it comes with a free Chinese tea chaser.) Take that, Starbucks.

Jet lag creeps in on little cat feet. One minute -- after your shower, say -- you feel perfectly fine. The next minute -- sitting down on a bench at the mall, for example -- you find yourself on the verge of unconsciousness. 

If you find yourself in Bangkok on the verge of dozing off, here are my sure-fire top five ways to get past the jet lag. (And we did all of them ... today!) 

1. Shopping the Sleepiness Away. The best antidote to jet lag? Bangkok shopping.  You're on your feet. You're in constant motion. You're surrounded by the frantic energy of a mega mall. A hundred smiling young women are standing in storefronts, greeting you with "Sawadee, ka!" and inviting you to try on shoes, sample the new McDonald's hot pepper chicken breakfast biscuit, or have ice cream topped with sweet corn kernels.

Jeri got a make-over. I picked mother up a stunning piece of jewelry. And I bought not one but two pairs of Bata shoes -- soft leather paired with bright orange and neon blue soles. Was a purse we didn't consider or a cloned pair of Beats headphones we didn't try on? I don't think so. 

The risk? Malls like MBK and Siam Paragon are about the size of Rhode Island. If you don't look for landmarks, you can find yourself riding the same escalators again and again, unable to find your way back to the SkyTrain! 

2. Eat Your Way to Wakefulness. We've traveled the world, and I can tell you with confidence that there's nothing -- nothing! -- that beats a Bangkok luxury hotel breakfast.

Over here, there's the Japanese section, with everything from hot noodle bowls cooked to order to glutinous chicken cangee. Over there, you'll find green chicken curry, stir-fried shrimp, dim sum dumplings, and vegetable fried rice. Beyond that, the bakery: fresh croissants, chocolate rolls, puff pastries, French toast, and a thousand slices of bread for toasting, all sorted by color and texture. 

To your left: a dozen kinds of chopped fresh fruit and six kinds of yogurt, with an array of toppings from hot Nutella to honey. To your right, an omelet statio, where a smiling chef will combine any of the hundred or so ingredients into a masterpiece just for you. And between you and the tables is the hot bar: spicy chicken sausages, pork sausage, broad strips of bacon, crispy potatoes ... the list goes on and on. 

Shopping's hard work, so by lunch, we were ready for coconut frost beverages with lime juice and honey, spring rolls with sweet pepper sauce, pad thai, fried squid, and vermicelli noodles with fresh crab meat. Finish that off with sticky toffee pudding? Of course! After all -- the harder your jaws are working, the harder it is to fall asleep.

3. Cross Any Street. The fastest way from our hotel to the SkyTrain is to cross Suriwong Road on foot. In Bangkok traffic. Without a light. 

Even when the street looks clear, the motorcycles and tuk-tuks come out of nowhere, zipping into your peripheral vison and tempting your lizard brain trigger a life-saving sprint. You must resist. Be deliberate. Move at a constant pace. The traffic will flow around you -- most of the time.

Think of it as a real-life game of Frogger. With your heart pounding and adrenaline coursing through your veins, it's a lot harder to doze off, you know.

4. Walk the Patpong. Our hotel is across the street from the Patpong, Bangkok's infamous night market where you can buy anything ... or anyone ... for a price. When we left the hotel this morning, the street was broad and empty, and all the bars, shops, and restaurants (except this one *great* purse place) were shuttered.

But when we got back home after a day at MBK and Siam Square, the street had been transformed completely.

Street vendors were stir-frying pork and tomatoes and grilling strips of chicken and lamb. Three hundred brightly lit stalls filled the street, where vendors hawked pirated DVDs, cigarette lighters with your photograph lasered into the steel, antique amulets of dubious origin, card tricks, ping-pong shows (don't ask), fake Polo shirts made of cotton as thin as tissue paper ... the list goes on and on.  

Multi-colored lasers dazzle you, spewing millions of pinpoints of green, blue, and red light into the air. Women in dark doorways beckon. Men with laminated photos of things you wouldn't want your mom to see step into your path, smiling and inviting you in. 

And, because this is Bangkok, it's all in good fun -- aggressive, yes, but with a carnival atmosphere. Keep your wits about you, smile and shake your head, browse the goods, and strike up a conversation with the guy selling fake iPhones. You won't doze off! 

5. Crawl into Bed. Wait, what? Crawl into bed as a way of beating jet lag? Why, yes.

If you've been out shopping, eating, and Patponging all day, by the time you get back to your cool, tidy hotel room, you'll be totally exhausted. Skip dinner. Have a hot, hot shower. Lower the night blinds. Put on some gentle music.  

Last night, we were in bed by 8:45, slept until 5:30 ... and today, we feel like we've been living here on the opposite side of the planet all our lives. By staying awake and active on that first, hardest day, we earned ourselves a hard, sound, all-night sleep ...

 ... so now it's time to hit the tailor shop, go back to Gems Gallery to have our wedding rings polished, shop the River District stores, have chocolate high tea at the Shangri La Hotel on the banks of the Chao Praya, get a massage (a healthy one, not a naughty one!) in the afternoon, and take a Bangkok Food Tours walking tour of Chinatown for dinner!

Humid air, a warm breeze, and the bright tiles of steep temple roofs popping up in the heart of an urban landscape. 

Ironically, some of the hecklers were also members of the football team -- young black men who, no so long ago, because of bigotry against African Americans, would have been barred from the very university they now play football for.  

Now, for better or worse, the nation's watching. Here's hoping the university's faculty and staff are wise enough to investigate thoroughly and take swift and appropriate action. 

Clyde had scored us great exit row seats, we had agreed to operate the doors in case of emergency, and we had feasted on a coach class meal of Unfortunate Chicken with Sodium Sauce. I had watched not one but two zombie movies on my iPad. And my half-Ambien was just making me feel half-sleepy when the announcement came:

Right up front: we're fine. We're fine! Due to extraordinarily strong headwinds -- or, at leas, that's Delta's story (and they're sticking to it) -- our plane ran low on fuel, and the pilot decided we would divert to Anchorage, Alaska, to refuel.

Problem is, by the time we got to Anchorage, our flight crew had been (by law) on duty too long for the flight to simply take off again. So Delta packed us all on busses, ferried us to the Captain Cook Hotel, comped us all a room, and set out a dinner of salad, fajitas, and fresh fruit in an unused hotel banquet center. 

Because we're an international flight, any checked luggage had to remain on the plane, of course. So each of us also received a blue vinyl "overnight kit," containing a SkyTean nightshirt, a single-use tube of toothpaste, a single-use toothbrush, a blunt disposable razor with built-in shaving cream, and, of all things, cotton swabs. (The swabs, I think, are for swiping at the blood that spouts from the nicks made by the blunt disposable razor.) 

So here we are, in Anchorage, in October. The night is cool and clear, with bright stars and forty-two degree air. Given that we're all dressed for the tropics, we elected not to walk the (deserted) streets in search for Deadliest Catch crew members. Instead, we spent an hour chatting amongst ourselves, window-shopped the hotel's (closed, locked, and darkened) shops, and got a much better sleep in Captain Cook's comfy beds than we would have ever gotten in our exit row seats.

So: a little side trip. We're healthy. We're happy. And I've always wanted to see Alaska in October.