Chrystalline

Geekout

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:23:44 GMT

Tweaking WP most of the day, so now I’m testing my changes. (Oh, better try it on a different browser, to test the whole not-able-to-add-tags thing, too) Here goes Firefox! Hmm. Maybe it’s an admin plugin issue – still no workee.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

I’m Back

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:52:25 GMT

Thanks again to everyone for the thoughts and prayers; I really appreciate it. We got back Saturday night; I went to bed rather earlier than is normal for me because it was a draining trip, and Wyberd woke me at 5:30 am to make sure I was there. Goofy cat. Better believe I went back to sleep;) Had miscellaneous unpacking and householdy-type stuff to do Sunday, and that kept me busy. Work today, back to usual.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Many Thanks

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:13:37 GMT

to everyone for the prayers and thoughts and well wishes. My grandma passed away this morning, and we’ll be headed out of town in the morning. I’ll be away from internet until sometime this weekend, probably late Sunday.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Prayer Needed

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:26:42 GMT

Family members on FB – if you haven’t heard yet, someone’s trying to reach you.

My grandmother is in ICU and has refused a respirator. Don’t know how much longer she has. (also not entirely sure if she’s truly born again) Grandpa’s not in great shape, either, but at least he’s not admitted to the hospital at the moment. (same uncertainties go for him) One of my uncles is with him to help out, but it doesn’t sound good.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Gettin’ My Geek On

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:16:53 GMT

Wish I’d found this page links to ages ago! Got me in a tinkery mood, so I spent pretty much the whole morning downloading more plugins to play with. Like, uh, about fifty of ‘em. Yeah, several of them are supposed to do the same kind of thing – I want to figure out which one works best for me.

Think I fixed Wordbook; seems it needs to be completely reinitialized every time it’s reactivated, and since it has to be deactivated to avoid posting new pages and edits to old posts and pages, well, I may try this other FB plugin someone mentioned on Wordbook’s discussion page. Guess we’ll see.

Still can’t add new tags. Don’t know if that’s a Seamonkey incompatibility or a plugin problem.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

:: wrinkles nose ::

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:17:56 GMT

aaanndd suddenly I can’t add new tags to my posts. and apparently Wordbook isn’t updating to FB? Phooey.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

The Parachuting Killer Snail

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:04:52 GMT

With a name like that, you already know what’s coming, don’t you?

When we were, oh, about five and seven, I think, my brother and I saw a table at the mall offering free goldfish and goldfish bowls if we opened a savings account at a local bank. Now, with a bank, you still get your money back afterward, so hey – free fish!

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Oooopsy

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:00:55 GMT

I should know better than to give myself deadlines; I only keep deadlines for other people. That said, I like to think I have a pretty good excuse. Last weekend got fairly busy, and when I was bringing in my groceries, I missed the last step going down for the last load, and fell.

I scraped both knees on the doormat (yes, an outdoor-type doormat on the inside of the door) and caught my hands on the horizontal bar on the door, which kept me from whacking my face, but it also bent me almost in half backwards, which was not good for my back. Nothing tore, I’m certain, but the small of my back was sore most of the week, and I’ve had kinks in it I can’t seem to work out to my satisfaction. When I related the story to my co-worker on Monday, I got to thinking about it; an awful lot of my mishaps involve stairs. Maybe I should stick to elevators!

Anyway, I have managed to write up accounts of a few of the weird pets we’ve had over the years, so I’ll be posting those now and again. Life is weird, you know that?

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Whole Lotta Anger

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:36:31 GMT

So I’ve been pretty riled the last few posts, and I wanted to post something a little more upbeat or humorous.

Unfortunately, this isn’t it. I promise, sometime this weekend I’ll post something a little nicer, but today, I’m boggling at THIS:

S.773 appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

Someone who reacts to criticism of his pet project by calling it all “misinformation” and requesting that people forward “fishy” emails to the White House cannot be trusted with an Internet Kill Switch.

Also, FYI, Wal-Mart’s position on the whole health care thing:

http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/9238.aspx

Make of it what you will; I’m trying to figure out how to afford to quit shopping there.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Stupid Cupid and Teal Deer

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:18:24 GMT

(For some reason my crossposter to LJ isn't working. Wordbook is fine, so FB friends are seeing the posts, but LJXP didn't work tonight. Don't know why. Not going to re-copy all the links for LJ here, sorry - they're linked on Chrystalline.com.)

One of the things I’ve been doing with my internet-free time lately has been to catch up on some of the TV shows and such I’ve managed to acquire. One of those shows is “Cupid” from however many years ago, with Jeremy Piven. There’s a remake, but I heard it was about to be canceled too. Hard to imagine the show without Piven; the first time he showed up on screen I was all, “Hey, it’s that guy…” (from Grosse Pointe Blank)

Last night I finished the last few episodes (it didn’t even run a whole season) and one of them really hit a nerve. The Children’s Hour was hilarious in that “I can see something of me in her *and* in the kids” kind of way (geeky guy with abominable aunt decides to be sensitive and persistent in wooing geeky, defensive girl with frighteningly intelligent twins), but it was Bachelorette Party that made me want to cry and hit things.

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moving past cranky into pissed

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:08:47 GMT

So I called the apartment office to find out what’s going on, since new cable guy didn’t return my call and I’m not interested in chasing someone who doesn’t want to answer his phone. Apparently the new cable company is yanking them around; seems they insist they have to rewire all the buildings before they can switch. One would have expected this to come up before the originally arranged deadline, but hey, what do I know. Cable is one industry I haven’t worked in yet.

Am to the point of seriously considering telling cable-sales-guy-who-doesn’t-answer-his-phone to forget it. I’ll keep using public wifi and mom & dad’s house, and people can just get used to the fact that I can’t check my email every day anymore. Lease is up at the end of October anyway. Will I even stay there? Don’t know. On the one hand, I kinda feel like I just got settled in. On the other, while it is a safe place, it’s not fancy – it’s small and the floor creaks and the water runs lukewarm in the summer and the kitchen breaker trips if I try to run the can opener without unplugging the microwave and sound travels throughout the building almost without pause. (Someone was yelling the other night – not words, mind, just “Aaaaah!” – twice. If it had sounded actually distressed, I’d've called the cops. It was weird.)

I also have the sense that there’s someplace else I’m supposed to be. Well, that’s too vague. Actually, I have the impression that I should never have come back from LA, that I should have found a way to stick it out and stay out there. Still, what’s done is done, and I can’t afford to head back out there again – not yet anyway. So I guess we’ll see what happens.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

is cranky

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:06:35 GMT

Still no internet. Checked the TV, and no, the transition hasn’t happened. New cable co guy hasn’t returned my call. Am very annoyed, but don’t know who’s to blame. Is the apartment being indecisive, or is the new company just incompetent? Only three months (okay, two and a half) left on my lease – is it worth messing with, or should I just plan to move somewhere else in November? And where would I go? Am too broke to go gallivanting across the country again any time soon. Working on that; planning to sell of a bunch of stuff as soon as I can get pictures together. I’ll post here when I’ve got them. GTG – still have work.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Does anyone know

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:05:05 GMT

whose fandom went boom? I haven’t been able to get to F_W all day, which usually means someone asploded all over the web. With work being so slow, I kinda miss the snarkiness.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

My Life is SO WEIRD

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:43:16 GMT

Mom says I should make a T-shirt that says “My life is weird, but at least it’s not boring.” I’ve got some similar ones, but not that exact line. Thing is, the last few years, my life has been quite boring. I hated it. Now things are getting really strange, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Apparently God has decided I’m ready for it, but conversations with Him are always a little odd, not least because I keep trying to convince myself I’m only making it up.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Ugh

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:16:43 GMT

As usual when I get overtired and overstressed, I came down with a sinus infection after the convention. I’m dreadfully behind in getting in touch with the people I met (and want to get to know a little better) and in updating web stuff. I am feeling a lot better than I was (lots of sleeping helps) - just some sniffles and coughing left to shake. More when I get things together.

Oh, and DeltaForceAttack: the email you sent when you were in town last never came through. I don’t know where it went, but it never got to me, and it wasn’t in the Gmail spam filter either. Try again?

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Back from DragonCon

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:23:24 GMT

Just a quick note that I’m back safe, if not entirely sound. I’m exhausted, bruised, and have more sore muscles than I’ve had in a very long time, but it was a productive trip. I’ll post more later, after I’ve recovered a bit more;)

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Technorati

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:09:29 GMT

Oh, for cryin’ out loud, Technorati! Seriously! A site based on tracking and organizing blogs ought to have people who understand how to send mass-emails to its userbase without enabling them to mass-reply to everyone who got the first message!

:: facepalm ::

They sent me (a link to) a survey, and before I even thought about whether or not to participate, I had two more emails. One of them is an automated “I don’t use this email, use this other one” message, and the other is in Spanish, apparently reminding Technorati that not everyone on the web speaks English, and if they want him to understand what they’re talking about, could they please offer a Spanish version?

:: sigh ::

Given how big Technorati’s userbase is, I think I need to set up a separate filter for this. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Yes, I live

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:00:08 GMT

Meh. I’m never going to be an average blogger; I just can’t get hyped up about everyday mundanity on a regular basis. It’s much more interesting to wait and see how things relate over a longer period, in general.

That said, it’s been a somewhat eventful month or so.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Fighting Spam

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:14:37 GMT

After my last post, I was bombarded with trackback spam for almost a month before I was able to get rid of the spammer. The admin of the first messageboard I contacted responded with dismay; his board had been hacked and significant content had been deleted. The violation of his website (and the loss of so much content) had him so discouraged, he wasn’t sure he was going to try to restore the board at all. The next few didn’t respond, but the spammer moved from one to the next as I alerted them, so I guess they took action when I notified them of the hacking. Then he moved on to Harvard, of all places, putting trackback spam pages in one of their subdomains. At this point, I was fed up. Six or seven spam messages every day for a month is too much. (I know, the popular blogs probably get hundreds or thousands a day, but I’m not making a living from mine yet.) I did notify the webmaster at Harvard, but I also checked the spammer’s IP address and tracked it back to his ISP. After that, the bombardment finally stopped.

I mention this because it’s up to us, the haters-of-spam, to take action to stop spam. We have to work together to take away any benefit they could get from it and block them wherever possible, whether they’re barging into our email inbox or sending messages through instant messengers or using the comment/messaging systems of your favorite social networking site. I freely acknowledge that I’m not the be-all and end-all of internet wisdom, but I’ve been around for a while, so I’ve got some advice on the subject.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

WordPress Stuff

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:59:25 GMT

I’ve been less-than-pleased with WP2.5 so far, but this weekend I’ve found solutions to some of the worst problems.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Speaking of Hysterics

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:40:53 GMT

What is it with people? My WP dashboard linked to Lorelle’s entry lashing out at bloggers for failing to be up in arms over a ruling in Brazil that happens to be unfavorable to Wordpress.com. DeviantArt is still frothing over the SquareEnix contest (it’s already over, folks! Enough!) and the Orphaned Works bill, which sounds like it needs some overhauling, but that’s another post.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Hysterics don’t help anyone

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:03:43 GMT

Well, if you haven’t heard yet, Amazon has offended the writers’ and POD publishers’ communities with strongarm tactics.

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Over-something

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:10:36 GMT

It’s been a busy, draining, frustrating week. Unfortunately I can’t go into what’s bugging me, because I’ve made a policy of not giving specifics of my job on the web. Suffice it to say, some customers are driving me batty! Worked eight hours a day Mon-Thurs, almost twelve hours Fri, eight hours Sat, two on Sun, and today - well, I started work at nine am, and just got home at midnight. Taking a quick moment to leave an update, because there’s a very real chance I’ll have to do the same thing tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll get some sleep for my birthday;)

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

I hate daylight savings time

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:33:52 GMT

Leave the clocks alone! I could see a potential energy savings if we still worked primarily outdoors during daylight hours, but nowadays, we ignore the sun and schedule our lives around the clock. Businesses and homes alike use electric lights whether the sun is shining or set. How does changing the time help anything, except to make people tired while they readjust?

Bah. I’ve already decided that if I ever have a physical storefront, I’m going to change the hours of operation to negate the stupid clock change, so people don’t have to reset their personal biorhythms just to come to work on time. If businesses want to change their hours during the summer, that’s their choice (car dealerships do, because that’s their busy season), but the government should get its nose out of our lives.

Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.

Mail-Order Bride with 14 Mil

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:04:36 GMT

I guess I just always expected that someone who wanted a mail-order bride would be the one to initiate contact, not the other way around…

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Originally published at Chrystalline. You can comment here or there.