I got a comment from Rayne earlier today asking where I've been. I hadn't realized just how long it has been since I last posted anything here... (and thanks for asking, Rayne - I appreciate that!)
Anyway, I just thought I'd drop in a note to let you guys know everything's fine here -- in fact, that seems to be a big part of why I'm not posting as much. :) I've found that I usually end up doing most of political commentary and analysis when I'm feeling kind of down or angry about something. But lately, I've actually been more or less happy (which is kind of a rarity for me, sad to say), and just haven't wanted to go traipsing through the mess our leaders have made of everything they've touched.
Since I picked the guitar up again a few months ago, I've rediscovered just how much I enjoy playing it, and most of the time I used to put into blogging is now going into practice. I'm not planning to shut down the blog, though, because I DO want to get back to doing more writing (and because it's very likely that my mood WILL come back down again, and I'll be more interested in ranting again *g*)
At any rate, that's what's been going on. Take care, and I'll try to post a bit more often :)
Kriselda
I woke up a bit ago to find an interesting present in my e-mail stocking - a trackback ping to an post I made several months ago. From the short snippet I see in my email, it looked, I must say, kind of odd... the post that was being trackbacked had been about the debate over the 10 Commandments monument in Alabama, but the trackback entry itself was called "I got blog spam for Christmas.", so I figured, "why not" and set off to see what it was all about.
Roj of meta-roj had apparently received a blog spam from a fellow named William Cooper who's trying to sell a book. Not only had she tracked down what he was selling, but she went even further, using her log entry information, and provides one of the funniest and most imformative posts I've read in a while. While doing her research, she found several blogs (including mine) that this cretin had hit, and decided to give us trackback pings as "Christmas presents" so we could be sure to take out the trash. See, Cooper is crafty - he didn't make the URL for his book a link - he just typed in the plain URL under his signature - making it much easier to overlook.
I've gone ahead and left Cooper's comment itself (which is mainly a weird string of Bible verses), but am editing out his URL. Now, I normally only edit comments for format - such as putting in paragraphs or taking out hard carriage returns so the comment will wrap properly, regardless of screen size - but I don't edit for content or clean up anyone's spelling, grammar or punctuation errors. I just make it easier to look at. But in this case, I'm making an exception because, even though *I* can't figure out for sure what he's trying to say with his data dump, someone else might find it interesting - but I won't let him use my site for advertising.
Anyway, my thanks to Roj for the tipoff, and figured I'd give her a return-trackback for her efforts! :)
If you want to read an excellent post on the whole matter of what happened with the League of Liberals, Next of Kynn has an excellent overview with links to the major posts on the subject.
Let me just say that he also does an excellent job of expressing a great deal of what I've been feeling about the whole matter. He stuck it out longer than I did, but tried to see if he could affect real change within the group. I'm sorry that he wasn't able to.
As I've mentioned in my earlier post explaining why I was leaving the League, when I mess up, I do try to own up to it, so... I got a reminder this morning that, apparently, I had been sent a message earlier this month by Barry in which he explained that he experimenting with multiple Site Meters, though in all honesty, I don't recall having seen it.
I was part of a small group of people (maybe 3 or 4 of us, including Barry) who were discussing technical issues, and I either failed to read the message at the time (I do recall on a couple of occasions feeling a bit overwhelmed and just bulk deleting several messages rather than reading them, so it's possible it was one of the messages that just went straight to the trash) or, if I did read it, I failed to comprehend the implications of what he was doing. Since I don't remember the message at all, I don't know which it is, but either one is a significant lapse on my part. I should have been paying better attention to what was being discussed, recognized what he was doing and objected to it at the time. I sincerely regret that I did not.
I hate to have to do this, because I really wanted to see a strong group of liberal blogs working together, but unfortunately, I'm no longer comfortable being a member of the League of Liberals.
This was posted at The Truth Laid Bear this morning. Apparently, 5 of the roughly 50 blogs in the League have had multiple Site Meter counters on them. NZ Bear believes that this is artificially inflating the traffic counts to all of the blogs in the group. The 5 blogs in question are run by Barry and his family, and he has posted a response (you may need to scroll down as the permalink doesn't seem to be working) explaining why that's not the case, and noting that there are a large number of questionable traffic reports for conservative blogs.
In terms of the technology, I'm not enough of a geek to fully understand either the accusation OR the explanation. I am simply not comfortable at all with the situation.
I do want to note that it is only a very small number of League blogs (5 out of about 50) that are in question, and all are owned and operated by the same family. Just as I was unaware that this was being done, so were most other League members.
Some people will probably say I'm being "weak" or a "chickenshit", and am not willing to stand up to conservatives making false accusations. Perhaps I am - I really don't know at this point, especially since I don't understand the technology of the Site Meters enough to understand if the accusations are false or not. My problem is that one of the things I've tried hard to build with "different strings" is a reasonable amount of credibility. It's why I've tried to own up to it when I make mistakes, why I try to make sure I understand (and provide) the context of a quote I'm criticizing rather than just running with the "questionable" portion that's being cited elsewhere, and many of the other things I do.
I make no claim to or pretense of being unbiased - I AM a liberal - and how I view or interpret things will be very different from how a conservative may view or interpret the same information, actions, statements or situation. But I want to at least try to provide enough information about the subject matter that someone can go, read it for themselves and make their own evaluation of it. To me, all of this comes under the concept of "playing fair" - and that's the approach I want to take with this blog.
So, even though I realize that it is very likely that no actual "wrong" was done, the fact is that it simply looks bad, and it looks like at least one group of blogs may (may) have been trying to take advantage of technical weaknesses in the system. Whether they were or not, I leave up to you to decide for yourself. You can read the accusation and responses at the links noted above.
I know this may not make sense to some people - my leaving when I can't say for sure if anything wrong was actually done, and I'm sorry for that. It's just what I think I have to do.
Even though I'm still on my mini-hiatus, I would be remiss if I failed to do my League of Liberals duty and not vote for one of the entries in the New Blog Showcase at The Truth Laid Bear.
Jeff, from "This Lousy T-Shirt", has a great post about parental vegatable-eating tactics and the recent Senate Slumber Party. Take a minute and give it a look!
Sorry for the slow blogging yesterday, but it's probably going to be slow for the next few days. Yesterday was my birthday and my parents got me a copy of Neil Peart's book "Ghost Rider" - a chronicle of time he spent riding a motorcycle around Canada, parts of the western US, down into Mexico and back again while trying to heal from the double blow he suffered when his daughter and wife died within 10 months of each other.
Peart is best known as the drummer for the rock group Rush, so the book has a special poignancy for me. I've been a die-hard fan of the band for almost 25 years now, and many of their songs have a very special meaning to me. One in particular has had a significant impact in my life.
Back in January of 1990, I became suicidal after a relationship ended and I found myself almost entirely isolated. I'd met the guy shortly after moving back to Kansas City from Seattle, and he'd been letting me borrow a computer of his, through which I'd been slowly making friends at the various local BBSes (this was before the Internet was so readily available for non-collegiate types). I'd also made a few friends in a club we'd belonged to together. When he broke up with me, he took with him his computer - and my only link to those friends, and he also seemed to get custody of the club friends as well - except for two who stood by me. I'm now married to one of them, but at the time, we were just getting to be friends.
At any rate, as I've mentioned before, I've been clinically depressed for years, and it's only been in the last decade or so I've been able to get properly medicated for that, so the loss of my boyfriend and the near total loss of my social structure sent me reeling. I landed in the psych ward of one of the local hospitals. I wasn't allowed to bring much with me, but one of the things I brought was Rush's new "Presto" album. There's on song on there called "The Pass" which is about suicide. Peart - who wrote the book I'm now reading - is the band's lyricist, and lying there in my hospital bed, trying to figure anything out, I let myself really listen to it for the first time:
proud swagger out of the schoolyardThose words hit something inside me, [and the music they're set to could not have been better for setting the mood and atmosphere needed for the full weight of meaning to come through] and more than any of the therapy the hospital gave me over the next two weeks, thinking about what the song was saying and the stark truth behind it - in particular "it's not as if this barricade blocks the only road / it's not as if you're all alone in wanting to explode / someone set a bad example made surrender seem all right / the act of a noble warrior who lost the will to fight" really resonated with me, and helped me be able to start thinking again with my rational mind instead of my depressed mind.
waiting for the world's applause
rebel without a conscience
martyr without a causestatic on your frequency
electrical storm in your veins
raging at unreachable glory
straining at invisible chainsand now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
staring down into a heartless sea
can't face life on a razor's edge
nothing's what you thought it would beAll of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back
And slam the door on meit's not as if this barricade
blocks the only road
it's not as if you're all alone
in wanting to explodesomeone set a bad example
made surrender seem all right
the act of a noble warrior
who lost the will to fightand now you're trembling on a rocky ledge
staring down into a heartless sea
done with life on a razor's edge
nothing's what you thought it would beno hero in your tragedy
no daring in your escape
no salutes for your surrender
nothing noble in your fate
Christ, what have you done?
Maybe it seems weird, but to a great extent, that song is why I'm still here. Over the years, I've had a number of times when I can start feeling that crushing sadness - especially in the last several years since I've been homebound - and if I put the song on, it triggers a near-conditioned response in me - and it helps me pull myself back from that brink a bit. And with that little kick start, I can refocus myself, pull out the other techniques I've learned for dealing with depression when it gets bad and eventually get back on an even keel again. The song doesn't magically "fix" me, but it's very much like a little flicker of hope that helps me remember which way is "up".
At any rate, when someone's written words that have such a profound impact on your life, you tend to have something of a fondness for that person - whether you know them or not. Well, at least I do. So when I first heard about the tragedies that Neil had thrown at him, I felt genuinely sad for him, and hoped he'd find his way through it all ok. Thankfully, he did - but it was extremely difficult. This man, who is considered one of the finest rock drummers - if not one of the best drummers overall - and who has made his living for over 2 decades as a working musician was so devastated by his loss that for nearly 5 years, he couldn't play at all. There was no indication if the band would ever make a new album or even play together again. [In one of the better displays of loyalty and true friendship that I've seen in the rock world, his band mates had decided that it simply didn't matter if the band ever worked together again or not - they only concern was that Neil get through this, and to be there as his friends. They left it up to him to let them know when - if ever - he was ready to work again, and worked on their own projects in the meantime. As good of musicians as they all are, it's unlikely either of them would have had nearly as much success with a solo project as the three of them have had as Rush - but they were willing to just let that all go if that's what was needed.]
With this book, Neil shares the story of how he made it through. I'm only about 2 and half chapters into it, and I can tell already that it's going to be very hard to put down. It's also difficult to read on an emotional level - probably more so for someone like me who's been a fan for so long and has a strong connection to the music he and his band mates have made over the years - but the way he's written it, you don't have to be a fan of Rush - or even know who the hell the band is, for that matter - to enjoy it. He writes about the places he sees, the things that happen to him on "the healing road" as he calls it, and about the memories he has of his wife and daughter and how he learns to deal with that being all he has left of either of them.
So I'm not likely to be blogging much the next couple of days. I've read just over 50 pages so far, and cried through about a third of them. It doesn't leave a lot of room to want to read about how much worse things are getting in Iraq, or which civil liberties are being trampled on next. I'm not really up to listen to the faux outrage of the Limbaughs, Brooks', O'Reilly's and so on, as they ignore things being done by conservatives that they'd be calling for heads-on-pikes over were a liberal involved. In a way, I think I kind of need a bit of a break from the craziness that passes for politics right now. Not a long one - just a couple days to catch my breath, think about something totally different, and maybe get reminded that there are people who've had to deal with things that are considerably worse than anything I've faced on a personal level, and they've not only survived, but they've come all the way back to where they started from. You know - all that neat hope and inspiration stuff. So don't worry if you don't see anything for a few days. I'm still here, and I'll be back.
Last week, Scotland's Sunday Herald ran a story about a theory that the Israelis might have been involved in or behind the 9/11 attacks. Personally, what I've seen of what's being presented as evidence that they were involved doesn't convince me much, but it's out there, and it gets talked about.
This week, the Herald is doing a follow-up story pointing out some of the various places that had posted about their original story from the week before. Only two blogs are listed - Andrew Sullivan's (which I won't link to on general principles), and the League of Liberal's own Musings of a Philosophical Scriviner run by Len Cleavelin. While this particular post is one of his shorter ones, its still good to see him getting some of the attention he deserves. Go take a look at it, and then hang around for a few minutes and read some of the other things he's had to say - it'll be worth your time!
From Calpundit, I found this deeply touching piece by Tacitus on his struggles with depression while serving in the military.
I don't often agree with what he says, but as someone who has struggled with clinical depression for over 2 decades, I can tell you that his description of feeling depressed is dead-on accurate. I can only imagine, though, what the military's culture, with its intolerance for anything that might appear to be "weakness", could do to exacerbate someone's depression. I have no doubt that it would be a far greater struggle than most I have personally faced, and am glad to know that he has managed to deal with it apparently rather well.
Something that comes up in my posts from time to time is talking about the concept of being honourable. In his post, Tacitus describes a decision he had to make while in the midst of dealing with depression - one that came with a significant personal cost, but was clearly the right thing to do - not just for himself, but for others whom he might have had to work with. THAT act is as good of an example of acting honourably as I've seen in a while, and I want to commend him for having had the kind of courage and integrity - even in the face of his depression - to make it.
Anway, go read it. Its a solid reminder that sometimes courage isn't demonstrated by taking risks and charging headlong into a fight, but by the quiet grace under pressure that shows up when wisdom and honour are allowed to determine one's path, rather than raw instinct, obedience and self-interest.
A quick look at some of the best from the League of Liberals tonight:
blunted on reality tackles the media's seeming indifference to children from lower-class families who are kidnapped or missing.
Since this story isn't getting as much media attention as it should, I want to post the information about Marquis Jobes here, also. Please post this to your own blog as well, if you would. The notice says that this boy is thought to be in extreme danger, so spreading the words is important. I'll post a note if and when I hear any further information.
Marquis Jobes (top photo)
13 yrs., black male, 5', 110 lbs. with brown eyes and black hair. He has been missing since last week. Police say his mother was found shot to death in her home Saturday morning.
Police are looking for Anthony Rankine (bottom photo) a black male, 5' 10", 160 lbs. with brown eyes and black hair, and has scars on his head and chest. They may be in a white 1999 Isuzu Rodeo with Virginia tags, JHA-2602.
Marquis is believed to be in extreme danger.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Virginia State Police at 800-822-4453, or Chesterfield County Police at 804-748-1832 or dial 911.
Democratic Veteran talks about todays mortar attacks at or near the American civilian HQ today and wants to hear from Vietnam veterans about thier experiences as the Vietnam war descended into a quagmire. While the Republic of Seabrook is asking if the Bush administration getting ready to reinstate the draft?.
The Patriot Act, which was intended to be used against terrorists, turned out to be useful for investigators looking into political corruption, The Spy Game tells us.
The Philosophical Scriviner muses on the Supreme Court's apparent attempts to amuse themselved while hearing a case.
Mahablog writes about the Democratic forum hosted by Rock the Vote tonight, and the controversy over Dean's comment that he wants to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."
Norbizness has a few words of wisdom for David Brooks, while Kynn Shocks and Awes us with his desire to protect us from crappy porn.
Mad Kane treats us to a new tune, all about the joys of spinning.
Here's the latest from Atrios on dispute with Donald Luskin. Congrats for getting it resolved, guys! Glad to see it could be done with civility.
A Joint Statement from Donald Luskin and Atrios"We both regret a series of misunderstandings that have resulted in something that neither of us intended. We have discussed our differences, and both of us are confident that such misunderstandings will not occur again in the future. As a result, Mr. Luskin is retracting his demand letter of October 29, 2003. We congratulate each other on having quickly achieved an amicable resolution. We are both glad to have put this behind us."
-Atrios 5:02 PM
Last week I had noted that Neal Pollack was going to declare November 5th "Donald Luskin is a Stalker" day in support of Atrios in dealing with Luskin's threatened lawsuit. In his most recent post, however, Pollacks notes that Luskin is a Stalker Day HAS BEEN CALLED OFF for a pretty good reason, really:
I must also announce that tomorrow's previously proposed protest, Donald Luskin Is A Stalker Day, has been indefinitely delayed at the request of my good friend Atrios, the Internet's latest potential free-speech lawsuit victim. Apparently, Atrios believes that reasonable discourse will solve his problems better than wise-assed agitation. We shall see, oh great liberal blogmaster. Tomorrow won't be Donald Luskin Is A Stalker Day after all. For now, hold your fire.Please pass this around and post it to your blogs if at all possible, so that we don't inadvertantly damage Atrios' ability to reach a diplomatic solution.
Just in case he surfs by here today, I'd like to take a moment and wish my beloved husband a very happy anniversary. Nine years ago tonight, he took total leave of his sense and actually went through with marrying me - and I've never been happier.
I love you, hon!!
The Speed of Love
Love is born with lightning bolts
Electro-magnetic force
Burning skin and fireworks
A storm on a raging course
Like a force of nature,
Love can fade with the stars at dawn
Somtimes it takes all your strength
Just to keep holding on
At the speed of love
A radiance that travels
At the speed of love
My heart goes out to you
Love is born with solar flares
Form two magnetic poles
It moves toward a higher place
Where two halves make two wholes
Like a force of nature
Love shines in many forms
One night we are bathed in light
One day carried away in storms
At the speed of love
Nothing changes faster
Than the speed of love
My heart goes out to you
We don't have to talk
We don't even have to touch
I can feel your prescence
In the silence that we share
Got to keep on moving
At the speed of love
Nothing changes faster
Than the speed of love
Got to keep on shining
At the speed of love
Nothing changes faster
Than the speed of love
My heart goes out to you
- "At the Speed of Love"
lyrics by Neil Peart
Take a few minutes to check out this amusing (and far too true) look at the pitfalls of expecting your razor to perform as advertised.
For some reason, when you click on the "comments" link, the little pop-up window comes up like it's supposed to, but it doesnt seem to ether store or read cookies, beacuse you have to enter you name, e-mail and URL every time you go to enter a new comment.
If anyone can help tell me what's wrong or what I need to do to fix i, I would be much appreciative!
Thanks!
Kriselda
With the rallying cry of "Ridding the world of the Bushbrain and his minions in 2004," the members of The League of Liberals have joined forces to help new, liberal blogs get attention in the Truth Laid Bear's New Blog Showcase, support each other, and make sure that next year, this country will (legitimately) elect Anybody But Bush Again!
With goals like that, how could I resist?
This week, the League of Liberals is lending it's support to Hell for Halliburton, who has posted a look at some of the highly questionable (and, in many cases, most likely illegal) activities that the company has engaged in. Yet, in spite of these offenses, Halliburton still gets a large number of the no-bid government contracts for work in Iraq. Take a look at what they've been up to - and then ask your Congressional representatives why we continue to support such a firm.
Also, be sure to take some time to check out the other League of Liberals blogs - and if you run a liberal blog and think this is a project you'd be willing to support - check out the League of Liberals Website or send an e-mail to aurabass at hotmail dot com.
I just got my copy of Rush's new "Rush in Rio" CD & DVD, so I won't be posting much today... BTW: If you like good live music, you REALLY ought to check this out. The Brazillain audience is incredible - it's been commented on a lot, but I'll tell you, there's nothing quite like hearing an audience sing along, note-for-note, with an instrumental to remind you of how great a live show can be.
Anyway, I'll be posting more later, after I come back down from this musical rush... :)
I now have the new MT-Blacklist plugin running to try and prevent comment spam. Please let me know by e-mail if you have any problems leaving comments.
There's a thread over at Making Light about a specific comment spammer who has been posting ads for what is allegedly child pornography. This guy is really obnoxious - one blogger reports having it show up on 89 posts so far (I've only had to delete him 4 times - and I was getting frustrated with that!) Apparently, he has a large block of IP addresses that he uses (MT can block comments by IP address). Unfortunately, he was able to get through my setup of the "Kill Comment Spam Dead" hack even after I had added at least one of his URLs to the list, so I am going to be using IP banning also to try and keep him off.
As a result, I am banning all IPs in the "209.210.176." range. It's known that he holds at least 63 of those IPs, but I'm going ahead and blocking the entire IP range. For anyone else using MT who wants to do likewise, just ad the above string (including the final dot) to your "IP Banning" section under "Weblog Configuration". In addition, he also apparently is using 62.42.228.6 and 199.20.16.200
In the comments section of the same thread, Charlie Stross offers another list of IP numbers to block, which have been sending out large numbers of spam messages:
38.144.36.13
65.214.36.118
203.54.241.113
4.63.166.229
12.148.209.198
66.196.90.39
62.42.228.6
82.41.201.108
12.148.209.198
68.194.33.229
81.131.176.87
Also, Jay Allen will be releasing a plug-in version of his "Kill Comment Spam Dead Blacklist" tomorrow - he gave his URL in comments to check for more information: http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2003/10/mtblacklist_monday_hell_or_high_water
Eric Olsen offers a couple of different ideas on dealing with the situation. First is to modify the .htaccess file (if your host allows you to). He gives the following instructions on doing so, if you want to go that route:
.htaccess is the way to go, simply because you can use netmasks or CIDR to limit what you cut, and you don't have to type in a few dozen IPs.I'm not sure if I'm up to messing around with .htaccess yet, but I thought I'd at least post it here for anyone else who's interested :)It's dependent on htaccess configuation being turned on. Contact your sysadmin if this doesn't work. Otherwise, create the following file in the root of your webserver, named ".htaccess". The leading dot is important.
Order Allow, deny
deny from 209.210.176.0/26
Or, if you prefer netmasks to CIDR
deny from 209.210.176.0/255.255.255.178Kip's spammer is a 16 bit netblock (an old Class B) issued to Telecom Malaysia. If they are using DCHP, and this spammer's dialing up, the only way is to kill the whole Class B -- over 16,000 addresses. You can do that in one line
deny from 219.95.0.0/16
or
deny from 219.95.0.0/255.255.0.0How much extra damage this will do, I don't know. You may want to try just the one ip first, if you keep getting hit from the 219.95.14.0 block, expanded it to the /24, if that doesn't work, go for the whole /16
And, just so you know, one way to give up is.
deny from 0.0.0.0/0
Though, tecnically, the trailing /0 is redundant.
Another of his suggestions (apparently inspired by Charlie Stross's attempts at solving the comment spam) is to try and defeat the bots that do all of the postings. Apparently there is a spider bot that is out searching for "mt-comments.cgi" across the web and using that to post the spams, so a potential dodge is to re-name "mt-comments.cgi". This is a bit riskier, though, because you also have to modify your templates to make sure they know where to look. Here are the instructions for this particular method:
One defense is to rename mt-comments.cgi, call only it, and install a trap cgi that automatically blocks anyone calling mt-comments.cgi.Again, I'm not sure I'm confident enough of my own skills to try doing this, but there it is if you want to try it :)Problem: Anybody who follows an old link to your comments will get blocked.
Renaming the mt-comments.cgi alone may be enough to stop this spammer's bot -- but it may not last long.
To rename it, you'll need to rename the mt-comments.cgi file, then you'll need to edit your template to change the call. Look for the OpenComments javascript, in it, there will be a "window.open" call that should have, as a first parameter, a URL ending in mt-comments.cgi. Change that to match what you've renamed the comments cgi.
Easiest way to not lose.
1) Copy mt-comments.cgi to something else. Make up a name. I'm deliberatly *not* giving a name here, I want all of you to have different ones. (If the spider is looking for names, and you all change to the same name, he'll change the spider.) Make certain it ends in .cgi, though.
2) Edit your template, change the "window.open" call to the new name. On this blog, the function is right at the top, I don't know if that's universally true. Save it off.
Reload the page. Make sure comments still work. Now.
3) Rename mt-comments.cgi to mt-comments.off.
Reload page, make sure comments still work. If they do, then you're done. If they don't, rename mt-comments.off back to mt-comments.cgi, and check your templates to make sure you've changed the OpenComments function.
I wish I could test this, but I don't run MT or have a blog, I'm just a sysadmin. As Knuth famously wrote, "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
The truly paranoid would back everything up first. The properly paranoid would make sure that the restore worked, as well.
I'll try to update this thread as I learn more - and be sure to check the comments at the original post over at Making Light, as that's where the actual discussion is happening.
UPDATE: Oh, yeah! I meant to mention - if, in my efforts to block comment spam, I've gotten a bit over-zealous and knocked out a few legit IPs - and if you have comments you want to post, but can't because your's is one I killed, just e-mail me with your comment and let me know what happened.
2nd UPDATE: Yoz Grahame offers 7 tips on defeating comment spam, including changing your comment script, not linking to your comment script from your front page, including several decoy forms in the Individual Entry template, requiring a hidden variable for the comment script, separating "Preview" and "Post" into two separate scripts, or including a "Delete this post" link in notification mail. He gives good instructions for each option and explains the reasoning behind each of the tips he's offering.
Kelsey Consulting is also looking into the problem and has a few threads on the issue, as well as links to others who are working on it as well.
And last (at least for this update), but certainly not least is the Moveable Type support forum's thread on the subject.
I just wanted to say a special "Thank You" to Philip at Just Playing for telling me about Jay Allen's "Killing Comment Spam Dead" solution. I set it up a few days ago, and while I'm still getting some comment spam (grrrrrr), so far, none of it has been from any of the URLs on the blacklist, so it seems to be working. I used the "Killing Comment Spam Dead for Dummies" set of instructions and it really was pretty painless, so if this has been a problem for you, I strongly advice checking it out.
Thanks again, Pogo! :)
Kriselda
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been getting a lot of comment spam - messages left in the comments section that are advertisements for - in almost all cases - buying prescription drugs over the internet.
This is just a note to say that, if you haven't already noticed, I will erase every bit of comment spam that is left on this site and I'll ban your IP from being able to leave any futher messages. I don't appreciate having to take the time to do this, but I'm not going to tolerate the use of my blog as your marketing tool. And if I can find a way to be able to filter the spam comments out before they get published, believe me, it'll be put into effect.
So, there's no point in posting such messages here. They won't last long.
Marie Cocco reminds us of a few other Bush Administration improprieties that not only would have caused unending hissy fits from Republicans if or when Clinton had done the same thing, and which have yet to be investigated.
First up: Dick Cheney and the use of government property to entertain or otherwise benefit big donors to the Bush/Cheney campaign:
Dick Cheney, vice president for four months, held a reception for elite Republican donors at the sprawling house that is his taxpayer-owned residence. Word of the event brought snickers from those with a memory. They recalled hot Republican demands for investigation and a blizzard of congressional subpoenas when President Bill Clinton used similar public perks for the care and feeding of political fat-cats.Next: Dick Cheney and the
Cheney was chairing meetings of his secret energy task force. That is, he was hearing from lobbyists, many of them elite Republican donors and most with a large financial stake in this or that detail of national energy policy. Cheney has fought, successfully so far, to keep secret the list of those who so generously offered their expertise.Then there's Army Secretary Thomas White and evidence he might have been involved with insider trading in regards to Enron:Executives of Enron got six meetings with the Cheney task force. According to an analysis by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the White House energy plan adopted all or most of Enron's recommendations in seven of eight areas in which the now bankrupt and criminally entangled firm made suggestions. Enron-affiliated political committees and employees were among the top donors to the Bush campaign in 2000. Chairman Kenneth Lay was a Bush "Pioneer," who raised $100,000.
It so happens that during the time when the Enron schemes were being exposed and the company's executives were cashing out their own stock, Army Secretary Thomas E. White, a former Enron executive himself, placed dozens of calls to officials of the embattled company. Forty-nine occurred between Aug. 14, 2001, the day former CEO Jeffrey Skilling resigned from Enron, and Dec. 3, 2001, the day after Enron filed for bankruptcy. White cashed out his Enron stock for $12.1 million.How about Cheney's former country and it's Iraqi contracts?
a subsidiary of Halliburton, a company once headed by the vice president and from which he still receives a generous compensation, won no-bid contracts for rebuilding Iraq. The contracts have no apparent limit and, according to an analysis by Rep. Waxman's staff, could be worth up to $7 billion.Lastly, she notes:
three top officials of the Interior Department are under scrutiny by inspectors general for involvement in matters affecting their former clients in the grazing, mining, oil and gas industries.There are, of course, man other examples, but this is just a handy reminder that the only kind of honour this White House seems to understand is that you honour all your friends wishes, and their idea of integrity is to maintain a wall of silence of such integrity that it can't easily be brought down.
Well, it's taken a while, but I finally have all my entries categorized. I may need to refine some of the categories at some point - there enough entries on the RIAA and Digital Rights along with enough entries on the Columbia explosion that they probably deserve their own categories - but it'll probably be a bit before I tackle that. In the meantime, the category list is over on the sidebar, so if you're looking for posts on a certain topic, it should help make it easier to find them.
It's been 12 months now since I started this blog - 12 months, 1165 entries, and 35,535 visitors later and I'm still at it. This is actually rather impressive for me - aside from my personal Live Journal (which just turned 3 the other day), I usually haven't been very good about keeping blogs updated when I've tried to. Of course, the fact that there's been so much grist for the mill over the last year has helped, though given the choice, I think I'd rather have had another failed attempt at blogging than all the stuff I've had to write about.
At any rate, I just want to thank all of you who've been reading, commenting, teaching and encouraging me with this site. It means more than you know!
Just for nostalgia's sake, I thought I'd go ahead and re-post my very first entry again:
You know what's sad? Not a whole lot has really changed since I wrote that - except that I no longer consider MSNBC to be "beloved" - it's gotten to where I can barely stand to watch it. But as for the rest? Some of the forced "patriotism" had died down, and the failure thus far to find any signs of WMD have made it somewhat easier to speak out against what the government has been doing, but I still don't see this country as being more united because of our experience than we were before, I still think that the timing and situation is a bit more coincidentially convenient than I'm comfortable with, though I still don't buy much into the various conspiracy theories out there, the economy still sucks, the government is still eating away at too many of our civil rights, and I'm still pretty damn cynical about a lot of things.Forbidden thoughts about 9/11. From gloating about getting off work to enjoying the "country road" ambience of lower Manhattan to hating on-the-make firemen: A spectrum of improper responses to the terror attacks. [Salon Headlines]In all the hubbub surrounding the 9/11 anniversary, it's sometimes hard to deal with not having all the required patriotic thoughts that we're expected to have. Being human, we sometimes have thoughts that seem out of place, inappropriate or just downright wrong. But being members of a society that, in spite of all its protestations of freedom, expect conformity, we don't always know what we're supposed to DO with those thoughts.For me, one of the most forbidden thoughts I've had has been, isn't in convenient how all this worked out - George manages to get an election that he arguably should have lost, and then gets a tragedy that allows him to start changing all our rules to mesh in with his "jokingly"-stated belief that things would just be a lot easier if this were a dictatorship and he were the dictator.
Now, I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I don't even necssarily think (or, at least I don't necessarily WANT to think) that the government had any hand in planning this or foreknowledge of it - but at the same time the coincidence factor is pretty high, you know?
As for the near-mandetory patriotism that's grown out of the tragedy, I've found myself being quite cynical. Waving a flag while we watch our leaders chip away at our rights and freedoms does nothing to support this country... and all those flags seem to be keeping some people from seeing what's going on. With it being so verbotten to question what our government wants to do (patriots always support the government, after all), its much harder to find ways of communicating appropriate concern for the treatment of potential terror suspects, plans such as the TIPS program, the holding of suspects without charges and with no judicial review of their cases and the other ways the government has stepped out of bounds.
At least once a day I see that "public service announcement" about how the terrorists thought they would change America forever - cut to a picture of a neighborhood with more flags than houses with a voice over telling us how they did. But what have those flags really done for us? Are we a more united country than we were before? Well, we have waitresses accusing obviously Muslim men of being potential terrorists because she thought they were "joking" around about 9/11 (heaven forbid anyone do that!) and might have made a couple statements that could be interepreted as possibly being terroristic in nature - claims they flatly deny. We have more hostility towards Muslims, Arabs, and those who look as if they could be Muslim or Arabic. We have extreme anger because a man wants to return the Pledge of Allegiance to the way it was before Congress changed it in the 50's. How dare someone think that it might be appropriate to rectify a violation of the separation of church and state? We have people watching and listening to their neighbors with more suspicion than they used to, especially if that neighbor is a bit "odd" or "different" somehow. The gaps between hawks and doves, liberals and conservatives, Christian and non, Republican and Democrat, and white and minorities seem to be growing daily. Rhetoric is more contentious, and there's a sense of "either you're with us or your're against us". So no, I don't think our sense of "patriotism" has helped unite us more than we were before 9/11.
Has it helped with supporting the economy? The gulf between rich and poor keeps widening, and there's no sign to the end of the current recession. Corporations are falling left and right to various accounting schemes and other forms of dishonesty. Investors are worried, weakening the stock market, and consumers seem to be more interested in getting the most for their dollar than in buying American.
In all honesty, I've seen very little benefit from the new patriotism. Sure, TV networks (including my beloved MSNBC) have begun their own flag waving to gain bigger audiences, and many products are being pitched with patriotic themes, but I can't say I feel any safer, any freer, any better off or any more secure than I did before 9/11, in spite of the near-constant reminders that I live in the greatest country in the world.
But I'm not supposed to say any of this, am I?
But I also think I have a bit more hope now than I did a year ago - like maybe, just maybe, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. We don't know what his or her name is yet, Clark, Dean, Kerry, Kucinich, Leiberman, Edwards, Graham, Sharpton, Mosley-Braun, Gephardt or those two who insist they're not running but still manage to poll pretty well, Clinton and Gore, but it's just possible that one of them might be able to help bring us out of these dark days and get America back to being the kind of country its supposed to be, instead of the neo-con fantasyland it current seems to be.
As you may have noticed, I'm not posting quite as much. I don't know if I mentioned it here yet or not (and I couldn't find it if I had, so please forgive me if this is a repeat), but one of the biggest reasons is I've rediscovered the joys of playing the guitar - something that for the first part of my life was one of my biggest passions, but which got shoved aside when I had to go forth into the "real" world, didn't have the money for lessons, didn't have enough time to practice, and had to sell most of my guitars because I wasn't making much money.
Recently, my husband discovered that he not only wanted to learn to play guitar himself, but that he'd like to go into music as a career - not the whole "rock star" dream, but possibly running a shop, giving lessons, doing studio work locally and things of that nature. Listening to him practice and seeing the joy in his eyes reminded me of how much joy I used to get from playing. So, I got a new guitar (a really sweet Epiphone Goth Les Paul) and have started practicing again. It's taking up a lot of time, but I'm much happier than I've been in a while.
At any rate, if anyone's interested in me and my musical obsessions, I've started a new blog focusing on Progressive Rock, Goth, Metal and Electronica/Ambient music that I really enjoy and talking about how my playing is coming. If I can ever get my hubby to pick up the adapter I need for my amp, I'll also be recording stuff as I go, so all you masochists can listen to me play, too. It's called "Shadowed Souls" and can be found at http://www.shadowedsouls.com. There's also a message board for discussion of you musical interests as well, available at http://www.shadowedsouls.com/chronicles. I hope you'll stop by!
And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the Heart
- Neil Peart (Rush) "Closer to the Heart"
Only by voting can we make sure that the men in those high places are the right ones for the job.
The more liberals and progressives we can get to the polls, the better chance we have of defeating the neo-cons. If you haven't already registered to vote, please go to https://ssl.capwiz.com/congressorg/nvra/.
I know I've been quiet for a few days. I've gotten back to reading the news again, and I'm just not sure what to make of it anymore. There's so much going on that's just so wrong... the war (though I'm glad to see that there's - finally - some acceptance of the notion that we might actually need help in Iraq), the economy, the lies on just about every topic imaginable... that I hardly know where to begin. I feel like I'm not writing enough, about all that's out there, and yet I realize that even with the abundent time I have on my hands, I don't think anyone could have enough time to write about it all.
I'm probably going to be a bit quieter for a while. One thing that's always been a part of my life and has long helped me to deal with stress, anger and other such emotions is playing music. I'm getting a new guitar soon, though, and plan to spend quite a bit of time working on it. I'll still be here, and I'll still be ranting - but maybe not as much as I have been. My primary goal, though, is to see Bush thrown out of office - legally - either though our electing someone better or through impeachment proceedings, so I'm certainly not going to give up the fight.
Remember, as the song says, is the men who hold high places who must be the ones who start - and we have to put the right men (and women) there so they can do the work we need them to. Even if you don't feel you can do ANYTHING else:
VOTE
Just a note to let you know I'm still here - I've just been in too good of a mood the last few days to want to read the new or write about it. When I return to my normally pissed-off state, I'll be writing again more...
Kriselda
Sorry about the page being such a disaster earlier. It's amazing what one unclosed "div" tag in a blog entry can do to your layout. Yeesh!
Oh, and for anyone like me who has incredibly stubborn dogs - a reminder of that magic word that works like a charm....
A friend of mine - Witchy - and I were recently talking about our domain addictions, when she decided to start a webring for those of us who have a compulsion to buy domain names, even if we don't always have an immediate use for them. Well, when I signed up for the ring, I posted a comment listing the 9 domains I currently own - and then discovered a 10th I'd thought had lapsed but which was, in fact, renewed and, thus, still mine.
She decided that this makes me a special kind of addict, in need of special help, and has give me the first "Hug Me" award - (as in needing a special "hug me" jacket to help control my addiction). I just had to post it here - it's too cute not to :)
If you, like us, have a domain addition, be sure to join the Domain Addicts webring at http://glossolalia.com/daring.php! We al need to help each other, eh?
Yesterday, I had posted a screenshot that appeared to show that Fox News had used an archival photo to illustrate and article about the black out, and that the photo used had included an image of the World Trade Center in it. I have since been informed by a visitor that the buildings in the image are an office complex under construction and that the WTC would be much taller. Another reader also mentioned that the antennas on the WTC should have been visible.
Since I was wrong in posting the picture originally, I have removed the picture and replaced the original entry with a notice that the information was incorrect. I wanted to post this here so anyone who had visited yesterday would also be aware that the post was in error without having to scroll down to find the info.
I'm sorry for having gotten it wrong.
I had mentioned a while back that there is a guy on the One Life to Live mailing list who's work I tend to admire. He's not only wise, but frequently amusing, too.
At any rate, I (among others, apparently) told him he should start blogging or journaling - and he has. The title itself tells you pretty much all you need to know about him... O great one, who is never wrong.
He's just getting started so there's not a whole lot posted yet, but stop by and drop him a note (and maybe drop a note here, too, while you're at it, why don'cha?!?) *g*
I finally found a full, written transcript of Andrew Gilligans first report on the "sexed up" dossier that started the current BBC/British Government firestorm and apparently lead to Dr. Kelly's death. In reading through it, I found that I've been mistaken on a fact that I had been passing along. In a few places, I've stated that the dossier in question was the "dodgy dossier" that was largly plagiarized from a journal article that was found online. Reading the transcript, however, I've found that, in fact, this is a different dossier.
This is the dossier that was published in September last year, probably the most substantial statement of the government's case against Iraq. You'll remember that the Commons was recalled to debate it, Tony Blair made the opening speech. It is not the same as the famous dodgy dossier, the one that was copied off the internet, that came later.I regret the error.
Just to note, the main point in my having referenced it as the "dodgy dossier" was that with so many other problems that the "dodgy dossier" had, in particular, the use of the plagiarized material, it seemed to me that the government's use of other questionable information in that dossier wouldn't be that far of a stretch.
Something to keep in mind, however, is that of the claims made in the Gilligan reports - that the "45 minute" claim to the intelligence service through a single source and was uncorroborated by anyone or anything else, that it had not originally been included in the September dossier, and that it was included at the insistance of Alistair Campbell, the Secretary of Communications for Tony Blair, the first two have been confirmed by the government. The third point - that it was Campbell who wanted the info included - is what is still under debate.
If you're curious about the "Tip Bar" at the top of the page, it's a little something I'm testing out to see if I like it or not. The theory is that it's supposed to suggest a link to a related site so that you can maybe find someplace interesting to surf to (sort of like a webring, but, theoretically at any rate, it adjusts as new sites sign up). If you decide to try it out, let me know if it gives you a good suggestion or not - and if it messes up your ability to read this page at all PLEASE let me know. I'll want to fix that asap!
Ok, I know that there's a difference between Niger and Nigeria. I also know that if I wanted to refer to something that was about or came from Nigeria, it would be "Nigerian". What's the proper term for something that is about or comes from Niger? I've been wanting to use something other than "The documents from Niger" or "The Niger forgeries", but the only word that comes to mind is Nigerian, and that's not the right one. Any suggestions?
I've got a project I need to work on that's going to take up my attention for the next few days. I'll try to pop in if something catches my eye, but if you don't hear anything for a day or two, don't worry - I'll be back :)
May you each have a Blessed Solstice, and may Sunna grant you all the warmth, growth and light you may need!
Kriselda
Well, well.... I think I've just been given my first award - tongue-in-cheek though it may be. Jane, which looks to be one of the newest Salon Blogs, had this to say about my humble little site, and the sidebar that ate Cincinatti:
And the FLAIR award goes to Different StringsWhat can I say? I'm speechless :)It has been determined that the good folks at Different Strings have the most buttons and exceed the minimum FLAIR requirement. This search was done with the new Ping-DingV.2.4 software developed by Tim Duvall. Its in its early stages but loosely based on the concept of how long one waits for their broadband connection to load the page. Good work and congratulations.
The "annoying white angry middle aged balding man" (his description, not mine!) has put together a really cool index to Salon Blogs of a sorts. The only catch is, rather than giving you the name of the blog, he gives you an image that represents it or its name. Its a lot of fun trying to figure out who's who, and he's done a great job of finding images that represent the various blogs well. Take a few minutes to check it out - you may even find some new blogs that'll be worth reading regularly!
My absence will likely be longer than I anticipated. My husband made his game goal last night, but we're also having problems with our Internet connection. Right now, service is only intermittent, and I don't know when or how often I'll be able to get it.
I am sorry for all the down time - hopefully we'll be able to get the problem with the connection solved soon.
Blogging will be slow this week. My husband and I have an online role playing game we both enjoy a great deal, and he is, right now, working on earning his last level. As would be expected, its one of the hardest ones to get, so I'm going to be helping him out until he gets it. In a few weeks, there will be more slow blogging when I get to go for my own "Level 50". While a game may not be as important as what's going on in the world, it's one of the things that helps me keep my sanity, and it makes my hubby happy. I figure that's worth something, eh?
I'll probably post if anything really major happens, and if not, I'll be back in a few days.
Take care!
Kriselda
I'm posting this here to help with Blogchalk indexing:
United States, Kansas, Shawnee, English, Kriselda, Female, 36-40, Rush (the band), prog rock in general, reading true crime stories, true crime documentaries, Law & Order obsessed, DAoC, Neverwinter Nights, Mah-jongg, Bookworm, Age of Mythology, The Sims, SimCity 4000. :)
I spent a bit of time this morning figuring out how to increase the text size of the main entries without making the sidebar any more unweildly than it already is. Let me know if the larger text is helpful!
To get it to work right, I had to make my blog roll a solid list rather than one broken down in groups of 5 - hopefully that won't make it any less useable - if it does, let me know and I'll see if I can't do a bit more tinkering.
I'll be posting stuff of actual substance a bit later today - thanks again for visiting!
The last couple of weeks I've been fighting the "Battle of the Hard Drive" - my external drive, on which most of my web creation and graphic software (among other things) were stored, died a few weeks back, so I ordered a new one, and thus began an odessy through the new economy version of customer service and warranty programs.
The first drive I got corrupted all the data I put on it, so I had to return it. The retailer I got it from wouldn't let me return it to them, so I had to work with the manufacturer's return policy, which resulted in a bunch of running around (done by a friend of mine, since I can't do it myself) to get the drive properly packaged. I send it off, wait 2 weeks, and get the replacement. It doesn't work either.
Now, I try to be as patient as I can, but there are times that can be very difficult. This was one of those. I ended up going through 3 customer service reps, a supervisor and a manager trying to get them to understand that all I wanted at this point was a refund, which the manufacturer says they never give under any circumstances. Finally, the manager offered me a much better replacement drive - with almost 3 times the capacity of the one I'd bought. I relented, and asked if they could just get it sent to me as soon as possible. Amazingly, this one only took 2 days to arrive.
So, I spent all last night getting it installed, partitioned and formatted, organized and reinstalled all my files, and somehow, in the process, lost my ability to connect to the Internet.
After exhausting every option I could think of for getting it reset, I found the only soloution was to reinstall Windows XP. That meant activating it. Hoo Boy! That was a treat. Since I couldn't connect to the internet, I had to do it by phone. I must say, they managed to make their computerized customer service rep sound reasonably realistic, but it's still a bit of a chore!
At any rate, I'm finally connecting to the net again(Yippee!), and will be posting more tomorrow. Right now, I need to play some games :)
Just to let you know, I am ok - I just needed to get my head out of the news for a bit - sometimes it just gets a bit overwhelming. I'll be writing again soon :)
Rayne's Build-a-Meme project is really taking off. We now have a new home at http://www.freedom2004.us (though the blog there is still under construction, so there's not much to see yet) and brand-spanking-new, fully-functional FORUMS!
If you haven't yet checked out the Build-a-Meme project, be sure to do so, and stop by the forums if you decide you want to help out.
I'm trying out a bit of a new colour scheme today - but it's hard for me to tell if I like it or not since I'm so used to looking at it the other way. If you have a moment, please let me know what you think about it, and any suggestions you might have.
Once I get the colour settled, I'll be adjusting the logo banner to fit, so I know right now, it's not looking as good as it could, but it will be better :)
Thanks!!
Kriselda
In case you're curious, there's a review up for The Matrix Reloaded at "reviews @ different strings".
The Blog Update Notifications thingy seems to be working now, so if you'd like to get a single email each day giving you a bit of each new item posted, please be sure to sign up using the form over there on that sidebar-monster of mine... :)
There's been a lot in the news about the tornado outbreak in the midwest. I know some of you know I live in the KC area, where we had several tornados yesterday, so I thought I'd give you a quick update.
Suffice it to say, when you live in tornado alley, it's handy being on good terms with the God of Thunder. The closest any of the tornados got to any of us was about 10 miles from here, and we just were treated to a nice, noisy light show with a bit of rain. While there were tornados in most of the counties around us, we came through just fine.
Only one person in the KC area died (that we know of), which is good news -- it could have been considerably worse. Many are now without homes, though, which isn't good at all. Clean-up has started, and they're working to restore power to those who lost it. Beyond that, there's not a lot else to report at the moment.
Kriselda
Well, that sidebar of mine was starting to get a bit unweildly.
Ok, so it's been unweildly for quite some time - I just finally got fed up with trying to find stuff on it myself that I decided to make a clickable index for it. Hopefully, it will give you an idea of what it has to offer, and let you find what you might want faster.
Also, I've added a subscription form for Update Notifications. If you want to subscribe, you'll get a single e-mail each day with a list of new entries and a portion of each (the first 150 characters).
I am having a minor technical problem with it at the moment, but should have that fixed shortly. If you decide to subscribe, but don't get anything right away, go ahead and let me know (you can reach me by clicking on the little envelope in the Kriselda section of the sidebar), so I can help make sure it gets to you.
I also just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's visited here since different strings opened up last September. This past week, the blog passed the 20,000 hit mark, and I just wanted you to know that I'm very grateful for that you've chosen to spend a bit of your time here. Thank you!
Kriselda
Normally, I don't like removing comment people have left (unless someone accidentially leaves a duplicate comment, and then I only delete the excess ones). Earlier today, however, I got identical comments on 2 different posts, advocating that people sign up a number of government office and personnel up to get a lot of junk mail, ostensibly as a form of protest. It wouldn't be a very effective protest, and its not an idea I want to support, so I have deleted both of these messages. If more appear, I will delete them also.
Just for clarification, while I generally won't delete comments, I do reserve the right to do so if I feel it's necessary. Having a difference of opinion is fine - I want to get different opinions aired here and am interested in what "the other side" thinks. There are some situations, though, were I may decide it's necessary to delete a few comments - if they are excessively rude, obscene, threatening, "hateful", advocate violence or other potentially harmful tactics or are otherwise abusive. In this case, I consider the tactics being suggested as harassing (and rather counterproductive).
Aside from these two comments today, I've never had cause to remove any others. If you feel my policy is too restrictive, you're certainly free to set up your own site where people can be as obnoxious as they desire - but on this site, I do expect civility.
My desk tried to fall apart and we've had to rebuild it. Blogging should back to normal tomorrow!
In a special effort to annoy The Raven today, I'm updating the commenting and trackback templates. The reason I'm letting you know this is that I'm still learning how to use CSS for layouts and am not always sure of what I'm doing - which means some of the intermediary steps between the starting point and the point where I like it enough to leave it alone may look really weird. Please excuse the mess. :)
Thanks again for stopping by, and be sure to leave any thoughts or comments you have on any of the posts. I love to hear what people think, and I find I learn a great deal from what you have to say.
Take care, and enjoy!
Kriselda
Blogcritics is a nifty site that offers reviews and commentaries on books, movies and music, as well as a sampling of some great blogging on a variety of topics (under their "Etc." category). I've been doing a bit of writing for them, and am really pleased to be involved in what I've always considered to be a quality project.
In just the last few days, Blogcritics has undergone a revamping, making the site not only look better, but also easier to use. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, swing on by and see what you think.
As you may have noticed, different strings looks a bit different today. I've freshened up the template a bit, and added some features like a list of recent posts, categorization of entries and better archiving, and a search engine.
My hope is that this will make it easier for you to find some of the older articles that have been posted and to see what all has been covered here since the blog's inception.
Over the next few days, I'll be catagorizing every entry in the blog. There are over 500 of them, so it's going to take a bit of doing, but I think in the long run, it'll be worth it!
Thanks again for taking time to visit, and, as always, please feel free to leave any thoughts or comments you'd care to share!
Kriselda
Audblog is now available for Radio Userland, so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try. The message itself is nothing spectacular, but if you'd like to hear what I sound like, click here to check it out.
"different strings" is expanding!
Well, sort of :)
I decided I wanted to start offering reviews of books, movies, TV shows, and music, as well as info on popular culture and entertainment news. Since this has always been a reasonably serious blog, however, I didn't want to change it's focus. As a result, I've started a new blog at http://reviews.differentstrings.info. I don't expect that I'll have quite as much material there as I do here, but I thought it would be fun, and I hope you'll stop by to check it out. Right now, I've got a review of the new "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" DVD that was released yesterday, and there's more to come!
Sorry for the slow blogging today, but hubby left me a copy of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" on my desk this morning. Probably the most depressing thing for me about being homebound is that I can't see movies when they open. That may sound trivial, but with the net, I can access most anything else I want, I have lot of people I enjoy talking to, and I don't feel closed in at all. So "movie days" are happy days because I can finally see what the fuss is all about, and with this one, I'm positively enchanted. I figure taking some time off of the sturm und drang of the world is allowable when there's something this fun to enjoy :)
Probably more later, once I rejoin this world again... (right now I just want a touch of flue powder, you know?)
I just had a bit of a surprise. I had read over at Eschaton that they are going to investigate the story about the chaplain giving baths for baptisms, so I decided to read the article, published by the Houston Chronicle. About 2/3 of the way down, I found the following paragraphs:
The story generated outrage online -- one person who posted a message on one Web site described the article as "disturbing." Another unidentified person posted a letter addressed to Gunhus that cited the Army's requirement that chaplains be "sensitive to religious pluralism and be able to provide for the free exercise of religion."
"It is my hope and my request that you will take immediate action to put an end to Chaplain Llano's tactics and remind him of his obligation," the e-mail stated.
If you look at the post below entitled "Letter to the Chief of Army Chaplains", you'll notice that the quote above is from the last paragraph of my letter. I'd noticed over the last couple days that my letter had been posted to various message boards (at least 5 that I know of, and I only know of them because they included links to the site and showed up on my referrer list), but I never expected to see any part of it, credited or not, show up in a newspaper.
What makes it even more fun is that a few months back, I had applied for an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for different strings, and had just gotten my approval and number today. That's not all that big of a deal - they're free, and you just have to fill out and application to get one (located at http://lcweb.loc.gov/issn/issnhtml.html), but there's still something kind of fun about having your blog listed as a publication with the Library of Congress, you know?
At any rate, I hope you don't mind my indulging in a bit of "happy happy" self-promotion or whatever you want to call it, but I'm feeling kind of bouncy at the moment. :)
I like to keep track of who's referring visitors here - just out of curiosity, mainly - but sometimes I come up with a referrer that just stumps me.
Today, I've gotten roughly 10 hits from a site called "MyCoupons.com". I've visted there, and it's exactly what it sounds like - a whole bunch of coupons and shopping tips (kind of nice, actually). If anyone who's found this site from MyCoupons.com would like to tell me what kind of a link there is, I'm dying to know :)
Thanks!
Kriselda
I mentioned in an earlier post about Jan and I both having had our 6 month "blogiversaries" (I'm probably going to kick myself over using that word, but it's been a weird morning). I also just learned that Rayne, too, has just had hers.
Rayne, I love the personal glimpses you give us into your life and how the various issues we're facing affect you and your family. It helps give a context to your views, with gives them that much more power. Congrats!!
A note for those of you who want to leave comments -- Enetation, the comment service I use, allows the use of "Forum Codes" in comments - but since I don't often use forums, I'm not entirely sure what those codes would be. If, however, you are familiar with those codes, please feel free to make use of them in your posts.
I also got some very good news from them today -- I had contacted them a while back to see if they would be adding any HTML support, and got a response from them today that they have added support for links (though it doesn't auto-link URL's, so you have to include the "a href=" code), italics and bolding, so you should be able to use those, also.
Questions from The Friday Five:
1. Explain why you started to journal/blog.
I stumbled onto Live Journal a couple years ago, and thought it might be interesting to try and keep a record of my thoughts and all the other crap that goes on in my head. I found, though, that the sense of community there lent itself much more to general chit-chaty type things, quizzes, memes and just having fun, than it did to rants, essays, political commentaries and the other, more serious, topics I also tend to write about. So, I decided to have my Live Journal be my place for just letting my hair down and being "me", and a separate blog for the "heavy" stuff. I'd been keeping one at my main site, Thunderhaven, for quite a while, but it wasn't getting read all that much, so when I saw that Salon had a blogging community, I thought it might be a good place to hang out a shingle. I've been very glad that I did. :)
2. Do people you interact with day to day or family members know about your journal/blog? Why or why not?
Most do, though I don't think any of the read it - mainly because they've gotten to hear it at some point :) If I was able to work, though, I probably wouldn't let my co-workers know about it becuase I do get into things related to religion occasionally, and while people online generally don't have any trouble with my being a Norse Pagan, people who have to deal with someone face-to-face are often a bit more uncomfortable with it - and that's not something that I need to bring into the workplace for myself or my co-workers.
3. Do you have a theme for your journal/blog?
Mostly just offering my own perspective on policital issues, current events, news and strange things I find to write about - and, hopefully, to hear what others have to say - the "different strings" that make us each unique.
4. What direction would you like to have your journal/blog go in over the next year?
I'd like to be able to improve my actual writing. I read things by some of the other writers here and wish I could express myself as well - their use of language adds an extra dimension to what they're saying, giving it even greater impact.
5. Pimp five of your favorite journals/blogs.
Awwww, that's hardly fair! There's so many good ones out there (see the list of recommended blogs in the side bar if you don't believe me).
If I had to pick 5, though, I'd probably go with The Raven, Rayne Today, Secular Blasphemy, Emphasis Added and Real Live Preacher.
I just posted this to the Salon Blog mailing list as a starting point for discussing possible "evacuation plans". If you're not already a member of the list and are interested in helping make sure we can preserve this great community we have here, be sure to sign up!
I'm still holding out hope that we won't have to move from our nice little home, but if we do, one thing I think would be great would be to create (and publicize) a Salon Blog Refugee directory - a central resource where people can find links for all the Salon Blogs. Also, in addition to the web ring, we could also create a little linkable graphic that anyone who wants to can display on their site that will take the visitor to the directory once it's clicked on. The directory can then be listed in places like Daypop, Popdex, Globe of Blogs, BlogWise, and any other big blog directories we can find.
We may also be able to figure out a way for all of the Salon Blogs to ping the directory when they're updated, so we can keep a version of the "Recently Updated" list going (since that's where a LOT of traffic comes from), if the current one goes away. I don't know how to set something like that up, but I'll be glad to do some research and see what I can find out.
The best option, of course, would be if Radio Userland will keep the Salon blog server running so we can have the updated list and the rankings listing available to us, still - or, as Rob from Emphasis Added suggested, see if we can get a server package that would let us run our own Radio server set up (though have no idea what that would cost).
If others are interested in the director, I'll be glad to host it (my hosting package has far more space and bandwidth available than I even come close to touching each months, plus I can add domain names to it without it costing me any more, so hosting the director would be easy - and basically free *g*), and can even see about getting a good domain name for it. We'd have to find out if there would be any legal issues with this, but i believe the domain "salonblogs.com" is still available :)
As much as I like the Haloscan commenting system, it's not been working properly for several days now, and I want people who visit here to let me know what they think - that's the best part of blogging!
Unfortuantely, the default Radio Userland system doesn't allow for deleting (which I've never done yet) or editing (which I only do to my own comments), and hasn't always been terribly stable either. As such I didn't really consider it an option to go back to that one.
So, I now have yet another new commenting system I'm using. This one is Enetation, and it looks to be very nice. I will also be upgrading so that the comments will be hosted on a dedicated server, which should allow for more stability. Over the next few days, I'm going to start transferring comments posted to the Haloscan system to the Enetation one so that the previous dialogue isn't lost.
At any rate, COMMENTING WORKS AGAIN, so PLEASE SAY SOMETHING!! :) And I'm sorry for any inconvenience these technical difficulties have caused....
While I certainly hope that, as has been the case previously, the rumours of Salon's pending demise are exaggerated, I also hope that the Salon Bloggers community will find a way to survive.
For those who do not yet know, there is both a mailing list and a webring that we can use to stay in contact. If you'd like to join, the webring sign-up form is available here, and you can join the mailing list either by filling out the form in my sidebar or by sending a blank e-mail to salonblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
If you run into any difficulty signing up for either, please feel free to contact me at kriselda@differentstrings.info.
Be sure to check out the best of the Salon Blogs at Virtual Occcoquan, lovingly compiled each week by Mark Hoback.
As you may have noticed, I've not posted any comments on the State of the Union address. That's because I didn't watch it. I have a very difficult time watching Bush, so I try to avoid doing so whenever possible. Once I take the time to read through the transcript, I may have a few comments, but there are a lot of excellent commentaries on it posted already [including Raven's deconstruction of it], so I may just leave it be.
In the meantime, for your amusement, here is a site displaying still shots from a "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" DVD featuring really bad English subtitles. I don't know if these are genuine or if someone just had way too much time and decided to have a spot of fun, but either way, it is amusing.
Occoquan - The Lutefisk edition
A new edition of The Occoquan Inquirer is on the virtual stands, and the main theme (but by no means the only theme) this time is food. And for what must be the first and only time in history, the Secular Blasphemer has contributed a piece on food, more precisely on Lutefisk.
Of course, I'm one of those who might disagree as to whether Lutefish would actually be considered a food or not, but it's an interesting piece nonetheless.
Be sure to stop by the Occuquan Inquirer for a sampling of the best of the Salon Blogs, lovingly compiled and published by Mark Hoback. It's good stuff, Maynard!
Just a note to let y'all know I'm still around, just kind of quiet at the moment. Regular blogging will resume shortly, so stay tuned :)
The latest issue of Virtual Occoquan is up and ready for reading. Featured this week is a gallery of photos and other images representing the various authors VO showcases. Now if I could just figure out what the $299.95 price tag on mine means... *g*
Thanks again to Mark for his great work on putting together a tasty little sampler of the best of the Salon Blogs!
Virtual Occoquan is out today - be sure to stop by and enjoy a nice sampler of what you can read at the Salon Blogs.
Thanks for Mark from Fried Green al-Qaedas for his efforts in putting VO together each week!
Congratulations to Jan Haugland of Secular Blasphemy for getting mentioned in MSNBC Weblogs Central "Best of the Blogs" feature!
Jackie Doyle writes somewhat formally from New York City, “Please take a look at Secular Blasphemy. Jan S. Haugland is writing intelligent commentary on current issues, while sharing odd and funny items he finds on the web. He also has a section that contains his interesting articles on religion, science and history. Haugland has an M.A. in History from The University of Bergen, Norway. I’ve enjoyed reading his many articles that have circulated all over the web.”
Salon Bloggers at Yahoo!Groups
I thought it might be fun to have a mailing list for the authors/editors/owners (whatever it is we call ourselves *g*) of Salon Blogs, so I set one up. If you'd like to join, you can use the box in this message, send a blank e-mail to: salonblog-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salonblog/join
(Just as an FYI, if you're intersted in a mailing list for Salon Bloggers, but don't like the idea of using Yahoo Groups, let me know - I chose to start it there because its fairly common and the do have funcitons such as polls and files if there are things we want to share with each other, BUT if there's enough interest in the list, but not wanting to deal with Yahoo is preventing people from signing up, I can run a private mailing list through my web host, and can move it there).
Salon Bloggers WebRing
I'm also starting a Salon Bloggers Webring, so that visitors can just kind of surf through the community. If you'd like to take part in that as well, you can fill out the form below or go to: http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=salonblogs;action=addform
Just a short note of welcome to "Real Live Preacher" - who seems to be a very interesting Preacher, indeed!
I may be a bit scarce for the next few days - an MMORPG that I play is coming out with a new expansion pack tomorrow and I have a feeling I'm going to be visiting there quite a bit :)
You know, hacking and slashing animated bad guys can be very therapeutic after reading the day's news....
Well, following the lead of Kat at "She's Actual Size, Nationwide, Believe" (among a few others), I've switched to using HaloScan for my commenting system. It lets you delete duplicates or offensive posts (not that I've had any of those), plus you can customize the look a bit, so I figured what the heck. It's free and pretty easy to set up.
Over the next few hours or so, I'm going to be transferring the comments that have been posted so far this week from the old system to the new one, so I won't lose everything.
-- kriselda
We inturrupt this blog for an important announcement:
The new issue of Virtual Occoquan is up and ready for reading. You should be sure to check it out. It's published by Mark Hoback and features articles from several Salon Bloggers - kind of a "Salon Blog Tour of Quality" in a nutshell.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled ranting.
The latest "thing" here at the Salon blogs seems to be interesting Google searches that led to your site. My favourite for today? "pay scales for CIA". It does make me wondering - in most industries, you can look at how employees in comperable positions in competing companies are paid to determine if you're being paid "fairly", but who would you compare a position at the CIA with?
For those Googlesluts who are really wanting to rack up the hits, though, let me suggest using "Arnold Chrysler", or "40,000 coat hangers". I posted this article back on October 30th, and Google searches for it have brought me more hits than all of the other search terms combined. In fact, just this week, it's brought me over 100 visitors. (In case you missed it, it's a story about a guy who stole 40,000 coat hangers from hotels, so that he could use them in these hotel-style wardrobes he sells to people who want to make their homes look and feel like a hotel room. The Independent (UK) printed transcripts from Mr. Chrysler's testimony during the trial, which is quite hilarious.)
BTW: For something really fun, check out the Raven as he goes Xtreme Blogging!
Here's my next try at a redesign -- comments, complaints, suggestions and high praise are certainly welcome :) I want to make sure it's readable and that it looks good *g*
Thanks again for visiting!!
I'm trying a new layout for different strings - please leave comments with your thoughts or feedback on it, ok? :)
The one problem I can see right off the bat is that the first item in the middle column starts too far down, but I haven't figure out where to fix that yet. If you have any suggestions, that would be great! *g*
4 new articles at The Bitch Queen
1 new article at Shadowed Souls
This is a test. This is ONLY a test. If this had been a real post, you would have been notified by the presence of content.
Sorry -- having some trouble getting a piece I wrote last night to appear, so I figured I'd see posting a subsequent something would get it published. It's worked before. I'm just to tired to actually come up with a topic :)
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