I swear, there’s something very Brownian going on in my head.
I am semi-secretly stoked that geekslut has returned to blogging.
Wikipedia’s completed its upgrade to v1.5, thank God. Now I can breathe easily and go back to my usual pasttime of wielding the Fiery +5 Sword of Revert. (can’t come up with a decent wiki-thac0 joke here, sorry.)
Fred and I just finished moving in together. Now, we edit our stuff. Drama may ensue.
Been slacking in the gym… aside from moving (hello! June in St. Louis!), work drama, and a nasty bug I caught (102° fever), I haven’t had the time or energy. Doesn’t help that the new trainer’s TOUGH, either, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
WTF! is there no Radiohead on US iTunes?
The last of the Beethoven symphonies are up; get ‘em while you can. Haven’t yet listened to the BBC Orchestra’s #9, but if it’s anywhere near as good as their #6 then people will be in. tears. during the final movement.
Why does the ad-block in GMail show recipes for everybody’s favorite tinned meat product when one looks in one’s Spam folder? Did Hormel pay Google off or something?
Sorry, but if you’re asking about purchasing any of my bodily fluids, the answer is no.
Working on the home network. Very cool thing about the new place: CAT5e, POTS, and coax jacks in every room, all home-run to the utility closet, and POTS and coax very easy to disconnect from service providers. Facepalm moment for rehabbers: no electrical outlet in said utility closet, so I have to run an extension cord under the door from the hallway and put a table or something there so that the cord doesn’t get disturbed.
At work, been cracking down on unattended logins lately, and I have to admit that it’s a lot more fun that usual. This time around I have the full and very vocal support of the CFO, so people are actually listening, and I can actually disconnect problem users (cue evil cackle).
Also been tinkering with a few programs: Samba at home, GAIM at work. Samba is going to be the file storage-slash-print serving-slash-authentication system at home; GAIM will eventually be the office IM client (running on a Jabber server), but has a few tweaks to be made before it can go “live”. (BTW, if you see me online on a messenger client during the day, then this is why. Say “hi” if you like, but it may take me a few minutes to respond since I’m technically supposed to be working, y’know, while I’m at work.)
Put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher, please; it makes the whole prevention-of-rotting-food-in-the-sink thing so much easier.
Eager to start cooking again after the move-enforced hiatus; the thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and basil on the spice rack are calling unto me.
I swear, if one more person suggests I go tanning, I will club them with a bottle of aftersun lotion.
Will somebody please explain to me the appeal of all this white-girl-missing news?
Best smackdown I’ve seen lately: when Rove et al. were whining about how Sen. Durbin compared Gitmo to the Soviet gulags, somebody (can’t remember who, sorry) looked in Solzhenitsyn and substantiated Durbin’s comparisons easily.
good Lord, do I really have that many edits on en:?
Damn, I need to get back into Diablo II. There’s just something very cathartic about wailing on demons and the undead.
Yay Spain! Suddenly I know where we can retire.
It’s the end of the second quarter already. Day. um.
I did warn you that these’d be random, right?
Windows users: go update.
To the person who found this here blog by searching for the word “fornicate”: I love you. To the person who found this here blog by searching for the phrase “small red bumps near triceps”: Ingrown hairs, acne, insect bites, impetigo, or some rare and exotic and messily fatal disease; go see a doctor to find out which.
I love the word “messily”.
Been listening to the iPod at work; the network admin now laughs when I follow up Mozart with Radiohead with Värttinä with the mashedup “Superlangalang” (M.I.A. “Galang” meets the Super Mario Bros. theme).
Fluxblog has me hooked on a couple Swedish groups: The Similou and Lo-Fi-FNK. Goooood shit.
More people read this blog on Fridays than any other day of the week. More people read in the 9:00 hour (Pacific Time!) than any other hour of the day. More people read this blog during the week of April 17 2005 than any other week.
I think that’s about it for now. Thanks for helping me cope with my randomheadedness.
June 30, 2005 Comments Off
Advice to gay kids
… the pre-Pride edition. I’m thinking a lot about this ’cause we’re gearing up for our annual “We’re being ourselves so fuck off if you can’t handle that” celebration; after this weekend, I may have more to say on the topic.
Dan Savage solicited advice from his readers a little while back for a 15-year-old gay boy, and now he’s posted the best responses. I didn’t get mine sent in time, and there’s a lot that’s duplicated, but here’s mine anyway. (hooray for self-publishing, eh?)
- Be yourself, as often as possible.
- Best advice I’ve ever received, and the best I can possibly give. Hell, it’s what the whole Pride “thing” celebrates, and it’s why people come out of the closet. Unfortunately, most of us forget this as we get older, and fall into gay-clone-dom. Don’t let that happen to yourself.
- Always focus more on your inner beauty than on your outer beauty.
- Neither youth nor cuteness lasts forever, and there are few things worse (IMHO) than a self-absorbed drama case who spends whole weekends seeking validation through the inspiration of lust in others. So go try new things: read Neruda and listen to raunchy Finnish avant-garde folk-pop and eat jellyfish and travel to someplace wildly exotic (Paris and London are NOT THAT EXOTIC, kids). Just try them once, and if you don’t like them then you’ll still be richer for it.
- Find an enjoyable way to take care of your body.
- The great non-secret of fitness, which somehow eludes many people: Do it because you love it. (In this case, “do it” can mean “lift weights”, “swim”, “play a sport”, etc.) If you get all chiseled and sexy as a result, then that’ll just be an extra-special side benefit - but chiseled ‘n’ sexy should not be your sole motivation.
- Don’t forget about flavor when you eat well.
- It is possible to eat nutritiously and still enjoy interesting flavors and textures in your food. Seriously. The produce section is your friend in this regard. (Just don’t let the asparagus sit on the counter for too long. eww.)
- Lots. Of. Fiber.
- No, seriously. Fiber is your friend, even if you’re a top.
- There are going to be men who will try to fuck with your head and use you in all the wrong ways. Avoid them.
- Youth and beauty are commodities in the gay world, and if you have either then you will receive a lot of attention. However, the presence or lack of either should NOT determine how you treat anyone.
- Make several very good friends, and stick by them no matter what.
- Learn the difference between infatuation and love.
- DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO, do not tell him you love him before you get to see his dark side, and for God’s sakes don’t pine forever for a boy you can’t have.
- Don’t sit around all night working up the courage: just talk to him already.
- Learn when and how to say “no” firmly and tactfully, and learn how to take “no” for an answer gracefully and respectfully.
- At some point, you are going to have to reject somebody’s advances; at some point, your advances are going to be rejected. Be nice the first time you tell somebody “no” — remember that your suitor took an awful big risk asking you (see above) — and don’t be afraid to tell them to fuck off if they don’t get the hint. And when (not if) you get rejected, thank him for his time and MOVE THE FUCK ON.
- Experiment sexually, but ONLY in a sane environment.
- Have a “safe word”, know and trust your partner(s), and keep your wits about you (even as things get intense).
- It’s OK to separate sex from love, but it’s never OK to separate sex from trust or respect.
- Choose your partners wisely, for sex and for everything else.
- Sex is better if you love him.
- You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.
UPDATE 20060913 15:32UTC: closing comments on this, because it attracts teh pr0n spammerz like no other post. trying comments again now
June 22, 2005 Comments Off
Random ramblings.
- My new candy obsession: Liquorice Altoids. They are not for the faint of heart, and especially not for you poor misguided souls who think that Twizzlers are “licorice”. (um, NO. they are most certainly NOT.)
- I’ve become fascinated lately with two blogs, The Rude Pundit (incredibly foul-mouthed commentary on current events) and GeekSlut (graphic recaps of a hot gay man’s escapades; this one is mostly text but definitely NSFW).
- So one of my new roommates — I think I’ll call him DD here and avoid that messy asterisk — is talking about a post-T’giving road trip to Wisconsin to cut a big Christmas tree. (The only ones available around here are 9-footers, which look sorta small in the corner of the living room and downright puny in the multistory atrium where he wants to put the tree.) On the way there or back, there would be a requisite IKEA stop. w00t. I may go just for the meatballs.
- And speaking of meatballs, I have to chide local-boy Bill Mueller on his three errors the other night. Dude. You could have at least waved Varitek off.
- Drupal 4.5 is out, and I’m veeeeeery tempted to switch to it for this beloved blog. That MAY sort out these weird “all jumbled text and code” issues I’ve been seeing on here lately; but then again, that may have no effect, or even make it worse.
- For all the people who’re searching: I do not know if Jim Edmonds is gay or not. Actually, now that I think about it, I do not CARE if Jim Edmonds is gay or not, just as long as he starts hitting again. (Now, Scott Rolen, OTOH… if he’s gay, I’m interested, streak or slump.)
- Been hitting the weights hard in the gym, and am starting to feel the results. And I love it. I also love when people ask my advice on squats (which continue to be my favorite exercise); I had to scale back my weight on that, but I’m still out-doing most of the guys down there.
- Point for all men who lift weights: WORK YOUR LOWER BODY, at least as hard as you work your upper body. I don’t care whether you’re hoping to attract and/or retain women or men — EVERYBODY loves a nice ass, and NOBODY likes skinny little bird legs.
- Of course, I typed that before going down there today. Couldn’t stay focused, so my form was übersloppy. So I had to cut it short. grrrrr. Friday’ll be better, I promise.
- Oh, and I have a “fitness evaluation” tomorrow afternoon. We’ll see then how much I’ve improved (or not).
- The Guardian has a piece on the Wikipedia phenomenon. It’s quite good, and the Britannica boys come across as rather shrill. haha.
- By the way: yes, anybody can edit Wikipedia.
- My bedroom is GREEN. REALLY, REALLY GREEN. It works very nicely with the mahogany bed, though. And the pumpkin-y orange in the middle room is gorgeous.
- Reed organs are fucking heavy, and one must be very careful when describing them. (Don’t just say “Man, I’m still sore from moving his organ yesterday!” — apparently that can be misconstrued.)
- Spent much of Sunday doing what I’ve decided to call “Dalmatian aerobics”: chasing a spotted dog around and around and around and around. Once I got her cornered, though, she gave up readily.
‘k. done with that for now.
October 26, 2004 Comments Off
There’s a hole in Mozilla and Firefox! However…
Seems there’s a potential hole in Windows NT/2000/XP renditions of Mozilla (1.7.0 and earlier), Firefox (0.9.1 and earlier), and Thunderbird (0.7.1 and earlier), which could allow an attacker to open other software on the Windows system or even crash it.
I know that R* is formulating a lengthy respose to me about how that just proves that IE is better - or at least he will formulate one when he gets around to reading this post. However, NewsForge has already defeated his arguments. (neener.)
It’s also worth noting that the vulnerability (the shell: URI) is in Windows itself; Mozilla products on every other OS are unaffected. It’s also worth noting that a patch was issued the same day the hole was reported, that there are still no reports to BugTraq that the patch broke anything, and that affected users can choose to either get a new version of their software or just install the patch from here.
Those of you who haven’t yet discovered a real Web browser may wish to read mozilla.org’s “Switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox“, which walks through installation and initial configuration. It’s quite simple, and tabbed browsing is usually enough by itself to make ex-IE-heads wonder why they didn’t get on the Mozilla train earlier.
July 9, 2004 Comments Off
Don’t make me say it again.
So there’s yet another bit of malware exploiting holes in IIS and IE. The BBC has the most user-friendly yet complete story.
Bottom line: Unless you want your computer to suck hard and become a zombie for evil evil spammers, ditch IE. Now.
June 25, 2004 Comments Off
