Spam: The Story of my Life

Checked my email first thing this morning, read the mails, cleaned out the spam, then did my regular rounds. After an hour or so, checked my Gmail acct. again and saw quite a bit of spam in the folder.

How do they know so much about my life?

I used the black dating service and met a lovely young woman. She loved to prance around only in her bra, which necessitated me getting some extra testosterone, even though I really just wanted to watch my new satellite TV. To be honest, I'm not sure my heart can take all these extra hormones and lovemaking.

Buying all that underwear made me have to get a new job, so I found a job on weekends making graphics for websites. The stress of the extra job made me start drinking, then I lost my part-time job AND my regular job and had to declare bankruptcy.

I love my new girlfriend, but I'm not so sure she loves me back. I just found out she had taken out a million dollar life insurance policy on me...and bought some more sexy bras.

Chile in Texas

From Wiki:

The flag of the U.S. state of Texas is similar to the Chilean flag, which was created and introduced 21 years before that of Texas.



The national flag of Chile is also known as la estrella solitaria which is Spanish for "the lone star". The star represents a guide to progress and honor; blue symbolizes the sky and the Pacific Ocean, white is for the snow-covered Andes, and red stands for the blood spilled to achieve independence.

The Texas flag



Also from Wiki:

The Texas flag is known as the "Lone Star Flag". This flag was introduced to the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 28, 1838, by Senator William H. Wharton. It was adopted on January 25, 1839 as the final national flag of the Republic of Texas.

When Texas became the 28th state of the Union on December 29, 1845, its national flag became the state flag. While the Lone Star remained the de facto state flag, from 1879 until 1933 there was no official state flag. All statutes not explicitly renewed were repealed under the Revised Civil Statutes of 1879, and since the statutes pertaining to the flag were not among those renewed, Texas was formally flagless until the passage of the 1933 Texas Flag Code. The code assigns the following symbolism to the colors of the Texas flag: blue stands for loyalty, white for purity, and red for bravery.

I Got a Kick Out of This

Checked my Google Reader a little while ago; most of the articles were uninteresting, so I hit the "Read All" button except for two Dallas Cowboy posts. One was from Blogging the Boys: The Bossness Of Dan Bailey.The article was about the phenomenal rookie place kicker for Dallas. He's already set several NFL rookie kicking records and will hopefully break the team record for most consecutive kicks made. From the website:

Dan Bailey is breaking records.

His 26 consecutive field goals this season is an NFL rookie record (the next best rookie mark is 14). His four game-winning kicks - defined by the NFL as kicks made with less than two minutes remaining in regulation or in overtime - are also a league rookie mark. And he tied an NFL rookie record with six field goals made in the Week 3 win against the Washington Redskins.

They had a poll on the site, asking the readers to vote for a nickname for Bailey.  Here are the options:

I voted for "Dan the Man", but as you can see,  "Steely Dan" was winning at the time I read the post. Now, I'm an avid Cowboys fan, but I also consider myself fairly knowledgeable about music trivia and while I love Steely Dan (esp. "Reelin' In The Years") I don't think it's an appropriate nickname for Bailey.

From the Steely Dan website FAQ:

With the core band recruited, Donald and Walter need a name for their group. Since both of them were avid readers of 1950's "Beat" literature, they decided to name the band "Steely Dan" after a dildo in William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch."

Yeah, that'd be a GREAT nickname. Uh huh. -snicker-

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What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

But I Don't Use a Litter Box

You React Like a Cat

You are introverted and mysterious. People are curious about what makes you tick. You trust your intuition. So far it has a good track record of not leading you astray. You have an amazing amount of strength. You refuse to let stress bother you. You don't mind if the world doesn't understand you. No one is going to harsh your mellow!

Do You React Like a Cat or a Dog?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

rankle

rankle\RANG-kuhl\ ,verb;

1. To cause keen irritation or bitter resentment in.
2. To continue to cause keen irritation or bitter resentment within the mind; fester; be painful.

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Many things rankle me on the 'net - the idiots who say "Tony Homo" when referring to the Dallas Cowboy QB, so-called conservatives who call Ron Paul "RuPaul" and asshat trolls who like to post on message boards just to get a rise out of others.

Those first two types are really just specific examples of the third.

My Inter-Tubez Wuz Clogged

WTF? (Yes, I said that, but didn't abbreviate) I was on a page, then it went to another one: Cool Web Search. Hmmm....maybe I had accidentally clicked on a link, done it before. I went back to the page I was on and was reading and about five minutes later I was directed to another page.

Oh, no. I immediately knew what was wrong; I had picked up a Trojan. (which I've always found semi-ironic - a Trojan brand condom is supposed to PROTECT you from bad stuff) I had been on a dicey site earlier, following a link on Facebook. A little research told me what my computer had, the "CWS" (for Cool Web Search) trojan. I then ran my HiJack This app. but it didn't pick up on the infection. Then I ran my anti-virus program, a full scan but it didn't want to repair the damage. An article found in the search had told me this was possible, that the trojan could keep itself from being repaired. I also noticed in my virus scan log that about two dozen attempts at contacting the 'net had been denied by its web guard feature.

Long story short, I d/l a small application called "CWShredder" which zapped the thing out of my computer. I had also d/l another small app. that does the same thing and ran it too. Another virus scan came up clean. I wondered why my firewall hadn't stopped it, then discovered it was disabled. I enabled it and *hoped* everything would be OK. Things were fine until a few hours ago.

Then I started having problems with my internet connection. I have had problems for a year and the phone company has been out and "fixed" it, but when it rains, the connection slows way down. I've been looking into other ISP providers because of the crappy service work. At first I thought it might have something to do with the CWS thing I had got, but another scan came up clean. (I even ran the cleaner tools again)

I was getting frustrated - I had cycled the modem off and on, but no joy. Most of the lights were green, even showing I was connected, but the internet light would only flicker now 'n then. When it was steadily on, I would try to get a page to come up and the activity light would blink once, then stop. Dammit. I don't mind trouble so much, most things can be fixed, but when you can't even diagnose the problem....

I had given up and started watching the TV but there was nothing on I really wanted to watch. I had d/l a couple of Dallas Cowboy talk shows before the trouble, so I got up to listen to them. I always like to do something else while listening to shows like that or music or online radio, either playing a game or looking at GoogleEarth. I opened up the GoogleEarth application just to see if the image files would still be on my disk even though my DSL wasn't working. Lo and behold, my connection started working again!

I don't know what the trouble was, but it was like the "blast" of the GoogleEarth had opened up the inter-tubez again. -grin-

So, for now all is well. If you don't see me on Facebook or participating in the quiz, I'm down until I can suss it out.

(and, after writing all that, I am having problems again. Going to try to send this when the light goes green again)

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UPDATE: Had a little trouble again, then closed GE, then reopened. Everything was fine f/ a while, then went offline again. Now it's OK. I managed to play the quiz. Funny thing, seems like everything is loading faster for me than has in quite a while. Gonna call the phone co. again Monday.

In Case You Missed It

You'll have another chance this evening. Thank goodness for P.M., huh?

At eleven minutes and eleven seconds after eleven o'clock on November 11, 2011, it is:

11:11.11 11/11/11

Oh Well

I had to remove the "What I've Been Reading" module from the right-hand column.  Google Reader recently updated and the share feature to add it to the module is gone.  I can still re-post articles to Blogger or on Facebook, but the ability to add it to my reading list is gone.  They now have a feature to add it to Google+, but I don't use that...and doubt I will. 

Oh well, I had too many modules anyway.  I probably should do away with one of the "counters", but Feedjit shows what people are looking for when they arrive while the Flag Counter shows a total of visitors per day/month/year, plus it's cool. 

I COULD get rid of the weather module, but I like it.  This blog is, after all, about this area.  I'm sure people don't visit just to see the weather, but I like to think my friends look at it now 'n then and think "Wow, I bet Mike is cold/hot/wet!"

I could probably do away with the Trivia module, but I've noticed several people come directly to the blog to then go to the quiz.  I've got the quiz bookmarked, but I don't expect others to do so.  I also would like to keep the Word of the Day, Quote of the Day and Today in History modules because I always look at them every day.  I could probably do away with the Dallas Cowboys headline module, but again,  I like it, even though I visit that website every day anyway.  I think I'll keep the news because it's local.

So, maybe this blog will load a little quicker for a while, until I find some other module to slow it down.  Blogger keeps adding things and I haven't checked them in a long time!

Cat Food For Thought

Up until last night I "liked" a Facebook page, "And My Cat". I don't know why I ever subscribed to the feed because it was mostly full of people posting photos of their cats. I love cats, but the attitude of *some* people regarding their cats really irks me. (never been a fan of "cutesy", y'know?) Pets can be a child substitute, but they're still animals. (and so can be some children, but that's for another rant)

The post that made me "unlike" the page was when the creator of the page wrote that she had recently discovered that Amazon sold cat food and that she had signed up for Amazon Prime and scheduled regular deliveries of Fancy Feast^TM. I've also thought of signing up for regular shipments, but of McCann's Oatmeal. Anyway....

I didn't think deeply about the post; that brand of cat food is OK, I suppose...it's a little too expensive for my budget and frankly, the Beej will eat it but seems to prefer the WalMart brand or even the discount store kind that's about 40% cheaper. However, when I visited the post again because I saw there had been 40+ responses, I got a little angry, then a LOT angry.

Most of the posts immediately following were thanking the page owner for the information, while others mentioned their own cat's preferences. Then came the self-righteous asshats, saying that the cat foods being mentioned were garbage, that THEY bought such and such brand. I took an hour or so to research the brands being touted, even pricing them through various online outlets.

All of the brands were outrageously expensive, costing from $30-40/case. Whoa! At first I was a little ashamed of the cheaper food I bought my cat and even more ashamed when I read some of the comments on the 'net about it being garbage. B eats it up, though, and I can't see any ill-effects from him eating the "garbage". I'm happy he deigns to eat it, being one of the more finicky pets I've ever owned. He prefers the pouch food to chicken or beef that I buy for myself at the supermarket deli.

Reading more about cat food, I perused an article about how dry food is bad for cats - how cats were genetically programmed to eat "wet" food and that's how they get the bulk of their water. Hmmmm....the Beej drinks quite a bit of water; in fact, all cats I've ever owned drank a lot of water. (I once noticed his water was a little dirty from food falling off his mouth into the bowl, so I changed it with fresh. He then wanted outside and went directly to a mud puddle in the driveway to drink) I also read about "no-no" foods for cats - grapes were one, which I found odd - and that milk wasn't good f/ cats, either, same for tuna.

THEN I read another few articles that said hard food was GOOD for cats and that - unless the cat has an obesity problem - owners should have hard food out f/ their cat all the time. That's what I do w/ a gravity feeder, plus feed a pouch or two of wet food daily. I also read that tuna isn't bad if fed in moderation. I feed it to the Beej on the weekends - "Sunday dinner", I joke to myself. I also will mix a bit in w/ the types of food that he doesn't like as well as others just so it won't be wasted.

What I found out was there is a LOT of contradictory information about cat food on the 'net. I really wasn't all that surprised, but one poster in the Facebook page said she had done her research and insinuated she was right and everyone else posting was wrong.

(And you probably know there are "facts" on the 'net that "prove" 9/11 was an inside job, the CIA killed Kennedy and that we really never landed on the moon)

Then came this guy that said "It's sad to see so many people in this thread that don't care about their cats."

It made me wish I could magically transport myself to where he was just so I could slap him. I cannot stand self-righteous people. It's OK to have strong opinions, but his statement crossed the line. I don't think it's abusing your pet to feed them a cheaper food. What's abuse is not feeding them at all, or keeping them tied up in the back yard, or kicking them when you're angry. My cat might eat cheap food, but he eats better than a large percentage of people in the world. He certainly eats more regularly than I do!

I just can't stand the jerkwads who feel the need to criticize others for something that - considering the massive misery in the world - is so trivial. We should gather all these holier-than-thou people together, then grind them up for pet food.

On second thought, probably not. I bet the Beej would turn up his nose at them.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

From one of my Facebook groups, True Conservatives.

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“Conservatives” who preach against government intervention in our domestic economy praise the very same government when it sanctions, invades, and militarily occupies foreign countries. “Liberals” who criticize a Republican president for war crimes and the destruction of the Constitution turn a blind eye when a Democrat does the exact same things, instead giving him a pat on the back while writing a check for his reelection.

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And this is why I now consider myself a "small L" libertarian. I agree with much of what the Libertarian Party stands for, but certainly not all.

Ron Paul 2012