« December 2004 | Main | February 2005 »
January 31, 2005
shuffle wuffle
I picked up a little 1 gig iPod shuffle for Joe's birthday.
It's so tiny and so cute. It weighs next to nothing. I can't believe how completely little it is. My 256mb memory stick is clunkier than that precious gem.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 30, 2005
had a crazy dream
last night--a zombie dream. Very vivid, like I was living in a horror movie. The world had been taken over by zombies and I was with a group of people in the basement of an activity center of some sort. Then, later, I was by myself in an abandoned hospital on the 15th floor or so, peeking out the window at all the zombies milling around below. Lots of zombie kids, I noticed. One of them was a young Ricky Schroeder (who had been talked about on the Michael Jackson childhood expose thing on VH1.com last night). Then I heard a noise in the corridor and I knew that it was a zombie. I ran to the door and tried to hold it closed, but woke up when the door was wrenched out of my grasp. Strange strange strange.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:05 AM | TrackBack
January 28, 2005
that's a pile of...
A huge mountain of cow manure is seen smoldering at a feedlot near Milford, Neb., Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005. The estimated 2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure spontaneously combusted about two months ago and continues to smolder despite attempts to douse it. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Posted by crystallyn at 05:44 PM | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
$80 billion here, $80 billion there...
The White House estimated on January 25, 2005 that the U.S. budget deficit for 2005, including an extra $80 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan operations, will total $427 billion. (Reuters Graphic)
In Yahoo News, the full story.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:21 AM | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
DON'T let it snow
We have enough already! Our town got 30" and there is another 6" expected tonight. Crazy crazy weather. We've had barely any snow at all this winter and then BAM! It all happens in one fell swoop.
Here are some pictures of the digging out...
See how it blew into the door? This is up on our porch which is four feet above the ground.
And Joe having to dig out of the drifts that were up on the back door.
Here is what the drift around the cars looked like. The wind created these strange canyon-like walls in the snow around the cars. Look close, you can see a couple of buried cars across the street.
Here's another picture of the same:
There are still more pictures!
Joe near his car.
Here's another of the drift around the car.
The buried cars...ours and our landlord's.
Joe trying to dig those out.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:06 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 24, 2005
MT upgrade/nofollow plugin--spammers can kiss my...
So I've upgraded to better handle comment spam and I've added the nofollow plugin which means that anyone posting a URL to my site won't find that URL picked up by Google, Yahoo or MSN Search. Google led the way on this initiative and my hats off to them for realizing that the way that they rank websites is the reason that comment spam occurs in the first place.
I've reopened my comments again. If you are unregistered with Typekey then your comment won't show up right away--it will go into a queue until I moderate it, and I'll try to do that in a very timely manner. I receive an email everytime I receive a comment so can keep tabs on that easily. I do recommend registering with Typekey though...then you will be able to comment on a variety of MT sites without any issue.
I'll post Blizzard 05 pictures soon!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
TO THE STATES
To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad.
Why reclining, interrogating? why myself and all drowsing?
What deepening twilight -- scum floating atop of the waters,
Who are they as bats and night-dogs askant in the capitol?
What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North, your arctic freezings!)
Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that the President?
Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep, for reasons;
(With gathering murk, with muttering thunder and lambent shoots we all duly awake,
South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)
--Walt Whitman
Posted by crystallyn at 06:20 AM | TrackBack
January 19, 2005
Woohoo! Google is Cracking Down on Spam Commenters!
Finally! Google is no longer going to credit links from comment spam...which will hopefully stop comment spam in its tracks. You can bet I'll be implementing this baby soon:
Movable Type 'nofollow' plugin
01.18.2005
Today we are pleased to announce our full support for the rel="nofollow" attribute to hyperlinks introduced to address the main cause of weblog spam: the payoff of higher placement in search engine results.
This initiative, with announced support from Google, Yahoo, MSN (and surely more to come), will direct search engines to ignore links with this attribute set for the purposes of spidering or increasing search engine relevance or ranking.
For current users of Movable Type, this support is implemented as a simple plugin (zip [4K], tar/gzip [3K]-- tested on MT 3.x and MT 2.661). For most users enabling "nofollow" support involves placing a single file in your plugins directory. All links submitted by external users in comments and TrackBacks will then be modifed to add the rel="nofollow" attribute.
If you're interested in specific details of its operation and the effect it has on Movable Type template tags, see our overview entitled "Introduction to nofollow" on the Professional Network weblog. For an overview of our support across all Six Apart platforms, please see Ben's "Support for nofollow" post on Six Log.
And this great link that points out that Yahoo and other search engines will also stop recognizing comment spam: Google Takes On Comment Spammers
Posted by crystallyn at 06:40 AM | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
hate to have to do this but...
I disabled comments on my site for a bit. I just came back from visiting my parents in Boise--was only gone three days--and found hundreds of forced moderated spam comments in my mailbox waiting for me to approve for the Blacklist. Sigh. It's pointless for spammers to even try my site--it won't show up on the blog and only serves to waste my time. I'll figure it out and let you know.
I'm going to upgrade to the latest MT which helps a bit more when comment floods occur. I'll look into other options as well--if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. poetess AT crystallyn.com
Oh and Boise? Snowy, full of pickup trucks and flat, boring subdivisions, but it was great to see my family and we had two nice dinners...one at the Red Feather Lounge and the Cottonwood Grille. Nice to see Boise starting to become a little more cultured, even if it still is, for the most part, buried in the land of strip malls and chain restaraunts.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:38 PM | TrackBack
January 08, 2005
oooo i figured
it out...MT stylesheets. Aren't you proud?
But for the basic update:
Today we bought Joe's 40th bday tickets to Vegas in February! YAY! Staying at the Mirage and currently contemplating what culinary adventures await when we arrive. We're thinking Aureole is on the agenda. We have already been to Picasso (which Zagat shockingly rated at $91 a plate!!! We went there on our wedding night) and Lutece (my favorite place ever!!!) so its time for a new food-lover's delight.
Romeo had surgery on Thursday...removed three teeth and a fatty tumor on his belly. He's recovering quite nicely and is quite spry for having a sewn up gash across his belly. He keeps flopping over waiting to be loved. The first night we got him home he kept oozing blood so I had to hold him the whole evening with a warm compress. But now he's fine but with this extraction, he's left with only 6 teeth. True hillbilly kitty he is now. My mother-in-law, Rosie (who is the most awesome MIL a girl could have) wants to sew him a vest. I should tell her to make him some overalls instead. :)
Back on track on resolution #1. Been to the gym 5 days this week. Me and six billion other Americans. The thing is...I'll still be there in 5 months and they won't be. :) I proved it last year and will do so again.
And I've managed resolution #4 so far too.
Posted by crystallyn at 11:23 PM | TrackBack
Not a Damn Dime Day
I received this as an email and its a darn interesting premise...easy enough for me to do (especially since it's not a weekend). However, it would only have impact if the masses respond.
Not One Damn Dime Day (or how to protest the inaguration)
Dear all,
I think this is an important idea that could have an impact if we all promote it, and forward it widely. It is easy enough to implement with a little advance planning. And it's an action that's an inaction -- instead of taking your time it will give you time. And a breather from spending. Just leave your money at home that day. And ask everyone you know to do the same.
Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.
On "Not One Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.
During "Not One Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one dime for gasoline. Not one dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one dime for anything for 24 hours.
On "Not One Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.
Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).
For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down.
The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.
"Not One Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.
"Not One Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way.
Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come > home.
There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing.
You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.
For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.
Please share this email with as many people as possible.
Posted by crystallyn at 09:03 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack